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1* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
2** Many characters of ''No More Heroes'', and ''especially'' Travis, have an even greater mixed reaction spectrum than what you can find in a 51 ingredient mixed salad. Most of the cast (i.e. the enemy Assassins) get limited screen time and backstory, leading the viewer to fill in the gaps or to interpret their actions.
3** Reactions to Travis range from "I WANNA BE THE GUY WHO KILLS PEOPLE FOR ANIME" to "what a loser", with plenty of variations in between. Some claim that he's an outright psychopath who mows down anyone for cash while espousing ToBeAMaster, while others state that he's just some lost fool like any other person on the planet, only armed with a lightsaber bought off eBay and put between a rock and a hard place before he realizes what he got himself into. Some claim he didn't learn anything from his climb up the ranks in ''No More Heroes'', while others say that he did. It's not easy to pinpoint a clear consensus here.
4* AluminumChristmasTrees: The bar "plastic model" shown in the game really exists. It's the favorite place of Creator/Suda51.
5* BestBossEver: Henry is a DuelBoss with an ''outrageous'' amount of health on Bitter who is extremely deft with a blade and has what is perhaps the most awesome OneHitKill MeteorMove ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNsyofCN-a4 ever]]''. And to top it off, the stellar BossRemix known as "[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic We Are Finally Cowboys]]" is blaring in the background. He's also the pinnacle of "Real Difficulty" in the game. Your standard dodge-and-counter tactics will work, but it will take forever. His attacks are telegraphed ''just'' enough to be fair, depending on how much damage they do. He can be dizzied, but it takes a suitably large number of consecutive hits to do it, but he also offers very small windows for guard breaks. And of course, he can take close to a '''thousand''' hits, not counting any wrestling moves you land on him. A MarathonBoss if there ever was one.
6* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Travis' dream on the train to the Rank 4 fight, based on his favorite BulletHell game.
7* BreatherLevel: The Letz Shake stage is merely a long corridor filled with easy-to-dispatch enemies. And there's no boss.
8* BreatherBoss: Destroyman, despite being a fan favorite, is a fairly easy boss to take care of and his stage is nothing special either. And it comes right in between Shinobu and Holly, who are considered two of the harder bosses in the game.
9* BrokenBase: Santa Destroy being almost deserted and there being nothing to do in it besides drive between the motel, sidequests and missions, and pick up money, cards, and Lovikov Balls. Some claim that it's a deliberate TakeThat to WideOpenSandbox games that are only sandboxes [[FollowTheLeader to hop on the current gaming trend]], while some counter that defenders that pulling a DeliberateFlawRetcon, or that even if it ''is'' deliberate, it's still problem because it adds needless filler to the core gameplay loop. ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' removing the sandbox entirely was even ''more'' contentious even among detractors of the original sandbox, some liking that they just cut it out entirely, and some feeling that they took the lazy way out instead of putting more things to do in it.
10* CameraScrew: The game switches from a controllable camera to a fixed camera when you hit the stairs to Travis's motel room. The camera angle changes such that if you hold down the control stick, Travis will hit the stairs, the camera will change, and Travis will run down the stairs and away from the hotel. It takes a very quick touch to hit the stairs at top running speed and not go backwards a few times.
11* CrossesTheLineTwice: [[spoiler:Jeane's backstory]]. It contains many details that would have apparently raised the game's age rating had it not been intentionally sped up. Travis’ understandably shocked expressions throughout and [[spoiler:Jeane’s smile]] after she finishes explaining makes it quite hilarious.
12* DemonicSpiders: While GoddamnedBats under normal circumstances, gun {{Mooks}} become this in [[OneHitPointWonder Free Fight challenges]]. Not only do they attack you from long-range, they're really difficult to draw away from other enemies that might attempt to get a cheap shot in on you. Handgun mooks in particular will try to run away from you as soon as you close in on them.
13* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Some argue that Travis isn't portrayed as ''enough'' of a loser for the message about him and the league of assassins in general to actually land.
14* EnsembleDarkhorse:
15** [[FanNickname Mister Sir Henry Motherfucker]] himself is a parody of this trope. It still didn't stop him from actually ''becoming'' one to the point of becoming playable in the sequel, [[spoiler:although only for one boss battle]].
16--->'''Henry:''' [[LampshadeHanging You're the protagonist. I'm just a cool, handsome foil who]] [[spoiler:[[LampshadeHanging happens to be your twin brother]]]].
17** Destroyman proved to be one of the more popular assassins in the first game due to his memorable boss battle and LargeHam tendencies, even if he was basically a BreatherBoss. He was popular enough to return in both ''2'' and ''III''.
18** Bad Girl in spite, or possibly because of, how AxCrazy she is, and her memorable theme song. This might be why her father shows up as a playable character in ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'', and ended up a playable character herself in the DLC for the game.
