No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle/Characters
Here's the list of characters introduced in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. For the characters introduced in the original game, go here.
The Assassins
Skelter Helter
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer
"You insensitive prick! You killed him and you don't even remember!"
First boss of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, and the 51st ranked assassin. Helter Skelter's younger brother.
- Almighty Janitor: He's ranked 51st in the UAA, but in Bitter mode, he is only easy when compared to Matt Helms and Jasper Batt Jr.
- Affectionate Parody/Take That: He seems to be an amalgam of various Final Fantasy protagonists (oversized sword that looks like Cloud's Buster Sword, ridiculously spiky hair, etc). Unlike his easily dispatched brother, he's an actual boss fight, and much better developed as a character, so it may not necessarily be a Take That.
- Bishonen
- Bonus Boss: in Heroes' Paradise.
- Captain Ersatz: Just by glancing at him, you'd think you were be looking at an albino version of Cloud Strife.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: Arguably, his theme.
- Evil Albino
- Go Out with a Smile: A Slasher Smile.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: His Revolver... revolves Revolver Cylinders.
- More Dakka
- My Death Is Just the Beginning
- Not Quite Dead: He survives decapitation! Granted it's only long enough to warn Travis of Bishop's impending fate, but still... Then he rips his own head off afterwards.
- Refuge in Audacity: Survived decapitation. He then kills himself for real.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: His revolver revolves revolvers.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Wants payback for his older brother's death.
- Rule of Cool: His gun. It's just simply awesome.
- Sword and Gun
- Warmup Boss: Subverted on a Bitter or Deathmatch (especially Deathmatch) fight with him. When his AI is juiced up, he uses his revolver to keep Travis at arm's length and busts out guard-breaking attacks at a moment's notice.
Nathan Copeland
Voiced by: Khary Payton
"This is it! This is what I've been prayin' for! I'm weary of this gilded world! All glitter! NO SOUL!"
The 50th ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle. An Irish hip-hop rapper.
- Almighty Janitor: He's ranked 50th in the UAA, but he is not a Warmup Boss. In fact, he's arguably harder than quite a few bosses that follow him. Good luck defeating him on Bitter.
- Badass Preacher: He is the founder of a religion that spreads its word through rap. You would expect him to be a full-on hip hop stereotype, but he speaks like an ancient shaman.
- Blood Knight: He really doesn't care about the UAA, he joined simply for the challenge of facing Travis in one-on-one combat.
- Bonus Boss: in Heroes' Paradise.
- Crazy Awesome: Just read all these descriptions.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: "It's Kill Or Be Killed" is perhaps the greatest elevator music that could play as you ascend up the tower to face him. When you finally reach the top floor, you get to hear "No More Riot".
- Dance Battler
- Death Seeker: He fully admits that he wishes to die by Travis's hand.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Why does Drebin have an Irish accent?
- Improbable Weapon User: His boombox can transform into mechanical armor that can shoot missiles.Before that, he throws his hoes at you.
- Jive Turkey: Subverted. He certainly looks the part. He also acts the part while you're fighting him, complete with dancing moves. However he talks, and outside of battle acts, more like a preacher.
- Large Ham
- Most Annoying Sound: "BLESS YEW!"
- Swiss Army Weapon: Nathan's boombox.
- Worthy Opponent: Sees Travis as one, respectfully calling him "The Crownless King".
Charlie MacDonald
Voiced by: Yuri Lowenthal
"After this, I'm going to touch you down."
The 25th ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle. A football jock followed by a group of assassin cheerleaders who are all collectively ranked 26th through 49th. Despite the obvious motif, his weapon is the Santa Death Parade, a Humongous Mecha.
- Cluster F-Bomb/Most Annoying Sound: "HOOOOLY SHIIIIT!"
- "DEATH PARADE BEAM! DEATH PARADE BEAM! DEATH PARADE BEAM!"
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: MECHA BATTLE.
- Double Entendre: Directed towards his Squeeing squad of cheerleading groupies. The above quote.
- Humongous Mecha: Santa Death Parade.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Charlie's cheerleaders. All 24 of them.
- I Know Madden Kombat: Subverted. Despite the obvious football theme, Charlie decides to go the Humongous Mecha route. However, one of his mech's attacks is called "Go Long!", and his special involves hitting you in the gut with a football. He also likes Travis Touchdown's name, for obvious reasons.
