Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered recently launched on PC and consoles, which let players experience (or re-experience) this bizarre third-person shooter made by Suda51 (The creator of No More Heroes, Lollipop Chainsaw and more) and Shinji Mikami (The "father" of the Resident Evil franchise).

Players who may have already beaten this remaster may already want more, so where's the sequel to Shadows of the Damned, exactly? The thing is, it already exists inside another Suda51 game, as a parody of Shadows of the Damned's ?troubled development history which, of course, has something to do with its ??original publisher: Electronic Arts.

Shadows of the Damned fans can try out its sequel in Travis Strikes Again

In case you forgot, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a 2019 video game by Suda51 that served as a stepping point between No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle and No More Heroes 3, which he eventually released in 2021. In his first adventure in over 9 years, s??eries' protagonist Travis Touchdown forcefully teams up with Badman and gets inside the digital world of the Death Drive MK-II, a mysterious video game console tha??t will grant them a wish if they complete every single one of its games.

So, Travis has to acquire different spherical cartridges called "Death Balls" that hold a different fictional video game inside, and the same character actually developed all of them: Dr. Juvenile. At one point, Travis is looking for the only copy of Serious Moonlight, an ambitious RPG that Juvenile never released. He ?eventually locates the Death Ball that one of Juvenile's former colleagues, Damon Riccitiello, took many years in the past.

Travis beats Damon up, gets the Death Ball and when he pops up Serious Moonlight on the Death Drive MK-II both he and the player encounter a huge surprise: an HD cutscene that shows Garcia Hotspur, the protagonist of Shadows of the Damned, es??caping from demons and an unknown character, who eventually captures and manages to kill him. In his last moments, he gives all his power to his comedic gun sidekick, Johnson?, who transforms into a bizarre superhero figure named Eight Hearts.

Introducing: Damned: Dark Knight!

In one of the most unexpected yet brilliant moments ever put in a No More Heroes game, players find out that Dr. Juvenile completely scrapped Serious Moonlight because the technology of the time couldn't realize a game of such a big scope. Instead, she decided to make an unofficial sequel to one of her favorite games, Shadows of the Damned, simply titled Damned: Dark Knight.

Travis and Badman have to complete it in order to continue their adventure through the Death Drive MK-II's catalog. Needless to say, Suda51 and his team filled the entire level with references to the original Shadows of the Damned, as the characters have to explore and fight enemies in locations ??from the game, while the player reads dialogue that references its many bosses and events. This is an absolute treat for fans of this third-p?erson shooter, and it proves that Suda51 still has some appreciation for the project.

Naturally, Eight Hearts is the final boss of the Damned: Dark Knight, and Travis immediately recognizes him because he's a self-proclaimed big Shadows of the Damned fan who even played through the original game more tha?n 3 times. After he kills Eight ??Hearts, Johnson talks with Garcia again, goes through a circled portal to the "4th Dimension" and promises to save his friend from that Hell.

Travis even concludes this exciting level with the phrase, "So, Garcia Hotspur is coming back. One more thing to look for...", which seems to have foreshadowed Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, years before Grassh??opper Manufacture announced it.

So, why did Suda51 did all of this?

For more context, it's important that we remember the messy development history that Shadows of the Damned went through. This was a joint venture between Suda51 and Shinji Mikami (Both had previously worked together on 2005's Killer7) and their original concept was simply titled Kurayami. This was going to be a psychological horror game with little-to-no combat and no guns at all, and with art inspired by The Castle, by Franz Kafka.

All this sounded very different from what Shadows of the Damned is and this is because everything changed when Electronic Arts entered the frame. At one point, Suda51 and Mikami managed to get in touch with EA in order to get funding for their new project, since it was much more ambitious than anything they had done before. They pitched the idea to EA and, according to Mikami in?? an interview with the YouTube chann?el Archipel, the executives "lied" when they said they liked it and the project began slowly "f?adi??ng away".

Electronic Arts' frustrating changes to Suda and Mikami's vision

It didn't take long for the upper management at EA to begin interfering with the production of Kurayami and forced Suda51 and Mikami to change things. In the book The Art of Grasshopper Manufacture, Suda51 revealed that EA insisted on including guns in the game because "Westerners are? about guns� which forced them to turn it into a third-person shooter. He also shared ano??ther story in the same book, detailing how Garcia was originally going to have a small fairy named Paula that came out of his gun, but EA didn't like his concept and preferred a classic "damsel in distress" love story, so Suda51 turned her in the main love interest in the final game.

According to Mikami, EA twisted their original concept around several times, and it resulted in a completely different game that what they originally thought of, since they had to write the script over and over until the company green light it. Not even their main character was safe, as Suda51 revealed in an interview with Gamespot that he came up wit?h 3 or 4 different ideas for a protagonist until he finally landed on Garcia Hotspur, who EA apparently liked.

Something that most fans miss is that neither Suda51 nor Mikami directed Shadows of the Damned, as its main director was actually Massimo Guarini, a western developer who h?ad years of experience working with Ubisoft, so he could more efficiently comply with EA's demands. When the company completely overhauled the project, it was immediately evident that Suda51 was not enjoying its development anymore. He became hesitant to disclose details of the game on interviews and events, as IGN noted in not one but two different interviews with him.

Shadows of the Damned broke Suda51's heart

When EA and Grasshopper Manufacture finally released Shadows of the Damned on Ju??ne 21, 2011, it received generally positive reviews, but it unfortunately didn't sell very well in neither North America nor Japan. As for Suda51 and Shinji Mikami, they both have come out and stated how disappointed they were by EA's interference on multiple occa??sions.

In an interview with PSX Extreme, Mikami stated, "I think Suda was unable to create the scenario he'd originally had in his head, and he rewrote the scenario several times. I think his heart was broken. He's such a unique creator, so it seems to me that he was not quite comfortable making this game". As for Suda himself, in the aforementioned Gamespot video he said: "If I ever happen to work with EA again, I'd really appreciate it if they jus?t... okay'd the first version of the script next time".

But Suda got his revenge... in an unconventional form

Let's go back to Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes for a moment. This odd title is not just another entry in the No More Heroes series, but it's also a deep ??look at Suda51's career as game development, with references to both his highest highs and his lowest lows. At many points during the game, it's quite obvious that he created Dr. Juvenile as a stand-in for himself, and the same is true for her longtime rival, Damon Riccitiello.

Damon developed Serious Moonlight alongside Juvenile, and he later beat her up in order to steal the Death Ball that had Damned: Dark Knight inside, that's why Travis eventually had to hunt him down. But that's not all, because Damon would later appear in No More Heroes 3 as the main antagonist of the game. In the final battle, Travis finally kills Damon in a bizarre yet amusing parody of the Super Smash Bros series.

In case you didn't know, John Riccitiello was the CEO of Electronic Arts between 2007 and 2013, meaning that he was most likely around the time Shadows of the Damned entered development. Now, Suda never explicitly stated that Damon is based off of him, but the unique last name of Riccitiello, coupled with the villain's status as a former game developer who became CEO of a gigantic corrupt company clearly indicates that Damon is a parody of John Riccitiello and that Suda51 ?was trying to ge??t even with the CEO that interfered with the development of one his beloved projects.

Despite everything, Suda51 clearly appreciates Shadows of the Damned

At one point, Suda also revealed that No More Heroes 3 was originally going to have an entire sequence that would feature Shadows of the Damned characters, which would have made the reference t?o its tumultuous development even m?ore obvious.

At the end of the day, Suda51 has clearly made his peace with Shadows of the Damned, and he likely holds some level of appreciation for this tragic project. This is evident not only in the references he included in Travis Strikes Again and No More Heroes 3 but, also in his active participation in the marketing for Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered.

Considering that Electronic Arts has nothing to do with the remaster and that Grasshopper Manufacture is currently listed as it's sole publisher, it seems that EA finally sold the rights back to Suda and his company. Fun fact: Grasshoper included Eight Hearts as an alternate costume for Garcia in Hella Remastered, which is a fun nod to one of the most bizarre yet clever things Suda51 ever did in one of his games. Maybe this means that soon we'll finally get to see a full fledged version of Damned: Dark Knight, but only time will tell...

The post Shadows of the Damned already got a sequel, and it’s not what you think appeared first on Destructoid.

Goichi Suda, better known by his pseudonym Suda51, is the iconic creator of cult classics like No More Heroes, Lollipop Chainsaw, Shadows of the Damned and more. In a recent interview, he claimed that develope?rs? nowadays put too much of their focus on their games' Metacritic scores, and that it's affecting their artistic vision.

Do game developers care too much about Metacritic?

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Suda51 and Shinji Mikami (creator of Resident Evil and producer of Shadows of the Damned) talked about their experience develop??ing video games. At one point, Suda51 expressed his opinion on th??e popular review aggregator website, Metacritic.

"Everybody pays too much attention to and cares too much about Metacritic scores," said Suda51. This shouldn't surprise anybody who is familiar with his works. After all, he has a talent for creating bizarre video games with his unique personal touch, especially when it comes to his sense of humor. Ever since the release of Killer7, Suda51's? games often receive mixed reviews but also manage to become huge cult classics that even spawn passionate fan bases.

This happened with almost every single one of his games, like No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw. Suda51 is one of the very few developers in the industry who has foll?owers that buy his products just because his name is attached to them. He definitely made a name for himself over the years.

He went on to explain how this mentality affects the development of games in general. "It's gotten to the point where there's almost a set formula: if you want to get a high Metacritic score, this is how you make the game" Suda explained. "If you'v?e got a game that doesn't fit into that formula, that marketability scope, it loses points on Metacritic."

Suda51 blamed big AAA companies in particular of doing this, saying that they mainly don't ??want to deal with the prospect of a negative online reception because "everyone care??s too much about the numbers".

This criticism is far from unexpected from Suda51, since he created the character of Damon Riccitiello - the main antagonist of Travis Strikes Again and No More Heroes III - as a very unsubtle parody of John Riccitiello, the former CEO of Electronic Arts; a nod to the frustrations felt during the development of games like Shadows of the Damned.

Suda51 did ??admit he learned to stop looking at scores the hard way though, after checking Metacritic on some occasions, especially when his studio, Grasshopper Manufacture??, released a new title. "Sometimes a media outlet has given us zero. That makes me feel shitty. Why go that far and give us zero? But apart from that, I try to avoid Metacritic." he said while laughing during the interview.

The post No More Heroes creator Suda51 says everybody ‘cares too much about Metacritic’ appeared first on Destructoid.

One of video gaming’s most loveable violent assassins is getting his fashion choices immortalized by Japanese fashion label Super Groupies. The various officially licensed articles?? are up for pre-order but will only be produced if enough are spoken for.

Up on offer are replicas of his No More Heroes 1 jacket and sunglasses. That is to say, the default jacket and sunglasses because you could trade them out for new design??s as you progressed through the game. There’s also a watch adorned with the shattered star design, but I don’t think Travis ever wore one. He wore a sweatband instead.

Super Groupies previously released a replica of the No More Heroes 3 jacket, but that is currently sold out.

What I find amusing a??bout this is that I always thought Travis Touchdown dressed in a way that looked cool to him but nobody else. That’s always how I read the character. He often speaks very dramatically in near nonsensical ways while actually being rather pathetic. He’s all front, is what I’m saying.

The jacket on offer is also synthetic leather, probably because the cost of a real leather version would be astronomical, and it already isn’t cheap. However, it results in the jacket looking a lot lighter than the one Travis wears in the first game. His looks very stiff (perhaps due to the Wii’s inability to render complex material physics), whereas this appears a lot sof??ter.

I also don’t think I’d be able to pull it off very well. I have the height, and a high collar would help hide my unimpressive neck a?nd jawline, but my typically slouching posture wouldn’t go well with its lines. I also think that a leather jacket is something you need to try on before buying, which isn’t really possible online. However, if you were to buy it for me, I would definitely wear it. Just saying.

The No More Heroes 1 ja??cket can be preordered for $260, while the sunglasses are $80.

The post You can d?ress like a violent? otaku with this No More Heroes gear appeared first on Destructoid.

Can Travis be far behind?

Recently, No More Heroes creator Suda51 held the first-ever "Grasshopper Direct" event. It's a madcap show, packed with curses and cosplay, serving as a fantastic example of modern anti-marketing. Most of the "real" content on display is non-game related news like the reveal of new t-shirts, gallery showings, and related merch, while the most shocking moments of presentation pop in under the guise of unrelated, intrusive advertisements. First, there's Pistol Yakuza (a John Wick-esque movie and game combo) at 5:59, and a trailer for Electric Thunder Tiger 14, starring Electro Triple Star (the first boss of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes) at 9:38.

It's hard to say if these projects are factual or imaginary, which is right on brand for this franchise. When Travis meets Electro Triple Star in Travis Strikes Again, he talks about how much he loved playing his games as a kid, blurring the lines between past and present, idol and villain, physical and virtual. It all ends with Travis wondering if he might star in Electric Thunder Tiger 3 himself someday. So how did we get to Electric Thunder Tiger 14 already? That's anyone's guess, but one can speculate that death and the passage of time don't work?? in videogames like they do in the real world.

[embed]//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH??S60cC3768[/e??mbed]

More No More Or No More More?

But one thing that definitely does work in the real world is copyright laws, and Grasshopper has confirmed with Destructoid that the majority rights to all No More Heroes characters, including Travis Touchdown and Electro Triple Star, are still held by Marvelous, their publishing partner on the series. So that either means that this trailer was?? essentially a fake-out, or that it's a real game being developed with Marvelous's blessing.

If it's the latter, then it would be a real waste of the license to not throw a Travis cameo or two in there, right? More No More Heroes or not, we know for sure that Grasshopper is working on several projects that will swing for the fences. I'm hoping tha?t s??ome of those swings come from a beam katana.

The post Shocking No More Heroes boss may get his own game appeared first on Destructoid.

Add copyright law to the list of things Travis has almost sh*t on

Travis Touchdown and the No More Heroes series both turned 15 this week and, to celebrate, franchise creator SUDA51 shared some unique information about his murderous m??ascot. Even longtime fans of the franchise such as myself were shocked.

My Japanese is lousy, but I can read the language well enough to recognize the characters "Ru-Ku" in the image above. That translates to English as "Luke", which alone would have been enough to make Lucasfilm's lawyers foam at the mouth. Reading through the blurb is a little tougher for me, but per a confirmed A.I, translation from NMH super fan Travis Dies Every Day, the full text reads:

"Modern Jedi Master 'Luke'. Danshiya 'Luke'. His real name is Travis Touchdown. A geek and a thug of the hitman business, I will take on any boring killing. There is no creed at all. I go to the mall four times a week. In other words, if you don'?t ha??ve work, you don't have time, and you don't have friends."

"He runs danshi [boy?] with homemade sabers. All [o??f] his weapons, Naomi is making. He is currently ranked 11th in the UAA rankings. F??anatical fan of Japanese anime, especially the witch system is a favorite. Now I love it. I love T-shirts."

Anyone who's played the series knows that this isn't too far from how the actual in-game dialogue might sound. Other than the gun in his left hand, and the overt announcement that Travis is, in-fact, a Jedi nam?ed after Luke Skywalker, all of this could, plausibly, have been official!

And wait a minute, wasn't SUDA51's company r??umored to be working on an Aliens game? That franchise is just one degree of legal separation from Star Wars! Maybe? gun-toting Travis with this Skywalking nickname still has a chance of making it.

The post Travis Touchdown’s original nickname was, it seems, pure Star Wars appeared first on Destructoid.

The Switch version was updated to 1.1.0

No More Heroes 3 Japanese audio is in, thanks to a new patch that also ?coincides with the launch of the game on PC, PS4/PS5, and ?Xbox One/Xbox Series X.

