When two of Japan’s most distinctive game creators join forces, the results are bound to surprise. Hotel Barcelona is the dream project of Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro and Goichi “Suda51” Suda – two directors whose games have shaped cult gaming culture for over two decades.

Launching tomorrow, September 26, Hotel Barcelona invites you to check in to a place where life has stood still and death walks the corridors. Each of the seven areas of the hotel warps reality, presenting players with new threats, strange guests, and deep lore.  At the heart of it all is rookie U.S. Marshal Justine, whose fight to survive forces her to question not only what’s real, but the truths she’s built her life around.

During the Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2025 Broadcast, the team unveiled Hotel Barcelona’s multiplayer element, and it’s more than just a bolt-on, crowdpleaser mode. You can tackle the hotel solo or team up in co-op with two additional players, with every run reshaping itself around how you and your partners approach it. The same fast, flexible combat applies whether you’re playing alone or with a friend, but co-op introduces new layers of complexity and strategy.

In addition to co-op, Hotel Barcelona includes a PvP invasion mode that turns what could feel like a solo nightmare into an unpredictable showdown. Invaders step into someone else’s run and you become adversarial doppelgängers, locked in mortal combat until one player falls. Win, and you score a weapon tier upgrade and the coveted “Bloody Marshal Badge.” It’s designed to be intense, risky, and deeply satisfying… at least for the victor.

The result is a horror experience crafted to be shared and engineered to feel different from the solo game. One moment you’re laughing with your co-slayers after a ridiculous kill, the next you’re all on edge, trying to survive the hotel restaurant, where you’re being wiped out by killer tomatoes. No two runs are ever the same, giving every team-up its own unique flavour. Just be warned… you’re gonna have to rake in the dollars through mastering the hotel before you can wipe the floor with your friends.

How Hotel Barcelona Came to Be

But before Hotel Barcelona could deliver that kind of shared hack ’n’ slash multiplayer mayhem, it had to exist at all, and bringing two of Japan’s most unpredictable legends together on one project was its own story.

The idea first surfaced in 2019, when Swery appeared as a guest at one of Suda51’s talk shows, the infamous “Travis Monday Nitro 2” in Shibuya, Tokyo. What started as a half-joking suggestion – “Let’s make a game together called Hotel Barcelona” – soon took root. Months later, the two reconnected over dinner in Canada, and began mapping out the concept in earnest: a surreal action-horror set inside a cursed hotel, stalked by slashers drawn from every corner of the genre. It was announced on Twitter (now X) that night.

Suda51 laid the foundations, sketching out the hotel’s world and its rules of survival, while Swery and his team at White Owls Inc expanded the ideas into characters, systems, and narrative. From the start, the goal was clear: not to recreate one specific horror film, but to channel decades of horror history into something new.

“Instead of one specific movie, we wanted to create a love letter to the horror genre as a whole: ’80s slashers, ’90s cult classics, modern horror, and everything in between,” Swery tells us. “Hotel Barcelona is a homage to horror itself.”

For Swery, working with Suda51 has been a career milestone: “Suda is my senior in the industry, and I’ve respected him for a long time,” he explains. “He came up with the worldbuilding, the core genre, and the concept of making it action-focused, and I dug into those ideas in my own way. We combined our strengths to make one incredible game. It’s truly an honor to be able to create it together.”

The partnership wasn’t just about combining styles – it was about amplifying them. “It’s double the impact, double the chaos, and double the fun,” Swery added. “Two crazy energies collide, making one game full of power. In that sense, I believe it’s the best I’ve ever made.”

Add to that a team stacked with some of Japan’s most respected creative talent, and you can see the pedigree in every pixel. Character designs come from master illustrator Hiroaki, known for Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, and The King of Fighters. Art direction is led by Atsushi Kawasaki, who worked on Lord of Vermilion and Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. The game’s eerie soundscape is handled by Technouchi, audio director on Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. Original anime cutscenes are brought to life by Saho Nanjo, whose work includes Chainsaw Man and Beastars. It’s a line-up that makes Hotel Barcelona as much a showcase of Japan’s finest game-making craft as it is the fever dream of two legendary directors.

The game’s cast of slashers reflects that idea, each inspired by subgenres like summer camp horror, alien terror, or cannibal tales. Add in sly nods to both directors’ past works, and players will find surprises waiting behind every door.

The team made very deliberate design choices to bring the concept to life. One example is the Slasher Phantom system. As part of Hotel Barcelona’s roguelite system, ghosts of your past runs can return to fight beside you, all attacking in formations created before your last KO. Every attempt creates echoes that can shift the balance in the next run, making each playthrough unpredictable.

“With that mechanic, 2.5D was the smoothest way to capture the feeling,” Swery explained. “It gave us a way to make the action unique while keeping the horror atmosphere intact.”

For Swery, the vision behind Hotel Barcelona goes beyond entertainment:

“We didn’t just want to make a fun game,” he told us. “We layered in themes and ideas that we hope players can connect with personally. Ideally, you’ll not only enjoy playing but also take something away – maybe even discover a sense of self along the way.”

Hotel Barcelona arrives tomorrow, September 26, 2025 on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC, and is an Xbox Play Anywhere title. Check in. Wipe ’em out. Burn it down.

HOTEL BARCELONA

CULT Games

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

Justine, a rookie U.S. Marshal, thought this was just another routine case.
But when her car crashes in a freak accident at the edge of nowhere, she finds herself trapped in a twisted new world: HOTEL BARCELONA.

Seven serial killers.
One haunted hotel.
And a second personality living inside her head…

Meet Dr. Carnival: murderer, psychopath, devastating ancient monster.

THIS FALL… DEATH HAS A ROOM KEY
In this blood-soaked 2.5D sidescroller straight from your nightmares:
Battle through insane horror-themed floors!
Face killers inspired by the nastiest corners of your local video store!
Every time you die, your past self fights beside you – like a ghost with a grudge!

BLOOD IS POWER
The more you kill, the stronger you become.
But let the blood stop flowing… and you’re next.

CARNIVAL’S AWAKENING
Unleash the brutal power of the serial killer in your mind.
Turn the tide of battle. Become a legend.

Not recommended for:
Individuals with weak stomachs
Fans of quiet indie puzzle games
People afraid of mirrors
Anyone still emotionally recovering from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me