UNMARKED SPOILERS AHOY!
The cast of the game with their creator.
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Main Characters
Manuel "Manny" Calavera
Voiced by: Tony Plana
The hero of the game. A salesman in the Department of Death, he'd point out that he's technically a travel agent selling travel packages to the dead depending on how good they were in life, but the job is functionally identical to being The Grim Reaper. Manny has to work off his moral debt to advance further into the afterlife, but he can only do that by selling good packages to good souls, and for some reason, all his latest customers don't qualify. Suspecting that he'll be stuck in his crappy job forever, Manny grows increasingly miserable and desperate, finally stealing one of Domino Hurley's files and clients. This is Mercedes "Meche" Colomar, a genuinely good soul who, according to her bio and further questioning, is qualified for a straight ride to Number Nine. When Manny finds out she apparently has to go the long way despite this, he decides to straighten everything out, beginning a journey that changes the entirety of the underworld.
- The Atoner: Manny has to work off his karmic debt in the DoD, explained in detail above. Later, part of Manny's motivation for finding Meche comes from the fact that he unintentionally got her condemned to a fate she did not deserve.
- Big Damn Hero: How he sees himself in the final acts. He's sad he can't "save" Glottis because he's trying to save everyone else. (Glottis tells him that Manny already saved him by getting him out of that garage.)
- Character Development: At the start of the game, Manny's main motivation is getting himself out of this part of afterlife and into the next by working off the moral debt he racked up when alive, and he doesn't give much of a damn whether he or anyone else deserves it. By the fourth year, he can literally stand on the brink of getting that wish - but he'll refuse to move on, unwilling to leave the people he loves and those he promised to save behind.
- Chick Magnet: Three separate ladies express current or past romantic feelings for him in Year 2, but he only has eyes for Meche. Uh, because she'll get him his job back. Suuuuure. The only reason Olivia has no interest is because she's a Gold Digger and Manny isn't criminal enough for her taste.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: It starts with just Meche and Glottis, but soon Manny becomes determined to save pretty-much everyone.
- Deadpan SnarkerManny: This deck of cards is a little frayed around the edges. Then again, so am I, and I've got fewer suits.
- Determinator: Manny's ultra-competitive, and even lampshades it in Year One, and he's chasing after a woman he only met once and can't forget. (This causes Olivia to call him a "chump".)
- Don't Fear the Reaper: It's just his job. Manny doesn't fit traditional expectations of The Grim Reaper much - them being along the lines of forbidding, laconic, and tall. Instead, Manny's charming, sarcastic, happy to talk his way into or out of trouble, and...short. Really really short. He wears lifts on his shoes under the cloak. The Reveal of this in the intro is probably one of the funnier sight gags in adventure gaming history.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: As a reward for foiling Hector, recovering the stolen golden tickets and returning them to their rightful owners, Management awards Manny with his own ticket, wiping away his karmic debt and allowing him to "retire" to the Ninth Underworld with Meche.
- Expy: His character is a pastiche of famous Humphrey Bogart roles.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Apparently
thrown in by his voice actor and kept just because it sounded neat.- In the Brazilian dub, he also has a thick Spanish accent.
- Guile Hero: While he can deliver an excellent right hook (just ask Nick Virago), he's often equalled or outmatched in fights, requiring unorthodox solutions. He is shown to be witty and savvy throughout the journey. At the end of Year 1, he started out as a janitor for a failing diner; by the next year, he is on top, owning a high-class nightclub that is the second most successful business in town. At the end of Year 2, he skips town as a galley cook for a shoddy ship; come the next year, he's become a successful captain with a crew. Also notable is that before the story, he was the hotshot Reaper.
- Iconic Item: His Sinister Scythe, to which he's very, very attached; he keeps it even after losing his job. It comes in handy for solving a lot of puzzles. Not really a preferred weapon, however, since he's not very good at fighting with it.Manny: My scythe. I keep it next to where my heart used to be.
- Lovable Rogue: Manny's one smooth-talking, deadpan-snarking, morally-flexible dead guy - particularly during Years 1 and 2. Like any good LucasArts adventure protagonist, he cons, steals from and screws over various people in various ways, and it's worth noting that we never do find out what exactly landed him in the Department of Death, which is for people who don't even deserve walking sticks on their way to the true afterlife.
- Although Manny could have been one of those who chose to work his debt off rather than risk going through the journey (like Salvador).
- Meaningful Name: "Calavera" is Spanish for "skull", and he's a skeleton.
- Mysterious Past: It's never revealed exactly what Manny did in life to require him to work off his karmic debt rather than travelling to the Ninth Underworld.
- Protagonist Without a Past: It's implied that in life he did something bad enough to warrant working for the D.O.D., but what his past life was like is never elaborated upon.
- Psychopomp: A post-modern version. He doesn't do the transportation bit himself, but he does set up the path to whatever lies beyond that tunnel.