The Switch patch isn't massive, but brings the game up to version 1.1.0, and adds a new Japanese voice option to the game. It??'s enough to get me to play it again for sure!

As for the rest of the versions, the PS4, PS5, and Xbox editions were all touched in some way. The PS4 port had the least to fix (minor bugs), while the PS5 version has a small handful of fixes (including jump and dodge?? button flipping). That same swath of fixes applies to both the Xbox One and Xbox Series X ports.

So if you're having issues, update your game! It usually goes without saying, but just in case you assumed you could play it day one while offline. You can find the full patc??h rundown below!

No More Heroes 3 Nintendo Switch Ver.1.1.0 Update Details

PS5 Version Ver.1.002 Update Details

PS4 Version Ver.1.01 Update Details

Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One Ver.1.0.6.0 Update Details

The post No More Heroes 3 Switch gets Japanese voices amid multi?platform release appeared first on Destructoid.

_{[Art by OThatsRaspberry]}

From mortuaries to millions

Before creating No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned, Killer7, and countless others, Goichi "SUDA51" Suda worked in a mortuary. Then, almost overnight, he became a game director. His primary qualification? Confidence. An outsider to the industry, he made waves from the very start, using the otherwise by-the-book Fire Pro Wrestling franchise to tell? a story of nihilism and self-destruction.

Twenty-nine years later and he's still doing things his own way. The biggest difference now is, he's got experience on his side. And the money probably doesn't hurt either. L?ast year, Grasshopper Manufacture (Suda's studio) was acquired by NetEase, a game publisher with an estimated value of 63 b??illion dollars.

As a massive fan of Suda's work, I was afraid that this change in business partners may lead him to make more conventional games. From the sounds of this interview with Japanese site DenFaminicoGamer, (po??sted here in English for the first time via a translation from Grasshopper themselves), we won't have to worry about that.

This detailed account of his career �packed w??ith exclusive reveals about his past, present, and future �points to this new "NetEase era" being the most exciting, unhinged chapter in his story yet.

DenFaminicoGamer: The reason for this interview is that Grasshopper Manufacture has become part of NetEase Ga??mes, and have started recruiting staff, but what was the original intention behind the founding of Grasshopper?

SUDA51: During my time at Human Entertainment, I thought of myself as a director. I took over the Fire Pro Wrestling series, handling two games. Next, I was put in charge of the Twilight Syndrome team, which was on the brink of collapse, and r?eorganized it. Which is to say, somehow or another, I would complete whatever work that the company gave me without fail.

However, after Twilight Syndrome was finished, I did things akin to in-game destruction with Moonlight Syndrome (laughs). Human was a company with a lot of freedom, so at the?? time, I was able to take on a variety of challenges in that ??manner.

The reason I left Human was that I wasn’t able to make my own IP or representative work. I had the constant dilemma of? not being able to create an original title. On top of that, I understood that as long as I stayed with Human, that kind of chance would not come easily, so I had to leave. Around that time, the company itself was in decline. There were things like pay delays, and just bad ?vibes in the air.

However, after leaving Human, I visited ASCII Corporation, who had previously reach??ed out to me, and I intended to enter their company as a regular employee. Then I was told by the people at ASCII, “Now is the time that you could start a company.�And that’s the story of how I started Grasshopper.

DFG: Was the desire to create your own original IPs and have your own company something th??at you had been contemplating for a long time?

SUDA51:Everything was a bit all over the place at Human, so I really loved the company itself?. The president was eccentric, and he even h??ated games.

Human also ran th?e Human Creative School, which was the world’s first video game school. Every year graduates would enter the company, so our development staff was mostly comprised of people in their twenties. I was 24 when I started at Human, so there was a huge number of staff that were younger than me, like around 22 or so. It was a maelstrom of hot-blooded youth that was almost like a zoo (laughs).

I think the great part about that company was the ability to create something from nothing. They were also the originators of pro wrestling games. Ryoji Amano, creator of the soccer games, and Masato Masuda, who was my mentor, were ??two people who could establish the creative process and create something from nothing. The company was filled with an atmosphere that made it feel like we could rapidly develop new games, and I think we were the? top sports game developer at the time. So, I always thought that I wanted to further invigorate the company from within.

Ho??wever, the president was caught for tax evasion, and when I woke in the morning, I experienced what it was like to have cameras from the TV station all over the place (laughs). After going through something like that, I thought, “I probably need to get out of here� and it felt like ?I had shifted gears.

DFG: In regard to the specialist scho?ol that you mentioned, how did the recently graduated students create games?

SUDA51: I didn’t come from the Human Creative School, but the incredible thing about it was that the students made games that were actually released. Some examples are Septentrion [English title: SOS], Dragon’s Earth, and The Firemen (All Super Nintendo games).

So, in that manner, the people who join us from the school had created a game as a team in their school days. It felt like they were already semi-professional when they joined Human, so they seemed less like students and more like cocky kids, thick with self-confidence. Like “Hey, we’ve already made a game, you know.�/p>

You had the old timers and the new grads, and there was a lot of conflict. I was just dropped in as a mid-career guy. Those days were pretty i??ncredible.

DFG: You called them old timers, but they were also in their twenti?es, right?

SUDA51: Yes, they were about the same age. The old timers were in their late twenties, while the new grads were in their early twenties. Even though they were all in their twenties, there was a clash of yo??uth.

As I was saying before, the new grads were at the level where they could quickly become leaders. Upon joining, they became the aces of the team. So new projects were quickly completed, one after another.? I think it’s quite difficult these days to create a team? of young staff, but at that time, it was common for teams of graduates to quickly come together.

The teams were formed, and games were made rapidly. A game that took one year to develop was on the long side, and we were often told to develop things within three months. Waku Waku Ski Wonder Spur [Super Nintendo] was developed in only three months, and was full of bugs (laughs). ?I felt bad for the staff in charge.

There was also a game called Yakyuu Ou [‘Baseball King� Planned for release on the Super Nintendo, but was cancelled]. It was a legendary game where the batter would run straight toward third base after hitting the ball (laughs). At the time, Human would hold stand-alone events, and they held one at Sunshine in Ikebukuro where they played Yakyuu Ou on a huge screen. When the pitcher threw the ball and the batter got a strike, the um?pire yelled, “Ball!�and there was a commotion in the crowd (laughs). They had made quite a misc?hievous game.

DFG: From your point of view, do you feel like those kinds of m?ischievous games aren’t around these days?

SUDA51: There certainly aren’t any like that.

DFG: What do you think the reason for that is?

SUDA51: These days, we don’t play the numbers game anymore, or rather we can’t. Up until the Super Nintendo era, it was a period where if you just released a game, it would sell. The sales staff wer??e very skilled, and it was as if, no matter the game, they would sell 200,000 copies to stores just to begin with. The sales staff would travel all over the country to entertain, and wine and dine with their clients. It was a rather vulgar time in those days, where regardless of a game’s quality, as long as you had something, it could be sold. I think that was a major part of things.

In regard to judging a game’s quality, there really wasn’t anything other than Famitsu’s cross review. However, it was a time where even if the? score was low, the game would sell anyway. So, as long as yo??u had enthusiasm, you could make anything and everything. In a way, I think it was a time where even if you made a dud, you still gathered experience. These days, your career could be finished after even just one failure.

Fire Pro Wrestling was also a proclamation of my creative ability

DFG: I believe that there was a period where you started to show yo??ur individuality as a director, was that intention??al?

SUDA51: Yes, it was intentional. I brought my individuality to the forefront with Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special.

I felt like with the game I made before that, Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Final Bout, I was trying to precisely follow in the steps of the previous game, Super Fire Pro Wrestling 2. It was around then that there was a major incident within Human, with the section manager at the time, Shuji Yoshida, quitting the company. I received strong backing with Yoshida-san’s parting words, “I’m quitting, but you’re free to make the next Fire Pro as you see fit, Suda-kun.�My mentor, Masuda, also said to me, “You can do it however you want to, Suda-kun.�/p>

I thought that if I could do whatever I liked, then I would throw in all the things I wanted to do. I think adding a kind of story mode to Fire Pro Special was the ??catalyst for me to start expressin??g my creativity. I think that was both a beginning, and in another way, a proclamation.

DFG: I see, s??o that’s where it began. ?By the way, how was it that you came to be a director?

SUDA51: To tell you the truth, I actually once failed the interview section of Human’s entrance test (laughs). However, by chance, that was right around the same time that Daisuke Asako, my predecessor in the Fire Pro team, handed in his letter of resignation. There weren’t any?? people left in the planning department who had deep knowledge of pro wrestling.

That’s when someone who remembered me called me in for another interview, and I was hired by the company. My predecessor, Asako-san, was only at the company for three more days, during which he handed things over to me before leaving the company. From that moment on, I was already a directo??r.

DFG: Wha�! You were a director as soon as you start??ed? What kind of experience did you have prior to that?

SUDA51: I had done a variety of different jobs. As for what got me involved in the game industry, it was during my time as a graphic designer when I made company brochures and advertisements for Sega as a contractor. Since I was to make advertisements for Virtua Racing??, Yu Suzuki invited me to the AM2 offices. That was my first time seeing a?? game development environment, and I was shocked.

Up until that moment, I had thoug?ht that games were made by professors. I always thought the games were made by compu?ter experts who wore white lab coats, but they were actually just ordinary young men and women. Not to mention, they had stacks of things like Nirvana CDs on their desks.

I thought, “Huh, they’re just normal people.�It gave me the naïve idea that even I could do it too (laughs). It was then that the game industry, which seemed so very far away, suddenly felt like it entered my field of view. Or maybe you could say it suddenly felt more realistic. I thought to myself, “Making games as a job. What could be better than that?�/p>

DFG: So, you had nev??er studied programming or anything like that before t??hen?

SUDA51: Not at all. I had no skills at all. If I had to pick out on?e thing as a skill, it would have been that my pro wrestling knowledge was without peer. That was what I really focused on.

DFG: Before that, was there anything that made you interested?? in games?

SUDA51: My interest?? in games comes from always hanging?? out at game centers when I was a kid.

DFG: So, since the arcade days?

SUDA51: It was the height of the arcade era. After the release of Space Invaders, game centers popped up all throughout the city. There was a place just beyond the highway where one play was 20 yen. I would hang around there during my days off when I was a? student.

DFG: You said that you worked as a graphic designer. Did y?ou always have the desire to do some kind of creative work?

SUDA51: Hmm, not a clear desire or anything like that. I worked every day in order to keep living in Tokyo, and I also got married quite early, so it felt like the next thing was to look? for a job with better pay. With that in mind, working in t?he game industry wasn’t among the types of jobs that I was looking at.

However, I received encouragement from my wife. After working as a graph??ic designer, I worked as a temporary employee at a funeral parlor. Und??ertakers make really good money. People my age were going independent and starting their own companies, and the managers would all drive to work in foreign cars. Being able to drive dream cars like a Renault 5 Turbo was pretty cool. I gradually rose in rank while I worked as an undertaker, and a number of companies even asked me if I would become a full-time employee.

I also thought that I could make a good living in the industry, so I accepted my fate and told my wife that I intended to become a full-time employee. My wife said to me, “Is this why you came to Tokyo? There’s something else that you want to do, isn’t there?�/p>

“Is there� I guess I want to work on games or something like that.�/p>

“Then you should go for it.�/p>

Then ?I just happened to see job advertisements for both Human and Atlus in a magazine that I? bought. Only those two companies were willing to accept applicants with no experience. I sent in my application, but I only managed to catch on with Human.

DFG: Why did you come to Tokyo?

SUDA51: I simply wanted to go to To?kyo and get away from the countryside. That was really the only reason.

DFG: Did you continue to play? games even whil??e you worked as a graphic designer and undertaker?

SUDA51: Yes, but games were really expensive in those days. One game would cost 7,000 to 8,000 yen. But once the price gradually dropped to around 3,000 yen, it became a choice to either buy a game or one CD. However, I would buy Weekly Famitsu almost every week.

DFG: Why was that?

SUDA51: Because I loved games, of course. If possible, I wanted to play some good games. I also used i??t to try to convi?nce my wife. I wanted to play the games that got a good score in the cross review (laughs).

By doing work that went beyond my own scope, I was accepted as director by the staff

DFG: When ?you interviewed at Human, you didn’t have anything specific in mind like director or graphic artist, right?

SUDA51: Yes, that’s right. If they hi?red me, I was prepared to do anyth??ing that they asked me to.

DFG: And then you were suddenly made director as soon as you joined the? company. Did it feel like fate??

SUDA51: It felt like a gift from the pro wrestli?ng gods. Things were handed over to me in on??ly three days. I also had one of the planning staff assigned to watch over me. In the beginning, it felt like he was the director by proxy, but midway through, everything was entrusted to me. It was like, “Suda-san, you can already do this on your own.�From that point on, I handled things by myself.

DFG: Looking back at it now, did you ever think “Why was I put in charge of all this?�/p>

SUDA51: Since I was put in charge, I was aware that I had to persevere and get through it. There were about twenty staff members in the planning department, but only around half of those worked on the actual development. The remaining half were like jobless wanderers, every day they would do things like wri?te proposals and sub??mit things to the section manager.

I wanted to protect my own position, or you could say that I wanted to survive in this industry. After a few days, ?I had a hunch that this was the right path for my life. I also thought that I would be able to utilise the know-how from the other work that I had done up until that point.

The manager handed me a cardboard box containing materials for the previous game, Super Fire Pro Wrestling 2, and said, “You have one week to look over these and put together a specification document.�I read through all the materials in one day, and I submitted the specification document in three days. At any rate, I completed the task faster than I was told to. I’m not the Red Comet [Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam], but I knew that I co??uld do the work three times faster than other people. I wanted to succeed and continue to survive within the planning department.

DFG: So, is the work of a director to look over those kinds of materials, and? then start by following the e??xample of others?

SUDA51: Yes, that’s right. However, I think that I was more skilled than the other staff at things like inputting data and designi??ng layouts. I also felt that I could compete well by using the difference in my past work experience. And then just speed, I guess. I thought that I would be in trouble unless I could thoroughly show that I ??was able to work faster and complete more work than others.

DFG: I believe that the role of a director is the kind of thing that can’t be taught, even if you try to teach it. Therefore, ??they’re incredibly valuable. When you look at those working as directors these days, many have been directors from the beginning, or some incident caused them to be thrust into the role, and upon which, they managed to succeed. In that sense, how do you think your sensibility as a director took root?

SUDA51: The fi??rst ??thing that I was conscious of, was just trying to survive at the company. Rather than the idea of “I want to be a director,�it was more “I want to make games at Human,�and “I want to become the best in the planning department.�It may have been that I had a clear sense of wanting to achieve the goals in front of me, one by one.

DFG: Were there any t??hings tha??t you did to differentiate yourself from other people?

SUDA51: Hmm, rather than doing anything special, I feel like it was just abou??t gaining recognition by completi??ng things step by step.

DFG: In your current position, I’m sure that there are times you assign others to the role of director. At suc?h a time, is there a certain something that a person has that prompts you to put them into that role? Or are there times where you think someone is lacking in some?thing and that they would struggle as a director? How do you feel regarding those aspects?

SUDA51: I think?? that those who go beyond the tasks that are assigned to them are suited to being directors. Like wanting to do more than you’ve been given, or getting more involved on your own,? and doing all the unreasonable things that are asked of you.

For example, I’ll do something like ask the staff who have never written a scenario before,?? to try writing one. Some of them will happily complete such a task, and those are the kinds of people that I think could be suited?? to directing. Also, take people who are skilled at drawing. There are those who will just draw things on their own when the designers aren’t making progress. I think they too are the kind of people suited to directing.

