Today, Suda51 (killer7, No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned) hosted a “Monday Night Travis” stream . . . on a Wednesday. Accompanied with Swery65 (Deadly Premonition, D4, The Missing) as a guest for the first half of the stream in which he discussed multiple upcoming projects, including what to expect from No More Heroes 3! Although some bits of information might be left a mystery to communities that aren’t fluent in Japanese as well as those not attending the actual event in this cafe located in Shibuya-Tokyo, as the stream was briefly blocked and deafened while new info was revealed to attendants only. However, they also had the courtesy to provide an English interpreter so Western-based viewers were not out of the loop. Below are the bullet-points of all the information they provided for the potential new project, as well as new information on No More Heroes 3 accompanied with new concept art.
- Indie horror project tentatively titled “Hotel Barcelona” lead by Suda51 and Swery65 as co-directors.
- The duo plan to approach Devolver for publishing, thinking the budget should be about $1 Million (for perspective, Devolver claims Minit cost them $8M to fund)
- Suda and Swery both messaged Keiichiro Toyama (Silent Hill, Siren, Gravity Rush) during the stream, asking if he’d like to contribute as a guest designer. He quickly wrote back accepting the offer.
- Portion of the stream felt more like tipsy brain-storming, as they are coming up with concepts on the spot. The two had discussions about the main character and whether he should be “pure evil” or not, and if the game should be a side-scrolling adventure. Suda even sprung the concept art job to Swery live on-stream, to his absolute surprise.
- The scale of the game is small, and they are considering the design should be focused on platforms like Nintendo Switch or mobile.
That was the first half of the stream. As Swery left the building, the 2nd half was dedicated to the recent port release on Travis Strikes Again on PC and PS4, as well as discussing his upcoming game No More Heroes 3, due to be released sometime next year. Below are the most significant updates on these games;
- They are aware of the various bugs in the recent ports (a number of them not found in the original Switch version) and will address them in a new patch soon.
- No More Heroes 3 is planned to be “easier to get into” than Travis Strikes Again
- Kimmy Howell and Destroyman –from the 2nd and 1st title respectively– will return in No More Heroes 3, and their original voice-actors have confirmed they will reprise their roles. Recent concept art of both characters can be seen below. Kimmy was designed by guest artist Mari Shimazaki (best known for designing Bayonetta) and Destroyman by guest artist Skan Srisuwan (comic artist for Marvel)
- There won’t be as much “universe lore” going on in No More Heroes 3, according to Suda. This is possibly addressing how characters from his previous games made random appearances throughout the “Travis Strikes Back” visual novel chapters in Travis Strikes Again.
- Suda provided a new teaser that was only for people that attended the event at the cafe, but stated that they are working on a new trailer that will be about 5 minutes long. While they did not give a specific date, it will likely be shown before the end of this year.
The 7th generation was a rough time for both Suda51 and Swery65. They both faced numerous problems when it came to their creative work throughout the years. It seems that the two are on a train where they don’t want to stop creating new projects on their own terms. The two coming together to make a new horror game may be surprising, but it also feels perfect when you think about how much these two niche Japanese developers have in common. I hope I’m among many folks that look forward to what they have in store!
