I don't really think the point of Holly Summers was Travis learning that murder was bad, it was more him learning to treat his opponents with respect, recognize that they're all killers here and that trying to spare them for something as trivial as "I won't kill a woman" is an insult to a fellow assassin, which is why he has no trouble trying to kill badgirl later, if he learned killing was bad with Holly Summers then he wouldn't really go on with the rest of the game would he?
We made the music for the sushi shop with MEEBEE in No More Heroes III, and wanted to say thank you for keeping the series alive with your video! Your videos get watched alot on this side, so it was really cool to see this. Stay positive and drink plenty of water ❤
@@maroonkennedy6213 yo. part of what motivates us to even make music is to hopefully be able to reach others and positively impact lives through our songs. we're honored to have helped any way at all. Thank you for letting us know. Stay positive and drink plenty of water ❤️
I find a lot of suda games have the perfect balance between calming songs (sandalwood, k-ent, claire de lune, sweet blue flag) and epic bangers (philistine, no more heroes (it’s kill or be killed), rave on, silver face, and of course, the sushi shop theme). You did a great job, and I bet it’s pretty epic to be able to work with grasshopper and suda.
On another note, this might be obviously biased but you CAN learn about Jeane before the fight, in the original Wii release if you checked the manual, there was a section with the picture Travis has of her next to his phone explaining who she was, which was strange to point out in the manual but when she showed up at the very end I shat my pants, I coulnd't believe such a single simple detail barely mentioned in the manual had such "big" plot relevance.
Nice, the game was rewarding the old custom of reading the whole manual before playing. I remember doing that with my game boy and N64 games back when I was a kid.
I've always found fascinating how everyone takes the UAA is fake twist as truth even though it makes no sense, and takes NMH2 making it real as like, ignoring the plot of the first. I just assumed Sylvia's mom was lying about the UAA being fake, presumably because Sylvia asked her to as some sort of way to push Travis
In my opinion, the twist regarding the UAA in NMH1 frankly makes a lot of sense considering two key points: A.) According to NMH2, the only reason the UAA is back is because Sylvia is being paid to bring it back by Jasper Batt Jr. so that he can get revenge on Travis not only by Killing Bishop, but also by roping Travis back into the assassin leaderboards; after all, in the first game, Travis got to the top, didn't get the vaguely described "revenge" he was promised at the start, and walked due to the empty B.) The snuff film plotline in TSA. In other words, it confirms and canonizes the fact that the UAA began as simply a front for Sylvia to be able to make money by recording the fights and making snuff films to sell on the dark web, not to mention just pocketing all of the fight "fees" for competitors. In return, they were simply given a useless title if they succeeded, and the cycle continued. That being said, I also haven't played the third game and am close to completing TSA but haven't yet, so I could be missing some key points; but this is just my take!
I just assumed Jasper Bat jr decided to use his Bat money to rebuild it and have an excuse to have travis be at his peak, so when he won it would be because he was better than Travis. We all know how that turned out.
i've always interpreted/headcanon'd that the person Travis talks to on the phone in 1 isn't actually Sylvia's mother but is just Sylvia pretending or one of her alternate personalities (2 seems to suggest she has something akin to D.I.D)
Wait, if UAA is fake then what's that ranking? Why do they have numbers like 1, 2, 3.. etc. And they know why Travis is there? Are they being lied as well
What if the shitty twist of the first game is a critique of gamers who played this entire game killing and murdering without even asking why their doing expect for the fact its a video game
Bingo. Also it's making fun of convoluted storylines that don't do the leg work to make us care. Just saying he's his father then immediately killing him and then fast forwarding through a tragic speech to really nail how fake it is.
UAA was a scam that worked out too well, it wasn't staged, but it was never intended as a stable business model... only for it to work despite Sylvia running off with the money, was my take
It’s the same thing with heavenly star. Sometimes I just want dirty grunge music or metal to chill out to, but heavenly star is something that I’m always down for.
No more heroes is a deconstruction of the super hero genre disguised as a hack and slash game. The world of no more heroes is extremely morbid and nothing represents that more than Travis touchdown himself. A loser who lives by himself and is a weeb only interested in getting under a woman's skirt. The hilarious thing is that is living the lifestyle exactly like a lot of people having to do with him being a simp and weeb. To me this is the welcome to NHK of video games and I'm so glad I was introduced to the series. Besides the comedy in the series my favourite part of it are the bosses. All unique but somewhat grounded in reality and some with really depressing back stories like the true last boss in the first game jean. In the world of no more heroes there are truly no heroes.
