Alternate Aesop Interpretation: On the other hand for its story themes, the most popular being centered around the meaningless futility of revenge, the story also has some aspects of unreliable narrator that hints that Pizza Batt is not entirely innocent themselves, and that you have to clean up the messes you've started. The former is especially pronounced in that corporate gentrification has long been opposed as public opinion, which was the whole point of the first game's Pizza Butt assassination missions, there is some definitely skeazy black market criminal business activities going on in Santa Destroy that is growing rather prominent due to Pizza Batt also being a front for the New Mafia which is acting on a global scale, and that Jasper Batt Jr. is much more of a dishonorable power abusing douchebag who never takes his revenge on his own terms, and instead takes it out on society by being a criminal mastermind.
Anvilicious: The sequel is decidedly less subtle about its message against violence in the name of entertainment, especially the glorification of revenge. Then again, the original game's message flew over many gamers' heads.
There aren't as many memorable boss fights as in the first game (and quite a few that are memorable for thewrong reasons), but the rank 4, 3 and 2 fights are generally considered some of the best in the game (possibly even all games depending on who you ask). It definitely helps that all three of these bosses Face Death with Dignity, cause Travis to go through Character Development, are Affably Evil, and that they all have amazing battle music.
Rank 7. Challenging, but fair (once you get past the bike section). It's also a very thematic fight, and even kicks off Travis's Character Development that comes into play for the next fights. And it also has Awesome Music.
New Destroyman'sbattle theme, an awesome rock-heavy theme, is more than enough of a substitute for all of the DJs being hanged.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Henry's nightmare. He fights an anime girl with robot arms on her back who claims her mind and Henry's have merged and tries to kill him when he wants to leave. Why he's dreaming about killer anime girls is completely unexplained and he never mentions it to anyone afterwards... though Travis watching one of his anime in the next room might have had something to do with it.
Being in between Nathan Copeland and Matt Helms, both of who are listed under That One Boss, the gimmicky mech fight with Charlie MacDonald is an absolute breeze in comparison so long as you can consistently whiff-punish and jump kick whenever he blocks.
Cloe Walsh is the easiest boss in the game so long as you avoid her acid-spit kiss and poisonous Breath Weapon. Word of God notes this was intentionally so.
Captain Vladimir is also easy to beat. Up until he's low on health and begins to use his Kill Satattack.
Mimmy. You can keep your distance and abuse a long distance attack that makes you invincible during most of the animation until all her health is gone, which is when you can run up to her and finish her off with a Death Blow.
Dr. Letz Shake. He only has two attacks. One is a laser attack that by this point, you have dodged less telegraphed attacks. And the other is his "earthquake" attack where the safe zones are easily shown and you can usually get up to him and score in some free hits. Because of this it's not uncommon for players to beat him without taking a hit. That said, his earthquake can shave off half of your health on Mild difficulty (75% on Bitter), so you don't want to get hit by it at all. And to throw off players getting too comfortable with his attack patterns, he can also variably change the speed of his quake countdowns, ranging from ten seconds to three at the shortest (an audially perceptive player will notice that his voice is really high-pitched on the sped-up countdowns).
Breather Level: The path to Vladimir is one long, drawn-out motorcycle ride. No enemies, no way to fall off the road, and hitting obstacles refills your Nitro.
The removal of Travis' motorcycle and the sandbox city in general. Some fans were very glad that it was removed because it took no time at all to travel around the city and it was much easier, while other fans hated that they could no longer explore the city and drive around.
While you'd be pressed to find anyone who will defend Jasper Batt Jr. and especiallyhis boss fight as being likeable, there's a lot of discourse on whether he serves his purpose as a deliberate Hate Sink well or not. There's a good portion of those who argue that given the game's themes on the senselessness of violence and revenge, making him an incredibly goofy, unsatisfactory final climax (which even other characters can barely take seriously) was the entire point. The counterargument is that there were likely other, better means of achieving this, especially as the game's previous bosses (especially the penultimate battle with Alice Twilight) managed to be rooted in the same themes, but are remembered for being emotionally resonant, satisfying, and legitimately fun.