- Riddle for the Ages: What exactly was the sin Manny committed back when he was alive that landed him in the Department of Death in the first place? Even Manny himself admits that he is not entirely sure. Not helping this is that Salvador qualified for a ticket but was forced to work for the DOD as well.
- Self-Made Man: In less than a year he elevates from a janitor in a run-down club to the owner of said club, which he turns into the second most successful joint in the town, and then from a galley worker on a shaggy old tub to a captain of a sterling liner. Definitely part of him being a Guile Hero.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: He spends the first two Years of the game in this mindset.
- Spanner in the Works: By attempting to improve his job performance, he inadvertently stumbles upon and disrupts Hector's conspiracy, and he doesn't truly realize this before a good bit into the story.
- Took a Level in Badass: Goes from a wage slave to a nightclub owner to a ship captain to fixing the entire afterlife.
Glottis
Voiced by: Alan Blumenfeld
Manny's friend and main ally. A demon (or as he says, "spirit of the land") with one purpose, desire and reason for living: driving, preferably really really fast. Also maintaining vehicles (when no driving jobs are available). He lives and works alone in the DoD's basement, unable to fully exercise his gifts, leaving him open to persuasion in matters of technically-prohibited upgrades...
- The Alcoholic: One taste of alcohol and he leaps back off the wagon... and into the racetrack with all of Manny's money.
- Bear Hug: Inevitable when he's twice as tall and twice as wide as anyone else - particularly Manny. But he'll hug 'em all the same.
- Big Fun: He's got a bit of a gut, and he's friendly all the same.
- The Big Guy: Huge.
- Butt-Monkey: The poor guy is often the victim of Manny's Comedic Sociopathy, although it helps that he's damn near indestructible.
- Determinator: He goes a year without speed to help Manny, never saying a word that he's dying until he faints at the Gatekeeper.
- The Driver: For some reason, the inscrutable forces that govern the Land of the Dead figured the best creature to fulfil this role is a gigantic bright orange demon with tiny wiggly ears obsessed with engines and SPEEEEEED. He's also an excellent pianist! Looks very sharp in a tux, as well. Just don't let him near the VIP area at the racetrack. Or coffin shooters. They tend to distract him.
- Dude, Not Funny!:
- Turning the tree stabilizer back on while Glottis is tinkering with it (but before you've properly timed the extractors to make it do anything useful) will have him call Manny out, telling him that was a dirty trick.
- Joking about the Bonewagon's destruction will provoke this reaction from him.
- Expressive Ears: His ears wiggle, usually when he's excited, scared, or has an idea. It's kind of adorable.
- Genius Bruiser: He's a massive, superstrong demon, but more importantly he's also an incredible engineer.
- Gentle Giant: Capable of lifting a struggling person off the ground with one hand effortlessly, yet easily scared and automatically kind.
- Giant Mook: For some reason, he's much bigger than others of his kind, as you see in Year 4. The others call him a "Grand Demon".
- Hidden Depths: A good piano player. He's also a big fan of the kitty races, which can cause problems.
- Informed Species: Doesn't look anything like your common mythological portrayal of demons, not even Mexican ones. He resembles a giant, orange bear more than anything.
- I Choose to Stay: "Choose" isn't quite the right word (as a demon he can't leave the Eighth Underworld), but he's fine with staying behind when Manny has to leave him for good in the ending. His journey with Manny got him out of a basement he always despised, and he was able to settle down in a better place with newfound friends. He's still sad about his partner moving on, likely never to meet each other again.
- The Leader: His role as a Grand Demon. Since he's never around other speed demons, and being Manny's sidekick, it's never discovered until the end of the story.
- Literal Metaphor: He's a speed demon.
- Lovable Coward: It's pretty easy to scare him.
- Mad Eye: Whenever he is excited about something like cars or gambling.
- Mr. Fixit: Point him at anything that goes with the right tools, and he'll make magic (and vrooming noises).
- Nigh-Invulnerable: He survives removing his heart, being deprived of oxygen for hours, being flung dozens of feet, and being dropped over the edge of the world. The only thing that even comes close to killing him is speed withdrawal. However, while he can survive a little while without a heart or oxygen, he's not immune. For example, Manny checks on Glottis a few times to see how he's doing while underwater, noting at the moment he's only a little blue around the edges.
- Really 700 Years Old: There aren't any visual cues, but based on his personality you might guess that Glottis is a few years old at most. But if you tell Nick you want to adopt Glottis, he'll object that the demon is "over two thousand years older than you". Presumably, demons can live indefinitely as long as they're able to fulfil their purpose (This also means that the afterlife has been employing demon drivers for a lot longer than there have been cars). (To be fair, the same can be said of any denizen of the Land of the Dead, though only those who have given up on seeking the Ninth Underworld are probably this trope.)
- Speed Demon: He modifies a car to go fast (and drives it himself), he gambles at the race track, and collapses when he's away from quick things for too long.