- Macross Missile Massacre: How he and his cheerleaders create the Santa Death Parade mecha.
- The Power of Friendship: He begins the battle with a classic "Everyone, give me your strength!"
- Shout-Out:
- Santa Death Parade has a face on his torso. Coincidentally, Yuri Lowenthal also voiced Simon.
- His name is Charlie and he has a groupie of women. Hmm...
- Uncanny Valley: Every one of Charlie's cheerleaders look exactly the same.
- Underboobs: Charlie's troop of cheerleaders have a very prominent display of this.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change
Kimmy Howell
Voiced by: Jennifer Hale
"I'm legit, and way tougher than I look! So, uh...don't go easy on me, 'k? 'cause one wrong move, and you're over."
A schoolgirl assassin in Desperate Struggle. Her rank is unknown, but it's presumed to be one below Travis at the time you fight her—unlike the other UAA assassins, she challenges Travis for his rank. Uses her recorder as a weapon, which doubles as a double beam katana.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She doesn't really show anger, but she does come off as a bit deranged.
- Bonus Boss: in Heroes' Paradise.
- Bubble Gun: Kimmy will sometimes pause mid-battle to blow bubbles at you from her recorder. Unblockable, exploding bubbles.
- Double Weapon:
- Ear Worm: Her theme. Sounds like a sitcom opening or something...
- Fan Girl: Of Travis. She calls him Travis the Great.
- Girlish Pigtails
- Glacier Waif: Kimmy fights like a chainsaw on legs and her combos do immense damage, but she's extremely lacking when it comes to mobility. In fact, barely moves at all over the course of her match, preferring to taunt and bait Travis until he gets within range, which makes it extremely easy to hit her with a fully-powered Peony. Averted on Bitter, where she is more than happy to chase you all over the arena.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Subverted, kinda. The E3 trailer showed her with glasses on. The finished game shows her without them.
- Groin Attack: What happens if she beats you in a weapon clash. Travis' response is "Oh Yeah!"... And then he keels over.
- If I Can't Have You: She's going to put Travis' head on a trophy to ensure that only she can have him.
- I'm Your Biggest Fan: Says this to Travis. Notably, the whole reason she's a boss fight is so she can prove it.
- Instrument of Murder: Her recorder
- Killer Rabbit: Seems innocent enough until she pulls out the double beam katana. While not quite as hard as Nathan Copeland, she's very fast, and trying to attack her head on will get you killed.
- Laser Blade
- Took a Level in Badass: Considering Kimmy was probably a normal student before being trained as an assassin.
- Totally Radical: "You have to read it out loud, just for lulz!"
- Yandere: She writes a love letter to Travis and has him read it aloud. Said love letter details her desire to behead Travis, and in turn, surpassing him. She sounds unbelievably creepy when she says "I love you" during the battle.
- Waif Fu: Kimmy's knees even knock together when she's not attacking you. Her desperation move is to hit Travis with the old "thigh vice" trick.
Matt Helms
Voiced by: Debi Derryberry
"I'm going to kill you... I'm going to kill you..."
An obese behemoth wearing a clown mask, and the 24th ranked assassin Desperate Struggle. He was abandoned as a child, and when he died, he made a deal with the devil to be revived through dark arts.
- An Axe to Grind: A flame-throwing axe!
- Bonus Boss: in Heroes' Paradise.
- Deal with the Devil: It already got him his revenge. So now he just... hangs around being scary.
- Die, Chair, Die!: The building you fight him in is filled with boxes, crates and furniture. Between the two of you, it will likely be far less filled by the time you finish him.
- In fact, one of the best things to do at the start of the fight (especially on Bitter mode), is to just run around and smash everything that can be smashed, in order to free up some space to maneuver around in. There is one wall that cannot be broken, creating a pocket on the left side of the map. Of course, Matt's smart enough to force you into that pocket if you get careless...
- Fat Bastard: Only in his ghost form.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Imagine a demonic Jimmy Neutron gunning at you with a flamethrower and an axe.
- Laughing Mad: When you finally take him down. The fact that it's in slow-mo does not help.
- Like a Badass Out of Hell
- The Living Dead
- Nightmare Fuel: Obviously a deliberate reference to horror movies, but he's also legitimately scary.
