Characters / No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

No More Heroes character index
Travis Touchdown
No More Heroes | 2: Desperate Struggle | Travis Strikes Again | No More Heroes III

Here's the list of characters introduced in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.

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The Assassins

In General

• Blood Knight: Almost all of the assassins enjoy a good challenge, and it's the reason most of them signed up for the United Assassin Association and readily accept Travis' (or Shinobu's) arrival.
• Being Evil Sucks: While they're more morally grey than outright evil, but a fair share of assassins make it known they're not fans of the life they lead and are looking for a way out. Whether that's through finding a way to disappear out of the Association or being killed varies from person to person.
• Combat Pragmatist: Of course, none of the assassins (except Ryuji) fight remotely fair, they all try to get some advantage over Travis one way or the other.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared to the first game's assassins, some of whom were just psychopaths that had to be put down, many of the assassins are much more tragic or lack overly villainous traits.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Many assassins know who Travis is by virtue of reputation if they hadn't somehow met him before, and are astounded he managed to get out of the assassin business. A few even ask how he did it. What they don't know is that Travis' Association was a con, not the largely funded organization they're in like they're lead to believe.
• Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: None of the ranked assassins are actually ever shown doing any sort of assassinations, they mainly seem to be going on business that's anything but that until Travis comes along.
• Real After All: Downplayed. But the initial Association was just a scam for Sylvia's own benefit, and a good bit for Travis' own closure and benefit as well. Batt Jr. however, wanted revenge and funded an actual United Assassins Association just to get back at Travis.
• The Unfought: The assassins ranked 22nd through 11th are all killed off by Dr. Letz Shake, and three more, ranked 6th, 5th and a presumed challenger, are killed by Henry.

(51)Skelter Helter

Real Name: Vincent

Voiced by: Matthew Mercer

Theme: Sling Shot

"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. The younger brother of Helter Skelter — who died in the teaser trailer for the first game — and is hell-bent on avenging him. Before becoming an assassin, he was a college student named Vincent.

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• All There in the Manual: His backstory, name, and details of his brother are only in the comic book.
• 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: Visually, he seems to be an amalgam of various Final Fantasy protagonists (oversized sword that looks like Cloud's Buster Sword, ridiculously spiky hair, tattoos, etc).
• BFS: To go with his visual inspiration, his Beam Katana is much longer and bulkier than those wielded by other assassins.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Does so just to mock Travis and the player by extension.
  Better go through the tutorial again!
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Not he himself, but he's very upset that Travis doesn't remember killing his brother.
  • Doubles as a meta example; fans who played the last game might be wondering when the heck they fought a guy named Helter Skelter — because they didn't. That man was from the first teaser trailer, and outside a brief mention in the intro doesn't appear in the actual game.
• Cycle of Revenge: His dying speech ends up establishing this as a major theme of the game. Travis' indiscriminate killings in the past are now coming back to haunt him, with Skelter only being the first to attempt payback onto him.
  Skelter Helter: To kill someone is not simply to end their life... one must risk their entire being in order to destroy another's... until now, you've got it easy! I've taken the curse you gave me, the shackles of revenge, and throwing them back on you! Now it's your turn to be burdened with another's death! It has destroyed me, as it will destroy you! THIS IS THE ULTIMATE VENGEANCE!
• Failed Attempt at Drama: He attempts to get an honorable duel out of Travis to avenge his fallen brother, but unfortunately for him, not only does Travis not remember killing him, he surmises that he "must've been crazy weak" if he didn't leave an impression.
  Skelter Helter: You insensitive prick! You killed him and you don't even remember! Do you have any idea how humiliating that is?!
• Foreshadowing:
  • He uses his dying words to explain to Travis that the fight was only "part of our plan", and that Travis was about to lose someone close to him due to revenge against him. Sure enough, Travis' best friend Bishop gets assassinated by Jasper Batt Jr.'s goons in the same night.
  • In a subtler, sneakier form of this; notice in his official render the positioning of his hand over his neck. Evidently, he must've wanted to keep it; a shame that he couldn't.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He was just an ordinary college student before he became an assassin.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: His multiple-chambered revolver. Shockingly, this is based off a real gun patented in 1855, though the reason you probably haven't seen it before is that less-than-shockingly, it's very heavy and unwieldy in real life.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He's rude and dramatic, but he's justified with his vendetta against Travis, as the man killed his brother and doesn't even remember doing the deed. (Or, more accurately, doesn't consider him worth remembering, which is much more insulting).
• Laser Blade: His "Beam Katana" seems to be comprised of three large, identical, parallel blades emitting energy between one another.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: He's pretty scrawny for a guy swinging around such a huge sword so quickly with one hand.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Even after he's beheaded, he warns Travis that he will soon know how it feels to lose a brother or friend.
• Not Quite Dead: He survives decapitation. Granted, it's only long enough to warn Travis of Bishop's impending fate, as he then rips his own head back off afterwards.
• Normally, I Would Be Dead Now
  Travis: Pain in MY ass. Why aren't you dead yet?
  Skelter Helter: Such blind arrogance! Like the naked emperor...
  Travis: Seriously! I cut off your head!
• Off with His Head!: In an audacious turn of events, not only does it fly meters off into the air, it lands right back onto its stump, and he survives it to give one last dying monologue.
• Optional Boss: In Heroes' Paradise.
• 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.
• Shout-Out:
  • As mentioned above, his visual aesthetic definitely evokes several Final Fantasy protagonists.
  • His real name, Vincent, is a reference to the author of the famed true-crime book, "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi.
• Snow Means Death: The battle between him and Travis takes place during a snowy night, the first time Santa Destroy had seen one in 120 years. This symbolizes not only Travis' return to the world of killing, but Bishop's assassination in the same night.
• Sword and Gun: He uses the former when he's close to Travis, and the latter when he's far.
• Warmup Boss: He's the very first enemy, period, of 2, so his boss fight doubles as the tutorial. Subverted on a Bitter or especially a 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.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He's a parody of the trope.

(50)Nathan Copeland

Nathan Copeland

Voiced by: Khary Payton

Theme: Nathan Is Our Boss

"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 and preacher, seeking someone who can give him the death he craves.

