No More Heroes 3

[h1]Pros:[/h1] * [b] Art (Outside of the 3D In-Game Art) is Incredible [/b]: It’s abundantly clear that NMH3 was a very experimental, mixed media, ask as many cool artists as he could experiment for Suda. And truthfully? When it comes to the art that isn’t the actual game itself, its fantastic. Lots of weird detailed things going on, from fully animated anime cutscenes to Akira Toriyama inspired talk pieces. Prominent artists such as Darick Robertson (The Boys), Mari Shimazaki (Bayonetta character designer), and many others were invited to take a swing at the title, and there is a vast array of different styles going on in everything – UI Design, cinematics, etc. A particular standout is in Velvet Chairgirl and Ohma’s boss fight, which is very vivid and unique looking. * [b] Has its Moments[/b]: While I cannot hide my overall disappointment with the game, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out some scenes that felt fun. I loved the Musical Chairs, RPG fight, Smash Bros Battle, and First Person Horror segments a ton, they had that exact creative goofy blend that I’ve come to expect and love from the Elimination Games. * [b] Arguably Best mix of Minigames in the Series [/b]: What little I did play of the minigames felt like it was the best the series had done with the system. Loads of variety and not using those dumb NES/SNES reference games as a replacement for Travis Touchdown’s standard jobs. [h1]Cons:[/h1] * [b]Significant Combat Gameplay Downgrade[/b]: This game does not play like No More Heroes. It is so far detached from the great foundation of the other two titles it is insane. People swear by this game’s combat, but I just do NOT feel it at all. There are no punch combos, there’s no weapon variety, VERY few roulette specials (they’re mostly turned into currency rewards and there’s like, two KINDA abilities that are okay), enemies are tanky and don’t respond well to attacks, dodging is very inconsistent, and even something as simple as tracking your lock on fails to work the right way. The hack and slash has turned into a mundane simple combo fighter that has lost a lot of the arcade, high responsive identity of NMH1. * [b]Significant Experience Downgrade[/b]: Remember how NMH1 (and to a lesser extent, 2) had those cool map leadups to each boss fight, where you had to fight your way through varied environments and an assortment of escalating dangerous goons? Well, in this game, that’s completely gone. No, now, you go up to markers and get teleported to a randomized mini arena with 3-5 enemies. That’s it. Every boss is a teleport to a hallway besides one or two. Even the BIG TOWER – Damon Tower – which is hinted at being a massive facility you’ll have to prepare to be ready to tackle on? You teleport to a hallway. The open world suffers a similar downgrade, as do a lot of core systems like clothing (very few outfits and lackluster T-shirts that you have to go do achievements to earn) and missions (many of them are identical and none of them offer a unique challenge or anything interesting). Somehow, the open world manages to almost feel worse than the one in the first game, because while it has more things around, an overwhelming majority of the space it occupies is empty long stretches of invisible walls. * [b]Fails to Innovate Where it Tries[/b]: You’d think “okay, they took out punches, but there’s a Jump Button now! Surely there are air combos or some cool gameplay reason to use jumping!” No. No, the most you can do with jumping in combat is a simple slam move that never has any gameplay purpose that I found. Even outside of combat, you can’t jump over a lot of the invisible walls, either. Punching had a purpose in preventing guard spam, and even in NMH2 when Shinobu had jumping, it was used in some jumping puzzles and combo extenders. But this one? Literally no purpose. This is not the only failed innovation, and my biggest annoyance with these attempts is the enemy variety. The game attempts to have far more enemy variety with very distinctive movesets, in what I can only assume is an attempt to fix the lack of standard enemy variety up to this point. But what it accomplishes instead is making the game infuriating to play, because every enemy’s unique moveset is spontaneous, awfully timed, and annoying when stacked up with other enemies. * [b]Loses all Identity of NMH1 and NMH2[/b]: That punk, grunge, otaku-parodying early 2000’s identity is completely gone. The sharp shadow stylization, the T-shirt designs, the grounded-in-reality California-resembling environments… they have all been stripped out of the game entirely. What replaces it is a sanitized, bland, and uninspired mess of realism, modern tech and sci-fi that, in no way, resembles the heart of the series. * [b]Ugly Character Models/Overall 3D Style[/b]: There’s no getting around how ugly the characters look in this title. All of the faces look like regular people doing cosplay and barely resemble their excellent design work in NMH1 and 2. Screenshot comparisons between NMH2 and 3 look like downgrades, it reminds me of the difference between Saints Row 3 and Saints Row Reboot. The world itself carries this problem too, with so many of the locations feeling flat and the lighting looking quite boring. Fidelity clearly does not beat out stylization, not even close. * [b]Mischaracterizes Every Character Possible[/b]: Bad Girl being infantilized (I don’t care that they changed that in TSA) and losing all of her personality from NMH1, Shinobu and Sylvie lacking any of the unhinged personalities they had in the prior two games, Travis not at all acting like the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Otaku we knew him as, and Henry! Oh my god, what the ♥♥♥♥ did they do to Henry?? A lot of people seem to love the redesign but he’s so fundamentally a different person that he feels stripped of all of his unique, goofy personality. * [b]Lacks the Funny Writing Style of NMH1[/b]: NMH1’s blend of parody of Otaku culture and Travis Touchdown’s goofy, antagonistic personality makes for a very funny blend. This writing style is, more or less, carried over in NMH2 quite well. 3, however, feels like the difference between Saints Row 2 and Saints Row 4, but even SR4 has more restraint. The cat suddenly talking, the aggressive eye winking real life references, the ridiculous situations Travis ends up in. I just found so much of the game’s writing grating in this one. [h1]Overall:[/h1] NMH1 is a cult classic that has its fair share of janky mechanics but a lot of heart. NMH2 is less of a strong entry as its predecessor, but still a good time. NMH3 is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Having played them all back-to-back, I can honestly say it feels so fundamentally against the identity established in the first two games. A push for a glossy, ugly realism that shreds the identity of the series. Simplified, sanded down mechanics that focuses on being more flashy but lacks any depth or the fun responsiveness of the older entries. Writing that grates, confuses, and feels lacking in sincerity. The loss of so many core features in the series… and that’s all just a brief summary of my growing list of complaints as I finished the title. It’s not the worst game I’ve ever played. I think a player could get some fun out of it, especially if they hadn’t tried the earlier entries to have as a comparison. But would I recommend this? Hell no. Go play No More Heroes 1 and 2. Skip 3. You are literally missing nothing.