19** Letz Shake despite being TheUnfought in this game.
20** Holly Summers is a fan-favorite for the role she plays on [[spoiler:making Travis start to realize what it means to be an assassin and her tragic death.]]
21* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: From the standard "is the hero imagining the whole thing" to fairly interesting examinations of the way the game links sex and violence, particularly in Travis' interactions with female opponents.
22* {{Fanon}}:
23** Many believe Dr. Peace's estranged daughter is Bad Girl. {{Jossed}} in ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesTravisStrikesAgain'', when Bad Girl's actual father, the equally crazy leather-masked Bad Man, shows up hunting down Travis for revenge.
24** Fans like to theorize that Henry was the one who killed Shinobu's father since the only hint we get to his killer was that they used a beam katana.
25* FanNickname:
26** Mister Sir Henry [[SophisticatedAsHell Motherfucker]], coined by Travis after Henry jets off.
27** The nameless assassin that goes after Travis at the end of the game was nicknamed "Ermen Palmer" as a reference to a certain spoiler in ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}''.
28* GameBreaker: The Tsubaki Mk. III is listed as the game's InfinityPlusOneSword for a reason. What makes it break the game is its charged low attack, which is a three-hit combo that deals massive damage even when not fully charged. Getting the opportunity to spam this once the infinite battery is unlocked makes the rest of the game a cakewalk.
29* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The original game bombed in Japan but was a huge hit in the U.S., which is why the sequel was released there first.
30* HarsherInHindsight:
31** The Pizza Butt missions in the first game become a lot harsher once you discover the consequences in the sequel.
32** Holly Summers' suicide as well carries more weight after seeing Ryuji's fate in the sequel.
33** The entire fight with Bad Girl and how unsympathetically she’s portrayed in this game becomes far worse when you learn her backstory in ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes''.
34** Jeane's "No More Heroes Forever" line - which at the time of release, was taking a [[TakeThat pot shot]] at ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'''s DevelopmentHell history - can take on a much harsher second meaning after the game actually was finished and released in 2011, but critically flopped, with one of the criticisms being that much of the gameplay mechanics and humor [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece became outdated as a result of the delays]]. As a result, some people today still reference this line, this time in regards to how ''Duke Nukem Forever'' ultimately turned out and as a cautionary tale of how DevelopmentHell can affect the quality of a finished product.
35** [[spoiler: Jeane’s backstory]] becomes even worse when ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'' has [[spoiler:Henry reveal that their father was also a serial killer and that he tried to kill all three of them at least once while they were children (and possibly more than once).]]
36** The game has Bishop's ex-girlfriend texting him once in a while to tell him to go die. [[spoiler:That's what happens in the sequel]].
37* HilariousInHindsight:
38** [[spoiler:"Too bad there won't be a sequel!"]] There is. Multiple, in fact.
39** ''No More Heroes'' was already chock full of ''Franchise/StarWars'' references, including the use of lightsabers. In a more original design, Henry wields a beam katana with a cross-guard made up of four laser blades. Nearly eight years after the game's release, ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' introduces [[TheHeavy Kylo Ren]], who also wields a lightsaber with a cross-guard similar to Henry's (albeit made up of two blades instead of four).
40** ''Film/TheLastJedi'' goes a step further by having "kill the past" as a theme; you know, Suda's signature theme that he puts into everything he writes, including ''No More Heroes''.
41** Another ''Star Wars'' connection: A later Creator/Suda51 game, ''VideoGame/LetItDie'', actually has Creator/MarkHamill (Luke Skywalker) and Creator/BillyDeeWilliams (Lando Calrissian) in the English cast, officially making Suda an AscendedFanboy.
42** ''No More Heroes'' threw a Franchise/{{Pokemon}} reference on having a Platform/Nintendo64 [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver in Travis' room]]. Come ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'', also having characters designed by Yusuke Kozaki, the same character designer for both ''No More Heroes'' games, the team leaders are ''really'' prone to [[ClusterFBomb Travis-style swearing]] in Appraisals with [[HelloInsertNameHere fully-customizable Pokémon nicknames being made]]. Also like [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle the game sequel]], ''Pokémon Go'' was released in USA first before reaching Japan.
43** Talbot and Weller's names can only be learned through the end credits, and optional content that Travis wouldn't be privy to. [[BrickJoke Come]] ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'', and Sylvia name-drops them to Travis' shock (he didn't think they even ''had'' names), with the rationale of [[CrazyPrepared "The series has to keep going, right?"]].
44** Similar to the Cross Sword example, ''No More Heroes'' had Thunder Ryu use a more archaic Beam Katana that used a scabbard. Over a decade later, some of the shorts in ''Anime/StarWarsVisions'' featured lightsabers that use scabbards. The novel, ''Literature/StarWarsVisionsRonin'', also reveals that the reason the Ronin from "The Duel" has a scabbard is similar to Thunder Ryu's, namely that the weapon is permanently active and thus, necessitates a scabbard. However, instead of outright not having an on/off switch like Thunder Ryu's, the switch on the Ronin's saber is broken.
