No More Heroes 3 Review – Dead or Alive

Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture’s nerdy killer Travis Touchdown returns in the first numbered No More Heroes in over a decade. Many of the tell-tale features from the series return, including stylish decorations, Beam Katana battles, and completing mundane yard work to earn a dollar. No More Heroes 3 is best when the action is intense and the absurdity of the cutscenes is total, but the open world that opens between each exciting melee arena or assassin duel paralyzes the experience.

No More Heroes 3 bleeds style, is full of fun references, and incredibly enjoys being weird and flashy. At opening hour, the cast’s landscape changes dramatically and violently. Also, I counted no fewer than four title cards in that span of time, one of which stayed on screen longer than any other in memory. I’m still laughing at parts of the presentation of this game days later. Suda and his team at Grasshopper effortlessly integrate visuals and sound effects into the user interface, menus, and scenes that bring to mind countless retro games. Few, if any, of the references feel corny; they are all part of the DNA of the game.

Our hero, Travis Touchdown, has found himself struggling to become the top-ranked assassin on multiple occasions. After establishing themselves in their position at the top of the world rankings, a band of aliens arrive on Earth to challenge the otaku warrior. This group is led by a colorful leader and galactic prince named Jess Baptiste VI, better known as FU. A much younger, fluffier FU and his human companion Damon are featured in the game’s opening moments in a beautifully animated Ghibli-inspired version of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial. FU was once a lovable pile of fluff looking to get back home, but it’s been 20 years since his last visit to Earth. Now, he has transformed into a surly and violent kingpin, ready to kill at any moment.

Boss battles are once again the heart and soul of the No More Heroes experience, and great battles against FU generals culminate each episode. Players find themselves battling among the stars in the depths of space or competing in a deadly game of musical chairs. Some encounters feature surprise moments and battles that I won’t spoil, but I found it helpful to have prior knowledge of the series to make the most of it. Each weather battle is unique and mission tasks are worth completing. Even the final match was an explosion, breaking the fourth wall in a way that put a smile on my face throughout the credits.

No More Heroes 3 plays like opening credits television episodes featuring the characters and features an ending credits animation reminiscent of the 80s anime. I felt like I was seeing the world through Travis’s otaku mind, and the developers did it wonderfully. The episodes begin with Travis hanging out with friends and discussing dark issues like the production styles used throughout director Takashi Miike’s career. From there, you play with your talking cat Jeanne, choose new clothes, or head to the basement to buy new skill points to empower Travis.

Travis, a relic of previous No More Heroes, must complete a series of Designated Matches prior to each Ranked Assassin Battle. These alternate between arenas of combat against various aliens and mecha conflicts in space against massive cosmic threats. The battles are fast and fun, in which you are presented with different enemies to fight with fantastic and diverse alien designs, each of which requires a unique strategy. The arsenal at your disposal is limited but adequate. Travis can slash with light or heavy attacks using his trusty lightning katana, and he uses a group of wrestling suplexes and throws when enemies are stunned. Early in the game, he also gains powers of death, which allow him to slow down time, deal AOE damage, and throw the aliens back, creating more room to breathe. I never felt overwhelmed or ill-prepared when going into battle, but I continually expected more complexity and a greater sense of becoming stronger.

Once he meets the Designated Party requirements, Travis must pay the registration fee for the United Assassins Association to approve the match. Our powerful assassin makes money in the city through volunteer missions, doing odd jobs to mow the lawn or protect the coast from invading kaiju alligators. These jobs are not as attractive as combat missions, but they are not boring either. Mowing your lawn is a surprisingly strategic activity that challenges you to continually boost your engine without overloading it. It features its own goofiness, allowing it to be a braggart and improve as you rotate the machine to align your next cutting path.

While I understand that this cycle of battle and tasks is deeply tied to early installments in the series, way too much time is spent wandering between objectives in the dull and sterile open world. Each chapter sends you to territories that surround Travis’s Santa Destroy house, and each one of them lacks sights or activities in the world proper. Call of Battle is a battlefield bombarded with a grainy sepia filter on the screen. It’s the closest thing to an attractive setting, though it’s still empty and full of frustratingly invisible walls. The scattered collectibles entice players to explore, but I felt minimal incentive to look around the monstrosity of a world. Performance takes a big hit outdoors, lowering the frame rate to nearly single digits, which collides with more stable battle sequences.

While the journey to kill FU and his cohorts does take Travis Touchdown to some wild places, the narrative needle doesn’t move much in the end. There is no natural arc for Travis, and the story simply serves as a setting for future series plans. Most of the character training focuses on FU and how he treats the individual members of his team of space conquerors at their last meal before sending them off to confront Travis. Even these sequences are short and don’t matter much to the overall story. I wish something more significant happened during the 15 hours I spent in Travis’s shoes.

My time with No More Heroes 3 jumped between short highs, from entertaining bosses and cut scenes, to long ugly stretches in the world. Much of the design is dated, and I wanted to leave it after a few bosses to avoid worldliness, but I’m happy I saw it in its entirety. There are a lot of funny moments, and I love how carefree it is to be weird or referential. Those who have already invested in the Travis Touchdown story should feel right at home in this new No More Heroes. Still, I’d insist that newcomers try past entries before diving into this Garden of Madness.