We spoke with No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda (a.k.a. Suda 51) early on at the Nordic Game Conference in Malmö, Sweden, but when it came time for his scheduled presentation, titled "The Birth of No More Heroes," we made sure to be in attendance. Luckily, it didn't disappoint, as Suda delivered a multimedia presentation of the many diverse films that inspired some of his games -- most notably last year's No More Heroes.
Suda started by noting a couple of key films that inspired previous works. His 1999 import-only PSone adventure, The Silver Case (currently being remade for the DS), was inspired by Nouvelle Vague, a 1990 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard about a female hitchhiker taken in by a rich man. He later took inspiration from the 1973 Japanese yakuza film Battles without Honor or Humanity: Hiroshima Deathmatch for one of his best-known titles, 2005's Killer 7.
When it came to No More Heroes, Suda showed clips from no fewer than six films that directly inspired some aspect of the game design; though some of the included flicks might surprise you. Suda played a clip from Jackass: The Movie of Johnny Knoxville being beaten up by pro boxer Butterbean in a Japanese clothing store first, and explained that Knoxville's antics helped provide a basis for NMH protagonist Travis Touchdown. Later, when discussing specific inspirations for several of the game's characters, he showed another clip from Jackass in which a baby alligator bites Knoxville's nipple for some time. Suda said he showed this particular clip to his team regularly, claiming, "I wanted my staff to understand the kind of person that Travis is."
Beyond Jackass: The Movie, Suda noted that Mel Brooks' sci-fi spoof Spaceballs -- not Star Wars -- provided inspiration for Travis' beam katana weapon, while Takashi Miike's Japanese cult film Gozu apparently provided the name Beef Head, the store owned by the Bishop character. Beyond that, Suda simply said, "[Gozu is] a great movie, so if you want to see it, please do," and also, "It's a shocking one." Additionally, the hotel setting of Christopher Nolan's Memento provided the basis for the hotel in No More Heroes, while the grander city setting of Santa Destroy was partially based on the version of San Diego depicted in the Clint Eastwood action classic, Dirty Harry. Grasshopper Manufacture developers even traveled to San Diego to capture elements of the area, though Suda said the film was very helpful for ideas, since the team was usually so far removed from the U.S. city. [Editor's note: Yes, we know that Dirty Harry takes place in San Francisco, but we checked our transcript, and yes, the conference translator, Suda's personal trainer, and even Suda himself said "San Diego." We're going to assume this is a minor gaffe, or maybe Grasshopper really did accidentally go to San Diego, thinking that's where Dirty Harry took place.] Finally, Suda said the bizarre, low-budget 1971 Spanish film El Topo provided the concept of having a set number of assassins to defeat -- though the movie and game vary widely in this respect (it's three in the film and 10 in the game).
But that's not all -- Suda also revealed which specific actors or athletes served as the basis for several of No More Heroes' supporting characters. While Travis is mainly based on Johnny Knoxville, he was also partially based on for UFC/Pride champ Josh Barnett, who also served as the primary basis for character Destroyman. Sylvia was modeled after actress Scarlett Johansson, Henry got his looks from late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, assassin Dr. Peace was inspired by actor Charles Bronson, and character Thunder Ryu was modeled after Japanese pro wrestler Genichiro Tenryu.
Even the two fake anime series in the game were based on real-life ones, with "Glastonbury" inspired by the 1980 series Space Runaway Ideon, and "Bizarre Jelly" based on the 2004 series Pretty Cure. Suda also said that the work Grasshopper did on a pair of anime-based titles -- Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked and Blood: One Night Kiss (a Japan-only title) -- led towards the development of No More Heroes, and that the three games form a "sword action trilogy."
Assuming the upcoming No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle contains even half as many interesting new characters as the original, then we'll hopefully get an encore presentation from Suda in a year or two regarding the numerous disparate influences for that game.