- That One Boss: Very strong, very durable, fought in a very closed space (although the space probably won't be as enclosed by the time you both have finished with it), and difficult to stun. He's one of the bosses people commonly have the most trouble with. If his homing Molotov cocktails don't kill you, his ridiculously long reach will.
- Playing with Fire: Flamethrower-axe, Molotov Cocktails, need I say more?
- Psychopathic Manchild: Subverted. He is a child.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He originally came back from the dead to get revenge on his parents.
- Self-Made Orphan: Posthumously, no less.
- Shout-Out: Basically one big one to slasher movies in general, especially Friday the 13th. Also, he has a flamethrower, an axe, a mask and doesn't talk...
- Undead Child
Cloe Walsh
Voiced by Tara Strong
"Don't say that, handsome. Actually, you're just my type. You'd be even more dashing if you were writhing in agony."
The 23rd ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle. She's found locked in a prison complex.
- Breather Boss: Indeed. Slow attacks, ridiculously low health. Her Kiss of Death is powerful, but will probably only land if the player wants it to.
- Combat Stilettos
- Evil Redhead
- Eye Beams: They're not very hard to avoid, though.
- Fetish Retardant: Probably intentionally invoked, when she starts spitting poison acid.
- Gainaxing: Of her butt. While you're finishing her off. It's a little awkward.
- Kiss of Death: What she tries to do to Travis.
- Our Banshees Are Louder: She likes to scream. A lot.
- Perfect Poison: Her main method of attacking.
- Poisonous Person
- Sealed Evil in a Can: "You're lucky I don't have a bondage kink."
- Shout-Out: She's locked away in a prison complex, completey bound against a wall that prevents her from moving in any way. The only kicker is that she doesn't have invisible hands coming out of her back.
- Stealth-Based Mission: Technically speaking, you can sneak past a bunch of prison guards in order to get to her. You don't actually have to do the sneaking mission. If you get caught, you can just fight the Mooks as you would normally.
- They don't give you any money, though, so you may as well sneak by. In Bitter you better sneak by, because everyone there is a gun enemy (there's a reason they get their own radar icon).
- Vapor Wear
Dr. Letz Shake
Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore
"All I desire is a duel with you. Desire level: One hundred percent. Revenge on primary target was a success. Behold. Said dramatically."
An assassin in Desperate Struggle, ranked somewhere between 22 and 10. Once a Bait and Switch Boss, now you actually get to fight him. The fight was supposed to be a Battle Royale, but he wipes out the rest of the competition before you even fight.
- Bait and Switch Boss: Only this time he's on the giving end.
- Damage Sponge Boss: It's not uncommon to win this fight without taking a hit. The boss, however, takes PLENTY of hits to take down.
- Emergency Transformation: How he survived the first game.
- Large Ham: From the way he talks, as well as the general nature of the game, it almost seems like his Robo Speak is an affected dialect. At points he almost forgets to add punctuation to his sentences!
- Puzzle Boss: It's less about dodging him, more about getting on the stable ground.
- Revenge by Proxy: Subverted... sort of. Travis rightfully points out that it was Henry who killed him; problem is, Shake already took Henry down, and just feels like finishing the job he started in the last game.
- Robo Speak: Very much, exclamation mark.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Among other characteristics of his aforementioned Robo Speak.
- Wetware CPU
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Hulk Smash, exclamation mark. Said angrily.
Million Gunman
Voiced by: Paul Eiding
"Do you love money like I do?"
The 9th ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle, and the first boss you fight as Shinobu.
- Abnormal Ammo: Apparently, his gun shoots money.
"Fuck you! I shoot MONEY!"
- Expy: This guy looks an awful lot like Dr. Peace. Maybe it's the golden guns... Or the clothing.
- Get Back Here Boss: He likes to go in and out of elevators, forcing Shinobu to jump up to his location. If you pin him in one place, he even has an unavoidable grab move that deals no damage but knocks you down, giving him enough time to reach an elevator.
- Greed: Even in death, he's focused on money.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Colonel Campbell himself, kicking your ass... with MONEY!
- Improbable Aiming Skills: His ricochet attacks are much more dangerous to you than his point-blank firing frenzies.
- Most Annoying Sound: "I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're a child! Come on! Show me something SPECIAL! do you like money like I do? I'm not going eFUCK YOU!! Do you love money like I do? I'm not FUCK YOU! I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're a FUCK YOU! I'm not going..."
