How Long Has No More Heroes 3 been in development?

"Our favourite otaku assassin returns!"

News by Vikki Blake Contributor

Published on 16 Apr 2022

No More Heroes 3 is headed to PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox consoles later this year.

"Our favourite otaku assassin returns!" tweeted XSeed games. "Travis Touchdown has been forced out of retirement to defend not only Santa Destroy, but Earth itself! Bring on the beam katana and take on Travis' toughest challenge yet in No More Heroes 3, coming this fall to PS4, PS5, Xbox, and PC!"

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As yet there's been no word on a specific release date, but right now we can expect it sometime autumn 2022 - or Q3, if you're in the southern hemisphere, of course.

It also hasn't been confirmed yet which Xbox consoles will get it - for now, I'm presuming both Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S - or where on PC you'll be able to play No More Heroes 3, but we'll let you know more just as soon as we can.

Our favorite otaku assassin returns! Travis Touchdown has been forced out of retirement to defend not only Santa Destroy, but Earth itself! Bring on the beam katana and take on Travis' toughest challenge yet in #NoMoreHeroes3, coming this fall to PS4, PS5, Xbox, and PC! pic.twitter.com/kdEJnonUd5

— XSEED Games (@XSEEDGames) April 15, 2022

"This is a return to more full-blooded, frantic and outrageously over-the-top action, a game that's obnoxious, inventive and wildly inconsistent - chalk this one up as one of Suda's better works, though, and arguably the best of the No More Heroes series to date," Martin wrote in his Recommended Eurogamer review of No More Heroes 3.

No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture was bought by NetEase Games for an undisclosed fee towards the end of last year.

Goichi "SUDA51" Suda's Tokyo-based studio signed a deal with the Chinese giant at the end of May 2021, having previously been owned by GungHo Online Entertainment.

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After a long, soul-searching journey, top-ranked assassin Travis Touchdown returns to his hometown of Santa Destroy…just in time for aliens to invade!

The mastermind behind this intergalactic imposition is none other than the criminal overlord, Jess-Baptiste VI, known to his friends as Prince FU.

To decide Earth’s fate, FU establishes the Galactic Superhero Rankings, made up of the galaxy’s most deadly alien assassins – AKA, the buddies he made while incarcerated at the Blackhole Prison.

Never one to back down from a fight, Travis must work his way back up the rankings and reclaim his title….oh, and save the planet!

“Yeah, 11 years is a long time; like longer than the usual lifespan of a platform itself. The game we had developed on the Wii ended up jumping generations and landing on the Switch, and it was, hm, how do I put it… It actually felt like we were able to come back to the world of No More Heroes pretty smoothly. But even within our studio, first, we needed to ensure that people knew about No More Heroes 1 and 2. What sort of games they are, and how much the fans loved them… I feel like that was our actual starting point.”

“So obviously, we had our own image of what kind of III we wanted to create, but there’s also the III that the fans wanted to see; the III they were imagining. So in development we tried to make sure that those visions of III overlapped as much as possible.”

In an special message made to celebrate the release of the game on Switch, director Goichi Suda stated that the game was originally called No More Heroes III FINAL BOUT - All Out Galactic War!. However they felt the title was too long, and so they ended up "taking a hint from the Rocky series" and shorten the title to just No More Heroes III.

The scene that comes after Spoiler:the Destroyman fight is a parody of the training scene from the film "Rocky III".

In the Rank 3 fight with Sonic Juice, the RPG Travis talks about hating is most likely Final Fantasy VII.

•The song before the fight is very similar Final Fantasy's "Prologue" theme, while the battle music seems to be a parody of Final Fantasy's battle music.
•The game is mentioned as being beloved by "everyone and their mom."
•Travis mentions he wouldn't play it even if they remade it.
•The style and layouts the menus match Final Fantasy.
•Ifrit, Bahamut, and Knights of the Round are all referenced in the Summons.

Goichi Suda has stated in an interview that they had originally developed the entire map as a playable area, but due to processing issues they had to close off large areas of it. He would state that if they ever released DLC for the game, he would like to add these areas back to the game.

Director Goichi Suda has stated in an interview that they had originally planned to have 7 playable characters in the game early in development. This would have included Travis Touchdown, Shinobu Jacobs, Bad Girl, Native Dancer, Notorious, Kamui Uehara, and Midori Midorikawa.

Only Travis Touchdown was playable in the final release. Suda stated that if they were to ever release DLC for the game, Shinobu would be his first pick as a playable character.

The final battle between Travis Touchdown and Spoiler:Damon Riccitiello is a parody of the Super Smash Bros. series.

Director Goichi Suda stated in an interview that the idea for the fight being a "total rip-off" of Super Smash Bros. was originally a joke. However once they actually developing it, he felt this may end up becoming a problem because it felt "really, really close to the actual game" and had decided to change the idea. However, representatives from Nintendo and even Masahiro Sakurai himself liked the idea and told him to keep it in the game.

The character Spoiler:Henry Cooldown returning from the first two No More Heroes games was redesigned by The 25th Ward: The Silver Case and Flower, Sun, and Rain illustrator Takashi Miyamoto.

The character Spoiler:Destroyman (returning from the first two No More Heroes games) was redesigned by freelance artist Skan Srisuwan of Studio HIVE.

The character Kamui Uehara Spoiler:(from Grasshopper Manufacture's visual novel The 25th Ward: The Silver Case) was redesigned by "Goodnight Punpun" mangaka Inio Asano.

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Did No More Heroes 3 sell well?

Is No More Heroes 3 getting a physical release?