This is the characters page for Astral Chain.
Beware of unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned.
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Howard Twins
Player Character
- Male MC voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Japanese), Aleks Le (English)Female MC voiced by: Chika Anzai (Japanese), Brianna Knickerbocker (English)
The player character of the game. They, along with Akira, were recently promoted out of Criminal Affairs and into Neuron.
- The Ace: Considering they were promoted into Neuron, a special task force dedicated to handling supernatural problems that are too much for the regular police to handle, this is to be expected, but they take it up a notch. As soon as they gain their Legion, they are already shown to be extremely proficient in using it despite only just learning their existence minutes earlier. In fact, they are the only one to maintain control of their Legion after going into the Astral Plane. They are also the only one to be able to use more than one type of Legion. Somewhat deconstructed when it's shown that their excellence accentuate the negative emotions of their teammates (like jealousy or worthlessness).
- Always Someone Better: They are this to... everyone on the Neuron Task Force really, but especially Akira. This is deconstructed in the final level where Akira has enough of it and tries to kill them.
- Badass Adorable: Both of them are quite cute teenagers but they're also police officers who have supernatural powers with a Legion.
- Badass Biker: Not a prominent example but the opening level has them kicking Aberration ass while riding their motorcycle on a highway. They go for another motorbike ride later in the game to save Yoseph from Jena, only this time they have their Legions to back them up.
- Big Eater: The player can aquire food at either an ice cream stall, which allows the player to order a stack of icecream ten scoops tall. More extreme is the congee seller who will give the player an item if they eat seven bowls, the seller implies eating one bowl in one sitting is impressive.
- But Thou Must!: The game presents the protagonist with a choice to finish Noah off at the end of the game at the cost of Akira's life. Even if the player refuses to kill their sibling, the Arrow Legion spawns to Mercy Kill its former handler while the protagonist tries to wave it off.
- Canon Name: Well, something close to them at least. Hitting "randomize" at the name screen grants the player one of four predetermined names depending on which sibling is chosen. The brother's names include Yamato, Kazuma, Ryo, and Hayato, whereas the sister's names include Kaede, Misaki, Miki and Akane.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Can be invoked by the player if you choose to tackle sidequests in each level. Particularly egregious late in the story. In File 10 and 11, you have highly important missions like saving Brenda and stopping Yoseph's plans. You also start in Zone 09 in both of them, a large level with multiple sidequests in each file that do include reasonable distractions like closing gates but also include sillier ones like helping a man take measurements and baby-sitting a young girl.
- Cowboy Cop: As noble as they are, they're perfectly willing to skirt the law when necessary, such as when they agree to help Hal investigate District 09, despite it being illegal to enter, or when they go rogue after being betrayed and left for dead by Yoseph.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Legion Fusion is a powerful tool, but the form has a very different moveset from those that the player usually has access to.
- Disney Death: Twice in file 9.
- The first time happens after defeating Jena's final form. They manage to do so but they use up so much energy they pass out and fall to the ground. Olive out-right mentions that she can't pick up any of their vitals after the fall happens. Fortunately, the Legatus also turns out to be a Magical Defibrillator and brings him back to life.
- Unfortunately, undoing the first one comes at the cost of a Fusion Dance with their Legion, which goes berserk. Yoseph quickly takes the opportunity to deploy the Raven Corps, who swiftly defeat them. The last we see of them in that file is being thrown off a bridge and seemingly disintegrated but file 10 does show that they are alive and well, thanks to Hal.
- Fair Cop: As total badassess they are, both of them are young and quite attractive officers.
- Fusion Dance: Twice.
- In File 9, they inadvertently fuse with their Legion after defeating Jena and wind up going berserk. It's short-lived because seconds after murdering Jena, Yoseph introduces the Raven Corps who swiftly defeat and nearly kill them.
- In the proceeding File, they willingly merge with their Legion again when Akira goes haywire after merging with theirs. Subsequently, unlike their younger sibling, the protagonist has full sentience, acting in accord with their Legion.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: The seemingly unstoppable Legion Fusion getting easily gunned down by the RAVEN Corps Legions tip the player off that while it is mighty, the form isn't invincible by any stretch.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Gets these during their Fusion Dance with their Legion
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: If male, the player character will have this dynamic with other characters.
- With Akira, he'll have the close-range Jack of All Stats Sword Legion in contrast to her long-range Fragile Speedster Arrow Legion. Naturally, the dynamic becomes inverted when the genders are flipped.
- Can also have this dynamic with Olive whose only weapon is a single handgun. It is possible to defy this trope by only using the gun and Arrow Legion but considering you get points depending on how unharmed Olive is during her Escort Mission, it's far more practical to use the more powerful and close-range options.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: As your character, you can name them.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: As law-abiding as the game encourages the player to be, the protagonist starts out the game in a high-speed motorcycle shoot-out sans the protective headgear police officers in the setting usually wear.
- Heroic Mime: Downplayed. They aren't explicitly voiced but they do make sounds like grunts and have (non-voiced) conversations with other characters, when given dialogue choices.
- Image Song: "Dark Hero". There are two separate arrangements of this song that play depending on which protagonist you choose when they merge with their Legion to stop Akira's rampage. Doubles as Theme Music Power-Up, as fusing in most fights that aren't against bosses causes the song to start up while the fusion is in effect.
- Instant Expert: Becomes proficient in the use of their Legion, immediately after acquiring it. Other Neuron officers make the comparison that while the other Neuron officers are like pet tamers who are lucky to get their Legions to obey, they in particular can control the Legion as if it's part of their own body. Even Max couldn't get his Legion to obey him at first!
- Irony: They're tasked with protecting their younger sibling from harm early on in the game, but it's ultimately Akira who pushes them out of harm's way twice.
- Jack of All Stats: They become this when they get access to all five Legion types.
- Lawman Baton: Their main weapon is a baton.
- Not So Above It All: In one side mission, they dress up in the Lappy suit to help bring up morale within Neuron.
- One-Man Army: There were hints they were this early on but file 7: "Wild", solidly cements them as this trope. They take singlehandedly take out an army of Abberations and Chimeras and singlehandedly defeat Homunculus Gamma, an Eldritch Abomination that effortlessly defeated the entire police force and rest of the Neuron Task Force.
- Post-Victory Collapse: Has this in file 10, after defeating Akira's fused Legion form.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: Regardless of whichever sibling the player chooses, the game's overall experience is practically the same, and neither the brother or sister have any differences that skewer balance in their favor.
- Small Steps Hero: They can be played as this, from solving the problems of random bystanders to picking up litter. This despite the fact that they are usually on an investigation to solve the disappearances of other civilians or simply finding the bag guy of that level.
- Suddenly Voiced: They give the ending narration after the final boss is defeated.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Breaking out of the city, knocking out guards, using your Legion without permission. Not to mention partially being the reason there's a massive storm from the Astral Plane that everyone has to deal with. Yeah, you're getting arrested regardless of how useful you are to Neuron.
- Theme Twin Naming: This can be the case with the female protagonist, as one of her default names is "Akane", which begins with Ak like her twin sibling, Akira. This only applies to the female protagonist though, not the male protagonist (of course, given that you can give both protagonists any name you want, one can invoke this for him if they so desire).