im still very mixed about this game cuz it does a lot right and a lot wrong, my main gripe with the game is how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful it looks even compared to the original nmh1 releases on the WII, i geneuinly think ive played porn game asset flips running on unreal engine with more graphical fidelity, which is a shame cuz outside of the graphics the game oozes style from its ui, combat and many effects despite the engine stuffz, the soundtrack is one of my favourite and the combat feels really good, hits feels snappy and satisfying and its prolly the most solid combat system we've had, the power chip are also a really good addition 2 da game as u can mix and match chips to fit a specific playstyle u wanna go 4, no other katana variations, just blood berry and btw most upgrades are just stat increases which u will absolutely need as in later difficulties such as spicy, normal enemies 2-3 shot u if ur not careful new moves u can learn are a lil barebones tho, like the ability to charge up your katana (wow we had this like as soon as u booted up the tutorial in like ALL of the others games lol), a dodge extender (which ive rarely used) and no way!! a few seconds of mustang mode at full HP if you manage to do a perfect dodge!!!! how useful !!! i had some good moments with this game but i can def tell a lot of corners where cut when making this game which is a shame but i still would recommend u give it a shot especially if ur already a fan of nmh / suda games in general but dont get ur hopes up too much

I'd say "Mixed" if I could, but since I can't I'll have to lean towards not recommending the game. That is unless you are a diehard NMH fan and just want to get more content no-matter the cost. However, that cost is steep, as the issue with this game is that it feels like it isn't a NMH game. Besides combat (which is for the most part an improvement on the prior 2 games), it feels like an entirely different game in regards to comedy, music, and style (the strongest points of the prior games). If you are a fan of the Saints Row series, NMH3 is to the series as to what SR3 and 4 were to their series. I guess nearly 2 decades of time between the prior games is bound to lead to some changes. I'll talk about the good and (mostly) bad of this game: Good: - The ending to the game is a rollercoaster. The final ranked assassin is poorly designed and actually beats Batt Jr. for being the worst boss in the series due to how much of a waiting game it is more than fighting (literally took 15 minutes for me on hard mode). HOWEVER, the content past this is so absurd and so out of nowhere it gave me the biggest laugh in the entire game. If you skip the game, I recommend at least seeing this online. - Ranked assassins 9, 4, and 3 were highlights for me in that the comedy, especially for 4, actually felt like the comedy style of the original games. - The combat. It's another improvement from the prior games, and easily the best in the series. The addition that really enhanced the combat was the varied enemy types and the slash and grab loop. You can still charge by jerking off the sword, but now whenever you suplex an enemy all of your energy is restored. It gave me vibes of how in Doom Eternal the chainsaw works in replenishing ammo. - Jeane and Notorious. The decision they made with Jeane is probably one of the best things they did in regards to old characters. Such a funny decision and it leads to much better banter with Travis than the slogs we hear with Bishop (who is "back" for reasons mentioned in TSA). Notorious is a newcomer but a simple but fun guy, and really that's all you need for a good NMH character. Basically he's Thunder Ryu reincarnated. That. I want THAT. Bad: (Why this game lacks the soul of NMH) - The sharp change in comedy. NMH1+2 are memorable to me and many others because of the surreal, fast paced humor and the goofy voice acting. In this game, this humor is practically non-existent except for the beginning and end of the game. Instead, most comedy is reference humor. This isn't clever, but instead simply saying IPs such as "Oh it's like this place they filmed a scene for K*m*n R*d*r!". - The focus on story. This goes hand and hand with the comedy change. In the prior 2 games, there was a story, but it was very basic and mostly just there to get Travis fighting wacky people. This time around, it feels like they want to make a story, but it's so bland. Every time you start a chapter, you have FU introduce the assassin with little humor, then you'll have FU hanging out with the assassin with little humor, and then right before you reach the assassin, Sylvia calls you just to gave more information