The people who were around for the original punk movement and its derivatives are in their 60s, 70s, or even 80s now - isn't that crazy? My own dad, in his 60s himself, loves to remind me that he was actually there for Buzzcocks, The Clash, and Sex Pistols. His crown jewel "I was there" story is that he saw Diego Maradona score his first ever international goal at Hampden Park and then walked down the road to see Joy Division play their one and only gig in Glasgow later that day. Imagine living through that! When I go to a hometown gig and see a grey-haired dude or two hanging around the bar area, leaning on a walking stick or trying to sneak a breather, it's a surreal reminder that the ranks of "the older generation" are quickly being filled with people who raged against the machine before it was even a band. It's fun to imagine what these folks were like when they were young - what passions and dreams they held. How do I relate myself to them, and what do they have left to relate to me?
I'm not going so far as to say that Goichi Suda and his collaborators are synonymous with the occassional old men I see propping up the bar at their local PVSSYC#NT DIY show or Buzzcocks revival tour-stop, but the long-time staff at Grasshopper are, despite their pseudo-punk status, among the elder statesmen of game developers. Suda 51 has credits on 40 games that are spanned across three decades (will he retire at 51 games and release "The Suda 51 Games Collection"?!) and outside of secretive Nintendo legends like Miyamoto and Tezuka, I can't think of many individual game designers who are sitting on such broad production prestige and history. Travis Strikes Again, is, to my mind, the equivalent of one of those old greybeards finally sitting you down at a table in the beer-soaked venue and telling you all about their good old days stories - and how they're going to try and start a new band, too, of course.
It can feel somewhat ridiculous to attribute any video game to a single creator - as people often do with Suda - but Travis Strikes Again seems well aware of this, with frequent acknowledgements of the collaborative sacrifices that game developers make to create something that's either theirs or another's. It may feel unfair to the programmers and artists and guys who man the Twitter accounts, but I feel that it's imperative for games with "independent" spirit to continue transmitting truly single-personal perspectives in response to amorphous commitee-led industry dominators like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed, and one of the only ways to tell a personal story is to focus it on one person - often the writer, or the director. Or the guy who is both. And the guy who is both in this case has an interesting life story (that's still in development, sorry) that I'd like to hear.
Despite speaking so highly of Suda (and Grasshopper) here, I'd say it's fair to say that it's rare that I outright love any of the many games they've made. There's always some glaring, punishing flaw or Duchampian aggression against the status quo that just reminds me too much that I'm wasting precious time. Time-wasting feels like a trait that's almost exclusively reserved for video games, and perhaps it's a unique aspect of the medium that Suda just loves to take advantage of time and time again to differentiate his work from that of a movie or painting or book. But I don't often appreciate it! And while it's nowhere near as brain-mummifiying as The 25th Ward or FSR, Travis Strikes Again still likes to hold up your clock. It feels to me like the game is hamstrung by a perceived need to offer value for money - despite its attempts to stand apart as a genuine art-piece of personal history, it's still constrained on some level by a desire to be a consumable product that people can "get their $40 from" and put 6/10 or 4/5 star ratings or whatever against in a games magazine or website or review blog. It fills its levels with stuff that simply doesn't need to be there, feeling like a guitar solo that goes on too long. But that's punk, right?
The greatest artwork-transgressor is likely the combat itself. While surprisingly strategic and satisfying at times (especially in the later levels), it eventually boils down to the same patterns/plays as always, and ultimately serves as an overbearing obstacle that stands in the way of getting more personal insights and pseudohistorical musings from the remembering minds at Grasshopper. Golden Dragon GP and Killer Marathon are probably the most enjoyable Death Balls in the collection due to the generous ways they interrupt the monotony of streets of raging/geometry warsing across Pac-Man mazes, and I kinda wish the game had been a minigame collection that homaged the different Grasshopper genres. It might have been even better if Travis had just peacefully walked round an Unreal Engine recreation of Suda's headspace and history in a manner not unlike Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective; the game is at its best when it's just sharing its secrets and fun with you.
It's cute that the Serious Moonlight section bills itself as a Shadows of the Damned mini-sequel, but how fun would it have been if they're actually tried to emulate that game's feel, even superficially? C'mon! It's Unreal! The engine that everyone and everything uses for TPS action! (Given how much this game honours Unreal Engine/Tournament, it's a shame that Travis hasn't flossed his way into Fortnite yet) Perhaps too much to ask of our developers, but I honestly feel like there's a human limit to how much mindless swinging of a beam katana one can do while waiting for their clinch super move to charge back up. I went to the UK National Video Games Museum recently, and it proved to me that there's genuine value in getting people to experience gaming history by actually playing those games in quick, sequential succession. I think an Any% playthrough of Grasshopper's entire history is maybe what Vicarious/Grasshopper wanted for Travis Strikes Again, but probably didn't have time to do. Again, video games continue to take away our time in ways other artworks don't quite manage...
It's interesting to parallel this game with something like this year's Iwata Asks book - Iwata's auto/biography has some insightful stories and letters, but doesn't truly bear any of the guy's emotion or soul much beyond vague pleasantries like "I respect the developers at Nintendo" and "Shigeru Miyamoto was my friend". Suda, by contrast, seems more than willing to (sparsely) share his silver threads of thought, often in ways that can be uncomfortable for players - the infamous "the CEO of EA is a woman-beating piece of shit because he didn't let me make my high-concept AAA RPG game wacky enough" is an ugly piece of thinly-veiled thought from Suda, but it's preferable to the Nintendo CEO's polite corporate mannerisming. If video games really want to take that next artistic step, they do need the space to let out some of the ugly problematic thoughts inside our heads (the need to "burn sadness like life-giving fuel" as Travis surprisingly says), and I feel like Travis Strikes Again is moving things in the right direction. This is arguably an art-therapy session for these old boys.
At its core, I guess that's what Travis Strikes Again is. Something that's kinda ugly and protracted and painful, but undeniably worthwhile by virtue of its willingness to be earnestly personal and transgressive. A game that isn't so much about the act of playing the game itself, but more focused on the process of putting your brain against a gamepad to see inside someone else's brain on the other side of the cartridge. It's been a long road to this point, and there's still a long way to go, but they'll keep going. 10 hours of video games a day.
In the human world,
the time for games has ended.
Nothing binds us now.
I'm not going so far as to say that Goichi Suda and his collaborators are synonymous with the occassional old men I see propping up the bar at their local PVSSYC#NT DIY show or Buzzcocks revival tour-stop, but the long-time staff at Grasshopper are, despite their pseudo-punk status, among the elder statesmen of game developers. Suda 51 has credits on 40 games that are spanned across three decades (will he retire at 51 games and release "The Suda 51 Games Collection"?!) and outside of secretive Nintendo legends like Miyamoto and Tezuka, I can't think of many individual game designers who are sitting on such broad production prestige and history. Travis Strikes Again, is, to my mind, the equivalent of one of those old greybeards finally sitting you down at a table in the beer-soaked venue and telling you all about their good old days stories - and how they're going to try and start a new band, too, of course.
It can feel somewhat ridiculous to attribute any video game to a single creator - as people often do with Suda - but Travis Strikes Again seems well aware of this, with frequent acknowledgements of the collaborative sacrifices that game developers make to create something that's either theirs or another's. It may feel unfair to the programmers and artists and guys who man the Twitter accounts, but I feel that it's imperative for games with "independent" spirit to continue transmitting truly single-personal perspectives in response to amorphous commitee-led industry dominators like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed, and one of the only ways to tell a personal story is to focus it on one person - often the writer, or the director. Or the guy who is both. And the guy who is both in this case has an interesting life story (that's still in development, sorry) that I'd like to hear.
Despite speaking so highly of Suda (and Grasshopper) here, I'd say it's fair to say that it's rare that I outright love any of the many games they've made. There's always some glaring, punishing flaw or Duchampian aggression against the status quo that just reminds me too much that I'm wasting precious time. Time-wasting feels like a trait that's almost exclusively reserved for video games, and perhaps it's a unique aspect of the medium that Suda just loves to take advantage of time and time again to differentiate his work from that of a movie or painting or book. But I don't often appreciate it! And while it's nowhere near as brain-mummifiying as The 25th Ward or FSR, Travis Strikes Again still likes to hold up your clock. It feels to me like the game is hamstrung by a perceived need to offer value for money - despite its attempts to stand apart as a genuine art-piece of personal history, it's still constrained on some level by a desire to be a consumable product that people can "get their $40 from" and put 6/10 or 4/5 star ratings or whatever against in a games magazine or website or review blog. It fills its levels with stuff that simply doesn't need to be there, feeling like a guitar solo that goes on too long. But that's punk, right?