New Destroyman
Voiced by: Josh Keaton
"Seriously, she's so rude! Reminds me of my complaining customers. Now Travis, he knew how to fight like a gentleman. Sliced me in half, sure, but he did it with grace."
The 8th ranked assassin(s) in Desperate Struggle, and the second and final boss you fight as Shinobu.
- Call Back: He tries the exact same "electrocute with a handshake" maneuver that he used in the first game on Shinobu. It doesn't work because she chopped his hand off instead. That, and she took the shake with her prosthetic hand.
- Combination Attack: Just when you thought it was bad enough having one bombard you with punches and the other hang back and snipe you with lasers, It Got Worse. Much worse. Until you realized that hiding behind one of them when they fire it keeps you safe from the attack while they shave off a sizable portion of their own health.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: His battle theme, an awesome rock-heavy theme, is more than enough of a substitute for all of the DJs being hanged.
- Dual Boss
- Get Back Here Boss: You'll always have to deal with at least one of them flying around the warehouse and taking potshots at you. Shinobu's Sonic Sword is good for chipping away at him, but the wonky camera makes getting up to where he is a pain.
- Goddamned Boss: Oh for—will you stop flying around and laserspamming and just stand in one place so I can kill you already?!
- Jerkass: Both personalities, actually. One's in your face and the other just makes thinly-veiled threats.
- Lightning Bruiser: Seeing as they can keep pace with and outrun Shinobu while she's running with her Sonic Sword-charged blade, yes.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Losing a clash results in him pinning Shinobu to the ground and beating the shit out of her. While laughing hysterically.
- Nostalgia Level: The level theme before you reach him is "Cashmere Cannonball" from the first game.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: One of them is the noble-facade Destroyman from the first game; the other is a vulgar jackass.
- Their lasers are even color-coded. Notably, the red one stays in your face with melee attacks, and the blue one flies away at every opportunity to shoot you instead.
- Split Personality: They're literally two halves of the same person.
- We Can Rebuild Him
- Wrestler in All of Us: Oh come on! A dropkick?
Ryuji
Voiced by: Robert Wu
"COME OUT, DRAGON!"
The 7th ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle.
- Animal Motifs: Dragons, to contrast him with Travis. His bike looks like one, and the "ryu" in his name means "dragon."
- Anticlimax Boss: The motorcycle duel can be annoying as hell if he won't stop spamming his invincible peel out. Course, if you sit next to a cliff and move out of the way...
- Badass: Oh fuck yes he is...
- Evil Counterpart: To Travis. Well, not really evil, just very, very intense.
- Face Death with Dignity: Subverted so hard... Thanks again, Miss Silvia.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars
- Laser Blade...: One of many reasons why he is an equal to Travis.
- ...On A Stick: Happens to be using a Beam Naginata (although the length of the blade suggests it's a nagimaki instead)
- Narm: The above quote.
- The Quiet One: Aside from two or three lines of dialogue (including the above quote), he merely grunts while in the midst of battle.
- Samurai
- Shout-Out:
- A samurai with nigh-unbeatable skills and armed with an abnormally large sword challenges his mirror and rival, who has an Alliterative Name, in combat to a duel, right after said opponent just so happens to have acquired the ability to Dual Wield? During a sunset? There should be bells going off in the heads of anyone who's heard of Miyamoto Musashi at this point.
- The fact that his weapon fires a Laser Blade Dragon may be a Shout-Out to Dark Star from the first game, since we never actually got to face him then.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Ryuji is the only boss in the game whose music is not unique to him. The song in question was last heard when you fought an overweight demonically possessed fire-loving baby-faced psychopath.
- There are some who believe it fits him better than Matt Helms.
- See You in Hell: He shouts this if you lose to him in a weapon clash. He also says "See you..." as he charges up his dashing thrust.
- Spam Attack
- That One Boss
- That One Attack: That dragon. And on Bitter Mode, he will just spam it non-stop.
- Tiger Versus Dragon: Remember Travis' Animal Motif?
- "Wake-Up Call" Boss: Most bosses up until now have been moderately challenging, even if they've been a tad unfair here and there. Ryuji has no real gimmicks. His strength and endurance are fairly average. He doesn't even have too many attacks - but be damned if he doesn't toss you around, or at least give you one hell of a rush. On Bitter Mode, he will annihilate you the first time around.
- Worthy Opponent: So much that Travis decides not to kill him, or at least give him an honorable death on his feet. Instead, Sylvia guns him down like a dog.