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: They never use lethal force on people unless they've been transformed into aberrations, outright chimera, or something distinctly inhuman in spite of retaining their sense of self such as Yoseph by way of Noah.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If they had just ignored Hal and stayed within the Ark, then Douglas wouldn't have been found, Kyle wouldn't have gotten his hands on the suitcase with the experimental drugs, the Hermits wouldn't have taken it and become Chimeras and there possibly wouldn't be a massive storm from the Astral Plane shifting into the real world.
- Vetinari Job Security: Downplayed. Hal says that the player character should expect this trope but they still get arrested and Akira being up and about and gaining a more powerful Legion shows that you aren't exactly as important as it seems. Regardless, the outbreak stretching Neuron's forces thin does cause Yoseph to give them a second chance.
Akira Howard
- Male Akira voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Japanese), Aleks Le (English)Female Akira voiced by: Chika Anzai (Japanese), Brianna Knickerbocker (English)
The younger sibling of the Player Character. Because of their excellent results, Akira (and the Player Character) were chosen to be the next candidates in using a Legion. After they survive their first encounter with the Chimeras, they are promoted into Neuron to protect humanity from the impending threat.
- Ambiguous Clone Ending: Is in this situation after Noah Prime is defeated. Akira wasn't doing so hot after finding out Yoseph cloned them to create a black-ops group anyway, so maybe it's for the best Akira has "forgotten" about it. By this point, Akira, like the Player, had fully synchronized with their Legion, allowing them to live on in the clone and helping to avoid a lot of the nastier implications of this trope.
- Badass Adorable: He/She is younger than the MC and also is a young-looking and cute police officer who has supernatural powers with a Legion.
- Badass Biker: As much as their sibling. At the end of chapter 6, they make their entrance riding in on a motorbike which they proceed to crash in the face of Homunculus Beta before summoning their new legion and finishing the job.
- Big Damn Heroes: After nearly two files of absence, Akira makes their return by finishing off the Homunculus that nearly kills their older sibling.
- Blatant Lies: "I had it under control!" Akira yells as the city is on fire and suffering attacks from Chimera, which at that point in the game, were only thought to be vulnerable to other Chimera.
- Body Backup Drive: Of a sort. The "original" Akira is killed during their Heroic Sacrifice to take down Noah Prime, but their Legion survives, and by this point had essentially become an extension of them. Akira's Legion goes on to transfer "Akira" to one of their surviving clones, albeit with the events of the ARI mostly erased. The clones themselves were mostly empty husks programmed to follow Yoseph's orders, so there wasn't really much to overwrite anyways.
- Broken Ace: They got promoted into an elite task force because of their skills. However, after losing their dad and their Legion to the Astral Plane, they begin showing feelings of helplessness at their situation and jealousy towards their older sibling because of how unscathed they seemed after the fact.
- Clone Angst: Finding out that the Ravens are all clones of them sends them into an existential crisis. Then in the postgame, PC logs reveal that "Akira" is one of the surviving clones with the original's memories, retrieved from their Legion.
- Fatal Flaw: Pride. While they are extremely capable, they're also incredibly headstrong.
- Fair Cop: Just the Player Character, Akira is a young and quite attractive officer.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Like all of Neuron and their sibling, they don't bother wearing the standard issue protective helmets the rest of the police use. After their Dramatic Unmask, they even ditch their Raven helmet and choose to go bareheaded for the rest of the game.
- Heroic BSoD: The two major instances where they're fought as a boss boil down to this. The first comes after they undergo an accidental Fusion Dance with their Legion, forcing the player to do the same and battle them. The second comes right before the player attempts to stop Yoseph and Noah, and by that point, it's a straight-up Duel Boss boss fight against Akira and their Legion.
- Heroic Sacrifice: They perform one when fighting Jena. After Jena negates the protagonist's legion, she goes to impale them. Cue Akira pushing their sibling out of the way and taking blow themselves. Fortunately, Akira does survive this. They end up performing yet another one during the final battle with Noah Prime, restraining him so that the Player Character can deliver the finishing blow. However, while the real one is likely gone, Akira still lives on thanks to a surviving clone with the original's memories transferred from their legion, though the events of what went down at the ARI have been mostly erased.
- Informed Attribute: They are supposedly The Ace and comparable to their sibling in terms of skills but besides the investigation portions of the game, they show nothing to reaffirm this and usually have to be saved from trouble. Justified because Akira loses their Legion early on in the game and it is made a point that the only way to fight (or even see) Chimeras is with the use of other Chimeras, which is what the Legions are. They grow out of this as the story goes on.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight:
- Takes part in this to stop their sibling from going berserk after fusing with their Legion. It fails horribly, because while the protagonist is in there somewhere (as indicated by the Fusion briefly turning blue if you succeed at the Quick Time Event), they aren't able to take control, nor does Akira stand a chance of actually fighting them. The Fusion is only stopped by Jena taking the hit for Akira, followed by the Raven Corps blasting the player off a cliff.
- Later, they're on the receiving end after getting backstabbed by the Raven Corps causes their own Fusion to activate. This time the protagonist is able to willingly enter Fusion mode to save them by wearing them out, which works.
- Me's a Crowd: The Ravens are all revealed to be clones of them.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Subverted. The color scheme of their Raven armor and the eerie red of their Astral Chain seem very off, and Hal tries to warn the player to be suspicious of the Ravens as a whole. However, Akira remains loyal to their sibling to the end. Played straight for the Ravens when they are revealed to be Akira clones.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Often depicted as being the more vocal and impulsive of the Howard siblings, whereas the player seems to mostly keep their cool no matter what. Eventually comes to a head when they end up standing against the player; their black and red-accented armor as a Raven in addition to their Legion's matching color scheme go directly against the white and blue color scheme of Neuron.
- Put on a Bus: They understandably take a leave from the story after being run through with Jena's sword. They get better.
- Sanity Slippage: In File 11, to the point where they attack you as well as the clones.
- Signature Mon: Even after they get access to all five Legion types thanks to their Raven gear, Akira usually defaults to using the Arrow Legion.
- Static Role, Exchangeable Character: They are the character you didn't select to play.
- Tempting Fate: While scolding their sibling for an Unwanted Rescue and saying how they didn't need their sibling's help, Akira's legion comes through the portal and kidnaps them.
- Took a Level in Badass: Did they ever. At the start of the game Akira mostly needed to be rescued and even with a Legion, they weren't particularly impressive compared to their sibling. The very first thing they do after returning is defeat a Homunculus that even the player character couldn't (although it was largely weakened from their fight).
- Wham Shot: Them removing their helmet to reveal themselves is this on two levels. It serves to show that Akira is finally back and that they can sync up with their Legion, just like you can.
Legions
General
From left to right: Sword, Arm, Arrow, Axe and Beast
The primary Anti-chimera weaponry, Legions are tamed chimeras that the player character (among others) are able to manipulate and fight with in battle. Their abilities vary from Legion to Legion.- A Boy and His X: A boy (or girl) and their Legion. There are specific cutscenes that play with them, implying that they've grown attached to their user.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The player's Legions gradually warm up to them for this reason.
