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travis strikes again: no more heroes I've always felt a little conflicted about grasshopper as a studio, i love them dearly but it's not a love that's ever felt as reciprocated as I'd like, the works of suda very much included with that, for a short time i even felt like i hated them because of how i felt after playing the 25th ward, the correctness chapter mainly (the others i did love though), it was edgy and gross and severely sexist, even now i still feel a little bitter about it, but even with that anger i did still like the studio, they made a bunch of my favourite games and they're so uniquely creative, i wanted to reclaim that love and that's why I've been replaying their games on and off recently, covering things like no more heroes 2, killer is dead and I'm working on a page about killer7 and those replays all lead up to me giving their last few games a try , the ones that acted like a reflection on the history of the studio as a whole and on suda's career in particular, the one who wrote that chapter that started me being so bitter about things to begin with. I'm happy to say though now that i have played at least the first of the duology: travis strikes again, that my love for them has been rekindled and I'm about ready to forgive them for my past issues, maybe even for correctness. so the gameplay is pretty different from the earlier games too, instead of being a character action game it's top down hack and slash in the vein of hotline Miami, but with elements from the older games thrown in, like a longer time to kill, combos and having to recharge your sword in the middle of a fight. it's actually a lot of fun, it's cool to mow enemies down with your continuous swing or do some real combos for huge damage, plus you get cooldown abilities that add a ton of depth to the game and a neat system where you can build up a charge with your ultimate by not getting hit that makes it more powerful, up to a third level that deals over double the damage of the basic ultimate. the skills are found in levels or gotten from bosses and they can be support items like heals or a shield, things like a doppelganger to take damage or just ranged attacks and stuns, plus some other things like status debuffs, it's a great combat system and it's a lot more fun than it looks. it's got variety too, with how it transitions into 2D segments with some (pretty bad) platforming, racing games, the aforementioned VN segments, puzzle game sections akin to pipe dream or that Bioshock minigame and some adventure game style exploration. those VN style segments are highlights too, using a solid green and black colour pallet and looking very much like old Japanese PC adventure games with he huge character portraits and big text boxes, it's really striking visually and it makes for a nice break from all the flashing lights and cooldowns of the main campaign, plus seeing these characters whose designs i love like travis and mondo in this new art style is so cool, it helps that the writing there is fantastic too, which I'll talk more about later, these may very well be the overall highlight of the game for me, i really wish this company would make more visual novels. there's also some pretty killer art in the main campaign too, really cool and unique character portraits and some pretty varied environments that are always fun to explore for secrets (usually new shirt tokens), there's more normal stuff like industrial areas, suburban America, a dingy Tokyo apartment, bathhouses and forests, to cooler stuff neon cityscapes, post apocalyptic deserts, a full resident evil 1 mansion, some vector based races, hell and even some white test spaces and a whole unreal engine demo level which was very funny, you'll rarely find yourself getting bored of the areas the game has which is super appreciated. the story is where the game really gets me, it's both a very good sequel to NMH that goes in a direction i love, a cool rumination on suda's career and the various works grasshopper has put out over the years and it's just a fun story about the industry and it's history as a whole, showing things he loves about it and being largely a showcase of why these things mean so much to him. it's a story full of love for video games and a seething rage at the things that get in the way of an artist and their passion, it's so personal and beautiful and it might just be the best written a game from him as been, at least on par with the original silver case for me and it really resonated with me in a way that makes me super emotional and i think if you love this medium as an artform i think this game will really come to mean a lot to you too, it's very much made for people with that love and passion. it's full of references to older grasshopper games including ones where he was only partially involved, characters from things like silver case, flower sun and rain, lollipop chainsaw, killer is dead, a large section dedicated Solley to shadows of the damned and even diabolical pitch of all things getting a shoutout, if you care about this company's history and the games it's made then the game will mean a lot to you, there's a ton of passion and love for old works on display here and i think that's really beautiful, it shows so much love for those past works, some of which didn't and still don't get the attention they deserve (like shadows of the damned which i was very happy to see the game show some love to since it feels like