No More Heroes III
No More Heroes III (Japanese: ノーモア★ヒーローズIII, Hepburn: Nō Moa Hīrōzu Surī) is an action hack-and-slash video game initially released for the Nintendo Switch developed by Grasshopper Manufacture. It is the sequel to Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes releasing in 2021. 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 charges the Tension Gauge. The longer a combo lasts; the higher the Tension Gauge is, 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 will roll 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 the abilities attached to it changed to fit any play style. Travis can upgrade his stats before and during a rank battle with the usage of sushi bought before hand.
Between Rank Battles, the player must earn money to pay off an entry-fee to enter a ranked battle 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 Ricotello discovers a crashed spaceship containing an alien named FU, befriending him, gaining alien powers from his connection to him, and helping him return to space. FU promises to return in 20 years after the two are being perused by government agents.
In 2021, a now 30 year old Damon is now the CEO of Utopinia, an urban development corporation mentioned in Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes' visual novel segments. 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 wakes up during the invasion of Santa Destroy and soon fights Mr. Blackhole, number 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 in the post-credits featuring a small gameplay demo teasing the 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: No More Heroes, with the scale of action being on par with the Avengers, with the game featuring a heavy focus on superheroes.
With the rights of No More Heroes in the hands of Marvelous Entertainment, the team were given a limited time to work on both Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes 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.