- Chain Pain: Controlled via the titular Astral Chains - these are what keep them from trying to kill everyone, but keep them out too long and they can apparently get cranky.
- Character Development: Subtle, but it's there. By the end of the game they've gone from wild threats that have to be forcibly collared to emoting at the player character and acting against their will but in their interests.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: One of the in-game mechanics is that you can change the color of your Legion. Also done in-game with the Raven Corps vs. the original Neuron.
- David Versus Goliath: Most of them are much smaller versions of the enemy chimera types (and bosses) you encounter throughout the game. Even the Axe Legion is dwarfed by the likes of Diomedes and Hector.
- Death Is Cheap: Since their cores are safely stored in the Legatus Cradle, Legions can be destroyed in a wide variety of ways, but can be summoned over and over again once the device's energy recharges.
- The Dog Bites Back: And how. After they break free, they go directly for their original wielders later in the game.
- Dual Wielding: Each Legion besides the Axe Legion wields two of a certain kind of offensive asset whether they be swords, bows, claws, or fists.
- Epic Flail: You can do this to yourself if you catch up to your Legion with the in-game mechanics. Useful for when you end up fighting airborne enemies.
- Evil Is Bigger: Their Nemesis forms are slightly larger than when they're under control to make their movements easier to read during their boss fights. This isn't particularly noticeable until you put them side-by-side with their Legion counterparts.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: They're still chimeras, and thus, wild animals not at all happy that they're being yanked around on chains. The moment they get free, they immediately demonstrate their anger at the people who view them as tools, and even the ones who actually like their wielders have minds of their own and disobey if they think they have better ideas.
- Finish Him!: Each Legion has an animation that tears out the heart of various monster Mooks and will restore the player's health. Timing it just right will reward you with better loot.
- It's Personal: Joins in with The Dog Bites Back. They all go for revenge on their previous wielders, to the exclusion of all else.
- Pet Monstrosity: They're forcefully tamed chimeras who are used to fight other chimeras.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Legions' eyes will glow red if they're excited. Or after they've broken free and are about to kill you.
- Time Master: With certain skills slotted in any Legion give them a chance to slow enemies, the Arrow Legion has an attack that always does this.
- Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: They're the "upgrade" to the "prototype" of Jena's flawed Protolegions. However, this dynamic is reversed when they have to contend with the somewhat more advanced Legions the Ravens use.
- Variable-Length Chain: It can extend or shrink depending on cutscene or plot relevance. You can also extend the chain out if you use the Ability Slots in-game, and it will extend by a specific length. Justified, in that it's made of energy rather than metal.
- Walking Wasteland: The ground they walk or float on lightly distorts due to redshift, but it turns back to normal once they vanish or move on somewhere else.
Sword Legion
Sword Legion
The player character's starting Legion. It's the most varied of the bunch, despite the name.- A Taste of Power: A subversion in that it makes the player taste the power they can potentially wield together. The Sword Nemesis fight has it showcase several abilities that the player wouldn't have had access to in that point of the story, all of which can be unlocked in the subsequent chapter's Legionis skill tree options.
- Ace Custom: Besides its RAVEN counterpart, there is no enemy in the game that shares its equipment or moveset. The opening cutscene even makes it a point to show that the first Sword Legion was an enhanced and armoured version of a generic humanoid Chimera. This is in stark contrast to its fellow Legions whose abilities are lifted from those of enemy Chimeras that share their type.
- Black Swords Are Better: If you decide to modify the Legion's colors, you can invoke this trope.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Both of it's arms are blades usually, but can shift into hands when blueshifting or rescuing the character from a fall.
- Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: It's the one to jump out and yank the Player Character back to solid ground if they fall off.
- Character Select Forcing: While the Legions share common abilities, the Sword Legion is the only one that can hack, heal, and eavesdrop. It's even the only one that pulls you back up from falling no matter which one you have equipped.
- Clothes Make the Superman: All of its abilities are derived from the technological implants Neuron gave it in lieu of how the other Legions utilise the skills of their respective Chimera species.
- Diving Save: Does this in the very first file with the player character. If you fall off in the Astral Realm, you'll be subjected to this too.
- Epic Flail: A unique combo that the player can trigger after continually pressing the basic attack button after a 360-degree synch attack involves weightily spinning the Sword Legion around until another synch attack prompt comes along whereupon the player starts spinning the Legion around even stronger and faster.
- Flying Weapon: One of the available abilities is to summon multiple floating blades around the Legion.
- Healing Hands: Or Healing Swords - the Sword Legion is capable of removing corruption from individuals, and there's an in-game achievement for doing so.
- Hollywood Hacking:
- The Sword Legion's Slash Stance is often used on the Ark to literally slash through wire signals to cut them, which helps in opening locked doors, cutting signals from haywire robots, etc.
- In some instances, the Sword Legion can be flung at security cameras to hack the security footage from them into your IRIS.
- Jack of All Stats: The Sword Legion is the most flexible and versatile of the Legions, providing a balance of speed, power, and utility.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Before the Sword Nemesis properly fights the protagonist, it kills the Chimera nearby so it can battle its former master one-on-one.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Inverted. After being the Protagonist's primary Legion in the story (if potentially, not gameplay), it is shuffled aside during the closing minutes of the final mission as either the Axe or Arrow Legion perform the climax's decisive blow.
Arrow Legion
Arrow Legion
The second Legion that the character gets in game, and the original Legion of Akira Howard. It specializes in long-range weaponry.- But Thou Must!: Invoked by the Legion itself if you refuse to kill Akira in File Eleven.
- Discard and Draw: Once under the player's control, it can't turn invisible like its fellow Arrow Chimera (and Yoseph's Bowgun Legion) or how it did during its Arrow Nemesis boss fight, but it can potentially learn the devastating and unique Slow Shot Skill once properly levelled.
- Energy Bow: It has two of them, which it can combine into an even larger one for more powerful attacks.
- Fragile Speedster: One of the fastest Legions, but also one of the fastest to dispel if it takes any hits.
- Long-Range Fighter: As usual, it provides long range support, making it especially handy for taking out aerial enemies.
- Time Master: It's slow shot can slow down enemies and is the only guaranteed way to cause a slow effect.
Arm Legion
Arm Legion
The third captured Legion in-game, and the original Legion of Jin Wong. It specializes in close combat and lifting heavy objects.- Animated Armor: Described in-game as a floating suit of legless armor.
- The Big Guy: Invokes this trope by being the bulkiest of the Legions you have.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: The Glove Protolegion data entry explains that Yoseph once tried to make an Arm Legion from scratch like he succeeded in doing with the Sword Legion, but ran into difficulties because the large fists kept throwing the Protolegion off balance. This necessitated the capture of an actual Arm Chimera, whose ability to float rendered this anatomical difficulty moot.
- Glass Cannon: The objects it throws have the potential to heavily damage and stun enemies up-to-and-including the final boss. However, they can be destroyed while the Arm Legion is still carrying them, and if they're of the explosive variety, they can even damage both the Arm Legion and the player character.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Needs nothing other than its fists. Which are also loaded with guns.
- Gravity Master: In place of an Arm Chimera's typical energy beam cannon, the Arm Legion has the ability to fire gravity bombs that pull in enemies.
- Hand Blast: It can also fire lasers from it's fingertips.
