No More Heroes was originally supposed to be some weird-ass pseudo(SUDA?)-parody of standard action brawler games; the wiimote waggle action resembling a jerkoff motion, the main character being an annoying weeby otaku obsessed with trash anime and figurines--to a certain degree the player was invited to laugh at Travis and appreciate his failures or shortcomings. I didn't play NMH 2, but this idea of Travis being a piece of shit seems to have fallen by the wayside. Travis Strikes Again, the spinoff side game prequel to NMHIII, makes Travis seem much more low key. You get to just hang, hear this thoughts on video games, get a glimpse behind his brain and into the cavernous head of SUDA51, the games director.
The central appeal then of NMHIII, at least to me, is the chance to get a little more hangout time. Sure, there's fun super noisy stylish action or whatever, and the bosses are fun and cutscenes are varying degrees of silly and cool, but the best parts are when you get to hang out on a couch and play Deathman, or shoot the shit with your pals and talk about Miike. Travis is definitely still a cringy piece of shit, but you can tell he really digs video games--and at the end of the day, isn't that all that matters? Playing video games, talking dumb shit with your pals?
The central appeal then of NMHIII, at least to me, is the chance to get a little more hangout time. Sure, there's fun super noisy stylish action or whatever, and the bosses are fun and cutscenes are varying degrees of silly and cool, but the best parts are when you get to hang out on a couch and play Deathman, or shoot the shit with your pals and talk about Miike. Travis is definitely still a cringy piece of shit, but you can tell he really digs video games--and at the end of the day, isn't that all that matters? Playing video games, talking dumb shit with your pals?