- Stealth Pun: Glottis is a speed demon. Considering Schafer, this might make him something of an Author Avatar.
- Stepford Smiler: It's not revealed until Manny bids Glottis goodbye that the latter reveals how unhappy he was being stuck in the garage of the D.O.D.
- Stout Strength: He has a huge gut. He's also incredibly strong.
- Undying Loyalty: The big lug almost kills himself following Manny during the fourth year, because he's a Driver Demon and he didn't drive for a year. He didn't tell Manny, either, because he didn't want to worry him.
- Weight Woe: Defied. When he laments being "too big to drive", one of the dialogue options has Manny guessing he's sensitive about his size and trying to build up his personal confidence; Glottis immediately clarifies that's not the case, and he's just stating a simple fact of anatomy.Manny: Repeat after me — "I am not fat. I am thin. Women find me attractive."
Glottis: Hey, I never said I was too fat for the ladies, just the cars! The LLLLLLADIES LLLLLIKE me just FIIIINE! [Chuckles]
Mercedes "Meche" Colomar
Voiced by: Maria Canals Barrera
Manny's Love Interest and the catalyst of the game's events; her file was the one Manny stole. Meche is obviously a good, gentle person deserving a first-class travel package...which is why Manny is baffled when she seemingly qualifies for nothing better than a long walk.
- Beware the Nice Ones: In Years 3 and 4.
- Break the Cutie: She starts out as a kind, sweet soul who gracefully accepts what she assumes to be a just punishment...except that it's not, and things get worse for her from there. By Year 3, she's suffered horribly and become profoundly bitter, especially towards Manny. Fortunately, Manny saves her and manages to help fix her up.
- Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments.Meche: Would you like to see my birthmark?Manny: Sure. Where is it?Meche: It's wherever you guys put my skin!
- Face Death with Dignity: Compared to Bruno Martinez and Celso Flores, Mercedes accepts her death with quiet grace.
- Friend to All Children: Read stories to sick children in life, and forms an instant rapport with two angelitos in Year 3 - child souls with angel wings. This is in contrast with Manny, whom the angelitos hate on sight (though the reason is that Meche cries whenever she mentions Manny, and the angelitos think Manny did something bad to her).
- Irony: Meche is a selfless and sinless soul who was instantly qualified for the number 9. But Meche putting herself in Manny’s shoes and storming out of his office for not being “good enough” for his sale, was the trigger point that flipped what could have been a 4-minute train ride into 4 years of suffering. This eerily suggests that Meche’s kind-hearted nature was also her undoing.
- Nice Gal: It's a plot point; during her life, she was kind to everyone, including children and animals, which is why Manny steals her file so he can finally get a good soul to sell a first-class travel package to.
- Official Couple: Never explicitly stated, but heavily implied at the end they become one.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Her backstory as a living person.
Supporting characters
Salvador Limones
Voiced by: Sal Lopez
Leader of a rebel movement against the villains, one of Manny's main allies. Salvador was once a Reaper and a salesman like Manny, and like Manny, discovered that even his most deserving clients rarely qualified for anything. Unlike Manny, Salvador quit his job in order to create an underground movement and overthrow the Department of Death's corrupt leadership. In the end, Salvador is revealed to have qualified for a Number Nine ticket rather than Reaperdom - like Meche, he was a saintly soul given an unjust punishment.
- Catchphrase: "Hola, Manuel!"
- Cyanide Pill: One that shoots Sproutella.
- The Dog Bites Back: Founds the revolution after the DoD steals his ticket - even though he wasn't aware. Also, he kills his torturer.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He uses his Sproutella Cyanide Pill to kill Olivia and save Manuel; activating it naturally requires him to be exposed to it too.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Salvador is heavily inspired by Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara which fits the Latin American setting of the game. Salvador dresses like him and uses the catchphrase, ¡Viva la Revolución! synonymous with Che. The communist beatniks at the Blue Casket all look up to him.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: There's a reason he had a Number Nine ticket waiting for him.
- La Résistance: Oh, yeah. ¡Viva la Revolución!
- Losing Your Head: This happens when his resistance movement gets sabotaged in Year 4.
- Meaningful Name: "Salvador" is Spanish for "savior", and he leads a resistance movement against an evil conspiracy and plays a major role in Manny's final victory.
- Major Injury Underreaction: "Hola, Manuel." This is what he says after being sprouted and decapitated.
- Nice Guy: He might seem like a Small Name, Big Ego guy when you see his resistance is merely a group of two in Year 1, but he is genuinely committed to what he's up to. As a Number Nine ticket holder, it's no surprise.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: The Noble to Manny's Roguish.
- Rebel Leader: Salvador is intensely charismatic, inspiring downright suicidal loyalty once he gets his revolution up and running. It's implied his inherent nobility attracts his followers. He was, after all, a Number Nine ticket holder. And in the end, he proves as willing as his followers to die for the cause.