- Not Quite Flight: Wearing it allows players to lightly hover over troublesome surfaces, but not across actual chasms.
- Powered Armor: Can be worn by the player character to float over various in-game hazards and can be fought in. Also did this to Jin when it was trying to kill him.
- Punched Across the Room: Does this if you sync attack with your Legion.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: A part of its standard combo when being worn as armor, and a command attack the player can unlock.
-
Technology Marches On: There are Ability Codes the player can salvage that can allow them to bypass hazardous floors they'd usually need the Arm Legion's secondary ability for.
Beast Legion
Beast Legion
The fourth Legion acquired in game, and the original Legion of Alicia Lopez. Despite being a combat Legion, the Beast Legion happens to be quite useful in out of combat situations. Also the only Legion that cannot float to multiple platforms.- The Beastmaster: When using this Legion, the player character is this.
- Breath Weapon: can shoot a bomb like projectile during sync attacks with the players gun.
- Canine Companion: Takes most of its cues from dogs, and will even wag its tail when tracking.
- Horse of a Different Color: Can be used as a mount to clear space quickly. It even automatically dodges some attacks.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: It can howl to stun nearby enemies to leave them open to attack.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Invoked and made use of in game. It can track both sound and scent, and talked about a little bit by Hal. It can even detect invisible enemies in battle.
- Shock and Awe: It can electrify the astral chain to damage enemies.
Axe Legion
Axe Legion
The fifth and final Legion acquired in the game, and the original Legion of Max Howard.- Barrier Warrior: One of its specialties, being able to conjure an energy barrier that can deflect attacks, stave off poison gas, and, and even counter enemies. One of its abilities even gives the player a shield that can absorb up to three hits.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Like how it is with the Sword Legion, its ability to float isn't a natural trait of its type of Chimera.
- Having a Blast:
- It can plant spectal duplicates of it's weapon that explode after a short time, this can also be used to break barriers in certain levels.
- Detonating special surfaces can also damage enemies, but unlike the risk inherent to using the Arm Legion for throwing explosive items, these explosions damage neither the player nor the Legion.
- Mighty Glacier: The slowest Legion by far, in exchange for powerful offensive and defensive capabilities.
- Super Prototype: The very first Legion that the ARI perfected and potentially the mightiest of the five.
Neuron
In General
A specialised government task force charged with investigating Gate-related incidents and Chimera attacks. Many of its members have the potential to wield a Legion, but due to slow production rates, a lion's share of the team has to make do with the standard issue X-Baton.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: The only member of the team who wears them is Ted Garcia, who doesn't even do any real field work.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Field operatives are picked due to a combination of excellence in service and their potential synch capability with a Legion. As a result, the group takes what it can get. Case in point, among its recruits is a man who is fascinated by Chimeras (Richard) and a man who really, really hates them (Billy).
- See the Invisible: Its officers are unique in that they can see Chimeras with the naked eye.
- Unwitting Pawn: The whole team is just another one of Yoseph's experiments albeit with the added benefit of keeping the Ark safe from Chimera threats.
Main Neuron members
Yoseph Calvert (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
- Voiced by: Takaya Hashi (Japanese), Joe J. Thomas (English)
- Admiring the Abomination: Calls Jena's final form beautiful and expresses similar interest in the Legion Fusion.
- Big Good: He's set up as this. He's the one who created the Ark to protect humanity from the corruption and he's played as a somewhat harsh but ultimately fair boss to the rest of Neuron. Unfortunately, it's a subverted example and he's actually part of the Big Bad Ensemble, obsessed with transcending humanity to the state of gods.
- Biblical Motifs: Well, let's see. He consults with "prophets", he's the savior of humanity and he was convinced to build The Ark to save humanity. Yeah, he's got these in spades.
- Blatant Lies: "I didn't expect we'd ever see the lost Legions again, much less like this."
- A God Am I: More downplayed than most examples but he's the one who suggests that humanity avoids extinction by becoming "as gods". It stops being downplayed after he shows off his true colors.
- Humans Are Insects: This is the crux of moral differences with Jena. They both want to save humanity but whereas Jena believes that humans have the power to save themselves from extinction, Yoseph believes that extinction can only be avoided if humanity "become as gods". Of course, when he says that he means the humanity becomes merged with the Astral Plane, while he's at the controls.
- It's All About Me: He doesn't care at all about individual human lives or for humanity as a whole; he just wants to fulfill his incredibly massive ego by being its "savior" and merge all of humanity into one being in whihc he's the only one in control.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: When the player character first transforms with their Legion, Yoseph doesn't acknowledge them as a human, instead calling them "the Legion".
- Karmic Death: In file 10, he uses his Raven Corps to impale the original Akira. In file 11, they returns the favor, takes over the Raven Corps and is instrumental defeating Noah, his method of attaining godhood.
- Light Is Not Good: Legion cores are typically dense, black, inwardly shifting blocks of extra dimensional power. The Noah Core is aesthetically the exact opposite of them in every way while being a doomsday weapon in all but name.
- The Minion Master: During his confrontation with the siblings he does not engage them directly, he instead summons several legions to do the fighting for him as he smugly sits back delivering exposition while they fight for their lives.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Noah, his creation, eventually mutates into the embodiment of the Astral Plane itself]], allowing the protagonist the chance to [[spoiler:beat the once incomprehensibly vast dimensional void into submission so badly that the Gates and the Chimera begin to decline in appearance.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Throughly adverted, the moment he finds out Akira is a Legionis, he promptly sets out to make several perfect clones of them, founding the Raven Corps.]] Not only that but when the siblings manage to fuse with their legions to archive an even greater level of power he sets out to study how it works so he can have the Raven Corps do it too, thus ensuring a perfect fusion with Noah's core and the success of his plan.]]Even when faced with unexpected factors, Yoseph takes any and every opportunity to further his goals.
- Non-Standard Character Design: In a world of anime-styled humans, there's Yoseph looking like a photo-realistic human in every sense of the word. It just reveals how evil he truly is.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He seeks to save humanity from the chimeras, and believes the only way to do so is for mankind to become gods. Eventually, however, he turns out to be Evil All Along, and openly admits in File 10 that his main concern is more about how history will judge him as the savior of humanity rather than actually saving them.
- Obviously Evil: For all that he's set up as the Big Good, his attempts at acting like it always seems off. It's not exactly a good sign, when the very first scene in the game has him essentially torture and enslave a Chimera with a Psychotic Smirk on his face. For the Greater Good, sure but it's still incredibly jarring. After his failures, specifically losing four Legions, "Siege" has him proclaim that humanity needs to "become as gods".
- One-Winged Angel: Has no less than three of these during his boss battle, first starting as an Eldritch Abomination that absorbs you into its Eldritch Location insides, then crossing the Bishōnen Line, before becoming a red, demonic figure. That's more forms than the trope namer himself!.
- Police State: A weird example: As Commander of Neuron, he has a very heavy hand - but given that Chimera are legitimately such a big threat, all the power he gives to the police seems justified - especially when Jena starts commiting large-scale terrorism. But the second Jena is defeated, he reveals he has the Ravens, his black ops group of Legion users, orders them to shoot down the now-fused-with-their-Legion and berserk protagonist, and basically dismantles Neuron with his major control-freak tendencies - in that he labels people who go against him and his vision for the Ark as terrorists at almost the first sign of defiance.