it gets an overdone amount of hate on the net). even beyond their work there's a real love for the artform in general here, shoutouts to ps1 cgs, older styles of Japanese adventure games, vector graphics and the vectrex, FMV, arcade games, ps3 era cool, old VNs and a lot of love and hope for the (then) future with indie games, it's full of shirts referencing games the team enjoyed like 2064 and VA-11 (one of my favourite games), hatoful boyfriend, Zelda, jet set radio and tons more that you can unlock, it's very much made by people with a passion and love for games, for people with a passion and love for games, even his long suffering female fans (me very much included) get a shoutout with a section with what is alluded to be Juliet from lollypop chainsaw as a cool gamer girl left jaded by the industry, that VN segment made me feel super felt in a deeply personal way and it's one I've been thinking of for weeks, it means a lot to me and it feels to me like his own way of trying to make up for past mistakes in how his games have treated women. i mean there is also a cool story here about travis if you don't have that same love for the artform or for grasshoppers earlier works, you can still enjoy it with little prior knowledge even if you really should try and at least familiarize yourself with some of it. there's fun references to tropes, the new cast of villains are fun, there's some fun cameos by other indie games like hotline Miami and a good background story about a killer games console that feels super creepypasta'y, with mysterious rare games with creepy histories made by interesting and eccentric creators, some of who have super cool stories themselves, the story of DR juvenile is one of the most interesting grasshopper has ever done, super well done stuff and the games she developed are really cool on their own, its interesting to hear and read about all the games and their developments, helped by a really cool in world games magazine that teaches you more about them, one of the best details in the game for sure. the setup of looking for rare lost games and appreciating them and their characters is an appealing one, at least to me, games about games are some of the coolest things to me so even on this level the game just did a lot for me. it helps that these characters do have a lot of interest to say, reflecting on their place as forgotten relics of history, sometimes for games that never even had a chance to come out or for DLC's barely anyone will actually bother to play, if you like those older, more obscure games (and if you're reading my site you probably do), you'll get a lot out of that sentiment i think. the music i find is the games one big downgrade, there's some solid tracks here but very little of it is really stood out to me in the moment, it's not an OST I'll find myself listening too a lot i don't think which is a shame because 1 and especially 2 have tons of tracks that have made their way into many of my regular playlists, that said it's not a bad OST and the tracks i do like i do really like and there are probably going to be a lot of tracks here that people will like, it's not an OST that's to my taste at all but i can recognise how solid it is. it was helped on by a *bunch* of IRL Japanese DJ's like Meebee, DJ 1.2, Baku Furukawa, Doramaru, CDR, Prettybwoy and KUNIO with some help from masuhiro for direction and rap lyrics, it's an impressive lineup even if i didn't personally know any of these names going into it. that said there are at least a few standouts here, i like the games opening track, same with its killer7 variant, the title screen for electric thunder tiger 2 is great, the save screen theme, the ramen stall theme is fantastic, "neon city", "sheepman's attacks" and "space talk" all round it out the great tracks from chapter 1. the trailer park theme "trailer park blues" which plays during the hub town is super catchy. "life is destroy: opening" is great too, same with its title screen and a few of its level themes like "Puzzle", "ghost piano" which uses some motifs from the silver case OST and it might very well be my favourite track in the game, "water surface" and "doppelganger" also round out the tracks from its level, it has the most solid of the games level music. "lo-fi civilisation", "sand castle" and "kill your artificial mind" round out the standout tracks from the coffee and donuts level. "sameta gohan" is one of the games other standouts from the golden dragon GP level, easily a top 3 track in the game from me, feels very Enka. the tracks "visitor cup", "semi final" and "love secret desire" make up the other best tracks from that level, love secret especially. "serious moonlight" is the other top 3 track for me, the homage to shadows of the damned is great and a track with MGM vocals is never a bad thing, it helps that this is my favourite level in the game, granted, it's title screen music is great too and the 4 area themes that accompany it too are great, they'd fit right into shadows super well (they might even be from it, i haven't played it in a long time but they nail the Yamaoka sound perfectly) and the boss track "welcome to hell" is pretty solid too. some of the tracks from CIA are fine with the hotline Miami references in sound but none of them super stood out to me, but if you liked that games music this level will be *treat* for you. "Last battle", the amazing track "mars" with the cool *spoiler* jeff minter homage is fantastic and the games credit mix is amazing