History Fridge / NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle

* The reason why Travis didn't have his revelation until right after the second rank boss fight is because all of the other assassins he faced were either weird (Margaret), demented (Matt Helms) or non-talkative (Ryuji) enough to not think of them as anything more than obstacles on his way to get revenge (and even ''then'' Travis showed some amount of sympathy towards Ryuji and Margaret). It wasn't until someone semi-normal actually talked to Travis about how insane everything had become to make him realize how wrong the ranking fights are. Plus he was right next to getting his revenge so he'd be thinking more clearly by then.
** Besides which, all of his opponents up to that point, sympathetic or not, all seemed to still ''enjoy'' the fight; Margaret is a GracefulLoser, sure, but she also spends the whole fight talking smack to Travis through her song's lyics; Ryuji is a WorthyOpponent who seems to enjoy the fight just as much as Travis, and even Captain Vladimir, who Travis arguably shows the most sympathy for after defeating until Alice, mistakes Travis for an alien and forces Travis to kill him in self-defence. Simply put, while Travis was starting to have his doubts before, meeting Alice, the only person in the competition who seems to truly hate being a part of it, makes it all hit home.
** By that point, Travis had taken more steps to be respectful of his opponents in their dying moments: Travis' outrage at Ryuji's death implies that even if he isn't going to spare him, Ryuji is at least owed a more honorable death. Captain Vladimir finally gets to see the Earth again with his own two eyes before passing away relatively peacefully. Both Margaret and Alice make final requests to Travis (memorizing the lyrics to her song and asking him to remember her name, respectively), which he upholds as the last words he ever says to them.

** Travis isn't actually CrazyPrepared; Charlie's has to have used Santa Death Parade to off someone at least once before to even count as an assassin, and that kind of event makes itself known. Travis probably heard about the mecha only going after one target and figured an assassin was using it, and he would therefore need to have countermeasures in place.

*** Itself brilliant; the right half is more emotional and therefore empathetic, while the left sees no point in the facade, since it never works and old Destroyman pulled his "Destroy Spark" trick pretty much just for giggles. Alternatively, he was [[AxCrazy completely off his rocker]] before being sliced in half, so it makes total sense that neither half behaves the way they're "supposed" to. Two halves of a total nutcase's brain just end up being two psychopaths.

** Besides which, all of his opponents up to that point, sympathetic or not, all seemed to still ''enjoy'' the fight; Margaret was a GracefulLoser, sure, but she also spent the whole fight talking smack to Travis through her song's lyics; Ryuji was a WorthyOpponent who seemed to enjoy the fight just as much as Travis, and even Captain Vladimir, who Travis arguably showed the most sympathy for after defeating until Alice, mistook Travis for an alien and forced Travis to kill him. Simply put, while Travis was starting to have his doubts before, meeting Alice, the only person in the competition who seems to truly hate being a part of it, made it all hit home.
** By that point, Travis had taken more steps to be respectful of his opponents in their dying moments: Travis' outrage at Ryuji's death implies that even if he wasn't going to spare him, Ryuji was at least owed a more honorable death. Captain Vladimir finally gets to see the Earth again with his own two eyes before passing away relatively peacefully. Both Margaret and Alice make final requests to Travis (memorizing the lyrics to her song and asking him to remember her name, respectively), which he upholds as the last words he ever says to them.

* Instead of a cool, suave, MagnificentBastard for a BigBad, we get a little shit with no fighting ability outside his little toys. This is to avert DoNotDoThisCoolThing, because the theme of the game is how petty and stupid revenge actually is and the moral would be lost if they had made him charismatic in comparison to Travis or indeed, fulfilling to kill at all.

* The Peony beam katana is said to be very powerful, there's even a bit of recoil when Travis ignites it.

*** Itself brilliant; the right half is more emotional and therefore empathetic, while the left sees no point in the facade, since it never works and old Destroyman pulled his "Destroy Spark" trick pretty much just for giggles. Alternatively, he's [[AxCrazy completely off his rocker]], so it makes total sense that neither half behaves the way they're "supposed" to.
* Instead of a cool, suave, MagnificentBastard we get a little shit with no fighting ability outside his little toys for a BigBad. This is to avert DoNotDoThisCoolThing, because the theme of the game was how petty and stupid revenge actually is and the moral would be lost if they had made him charismatic in comparison to Travis or indeed, fulfilling to kill at all.
** And then the second and third forms come around. The second phase gets more difficult with a higher chance for instant death being inflicted on Travis, and the boss looks even more stupid in spite of his more effective attacks. The third phase then becomes much easier, but the boss now resembles a parade float designed by a colorblind neurotic, further emphasizing how frustrating and pointless the fight actually is. The whole battle is designed from the ground up to be a long, disappointing, and humiliating chore for you to deal with.