- Walking Spoiler: It's hard to discuss him much without revealing that he is the true Big Bad of the game.
- Wham Line: He delivers one at the end of file 9, revealing his true allegiances and decides to try and murder the player character while they've merged with their Legion.Alright. Aim for the Legion.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Jena dies. Anyone he couldn't demote or move to other fields, he would try and murder them using the Raven Corps. Starting with the player character but eventually moves on to characters that were shown to be close to him like Olive, Brenda and even his new Number Two, Akira, whenever they did something to displease him.
Maxmillian Howard
- Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (Japanese), Owen Thomas (English)
The captain of the Neuron Task Force and also the most experienced member, functioning as a mentor for several of the characters on it. He is also the one who adopted the Player Character and Akira.
- Dual Wielding: During his Heroic Sacrifice, he takes Jin's police-issued baton.
- Fusion Dance: The climax of the game implies that his personality may have merged with his Axe Legion, as it holds the Player Character's hand in a way that reminds them of Max (while shielding them from the final boss' attacks) , and if the player chooses to go through with a Mercy Kill on Akira during their Heroic Sacrifice, the Axe Legion ends up being the one to do it.
- Happily Adopted: On the giving end. The game doesn't spend much time on the relationship between him and his kids but it's clear that all three love each other very much and wouldn't have it any other way. His Heroic Sacrifice early on, hits both of the characters (but especially Akira) hard.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Of the You Shall Not Pass! variant. After the team has lost most of their Legions, Max chooses to stay in the Astral Plane to buy the rest of the team time to escape. He doesn't die on-screen, but seeing as prolonged exposure in the Astral Plane can Redshift a person faster than normal, he would have turned if the corrupted Legions didn't end up killing him.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: So much so that he essentially set up a shelter for cats to protect them from the Chimeras. The residents of Maison Forest even refer to him as the mysterious "Cat Man."
- Knight in Sour Armor: Twenty years prior to the start of the game, he lost faith in both the police and the government during the Pandemic when he was forced to abandon both Zone 09 and the civilians and lawmen who were still stuck there. He's only stayed on as a cop for the sake of the twins, trying to keep them safe and make the world around them a better place in his own small way. He is also notably opposed to the player and Akira being recruited by Neuron.
- Mentor Archetype: He serves this role both to his kids and to Jin.
- Oblivious to Love: As seen in one flashback, Alicia had a pretty big crush on him which went unnoticed.
- Papa Wolf: The only person outwardly opposed to the twins joining Neuron and for good reason. When they disobeyed his orders not to engage the Chimera of a certain case, they nearly got themselves killed.
- Team Dad: And that's disregarding the fact that his kids recently moved into his division.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In one of the database files it's revealed that upon first acquiring his Legion, he had trouble getting it to do what he wanted it to, saying that he would have an easier time getting his kids to do what he wanted them to and ends the file saying that he's just going to treat it like one of his children from now on.
- Uncertain Doom: After his Heroic Sacrifice, the members of Neuron, especially Akira, attempt to hold out hope that he might turn up alive, but gradually start to refer to him as dead as time goes on with no sign of him. The last sign of him is when Akira and the Player find his Axe Legion, wild and trailing his Legatus around. By the end of the story, he's never found by Neuron, leaving it unclear if he died, succumbed to redshift, or is possibly still wandering the Astral Plane. The climax also adds a fourth option, implying his personality may have merged with his Axe Legion.
Jin Wong
- Voiced by: Shunsuke Takeuchi (Japanese), Jordan Reynolds (English)
- The Ace: According to his personal file in game, he had the highest sync rate with his Legion out of everyone in Neuron before the twins showed up.
- Always Someone Better: Has shades of this with Max. In a flashback, he can be seen winded while Max tells him that he'd given his captain a good workout.
- Big Brother Instinct: Combined with his Papa Wolf tendencies. He's this to Alicia and seemingly the rest of Neuron, if the reports are to be believed.
- Big Damn Heroes: Does this in Files One and Two. Has this done to him after losing his Legion.
- The Big Guy: Uses the Arm Legion, which has the most raw power of the Legions.
- Can't Catch Up: A major sore point for him when it came to Max. The player can choose to invoke this further by defeating him in a sparring match (wherein Jin wields a gladius) while they're stuck barehanded with no access to their Legion in a goofy mascot costume.
- Deadpan Snarker: Shows this with Max, and in the mission you undertake in Lappy's suit. Also joked about having Solitaire on his Legatus.
- Honorary Uncle: Never do the twins actually call him this, but seeing as how they hold a lot of respect for Jin from all his time helping take care of them as kids, he's basically this.
- Jaded Professional: Gets hit with this in Files Nine and Ten.
- Lethal Chef: Nowhere near Marie's level, but he was pretty bad, given that Akira remembers his cooking as being rather lousy.
- Out of Focus: Important early on in the story to help the player character and Akira adjust to Neuron, but gradually becomes a secondary character as the plot kicks up.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Gets sidelined during File Nine for this reason. He goes from being part of Neuron's elite to being a regular part of the police force when Yoseph downgrades Neuron.
- Not So Above It All: Laughs at himself for taking a spar against Lappy (the protagonist filling in for Marie) seriously. Also the aforementioned Solitaire joke as mentioned above.
- Number Two: Before the story focuses on the protagonist, Jin ends up being this to the rest of Neuron. As the most senior field agent, he takes over from Max's position until the player character steals the show.
- Papa Wolf: To a much lesser degree than the twins' father - he tries to be there for them, but without a Legion of his own, his ability is limited.
- Perma-Stubble: Doesn't seem to shave, but always has a little stubble on his chin.
- The Smart Guy: Unusually for this trope, he combines this with being the Big Guy. Most of the time, you can find him in the tech division with Olive, or in the training room, depending on the File.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Found in the Tech Division a lot, and is also implied to be the one who made the training programs that you use in-game to become familiar with the mechanics.
- Stoic Spectacles: Also tends to be this to the rest of Neuron. He might banter with his field ops, but to the rest of Neuron, he's not exactly friendly.
Alicia Lopez
- Voiced by: Ayumi Tsunematsu (Japanese), Elizabeth Maxwell (English)
- The Beast Master: Has the Beast Legion.
- Out of Focus: Important early on in the story to help the player character and Akira adjust to Neuron, but gradually becomes a secondary character as the plot kicks up.
- Satellite Character: Much of her character revolves around her obvious crush on Max and unlike Jin who gets some development that shows how he deals with losing his Legion, Alicia fades quickly into the background after her time in the limelight in File 5, being just another Neuron member.
- Spicy Latina: Clearly of Hispanic ancestry and is appropriately hotblooded.
Olive Espinosa
- Voiced by: Azumi Waki (Japanese), Em Eldridge (English)
The Mission Control of Neuron, Olive is responsible for directing the Neuron Task Force to locations of aberrations, giving them orders on what is the best course of action and keeping them up to date on new developments. Of course, this is all at the behest of the director.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: For all her insults, there are moments where she shows genuine concern for Hal and asks the player character to keep her informed if they hear from him after he's gone on the run.
