Characters / Time Crisis

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Richard Miller

Richard Miller is the player character of the first Time Crisis. Unlike the other VSSE agents, he works alone on his missions. He also doesn't speak in the games.

• The Ace: So far one of very few VSSE agents to have completed missions solo, but more impressively, he's the only one to have ever done some lasting damage on Wild Dog. He's also employed as the Final Boss of the Crisis Mission training campaigns of two games, demonstrating that he may well be VSSE's top agent.
• Bond Gun Barrel: Does this in the opening of the first game.
• Clear My Name: In Project Titan, Miller is framed for the assassination of the Caruban President Xavier Serrano, and VSSE gives Miller 48 hours to prove his innocence before he is turned over to the authorities.
• Death Glare: Gives one to Wild Dog when the latter shoots Rachel in the back.
• Final Boss: Of Time Crisis II's and 4 Crisis Missions, as part of the final test before the player character can become a VSSE agent.
• Greaser Delinquents: His look seems to be styled after this, with the black leather jacket, blue jeans, and 50's haircut. Though despite the look, nothing about his actions suggests he's an actual delinquent.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: This game is normally into Rewarding Vandalism if Miller wrecks a scene and kills all of the enemies in that scene by doing so like detonating a box of explosives or wrecking a car that attempts to run him over, causing the car to explode, with the explosion killing the rest of the enemies in the area. However, there are a few areas where Richard's vandalism is punished:
  • There is one scene in Area 1 of Stage 2 in the original Time Crisis which shows a brace holding a bunch of I-beams together. If Richard destroys the brace holding the I-beams in place in this scene, the I-beams take a long time to topple and kill all of the enemies, so shooting the enemies could be faster than destroying the brace. Destroying the brace can punish Richard by taking more time. Furthermore, if Richard fails to hide when last I-beam starts toppling towards him, that I-beam will fall on him and take one of his lives.
  • In the PlayStation version's console-exclusive special mission, destroying the arms factory by detonating the explosives in there punishes Miller by sending him to the lower-ranked parking lot which is stage 4 route C instead of the higher-ranked lounge which is stage 4 route B even though destroying the arms factory would seem to be one of his mission objectives.
• Heroic Mime: In almost all his video game appearances. Later protagonists speak during cutscenes, but Miller does not speak at all.
  • Subverted in an audio CD drama adaption of the first game and in the Crisis Missions of Time Crisis 4 (console version), in which a Suddenly Speaking Miller dresses as Wild Dog and fights the VSSE recruits during the final test.
• Made of Iron: Amusingly, he takes a couple falls that would disable or kill the average person, such as falling through an unfinished brick balcony face-first onto stone below in the original game's Stage 2, or climbing down the clock tower in Stage 3 and then leaping off straight onto his feet for what seems like at least a couple dozen meters. He shrugs both off without injury in a defiance of physics and immediately rushes into action.
• One-Man Army: Literally his nickname, according to the opening sequence. He's the only protagonist to go through not one, not two, but three adventures all by himself.
• Suddenly Speaking: In the Crisis Mission of 4, Richard starts speaking as he congratulates the trainees for finishing the training missions.
• Tranquil Fury: When Rachel was shot the back by Wild Dog, the look Richard shot him, complete with gritted teeth, very clearly showed that he was furious.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Played straight during the first game's special mission. He guns down Kantaris' male mooks like crazy, but when confronting Kantaris all he does is pointing his gun on her in a threatening way.

Rachel MacPherson

Rachel is the daughter of the President of Sercia. She was kidnapped by Wild Dog and Sherudo Garo, and Miller's mission is to infiltrate Sherudo's castle and rescue Rachel.

• Damsel in Distress: More or less her only role in the game.
• Hostage MacGuffin: She is the hostage whose plight drives the story.

Moz

The first boss of the game, who is fought in Stage 1. A Ninja assassin working for Wild Dog and Sherudo. Unlike most other bosses, he's not killed when defeated; in fact, he reappears to fight against you twice in Stage 3, although he's much easier to defeat then.

• Assassin Claws: Attacks Miller armed with a mechanical gauntlet with three very large claws.
• Ax-Crazy: He was expelled from his ninja school for killing his fellow students without reason.
• Broken Faceplate: His facemask breaks off after Richard gunned him down, at the conclusion of their first confrontation. He gets a new mask later on.
• Degraded Boss: The final time he shows during the Final Boss battle he goes down in one shot, effectively making him just a Palette Swap of the ordinary ninja mooks.
• Fragile Speedster: Very fast, but doesn't take a lot of damage compared to other bosses, needing only three bullets to put down.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: He can be differentiated from his ninja henchman by the golden chest plate and claws.
• McNinja: An eastern European man with ninja training.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: After being defeated, Richard interrogates him on Rachel's whereabouts before knocking him unconscious with a punch.
• Recurring Boss: He's the first boss Richard fight and defeats, but comes back in the final stage after Sherudo is killed to fight Richard again prior to the final boss battle against Wild Dog. And then he comes back again during the Wild Dog battle, and this time he's finally defeated for good.
• Warm-Up Boss: As the first boss of the entire series.

Sherudo Garo

"Since you have traveled so very far, be my guest and let me ENTERTAIN YOU!"

Sherudo is the main antagonist of the first game. He was an exiled dictator and the last blood relative of the Garo family, the former royal family of Sercia.

• Adaptation Dye-Job: He has grey eyes in the original arcade version. This was changed to blue in the PlayStation port.
• Aerith and Bob: The president of Sercia and his daughter have anglophone names while Garo, a member of its former royal family, has a made-up vaguely Japanese-sounding name.
• Animal Motifs: "Garo" sounds very similar to "Garō", meaning "hungry/dire wolf" in Japanese. He also kidnaps and plans to kill an innocent young girl dressed in red. Sounds familiar?
• Aristocrats Are Evil: He kidnaps the daughter of the sitting President of Sercia in revenge for the President turning the country into a republic and, thus, depriving him of status.
• Ax-Crazy: The US PlayStation version's manual calls him "Clinically insane. Extremely dangerous."
• Beware the Silly Ones: He looks and acts like a spoiled brat, but he's a deadly knife-thrower and can quickly overwhelm an inexperienced player.
• Big Bad: Of the first game.
• The Caligula: He was a tyrannical king of Sercia before he was removed from the throne by a heroic version of The Coup.
• The Coup: He was removed from the throne by a heroic coup. He then tried to execute a counter-coup, but then Richard Miller killed him.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Once Sherudo is disposed of, Wild Dog comes in and kidnaps Rachel, deciding to go through with Sherudo's plan anyway.
• Evil Laugh: "This nation will soon be mine! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!"
• Fanning the Knives: How he introduces himself to Richard, holding three knives in a fan-shaped pose.
• Faux Affably Evil: Upon meeting Richard, he politely introduces himself while advertising himself as the new ruler of Sercia. However, his disdain for the VSSE agent is at the surface of his seemingly gentlemanly behavior as he pulls his knives and mockingly offers to "entertain" Richard.
• Flechette Storm: He can fling knives at lightning-speed, with deadly accuracy. His knives are actually faster and deadlier than most firearms!
• Flunky Boss: He has several members of his Praetorian Guard fight you during his boss fight.
• Last of His Kind: He's the last blood relative of the Garo family.
• Prince Charmless: He is verbally and physically abusive to Rachel while she is his hostage and makes no attempt to be pleasant. Moz even wrongly believes (after Richard defeats him) that Sherudo has already killed her. He puts on a brief veneer of pleasantry when Richard confronts him, but it's very insincere.
• Psycho Knife Nut: In combat, Sherudo fights Miller with knives. He also creepily fondles his knife while taunting Rachel.
• Revenge by Proxy: William MacPherson overthrew his family's rule, so Sherudo gets back at him by kidnapping his daughter.
• Royally Screwed Up: The entirety of the Garo family's rule of Sercia has been tyrannical.
• Shows Damage: Very unusual among Time Crisis bosses. After a few hits, he's visibly seen clutching his arm. Close to the end of the battle, he's limping away from cover to cover. He's still deadly accurate with his good arm and can still leap to and from cover quite quickly.
• Single Line of Descent: On the old official Time Crisis website it was said that the Garo family ruled Sercia for a millennium before being overthrown. You would expect such an ancient royal family to have tons of descendants and extended family members. But despite being overthrown only a few years before the events of the game, Sherudo is the last member of the Garo family. While the rest of the royal family might have been killed during The Coup that overthrew him, this either implies the family was unrealistically small or that MacPherson's coup was way more brutal than the game suggests.
• Smug Snake: He brags to Rachel that victory is almost his and Sercia will soon be his. He even tells Richard to his face that he rules this nation already, thinking that he has already won. He is gunned down soon afterwards.
• Villain in a White Suit: He wears white in all his scenes, including the penultimate fight against Richard.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: The boss fight against Sherudo marks a sharp difficulty spike. Up until this point you can happily blast away in the open, only going into cover to reload, and do OK, but unless you've learned to use cover properly against Sherudo's lightning-fast knife throws you'll get killed in seconds.
• Warrior Prince: He is the last member of the former royal family, and is one of the strongest fighters that Richard had to face.