The greatest artwork-transgressor is likely the combat itself. While surprisingly strategic and satisfying at times (especially in the later levels), it eventually boils down to the same patterns/plays as always, and ultimately serves as an overbearing obstacle that stands in the way of getting more personal insights and pseudohistorical musings from the remembering minds at Grasshopper. Golden Dragon GP and Killer Marathon are probably the most enjoyable Death Balls in the collection due to the generous ways they interrupt the monotony of streets of raging/geometry warsing across Pac-Man mazes, and I kinda wish the game had been a minigame collection that homaged the different Grasshopper genres. It might have been even better if Travis had just peacefully walked round an Unreal Engine recreation of Suda's headspace and history in a manner not unlike Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective; the game is at its best when it's just sharing its secrets and fun with you.
It's cute that the Serious Moonlight section bills itself as a Shadows of the Damned mini-sequel, but how fun would it have been if they're actually tried to emulate that game's feel, even superficially? C'mon! It's Unreal! The engine that everyone and everything uses for TPS action! (Given how much this game honours Unreal Engine/Tournament, it's a shame that Travis hasn't flossed his way into Fortnite yet) Perhaps too much to ask of our developers, but I honestly feel like there's a human limit to how much mindless swinging of a beam katana one can do while waiting for their clinch super move to charge back up. I went to the UK National Video Games Museum recently, and it proved to me that there's genuine value in getting people to experience gaming history by actually playing those games in quick, sequential succession. I think an Any% playthrough of Grasshopper's entire history is maybe what Vicarious/Grasshopper wanted for Travis Strikes Again, but probably didn't have time to do. Again, video games continue to take away our time in ways other artworks don't quite manage...
It's interesting to parallel this game with something like this year's Iwata Asks book - Iwata's auto/biography has some insightful stories and letters, but doesn't truly bear any of the guy's emotion or soul much beyond vague pleasantries like "I respect the developers at Nintendo" and "Shigeru Miyamoto was my friend". Suda, by contrast, seems more than willing to (sparsely) share his silver threads of thought, often in ways that can be uncomfortable for players - the infamous "the CEO of EA is a woman-beating piece of shit because he didn't let me make my high-concept AAA RPG game wacky enough" is an ugly piece of thinly-veiled thought from Suda, but it's preferable to the Nintendo CEO's polite corporate mannerisming. If video games really want to take that next artistic step, they do need the space to let out some of the ugly problematic thoughts inside our heads (the need to "burn sadness like life-giving fuel" as Travis surprisingly says), and I feel like Travis Strikes Again is moving things in the right direction. This is arguably an art-therapy session for these old boys.
At its core, I guess that's what Travis Strikes Again is. Something that's kinda ugly and protracted and painful, but undeniably worthwhile by virtue of its willingness to be earnestly personal and transgressive. A game that isn't so much about the act of playing the game itself, but more focused on the process of putting your brain against a gamepad to see inside someone else's brain on the other side of the cartridge. It's been a long road to this point, and there's still a long way to go, but they'll keep going. 10 hours of video games a day.
In the human world,
the time for games has ended.
Nothing binds us now.
a fun artistic outlook on what it means to be a creator, player, and hell, even yourself. i cant think of any other game this personal and emotional metacontexually that reflects its creator’s ambitions, struggles, and views. it’s a game about games but unlike nmh1, it travels deeper into the workings of what games represent and the process of making them, rather than embracing itself as a video game and the tropes that go along with that (not knocking nmh1 for this btw, big aspect of that game i love). each death drive game is bursting at the seams with creativity; remaining fresh yet faithful to its inspirations. they all contribute something meaningful to the overall plot and ideas. i love the one that straight up jukes you out, placing you in an unfinished unreal engine world where you can see vast floating terrain in the empty white skybox anticipating your eventual adventure, only to be thrown out of the game before you can even begin to ponder what awaits in the white void. sometimes shit just doesnt see the light of day. Fax received from K. travis strikes back got me sentimental when presented with shadowy figures of [kill] the past. here we’re cleaning up the mess of someone else’s past, forming our own future in the process. games as self expression, a hobby, past time, an inspiration, an escape.
some other things to note would include the gameplay which i honestly found to be pretty fun throughout, while not as integrated into the story as the previous games it’s some simple fun i can fuck with without a whole lot of thought. i adore the soundtrack, boasting popping hiphop and drumbeats that keep your head banging and thumbs wagging. welcome to hell being one of my favorites having sampled johnson’s japanese rap from sotd. the ktp/sudaverse references were also a pleasure as always. tho anyone who tells you “you need to be a true suda fan to like tsa!” is gatekeeping lol, this game is perfectly enjoyable to people who just like seeing travis touchdown get into his comedically serious lightsaber slashing adventures as usual.
theres things here i don’t completely vibe with but i really respect TSA in regards for what it does and its celebratory nature. the visual and sound design strike all the right cords with me. this marks the end of my kill the past journey (until october 11 at least) and it couldn’t have ended on a better note. a note whose sound will continue to play in my mind for years to come.
some other things to note would include the gameplay which i honestly found to be pretty fun throughout, while not as integrated into the story as the previous games it’s some simple fun i can fuck with without a whole lot of thought. i adore the soundtrack, boasting popping hiphop and drumbeats that keep your head banging and thumbs wagging. welcome to hell being one of my favorites having sampled johnson’s japanese rap from sotd. the ktp/sudaverse references were also a pleasure as always. tho anyone who tells you “you need to be a true suda fan to like tsa!” is gatekeeping lol, this game is perfectly enjoyable to people who just like seeing travis touchdown get into his comedically serious lightsaber slashing adventures as usual.
theres things here i don’t completely vibe with but i really respect TSA in regards for what it does and its celebratory nature. the visual and sound design strike all the right cords with me. this marks the end of my kill the past journey (until october 11 at least) and it couldn’t have ended on a better note. a note whose sound will continue to play in my mind for years to come.
this game is echoing in the dephts of my mind for a long time.
it's both a letter of love from a passionate gamer, a letter of hate from a creator limited by big corporations and most important, a reminder that killing your past is not only an act of moving foward but also an act of respect: your past is what made you the way you are, even if you change, you only change because of who you were. if you gonna kill it, do it with dignity.
it's a game about killing our own heroes, our own projects and our own dreams, but also building a future to new heroes, new projects and new dreams. absolutely beautiful and introspective work of art.
it's both a letter of love from a passionate gamer, a letter of hate from a creator limited by big corporations and most important, a reminder that killing your past is not only an act of moving foward but also an act of respect: your past is what made you the way you are, even if you change, you only change because of who you were. if you gonna kill it, do it with dignity.
it's a game about killing our own heroes, our own projects and our own dreams, but also building a future to new heroes, new projects and new dreams. absolutely beautiful and introspective work of art.
If TSA has millions of fans I am one of them. If TSA has ten fans I am one of them. If TSA has only one fan and that is me. If TSA has no fans, that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against TSA, I am against the world.
a love letter filled with anthrax
It's hard to talk about these fucking games dude. Like, really hard. Like, really REALLY hard. Not even just because they can be very complex and full of themes that practically anybody can sink their teeth into, but because I love these games so, so fucking much. Kill The Past has practically done fucking everything for me! It's given me super stylish UI's, funny and funky ass humor with loads of swearing, and like, insanely good ass meta shit. Suda really said "aight I haven't directed a game in a while so i'ma make something small scale" and then proceeds to make the most personal game of his entire career, using tons of symbolism to detail the ups and downs of the game industry through Travis and Dr. Juvenile while also furthering Travis even more as a character, making him wiser and a bit less of an asshole. Still an ass but sliiightly less. And what he says to Juvenile before they fight is so fucking gooood dude like FUCK. IT PERFECTLY ENCAPSULATES THE ENTIRE FUCKING REASON I LOVE ART AND MEDIA IN THE FIRST PLACE, LEARNING ABOUT THE ARTISTS THROUGH THEIR ART AND SHIT, LIKE, THEIR STYLISTIC SENSIBILITIES AND THEIR INFLUENCES IN EVERY FUCKIN FACET OF THE PIECE ITSELF. It just goes so fucking hard and that was kinda the moment I went "Damn. This game is fucking insane." Also the bit at the end where it's the goddamn training from NMH3 and Travis is like "DUDE! GET THE FUCK OUT WE'RE IN GODDAMN DEVELOPMENT!" What other fucking games have this kinda shit? Fucking, beautiful game. Absolutely fucking beautiful.
replaying this game for the first time since having legitimately played the larger kill the past series is a magical thing. a love letter to the art of video games, a condemnation of games as nothing more than a commercial product, and a plotline that reveals that kamui uehara likes strawberry milkshakes a lot. also, gundam. so much fucking gundam here!!!!
