No More Heroes III

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No More Heroes III (ノーモア★ヒーローズIII, Nō Moa Hīrōzu Surī) is a 2021 action hack-and-slash video game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fourth installment in the No More Heroes series, set after Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes. It was later released on the Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2022.

Gameplay

No More Heroes III's gameplay mostly consists of third-person hack-and-slash elements in which the player controls Travis Touchdown. Using his Beam Katana, the player is able to use strong and weak attacks which charge the Tension Gauge. The longer a combo lasts; the higher the Tension Gauge rises, leading to more damaging attacks. Once the enemy is at a low enough health the game prompts the player to do a "Killer Slash", an attack that cannot be dodged or blocked by the enemy, instantly killing them. After each kill a roulette wheel will appear on screen, which can give the player money, stat bonuses, or "Full Armor". The Death Glove returns from Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes and can have abilities attached to it changed to fit different play styles. Travis can recieve a boost before and during a battle with the usage of stat-boosting sushi purchased before hand.

Between Rank Battles, the player must earn money to pay off Travis's entry-fee by completing odd-jobs around the open-world, which returns from No More Heroes. These jobs grow increasingly difficult with more obstacles and/or less time to complete them.

Plot

In 2001, a 10 year old Damon Riccitiello discovers a crashed spaceship containing a young alien named FU. Damon befriends him, gaining alien powers from their connection, and eventually helps him return to space. FU promises to return in 20 years after the two are being persued by government agents.

In 2021, a now 30 year old Damon is now the CEO of the urban development corporation Utopinia. FU returns as promised, but as a prince with nine of his alien friends, who state their plans to take over the world and become "Goddamn Superheroes". Travis Touchdown wakes up during the invasion of Santa Destroy and soon fights Mr. Blackhole, Rank 10 in the Galactic Superhero Ratings, bringing Travis back into the endless cycle of climbing the ranks.

Development

No More Heroes III started development in early 2019 after the release of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, with said game featuring a small post-credits gameplay demo teasing a return to the action hack-and-slash gameplay in the first two games. The post-credit scene was included to invoke the Marvel Cinematic Universe's use of post-credit scenes to tease future events in future films, as said by Suda in an interview after the release of Travis Strikes Again.

Suda had written an outline for No More Heroes III during the development of Travis Strikes Again, with the scale of action being on par with the Avengers, with the game featuring a heavy focus on superheroes.

With the rights of the No More Heroes series in the hands of Marvelous Entertainment, the team were given a limited time to work on both Travis Strikes Again and No More Heroes III, and planned No More Heroes III to be the conclusion for the series for the foreseeable future. Suda notes that Grasshopper Manufacture's future needs to be built on the back of new IPs that they have full control over, but still says the idea of returning to No More Heroes could be a possibility in the future.