Wild Dog

Wild Dog is a terrorist-for-hire who leads multiple criminal syndicates around the world, and a recurring antagonist in the series. In each installment, he serves as The Dragon to whichever current Big Bad the game has. He is also the penultimate boss fought sometime during the third and final stage of each game, with the exception of the first and fifth, the latter where he's the boss at the end of each stage.

• An Arm and a Leg: While he survived getting blown up by his own detonator, he lost his arm in the explosion. He has since then toted an Arm Cannon on his stump.
• Arch-Enemy: To the VSSE organization as a whole.
• Arm Cannon: Part of his distinctive appearance since Project Titan. It started out as a minigun in Project Titan and II, but he added attachments for a flamethrower and a rocket launcher in 3, then upped the ante even further with a damn Tractor Beam in 4!
• Artificial Limbs: Wild Dog usually keeps his Arm Cannon hidden until The Coats Are Off, but in 5 he finally acquires a fully-functional mechanical hand that houses the Tractor Beam he acquired in the previous game.
• Ax-Crazy: Grows into this the longer the series goes on, as it becomes quite apparent that he's in it for the carnage and vengeance later on compared to trying to simply make a profit in the first game. There's also hints of Blood Knight in there, as he always seems to be waiting to go into a showdown with VSSE even if he'd be better off escaping. Even in the first game, he ultimately decided to fight Richard as opposed to just jumping on his helicopter after he shot Rachel in the arm.
• Badass Longcoat: He almost always shows up rocking a classic trenchcoat, though he hurls it aside before fighting the heroes.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Whenever he's defeated in each game, he usually blows himself up. Downplayed since he always survives anyway.
• Beware the Silly Ones: A bit on the silly side in 5, but no less a considerate threat.
• Big Bad: He's surprisingly this in Project Titan, after he turns on Ricardo Blanco. He also appears to be this for 5, at least until the True Mastermind Edition is released. He feels more like The Heavy for the first half of 5.
• The Coats Are Off: Whenever he fights the VSSE, he throws his coat off. Except in Project Titan, where he's shown without a coat throughout.
• Copycat Mockery: Briefly engages in this in the first game, mockingly stating "Oh, you're finally here to save me!" in imitation of Rachel while holding her at gunpoint.
• Determinator: Every single game the heroes shoot him multiple times and he ends up blowing himself up, but he'll still be back next time. He's lost a whole arm and is clearly getting old by as early as the 3rd game, and he and his employers are always losing with his mercenary army destroyed several times, but none of these things stop him either.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • He probably could've escaped with his arm and his dignity intact if he simply fled when Sherudo got killed in the first game. Instead, he tried to kidnap Rachel himself for leverage and does every single possible thing he can to antagonize Richard in his escape, including shooting Rachel. He earns that Laser-Guided Karma when he drops his detonator and blows himself up, resulting in him losing an arm. Years after, Wild Dog is stamped with a spot on the priority target list for all future VSSE agents that he keeps stumbling into fighting.
  • Similarly, he decides to eliminate a loose end through Ricardo Blanco in Project Titan, coming out of nowhere to plug the man and make his escape so that nothing can tie him to framing Richard for President Serrano's assassination. While a good idea to kill anyone who could be tied to his crimes, Wild Dog's mistake was that he didn't make sure that Ricardo died instantly and instead left him in critical condition after shooting him. This causes Blanco to have a change of heart in his final moments and tell Richard where Wild Dog's base is, dooming his plans.
• The Dragon: He's usually the secondary Big Bad in every installment, as it's unclear whether he's working under each of the villains you face, or aiding them just for the chance to get revenge on the VSSE.
• Dragon Their Feet: In the first game, after Miller defeats Sherudo, Wild Dog kidnaps Rachel and flees.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The first game is the only game in which both of his arms are intact. After losing one as a result of the ending, all subsequent games have him boasting an Arm Cannon.
  • The first game and Project Titan are the only games where he's the Final Boss. He does reprise this role in 5...but only in the original version, which is effectively an incomplete version of the game; in True Mastermind Edition he's demoted to a Disc-One Final Boss.
• Evil Laugh: An especially sinister one, which highlights how bloodthirsty he is.
• Evil Old Folks: He's been active in the terrorist-for-hire business for decades. By 3, he's old enough that his hair has gone grey. And by games 4 and 5, he looks like a pensioner. He still shows no signs of stopping his nefarious ways.
• Final Boss: Of the first game and Project Titan. He also appears to be this in 5, at least until the True Mastermind Edition is released.
• Gatling Good: The most commonly mounted weapon on Wild Dog's Arm Cannon is a minigun.
• Gratuitous English: In the Japanese voice tracks, he seems to be fond of saying "EAT THIS!" in English. He also says it plenty often in the English Dub.
• Guns Akimbo: He started off dual-wielding Mausers before switching to just one Mauser in conjunction with his Arm Cannon. After acquiring a mechanical hand in 5, Wild Dog goes back to using dual Mausers.
• The Heavy: Wild Dog has fulfilled this role across each game, either as The Dragon to the game's Big Bad or a rogue element in the VSSE's path whenever he appears.
• Hijacked by Ganon: In Project Titan.
• Invincible Villain: It is never made clear just how this guy is still alive. Every boss fight with Wild Dog ends with him apparently shot to death and / or blown up (usually both) but somehow he comes back. The VSSE agents are fully aware of how impossible this is but the man himself never bothers to explain his miraculous survival ability.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: The VSSE as a whole seem to have this attitude towards him, mostly because he keeps hiring himself out to various villains solely so that he can try and kill their agents.
• Jet Pack: He wears one in 5, and activates it with what looks like his trademark suicide belt detonator.
• Joker Immunity: You nail this guy so many times, and yet by the next game he's back for another round.
• Joker Immunity Warranty: That being said, as 5 was the last game in the series, it’s likely that he didn’t survive blowing himself up that time.
• Just a Stupid Accent: Only in the Japanese versions though, as for some bizarre reason he always speaks Japanese with a very thick American accent. This is even more weird if you take into account the plot of all the games takes place in either the United States or Europe, and both antagonists and heroes alike speak Japanese with no accents.
• Leitmotif: Has one in each game. The only time his theme song isn't played is in the spinoff Project Titan.
• Lone Wolf Boss: In the third and fourth games, he has no established connection to the Zagorias Federation or the Hamlin Battalion. Odds are likely that he's only there to get his revenge on the VSSE.
• Mascot Villain: He might as well be, consideing his Joker Immunity.
• Obviously Evil: Dark hair, shaded glasses, Badass Longcoat, a mechanical arm in later games, and the incredibly sinister laugh. And he's called "Wild Dog". Not exactly Mr. Sunshine, is he?
• Parts Unknown: Nobody knows from which country he comes from, albeit, taking into account his looks and being an expy from Mad Dog, he could be of Asian origin. Oddly enough, at least in the Japanese version, he speaks Japanese with a very thick American accent.
• Pitiful Worms: To Giorgio and Evan in 4, and to Luke and Marc in 5.
  Wild Dog: A bunch of annoying little flies.
• Pre-Final Boss: In the second and fourth games, he's fought in the area immediately before the area of the Final Boss.
• Psycho for Hire: He doesn't seem as interested in his employers' goals as much as he is the chance to haunt the VSSE. He probably enjoys the idea of getting paid as well; his Villainous Breakdown in the first game was kickstarted by him realizing that the death of his boss meant he'd been screwed out of a payday.
• Psycho Pink: 5 has him taking cues from his younger partner Wild Fang, wearing pink shirts to show how dangerous he is.
• Recurring Boss: Series aside, but in the fifth game, he's the boss at the end of the first three stages.
• Robot Master: He built and controls a titanium robot army in Project Titan.
• Serial Escalation: Started off using dual Mausers in 1, gained a prosthetic with a gatling gun in Project Titan and II, and since then he has acquired crazier and crazier upgrades for it with each new installment.
  Wild Dog: Check this out!
• Shout-Out: Wild Dog is said to be modeled after Mad Dog, The Dragon from John Woo's Hard Boiled. He even has a portable Star Trek-esque tractor beam in the fourth game.
• Signature Move: His trademark detonator escape. Upon defeat, he holds a remote detonator in his hand, taunting the heroes with a one-liner or an Evil Laugh (or both), before causing an explosion that seems to engulf him. Then he comes back in the next game, seemingly no worse for wear.
  • The first game implies that he may have gotten the idea from the incident in which he lost his arm, considering how he was defeated when Richard Miller shot the detonator he was holding at the time out of his hand, and it blew him up by complete mistake. Since then, Wild Dog has always had a Taking You with Me detonator on him, just in case.
• Sinister Shades: Part of his ensemble, which hide his eyes from view and make him appear even more menacing.
• Sunglasses at Night: The second game and fifth game has the final stage take place at nighttime, yet when he engages the heroes, he's still wearing shades. This is probably for Rule of Cool.
• Taking You with Me: Every time he is downed by VSSE agents, he usually presses some sort of red button which blows up anything in his vicinity, himself included (and somehow survives, as he'll reappear alive in the next installment). The VSSE agents always manage to narrowly avoid being killed this way when he tries this, however.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: He gets involved with various crime syndicates and terrorist organizations often for nothing more than just to raise hell for the VSSE. The pay is probably a nice bonus, but he seems to primarily throw his lot in with unsavory types For the Evulz.
• Tractor Beam: Gains one in 4, which he uses to toss crates and other metal detritus at Giorgio and Evan.
• True Final Boss: If you play Project Titan on easy mode, you won't access the final stage and fight Wild Dog.
• Villainous Breakdown: In the first game, he's beside himself with anger when Richard Miller kills Sherudo. He immediately takes Rachel hostage and chooses to escape with her in tow, completely unable to mask his fury as he's been screwed out of a payday. He proceeds to blow up the castle in a fury with his detonator just to vent his frustration as he attempts to escape.
  Wild Dog: Both you and this stinkin' castle can burn, for all I care!
• Villain Decay: For almost every game, Wild Dog was the Climax Boss, showing up right before the final battle. In the first game, he was the Final Boss, and 2, 3 and 4 had him as the Pre-Final Boss, each time remaining just as much an imposing threat as before. In 5, however, he's been reduced to the Disc-One Final Boss, with his former role going to Wild Fang instead. While still a threat, his personality has become more like that of The Joker, acting silly whenever he gets the chance.
• Why Won't You Die?: Somehow, he always comes back in each subsequent game after the first, Lampshaded by the heroes in the third game when Alan even says in exasperation, "Don't you ever die?".
• Would Hit a Girl: He has no problem with winging Rachel as she tries to run away, just to amp up his dickness even further.
• You Fool!: His parting words in II to Robert and Keith:
  Wild Dog: VSSE! You fools! (pulls out his detonator)
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He turns on Ricardo Blanco in Project Titan after Ricardo is defeated by Miller.