- Badass Normal: She's proficient enough with a gun to be able to take down aberrations. Sure, she's Overshadowed by Awesome, considering the player character could do that in the first level but it's still impressive for someone who doesn't work in the field and was previously a news reporter.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: The reason she left her previous job as a news reporter was because she felt like she needed to do something about the constant misery the world was facing. One particular example is when she found out Brenda had become wanted by Neuron so Olive immediately rushed off to save her... despite the fact that Brenda was being chased by Neuron and the fact that aberrations and chimeras aren't uncommon at that point in the story.
- Cool Big Sis: This was another of her roles in Neuron, particularly shown with the siblings. She often went out of her way to make sure the siblings were alright, shown to be comforting the player character after Akira has been impaled by Jena or trying to cheer them up after they got arrested for insubordination.
- Escort Mission: Played with. She ends up joining the player character in the field in file 10 after Brenda's been declared wanted. While they do have to protect her against things like chimeras, she typically knows when to stay out of the way and she can still hold her own for a short while.
- Et Tu, Brute?:
- It's implied this was her reaction off screen when the player character seemingly betrays Neuron by fusing with their Legion and attacking Akira. However, she later realizes there was literally no reason for them to betray Neuron and becomes suspicious.
- She's on the receiving end of this trope when she betrays Neuron by leaking information to Hal from the inside, causing her to get fired and become a wanted fugitive.
- Mission Control: Her role in Neuron is essentially directing the task force to their missions, giving them orders etc. The only one she seems to take orders from is Yoseph.
- The Mole: She was this to Neuron after the player character has been betrayed.
- Quest Giver: Becomes this in File 12, in which she assigns you a long list of cases to complete for her.
- You Are in Command Now: Ends up the de-facto commander of Neuron following File 11.
Brenda Moreno
- Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese), Megan Hensley (English)
Chief Medical Officer of Neuron, she heads the Infirmary and treats the worst of the injuries that the officers can sustain out on the field. She also supports Calvert in his Legion research at the ARI.
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Her medicines are always priced fairly, but be prepared to part with a lot of money if you want to make a go at her Lappy memorabilia.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Downplayed. She's not as gung-ho about it like other characters, like Olive, but this was her reason for joining Neuron. She couldn't stand the amount of misery in the world and decided something had to be done.
- Guilty Pleasures: She is a huge Lappy fangirl despite her mature and stoic demeanor. She has a collection of Lappy merchandise in her office at ARI and whenever Marie in costume goes into the infirmary, Brenda gives off such a out-of-character pleasant smile that Marie jokingly mistakes it for her wanting to experiment on Lappy. She prefers that colleagues not know about this side of her, though hilariously when the player asks for one of her Lappy dolls to give to a boy, she strictly states he can only give him one.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Wears a generic white lab coat and is the chief medical officer at Neuron.
- She Knows Too Much: Is on the receiving end of this from Yoseph. After he realized she was learning too much about his true plans, he sent the Raven Corps after her. Fortunately, she caught on and got out of there before they could catch her. Unfortunately, she became a wanted fugitive as a result.
Marie Wentz
Neuron's Premiere Non-Combat Support
- Voiced by: Aimi Tanaka (Japanese), Cassandra Lee Morris (English)
- Anti-Magic: Her Lappy suit is capable of fooling the IRIS analytical software, which is capable of even identifying a masked criminal Un-person like Kyle Merkulov at a glance. Instead of correctly surmising who is wearing the costume, the IRIS will just regard the individual as Lappy, complete with biodata distinct from that of the disguised person.
- Bad Liar: She tries her best to act like she’s not the one wearing the Lappy costume, but she doesn’t do a convincing job. The player character first meets her when she’s chasing after the head of the costume after it fell off, while she’s wearing the rest of the costume, but she’ll continue to claim it’s not her. She also has a bad habit of slipping into character when not wearing the costume, or vice versa. Fortunately for her, everyone else goes along with it to humor her.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: She frequently trips, falls, and gets into all manner of accidents, along with being quite busty and attractive at that.
- Genki Girl: Marie is almost always found in a good mood and as Lappy, she's enthusiastic about her self-given duty to keep morale up in the office. Even when Yoseph dissolves Neuron in File 10, the player can read a goodbye note from her where she happily states that she'll clean the floors one last time.
- Implacable Man: She initially gives off this vibe as Lappy, but File 8 reveals that she's just very fast at moving around.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: She tries to bring in a stray cat to the office, but Neuron has a strict policy against that, as strays are potential carriers of corruption. Luckily, Akira is there to take the cat to a safe house.
- Lethal Chef: A report mentions that for a Christmas party for the office, she made cookies. Max was the only one to eat any, and he did not show up for work the next day. The previous year, her cookies led to Joey doing a “hilarious impression of a guy throwing up”.
- Male Gaze: Compared to other female characters, Marie's breasts are rather prominent and further accentuated by her tie between them. The first time you see her, she's bent over mopping the floors while a male co-worker watches and cheers her on from the side and in some of the following files, she gets close-ups where her boobs jiggle a bit.
- Mind Screw: During File 7, she waits to see the player off on the roof before they head out to face Jena for the penultimate time...except, if she's on the roof, who's that dressed as Lappy spinning around in the basement?
- The One with a Personal Life: Unlike the scientists, medical personnel, elite cops and former news anchors who make up Neuron, she was promoted from the traffic cops. She spends most of her time doing paperwork or serving as The Heart as Lappy, the department's mascot.
- Open Secret: Everyone knows she's Lappy, but they play along.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Like most of Neuron, she does not appear in the last two files. Even in-universe she counts, as one of the files you can read after Jena's death reveals that she's being transferred out of Neuron.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Capable of this in the Lappy Costume, especially the "Hi" part, visibly disconcerting the player character.
- Super-Speed: She's capable of running so fast that the only way to catch up with her is by riding the Beast Legion.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: She's the only member of Neuron without some sort of specialization and/or potential as a Legionis. Sure she does administrative scut work but one wonders why a special unit operating with secret clearance brought in a nobody to do that. Some endgame files hint Yoseph just needed enough warm bodies at desks to get Neuron recognized, and so hired a useful idiot and promptly forgot she existed.
Hal Clark
Click here to see his true self.
- Voiced by: Daiki Yamashita (Japanese), Kyle McCarley (English)
The head of the technical division at Neuron. He's mainly a shut-in and refuses to physically go to work but his expertise is more than enough for the rest of Neuron to overlook it.
- All There in the Manual: The fact that he's a cyborg is only revealed in the Lappy quiz quest.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Olive implies that this is the only reason Hal remains employed with Neuron. Despite his many eccentricities and a refusal to go to work in person, he's far too good at what he does to not be part of the team.
- The Bus Came Back: He leaves the story after file 6, due to becoming a wanted fugitive, hiding from Neuron but he comes back in file 10, having saved the player character after they nearly died fighting the Raven Corps.
- Cowardly Lion: Helpful, but even when you spend time in his hideout, he never shows up in person and considers the presence of his drone an acceptable substitution for him actually being there to aid you. The cast, particularly Olive, is skeptical as the drone doesn't do much to help during missions apart from giving Hal eyes on the situation which is largely for his benefit.