To put it another way, it’s the attitude of doing work for the sake of the project, even if it goes beyond the scope of your own abilities. It’s likely that the people around you will see that too. So, you could also say that you’re earning their recognition. I think it’s difficult to be accepted just by saying that you’re the director, but there’s merit to having the staff around you think, “If it’s for this person, I want to give it another go.�/p>

At first, there were a lot of programmers and such that wouldn’t speak with me at all. Which is exactly why I would stay with them as we worked through the night, and when they took a nap, I would go and buy McDonald’s for them in the morning. After ??they woke up, we would engage in small talk as we ate together. I feel like it was a build-up of things like that. Then they eventually acknowledged this strange guy who came out of nowhere as a director. That’s how, one by one, I got them to accept me. It was truly like a grassroots effort.

DFG: I see. So,?? in other words, you would do wha??tever it took to fulfill your role as director?

SUDA51: Yes, that’s right. Even handling chores and odd jobs wit??hout complaint.

Being able to work with Shinji Mikami on Killer7 became an asset to Grasshopper

DFG: In your own mind, when was it that you felt that your games began to receive a strong response? Looking from the outside, I feel like it was with Killer7 that you received worldwide recognition.

SUDA51: Killer7 was definitely the turning point. I think that being able to work with Capcom, and thoroughly create something with Shinji Mikami was a?? considerable asset to today’s Grasshopper. The reception from around the world was greater than what we were expecting, and when we completed it, there was a sense that we had made a game that no one had ever seen before. I thought that we had made a game that really fit the word ‘new� and that it was something t?hat would become synonymous with me.

The response was much greater than I expected. While traveling overseas for the promotion of No More Heroes, I heard the praise for Killer7 directly for the first time, and I was a little surprised by it. Also, it was from a different media outlet, but a certain editor-in-chief once said to me, “I was thinking of quitting and giving up on this industry, but when I came across Killer7, I thought that there ma?y still be a future for video games. I’ve decided to keep at it.�That person may have forgotten all about it (laughs), but I was elated to ??hear those words. I wondered if I had really made a game with such power.

DFG: I think that Killer7 was a completely different kind of game to what was popular at the time. Why was it that you wanted to make that kind of game? Did you try to go against ?the trends, or was it just something that happened naturally?

SUDA51: When thinking about Grasshopper Manufacture in the long term, I kind of had a vision of how I wanted to proceed. Since we didn’t have a large number of staff, I wanted to start with an adventure game,? then a 3D adventure game, then action-adventure�That was the progression that I was thinking about how to achieve.

Killer7 was right at the time when we wanted to do an action-adventure game. Since we were doing an action-adventure, and teaming up with Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil, I also felt like I had to invent something new. I decided on my own to carry the heavy burden of such a responsibility. So, with the mindset of wanting to newly conceive all aspects of the design, Kiiller7 was what I created.

So that’s why, from the story to the art to the controls, I wanted all of the design choices to be things that had never been seen before. I felt like I was building up the things that I invented, one by one. More so than aiming for a specific thing, I was conscious of Mikami-san while making the game. The whole time I thought to myself, “I absolutely have to make something that Mikami-san won’t be ashamed of.�/p>

DFG: What was it that led to you working with Mikami-san at that time???

SUDA51: He suddenly called me out of the blue. Kono-kun [Hifumi Kono, creator of Clock Tower, Neko-zamurai (PS1), Mikagura Shojo Tanteidan (PS1), and Steel Battalion], a co-worker from my Human days, had introduced me to Mikami-san. So, I went to see Mikami-san, and he said, “Suda-san, do you want to make a game together?�My reply was, “Yes, of course.�/p>

DFG: So, it was a request from Mikami-san?

SUDA51: Yes, that’s right. Mikami-san had a high opinion of Human itself. He said, “That company released some outrageous games, but I wonder what kind of people were in the planning department.�It seems that he had been paying attention to? us for a long time, and that was also part of th??e reason he called me.

DFG: Were there things ?that you? learned by working together with Mikami-san and Capcom?

SUDA51: Yes. For example, when we had completed the prototype version, I brought it over to Mikami-san so that he could play the first stage. I was startled when he said to me, “Suda-san, can you increase the speed of the running motion to three times this? Next time I want to see it at triple the speed.�The sensation that I got from playing was the feeling of an adventure game. By tripling the speed, the game becam??e incredibly fast, as you would expect. However, by making that change, suddenly it felt like the rhythm of an action game. “Oh, this is it!�I thought. The feeling or sense of speed was different when creating the game.

I think that Mikami-san’s skill is a result of possessing the ‘sense of action games�that he must have somehow inherited through his genes. Really detailed things such as the way the first step is taken after input, the feeling of speed while running, and noti??c?ing the one frame delay in the moment you aim. Maybe you could call it the play feel. He pays detailed attention to the subtleties of the reaction that occurs at the time of the button input. I truly learned a lot from that, and realised how different action games were.

DFG: So, it was more a??bout ?looking at those hands-on aspects in elaborate detail, rather than things like planning?

SUDA51: That’s right. I received a lot of advice.

I also had asked a number of people to help out with the writing, but I ??was found out by Mikami-san straight away (laughs). “This isn’t your writing is it, Suda-san? That’s no good. You have to write it all yourself.�Then I said, “But it’s fine if I don’t write this part, right?�to which his response was, “No. You have to write everything.�That’s how much faith Mik??ami-san had in my scenario writing ability. It was such high praise that I got a little carried away.

So, I thought to myself, “If the things I write have that kind of power, then it would be wrong of me to not pour all of my energy into my writing.�You could say that Mikami-san was truly able to get everything out of me. I thin??k that’s how much he wanted to draw out the full potential of Grasshoppe?r. In that sense, I think that he’s also an amazing producer.

DFG: The development period for Killer7 was quite lon?g, but would you say that you continued to rally together with Mikami-san?

SUDA51: That’s right. The development period was extended, sometimes little by little, and ??sometimes in a big chunk. Mikami-san was the one who should??ered all of that, too.

I personal??ly see Mikami-san as my second mentor, and I even received official approval. He once said, “I guess it’s okay if you’re my apprentice, Suda-san�(laughs).

The invigorating feeling of an action game is born from devotedly making adjustments over and over

DFG: You pr??eviously mentioned the long-term outlook of Grasshopper, but had you already decided in the beginning that you eventually wanted to be making action games?

SUDA51: Yes. I love action games, ?so it’s natural to want to make the kind of games I like, right? RPGs don’t really suit me.

DFG: It’s difficult to put the essence of action gam?es into words, but I think there’s a certain value ?in that. What are your thoughts about it?

SUDA51: The development of an action game has the feeling of making repeated adjustments as you search for the ?sweet spot.

In Mikami-san’s words, “In action games, there are moments when you are rewarded by the gaming gods.�In fact, I’ve also had a number of those moments??. There are times I’d be sitting at a programmer’s desk feeling something was strange as I played. We’d continue to tune it, until all of a sudden, everything just clicks in an instant. For example, just by increasing the hit stop by 10 frames, or expanding the hit detection range by up to 1.5 times and extending the effect, suddenly there’s just a moment of “That’s it!�It’s a feeling of building it up like that.

By adhering to, and repeating the process of adjustment and implementation, you gradually get closer to your mark. I think that’s ?where the invigorating feeling of action games is born. There’s no way that you could make anything interesting by only inserting things just as they are in the planning and specification documents. Things are pretty boring when you are at the stage where you have just put things together for the first time. I think that how much more interesting you can make it from there, is truly the result of steady tuning. So, you can’t really put it into words.

DFG: Did you also check all of those hands-on elements for your latest game, No More Heroes 3, yourself?

SUDA51: Yes, that’s correct. This time, I paid pa??rticular attention to the timing of moments of silence, and to how music plays in the moment you defeat an ene??my.

DFG: I think that the combat in No More Heroes 3 has improv?ed remarkably, and I wondered if that was influenced by your return?? to the forefront as director.

SUDA51: Yamazaki (Ren Yamazaki) and I were both directors, and there were parts that we developed as a pair. Programmer Hironaka (Tooru Hironaka) created the framework for the first boss fight. I think Hironaka is probably the best at making boss fights in the? industry, and it was our job to take what he had, and gradually tune i?t, making it feel even more enjoyable and interesting.

DFG: Did you work remotely, even up to the fin??al touches for this game?

SUDA51: Yes, we worked completely remotely.

DFG: I’ve heard from many different developers that remote working is fine when you are developing ??????????????????????????the core elements, but that it’s very difficult to apply the finishing touches remotely. What are your thoughts on that?

SUDA51: We tinkered with things remotely as much as we?? could, right up until the very end of the schedule. As you would expect, I wanted to adjust things ??as soon as I got my hands on them.

DFG: Did you attempt to recreate the feeling of sitting right beside a p??rogrammer by keeping connected via Zoom the whole time?

SUDA51: Yes, we did that, and also, I would give instructions in the middle of the night, which would be implemented during the day, and then I would check them again. It was like returning to the development style of ten years ago. In particular, things?? like motion and programming are things that really need to be done side by side, so that’s why it was important for the staff to stay connected via Zoom. We would have our screens up together so that we could work in sync.

DFG: Ho?w much of that kind of hands-on tuning do you do when the game is still in th?e prototype stage?

SUDA51: For No More Heroes 3, we did it surprisingly early. The fight with Henry was the first one we completed, and since that was essentially a fight between two human characters, we could use it as an extension of the previous No More Heroes games. With that, we had created one of the main loops of combat, ??and knew quite ear??ly on that we wanted to continue in that direction.

From there, we continued to develop the other boss fights, but as the fights were against aliens this time, each fight ended up being completely different. We had to adjust? each fight individually, and that took a lot of time. We barely finished prior to the game going gold.

DFG: So, the genera?l framework of the game was already completed in the prototype version?

SUDA51: This time, yes. For No More Heroes 3 it was on the relatively early side, but for other titles, there are times when the game structure is still unfini??shed in the pro??totype stage.

DFG: Was it due to things that you have cultivated throughout th??e series that you were able to complete the framework so quickly?

SUDA51: I think so. However, I had mostly forgotten No More Heroes 1 and 2 (laughs).  You start to forget after so much time has passed, so you need to play them again. With 3, there was a mindset within the team that we wouldn’t lose to 1 and 2.

This time around, the team was almost completely new. You could probably say that it was the team from Travis Strikes Again. However, there were a number of staff that had been involved with the series since 1.

DFG: How many people were in the team?

SUDA51: For Travis Strikes Again, we had less than ten people. There were external staff that also contributed, and we somehow managed to finish it. This time around, for 3?, we had 20 core members. Thanks to Bee Tribe also helping out with a large portion, we were able to finish the amount of content that was in the game.

Grasshopper-ism is the continual creation of original and inventive games

DFG: Does Grasshopper intend to continue f??ocusing all effort on developing one game at a time, rat?her than being spread across two or three projects?

SUDA51: ??Yes, that’s what we’ve done up until now, and I th?ink it’s also the basis for us moving forward.

In the past, there were periods where we were working on multiple projects, but at those times I thought that there weren’t enough directors, which is something you touched on before. Even if you establish multiple development lines, the responsibility falls on us as the developers. That kind of burden would loom large if we were unable to deliver in the?? end.

Based on the experiences from those times, and since I am the face of Grasshopper, I ?wanted to first focus on making my own games. Recently, even overseas, they have started calling them ‘Suda games� though I have mixed feelings on that (laughs). But I think it’s clear that the most important thing is to first strengthen the team that creates my own games. That then becomes?? a foundational pillar.

Of cou??rse, I would also like to make some indie games as a way to have the?? younger staff acquire more experience. I’d like to do both of those things together.

DFG: I?n that sense, do you see it as something diffe??rent to simply increasing the scale of development beyond what is necessary?

SUDA51: Yes, that’s right. Right now, we are looking to increase the size of the team to 30 people. Within the next three years, we will first increase to 50, and then carefully add more people up ?to a maximum of probably around 80. At that kind of pace, and considering the training of staff and new graduates, it would probably be a little difficult to have a core team of over 80 people. If you go beyond that, you start to lose the ability to function as a team.

DFG: When looking at people who create things, I think there are those that have their own evaluation standards and those that don’t. So, what are the evaluation standards that you have? What kind of decisions led to the creation of games like Killer7 and No More Heroes?

SUDA51: On a serious note, since long ago, I have thought about what the word ‘kaihatsu�[Japanese term for development] really means. I think that the ‘kai�in kaihatsu comes from the w??ord ‘kaitaku�[to pioneer; break new ground], and that the ‘hatsu�comes from the word ‘hatsumei�[invention]. Therefore, the work that we do is to pioneer and to invent. That idea lies at t?he foundation of my game creation.

So, it’s the same when I evaluate things. The idea of invention is very important. It isn’t very easy to do nowadays, but I want to invent or create one thing every day. It doesn’t matter if it’s only something small. For example, if I think up a button co?mbination that hasn’t been done in any other game, that’s one kind of invention. If I create a new image for a character, that’s one invention. I believe that if you do that every day, then it will lead to the completion of an overwhelmingly innovative game.

It’s good if that creativity can come from within yourself, but I als??o think that it doesn’t matter who it is that invents something new. No matte?r if it’s a veteran or someone new, if an idea is inventive and interesting, then we use it.

That’s very important to me. In particular, with ideas, people who are interesting have the best ones. So, it’s better to not worry about things like pride. If someone presents an idea, it doesn’t matter if they are from completely different departments like a programmer or a composer. If the idea is interesting, then you should use it. I suppose that would be my evaluation criteria. The fact that you are a veteran means that you should do away with useless crap like p??ride.

It is the job of a director to make the most of all of that, and put everything together. Direction is being able to catch the ball, no matter the kind of pitch. To be able to handle them all with ease, no matte??r what kind of monsters come your way. For example, even if you are working with someone outside of the games industry, you should properly work together with that person, and manage it appropriately. In the end it’s about the experience of somehow bringing it all together with your own power.

That’s why I want everyone to pitch their balls freely. I choose the best pitc?hes among those, and eventually, I complete one game. I feel like I have always continued to repeat that process.

DFG: How do you judge whether those idea??s are good or bad?

SUDA51: It’s whether I find them interesting or not.

There are staff within Grasshopper that have had long careers, including my co-director Yamazaki??. So, opinions like “Let’s do this�?? and “I think that’s good� tend to fit together nicely. You could say that makes things easier.

Thanks to the studio having been around for so long and having so many veterans together, I think that everyon?e has a certain ‘Grasshopper-ism�within them, which can’t be put into words.

DFG: How? would you define ‘Grasshopper-ism�or th?e Grasshopper style that you just mentioned?

SUDA51: I have no idea (laughs). What I kind of thought by listening to what the staff has said durin??g other interviews, is that Grasshopper specializes in developing original games. It’s a company where it’s normal to create unique games. Looking at it the oth??er way, I guess that means we’re not very good at creating licensed games or working on existing IP.

So, Grasshopper-ism is the continual creation of original games. I thin??k Grasshopper is a group whose specialty is being able to constantly create unique things. That’s a little vague, ?but I think that’s who we are.

Also, we can relate through things like B movies or cult films, as those are my interests. That’s where Gundam comes into things. For example, if I make a reference to Gundam, but we have younger staff who haven’t seen it, then we watch it together. That’s the kind of culture we have. As another example, I love John Carpenter’s film They Live. So, if I make a reference to They Live, then we all watch the film together. That’s the kind of company we are (laug??hs).

So, I think that ??everybody gets to enjoy some of my interests, or at least they’re a group that doesn’t find doing that too pa??inful.