too with the tracks "negative return" and a killer vocal end credits theme with "come to me". there is also the music for the VN segments which i think is very solid, with "dokoka", "normal" and "kanashige" being its standouts, kanashige is the best of this lot of tracks i think. the DLC music I'm lot less into, it leans in much heavier on rap compared to the base campaign and it just does nothing for me, the main menu track is cool but the boss theme and all the stage tracks just don't really work for me, it's not my thing, though people seem *very* into these tracks, none really stand out to me though, it has to be said. the VA's also kill it here too, especially Greg Ellis coming back as Johnson, i loved hearing him in that role again, but what dialogue robin Atkin downs does have as travis is also pretty great too. the DLC isn't that great though, the new level is overly hard despite having some fun, cool and varied level designs, with the space segment in particular being so unfun I moved to easy because of its oxygen gimmick but i did love the various settings like the wild west and the pinball table and some of those initial level gimmicks were really cool as was the time trial thing it had going on, but again that difficulty kills it. the two new characters don't add a ton to the game since they're just slightly different reskins with some different cooldowns and they need to be leveled up from scratch which makes them all but unusable in the new level, but having these characters be playable at all is great, i love to see that. the story is decent, the badman stuff in the first DLC is great and giving him real screentime was sorely needed, but the travis one in the second DLC is just setting up a DLC and isn't super interesting on its own, though I did love seeing what shinobu was up to. it's not really essential, but it is worth it at least for the badman story stuff and the new level is cool, if you own the ps4 version none of s super matters though since it'll be available there as part of the base experience for you. the game was initially a switch exclusive but this didn't last, this version still has some exclusive things to it like a version of the conversation with the boss of the DLC that's honestly a little funnier, but the ps4 version also does come with that DLC on disc like i mentioned, so I'd probably say to go for that version if it's an option. though i will say that version is a little more expensive and never had a physical release in many areas of the world, so the switch version will likely both be more affordable and more available, it did come with a DLC code but those are long since expired now. the game would go on to have a full blown sequel with No more heroes 3 (which is actually teased in the base game with a cool playable post credits scene which was so cool to see) a few years later which I've been playing as i write and it's very solid, not much has been seen of the series since though beyond some ports of 3 but the studios upcoming game "Romeo is a Deadman" looks fantastic and some hints at remasters for old games are also on the table, as is an offline version of one of the developers previous games "let it die", just ignore the ai slop sequel to it that's also coming out by a different developer (also as an aside i have been helping fan-translate a certain older game from the developer so look forward to that in future). grasshopper as a team is always one I've had a very rocky history with, i love them for their creativity and uniqueness and almost all of their games, even the ones i don't feel as fondly for like black knight sword or much of 25th ward i still do find myself respecting, they've made some of the coolest games ever made and a few personal favourites like the silver case, flower sun and rain, the other NMH games, killer7, shadows of the damned and killer is dead, i do urge you to check out their prior works before this, not just to understand the game better but because even with their issues these games are still doing things no one else is and saying things that are worth hearing, they're all one of a kind projects and there is some stuff in there that could very well change how you see and engage with art, i know it did for me which is why despite issues I've had with them in the past this game still got me invested and emotional, they're a special group of artists and they deserve their work be played. the same goes for the individuals working on the game, Goichi Suda has made tons of killer games with them like the aforementioned killer7, silver case, Michigan report from hell and shadows of the damned, but also games outside of that like twilight syndrome and moonlight syndrome, guy has talent and his name has always been attached to games that are at the very least worth experiencing, except hotel Barcelona, maybe skip that one (even though the ai content has reportedly been removed, i don't trust like that). also notably on board was Ren Yamazaki who's a super notable grasshopper guy responsible for games like black knight sword and co-directing no more heroes 3, with him also working on project zero 4, other NMH games and shadows of the damned. as a weird aside apparently soleil were also on board for this, love that, big fan of their work and I'm a big fan of this game, it's great and one of the studio's best, sure you'll need to do a *lot* of homework to get the most out of it but when that homework is quality video games, that doesn't sound so bad to me.