Trivia / Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes

• Creator Breakdown: Returning to the director's chair, Suda51 injected a lot more of his own personal touches to Travis Strikes Again, including some of his own personal anxieties:
  • The game was the first time Suda51 had been director of one of his games in over a decade (ironically, his last project as director was the first No More Heroes), and much of his anxieties in reassuming the ultimate fate of his projects is reflected by the state of the protagonist, Travis Touchdown, who had went into self-exile from his family in desperate search for peace and guidance in his own life.
  • A lot of the character of Dr. Juvenile — a game developer with a history of being constantly exploited and screwed over from making games in her vision — is reflective of Suda's own past traumas as a game developer, whether they be technical difficulties or actual emotional damage. The most explicit reference to this is with the in-universe video game, Serious Moonlight, which due to heavy Executive Meddling was reworked into Damned: Dark Knight, a fake Stealth Sequel to a very real video game, Shadows of the Damned. The fictional character of Damon Riccitiello — the CEO responsible for wrecking Serious Moonlight — is directly based on John Riccitiello, then-CEO of Electronic Arts, and the story reflects Suda's troubles with the game that would become Shadows of the Damned, which similarly suffered from extensive Executive Meddling before being let out to crash and burn by the publisher. Suda's interactions with the real Riccitiello aren't in the books (hopefully there wasn't a brutal physical assault like what Damon Riccitiello gave to Dr. Juvenile), but it was evidently a scarring experience.
• Development Gag: In Serious Moonlight, the character that kills Garcia in the intro of the level, Alfred, is based on the original design of the protagonist when Shadows of the Damned was still named Kurayami. The symbolism there is really quite something.
• Channel Hop: Sort of. While the first two games were released by Ubisoft in America, and the PS3 port by Konami, this was self published by Grasshopper except for the physical release, which was overseen by Nintendo, and the Steam and Playstation 4 version, which was published by Marvelous.
• Milestone Celebration: The first game came out in 2007 in Japan, and Travis Strikes Again was announced in 2017. The trailer notes that it's the tenth anniversary of the franchise. The game also features several cameos from previous Grasshopper characters, becoming a celebration of the company's 20th anniversary as well.
• No Export for You: The PS4 version was only released physically in Japan and other Asian territories.
• The Other Darrin: A temporary example. Early previews indicated that the game wouldn't have full voice-acting and comments by Robin Atkin Downes indicated that he might not be returning as Travis this time around, and the initial teaser trailer had him voiced by another actor. However, a later interview clarified that Downes was soon brought in to reprise the role. Similarly, Badman was played by an unknown actor before Steve Blum was brought on for the main game.
• Role Reprise: All of the characters returning from previous games will retain their original voice actors, including Robin Atkin Downes as Travis, Kimberly Brooks as Shinobu, and Kathryn Fiore as Bad Girl. Ditto Steve Blum, Greg Ellis and Michael J. Gough as Garcia Hotspur, Johnson and Dan Smith.
• Sequel Gap: Desperate Struggle, the sequel to the first game, was released in 2010, with this game releasing in 2019, making it a 9 year interval. It also features, after an 8 year interval, Garcia Hotspur and Johnson from Shadows of the Damned. Alongside that, it also puts Dan Smith back in the spotlight in a game that isn't a remaster of his debut, having apparently kicked off the events of the game by giving Travis' location to Bad Man.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, the game was supposed to have a much more direct crossover with various indie titles, with Travis and Bad Man going to each of those worlds. This was reduced to the shirts and the Hotline Miami arcade cabinet in the final level after Suda realized how much back and forth would be required for the various studios.
  • The game itself was originally not a No More Heroes game and was going to be an original game after Suda was inspired by Hotline Miami. When Nintendo showed a prototype of the Switch to Suda he realized it would be a good opportunity to reintroduce No More Heroes and took most of what was done to the end.
  • A few of the games' various intro cutscenes had original cuts which had to be toned down by Nintendo's request. In the "Life is Destroy" intro, Doppelganger would have completely and graphically beheaded his victim but was reduced to just an intentionally poorly drawn Slashed Throat. In the first cut of the "Serious Moonlight" intro, the fatally-wounded Garcia originally was going to have flung Johnson into the air by instantly gnawing his own hand off, but the final cut opts for simply tossing him away.
  • In a more meta-example, the four assassins that Kamui forces Travis to fight late in the game are the player characters of four cancelled Grasshopper Manufacture games. "Kill the past", indeed.
  • The prototype of the Death Drive Mk. I found in the CIA Headquarters near the end of the game was an actual installation that Suda51 once proposed to the Museum of Modern Art, but they ghosted him in part because it wasn't what they had asked of him.

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