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Revenge stories don’t really come as pure as this. Nekome: Nazi Hunter is fierce, it’s righteous, and it’s brutal. It’s about a man driven to somewhere beyond the edge and what he does to restore some balance to his world. I spoke to Jeronimo Barrera, Game Director at ProbablyMonsters, to find out the inspiration behind Nekome and how you handle a tragedy like Vano with the respect it deserves.
The presentation here is stylized ultra-violence, but the subject matter is serious – I asked Barrera about being respectful while also telling the story the studio wanted to tell. “[Nekome] is rooted in the very real persecution and murder of the Romani people during the Second World War. We have a responsibility to take that seriously.”
“Throughout development, we’ve worked with Jewish and Romani cultural experts, and we’ve invited people from those communities to share their perspectives on key creative decisions. The goal is to tell Vano’s story honestly, thoughtfully, and credibly.” Barrera says he wanted to make sure that the “heightened presentation [did] not come at the expense of the history underneath it.”
Regarding the presentation, ProbablyMonsters proudly states on its website that Nekome is inspired by grindhouse cinema. Traditional views on grindhouse are that of B-movies, exploitation, and horror, and I wondered where that came in when crafting a revenge tale of this magnitude.
“The fun got sucked out of it when it looked real; it lost the fantasy we were after. Our goal was getting a tone that was interesting visually but allowed for the ultra-violence. We landed on the style of graphic novels and grindhouse cinema because their tones and vibe are able to handle the darker side of the story.”
In terms of direct inspiration, Barrera cites more modern films like Inglourious Basterds and Sisu, both of which take on the power fantasy of executing Nazis, with the latter having “one of the best knife-through-the-head-of-a-Nazi moments.”
The violent influences certainly look to be transferring over to Nekome, with its up-close-and-personal combat style. Almost Sifu, if you replaced precision with rage. Barrera doesn’t opt for a heroic outlook on WW2 and Vano’s story, instead focusing on “the most brutal emotions that manifest when someone’s world is completely torn apart, again and again.”
“The only revenge strong enough is to take the life directly from the people that did this to you and look them in the eyes as their light dims.” Strong stuff, and rightfully so. Check out Nekome Nazi Hunter when it releases early next year.
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