Kantaris

Kantaris is a female arms dealer who first appeared in the console exclusive Special Mission of the original Time Crisis as its main antagonist. She was also a minor character in the spinoff Project Titan. She's known to supply arms to Wild Dog; he's one of her favorite customers, in fact.

• Ambiguous Situation: Does her being alive in Project Titan mean Richard failed the Special Mission? Or does she have the same unexplained artifice for escaping seemingly unsurvivable situations that Wild Dog has?
• Arms Dealer: Kantaris is a weapon supplier for Wild Dog. She even owns a weapon factory hidden in a somewhat normal-looking hotel.
• Big Bad: Of the Special Mission.
• Covert Group with Mundane Front: Her hotel hides an arms factory within it. The arms factory sells weapons to the Wild Dogs.
• Destination Defenestration: In Route B, if the Humongous Mecha gets defeated quickly enough, she will be pushed by it, and falls after hitting the glass in this non-canonical ending.
• Final Boss: Of the original's Special Mission.
• Gender Reveal: VSSE tells Miller in his mission briefing that Kantaris' gender is still unknown, despite obviously looking like a woman. This could imply she may be just a decoy leader. That said, it turns out in Project Titan that Kantaris is indeed a woman.
• Karma Houdini: If the player takes too long to defeat her Humongous Mecha in Route B of the Special Mission, or if the player doesn't shoot her getaway vehicles enough times in the other routes (18 bullets on her helicopter in Route A, 9 bullets on her car in Route C), she will escape, but not before taunting Miller. She also ends up getting away in the spinoff Project Titan.
• The Many Deaths of You: Depending one of three final stages you are successful in, Kantaris can die by car crash, helicopter crash, or run off a high rise by an out of control robot.
• Ms. Fanservice: Project Titan has no problem showing her off in a skimpy blue bikini.
• Red Herring: If Richard defeats Web Spinner in a short amount of time, she will flee towards the swimming pool, causing Richard to chase her and therefore miss the arms factory. If Richard takes too long to defeat Web Spinner, she leaves during the fight without a trace, allowing Richard to find the arms factory which in turn gives him the chance to destroy it.
• Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Richard Miller can shoot down her helicopter in the AAA route, killing her in this now non-canonical ending.
• Starter Villain: The first villain encountered in Project Titan.
• Time-Limit Boss: For the Special Mission, she is this when she tries to escape via a vehicle, or when you fight her Humongous Mecha in Stage 4 Route B where you must destroy the robot quickly enough for it to push her out of the window upon its defeat.
• The Unfought: In Project Titan.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: What happens if the player fails to defeat her in the Special Mission. She also pulls this off at the end of the first act of Project Titan, when she programs her yacht to self-destruct after Miller rescues Abacus.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: Project Titan depicts her wearing a skimpy blue bikini.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In Project Titan, not only is Kantaris alive, she appears in a couple of cutscenes. She doesn't die, or for that matter fight anyone in that game.
• White Hair, Black Heart: She has silver white hair, and is a recurring villain.

Web Spinner

• The Dragon: To Kantaris in the Special Mission.
• Psycho for Hire: He's wanted by Sercia for murdering about 100 people.
• Shock and Awe: His Electric Boomerangs.

Keith Martin

The first player character in the second game. Formerly an SAS Agent specializing in explosives, and his cover job is a Hollywood special effects expert. Goes by the codename "Cherub - Eden's Guardian."

• Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Previous protagonist Richard Miller had dark hair, wore dark clothing, worked alone and never spoke. In contrast Keith is blond, wears brightly colored clothing, works with a partner, and talks.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite being of British nationality, he speaks with a clear American accent.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Robert's blue. His profile on the official Time Crisis II website describes him as brash and impulsive, and he tends to take the lead in the in-game firefights. Fittingly, he also wears a red jacket (changed to brown in the PlayStation 2 version).

Robert Baxter

The second player character in the second game. Formerly a US Navy SEAL specializing in piloting and driving, and his cover job is a school bus driver. Goes by the codename "Griffon - The Treasure Keeper." He comes back in 5 as a supporting character.

• The Bus Came Back: After being absent from the series for 18 years, he reappears in 5 as its protagonists' commanding officer.
• Cool Shades: Sports a nice pair of them in 5.
• Demoted to Extra: He appears again in 5 after an 18-year absence, but as an ally of the protagonists rather than as a player character.
• Informed Ability: He's said to be a an expert pilot and driver in his profile, yet on both occasions were they operate a vehicle together it's Keith who drives.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to Keith's red. His profile on the official Time Crisis II website describes him as being more careful and methodical, and he usually takes the rear and flanks the enemy in the in-game firefights. Fittingly, he also wears a blue jacket.

Christy Ryan

A female VSSE undercover agent who is kidnapped by NeoDyne Industries.

• Adaptational Badass: Demonstrates no fighting skills in the arcade version, but the PlayStation 2 port adds an new introductory cutscene of her fleeing Neodyne's rocket launch site with the incriminating intel, showing her to have Improbable Aiming Skills with a gun and performing a death-defying leap.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Had light brown hair in the original arcade version, which was changed to black in the PlayStation 2 port.
• Bus Crash: She was Killed Offscreen three months before the events of the fifth game. The perpetrator was Robert, who had gone rogue and turned against the VSSE.
• Damsel in Distress: She spends most of the game in NeoDyne custody after she's captured by Jakov Kinisky. Keith and Robert spend the remainder of the game chasing after her and Diaz.
• Decomposite Character: As far as Rolling Thunder expies can go, Christy's portrayal was based off Leila's portrayal in the first Rolling Thunder, while Leila's Rolling Thunder 2 portrayal was instead used as a basis for Alicia in 3's Rescue Mission Mode.
• Faux Action Girl: Only in the Arcade version, where she is easily dispatched by Sissy Villain Jakov. In the PS2 version, she's more of a genuine Action Girl with Improbable Aiming Skills.
• Human Shield: She is used as one by Diaz in the final battle.
• Inappropriately Close Comrades: 5 reveals that she was dating fellow VSSE agent Keith for some time before she was killed.
• Irony: Who would've thought that one of the people who saved her life would end up killing her years later?
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: After everything you went through to save her in the second game, she gets murdered (by one of the second game's former heroes no less!) prior to the fifth.

