No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is a hack and slash game released by Grasshopper Manufacture for the Wii in 2010 with a Switch version released in 2020 and the PC version in 2021. A more stream-lined sequel that improves the gameplay but takes away a few things and suffers in the plot and the theme behind it all.
No More Heroes 2 manages to make the game much more gratifying in the way you perform murder with a bunch of quality of life features that give you more in control with Travis than ever before. You also have multiple weapons to use from that have the archetype of "slower but bigger and powerful" and "dual swords that are very fast and don't do that much damage" along with your standard fare beam katana. The minigames here are excellent in the fact they're inspired by NES games in the way they're presented other than a specific gym minigame that gave me a headache. The soundtrack is a standard affair but has some absolute bangers with Kill or Be Killed and Philistine. I can see the removal of the open world being a mixed bag for some people but there wasn't much to do in the first game other than really travel to each spot anyway so it made things snappier for me in the long run.
The main complaint is how the story felt and how they interpreted the "cycle of revenge" here that felt a bit shallow and almost a bit disconnected. There is definitely something to take away in terms of the story but it felt like it was retreading on some things from the first game to the point it sort of felt like it was fan game tier writing at times.
That said, I still had more fun playing this game in terms of just slashing the hell out of the goons and went along for the ride and didn't regret it. No More Heroes 2 may not leave you with something to think about after beating it but it's still a fun ride nonetheless and it's more of that otaku assassin in the end of the day. Killing is never free.
No More Heroes 2 manages to make the game much more gratifying in the way you perform murder with a bunch of quality of life features that give you more in control with Travis than ever before. You also have multiple weapons to use from that have the archetype of "slower but bigger and powerful" and "dual swords that are very fast and don't do that much damage" along with your standard fare beam katana. The minigames here are excellent in the fact they're inspired by NES games in the way they're presented other than a specific gym minigame that gave me a headache. The soundtrack is a standard affair but has some absolute bangers with Kill or Be Killed and Philistine. I can see the removal of the open world being a mixed bag for some people but there wasn't much to do in the first game other than really travel to each spot anyway so it made things snappier for me in the long run.
The main complaint is how the story felt and how they interpreted the "cycle of revenge" here that felt a bit shallow and almost a bit disconnected. There is definitely something to take away in terms of the story but it felt like it was retreading on some things from the first game to the point it sort of felt like it was fan game tier writing at times.
That said, I still had more fun playing this game in terms of just slashing the hell out of the goons and went along for the ride and didn't regret it. No More Heroes 2 may not leave you with something to think about after beating it but it's still a fun ride nonetheless and it's more of that otaku assassin in the end of the day. Killing is never free.