- The Stoic: Even when reduced to a disembodied head, and about to kill himself, he maintains his cool attitude utterly.
- Taking You with Me: To Olivia.
Eva
Voiced by: Rachel Reenstra
The first benevolent character you meet in the game, Eva works as Don Copal's secretary. Secretly, she's the right-hand woman (and, initially, the only other member) of the Lost Souls Alliance.
- All There in the Manual: According to the game's original script, her full name is Evaluna.
- Amicable Exes: While Manny and Eva were never married, they used to be an item. They are still close, but not enough to start a relationship again.
- As You Know: Lampshaded humorously. If you want more information on how the death system in this universe works after the opening cutscene, you can pester Eva until she gives it to you. Eva then calls Manny out for being deliberately obtuse as a ruse to hit on her.
- Join or Die: This exchange between Manny and Eva.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten:Manny: It's my ex-boss' ex-secretary Eva!Eva: You're never going to let me forget that secretary thing, are you?
- Sassy Secretary: Ohh so much. For example:Manny: Any messages for me?Eva: No, calls stopped coming for you the day you left. They're still sending you that lingerie catalog, though.
Dockmaster Velasco
Voiced by: Kay E. Kuter
An old crusty sea dog who works as Rubacava's dockmaster, living in a three-walled shack on the pier. Misses his old ship, the S.S. Lamancha.
- Companion Cube: The Lamancha.
- Commonality Connection: Bonds with Glottis over their shared love for machines and vehicles.
- Cool Old Guy: Glottis definitely thinks so.
- Eyepatch of Power: Wears one similar to the one he had in life.
- Father Neptune:Velasco: When you’ve strolled these docks as long as I have, pilgrim, you know where you are by the smell of the sea, by the sound of the lonely fog horn, by the icy touch of the cold, salty air...Glottis: Wow! Manny, could I have an eyepatch?
- Father to His Men: Hinted at when Membrillo breaks the news about Naranja and his reaction seems to contain a note of genuine grief.
- Hello, Sailor!: Averted – using the "pick up" command makes Manny say this exact phrase and Velasco snaps "Quit foolin' around!"
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Manny returns and tells him where the Lamancha is, Velasco takes it as a cue to leave the rotten town of Rubacava for good.
- Skewed Priorities: "They'll serve you to the sharks like chum, and what's worse – I'll get fined!" It's hard to tell if he's messing with Manny or not.
Antagonists
Don Copal
Voiced by: Michael Sorich
A foul-tempered middle manager in DoD and Manny's immediate superior
- Dodgy Toupee: Wears one on his forehead. This is an especially ridiculous example of this trope since everyone in the underworld is a skeleton without hair!
- Karmic Death: After years of browbeating everyone for presumed failures and screwing over his employees for his own benefit, he gets sprouted for his own assumed failure.
- Mean Boss: He is constantly grumpy and regularly berates Manny for his low performance.
- No Indoor Voice: Practically every single line of his is delivered as a shout, most being of the angry kind.
- Seriously Scruffy: With his rolled-up sleeves and loosely fitting tie, Copal is obviously a busy man.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: A villainous example; had he not threatened to fire Manny unless he sold a Number 9 ticket within the next month — something he'd have known perfectly well that Manny couldn't do — then Manny wouldn't have stolen Meche from Domino, which in turn meant that the whole sequence of events that eventually results in Hector's downfall wouldn't play out.
- You Have Failed Me: Hector sprouts him after Manny unwittingly throws a wrench into their plans.
Domino Hurley
Voiced by: Patrick Dollaghan
One of the two main villains. Manny's rival in the DoD, the boss's pet on the fast track to promotion, the hottest salesman with the best clients and an all-around smug, shade-wearing jackass. He uses Manny's old, much larger and more luxurious office, and seems to find all the good souls that Manny doesn't - in the first Year landing a nun with a golden ticket when Manny gets a "mean midget [he] had to send 'parcel post'" (i.e. stuff into a coffin full of packing foam). This is because he's in on the DoD conspiracy.
- Arc Villain: Of the Year 3 segment.
- Calling Card: Dominos, used as a long detonation fuse. He even has domino markings on the back of his hands.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Ground into powder and mixed with the ocean.
- The Dragon: He's Hector's most reliable and competent underling.
- Evil Counterpart: To Manny. He's a salesman in the DoD, even working in Manny's old office, and one can only speculate what would have happened had their situations been reversed.
- Evil Mentor: He tries to become this for Manny. It's why he doesn't just have Manny sprouted; he genuinely (if in a twisted way and for his own benefit) wants to take Manny under his wing and teach him the path to "success".
- Fantastic Racism: He regards Manny's friendship with Glottis as "unnatural", taking care to elaborate that demons can only ever be menial servants and workers. Manny, by comparison, made Glottis the half-owner of his club in Rubacava.
- Faux Affably Evil: His behaviour towards Manny is like that of a bullying but loving older brother who's constantly trying to take Manny under his wing and groom him for success. However, he uses slave labor and is also more than willing to have Manny sprouted, but hey, that's business.