Jakov Kinisky

A sniveling, flamboyant correction officer who works for Ernesto Diaz, Jakov Kinisky is sent to apprehend Christy Ryan after she steals vital information from NeoDyne Industries. Serves as Stage 1's boss.

• Dead Hat Shot: On defeat, he leaves his bowler hat and the suitcase floating on the surface of the water.
• Dirty Coward: He's not very courageous; when Keith and Robert show up as he's capturing Christy, he bails for it. And his boss battle involves him shooting at you from inside his boat ashe tries to speed away from you.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: You chase him throughout the city before finally cornering him in a boat chase for the boss fight.
• Giggling Villain: You know that nasal, weaselly cackle of his in the opening cutscene? You'll be hearing it a lot during his boss fight.
• Hate Sink: His Establishing Character Moment has him strike Christy into unconsciousness, only to run like a coward when he realizes that Keith and Robert are kicking down the door behind him. The game makes you know from the get-go that he's a slimy little punk who needs to go down.
• More Dakka: Not on the level of Buff Bryant or Wild Dog, but he still favors a submachine gun for his boss fight.
• Sissy Villain: Like you wouldn't believe... he is very expressive with his body language, and is a weasel of a man who talks in a high-pitched voice, oozing arrogance to hide the Dirty Coward he really is.
• Smug Snake: He boasts at length about how perfect his boss' plan is to Christy, but is tossed into a panic when the VSSE agents show up.
• Too Fast to Stop: His boat loses control after he's shot dead, and it crashes into a nearby deck.
• Would Hit a Girl: When he captures Christy at the start, he punches her in the gut. When that barely fazes her, he just slaps her unconscious.

"Buff" Bryant

A personal bodyguard of Ernesto Diaz, and NeoDyne Industries' top security officer. Known for his physical strength, "Buff" Bryant is put in charge of protecting the nuclear satellite that is being transported to NeoDyne HQ by train. Serves as Stage 2's boss.

• Berserk Button: He has a very low tolerance of failure. He destroys his walkie-talkie when he hears that Jakov was killed, and that the VSSE agents are now headed his way.
  "Buff": That fool, Jakov! How dare he fail!
• The Brute: He's slower than Jakov, but his strength made up for his lack of speed.
• Charles Atlas Super Power: He lugs around a minigun—the kind of multi-barrel weapon usually found on mounted turrets. And if that wasn't enough, at the midway point of the fight, he picks up a giant missile from the train bed and swings it around like a club!
• Dead Man's Trigger Finger: Upon being hit with a fatal shot, Buff falls backwards into the helicopter as he tips his minigun's barrel upwards while firing, into the fuselage and rotor of the helicopter, causing it to explode.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Indirectly — when he eats enough bullets to finally drop him, his Dead Man's Trigger Finger sends a volley of bullets ripping through the fuselage of the helicopter he was riding, causing it to explode in mid-air.
• Gatling Good: His primary firearm of choice.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: A Freeze-Frame Bonus of his helicopter exploding shows him being torn in half at the waist. Not a pretty way to go out.
• Just a Stupid Accent: He's of African descent, but speaks with a Russian accent.
• Meaningful Name: His nickname, "Buff," indicates his prodigious strength.
• Scary Black Man: He's black, and puts up one hell of a fight against Robert and Keith.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: His interference prevents the VSSE agents from retrieving the military satellite, forcing them to take the fight to NeoDyne's launch facility.

Ernesto Diaz

The leader of NeoDyne Industries and the main antagonist of the second game. A former military officer intending to Take Over the World, Diaz intends to use his Starline network to create a system of heavily armed satellites, one nuclear, to "unite" the world under his rule.

• Big Bad: Of the second game.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: His Pre-Asskicking One-Liner is borrowed from Sherudo Garo from the previous game.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: His reasoning for not killing Christy once he's in her custody, as he wants to lure Keith and Robert into a trap.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The CEO of a MegaCorp who intends to Take Over the World.
• Disney Villain Death: How he is defeated. After being fatally shot, he falls into the launch silo and is incinerated by the rocket flames. Even if he hadn't overbalanced, the prototype satellite collapsed right afterwards, sealing his fate either way. And without taking the rockets into account, he still fell thousands of feet down.
• Expy: Ernesto is this to Gimdo from Rolling Thunder 2. And the setting where the players battle him is also a space station, complete with a space rocket where he falls down after, just like how Gimdo met his end.
• Final Boss: Of the second game.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He's evil to the core, and wears glasses.
• Four-Star Badass: One of his minions refers to him as General Diaz; while a throwaway line, it's an offhand reference to Diaz's background as a former military officer.
• Human Shield: Diaz uses Christy as one in the last stage before the final battle. He eventually tries to throw her to a Disney Villain Death to distract Keith and Robert so he can reach his prototype satellite. Thankfully, Keith and Robert catch Christy before she falls.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: His reasoning for using the prototype satellite to fight Keith and Robert; after they've decimated his forces, he admits that they are truly persistent adversaries and chooses to go all out against the two agents.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the boss of his own MegaCorp and a far deadlier marksman than even his best underlings, and having a massive life bar to boot.
• Take Over the World: What he plans to do using the nuclear satellite and the Starline network.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The prototype satellite he sics on you during the final battle comes equipped with triple-barrel rocket launchers and a laser emitter. All the while, he's taking shelter on top of the thing while sniping at you with his pistol.
• Villain Respect: As close as he possibly gets to it; right before engaging Keith and Robert, he begrudgingly admits that he underestimated how persistent they are and decides to pull out all the stops to take them out.
• Villain with Good Publicity: To the public, he's a benevolent tech mogul who is launching the Starline network for improved worldwide communications and the betterment of mankind.
• Villainous Valor: The fact that he actually jumps to fight Keith and Robert after Wild Dog is shown to be having trouble with them... and that he pulls out a rocket launcher to do so... shows that he's not fit to play Orcus on His Throne.
• You Are Too Late: Claims this to Keith and Robert after they rescue Christy; the two VSSE agents mistakingly believe the satellite Diaz is tending to is the nuclear one. But Diaz smugly explains before beginning his Final Boss fight...
  Diaz: This is just a prototype. We're ready to launch the real one!

Alan Dunaway

The first player character of the third game, codenamed "Phoenix".

• Casual Danger Dialogue: Both he and Wesley excel at this; not much fazes them.
• Final Boss: In the Crisis Mission mode of the console port, he and Wesley serve as the final enemies you need to defeat to become a full-fledged VSSE agent.
• Goggles Do Nothing: He wears a pair of sunglasses above his face, yet he never puts it on.
• No Sense of Direction: In their search for the Zagorias supply train, Alan just follows Wesley aimlessly until the latter asks him if they're heading in the right direction. Wesley isn't happy when Alan admits that he was just following him.
• Out of the Inferno: Does this alongside Wesley after destroying Zott's base.

Wesley Lambert

The second player character of the third game, codenamed "Pegasus".

• Big "WHAT?!": His reaction when he realizes that he and Alan — who was just following him aimlessly — are lost. They don't have to wait too long before the Zagorias Army bears down on them again, though.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: The start of the game has him and Alan casually wondering how many Zagorias troops are coming to surround their ship, as if wondering how many they'll take out with their surprise bomb.
• Final Boss: Along with Alan in Crisis Mission.
• Inconsistent Spelling: It's Lambert, not Lanbert.
• Out of the Inferno: Shared with Alan after they destroy Zott's base.

Alicia Winston

A female member of the Lukano Liberation Army. Her brother was one of the members kidnapped by the Zagorias Federation. She aids the VSSE not only to liberate Astigos Island from Zagorias' control, but to rescue her brother as well.

