With the release of No More Heroes 3 almost upon us, the series' larger than life director, Suda51, has sat down to chat with GameXplain about various aspects of the next eagerly anticipated outing for Travis Touchdown.
In the interview he explains how, as soon as he first got his hands on the Switch controllers, he was 100% sold on bringing No More Heroes 3 to Nintendo's platform:
"Yeah, this is it! This is the platform right here! Since then it's been a Switch or nothing deal."
The director goes on to speak about motion controls being his preferred way to play the game, going as far as to say he wished it was motion controlled exclusively, but he also added that there has been a ton of work and time put into the game's more traditional button and stick control system so that players who aren't fans of motion controls have a solid alternative to fall back on.
Suda51 also spoke about how the game went through various stages of design, initially starting out with lots of boss battles before being whittled down to its current form:
"At first we were going to go with 100 boss fights for the game – we realized that would be too tough, so we cut that down to maybe half and focused on other parts of the story like the world-building."
With regards to influences on the game's story and design, the director quoted Watchmen and The Boys, and went on to reveal that he collaborated to some degree with The Boys co-creator, Darick Robertson, on No More Heroes 3. He also also spoke generally about a fondness for collaborating that's been evident over the course of his career:
"I feel that getting help from external sources that provide new input and viewpoints is really interesting and fun. You get to see the different ideas these artists come up with based on the characters and situations I've created.
When asked about possible spin-off games for No More Heroes' young assassin, Shinobu Jacobs, Suda51 expressed a desire to do something in this regard but revealed that, due to IP issues, this wasn't as straightforward a proposition as he'd like it to be:
"I've put a lot of thought into developing Shinobu further in various ways. But because of the IP owenership, I can't really confirm anything, but I would be really happy giving Shinobu her own game…"
With regards to a fourth entry in the No More Heroes franchise, Suda51 revealed he'd be interested, but said it would be a good ten years away, both in real time and in terms of the game's story. It seems his focus for now is on putting Travis Touchdown on ice and moving on to new IPs. He did, however, also reveal that his ideas with regards to a fourth No More Heroes game, if it were ever to happen, currently revolve around a story that mirrors the plot of Rocky IV, with a main enemy in the mould of Ivan Drago arriving from the north to take on Travis Touchdown!
Are you psyched for No More Heroes 3, would you like to get your hands on a Rocky-inspired 4th entry in the series or would you prefer to see Suda51 move on to new things? Let us know in the comments!
[source youtube.com]
