Going into No More Heroes 3 I wasn't expecting it to be the final game in the series. With Travis Strikes again existing as a way to bring people back into the series and them seemingly going all out for 3, I figured the franchise was going to go into an upswing of sorts. So When I saw the tweet from The official No More Heroes twitter where Suda 51, the director and creator of the franchise, said that the game is Travis's final battle it caught my by surprise. That being said, after actually playing No More Heroes 3 it makes a lot of sense. I will be saving that part of this review for last though as I would like to talk about every other aspect of the game that I found notable first, but the sense of finality that exists in regards to Travis and his journey was a major part of the game that I found extremely engaging. Fair warning this is gonna be filled with a lot of spoilers for the game.

To kick things off I wanted to talk about how incredible the combat feels this time around. I played the switch ports of 1 and 2 originally and while I liked their combat design well enough the gameplay did feel very of its time in terms of not having some now standard mechanics of the genre such as dodging being easy to pull off. NMH3 meanwhile has some of the best action combat I’ve seen in awhile. Giving Light attack and heavy attack their own buttons instead of having two different ways to do them from one input feels really nice and makes it feel a lot more fluid than the prior games. Adding in dodging and jumping also helps the overall feel of the combat to feel a lot smoother and bring it up to modern action game standards. These more modern controls mixed with all of the new enemy types you have to face as well as just the general weight and feel of attacks makes for some incredibly solid combat that I wanted to do as much as possible throughout the game. However, I’d argue the biggest addition to the gameplay this time around are the death skills.

Death skills are an addition from Travis Strikes Again that I am really glad made it into 3. They essentially function as special moves that can help you dish out massive damage in some capacity before needing to recharge before the next use. These skills felt like they slotted in really well with the rest of Travis’s combat abilities personally. The four skills you receive are Death kick, a strong drop kick that sends enemies flying, death force, a force push type attack that sends enemies flying as well, death rain which has small projectiles rain from above over a set area, and death slow which slows everyone in a certain area. All of the abilities will work well in a pinch and can make battles a breeze if you use them well, but my personal favorites were slow and rain. Being able to damage enemies and keep them off of me while I fought one enemy, or if I was getting overwhelmed being able to slow down everything near me and give myself a second to breath helped to control the flow of combat and make me feel like I'm in charge of the battle and I love that feeling. The combat is easily the best part of the game and it runs incredibly, which I unfortunately can't say about most of the rest of the game.

The game runs at about 60fps in combat, and that's pretty much the only time outside of cutscenes where it does. I'm not very good at noticing framerates so it usually doesn't bug me when a game has framerate problems, but going from the extremely fluid fights to the open world which I think hovers around 30 fps (or possibly lower during certain parts of the game such as using the boost on the motorcycle) it is very apparent and shows that this game probably could have been optimized a bit more. Even with how it's running the open world isn't much to write home about. It's very barren and while it does have points of interest they're few and far between compared to most modern open world games. That being said, I'm okay with this for one reason.

That reason being that while the open world doesn't run the best and is pretty empty, it adds to the charm of the game in my opinion. Santa Destroy is a shitty, rundown place that even after years of change and having a big tech mogul like Damon, one of the game's main antagonists, move into the area and bring money isn't enough to make Santa Destroy any better of a place. It's still just some backwater, rundown town. The lower quality framerate and resolution in these areas help add to that for me in a bizarre way that I feel like I shouldn't like as much as I do. In the same vein, I would ultimately rather have these aspects of the game than not.

The overworld and everything that comes with it, such as the money earning for rank up fights and the minigames in order to earn that money, are a returning feature from No More Heroes 1 that all were not in No More Heroes 2. NMH2 cut a lot of these features in order to streamline the game and get people to the fights quicker, and while I get that approach from a certain perspective personally I find that it made NMH2 lose some of the charm that NMH1 had. There was something special about watching Travis have to run or drive around town to various odd jobs like picking up trash or mowing lawns, it was wacky and silly between all the high octane fights that each level brought and it made them memorable. It also made Santa Destroy memorable in it's own right because you got to see the town as you went looking for jobs to do after being sent out from the job agency. It wasn't exactly the most fun thing possible but it added its own quirky touch to the game. No More Heroes 2 however cut all this. You don't have to get money for rank up fights, you can't explore the map at all, and while you can go do side activities they generally were for leveling up and weren't as memorable to me as the No More Heroes 1 minigames.