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• Almighty Janitor: He's ranked 50th in the UAA, but he is not a Warm-Up Boss. Good luck defeating him on Bitter.
• Badass Preacher: He's the founder of a religion that spreads its word through rap. One would expect him to be a full-on hip hop stereotype, but he speaks like an ancient shaman in the midst of divine revelation.
• Blood Knight: He really doesn't care about the UAA, he joined simply for the challenge of facing Travis in one-on-one combat.
• Dance Battler: Spends just as much time dancing as he does punching Travis' face in.
• Death Seeker: He fully admits that he wishes to die by Travis's hand since he's tired of how pointless his life is, even shouting "DELIVERANCE!" as Travis is about to cut him in half.
• Fighting Irish: A rather atypical example since he's got the aesthetic of a Gangsta Rap artist but he speaks with a noticeable Irish accent and is eager to throw down with Travis.
• Gangsta Rap: And much literally so. According to Sylvia, Nathan's charm, charisma, appeal, and outreaching lyrics to the audiences were meant to also seek out troubled delinquents, confused and lost people, and misfits so that the New Mafia and Pizza Batt could have some new members and lackeys in their ranks. His Leitmotif, "Nathan is Our Boss", even boasts the lyrics, "Murder Cures The Nation", and it's induced many of the mooks you fight throughout the game.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: The way Travis kills him.
• Improbable Weapon User: His boombox can transform into mechanical armor that can become Power Fists, along with shooting missiles and sonic blasts. Before that, he throws his hoes at you as an opening move.
• Jive Turkey: Subverted. He certainly looks the part with his hiphop style and golden chains. He also acts the part while you're fighting him, complete with dancing moves. However, he talks and acts more like a enthusiastic preacher that passed the Despair Event Horizon before Travis arrived.
• Large Ham: He constantly talks like he's preaching on a podium, with a heavy Irish accent.
• Lonely at the Top: Despite what appears to be a successful and luxurious lifestyle, Nathan admits he is "weary of this gilded world", calling it "All glitter... No soul..." and admits that he actually wants Travis to kill him.
• Optional Boss: In Heroes' Paradise.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: He joined the UAA because he felt purposeless in his life and achieved everything he wanted to achieve. He joined specifically because he wanted to face a glorious death at the hands of a worthy opponent.
• Scary Teeth: All of his teeth end in sharp points. It makes him stand out even more considering how he's the only character designed with them.
• Slasher Smile: His usual facial expression.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He's a low-ranked assassin, but his faith apparently influenced a lot of the mooks you're battling throughout the game, giving him a lasting impact on the culture of Santa Destroy.
• Trap Master: He's rigged the room you fight him in with all sorts of contraptions and he'll activate them in the following order as he takes more damage: A dropping chandelier, machine gun turrets hidden in elevated statues, exploding potted plants, and hidden conveyor belts to scatter said plants across the room. During his optional fight in Heroes' Paradise, he settles for a huge speaker that drops down and having the men in suits standing outside of the arena occasionally taking fire at Travis with their machine guns.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: His boombox, as covered in Improbable Weapon User.
• Worthy Opponent: Sees Travis as one, respectfully calling him "The Crownless King".
• Would Hit a Girl: His intro cutscene is him throwing both of his women at Travis and then attacking Travis as he slices up the woman to defend himself, reducing both to mush once the attack rush is done.

(25)Charlie MacDonald

Charlie MacDonald

Voiced by: Yuri Lowenthal

Theme: Death Parade March

"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.

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• Ambiguously Evil: Charlie and his cheerleaders never do anything that might be construed as "evil", and are actually more polite toward Travis than he is to them. (He asks if Charlie is "going to fight [him] with [his] hoes", which they don't even take offense to.) The only indication that they're killers at all is the ranking.
• Ambiguously Human: Not Charlie himself, but the cheerleaders. How exactly do 24 women, who are inexplicably identical to each other, combine as beams of light to form a giant robot, far bigger than their total size, around one guy, IN SPACE!?
• Atomic F-Bomb: "HOOOOLY SHIIIIT!"
• Double Entendre: The above quote, directed towards his Squeeing squad of cheerleading groupies.
• Humongous Mecha: The Santa Death Parade, summoned by the whole group and piloted by Charlie.
• 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, and Santa Death Parade's main body is even shaped like a football. He also likes Travis Touchdown's name, for obvious reasons.
• Large Ham: Yuri Lowenthal was clearly having a good time doing voicework here.
• 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!"
• Shoulders of Doom: Check out those shoulder pads on Charlie's uniform; it looks like he stuffed extra footballs into them.
• 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 group of women who fight for him.
• Together in Death: Getting rid of Charlie disposes of the cheerleaders too, bringing Travis up to rank 25.
• Underboobs: Charlie's troop of cheerleaders have a very prominent display of this.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: His boss battle is a traditional Fighting Game featuring two mechs duking it out.

Kimmy Howell

Kimmy Howell

Voiced by: Jennifer Hale

Theme: Dose of Innocence

"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-bladed beam katana. See her other profile in the third entry here.

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• Affably Evil: She has the personality of a bubbly, ditzy schoolgirl, but is still more than capable of cold-blooded murder.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She doesn't really show anger, but she does come off as a bit deranged during her conversation with Travis, going into full "crazy love" once she reveals her plans for their relationship.
• Bubble Gun: Kimmy will sometimes pause mid-battle to blow bubbles at you from her recorder. Unblockable, exploding bubbles.
• Confusion Fu: Her moves while in close-range can be ridiculously fast, and she has a habit of playing with expectations on when to engage her, which she will gladly punish. Her most prominent trick is to bait the player by doing what appears to be an idle taunt before immediately following it into a spinning combo.
• Double Weapon: Wields a Darth Maul-esque double beam katana, complete with red blades.
• Fangirl: Of Travis. She calls him "Travis the Great," "Travis Ravenous" and "Cool Hand Teezy Greasy."
• Girlish Pigtails: As a schoolgirl, fittingly.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: The little bunny doll she carries around.
• 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, she 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 slowly chase you all over the arena.
• The Glasses Gotta Go: A meta version. She originally wore glasses in the game's E3 trailer, but they're removed in the final version, with one reason given by Suda being that a glassless design was more appealing to American audiences.
• Groin Attack: What happens if she beats you in a weapon clash. Travis' response is "Oh Yeah!"... And then he keels over. This actually makes the move dangerous if Travis' health is low, as he will not be able to revive himself if this drains his HP. ^note Travis can only revive himself if he is standing upright once he gets KO'd. Because he is left on the ground when the player would regain control after this animation, he will die immediately without a chance to revive.
• 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 by besting him.
• 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 during her attacks, and trying to attack her head on will get you killed.
• Laser Blade: What she uses during her fight.
• The Nicknamer: For Travis, again. Three of them. From her, Travis gets "Travis the Great," "Travis Ravenous," and "Cool Hand Teezy Greasy".
• Non-Lethal K.O.; The last boss in the series that Travis never attempts to explicitly kill, after Shinobu and Holly Summers. His dialogue implies that if she does go after him again in the future, he'll not give the same consideration again.
• Optional Boss: In both No More Heroes 2 and Heroes' Paradise. She's the only original bonus boss in the series — in the former, she can be fought if Travis returns to the Motel in between ranking fights after beating Charlie MacDonald. Unlike most other examples of this, she becomes a mandatory fight as soon as the above trigger is fulfilled; the player cannot proceed with future bosses until she is defeated. And going by III, her fight is canon.
• Totally Radical: "You have to read it out loud, just for lulz!"
• 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.
• 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, surpass him. She sounds unbelievably creepy when she says "I love you" during the battle.
• You Are Not Ready: Travis refuses to kill her, saying he "can't kill a co-ed", and tells her to come back when she graduates.

