No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

released on Jan 26, 2010

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle continues the tale of punk anti-hero Travis Touchdown, the Japanese anime Otaku, and pro wrestling-obsessed assassin. Travis finds himself at the bottom of the UAA (United Assassins Association) rankings and must wage war to become the No. 1 assassin once again. The follow-up to the popular No More Heroes will offer fans infectious, fun gameplay that allows you to wield not just one, but two swords and face multiple bosses simultaneously in bigger-than-ever boss battles.


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No More Heroes 2 is a strange beast.

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

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

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

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

No esta mal, y me gustan algunos cambios a la jugabilidad del primero, pero deja a deber en los jefes, y varios enemigos se me hicieron molestos.

Weaker than NMH in all aspects, besides graphics and MAYBE combat. Even so, PEAK game.

Una evolución bastante notoria de las mecánicas del primer juego, incluso siento que fueron mejoradas además de la inclusión de diferentes armas lo hicieron bastante ameno de jugar... Pero no todo es color de rosa.

Lamentablemente, Desperate Struggle tiene los jefes más olvidables de la franquicia y una re-escritura de Travis Touchdown que no venía al caso.

Pudo haber sido 100000% veces mejor que hubieran esperado años más en sacar una secuela pero ya escrita por Suda.

more like No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle to be a good sequel lmao

Pra um jogo que não foi dirigido pelo Suda, até que ele é bem massa e mantém a essência com suas discussões interessantes escondidas por trás de boss fights extremamente malucas e engraçadas. A história não é tão boa quanto a do primeiro, mas continua legal, e a gameplay tb melhorou. Só o loop dela que não, mas enfim