• Action Girl: While Alicia has her moments in the main story, she really gets to shine during the Rescue Mission — as it turns out, while Alan and Wesley were taking out one half of the Zagorias Federation army, she was busy taking out the other half.
• Decomposite Character: As far as Rolling Thunder (Namco) expies can go, Alicia's portrayal was based on Leila's in Rolling Thunder 2, unlike Christy from the previous game being based off Leila in the first Rolling Thunder game.
• Evolving Weapon: Her machine gun, shotgun, and grenade launcher are very weak and hold small amounts of ammunition at the beginning of the Rescue Mission. However, as she destroys more enemies with those weapons, those weapons level up, eventually becoming stronger and holding more ammunition than the VSSE agents' special weapons. Her handgun and sniper rifle do not upgrade.
• Friendly Sniper: Quite a good shot, if her shooting Zott's gun from distance just as he's about to execute her brother is any indication. Also enthusiastically friendly to the VSSE agents when they arrive and helps bail them out a few times, even hugging them at the end when they survive.
• Gorgeous Greek: Alicia is quite beautiful and hails from the equally beautiful Mediterranean nation of Lukano.^note The country is never actually seen, but Astigos, which is a territory of Lukano, notably incorporates Cycladic architecture in its main village center.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her LLA uniform accentuates her figure rather well, and her civilian clothes include a bikini top and miniskirt.
• One-Woman Army: As a Time Crisis playable character (in the PS2 port), she's capable of mowing down entire attachments of enemies without needing any additional help.
• Promoted to Playable: In the arcade version and mode, she's the main support to the two protagonists, while the console version's Rescue Mission mode has you play her side of the story.
• Stripperiffic: Her civilian disguise in Rescue Mission; it's an open blouse, a bustier, and a miniskirt.

Victor Zahn

An Air Force Colonel of the Zagorian military. Serves as Stage 1's boss while piloting a VTOL.

• Battleship Raid: The first boss battle with him involves fighting him while he flies his VTOL against you.
• Badass Bandolier: He wears one to hold his grenades.
• Colonel Badass: Considering he fights the VSSE head-on, he's definitely not a paper-pusher.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: After being gunned down, the grenades on his bandolier cook off from the damage, blowing up the VTOL he was shooting at you from.
• Evil Redhead: He's got red hair, and whole-heartedly supports General Zott's extermination campaign.
• More Dakka: His weapon of choice is a heavy machine gun.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: For engaging two VSSE agents and their newfound ally from the local resistance, he brings out a heavily-armed troop transport plane.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: He hurls grenades during the final phases of his fight.

Randy Garrett

Leader of Giorgio Zott's Assassin Squad, who ambushes the agents and Alicia on their way to the Zagorian base. Serves as Stage 2's boss.

• Arm Cannon: One of his claw gauntlets also houses a grenade launcher.
• Disney Villain Death: When defeated, he gets blasted off the train he was fighting you on and plunges into the river below.
• Evil Laugh: He gets a sinister chuckle when dispatching his assassins to kill the VSSE agents.
• Expy: Of Moz from the first game, being a McNinja who fights with Wolverine Claws and being backed up by assassins who share his motif.
• Flunky Boss: Has a team of Elite Mook assassins clad in yellow backing him up.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: He wears a scarlet version of the same uniform as the other assassins. Naturally, he's far more dangerous than any of them.
• Lightning Bruiser: He dashes and leaps about so quickly that it's hard to get a bead on him, and as a boss he has the amount of health that you would expect from one.
• McNinja: His agility and uniform suggest the motif of a modern-era ninja; but he hails from Zagorias, not Japan or its Fantasy Counterpart Culture thereof.
• Red Is Violent: His suit has red armor, and he's bloodthirsty enough to use claws instead of guns.
• Wolverine Claws: His armored gauntlets have twin knuckle-blades.

Daniel Winston

• Badass in Distress: As soon as Alicia frees him, he quickly resumes command of the Lukano Liberation Force and manages to ambush the Zagorian troops holding Alan and Wesley at gunpoint, before giving the two covering fire against an enemy tank, allowing Alan and Wesley to catch up with Zott on his way to the missile site.
• Defiant to the End: To his credit, Daniel isn't scared of Zott in the least, believing his people will keep on fighting even if Zott has him executed now.
• Dude in Distress: He has visible cuts and bruises on his face and is tied to an iron beam, where General Zott holds him at gunpoint during the start of Stage 3.

Wild Fang

Wild Fang is the younger counterpart and protégé of Wild Dog. His primary attacks include powerful kicks.

• Animal Motifs: In Time Crisis 4, his flying kick is accompanied by a wolf-shaped Battle Aura.
• Armed Legs: He has a Tractor Beam grafted to his right leg in 4 and a rocket launcher in his golden prothesis in 5.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He's got shades of this, especially when he isolates William Rush for a cage match in Time Crisis 4.
• Artificial Limbs: Similar to his mentor's Arm Cannon, Wild Fang replaces one of his legs with a prosthesis following his first defeat by the VSSE agents.
• Characterization Marches On: When he debuts, Wild Fang is little more than a carbon copy of his mentor — Wild Dog — aside from the palette swap. In Time Crisis 4, he appears to have gone in a flashier direction by wearing a gaudy white sleeveless coat with chains, and relies more heavily on martial arts rather than using his Mauser. By Time Crisis 5, Wild Fang takes his flamboyant dress style to its natural conclusion by wearing a feather tipped shirt that Liberrace wouldn't mind wearing and trades his Mauser for a gold engraved lever action rifle.
• Charles Atlas Super Power: His kicks are powerful enough to launch heavy metal crates at the VSSE agents, and it's initially unclear whether he's had any cybernetic augmentation like Wild Dog.
• Diving Kick: In 3 and the first console version of 4, he does this to you.
• The Dragon: To Wild Dog. And to Robert Baxter in 5.
• Drought Level of Doom: When you fight Wild Fang as Captain Rush's Final Boss, you will run out of ammo for several of your guns even if you manage to land your shots. There is not much ammo for any of your guns in the area that you fight him in, so you will need to make the best use of all of your weapons to defeat Wild Fang while running out of ammo for several of your weapons.
• Dual Boss: With Wild Dog in Time Crisis 3. Subverted in the FPS mode of the original console version of Time Crisis 4, where he goes after Captain Rush on his own.
• Empowered Badass Normal: As of 5, he sports cybernetic augmentation — specifically, a set of energy emitters on his back that allow him to generate a huge fusion sphere.
• Evil Laugh: Much like his mentor. He has a particularly grandiose one when he appears in 5.
• Extremity Extremist: While he's not afraid of using guns; if he comes at the player with anything else, it's probably a kick attack of some kind.
• The Fighting Narcissist: There were hints of it at the beginning thanks to his blue coat with fur trim; by 4 and 5, Wild Fang is sporting gaudy outfits for no other reason than to show off in his fights.
• Funny Bruce Lee Noises: Listen closely whenever he's about to unleash his flurry of kicks. Occasionally Fang will emit a "waaa-taaa!" before lashing out.
• Improbable Weapon User: In Time Crisis 4, where he fights with leg-mounted tractor beam boots. Then, in Time Crisis 5, he uses energy emitters mounted on his back to summon a massive energy sphere.
• Joker Immunity: Just like Wild Dog. He gets gunned down in 3, but comes back in 4. And how he even survived being rammed by a UCAV in 4 fo come back in 5 is anyone's guess.
• Kick Chick: A male equivalent; he tends to mix up kicks into his fighting style, up to even taking the playbook from Kamen Rider including the latter's Diving Kick.
• Lancer vs. Dragon: In 4' FPS mode, he takes on Captain William Rush. And then he was hit with an uppercut into the path of a UCAV upon defeat.
• Leg Cannon: In 5, Fang can fire missiles from his new gold prosthetic leg.
• Psycho Pink: He wears pink shirts in all his appearances, and is just as hot-headed and deranged as his teacher.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: To Wild Dog — he's younger, impulsive, and brash; while the older Wild Dog is more cunning and cool-headed. They even dress the part in Time Crisis 3, with Fang wearing a red shirt with a flashy silver-patterned tie while Dog sports a blue shirt and a subdued red tie.
• Serial Escalation: Unlike Wild Dog, who kept his augmentations limited to his Arm Cannon, Wild Fang begins to mechanize himself more and more with each subsequent appearance. In 4, his right leg is replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic that emits a tractor beam; in 5, he has a particle generator attached to his back.
• Sinister Shades: Like his mentor, Wild Dog.
• Tractor Beam: Has one in 4 like Wild Dog, which is attached to his right leg.

Giorgio Zott

Giorgio Zott is the leader of the Zagorias Federation and the primary antagonist of the third game.