No More Heroes 3 having these elements from NMH1 return made the game feel charming in a way NMH2 couldn't really manage. So even if the overworld parts of the game didn't run the best compared to how well the combat runs I can look past it because it makes the game feel more unique and just adds a layer of charm to it. Sure it's janky and feels off compared to the cutscenes and combat, but that's okay. Santa Destroy is an off putting place and seeing it explored in a less than ideal way adds to that feeling for me.

The story for NMH3 is one that I really enjoyed personally. It's unconventional, weird, over the top, but most of all it just has fun with itself. The game starts with an alien invasion lead by Prince Fu, an intergalactic criminal who has come back to Earth after being stranded there years before in order to take it over with his buddies from space prison. Travis gets involved when they blow up a huge chunk of Santa Destroy and wake Travis up from where he's passed out in front of the TV. From there Travis kills the weakest one of the aliens, getting himself put onto their galactic leaderboards, which then leads to Fu attacking Travis's friends and bringing him fully into taking out all of the invading alien superheroes. From there it's a fun romp through multiple boss fights, some against the aliens from the rankings and some against other characters from previous games who killed the boss before you could in classic NMH fashion.

This type of story feels fitting for the final game in the series in my opinion. Travis has peaked as the strongest on Earth so the only people who can keep giving him reasonable challenges are his friends and his brother or aliens who aren't bound by the restraints of being human. The grandiose scale of the story feels fitting for both the series and the supposed final game of it. Overall I loved the story for this crazy game; but at the same time I think the part that I found the most impactful and important about the story was how it functions as a character study of Travis Touchdown after doing this for the past 12 years.

I mentioned earlier that the game has a sense of finality to it, and that is best reflected in Travis himself. It's been 12 years since the first game and the years have taken their toll on him. He still loves the thrill of the fight and will fight to protect his home town of Santa Destroy, but it's no longer his choice in a way. In No More Heroes 1 he actively sought out the fight. Throwing himself into the assassin ranking fights for money, a chance at sex, and the general thrill for battle. But as of TSA and No More Heroes 3, the fight is actively chasing after him. Travis just wants a quiet life now, sitting at home watching Miike movies, anime, and wrestling with his friends. Sure he'll fight and kill other assassins when needed, but it's no longer what he's after. The fight continually is coming to him and he's trapped in this cycle of the battle never truly ending because of his actions in the first two games. This is effectively Travis's final battle, not against Fu or Damon, but against the life he's built for himself.

I think this is exemplified by the after credits scene of the game where Travis and everyone are getting ready to go home after the events of the game and yet another new threat appears. That threat is then dealt with by outside forces, namely Travis's kids from the future, who have come to find Travis so he can help them fight another threat. This is Travis's life now, and despite being annoyed Travis does accept going with them in the end to continue the fight. Travis is still fighting on and on because that's all his life has been for the past 12 years, just continous death and bloodshed with moments of peace with those that he cares about in between. His final battle is effectively deciding whether he wants to put up with the never ending battle for the moments of peace; and the game answers that question in a scene earlier on in the story where Travis dies.

Travis's death towards the end of the game is effectively the deciding point in this psychological last battle. After being killed by his brother Henry, Travis’s soul is then sent to what is essentially a 80’s arcade game. In this game Travis has a conversation with the main character that while brief is ultimately what helps him come to a decision. He chooses to go back and keep fighting instead of finally being able to rest. Travis decides the outcome of his final battle here by accepting that if he wants the parts of his life that he enjoys he also has to accept that the fighting won’t ever truly end for him. There’ll always be another ranking leaderboard, there’ll always be another huge threat to his loved ones, and there'll always be another battle to fight. But that’s okay because Travis is determined to keep fighting as long as he gets the peaceful moments with the people he loves.

No More Heroes 3 is a bizarre but beautiful game. It has the perfect mix of fluid and janky when it comes to the different aspects of gameplay, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Meanwhile when it comes to story it revels in being juvenile while having some really serious stuff going on under the hood, and honestly I think this dichotomy that it creates with this elevates the story and makes it extremely memorable and impactful. NMH3 is a special kind of game that doesn't come around very often and I'm glad I got to experience it.

So thank you Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture, for one final trip to the garden of madness.

10/10

I’m majorly impressed by Toby Fox and the Deltarune team’s ability to consistently keep one upping themselves. They've pulled out all the stops for Deltarune Chapter 2 and it really shows how much passion and love they all poured into every aspect of this game. This is probably hands down one of the best releases of the year and probably one of my favorite games of all time when combined with chapter 1. If you have even the slightest interest in this game I strongly recommend going and playing both chapters before reading this, especially since combined they have about six hours of playtime total, because I’m going to be talking about a lot of spoilers. If you don't care about spoilers or already played though then hey, keep reading.