- Fighting Irish: Much more so than Nick Virago, accent aside; he's got the bullying attitude, ego, and surname to fit, he keeps a speed bag, gloves, and a mouthguard in his office, and when he and Manny square off, he even starts uppercutting Manny with the handle end of his scythe.
- The Ghost: Manny makes comments about Domino's wife, but she's never seen nor heard from in the game.
- Gratuitous Spanish: If playing the game in Spanish, he speaks in Argentinian accent, but unlike Olivia, he speaks in tuteos even through Argentina almost never uses tuteos at all and instead uses voseos.
- It's All About Me: He's really not any better than Hector, he's just more charismatic. He doesn't care one bit about the people who gets screwed over or sprouted as long as he gets what he wants, and unlike Hector, he's not doing it to get out of the Eight Underworld - he's perfectly fine sticking around, living the high life forever.
- Jerkass: Manny's not alone in wanting to punch him in the mouth.
- Jerk Jock: He has the attitude and Manny even outright calls him a "jock" for his love of boxing.
- Karmic Death: Ground to pieces in a moment of inattention.
- Kick the Dog: Dropping Glottis over the edge of the world just because he didn't think he'd be useful. Glottis survived, but any player's sympathy for Domino sure didn't.
- Klingon Promotion: After Don Copal gets sprouted in Year 1, Domino has a new position when he's encountered again in Year 3.
- Post-Mortem Comeback: Domino has been dead for over a year, but the good guys still have to contend with a deadly booby trap he's laid for them when they finally get back to Rubacava to find the hiding place of their car. Dom's laid out an elaborate set of... well, dominoes all around the car that will trigger a bomb if disturbed.
- The Rival: Manny regards him as this, given how Domino gets all the good clients while Manny is stuck with sinners.
- Rival Turned Evil: Well... if he was good or at least neutral at some point. He probably wasn't much better than Hector in life.
- Smug Snake: Emphasis on the "smug".
- Uncertain Doom: While he's absolutely dead as far as the story is concerned, it's not entirerly clear what that means - the souls of the dead are, you know, already dead, with sprouting being shown as the only thing that can "kill" them again (which is itself pretty unclear, though Word of God says it might mean reincarnation). However, Domino wasn't sprouted, he was ground to bone dust, meaning he might be either Deader than Dead, or stuck as shards of bone floating in the ocean forever.
- Villainous Breakdown: When he finds out that Manny's escaped from his island alongside Meche and his slaves he starts losing his composure for the first time in the whole game.
Hector LeMans
Voiced by: Jim Ward
The main villain, the crime Lord of El Marrow who's behind the corruption in the DoD. He has been stealing tickets from the deserving and selling them to richer, less saintly souls. Or so he'd have them believe, but the tickets he sells are fake. He keeps the real ones for himself, determined to hoard enough to balance out his numerous and horrific misdeeds in life.
- All for Nothing: Considering what happens to the people he sold his counterfeit tickets to, and the fact that the real ones are only drawn to their rightful owners, it's highly unlikely that his plan would have worked, even if Manny hadn't ultimately stopped him.
- Bad Boss: Shoots Manny's Bad Boss, all because Don stuck up for Domino.
- Big Bad: Pretty much behind every bad happening, directly or indirectly.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He himself admits he's been a "very bad boy".
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Apparently while alive, he was a "very bad boy", and he didn't get any nicer when he died, since he keeps a huge garden of flowers, including a greenhouse, grown from the remains of those he subjected to a Fate Worse than Death in his rise to power. That the place is beautiful and well-tended somehow makes it more horrifying.
- Creepy Souvenir: Flowers. A symbol of true death in the Land of the Dead. Very ominous.
- The Don: Heads the conspiracy, and wears a rather well-tailored suit.
- Evil Brit: He's the Big Bad, and he speaks with a noticeable British accent.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He has a twisted sense of humor, laughing at his own joke regarding Manny getting sprouted.
- Evil Is Bigger: He's massive, towering over Manny and almost everyone else.
- Evil Laugh: A spine-chilling, chuckling snort that seems to punctuate just about everything he says.
- Expy: Inspired by Don Ferrari from Casablanca, also a big fat shady man wearing a fez. His name is a reference to the French city Le Mans, where a famous yearly car race takes place. Which is a pun on Ferrari also being the name of a car brand.
- Fat Bastard: Yes, with bones, somehow. Don't think about it too hard.Manny: (examining the monogram in Hector's casino) I'll bet Hector pauses here every day and thinks to himself... "Boy, I wish I could see past my gut and enjoy my expensive monogrammed floor!"
- Faux Affably Evil: Puts on an affable, gentlemanly facade, but it only really enhances his monstrousness.
- Foreshadowing: In Act 1, Sal wonders who that guy in the fez is, and how he fits into the Double N Ticket theft racket.
