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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:VideoGame.NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:VideoGame.NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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{{work}}
{{quote|
The sequel to the surprise [[Wii]] hit ''[[
''No More Heroes 2'' is set three years after the events of the first game. Travis Touchdown's bloody antics have made the city of Santa Destroy famous, causing it to expand into [[Wretched Hive|a seedy urban hub]] where televised assassin fights are a popular and very profitable form of entertainment. Travis himself is retired, but leaps back into the spotlight when a gang of hired thugs murder his best friend, Bishop. His years out of action have caused him to drop substantially in rank, however, and he must fight his way to the top once again to avenge Bishop's death, this time from rank #51.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Absolute Cleavage]]: Dr. Naomi. Looks like the money spent on beam katana upgrades went to her chest.
* [[Affably Evil]]: Captain Vladimir, Alice Twilight, Skelter Helter, and Charlie McDonald. Vladimir hardly knows what's going on, Alice wants to quit being an assassin, Skelter wanted revenge for Travis killing and not even caring about his brother, and Charlie isn't even that bad of a person, he even compliments your name...which is to be expected, as he's a [[Theme Naming|football player.]]
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* [[American Kirby Is Hardcore]]: Inverted. All Covers are intense, though the Japanese cover (especially the Hopper edition cover) might fall under '''[[Up to Eleven|even more hardcore]]''' compared to the US/EU/AU one.
* [[And Your Reward Is Clothes]]: Or lack thereof. Apparently Travis took a vow to never be without a jacket until he had completed all the revenge missions.
* [[Anti
** Skelter Helter wasn't all that evil either. He only wanted to kill Travis as retribution for him [[
* [[Attack of the
* [[Attempted Rape]]: The crasser half of New Destroyman tries to pull this on Shinobu. She immediately slips away, though, and stabs him in the head.
* [[Autobots Rock Out]]
* [[Bag of Spilling]]: Travis hasn't fought or exercised between the games, so he lost all his health and strength upgrades, and wrecked his bike at the end of the first game, hence the replacement. But he still has all the masks you collected in the first game, as well as some moves he learned from Lovikov.
* [[Betty and Veronica]]: {{spoiler|Shinobu and Sylvia}} are portrayed this way.
* [[
* [[Blatant Lies]]: When Travis enters Sylvia's office to find someone just exiting the back door, he asks who it was. Sylvia says it was, uh, the paperboy, and the emergency exit is faster.
{{quote|
* [[Bond One
* [[Boss
* [[Brick Joke]]: When first seducing Travis, Sylvia mentions one of her favorite yoga positions is the Downward Dog. {{spoiler|After they finally have sex, Travis walks outside and shouts "''DOWNWARD FUCKING DOG!''"}}
** Near the beginning of the game Travis and Sylvia are talking about his having to get to the top of the UAA rankings to get to the man that {{spoiler|killed Bishop}} who resides in the building across the street from where they are when a man suddenly falls from the sky and smashes the roof of a car. Guess what the Number One assassin's instant kill move does.
* [[But for Me It Was Tuesday]]: Travis claims not to know who Skelter Helter is trying to avenge (Helter Skelter, who only appeared in an early trailer for the first game, and who got about 2 seconds of actual screentime). But as the fight starts, he delivers the immortal line: "When you see your bro in hell, tell him: HE'S [[
** Remember the Pizza Butt executives you took care of way back in the first No More Heroes? The ones that didn't get any dialogue or cutscenes? It turns out that they were Jasper Batt Jr's father and two brothers, and their deaths are the reason why Batt's pissed off. Thats right, they pulled off a [[But for Me It Was Tuesday]] on ''the player.''
