Putting my point into the pavement:
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I just don't get why No More Heroes really needed to keep going (besides for ATM-related reasons). I love hanging out with Travis Touchdown (hell TSA to me was a good NMH sequel and that game is literally just about hanging out at times), but I didn't just love the first No More Heroes because of how wild the world was, it was because of how the game started off wild and ended on a raw note. There were moments where I saw a way for this game to keep the spark going but Travis Strikes Again really felt like it did so much of that heavy lifting for this title but even with that game I felt some skepticism about where the series could go.
More of what you love (Gameplay):
----------------------------------------------------------
The gameplay here is simple yet addicting with the same sort of frantic pacing of the first game that I felt where I'm just running around and trying to clear up as many enemies as I can, it's satisfying just to see Travis suplex and drop kick a bunch of dudes and really this is enough to just say "this game is pretty alright" to most people who are here because it's a new No More Heroes game. I can't really say anything too flattering about the other aspects outside of the fighting here honestly (even as someone who has written cheesy as hell reviews for games like "The Silver Case" and "25th Ward: The Silver Case").
Idk (Presentation):
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I'm gonna be crazy here and mention something that I don't ever want to do in most of my other reviews but wow this game somehow looks worse than the first game when just looking at the basic presentation of when you're playing the game. On a positive note, I find it interesting how a bit of Killer7 is here (that TSA had as well) with the enemy designs, mixed-media animation/format, and even going back to the combat I'd say it even has more weird one-off guys that shake up what you're doing, and I hope this is something Grasshopper Manufacturer brings to their other games.
Robin Atkin Downes is so good at just putting a lot of passion into his acting as Travis here and I'd say the voice acting in general in this series is still great.
One-Sided (Story):
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Travis Touchdown is a 39-year-old man in this game when in the first game he was 29 and entering the “Garden of Maddness” where at the end of that journey, it was laid out that violence would be consistent in his life if he stayed in that “paradise”. Part of the story in this game feels like it really was going to dive more into Travis being older and how things are changing because (spoiler for being alive) time changes people which to me is something TSA actually played into at times.
While I believe this game isn’t a complete failure, I just don’t see anything new here that wasn’t already in the first game or TSA, it’s more twists on the foundation that was made but if the narrative is just going to talk at me the whole time and not let me feel it out, then what is the point. The story here has some nice moments but the fact it couldn’t do anything productive with Bad Man, Shinobu, Bad Girl, etc. besides having cameos that were on par with what you’d get in a Marvel movie just shows how messed up the priorities were here.
I’m a mega fan of Grasshopper Manufacturer but I just find it hard to sit around and think this is anything but middling and too self-indulgent. I’ve read an interview somewhere where Goichi Suda mentioned how if a character from The Silver Case named Sumio Kodai was alive he would be 40-50 and he wanted to continue his story because that passage in time is incredibly interesting ESPECIALLY for that character. The fact that Travis Touchdown barely gets any sort of moment of realization, reflection, or anything new here is enough to go back to my core statement, why did we need another No More Heroes especially after Travis Strikes Again? This game had to answer that question, and it was ignored.
No More (Conclusion)
----------------------------------------------------------
I’ve met so many great people who love the series and the characters, I absolutely get the appeal of seeing more of them but at the end of the day I’d rather see how a fan interprets a character than to have to see said character idle around in a story just so the word “new” can be slapped on to ship out copies. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Grasshopper Manufacturer, but I want to see them challenge themselves, to push their style and structure and get more people to understand why fans like me adore their games rather than idling and taking the easiest route to appeal to them until they leave.
----------------------------------------------------------
I just don't get why No More Heroes really needed to keep going (besides for ATM-related reasons). I love hanging out with Travis Touchdown (hell TSA to me was a good NMH sequel and that game is literally just about hanging out at times), but I didn't just love the first No More Heroes because of how wild the world was, it was because of how the game started off wild and ended on a raw note. There were moments where I saw a way for this game to keep the spark going but Travis Strikes Again really felt like it did so much of that heavy lifting for this title but even with that game I felt some skepticism about where the series could go.
More of what you love (Gameplay):
----------------------------------------------------------
The gameplay here is simple yet addicting with the same sort of frantic pacing of the first game that I felt where I'm just running around and trying to clear up as many enemies as I can, it's satisfying just to see Travis suplex and drop kick a bunch of dudes and really this is enough to just say "this game is pretty alright" to most people who are here because it's a new No More Heroes game. I can't really say anything too flattering about the other aspects outside of the fighting here honestly (even as someone who has written cheesy as hell reviews for games like "The Silver Case" and "25th Ward: The Silver Case").
Idk (Presentation):
----------------------------------------------------------
I'm gonna be crazy here and mention something that I don't ever want to do in most of my other reviews but wow this game somehow looks worse than the first game when just looking at the basic presentation of when you're playing the game. On a positive note, I find it interesting how a bit of Killer7 is here (that TSA had as well) with the enemy designs, mixed-media animation/format, and even going back to the combat I'd say it even has more weird one-off guys that shake up what you're doing, and I hope this is something Grasshopper Manufacturer brings to their other games.
Robin Atkin Downes is so good at just putting a lot of passion into his acting as Travis here and I'd say the voice acting in general in this series is still great.
One-Sided (Story):
----------------------------------------------------------
Travis Touchdown is a 39-year-old man in this game when in the first game he was 29 and entering the “Garden of Maddness” where at the end of that journey, it was laid out that violence would be consistent in his life if he stayed in that “paradise”. Part of the story in this game feels like it really was going to dive more into Travis being older and how things are changing because (spoiler for being alive) time changes people which to me is something TSA actually played into at times.
While I believe this game isn’t a complete failure, I just don’t see anything new here that wasn’t already in the first game or TSA, it’s more twists on the foundation that was made but if the narrative is just going to talk at me the whole time and not let me feel it out, then what is the point. The story here has some nice moments but the fact it couldn’t do anything productive with Bad Man, Shinobu, Bad Girl, etc. besides having cameos that were on par with what you’d get in a Marvel movie just shows how messed up the priorities were here.
I’m a mega fan of Grasshopper Manufacturer but I just find it hard to sit around and think this is anything but middling and too self-indulgent. I’ve read an interview somewhere where Goichi Suda mentioned how if a character from The Silver Case named Sumio Kodai was alive he would be 40-50 and he wanted to continue his story because that passage in time is incredibly interesting ESPECIALLY for that character. The fact that Travis Touchdown barely gets any sort of moment of realization, reflection, or anything new here is enough to go back to my core statement, why did we need another No More Heroes especially after Travis Strikes Again? This game had to answer that question, and it was ignored.
No More (Conclusion)
----------------------------------------------------------
I’ve met so many great people who love the series and the characters, I absolutely get the appeal of seeing more of them but at the end of the day I’d rather see how a fan interprets a character than to have to see said character idle around in a story just so the word “new” can be slapped on to ship out copies. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Grasshopper Manufacturer, but I want to see them challenge themselves, to push their style and structure and get more people to understand why fans like me adore their games rather than idling and taking the easiest route to appeal to them until they leave.
2 Comments
If you love No More Heroes 1 it's still more of that but in my opinion it's at best just more of the same. I definitely had it sitting around for awhile until I picked it up after Ico lol, literally got it for $20 sealed at a Gamestop a year after it released
Weatherby
10 months ago