• Big Bad: Of the third game.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: When we first see him, he's subjected Daniel Winston to a bunch of punishment, ultimately considering killing Daniel to send a message to Lukano.
• Defiant to the End: Zott is dead set on destroying Lukano, and the Final Battle is all about him trying to buy time so his nuclear missiles can finally launch. Even as he dies, he gloats that Alan and Wesley were too late to stop him.
• Guns Akimbo: On the last phase of the fight with him, he uses dual rocket launchers.
• Final Boss: Of the third game.
• Flash Step: What makes his sword attacks pretty damn dangerous. He'll start by shooting at you from across the room. The next second he's literally right in your face for a slash with his sword.
• Frontline General: He has personally been fielding the annexation of Astigos, and later fights you himself as the Final Boss.
• The Generalissimo: Ruler of the Zagorias Federation, and personally leads the invasion of Astigos Island all in order to set up a missile base to continue spreading his country's influence in the Mediterranean mainly by force of arms. The nicely trimmed and blinged-out general's uniform he wears when you fight him — and his strong accent — adds to the touch.
• Lack of Empathy: You could probably guess by how he's willing to direct a nuclear strike on Lukano that he has zero qualms on killing who knows how many people to make a statement.
• Lightning Bruiser: Tough with dangerous attacks, as with most Final Boss. What sets him apart though, is his ability to move at blinding speed.
• Nuke 'Em: His ultimate goal is to bomb Lukano to hell, and he venomously proclaims to Alan and Wesley that he should've destroyed the country a long time ago.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: While this is applicable to all bosses, he is the biggest among them all. For starters, he's the leader of an entire federation's army, compared to Wild Dog's terrorist organization or Barrow's single battalion. And when you finally fight him, he's a terrifyingly competent Lightning Bruiser in his own right.
• Sword and Gun: His primary weapons. You'd think you'd be safe from his sword when he's still across the room. You'd be wrong.
• Time-Limit Boss: One segment in Rescue Mission of PS2 port requires you to shoot down his handgun in 5 seconds or it's an instant game over.
• You Are Too Late: After collapsing from his wounds, he spends his last living seconds gloating that nothing can stop his nuclear missiles from being launched.

Jake Hernandez (Spoiler warning for the PS2 version)

A former member of the Lukano Liberation Army, he has betrayed them and joined the Zagorias Federation for the love of money.

• Big Bad: Of the third game's Rescue Mission mode.
• Big Bad Friend: He showed his true colors upon Alicia's request to rescue her brother from the Zagorian forces.
  Jake: If I take you to them, I might get an extra bonus.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Giorgio Zott.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Alicia finally disposes of him. Interestingly, Alicia was more concerned about the remote he was holding in front of his face when she fired; the bullet tore right through it then beaned him right in the forehead.
• Composite Character: As the Hidden Villain of the Rescue Mission storyline, Jake shares quite a few traits with several bosses before him, even outside of 3:
  • He's a sadistic Psycho Knife Nut who hurls daggers at lightning speed, similar to Sherudo Garo from the first game.
  • Alicia's first confrontation against Jake is a "Get Back Here!" Boss where the traitor sends his mooks behind while fleeing across the city, much like Jakov Kinisky from 2.
  • He's the only other boss who stoops to grabbing an unarmed civilian woman to be used as a Bulletproof Human Shield, not unlike Ernesto Diaz from 2.
  • In his final confrontation, Jake is backed up by a VTOL aircraft loaded with turrets, like the one Victor Zahn piloted. He also spends the whole boss fight leaping all over the place while taking potshots from up close, similar to Moz and Randy Garrett.
• The Dragon: Plot-wise, he fulfills this role as a turncoat LLA member who joined Zott for the money.
• Face–Heel Turn: He used to be part of the Lukano resistance, but betrayed them for a profit.
• Foreshadowing: Look carefully when his and Winston's news pictures are shown on the TV when Alicia is watching them. Daniel Winston has been beaten, Jake hasn't. Unfortunately though, Alicia found this out the hard way during her physical encounter with him. (see Big Bad Friend above)
• Final Boss: Of the Rescue Mission mode.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Amusingly, you deliver a Boom, Headshot! to his face through a remote detonator he was using to threaten Alicia via a Taking You with Me. The game proceeds to have him slump over with the camera going out of its way to hide his face despite the series being Bloodless Carnage, and Alicia being able to snipe other people in the face previously, as if to highlight just how much she fatally messed him up.
• Hate Sink: Once his true colors are revealed, everything he did only serves to highlight the sheer douchbaggery present in this human-shaped scumbag.
• Lancer vs. Dragon: While Alan and Wesley deal with Zott, Alicia ends up dealing with Jake and is the one to take him down.
• Only in It for the Money: He sold out his comrades in the resistance because the Zagorian army offered a bigger paycheck. Then, as soon as he got paid, he planned to steal cruise missiles from the Zagorian forces and sell them off to the highest bidder.
• Plot Armor: Alicia normally has Improbable Aiming Skills, but she just can't get her bullets to fatally connect with him. The one time she does hit him with a killing shot is when she's not trying to.
• Psycho for Hire: He became one after joining the Zagorias Army just to line his pockets.
• Psycho Knife Nut: One of his significant weapons of choice is a knife. And he also happens to be a madman.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Jake may have been a patriot at one point, but he's since decided that money is the only way he's going to get anything real out of life.
  "A man can't live on just dreams and ideals."
• Taking You with Me: Attempts this on Alicia when defeated in the Rescue Mission mode. He fails, and gets dragged down the cliff along with the aircraft he is in.
• Time-Limit Boss: The final segment has you shooting his detonator in 5 seconds, or it's game over.
• Villainous Breakdown: His reaction to defeat is him trying a Taking You with Me, willing to kill everyone around him — even his Zagorias employers — out of savage spite. Alicia puts a stop to that, however.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Alicia and Daniel.

Giorgio Bruno

The first player character of the fourth game.

• Deadpan Snarker: Has shades of this.
  Evan: What is this? A picnic?
  Giorgio: At least it won't be boring.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Wears a single earring on his left ear.
• One-Man Army: He is cleared to perform missions solo like the solo mission that he did in Time Crisis: 2nd Strike, a prequel to Time Crisis 4.
• Blue Oni: Reversed. Despite wearing a red jacket, he is the more quiet, yet sarcastic of the duo.
• White Sheep: He was born into The Mafia. He would rather fight for justice rather than commit crimes for the mob.

Evan Bernard

The second player character of the fourth game.

• Fashionable Asymmetry: He wears one glove on his right hand.
• Firing One-Handed: He's one of the few VSSE agents who is unable to do this.
• French Jerk: Downplayed, he is only a jerk towards the terrorists.
• Red Oni: Reversed. Despite wearing a blue logo on his white jacket, he is the more hotheaded, yet snarky of the duo.

Captain William Rush

Captain Rush is a soldier for the U.S. Army who has been sent to investigate the Terror Bites being smuggled by terrorists.

• Ammunition Conservation: Unlike VSSE agents, all of his ammunition including handgun ammunition is limited. He has to make the most of what he has, which can frequently cost players time so that they can make their shots count. He has unlimited time, unlike VSSE agents.
• Berserk Button: Rush is incredibly loyal to his country, and is disgusted when he realizes that the people he and the VSSE agents are fighting are a rogue military cell trying to destroy the United States out of spite. When he fights Jack Mathers, he rails on the latter for going back on the oaths he swore to his country (which doesn't faze the very anti-patriotic Jack).
• The Big Guy: Physically larger and stronger than either of the VSSE agents. He handles firearms well enough, but makes use of his physical strength against enemies mainly when he is not the player character, most notably when he gets into a wresting tango with Jack Mathers at the end of Act II.
• Dramatic Ammo Depletion: He often finds himself in situations where he can find himself running out of handgun or other kinds of ammunition, forcing him to use other guns, explosives, sonic weapons that are specialized in killing terror bites, and a combat knife.
• Expy: He is based off Claude McGarren of Crisis Zone.
• Lancer vs. Dragon: As revealed in the FPS mode, he takes on Wild Fang solo while Evan and Giorgio fight Barrows.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Suffers one through the hands of Jack Mathers. He throws back as much punishment as he can back on Jack, and ultimately deals the finishing blow on him.
• Patriotic Fervor: Upon finding out that the enemies he and the VSSE were fighting were all disgruntled members of the U.S. military, he is not amused.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes into full-on patriotic rage mode when he confronts Jack Mathers and engages him in an impromptu wrestling match.
  Rush: You...YOU'RE A DISGRACE TO YOUR COUNTRY! You took an oath of loyalty to your country!
• Regenerating Health: He has this in the FPS mode. This is in exchange for the enemies having much more accurate aim in the FPS mode. He has to be hit enough for his life bar to be completely drained for him to lose a life.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Unlike VSSE agents, he carries and uses throwable grenades.