Though most people do still like it, whether the sequel is better or worse than the original game is a very contested point so far. Supporters cite the game's more detailed levels, lack of entry fees, more varied enemies and weapons, the tedious sandbox being gone, and the retro style of the side job minigames. Detractors cite that the absence of an overworld removes the game's pacing, that some of the bosses are tedious to fight, and have the opinion that the stages starring Shinobu need polishing.
The sequel's plot is very contested. Those who prefer the first game have said that the plot's far less clever and self-aware, and prioritizes fanservice and trying to be funny over the more subtle, silly-but-insightful writing of the first game. Changes like the removal of the sandbox and the side job minigames have been cited as contradictory to the themes of the series. The fact that the first game was written and directed by Suda while he was relatively hands-off for the second game is likely what led to these differences.
Disappointing Last Level: Quite a few of the later levels, but especially the final one, Jasper Batt Jr.'s shopping mall, are very long and repetitive.
Ending Fatigue: Given the Disappointing Last Level that is Jasper Batt's stage (and of course Jasper Batt Jr. himself), some players believe that the game should have ended after the fight against Alice.
The New Destroymen, who fans loved the idea of having two of Destroyman even if the boss fight with them wasn't well liked.
Dr. Letz Shake for being a Letz Shake that's actually fought and his hilarious Verbal Tic.
Margaret Moonlight, mostly by virtue of her boss theme.
Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Travis' rank up screen for the match lists Alice's name as Alice Moonlight, but credits list her as Alice Twilight. The Japanese special edition and the European version have her correctly listed as Alice Twilight, however. There's also the rather obvious fact that the battle against her takes place at twilight, while the battle against Margaret takes place under moonlight.
Fan Nickname: Among countdown makers, you'll hear a lot of people referring to Jasper Batt Jr. as "Bastard Twat Jr."
"Gettin' yer jollies?!" Guns aren't quite the broken weapon they were in the first game, but they're still annoying as hell. Also a contender are those knife-wielding pricks, who tend to block most of your strikes and like to knock you off-balance while you're distracted by a much more important foe.
The good news about gun mooks is that, stamina-wise, they're the weakest in the game. One step-in slash is often enough to kill them.
Enemies with both regular and beam katanas are pretty obnoxious, too, as they have more health than at least most of the regular mooks you face, and are REALLY good at smacking you around if you're not careful. Chainsaw mooks sort of count as well, as all their attacks are unblockable and if you get hit, say goodbye to a good chunk of your health meter. While chainsaw mooks by themselves aren't too difficult if you're wielding the Peony (which interrupts all their attacks,) it's when they're mixed in with a group when they're the most dangerous, as they can sneak up on you if you're distracted by another enemy (ESPECIALLY when a grappler mook gets ahold of you).
They're not as hard as some of the other bosses since their attacks are easy to see coming, but fight can be very annoying because Shinobu stops to taunt after a combo, and if you kill one of them than the other can revive him. It also doesn't help that one of the two likes to fly around at the top of the level meaning he can be hard to hit.
The first half of the fight is difficult as hell, while the second consists of camping by the defeated Destroyman's body while waiting for the other to fly around a bit before running up to revive him and getting in a few hits before he flies off again. Rinse and repeat for at about 5-10 minutes.
The fight can be made faster and less aggravating by restricting the fight with the Red Destroyman behind a group of six boxes at one end beneath the center rafter, which blocks everything the other Destroyman can throw at you. You still have to camp by him in order to prevent the other one from reviving him though.
Alice is also a frustrating boss because of her That One Attack that will knock you down. And immediately after you fall, she'll spam this attack over and over again until you die or unless you quickly roll out the way.
Million Gunman, in addition to him being annoying, has the odd combination of what might normally be a Breather Boss with terrible platforming sequences and the fact that Shinobu stops to taunt after landing a combo.
After the giant robot fight, Travis feels a bit guilty about tearing through all his cheerleaders. After his victory almost gets nullified though he backs up, saying "you can do some damage with those pom-poms!" Indeed you can.