(24)Matt Helms

Matt Helms

Voiced by: Debi Derryberry

Theme: Subuta.2

"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.

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• Acrofatic: Despite being incredibly obese, he's capable of leaping up a whole staircase for a jumping chop. His power struggle move if Travis loses also involves Matt jumping on top of Travis to crush him with his own weight.
• 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. 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: He's a burly assassin who uses fire as his gimmick. When Travis destroys his adult body, Matt is reverted to a child.
• Laughing Mad: He has almost zero dialogue, but he laughs a lot during the battle, not helped by his conspicuously child-like voice. He even laughs when you finally take him down in slow-mo.
• Mighty Glacier: It's easy to outrun him but he packs a punch with his weapons.
• Motifs: Fire, as shown by his tribal tattoo of fire, orange colour scheme, use of a fire axe, use of fire-based weapons (flamethrower and molotovs), and his backstory of burning alive in a housefire.
• Optional Boss: In Heroes' Paradise.
• Playing with Fire: Uses a flamethrower-axe and Molotov Cocktails. The UAA later torches his house after Travis defeats him, but it is unclear as to whether this would truly end him for good.
• Psychopathic Manchild: A terrifying pyromaniac who's constantly giggling throughout his attempt to kill Travis. Subverted when you find out that he actually 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:
  • He's a big one to slasher movies in general, especially Friday the 13th.
  • A flamethrower inside an axe is enough to invoke jealousy in even the Pyro.
• Uncertain Doom: While it ultimately doesn't matter as Sylvia counts Travis as the winner regardless, given how Matt is effectively a ghost, it's unclear what his exact fate is once Travis "defeats" him. Sylvia shoots his child form in the head, only for him to recover and run off seconds later, and it's unclear what good burning his house down will do in the long run (especially since you can see him calmly staring out the second-story window as it's burning).
• Undead Child: That giant adult you fight appears to be just an apparition of his, with this being his true form. He also appears to be totally immortal in this form, shrugging off one of Sylvia's headshots.
• Vocal Dissonance: He's a big, heavy guy, if not bigger than Travis himself, yet he has the voice and giggles of a young child. Subverted in that he actually is a child.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Though not as much as Ryuji, who ironically uses the same boss theme, Matt Helms is definitely a much tougher boss than the previous (and good luck on Bitter Mode). His attacks include Molotov Cocktails that he never stops throwing, powerful swings of his axe, turning the aforementioned axe into a flamethrower, and sitting on you. This is all amplified by the fact his arena is a very cramped space, which ups the difficulty in staying away from his slow but strong attacks.
• We Win, Because You Didn't: Due to his pact with the devil and his undead status, Matt can't be killed by traditional means; he gets decapitated by Travis but is reverted to a child, he's shot in the head by Sylvia but comes back, and he doesn't seem bothered by the fact that his house is up in flames. Since Travis won the fight by reverting Matt to a child, Matt still lost.
• Your Head A-Splode: The way Travis kills him.

(23)Cloe Walsh

Cloe Walsh

Voiced by: Tara Strong

Theme: Cheap Whiskey

"Don't say that, handsome. Actually, you're just my type. You'd be even more dashing if you were writhing in agony. Show me your face twisted in pain."

The 23rd ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle. She's found locked in a prison complex.

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• Breather Bossinvoked: Suda51 himself claimed that she was purposefully made to be less challenging than the brutal, claustrophobic battle with Matt Helms before her. To boot, she has less health, her arena is much more open, and her attacks are much easier to deal with so long as you can avoid her poison debuff.
• Combat Stilettos: Not that she uses them in combat though.
• Evil Redhead: She LOVES seeing other's pain and will not even attempt to hide her sadism at all as she is flirting.
• Eye Beams: They're not very hard to avoid, though.
• Glass Cannon: Can pile on the damage with her quick close ranged attacks and variety of ranged attacks on harder difficulties but she goes down very quickly regardless of difficulty.
• Jiggle Physics: Her breasts jiggles a bit as she tries to kiss Travis, if you look a little closely and her butt jiggles as she is sliced to pieces by Travis.
• Kiss of Death: What she tries to do to Travis. If she manages to kiss Travis, she will remark "Delicious" upon seeing him writhing in pain from her poison.
• Our Banshees Are Louder: She likes to scream, and her voice is so powerful it causes the room to rumble.
• Perfect Poison: Her main method of attacking.
• Poison Is Corrosive: Her saliva is both toxic and corrosive.
• Poisonous Person: Her breath is toxic. Getting hit by it renders Travis extremely sluggish and effectively worthless for a few seconds before he can heal up.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Not only does she appear to be the only dedicated inmate on Prison Island, but she's bound in a straitjacket and face mask while in her cell, which is itself hanging from the ceiling of a giant hall filled to the brim with lasers. You don't find out why she's worth all the effort until you have to free her for the fight.
  Travis: You're lucky I don't have a bondage kink.
• 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: She is very scantily dressed which consist of a full-body fishnet suit and knee-high platform heels with the straps barely covering her breasts.

