Siliconera got to chat with Grasshopper Manufacturer-founder Goichi “Suda51” Suda at GDC 2018 who talked about Travis Touchdown’s next adventure inside a video game. He also mentioned the upcoming remasters for killer7 and Flower, Sun, and Rain.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes has two playable characters, Travis Touchdown and Badman. Can you tell us about the second playable character?
Goichi Suda: Do you remember Bad Girl in No More Heroes? Badman is her father. In order to take revenge on Travis, but for mysterious reasons they’re fighting together.
What inspired the idea of Travis fighting inside a video game world?
Goichi Suda: I was inspired by games I played in my childhood. The level you played here was based on the top down scroll up games like Smash TV or Gauntlet.
The level here has a lot of GDC specific jokes, it was pretty funny.
Goichi Suda: I plan to put stuff like that in the final game too.
But, not the GDC jokes?
Goichi Suda: Exactly. That was for media and journalist only. Next, we’re going to be showing it at PAX East and I rewrote the dialogue again for PAX East. They get a special build too.
Travis Strikes Again is being shown in the Nindies area and there are collaborations with other indie developers too. Can you tell us more about those?
Goichi Suda: One of the big collaborations in this game is Travis will be able to wear different game developer t-shirts. Hyper Light Drifter is one of them.
I saw there were coins Travis collected, are those used to buy new outfits?
Goichi Suda: Yes, exactly.
How can Travis and Badman learn new skills?
Goichi Suda: It’s a little bit different with skills. If you beat a boss you might be able to use some of their skills like Mega Man. Other skills are hidden inside stages.
Is Travis Strikes Again going to have a retail release?
Goichi Suda: Maybe. Grasshopper Manufacture is handling publishing for this title.
It’s great to see Grasshopper Manufacture’s titles like No More Heroes come back and The Silver Case finally reach Western audiences. What other titles would you like to work with again?
Goichi Suda: A few days ago in Japan, there was an event celebrating the 20th anniversary of Grasshopper Manufacture. At that event, I said to the fans I’m going to remaster killer7 and Flower, Sun, and Rain. Especially, it seems like everyone is waiting for killer7.
Congratulations on the 20th anniversary! Looking forward at the next 10 years, what would you like to do?
Goichi Suda: I have a bunch of ideas in my mind. Mainly, I’m thinking about something to do with pro wrestling, a game, with maybe a pro wrestler as a main character. I’ve had this idea in my mind for over ten years and I really want to make that game.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes releases in 2018 for Nintendo Switch. You can check out our hands-on impressions here. A release window for the killer 7 and Flower, Sun and Rain remasters has yet to be announced.
