User:TheJoebro64/drafts/NMH

No More Heroes is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the Wii. Directed, designed, and written by Goichi Suda, it tells the story of Travis Touchdown, an otaku who inadvertently becomes a hitman and is forced to kill other assassins to prevent himself from being targeted. The player controls Travis from a third-person perspective as they partake in a series of hack-and-slash missions and boss fights to build Travis' reputation in the criminal underworld. Outside these, they explore an open world and complete sidequests to earn money for progression.

Suda conceived No More Heroes shortly before the release of his game Killer7 (2005).

Development

Conception

Goichi Suda, the director, writer, and designer of No More Heroes, in 2008

Grasshopper Manufacture founder Goichi Suda (also known by his alias Suda51) conceived No More Heroes in early 2005, shortly before the release of his game Killer7. The concept originated from the Travis Touchdown character, who Suda based on Jackass star Johnny Knoxville and professional wrestler Josh Barnett. Suda drew the premise of Travis killing other assassins to build his reputation from the film El Topo (1970). The Star Wars parody Spaceballs inspired Travis' beam katana, while the title, No More Heroes, came from the 1977 album and song by the Stranglers.

Suda conceived No More Heroes as an Xbox 360 game but decided to target Nintendo's Wii after the Wii Remote was unveiled at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show, as he thought the controller suited Travis' beam sword. Additionally, he had positive experiences developing on the Wii's predecessor, the GameCube, and felt gamers would eventually tire of family-oriented fare like Wii Sports (2006). Suda described Nintendo as supportive and unconcerned about the violent content, which made developing on the Wii easy. A small team of around 30 developed No More Heroes for less than two years using a custom game engine. Suda decided against reusing the Killer7 engine so No More Heroes could feature free-roaming gameplay.

Music

• http://www.originalsoundversion.com/a-blast-from-the-past-the-original-no-more-heroes-with-masafumi-takada/
• https://www.engadget.com/2008-02-21-gdc08-takada-writing-game-music-is-my-mission.html

notes

• https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/02/17/interview-suda-51-on-no-more-heroes
  • Suda's positive experience working on the GameCube influenced his decision to choose the Wii
  • Travis Touchdown came from Suda's idea "what if Johnny Knoxville was an otaku and so became interested in martial arts, what if he was also a Star Wars freak and bought a lightsaber"
  • runs on a proprietary engine, different from the one used for Killer7. The new engine was designed for the free-roaming gameplay
  • thinks developers need to abandon their existing game design knowledge working on the Wii, he thinks the console allows for new experiences
  • Wanted it to simultaneously be simple/comfortable and exciting/refreshing
  • goal was to make a game that was more violent than Manhunt 2
• https://www.gamesradar.com/making-of-no-more-heroes/
  • The concept originated from the character of Travis Touchdown, who was inspired by Johnny Knoxville. "If I had been an American otaku, what kind of life would I have led? Of course, I'd have been a top-ranked assassin"
  • Suda conceived No More Heroes in before 2005, shortly after Killer7's release
  • It was intended to be an Xbox 360 game until TGS 2005, when the Wii Remote was unveiled. Suda thought it was a perfect fit for the beam katana
  • The name came from the song/album by the Stranglers
  • Making the battle system satisfying was difficult, battle programmer Toru Hironaka said they didn't know how to program for the Wii Remote and make the katana slash they way they wanted
  • "We found that attacking with only motion control was exhausting, so that's when we added the use of the A button," Suda adds. "We made about four or five iterations before we nailed the combat."
  • They gave the katana batteries that needed to be recharged to balance combat, to stop combat from becoming too easy. Suda based this on a flashlight he owned that you could shake to recharge its battery
  • Boss fights were inspired by the 1970 film El Topo, and each bosses were inspired by American subcultures like superhero comics, B-movie female archetypes
  • not every fight ends as the game's structure might have dictated. After a lengthy build-up, for instance, Letz Shake and his gargantuan Earthquake Maker get sliced in half by yet another adversary in anticlimactic yet comical fashion. "The development schedule was looking tight, and there were so many boss battles already, so I decided to write the Letz Shake fight out of the script," Suda laughs.
  • Originally, Travis was going to be killed by Sylvia at the end.
  • "Sylvia knows she's sexy and she uses it as a weapon," says senior character artist Takashi Kasahara. "She was an easy character to model because her personality was so strong. It wasn't my intention when I made her, but early in development someone commented that she reminded them of Scarlett Johansson."
  • It stayed a Wii exclusive because the team was small, around 30, and used a proprietary engine. Development lasted under two years
  • Nintendo didn't have any problems with the violence, innuendo, and swearing. In Japan and Europe the game was censored to remove decapitations.
  • "Travis is an otaku, and those elements [pixelated heart for health, 80s/8-bit game references] were little peepholes into his world," Suda says. "For No More Heroes, I wanted to mix up all kinds of cultures, including videogames."
  • Like Killer7, Suda used a cel-shaded art style. He did this to reference Killer7 since it's also about an assassin. They made it look grittier to distinguish it.
  • The open world is barren and has technical problems, which Suda acknowledges. He wanted to do more with it but was limited by budget constraints.
  • some sales info and legacy stuff
• https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/12/08/no-more-heroes-interview
  • another reason for choosing the Wii was that Suda felt gamers would eventually tire of family-oriented fare
  • "the Wii is very easy to develop games for because Nintendo supports developers quite a lot. I'm happy to make games for Nintendo because I'm a big fan of the company"
• https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/05/02/takeshi-uechi-interview
• https://archive.ph/20121206022755/http://www.1up.com/news/nordic-game-conference-heroes-film
  • The films that inspired NMH included Jackass: The Movie, Spaceballs, Gozu, Memento, Dirty Harry, and El Topo
    • Suda frequently showed the staff a clip from Jackass in which an alligator bites Knoxville's nipple so they could understand what kind of character Travis was
    • Spaceballs inspired Travis' beam katana
    • Gozu provided the name of Beef Head, Bishop's shop
    • Memento served as the basis of the hotel
    • Santa Destroy was based on San Diego as depicted in Dirty Harry. (actually takes place in San Francisco but Suda said San Diego.) Some Grasshopper developers traveled to California to gather inspiration.
    • El Topo provided the concept of defeating assassins for a higher rank
  • Josh Barnett also served as inspiration for Travis, as well as Destroyman
  • "Sylvia was modeled after actress Scarlett Johansson, Henry got his looks from late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, assassin Dr. Peace was inspired by actor Charles Bronson, and character Thunder Ryu was modeled after Japanese pro wrestler Genichiro Tenryu"
  • The fake anime series Glastonbury and Bizarre Jelly were based on Space Runaway Ideon and Pretty Cure
  • "Suda also said that the work Grasshopper did on a pair of anime-based titles -- Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked and Blood: One Night Kiss (a Japan-only title) -- led towards the development of No More Heroes, and that the three games form a 'sword action trilogy.'"