No More Heroes III Review: Travis Touches Down On PS5

No More Heroes III was a sequel that I always thought I wanted. With the first two entries in the series serving as perhaps my favorite output from the outlandish director, Suda51, a third entry was something that surely couldn’t fail to entertain me, right?

To a degree, the answer to that question is yes. No More Heroes III is, at times, a welcome slice of gratifying action and quirky, offbeat humor that made the first two mainline entries such a delight to experience. It is, however, also something else – that something else being an exercise in frustration, plagued by questionable design choices that perhaps should have been left in the past.

Third Times A Charm

Unsurprisingly, No More Heroes III sees players again taking control of the iconic protagonist, Travis Touchdown. Having already hacked and slashed his way to the top of the United Assassins Association, we pick up with Travis as he finds himself at the center of an alien invasion that’s hit his hometown of Santa Destroy. The invasion is being led by FU, who, in true E.T. style, found himself stranded on earth some years ago, only to be aided by a young child named Damon in his quest to return home.

Twenty years following FU’s initial visit, he has decided to return to earth to team up with Damon (who, I should add, has since become CEO of his own company, which has harnessed alien technology) in his quest to take over the earth. Naturally, this is where Travis steps in, as he must climb the Galactic Superhero Rankings in his bid to take down FU and stop his evil scheming.

Being a No More Heroes game, I’m only scratching the surface of how crazy things get, with the plot scarcely taking a moment to slow down across the 15 or so hours you can expect to put in before rolling credits. I also really appreciated the creative way in which the ranking system, which has underpinned the series’ core gameplay loop to date, was brought back into play in a way that makes sense within this universe.

Frantic But Thoughtful Carnage

Where No More Heroes III unsurprisingly manages to excel, is, thankfully, with its combat. At a surface level, it still largely revolves around mixing together simplistic light and heavy attacks to pull off flashy combos, however, similar to prior installments, there is some hidden depth.

Charging up Travis’ katana enables him to pull off devastating finishers at the end of a combo, done so by flicking the right analog stick to align with the on-screen prompts. Dodging and timing of perfect dodges also open up Travis’ enemies to relentless flurries, as his world momentarily slows down around him, enabling you to press the advantage in combat. Do enough damage, and your foes then become susceptible to devastating pro wrestling style throw maneuverers, capable of dishing out tons of damage and recharging the katana so that Travis can continue dealing out maximum damage without having to stop and charge it mid-battle.

It’s a rewarding system that tasks the player with carefully considering their next move, rather than just mindlessly spamming light and heavy attacks. When you then throw in jump attacks, area of effect skills, and the returning slot system that sees an on-screen slot machine appear, periodically affording Travis additional bonuses such as a missile spewing mech suit, it results in a combat system that is easy to pick up and have fun with, but tricky yet rewarding to master.

You’ll need to master it as well, as No More Heroes III has perhaps got the craziest roster of enemies yet. While the series has always been known for its whacky opponents, the extra-terrestrial nature of the enemies really allows for Suda51 and his team to go all out with the enemy variety. This variety extends to the boss battles also, which tend to throw in additional mechanics and gimmicks that extend beyond just wailing on your opponent.

So, the story is wacky and the combat satisfying, so why the lukewarm intro to this review, you say? Well, unfortunately, that’s because outside of combat, No More Heroes III can feel like an absolute slog to engage with.

Questionable Design

Stepping back from the more linear and streamlined nature of No More Heroes 2, which ditched the open world, No More Heroes III, in a baffling move, once again turns the city of Santa Destroy into a fully explorable environment again, which means yes, Travis once again has to traverse what is effectively a barren, dull open world in order to access the various battles and mini-games that need completing in order to unlock the next ranked battle.

It’s a structure that felt dated when the original No More Heroes came out, something the developers surely realized when they decided to ditch it in favor of the more concise sequel, so to see them returning to it, with no efforts made to modernize the open world or make it more interesting, is nothing short of bizarre. It serves as nothing more than padding and filler, a waste of the players’ time as they move between objectives.

As for the mini-games themselves, much like the open world, these feel firmly stuck in the past. I mean, for crying out loud, the reviled lawn mowing activity makes its return here and is just as mind-numbing as it always was, albeit slightly more polished. The toilet plunging and river cleaning jobs don’t provide much more in terms of entertainment value, and it begs the question as to why more wasn’t done to make the downtime between key battles more entertaining.

In No More Heroes, the fact that the side-hustles were so mundane was a bit of a gag in itself, intended to demonstrate the boredom and tedium Travis himself was forced to suffer in order to continue on his path to being a best-in-class assassin. And, whilst that joke worked then to a degree, you’d be hard pushed to find a fan of the series who wouldn’t agree that filler has always been the worst aspect of the franchise, so to see Suda51 and team double down on that is disappointing.

Despite being a mindless slog at times, there is no denying that No More Heroes III, much like its predecessors, oozes style. The highly stylized combat looks gorgeous in action, and the aforementioned enemy variety adds a lot to the already OTT fever dream that the world of No More Heroes takes place in. It runs at a silky smooth 60fps for the most part and is easily the most polished entry in the series to date – unsurprising given the added power available to the PS5 port, but, a welcome departure all the same from performance issues that impacted the initial release on the Nintendo Switch.

Same Old Schtick

While the style is as on point as ever, the same can’t be said for the off-kilter humor that the series is known for. Whilst it largely follows the same template of fourth wall breaking and meta-commentary of previous installments, it can’t help but feel a little phoned in, with No More Heroes III lacking the wit and sincerity of its older siblings.

I should add; I don’t think the writing is bad, or even worse than what came before. I think it’s more a by-product of this being the third mainline entry in a franchise that has already beaten this style of humor as though it’s a dead horse. Borderlands 3 suffered a similar fate when it was released, and whilst that was a title that was actually guilty of bad writing and characterization, it also suffered due to fatigue regarding its very specific brand of humor. Repeat something enough times, and what once seemed genuine and hilarious will eventually come off as forced and contrived, which is exactly what happened to No More Heroes III.

Conclusion

Despite its flaws, No More Heroes III is a worthwhile addition to the series. With the performance issues that distracted on Switch now a thing of the past, and the best combat that the series has produced to date, No More Heroes III is capable of providing an overload of gorgeous, chaotic fun. With combat this good, it’s a shame that the rest of the package feels so woefully outdated at times. By relying so heavily on past gimmicks and humor, No More Heroes III becomes a recommendation for die-hard fans only, rather than something that could have had a more widespread appeal had some more efforts been made to modernize the experience.

Final Verdict: 3/5

Available On: PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One, Switch, PC; Publisher: XSEED Games; Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture Inc.; Released: 11 October, 2022; Players: 1; MSRP: $59.99