- Cowardly Sidekick: He provides intel, makes colour commentary, and sometimes airlifts people out of danger. Otherwise, he's fairly useless to have around and even whines about how piloting the drone is tiring him while the protagonist does all the sneaking, fighting, and general life-risking derring-do.
- Genre Savvy: He correctly assumes that the player character is too valuable to keep locked up for long, especially considering they are one of the best users of a Legion while a massive chimeric outbreak is happening.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: His stealth mission ambitions during File 6 are rather ludicrous as unlike the protagonist who dons an inconspicuous costume, Hal refuses to disguise his very recognisable (and bright yellow) drone in any way during it.
- Mission Control: Serves as this whenever Olive isn't available or when he and the player go against Neuron.
- Mysterious Past: Fitting for a very private person like Hal, no one really knows anything about him, though he seems to have a very strong interest in the Hermits at the very least. How much he seems to care about them, alongside a couple of offhand comments the player can hear when sneaking through the vents of the Hermit base, seem to imply that he was the mysterious leader of the gang before Kyle came along.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: His custom drone is strong enough to airlift a person out of danger whereas typical rescue drones require at least two of themselves to do so.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: For an AI-controlled drone, he's shockingly candid and capable of expressing a wide variety of emotions. Justified since Hal is actually human — the drone is just a means of interacting with the world while he maintains a shut-in lifestyle.
- Robotic Reveal: Inverted. While initially set up to be a robot controlled by an advanced AI like Vending-3, he's actually just a guy piloting a drone from his room.
- Shout-Out: His first name is a clear nod to another dorky hacker-turned-mission control guru, Hal "Otacon" Emmerich. Like Otacon, Hal controls a drone in the field while helping the player.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Just like the player character, not even his expertise is enough to save him from the consequences of breaking into Zone 09 and inadvertently causing the Astral Plane to start shifting into Earth. Unlike the player, who gets arrested but still has enough power to keep their job, Hal gets fired and becomes a wanted fugitive.
Other Neuron officers
Roy Stewart
A Neuron officer who collects combat data on his squamates for personal analysis. Roy might be the most knowledgeable on the force when it comes to tracking everyone's capabilities.
- The Determinator: After receiving his Legion, he's optimistic about reaching the protagonist's level by training non-stop for a maximum of fourteen months.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Encourages the protagonist to pit his newly-aquired Arrow Legion against Joey and his regular X-Baton blaster.
Shizu Miyamoto
A Neuron officer who loves anything occult related, Shizu often spends her free time checking out alleged hauntings. She's usually a diligent worker, but she'll ditch work in a heartbeat if there's ghosts involved.
- A Day in the Limelight: File 08 has her and the Howard twins investigate what appears to be a haunting in Zone 36.
- The Aloner: Can usually be found hiding near the Training Room.
- Creepy Monotone: How she speaks.
- Dissonant Serenity: Plays off the injuries she received battling Jena's third Homunculus alongside Alicia, claiming that she's had worse. Much worse.
- Mystical White Hair: Not so much mystical, but she does have white hair, and is obsessed with the occult.
- Tarot Troubles: Mentions how she received troubling fortunes through tarot reading shortly before terrible occurrences such as drawing the Tower and the Emperor on the day Max Howard was left behind in the Astral Plane.
Mitsuru Alba
A frail and neurotic officer who managed to pass Neuron's strict screening in spite of his lacklustre constitution. While a hard worker, he wonders how someone as often ill as him managed to get in the organization in the first place.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The latter to Avery's former.
- Personality Powers: During File 12, he receives an Axe Legion and is highly appreciative of its various defensive capabilities in lieu of its weaponry or destructive power.
Avery Powell
Very strong and super energetic, Avery is prone to jumping into action before getting the full story. Rumor has it she was higher on the waiting list to be issued a Legion, but the Neuron brass decided to wait until she kicked her energy drink habit.
- Badass in Distress: Manages to briefly corner Jena at Harmony Square before the protagonist, but ultimately needs saving from monstrous tentacles when Jin's team lays siege to the ruins of Ark Mall.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The former to her partner Mitsuru's latter.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Energy drinks. Lots of them.
Mike Boone
A kind-hearted animal lover, if Mike sees and animal in trouble, he'll drop everything to save it. Which is quite laudable, considering that most of them are extinct.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: The protagonist (as Lappy) can cheer him up with stories about Max's cat sanctuary.
- Sad Clown: He's eager to share all types of animal facts, but is saddened by the knowledge that many of Earth's creatures perished in the disaster that almost wiped out humanity.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: While he still can't bring in stray animals due to protocol, he receives a Beast Legion during File 12. It's not quite the pet he's always wanted, but he doesn't mind.
Billy Williams
A former detective, Billy has a deep personal vendetta against Chimeras, for reasons that seem to go beyond "they're monsters that want to kill us." It's ultimately revealed that like the Howard twins, he was originally from Zone 09. Unlike the twins, he was a child at the time, and watched as his home fell to the Pandemic as he barely managed to escape with his life.
- A Day in the Limelight: Billy's Past during File 08.
- Alliterative Name: William Williams.
- Cool Shades: Wears these. Gives you a pair if you help him with his Red Case during File 08. He gives you another if you kill 3,000 Chimera.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Despises Chimeras and Legions by extension, but he's a genuinely heroic (if antisocial) cop who doesn't begrudge either of the Howard twins for being a Legionis.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: He joined Neuron to fight Chimeras and pointedly doesn't want a Legion of his own because they're just barely domesticated Chimeras.
- One-Man Army: He doesn't want either of the Howard twins helping him in File 08 and by the time they catch up with Billy, he's left a trail of knocked out corrupt cops in his wake.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He resents being issued a Legion during File 12, both because it's technically a Chimera and because it's a constant reminder of how Yoseph tried to assimilate everyone. He is making an effort to bond with it though.
- We Used to Be Friends: To Garrett, a fellow police officer and Zone 09 refugee who has secretly allied himself with the Hermits to blow up the wall separating their former home from the rest of the Ark. Busting him is the crux of Billy's File 08 Red Case.
Alan King
Alan is shallow, vain, and oh-so-fashion conscious. He is also the hardest working officer on the force (next to Jin) who has, for better or worse, earned his place in Neuron. Resentful of how the Howard twins were issued Legions before he was, Alan forms a one-sided rivalry with the pair.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Has a crush on Marie and often watches her as she performs her janitorial duties for less than savoury reasons.
- Badass Normal: Tries to be this to prove that he can be just as effective a cop as the Howard twins and their Legions. Results are mixed.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: He's not very appreciative when the protagonist saves him from certain death during File 07.
- Not So Above It All: After spending the game trying to scoff at the idea of needing a Legion to be a great police officer, he gleefully gloats about finally receiving one (in comparison to each of the Howard twins' five) during File 12.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He has a rather lofty self-image, which is referenced to in missions relating to him that make liberal use of his last name. During File 08, he uses the confusion of the situation to boss around conventional police officers who quickly cotton on to the fact that Alan doesn't have the authority to do so and that he's not even from their unit.
- Unknown Rival: Neither Howard twin takes Alan's antagonism towards them seriously.
