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No More Heroes(2007)

No More Heroes Series

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NMH Version Differences Guide [work-in-progress]

Guides

NMH Version Differences Guide [work-in-progress]

Updated 1 year ago by AdrianVG

This guide covers the differences between the officially released versions of No More Heroes. This guide does not include information about any pre-release/prototype versions.

[section=Release Date]

Wii JP - December 6, 2007 NA - January 22, 2008 EU - March 14, 2008 AU - March 20, 2008

PS3 (subtitled Heroes' Paradise except for the second JP release): JP - April 15, 2010 EU - May 20, 2011 JP - July 21, 2011 (enhanced from the original JP release, subtitled Red Zone Edition.) NA - August 16, 2011

Nintendo Switch (eShop) INTL - October 28, 2020

In 2021, Limited Run Games released a physical version, with a standard edition, a collectors edition, and a bundle with NMH2.

PC (Steam): INTL - June 9, 2021

An Xbox 360 version of Heroes' Paradise was released in addition to the PS3 version of the first (JP) release. This is the only version of NMH for Xbox 360. For the sake of convenience, Heroes' Paradise will be referred to only as a PS3 game rather than a PS3/360 game.

The first Japanese release of Heroes' Paradise will be referred to as JP HP, while the later revision will be referred to as INTL HP (International Heroes' Paradise).

Note: NMH was released in Korea, but there is very little information about these versions. An article about the Wii Korean release can be found here, and Ebay listings for the 360 version can be found here and here. For obvious reasons, these versions will not be discussed or mentioned elsewhere.

[section=Wii Regional Differences] General Notes

For all regions, there is only an English voice track.
Because the JP version released first, it isn't quite as polished as the later NA/PAL releases. While it is quite playable and mostly fine, there are few blemishes and glitches here and there. -There are four save slots on all Wii versions.

Censorship

PAL/JP are censored; all blood is turned into black ash, and enemies disintegrate in black ash rather than being decapitated.
All of the censored cutscenes can be seen here.
The injuries/deaths of bosses are toned down, removing any instances of dismemberment. For instance, arms that were originally cut off are instead twisted. A few camera angles are changed, too. Some bosses disintegrate, but not all.
Due to the lack of blood effects, PAL/JP actually suffer from less lag.
After paying the entry fee for Letz Shake, there is absolutely no blood (or blood substitute) to lead you to the level entrance. The woman is still placed next to the entrance, despite the justification for her presence (being killed for the blood trail) being completely removed.

Miscellaneous

On Travis's TV, JP/PAL have the music video for Heavenly Star. NA instead has the original Project Heroes trailer.
During load screens, to move the star icon on the bottom up, you must press A on JP and B on NA/PAL.
In JP, in the list of assassination gigs at K-Entertainment, there is no space between the word "Gig" and the numbers on the left side.
In JP, letters for Travis (that occasionally appear under the door) have an organization stamp at the top: https://twitter.com/AdrianVG1_/status/1421991533851590659
In JP, after selecting a Side Job, the bike (while set in usual fixed position) faces the Job Center instead of the street. Need to double check
In JP, there is a glitch in Bad Girl's fight that causes the music to disappear: Only seen here. Not sure if it can happen in other versions.
There is a strange glitch with the mooks in Bad Girl's fight in JP/PAL:

Weird things to test later for JP:

JP Gold Town, enemies don't make sounds
JP Letz Shake, weird hum in cutscene
JP Holly level, no sand sound effect when enemies pop out

[section=JP Heroes' Paradise] General Notes

The core gameplay remains mostly the same.
The game runs at 720p and has a visual face lift, but has some performance issues.
On PS3, blood and violence are censored (like in PAL/JP Wii). On 360, blood and violence are not censored (like NA Wii).
English and Japanese voice tracks are both available; this is the only version of NMH1 with a Japanese voice track.
English subtitles are available, but Japanese subtitles are not (even when using the JP voice track).
All of the cutscenes with the Japanese voice track can be seen here in this video by Ghenry Perez.
Heavenly Star is removed from the game, and tracks from the Dark Side album are used in its place.
There is an additional difficulty called "Very Sweet," which gives the female characters more revealing outfits.
Load times are fairly lengthy; tip boxes with gameplay information are present at nearly every load screen.
There is Trophy support. List of JP Trophies here.
The Dualshock 3 is the only control scheme available; there is no Move support.
There is no Sixaxis support whatsoever; the right analogue stick is used to charge the beam katana.
Upon getting a successful slot machine roll in a level, the power is not triggered automatically like in Wii. Instead, the power is stocked (up to three total), and can be triggered by pressing R2 and Circle.
Stocked slot machine powers at the end of a level give the same amount of money as a stocked 777 in Wii (10K in a New Game, 50K in a NG+).
The chain of enemies killed in a row without taking damage is always present, whereas Wii requires Memory of Tattoo for this to be shown. However, Memory of Tattoo is still needed in HP to gain a bonus from a chain like in Wii.
The map can be shown by holding the L1 button. The mini-map can be toggled by a quick press of L1. -There are 12 save slots on all PS3 versions.