* [[Call Back]]: {{spoiler|The first No More Heroes had Travis say to Henry "Lets find that exit they call paradise!" while in the sequel as he is riding away with Sylvia he says "Sylvia, now ''that's'' paradise!"}}
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** Travis's {{spoiler|Mecha used in the 25th ranked fight is modeled on the Mecha used in the bullet hell mini game from the original.}}
*** Said {{spoiler|mecha}} comes out of the pool at (the late) Death Metal's mansion.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Skelter Helter is [[Final Fantasy VII
** You know, that is funny, because his brother Helter Skelter is [[Final Fantasy VII
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Arguably [[Action Girl|Shinobu]] with [[Moe]], a word her "master" is fond of.
* [[Character Development]]: {{spoiler|After Travis takes down Alice, he realizes that the other assassins are just as human as he is, and decides to take down the UAA because he's sick of people killing themselves over what is essentially a game. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on if this counts as Travis becoming a [[Retired Monster]] or taking his first real step to becoming a true hero.}}
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* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Several from the first game, including but not limited to killing {{spoiler|three business figures of Pizza Butt}}, Travis' "Vengeance begets vengeance" line (Actually make that all the symbolism from the Jeane fight) and even as far back as the first trailer what with Helter Skelter's lil' bro waging war on Travis once again.
* [[Climax Boss]]: #2 {{spoiler|Alice Twilight}}, who comes at Travis with beam katanas and a fighting style that's not unlike Travis' own, only with the ante significantly upped by the fact the boss wields ''5'' swords.
* [[Clipped
* [[Competitive Balance]]: Each of Travis' katanas is balanced differently...
** The Blood Berry has balanced speed and strength, but it has very powerful Low attacks and very fast High attacks at the cost of battery life, making it wiser to dodge instead of blocking attacks because it'd make the player make numerous retreats to recharge, making it more of a [[Glass Cannon]].
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* [[Continuity Nod]]: Glastonbury's launchpad is Death Metal's mansion from the original game.
** Travis has also {{spoiler|scribbled over the photo of Jeane he keeps next to his telephone with a marker, due to the events at the end of the first game.}}
* [[Cute
* [[Cycle of Revenge]]: Good god, the game may as well have been called ''No More Heroes: Revenge it up, Bitch.''
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]: The B button is normally used for melee attacks, but is changed to jumping and dashing when you play as {{spoiler|Shinobu and Henry}}, respectively, which can wreak havoc when you see those stars dancing above the enemy's head and reflexively try to do a throw on them. {{spoiler|Shinobu}} does have a throw, but you have to be close to your opponent and immobile to perform it.
* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: {{spoiler|The final boss, Jasper Batt Junior, who points out how common the theme of revenge, and [[You Killed My Father]] in particular, is in the media, [[The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples|including references to Shakespeare]].}}
* [[Dark Action Girl]]: The female bosses, just like in the first game.
* [[Death Seeker]]: {{spoiler|Several assassins in ''Desperate Struggle'' seek Travis, the "Crownless King", precisely because they've felt their lives have lost meaning. The 2nd Rank, Alice, says many of them want to know how Travis 'got out' of the life, even if it means escaping only in death.}}
* [[Destination Defenestration]]: {{spoiler|A particularly annoying aspect of the fight against Jasper Batt, Jr. He can knock you out of the windows of his penthouse, and if he does, you're dead instantly.}}
* {{spoiler|[[Did the Earth Move For You, Too?]]: Just before the Rank 1 fight, Travis and Sylvia have sex so good that it causes the entire Motel No More Heroes to shake and causes letters to fall off of the sign, turning it from "No More Heroes" to "More Ero".}}
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: The customers in "Man the Meat" will throw a fork into your eye if you cook their orders wrong. Dude, it was only overdone by a second!
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: "Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly 5". Just take out the "5" and it looks like a certain thing that comes out after a certain event.
* [[Dragons Up the Yin
** [[Tiger Versus Dragon]]: Invoked in the fight, of course. It's only natural that Travis finds him to be his first worthy opponent in the game {{spoiler|and gets incredibly pissed off when Sylvia decides to kill him herself.}}
* [[Dual
* [[Elegant Gothic Lolita]]: Margaret
* [[Emergency Transformation]]: {{spoiler|Destroyman and Letz Shake}} survive the events in the first game this way.
