The characters of Total Distortion
Main Characters
The Player
A brave (or foolish) music video producer who travels to the Distortion Dimension in search of footage to turn into music videos.
- Featureless Protagonist: Their body is never seen, apart from the "Death by Flame" game over screen, where it's been burnt beyond recognition.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: You can choose to be male or female, but the only thing it affects is the character's voice when choosing dialog options or taking damage.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: The male character is voiced by a text-to-speech program, while the female character has a normal voice.
Mr. Red
A government agent responsible for overseeing your interdimensional mission.
- Advertised Extra: His face is prominently featured on the cover art, but he's just a supporting character.
- Expy: Seems to take inspiration from Marvel character Henry Gyrich
. - Mysterious Employer: Apart from being the person in charge of teleporting you to the Distortion Dimension and back, little is known about him. Sometimes he's shown flanked by The Greys when you call him.
- Wolverine Publicity: He is prominently shown on the box cover, but he only appears in-game to mock you in the start screen, and to authorize your trip home at the very end.
Media Buyers
Stevie Groovie
The host of The Groovie Hour.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Stevie is very picky about videos you sell to her, only paying highly if she enjoys it. The bank of monitors behind her even change to reflect her mood.
- Trauma Button: Had two traumatic incidents from her childhood when her parents died in a car crash, and her aunt was mugged and killed by a knife-wielding maniac in New York. If you plan on selling videos to her, it's best to avoid including any imagery of cars, knives or New York in them.
Yuji Dude
The host of Alright Tokyo!
- Cloudcuckoolander: Yuji often hesitates on how much to pay you, to the point of paying a lot for something he doesn't like or very little for something he should enjoy.
- Gratuitous English: Uses random English expression thrown in like "cool beans and rice" or "stone cold crazy". According to an interview, he picked up this kind of language after dating a Valley Girl transfer student in college.
- Trauma Button: Anything related to nature, due to a series of freakish accidents during a camping trip.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Literally. His real last name is apparently "Dude".
Hans Kranger
The son of a lineage of German bankers, who decided to defy his family's legacy and instead get into broadcasting. Hosts The Berlin Rocker.
- Dueling Works: His show has a harsh rivalry with The Groovie Hour. Mentioning the show is a good way to make him hang up on you.
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: Subverted. He hails from a long line of German bankers, and pays exorbitant amounts for good-quality videos, but finds passion in music more than money, as far as his autobiography claims.
Rock Stars
Edgar Death
An undead goth rocker.
- Dark Is Not Evil: When you summon him from his grave, he only wants to sing, not harm you.
- The Dead Can Dance: His performances are accompanied by dancing zombies.
- Goths Have It Hard: Thinks so, being a zombie and all. A radio broadcast in your tower implies that he became this by studying "mortuary science".
- Named After Somebody Famous: Shares a first name with the famous horror author Edgar Allan Poe.
- Who Dares?: When you summon him from his grave, he asks, "Who dares disturb my...sorrow?"
Betty Pink
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Has a pink mohawk. A couple of her songs mention pink hair as a symbol of rebellion against the mainstream.
Johnny Fang
- Careful with That Axe: "Fang Blues" and "I'm in Love with Myself" include some screamed lyrics.
- Expy: His voice and hairstyle bear more than a passing resemblance to Axl Rose.
- Narcissist: Comes across as this with songs like "I'm in Love with Myself" and "All About Me".
Other characters
The Hell's Garage band
- Garage Rock: Their genre of music, in a literal Garage in Hell.
- The Unseen: Their instruments and computer can be seen, but not the band itself.
Roxanne
The seductive ticket taker of the L.A. Stage
- Stepford Smiler: Her default expression if you talk to her.
Villains
Guitar Warriors
Loyal mechanical servants of the Metal Lord.
- Musical Assassin: They use guitars as the preferred weapon of choice, attacking with sonic energy from their power chords.
The Metal Lord
The supreme ruler of the Distortion Dimension.
- The Ghost: Never directly seen in-game, apart from a possible shot of his face in the Video Hall puzzles.
