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