No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Difference between revisions

{{quote| ''Everybody deals with grief differently, right? Some people fuck at funerals...'' I cut off heads.}}

 

 

''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.

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Captain Vladimir, full stop.

** Skelter Helter wasn't all that evil either. He only wanted to kill Travis as retribution for him [[It's Personal|killing his brother]].

* [[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]]

** 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.

* [[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.}}

** 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.

* [[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.''

* [[Kung Fu-Proof Mook]]: They carry metal katanas, they have a tendency to [[Punch-Punch-Punch Uh-Oh|go invulnerable in the middle of your attacking them while also charging up their own dash attack]], and they're a royal pain in the ass to fight in large groups.

* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: Hilariously lampshaded as Sylvia points out that there are people starting at the sequel who don't care about continuity.

* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: The latter two levels of Getting Trashed throw so many meteors around at once that you can be knocked all the way across the screen immediately after exiting the space shuttle, only to get bounced around until you run out of air.

* [[Macho Camp]]: Ryan, the gym trainer. He dons a tight purple suit and frequently tries to hit on Travis.

* [[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.}}

* [[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.

* [[Shout-Out]]: [[Combining Mecha|The Glastonbury]] and it's component robots all resemble those from [[Overly Narrow Superlative|everyone's favorite drill-based giant robot]] [[Gurren Lagann|anime series.]]

** Santa Death Parade gets in on this too, which makes sense, [[Yuri Lowenthal|given who voices its pilot]].

** The [[Stealth Based Mission|prison infiltration level]] is a clear reference to [[Metal Gear Solid]]'s intro level, right down to the Soliton radar and searchlights. And when you get caught, you're bum-rushed by gun-wielding [[Mooks]]. On Mild, they die in one hit and don't do that much damage, so if you're clever, you can [[Blood Knight|charge through the level]] and [[Cutting the Knot|butcher the lot of them]]. Trying that will usually get you killed in [[Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels|Bitter]], though. One wonders how Snake would have fared...

** You can buy a pair of sunglasses that resemble Geordi's visor from [[Star Trek]] TNG.

** 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.

** 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.

** 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 [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.

** 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.]]

* [[Shower Scene]]: [[Ms. Fanservice|Shinobu's]] [[Save Point]]

* [[Smash Mook]]: Wielding axes and chainsaws.

* [[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.

{{quote| '''Travis:''' ''Unleash your hate! Your anger! Everything! I'll take it all '''and fucking kill you with it!'''''"}}

* [[Sword and Gun]]: Skelter Helter. He doesn't skimp on either.

* [[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.

* [[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.

** 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.

* [[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-Ambiguous Doctorate|Dr.]] Letz Shake}}.

** 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]]: