No More Heros Travis Strikes Again
| Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Programmer(s) | Grasshopper Industry |
| Publisher(s) | Grasshopper Industry (Switch) Marvelous (PlayStation 4 & PC) |
| Director(southward) | Goichi Suda Ren Yamazaki |
| Producer(s) | Goichi Suda Kazuyuki Kumagai |
| Designer(s) | Goichi Suda |
| Programmer(due south) | Toru Hironaka |
| Artist(s) | Boneface Yūsuke Kozaki |
| Author(s) | Goichi Suda Masahi Ooka Keita Takayanagi |
| Composer(due south) | DJ Abo DJ i-two |
| Series | No More than Heroes |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 4 |
| Platform(southward) | Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 PC |
| Release date | Nintendo Switch January 18, 2019 PlayStation 4, PC October 17, 2019 |
| Genre(s) | Hack and Slash |
| Way(s) | Single-player, Multi-role player |
| Rating(due south) | CERO: D PEGI: 16+ USK: 16 ESRB: M OFLC: M |
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (トラヴィス・ストライクス・アゲイン ノーモア★ヒーローズ Toravisu Sutoraikusu Agein Nō Moa Hīrōzu) is an activeness-adventure hack-north-slash game developed and published Grasshopper Manufacture for the Nintendo Switch and published past Marvelous (PlayStation 4 and PC) as the third installment in the No More Heroes franchise. The game was get-go teased at the Nintendo Switch presentation on Jan 13, 2017 equally "Travis Touchdown's big comeback" and a teaser trailer was released during the Nindies Summertime Presentation on Baronial 30th, 2017 revealing the game as the tertiary No More Heroes installment with the championship "Travis Strikes Again". It was released on January 18, 2019.
The game is powered by Unreal Engine 4, and has collaborations with other indie developers, in which elements from their games are implemented in the games Travis will go through, as Hotline Miami is shown on his Goggle box.
On Nov fourteen, 2018, Grasshopper Manufacture announced that Travis Strikes Once again would receive a physical edition which would be distributed by Nintendo. The physical version of the game is also bundled with a season pass. The developers have confirmed that some of the additional content volition include a new playable grapheme, a new scenario, and a new phase.
While part of theNo More Heroes series, Suda does non consider the game a direct sequel to the previous titleNo More Heroes 2: Drastic Struggle, simply a fresh commencement for the character Travis. Despite this, the story is conspicuously written equally a directly sequel to No More than Heroes 2, heavily and directly drawing from events from the previous two games.
Plot [ ]
Seven years afterwards the events of No More Heroes two: Drastic Struggle, a former professional baseball game player turned assassinator named Badman is on the run from the Smith Syndicate. He is tracked down past one of the syndicate's assassins, Dan Smith, who is seeking retribution for being double crossed. Badman justifies his actions as being for the sake of his ain survival, as he wishes to get revenge on Travis Touchdown, who had murdered his daughter, Bad Girl, during the events of No More Heroes. Dan successfully tracks down Travis' location, granting Badman a Decease Brawl and allowing Badman to live, nether the condition that he kill Travis, and use the ball to resurrect his girl.
Travis - now 37 years erstwhile - has isolated himself and lives in a camper in a forest in Texas, where he spends his time playing video games. When Badman attempts to ambush Travis, the two accidentally awake a dormant video game console in Travis' possession - the "Death Bulldoze MK-Two". The panel reacts to Badman'due south Death Ball, and the two get transported into the video game that'south contained in information technology. Travis and Badman learn from the console's AI construct, Death & Drive, that the unreleased console was created past Dr. Juvenile, and completing the half-dozen Decease Balls that comprise the but games developed for the console will grant its actor one wish. The two form a truce, opting to team up to locate every Death Ball, and defeat all of the games, in order to resurrect Bad Girl.
The game explores Travis' current circumstances and Badman's backstory in visual novel portions that are fix between each Decease Drive game. In the last seven years, Travis had married one-time UAA confidant Sylvia Christel, and had two children, though he abandoned his family unit for their safety, every bit assassins kept showing upwards to battle Travis. In his search for the Death Balls, Travis ends up traversing the planet and meeting characters from other Suda51 games, such as Kamui Uehara from The Silver Instance, and Mondo Zappa from Killer Is Dead. Travis likewise receives information most Dr. Juvenile and her past through fax letters from her purported husband, learning that Juvenile is a war orphan with genius intellect and an affinity for video games, who was hired by the U.s. government to develop advanced technology. She also implemented elements of her history and upbringing into the Death Drive'south games, such as basing the murderous Doppelganger on her adoptive male parent. Travis learns that the "Death Bulldoze MK-Two" was designed as a machine that would create clones of its users, and that while it was initially intended for space travel, the authorities had re-purposed it to exist a super soldier plan - a prospect which acquired Juvenile to sabotage the project in an act of disobedience, and become into hiding. Despite this, the mother machine responsible for its protocols still lays dormant inside the CIA, and Travis is warned that completing all vi Decease Ball games will cause it to reboot, allowing the regime to continue developing super soldiers. He is also alerted that should it be reactivated, Juvenile would destroy the United states of america in retaliation for everything she had been put through during her service to the government.
