"All we can do is keep running."
"Then let's find that exit they call Paradise."
Finally jumping aboard the Suda51 train after having played Shadows Of The Damned in high school and being tangientially aware of his other work. Mostly had him pegged as being "weird, americana obsessed japanese developer of idiosyncratic action games" but that was really only half right. His work is way more cerebral than is ever given credit, probably even moreso with the visual novels but we'll see. Case in point is No More Heroes, which is usually just described as the funny lightsaber jacking off game, again another half-truth.
No More Heroes is possibly the most violent and sadistic games I've played, much like the PS2 God Of War games you're actively the villain and making things worse. Where Travis differs from Kratos is his keen awareness he is in a video game and has a role to play as an agent of chaos. This furthers the major theme of the game that player expression in games is almost solely enacting violence onto people and is then exaggerated with most of Travis's opponents being women, children, or elderly people. Not to say it's all that bleak about it, the game also surpasses most other "games as inherently violent and possibly nihilistic" works by also being fun.
Not a whole lot to say gameplay wise, it borrows a little from Drakengard where the combat is purposefully simple- for the showiness of it instead of the more sisyphean "means to an end" those games use. PC version had some glitchiness and I never really knew if I was playing the game right, but watching some gameplay videos I don't think I'm alone.
I think I'm probably the 1000th person to write these thoughts, or similar enough ones, about this game on here but if you haven't played these games I can't recommend more if you vibe with what I say.
"Then let's find that exit they call Paradise."
Finally jumping aboard the Suda51 train after having played Shadows Of The Damned in high school and being tangientially aware of his other work. Mostly had him pegged as being "weird, americana obsessed japanese developer of idiosyncratic action games" but that was really only half right. His work is way more cerebral than is ever given credit, probably even moreso with the visual novels but we'll see. Case in point is No More Heroes, which is usually just described as the funny lightsaber jacking off game, again another half-truth.
No More Heroes is possibly the most violent and sadistic games I've played, much like the PS2 God Of War games you're actively the villain and making things worse. Where Travis differs from Kratos is his keen awareness he is in a video game and has a role to play as an agent of chaos. This furthers the major theme of the game that player expression in games is almost solely enacting violence onto people and is then exaggerated with most of Travis's opponents being women, children, or elderly people. Not to say it's all that bleak about it, the game also surpasses most other "games as inherently violent and possibly nihilistic" works by also being fun.
Not a whole lot to say gameplay wise, it borrows a little from Drakengard where the combat is purposefully simple- for the showiness of it instead of the more sisyphean "means to an end" those games use. PC version had some glitchiness and I never really knew if I was playing the game right, but watching some gameplay videos I don't think I'm alone.
I think I'm probably the 1000th person to write these thoughts, or similar enough ones, about this game on here but if you haven't played these games I can't recommend more if you vibe with what I say.