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** There is the interpretation that Travis represents the video gamer, Sylvia the game designer, and the fights as games. This interpretation may help in understanding the ending and other parts of this game and the other one.
* [[The Grim Reaper]]: Margaret Moonlight fights with a pair of huge scythes that double as anti materiel rifles, the motif is [[Lampshaded]] by the song that plays during the fight.
{{quote|
* [[Guide Dang It]]: You can't advance the final boss battle in Desperate Struggle unless {{spoiler|you willingly clash with one of the boss's attacks, which isn't alluded to anywhere}}.
** At least in this game, the final scorpion minigame gives you absolutely no direction on the controls.
* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: Surprisingly averted: Travis carries all of his beam katanas on his belt and can switch between them at his leisure.
* [[Impaled
* [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha]]: {{spoiler|Rank 25 and his 49 through 26 ranked cheerleaders control a [[Humongous Mecha]]. Travis fight them aboard Glastonbury, the [[Combining Mecha]] from [[Show Within a Show|Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly]].}}
* [[Irony]]: You're trying to take down the president of a pizza company while regaining health by ''eating pizza.''
** Suplex Pizza was the reigning Santa Destroy pizza shop before Pizza Batt moved in. It's not known whether or not they survived the competition (Burger Suplex survived okay), but it's most likely that the pizza health powerups are just a graphically upgraded [[Call Back]] to the first game's 8-bit version.
* [[Ironic Echo|Ironic]] / [[Meaningful Echo]]: {{spoiler|After gunning Ryuji down in the aftermath of the Rank 7 fight}}, Sylvia chides Travis about trying to fight with honor, and that the ranking fights are no sport. Ironic in that the fights have precisely that thanks to the new UAA and the televised ranking fights. {{spoiler|Alice hearkens back to this precise point before her fight, citing her dissatisfaction with what she feels has demeaned the life-and-death battles of the assassins.}}
* [[Jiggle Physics]]: Naomi, Sylvia, Strawberry, Nutberry, and even [[Fan Disservice|Ryan]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUMs8FWS0g&feature=player_detailpage#t=185s Cloe Walsh, oddly enough, has her butt jiggle toward the end of her boss fight.]
* [[Kung Fu
* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: Hilariously lampshaded as Sylvia points out that there are people starting at the sequel who don't care about continuity.
* [[Late to
* [[Luck
* [[Macho Camp]]: Ryan, the gym trainer. He dons a tight purple suit and frequently tries to hit on Travis.
{{quote|
** "Come back again, I'll pump you up!". Seemingly innocuous, but he ''says it again after saying you're too strong for him to train you anymore.'' [[Squick]].
* [[Made of Iron]]: Skelter Helter. He survives having his head cut of, manages to give a speech, then rips off his own head. Consider what {{spoiler|Destroyman}} came back from, one wonders if this death will stick or not..
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* [[Mirror Boss]]: {{spoiler|Alice}}, if you pay attention, has quite a few of Travis's attacks. Too bad you don't get the "throw beam katana with such timing that it makes it nearly impossible to get up thanks to the lack of [[Mercy Invincibility]]" attack.
** The big thing that makes Alice stand out from other potential Mirror Bosses, such as Ryuji and Skelter Helter, is that Alice borrows a trick that most bosses in any game (save [[Fighting Game|Fighting Games]]) don't have: ''canceling her own moves with a dodge-roll''.
* [[Mix
* [[Mook Horror Show]]: The usual result of Travis transforming into a goddamn tiger.
* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Toss-up between Sylvia and Shinobu.
** Though Alice and Margaret (as the latter's music implies) make a pretty good show of it as well. And then there's [[Gag Boobs|Naomi]].
