It's been 11 years since the last main No More Heroes game, and two years since the spin-off, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes. While many longtime fans, myself included, wanted a proper third entry in 2019, Travis Strikes Again was a nice detour, setting up story beats that would eventually coalesce into No More Heroes III.
Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda51's latest adventure are pretty much exactly what longtime fans have been asking for, for better or worse. It has the same fun gameplay, wacky characters, inventive boss fights, and fun writing. At the same time, it still has the same issues that plagued the first entry back in 2007.
No More Heroes III Review: Same Goodness and Same Flaws
No More Heroes III is set in a fictional representation of California called Santa Destroy, following the events of Travis Strikes Again. You'll have to at least play this game to have some semblance of understanding the few opening scenes here.
Things start with a heartfelt interaction between a young boy named Damon and a little alien named Fu. After Fu leaves Earth, he and Damon reunite years later, both grown up. However, Fu becomes murderous and bent on planetary destruction. He then returns to Earth and Santa Destroy, which brings Travis Touchdown into the picture.
Travis kills an alien and inadvertently joins Fu's Assassin Ranking Tournament; It turns out that the alien was in 10th place in the tournament. From then on, Travis must eliminate the next 9 members of the tournament leaderboard, with Fu holding the top spot.
The story isn't very deep, but that's due to the ridiculousness of all the characters.
The same high-octane fun you've come to expect
The bosses, in particular, are an absolute delight. They all have distinct personalities, although you don't have a lot of time to get to know them. At most, there are only a few cutscenes of them interacting with Fu.
These fights have unique formats; Sometimes the game mechanics can change completely, with some even being copied and pasted from other well-known real-life games, such as turn-based RPGs or first-person horror. As such, each boss fight is incredibly memorable and fun.
Gameplay outside of these fights is largely unchanged from No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2. It's real-time action, and you use Travis' katana beam to slice through enemies. After depleting an enemy's HP gauge, you can either flick the right stick or swing the Joy-Cons in the direction shown on screen to perform a finishing move.
If you dodge an enemy's attack at the last moment, you'll slow down time and be able to unleash your anger on them. You'll often face enemies in groups, but Travis can only really fight one-on-one. What's frustrating here is that you'll get hit by an off-screen enemy's attack very often, and there's no warning if or when that happens. If Travis is knocked down, it will take time for him to get back up.
A new addition is the Death Glove, which Travis can use to perform special attacks. From time to time, you'll need to recharge Travis' beam katana battery in a masturbatory fashion, or if you manage to stun an enemy, you can use his grappling moves to suplex them and recover your battery energy.
At the end of each fight, you'll receive materials that you can use to craft chips that Travis can equip to enhance his passive abilities. You'll also earn skill points, called World's End SuperNova (WESN), which you can use to invest in Travis' stats and learn new moves along his skill tree.
Although a bummer is that there isn't a wider range of beam katanas. In previous entries, you can get new blades either by purchasing them or through story events. As far as I know, this has been replaced by the new catch-all stats system.
The daily life of an otaku
Before you can take on a boss, you must pay a fee. While driving around Santa Destroy and its surroundings, you can do odd jobs like mowing lawns, sinking toilets, or mining minerals in exchange for currency, called UtopiCoin.
You must also participate in a certain number of designated fights. These are just points on the map where you're taken to a battlefield to fight enemies, and these offer more substantial rewards than odd jobs.
Unfortunately, you have to repeat this same process for each chapter of the game before any boss fights. It gets pretty repetitive after a while.
What's really evident as you roam the open world doing these mundane tasks is how empty it truly is. Each area is sparsely populated and honestly doesn't seem very busy at all. It doesn't help that almost all the NPCs look the same and their voices are in a garbled speech pattern like those in Animal Crossing. But unlike the NPCs in this game, those in No More Heroes III simply have no personality.
It feels like the open world is just an obstacle between moving from place to place. The main characters and their models look good, but everything else is pretty ugly. The low resolution environmental textures just aren't fun to look at either. It's even worse when playing in the Switch's handheld mode. There are also very jarring noises from bushes, streetlights, and other random objects.
On the other hand, I love the aesthetics of the game when it comes to its user interface and transitions. There are side adventures that feature Travis' interactions like those in the Metal Gear Solid Codec screen. The menus have that retro 8-bit style that incorporates elements of a vaporwave look, similar to something like Paradise Killer. There's also an anime opening whenever you enter the game's next chapter after beating a boss, as well as a loading screen inspired by the "next episode in 3...2...1." from Netflix.
The game's soundtrack is also excellent. You can hear soothing beach music as you explore Santa Destroy, or rock out to epic rock tunes played during boss fights. Musical Chairs is a sweet and sexy R&B song that fits perfectly into any contemporary playlist. My favorite is the rap song, ITADAKIMASU, which plays whenever you visit the Sushi Shop to eat food and get temporary buffs for the battle. It's a bit of a stretch considering you're only eating sushi, but it fits the goofy tone the No More Heroes franchise is known for.
The writing and character dialogue is just as juvenile as previous entries, which is great because it's full of raunchy humor and non-stop swearing. The game also introduces new characters and a few twists here and there. Although some of them are predictable, they are nonetheless entertaining and enjoyable.
No More Heroes III Review – The Result
Advantages:
- Fun gameplay and unique boss fights
- Excellent soundtrack and UI aesthetics
- Funny writing and interesting characters
The inconvenients:
- Really ugly environmental graphics, especially in handheld mode
- Shallow open world
- Tasks related to raising sufficient funds can seem very repetitive after a few chapters of
No More Heroes III is much the same. This game feels a decade old and like it was made for its most hardcore fans. It has the same charm, humor and fun gameplay, but also the same issues, mainly the terribly boring open world and repetitive structure.
Those who have played the previous two main games will know exactly what to expect here in No More Heroes III. There's not much evolution between them and that, and maybe there isn't a need for it. But I still wish the game had matured a bit more with its audience after all these years.
[Note: Grasshopper Manufacture provided the copy of No More Heroes III used for this review.]