Over the very few of Suda's games I've played, he's resonated with me much more as a humorist than as a game designer. Grasshopper Manufacture Presents: Travis Strikes Again - An Unreal Engine Experience seems like a perfect vehicle for his comedic stylings, cruising through a mishmash of half-baked ideas with a protagonist who's just self aware enough to straddle the line between thinly-veiled industry satire and unintentional self-deprecation. The art team's dedication to constantly changing up the visuals also helps this premise, in fact I'd be privy to label it as mixed media at this point. Live action, magazine print ads, (both PS2- and PS3- era!) low-poly CG, in-motion manga, and the always hilarious early home computer visual novel. These homages go a long way to break up the often monotonous gameplay, but that's the main problem. Like in the rest of Travis's noble quests, the combat here is just barely passable, this time carried by the rush meter, which increases in power if you avoid getting hit in between uses. Trying to maximize the number of level 3 rushes you get serves as a nice self-imposed challenge that works towards balancing out the otherwise low difficulty, but that's only a small issue in the grand scheme. The bigger unfried fish is what should've been a slam dunk for the game, variety. The changes in linearity, or camera angles, or light puzzle elements from game to game don't affect the baseline in any meaningful way, and as a result individual games don't feel like they have much of an identity. Humor, too, feels largely independent of gameplay context, instead being almost entirely contained in the dialogue. The first No More Heroes had Travis out of breath when running for more than a few seconds, motorcycle crashes that took way too long to get back up from, weightlifting that physically hurt your fingers from the button mashing required. Acts that were humorous in context because they were normal, even serving to point out the absurdity of the main character having assassin work on his daily to-do list. There's infinite possibilities based on the premise, but pretty much none of the humor in Travis Strikes Again stems from anything that happens to the player. At one point, Travis objects to being part of a visual novel, fearing that even briefly interrupting the normal hack-and-slash action would lead to disappointed gamers, even namedropping the dreaded Metacritic user score. It's a good thing nobody knows about this site yet, because he'd find at least one here, albeit for the exact opposite reason.
Travis Strikes Again is basically The Avengers for the kind of ultra-dork who owns the physical Silver Case PC collector's edition, still has the Lollipop Chainsaw pre-order bonus installed, and watched subtitled playthroughs of Twilight Syndrome on YouTube before playing any other Kill The Past games (me. it's me). I feel absolutely nothing when Sephiroth or Persona 5 kid is announced for Smash Bros but when Kusabi appears for a <2-minute unnamed cameo I start hooting and hollering like a drunk cowboy. The worst thing about this game is that it doesn't end with Badman asking Travis to lend him 50,000 yen.
Before playing TSA, I tried machine-translating the prequel novella named Killer Is Dead (no relation), and while it mostly came out as gibberish, it did give me a peak Suda-ism that I would like to immortalize in this review:
"Harley Quinn is the best philosophy. It's the Bible of our time."
Love ya, Grasshopper Manufacture.
Before playing TSA, I tried machine-translating the prequel novella named Killer Is Dead (no relation), and while it mostly came out as gibberish, it did give me a peak Suda-ism that I would like to immortalize in this review:
"Harley Quinn is the best philosophy. It's the Bible of our time."
Love ya, Grasshopper Manufacture.
"It's just a spinoff" copers have to play this to understand NMH3 now which is badass. TSA fans win. Everyone who dropped this will never understand what it felt like to hear "B-O-S-S. UNTIL I FUCKING DIE" blasting out of your speakers for the first time. But I dunno where the fuck I be from, I cannot believe what the fuck I have become pull up pull up pull up I be running wild
Unrivaled soul
Unrivaled soul
For anyone who follows Suda 51, it's obvious that he puts much of himself and his life experiences into his own work. His games are filled with paralels to himself, his thoughts, ideas, opinions, and everything else inbetween, creating a very distinct series of games that are not only intertwined by a common theme (The past) but also by Suda.
Travis Strikes Again is the most blatant example of this dynamic, putting Suda directly into the shoes of Travis Touchdown, a once rising star in the world of assassins, now a washed up and reclusive hermit jaded by his previous existence.
TSA is steeped in love for the primitive and wild west origins of videogames that Suda was lucky to be a part of, recontextualized through the modern indie scene that revitalized not only the uncharted territory of the videogame creation process, but Suda himself.
TSA is a myriad of references, introspections, observations and jabs at Suda's past work and his participation in the creation of those, constructing a surprisingly heartfelt and personal redemption arc for both Travis Touchdown and Suda.
To accomplish this feat, TSA is presented as a indie looking top view hack n' slash beat em up reminiscent of old school arcade titles, where Travis goes inside a videogame console to fight through stages and bosses of videogames he played at an early age and that made him the man he is now, this too interconnected with Suda's past.
The gameplay itself isnt anything worthy of writing home about, it gives you just enough to be entertained all the way through its length and provides a nice challenge to overcome. Of all the Suda action oriented games, it's probably the least interesting one gameplay-wise, functioning more so as an intersection between the the narrative meat of the game.
But if you have played Suda games before, you know that the gameplay is never the main focus of the experience, but a vehicle for something greater than the sum of its parts. And to be able to fully appreciate this title, you have to be already invested in the Suda 51 canon. Otherwise, this game might not speak much to you, understandably so.
A fantastic transitional step for Suda, and im looking forward for what's next to come.
Travis Strikes Again is the most blatant example of this dynamic, putting Suda directly into the shoes of Travis Touchdown, a once rising star in the world of assassins, now a washed up and reclusive hermit jaded by his previous existence.
TSA is steeped in love for the primitive and wild west origins of videogames that Suda was lucky to be a part of, recontextualized through the modern indie scene that revitalized not only the uncharted territory of the videogame creation process, but Suda himself.
TSA is a myriad of references, introspections, observations and jabs at Suda's past work and his participation in the creation of those, constructing a surprisingly heartfelt and personal redemption arc for both Travis Touchdown and Suda.
To accomplish this feat, TSA is presented as a indie looking top view hack n' slash beat em up reminiscent of old school arcade titles, where Travis goes inside a videogame console to fight through stages and bosses of videogames he played at an early age and that made him the man he is now, this too interconnected with Suda's past.
The gameplay itself isnt anything worthy of writing home about, it gives you just enough to be entertained all the way through its length and provides a nice challenge to overcome. Of all the Suda action oriented games, it's probably the least interesting one gameplay-wise, functioning more so as an intersection between the the narrative meat of the game.
But if you have played Suda games before, you know that the gameplay is never the main focus of the experience, but a vehicle for something greater than the sum of its parts. And to be able to fully appreciate this title, you have to be already invested in the Suda 51 canon. Otherwise, this game might not speak much to you, understandably so.
A fantastic transitional step for Suda, and im looking forward for what's next to come.
Suda at his most raw and realest, fumbled by bog standard gameplay
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a hack and slash/adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture in 2019 with a PC and PS4 version released later that year. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes sadly downgrades the gameplay yet manages to bring some of Suda51's best writing and making this his most personal game yet and manages to be a love letter to his fans and surprisingly the indie game space in general.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes biggest strength is the writing, references and personal introspective on Suda51's general thoughts about the gaming world and his struggles as a developer during the years. The game is divided into two main segments: the hack and slash top down gameplay that takes up a majority of the game and a separate entity called Travis Strikes Back which consists of visual novel elements and manages to bring the best out Suda51's eccentric writing and probably him at his most self aware. The writing here is funny, smart and makes sense in the universe he created and manages to mash his various titles well here. There is also a lot of callbacks and references to his previous games so you'd definitely get more out of this if you played his previous works. The game also feels like a small celebration of the indie game space with the references to a surprisingly huge variety of indie games that even I didn't expect to see here.
