I was reading 16 Bit Sensation and it did make me want to try this one again since is part of a niche style of games that are mostly made only for doujinshi events and it was a way better experience, even if trying to set up the control in the Steam port is a kick in the dick and only after 15 minutes I found a way to make the game on a Dual Shock ok to play.

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae is perfect for what it wants to be, is a type of arcade game that is almost impossible to reach out if you are not japanese and I am very happy that this one got a chance. I still feel the game would be better if a little bit more shorter since the bigger enemies feels like you are just trying to break a wall with a toy hammer and there a lot of moments where you have to fight a lot of them but is cool in general. I never hated the game, just felt very disappointed and nowadays I don't have the sentiment, feel way better knowing the game is trying to be like Spike Out instead of Oneechanbara. Hell, I want to try more games in this style now. I definitely recommend if anyone wants to check out more of the unique things in the indie asian games scenery and wants to have a good hack and slash for a session of 3 hours.

This is like if Dead or Alive was made by someone who never touched the franchise and thought it was a porn game with a fighting mode.

Dead or Alice always knew how to use the sexual elements in their fighting games, it was a perfect mix in 5. You want sexy skins? You can have as much as you want. You want to play more normally? You can too. You want just to enjoy how good of a fighting game 5 is? Sure, just go play some rounds in the arcade mode. The story mode was like playing an anime game, the direction was amazing and had so many cool stuff in the chapters and the sexual side never felt as the only selling point. But for some reason, since the beach games are popular people never took Dead or Alive seriously. So how you deal with this? Remove all the personality from the series, try to hide the sexy side (is still crazy how they were thinking Kasumi and Ayane normal outfits were way to much horny), make the simple but complex mechanics of 5 way to much more simple, make a story mode based on Persona Arena Ultimax for some reason and put a lot of bad monetization and try to appeal do EVO folks.

Dead or Alive 6 was a failure because the majors decisions were made with disrespect. Dead or Alive 5 could be easily in EVO alongside Tekken, there's nothing that could make a big problem but they just decided to make 5 without most of the things that makes the series great. Is just sad to see as a fan of the series but at the same time the game being just 5 but weaker is enough to me to like playing for a bit of time. I just hope the reboot don't try to do the same shit.

No More Heroes 2 is a strange beast.

It doesn't understand the first one. The power fantasy that the original makes a joke with becomes the fantasy the sequel sells for the player. Henry who was a Vergil parody for a hack and slash parody now becomes Vergil but the version of DmC, Shinobu becomes a fetishized character and Sylvia who was the way of the game literally says to the player that the game is a joke now becomes a kinda of femme fatale and a fetishized character too. And Travis even if the game start with him being a anime hero for the sake of the power fantasy, by the end becomes a character more aline with the way of Suda's writing. I could go on and on about this because it's all you see for the first half of the game, the minigames were turned into a way of grinding instead of a nice way to make the game flow better, the way the game deals with sexual content is way worse and so on. But at the same time, No More Heroes 2 does a lot of cool stuff.

The combat is amazing, as good as the first one. Melee being a full playstyle makes all Fire Pro Wrestling references cooler, the scenery being a big part of the fights makes everything so more dynamic and cool, the juggle combos. Is just very good, even more so with the multiple swords. Is just not as smart as Travis Strikes Again and No More Heroes 3 with the enemies and bosses. But the boss battles in No More Heroes 2 are usually in between mid and very good, for some reason when you got the Ryuji fight the game decides to make every boss just as good as the first one and is in the final half that the game becomes great.

The power fantasy left, Travis becomes more like Travis, the text and cutscenes becomes good. Is like the devs suddenly remembered what makes No More Heroes 1 great and they decided to try that but with a vengeance story while dealing with the way those characters interacts with violence. And even the final boss is interesting, he is like Iwami from Yakuza 6, a shit guy trying to play the cool guy with a shit fight because he couldn't do anything.

Nobutaka Ichiki did a cool work, sure I would love to see Suda51 version (even more after discovering that the game was supposed to be inspired by Battles Without Honor and Humanity 2) but I liked his take and I hope someday he get a chance to make a big project of his own.