As a follow up to the first game, No More Heroes 2 is pretty dissapointing as it's just less of an interesting game. Story feels totally unnecessary and doesn't do enough interesting things for me.
Travis joins the assassination gig again because he does and he vows to climb to the top to get revenge on the guy who killed BIIIIIIIIISSSSSHHHOOOPPPPPPP!!! and that's kinda what you get at the end. There's some intriguing cut-aways throughout the game with a mysterious figure but they turn out to be Sylvia and it's all revealed to be a sequel bait that doesn't really land for me. The most charitable thing I can do for the story is through a reading of the reason why Travis is in the assassination game again is because there's a No More Heroes 2 and having to go through another assassination gig is what leads to him having second throughts about the treatment of the video-game characters he has no kill and be done with UAA gives the story a kiiiiinda interesting meta angle that may or may not be intended but even then, I still find it hard for me to defend the second game's story as anything meaningful.
Also the cut open world and lack of a buy in for gigs totally kills the two sided nature of the first game where a lot of the time you were doing repetitve chores to be able to afford your fantasy basically. I can see why they did it but the game is totally missing something from the first game because of it. It's a trade of character for ease and enjoyment.
And ultimately that's what makes 2 so different from 1. It's doing the same game as 1 but it lacks a lot of the character or uncommon characteristics.
...That being said, I'd be lying if I said I still didn't enjoy myself. The music is great thanks to Akira Yamaoka. Graphically the game looks amazing upscaled to 1080. Sylvia has MULTIPLE OUTFITS! SHINOBU IS PLAYABLE!! They even spent money on a dang fake full OP to the in-game anime that Travis loves! Also, even though I just complained about the pacing, I can get the appeal of turning No More Heroes into a purely boss rush game with weird boss design and track after the next.
No More Heroes 2 is a bit of a conflicting game for me because overall the game is a downgrade from No More Heroes 1 on most fronts and it's nowhere near being a cult classic for me. On the other hand though, the game still does carry a lot of the original's spirit and you could probably still get a good time out of it.
Travis joins the assassination gig again because he does and he vows to climb to the top to get revenge on the guy who killed BIIIIIIIIISSSSSHHHOOOPPPPPPP!!! and that's kinda what you get at the end. There's some intriguing cut-aways throughout the game with a mysterious figure but they turn out to be Sylvia and it's all revealed to be a sequel bait that doesn't really land for me. The most charitable thing I can do for the story is through a reading of the reason why Travis is in the assassination game again is because there's a No More Heroes 2 and having to go through another assassination gig is what leads to him having second throughts about the treatment of the video-game characters he has no kill and be done with UAA gives the story a kiiiiinda interesting meta angle that may or may not be intended but even then, I still find it hard for me to defend the second game's story as anything meaningful.
Also the cut open world and lack of a buy in for gigs totally kills the two sided nature of the first game where a lot of the time you were doing repetitve chores to be able to afford your fantasy basically. I can see why they did it but the game is totally missing something from the first game because of it. It's a trade of character for ease and enjoyment.
And ultimately that's what makes 2 so different from 1. It's doing the same game as 1 but it lacks a lot of the character or uncommon characteristics.
...That being said, I'd be lying if I said I still didn't enjoy myself. The music is great thanks to Akira Yamaoka. Graphically the game looks amazing upscaled to 1080. Sylvia has MULTIPLE OUTFITS! SHINOBU IS PLAYABLE!! They even spent money on a dang fake full OP to the in-game anime that Travis loves! Also, even though I just complained about the pacing, I can get the appeal of turning No More Heroes into a purely boss rush game with weird boss design and track after the next.
No More Heroes 2 is a bit of a conflicting game for me because overall the game is a downgrade from No More Heroes 1 on most fronts and it's nowhere near being a cult classic for me. On the other hand though, the game still does carry a lot of the original's spirit and you could probably still get a good time out of it.