Sadly one department here suffers a fair bit and that's the overall flow of gameplay and the gameplay itself in the hack and slash portion which is a huge portion of the game. General controls is that you have a light attack that you essentially always hold down while moving and does light damage while you have an heavy attack which is obviously slower but does more damage. You also have a variety of skills that function as special attacks and abilities you can use on a cooldown and you can equip up to four at a time. The main problems here is that the gameplay never really evolves past the first hour, the skill variety while nice is not enough to counteract the flow of gameplay to an extent, some enemy designs are very annoying to fight against and the overall design philosophy of how levels and encounters work via just going into a part of a room to be gated off until you defeat the enemies. The final level is also pretty tedious with the maze design and teleporting that doesn't feel necessary. For the most part, you're gonna be playing the same way on the first hour and the last unless you change skills and a small annoyance is the animation locking using certain attacks that make you pretty helpless in getting hit.
TSA is a smaller scale effort from Suda51 that manages to tell the player more about his life as a developer and what he thinks about than any other game so far. This is a must play for any Suda51 fan just for the writing and references alone but as a standalone title will probably leave a lot of things to be desired for most people. A very experimental title and a very personal one for Suda51 that he really wanted to share with the gaming community. Ten hours of gaming a day!
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a hack and slash/adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture in 2019 with a PC and PS4 version released later that year. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes sadly downgrades the gameplay yet manages to bring some of Suda51's best writing and making this his most personal game yet and manages to be a love letter to his fans and surprisingly the indie game space in general.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes biggest strength is the writing, references and personal introspective on Suda51's general thoughts about the gaming world and his struggles as a developer during the years. The game is divided into two main segments: the hack and slash top down gameplay that takes up a majority of the game and a separate entity called Travis Strikes Back which consists of visual novel elements and manages to bring the best out Suda51's eccentric writing and probably him at his most self aware. The writing here is funny, smart and makes sense in the universe he created and manages to mash his various titles well here. There is also a lot of callbacks and references to his previous games so you'd definitely get more out of this if you played his previous works. The game also feels like a small celebration of the indie game space with the references to a surprisingly huge variety of indie games that even I didn't expect to see here.
Sadly one department here suffers a fair bit and that's the overall flow of gameplay and the gameplay itself in the hack and slash portion which is a huge portion of the game. General controls is that you have a light attack that you essentially always hold down while moving and does light damage while you have an heavy attack which is obviously slower but does more damage. You also have a variety of skills that function as special attacks and abilities you can use on a cooldown and you can equip up to four at a time. The main problems here is that the gameplay never really evolves past the first hour, the skill variety while nice is not enough to counteract the flow of gameplay to an extent, some enemy designs are very annoying to fight against and the overall design philosophy of how levels and encounters work via just going into a part of a room to be gated off until you defeat the enemies. The final level is also pretty tedious with the maze design and teleporting that doesn't feel necessary. For the most part, you're gonna be playing the same way on the first hour and the last unless you change skills and a small annoyance is the animation locking using certain attacks that make you pretty helpless in getting hit.
TSA is a smaller scale effort from Suda51 that manages to tell the player more about his life as a developer and what he thinks about than any other game so far. This is a must play for any Suda51 fan just for the writing and references alone but as a standalone title will probably leave a lot of things to be desired for most people. A very experimental title and a very personal one for Suda51 that he really wanted to share with the gaming community. Ten hours of gaming a day!
Suda51 looked at the big boom of the Indie game renaissance we're going through right now and wanted to get in on that action, and he sure did succeed with what he set out to do.
But for real if I can't get Travis to wear his new purple jacket in NMH 3 I will kill someone.
But for real if I can't get Travis to wear his new purple jacket in NMH 3 I will kill someone.
A video game about making video games while showing love for video games but also the baggage that comes from making video games.
Suda's absolute masterpiece for putting himself out there in writing and showing his struggles and love for the industry he's put work into for decades now.
Everything from the bizarre levels, absolutely eccentric soundtrack, and writing that puts it at the top of Suda game. This game is a bizarrely bland but also engaging piece of work with some of the wildest choices I've seen in terms of aesthetics and references.
The gameplay definitely won't be for everyone and it definitely drags for too long in a few stages, but I'll tell you one thing:
The second DLC is one of the greatest pieces of gaming media ever created and drops this for a boss tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eemi8NrrPTE
Suda's absolute masterpiece for putting himself out there in writing and showing his struggles and love for the industry he's put work into for decades now.
Everything from the bizarre levels, absolutely eccentric soundtrack, and writing that puts it at the top of Suda game. This game is a bizarrely bland but also engaging piece of work with some of the wildest choices I've seen in terms of aesthetics and references.
The gameplay definitely won't be for everyone and it definitely drags for too long in a few stages, but I'll tell you one thing:
The second DLC is one of the greatest pieces of gaming media ever created and drops this for a boss tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eemi8NrrPTE
One of the strangest games ive played being oddly introspective on suda’s life in game development and also feels very indy
This review contains spoilers
"There's a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person," says Warren Spector, creator of Thief and Deus Ex. - IGN Staff, 2001
I may have ruined this one for myself, and that's the worst thing.
I bought Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes shortly after it came out. Not immediately after, as I was still knee-deep in exams, but a couple of months after. Just enough time for consensus to percolate on the game. And when I posted about beginning to play the game, that consensus was clear:
"You really should play The Silver Case, Flower Sun and Rain, and The 25th Ward if you want to get the most out of this."
And, somehow, I believed this completely ludicrous statement. And Travis Strikes Again sat on my shelf, waiting to be played, as I went through those three games one by one, as the expectations in my head for this game were built by the effusive words of those around me, until finally, just about a month ago, I finished The 25th Ward and sat down to play Travis Strikes Again. It's possible that the letdown was inevitable.
(incidentally, if you're anything like me in 2019, first of all, good luck, second of all, don't make my mistake, and just play this game. The Silver Cases and FSR are fabulous games well worth playing, far more so than this one for my money, but all you're really missing out on is references on par with that you'd find in a typical MCU film, and since I personally find that kind of indulgent key-jangling reference kind of annoying, I think knowing who Kurumizawa is, for example, actually made me like this game a bit less, because I understood how shallow the reference really was.)
Sorry. I got distracted. Where was I?
I have two fundamental issues with TSA. The first is how insubstantial it is. It's not like there aren't great things in this game: there are. But they take up so little of the experience in terms of sheer volume. Dialogue is sparse, and dialogue that actually hits is even sparser among that, and it really feels like so much of the game is trudging through treacle to reach those nuggets of gold. This game is far, far too long, easily twice the length it needed to be. If this was a 2-3 hour game, like so many of the referenced indie games that Grasshopper holds an obvious amount of affection for, I think I might love it. But as it stands, as a game that can last anywhere from 8-12 hours, it's hard to shake the feeling that so little of that time is spent experiencing things that are valuable and actually say anything that hits.
The problem with the gameplay is not necessarily that it is tedious. Tedious gameplay is not new to the No More Heroes series. The problem is that the gameplay here is not purposeful. Even if it was incredibly fun - I didn't find it to be so, personally - it would still have the same issue: the gameplay doesn't work with the story so much as just feel in the way of it: the almost never-changing gameplay loop sands down the supposed unique character between the games Travis is playing and makes me wonder what exactly he sees in them. I didn't learn much of anything about these games or about Travis through massacring hordes of identical bugmen, and the way the gameplay has almost no verbs apart from that leaves every game world feeling hollow and empty, without the capability to engage with these spaces as spaces, none of them feel appreciably different from each other, or, indeed, from the abstract maze that lies at the end of the game. It just felt perfunctory, obligatory, lacking any weight or purpose, or meaning.