Mimmy
Voiced by: Debi Derryberry
"You should stay here forever. We'll live together. I'll never leave. If you want to go to the other side, then I have no choice. I've got to kill you."
A young girl Henry fights in a dream.
- Non Sequitur Scene
- Boss Remix: The theme that plays during her boss fight is the Golden Brown remix of "We Are Finally Cowboys, Henry's boss theme from the original No More Heroes.
- Crowning Moment of Funny
- Enemy Within: For Travis, even though Henry fights her.
- Fetish: Composed of all of Travis'. And it turns out Travis was getting off in the room right next door. Fridge Squick much?
- Journey to the Center of the Mind
- Moe: Due to being a composite of Travis' Fetishes. Made with a Lampshade Hanging when she will occasionally sit down with the character 萌 (for "mo" in "mo-e") over her.
- Shout-Out: The part where she reads Henry's mind is a possible reference to the Newtype meeting between Lalah and Amuro in Mobile Suit Gundam.
- She may be based on Chandy from Betterman, given that she's also a young, psychic Indian girl with an odd fixation on an older man and a deadly exoskeleton.
- That One Attack: "Yyyyiippeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!" (slapslapslapslapslap)
- Another one: "5..4..3..2..1..YIPPPEEE!!(homing missile barrage)"
- Yandere: Since Henry won't stay in a coma and share his mindscape with her, she feels obliged to kill him.
Margaret Moonlight
Voiced by: Tara Strong
"Did you... did you memorize the song?"
The 4th ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle. A gothic lolita who fights with two scythes that double as Anti-Material Rifles.
- Affably Evil
- Alliterative Name
- Badass Boast: Her theme song is a mix of this and a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: "Philistine". Listen for yourself. The European version got a remixed version of the song in place of the original version. You can judge for yourself if it is good or not.
- Dual Wield
- Ear Worm: "Reaper, Reaper; that's what people call me".
- Travis acknowledges that it's "Catchy as Hell" and that he memorized the song 100%. When he walks away from the match, he is whistling the first few notes of her song.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita
- Expy: Arguably of Bad Girl. Both being into lolita fashion and having a total Ear Worm for a theme.
- Foil: Once more, arguably of Bad Girl. Both like the Lolita look, but Bad Girl is Sweet while Margaret is Gothic. Which is ironic because despite her making fun of you, Margaret actually seems cute and just genuinely nice (for an assassin). Bad Girl is... not.
- In fact, Margaret seems to have been designed as a total opposite of Bad Girl. Their dresses are different types of the same style, Bad Girl is rude, violent, and psychotic while Margaret is relatively sweet, honorable, and kind. Their death scenes even start similarly, with Travis running them through with his sword, but they react in totally opposite ways, with Bad Girl viciously beating Travis until he actually gives up, just before she dies, while Margaret just asks if you remembered her song.
- Fetish Fuel Station Attendant
- Four Is Death: She's the 4th ranked assassin. She has scythes. People call her "The Reaper". There's no way this is a coincidence.
- Get Back Here Boss: She spends the majority of the fight running away, turning around and shooting at you.
- Go Out with a Smile: "That...is so....Sublime."
- Graceful Loser
- Grim Reaper: If the scythes didn't sell it for you, the theme song should have.
- Hypocrite: Oh, yeah. Her theme song seems to be a direct bash to Travis for his ways as an assassin. She's ranked 4 in the UAA, right?
- Though the bashing is a bit more focused on the "why" of it than the fact that he is an assassin in itself, she berates him more for killing for revenge than for the actual act of assassinating.
- Last Request: Before she collapses, she only asks if Travis memorized her song. When Travis replies that she did, she dies happily.
- Meaningful Name: The song states: 'Margaret is Greek, you geek/It means 'a pearl'
- Her song Philistine is about people who are uninterested in art, beauty or values.
- Moe: Her dying words ask if you memorized her song. After Travis says yes, she simply smiles, says "That is so... Sublime", and falls.
- Short-Range Long-Range Weapon: The case with her rifle, as half the fight is closing the gap between you and her so that she'll be constantly running off to try to shoot you from less than twenty feet away. Bizarrely, she begins the fight on top of a sniper perch, but jumps down so that you can actually hit her once you get close enough.
- Shout-Out:
- Could arguably be seen as a shout out to the Reaper Boss Battle from the Persona series what with the theme song and using Rifle/Scythes.