45* MagnificentBastard:
46** [[FemmeFatale Sylvia Christel]] is the sultry, sly head of the United Assassin Association (UAA). A conwoman who created the UAA as a way to scam assassins out of their money, upon encountering the drunk [[Characters/NoMoreHeroesTravisTouchdown Travis Touchdown]] at a bar, Sylvia promises to help him get even with his sister Jeanne for killing his parents, signing him up for the UAA as a way to kill her, all while disguising the true reward by playing into Travis's want for sex. Establishing the UAA as an actual organization, Sylvia [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle returns]] to help Travis get even with Jasper Batt, Jr., from signing him up as a ranked assassin; gunning down assassins Travis spares; enlisting the help of Shinobu to kill some assassins for him behind his back; and having a dozen of assassins killed by Dr. Letz Shake and getting Travis to kill him afterwards. Despite becoming a depressed stripper after the UAA collapses, Sylvia is able to recover by marrying Travis and [[VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes establishing a loving family with him]], understanding that his abandonment is to protect them. [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII Creating the Galactic Superhero Rankings]] in order to get Travis to kill Prince FU's assassins, Sylvia manipulates events so that Travis kills FU and Damon Ricotello, becoming Earth's savior in the process.
47** [[EvilTwin Henry Cooldown]] is Travis's playful, Irish twin brother, and a passing assassin who acknowledges himself as the cool, handsome foil to his brother's rambunctious personality. Introduced killing Dr. Letz Shake before Travis can fight him, Henry later saves a defenseless Travis from a killer before challenging him to a fight. [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle Saved by Travis]] after he's frozen in carbonite, Henry is able to recover and steal three of Travis's kills, sending him pictures of them to rub it in his face, while still able to assist Travis in the defeat of Jasper Batt, Jr. [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII Returning]] as a psychopathic HiveMind of clones hellbent on world domination, Henry is able to use one of his clones to distract Travis into dropping his guard and temporarily kills him while he's defenseless on the toilet, eventually creating a BadFuture where he successfully kills Travis for good and allies himself with aliens to become Earth's ruler.
48** [[TrapMaster Holly Summers]], Rank #6, is an [[BadassBookworm intellectual assassin]] who prefers luring opponents into sand traps and bombarding them with grenades. Upon her defeat at the hands of Travis Touchdown, after finding that Travis refuses to kill women, Holly calmly [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepts her loss]] and commits suicide, but not before making him promise to never forget her, even leaving behind plans for the Tsubaki Mk-II beam katana as a thanks.
49* MemeticBadass: Letz Shake is the hardest boss in this game. He's so hard, [[spoiler:he's killed off in a cutscene and the sequel nerfs him so he can actually be fought.]]
50* MisaimedFandom: Believe it or not, there are many fans who revere Travis and aspire to be like him. You know, despite him being a loser otaku who spends all of his money (which he earns mostly from ''killing people'') on anime stuff rather than improve his life and move out of a hotel room. [=Suda51=] must be laughing his ass off at that.
51* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
52** Travis' beam sword, as well as [[spoiler: Henry's]]. Your ears will have an ''orgasm'' during the fight against [[spoiler: Henry]] at the end of the game.
53** Within the second game, having the game pair up an ThisIsForEmphasisBitch and ClusterFBomb whenever Travis cuts down/spinally fractures and impales some of the more annoying mooks throughout the game, especially the KungFuProofMook katana and beam katana thugs and the PersonalSpaceInvader meatheads. Up to eleven when killing a fat chainsaw thug yells out "This is a no-fuckhead zone!"
54--->'''Travis:''' ''FUCKHEAD!!!!''\
55'''Fat Thug:''' ''MOMMA-!''\
56''*insert method of death here*''\
57''*death groan*''\
58'''Travis:''' Fuck ''you''.
59* OneSceneWonder: Technically speaking, most of the Assassins. The match is set up, they appear out of nowhere, some character development here and there, boss battle, then BOOM! Dead and gone. A few of them get a rather touching sendoff. This is [[YouBastard grimly noted]] in the sequel.
60* PolishedPort: The Switch port, along with the port of the sequel. It runs at a nice framerate, only noticeably dipping whenever there's just a bit too much going on, looks amazing in such a high resolution and has better motion controls than the Wii thanks to Joy-Cons while still playing beautifully without motion enabled. Really, the only things to complain about are the removal of "Heavenly Star" and some minor lighting bugs.