(10)Dr. Letz Shake

Dr. Letz Shake

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore

Theme: Happy War More

"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. He previously appeared in the first game (although he was Letz Shake but in order to save his life, his brain was put into a upgraded form of his stolen earthquake machine) as a Bait-and-Switch Boss, but 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.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Due to his name being a composite of Dr. Shake (the brain in the earthquake generator) and Letz Shake (the ranked assassin who used said earthquake generator) from the first game, it's a bit unclear which of the two he's supposed to be, although it is most likely Letz Shake due to the Doctor's brain in the first game being sliced in half & the brain looks different, the machine also has Letz Shake's anarchist A on him, while also kind of sporting the devilish laughter Letz Shake had, and that it focuses on Letz Shake during the flashback, AND Travis says he's that 5th ranked freak instead of that 5th ranked freak's machine .
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Only this time, he's on the giving end.
• Being Human Sucks: He might have a mechanical body, but his brain is still human, which causes him to make irrational decisions. He lampshades this before the fight.
  "With determination levels maximum, I thought only of winning. It was meaningless. Futile. Illogical. But such is the curse of being run by a human brain."
• Brain in a Jar: Brain in a giant weapon. Though oddly, the brain is nearly as large as a human's entire body.
• Calling Your Attacks: Parodied. When he does his earthquake attack, he'll occasionally declare "Battle cry".
• 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.
• Earthquake Machine: Since he's Letz Shake's implanted on an earthquake generator, you can guess what his main attack is.
• Evil Laugh: Thanks to his speech pattern, he simply says "devilish laughter" in response to Travis's intent of killing him.
• 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.
• Lightning Bruiser: Dr. Letz Shake moves surprisingly fast for his size, soaks up damage like a sponge, and deals massive damage with his earthquakes and Eye Beams. Despite these strengths, his attacks are telegraphed, making it easier to dodge them.
• Meaningful Name: Since Dr. Letz Shake is Letz Shake in the Doctor's position, he shakes the ground to make said earthquakes.
• Non-Standard Character Design: All of the Assassins are humans, or at least humanoid, but as for this guy? He's a humongous Starfish Robot.
• Puzzle Boss: It's less about dodging him, more about getting on the stable ground so you can actually do some damage to the big lug.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His red eyes are sometimes visible, but they glow yellow whenever he uses his Eye Beams.
• Revenge by Proxy: Subverted. 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. Akin to Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud, he'll convey his mood, intonation and punctuation in the same monotone.
• Starfish Robot: He doesn't look like your standard robot, being a tower-like machine supported by four cylindrical legs that float whenever he moves.
• Taken for Granite: He froze Henry in carbonite sometime before the ranking battle.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Among other characteristics of his aforementioned Robo Speak.
• Wet Ware CPU: He's an earthquake generator run by an exposed and unusually large human brain.

(9)Million Gunman

Million Gunman

Voiced by: Paul Eiding

Theme: Money Shot

"Do you love money like I do?"

The 9th ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle, and the first boss fought as Shinobu.

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• Cluster F-Bomb: Has a number of lines with such an expletive and he uses them a lot during his attacks.
• Evil Brit: Has a distinctly posh British accent, contrasting with how profane he gets while in combat.
• Expy: He has Sean Connery's accent, Roger Moore's face, and Francisco Scaramanga's golden gun.
• "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.
• Graceful Loser: He's not mad when Shinobu kills him, he instead just wants to know her name, and calls her "sir" when she tells him.
• Greed: Even in defeat, he's focused on money.
  "I love money!"
• Improbable Aiming Skills: His ricochet attacks are much more dangerous to you than his point-blank firing frenzies.
• Just a Kid: Rather amused to find that his opponent's so young and clearly doesn't see her as much of a threat. This is despite the fact that Shinobu was formerly the 8th ranked assassin.
  "My opponent's a young girl...?"
• Money Mauling: His gun fires rolled-up hundred-dollar bills.
  "Fuck you! I shoot MONEY!"
• Off with His Head!: How he dies, but not before he's somehow able to choke out a final "Yes sir..." to Shinobu's Bond One-Liner. And then she slices his head into multiple pieces.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Lacks any backstory and doesn't get a whole lot of screentime or lines of dialogue or before being offed even compared to every other boss who dies after their defeat. Then again, Shinobu's in a hurry and not in the mood to chat up the opposing assassins.

(8)New Destroyman

Secret Identity(es): John Harnet

Voiced by: Josh Keaton

Theme: Kill U 2wise Over

"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 boss fought as Shinobu. After Destroyman's death from bisection in the last game, both halves of him were rebuilt as cyborgs, and Shinobu must fight both at once.

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• Call-Back: The red half tries the exact same "electrocute with a handshake" maneuver that he used in the first game on Shinobu. It doesn't work because she uses her prosthetic hand, and she promptly cuts his hand off in retaliation.
• 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, things get worse. Much worse. Until you realize 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.
• Dual Boss: You have to fight both versions of Destroyman at once, and given how he maintains most of his moves from the first game (along with some new ones), he's trickier to deal with. Fortunately, each one has their own preferred combat style, one fighting up-close and another flying away and providing support from afar, making it easier to single them out. Unfortunately, one can revive the other if you can't stop them in time, so killing them both might take a while.
• Eye Beams: Both of them can shoot laser beams out of their cybernetic eyes, though the ranged Destroyman obviously uses it more.
• Faux Affably Evil: The one with the red eye, just like Destroyman in the first game, tries to lure Shinobu into a false sense of security by appearing civil and professional, offering a friendly handshake before the fight for "sportsmanship". The other half doesn't even bother with the facade.
• "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 - even if you take out the flying one first, the melee-centric one will simply switch tactics with him. Shinobu's Sonic Sword is good for chipping away at him, but the wonky camera makes getting up to where he is a pain.
• Jerkass: Both personalities, actually. One's an in-your-face pervert while 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 her down.
• Nostalgia Level: The level theme before you reach him is "Cashmere Cannonball" from the first game.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Inverted. the Red eyed one is the noble-facade Destroyman from the first game; the blue eyed one 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.
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: One Destroyman gets up in your face with close-range attacks, while the other pelts you with lasers and such from afar.
• SkeleBot 9000: The cybernetic halves of either one's face is a sharp-toothed, lipless jaw with a sunken-in cybernetic eye. There IS a nose, though.
• Split Personality: They're literally two halves of the same person.
• Unusual Weapon Mounting: They're still sporting weaponized codpieces. The melee Destroyman uses his to shoot Destroy Spark, and their main move with it is a Combination Attack that forms a Sphere of Destruction rather than the giant laser from the first game.
• Walking Spoiler: The fact that the original Destroyman didn't really die turns these two into this trope.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Even if he'd been stabbed in the gut and split in half. Lengthwise, at that. Even having both of his bodies blown up didn't stop him from returning as a full-on machine in No More Heroes III.
• Wrestler in All of Us: The melee Destroyman will liberally attack with dropkicks.