- Pre-release pictures of her also very strongly made her resemble Suigintou from Rozen Maiden. Her outfit and general appearance indeed looks like Suigintou a bit, but not as much of a carbon copy as the pre-release images made you believe.
- The whole Reaper motif coupled with the reference to an "Oyster" in her song is remindful of Blue Oyster Cult's classic "Don't Fear The Reaper".
- Sinister Scythe: Dual-wielded as her Weapon of Choice.
- Sword Chucks: They double as .50 caliber sniper rifles. And yes, she continues to use both at once.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The lyrics to her battle theme is insults geared towards Travis.
- Philistine means one who does not pursue intellectual needs. This is geared at how Travis only wants to see people die and not consider that they are also people.
- Villain Song: Definitely.
- Zettai Ryouiki: She even mentions it in her song--/Thigh-high socks and my absolute territory/Go on and drool the Otaku can not resist/.
Captain Vladimir
Voiced by: Paul Eiding
"This is Earth? So I'm finally back, after all this time. Fresh oxygen. Blue sky. Beautiful: as I remembered."
The 3rd ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle. A Soviet cosmonaut who became stranded in outer space, armed with strange, incredibly powerful technology and doesn't even realise he's back on Earth.
- Alien Abduction: His intro sure inspires the imagery... and just what happened to him?
- Anti-Villain: More so then any other boss in the game.
- Designated Villain: He has no clue what's going on when he fights Travis, and all we know about him is that he's a uber-patriotic Soviet whose been trapped in space for years. He's only presented as an antagonist due to a very tragic and very literal example of Poor Communication Kills and the fact that Travis is the hero.
- Badass Grandpa
- Beehive Barrier
- Breather Boss: He has very few unblockable attacks, and they're all pretty well-telegraphed.
- Breather Level: The path to him is one long, drawn-out motorcycle ride. No enemies, no way to fall off the road, and hitting obstacles refills your Nitro.
- It's possible he and Ryuji had their ranks switched pre-release. It almost makes more sense that way, since Vladimir is easier to beat, and his opening level would serve as a better introduction to the bike mechanics than starting off getting knocked off a cliff.
- Captain Ersatz: His design as a Russian cosmonaut, his unexpectedly ruined face, and his death speech about returning to Earth closely mirrors The Fury from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
- Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: "Glory to the Soviet Union".
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Colonel Campbell again, only he's now on the other side.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: It's less physical strength than having the most impressive weapon to ever be used on Travis, barring Speed Buster's laser cannon. Although surviving alone in space for over 20 years is pretty hardcore.
- Kill Sat: His main weapon.
- One-Hit Kill: When it fires the big beam, if it touches Travis, he's dead. Because it deals REAL SOVIET DAMAGE.
- Shout-Out: His face reveal and touching death after Travis breaks his helmet adds yet another Star Wars one.
- Tear Jerker: His death and last words, and Travis refusing to let his body be destroyed. Who else saluted?
- The Woobie: It's hard not to get this impression over the course of his battle. Even as he attacks Travis, he constantly cries out for a response from his long-defunct ship.
Alice Twilight
Voiced by Jennifer Hale
"We're all trapped, don't you see? Addicted to the violence, to a life in the shadows. Once we join the ranks we can never get out."
The 2nd ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle. She vies to leave the assassination scene, wanting to learn how Travis did. She uses a pack with eight waldoes armed with numerous beam katanas. Notable for having appeared in the earliest trailers for the game, likely because of her memorable appearance.
- Alice Allusion: Averted, somewhat surprisingly. She's not ethereal, Victorian, and nothing about her seems to be alluding to Alice in Wonderland. Oddly enough, her old friend Margaret (being a creepy blonde Elegant Gothic Lolita) would fit very well if their names were switched.
- Bonus Boss: in Heroes' Paradise.
- Broken Bird
- Death Seeker: She reveals that she, including many other assassins who've idolized Travis, became this out of despair, and want to know how Travis managed to leave the business without becoming one herself. Lonely at the Top indeed...
- Early-Bird Cameo: First seen in the very first teaser.
- Face Death with Dignity: And Travis takes no time in letting out his sorrows and disgust with an anguished cry.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A closer look at the photos she burned showed she had a husband and son and was friends with Margaret.
