This review contains spoilers
"Too bad there won't be a sequel"- Sylvia No More heroes
Well here we are 3 sequels later and maybe finally the end of the No More Heroes series, and I gotta say its not that good. No More Heroes 1 was a raw, gorey satire which managed to be an exploration of video game stories, a surreal journey into depravity, and just a disgustingly good time. No More Heroes 2 was a failure of a sequel that simply missed the point of No More Heroes 1 along with having just hoards of enemies with overly long health bars. Travis Strikes Again was an incredible spin off that combined Travis with the dark and ominous writing of Suda's past works and a semi autobiographical tale of Grasshopper itself. Considering the change in tone from NMH2 to TSA I assumed the more traditional, action, jokey story of NMH2 was something done without much input from Suda, but it seems that was always the plan for a numbered No More Heroes game all along as 3 has a very similar tone. Its better written and more stylish then 2 but falls into the same trap of devolving into something simultaneously too funny yet also too melodramatic for its own good.
Rather then Travis simply fighting for his own jollies this time he's saving the world and also avenging his friends again (just like Bishop in NMH2). Despite Badman's death being what sets up the story its only brought up twice afterwards and Badman also gets no screen time before his death. Turning into the same shallow misery porn plot engine that NMH1 criticized to begin with. The majority of the boss cutscenes this time are used for meta jokes rather then actual characterization like the first and in general the story is just over whelmingly shallow. A good chunk of the gags are funny this time around, but also don't amount to much memorable. The one exception to this is the Henry cutscenes which are all very ominous and sneak in kill the past references without being overly obvious. The super hero satire NMH3 based it's marketing off of is simple barely present hear. Beyond Fu calling himself a super hero in the cutscene and a returning Destroyman boss there isn't much here that references western comics let alone critiques it any meaningful way. Other story elements are taken wholesale from Travis Strikes again like the retuning VN segments where most of the new characters are nameless dispensers of one punchline, or the returning 2D pixel art Travis segment which in Travis Strikes Again was full of depth but here is a simple one time gag calling back to another gag. There is even another Kamui appearance where he is a random wacky teenager for some reason.
Without a core interesting story to fall back on No More Heroes 3's systems have no ground to stand on the same way NMH 1's shallow gameplay had an excellent story to fall back on. The combat is certainly on the surface better then NMH 1's with the focus turned from pure crowd control to an enemy based system with a more diverse and dangerous enemy set. Yet, by the end game it simply devolves into doing stun lock 200 hit combos on the same enemies as Travis lacks any extra weapons and has only one unlockable combo and only 4 cooldown skills. The open world is back from one and is simply the same thing just with more locations and more busy work fetch quests to do. The one bustling city of santa destroy which houses real people like the job guy and naomi have been turned into lifeless husks with endless copy past aliens who provide almost every side job and Naomi is now a tree with 3 lines of dialog. The side job based grind of NMH1 is broken by the simple fact that mandatory missions and bosses give the player so much money grinding never really has to be done to pay for fights, and all upgrades are paid using a separate currency.
Graphics wise NMH3 has an excellent UI and sense of style hidden behind and ugly every thing else. Shading glitches, clipping, low draw distance, low rez textures that pop in, and a low open world frame rate just scream low budget in a way the blockbuster NMh1 never did on the Wii. NMH1 had simple but clean graphics and a lower frame rate on a large open world was acceptable on the Wii.
This review has been mostly negative, but there still is plenty to like here. The UI and ost are both incredible, and there are funny jokes and even a few good story beats. The combat is quite good for the first 6 ranks even, but for the big Suda written NMH numbered sequel I just can't help but be disappointed by the ugly graphics, shallow writing, and repetitive gameplay. There is a point where low budget tedious gaming punk rock simply travels into being tedious and ugly. Whatever budget Grasshopper actually had it wasn't enough to make the big crazy action game Suda wanted me invested in.
Well here we are 3 sequels later and maybe finally the end of the No More Heroes series, and I gotta say its not that good. No More Heroes 1 was a raw, gorey satire which managed to be an exploration of video game stories, a surreal journey into depravity, and just a disgustingly good time. No More Heroes 2 was a failure of a sequel that simply missed the point of No More Heroes 1 along with having just hoards of enemies with overly long health bars. Travis Strikes Again was an incredible spin off that combined Travis with the dark and ominous writing of Suda's past works and a semi autobiographical tale of Grasshopper itself. Considering the change in tone from NMH2 to TSA I assumed the more traditional, action, jokey story of NMH2 was something done without much input from Suda, but it seems that was always the plan for a numbered No More Heroes game all along as 3 has a very similar tone. Its better written and more stylish then 2 but falls into the same trap of devolving into something simultaneously too funny yet also too melodramatic for its own good.
Rather then Travis simply fighting for his own jollies this time he's saving the world and also avenging his friends again (just like Bishop in NMH2). Despite Badman's death being what sets up the story its only brought up twice afterwards and Badman also gets no screen time before his death. Turning into the same shallow misery porn plot engine that NMH1 criticized to begin with. The majority of the boss cutscenes this time are used for meta jokes rather then actual characterization like the first and in general the story is just over whelmingly shallow. A good chunk of the gags are funny this time around, but also don't amount to much memorable. The one exception to this is the Henry cutscenes which are all very ominous and sneak in kill the past references without being overly obvious. The super hero satire NMH3 based it's marketing off of is simple barely present hear. Beyond Fu calling himself a super hero in the cutscene and a returning Destroyman boss there isn't much here that references western comics let alone critiques it any meaningful way. Other story elements are taken wholesale from Travis Strikes again like the retuning VN segments where most of the new characters are nameless dispensers of one punchline, or the returning 2D pixel art Travis segment which in Travis Strikes Again was full of depth but here is a simple one time gag calling back to another gag. There is even another Kamui appearance where he is a random wacky teenager for some reason.
Without a core interesting story to fall back on No More Heroes 3's systems have no ground to stand on the same way NMH 1's shallow gameplay had an excellent story to fall back on. The combat is certainly on the surface better then NMH 1's with the focus turned from pure crowd control to an enemy based system with a more diverse and dangerous enemy set. Yet, by the end game it simply devolves into doing stun lock 200 hit combos on the same enemies as Travis lacks any extra weapons and has only one unlockable combo and only 4 cooldown skills. The open world is back from one and is simply the same thing just with more locations and more busy work fetch quests to do. The one bustling city of santa destroy which houses real people like the job guy and naomi have been turned into lifeless husks with endless copy past aliens who provide almost every side job and Naomi is now a tree with 3 lines of dialog. The side job based grind of NMH1 is broken by the simple fact that mandatory missions and bosses give the player so much money grinding never really has to be done to pay for fights, and all upgrades are paid using a separate currency.
Graphics wise NMH3 has an excellent UI and sense of style hidden behind and ugly every thing else. Shading glitches, clipping, low draw distance, low rez textures that pop in, and a low open world frame rate just scream low budget in a way the blockbuster NMh1 never did on the Wii. NMH1 had simple but clean graphics and a lower frame rate on a large open world was acceptable on the Wii.
This review has been mostly negative, but there still is plenty to like here. The UI and ost are both incredible, and there are funny jokes and even a few good story beats. The combat is quite good for the first 6 ranks even, but for the big Suda written NMH numbered sequel I just can't help but be disappointed by the ugly graphics, shallow writing, and repetitive gameplay. There is a point where low budget tedious gaming punk rock simply travels into being tedious and ugly. Whatever budget Grasshopper actually had it wasn't enough to make the big crazy action game Suda wanted me invested in.