And I could maybe tolerate this if the dialogue we were fighting through all this to reach was solid gold but most of the time it just isn't. The most demonstrative level for this issue is the much-discussed Serious Moonlight - which - as you already know, of course - is actually an extended reference to Shadows of the Damned. I say "reference to" rather than "sequel to" or "meditation on" because it's very hard for me to take seriously that this level says anything of major substance about that game or the development process behind it. The only thing even slightly aiming at that is the intro sequence where - according to someone on discord - Garcia Fucking Hotspur is killed by a prototype version of his character, from back when the game was called Kurayami. If I hadn't known that tidbit, I don't know if I would have intimated even slightly that this was a game Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture feel divided about, or, indeed, one that has been remembered pretty poorly. Because the rest of the level is just a love-in for the three or four Shadows of the Damned fans that exist. White Sheepman's musing's on the game are just factoids of things that happen in the game without any commentary that isn't just basic praise, and Travis won't stop talking about how cool Garcia is, and the premise of the entire level is that the genius auteur (we'll get back to this) Dr.Juvenile saw it in a dream and loved it so much she made a sequel to it before it even came out.
None of this is reacting to or engaging with the legacy of Shadows of the Damned as it actually existed: a financial disaster that got good reviews at the time but is remembered poorly if at all today, instead it mythologizes Shadows of the Damned as a misunderstood masterpiece with a cult following. There is no reflection on the game's outrageous misogyny, bad jokes, and disastrous development that resulted in a game that seemingly no one (except, apparently, Akira Yamaoka) involved wanted to make. I can see why, for people who have invested a huge amount into Suda, that know the history of Grasshopper Manufacture inside and out, that the mere presence of this level in this game can invite reflections on the ghost of Kurayami and what might have been, but the game doesn't inspire those thoughts on its own. It doesn't let me in.
There's no room for me here. There's only room for Grasshopper, and those so invested in them that they can fill in the myriad gaps TSA leaves behind.
Travis Strikes Again does not feel like a coherent, unified thesis on much of anything. It feels like a sketchbook, a collection of ideas, often evocative, enthralling ideas (god I cannot express how much I wish the game explored more deeply its brief flirtations with the intersection of US state violence and the videogame industry), that never congeal together into something that completely resonates. This is Grasshopper Manufacture's Unfinished Tales, or The Salmon of Doubt, posthumous writings from a period in their history they are drawing a line under here. And in the abstract, y'know, I like that. I like the sound of that.
I just wish I played this game sooner. I wish I played it in 2019, and not in 2021. Because times have changed, and I have too. And I can no longer simply take this game's musings with the earnest spirit with which they were so clearly intended.
If Travis Strikes Again has any coherent overriding theme, it is the concept of the Auteur. The real story we're experiencing here is Travis Touchdown exploring the work of legendary game developer Dr.Juvenile and beginning to feel like he can understand her through her games, until he comes face to face with her digital ghost, living on in the games, at the end. He is, essentially, doing an auteur reading on Juvenile and her games, bordering on psychoanalysis.
This is one of the most popular ways to read art, and is certainly the most popular way to read the games with Suda51's involvement. Nonetheless, it's something I try to avoid doing. The majority of games are a collaborative medium, with anywhere from a dozen to a hundred developers working on a game, each talented and creative people in their own right, and while I won't say that directors don't have an appreciable style that can't be gleaned from their work, the tendency to attribute a game to a single creative voice is something that I have always been cynical about and have completely turned against over the past two years.
How many Michel Ancels, how many Neil Druckmanns, how many John Carmacks, how many Chris Avellones or Jesse McCrees, how many David Cages do we have to see revealed to be toxic individuals who use the cult of personality around them to abuse their staff and wield their myth like a knife to harm those around them before we rid ourselves of the image of the genius auteur whose flaws only serve to highlight their impossible genius? How many more people in this industry have to be hurt before we rid ourselves of the specter of Dr.Juvenile?
When the games of the Death Drive Mk II are discussed, they are always discussed as Juvenile's games. The games are her vision, and anything that is not her vision was a compromise placed upon it by the restrictions of technology or moneymen or other outside forces impeding on her art. She wasn't a solo developer, for whom this claim might hold some water: we are explicitly told she had a team working with her, one that wanted to fulfill her vision. But what about their vision? Where are the Jun Fukadas, whose superb sound design is about all that makes the gameplay loop of TSA tolerable? The Ren Yamazakis, who is credited as co-director alongside Goichi Suda, yet I don't see anyone effusing about his return? The Hajime Kishiis, the Takashi Kasaharas? They aren't here. They exist, but their vision is not allowed to intrude upon these games. There is no space for anything else in them, no space for anyone else. They simply exist to attempt to fulfill Juvenile's creative vision, even when such creative vision is obscured in such a way we are encouraged to read as being emblematic of her ahead-of-the-curve genius, but reads less romantically as someone who was hopeless at managing projects and a nightmare to work under.
(there is one concrete person who worked with Juvenile on the games themselves that we encounter, and it's an, uh, interesting choice of TSA to use that character to characterize the degree to which EA meddled with the development of Shadows of the Damned as a man beating a woman to within an inch of her life. Real fucking classy, man. And, no, I don't think I'm being ungenerous with that read, given how close the game aligns itself with Juvenile and the fact that the character in question has the exact same name as John Riccitello, CEO of EA during Shadows' development, with a couple of letters changed in the first name, who has actually been accused of sexual harassment by a co-worker at Unity, which just compounds the grossness of this. I'm sorry Kurayami didn't turn out how you wanted. But that isn't the same as being physically abused by John Riccitello.)
I cannot buy into the narrative of Dr.Juvenile as an effusive genius ahead of her time because all I see when I look at her story is the uncritical recitation of a myth that has caused genuine, real harm to people. A myth that you would think that Grasshopper Manufacture would know better than to buy into, given how games with relatively little involvement from Suda51 have used his name to market games that would ultimately contribute to tanking the company's reputation in the eyes of all but the most dedicated fans. This doesn't mean my sympathy lies with the corporate moneymen either: what I want is a recognition of games (again, solo projects aside) as a team effort made my diverse voices performing genuine labour to will these impossible things, all the more special and characterful for their flaws, into life. And TSA just...doesn't.
I don't think this game is presenting this viewpoint maliciously, or deliberately, to be clear. But I think it is the result of this self-indulgent, uncritically reflective game that truly lacks the bite it really needs. It's not a terrible game. I'm glad it exists, despite all the shit I've talked about it here. And I admire and respect it greatly, in a certain way, and I completely understand the people for whom this game truly was a deeply meaningful experience. This would be a lesser medium if not for Travis Strikes Again. It's a masturbatory game, but I don't mean that entirely as negatively as the connotations of that word would imply. We all need to let off some steam every once in a while.
But you can't expect me to get much out of it.
I may have ruined this one for myself, and that's the worst thing.
I bought Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes shortly after it came out. Not immediately after, as I was still knee-deep in exams, but a couple of months after. Just enough time for consensus to percolate on the game. And when I posted about beginning to play the game, that consensus was clear:
"You really should play The Silver Case, Flower Sun and Rain, and The 25th Ward if you want to get the most out of this."
And, somehow, I believed this completely ludicrous statement. And Travis Strikes Again sat on my shelf, waiting to be played, as I went through those three games one by one, as the expectations in my head for this game were built by the effusive words of those around me, until finally, just about a month ago, I finished The 25th Ward and sat down to play Travis Strikes Again. It's possible that the letdown was inevitable.
(incidentally, if you're anything like me in 2019, first of all, good luck, second of all, don't make my mistake, and just play this game. The Silver Cases and FSR are fabulous games well worth playing, far more so than this one for my money, but all you're really missing out on is references on par with that you'd find in a typical MCU film, and since I personally find that kind of indulgent key-jangling reference kind of annoying, I think knowing who Kurumizawa is, for example, actually made me like this game a bit less, because I understood how shallow the reference really was.)
Sorry. I got distracted. Where was I?
I have two fundamental issues with TSA. The first is how insubstantial it is. It's not like there aren't great things in this game: there are. But they take up so little of the experience in terms of sheer volume. Dialogue is sparse, and dialogue that actually hits is even sparser among that, and it really feels like so much of the game is trudging through treacle to reach those nuggets of gold. This game is far, far too long, easily twice the length it needed to be. If this was a 2-3 hour game, like so many of the referenced indie games that Grasshopper holds an obvious amount of affection for, I think I might love it. But as it stands, as a game that can last anywhere from 8-12 hours, it's hard to shake the feeling that so little of that time is spent experiencing things that are valuable and actually say anything that hits.