- Gannon Banned: Travis' rank up screen for the match lists her name as Alice Moonlight, but credits list her as Alice Twilight. The Japanese special edition has her listed as Alice Twilight, however.
- There's also the rather obvious fact that the battle against her takes place at twilight, while the battle against Margaret takes place under moonlight.
- Go Out with a Smile
- Goddamned Boss: Throwing Your Sword Always Works a little too well.
- Graceful Loser
- I Have the High Ground: The pack she wears can extend her out of Travis' reach.
- Last Request: "Promise me that you won't forget that there once was an assassin named Alice."
- Lonely at the Top: She wants out of the ranked battles, and was hoping to get the answer of how out of Travis.
- Mirror Boss: When grounded, she uses beam katana combos, can perform a lunging attack like Travis, and cancels her attacks with evasive rolls, a tactic normally in the domain of Player Characters.
- Most Annoying Sound: "All mine! All mine! All mine!" This is the sound of you being murdered.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- She Had A Name
- Spider Limbs: Complete with a Laser Blade tipping each one.
- Stripperiffic: Her design seems to be based off Western superheroines.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: All five of them. Several at a time, no less.
- The Unfettered: Called the "last ascetic", Alice has completely devoted her life to escaping the UAA ranks. Burning the photos apparently represents her severing the last of her ties.
- Wham! Episode: Travis' monologue after their fight marks the most his character development.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Russian? German?
- You Gotta Have Pink Hair
Jasper "Pizza" Batt, Jr.
Voiced by: Yuri Lowenthal
"Did you honestly think you could take so many lives and never suffer retribution? Have you never even seen a kung-fu movie, spy flick or western? Shakespeare, for God's sake! Not only did you murder my father, but my two brothers as well! That is why I took your best friend's life. Make sense, Travis? It's called poetic justice. "
The 1st ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle, and the man behind Bishop's assassination. His reason is because Travis killed his father and brothers, and he wanted revenge.
- Animal Motifs: Bats.
- Anticlimax Boss: The first stage of his battle, with him in the flying car is ridiculously easy. Or it would be if not for the Guide Dang It on how to end the first half of it, which can result in you spending several minutes trying to take away that last 1/3 of his health, which will not go down.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: His final form.
- Bald of Evil: Justified in that his father and two brothers were generic goons you took out in side-missions in the first No More Heroes, made bald so that they'd be easier to spot.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Setting aside the fact that he used his pizza empire to climb to the top of the UAA and was the one who ordered the hit on Bishop, most players will think, "He's just a scrawny, bucked-tooth nerd with a hilariously bad sense of fashion. How bad can he be?" Then they actually fight the guy and he turns out to be one of the most irritating bosses in video game history.
- Big Bad
- Breath Weapon
- Brick Joke: Early on in the game, a guy randomly falls out of the sky and lands nearby. Once you get to fight Batt the same thing can happen to you.
- Captain Obvious: "This is a fight to the DEATH!"
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In his second form, take your pick of any single one of his moves. If it's not a hard-to-dodge insta-kill, it will probably be an almost impossible to escape combo that he'll spam to high hell.
- Continuity Nod: Travis killing his father and brothers was a series of K-Entertainment assassination jobs from the first game. They weren't even a part of the plot at all.
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: Finishing the bastard off while an awesome guitar track plays in the background.
- Crowning Music of Awesome: His stage, his boss themes, everything.
- Cycle of Revenge: Travis murdering at least three members of Batt's family results in him sending hitmen after Bishop, and apparently killing all of Travis' other allies as well, or so it seems (see below). Said family members are the Pizza Butt executives you killed in your assassination missions in No More Heroes.
- Destination Defenestration: One of his attacks can and WILL do this to you.
- Difficulty Spike: He's harder than anything in this game or the prequel, and the only boss in both games to have multiple phases and multiple attacks that could kill you in one hit.
- Facial Markings: A tattoo of a pizza on the left side of his face.
- Flying Car: His primary mode of battle in his first form.
- Fridge Brilliance: Instead of a cool, suave, Magnificent Bastard we get a little shit with no fighting ability outside his little toys for a Big Bad. This is to avert Do Not Do This Cool Thing, because the theme of the game was how petty and stupid revenge is and the morale would be lost if they had made him charismatic in comparison to Travis or indeed, fullfilling to kill at all.
- And then the second and third forms come around.
