#buying from a hp is like russian roulette

[satoshi-mochida]

Some thoughts and details on my last Gamefly rental, No More Heroes(Switch version).

An otaku named Travis Touchdown living in the city of Santa Destroy meets a woman named Sylvia at a bar, and after some talking, decides to join the United Assassins Assiciation(UAA), thinking he'll get lucky with her if he gets to Rank 1(and to earn money for all his otaku needs).

Like Skyward Sword, you can use the Joycons to replicate the feel of the Wii version, but I used the modern control scheme.

Basic controls:

X and Y attack with the beam katana high and low, respectively. While in Santa Destroy, pressing Y has someone drive Travis' motorcycle to him. Holding either button will build up a charge attack.

A and B are melee attacks which can stun enemies and let you use wrestling moves on them by jitting the shown directions on the Control Sticks.

Holding L and spinning the right control stick has Travis wank the beam katana around to recharge it.

Hold ZL to lock onto enemies. While holding the button, you can hit the right control stick left, right or backwards to dodge roll. I think you need to hit a direction on the control stick after guarding to dodge and slow time down to get a few hits in.

When you reduce an enemy's HP to near 0 or counter them by locking blades(or whatever an enemy is using) by spinning the Right Control Stick fast enough, you'll get a prompt to hit the Right Stick in a specific direction, which will do some more damage or kill most regular enemies. After doing one of these Finishers, there'll be a roulette for bonuses at the bottom of the screen, two of which are different types of Super Modes. Managing to get 777 will give you bonus money when you clear a Ranked Battle mission.

After each mission, Travis goes back to his motel room, and there are several things to do there:

Change clothes at Travis' closet.

Change which beam katana to use as you get more from his bed's drawer

Look at the map of Santa Destroy and check your records for missions

Listen to messages on the motel room's phone. I don't think there's actually any that pop up aside from in cutscenes, though.

Save the game at the toilet.

Watch the TV, which lets you rewatch certain movies, like the game's opening and tapes you buy from Beef Head.

Look in the fridge to get restore health...which I think is already at maximum outside of battles?

Play with Travis' kitten Jeane.

There's not much to do around Santa Destroy at first, but more gets unlocked as thew game goes on:

You can get Side Jobs at K-Entertainment and the Job Center, which can be repeated for more money. You'll need to do new jobs at the Job Center first to unlock new Assassination Gigs at K-Entertainment.

There's a training dojo at the Thunder Ryu Building, where you can increase the combo of each beam katana, and raise your Strength and Max Health once(?) between each Ranked Battle. Amusingly, a lawyer-friendly version of 'Eye of the Tiger' plays here. XP

Buy new beam katanas or add-ons for it at Naomi's Lab.

Buy new clothes at the Area 51 clothes store. On New Game Plus, some new shirts can be found around the city.

Buy a tape at Beef Head video store which will teach Travis a new wrestling move when he watches it back at his room.

There are 49 Lovikov balls to collect, which can be given to the drunk Russian man, also named Lovikov, to learn new techniques, including being able to Dash by holding A or B when the beam katana isn't out. Here's a map of where they are. It'd be a good idea to probably keep a checklist to mark off as you collect them.

Another set of collectables is trading cards that you can find in treasure chests while doing the Ranked Battle missions, which are all of wrestling mask(Suda51 loves wrestling). On New Game Plus, more trading cards can be found, but around Santa Destroy this time(which I forgot to do before sending the game back).

Before you can do the next Ranked Battle, you actually need to pay an increasing amount of money at the ATM, so you really need to do the side jobs to grind a bit.

Travis has a motorcycle to drive around Santa Destroy with, which is also used in one Side Job and Ranked Battle mission. A is accelerate and B is brake/back up, ZL is a nitro boost and ZR makes it jump. I wish it was used more or that you could have sections with combat on it.

One of the upgrades, the Accelerator, you can buy from Naomi's shop lets you find buried treasure around Santa Destroy, which will also be marked on the map/minimap. On the first playthrough, this will just be 1000 LB, but the new Trading Cards can be found this way on NG+

The last add-on from Naomi costs a huge amount of LB, and the best way to grind seems to be Assassination Gig 18.

The camera can be kind of a pain sometimes, mostly in tight areas like hallways, and it doesn't stay locked on as you dodge roll.

Two types of battles I had trouble with:

A type of 'fight' that happens a few times is having Travis hitting X or A when a line of enemies throws baseballs at you, and you need to hit it correctly to take them out, and it's three strikes to an out. I could never get the timing down to take out more than a couple of them. ^^;

As you progress, there'll be spots around town(and one Assassination Gig) where you fight a bunch of enemies but only have 1 HP.

Being a Suda51 game, it's a mix of bloody, absurd and over the top(along with some nice moments here and there), and is great for it. There's some deeper stuff about the game/characters, as well, with the second set of trading cards on NG+ having more details on the various Ranked Assassins(some of whom come back in later games one way or another).

An old but amusng detail is that Travis' design is based off of Johnny Knoxville, which fits really well. XD

I'd been meaning to play this for a while when it was back on the Wii, and all of the games are easy to play now, so I'll get to the sequels, eventually.

Next game being sent is: Detective Pikachu Returns.

[the-vengeful-demon]

I can't believe I spent $800 on a buggy shitty laptop. 🙃