The problem with the gameplay is not necessarily that it is tedious. Tedious gameplay is not new to the No More Heroes series. The problem is that the gameplay here is not purposeful. Even if it was incredibly fun - I didn't find it to be so, personally - it would still have the same issue: the gameplay doesn't work with the story so much as just feel in the way of it: the almost never-changing gameplay loop sands down the supposed unique character between the games Travis is playing and makes me wonder what exactly he sees in them. I didn't learn much of anything about these games or about Travis through massacring hordes of identical bugmen, and the way the gameplay has almost no verbs apart from that leaves every game world feeling hollow and empty, without the capability to engage with these spaces as spaces, none of them feel appreciably different from each other, or, indeed, from the abstract maze that lies at the end of the game. It just felt perfunctory, obligatory, lacking any weight or purpose, or meaning.
And I could maybe tolerate this if the dialogue we were fighting through all this to reach was solid gold but most of the time it just isn't. The most demonstrative level for this issue is the much-discussed Serious Moonlight - which - as you already know, of course - is actually an extended reference to Shadows of the Damned. I say "reference to" rather than "sequel to" or "meditation on" because it's very hard for me to take seriously that this level says anything of major substance about that game or the development process behind it. The only thing even slightly aiming at that is the intro sequence where - according to someone on discord - Garcia Fucking Hotspur is killed by a prototype version of his character, from back when the game was called Kurayami. If I hadn't known that tidbit, I don't know if I would have intimated even slightly that this was a game Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture feel divided about, or, indeed, one that has been remembered pretty poorly. Because the rest of the level is just a love-in for the three or four Shadows of the Damned fans that exist. White Sheepman's musing's on the game are just factoids of things that happen in the game without any commentary that isn't just basic praise, and Travis won't stop talking about how cool Garcia is, and the premise of the entire level is that the genius auteur (we'll get back to this) Dr.Juvenile saw it in a dream and loved it so much she made a sequel to it before it even came out.
None of this is reacting to or engaging with the legacy of Shadows of the Damned as it actually existed: a financial disaster that got good reviews at the time but is remembered poorly if at all today, instead it mythologizes Shadows of the Damned as a misunderstood masterpiece with a cult following. There is no reflection on the game's outrageous misogyny, bad jokes, and disastrous development that resulted in a game that seemingly no one (except, apparently, Akira Yamaoka) involved wanted to make. I can see why, for people who have invested a huge amount into Suda, that know the history of Grasshopper Manufacture inside and out, that the mere presence of this level in this game can invite reflections on the ghost of Kurayami and what might have been, but the game doesn't inspire those thoughts on its own. It doesn't let me in.
There's no room for me here. There's only room for Grasshopper, and those so invested in them that they can fill in the myriad gaps TSA leaves behind.
Travis Strikes Again does not feel like a coherent, unified thesis on much of anything. It feels like a sketchbook, a collection of ideas, often evocative, enthralling ideas (god I cannot express how much I wish the game explored more deeply its brief flirtations with the intersection of US state violence and the videogame industry), that never congeal together into something that completely resonates. This is Grasshopper Manufacture's Unfinished Tales, or The Salmon of Doubt, posthumous writings from a period in their history they are drawing a line under here. And in the abstract, y'know, I like that. I like the sound of that.
I just wish I played this game sooner. I wish I played it in 2019, and not in 2021. Because times have changed, and I have too. And I can no longer simply take this game's musings with the earnest spirit with which they were so clearly intended.
If Travis Strikes Again has any coherent overriding theme, it is the concept of the Auteur. The real story we're experiencing here is Travis Touchdown exploring the work of legendary game developer Dr.Juvenile and beginning to feel like he can understand her through her games, until he comes face to face with her digital ghost, living on in the games, at the end. He is, essentially, doing an auteur reading on Juvenile and her games, bordering on psychoanalysis.
This is one of the most popular ways to read art, and is certainly the most popular way to read the games with Suda51's involvement. Nonetheless, it's something I try to avoid doing. The majority of games are a collaborative medium, with anywhere from a dozen to a hundred developers working on a game, each talented and creative people in their own right, and while I won't say that directors don't have an appreciable style that can't be gleaned from their work, the tendency to attribute a game to a single creative voice is something that I have always been cynical about and have completely turned against over the past two years.
How many Michel Ancels, how many Neil Druckmanns, how many John Carmacks, how many Chris Avellones or Jesse McCrees, how many David Cages do we have to see revealed to be toxic individuals who use the cult of personality around them to abuse their staff and wield their myth like a knife to harm those around them before we rid ourselves of the image of the genius auteur whose flaws only serve to highlight their impossible genius? How many more people in this industry have to be hurt before we rid ourselves of the specter of Dr.Juvenile?
When the games of the Death Drive Mk II are discussed, they are always discussed as Juvenile's games. The games are her vision, and anything that is not her vision was a compromise placed upon it by the restrictions of technology or moneymen or other outside forces impeding on her art. She wasn't a solo developer, for whom this claim might hold some water: we are explicitly told she had a team working with her, one that wanted to fulfill her vision. But what about their vision? Where are the Jun Fukadas, whose superb sound design is about all that makes the gameplay loop of TSA tolerable? The Ren Yamazakis, who is credited as co-director alongside Goichi Suda, yet I don't see anyone effusing about his return? The Hajime Kishiis, the Takashi Kasaharas? They aren't here. They exist, but their vision is not allowed to intrude upon these games. There is no space for anything else in them, no space for anyone else. They simply exist to attempt to fulfill Juvenile's creative vision, even when such creative vision is obscured in such a way we are encouraged to read as being emblematic of her ahead-of-the-curve genius, but reads less romantically as someone who was hopeless at managing projects and a nightmare to work under.
(there is one concrete person who worked with Juvenile on the games themselves that we encounter, and it's an, uh, interesting choice of TSA to use that character to characterize the degree to which EA meddled with the development of Shadows of the Damned as a man beating a woman to within an inch of her life. Real fucking classy, man. And, no, I don't think I'm being ungenerous with that read, given how close the game aligns itself with Juvenile and the fact that the character in question has the exact same name as John Riccitello, CEO of EA during Shadows' development, with a couple of letters changed in the first name, who has actually been accused of sexual harassment by a co-worker at Unity, which just compounds the grossness of this. I'm sorry Kurayami didn't turn out how you wanted. But that isn't the same as being physically abused by John Riccitello.)
I cannot buy into the narrative of Dr.Juvenile as an effusive genius ahead of her time because all I see when I look at her story is the uncritical recitation of a myth that has caused genuine, real harm to people. A myth that you would think that Grasshopper Manufacture would know better than to buy into, given how games with relatively little involvement from Suda51 have used his name to market games that would ultimately contribute to tanking the company's reputation in the eyes of all but the most dedicated fans. This doesn't mean my sympathy lies with the corporate moneymen either: what I want is a recognition of games (again, solo projects aside) as a team effort made my diverse voices performing genuine labour to will these impossible things, all the more special and characterful for their flaws, into life. And TSA just...doesn't.
I don't think this game is presenting this viewpoint maliciously, or deliberately, to be clear. But I think it is the result of this self-indulgent, uncritically reflective game that truly lacks the bite it really needs. It's not a terrible game. I'm glad it exists, despite all the shit I've talked about it here. And I admire and respect it greatly, in a certain way, and I completely understand the people for whom this game truly was a deeply meaningful experience. This would be a lesser medium if not for Travis Strikes Again. It's a masturbatory game, but I don't mean that entirely as negatively as the connotations of that word would imply. We all need to let off some steam every once in a while.
But you can't expect me to get much out of it.
We need more games to exist that are developers looking back at the work they've done up until now, their legacy, and the context they exist in within the video game industry. I don't think I've experienced a piece of media by a creator about how much they love the thing they do and the medium they create in but also how much they hate it at the same time due to things beyond their control and how it affects them emotionally. The toxic relationship of art and business. How something that brings you so much joy and inspiration can also hurt you so much.