I saw an interview with him, think he got really jaded about game developing when he co-made Shadows of the Damned. EA basically screwed him and Mikami over.
I can only watch up until Travis Strikes back because I haven't played the final two games but I'll let the video play out muted because you and your work deserve the watch time 👍
Travis easily has one of my favorite designs and personalities in any game I feel like next to gantz the story of his game has one of the coolest premises as well glad to see it get more recognition it makes me happy knowing these games still have staying power
I always assumed the other assassins were also getting conned by Sylvia. When Travis talks to her mother on the phone before the last level, then Henry at the end, they both heavily imply that she has done this many, _many_ times before, and Travis was just the latest in a long line of psychos she duped into giving her all their money and then killing each other.
I always feel like no more heros: Travis strikes again exist is because suda needed to make it so he can understand why he loves making video games. Also giving Travis “character development” is just a bonus
No More Heroes 1 was essentially a reflection on movies like John Wick (a decade before it was made). John is a cool, friendly, relatable ASSASSIN who killed hundreds of people to make his money.
Great retrospective! 15:50 The worst part is that it's possible to save right after the bad ending and you'll actually be unable to go out and upgrade your blade katana, meaning you bricked your save and have to start a completely new playthrough. This happened to a lot of people who played without a guide, it was awful. Your reactions to all the plots were the same as mine. If I had to sum it up, I'd say Suda the Tarantino of video games, but in a good way of course.
The other assassin’s aren’t actors they’re real assassin’s just other assassin’s who were unfortunate enough to been caught up in Sylvia’s Con. Then in NMH2 because of Travis’s Infamy as the “No More Hero” made the UAA official. But also bc Pizza Batt funded it for obvious reasons to get Travis to eventually fight him.
I love no more heroes 2 but it’s a bit tonally indecisive. Like sometimes it wants to be a absurdist bombastic fun comedy (which I love) & then sometimes wants to be serious & focus on the character stuff in a serious way (which I also love) but the way it balances or in this case doesn’t balance the tonal differences makes it hard to love the story of NMH2. It’s 2 extremely different sides of the same coin. Suda51 being the director is a big difference like fr the only game that Suda didn’t direct is NMH2 & it’s the most divisive entry in the series. It’s kinda blatant that nmh can’t survive tonally & storywise w/o suda in the directors chair
Y’know the funny thing about “shallow” interpretations is that they’re interpretations. Which is kind of the point of leaving things up to interpretation Trust me I don’t know what the heck is going on with this series 80% of the time but I love it anyway
I mean, Suda might be credited on NMH2, because of course he is, the series wouldn't exist without him. But at the time of it's development he was actively working on shadows of the damned, along with other side projects like the psp evangelion game. Plus Travis strikes again and NMH3 do so much back pedaling, they might as well have called the 2021 game NMH2 and pretend the 2010 game never happened
Damn, whenever I see gameplay for NMH1 and 2 and people don't do the "extra" input at the end of a combo for extra oopmh, it fucks with my head, why they removed this feature from NMH3 is beyond me, just leaves me with blue balls ffs.
As a NMH fan: I love this video, and I found your opinions super interesting and insightful! Also, your shot fired at the NMH2 final boss had me laughing out loud. That shot of the window will forever be burned into my memory, with or without Travis flying through it, and your reaction was insanely authentic and almost identical to mine! May or may not died like a billion times on that fight, and I blame everything on that window
Great video , in a relativly short time you manage to touch most of what makes NMH as a series great . You don't really touch on it in the review maybe by choice but learning about the history of suda as a development especially between really make some parts of TSA hit even harder , especially the damn dark night section . GhenryPerez's video on Shadow of the damned is a good way to learn about it imo .
Hey man, longtime watcher, first-time commenter. Just wanna say this might be some of your best work yet. Been wild to see how far you've come lately and I can't wait to stick around for the ride. Keep havin fun out there and keep up the hustle champ
Played this game when I was 17 years old. Don't know why I picked it up but me and siblings loved it. I doubt if we picked up on the meta commentary at the time. But the surrealism of it all hook us.
