No More Heroes Version Differences - Free Fight Missions
16NMH Version Differences Guide: https://www.speedrun.com/nmh/guide/61qu8
NMH Version Differences Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWiGDBCbRlC0elrbf4vHSrju_Ov0AiGP_
In Heroes' Paradise, the north city was removed entirely, so everything there had to be shifted to the main city. In the case of the Free Fights, they not only moved these particular missions, they even changed a few already in the main city.
Free Fights are OHKO missions that give a good chunk of money; take one hit, and the mission is over. If you fail on Wii, you can't restart the mission, and have to wait for it to respawn (which is ~15 minutes or so). On International Heroes' Paradise, you can immediately restart a failed mission with a menu prompt. On Switch/PC, in one of the few (if not only) quality-of-life changes, if you fail a Free Fight, you get placed back in the overworld and can immediately try the mission again, which is actually how it worked on the first Japanese HP version.
As a side note, Free Fights are unlocked by getting Gold medals in Side Jobs, with the exception of Free Fight 3, which is unlocked by beating Shinobu.
As usual, I moved up the progression of katanas while going through the missions, and included the DLC katanas for Heroes' Paradise.
Mission 1 (0:00):
Moved from the north city to the parking garage. Interestingly, this also shifts Mission 3 (originally at this location on Wii) to a different location. It's a curious change, but maybe they wanted Mission 1 to match the first Assassination Gig (Pizza Butt 1) by taking place at the same location.
Mission 2 (3:25):
Moved from the basketball court in the north city to the Destroy Stadium halls (Dr. Peace's level).
Mission 3 (6:51):
This mission takes place in the parking garage on Wii, but since Mission 1 takes place here in HP (and they didn't want to place two here for whatever reason), they placed Mission 3 at the school/Shinobu's fight arena.
Mission 4 (9:39):
This mission is the same between versions.
Mission 5 (13:21):
Moved from the north city to the subway, sending you to Bear Hug Studios/Destroyman's level.
Mission 6 (16:47):
Just like Mission 5, this was moved to the subway, but instead takes place within the subway itself.
Mission 7 (20:21):
This one remains unchanged. Personally, I find this Free Fight to be the hardest. Due to the amount of gun enemies and the wide open space, you're particularly vulnerable in the mission. It's especially aggravating on PS3 due to its inherent wonkiness.
Mission 8 (23:32):
Moved from the north city to the desert/Letz Shake's level. Admittedly, this one feels kind of weird here due to how far away it takes place from the rest of the missions and how Letz Shake's level is not really made for this many enemies in its narrow space.
Mission 9 (27:53):
This mission is the same between versions.
Mission 10 (31:34):
(Frame rate issues in the Switch footage due to a recording/encoding error that was overlooked.)
Like Mission 9, this one remains unchanged.
I find the new location choices for the altered Free Fights (like Shinobu's fight arena and Letz Shake's level) to be interesting. I imagine they didn't have too many areas to choose from, so they had to work with what was already there. While HP removed the north city, I wonder if the original Free Fights can be found in the data (or any part of the north city, for that matter).
A few incidental version differences can be seen besides the obvious. On Wii, the map is a separate screen on the pause menu. In Heroes' Paradise, the map is accessed by pressing L1 without pausing, so you can move while looking the map. It's also easier to read in HP. I still need to highlight this in another video, but in HP, parrying a bullet will stun the shooter, which slightly softens the difficulty.
Other version differences videos for jobs/missions:
HP Exclusive Assassination Gigs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEOyzpjaLgg
HP Exclusive Side Jobs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InjRJMysc6g
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