The closest thing to this is a moment in the manga 'Goodnight Punpun' where the titular character Punpun is getting his manga pitch ripped apart by some idiot editor who completely missed the forest for the tree and is definitely based off some real jackass the author, Inio Asano, encountered when trying to get this manga made. Someone so stupid they couldn't see what Asano had there was one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever written.
Probably my favorite part of this game is where it feels like Suda, through travis, is talking about his legacy and how he hates that he has become seemingly reduced to the "wacky Japanese game dev guy who makes the boner jokes and game has titties" in a lot of peoples eyes. Just as Travis hates how everyone looks up to him or sees him as this legendary assassin. Seeing what Travis is and does as something desirable and not completely soul crushing. This game is one of the few pieces of art I've seen (only the second game to really touch on stuff like this, the other being The Beginners Guide) that really goes into that un-personing that can happen to an artist when people interact with their creations and take away completely different message than what they intended.
The biggest "baggage" so to speak about this game beyond the gameplay which i find: incredibly boring most of the time and actively headache inducing the rest of the time. Is that you need to play and know a lot of things about suda's previous works to get the most out of its story. You practicely have to be a Suda51 lore master or know someone who is or consult videos that chronical his journey as a creator. I can't really imagine what someone's takeaway from this game is if they only played No More Heroes 1 and 2 before this and don't know shit about suda as a creator. This game must be utter nonsense to them.
It is very much a tall order to go "hey you want to play this game well besides the two games in the series that come before it: you also need to at least play 6 other games not even including the games that aren't translated in English that are all loosely or directly in a connected universe, read 2 manga (one which also exists as a fangame) and do extensive wiki diving about these games' development to get the most out of this meta self referential introspection about a Director and his studio.
Would have rather it been solely a visual novel or whatever the hell you want to call 13 Sentinal's Remembrance section is. Cannot recommend this game enough, GOATed
The closest thing to this is a moment in the manga 'Goodnight Punpun' where the titular character Punpun is getting his manga pitch ripped apart by some idiot editor who completely missed the forest for the tree and is definitely based off some real jackass the author, Inio Asano, encountered when trying to get this manga made. Someone so stupid they couldn't see what Asano had there was one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever written.
Probably my favorite part of this game is where it feels like Suda, through travis, is talking about his legacy and how he hates that he has become seemingly reduced to the "wacky Japanese game dev guy who makes the boner jokes and game has titties" in a lot of peoples eyes. Just as Travis hates how everyone looks up to him or sees him as this legendary assassin. Seeing what Travis is and does as something desirable and not completely soul crushing. This game is one of the few pieces of art I've seen (only the second game to really touch on stuff like this, the other being The Beginners Guide) that really goes into that un-personing that can happen to an artist when people interact with their creations and take away completely different message than what they intended.
The biggest "baggage" so to speak about this game beyond the gameplay which i find: incredibly boring most of the time and actively headache inducing the rest of the time. Is that you need to play and know a lot of things about suda's previous works to get the most out of its story. You practicely have to be a Suda51 lore master or know someone who is or consult videos that chronical his journey as a creator. I can't really imagine what someone's takeaway from this game is if they only played No More Heroes 1 and 2 before this and don't know shit about suda as a creator. This game must be utter nonsense to them.
It is very much a tall order to go "hey you want to play this game well besides the two games in the series that come before it: you also need to at least play 6 other games not even including the games that aren't translated in English that are all loosely or directly in a connected universe, read 2 manga (one which also exists as a fangame) and do extensive wiki diving about these games' development to get the most out of this meta self referential introspection about a Director and his studio.
Would have rather it been solely a visual novel or whatever the hell you want to call 13 Sentinal's Remembrance section is. Cannot recommend this game enough, GOATed
be cool like me and like this game before annoying as fuck e-celebs call this game a "hidden gem"
One of Suda's most creative, inspired and soulful works ever. I didn't enjoy this much initially but I ended up loving it even more than the original NMH by the end, albeit for entirely different reasons.
What do I even say? What even can I say? While playing this game a melancholic feeling flowed through me across each level, as a creator took me throughout different stages of his life. From 80's arcades to early 2010 action games, a journey through his past and a look into the future he hopes for.
Travis is a completely different person now, and while I'd call it stupid and out of nowhere at first, I can't. There's no denying Travis represents a part of Suda, but he also represents you. Through Dr. Juvenile, we see what it means for the audience to connect to a creator via their works and how we come to understand them. While we may never meet them, we feel as if we know them, and how we have nothing but respect for them.
We're taken through worlds that echo a man's childhood, his aimless days and his magnum opus. Then it's all brought down as we're reminded of what we assumed he thinks to be an embarrassment, but he doesn't feel that way. Suda fully admits the faults with Shadows of The Damned, hell I think he may even be too meta with it, but he doesn't hold hate in his heart for it. He sees the good, he sees the bad, and asks himself to let go. Despite his ambitions being kicked down, it's not over yet.
Perhaps that's why this game has nothing but the utmost respect for the indie scene, as it boomed right around the time where most would say Suda was at his lowest. There's definitely something to be admired about indie games and their raw passion, which I think he felt was lost.
Each of the bosses represent something, such as Suda's past, his future, his fears and even his mentors. And every track accompanying the fight reminds you of this, the entire soundtrack is filled with nothing but bangers as you slice your way through as many bugs as possible. The gameplay didn't tire on me either, not one bit.
The first cutscene of this game calls it a "commemorative title", and I feel as though it's exactly that. A celebration of 20 years' worth of games, many of which I adore. Many of which also share one theme. A theme that also pulsates throughout this game like a beating heart. Each boss has something which is weighing them down, and you're reminded of those words everytime you fight one of them. Those three words that Suda wants to tell himself the most.
Kill the past.
Travis is a completely different person now, and while I'd call it stupid and out of nowhere at first, I can't. There's no denying Travis represents a part of Suda, but he also represents you. Through Dr. Juvenile, we see what it means for the audience to connect to a creator via their works and how we come to understand them. While we may never meet them, we feel as if we know them, and how we have nothing but respect for them.
We're taken through worlds that echo a man's childhood, his aimless days and his magnum opus. Then it's all brought down as we're reminded of what we assumed he thinks to be an embarrassment, but he doesn't feel that way. Suda fully admits the faults with Shadows of The Damned, hell I think he may even be too meta with it, but he doesn't hold hate in his heart for it. He sees the good, he sees the bad, and asks himself to let go. Despite his ambitions being kicked down, it's not over yet.
Perhaps that's why this game has nothing but the utmost respect for the indie scene, as it boomed right around the time where most would say Suda was at his lowest. There's definitely something to be admired about indie games and their raw passion, which I think he felt was lost.
Each of the bosses represent something, such as Suda's past, his future, his fears and even his mentors. And every track accompanying the fight reminds you of this, the entire soundtrack is filled with nothing but bangers as you slice your way through as many bugs as possible. The gameplay didn't tire on me either, not one bit.
The first cutscene of this game calls it a "commemorative title", and I feel as though it's exactly that. A celebration of 20 years' worth of games, many of which I adore. Many of which also share one theme. A theme that also pulsates throughout this game like a beating heart. Each boss has something which is weighing them down, and you're reminded of those words everytime you fight one of them. Those three words that Suda wants to tell himself the most.
Kill the past.
Travis' journey started with No More Heroes. In that game, he was an antithesis of the generic videogame protagonist and we saw him evolve as he came to understand his own mortality and the true meaning of paradise. This journey continued in No More Heroes 2, albeit in a much less unique way, with rage fueling his every action. In the real world, director Suda51 faces trials and tribulations as his success brought him into the elaborate yet cut-throat videogame industry.
9 years after No More Heroes' release, Suda returns to the writer/director position alongside Travis' return as the main character. They both return wiser, and as Travis used to be an antithesis to game protagonists, he is now a surrogate Suda51, detailing his experiences in the game industry while progressing the story of the actual game into what feels like a true sequel to No More Heroes 1. Travis' past starts to catch up to him in the form of Badman, who he needs to form an unlikely comradery with to resucitate Badgirl, one of Travis' opponents in the first game. They both venture into multiple game worlds through the Death Drive Mk2 and discover the life of the console's creator: Doctor Juvenile. The backdrop of this story is Suda's entire career as a game developer and the game itself is a reflection on everything that has brought him to this point.