(7)Ryuji

Ryuji

Voiced by: Robert Wu

Theme: Subuta.2

"COME OUT, DRAGON!"

The 7th ranked assassin in Desperate Struggle.

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• Animal Motifs: Dragons, to contrast him with Travis. His bike looks like one, and the "ryu" in his name means "dragon."
• Badass Biker: He has the style of a stereotypical bōsōzoku and is capable of fighting while mounting his motorcycle. This is how he fights Travis during the first phase of the battle.
• Dragons Up the Yin Yang: The sole Asian challenger to Travis, is able to launch a huge energy-based eastern dragon from his nagamaki.
• Evil Counterpart: To Travis in a minor sense. They're both skilled assassins who drive motorcycles and are skilled in close-ranged beam weaponry while occasionally mixing in unarmed grapples. It helps that every cutscene of the two fighting shows them using similar methods against one another beginning with motorcycles, bare-handed grapples, and lastly Beam weapon clashing.
• Face Death with Dignity: Subverted. Sylvia guns him down before Travis could give him a proper send-off.
• Grapple Move: He may end his combos by trying to grab Travis with his free hand. You'll hear him when he whiffs.
  "Shit!"
• Ki Manipulation: The way in which Sylvia describes him as relying on a power that "power all humans have, but few learn to harness" and being able "subdues all enemies with the sheer force of its will", matches pretty well with the eastern principle of Ki. It's implied to be the source behind his ability to launch a massive energy dragon at Travis as his strongest attack.
• Knight of Cerebus: He's treated pretty damn seriously for being a legitimately impressive fighter that even Travis considers worthy of respect. After his defeat and disappointingly Undignified Death at the hands of Sylvia, Travis becomes significantly more respectful towards the final batch of assassins regardless of how absurd they can be.
• Laser Blade: A beam nagamaki (the blade is too long for a naginata and the handle is too long for an odachi).
• Meaningful Name: The kanji of his name literally translates to "dragon controller." His strongest attack is to summon a dragon.
• Mirror Boss: Uses a similar beam-based sword to Travis, has a charged lunging attack, is quick on his feet, has aggressive combos, and even has an unarmed grapple similar to Travis' wrestling moves.
• The Quiet One: Aside from two or three lines of dialogue (including the above quote), he merely grunts while in the midst of battle.
• Ring Out: The first half of his battle is a mock sumo duel on bikes around a cliff, and Travis must win by knocking him off it.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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: His charge attack.
• Tiger Versus Dragon: Ryuji is represented by a dragon, while Travis is represented by a tiger.
• Undignified Death: Before Travis can give him a proper send-off, Sylvia mows him down with a machine-gun, and continues to shoot his body after he's fallen to the ground.
• 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

Mimmy

Voiced by: Debi Derryberry

Theme: We Are Finally Cowboys (Golden Brown Remix)

"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.

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• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Henry fights her in a dream while in the middle of a coma. She's presumably influenced by the anime Travis is jacking off to in the other room.
• 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.
• Enemy Within: For Travis, even though Henry fights her.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: She has zero foreshadowing and no relation to any of the main plot, she just suddenly appears as a fight in Henry's dream that he must win against.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's essentially a manifestation of all of Travis' anime-related Fetishes, making her one to Travis' subconscious.
• Non-Standard Character Design: While all the other characters in the series have models in a realistic style with lots of shading, Mimmy's model is very colorful and animesque, with big, shiny eyes. Even her character art is in a 'cuter' style than that of the others. Justified, since Mimmy is a mental manifestation of all the anime-related fetishes of local Otaku Travis.
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: As if the entire fight wasn't bizarre enough, when Henry finally kills Mimmy by stabbing her in the back, she starts to swell up like a balloon to enormous proportions and then spectacularly explodes. Does Travis have a hidden inflation fetish?
• School Swimsuit: Her outfit greatly resembles one. Since she's basically a personification of all of Travis' anime-related fetishes, it wouldn't be surprising if school swimsuits were one of them.
• Shout-Out: The part where she reads Henry's mind is a reference to the Newtype meeting between Lalah and Amuro in Mobile Suit Gundam.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: She speaks in...some kind of accent, likely Indian, Irish, Japanese, or some combination of the three, but it's hard to tell.
• Yandere: Since Henry won't stay in a coma and share his mindscape with her, she feels obliged to kill him.

(4)Margaret Moonlight

Margaret Moonlight

Voiced by: Tara Strong

Theme: Philistine

♫ Reaper, reaper, that's what people call me ♫
♫ Why? 'Cause they all die ♫
♫ When I sing I end their lives! ♫
♫ You act as though payback makes you a noble man ♫
♫ Is that a fact? ♫
♫ Well you're a goddamn philistine! ♫

"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◊.

