No More Heroes III has had time to settle in on Switch and, generally, there seem to have been positive vibes around its release. In our own review we appreciated the game's flair and action, albeit with the missions and boss fights being a rather different experience - in terms of quality - to the 'open world' segments. We can't say this is new for the series as the Wii original had similar characteristics.
As you can see above, over the weekend Digital Foundry did its thing and analysed the game; it's an interesting discussion about the technical aspects. It's a video with a broadly positive tone despite acknowledging that the open world segments are rather rough. There is an extremely obvious split between those traversal sections and then the meat of the game - missions and boss fights.
Meanwhile, Suda51 has made clear that he's saying farewell to the franchise - the message has varied from a full goodbye to a potential decade-long hiatus, but at the very least it'll be a good while before we see Travis Touchdown make a comeback.
Have you played No More Heroes III yet, or perhaps you're planning to pick it up in the future? Let us know, as always, in the comments.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 21
The open world sections are awful, they really should’ve cut those out and just had the combat sections
I've got it, but in all honesty I can't be arsed playing it. I guess I've got more money than sense these days, which is less a comment on my wealth as it is on my lack of intelligence.
I can only say play it, you won't be disappointed!
I finished it over the weekend and really enjoyed it.
Though I prefer the NMH2 structure where it cut out the open world and jobs in favour of a list and 8 bit mini games
I wonder why they decided to bring back the open world... NHM 2 worked pretty well without it.
i loved the open world returning in nmh 3, nmh 2 is my least favourite in the series for its removal of the open world itself, it made slogging through the heaps and heaps of foes in stages just boring and by the end i really didn't want to continue, stuff like the eight-bit minigames weren't really fun either, bar the bike one at least.
The open world is terrible and shouldn't have been there especially as the Switch can't handle it, if Suda didn't make it i feel it would have been critically slated for a having such a pointless, ugly, lifeless and boring open world.
I really enjoy NMH3 and like the open world. If it was just button mashing battles the whole game it would feel very repetitive and the activities give variety. The frame rates and pop up of the open world remind you it is a video game, which is the kind of self-aware themes the No More Heroes series includes.
It picked it up day one and I enjoyed it. Sure it has some technical issues but in some ways it kinda works given the source material. It is very NMH and I can't ask for anything more than that. Gonna miss Travis for a while.
Maybe it's because I lived thru the N64 era's middling frame rates, or maybe it's because I truly find the expectations of modern gaming needing to reach ever higher technical benchmarks to be unnecessary and unsustainable.. but I have put 10 hours into this game so far and find the performance in the open world to be perfectly fine. Like it's for sure not buttery smooth or anything, but it's not THAT janky. It serves the needs of the gameplay just fine.
I just like to think of it as similar to an open world in a mario game, just a palette to hold the stages. Easy to find complaints with it but better then just a list of stages in my mind. Ive never heard where are all the goombas?
It's a wonderful game. As someone said, complaining about the framerate in the open world sections of a NMH game is a bit like complaining about too many saxophone solos at a jazz gig. Maybe jazz just isn't your thing, right?
@Strumpan You've hit the nail on the head right there. It's a little bit like the ign review where they complained: "No More Heroes 3 feels like a punk band playing on busted amps duct-taped to hell".
Exactly! That's kind of the point. Are the dropped frames intentional? Probably not. But, if you're going into this expecting AAA polish and sheen you are playing the wrong game.
Suda's games are rough around the edges but full of charm, heart, fun and ridiculous violence that lead on to earnest often melancholy scenes and discussion. It's an acquired taste.
@mr_somewhere Yes, and busted amps is admittedly a better analogy than saxophone solos. I also think this game is much better than NMH2, partly because of the inclusion of an open world. Not to mention FU is one of the best villains in a video game ever!
Remember when we would play Goldeneye on N64 and you couldn’t care less when the game would occasionally drop down to 10fps because the game itself was SO good and OCD dreck like Digital Foundry didn’t yet exist? Those were good times. NMH3 is a fantastic game. Play it.
This game was an enigma of design...they absolutely nailed the combat, writing was ace as always, they benched the side characters that could have mixed things up, omitted level buildups to (mostly) great boss fights, made the open world way too open and removed mini games that are actually fun like 2.
Expecting this game to run flawlessly is like ordering a margherita pizza and being disappointed when it turns up without pepperoni.
Not to give Grasshopper a free pass and not saying more solid performance in the open world section wouldn’t have been appreciated (and really, the way it looks, it really should run better). But…eh. It’s a game for fans of the series and if you’ve stuck with it this far then you’ve surely come to expect it to be scrappy and falling apart at the seams but to nail it where it counts, namely in the action, style and characters/story. I know I didn’t expect much more than that and I think NMH3 hits those marks, and is fun all around even in the open world. They have made an effort to make it worth exploring and as sparse as it is there is plenty to find and do.
My main disappointment with the game is the total removal of distinct levels before the bosses- the designated matches are fun but seeing the same enemies in the same locations every time just isn’t the same. I imagine it’s budget/time constraints that lead to that decision, but I would have definitely traded in the open world for a game more like NMH2 in structure if they had to choose one or the other. It’s also frustrating that it’s never clear when new levels for missions you’ve already cleared pop up so you have to drive around to every one each time you beat a boss to see if there are new ones. All that said though I’m still having a great time with it and looking forward to seeing where the story goes- as with all Suda games, really never have any idea what’s going to happen.
Combat and story are super fun. Definitely had some big surprising moments. The open world is totally fine and you actually don't really have to interact with it besides fast traveling to an area and driving to the clearly market fights if you don't want to do any of the extra bits.
I haven’t played NMH3 yet, but I will say that I vastly preferred the NMH1 janky sterile open world sections to the streamlined NMH2 structure.
Turns out you need the bad bread to make that delicious filling stand out.
It's a good analysis video. I like the way they dance the line of criticism vs appreciation for what is there. It really is a good game. And it really would be great if it hit it's frame rate targets (and would be even better if the open world stuff targeted 60, like I think the Wii game did).
I love what I've played. It's like the first two, a bit rough in areas but the story is the same wild, crazy stuff I expect from NMH and the combat, again as expected, is an absolute blast.
Tap here to load 21 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...