- Fridge Horror: Invoked Trope by Manny, who wonders just how many people Hector killed to have a greenhouse and massive field filled with flowers.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: That creepy flower garden? Including a greenhouse with a connecting water tank? Do you wonder what would happen if one were to, say, fill that tank with Sproutella while Hector was inside the greenhouse? We get a screaming Hectorposy is what happens.
- It's All About Me: He doesn't care how many people he sprouts and he doesn't care how many people he sends to Hell by selling them his fake tickets so long as he keeps the real tickets in a desperate attempt to get out of the Eighth Underworld.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: He has no intention of wasting his time with acts of Bond Villain Stupidity or having a Just Between You and Me moment.
- Offscreen Villainy: Whatever Hector did in life, it was apparently so horrible that he was compelled to hoard an entire suitcase full of No. 9 tickets to balance it out. Though if it was anything like his behaviour in the Land of the Dead, no wonder he needs the suitcase.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Zigzagged. He does shoot Manny when he gets his chance. According to Domino, this is usually the first option he chooses whenever he has to deal with a problematic person. However, he lets Manny run away because he wants to make him suffer a slow, painful death, and his weapons expert/florist Bowsley already ran off with all the fast-acting Sproutella. It backfires when Manny finds a way to cure himself and return the favor.
- Wicked Cultured: He dresses in suits and loves flowers, and can be seen tending to his garden with a dinky watering can and hedge-clippers during the end-run. Subverted, however. In the Eighth Underworld, flowers are a symbol of death. It's less genuine love on his part and more polishing trophies taken from his victims.
Nick Virago
Voiced by: Daragh O'Malley
A corrupt lawyer in Rubacava. He is dating Olivia, who is also dating Maximino, who runs the town's giant cat racetrack - and the latter would be very, very upset if he learned about it. Virago is attempting to keep the relationship under wraps.
- Amoral Attorney: This is a slander! He has never had a moral in his life!
- Fighting Irish: Except Nick prefers to do his fighting with a gun full of Sproutella.
- Jerkass: Nobody was sad when he got punched in the face. Nobody. Not even Nick himself.
- Karmic Death: Sent directly to Hell for trying to bum a Ride to the Ninth Underworld.
- Kick the Dog: "Sprouting" Lola in cold blood and leaving her to die alone to keep her from revealing a damning photo she took.
- Laser-Guided Karma: You are legally required to cheer when the luxury train he's on goes plunging into Fire and Brimstone Hell.
- Noble Demon: His one redeeming trait is that he honors bargains.
- Rule of Symbolism: His death. Especially since 'Prosecutor' is one of the ways to translate 'Satan'.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Tries to buy his way onto the Number Nine. Tried and failed very badly.
Olivia Ofrenda
Voiced by: Paula Killen
Owner of the Blue Casket in Rubacava, who has... interesting tastes in men.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: She sure does.Manny: You really have a bad taste in men.
Olivia: No, I have a taste for really bad men, Manny. There's a difference. - Alliterative Name: Olivia Ofrenda.
- Beatnik: She wears an Artsy Beret, smokes heavily, runs a nightclub where several patrons discuss left-wing politics, and even recites poetry.
- The Chanteuse: A variation; instead of singing, she recites her poetry.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Not only does she date two (possibly three) men at the same time, she also betrays Manny and the entire LSA for her latest sweetheart, Hector.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: She literally tears Sal apart.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Salvador bites his Cyanide Pill as she's holding his decapitated head, causing the Sproutella inside to be shot right into her face.
- Gratuitous Spanish: If playing the game in Spanish, she speaks in Argentinian accent complete with voseos and slangs like "boludo"note for example.
- Femme Fatale: This being a Noir, there had to be one somewhere.
- Karmic Death: Sal sprouts her along with himself as his last act.
- Love Makes You Dumb: When Manny admits he's chasing a woman he saw once and can't forget, Olivia gives him a poem that consists of one word.Olivia: (giggling as she says it) Chu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-um-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-mp.
- Meaningful Name: An ofrenda
is an altar that families put up for a deceased loved one on Dia de los Muertos. - Sympathetic Adulterer: Sort of. The game seems to want you to make up your own feelings about her affair with Nick. Maximino may be a better man than Nick, but he still doesn't seem to be all that great. Then again, when you talk to him, he does, for all his faults, seem to genuinely care about her. Manny clearly doesn't like it, but he's not convicted about it enough to pursue the problem for very long. Regardless, it's hard to deny that she's still an interesting character outside of her adulterous ways, and the game doesn't depict her as completely evil until after she betrays the LSA.
- The Mole: As it turns out she's working for Hector, not the LSA.
- Tautological Templar: After torturing Sal and stealing a case full of Number Nine tickets, she's seen searching the case, genuinely convinced she's a good enough person to deserve one of them.Olivia: Come on... one of these must be mine...