DFG: In Japan, there are many game companies that do subcontracted work. They all say that they would like to create original games, but I think it’s become a situation where not many?? actually have that ability. To put it another way, are there not companies who, like Grasshopper, have the resolve needed to create something original? I think that more so than a technological issue, it has more to do with the mindset.

SUDA51: Rather ??than simply having resolve, I believe that it is impossible to create original games unless you change your routine. At Grasshopper, making original games has already?? become our routine.

DFG: Wh?at do you mean by ‘originals have become your routineâ€?

SUDA51: I guess it’s an atmosphere where you’re not afraid of what kind of pitch may be thrown your way. You wait, ready to catch it no ?matter what. ??The thought, “We’re making another strange game, huh?�becomes an everyday thing, and as those days are prolonged, I think that is where you get that feeling of original games.

I often hear that if you continue only creating licensed games and working on existing IPs, then you l??ose the ability to create original games. If in the moment that you suddenly have some freedom, you think, “No, we can’t do this unless they tell us to,�then that has already become routine. On the other hand, when people who normally work on original games are involved in a licensed game, th??ey often think, “Why can’t I make it how I want to.�It almost feels as though that’s something that gets decided in the early stages of your career.

“From now on, we’re going to take a full swing at each and every ball, and aim for a home run.�/h2>

DFG: What do you think are the specific benefits that you gain ?by becoming a part of NetEase?

SUDA51: When you are running an independent studio, you can’t help but consider a title to be a single point. The publisher and fanbase differs for each individual game. Since you are creating things as a studio, you have the desire to connect these points into a line. From a long time? ago, I’ve been told by various people that since we are a studio known by our name, Grasshopper Manufacture, it’s a waste to not connect that with the fanbase. However, that’s something that isn’t so easy to achieve.

When we were in discussions with NetEase, we were told, “We don’t want to talk about one or two ??games. To begin with, let’s look at around three titles in ten years. If p??ossible, we would like to continue working together long after that.�I felt that they truly wanted us.

As I said before, I ??want to create a line with our works, so it was important that this relationship lasted a long time. We will create our own new IPs, develop our fanbase, and continue to expand. One of our goals is to eventually have the capability to create AAA titles.

As we aim ??for our ideal image of creating AAA titles with a core team of 80 people, NetEase is greatly supporting Grasshopper in our effor?ts to strengthen the studio.

DFG: I think that when you join a large company such as NetEase, there are often misconceptions like, “They got purchased,�or “They’ll get pr?essured from above,�but it’s actually a little different, isn’t it?

SUDA51: Yes, it’s different.

DFG: The relationship between developers and publishers is fundamental??ly one of order and supply, but in contrast, the relationship between Grassh??opper and NetEase is actually closer to that of a venture company and an incubator, right?

SUDA51: Yes, it’s close to that.

DFG: I don’t think that this relationship was p?roperly conveyed to the world. It would probably be better to more clearly explain how it is because of this relationship, that you can continue for the next ten years.

SUDA51: I agree. That’s ??an aspect that I want to carefully com?municate.

The desire from NetEase was, “We are not investing in you just so you make games t?hat will sell. We want you to be a fascinating studio, and we want you to create engrossing games.�As a creator, it makes you happy to hear that kind of thing.

They even said that they had no problem even if we strike out each time at bat. Tha??t means that I can swing as hard as I want (laughs). So, I int??end to take a full swing. That’s a blessing for a creator.

I think that I will be able to create about ten more games before I die. So, for each of those ten at bats??, I’m going to take full swings and aim for home runs. I don’t quite know what the definition of a home run would be in th??is instance, but that’s what NetEase is expecting of us.

DFG: Grasshopper has collaborated with a variety of different creators in the past. Do you think there will be any change now that you have j??oined NetE??ase?

SUDA51: Even for No More Heroes 3, we collaborated with people outside of the games industry. Nobuaki Kaneko participated with the music, and illustrator Masanori Ushiki created some incredible artwo??rk for us. In the future, we intend to be even more active in pursuing collaborations with such artists. They will provide creative energy from a completely different place to that of our?? games, and give birth to something new. I’d like to keep these waves rolling.

DFG: I get the impressio?n that you are always finding interesting things outside of games and then skillfully incorporating them. I think that it must be quite hard to blend such elements?? into games.

SUDA51: I actually find that a rather fun thing to do. If we ??only do things on our own, it starts to become familiar practice or a habit, right? However, if you work together with new people, you break from those habits and must once again take things on with a more serious attitude. In that way, I think it has the beneficial effect of creating a sense of tension.

Also, it’s incredibly fun to work with some of those fiendish people in other industries. There’s e??njoyment in being able to handle them, and I hav?e a sort of confidence which never wavers.

For me personally, The Silver Case was a game where I attempted dealing with that. I incorporated a variety of film techniques into a single game. Though, I guess you could say that work is much easier now when compared to those days, as filmmakers would?? flatly refuse requests related to video games. There were times when I couldn’t convince them to film anything.

Th?ankfully, these days they often already know me, so it’s become easier to work without even having to introduce myself. In other words, it?? would be a waste to not do more. There are many interesting people throughout the world, so I think that it would be a shame to not come together with these people as a family and create things.

DFG: You spoke about the confidence that you possess, but what is the reason for that confidence? When people are young, they have a kind of baseless confidence. However, as they age, that kind of confidence fades and is replaced by a confidence with a solid foundation. I don’t think that in itself is nece?ssarily a good thing, but what do you think is a good balance between those two different forms of confidence?

SUDA51: I think confidence that has a basis is born from exp?erience. It’s a result of all of the different things you go through, including development or management experience.

The baseless part of confidence is kind of like you can no longer throw a 160km/h fastball, but you can still throw a sinker, and you’re more deceptive (laughs). I can’t really handle the large amount of work anymore. I have less time to write scenarios. Even with No More Heroes 3,?? I was able to write it because I knew I had to do it in a short time. In the old days, there were times when I wouldn’t be able to write anything, even if I worked through the night. However, with my current lifestyle, I have to write within the limited time that I hav?e. I suppose that I’m adapting to it, or maybe my abilities are becoming more specialized.

DFG: What kind of th?ings do you ??take in and learn these days?

SUDA51: I don’t think that I really take much in. It’s been a long time since I’ve really dug deep and explored for the ?sake of making something. If I decide to tackle certain genres in the future, then I think I’d have to delve in and do some r?esearch.

These days?? I don’t think that I really have to push myself too hard. Right now, I think it’s time to take all the things I absorbed while pushing myself in my youth, and think about how I can thoroughly put it all on disp??lay. Also, I think it’s natural for me to observe and discover things that I see or feel during everyday life, like the scenery or atmosphere of the era.

DFG: When creating something, I think that there are around 100 decisions that need to be made, and that it’s the director who makes tho??se decisions. If around 90 of those 100 decisions are correct, the result is an amazing game. However, there’s a very low probability that you would make all of those choices correctly, so it’s important to have evaluation standards that are very precise. That’s why directors are so vital.

SUDA51: Yes, it’s about judgement. It’s h??o??w you decide if something is the correct choice.

DFG: So, by making judgements based on your own standards, games like No More Heroes 3 are born. Today, I’v?e once again rea?lized that your games owe everything to the fact that you are the one making them. I’m greatly looking forward to the next game that you create.

SUDA51: Thank you. For that purpose, we are actively recruit??ing, though it’s nothing large scale. I think there are a lot of people in the industry burning with the desire to create new games. Though, there are probably many people who might think Grasshopper seems a little scary (laughs).

We’re opening an incredibly cool office in March 2022, and I think there will be a surge of applicants once they see it. So, I think you have a better cha??nce of being hired if you apply now (laughs).

DFG: No More Heroes 3 was the first ti??me in a while that you worked at the forefront in the role of director. What do you intend to do in the future?

SUDA51: I’d like to continue on our current course. I don’t think I need to act in an exe??cutive role anymore. Of course, if our younger staff were to create indie titles, then I would serve as producer.

From now on, I’d like to carefully create games?, one at a time, so I’d like to encourage like minded people to apply. Now is truly the time.

The post Kill the past, present and future with Suda51 appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/kill-the-past-present-and-future-with-suda51-translated-interview/feed/ 0 319645 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-switch-exclusive-forever-pc-ps4-ps5-xbox-series-x-physical-version-xseed/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-switch-exclusive-forever-pc-ps4-ps5-xbox-series-x-physical-version-xseed //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-switch-exclusive-forever-pc-ps4-ps5-xbox-series-x-physical-version-xseed/#respond Fri, 15 Apr 2022 17:53:08 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=317081

PC, PlayStation, and Xbox versions are due this fall

Whether you intentionally held off getting the one and only Nintendo Switch version of No More Heroes 3, or you kinda just let ?it slip, some great news: it's also coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in f??all 2022, including a physical release from XSEED.

There's a lot to praise in No More Heroes III �it's a blast to see Su?da51 unleashed like this �but graphics and performance aren't a part of that lovefest. Players just had to tolerate them. The upcoming ports should be a step up, but whether the game runs "ideally" on these platforms or simply "better than it did on Switch" remains to be seen.

In today's announcement from XSEED Games, the publisher cited "improved HD visuals, framerates, and faster loading times." You hear that, Gold Joe? Time's up.

[caption id="attachment_317104" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{What's inside the No More Heroes 3 Day 1 Edition.}[/caption]

Apart from a digital release on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms, XSEED will be bringing out a physical No More Heroes 3 Day 1 Edition this fall. The boxed edition will cost $60 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S with a copy of the game (it?'s weird to have to mention this nowadays!), a 70-page softcover art book??, a CD with "select songs," and a 7"x4" Santa Destroy license plate. The cover art is illustrated by artist Yusuke Kozaki.

When it comes to timed Nintendo Switch exclusives like this, it's almost always a gamble on where they'll end up when the dust fully settles. I wouldn't have predicted an Xbox release for No More Heroes 3, but PS4 and/or PC? Sure. Now are you in, or are you in?

Travis loves to hate FU, and so will you.

The post No More Heroes 3 won’t be a Switch exclusive much longer appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-switch-exclusive-forever-pc-ps4-ps5-xbox-series-x-physical-version-xseed/feed/ 0 317081 //jbsgame.com/killer-badminton-your-new-no-more-heroes-shadows-of-the-damned-crossover/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=killer-badminton-your-new-no-more-heroes-shadows-of-the-damned-crossover //jbsgame.com/killer-badminton-your-new-no-more-heroes-shadows-of-the-damned-crossover/#respond Fri, 01 Apr 2022 15:00:02 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=314131

The Wide Wide World of Suda-Sports

Is this another April Fools' joke, or did that crazy sonofabitch ac??tually go and do it?

Last time we interviewed Suda51,?? CEO of Grasshopper Manufact??ure, I asked him if he'd ever make a badminton game. Suda was a budding star in the sport back in his early years at school, and those days still mean a lot to him. He told us that if he were ever to do something with badminton, he'd want it to be a massive crossover between all his franchises, including No More Heroes (which his company partially owns) and Shadows of the Damned (which they fully own). Then we l??aughed, because what are the chances of anything like that ever actually happeni?ng?

Well it looks like the chances were pretty good!

[embed]/??/w??ww.youtube.com/watch?v=_nTOThc0SLc[/embed]

Grasshopper Manufacture All-Stars: Killer Badminton is the debut title from Little Grasshopper, the new "all-ages" division of Grasshopper Manufacture. Like Multiversus, WB's upcoming crossover fighter, it looks like Killer Badminton will be free-to-play, but with an initially limited roster of char??acters.

It's just Travis and Garcia to start, which is a little disappointing, but it's nice to see the two finally take a few swings at each other, especially after their proposed franchise-meld in No More Heroes 3 was cut. Shoko from Liberation Maiden, Toriko from Flower, Sun and Rain, and Notorious from Fire Pro Wrestling World: The Vanishing also make ??cameos at the end of the trailer. They may be in the game too, but so far I haven't seen them.

But is it all a big joke? I don't think so, and not to toot my own horn, but my track record on these kinds of things is pretty spotless. To further add to the game's legitimacy, it looks like Tony Astro, composer of Gold Joe's theme from No More Heroes 3, did the soundtrack for Killer Badminton as well. You can get the full album on Youtube, SoundCloud and Bandcamp.

The post Killer Badminton is your new No More Heroes Shadows of the Damn??ed crossover appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/killer-badminton-your-new-no-more-heroes-shadows-of-the-damned-crossover/feed/ 0 314131 //jbsgame.com/jonathan-holmes-favorite-video-games-of-2021/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jonathan-holmes-favorite-video-games-of-2021 //jbsgame.com/jonathan-holmes-favorite-video-games-of-2021/#respond Wed, 05 Jan 2022 20:00:54 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=301777

Bad year, great games

Hey kids! I hope you had a fun and frisky 2021. I guess it's possible that you did, but for most of us, it was pretty torturous. I know I shouldn't complain. No one close to me got super sick, I kept my job, and despite the constant stress and drain that came from maintaining in the midst of year two of a global pandemic, I still managed to get a bunch of cool projects done. I even have a sheep named after me in The Good Life.

But I also shouldn't pretend to be happy with 2021 when I'm not. This year was disillusioning, both in and out of the games industry. Many great titles were relatively ignored while mostly-worthless trends like NFTs seemed to be everywhere. Tons of people in power throughout the industry were revealed to have done terrible things. And to cap it all off, the CEO of Square Enix capped off the year ?by saying that he wants to move in a "games are n??ot for fun" direction. The cream was sinking to the bottom while the turds rose to the top. It's enough to make you want to throw in the blood-soaked, stinking towel.

But there were many, many games that kept that towel soft and warm. Just playing games, as opposed to writing about them, talking about them, or thinking about them, did more to keep me going in 2021 than any other in my adult life. My total playtime with games was five times longer in 2021 than it was in 2020. Some of that was coping. Some of it was also keeping my kid engaged when he couldn't play with his friends. But most of all, it was a way to make a deep connection with the people who made the games through ??their work, in a year when connection was in short supply.

Here are some of the games of 2021 th?at? did the best job of that.

My favorite surprise of 2021: Astalon: Tears of Earth

I'm a sucker for games that are made by small teams, and they don't get much smaller than LABS Works. Matt Kap, artist on Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Castle in the Darkness, founded the studio in 2018, and their debut game is a stunner. In a world packed to the gills with indie games of all shapes and sizes, all vying for your attention, Astalon: Tears of Earth humbly plops itself on your lap and says "Hey, remember Xanadu, the Japan-only PC prequel to Faxanadu, which is a weird NES game that you probably don't remember?" Sadly, m??ost people seem to have answered "No."

And they're missing out! But how can I explain that to you with just words? Well, if that Faxanadu reference was lost on you, then maybe you've heard of La-Mulana, the notoriously mean Metroidvania series? Astalon is like La-Mulana but fair, and with five distinctly different playable characters that have really fun powers. And it's got key art by the creator of the 90's anime series Dragon Half! It's great stuff! But sadly, it just didn't stand out for a lot of folks amid waves hands around furiously all of this 2021 shit.

I have been following Matt Kap for years, but I may not have known about Astalon if he didn't cold email me and ask me to play it. As I did, I felt like I was sitting over Matt's shoulder as he struggled through making the game, grinning big when a particular puzzle really came together and sighing just as big when he hit a major setback on his way to the finish line. For people who love the 8-bit era of sword and sorcery adventure games, Astalon is as authentic a? love lette??r as they come. Anyone who loves the genre is sure to feel just as loved.

My favorite guilt-free game to play with my kid: S.U.M.