Elizabeth Conway

Lieutenant Conway serves as a dispatcher for Giorgio, Evan, and Rush during the events of the fourth game, providing support from the skies.

• Mission Control: Doesn't take part directly in the fighting, instead serves aboard an aircraft mainly to relay intel and directions to Rush and the VSSE agents in their pursuit of the enemy.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Part of her role is to keep Rush and the VSSE agents up to date on what's going on. She doesn't meet face to face with any of the others in the game until after the finale.

Marcus Black

A Captain of the United States Army, and an arms dealer who attempted to sell Terror Bites to W.O.L.F. Serves as Stage 1's boss. Wears a pull-up mask covering his mouth, which somehow disappears when he is defeated.

• BFG: An anti-tank rifle, which he can fire one-handed.
• Firing One-Handed: To the astonishment of Captain Rush, Black can expertly handle and fire an anti-tank rifle with only a single grip on the weapon.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: His gun has a grappling hook on it, which allows him to swing all over the place during the boss battle making him harder to hit.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He's a pretty good shot with an anti-tank rifle—which he wields with one hand.
• In the Hood: His uniform includes a ninja-esque hood.
• Meaningful Name: Guess what color his clothes are.
• Only in It for the Money: Frank Mathers even calls him a backstabbing traitor because of this.

Jack Mathers

A First Lieutenant of the Hamlin Battalion, and the supervisor of its Biological Weapons Research regiment. Serves as Stage 2's boss.

• The Brute: Serves as this for Barrows and the Hamlin Battalion.
• Face–Heel Turn: Used to be loyal to the United States, but decided to put Gregory's orders above loyalty to his country.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: While grappling with Rush, he will pick up Rush over his head and use him as an impromptu club to hit the players. It hits as much as being shot by a bullet.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivers one to Rush in their fight, having the upper hand for most of it (though Rush still gets some fair hits in).
• Uncertain Doom: It's uncertain whether he died from the utter hailstorm of bullets he took on after his fight with Giorgio, Evan and Rush, or he simply fell unconscious afterwards. Given Rush finished him up with a jaw-shattering uppercut, he could've been knocked out at the end; Giorgio keeps Rush from beating up on Jack after the fight, as there's "no use talking to him anymore".

Frank Mathers

A relative of Jack Mathers and another officer in the Hamlin Battalion. Only encounterable in William Rush's story mode.

• Even Evil Has Standards: He's very much in it to tear America down in a petty rage, but he thinks of Marcus Black as a backstabbing traitor who only cares about cash.
• Evil Feels Good: "I'm gonna tear this country apart... and it's gonna feel good!"
• Hannibal Lecture: "Do you have any idea how many reckless experiments we've been involved in? How many dangerous missions we've accomplished? But what do we get for breaking our backs? Nothing!!"
• Un-person: The U.S. Army made it look like the Hamlin Battalion never existed, and he doesn't take it kindly.

Gregory Barrows

Barrows is the leader of the Hamlin Battalion and the primary antagonist of the fourth game. He's the creator of the Terror Bites.—-

• Big Bad: Of the fourth game.
• Electronic Eyes: His bionic left eye allows him to control the Terror Bites and prevents them from attacking him.
• Final Boss: Of the fourth game.
• Flunky Boss: He's not very armed himself, carrying just two Desert Eagles for personal weapons. He relies on his massive collection of Terror Bites to keep you at bay.
• Freudian Excuse: Turned against the US due to the poor treatment he and his unit received in the Army, including a lack of authority.
• Guns Akimbo: His weapons of choice include two Desert Eagle handguns.
• Near-Villain Victory: The warheads that his UCAVs fired were a few seconds away from detonating and causing catastrophic damage to the entire U.S. It's only thanks to Giorgio and Evan pressing the button to harmlessly detonate the missiles without engaging the payloads that it doesn't happen. This is the closest that any villain in the series has gotten to accomplishing their goal of mass murder.
• Nuke 'Em: His last resort plan was to nuke the entire United States.
• Posthumous Villain Victory: Narrowly averted. Although he's killed, the UCAVs still fire off their missiles, and the two V.S.S.E. operatives stop the missiles with a second or two to spare.
• Western Terrorists: The leader of such a cell.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He doesn't wear a shirt, especially when fighting Giorgio and Evan at the end of the game.

Luke O'Neil

One of the newest VSSE agents and the Player 1 character.

• The Big Guy: He qualifies as this due to his badass appearance, complete with baseball cap and a sleeveless shirt.
• Red Oni: To Marc's blue.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: He wears a sleeveless shirt.
• Super-Speed: What Dual-Pedal System is translated as.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Robert.

Marc Godart

One of the newest VSSE agents and the Player 2 character.

• Blue Oni: To Luke's red.
• Super-Speed: What Dual-Pedal System is translated as.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Robert.

Catherine Ricci

She serves as a dispatcher for Robert Baxter, Luke O'Neil, and Marc Godart during the events of the fifth game.

• Disney Death: In the final battle, she apparently sacrifices herself to destroy Robert's missile before it launches. She emerges alive, however.
• Expy: Of Christy Ryan. She shares Christy's initials and is a brunette who looks like Christy's PlayStation 2 model.
• Mission Control: She is your commander, and generally stays out of the field for most of the game.

All spoilers in this folder are unmarked, as stated in the folder title. You have been warned.

Keith Martin

Keith was last seen in Time Crisis II as one of two VSSE agents sent to neutralize Ernesto Diaz and NeoDyne Industries' nuclear satellite plan. By Time Crisis 5, he appears to have become a VSSE traitor.

However, he reveals that he is not the traitor, and in fact reveals that it is Robert who is the traitor, at the end of Stage 4. From then on out, he accompanies the heroes in place of Robert.

• Artificial Limbs: His lower left arm has been replaced by a prosthetic in this game.
• The Bus Came Back: In 5 True Mastermind Edition where he is the suspected traitor of VSSE.
• Clear My Name: His goal in 5.
• Colonel Badass: Forced into this role after Robert was exposed as the traitor since the rookies need a field commander.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: He's ditched his protagonist-red player attire for gray body armor. He starts the game as the apparent main antagonist, but joins you halfway through.
• Demoted to Extra: Trades his role of Player Character for "apparent villain" and later an NPC ally after he's revealed to be Good All Along.
• Disc-One Final Boss: After you defeat him in the fourth stage of 5, he opens up the case and exposes Robert as the traitor. He also reveals that Wild Dog had only been keeping the agents at bay.
• Evil Brit: Appears to be the VSSE traitor at first, but subverted when it turns out he was Good All Along.
• Eyepatch of Power: Sports one in this game.
• Foreshadowing: For reasons that's later made clear in the game, Keith doesn't have any mooks assisting him during the battle, averting Flunky Boss unlike most previous bosses in the franchise (you do get attacked by a platoon of stray mooks halfway through after depleting much of Keith's health, but Keith isn't in the vicinity of the area at that point). Considering Keith isn't on the same side as those mercenaries...
• Frame-Up: Robert paints him as the VSSE traitor, but Keith manages to demonstrate otherwise.
• Good All Along: Is not the VSSE traitor; Robert set him up. He only fights the heroes in self-defense, and it becomes more clear he's really a good guy as he tries to unlock the briefcase containing incriminating information on Robert.
• Hero Antagonist: He was forced into this role when Robert tricked the VSSE rookies into fighting him. He is Good All Along. He fought the rookies in self-defense.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Sometime before the events of 5, Robert had gone rogue and killed Christy, who had fallen in love with Keith.
• Inappropriately Close Comrades: He was dating fellow VSSE agent Christy sometime before she was killed.
• McNinja: He can warp to places at a super fast pace, almost on par with VSSE agents Luke and Marc in 5.
• Rogue Protagonist: He became this when Robert tricked the rookies into fighting him, but turns out to be Good All Along. His old partner Robert is a different story.
• Stab the Scorpion: The boss fight against Keith ends with a cutscene where the defeated Keith opens the briefcase he's carrying to Marc and Luke. As the two players are stunned after seeing the case's contents, Keith then fires two bullets... hitting two knives flung by Robert towards the two. Cue The Reveal scene.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: His main weapon is a ninjato and occasionally throws shurikens at the players.
• Sword Beam: His sword can fire arcs of quick-moving, difficult-to-dodge energy waves on the players.
• Walking Spoiler: He's only revealed in the game during the second half of it, and the twist is that he's gone rogue...apparently, and the fact that he actually didn't is another twist unto itself.
• Wham Line: During his boss battle.
  Keith: The internal auditor, Christy, we were in love. I need to find out what really happened!
• Wrecked Weapon: He gets his sword snapped into half at the end of the battle.
• You Monster!: He calls Robert this when Robert's robot goes One-Winged Angel in the fifth game.