Overworld and Missions

The north city has been cut out entirely and cannot be accessed; the east bridge is completely absent and the west bridge has barricades. The north city is still visible to an extent, however, it is placed significantly further away (with the west bridge extended visually to match).
The collectibles and missions that were in the north city have been shifted to the main city.
A handful of collectibles in the main city have been shifted to compensate for the addition of the north city collectibles (though most of them remain the same).
While the main city has the same basic layout, there are a few minor adjustments throughout the city, most of them removing/altering buildings/barriers to make travel a little more open.
There are still nine Side Jobs (same ones as Wii). In the Job Center, no picture of the location accompanies a side job.
Due to the removal of the north city, Side Job 3: Garbage Collection is now placed near Area 51.
When Garbage Collection begins, Travis is teleported to a new location rather than starting the job next to the manager.
The chime that plays upon collecting a piece of garbage does not play.
Failing a mission will give a Retry option. However, rather than restarting the mission instantly, it will drop you outside the mission, forcing you to manually re-enter it to try it again.
Bike controls are slightly different.
When on the bike, you can open dumpsters and dig for hidden items; the collection hitbox for T-shirts while on the bike is huge to compensate in case you drift away.

Other

Unlike JP/PAL Wii, after paying the entry fee for Letz Shake, there is a trail leading to the level entrance, but it is black instead of red (possibly implying it is oil instead of blood). The woman is still there, in the puddle of oil (?).
When at the Press Start screen, Travis's intro monologue will play over and over if you let the game idle.
In the cutscene with Sylvia in the limo, Sylvia wears a dress as opposed to her usual outfit.
In the cutscene with Sylvia getting an oil rub, there are two people with her instead of one.
The SELECT button pauses the game. The START button gives a menu to quit the game.
Like most JP games, the Circle button is Confirm, and the Cross button is Cancel. -Rumble is implemented on cutscenes, unlike Wii. -From the Armchair option in Travis's room, you can rewatch cutscenes ("Dream") or rematch bosses ("Nightmare"). Travis will fight the boss with the loadout he currently has equipped, meaning it's possible (albeit on a NG+ after he's beaten once before) on all versions of HP to fight Henry with any weapon, including the Blood Berry.
Small gameplay difference: Travis can walk with a high charge attack, and parrying bullets stuns enemies.
Jumping on the bike requires the right analogue stick.
Effect when card shows up is different; on Wii, the circle radiates out, whereas it appears instantly here.
Dashing seems slower. Need to test to be really sure.

[section=International Heroes' Paradise] International Heroes' Paradise is an enhanced version of the original JP HP release. It has most of the same changes with some other refinements, extra content, and a few other odd tweaks.

General Notes

The visuals are slightly changed, with slightly different shading, but certain issues are worse (like screen tearing).
When at the Press Start screen, Travis's intro monologue will not play if you let it sit there, unlike Wii or JP HP.
Load times are significantly shorter, and tip boxes are not present at load screens.
Blood/violence is not censored.
There is still Trophy support, but a chunk of the Trophies are different due to the addition of the NMH2 bosses. INTL Trophies here. JP Trophies here. -A Score Attack mode is added, letting you refight bosses from the opening menu. However, despite clear inspiration from NMH2 (including using the same music), the implementation is different. Bosses are unlocked one at a time in Score Attack as you beat them in the main Story mode (as opposed to unlocking all at once at the end), and you can select the specific weapon with each boss. It is also based specifically on scoring points as opposed to just time trials, based on factors like time, damage, first strike, etc. Used to have an online leaderboard. Elaborate and clean up.

Overworld and Missions

The menu in the Job Center includes a picture for each job (like Wii).
Failing a mission will give a Retry option, but unlike JP HP, retrying a mission will automatically restart the mission rather than dropping you outside of it.
While walking, you can dig for hidden items in the ground, but only when you are over an item; Travis will not stab the ground if there is nothing to be found digging. However, you can dig from the bike even if nothing will be collected.
Collision with cars in the overworld seems to be altered from JP HP. Need more confirmation.
In the bike section on the final level, the walls slow you down significantly, unlike Wii/JP HP.

New Side Jobs

There are five new Side Jobs: Signaling, Sign Spinning, Kitty Race, Bust A Coconut, and People Bowling.
The returning Side Jobs are renumbered to include the new ones.
In Garbage Collection, the collection chime plays properly.
All of the Side Job descriptions can be found here.

New Assassination Gigs

There are five new Assassination Gigs: Guard Break, Power-Down Battle, Big Bang Anarchy, Shortcake Freaks, and Crowded Train Carnage.
Like the Side Jobs, the returning Assassination Gigs are renumbered to include the new ones.

Dream Bosses Five bosses from NMH2 are added, fought as dreams after attaining a certain rank: Skelter Helter (Rank 9), Nathan Copeland (Rank 8 ), Kimmy Howell (Rank 5), Matt Helms (Rank 3), and Alice Twilight (Rank 2).