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• Affably Evil: She's always polite and respectful to Travis... outwardly anyway. Her Villain Song is partially a massive diss song on Travis but it's rather valid in critiquing his negative qualities.
• Ambiguously Gay: If not in reference to being a virgin, then "boys cannot crack this oyster shell" can really only mean one other thing.
• Ambiguously Related: It's near-impossible to see in a regular playthrough, but one of the pictures Alice Twilight is seen burning before her battle displays her and Margaret, and when combined with their similar names implied they were related. Suda51 confirmed in a 2010 interview that the two are in fact sisters.
• Alliterative Name: Margaret Moonlight.
• Anti-Villain: If the lyrics to her song are anything to go by, she really only goes after people exploiting their UAA jobs for personal gains, which, go figure, is why she fights Travis.
• Badass Boast: Her theme song is a mix of this and a "The Reason You Suck" Speech directed at Travis.
• Dual Wield: With scythe rifles.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Her design is based off this aesthetic and is very fancy.
• Foil: Margaret seems to have been designed as a total opposite of Bad Girl. Bad Girl is rude, violent, and psychotic while Margaret is relatively (and ironically) 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 Travis remembered her song and accepts her death when he tells her he did.
• Four Is Death: She's the 4th ranked assassin. She has scythes. People call her "The Reaper".
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: She spends the majority of the fight running away, turning around and shooting at you.
• Graceful Loser: She doesn't seem to have any qualms with Travis as he impales her, only asking him if he remembered her song.
• Grim Reaper: If the scythes didn't sell it for you, the theme song should have. It's entirely possible she's not really exaggerating too, if the whistling after you kill her and her almost ethereal teleportation is to be taken into account.
• Last Request: Before she collapses, she only asks if Travis memorized her song. When Travis replies that he did, she dies happily.
• Meaningful Name: The song states: "Margaret is Greek, you geek / It means 'a pearl' [...] Boys cannot crack this oyster shell!"
• Pimped-Out Dress: When she falls dead, it even goes "poof". Doesn't get in the way of her fighting, though.
• 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:
  • 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 similar to Blue Öyster Cult's classic "Don't Fear The Reaper".
• Sinister Scythe: Her preferred weapon, the "Le Croissant Du Ange," which she dual-wields. They also double as .50 caliber sniper rifles, and yes, she continues to use both at once.
• Sinister Whistling: She's introduced with an eerie whistle. It's so terrifying that it made Sylvia go catatonic for a week.
• Sophisticated as Hell: If the lyrics of "Philistine" are any indication.
  You think the fire in your eyes makes you a tiger in disguise?
  Dream on, you goddamn pussy!
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Half of the lyrics to her battle theme are unrelenting insults geared towards Travis. She mocks his belief that pursuing revenge makes him noble, that he is not a real hero for pursuing it, and his anger doesn't make him a good man. She even devotes a line to make a dig at Travis' otaku perversions. Philistine means one who does not pursue intellectual needs. This is all geared at how Travis only wants to see people die and not consider that they are also people.
• Villain Song: Definitely, and a pretty catchy one to boot. American and Japanese/PAL releases of the game got different versions of the song; America got one with more techno and clear vocals, while Japan and PAL got the Fukuda-Mix which added more distortion and background effects. The Switch and Steam ports use the Fukuda-Mix regardless of region.
• Zettai Ryouiki:
  Thighhigh socks are my absolute territ'ry
  Go on and drool
  The otaku cannot resist

(3)Captain Vladimir

Captain Vladimir

Voiced by: Paul Eiding

Theme: Shoegazer Watched The Stars

"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 who doesn't even realize he's back on Earth.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Vladimir has been stranded in space since the 1960s and spends the entire fight trying to contact the space station and trying to contact the control centre in Russia. He had no idea that he was back on Earth, he didn't know he became a ranked assassin, and he didn't know he was fighting Travis who was an assassin sent to duel him. For these reasons, he is one of the few villains in the series that Travis actually sympathizes with and gives a small eulogy to at the end of the battle. Then, when Sylvia tries to recover Vladmir's body afterwards, Travis threatens her and demands that she leave his body alone.
  Travis: Screw your policy. He's back with the Earth after who knows how long, you're not going to suck him up with your damn vacuum.
• Alien Abduction: His arena and intro sure inspires the imagery... and just what happened to him?
• And I Must Scream: He's been trapped in space since the mid-1950s to mid-1970s during the space race. Judging by his design, it looks an accident in space jettisoned him from his ship. He was lost and adrift in space until he unknowingly landed on Earth. No wonder he lost his mind.
• Anti-Villain: More so than any other boss in the game. He has no clue what's going on when he fights Travis, and all we know about him is that he's an uber-patriotic Soviet who's 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 of the story. The otaku even recognizes this and gives him a fitting Informal Eulogy after defeating him and letting him know he's back on Earth.
  Travis: Glory to the Soviet Union.
• Bilingual Bonus: His ship's name, Volk, translates from Russian to "Wolf".
• 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. He's even voiced by a Metal Gear regular.
• Cue the Sun: Played subtly: the battle against Vladimir takes place during the dead of night, but as it progresses with his health going down, the sun slowly begins to rise from the horizon. At the end, Vladimir gets to witness his last look of Earth at the break of dawn.
• Determinator: As a Soviet Cosmonaut whose mission went horribly wrong, Vladmir has been floating in space for two decades. In all that time, he never stopped attempting to contact his mission control or return to Earth, nor did he ever consider simply removing his helmet.
• Death from Above: Volk, his ship/satellite, regularly fires lasers at Travis from orbit.
• Deflector Shields: For most of the battle, he has a large prismatic one always guarding his front, which blocks all of Travis' attacks as he spins around, including his "Death Blows". It breaks once he reaches 1/3 of his health, though he Turns Red as a result.
• Disappears into Light: Captain Vladimir seemingly fades away to nothing after he breathes his last, leaving only his floating spacesuit behind.
• Dishing Out Dirt: He is able to lift large meteor-like boulders telekinetically — perhaps by manipulating the gravity nearby — to fling them at Travis.
• Energy Weapon: From his helmet and from the very skies!
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In the Coup de Grâce against him, Travis stabs his helmet visor, blasting one final laser up into the sky that destroys his Kill Sat.
• Kill Sat: His main weapon, Volk, is used for the purpose of bombarding the battlefield with all sorts of destructive lasers.
• Let Them Die Happy: Travis does this for Vladimir after his defeat, letting the cosmonaut know that he's finally back on Earth after decades (as he had long hoped to return to after his accident), and eulogizing him with a recognition of the country he loved so much.
  Travis: It's over, Captain.
  Vladimir: This is... Earth?
  Travis: (sincerely) Yep. Welcome home.
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong: It's less to do with physical strength than having two of the most impressive weapons to ever be used on Travis, barring Speed Buster's laser cannon. Although, surviving alone in space for over twenty years is pretty hardcore.
• No Body Left Behind: His body fades away after his defeat, leaving only his suit behind.
• Old Soldier: Despite his age, this cosmonaut can more than hold his own against Travis.
• One-Hit Kill: When he fires the big beam, if it touches Travis, he's dead.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Like Matt Helms before him, Captain Vladimir is a supernatural foe. His uniform appears to have been designed in the mid-1950s to mid-1970s — as shown by his surprise at Travis' nationality, which indicates he was part of The Space Race which was from 1955 to 1975 — it looks like a terrible accident jettisoned him into deep space, and when he finally learns that he's returned to Earth, his body disappears as if he's fulfilled his unfinished mission. This also explains how he was able to survive in space without needing to take his helmet off so he can eat and drink, how he managed to survive the return to Earth's atmosphere, and why his body fades away after the fight. The only thing that's hard to explain is how Vladimir is able to use his technology after all this time and his undead state.
• Outside-Context Problem: Even in a series as outlandish as this, Vladimir is presented as especially supernatural for an assassin, to a point where one has to wonder exactly how this laser-firing cosmonaut lost in time (additionally implied to be a literal ghost) got roped into the UAA. Even Travis — who's gone through nearly two full games worth of crazy bosses — is thrown for a loop.
  Travis: What the hell!? I've gotta fight a whole fucking space program, now?
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He only attacks Travis when he thinks the Americans have followed him to space. This is justified however since he's been stranded in space for over 20 years and is a little behind on the current political affairs.
• Turns Red: At low health, he becomes able to use his One-Hit Kill, as well as a much more powerful variation of his facial laser.