Minor Characters
Celso Flores
Voiced By: Peter Lurie
Manny's client in the game's introduction, Celso Flores is a recent arrival in the Land Of the Dead and learns of the workings of the afterlife alongside the player.
- Butt-Monkey: One of the few inhabitants of the afterlife who's even worse off than Manny. Upon dying, he's told he wasn't good enough to qualify for anything more than a walking stick to reach the Ninth Underworld, leaving him to walk the whole way. Upon making it to Rubacava, he finds out that his wife died shortly after him, and he decides to take a job as a lowly mop boy in a diner in the hopes of waiting for her, only for Manny to discover she already left aboard a cruise, with another man and all of their money. That said...
- Determinator: He doesn't give up, simply handing his mop to Manny and sets out to find his wife. When Manny meets him again in Year 4, he's reunited with her, and the two are waiting to meet Hector in the hopes of buying golden tickets together.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Everyone but Celso knows his wife is unfaithful. Then he trusts Hector LeMans.
- Ironic Echo: Giving Manny his walking stick-turned-mop, he throws Manny's "That compass in the handle will come in handy!" line back in his face.
Bruno Martinez
Voiced By: Jack Angel
A short, irritable man who becomes Manny's final client before meeting Meche, Bruno was the victim of a bad batch of gazpacho soup and apparently lived such a poor life that he didn't even qualify for the Excelsior walking sticks. Rather than walking the whole way to the Ninth Underworld, he agrees to instead be shipped in one of the DOD coffins.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Demanded a mode of transportation that would let him rest the whole way. He ends up being sealed in a coffin for four years packed in foul-smelling packing foam.
- Brick Joke: Seems to just be a one-off joke, but he turns up again near the very end of the game when Manny finds his coffin next to the train station. Understandably, he's not the least bit happy with Manny's services.
- Depraved Dwarf: It's not confirmed whether or not he was a criminal in life, but he's unpleasant, abrasive, and must've done something to be judged so lowly he didn't even qualify for a walking stick.
- Never My Fault: When Manny finds him again, Bruno blames him for having spent the whole journey in a coffin with only a coffee mug to look at, even though a) he's the one who refused to walk the way, and b) led such a bad life he didn't qualify for better transport.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Only appears in three scenes, but is indirectly responsible for Manny's boss threatening to fire him and making Manny desperate enough to steal Domino's lead, leading to him getting to Meche first and setting the whole plot in motion.
Membrillo
Voiced by: Milton James
Rubacava's coroner with an appropriate sense of humor and outlook on life and death, disillusioned by the idea of ever leaving the Eighth Underworld.
- The Coroner: Naturally.
- Crazy-Prepared: Wears a belt buckle with his name on it, to make the next coroner's job easier, and recommends Manny wear an ID bracelet. The recent rise of crime in Rubacava makes this a reasonable decision.
- The Eeyore: He's so used to seeing people never make it to the next life and end up in his care, he has lost all hope himself.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: After being stuck in Rubacava for so long he no longer believes the Ninth Underworld even exists, and assures Manny that he will one day lose hope too.
- Having a Heart: "Sorry. Old coroner joke."
- Workaholic: He won't go home until the new arrivals have been identified, lest they start to pile up.
Toto Santos
Voiced by: Morgan Hunter
Rubacava's cranky tattoo/scrimshaw artist, living and working in the rusty remnants of a factory building on a breakwater. He is completely covered in his own work and occasionally lapses into speaking Hungarian. His tattoo catalogue is part of the trail of clues Lola left for Manny.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Not a doctor, but otherwise his methods and, ahem, state-of-the-art parlour qualify to a tee.
- Berserk Button: Don't mess with the flow of his work.
- Bilingual Bonus: When annoyed, Toto speaks in accurate Hungarian (courtesy of the VA) with some nuance that the subtitles won't tell you about – for example, he calls Naranja a "drunken hobo" instead of just an "idiot".
- Empty Fridge, Empty Life: All his fridge contains is mould, and drunken sailor clients comprise most of his social life.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Feels this way about Lola.
- Newhart Phonecall: Has a loooong one with Velasco, who seems to be relating some family drama story.
- Punny Name: Todos Santos means All Saints in Spanish. Manny invokes this after using Toto's liquid nitrogen bottle to save himself from sprouting.
- Starving Artist: Well, he's dead so he can't starve, but his place is pretty Spartan, run-down and barely has room for himself and his work.
- Talking in Your Sleep: Toto is snoring on the couch and doing this when Manny briefly visits Rubacava again.
Chowchilla Charlie
Voiced By: Joe Nipote
A petty crook and forger who frequents both Manny's cafe and Maximino's cat race track in Year 2. He can forge a Maritime Union card for Manny, but only if Manny can retrieve a suitcase he lost at Maximino's. He shows up again in Year 4 at Hector's casino.
- Badass Boast: "I'm all the goon I need!"
- Beware the Silly Ones: He seems rather pathetic, but he pulls a gun on Manny at the end of their trade in case of a double-cross.