61* PortingDisaster: The PC port suffers from a number of bugs and issues:
62** It lacks any of the performance settings that even the simplest PC games have, such as window size and graphical quality. In addition, Xinput is the only control scheme supported by it. So, no keyboard and mouse, and a third-party program is required for most controllers, including - strangely enough - the Pro Controller, despite being a direct port of the Switch version.
63** The lack of motion controls, while obviously a necessity for a platform like PC, and for the most part doing an okay job of translating the motion controls into traditional controls, does become a major problem during the baseball missions. Originally, Travis would swing his beam katana as hard as the player swung their Wiimote, but here he uses the same amount of force every time... and it's not hard enough to hit the ball very far, rendering the first two baseball missions much more difficult than originally intended, and the third one UnintentionallyUnwinnable.
64** Attempting to skip the results screen after certain battles [[GameBreakingBug will crash the game]].
65** ''Heroes' Paradise'', the Xbox 360/[=PS3=] port of the game. The visuals themselves are divisive, but the performance, added content (some of which just being shoehorned in boss fights from ''No More Heroes 2''), inferior motion controls and the entirety of the industrial area of Santa Destroy being sealed off are definitely some downsides.
66* SpiritualAdaptation:
67** ''No More Heroes'' feels like an adaption of ''Anime/AfroSamurai'' and ''Afro Samurai: Ressurection'' set in the modern day. Both stories involve reaching the No.1 assassin/the No.1 headband, the cycle of revenge, and a sequel about the former No.1 getting back his title after falling out.
68** The concept of eccentric assassins competing over arbitrary ranks as satire appeared years earlier in Seijun Suzuki's ''Film/BrandedToKill'' and ''Film/PistolOpera''.
69** The premise of a loser in his mid-20s obsessed with video games on the ExcusePlot of "Kill a bunch of specific people in sequence in order to get the girl" essentially means this was a ''ComicBook/ScottPilgrim'' video game three years before ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorldTheGame'' was.
70* SuspiciouslySimilarSong:
71** The Thunder Ryu Building is a gym in which Travis can upgrade his abilities. The background music is almost, but not quite, Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."
72** Masafumi Takada's "[[https://youtu.be/Hs-SxiWXS8Y Mach 13 Elephant Explosion]]" sounds suspiciously similar to Music/{{Soulfly}}'s "[[https://youtu.be/WgqN9lg-Xvk Umbabarauma]]".
73** The credits music sounds very similar to the ''Star Wars'' theme. The version that appears on the official soundtrack makes it even more obvious: not only is it played by an orchestra, as opposed to the 8-bit style version in the game; but the track itself is called "Staff Wars: Episode I"
74* ThatOneBoss:
75** Bad Girl is guaranteed to kill you at least once unless you already know that she's going to pull a [[spoiler:WoundedGazelleGambit]] (and even then, just getting close enough to check to make sure she's not holding back will probably get you killed anyway). Then she's... still very hard, having great damage output, health and mobility. One of her nastier attacks involves her [[FastballSpecial batting mooks your way]]. This is extremely difficult to turn against her with your own swing, as it deals massive damage, and still gives you more enemies to deal with even if you simply dodge.
76** Shinobu is one of the more reviled bosses, ''especially'' on Bitter. She's extremely dodgy and evasive, she'll outright make you lose every weapon clash, and she has that damn Gengoken ([[spoiler:nearly instant-kill]]) and multi-shot Sonic Sword that will make you beg for mercy. Doing nothing but low charged attacks and some occasional sword swipes can make the fight easier, though.
77** Holly Summers. Take Shinobu's speed, add a tendency to run away whenever you get close, pits all over her arena that will interrupt your game flow and wear out your thumb, and unblockable butt rockets that seem to hit at least 50% of the time assuming your timing's average. Which she loves to spam. It may get to the point where you're purposefully falling into the pits just to dodge the rockets, because it's easier to dodge the grenade she throws into the pits, but that'll also give her plenty of time.
78** The fight with [[spoiler:Jeane, the person]] can be an absolute nightmare if you aren't aware of Travis' charged attack having multiple steps in it, and without some serious upgrades. This boss is extremely nimble, dodges your attacks like it's nothing, and is flat-out ''immune'' to grappling, dealing damage against you instead. Windows for slash attacks are split-seconds long, negating that strategy. It takes a charged attack combo to do any serious damage in the fight (this strategy thankfully makes said fight ''much'' faster and easier).
79* ThatOneSidequest:
80** The graffiti cleanup side job is not only difficult as-is, but it's ''impossible'' to actually complete it without the Memory of Child ability from Lovikov (as Travis has very little time to find all ten graffiti drawings, and they happen to be very far in-between). The worst part is that the reward (up to 20000 LB$, 2000 per graffiti removed) is too low by the standards of the moment when it's unlocked (past the game's first half).
81** The batter-up kill jobs are essentially a LuckBasedMission depending on the timing of your swing, and it's ''never'' consistent.

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