'''As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''

* The reason why Travis [[spoiler:didn't have his revelation until right after the second rank boss fight is because all of the other assassins he faced were either weird (Margaret), demented (Matt Helms) or non-talkative (Ryuji) enough to not think of them as anything more than obstacles on his way to get revenge (and even ''then'' Travis showed some amount of sympathy towards Ryuji and Margaret). It wasn't until someone semi-normal actually talked to Travis about how insane everything had become to make him realize how wrong the ranking fights are. Plus he was right next to getting his revenge so he'd be thinking more clearly by then.]]
** Besides which, all of his opponents up to that point, sympathetic or not, all seemed to still ''enjoy'' the fight; [[spoiler: Margaret was a GracefulLoser, sure, but she also spent the whole fight talking smack to Travis through her song's lyics; Ryuji was a WorthyOpponent who seemed to enjoy the fight just as much as Travis, and even Captain Vladimir, who Travis arguably showed the most sympathy for after defeating until Alice, mistook Travis for an alien and forced Travis to kill him. Simply put, while Travis was starting to have his doubts before, meeting Alice, the only person in the competition who seems to truly hate being a part of it, made it all hit home.]]
* Also, why Travis wears all of his katanas on his belt, instead of leaving them under his bed like in the first game. As well as being more convenient to the player, [[spoiler:it's to prevent a situation like in the end of the first game, where he's caught unaware and unarmed.]]

* Charlie MacDonald is full of this, most of it hinging on the fact that he's a professional assassin.
** Why is he only 25th, despite having access to [[HumongousMecha Santa Death Parade]]? Simple; while a 500-foot-tall mecha is certainly an effective way to off someone, [[AwesomeButImpractical it also causes a lot of collateral damage, is far from discreet, and undoubtedly comes with a hefty price tag.]] All those combined make it pretty likely he doesn't get much business.
** Travis isn't CrazyPrepared: Charlie's used Santa Death Parade to off someone at least once before, and that kind of event makes itself known. He probably heard about it and figured an assassin was using it, and he would therefore need to have countermeasures in place.
* It's kind of a medical myth that the "right" side of the brain is dedicated to creativity and irrationality, while the "left" side is dedicated to logic and analysis. Now let's look at the game's DualBoss ([[spoiler:New Destroyman, aka the two halves of the original Destroyman, each with the missing half replaced by cybernetics]]): the one with no prosthetics on his ''right'' side fights you head-on with powerful melee attacks, while the one without prosthetics on his ''left'' prefers to fly away from you and shoot you at a distance.

*** Itself brilliant; the right half is more emotional and therefore empathetic, while the left sees no point in the facade, since it never works and old Destroyman pulled his "Destroy Spark" trick pretty much just for giggles.
*** Alternatively, he's [[AxCrazy completely off his rocker]], so it makes total sense that neither half behaves the way they're "supposed" to.
* Instead of a cool, suave, MagnificentBastard we get a little shit with no fighting ability outside his little toys for a BigBad. This is to avert DoNotDoThisCoolThing, because the theme of the game was how petty and stupid revenge is and the moral would be lost if they had made him charismatic in comparison to Travis or indeed, fulfilling to kill at all.

* One of the revenge missions shows construction work occurring on the beach... the same beach where [[spoiler: Holly Summers' remains were buried in the last game. Her grave site is getting paved over and built upon]].

** Besides which, all of his opponents up to that point, sympathetic or not, all seemed to still ''enjoy'' the fight; [[spoiler: Margaret was a GracefulLoser, sure, but she also spent the whole fight talking smack to Travis through her [[EarWorm song's]] lyics; Ryuji was a WorthyOpponent who seemed to enjoy the fight just as much as Travis, and even Captain Vladimir, who Travis arguably showed the most sympathy for after defeating until Alice, mistook Travis for an alien and forced Travis to kill him. Simply put, while Travis was starting to have his doubts before, meeting Alice, the only person in the competition who seems to truly hate being a part of it, made it all hit home.]]

** And then the second and third forms come around. The second phase gets more difficult with a higher chance for instant death being inflicted on Travis, and the boss looks even more stupid in spite of his more effective attacks. The third phase then becomes much easier, but the boss now resembles a parade float designed by a colorblind neurotic, further emphasizing how frustrating and pointless the fight actually is. The whole battle is designed from the ground up to be a long, frustrating, and humiliating chore for you to deal with.

* Instead of a cool, suave, MagnificentBastard we get a little shit with no fighting ability outside his little toys for a BigBad. This is to avert DoNotDoThisCoolThing, 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, fulfilling to kill at all.

* ''B''izarre ''J''elly gets expanded from three to five members. '''B'''izzare '''J'''elly 5. BJ 5. BJs. Blowjobs.
* It's kind of a medical myth that the "right" side of the brain is dedicated to creativity and irrationality, while the "left" side is dedicated to logic and analysis. Now let's look at the game's DualBoss ([[spoiler:New Destroyman, aka the two halves of the original Destroyman, each with the missing half replaced by cybernetics]]): the one with no prostethics on his ''right'' side fights you head-on with powerful melee attacks, while the one without prostethics on his ''left'' prefers to fly away from you and shoot you at a distance.

* Instead of a cool, suave, MagnificentBastard we get a little shit with no fighting ability outside his little toys for a BigBad. This is to avert DoNotDoThisCoolThing, 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.

* One of the revenge missions shows construction work occurring on the beach... the same beach where [[spoiler: Holly Summers' remains were buried in the last game.]]

* One of the revenge missions shows construction work occurring on the beach... the same beach where [[spoiler: Holly Summers' remains were buried in the last game.]]