- Expy: Of Peter Lorre's Casablanca character Ugarte.
- The Gambling Addict: As Manny says in Year 4, he can play the slots for days. You have to help him win in order to move the story along.
- Master Forger: In theory. However, every character you show the fake union card to will recognize Charlie's work. Luckily, the captain of the SS Limbo is farsighted and can't tell. Also, he can't do passports because "that little hologram is tricky."
- Persona Non Grata: He's banned from Maximino's race track for forging winning tickets.
Chepito
Voiced By: Jack Angel
A wandering soul encountered by Manny and Glottis on the bottom of the Sea of Lament, Chepito is a former sailor whose death led to him preferring to walk across the ocean floor to the Ninth Underworld rather than setting foot on another boat.
- Body Horror: After god knows how many years lost at the bottom of the sea, his skeletal body has become discolored and mouldy, and there are barnacles growing on him.
- Boring, but Practical: Rather than having to earn passage on a ship at Rubacava, Chepito thought it better to simply walk along the ocean floor to Puerto Zapato. It probably would have worked if he hadn't gotten himself lost for years due to his poor sense of direction.
- Dreadful Musician: Constantly sings his theme song This Little Light of Mine, badly and atonally, as he marches across the ocean floor.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Since he wasn't one of the robbed golden ticket souls, he's not forced to wait at the Ninth Underworld station like the others, and is allowed to pass into the afterlife, the first of the characters in the game to do so.
- Entertainingly Wrong: He thinks The Pearl is the Moon. When he finds out it really is the Pearl, he becomes ecstatic and says he finally found it.
- No Party Like a Donner Party: Was the victim of this while stranded at sea in life. After several weeks, the only other survivor killed Chepito in his sleep and ate him.
Bibi and Pugsy Peligiano
Voiced By: Katie Leigh and Pamela Adlon
A pair of "angelitos", the souls of dead children, the Peligiano siblings are kept prisoner by Domino at the coral mine at the End Of the World, and unlike the other prisoners, he keeps them in a cage because of their wings, forcing them to carve lightbulbs from the glowing coral.
- Children Are Innocent: They're the only children to appear in the entire game. Under normal circumstances, dead children are given automatic tickets to The Number Nine; because they were cheated out of their rightful reward, Domino has to keep them locked up to preserve the secret.
- Entertainingly Wrong: They're initially hostile to Manny because they think he's a bad guy. Why? Because whenever Meche talked about him, she seemed so sad that the kids assumed he'd done something awful to her, and because Domino told them about Manny stealing Meche's file.
- Man Bites Man: One reason Domino decided to lock them up: when Domino made Meche unhappy, the angelitos exacted toothy revenge.
- Orphan's Ordeal: While it's unknown if their parents are still alive, stuck somewhere else in the Underworld, or have simply passed on without them, the result is the same; they're separated from their parents by death, robbed, imprisoned and exploited with no one to help them.
- Winged Humanoid: Both of them have angelic wings, giving Domino another reason to imprison them to keep them from flying off.
The Gate Keeper
Voiced By: Tom Kane
The guardian of the entrance to the Ninth Underworld, and the conductor of the Number Nine, who ruthlessly ensures that only those who have earned a golden ticket are the ones allowed to use them.
- God's Hands Are Tied: He's not actually God, but he's the closest thing the game ever shows to an actual agent of the Powers That Be, and unfortunately, he's either unwilling or unable to do anything to help stop Hector, other than denying entrance to people without their tickets indefinitely. When a train full of people who got on with counterfeit tickets comes, he merely shrugs and basically says, "Let's see what happens", leaving it to the train to judge.
- Good Is Not Nice: Firmly on the side of Good, but takes his job very seriously. Even good souls who have lost their tickets gain no sympathy from him, and they're still in paradise compared to what happens to the souls who try buying their way past him with fake tickets.
- True Neutral: "The Gate opens. The Gate closes. It does not help."
- You Can't Fight Fate: After the train is Dragged Off to Hell, he comments to a shocked Manny "Your destiny cannot be purchased."
The Living
Voiced by: N/A
The mortal inhabitants of the Land of the Living, AKA Earth, The Living are portrayed as unsettling, stilted figures made up of photos and magazine cutouts, who don't become properly animated until they pass on to the afterlife.
- Horrifying the Horror: Manny states that The Living "gives him the creeps", even though he's The Grim Reaper!
- Invisible to Normals: The Living can't see Manny, nor the soul he reaps, but if he tries interacting with the ones in the diner, it's implied they can tell that there's something there, judging by the Scare Chord.
- Slasher Smile: Almost all the Living have unsettling, wide grins.
- Surreal Horror: The mortal world is portrayed as a bizarre, disturbing realm of clashing colors and sounds, with malformed, distorted inhabitants that look like photo collages.
- The Voiceless: The Living have no dialogue, and only make the occasional odd noise.