on the enemy without any humor. It's just so dry in comparison to the games, especially when you compare NMH1's phone calls to 3's. - The lack of lead-up/set-pieces (and replacement with repetitive fights). In NMH1 and 2, after you paid to fight the assassin, you would go to wherever the assassin was at. This would lead to Travis running through different settings (studios, malls, etc.) while fighting henchmen of the assassin. It help build up the assassin and lead to dropping that pre-boss save feeling that much better. In this game, they just completely scrap this. Instead, you do at least 3 fights before paying the entry fee to prove your worth. Issue is, these fights get real old real fast. It's always a fight with 3-5 mooks in one of the 4 or 5 generic square rooms and that's it. You do these fights, go to the boss area, walk down a hallway (sometimes unique, mostly generic), and then you are doing the fight. - The (barren) open world map. NMH1 had an open world. It sucked and was mostly just there to pad out time by making you drive to and from missions. NMH2 cut it out which was a big improvement and likely led to more dev time in better places. NMH3 brings Santa Destroy's open world back and adds 5 more areas. Too bad they are mostly just flat barren places with nothing to be worth your time. I guess it was just to pad out time similar to NMH1 since again it doesn't add much besides finding little collectables that do nothing. - The music. Another thing that made the games so good. Constant bangers or at least songs that suited the mood. Gets you hyped with high BPM music. In this game the music doesn't suit the combat at all. There are a couple boss fights that actually have fighting music, but a vast majority of them tend to feel so laid back with lofi beats it is really perplexing. The open world stuff is serviceable but nothing you'll remember. - The butchering and neglect of returning characters. Another reason that makes the game feel like a different series all together. The old characters are there and shoved in your face at the start of the game, but they are shelved immediately after this and don't show back until the very end of the game. If you don't plan to use them in a meaningful way or don't want them, just don't have them. Then you get Dr. Naomi who is in this game, but in a very odd situation. Thought it'd be explained in the game or have something to do with TSA, but nope. Nothing is mentioned. She is just what she is now for no real reason. - The little details. There are just so many small things that gave the first two games their charm. Here are a couple that I noticed that irked me a bit. 1. Enemies are simply mooks. They don't talk or anything. It felt so empty slashing enemies in this game without them taunting Travis or screaming as they become blood fountains. 2. Transitions are lame now. Remember how interesting the transitions for load times were? Very stylish. Now? A rotating pixel rose. There is also the entrance and exit animations from missions, but instead of anything stylish, it is simply Travis doing reference humor with him returning back like the Terminator. No variations with it either, so hope you enjoy it. 3. Sylvia's interactions and phone calls. In the first 2 you'd talk to her before and after fighting. Usually in odd situations. She'd always call you before a fight talking about how unlikely it is you'll win and with each time the calls would become more and more absurd. In this game, Sylvia's phone calls are back, but man they are stale. She just gives a few sentences about who the enemy is and that's it. And when she is there to clean up the bodies the gimmick is that she is parodying something related to superheroes or scifi.

honestly after playing the first two this doesnt feel like no more heroes. the unreal engine graphics and the odd story with aliens really take away the style it had before, and for me the appeal of the series. the open world is somehow worse than the first game and the minigames get boring fast, although not as bad as nmh2. i am currently forcing myself to play it and many decisions make me wonder why the added or removed certain things. including bad girl from nmh1 instead of henry was really offputting as there wasnt much of a connection between travis and her. also making jeane have a voice AND making them the navigator is annoying to me at least. the combat also makes enemies feel way to tanky and its floatier than the others. the controls are also significantly different, like the dodge being changed from the right stick to simply circle. these decisions really make it feel like just another action game instead of the no more heroes that i love.