I appreciate the amount of sincerity and thought you put into these reviews, really man your reviews are the only ones I actively look out for and click immediately whenever i see a new one. Thanks for making these videos.
Personally No More Heroes 2 is my favorite of the series. The first game has aspects about it that I like more than 2 like the Open-World. But what makes me like 2 more is how weighty and fun the combat feels and the bosses. While the first game had more consistently better bosses overall, the best bosses in 2 are some of the best in the series. Margaret Moonlight is my favorite in the game with how rewarding it feels to take her down once you master the timing to dodge her sniper shots, not to mention the soundtrack for the fight being the best in the game and the atmosphere being top notch. While NMH1 is more consistently good across the board, to me NMH2 has highs that easily surpass the first game for me. Regardless I still love this series as a whole, great job covering it all
in your defense, i've never seen anyone that _didn't_ think travis' cutscene clash against nathan copeland was weirdly crass. almost everyone agrees that it was somewhat out of character for both travis and the series tone to have him dice up a couple of innocent women like that. similarly, most opinions i've seen seem to think that cloe's assjiggle is a bit much. essentially, a lot of people hold the opinion that NMH2 is kind of weird and offbeat, and there's an understanding that, on some level, suda apparently intentionally made it more _unpleasant_ of a game narratively, specifically making it unsatisfying in order to drive home a point that vengeance is unsatisfying and that this journey you're on is mindless. yes, it's very "i was only pretending to be stupid" which people also tend to point out, but still it's something to keep in mind; your thoughts on NMH2 are not uncommon or unpopular. anyway, i'll finish this once i get to NMH3 myself. wanna be fresh on it when i play!
Not going to dislike something because of that. You expressed your point well, weren't misstating things or grasping at straws. Won't have my own opinion until I see it in context and work out for myself what the game was actually trying to say.
Awesome to see you've finally tackled the NMH series! Can't watch the whole thing due to not having played 3 yet, but I hope this vid will reach a lot of folks and introduce them to the garden of madness
I always took Silvia saying the UAA wasn’t real as a way to give Travis an out after killing bad girl. That does make the call from her “mother” in a weird spot if I’m right but who knows
tbh man i really think you missed the point of NMH2. like travis has a right to be angry at the world that he helped legitimize in the first game and call it out for being bullshit even if he participated in it. hindsight is 20/20. on top of that, the bosses DO have meaning, while some still focus on personal stories, they are all reflections of how travis has created a negative impact in the world he currently lives in. on that flip side, now that hes back in the assassin game, and hes seen what his actions have done to other people, its not hard to see why he would stick through and finish off the rankings at that point. his need to be at the top the second time isnt for dominance anymore, its to put an end to his current lifestyle once and for all by showing everyone that its truly worthless, with that message being sent by the society's "crown less king". doesnt make playing the gameplay any batter, its still a mundane grind fest with much less soul than the original, but its far from being as empty as so many people make it out to be.
May I just say that I actually really like the couple of Ruuningshine style jokes in the beginning, I think due in part to the fact that he doesn't upload a lot.
I don't have any friends who are into the series. So it was fun to listen to this video and think about my thoughts on the series as all. These game was the sole reason I bought a Japanese Xbox, and now I'm playing Part 3 on my Series. It's been a wild ride.
I don't wanna sound like one of those insufferable know-it-all fans you mentioned in the beginning, just wanna give my $0.02 - always kinda figured the whole UAA being a con meant that all the participants were being tricked in some way, maybe even paying their own fees, rather than being "actors". but then, nothing in the game really goes to proving or disproving that anyway. As for the rest, I feel like the tone of the game is just silly enough to handwave away some inconsistencies like Travis not remembering pretty much anything about his past, but at least for my own headcanon I feel like maybe it had been some years between that event and Travis getting drunk at the bar that night. Who knows.
Guess I should make an amendment here because I kinda forgot in one of the DLC story segments in Travis Strikes Again there is at least some light shed on how Bad Girl got involved in the fights. Now, Badman seemed to already be in pretty deep with some shady people as it was, so who knows whether they were actually a "legitimate business" who groomed her for this whole thing or just some criminal underground Sylvia used to do what she wanted. I still think there's a way for it to make sense where Sylvia was the type to be a pathological liar (and that is even more consistent with the sequel's characterization of her) and to simply seize the opportunity to turn it into a "real thing" once she realized how much more money she could be making with it, up until Travis came back and they sort of came to some understanding of each other and grew up. But there's always the chance it's just me reading more into it than they thought to put in.