2021 was the first year that I ever had to teach a child (my son) how to do math. It's harder than you might think. In a year that was already filled with mas??sive problems to solve, there weren't many days when, come 7 p.m., my brain was energized with great ideas on how to explain why a "10" is actually "ten ones" and not "a one next to a zero".  The hardest, and also most interesting, thing about trying to teach a kid something new is you can only rely on the knowledge they already have for context.

You're also restricted by their limited list of motivations. You can't squeeze blood from a stone, and you can't get a person whose brain naturally wanders towards blowing up monsters in Dusk (the boomer shooter) instead of tips and tricks on how to add up to solutions higher than 20. One night he announce???d "I want a game with monsters, where you don't see the character you play, and you kill the monsters. That's all I'm going to do." He was putting me to task.

After searching the Switch eShop store for a few minutes, I found a game that met his criteria. S.U.M. Slay Uncool Monsters met all his criteria, and it also taught the boy basic addition and subtraction (it also has the option to do multiplication and division, but we're not there yet). There were many times I wondered if I was making the right choices in 2021. Should I have let him even play a bit of Dusk, No More Heroes 3 (with the swears turned off), Axiom Verge 2, and Metroid Dread, or would they? give him nightmares for life? Should I have instead been engaging in non-nightmarish, fatherly fun like tossing around the football and telling him about how good vegetables are? for his skin? Or is that its own kind of nightmare?

I'll never know for sure, but I have no doubt that we share?d some virtual adventures that we'll never forget, and that at least one of them made him way better than his friends at bas?ic addition and subtraction.

My favorite "It's great but I wish it was even better" game of 2021: Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread is the franchise's Force Awakens. It sticks to the formula to a fault, calling back to all the surface-level things that fans praise in the series while shaving off all the rough edges that may not appeal to modern audiences. The problem for me is, those rough edges are exactly why the series has stuck with me all those years. My ideal Metroid moment-to-moment s?teps are: 1) Be thrust into an illogical, alien ?world 2) Get stuck 3) Experiment with new things (tools, techniques, and or strategies) 4) Discover what works 5) Master what you've discovered 6) Repeat.

There was definitely some of that in Metroid Dread, but the developers' urge to turn Samus into "The Badass Action Hero that you know from the Smash Bros. series"  instead of a "plodding, slow jumping astronaut with little mainstream appeal" led Dread to feel more like a 2D Bayonetta title than anything else. And that's not a bad thing! I really had fun with Dread. It just wasn't a full return to the things about the series I really love. I di??dn't get lost once! Everything was so clearly signposted. I also rarely felt afraid or intimidated. After getting killed by a boss or an E.M.M.I. a few times, their tells and patterns became clear, and they all became pretty easy to beat. And that's cool! It's nice to see Samus be fully empowered early on for a change.

It's also a relief to see her finally win her psychological battles. More so than any other game in the series, Dread shows Samus come to terms with her trauma. In the end, (Spoilers) she fully embraces the ways others have altered her, and the rage she feels about it, and masters it all. Self-acceptance is a beautiful thing, and it was very loving of Nintendo and Mercury Steam to want to give that gift, and many others, to their #1 Sci-Fi Action star. It's just that in order to also make the game a crowd-pleaser, they made Dread a sweet, super-powered breeze instead of the confounding?? s?torm of escape rooms that I grew up with.

My "I heard it wasn't great but it's actually amazing" game of 2021: SkateBIRD

When you love someone, their imperfections look beautiful. You can see why other people may not feel the same way about them, but you wouldn't change them for the world. That's how I feel about SkateBIRD. I ge??t that, especially pre-patch, the game felt chunky and tough to grasp. But that's exactly how real skateboarding feels for me, a 45-year old man?? who has definitely ollied once, but it was a long time ago. Even then, it really may have been more of a half-olly that mostly failed. At this point, who's to say?

SkateBIRD embraces that kind of subjectivity. Come to think of it, there are a few ways that it feels more like classic Metroid than even Dread does. Instead of being a human with bird alien DNA trying to navigate through a bird alien hideout, you're a bird wearing people clothes trying to do people things. The world of humans is not built for you, but with the right mix of tenacity and curiosity, you can go places you never thought possible, pulling off moves once thought unthinkabl??e.

And that soundtrack! Imagine the music from Jet Set Radio, but with samples of bird-obsessed scientists awing at a majestic Heron Gull one minute, and a confident young lad declaring that the president is a racist transphobe the next. It's truly an album for the ages.

My favorite "I heard it was bad but I wish it was even worse" game of 2021: GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition

I cannot legitimately enjoy the GTA series. I have tried and tried, but on the whole, they just feel bad. I don't think I would like the people that came up with them. It feels like they don't even like video games that much. Sure, they like what games can do, but instead of embracing the surreality, the creativity, and the heart of the medium, they just want to recreate Quentin Tarantino's '90s movies. They want to let you be a sociopath who... loves to explore? I don't get it. Playing 3D GTA games feels like working a boring-but-demanding job for asshole bosses, all at the cost of doing anything worthwhile with your time (and from some accounts, making them feel that way too.)

Of course, I've felt pretty alone with that opinion for the past 20 years or so. For a long time, it felt like there were two kinds of people in this world; the ones who steer clear of "Grand Theft Auto" because it sounds like a deep?? dive into the dank dumpster of our collective cultural consciousness, and the ones who can't wait to take that dip. The folks in the first group usua??lly think all video games are trash. That's definitely not me. The folks in the second group usually have an attraction to being the "bad guy" in games. That's not me either! So that's been my pickle for the past two decades.

For the record, I also like the Star Wars prequels, hate Space Jam, and think that the N64 is Nintendo's worst console by a country mile. For a long time, people thought I was a dunce for these opinions as well, but for whatever reason, time seems to have brought many over to my way of thinking. Apparently, the prequels are cool again, Space Jam is largely recognized to be an overwrought McDonald's commercial, and people think N64 games look te?rrible! Welcome to my brain, everyone!

And that's exactly how I felt when I saw how much people hated the recently released GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. "Hey, this game looks like crap..." Yeah, they always have! "These missions are repetitive ??and dull..." Yes! Always has been again! "The rain in this game looks like ??bukkake..."

Well, ??that one's new, bu??t it's definitely still on-brand.

These three remastered GTA games looked like cheap cash grabs, unloved and uncared about. That felt honest to me. A series about stealing stuff for easy money was trying to get away with a criminally shitty "definitive" version of their "classic titles". Even better, they were so broken that they finally felt like video games again. Human faces suddenly appear in walls, cars grow to massive sizes for no reason, and people trash-talk before blasting off into space. Purely by accident, GTA had finally gotten weird and silly, and had become a worthwhile self-parody in the process. I was ready to buy the physical Switch port (the most broken version) on day one, just for laughs.

Then it was delayed indefinitely, as the publisher was surely aghast at these games finally getting the low review scores they always deserved. It's a bummer that, after GTA finally went to being "so bad it's good" from "so bad it's boring" that Rockstar is undoubtedly trying to make them blander again. But who knows, m??aybe they will go full Cruelty Squad with the Switch port when it's finally sold on the cartridge. One can hope.

My favorite small game of the year: Mon Amour

At the same time, I was feeling alone with my dislike of the GTA games on the PS2, I was falling in love with another open-world game on the console: Chulip, the exploration and kissing game. It was everything that GTA wasn't: cute, funny, kind, and quick to punish you for st??eppin??g out of line. And in this game, you're in line for a smooch!

Once again, history has proven my weird taste in games to be the correct one. Chulip is now worth a bunch of money on the resale market, and people much smarter and more interesting than I talk about how great it is all the time. The creator of the game has taken notice as well. His latest game, Mon Amour, returns to Chulip's smooching concept but makes it a simple Flappy Bird-esque arcade game. That doesn't sound that great, does it? But it is! The music, the graphics, the comedy, all top-notch, but my favorite thing about the game is the way if feels. In real life, it's hard to know if you're doing things right, and that goes double for moving in for your first kiss. Mon Amour?? replicates that feeling of "moving forward cautiously, following your instincts, but ready to fail at any moment" perfe??ctly. Subjectively, it's perfect.

My favorite medium-sized game of 2021: Axiom Verge 2

Axiom Verge 2 is also about boldly moving into the unknown. At the start, it's not a lot like the first game, eschewing old-school Metroid aesthetics for a more athletic, organic exercise. It's about a new lead character doing new things in a new place, and while lore-hounds for the first game will find plenty of allusions to the original, this game definitely didn't need to be called Axiom Verge 2. In fact, calling it that was a pretty big risk, at least from a marketing perspective. But the risk? paid off, and in the end, it makes sense.

Just as the original Axiom Verge was, intentionally or not, an accurate reflection of the one-person development team's psyche, the sequel catches us up with where Tom Happ, the creator of the franchise, is in his life today. He's a dad now, working to create both a good life for his kid with one hand and to make even better games than he has before with ?the other. The path to meet both goals is indelibly intertwined. He can't make money for his family if he doesn't make good games, and he can't make good games unless he creates honest work that could only come from him.

I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entirety of my playtime with Axiom Verge 2, waiting to see exactly if, and how, Tom would pull off this dual aim. In the end, he nailed it. My only complaint about the game is there isn't more of it. When the credits finally rolled, I was not ready to quit. Then again, that's true of just about every one of the games on this list. Thankfully, most of them are sure to get some sort of sequel and/or DLC expansion at some point. They all did pretty w??ell, so we probably won't have to say goodbye to them anytime soon.

My favorite big game of 2021: No More Heroes 3

I can't believe this is goodbye! No More Heroes 3 has so many hints of where the series could go from here, from movie adaptations by Takashi Miike to Back to the Future-style forays into the far-flung foibles of Travis's offspring. (SPOILERS) I mean, he cuts his brother in half, and like five minut?es later, is decapitated by him! And we still don't?? know exactly how why! This can't be the end, can it?

It is.

In retrospect, you can tell Suda51 was planning to make this the last game in the series. Last episodes of TV shows often swing for the fences in the same way. For a series, all the episodes before the final one have a specific job to do; t??o get you to want to watch the next one. The last episode doesn't have to pursue the audience in the same way. It exists in a time where there's no tomorrow.

[embed]//www??.youtube.com/watch?v=8wVs3N??DHRAs[/embed]

For Quantum Leap, that meant capping things off with a bunch of small talk among characters you'd never seen before. For Jim Henson's Dinosaurs, it meant bringing a heavenly Apocolypse down to Earth. For No More Heroes 3, it meant all that and more. We've heard that even more magic was planned for the game, and fans will always wonder what could have been, but there is no doubting that this is the fullest, most fun entry in the series. Just as our old pal Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil. He put hundreds of hours into the game a??nd is one of the few people in the world to truly see it all.

Someday, I might see it all too. No More Heroes 3 is a game I plan to play for the rest of my days. It's broken in all the right ways while fixing all of the things that were less than perfect about its predecessors. More importantly, it loves No More Heroes, and its fans, with all its heart. In a year where it was easy to lose sight of what was good, games like this reminded me why I love the medium?, and I'm grateful for it.

The post Jonathan Holmes’ favorite games of 2021 appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/jonathan-holmes-favorite-video-games-of-2021/feed/ 0 301777 //jbsgame.com/swery-funny-no-more-heroes-not-my-game-autograph/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=swery-funny-no-more-heroes-not-my-game-autograph //jbsgame.com/swery-funny-no-more-heroes-not-my-game-autograph/#respond Mon, 30 Aug 2021 19:30:47 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=281914

'This is not my game'

We love Swery65 and Suda51, two entirely different people out there making th??eir own unique brand of video games that are fueled by their individual p?ersonalities and passions.

All the same, these two noteworthy Japanese game creators with numbers in their names are often lumped together by fans �sort of like a "peanut butter and chocolate" situation. They both make "weird games" for weirdos like us to enjoy, and I can easily see how someone might mistak??enly type out t??he wrong name in an online conversation.

On that longwinded note, while we continue to wait for the ultimate Swery x Suda team-up, here's a funny moment that went down at a signing in Moscow.

Swery was in town for an award at the Russian International Horror Film Festival, and during an autograph event, someone handed him a fresh copy of the just-released No More Heroes 3. He responded in th?e best �and most endearing �way possible: by placing his signature underneath a permanent note that "This is not my game."

//twitter.com/Swery65/status/1432387984075067398

The Darick R?obe??rtson cover art illustration with FU's rage face only makes this funnier.

Without knowing the full context of the Moscow signing, I'm hopeful the fan meant well, and was fully aware of the (potentially low-key disrespectful) autograph request they were making. If so, and the exchange was all in good fun, the race is on to seek out Suda and convince him to sign a copy of Deadly Premonition to complete this cursed set.

As folks pointed out in the aftermath of the tweet, this same sort of "wrong game" autograph scenario has happened before with John Romero and Doom 3.

[Update: The owner of the hilariously autographed No More Heroes 3 (and also the person with No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise) both know what's up. Thanks, @TheDulberth.]

The post Swery signed someone’s copy of No More Heroes 3 the best way possible appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/swery-funny-no-more-heroes-not-my-game-autograph/feed/ 0 281914 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-suda-farewell-news/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-suda-farewell-news //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-suda-farewell-news/#respond Fri, 27 Aug 2021 18:00:11 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=281648

"Farewell, to all Travis Touchdowns everywhere!"

The third No More Heroes went live today for the Nintendo Switch, adding on to the legacy of Travis Touchdown. But a message coinciding with today's release of No More Heroes 3 indicates tha?t it might be a farewell for the hero.

No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda, also known as "Suda51," released a short message today for fans. In it, he mentions an alternative title for the game, "No More Heroes 3 FINAL BOUT �All-Out Galactic War!" It was a bit too long, though. But?? as hinted by the "final" part of?? that title, Suda says Travis Touchdown will be "coming to the end of his final battle, and will be embarking on a much-deserved, long journey."

He closes the message out by saying goodbye to Travis, No More Heroes, the fleeting moments and days, and bidding farewell?? to all Travis Touchdowns everywhere.

//twitter.com/nmh3_ghm/status/1431216210381705216

Does this mean an actual end to the series? I consulted with Chris, who reviewed No More Heroes 3 for us, and he be??lieves there's still some wiggle room for the future, but it also could be an end, for now at least. "We might find out in 10 years or so," he said.

Considering the future of the No More Heroes series has been up in the air before now, I'm hesitant to rule anything out. But does Travis deserve a break? After three No More Heroes games and the side venture of Travis Strikes Again, maybe that's the case.

Either way, it sounds like Travis got a decent send-off. If you're picking up the new No More Heroes this weekend and need a quick refresher on the decade-plus legacy of Travis Touchdown, be sure to take a look at our extensive recap of No More Heroes' story so far, leading up to No More Heroes 3.

No More Heroes 3 is out right now on the Nintendo Switch.

The post No More Heroes creator bids farewell to series w??ith launch of No More Heroes 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-suda-farewell-news/feed/ 0 281648 //jbsgame.com/dont-forget-to-visit-the-no-more-heroes-3-upgrade-station/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dont-forget-to-visit-the-no-more-heroes-3-upgrade-station //jbsgame.com/dont-forget-to-visit-the-no-more-heroes-3-upgrade-station/#respond Fri, 27 Aug 2021 14:00:28 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=280028

It's in the basement and I bet some of you would never see it

As I was talking about my No More Heroes 3 experience with our own Jonathan Holmes, we reminisced about a few mechanics we totally missed early on. For me it was upgrading. Like...the entire leveling up and upgrade process. For him, it was using items in battle. Oops! We made it through roughly 1/3 of the entire campaign separately missing these core mechanics. Here's where to find the No More Heroes 3 power up machine u??pgrade station so you don't suffer the same fate.

