Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to talk to Alfonso Sexto Pereyra, who did QA for Splatterhouse (2010). They graciously agreed to an interview about the experience.
This is the complete interview. Editing was for grammatical purposes only.
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Rob: How did you get involved in quality assurance for video games?
Alfonso: You could say that it all started back in 2003, when I discovered the Goth movement. I was living in a small city in north-western Spain (Lugo) and the passion for goth music, aesthetics and art made me do regular trips to Madrid; back then it was one of the few cities with a big enough Goth community to support different goth clubs and events. I made a lot of friends in that group (many of them still friends nowadays), and one day in 2008, one of those friends who used to work in EA Games Madrid directly asked me "We need people for the peak months in summer, would you fancy 2 months of slavery at EA Madrid?". I said yes immediately, since I loved the premise of living in Madrid for a few months, being able to go clubbing every weekend and all the bragging rights that come with "I was a videogame tester at some point."
I liked working in QA, so I learned, improved, made contacts... Fast forward: that turned into a 17 years career in which I worked for companies like the aforementioned EA Games, Nintendo, Ubisoft and Small companies like Keyfactor, which is where I worked with Namco, amongst others (Keyfactor was an independent QA company, we had many customers).
Rob: Have you been a Splatterhouse fan since before the 2010 game, or was that your introduction to the series?
Alfonso: I was a big fan before, all thanks to this friend of mine that lived two streets away from mine and with whom I used to interchange Sega Megadrive/Genesis games. It was back in 1993 when he brought Splatterhouse II to my home saying "It's the most bloody game I have ever seen!" I played it that very same night and my 12 y/o brain got shocked and terrified by it. (laughs) I had problems sleeping that night, but the next day I was playing it again. Shortly after returning the game to him, I saved money to buy it for myself (I still do it regularly via emulation).
Splatterhouse 2
I would play the first one a couple of years later in an arcade that I found by pure chance (I don't even remember where exactly, it was during some family holidays) but I could not play the third one until a lot of time later via emulation, since it was not officially released in Europe.
Rob: So when you found out you were going to be doing QA for the new Splatterhouse, how did you react?
Alfonso: Honestly? Absolute disbelief. We were just finishing some last-minute testing for another game for Namco (Enslaved: Odyssey to the west) when my direct superior approached me and asked "Alfonso. Do you like Splatterhouse?". I remember I answered "Yes, I do. didn't I tell you that already" (We had worked together in EA in the past). He did not answer, he just smiled and I was like... "wait... what? Oh sh*t! For Real??" provably I said that screaming and everybody in the building heard it, but can't remember it clearly. (laughs)
Rob: The emulation of the included classic trilogy is marred by missing sounds and sped up/slowed down music and voices. Was this something you were able to provide feedback on?
Alfonso: Glad that you ask that: I remember that I did mention it and the answer was something on the line of "We are aware, but this is the best we can afford to do". It is important to remember that Splatterhouse 2010 was transferred from Bottlerocket to internal development (I don't have many details, but Namco was not happy with Bottlerocket's work, as far as I know) so they had little time and budget to finish the game and send it out. I mention this, because despise the fact that they had little time left (around 1 year) to finish the game in a tight budget, the team fought a lot to have the original games included as a bonus (Namco was more interested in releasing them separately as digitally distributed paid games, for obvious reasons).
Rob: I remember Dan Tovar telling me about that when I met him back in 2010.
Alfonso: One of the devs also mentioned once that it was specially difficult to modify some elements inside the original games. I do remember that in the third one they had to change the portraits of Rick's family and that they were unable to change the button prompts inside the games options menu (I think they are still the "A, B, C" Megadrive ones)
Rob: Were there any good enemy and/or boss ideas that had to be aborted? And what was your opinion on the somewhat infamous cyborg ape, "Robo-Ape"?
Alfonso: Sadly, Splatterhouse was sent to us a few months before release; when pretty much everything was already in place so I did not have the chance to see any extra bosses or "what could have been." Since we also did Localization testing, however, I do remember reading a lot of lines in our text sheets that were not present in the final game. Like that mask mocking rick for being afraid on Clowns in the Circus level, or some 4th wall breaking lines like "I liked you more when you were mute." However, I do SUSPECT (Take this with a grain of salt, because it's just speculation) that Evil Cross was intended to be present on the game at some point (more on that later). And regarding Experiment 765 (I guess you mean that one) I had to google it to remember which one it was. So that should give you a hint on how bland and generic it is in my opinion.
Rob: Were there any interesting gameplay mechanics that were considered but either scrapped or not put in due to constraints?
Alfonso: Not due to time constraints, or if this qualifies as "interesting" but at some point during development (I did not see it, but I was told it was there at some point) Rick was supposed to be able to tear out his own arm to use it as a weapon. I can see why that did not make it to the final version of the game since... If you think about it, it is just nonsensical. Why would Rick remove his own arm when he can tear out the innards of any monster while using both arms? You can still use his arm as a weapon if he loses it, so I would not be surprised if this last mechanic was an afterthought after discarding the original idea.
Rob: What was the one thing, above all else, that you regret the game ended up not doing due to time and budget constraints?
