Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes marks the return of the eclectic Suda51 to the director’s chair, and in a recent interview with Polygon at PAX West, he hinted at a series first: multiplayer.
Suda51 explained that the game will be sticking to its hack-and-slash roots, and that his team made the decision to ensure that the game is entirely playable on one Nintendo Switch Joy-Con. So, what about the second Joy-Con?
“As far as what’s going to happen with the other Joy-Con, at this point technically it’s still a secret,” Suda51 told us through a translator, as seen in the video above. “[We’re] going to be releasing information at some point in the future, [but] as you can see, there are ... two main characters, so draw your own conclusions, if you want.”
The second main character is a newcomer seen in the game’s debut trailer. He’s known as Badman, the father of a foe slain by Travis Touchdown seven years prior during Travis’ violent rise through the assassin ranks.
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We don’t know whether Badman will join Travis as an ally or enemy, but we expect to learn more as the game’s 2018 release approaches.
Multiplayer gameplay — with Travis Strikes Again’s second hero potentially controlled with the other Joy-Con — would be a first for the No More Heroes franchise, but Suda51 is no stranger to building games around Nintendo’s unique consoles. The Wii’s motion controls were integral to the design of No More Heroes and its sequel: Broad swings of the Wiimote were used to finish off enemies, and Travis’ laser sword could only be recharged by shaking the controller in a suggestive manner. No More Heroes even asked players to hold the Wiimote up to their ear to receive phone calls through its tiny speaker.
We know Travis Strikes Again will make use of the Switch’s detachable Joy-Cons, but we don’t yet know if it will take advantage of the Switch’s other unusual features, just as its predecessors did with the Wii’s.
Stay tuned for our full interview with Suda51.