Following the intro you'll gain control of Travis in the open world, with the No More Heroes motel serving as your base of operations. There's several entrances here to note. You can access the main floor right in front of the hotel, and Bad Girl's room to the side on the second floor. Or, you can hop down to the basement from a streetside entrance. Or! You can just go into the motel and use ??a firepole to slide up and down into all three floors of the hub/base of operations.

Either take the aforementioned street entrance or slide all the way down the pole to access the lab. Here is where you'll find an arcade machine device, where you'll get your No More Heroes 3 upgrade on.

This is what it looks like when you walk up to the fresh machine. It's literally how you level-up in No More Heroes 3, as you can increase your heal??th, attack, power (battery), and death ski??ll (cooldowns for abilities) ratings.

These function just like experience points in RPGs, using WESN (World's End Super Nova, aka experience) to bump up those values. You can also unlock special moves, akin to the Devil May Cry series, through spending WESN.

If you look above, we've leveled up health and attack power a few times, and the death skill coo??ldown timer once.

Also note that the chip lab is in the same location. It's actually directly to the left of the power-up arcade machine and it looks like a PC with multiple monitors. You can craft chips (charms/equipment) here with random materials you earn throughout the game from battles, and equip?? three at once. Some of the cheap chips have a tradeoff (less light attack damage? for more heavy attack damage), some are straight upgrades.

Again, do this early and visit it often! It's so easy to get wrapped up in s??idequests and main story events that you forget that the lab even exists.

The post Don’t forget to visit the easily missed No More Heroes 3 upgrade station appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/dont-forget-to-visit-the-no-more-heroes-3-upgrade-station/feed/ 0 280028 //jbsgame.com/reviews/review-no-more-heroes-3/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=review-no-more-heroes-3 //jbsgame.com/reviews/review-no-more-heroes-3/#respond Fri, 27 Aug 2021 04:00:02 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?post_type=eg_reviews&p=279271

Travis Strikes Again...again

If Suda 51 touches a game, generally I'm going to be there. While he's been pumping out interesting games since the '90s, it was killer7 that really put him on my radar, and I've been following along closely ever since. But just a few years later with No More Heroes, he really showed us how weird he could get.

The gaming industry is a better place with Suda in it, and No More Heroes 3 continues that le??gacy, albeit with a lighter touch than the two previous entries.

No More Heroes 3 (Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Marvelous / Grasshopper Manufacture
Released: August 27, 2021
MSRP: $59.99

If you need a recap, check out this wonderfully detailed piece from our ??own Jonathan Holmes??. Ready? No? Well, I'll fill you in a little bit: don't say I never did anything nice for y??ou.

So Travis Touchdown is back, and once again up to his old shit-talking beam-katana-wielding antics. At this point he's assembled quite the crew of friend??s, which in turn allows him to get a little too comfortable and cocky: a concept that kind of spills over into the narrative.

This time all-around bad dude and alien prince Jess Baptiste VI (aka "FU") is trying to take over the world, and he's going to make you run through his retinue to get to him. The new alien invasion angle in No More Heroes 3 is interesting, as it gives Suda a chance to slot in the same "ranking up by killing assassins [bosses]" concept fr??om prior games. As soon as the incredibly weird mix of retro sensibilities and an anime involving a young alien and his best friend flashed on??-screen all as part of the intro, for the first time in years, I felt right at home.

No More Heroes 3 is content with constantly throwing you curveballs, some of which are wild pitches that land in the stands, but you can't help but respect them. By the time I got to a cutscene featuring a boss drinking boba tea with another boss, I was hooked. Uneven or not, No More Heroes 3 i??s constantly surprising, even if it falls in??to a comfortable rhythm about halfway in.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUf1iLBtV2g

That comfort can manifest in a number of ways. Without spoiling anything, there are a few "cop-out" twists that are meant to be funny, but don't always land. Suda also dials up the meta-humor this time around, which suffers a bit from the long-running history of the series. When No More Heroes started, that style was relatively novel, as all of the references were literally history-making within the confines of NMH lore. Now, with two main entries and a spinoff in the mix, some of that humor doesn't stick the landing. Even with that in mind, Suda is masterfully able to inject so mu?ch personality that you can't help but come away smiling and impressed.

Like past games, you're going to be ?running around doing errands and fighting a lot, so we should probably talk about that. I found combat to be really engaging, mostly due to t?he simplicity of the beam katana mechanics still working after all these years. In this entry you have your typical spread of jump/normal attacks/heavy attacks/dodging/blocking; with a pinch of special attacks, QTE killing blows and wrestling throws, slot machine power-ups, and of course, shaking to recharge your katana (either the Joy-Con or the analog stick).

The slot machine is really key to differentiating No More Heroes 3 from ?the rest of the pack. While in many games you may want to go for a tougher more aggressive enemy initially, here you have the chance to pick off weaker chaff to build up slot machine pulls that might power you up to better take on those buffed-up foes. Once you start acquiring abilities like what is essentially a force push,? you can isolate people (like flinging someone into a corner) and adjust your strategy on the fly.

There's always something interesting going on, even during some of the more menial fights. Whether Travis is yelling at the top of his lungs or you're sliding into your mecha suit to blow everyone to hell, combat is flashy while remaining functional. The main issue lies with the mecha-specific battles (typically in space), which are heavily simplified and can generally be bested by just constantly strafing. While I'm thankful that these sections aren't too frequent, there's a lot of potential there to ape games like Colony Wars and ma??ke a really fun space shooter that j??ust wasn't realized.

That comes with the territory. No More Heroes 3, like past entries, requires a bit of patience in several areas.  The open-world bits are still incredibly janky, and collision detection is sketchy in the best of times when riding around in your motorcycle?? from place to place. For reference, it's not fully open world, but a handful of individual sandboxes that are connected through highway load points (or a fast-trave??l system).

It's here that the frequent load times can get annoying, which happen every time you enter/exit a building, load into a new area, or start a battle (of w?hich there are many in-between the main-event boss fights). Speaking of battles, you'll need to finish "Designated Matches" �which are basically small arena skirmi??shes �before unlocking the more outlandish bosses. It can feel like busywork, but given my aforementioned love for the combat system, the juice was always worth the squeeze. Plus, if I felt winded, I could just drive around and take in the sights.

There's sidequests like finding scorpions, unclogging toilets to unlock icons on the map (like radio towers), planting trees, fighting bosses again through a time machine, doing odd jobs (there aren't many games that kick off a mission with the phrase "stop the alligator invasion" before outfitting you with a tank turret), and a lot more. Really, a lot of the charm of No More Heroes 3 is when you stop and smell the roses. I ended up finding out abou??t a pretty challenging seek-and-find endgame quest way after the? credits rolled and chuckled at some of the spam "email messages" that Travis gets, like "Notflix suggestions" for movies to watch.

One major random cutscene bit involves Travis gushing over his favorite Takashi Miike films between bosses. There's even a text adventure side story playing out that you can miss out on, on top of a New Game+ mode, a "Carolina Reaper" difficulty, and a retro minigame. I'm extremely confident that I haven't discovered everything No More Heroes 3 has to offer, and that's really refreshing.

Even in this resplendent era of weird, as indie developers self-publish their outlandish concepts with pride, outside of Swery, no one does strange like Suda 51. Although this is likely the safest No More Heroes game to date, it's still incredibly memorable and fun to play, whether you're rushing to the end or taking in Santa Destroy and beyond. Go into No More Heroes 3 with an open mind and enjoy the ride.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: No More Heroes 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/reviews/review-no-more-heroes-3/feed/ 0 279271 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-series-travis-story-recap/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-series-travis-story-recap //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-series-travis-story-recap/#respond Mon, 23 Aug 2021 22:00:51 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=277434

From zero to no more hero

????"If you identify with this loser, you have problems."

That's what Game Informer said about Travis Touchdown, the star of the No More Heroes series, in a list of "Top Ten Dorks of 2008." Not the highest of praise, but in a way, they ha??d a point. As it turns out, a lot of people who love games also happen to suffer from social anxiety, identity confusion, a history of trauma, and other problems. Like anyone, they want to see themselves represented in the media they enjoy, and when it comes to mass-market gaming, it can be tough to find honest representation. That's still true now, and it was even more ??true 13 years ago.

In an industry striving for AAA, 10/10 perfection, Travis busted in screaming "I'm a big, broken idiot!", and we loved him for it. Seeing him ridiculed by the establishment could be frustrating, but in the end, it only added to his time-tested, underdog charm. With three sequels, a Mii costume in Smash Bros., and even a jazz album (!) under his belt, Travis has proven that losers like him can win. N?ot bad for an old dork from 2008.

With its third, and maybe final numbered game on the horizon, No More Heroes curiosity is at an all-time high, and what better way to both satisfy that curiosity and, er, "stoke" it than with a video game blog! If you've always wanted to know more about the franchise, or if you're just looking to refresh your memory on Travis' history, here's a spoiler-free, sometimes cryptic, recap of the No More Heroes story so far.

[embed]//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD??hGYN?2-iQA[/embed]

No More Heroes

Travis kicks off his first story with a hyper-active monologue about how he bought a beam katana online and plans to use it to become a great assassin. From the start, the game rides the line between parody and tribute. Is it making fun of "cool nerds and the games they love," or is it glorifying them? Can it do both at the same time? The tension in that question buzzes below the surface for the entirety of No More Heroes' run-time.

Travis is a powerful warrior who takes on hordes of blood-thirsty rivals all at once. He's the textbook definition of a "cool, badass action hero." The way he's forced to do the "jerk off" motion with his sword in front of everyone in order to recharge it, leaving him vulnerable to both physical and emotional attacks at the same time? That's less "badass" and more "jackass," and that split down the middle between stud and dud doesn't end there. He gets two kinds of phon??e calls every day: invitations to an underground society of assassins, and voicemails from the local video store listing all the pornos he owe?s late fees on. He splits his time between menial work and murdering murderers.

For a lot of us, Travis is how we look in a funhouse mirror �ridiculously exaggerated, vola?tile, but?? still a reflection of reality. He's a guy we can both laugh at and laugh with, look down on him with one eye, look up to with the other.

[embed]//www.youtube.com/watc??h?v=E_4-2q4AR1c[/em??bed]

Isolation is the unifying factor in Travis' fractured life. He has a cat, who he silently pets, and a minor acquaintance named Bishop, but other than that, he's going it alone. Over the course of the game, we come to find that there are reasons for that. Travis didn't enter the world of competitive killing just for shits and giggles. As his battles against the bosses become increasingly strange, it becomes clearer that No More Heroes isn't just another dumb action-comedy. It's about Travis' love/hate relationship with violence, and with himself. He's trapped by it, struggling to find the exit, a??nd in the end, it seems never-ending. There's joy and pain in that, and more than anything, there's truth.

For many, No More Heroes was their gateway into this deeper world of symbolism-heavy "auteur gaming." It sold itself with novelty and brutality, but that was just to get you in the door. Once it gets its hooks in you, it takes you to places you may not have otherwise chosen to go. A cutscene near the end of the game tells a story so shocking, disturbing, and sad that parts of it actually play in fast motion so you don't have to hear it. That's how supp??ressing trauma works. You glos?s over it, try to speed through your recollection of it so you don't have to fully re-experience it. But of course, players were curious and slowed down this part of the "tape" to hear what really happened.

After they did, they could never look at Travis the same way again. His story, and the story of his family, was a true tragedy. All this time, he'd?? been fighting to try to make peace with his shar??ed familial trauma, to somehow make it right.

But you can't go back in time and kill the past. All you can d?o is move forward. That's something Travis finally st?arts to do in his next game.

[embed]//www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7_qr-_V1N??U[/embed]

No More Heroes 1.5

But before we get to the next chapter in Travis' life, let's talk a little about this largely unknown side story. The Japanese special edition of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle included a short animatic film called No More Heroes 1.5. It's unessential but interesting; a bit of optional fun that sets the stage for the next major ??chapter in Travis' life.

For the most part, he's still the same guy, alone in a dead-end town. The main difference is, he's become a famous assassin, and lower-level killers are gunning for his title. It's a bit of symbolism that some may say is a smidge too on the nose: he even battles a guy who looks exactly like him. His first game had become a cult hit, and it got there by being like nothing else gaming had ever seen. With this sequel, No More Heroes would have to continue to compete against all the other games on the market, and also start fighting with itself. Comparisons between the new game and the old wer?e inevitable.

Travis' appeal hinged on his?? punk rock persona, his willingness to do what no other gaming mascot would. How could he? preserve that unpredictable edge while also giving his fans the same fun they'd come to expect from him?

A hero is largely defined by their villains, and to move his story forward, Travis would need a new foe to juxtapose against. No More Heroes 1.5 offers some foreshadowing on this new threat �a pizza mogul who's looking to transform Travis' town into a sterile, corporate wasteland. If Travis is Johnny Knoxville, a homegrown, do-it-yourself anti-celebrity, then his opposite would be a privileged, brand-obsessed brat, liv??ing his life in an ivory tower. Travis' next full story would focus on the climb to topple this monster, and how the heights he'd reach to get there would give him plenty of room for a fall.

[embed]//www.yout??ube.com/watch?v=PIVQ2Wunz3k[/embed]

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

The No More Heroes games can be pretty blunt, so it feels right to just come out and say that No More Heroes 2 failed as a product. I love the game, even more than the first �but the game just didn't bring in the new fans?? that most game sequels are designed to attract. In fact, it may have actually lost some people.

Suda51 wrote and directed the first game, but by the second, he was juggling multiple projects. He wasn't as involved with this one, and you can sense it. Everything here feels a little more self-conscious and catering. For fans who loved how the first game seemed too drunk to be tactful, too unhinged to be anything but fully authentic, No More Heroes 2 seemed like a step towards conventi?onality by comparison.

Some critics picked on the first game for its large, and largely empty, open-world. The second one cut that entirely. The sometimes tedious menial jobs were also ditched, ?except for the scorpion one, because Suda seems to love the idea of Travis catching scorpions. All the others were replaced with breezy and delightful retro-style mini-games.

The story was also less toothy. Nothing in No More Heroes 2 is so disturbing that it needs to be fast-forwarded over in order to keep it from getting an AO rating. Overall, it feels more like a crowd-pleaser; like a sophomore album by a hardcore band that's going ever-so-slightl??y pop.

[embe??d]//www.yo??utube.com/watch?v=VqfL0Ret1o8[/embed]

But pop can also be deep. The story of No More Heroes 2 is no less substantive than the first. It's just told in a less overtly weird way. Things start with Travis being given a reason to seek revenge, and it's flimsy as hell. At first blush, it may seem like just another ham-fisted MacGuffin, but it's really a way to reframe Travis' real defining trait: his loneliness. If your best friend is someone who you barely know or care about, you must not have many friends at all. That's Travis at the start of No More Heroes 2 �a more gen?uinely confident killer, but still a clown who doesn't?? know how to connect.

Unlike the first game, which was mostly about unpeeling the layers of Travis' psyche, the second No More Heroes is about how he changes.?? Through the game, he becomes a different person. His hot pursuit for reven??ge begins to burn a hole in him. It hurts, and not much makes it feel better. The body count piles up, and he begins to hate it, and himself. This pain motivates him to try something new: giving a shit about other people, and letting them into his life.

In the first game, the only person to ever enter Travis' motel room is Travis. By the end of the second major chapter in his franchise, not one, not two, but three other people are invited in. Two of them are even playable characters! Travis, and the player, are learning to empathize, to see others outside themsel??ves ??as just as real as them.

This increased capacity for intimacy comes to a head (literally) in the final fight. Though Travis seems a little too dumb to see it, the man who he came to hate so much is a lot like him. He's alone, motivated by the urge to make others suffer as he has suffered, and he desires to amass power for power's sake. But where do you have to go when you reach the top, when you finally cut off the head of a giant? The only place to go is down. Luckily f??or Travis, there's someone there to catch him. The bonds he formed with friends and family turn out to be stronger than he thought. Strong enough to save him.