Every game world represents a point in Suda's life, with references, callbacks and appearances of elements from his previous games sprinkled all throughout with the unique dialogue we've come to miss from Suda's work. Without spoiling, these games represent past success and how it can weigh you down, experiences with massive developers and how creativity can be lost in translation or maliciously robbed from an artist. It all comes down to Suda's career-long theme of killing the past. How can he make a comeback? How can he start anew with his creative endeavors? Well, by reflecting on the past that has weighed him down and kill it.
On the gameplay side of things, Travis Strikes Again retains some elements of the gameplay in the original No More Heroes but is completely different, with a top-down perspective and enemy placement reminiscent of Hotline Miami. It feels indie because it is indie, in that Suda scaled back completely for the development of Travis Strikes Again and he pays homage to the numerous, groundbreaking indie titles of the 2010s. Co-Op is the way to go in this game, as Badman and Travis slowly come to understand and like each other, so will the two players. Like every co-op, you must collaborate and eventually you both will achieve a flow of combat that reflects the character development in-game, which I think is genius. Going solo is also serviceable, albeit it could get dull depending on your tastes. Every level is tight, unique and represents an individual theme/element of Suda's past which you need to slash your way through in order to move on. Bitchin' music only elevates the experience more.
In the end, I can't really say much about Travis Strikes Again, yet I want to so much more. I'd rather leave most of these themes and ideas up to the people playing to discover and analyze. If I had to summarize my thoughts, I'd say Travis Strikes Again is an extremely tight experience that is never dull and sets out to be a love letter to fans of the series whilst representing the creator's struggles to put his long-lasting theme into effect in the real world. After 20 years of making games and after so many trials and tribulations, Suda must KILL THE PAST by himself in order to truly reinvent his art and start over...
No More Heroes III released yesterday... That itself proves Travis Strikes Again to be a success for Suda, who finally was able to rediscover his love for making videogames. Thank you, Suda and Grasshopper.
9 years after No More Heroes' release, Suda returns to the writer/director position alongside Travis' return as the main character. They both return wiser, and as Travis used to be an antithesis to game protagonists, he is now a surrogate Suda51, detailing his experiences in the game industry while progressing the story of the actual game into what feels like a true sequel to No More Heroes 1. Travis' past starts to catch up to him in the form of Badman, who he needs to form an unlikely comradery with to resucitate Badgirl, one of Travis' opponents in the first game. They both venture into multiple game worlds through the Death Drive Mk2 and discover the life of the console's creator: Doctor Juvenile. The backdrop of this story is Suda's entire career as a game developer and the game itself is a reflection on everything that has brought him to this point.
Every game world represents a point in Suda's life, with references, callbacks and appearances of elements from his previous games sprinkled all throughout with the unique dialogue we've come to miss from Suda's work. Without spoiling, these games represent past success and how it can weigh you down, experiences with massive developers and how creativity can be lost in translation or maliciously robbed from an artist. It all comes down to Suda's career-long theme of killing the past. How can he make a comeback? How can he start anew with his creative endeavors? Well, by reflecting on the past that has weighed him down and kill it.
On the gameplay side of things, Travis Strikes Again retains some elements of the gameplay in the original No More Heroes but is completely different, with a top-down perspective and enemy placement reminiscent of Hotline Miami. It feels indie because it is indie, in that Suda scaled back completely for the development of Travis Strikes Again and he pays homage to the numerous, groundbreaking indie titles of the 2010s. Co-Op is the way to go in this game, as Badman and Travis slowly come to understand and like each other, so will the two players. Like every co-op, you must collaborate and eventually you both will achieve a flow of combat that reflects the character development in-game, which I think is genius. Going solo is also serviceable, albeit it could get dull depending on your tastes. Every level is tight, unique and represents an individual theme/element of Suda's past which you need to slash your way through in order to move on. Bitchin' music only elevates the experience more.
In the end, I can't really say much about Travis Strikes Again, yet I want to so much more. I'd rather leave most of these themes and ideas up to the people playing to discover and analyze. If I had to summarize my thoughts, I'd say Travis Strikes Again is an extremely tight experience that is never dull and sets out to be a love letter to fans of the series whilst representing the creator's struggles to put his long-lasting theme into effect in the real world. After 20 years of making games and after so many trials and tribulations, Suda must KILL THE PAST by himself in order to truly reinvent his art and start over...
No More Heroes III released yesterday... That itself proves Travis Strikes Again to be a success for Suda, who finally was able to rediscover his love for making videogames. Thank you, Suda and Grasshopper.
One of the most personal games I've ever played. Travis Strikes Again is a prime example of a creator putting their own life into a game. It's something Suda51--the game's main director--poured his heart, soul, happiest memories, and biggest hardships into. And what came out was a very unique beat-em-up with a dazzling assortment of different worlds, topped off with an incredible soundtrack that enhances the narrative and atmosphere throughout the entire game.
Besides the endearing story, the gameplay itself is really good, albeit monotonous in single player. It really shines when you're playing co-op with a friend. This was a trip down memory lane that no hardcore Suda fan would dare to miss!
Besides the endearing story, the gameplay itself is really good, albeit monotonous in single player. It really shines when you're playing co-op with a friend. This was a trip down memory lane that no hardcore Suda fan would dare to miss!
Truly the epitome of watch the story, skip the game (besides Drakengard)
The game has some of the best if not the best storytelling and writing in the whole NMH series but the gameplay and level design is so repetitive and boring, and don't even get me started on the non-DLC final level :skull:
The game has some of the best if not the best storytelling and writing in the whole NMH series but the gameplay and level design is so repetitive and boring, and don't even get me started on the non-DLC final level :skull:
you ever just play a game where you love everything about it except the actual gameplay
This is a game for Suda51 fans, and literally no one else.
Narratively speaking, this game goes beyond what we've come to expect from the No More Heroes series, and I think it does an excellent job really showing Travis as a character and expanding more on the world he inhabits. I also think this game does a great job appealing to long-time fans of both No More Heroes as well as all of Suda51's titles, both through extensive cameos and great references, the crossover aspect and the build up to the third game was really the driving force that kept me playing. The DLC level is easily the best section as well, and features some really amazing tracks and actual fun level design.
However, where I think this game is fundamentally flawed is through it's gameplay. It hurts me to say that the top down perspective mixed with the hack in slack gameplay is a total slog to get through, and I found myself being unable to play for long sessions at a time due to actually becoming so bored I was uninterested in playing. Combine that with an effectively useless currency system and a slow and lackluster character progression, this game's hardest challenge is trying to not give up playing it.
If you really like the series and Suda as a creator check this game out, otherwise probably just look up a playthrough on youtube.
Narratively speaking, this game goes beyond what we've come to expect from the No More Heroes series, and I think it does an excellent job really showing Travis as a character and expanding more on the world he inhabits. I also think this game does a great job appealing to long-time fans of both No More Heroes as well as all of Suda51's titles, both through extensive cameos and great references, the crossover aspect and the build up to the third game was really the driving force that kept me playing. The DLC level is easily the best section as well, and features some really amazing tracks and actual fun level design.
However, where I think this game is fundamentally flawed is through it's gameplay. It hurts me to say that the top down perspective mixed with the hack in slack gameplay is a total slog to get through, and I found myself being unable to play for long sessions at a time due to actually becoming so bored I was uninterested in playing. Combine that with an effectively useless currency system and a slow and lackluster character progression, this game's hardest challenge is trying to not give up playing it.
If you really like the series and Suda as a creator check this game out, otherwise probably just look up a playthrough on youtube.
everyone has already sung this game’s praises like it were mahatma gandhi’s apology for let it die, so ill just say this: if youre anything like me, youve probably been ignoring this game for too long for the wrong reasons. i promise its more than what it looks like
An experimental and personal game people will fawn over years from now.
Be cool and like it now.
Be cool and like it now.
A surprisingly introspective outing from Grasshopper with stellar presentation and a good amount of gameplay variety throughout. The combat is a little too simplistic for my taste and some of the levels feel about 15 minutes longer than they should be but otherwise a great experience that I expect I'll come back to again one day.
the best game to ever suck