Despite warnings, Travis and Badman successfully consummate every Death Ball; however one of the games - Killer Marathon - turns out to be an incomplete version of the game. Equally such, when they wish for Bad Girl's resurrection, she ends up being resurrected in the grade of a domestic dog. Travis later ends up locating a image for a Decease Ball which, rather than transporting him into a video game, transports him straight into the CIA. Massacring his mode through the facility he locates the Death Bulldoze female parent machine which is being guarded past Dr. Juvenile, who has infiltrated the facility and taken the grade of "White Sheepman". Travis, expressing respect for her talents and sympathy for her suffering, reluctantly battles and ultimately defeats her. He interacts with the female parent motorcar and is transported to Mars, where he meets John Winter; the creator of the very original Death Drive and Juvenile's mentor. Winter explains that he retired to Mars to escape Earth's problems, and safeguards the planet, opposing the government's plans to emigrate at that place. He offers Travis the opportunity to stay on Mars and live a "perfect life". Travis declines, realizing that he can't abandon his past, and deciding to face his problems caput on. Winter responds by decapitating Travis, every bit the but way for him to return is to "die".
Dorsum on World, Travis is approached by his self-proclaimed pupil, Shinobu Jacobs, who asks him to return from hiding, every bit the assassins await. Travis concurs, desiring mortality. In a playable post-credits segment, Travis is controlled from a tertiary person perspective similar to the previous No More than Heroes games, set in a default Unreal Engine level. While attempting to approach a dummy, Travis berates the actor for treating the area similar a game, saying that they're currently "in development".
DLC #ii: Bubblegum Fatale [ ]
Following the events of the main campaign, Travis and Shinobu are intercepted by Travis' twin brother Henry, who is now role of an enigmatic order with a vendetta against Travis. Travis and Shinobu prepare to battle confronting his subordinates before they're interrupted past a pair of villainous alien lucha libre wrestlers bent on world domination, and a self-proclaimed super hero named "Notorious". When Travis questions the sudden presence of the new characters, Shinobu wonders whether they are foreshadowing "the next game". The collision is in one case once again interrupted, this time by Death & Drive, who are seeking revenge against Travis. He manages to beat them in a game of Fire Pro Wrestling, obtaining the location of the completed version of the Killer Marathon Decease Brawl, which is in the possession of Travis' wife, Sylvia Christel. Travis returns to her estate, obtaining the Death Ball and reconnecting with his girl and wife in the process. After beating the completed version of Killer Marathon, Travis and Badman successfully resurrect Bad Girl. Travis also sees a glimpse of the Death Drive female parent machine, which states that coding has been completed.
Connections to by Grasshopper titles [ ]
Travis Strikes Again is described in its opening video in Version 1.02 as a 20th Ceremony Commemorative Title and every bit such information technology contains numerous references and connections to other Grasshopper games. The opening video is fix from the lens of killer7, using its graphics and the characters Dan Smith, Christopher Mills and Curtis Blackburn, as well every bit its "Celtic" Building. By characters Sundance Shot (Flower, Sunday, and Rain: Murder and Mystery in Paradise), Uehara and Kosuke Kurumizawa (The 25th Ward: The Silver Example), Garcia Hotspur and Johnson (Shadows of the DAMNED) and Mondo Zappa (Killer Is Dead) also interact with Touchdown, and Nigel McAllister (Diabolical Pitch) is briefly referenced. One Decease Drive Mk Ii game begins normally before revealing itself to be a Shadows of the DAMNED sequel complete with an opening cutscene and references to different characters and the original game's development procedure peppered throughout. Michael Gough, Steve Blum and Greg Ellis too reprise their roles as Dan Smith, Garcia Hotspur and Johnson, equally well equally voicing new characters in Travis Strikes Again.
Again Travis Touchdown has a motorcycle at his side, however information technology does not resemble either of his previous two makes, Schpeltiger and Schpeltiger II, and may be a new model altogether.
Development [ ]
Post-obit the release of No More Heroes 2, Goichi Suda had been looking for an opportunity to proceed the series, but became busy with other projects, such as his interest with Let It Die. In mid-2016, every bit work on Permit It Dice was concluding, he was invited to one of Nintendo's pre-release developer meetings for the then-upcoming Nintendo Switch. While the console was unlike from the Wii, it offered similar motion-based features through the Joy-Con, and he recognized he could revive No More than Heroes for the organisation. He felt the game would fit in well amongst the planned Switch titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey.