* [[Multi Melee Master]]: Despite only using swords, Travis' beam katanas are so fundamentally different that he counts as one of these. You'll often switch from one blade to another depending on the enemy.
* [[New Game
* [[No Fourth Wall]]: Travis, Sylvia, and {{spoiler|Henry}} know that they're in a video game and will frequently break the fourth wall for laughs. Skelter Helter will mockingly suggest you go through the tutorial again while you fight him.
* [[Not So Different]]: {{spoiler|Jasper Batt Jr.}}
* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]: Henry vs. ranks 7 and 6, the game ''[[Lampshade Hanging|then proceeds to mock the player over it]]'' by saying that they've fit too much into the game already.
* [[Oh Crap]]: The mooks' reaction anytime Travis turns into a tiger.
** Charlie MacDonald's cries of "HOLY SHIIIIT!" , while he is getting his ass handed to him by Travis.
* [[One
* [[Panty Shot]]: Parioded in the BJ 5 video you can unlock.
** Margaret's death scene practically shoves one right in your face, about a second before pulling the sword out.
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* [[Revenge]]: The basis for the game's plot. {{spoiler|Travis is thrust back into the UAA rank fights after finding out his best friend from the first game who would bring you Schpeltiger, Bishop, is murdered}}.
** {{spoiler|Turns out the revenge aspect of the game comes from both sides. Obviously, Travis participates in the Ranked Fights due to wanting revenge for Bishop's death, but it turns out Bishop was killed because Jasper Batt Jr. wanted revenge on Travis for killing his father and brothers in the "Pizza Butt" missions of the first game. And let's not forget that the reason why Travis got thrust into the assassin scene in the first place is because he want revenge on Jeane (unconsciously), not because of the ranks or Silvia (which he conviently forgot until Rank 1 fight). Speaking of Jeane, SHE herself want revenge because she was abused by Travis's father.}}
** {{spoiler|A lot of the characters seem to represent some aspect of revenge. Dr. Letz Shake wants to fight Travis after getting his revenge on Henry despite how purely illogical that is (and even admitting it), Matt Helms turns into a Complete Monster with no purpose in life, Batt is no less deserving of getting his revenge than Travis getting his revenge on Jeane who killed Travis' family (except Travis never went after Jeane's loved ones...assuming she had any), Skelter Helter said that his quest for revenge destroyed him (and it was ultimately futile), Henry wants to settle the score between him and Travis (probably for saying he did his wife in the first game, which may or may not be true) and Shinobu attacked Travis in the first game because she thought he killed her master (he didn't). We also have New Destroyman, who came [[Back
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: see above; but mainly during the fight against {{spoiler|Jasper Batt Jr.}}
* [[Robo Speak]]: Letz Shake. Exclamation Mark.
* [[Save Point]]: As mentioned below Shinobu saves by [[She's All Grown Up|taking]] [[Fan Service|a]] [[Shower Scene|shower]]. Strangely, there's a pristine women's bathroom complete with luxurious shower in an ''abandoned warehouse'' (Women's bathroom in a bank is somewhat plausible, since the boss is ''Million Gunman'').
* [[Sequential Boss]]: The final boss. [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|It gets exponentially tougher with each phase]], {{spoiler|until the very last one.}}
* [[Sealed Evil in
* [[She's All Grown Up]]: Shinobu was a cute (if murderous) schoolgirl in the first game, but in the sequel.... HOT DAMN.
* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Travis gets a couple, which prove there's at least one [[Otaku]] stereotype he doesn't fit--he's in pretty good shape. Henry gets one as well.
* [[Shoo Out the Clowns]]: The third and second ranked boss fights are notably more somber in tone than the previous ones, and even the first ranked fight, despite being as ridiculous as they come, is both preceded and followed by serious cutscenes.