(2)Alice Twilight

Alice Twilight

Voiced by: Jennifer Hale

Theme: Subuta.1

"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 six waldoes armed with numerous beam katanas. Notable for having appeared in the earliest trailers for the game, likely because of her memorable appearance.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Travis killing her ends up being his last straw as he realizes just how cruel the UAA's treatment of assassins really are.
• Alice Allusion: Subverted. She's not ethereal, Victorian, and nothing about her seems to be alluding to Alice in Wonderland. Oddly enough, her sister Margaret (being a creepy blonde Elegant Gothic Lolita) would fit very well if their names were switched. Her name instead is a red herring to fit into her Buddhist Ashura symbolism.
• Broken Bird: She's fed-up with her lifestyle as an assassin, leading her to seek an escape... preferably by Travis' hand.
• Climax Boss: The penultimate boss of Desperate Struggle, and the person who kicks off Travis' emotional climax. In the aftermath of her defeat and death, Travis' character development reaches its conclusion as it finally hits him just how horrible the Ranking Matches between Assassins are. While he's still dedicated to his own ambitions of vengeance against Jasper Batt Jr., he vows to stop the Ranking Matches for good once it's all over; a promise he makes good on.
• 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 himself and happily falls down to be sliced in half by his katanas after making a final request.. Lonely at the Top indeed...
• Face Death with Dignity: And Travis takes no time in letting out his sorrows and disgust with an anguished cry.
• Foil: With Holly Summers with the first game as both are females whose philosophies and actions changes Travis's mindset of the assassination business, with both of them only requesting that Travis remembers them. Travis freezes in hesitating with Holly (who ends up killing herself with a grenade) while Alice falls into the blade of Travis's beam katana. Travis didn't get to know Holly's name until after she killed herself but Travis requests Alice to give hers before she dies.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: A closer look at the photos she burned showed she had a husband and son and knew Margaret (it was later confirmed that the two are sisters).
• Last Request: "Promise me that you won't forget...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.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Her "ASURA-6" is a back-mounted device that gives her six limbs with beam katana extensions, one of which is long enough to act as a tail to lift her off the ground.
• Mythical Motifs: Alice and her ASURA-6 seem to be based off of asuras of Hindu and Buddhist myth, semi-divine beings that rank above humans in power, but whose lives are considered even worse off as they are perpetually engulfed in wrath and anger, unable to find resolution or peace within their world. Because of this, they desire and seek enlightenment to transcend and become devas or remove themselves from Samsara altogether. Alice appears to be a symbolic asura who wants out of the world of glorified bloodshed and killing which she once saw as a means to use to ascend to higher calling.
• Optional Boss: In Heroes' Paradise.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Is dangerous enough to be the Rank 2 assassin, and has red eyes.
• Sad Battle Music: It's still energetic and more melancholy than outright sad, but her theme is distinctly more tranquil and harrowing than other themes, fitting for a battle representing the emotional climax of the game.
• 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.
• Title Drop: "Don't you see, Travis? You are the No More Hero."
• The Unfettered: Called the "last ascetic", Alice has completely devoted her life to climbing, and eventually escaping the UAA ranks. As Travis first encounters her for their duel, she's seen burning several personal photos, on one of them being with her sister Margaret, severing the last of her ties to a regular life.
• Wham Episode: Travis' monologue after their fight marks the most of his character development, precisely because the fight serves as a Wham Episode to him.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Russian? German?

(1)Jasper "Pizza" Batt Jr.

Jasper "Pizza" Batt Jr.

Voiced by: Yuri Lowenthal

Themes: Feet On The Air, Titanium Batt, Travesty

"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 during the first game, and he wanted revenge.