This entire game is so incredibly ugly, it looks like a unity asset flip type of a game. Are they not ashamed to release this ? The first 2 games had their own artstyle but this is just trash

HENRY GOT BUTCHERED FROM HIS HEAD TO TOES. HENRY GOT ANNIHILATED, NO CRUMBS LEFT NO ASHES, NOTHING. HENRY GOT STRIPPED, STRIPPED FROM HIS PERSONALITY, FROM HIMSELF. HENRY THE IRISH KING IS GONE. HENRY MY DEAREST... IS GONE. HENRY. YOU DO NOT EXIST IN THIS GAME. YOURE A NOBODY. A CHEAP CLONE. I DONT KNOW YOU.

No. Hell no was this what we waited for. Suda51 must have been on that good ♥♥♥♥ to come out with this pile of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥! Where is my katana collection? Where are my multitudes of wrestling moves and where the ♥♥♥♥ is the kick or punch button!? What a severe and utter let down from start to finish. Skip this or get it on a ludicrous discount.

No More Heroes 3 is a handheld (Nintendo Switch)/console game that's also been put on Steam as a bit of an afterthought, as it's very much designed for the handheld/console gaming audience. It's a third person arcade brawler and an incredibly sloppy Nintendo Switch port with a slew of issues. I think it's trying to be edgy, meta, and funny, it comes across as weird and contrived stuff that seems to be aimed at Gen Alpha kids. Gameplay is limited to some pretty average and poor third person arcade brawling against "weird" bosses and enemies that boil down to "replace the head of the character with something silly" in terms of thematic design. The console port is incredibly badly done here, no proper mouse support, menus are a joke, and I was unable to get an in-game menu at all, you need to use a special configuration utility to configure the game, and you need to alt + tab out to kill the process if you want this thing to go away (and trust me, that's the first thing you'll want to do). The game starts out with a pixelcrap arcade sequence with theme ripped off the Atari 2600 but graphics from the NES... so, they failed at accuracy, which is the only thing anyone should aim for when they decide to fail at game development and use pixelcrap. I'm not sure if this is an asset flip, but it's one of those cases where the assets just look much better than the rest of the quality of the game... a glaring inconsistency. There's no evidence, but as always, the biggest problem with asset flips besides the plagiarism is the deplorably low quality of the other aspects of the game, and even if the game assets are genuinely created for the game, the quality of the rest of the game is indistinguishable from that of asset flips. Even if it's not an asset flip, it looks and feels exactly like one, lack of polish, ugly visuals due to poor use of Unreal's shaders... it looks and feels like amateur slop, but wow, the price on this Nintendo Switch game is both an insult and a joke at the same time. Because this is designed for handheld/portable gaming appliances, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the low power handheld gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the mobile game developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for low power handhelds forces upon a game. While this might run well on a Steam Deck, we must remember the vast majority of gamers here are gaming on PC. PC gamers will be insulted by the demand from the developer that a console peasant children's toy controller should be used, despite this being on PC. Developers should try to be aware which platform they're developing for, and must never, under any circumstances dictate to gamers how their games are to be experienced. Those technical issues put this game beneath what is expected from a contemporary, professionally developed PC game. Let's look at the price and what kind of value this actually offers gamers. Should you buy this game? Is it one of the best of the 140,000+ games on Steam? No More Heroes 3 has the laughable price of $40 USD, for which you could easily get any number of modern AAA games... or this garbage Nintendo Switch port. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. Finally, I'm here to try help save gamers time and money by filtering out the noise and substandard games... there's up to 50 games launched on Steam Direct every day! They aren't all great... most of them suck. If you don't agree with my assessment of the defects in this game, go ahead and buy it... maybe you'll find the same defects I did, maybe not. Even write your own review. Positive or negative, game reviews are here to help other gamers by informing their decisions on what to buy and play.

Everything No More Heroes 2 should have been. We'll see if I change my mind by the end. I did not change my mind.