No More Heroes is Suda51's criticism of you, the player
No More Heroes is a brutal satire of geek culture.
Travis Touchdown is presented as the paragon of a hardcore gamer: aloof, cool, ruthless, and badass. The game's HUD illustrates how he sees the world as a video game. Assassination is used as a metaphor for the violent wish-fulfillment common in many games. And Travis only cares for violence and the means to pursue it, pouring all his resources into weapons and entrance fees for assassination contracts.
The assassination missions themselves are a symbol for video games, while time spent in the open world is considered the "real world." Travis rarely interacts with anybody in the open world, from the citizens on the street to the shopkeepers. In fact, he only uses the open world as a medium for tedious jobs like pumping gas and mowing lawns, merely as a way to earn enough money to go on the next assassination mission. This reflects how many hardcore gamers work dead-end jobs, just to dump all their money on their favorite hobby.
Travis is also stuck in this mentality, stating at one point: "I want to bail, but where the hell's the exit? There's no way out, is there?" He must constantly fall back on violence. Travis is the epitome of a self-absorbed, hedonistic gamer who cannot see any further than immediate gratification.
No More Heroes shows that the personality traits and aspirations people absorb from playing too many video games can turn them into horrible and unlikeable sociopaths. It depicts hardcore gamers as pitiable losers who don't care for improving themselves or interacting with the world around them, instead preferring to engage exclusively in their own violent fantasies. Suda51 presents the notion that gamer culture ultimately amounts to immature pandering to those who think violence is cool.