I can really vibe with that end message. And really feel like I need to play the series specifically to play travis strikes again. Because the last few months I've been in a hardcore "go camp in the woods away from society" mood. And it's a lot of the stuff I know would get talked about. Something weird about it, that masculine urge to fuck off into the woods is pretty common. Hell was watching a comedian the other day that had a whole bit about how they got their inspiration to do that show when they were just wandering out into the woods while never wanting to do comedy again. That energy of wanting to just fuck off away from everyone and focus on improving myself, I feel it.
as a child in school learning kanji, the roadside killings by samurai you mention, it's how i memorized the character 過 which is like human heads stacked. on a path lol history is fun🙃
Rad video! This came out just 2 days after I finished the SIlver Case so That's really neat. I think the nmh is an interesting series tbh, I think I resonate with the other games of Suda I played with more than the NMH series, but nmh 2 was my introduction to Suda and his interesting games and got me into playing Flower Sun and Rain, Killer7, and recently the Silver Case. Really dope stuff, I'd love to see your thoughts about Suda's earlier works but I get having higher priorities, happy you covered the nmh series doe!
"That's straight up disrespectful, dragging Zelda into your filth. Come on guys, play nice" Meanwhile, the original release of Travis Strikes Again has Zelda shirts, with an unique move that you only can use if you're using the Zelda shirts. But sure lol.
I acknowledge Suda's bright ideas and profound messages, yet struggle to find a single game made by his studio that I'd personally call great. They're all slightly off the mark for me.
"We have fun here because life is hard as fuck, but we're pushing through it anyway." Ya know, generally speaking I've had a pretty decent day as I've watched this video. But hearing you say that made me feel all that much better. It was well said, dude. And it really hit a nerve with me in the best way possible. I live for the shit I love because you're right, life is hard as fuck. But I want to have fun and enjoy it when and where I can. And a big part of doing so is watching your uploads. Keep doing what you're doing. I'm here for it. Thank you.
42:00 What your describing would be less a Paragon, but more a Samurai. A Samurai following Bushido and Loyalty. Commanding others not through power but by united will.
I outright do not believe TSA was made for consumers. I've always said it was a therapy project for Suda himself after a decades worth of working under EA and WB to see why he likes making/playing video games in the first place
Also, I played 3 on bitter and the roulette wheel was like 50/50 either lose battery charge or come back normally. I didn't know there were other options until a friend told me long after I finished the game
18:40 this is the second time in my over 30 years of life I've ever heard sombody use verisimilitude in a sentence other than to define the word itself.and I'm pretty sure the 1st time was in 1 of your other videos😂. You know, I'm cool with it, great vid sir
I like this video for going further than most essays on the game. Most essays stop at “LOL GAMERS RIGHT” but you don’t and I really like that. However. I disagree GREATLY about the first game’s ending. I implore you to watch the cutscene after the first boss fight one more time, it’s foreshadowed there that Sylvia has agreed to do more for Travis than just give him sex, in fact, she doesn’t agree to sex until AFTER this. Travis is known to repress his past and repress his emotions. So him forgetting about his vengeful and violent nature makes sense. Travis agreed with Sylvia to help her with this whole UAA thing in exchange for finding his sister. (Or half-sister, I also think you did not watch the slowed down version of Jeane’s monologue.) I mean, Travis literally named his CAT Jeane and has a picture on his desk of him and an unnamed blonde woman who isn’t Sylvia. It’s not spoonfed, but this was not random, and the gut punch of the info at the end DOES recontextualize. I don’t mean anything super critical about it, again this review was incredible in all other areas. Also I reconcile the UAA returning in NMH2 as the public loving it so much and vengeful people like Bat JR resurrecting the past even if it’s fake and stupid. Travis Strikes Again is my favorite. It’s the true NMH sequel. It actually heavily develops Travis as a character, and I get goosebumps when Suda enters visual novel mode.
'Sting' A Reminder that a few of the Department Heaven games have been released on Switch in Japan and nowhere else. Also no mention of Shadows of the Damned in the Travis Strikes Again Segment?