[embed]//www.youtube.com/watc?h??v=Ch_2MBzfmXY[/embed]

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes

There was a nine-year span between No More Heroes 2 and this spin-??off, and that decade is reflected in the narrative. Travis has aged in real-time, and when we catch up with him, he looks more isolated than ever. How did he lose everything he gained in his last story? How did he end up in a trailer in the woods, alone with his cat, fending off attacks from drunken middle-aged baseball players?

At first, it seems like video games are to blame, bu??t like most things with Travis, there's a lot more to it than?? that.

Travis Strikes Again is actually split into three different stories: the one told through cutscenes and gameplay, the one told through text-based faxes that Travis receives through his home-office fax machine, and the one told in a supplemental visual novel called Travis Strikes Back. ?All of these stories feel autobiographical. Suda51 was back in the director's chair for this one, with at least nine years of pent-?up ideas ready to go, and only a small "indie-style" side story with which to tell them.

At times it can all seem like too much, trying to follow the seemingly disconnected narrative threads, but they're all connected. Travis Strikes Again is about Travis moving to the next big conflict in his life: the psycho-social stage of emotional development called Generativity vs. Stagnation. He may look to be alone at first, but before long, he's fighting alongside one of the victims of his past crimes, trying to make it right. His pet is no longer just a silent companion, there to help him pass the time. They're now a partnership, and one of many. Travis also doesn't kill anymore, at least, not in the way he used to. Most of the enemies in the games are computer bugs, flaws in the system that Travis is working to fix. The bosses, like in past No More Heroes games, are an opportunity for Travis to reflect on himself, for better and for worse. Like Doppelganger, the last boss of the second level, is he nothing but a psychopathic killer who sees people as ants to be squashed? Or, like Eight-Hearts, a refugee of the damned, is he a gameplay tool that has evolved into a man; a full human being who is willing to die so somet?hing larger than himself can live?

[embed]//www.youtube.com/wat??ch?v=C2Es76As7cA[/e??mbed]

Or woul??d he rather just play video games and smoke ?drugs all day on another planet?

There are some ??yes or no answers to these questions, but it's never that cut and dried. The fact that Travis is even asking them shows that he exists in the shades of grey between them. He wants to be a good person, but only because he knows that parts of him are genuinely bad. He loves video games, but he also knows that in a way, they can be life killers. In the end, it's revealed that his real motivation is to take c??are of his family, even if that means never seeing them again. Is he making the right choices? It's never clear. But that's how he knows he's alive, that he's really challenging himself. That's what grownup Travis is all about. He's still media-obsessed, but he's not anti-social anymore, despite his new life of self-imposed isolation.

This kind of self-contradiction, and the tension it creates, is classic Suda. Some were disappointed that Travis Strikes Again wasn't a return to the classic No More Heroes gameplay, but diehard Suda fans saw it as a return to form for Grasshopper Manufacture, who had been growing more conventional over the years. This new, weird little game was Suda and Travis doing the things that only they would do, reflecting where Suda is as an artist at this point in hi??s career, and inviting you to either come along or not.

Like every game ??in the series, it feels like it was made with no expectations of there ever being more. But there will be more very soon, and it's hard not to talk about.

[embed]//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4jyB9jNa?mo[/embed]

Looking ahead to No More Heroes 3

As of this writing, I've played through No More Heroes 3 in a pre-release build, and then spent another eight hours just wandering around its open world, relaxing and looking for Easter eggs. I can't say a lot due to the embargo, though I will tell you that Travis has struck again.... again. Will the game be Suda's biggest hit yet? Will it be in the right place at the right time, just like it was in its 2008 debut? If not, it won't be for a lack of consistency. They could have called it Super No More Heroes, or maybe... No More Super Heroes? Like the classic "Super" games of the SNES era, like Super Metroid and Super Castlevania IV, it can be fully enjoyed without knowing the whole backstory, and without analyzing every story beat and word choice for? some deeper meaning.

But if you like digging deeper, knowing who Travis is �and was �will make all the difference. I really, really can't wait to see how the No More Heroes fan community reacts to this one. I think they just might lose it.

The post Catchi???ng up with Touchdown: A No More Heroes series recap appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-series-travis-story-recap/feed/ 0 277434 //jbsgame.com/the-switch-file-size-for-no-more-heroes-3-isnt-that-daunting/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-switch-file-size-for-no-more-heroes-3-isnt-that-daunting //jbsgame.com/the-switch-file-size-for-no-more-heroes-3-isnt-that-daunting/#respond Fri, 16 Jul 2021 14:00:27 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=275167

It's 6.8GB as per the eShop

No More Heroes 3 is still slated for an August release, and when it arrives on Switch, it isn't going to break the memory bank. This past week the game was fully added to the eShop for pre-order, on top of a good deal of information. That includes the No More Heroes 3 file size. According to the ??eShop, it'll be ?6.8GB.

If you're remotely interested in anything beyond the No More Heroes 3 file size, it's worth checking out the relatively packed eShop landing site. There's a ton of info on the basic gimmick ("The evil Prince ??FU and his band of alien assassins are itching to conquer Earth, and the only thing standing in their way is Travis Touchdown and his crew"), as well as big rundown of the game's various mechanics.? Yep, you can step into a "hyper-powered mech suit" at some point: it's a Suda joint alright.

We also get a new look at this iteration's version of Santa Destroy, the new?? odd jobs you?? can take on, and a fun little breakdown of the cast. It's worth checking out!

We're at the point where I'm good on seeing anything related to No More Heroes 3 and I just want to play it. It's been so long s?ince a proper entry.

The post The Switch file size for No More Heroes 3 isn’t that daunting appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/the-switch-file-size-for-no-more-heroes-3-isnt-that-daunting/feed/ 0 275167 //jbsgame.com/take-a-bloody-new-look-at-no-more-heroes-3/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=take-a-bloody-new-look-at-no-more-heroes-3 //jbsgame.com/take-a-bloody-new-look-at-no-more-heroes-3/#respond Wed, 16 Jun 2021 00:30:15 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=270770

We had to wait until the end of E3 to get more No More Heroes 3

Compared to years past, the Nintendo Treehouse Live stream following its highly celebrated Direct was a lowkey event this year. No surprise announcements, just some in-depth looks at a few of the games we'll be playing over the next couple of weeks and months. We found out more about Metroid Dread, got a great look at the Advance Wars remakes, and saw some of the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo that'll be available for download later this m??onth. If you watched the stream live, there's actually a game that d?idn't air with the rest of the titles. If I had to guess why it's probably because the game is rated M for Mature. And dammit, it earns that rating.

Of course, I'm talking about No More Heroes 3. Following its E3 Treehouse stream, Nintendo dropped the below video onto its YouTube channel. Unfortunately, you have to actually go to YouTube to watch it thanks to the website's dumb age-restriction rules. During the 20-minute hands-on, you'll get a look at Travis's expanded apartment, customization and upgrade options, DonMai Sushi, and a fight against Gold Joe, one of the new villains of the game. Be sure to watch through to the end for a special m?essage from Suda51.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-iLPK5vl4M

No More Heroes 3 lau?n?ches exclusively for Nintendo Switch on August 27.

The post Take a bloody new look at No More Heroes 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/take-a-bloody-new-look-at-no-more-heroes-3/feed/ 0 270770 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-pc-steam-release-date/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-pc-steam-release-date //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-pc-steam-release-date/#respond Mon, 07 Jun 2021 14:00:10 +0000 //jbsgame.com/?p=268403

Travis touches down on Steam in just a couple of days

Polish up the beam katana and dig out your fanciest shades, because asshole hero Travis Touchdown is getting set to crack some skulls once again. Suda51's 2007 classic No More Heroes,  and its 2010 sequel No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, will be hitting Steam on June 9, finally bringing their dynami?c action to the PC platform. Better late than never.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpeCc-PIrZo

While the No More Heroes franchise doesn't really require introduction, a brief refresher course reveals a tale of a laconic, out-of-luck hero and his half-hearted efforts to become the figurehead of an organization known as the United Assassin's Association. Guided by femme-fatale Sylvia Christel, and armed with a powerful light sword and a lifetime of pro-wrestling knowledge, Travis cruises the hyper-kinetic world of Santa Destroy taking on the world's greatest killers. Does he really need to be the greatest assassin of all-time? Perhaps not, but what else are you gonna do wit??h your Saturday?

The Steam ports of No More Heroes & No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle will support HD resolutions and will display the super-chaotic action at a silky-smooth 60 FPS. Published by XSeed Games, each title will retail on Steam for $19.99, which admittedly seems a tad pricey for two decades-old releases. Easing the blow somewhat, a 10% discount is available for anybody picking up either game within launch week. Besides, they're pretty dang radical games. A brand new sequel, No More Heroes 3, remains in development for Nintendo ?Switch, and is expected to release in August 2021.

The post No More Heroes & No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle will hit Steam this week appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-pc-steam-release-date/feed/ 0 268403 //jbsgame.com/this-no-more-heroes-3-video-really-wants-you-to-play-travis-strikes-again/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-no-more-heroes-3-video-really-wants-you-to-play-travis-strikes-again //jbsgame.com/this-no-more-heroes-3-video-really-wants-you-to-play-travis-strikes-again/#respond Fri, 09 Apr 2021 11:00:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/this-no-more-heroes-3-video-really-wants-you-to-play-travis-strikes-again/

Bad Girl's back, all right!

We are a little more than four months away from the release of No More Heroes 3, which is more than enough time to drive into Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes if you haven't yet. I can understand if you've avoided it thus far. I mean, I've seen its Metacritic score and as somebody who bought it day one, it's a bit of a tough recommendation. If you haven't tried it by now, you'r??e probably not going to at this point, but it's clear the people at Grasshopper Manufacturer think ?you're missing out by not giving it a go.

Yesterday, Suda51 hosted a live stream for No More Heroes 3 and out of that, we got this Garden of Sylvia video below. It gives a quick recap of the series, tells players to go look up anything it doesn't tell you on Wikipedia, plugs Travis Strikes Again, and shows off?? some brief new footage from the upcoming sequel. I'm just happy to see Bad ??Girl and Shinobu fighting side-by-side.

What's that? You thought Bad Girl was dead? Gee, I guess you should have played Travis Strikes Again then.

The video ends detailing a combo pack for Japan that bundles all three of the main games together in the Killion Dollar Trilogy. Nothing like that has been announced for North America, but as a reminder, if you like your games physical rather than digital, No More Heroes and Desperate Struggle currently have a pre-order up on Limited Run Games through this Sunday.

The post This No More Heroes 3 video r??eally wants you to play Travis Strikes Again appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/this-no-more-heroes-3-video-really-wants-you-to-play-travis-strikes-again/feed/ 0 265938 //jbsgame.com/limited-run-games-is-going-all-out-for-no-more-heroes-1-and-2-on-nintendo-switch/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=limited-run-games-is-going-all-out-for-no-more-heroes-1-and-2-on-nintendo-switch //jbsgame.com/limited-run-games-is-going-all-out-for-no-more-heroes-1-and-2-on-nintendo-switch/#respond Thu, 04 Mar 2021 20:30:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/limited-run-games-is-going-all-out-for-no-more-heroes-1-and-2-on-nintendo-switch/

Suda needs a new pair of shoes!

Limited R??un Games has ano?ther test for us – a test to see who can stay on-budget this month.

If you skipped the digital Nintendo Switch versions of No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2 back in October 2020, or it's been long enough that you'd be okay with spendin??g more on this series, Limited Run would like a word this month. Pre-orders are opening on March 12 at 10:00 am Eastern for physical S??witch copies of both games, and there are fancy collector's editions, too. Pre-orders close on April 11.

The basic no-frills physical Switch copies of No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle are $35 each – you'll have to buy them separately – an??????????????????????????d they ??come with a booklet inside.

The real reason we're here, though, is the collector's editions. These are $70 each (or $140 together with a Santa Destroy flag), which is a lot, but they look fantastic. And they line up just so on a shelf.

I ki??nda just want those big boxes for that spine art, if I'm being honest.

The CE pack-ins for No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2 include an 18x24 poster, Steelbook, behind-the-sc??enes interview art book, the standard? physical copy of the game, and the soundtrack.

Reminder for those who need it: the digital ?editions on the eShop are $20 a pop at full price.

The post Limited Run Games is going all out for No More Heroes 1 and 2 on Nintendo?? Switch appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/limited-run-games-is-going-all-out-for-no-more-heroes-1-and-2-on-nintendo-switch/feed/ 0 264836 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-out-in-august-brings-back-odd-jobs-which-are-used-to-pay-entry-fees-for-boss-battles/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-3-out-in-august-brings-back-odd-jobs-which-are-used-to-pay-entry-fees-for-boss-battles //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-out-in-august-brings-back-odd-jobs-which-are-used-to-pay-entry-fees-for-boss-battles/#respond Wed, 17 Feb 2021 21:24:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-out-in-august-brings-back-odd-jobs-which-are-used-to-pay-entry-fees-for-boss-battles/

Oh and the Death Glove is in

No More Heroes 3 got a show?ing today, and it's looking pretty good!

Nintendo confirmed today during the February Direct that the game will bring back odd jobs (a staple), which are used as an "entry fee" for boss battles. It's ??also going to have a hella weird storyline involving aliens invading the ?Earth.

Oh hey, I buried the lede; it's out on August 27!

The post No More Heroes 3, out in August, brings back odd jobs, which are used to ‘pay entry fees’ for boss battles appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-out-in-august-brings-back-odd-jobs-which-are-used-to-pay-entry-fees-for-boss-battles/feed/ 0 264290 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-ports-rated-by-esrb/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-ports-rated-by-esrb //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-ports-rated-by-esrb/#respond Mon, 21 Dec 2020 10:00:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-ports-rated-by-esrb/

Keyboard Warriors

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) has listed ratings for PC editions of Suda51's 2007 hyper-kinetic action-adventure No More Heroes and its 2010 sequel No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.

Both titles - previously available for Nintendo Wii and more recently the Nin??tendo Switch - received an "M for Mature" rating, due to the series' notorious lust for sex and violence. Whi??le there has been no official word from current rights holders Marvelous, the new ESRB listings all but confirm that the early adventures of Travis Touchdown will be hitting a PC store near you in the near future.

No More Heroes III ??is expected to launch on Nintendo Switch ??sometime in 2021.

ESRB ?rates No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle f??or PC [Gematsu]

The post No More Heroes & No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle PC ports rated by ESRB appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle-pc-ports-rated-by-esrb/feed/ 0 261641 //jbsgame.com/review-no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=review-no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle //jbsgame.com/review-no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle/#respond Fri, 06 Nov 2020 18:00:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/review-no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle/

Return to the Garden of Madness

Despite some earlier attempts at the hobby, I've come to accept that I am not a game collector. I don't have it in me to buy a game with the intention of keeping it forever. I'd rather play it and trade it than keep it on a shelf. However, a few games have warranted return visits over the years, such as my annual trek through Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, for instance, or the occasional dip into the post-game of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies. Thus, I keep a small binder on my shelve to house those old gam?es.

No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle have their own page in that old game binder. Every few years, I find myself gravitating back toward them, usually when I need to let out a lot of anger by cutting some f?ools in half. But I think now is the time for me to give those old games up for good. Not because I'm over them, but because the Switch ports for both games are so much better than the originals.

Review: No More Heroes, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Switch)
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacturer, Engine Software
Publisher: Xseed Games
Released: October 29, 2020
MSRP: $19.99 each

No More Heroes is really goddamn fun.

