No More Heroes quickly became one of my fave games for all its charm and creativity so I was excited to jump into No More Heroes 2 especially when I heard a lot of people prefer it to the first, but I honestly just didn't enjoy the game that much.
No More Heroes 2 is like the Dark Souls 2 of NMH in the fact that the original director Suda51 had almost nothing to with it (Like Miyazaki had nothing to do with Dark Souls 2) and because it goes for a quantity instead of quality type of design and has the most bosses, but due to this I find most of the bosses are extremely unmemorable (Alice was definitely the best) unlike in the first game where they all had their own unique personalities and felt like real characters. The entire story itself was also a massive step down from the first and almost felt like a parody of the first game as it is just a retread of Travis' arc from the first game and I don't think this game was anywhere near as funny as the first either.
Right from the start I did not like No More Heroes 2 and it just got worse as it went on for me, No More Heroes 2 is a very short game only clocking in at about 10 hours, but it also felt like a slog for me to get through seeing as how all the charm and creativity I loved so much from the first game is gone.
There's nothing to break up the pacing of the game like in the first and it essentially becomes a boss rush, there are still mini-games, but now they're retro throwbacks instead of doing remedial jobs for cash and frankly the new minigames suck, I miss mowing the lawn and picking up garbage. I also think it is detrimental to the game design that you can now just go from ranking mission to ranking mission as you no longer have to earn money to unlock the next mission and can no longer drive around the open world since they got rid of it because with nothing to break up the pacing of the fighting it gets very boring and stale fast and it doesn't help that every mission sends wave after wave of enemies at you before the boss, the level designs leading up to the bosses weren't very good either.
However credit where credit is due I do like the new Ecstasy meter addition to combat which increases the range on your beam katana the longer you don't get hit and I like that you get to play as Shinobu in a couple missions as well plus there are new beam katana options like duel wielding, but these slight improvements to the combat just can't save a sequel that misses the point of what made the original so special and is ultimately inferior to its predecessor in every other way when it comes to story, bosses, level design, creativity and comedy. The lack of Suda51's distinct direction, wacky charm and style is very evident and sorely missed.
No More Heroes 2 is like the Dark Souls 2 of NMH in the fact that the original director Suda51 had almost nothing to with it (Like Miyazaki had nothing to do with Dark Souls 2) and because it goes for a quantity instead of quality type of design and has the most bosses, but due to this I find most of the bosses are extremely unmemorable (Alice was definitely the best) unlike in the first game where they all had their own unique personalities and felt like real characters. The entire story itself was also a massive step down from the first and almost felt like a parody of the first game as it is just a retread of Travis' arc from the first game and I don't think this game was anywhere near as funny as the first either.
Right from the start I did not like No More Heroes 2 and it just got worse as it went on for me, No More Heroes 2 is a very short game only clocking in at about 10 hours, but it also felt like a slog for me to get through seeing as how all the charm and creativity I loved so much from the first game is gone.
There's nothing to break up the pacing of the game like in the first and it essentially becomes a boss rush, there are still mini-games, but now they're retro throwbacks instead of doing remedial jobs for cash and frankly the new minigames suck, I miss mowing the lawn and picking up garbage. I also think it is detrimental to the game design that you can now just go from ranking mission to ranking mission as you no longer have to earn money to unlock the next mission and can no longer drive around the open world since they got rid of it because with nothing to break up the pacing of the fighting it gets very boring and stale fast and it doesn't help that every mission sends wave after wave of enemies at you before the boss, the level designs leading up to the bosses weren't very good either.
However credit where credit is due I do like the new Ecstasy meter addition to combat which increases the range on your beam katana the longer you don't get hit and I like that you get to play as Shinobu in a couple missions as well plus there are new beam katana options like duel wielding, but these slight improvements to the combat just can't save a sequel that misses the point of what made the original so special and is ultimately inferior to its predecessor in every other way when it comes to story, bosses, level design, creativity and comedy. The lack of Suda51's distinct direction, wacky charm and style is very evident and sorely missed.