Marvelous Entertainment comments on the possible HD ports of Muramasa: The Demon Blade and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.
Nintenderos: "We kick off our interviews this year with a very special one with George Kamitani, president of Vanillaware. In case you didn't know this study, it is the one behind games of the stature of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Odin Sphere or Dragon's Crown. In addition to, of course, unforgettable titles like the wonderful 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim published by Atlus a few months ago."
Half-Glass Gaming: "Travis Touchdown is awesome, and he’s a huge reason No More Heroes is so great. That said, series creator and director Suda51 said he would be open to making a spinoff starring fan-favorite Shinobu. And though the series’ fate isn’t entirely up to Suda [as he doesn't own the IP], a sans-Travis entry could definitely work."
NMH seems to revolve around Travis like DMC revolves around Dante, GoW revolves around Kratos, Ninja Gaiden revolves around Ryu, and Bayonetta revolves around well…
It wouldn’t feel right to have these kind of action games to not have their main character in the lead role or not present at all
I totally get the sentiment, and I agree to a certain degree that these character action games feel a certain type of special because they focus on a single character most of the time. That said, given NMH's lore and other rad characters like Shinobu and Bad Girl, I'd say that universe could definitely be explored from a different character's perspective and still be super badass.
@ Crimson
Yakuza 7 plays dramatically different than the other Yakuza games. Judgment hardly even used any plot elements from the other Yakuza games.
@ Sanchez
Many of those other characters & themes revolve around Travis though. Suda even stated the unique setting of NMH is based on Travis. He as a character is too ingrained in the very essence of this series to ever be removed. Suda also stated Travis is his favorite character.
I could see other characters being made playable like in NMH2 and NMH TSA alongside Travis similar to how other playable characters along with Dante have been introduced since DMC1. However not featuring Travis at all doesn’t seem feasible.
In addition one must also consider that NMH as a series has niche sales as if is. Removing the most recognizable face of the franchise wouldn’t work well commercially.
Travis is definitely integral to NMH. I think if a spin-off were made where he's not the playable character, it would still work if he's an important NPC or a core part of the story.
Suda also said he'd be down to make a game where Shinobu is the main character, and she's super popular among the NMH fan base. So while the series is pretty niche, that niche audience has an appreciation for a lot of the characters (especially Shinobu).
So while I don't necessarily disagree with most of your points, I think in terms of a spin-off or a Shinobu-centric game, it could def work.
If PC is your only platform for No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, don't pass it up; if you have a Wii or a Switch, grab it there.
And Shinji Mikami still owes me his head for RE4 going to PS2.
These interviews have zero meaning nowadays.
I've finished Muramasa in both stories, I'm trying to finish the Total Pandemonium (oh man what a spank) in order to get all swords, and a HD port would be really awesome. Too bad it doesn't seem to be on the way.
I really want to see Muramasa HD. The Wii version was just like an old arcade game with no motion-sensetive controls needed so it would be perfect on PS3 / 360 with lush 2D HD visuals.
they wont make muramasa on ps3/360 because they cant improve the graphics with out huge investment its obvious same as tatsunoko vs they will have to start again and tatsunoko took 3 years to make wii games with great graphics normally stay on just wii because the port to 360 ect will cost stupid money its like monster hunter 3 that game is too big a wii game to port to 360 ie thats why u are getting monster hunter frontier the online monster hunter with poor graphics the wii has yet to have a game with massive budget when them games start to come out the wii will have amazing graphics monster hunter 4 2011 on same engine but improved textures ect wow imagine that well nintendo are working with them on that franchise and japenese gamers want more monster hunter on wii so there i say give them no more heros paradise and thats it,oh 2010 for wii looks awesome