* [[Shout
** Santa Death Parade gets in on this too, which makes sense, [[Yuri Lowenthal|given who voices its pilot]].
*** In addition, the way Glastonbury rises out of the pool is reminiscent of [[Mazinkaiser]], one attack is essentially a [[Macross Missile Massacre]], and another is fairly much the [[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
** The [[Stealth
** You can buy a pair of sunglasses that resemble Geordi's visor from [[Star Trek]] TNG.
** Kimmy Howell wields a double-ended beam katana similar to Darth Maul's.
** One of the side missions reveal that Santa Destroy has [[Futurama|rocketed its garbage into outerspace]]
*** Before and after the "Getting Trashed" mini game you can make out that the building is the Death Star. The building is called [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Star Chores]] and there's [[Star Wars]] stuff all around, including R2D2.
** The sequel to [[Show Within a Show]] ''Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly'' is [[Yes! Pretty Cure 5|Bizarre Jelly 5]].
** Ryan, the gym trainer, is at least physically patterned after [[Freddie Mercury]]. Right down to the incredible mustache. Though he is considerably doughier in figure.
** Matt Helms is a homage to American slasher films - and the environment as much as the man himself, right down to your combined ability to smash almost ''everything'' to smithereens. He also looks entirely too much like Chucko from ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' for it to be a coincidence.
*** The lead-up to Matt Helms looks and feels so much like it was ripped directly out of one of the environments of ''[[Resident Evil 4]]''<ref>specifically, the graveyard that leads up to the church in that game</ref> that it cannot be a coincidence.
*** Matt also does quite a bit of posing like the Pyro from ''[[
** Margaret's muzzle flashes from her guns are in the shape of a [http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/suda51/images/0/0d/Margaret_weapon.jpg Teutonic cross], just like [https://web.archive.org/web/20191216141904/http://www.imfdb.org/images/mb/0/0a/Equilibriumflash.jpg/600px-Equilibriumflash.jpg those in] [[Equilibrium]].
*** Margaret looks quite a bit like [[Rozen Maiden|Suigintou]], and is the only boss who has a boss theme with lyrics, sung by the character herself, which may too be a nod to [[Rie Tanaka]], who also voiced Suigintou.
** Alice looks an awful lot like [[Kingdom Hearts|Marluxia]].
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** Shinobu {{spoiler|gets a robotic right hand to replace the one she lost, a reference to Luke Skywalker.}}
** Cloe Walsh's introduction shows her bound in an incredibly high-security cell with no actual way to move, and her fighting abilities show that she's in there for a very good reason. Reminds one of [[Elfen Lied|another girl who's completely bound in an ultra-high security cell for good reason.]]
** One of the assassins Henry killed was named Scott Gardener, possibly referencing two of the [[
* [[Shower Scene]]: [[Ms. Fanservice|Shinobu's]] [[Save Point]]
* [[Smash Mook]]: Wielding axes and chainsaws.
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** {{spoiler|Sylvia...}} maybe.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: In Japanese, ''bara'' means "rose" and ''barabara'' means "separated" or "in pieces." The only beam katana Travis gets that's in two separate pieces is the '''Rose''' Nasty.
* [[Stop Helping Me!]]: The tutorial windows pop up during the middle of the Skelter Helter fight. Even on Bitter Mode. It can cause unfortunate incidents.
** His pattern ''is'' much easier for that section though, meaning you get what is essentially a free third of his health. On Deathmatch, not so much.
* [[Strike Me Down
{{quote|
* [[Sword and Gun]]: Skelter Helter. He doesn't skimp on either.
* [[Take That]]: A clothing store in the final stage of the game, the Santa Destroy Junction Mall, is named Uncanny Valley, and is the most prominent clothing store in the entire building. Considering Santa Destroy's monopolization and this is a game with subtle hints of symbolism made by Suda51, it's nothing short of necessary.
** Each Akashic Point takes Travis to a [[Shout
* [[Teleport Spam]]: {{spoiler|Jasper Batt Jr's second form}} combines this with an attack that gets even worse after a certain point.