Alfonso: Without a doubt: the Chapel level. Just like in the original game where you battle Evil Cross, there was a chapel level right before the final boss fight. Inside you had just some random monster fights while it was functional (Kinda felt like a placeholder fight and that something was still to be added there). A few weeks before we finished the testing period, our dev kits started to crash every time we reached the part that was supposed to be the chapel level. Wereported the issue and, shortly after, that section was completely removed due to lack of time to fix whatever was broken (The project was scheduled to wrap up shortly after we were done with the final functional testing passes). The good news about this, is that said level is still playable in the game via Arena Mode.
The Chapel stage (2009 build)
Also, I do believe that the game could have used a bit more promotion as part of the budget. It has quite a cult-following nowadays. This may be just me ranting about how the games industry operates: but you can't just pull an attempt to resurrect one of your dormant franchises without some investment in Marketing and advertising. You need new fans for a franchise to return.
Rob: I can see that. Namco Bandai had the old fanbase, for the most part, just by getting in contact with me, but they didn't do enough to make new fans.
Alfonso: This may be off topic completely (Sorry :P ), but to give you an example: Just look at what Warner did with "Mortal Kombat 1"; there is a trailer focused at aiming to the nostalgia of those of us who where there when the first one released, and there is another with a more nowadays feeling to appeal to the younger crew. You need to keep old fans invested while bringing new ones on board; that why MK has been around for over 30 years and why Splatterhouse remains dormant (luckily, not forgotten).
Rob: If Splatterhouse was released earlier (the PS2 era) or later (the PS4), do you think it would have had a better chance of succeeding?
Alfonso: I'm pretty sure that during the PS2 era it would have fared a lot better. Back then it was a lot easier to make a profitable AA game and companies could afford to take a lot of risks with new IPs and ideas. It was also the time of what I usually call the "Edgelord Era" in which dark, horror-themed and gory games were at their peak of popularity.
It was also the generation in which God of War was released. So yes; I'm quite sure that "Splatterhouse 2010" would have been a lot more successful if today we were referring to it a "Splatterhouse 2003."
Rob: Which, as I'm sure you're aware, almost happened.
Alfonso: Yes. I think it would have worked. That was the right time to do it and I think Namco knew this since a Wanpaku Graffiti sequel was also planned. They seemed to be serious about bringing the franchise back. I don't know what made them fall back and change their plans, but it's really a pity.
Regarding the PS4, I'm honestly not sure. But not because of the game, but how Namco-Bandai was operating during the PS4 era. I do believe that we have higher chances now, however, Namco is betting strongly on Steam as both developer and publisher and they have released some of their old games already (I think Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti was on one of their Namco Museum compilations, right?).
Rob: Yes, on the Namco Museum Archive Vol. 1.
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
Alfonso: Then I'll likely buy it and post a Steam review saying that I bought it exclusively for Wanpaku Graffiti :D, hopefully they'll get the message that we want Splatterhouse to be back (Kinda worked with Tecmo-Koei on bringing Fatal Frame 4 and 5 to Steam and current gen consoles).
People on the internet say a lot that "A port from an old console game is easy and cheap" but there are a lot of factors at play; like which console you are porting from and if you have the original source code/master for the game. Japanese companies are not a pristine example of preserving old source codes. In the end it all comes to Namco still having some copy of Splatterhouse 2010 on a shelf and that whoever finds it shares my feeling that there is no reason not to, at the very least, release it on Steam with a 20€ tag price.
Rob: This is true. I recall being told that, during the early stages of development, that they didn't even have access to the source code for the original Splatterhouse. It was later found in the possession of some little no name company, and Namco Bandai got it back.
Alfonso: It is no surprise; I mean, if this happens from time to time to western companies and publishers that do care (to some extent) to preserve source codes, just imagine what happen when you don't put some care into that (You have the case of the infamous Silent Hill 2 and 3 remasters for PS3 and X360). I'm however positive that this will change in the future now that a lot of publishers, both in the west and in Asia, are starting to understand that a remaster is a relatively quick and cheap way to generate income (Namco themselves are pretty serious in remastering their old "Tales of" games).
Rob: Were you disappointed by the lukewarm reception the game got, or was that something you were expecting after it went through QA?
Alfonso: The answer to both questions is "Yes."
The Devs responsible for Splatterhouse were very passionate about the game and really put their hearts on it. This is said a lot about many game companies, but after all my years of experience I can tell the difference between "being professional and working diligently on a game you really don't care about" and "being personally invested into it". The first one is a given, since we are talking about work here, but the second one is something you just can't get paid to feel it and that it can't be faked.
The Devs loved this project, and that reflected in talking with them being always a positive experience and how open they were to listen to our suggestions and concerns. So when the not-so-good reviews came it was indeed disappointing. I saw it coming to some extent, because we were making a "God of War Clone" and everybody was going to point at us because of that, however I remember being specially mad at Gamespot's review (they gave the game a 4 out of 10) because I believe they completely missed the point. The devs just wanted to deliver a game that was fun to play, not a groundbreaking AAA "God of War killer". I don't think making the greatest game in history was ever their intention.
On a side note: At the end of the day, this is something that comes with the job. In the games industry it's inevitable that you are going to work on games that will be a critical success and games that will be destroyed by reviewers (There are two games I worked on that I even cut out of my CV, in fact). When that happens, you keep the experience and the knowledge, you brush off the reviews and keep moving forward. :)
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Many thanks to Alfonso for taking the time out of their busy schedule to answer these questions. I wish them nothing but success in their future endeavors.
This exclusive interview is copyright 2025 SCAR Productions.
