The Japanese have had it hard this gen, what with all the outsourcing of properties to sub par western studios or half-hearted, in-house projects all in the name of "capturing the western dollar" (Quantum Theory, Bionic Commando, Dark Void, Neverdead etc, etc, etc).
Based on this, I was pretty much going to get Shadows of the Damned REGARDLESS of how the end product turned out. I mean, Suda? Mikami? Yamaoka? Even if the game ended up being an abject failure it was bound to be a SPECTACULAR failure. And when reviews started to trickle in in the 80-90% range, I couldn't pony up my 60 bones fast enough.
I'm probably between a quarter and halfway through the game at this point and I'm loving it so far. It is however VERY bizarre. There are actually some interesting mechanics using light and dark that haven't been used a million times before in other games, and (at least at this point) the game is still continually adding new elements to mix up gameplay.
The influence of each of SotD's fathers is extremely evident. It plays like Resident Evil 4. It sounds very Silent Hill-esque, even down to the menu sounds. The aesthetic is a weird mix of the 'Rock & Roll' horror of Devil May Cry and the mundane creepy of Silent Hill. Then Suda 51 took the whole package and sprinkled it with copious amounts of his own signature brand of crazy.