* [[The Syndicate]]: Pizza Bat's mafia.
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** Near the end of the game, Travis starts getting referred to as the "No More Hero", apparently because he managed to become an ranked assassin but leave it so easily (the "no more" hero).
* [[The Tape Knew You Would Say That]]: Henry does to Travis and [[No Fourth Wall|the player]] in the second game via answering machine.
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: If you listen to the lyrics to the music in the fourth rank fight in the second game, you'll notice that it's basically just {{spoiler|Margaret}} insulting you.
* [[Tiger Versus Dragon]]: Ryuji as the dragon and Travis as the tiger. Travis is definitely the tiger in all things, and has the motifs as well, and from what little we see of Ryuji, he has the dragon style to match his own motifs.
** Am I the only one that saw this fight as a reference to the duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro? Right down to the fact that he gets easier to hit if the sun is facing him.
* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: Shinobu likes to [[Off
* [[Too Many Belts]]: Cloe Walsh wears little besides belts, and hits you with belts on her arms. Travis has some pants with pointless belts attached to them for style, though at least a few are used to hang his beam katanas from.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Minor examples: one of the earliest trailers had a silhouette of who would eventually be {{spoiler|the Rank 2 boss, Alice}}, while a later one spoiled [[Pre
** A more major one came from the Henry trailer. {{spoiler|The fact that one of the scenes in the trailer hasn't happened by the time that Henry, Sylvia, and Shinobu are supposedly killed clues most people in that, at the very least, Henry is still alive.}}
* [[Useless Useful Stealth]]: Chloe's level. Emphasis on "useful" when you play on Bitter, and on "useless" otherwise.
* [[Vocaloid]]: Bizzare Jelly 5's theme song.
* [[Vice City]]: In the first game, Santa Destroy is a bleak and quiet place where people either desperately want to leave or resort to violence. In the sequel, it turns out Travis has started a title fight craze, and the city has become more populated, commercialised and even more crazy.
* [[We Can Rebuild Him]]: {{spoiler|Destroyman}} returns. {{spoiler|Both halves of him.}} As well as {{spoiler|[[Morally
* [[What Happened to
** Possibly justified in the case of {{spoiler|Jeane, since there's no indication as to when Jeane was actually born. She may be post-''DS''.}}
* [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]:
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* [[You Bastard]]: Travis directs one at the violence-loving player at the start of the game. [[Hypocritical Humor|He's one to talk.]]
** Travis' rant immediately after hitting Rank 2 definitely seems to be this.
* [[You Get Knocked Down, You Get Back Up Again]]: Averted rather annoyingly. While you have such power when knocked down, you don't have it when you have just got up. The number 2 ranked assassin takes ''great'' advantage of it and has a move that seems to be designed to lock you in a knocked down state until you die.
* [[You Killed My Father]]: {{spoiler|Travis having killed Jasper Batt Jr's father (and brothers) in the first game is what spurs him to arrange for the events in the second game to take place.}}
* [[You Fail Biology Forever]]: Deliberately invoked.
{{quote|
* [[You Keep Using That Word]]: Shinobu's constant inappropriate usage of "moe" in an attempt to emulate Travis
* [[Zerg Rush]]: A lot of the levels before the bosses are basically the game throwing 3 enemy types with about 7-8 skins between them over and over, but ''that parking lot.'' It's about twenty minutes of killing the same guys over and over.
** It's not so bad when you use it to learn all of the different Beam Katanas, as at that point in the game all will finally become available.
* [[Zettai Ryouiki]]: Dr Naomi and Margaret, Margaret even mentions it in her song:
{{quote|
** [[Gag Boobs|Naomi has thighs?!]]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:General Secura (Let's Play)]]▼
[[Category:Wii]]
[[Category:Suda 51]]
[[Category:Hack and Slash]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
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