DLC

There used to be DLC available in the form of extra beam katanas, bike decals, and a viewer that has since been unlisted. It is still possible to install this DLC with homebrew.

Death Metal level differences Death Metal's level has fewer enemies; the room at the top of the staircase has significantly fewer waves of enemies, and the big room has only one wave of enemies rather than two.

Other

In the intro monologue, Travis refers to "the controller" as opposed to "the Wii remote." He also says to press the START button as opposed to the A button. "Let the bloodshed begin!" is also a different take from Wii.
At the end of the game, Sylvia's final line is changed from "I know. Too bad there won't be a sequel." to "I know. Can't wait to get the sequel."
After Sylvia's final line, PS3 goes straight to the To Be Continued screen instead of playing a few logos beforehand.
The functions of SELECT/START are swapped, so START goes to the pause menu, and SELECT goes to the menu to quit the game.
Jumping on the bike requires the left analogue stick.

[section=Red Zone Edition Differences] The Red Zone Edition is the second PS3 version released for Japan. It is essentially INTL HP ported back to the JP audience, with very minor differences to note.

For the most part, it is uncensored, except for one scene: Death Metal's death scene is censored. Video by Alicelicious comparing the scenes. As seen here, there are some odd color/lighting differences, seemingly using the original JP choices or some combination, but as far as I can tell, this only happens in these early scenes. RZ otherwise looks the same as NA/PAL HP, but I haven't checked every scene (only some), so there could be other weird moments.
The DLC content was available at some point, but not on the PSN Store. Instead, the content was included as a bonus code with first run copies as the "Silvia's 18 Forbidden Pack."

[section=Switch Differences] Super rough work-in-progress as I learn new information. This version may get patched soon, so some things could change.

General Notes

Switch is based on Wii, runs up to 1080p and slightly modified, ported by Engine Software.
All versions are uncensored.
There is the option to use motion controls (when not in handheld mode) that emulate Wii controls.
When motion controls are disabled, the controls are similar to Heroes' Paradise.
None of the extra content or quality-of-life changes from Heroes' Paradise are present (with one slight exception regarding failing missions).
One aspect about missions has been changed: if you fail a mission, you can retry it again. It functions similarly to JP HP rather than INTL HP, so you will get placed outside of the mission after failing, and the mission will still be open.
The video in Travis's TV is Travis's normal intro monologue.
The out of bounds glitch still works.
Audio is slightly wonky; some stray distortion, pitch shifting, slightly different sound effects.
There seem to be a few more glitches on Switch. Need to post actual videos here.
The logos at the beginning/end are different.
The font for subtitles is different.

Altered Lines

Sylvia's final line remains "Too bad there won't be a sequel," unlike PS3.
In the intro monologue, Travis refers to the "controller" and "A button." The controller line appears to be the same take as PS3, whereas the A button line appears to be a different take from Wii. In addition, "Let the bloodshed begin!" is the same take as PS3 (different from Wii).

Music Changes Much like PS3, Heavenly Star was removed in all instances, and replaced. Some of them were replaced with Kill or Be Killed. Need to confirm what the rest are.

[section=PC Differences] Currently do not own this version, cannot give too much specific information, very rough notes.

This version appears to be based on the Switch port.

There is an anti-aliasing option.
There is controller support, but not keyboard/mouse.
There are a bunch of boxes covering the N64 in Travis's room.
Has some strange glitches.

[section=No More Heroes 2 Version Differences] Super rough work-in-progress.

Because there are fewer versions of NMH2, NMH2 differences will be included here as an addendum to the main NMH1 guide.

Release Date Wii NA: January 26, 2010 AU: May 25, 2010 EU: May 28, 2010 JP: October 21, 2010

Nintendo Switch (eShop)* INTL: October 28, 2020

In 2021, Limited Run Games released a physical version, with a standard edition, a collectors edition, and a bundle with NMH1.

PC (Steam): INTL - June 9, 2021

General Differences (Wii)

JP is censored (but not PAL). All of the censored cutscenes can be seen here.
Margaret Moonlight has a slightly different version of Philistine based on the version. NA: Link. JP/PAL: Link.
Japan got a special Hoppers Edition, which included the game, a DVD with NMH1.5 (an interquel between 1 and 2) and a few other videos, a Mini Sound Track disc of a handful of tracks, and a special art book. Pre-orders also included a so-called "Erotica Comic." The comic included several features, most of which hasn't been translated. "No More Losers," a story about Skelter Helter, has been translated and can be found here.
In NA, Alice Twilight is erroneously referred to as "Alice Moonlight" on the rank up screen after her fight. The credits do refer to her by the correct name, however.

Switch Differences Like NMH1 Switch, NMH2 was ported to Switch by Engine Software, so it has all of the same base improvements/options: higher resolution, faster loading times, uncensored in all versions, different subtitle font, motion control options, etc. It also seems to have its own share of glitches and is slightly prone to crashing (Mostly anecdotal based on various reports)