Robert Baxter

Formerly a VSSE frontline agent, he returns in 5 as a supporting sidekick, leading the search for the VSSE traitor and infamous VSSE archnemesis Wild Dog.

...or so he says, until it's revealed that he is the traitor. He had stolen a drug during a mission years ago, stated to "negate pain and fear", i.e. turn humans into zombies in all but name, and intends to weaponize it in the form of missiles that detonate to spread the drug.

• Actually, I Am Him: He joins Luke and Marc in search of a "VSSE traitor". As it turns out, Robert is the traitor.
• Animal Motif: Turns out his snakeskin shirt was a sign of how he was a treacherous viper from the beginning, waiting for the right moment to backstab Luke and Marc and kill Keith to cover his treason.
• Apocalypse How: His goal is to create a Societal Collapse by turning the entirety of humanity into what are effectively zombies.
• Big Bad: Well, the Updated Re-release doesn't say True Mastermind Edition for nothing.
• Big Bad Friend: For the first four stages where he serves as support.
• Beard of Evil: Has grown one since his last appearance.
• Boss-Only Level: The Final Boss battle with him takes up an entire stage. There is one section where you have to fight some Mooks, but for the most part it's you, your partner, and Keith vs. Robert.
• Colonel Badass: He was Luke's and Marc's field commander until he was exposed as the traitor. He also appears to fight his own men to keep his cover.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: He's ditched his protagonist-blue player attire for a gray polo shirt and white slacks. He starts the game as part of your support, but is revealed as the true main villain halfway through.
• Combining Mecha: His mecha can divide itself during battle to attack as separate entities.
• Death by Irony: Like Ernesto Diaz, the Big Bad of II, as well as Jake Hernandez of 3's Rescue Mission story, he dies a Disney Villain Death.
• Disney Villain Death: You defeat him like this in a quick-time event. He falls into the ocean, though his death isn't explicitly shown.
• Evil Former Friend: To Keith.
• Face–Heel Turn: He turns his back on the VSSE after a mission gone sour three years before the events of the game.
• Final Boss: The final enemy of 5: Mastermind Edition.
• Hate Sink: The reveal that he betrayed the VSSE, murdered one of his former partners, tried to kill the other one, and is intent on causing the fall of human society with a virus that turns people into zombies with barely any plausible rationale cements him as an irredeemable monster.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Shooting a tracking device into the briefcase that Wild Dog launched? Good job, you just led the VSSE to your secret hideout. To be fair, if Keith Martin hadn't picked up the briefcase, Wild Dog's mercenaries would likely have retrieved it first. Unfortunately for Robert, Keith managed to wipe them out, retrieve the briefcase and follow their trail back to Robert's base, leading the VSSE there.
• Humongous Mecha: He fights the player using one for the final battle.
• Kick the Dog: When he went rogue, he killed Christy, the Damsel in Distress from the second game and Keith's lover. He also framed Keith for the murder.
• Macross Missile Massacre: His robot launches tons of missiles at you in the final battle.
• The Man Behind the Man: To Wild Dog.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Many of his rants show hard signs of this.
• Mole in Charge: He leads the investigation to find the traitor only to reveal that he's been the traitor all along.
• One-Winged Angel: His Humongous Mecha undergoes this during the final battle.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Seconds after he's exposed, Robert attempts to back stab the still shocked Luke and Marc with a pair of knives (which Keith thankfully managed to shoot out of the air). During his duel with Keith just prior to this, Robert engages him in swordplay with what looks like a seax or a kukri.
• Rogue Agent: To the VSSE.
• Rogue Protagonist: Remember II's Player 2 protagonist character? Well, protagonist no more.
• Sinister Shades: He wears shades throughout all of 5, even during the night stages, but it turns into this trope once he's exposed as the main villain of the game.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: One of the main heroes in 2, and the main villain in this game.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: It's clear he has something against the VSSE, but the most of a motive he ever gives out is that he wants to "reset the world".
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Unlike past villains and bosses who tend to wear pretty stylish, combat-specialized, or outlandish outfits, Robert just wears a grey polo shirt, slacks, and shades, even after he reveals his true colors.
• Treacherous Advisor: Serves as a sidekick at first...until the end of stage 4.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: When he's exposed as the traitor and Big Bad, he uses a flashbang to escape from the protagonists.
• Wham Line: After the revelation that he was the traitor among the VSSE.
  Robert: If you had just died this would have all gone according to plan.
• Zombie Apocalypse: He seems to have taken a lesson from Caleb Goldman and Albert Wesker. As part of his terrorist plot, he had stolen a drug three years before the events of the game, and he now has a missile armed with the drug to destroy the world with New York as his first target. In Stage 5 of the game you even fight zombie-like enemies.

Marisa Soleli

• Only Known by Their Nickname: Averted. Her real name was presented in the intro, too.

Zeus Bertrand

One of Kantaris' loyal bodyguards. He is currently holding Marisa Soleil captive after Kantaris ordered him to do so as a result of Kantaris intercepting Soleil's e-mails. Aboard Kantaris' yacht,he was guarding Marisa's cell when he was shot by Richard in a shootout.

• David Versus Goliath: Goliath to Richard's David.
• Railing Kill: Regardless where you shoot him, once he's down Zeus will fall over a set of railings to his death.

Ricardo Blanco

A Caruban anti-government soldier who was responsible for assassinating the Caruban president Xavier Serrano and for framing Miller in the act.

• Big Bad: Of Project Titan. Until you beat him, of course, and then he is killed by Wild Dog.
• Big Fancy House: The boss fight against him is set in the courtyard of his manor.
• Disc-One Final Boss: After being defeated by Miller, he is finished off by Wild Dog, and reveals the location of the Wild Dogs' lab to Miller.
• Evil Gloating: See his quote above.
• Master of Disguise: He is described as one, and used this skill to frame Miller.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Blanco tells Miller the location of the Wild Dogs' lab as he is dying from being shot by Wild Dog.
• Private Military Contractors: He is described as a mercenary by Abacus.

Deimos and Phobos

Richard eventually unveils the truth behind Wild Dog's Project Titan operation, that the project is for Wild Dog to create his own titanium-based robot army... the first two prototypes, Deimos and Phobos, which he then sics on Richard.

• The Dividual: They exist together, natch.
• Dual Boss: They attack Richard, both at once.
• Flash Step: Another ability they demonstrate during the boss fight.
• Flechette Storm: They tend to spam blade attacks on Richard during the boss fight, not unlike Sherudo.
• In a Single Bound: They can jump really, really, really high and fast during the boss fight. And even launch ranged attacks on Richard while in mid-air.
• Meaningful Name: Deimos and Phobos are words of Greek origin that means dread and fear respectively.
• Noisy Robots: They're always screeching during the boss battle.
• Robot Soldier: They serve this purpose for Wild Dog's Project Titan.
• Smoke Bomb: During the boss battle, Deimos and Phobos will attack Richard with smoke grenades. Ducking as usual will avoid any damage from the explosion... only for a thick cloud of black smoke to fog up the screen, making it difficult for Richard to attack either the two robots, and also for either Deimos or Phobos to counter-attack through the smoke.
• Super Prototype: The first two prototype of Wild Dog's titanium robot army, and they sure put up hell of a fight before going down!
• There Is Another: It takes Richard a whole lot of effort to finally, finally, take them down, before he goes out to confront Wild Dog... only for Wild Dog to reveal he actually had a hundred other Deimos and Phobos ready to be activated. But Richard guns down Wild Dog's helicopter before he could leave, causing said helicopter to crash on the army.
• Wolverine Claws: They are armed with these, and lashes out at Richard with surprising speed.

Xavier Serrano

• Death Faked for You: Was seemingly assasinated by Blanco, but in actuality he was abducted. Upon being found by Richard, Serrano then went out to clear Richard's name.
• Our Presidents Are Different: Although we've been told he was assassinated, only for Blanco, who pretended to be Miller to do the deed, to tell Miller that he's alive, we see him well, armed with a golden gun, and carrying blueprints pertaining to what Project Titan is, indicating he freed himself and tells Miller to go after Wild Dog while he contacts the VSSE.
• Walking Spoiler: The fact that Serrano is alive the whole time isn't made clear until the very, very last stages of the game.