Suda considered the No More than Heroes series as "fun slash 'em up kind of games", but with Travis Strikes Again, he wanted to play effectually with the history of video games and the idea of retro games, and "how Travis would interact with the individual rules and the individual vibe from each game". The six games are new games developed for the title, some in homages to existing indie games, with at least one beingness a vector scan game. When originally announced, some took Suda's comments to reflect that the levels would be set inside bodily indie games like Hotline Miami, but Suda later clarified that these games would be featured as "T-shirt collaborations", with Travis able to unlock and wear article of clothing items that promote these indie games, a concept he came up with while seeing various game expositions like PAX West. One such title is Hyper Light Drifter, with Nintendo of America showcasing Travis's shirt alongside announcing the game'southward release on the Switch. Suda wanted players to see Travis as a fan of indie games, not simply to give recognition to the indie game scene, but due to his belief that Grasshopper is similar to an indie developer, and he wanted to show his back up of the up-and-coming smaller studios. He estimated that there volition be at least 15 indie games represented in Travis Strikes Once more, with titles to be revealed as part of the ongoing promotion. The game would also come across the add-on of t-shirts from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, The Legend of Zelda: Majora'south Mask and Zelda Two: The Risk of Link that grant Travis a spin attack. The idea of crossing between games was partially influenced by the movie Existenz. Great britain artist Boneface contributed designs for the game'due south boss battles.
There will also be sections of the game that utilise the standard gameplay approach equally the other No More Heroes titles. One goal of the game for Suda was to have it exist completely playable on a single Joy-Con controller for the Nintendo Switch version, simplifying the controls compared to the 2nd game. Reporters from Eurogamer and Polygon have taken Suda's comments that the game may support multiplayer, since the Switch supports two Joy-Con. Suda was unable to speak on this under confidentiality at PAX Westward, simply did tell reporters who asked about this that there are "2 main characters, and so describe your own conclusions, if you want".
The game is being adult in Unreal Engine iv. At the time of reveal, Robin Atkin Downes, the phonation of Travis in the previous titles, had reportedly not been asked to reprise his role in Travis Strikes Again. He was afterward confirmed to be returning to the part in December 2018.
Travis Strikes Over again was teased during the Jan 2017 reveal conference of the Nintendo Switch. Suda was nowadays for the live event, and appeared on stage to prove a promotional image of Travis Touchdown wearing a shirt that said "Travis Strikes Again"; all the same, no mention of the No More Heroes series was fabricated. Suda said in a later interview that this was a purposeful choice, as he wanted the tease to feature Travis himself as the central focus. The game was formally announced as Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes in an August 2017 Nintendo Directly, forth with farther reveals at the PAX West event a few days afterward. Suda noted that the title's ordering, placing the series' name after Travis Strikes Once again, was to insinuate to the fact he does non consider this game a straight sequel merely instead "the beginning of a new adventure, of a new serial for Travis" but that even so otherwise takes place in the No More Heroes universe. Suda also stated that Travis Strikes Again serves as "something of a stepping stone on the road to No More than Heroes iii", and hopes to brand a true sequel if the game proves successful enough.
On November 14, 2018, Grasshopper Manufacture announced that Travis Strikes Once again would receive a physical edition which would exist distributed by Nintendo. The physical version of the game is besides bundled with a flavor pass. The developers have confirmed that some of the additional content will include a new playable character, a new scenario, and a new phase. The first DLC pack was later confirmed to include a scenario for Badman, as well as series-recurring character Shinobu Jacobs as a playable character, while the second pack includes a new scenario for Travis, a new stage for the game Killer Marathon, and Bad Girl from No More Heroes as a playable character. Grasshopper further confirmed that Robin Atkin Downes would exist returning in the role as Travis, and that Steve Blum had been cast as Badman. Kimberly Brooks and Kathryn Fiore were confirmed to return in the roles of Shinobu Jacobs and Bad Girl respectively, while Greg Ellis was cast to play a new dominate character, Brian Buster Jr.
A PlayStation 4 and Windows version were released on October 17, 2019.
Reception [ ]
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes received "mixed or boilerplate reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic.
Several reviewers for Famitsu noted that the concept of switching between dissimilar "games" was a unique approach that offered the game a constantly refreshing sense of presentation, praising the game's ability to brand the player desire to keep playing in order to find out what happens adjacent. The visuals and combat of the game were likewise praised for their explosive style and satisfying feedback, though a few reviewers felt that at times the combat could end upward being a bit of a grind.
The Switch version of the game met internal expectations for sales, reaching 24th on the eShop best sellers chart. The PS4 version did not place in the top 30 in its week of release.
Source: https://nomoreheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Travis_Strikes_Again:_No_More_Heroes