Suda51 on being a part of the Switch reveal in January, Travis Strikes Again’s gameplay
Game Informer was able to speak with Suda51 about Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes at PAX this weekend. The developer talked about why the game was initially introduced in January without the No More Heroes name and being a part of Switch’s unveiling. He also commented further on what to expect from Travis Strikes Again’s gameplay.
Read up on these comments from Suda51 below. Game Informer has even more here.
On why the game was introduced back in January without the No More Heroes name…
For the Switch event, I spoke a lot with Nintendo beforehand and worked out how we should announce it and what exactly I wanted to announce. So I decided that first, we didn’t want to say this is a No More Heroes game; we wanted to put the spotlight on the fact that Travis is coming back. This is a Travis game… just think about that for now. As far as the actual title of the game and how it relates to the No More Heroes series, I wanted to wait for a bigger chance – for example, the [Nindies Spotlight video] – to properly announce what exactly the game is going to be and the exact title and everything.
On being a part of the Switch reveal event…
I was able to get a really big reaction from everyone, and I received a lot of compliments from friends and acquaintances, so that was really great. Pretty much right as the event ended, I got a call from my friend [Atsushi] Inaba from Platinum Games and he said, “I just called to say that I saw your thing and that was really great. You did a great job and that was awesome. Bye!” and that was pretty much it. [laughs] But I got a lot of those phone calls and emails right after the event ended so I was really happy about that.
For the Switch event, there was actually a script and everyone was supposed to go by the script, but I was like, “screw it,” and ad libbed the thing. [laughs] I had a simultaneous interpreter who was working on it, and I kind of caused a lot of trouble for that guy by completely going off-script and screwing the guy up. [laughs] Afterwards, I went backstage and everyone at Nintendo was like, “Don’t worry about it. That was great! We liked what you did.” Just earlier I met the interpreter from the Switch event and said, “I want to apologize. I’m sorry about that. I know I caused a lot of problems for you.” Then I gave him a little present to say I’m sorry. I’m glad I was able to meet the guy and apologize to him. I’m really happy that I got to meet him and apologize directly because I kind of felt bad ever since that happened. [laughs] I’ve been wanting to apologize the whole time!
On the gameplay…
The No More Heroes franchise has typically been that Travis is an assassin and he’s fighting other assassins. It’s kind of like a fun slash ’em up kind of game. There will be parts like that in this game as well, but this new game is focusing mainly on Travis going further inside the [retro game system]. Inside the game, there are going to be six different games that Travis can enter into. As you said, they’re kind of like retro style games. Each of those kind of retro style games has its own set of rules and I wanted to focus on how Travis would interact with the individual rules and the individual vibe from each game. So this time, the gameplay is going to be based on those six individual games and how Travis fights through those, and how he’s able to get through them.