I’m grateful for this video because despite being a fan since its origins and playing the games in passing. I never really GOT it I just enjoyed the ride but looking back there felt like so many holes and concepts that just never meshed. Travis’ values alone seem to be the most sporadic thing throughout the series especially in 3. Every time I looked to find an answer as to why or what was going on it just seemed like I was the only person who just didn’t get it. Even something as whiplashy as Henry’s change. TSA sits at my favorite purely for its commentary and the quiet joy and sadness the game gives off, especially in the Eight Hearts section. tl;dr Amazing video makes me feel not so alone in this crazy ass franchise’s ride.
19:06 Your complaints about the combat feeling "weighty and slow" in NMH2 probably stems from the fact that you're apparently doing low combos exclusively. If you angled the controller upward as you attacked (on wii remote/nunchuck), you'd get faster combos. Idk what button switches in on an actual controller, and It looks like you never found out either.
Seeing so many different people talk a out these games and each coming out with different interpretations of the core themes- Has me convinced this is the first true envant-guard deconstructionist videogame
I just played 1 and 2 for the first time and ngl I loved the Shinobu sections in desperate struggles. Her jump was a little janky and the destroy man fight itself was annoying but I liked playing as Shinobu
I got to see KBash do an actual singing duet with Dr. Peace; Truly Spectacular. Encore good sir and Please please please PLEASE if at all possible post a full version of the song
the uaa thing is not a retcon, the game stablish that pizzablat made the uaa a real thing based on what sylvia lie about it after the ending of the first game for made more money with the assassin fights making it an spetacle (yes this fights are televisionated, this is a subplot easy to lost in one of the game dialogs), and for jasper have his revenge against travis
I don't agree about how plot "dose not work", it's only doesn't work if you starting thinking about it seriously, but the game itself don't take story seriously, it's all a joke, there is a meaning, but it's a magical realism world, it's a " videogame story", with all twists and everyone related to each other, cus, well, Travis is a protagonist of the videogame
A deconstruction of no more heroes seems more like a deconstruction of Suda himself. Never played a NMH game, but seems like Suda tries to put "himself" in anything he works on.
Dang it Kbash I need to finish no more heroes 3. But here is my favorite way to play the first 2 games. I play the game with infinite money, and all the wrestling balls or whatever. I can't stand the jobs and crap. So you have all the money and can continually blast through the main missions, it makes the game play so fast and crazy. Much better in my opinion. Edit: The motion controls are actually really fun in my opinion. Just a quick slam in the directions on screen in order to wrestling moves was really fun. Makes the game feel faster(?) I guess
NMH 2 is my favorite game in the series. Is the story great? No. Does it have really gross imagery? At times, yes (I was greatly disturbed by the way those women in Nathan's boss fight were slaughtered). Do I wish they would've _tried_ to make the open world better instead of scrapping it? Kinda, but not really. That all being said, I love Shinobu letting her guard down a bit and allowing herself to feel more human emotion than previously (even if she's a bit misguided, but it stands to reason that she'd be socially maladapt given her upbringing). I love the soundtrack, I love the minigames that still have Travis doing odd jobs, but in a way that isn't fucking painful to sit through by playing satire completely straight (i.e. "wouldn't it be shitty if you had to _actually_ run around and pick up these scorpions? Ha ha, now do it.") Most of all, I just love the gameplay. I couldn't really care less about the story of the first game because it just felt like hollow, observational commentary packed into an intentional KusoGē (糞ゲー／"shit game"). Like "look at this socially ostracized 28 year old loser that's addicted to violence. Let's laugh at him while also playing him completely straight by making him highly competent and skilled. Really shows how much people like him need to grow up and let go of the past." No, maybe he needs professional help and therapy to find a way to cope with his violent tendencies in a way that doesn't hurt others. It's not helped by the fact that both games try to comment on how vengeance begets vengeance, and then both games are resolved through getting vengeance and Travis just walks away afterwards. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that No More Heroes' story isn't as deep or as good as people hype it up to be, so you might as well play the game that was made with the intent of being fun rather than the one that was intentionally made poorly to annoy you as a means of artistic, self contradictory commentary.
You know a series that I always felt kinda similar in style and tone as NMH? And shares a bit of DNA via Twilight Syndrome, Masafumi Takada and HUMAN/Spike as a whole? Danganronpa. I could totally see them happening in the same universe. Even the soundtrack, sound effects and the minigames are so similar. They even share some themes when talking about violence