Tara Strong voices Margaret Moonlight with exactly the same voice she would later use for Twilight Sparkle. Margaret is heavily associated with a character named Alice Twilight.
Mimmy, the inexplicable anime girl boss. She'll occasionally sit down with the character 萌 (for "mo" in "mo-e") over her, and the same is written on her backpack.
Parodied with Shinobu repeating the word in fights in an attempt to imitate Travis. During her save point showers, though, she may occasionally mutter "what does moe mean...?"
Moral Event Horizon: For Jasper Batt Jr. ordering Bishop's assassination, in order to ensure Travis comes to fight him.
Narm: After defeating the final boss, Travis falls to the ground and Sylvia proceeds to escort him back to Motel No More Heroes while the credits roll. It's a long drive through the city to accompany the credits... Unless you remember that Batt's tower was right across the street from the Motel, according to the in-game map. Sylvia must have made a few wrong turns on the way back...
The setting for the fight against Matt Helms, and of course Matt Helms himself ramps it up about 13 notches. A distorted baby face mask stuck in the most horrifying innocent smile on top of a fat as shit body carrying a flamethrower battleaxe and the most chilling childlike laugh. Like Pyramid Head dressed up as Hello Kitty. That laughter will forever haunt your dreams. And the entire stage building up to his battle slowly gets darker until you're at Camp Crystal Lake: Silent Hill branch.
Mimmy trying to keep Henry in a coma and making him stay with her for eternity. Her ghostly and yandere antics would be scary if she wasn't so darn adorable.
The housing complex where you fight Alice can be a little creepy if you look at it certain ways. It's basically a New York-looking apartment complex, but there's no music for most of it just a creepy wind. Then you enter the dark, run-down apartment building with broken down hallways and eerie inaccessible areas that trail off into pitch blackness. Then the last leg has an unusually serene, lost-sounding music. And when you finally get to fight Alice, there's the battle theme (starts at 4:19), where a good chunk of the piece is accompanied by an ominous sounding synthesizer.
One True Pairing: Travis with Shinobu. Supporters of this pairing think that Travis is an insensitive, stupid jerk for rejecting Shinobu when she's clearly in love with him and will do anything for him (including leaving without tearing him a new one after he rejects her). Others view their 9 year age difference (in the second game Shinobu is 21 while Travis is 30) and Shinobu's hero worship as unsettling.
Jasper Batt Jr. Even forgetting his Moral Event Horizon and the Freudian Excuse it stemmed from, fans also hate him for his design and annoying speech patterns, and for having a very hard second phase in his boss fight filled with near-unavoidable attacks. Even for those who see him as a Hate SinkBig Bad, it ends up making the boss fight less enjoyable and/or satisfying as it should be.
Million Gunman is near-universally hated for being a very uninteresting assassin thematically (even the whole Bond villain motif isn't particularly unique), being one of the more obnoxious fights in the game, the poor platforming required to beat him and the screams of "DO YOU LOVE MONEY LIKE I D-I'M NOT GOING TO GO EASY ON YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A GIR-DO YOU LOVE MO-FUCK YOU" he makes. Next to Jasper Batt Jr, his boss fight is likely the most disliked of any in either of the games.
The scorpion mini game was generally considered the worst one in the first No More Heroes. So, as a joke, its the only mini game that carries over into the sequel, badly clashing with the seven other 2D mini games. If anything, it's even WORSE this time. Even though there are first-aid kits scattered throughout the job site this time, they're all only one-use kits, and unlike the first game you can't dash to make it to them in a hurry if you get stung (in fact, if you get stung you go even SLOWER.) Add to that the fact that the tall grass is taller and more dense this time, making it even harder to see the scorpions, and the fact that the scorpions can dig to escape from an easy capture, or ambush you, and can sting you when you're trying to pick them up. Luckily you don't have to play it at all.
The motorcycle stage in the Ryuji fight was also a huge pain. The controls for Travis' motorbike were clumsy and slippery, and trying to knock Ryuji off the cliff was difficult due to the fact that his bike is impossible to knock away while he's boosting. And in the higher difficulties, he relies on his boost a lot (like every five to seven seconds or so). Weirdly, there's a much easier motorcycle section before the Captain Vladimir fight, which makes one wonder if that was supposed to be a tutorial for the motorcycle that got moved during development.