For a quick recap up to this point, Deltarune Chapter 1 is a turnbased RPG that follows Kris, a high school student who gets sucked into a magical world known as the Dark world with the school bully, Susie. The two of them end up having to work together with a citizen of the dark world, Ralsei, to seal a dark fountain and stop an evil king from using the power of the fountain for his own gain. Through several misadventures dealing with the King’s son and Susie switching sides, the trio eventually fight and defeat the evil king. Which frees the dark world and returns it to how it was before. The chapter then ends on a startling scene of Kris ripping out their own heart and throwing it into a cage before walking to somewhere off screen with a knife. This sets the stage for chapter 2, which picks up right where the first chapter leaves off.

Chapter 2’s story really intrigues me both because of what it confirms and what possibilities it opens up for the future of the game. Chapter 2's plot is essentially the same as the first, you and Susie find another dark world, you go in to fix the fountain, this time you're also trying to save your friend and classmate that got sucked into the dark world, then you trek through an exciting new world very unlike the real world as you meet new friends, enemies, and see how your new friends react to this new world while trying to stop the Evil Robot Queen from getting your one friend, Noelle, to use her power on the fountain and cause even more damage with it. While the way I described this does sound pretty generic, I can say without a doubt this chapter's story still manages to be really well written and an enjoyable to with this plot premise; however I feel what really makes this chapter is how it uses the characters.

What really makes this game's story shine in my opinion is how it handles its characters. All of the ones that are given focus this chapter have great moments that really elevated the story just because of how these characters reacted to events that took place in ways that distinctly felt like them. These characters all have strong voices and personalities and it blows me away how distinct they all feel.

Susie and Ralsei both had really solid interactions with Kris and the other characters in general this chapter and it was really nice to see more of them again. Susie showing more and more of her soft side while still trying to convince everyone that she's tough and scary makes for some good jokes but also shows how despite being with people she considers friends she still feels like she has to keep up the act she keeps up around everyone else. This is explored a bit with Noelle, a girl from their school who has a crush on Susie, who just isn't afraid of Susie at all. Susie just isn't sure how to respond to this at all and comically misses the point each time and it makes a lot of cute scenes with the character that also helps to further her character arc that was started in the first chapter. Susie also gets a scene at the end of the chapter with Kris's mom, Toriel, that feels like it's pushing this arc further where she is taught how to make a pie just like Kris was taught to as a kid, and because of some unforeseen events is forced to stay the night at Kris's house where they have a fun little sleepover. Susie's guard is more or less completely down this entire time and its really interesting to see how she's becoming more and more comfortable around people thanks to her becoming friends with Kris and Ralsei.

Speaking of Ralsei, I was extremely intrigued this chapter because while they still continue to be the loveable, naive healer of the party they also showed some bits of having more knowledge than they let on that makes me intrigued as to how much this character is hiding from us. Their knowledge of how the dark fountains work that they withheld from us in the first chapter, their in depth knowledge of how the dark worlds effect creatures from different dark worlds and how they appear in the real world, and their ability to be the only dark world being to be able to exist freely in another dark world opens up a lot of questions that I absolutely cannot wait to see the answers too. On top of these there's also a few really good scenes of Ralsei just being Ralsei, like when Susie tried to teach him sarcasm or when he and Kris are travelling by swan boat to reach the Queen's castle and they have a really touching moment together. Love this cute little guy, probably one of my favorite characters for just how innocent he appears while clearly still hiding stuff. Cannot wait to see what happens down the line with him.

Noelle is a character I wasn't expecting to like that much but the way she was handled in this chapter blew me away. Between her budding romance with Susie (which is adorable and one of the highlights of this chapter) and her personal character arc of learning to stop running away and hiding from her problems and to face them head on, which personally resonated with me, she's become one of my favorite characters and I really hope we get to see more of her in the main adventure sections of the next few chapters. The moment where she finally stands up to the Queen and cements herself as not letting people decide what she wants for her was great and probably one of the best in this chapter. Also I just really enjoy how she visits her dad every day after school and hangs out with him in the hospital, its just a cute little touch that I found really sweet.

