Previously in No More Heroes…
A few years after the incident of the second game, our anti-hero Travis Touchdown has grown emotionally detached and depressed by the burden associated with the glorified title of legendary assassin. Realizing he is way too deep in the assassin’s rabbit hole, he decides to leave everything behind and live in seclusion for a while to cope with the fact.
Confined all day inside a trailer in the middle of the woods, doing nothing more than play video-games in an attempt to reconnect with his childhood and reminisce about simpler times, he still manages to get dragged into a crazy government conspiracy and all sorts of other matters that ultimately lead us to this very moment.
So, in case you dismissed Travis Strikes Again as an inconsequential spin off, I’d highly suggest you reconsider. Not only the plot picks up from there, but most of its fundamental gameplay mechanics returns, namely the control scheme and the Death Glove, which surprisingly enough, works pretty well with the traditional NMH formula.
Side Note: NMH (No More Heroes); TSA (Travis Strikes Again);
It’s still No More Heroes!
Suda51, the creator, and the people over Grasshopper Manufacture paid very close attention to what made No More Heroes so special, improving on the best parts to deliver a true blue sequel with the acquired knowledge and experience gathered throughout the years.
Once again, you can freely walk through Santa Destroy, except this time around, there are more reasons to explore the city, namely:
Defense Missions
Defense Missions are a massive improvement over the old assassin gigs from previous games. For once, they have a much more diverse cast of enemies and a new giant mecha fight modality to boot.
Regular Battles are now set differently, with enemies coming in contained waves, which I found a quality of life improvement over the chaos of having to deal with thousands of enemies all at once from previous games. I’d say the only downside with this new format is that some of them can really overstay its welcome, but thankfully, nothing close to NMH2, with most of them being on the short side and completely optional, too.
Side Quests
New to the franchise are side quests, divided into two kinds. First one works as events, available only to specific moments in the story, being presented much like in TSA, with old visual novel/text adventure style. The second takes form of simple collectibles scattered through Santa Destroy, no different than hunting for Lovikov Balls in the first title.
Despite having a great time collecting them all, the rewards left a lot to be desired. In hopes of getting some kind of special move or a new weapon, I was sorely disappointed to discover that all I really end up getting are exclusive shirts…yay?
On a positive note, these side quests provided me with enough motivation and curiosity, that one could argue that the journey itself was the reward all along.
Tip: Try completing the first event mission in Thunder Dome for a cool reward.
Costumes
One thing that is gone from NMH1 (and I personally miss) is dumpster diving for money and shirt, with the latter being instead allocated to NPCs that will give you one in exchange for money, or as reward for meeting certain achievements/ranks in Defense Missions.
Part-Time Jobs
Just like in previous games, they can be hit or miss depending on what clicks with you, but that’s not to say they lack in variety. I’d even go as far as to say these are the most elaborated ones from the entire franchise.
As for me, I personally enjoyed suplexing alligators while picking up litter from the swamps. (Things you can only casually say in NMH3, am I right?)
Lots of Nods to Prequels
Self explanatory, but long-time fans will rejoice with the occasional jabs at previous events and the usual meta linguistical, 4th wall breaking moments.
What’s New?
Absence of Stages
For better, or for worse, no more stages to climb your way to reach the boss fight. If you want to get into a rankings fight, all you need to do is fulfill a certain quota of Designated Matches, no different than the usual Defense Mission — other than being obligatory to progress— and pay the entry fee.
Tip: Complete them all for a pleasant surprise at the end.
Power-Ups
Again, for better, or for worse, no more hitting the gym to get stronger, nor collecting balls or watching video tapes to learn new moves — and on that note, beam katana variations are nowhere to be seen either.
Instead, all you have to do is head down to Naomi’s lab and spend your currency to upgrade Travis’ stats or unlock new techniques. In addition, you can also use the dropped items from enemies here to craft a selected number of Death Glove chips, each with their own benefits (and occasional trade offs) to better suit your fighting style.
Personally, I found the idea of upgrades behind pay walls very uninventive given how creatively the franchise tackled them on previous games. Whether you liked it or not, they sure gave me a much bigger sense of accomplishment and fulfillment than what’s presented here, but I digress.
Death Glove
Those that didn’t skip TSA will be very familiar with the Death Gloves’ skills, however, unlike the previous game, this time you are now limited to four of them: the Death Force, granting Travis the power of telekinesis to hold enemies in place and blast them away at will; Death Slow, allowing Travis to temporarily generate a field that slows time; Death Kick, a drop kick that will conveniently teleport you directly onto the target, no matter how far apart, stunning them, and lastly, the Death Rain, summoning a weapon that continually fires on the target for chip damage under a limited amount of time.
These skills are a welcoming addition, giving fights a new layer of complexity and strategy when combined with your regular abilities, rewarding those willing to master it with insane combos that makes little of bosses and enemies alike.
Full Armor Mode (“HENSHIN!”)
This time around, in addition to the normal 777 on the Slash Reel — a machine slot that activates after successfully finishing off an enemy — there is also a new green variation, replacing the old Grasshopper Manufacture logo from previous games.
Getting one of these will prompt you into equipping a powerful mecha suit that is capable of locking up and shooting projectiles on every target for an instant kill, or in case of the green 777, an additional powerful beam on top of full control over the suit in battle for a limited amount of time. Now that’s a hell of a jackpot!
Tension
A mechanic borrowed from Suda51’s other title, “Killer is Dead”: connect enough hits without getting hit too much yourself and your tension gauge will evolve from a cat to a fierce tiger, making Travis deal more damage than usual.
Sushi Stand (Itadakima~su!)
Sushi can be either consumed on the go, or during battle with their benefits varying from restoring health to making yourself temporarily stronger, resistant or even maxing your tension gauge instantaneously.
Wheel of Fortune
In case you wish to retry a battle after a game over, you get a shot at spinning the wheel for a chance of getting a slight advantage at your next attempt, varying from picking up from where you left off to a 100% chance of getting a 777 on your first Slash Reel. In the worst case scenario, you’ll restart the battle with no benefits whatsoever, or have your beam katana out of juice on the start of the fight. I’d say the odds are very much in your favor and while that sounds great and all, the only problem is that this feature cannot be disabled. While this may be good for newcomers or people that are just looking for a good time, as a seasoned fan, this takes away the challenge and sense of accomplishment I might have had had I done it by my own merits.
Considerations
Being the fourth installment of an already niche franchise, it’s no secret that this game was specially made with long-time fans in mind and that alone can make it harder to recommend. Luckily, No More Heroes 1, 2 and Travis Strikes Again are all available on Steam and Nintendo Switch, so you can decide whether the game is for you before going into this one.
The game clocks at around 20h total for main story, which I think is good, and despite experiencing some performance issues, such as glaring texture, object rendering issues and occasional slow downs, that did not compromise any of my enjoyment.
Whether this may, or not, be the last of Travis Touchdown’s adventure, the finale reassures us that the No More Heroes franchise itself has no intentions of going anywhere anytime soon and I look forward to whatever comes next!