Playing as Shinobu, thanks to her ending every combo with a taunt which makes you open for attack and the awkward platforming in a game clearly not built to handle it.
Sequel Difficulty Spike: At least half of the bosses are notoriously hard, a few of the side-jobs can be deceptively brutal (such as the Man the Meat and Stings So Good, the latter of which is covered above in Scrappy Mechanic), and a couple or so of the enemy types you run into WILL punish you if you get in over your head. All of these things combined make Desperate Struggle a good bit more challenging than the first game.
Jasper Batt Jr.'s triple teleporting punch combo. And it gets worse when he starts shooting wind gustswhile doing it.
Ryuji's fucking dragon summon. Once he's lost a third or so of his health, he'll promptly pull this out of nowhere, summoning a GIGANTIC ENERGY DRAGON that homes in on you, repeatedly digging into and bursting out of the ground, dealing heavy damage. If you block it, it will drain your battery ridiculously fast, to the point even the long-lived Rose Nasty will run out of energy after blocking it about two or three times. You have to be very smart about your dodges to get through it without getting mauled by it. And Ryuji isn't just standing around while all this is happening, either.
RYUJI. He's the only boss who's a pain to beat even after you figure out all his moves. You have to dodge at precisely the right moment or you'll get hit. And then there's his dragon attack, on Bitter Mode, he will just spam it non-stop.
Nathan Copeland and Alice are also quite challenging. The former because the battle stage will continuously act against the player, and the latter because of her formidable swordplay.
Margaret can wreck you if you're not careful. While not that bad up close, if she is any distance from you, which she will try to be all the time, she will spam her rifles from afar. These have a horrible knockback that also does decent damage and can quickly drain your energy if you block it.
Jasper Batt Jr.'s second form quickly becomes this with a mix of one-hit-kills, and a very hard to dodge combo spam note he's substantially easier should the player rely on parrying his attacks, a mechanic the game never fully explains to you or expects you to rely on up to that point. The first and third forms are slightly more manageable, but in the former there is a case of Guide Dang It! that will leave the player stuck unless it can be figured out.note After Jasper has his HP depleted by half, no further attacks will harm him. The player has to let the boss grab Travis with one of his attacks so Henry can come into scene to rescue him. Only then can the battle be resumed and then finished.
Both Shinobu stages. Playing as Shinobu wouldn't be so bad if the game didn't force you to take advantage of the fact that she has a (rather clumsy) jump, in the form of quite a bit of platforming. The camera doesn't help matters, as it's very easy to fall off a building and have to go a long way back to get back up. Fortunately the enemies don't respawn. Her fighting could also use some polishing. She ends combos with a drawn out sheathing of her sword and a not as drawn out but still drawn out sheathing of her sword. This isn't an issue when you're fighting mooks since she usually fights them in such small groups, but it sucks some of the fun out the two boss fights. The fight with New Destroyman is good only on the virtue that it's the fight with New Destroyman.
The graveyard in Matt Helms' stage is annoying to play through, particularly because there are at least three chainsaw mooks, and three other giant mooks with axes.
The parking lot outside Margaret's stage. It's just a Zerg Rush of probably upward of fifty mooks, killing them over and over. It also has tons of gun mooks, so many of them that if you don't get rid of those quickly, you will die.
The idea of playing as Shinobu and Henry is interesting, but the justification is rather weak for the former (why would Sylvia ask someone to help Travis move up the ranks if she's controlling the ranks in the first place?), while the latter is only playable for a single boss anyway. He actually does help Travis move up the ranks as well... but offscreen, killing three assassins that we only get to see the pictures and names of.
The concept of Travis destroying the Association itself is an interesting twist that would really drive home the deconstruction elements of the series and complete both his and Sylvia's arcs. But after declaring so, he never seems to actually do it, at least not during the events of the game, instead just having sex with her instead.
that's what people call me...