That's how Anthony Burch started his review of the original game more than a decade ago, and I honestly can't think of a better combination of words to start a review of this Switch port. It is goddamn fun, even after all these years. Its sequel, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, is still so goddamn fun too. Most everything that was good and great back on the Wii ??is still good and great on Switch.

I say "most everything" because a lot has happened in the world since Suda51 first introduced us to Travis Touchdown. As a crass, otaku shut-in who spends his days watching porn and wrestling videos -- and his nights staining his anime body pillow -- he's never really been a class act. Jumping back into No More Heroes, I forgot just how poorly he treats the women of the game, either eyeing them purely as sexual fantasies, calling them bitches, or acting all chivalrous when ta??sked with killing them, even if an honorable death is what some of them want. 

But that's just the beginning of this hero's journey, and his personal growth through the countless killings over two games results in a well-rounded character. He becomes a man who recognizes his role in the world and the wrongs of his line of work while still occasionally perving out on Sylvia. Though she's able to dish out just as much as he can give. In its own weird way, No More Heroes and its sequel are not just stori??e?s of determination and revenge, but an epic tale of love between two seriously damaged people.

This world is full of damaged goods, and not just the ones you eviscerate with your beam katana. One of the key draws of this series is its collection of killers. Both games task Travis with climbing his way up the ranks with the United Assassin Association, first from the eleventh-ranked spot, then from the fifty-first spot in the sequel. The members of the UAA you're tasked with disposing of are an eclectic bunch of psychopaths. Desperate Struggle has a fun gallery of baddies like Margaret Moonlight and Matt Helms, though I think, on the whole, the assassins from the first game are the superior bunch. It's tough to top someone like Destroyman or Bad Girl or having to fight upside down against a wily magician. While the assassins from the first game edge out those from its successor, Desperate Struggle excels w??ith its level design, which was one of th?e weakest points of the original.

That's probably because everything in the first game had to be tied to the big, empty, open-world map of Santa Destroy. I didn't care for open-world back when this originally released, and time hasn't exactly made its inclusion seem necessary. You still fight one too many bouts at the same damn parking garage and other equally uninspired locations like a subway train, bus, or just a long, straight corridor. Any chance at a properly paced game goes right out the window when you find yourself driving from one side of the map to the other to complete the menial jobs you have to do to buy your way into the next match of the UAA rankings. It quickly feels like unnecessary padding, and while both games are relatively short, Desperate Struggle makes far better use of its brief run time.

But even if I didn't like driving around the city, I will admit the streets of Santa Destroy have never looked so good. The art direction absolutely holds up. Grasshopper and Engine Software have done a fantastic job converting these games to high definition with pretty solid framerates. Unfortunately, those improvements don't seem to apply to anything not in the in-game engine, so pre-rendered cutscenes look fuzzy and unfocused compared to the rest of the visuals. It's particularly noticeable and jarring in Desperate Struggle. The fight against Charlie Macdonald and his cheer squad is not a pretty si??ght.

That's easy enough to get past when the rest of the game is so damn fun to play. Both titles present players with two control options: you can play using the same motion controls found in the first title or go with a standard control option like the one that was introduced in the sequel. I'm a bit of a purest, so any time I was playing in docked mode, I broke out the wrist straps for my Joy-Con controllers. The motion controls benefit from improved technology here, and I still get a kick out of flinging my arm left to slice some fool in half. I have noticed instances where the controls would be slightly unresponsive, such as w??hen I'm asked to press Y to ?execute a guy on the ground, but these moments are fleeting.

What's not fleeting is the immense joy I have going through both these titles again. Sure, I think Desperate Struggle is the more well-put-together of the two, but they both have quirks, charms, and moments of frustration that are uniquely their own. I don't care for having to raise money just to progress through the story like ?you need to do in the first game, but I ??still get a kick out of seeing Travis mow a lawn or catch fire when I overfill a gas tank. The giant mech battle of the sequel is a massively wasted opportunity, but by unshackling the narrative from an open-world design, the developers were able to flesh out Santa Destroy and its inhabitants.

I've been playing No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle for more than a decade now as they never cease to amaze me with their untethered style, violent action, and satisfying combat. With these HD ports on Switch, ??you ??can be damn sure I'll be playing them for the next decade as well.

No More Heroes: 8.0/10

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: 8.5/10

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: No More Heroes & No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/review-no-more-heroes-no-more-heroes-2-desperate-struggle/feed/ 0 7267 //jbsgame.com/i-tugged-on-the-latest-no-more-heroes-3-trailer-and-hints-of-whats-to-come-came-out/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=i-tugged-on-the-latest-no-more-heroes-3-trailer-and-hints-of-whats-to-come-came-out //jbsgame.com/i-tugged-on-the-latest-no-more-heroes-3-trailer-and-hints-of-whats-to-come-came-out/#respond Thu, 29 Oct 2020 19:30:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/i-tugged-on-the-latest-no-more-heroes-3-trailer-and-hints-of-whats-to-come-came-out/

Press my buttons, Travis

Yesterday was full of surprises for hack-and-slash fans who own a Switch. Not only did Nintendo release a two-hour demo of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity but then Xseed simultaneously shadow-dropped No More Heroes 1 & 2 on the system at the same time! Just like that, owners of the hot hybrid console were ins??tant??ly covered in a sticky mess of violent crowd-skewering action. 

Now that we've all had a day to rest on those releases, maybe it's a good time to swing back around to the new trailer for No More Heroes 3 and see what we can find. From the looks of it, the game will be less a direct sequel to No More Heroes 2 and more of a continuation of the lesser-known No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again, the actual third game in the series. New interstellar villain FU appears to be standing on a boardroom table, which we can guess is in the office of Damon Riccitiello, Travis Strikes Again's CEO antagonist and not-so-veil?ed parody of fo??rmer EA CEO John Riccitiello.  

Take a closer look at No More Heroes 3's user interface, and Travis's Joy-Con-studded glove in the opening of the trailer, and you'll see hints that the "chips" from Travis Strikes Again may also be coming back... again. Previously, those chips were used to give Travis and other playable characters (Shinobu, Bad Girl, and Badman) massive, over-the-top abilities like Jedi-style telekinesis and the power to create black holes. Speaking of Badman, it looks lik?e he'll also be back for the threequel, though it's not clear if he'll be playable or just a punching bag (that's him getting pummeled at the 00:58 mark).

As someone who loved the highly personal, pseudo-autobiographical story of Travis Strikes Again but was in and out of love with actually playing it, it's great to see that No More Heroes 3 may be bringing the? best of all worlds to the table. 

The post I tugged on the latest No More Heroes 3 trailer and hints of what’s to come came out appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/i-tugged-on-the-latest-no-more-heroes-3-trailer-and-hints-of-whats-to-come-came-out/feed/ 0 7059 //jbsgame.com/bomberman-and-travis-touchdown-among-the-new-wave-of-mii-fighter-costumes-in-super-smash-bros-ultimate/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bomberman-and-travis-touchdown-among-the-new-wave-of-mii-fighter-costumes-in-super-smash-bros-ultimate //jbsgame.com/bomberman-and-travis-touchdown-among-the-new-wave-of-mii-fighter-costumes-in-super-smash-bros-ultimate/#respond Sat, 03 Oct 2020 15:00:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/bomberman-and-travis-touchdown-among-the-new-wave-of-mii-fighter-costumes-in-super-smash-bros-ultimate/

No More Heroes / No More Hope?

As part of this morning's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate presentation, producer Masahiro Sakura??i revealed the next incoming run of Mii Fighter costumes, which will arrive in the Switch brawler ??on October 13.

The new selection of fun cosplay outfits are based on popular characters from cutesy party classic Bomberman, old-school RPG Tower of Druaga and - in keeping with Smash Bros. Ultimate's newest DLC character - a trio of characters from the best-selling video game of all-time, Minecraft, including the terrifying Creeper. Spooky.

Also appearing in the set is a skin for Travis Touchdown, hero of irreverent adventure series No More Heroes. This latter reveal has understandably disappointed some fans, who had been hoping that Mr. Touchdown would be joining the Smash Bros. Ultimate roster proper. No More Heroes creator Suda51 has taken to Twitter to celebrate the reveal.

You can check out the six new Mii Fighter costumes in the video below, ahead of their October 13 launch. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now on Nintendo Switch.

The post Bomberman and Travis Touchdown among the new wave of Mii Fighter costumes in Super Smash Bros?. Ultimate appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/bomberman-and-travis-touchdown-among-the-new-wave-of-mii-fighter-costumes-in-super-smash-bros-ultimate/feed/ 0 255920 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-powering-up-its-beam-katana-until-2021/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-powering-up-its-beam-katana-until-2021 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-powering-up-its-beam-katana-until-2021/#respond Thu, 10 Sep 2020 01:39:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-powering-up-its-beam-katana-until-2021/

COVID strikes again

Of all the delays we've seen this year due to the pandemic, this one somehow felt like the most inevitable. Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda 51 have confirmed the highly anticipated Switch-exclusive No More Heroes III will not see release in 2020. According to the message posted by the developers on Twitter, COVID-19 resulted in work delays on the title, and rather than rush it out, Suda wants his team to prioritize quality as develo?pment gets back on its feet.

An important announcement regarding the Nintendo Switch exclusive title No More Heroes 3.#NMH3 #NoMoreHeroes3 #SUDA51 #NintendoSwitch #TRAVIS #TravisTouchdown pic.twitter.com/ijsz4shnDl

— Grasshopper (@Grasshopper_EN) September 10, 2020

It's not all bad news though. Suda confirmed he'll be working with Darick Robertson, comic book artist and one of the creators of the comic book series The Boys, which has been adapted into a popular show on Amazon Prime Video. Robertson will be providing original illustrations for No More Heroes III, as well as its key art.

Presenting "Demzamtiger & His Master" - a specially commissioned piece for NMH3 by Darick Robertson. pic.twitter.com/hk3FvsGJh7

— SUDA51/須田剛一 (@suda_51) September 10, 2020

The post No More Heroes 3 won’t be powering up its beam katana until 2021 appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-3-wont-be-powering-up-its-beam-katana-until-2021/feed/ 0 260067 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-for-switch-pops-up-on-taiwanese-ratings-board/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-for-switch-pops-up-on-taiwanese-ratings-board //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-for-switch-pops-up-on-taiwanese-ratings-board/#respond Mon, 03 Aug 2020 12:00:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-for-switch-pops-up-on-taiwanese-ratings-board/

Sounds Marvelous

Everyone's favourite hot scoop news outlet, the Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee, is at it again. The latest release to mysteriously appear on the governing body's website is none other than a Switch port of Suda 51's groundbreaking action-RPG No More Heroes.

Originally released for the Wii in 2007, No More Heroes shook up the action genre with its wild, highly stylised aesthetic, over-the-top action, and painfully cool/uncool characters. Eventually ported to PS3 and Xbox 360 as Heroes' Paradise, the series would receive a sequel - Desperate Struggle - in 2010 and a spin-off title - Travis Strikes Again - in 2019. A third mainline entry is? currently in development.

This new rating seems to suggest that Travis Touchdown's original adventure will be headed to Switch at some point in the near future. Given that No More Heroes III has a tentative release date of 2020, it would be snug to assume that the original ga??me will be arriving alongside this new sequel. We will update you s?hould any new info be forthcoming.

No More Heroes rated for Switch in Taiwan [Gematsu]

The post No M??ore Heroes ?for Switch pops up on Taiwanese ratings board appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-for-switch-pops-up-on-taiwanese-ratings-board/feed/ 0 259411 //jbsgame.com/yes-that-was-a-brief-glimpse-of-no-more-heroes-3-you-saw-in-the-devolver-digital-stream-credits/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=yes-that-was-a-brief-glimpse-of-no-more-heroes-3-you-saw-in-the-devolver-digital-stream-credits //jbsgame.com/yes-that-was-a-brief-glimpse-of-no-more-heroes-3-you-saw-in-the-devolver-digital-stream-credits/#respond Sat, 11 Jul 2020 19:30:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/yes-that-was-a-brief-glimpse-of-no-more-heroes-3-you-saw-in-the-devolver-digital-stream-credits/

Suda you cheeky bastard

A few weeks ago during the New Game+ Expo, Suda51, developer of the highly anticipated No More Heroes 3, gave everyone a new look at the upcoming game, but proceeded to block most of it with his melon. Well, during today's annual "Devolver Digital Game-Marketing-Is-A-Joke-But-Please-Follow-Us-On-Social-Media-And-Here-Are-Some-Press-Releases-Please-Write-About-Our-Games" showcase, S?uda51 was back at it again, this time giving fans just the briefest of looks at Motel No More Heroes.

via GIPHY

That's it. That's the story. No More Heroes III is supposed to launch exclusively for Nintendo Switch in 2020. Curious to see if it'll be pushed to 2021 ?like ?several other titles that were supposed to release this year.

The post Yes, that was ?a brief glimpse of No More H??eroes 3 you saw in the Devolver Digital stream credits appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/yes-that-was-a-brief-glimpse-of-no-more-heroes-3-you-saw-in-the-devolver-digital-stream-credits/feed/ 0 253080 //jbsgame.com/heres-the-extended-edition-of-the-game-awards-no-more-heroes-3-trailer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=heres-the-extended-edition-of-the-game-awards-no-more-heroes-3-trailer //jbsgame.com/heres-the-extended-edition-of-the-game-awards-no-more-heroes-3-trailer/#respond Fri, 13 Dec 2019 01:00:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/heres-the-extended-edition-of-the-game-awards-no-more-heroes-3-trailer/

2020? Good luck

No More Heroes 3 is easily on?e of the most anticipated games of 2020 and at The Game Awards, a fresh new trailer debuted in during the pre-show. It teased an extended trailer at the end, which you can watch on repeat below until your eyes bleed.

The post Here’s the extended edition of The Game Awards’ No More Heroes 3 trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/heres-the-extended-edition-of-the-game-awards-no-more-heroes-3-trailer/feed/ 0 254224 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-iii-is-30-40-percent-complete-says-suda-51/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-more-heroes-iii-is-30-40-percent-complete-says-suda-51 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-iii-is-30-40-percent-complete-says-suda-51/#respond Wed, 06 Nov 2019 18:00:00 +0000 //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-iii-is-30-40-percent-complete-says-suda-51/

Travis Cooldown

There are no doubt plenty of fans itching to jump back into the stylistic and lurid world of No More Heroes, but in a recent interview with series creator Goichi "Suda 51" Suda (conducted by Wccftech), it was revealed that there may still be some wai??t before we can get our mitts on Travis Touchdown's beam katana.

The famously esoteric game developer stated that No More Heroes III is currently around "35 to 40%" complete, which suggests that, given the sequel's 2020 release date, we are unlikely to see the release of? the new title in the front half of the new year. Grasshopper studio, despite its pedigree, is a fairly mid-size developer, and as such will be taking its time to produce a game that matches up to its predecessors.

This is fine, of course, as I'm sure fans just want No More Heroes III to be the best title it can be. Elsewhere in the interview, Suda noted that the new game would be a mid-sized open world adventure, and would see the return of the series' trademark motion controls. As an amusing side note, Suda was asked to describe one of NMH III's new boss characters in three words, and?? chose "Thanos. Venom. Joker.??"

No More Heroes III is currently in development for Nintendo Switch.

Suda 51 interview: No More Heroes 3 [Wccftech]

The post No More Heroes III is ’30-40 percent complete’ says Suda 51 appeared first on Destructoid.

]]> //jbsgame.com/no-more-heroes-iii-is-30-40-percent-complete-says-suda-51/feed/ 0 253028