- Genre Savvy: "Have you never even seen a kung fu movie, spy flick or western?! Shakespeare, for God's sake!"
- Giggling Villain
- Go Out with a Smile: Well, okay, he didn't have much of a choice in the matter but still...
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Sasuke Uchiha, which, depending on how you view it, makes this boss fight either more annoying than it is or, when you consider the revenge tropes associated with both characters, downright hilarious.
- Looks Like Orlok
- Moral Event Horizon: You can go back and forth on this one, but he certainly wanted Travis to believe he crossed it by killing Henry, Sylvia, and Shinobu. While he didn't actually kill them, the attempted Mind Screw may still qualify for some.
- Another possible MEH: ordering Bishop's assassination, in order to ensure Travis comes to fight him.
- The Napoleon
- Not So Different
- One Goofy Purple Caped Angel: far more ridiculous than the cooler parts of the game, which has "standards, for fuck's sake".
- Perfect Play AI: During the second phase of Batt's fight, he just walks very, very slowly towards Travis. Except for when he suddenly doesn't.
- Psycho Serum: Used in the second part of the battle, and still apparently running through him in the third.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Has the build and voice of a 11-year-old and spends the majority of the fight giggling like a lunatic.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money: He's the CEO of Pizza Batt, which controls all of Santa Destroy.
- Sequential Boss
- Shout-Out:
- His second form is like an unholy amalgam of Batman and The Joker. One could also consider that his name Jasper Batt, is a reference to the two.
- His first form is based off Mickey Mouse, as well.
- His final form looks like a giant cartoony mascot like Dominos' The Noid.
- His second form fight is eerily reminiscent of the final boss from Art of Fighting 3. A scrawny rich guy who juices himself up into a juggernaut before you fight him, and his arena even looks exactly the same, only Wyler's is at night.
- A young boy, family murdered by a thug for cash, who vows revenge, uses his money to further that revenge, takes up the cowl of the bat in order to fight against his kind...
- His third form is also reminiscent of the Stay Puff monster from Ghostbusters.
- That One Attack: His triple teleporting punch combo. And it gets worse when he starts shooting wind gusts while doing it.
- That One Boss: The aforementioned second form quickly becomes this with a mix of one hit kills, and a very hard to dodge combo spam. Only very barely fits the definition of "That One Boss" because his first and last forms aren't even that big of a deal. Hell, if it weren't for That One Attack, even his second form would be manageable.
- However, that second form makes this an endurance test, as you have to survive all three, including saving your strength for the following section.
- Teleport Spam: At the risk of sounding like an Overly Long Gag by now, Goddammit!!
- Visual Pun: The second form; he's got a champion belt that looks similar to Shinobu's and using wrestling moves. Which explains his appearance: He's a Baby Face!!
- You Killed My Father: Inverted; the villain wants you dead because you killed his father, as well as his brothers. (Possibly for money to buy new Fun T Shirts.)
Civilians
Ryan Yamazaki
"Oh poopie. I have the sad face."
The owner of the gym Travis visits in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Once again, Travis can go there to train to improve his strength and his endurance between getting hit on by the owner.
- All There in the Manual: Like Henry, Ryan's surname is revealed in the Japanese website.
- Bullet Hell: What his Strength training amounts to.
- Crowning Moment of Awesome: Meta-example, if you beat all his strength training mini-games.
- Demonic Spiders: The spinners, God, the spinners.
- Epileptic Trees: He has no reflection!
- Nobody has reflections. It was either forgotten or left out just to mess with the players.
- Expy: He looks a bit like Big Gay Al, or (a very large) Freddie Mercury.
- Ho Yay
- Macho Camp
- Nintendo Hard
- Porn Stache
- Training from Hell: His training technique involves randomly switching the direction of the treadmill Travis is on and throwing dumbells at him while flirting with him.
A Japanese filmmaker who was a friend of Bishop; he is seen visiting Bishop's grave and delivering a new Beam Katana to Shinobu that Bishop had wanted Travis to have.
- As Himself: Apparently, he's a real character in the No More Heroes 'verse. It's so appropriate (given his work), it's almost as much of a Mind Screw as the actual game.
- Deus Ex Machina: The gift of Rose Nasty.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He was mentioned only once in the first game, then gives what would be the best sword in the sequel, which appears on the cover.
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue
- Ink Suit Actor: Just who this person was wasn't revealed until the credits.
- Nice Guy