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• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Him wanting to seek revenge on Travis for killing his family members isn't totally unjustified, but he unquestionably crosses the line by ordering the hit on Bishop — a completely innocent civilian — simply because he was Travis' best friend. Right before they fight face to face, Jasper presents the seemingly severed heads of Sylvia, Henry, and Shinobu just to demoralize him even further, though this turns out to be a bluff as the real Henry shows up to confirm that they're fakes.
• Animal Motifs: Bats. Unlike Travis or even Batman, this serves as a villain use of themes. While bats have been known to be symbols of good luck elsewhere, they are considered symbols of evil and "the left handed path" within Western Esoteric traditions. Along with being notorious for being a vector of disease, like rabies, bats are also notorious for defecating everywhere, and their guano has long been valued in human history as a source for saltpeter or potassium nitrate, which is well known to be an oxidizer in gunpowder. This doesn't even factor into how he and his followers act akin to the undead as "corporate zombies", specifically, like vampires, who have been known in 19th Century European lore to be an allusion to corrupt nobility and "those who feed off of the blood of the people".
• 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. How bad can he be?" Then they actually fight the guy.
• Big Bad: The main antagonist of Desperate Struggle, being responsible for much of the state of Santa Destroy and the guy Travis is gunning for in order to get revenge for Bishop's murder.
• Brick Joke: Early on in the game, when Travis meets with Sylvia next to the building the final battle takes place in, a guy randomly falls out of the sky and lands nearby... which neither reacts to, implying this happens fairly often. Once you get to fight Batt, the same thing can happen to you.
• Composite Character: His similarities to Batman are obvious, but he also arguably has similarities to The Joker, with his insanity, incredible goofiness, gaudily coloured outfit and being the foil to a (relatively in Travis’ case) more serious character.
• 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.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Of Batman. 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... and became a revenge-fueled killer instead of a superhero. Really, he's basically what would happen if Batman had none of his morality, honor and general human decency.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He plans on owning and controlling Santa Destroy and driving every other business in the city into bankruptcy. It's also hinted that he's become a major figure in the criminal underworld, as the henchmen Travis fights throughout the game belong to him and are involved in Santa Destroy's criminal activity - and of course, he's also the #1 ranked assassin.
• Cycle of Revenge: Sought revenge on Travis after he murdered at least three members of his family in the previous game (originally just lowly Mooks during a side-mission), and he takes out Bishop and seemingly Sylvia, Henry, and Shinobu just to spite him before their showdown.
  "Have you never even seen a kung fu movie, spy flick or western?! Shakespeare, for God's sake!"
• Destination Defenestration: One of his attacks can do this to Travis if he's near the windows. Travis returns the favor in the cutscene following the defeat of his 2nd form.
• Dirty Coward: He gives off a lot of vibes of this. In his first phase, he relies on a flying car and laser defenses in his office to fight Travis. His second phase sees him using some kind of special formula to give himself an unfair edge on Travis.
  • It's worth noting that he never takes his revenge on Travis on his own terms, using his wealth and power to take it out on Santa Destroy through his criminal activities as well as sending five hitmen just to kill Bishop.
• Facial Markings: A tattoo of a pizza on the left side of his face.
• Final Boss: The final assassin Travis battles in Desperate Struggle.
• Flying Car: His primary mode of battle in his first form.
• Foreshadowing: For a gameplay element. When Travis first learns of who he is from Sylvia just outside of his skyscraper, a man suddenly falls from the sky and dies as he lands on someone's car. If you're not careful enough, this'll likely happen to Travis during Jasper's 2nd phase.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Gleefully unhinged and murderous with any redeeming traits being borderline nonexistent.
• Giggling Villain: If him killing Bishop or his boss fight didn't make you already hate his guts, his high-pitched laughs are sure to finish the job.
• Hate Sink: There's a good reason as to why YouTuber, The Quarter Guy, prefers to call him "Bastard Twat Jr.". He's utterly underwhelming and aggravating in every way by design. Even discounting his actions during the game, his design is absurd for a final boss and only gets more and more absurd with every new form until even Henry can't stand to be near him and bails out mid-fight, and his second form is infamously difficult and cheap. He's the complete antithesis of a cool or likeable villain, and his boss battle reflects this.
• Jerkass: Even losing his family does not really justify him being so extremely obnoxious.
• Knight of Cerebus: Subverted. His arranging the murder of Bishop single-handedly brings the second game into Darker and Edgier territory, he represents the consequences of Travis' wanton murder in the first game, and he even tricks Travis into thinking that he killed Henry, Shinobu and Sylvia just to screw with his head. Once it actually comes time to fight him, however, the game actively defies any attempt to wring any kind of serious drama out of him by making the boss fight against him utterly ridiculous when he turns into a cartoonishly-buff supervillain and then a giant parade float, to the point that Henry eventually bails out because the fight is just getting too silly for him.
• Lightning Bruiser: In his second form, he packs quite a punch, can take quite a few hits and will not stay the fuck still.
• Looks Like Orlok: Bald and ugly, he's not a looker in his natural state, and gets uglier in every subsequent form he takes.
• The Napoleon: Being tiny does not stop him from being very egotistical.
• No Kill like Overkill: He sends a total of five hitmen after the relatively harmless Bishop (four to shoot him to death and one to decapitate what's left of his head).
• One-Winged Angel: Twice. First, he turns into a hulking superhero-themed brute, then into a giant parade float.
• Perfect Play A.I.: 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: Massively so. His actions aren't that different from a spoiled brat, he has the build and voice of a 11-year-old and he spends the majority of the fight giggling like a lunatic. For bonus points, his third form looks like a giant baby.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He's the CEO of Pizza Batt, which controls all of Santa Destroy.
• Sequential Boss: Three very different phases, more than anyone else in the series.
• Shout-Out: He has a number of these towards the superhero genre.
  • 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.
  • His third form is also reminiscent of the Stay Puft monster from Ghostbusters (1984).
  • He also references William Shakespeare to Travis in his introduction scene.
• Teleport Spam: His whirlwind attack during his second phase.
• Villain Has a Point: Travis spends the entirety of the first game killing people; his body-count likely in the hundreds, 3 of which are Jaspers' family. Jasper (And Skelter Helter) both brutally remind Travis that he shouldn't expect to kill so many people and never suffer any consequences for it. His hatred and immense rise to power likely stem from Travis' actions.
• Villainous Gentrification: Aims to finish what his slain relations started. Not just by running the local restaurants out of business, but rendering the purpose of every other Santa Destroy business moot with his massive department store skyscraper.
• 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!!
• Vocal Dissonance: In his final phase he takes on the appearance of a large-headed, cartoony mascot, but with an inhumanly deep voice.
• 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. Though it is played straight if one replaces 'father' with 'best friend'.

Civilians

Ryan Yamazaki

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.

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• Bullet Hell: What his Strength training amounts to.
• Freddie Mercopy: Looks very similar to Freddie Mercury.
• Macho Camp: A large hairy bear of a man with a bushy Porn Stache, who wears a bright pink leotard, has noticable eyelashes and very camp mannerisms.
• Nintendo Hard: What his training minigames quickly become.
• 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. To his credit, it does work and Travis gets stronger for it.

Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike

Voiced by: Takashi Miike (Desperate Struggle), Stephen Oyoung (NMHIII)

"Is this Bishop's grave?"

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.

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• As Himself: Apparently, he's a real character in the No More Heroes 'verse.
• Deus ex Machina: The gift of Rose Nasty in Desperate Struggle and him arriving just in time to save Travis from being trapped underground in III.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He was mentioned only once in the first game, then gives what could be the best sword in the sequel, which appears on the cover.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Discusses the language barrier between him and Bishop.
• Ink-Suit Actor: He's technically only listed as "Man 2", but his appearance and the context make it obvious that Takashi Miike is playing himself here.
• Nice Guy: Is kind and courtous, and brings a new weapon all the way from Japan.