When it comes to this game's two main villains, namely the Evil Queen who is determined to make the world a utopia based in the internet using the power of the dark fountain and Berdly who is a highschooler that has a crush on two girls in his class, they both are absolute delights in their own right. The Queen is just outright hilarious in almost all of her interactions while still managing to be an intimidating villain through how her mere presence terrifies Noelle. She's probably my favorite character in both chapters and I really hope we get to see more of her in the next few chapters (though I doubt it considering how sidelined Lancer was this chapter). Berdly is an interesting case of character development in my opinion because I went from wanting to punt him at the start of this chapter to wanting to punt him in a friendly way by the end of the chapter. He's an overcompensating, annoying, show off but his heart's in the right place and he just doesn't really know how to express how he cares about others well and honestly I can't really bring myself to dislike him by the end because seeing him grow and realize he doesn't have to try to act smart to get people to like him and can just be himself is a really sweet character arc that made me appreciate him a lot more. Still want to punt him at least thirty yards though.

Also I just want to say that the comedy in this game is incredibly well done. Any words I have cannot do just how funny the Deltarune team's writing is justice. I think the best I can do is something I saw a friend of mine say, which is that the game's humor is consistently funnier and just all around better than any meme made about the game. Honestly the fact that all of the characters are extremely funny and just enjoyable to have around in game is probably a solid part of why this game's characters are so good in my opinion. The Deltarune team also knows when to not have a joke, allowing serious moments to be serious long enough to have impact on the player. And then throwing in a joke right when the moment has lasted just long enough.

This chapter keeps the same gameplay style as chapter 1, aka turn based combat with a focus on being able to spare enemies and keep them alive instead of just brutally cutting them down (though that's also an option if you really want to). There are a few minor tweaks this time around like Ralsei and Susie being able to use the ACT commands that Kris got in chapter 1, meaning that now everyone can contribute towards making it possible to spare enemies without needing to pick back off Kris. It's a welcome change in my opinion since while it did make Kris unique in chapter 1 they keep that uniqueness by them being the only one who can use combo ACTS while Susie and Ralsei can now act on their own; and now that everyone can use it that means if you do a two person combo the last character isn't stuck just having to defend in order to not do damage and can actually help with sparing an enemy instead of being idol for a turn.

As with how Undertale and Deltarune's combat has been so far when you're doing a number of ACT commands or dodging all enemy attacks you're thrown into a little minigame to avoid damage or to make an ACT go through. Just like Undertale and Deltarune, these are still really well done in my opinion. Each enemies unique minigame set feels fresh and tests your reflexes in a fun bullet hell esque way that adds a fun little skill element to the turn based combat without overstaying its welcome. This is such a nice system that feels like it only really works in these games because the general overall game length is pretty short. I can see this overstaying its welcome pretty easily if it went on too long but the game length and general encounter rate manages to keep this system growing old before you reach the end.

One gameplay system exclusive to Chapter 2 (so far) that I wanted to mention is how the first and final boss battles of the chapter are handled, which is through a Punch Out clone. This isn't a problem at all though, I adore Punch Out and getting to do a couple fights via that system in a turn based game were really funny conceptually while also providing good punch out gameplay. I am incredibly glad this was in the game and it just added a whole other level of enjoyment for me personally as someone who has a soft spot for the series it's doing a homage to.

The artstyle of this chapter is inline with the general art for chapter 1 of Deltarune so nothing much has changed but I just wanted to comment on how great the sprite art is and how fun and expressive the sprites manage to be. Not to mention the character design for all the sprites, both for the main party and for all the new enemies and characters/character redesigns, are all really well done in this sprite style and all come across very distinct and easy to figure out how the character is supposed to look just from the sprite. Love the designs and cannot wait to see what the Undertale team comes up with for the next few chapters.

I don't think I really need to talk about the music, everyone knows that Toby Fox, Lena Raine and Marcy Nabors do amazing musical work and this soundtrack is no exception to that at all. I think this game has some of the best music of their catalogues to me personally, the secret boss theme from this chapter for example is incredible and is now probably one of my favorite boss themes overall. Really solid soundtrack overall, definitely give it a listen if haven't already. Some incredibly well made music in this three hour game.

Deltarune Chapter 2 was well worth the three year wait. The writing, music, art, and gameplay all come together to make something truly special that I cannot wait to see how Toby and the rest of the Deltarune team attempt to top. I think this franchise is really something special and I can see why it's gotten the mass appeal that it has, definitely a modern classic in the making in my opinion. This is everything I wanted out of a follow up to chapter 1 and more; I am so excited to see where the story goes from here. Play this game if you haven't yet, trust me its worth your time. Go get that banana and become a [BIG SHOT].

10/10