Li Fang Meyers
Doesn't do small talk. Works alongside Roy to monitor the fitness of Neuron officers and to refine the organisation's training programs.
- Armor Is Useless: One of the four Neuron field officers who don't wear any protective gear.
- Badass in Distress: One of the three cops caught up in Jena's tentacles during File 04.
Richard Morgan
A Neuron officer who fancies himself an independent Chimera researcher. He's been injured in the field more than a few times after getting too close to his "research subjects."
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Subverted. He gets a perilously intimate encounter with Wing-type Chimeras during File 07, but having escaped with his life, he considers the experience to be a net win.
- Everyone Has Standards: While he'd risk great personal injury to study Chimeras, he wouldn't go so far as to die for the chance at a closer look.
- Nightmare Fetishist: After being rescued, he admits to finding the feeling of helplessness he had when he was snatched up by Chimeras to be rather exhilarating. He also provides the protagonist gifts for expanding the Subject Logs portion of the database.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: At the end of the game, he joins Brenda's Earth Reclamation Corps for the chance to encounter exotic new Chimera rather than to reclaim and restore the outside world for mankind.
- Videogame Cruelty Potential: There's a Red Case during File 07 that involves rescuing him from Wing-type Chimeras. You're expected to expertly snipe the one who snapped up Richard with the Arrow Legion, but besides some duty point deductions, hurting Richard doesn't really take away from your overall score, so you can potentially still get an S+ rank for it in spite of blasting him with impunity.
Kay Watson
Generally bound to her desk in Neuron HQ, Kay is well-versed on all sorts of items and their effects, but usually can't be bothered to explain them to anyone.
- The Slacker: You encounter her a total of one time outside of Neuron HQ, whereupon she foists her salvage job onto you and your Beast legion.
Joey Wood
A gun nut whose mouth shoots off almost as quick as his blaster. Somehow able to understand what his parter Sarah says. Joey puts on a tough-guy act, hoping nobody notices how thoughtful and caring he can be.
- Armor Is Useless: Like Sarah, he foregoes wearing any type of body armour during field operations. Even when he's battling aberrations.
- Fiery Redhead
- Friendly Rivalry: With the protagonist over who the better sharpshooter is. Joey also doesn't really begrudge them after their unsanctioned Zone 09 misadventure with Hal got both him and Sarah seriously injured.
- The Gunslinger: He's an absurdly talented marksman who the protagonist only manages to best because of the Arrow Legion and its ability to slow down their perception of time.
- Red Herring: Due to how often the protagonist bests him with their Arrow Legion, one would think that given the chance at owning a Legion, Joey would try to get an Arrow Legion of his own. Instead, he opts to get an Arm Legion during File 12, foregoing accuracy and conciseness in favour of the exact opposite.
- Those Two Guys: Forms one of the most prominent duos on the force with Sarah. Wherever one is, the other isn't far behind.
Sarah Bennet
A strong, silent type, Sarah can almost always be found with her partner, Joey, who somehow seems to know exactly what she's thinking.
- Armor Is Useless: Neither she nor Joey wear any sort of Neuron protective body armor. They still manage to survive getting swiped at by Jena's second Homunculus.
- Bandaged Face: Has a large bandage covering her left eye, but this does little to impact her combat performance.
- The Gunslinger: Like Joey, she prefers to use the blaster configuration of her X-Baton.
- Irony: In spite of not being the most talkative person, she's curious as to whether Legions (specifically, the one she receives in File 12) can understand human speech.
- The Silent Bob
- Suddenly Voiced: Speaks one curt line of dialogue during the end of File 06, when she and Joey are battling aberrations alongside the protagonist.
Leona Murphy
Neuron's resident worrywart, Leona constantly puts others' needs (sometimes even Legions' needs) before her own.
Julia Rockfield
A hopeless romantic, Julia will stop at nothing to see love bloom, and bloom often, at Neuron HQ.
- Armor Is Useless: One of the four Neuron field officers who don't wear any protective gear.
Shinjiro Hattori
Acting leader of Neuron's tech division.
Tabitha Bernard
An affable member of Neuron's tech division who's always looking to push the limits of X-baton technology. Tabitha puts her all into X-baton mods and maintenance.
Ted Garcia
A Neuron technician who specializes in creating combat items. Ted's "toys" are popular among his fellow officers, since they're often more effective than general-issue equipment.Ted's personal favorites are explosives. He even likes to collect and compare the different sounds they make.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Inverted. He's the only member of Neuron who bothers to wear a helmet, but he's not a field operative so its protective capabilities are rendered moot.
Hisayoshi Kijima
Knows his way around all of Neuron's gadgets.
Akinori Tabuchi
The newest member of Neuron's technical division, he joined the force only a few days before the Howard twins. Since he's new, he's primarily tasked with keeping Neuron's cars shiny and clean.
Antagonists
Jena Anderson
- Voiced by: Yuko Kaida (Japanese), Rebecca Davis (English)
A former student of Yoseph, Jena became a terrorist against the organisation of Neuron. She's the mastermind behind much of the games conflicts, from Blue Evolve to the Homunculi.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: But still a pretty dark shade. Her plans are very destructive, but they're all to prevent Yoseph from enacting his much more horrific and egocentric plan to achieve godhood.
- Angelic Abomination: Her two One-Winged Angel forms invoke this with their white color and wings.
- Big Bad: She's the closest the aberrations and chimeras have to a leader and is the main threat faced throughout the game. Subverted after defeating Jena Apotheosis, when Yoseph drops all pretenses and takes over as the true villain, leaving Jena a Big Bad Wannabe in the grand scheme of things.
- A Pupil of Mine Until She Turned to Evil: She was a student under Yoseph's wing. However, after the Pandemic happened, she went missing, only to turn up 20 years later to steal Legion cores from his institution. It's played with considering Yoseph wasn't exactly a good person either.
- Combo Platter Powers: She already was incredibly intelligent but she gets more powers as the game goes on.
- Her half-aberration form grants her an Absurdly Sharp Blade Below the Shoulder, Super-Toughness, Super-Strength, the ability to traverse Gates, summoning purple crystal spikes from the ground and mild electrokinesis.
- Her second form grants her Flight, lasers, the ability to summon lightning bolts, Feather Flechettes, fireballs, Razor Wind and lasers which freeze the player character.
- Her final form doesn't do much more than power up her abilities from the previous forms but it does seem to give her limited gravity manipulation if the buildings floating around her are any indication, as well as the ability to generate ice and fire.
- Dark Messiah: She presents herself as such. She has her own vision for saving humanity but it generally comes at the cost of more destruction than good because she's also waging her own personal war on Yoseph who has even worse plans for the world.
- Disc-One Final Boss: She has all the traits of a Final Boss (repeated appearances, main antagonistic force within the game, multiple phases) but she isn't. Instead Yoseph takes over the role of Big Bad and there are two more files dedicated to beating him.
- Fantastic Terrorists: Shows up with mysterious powers and an army of monsters in tow, from her studies. Much of the early levels involve dealing with her attacks (such as rescuing civilians from a subway she bombed). Her motivation turns out to be opposing Yoseph's plan to forcefully merge humanity into a godlike creature.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Her solution to preventing Yoseph's plans for everyone from becoming a reality is to merge both Earth and the Astral Plane.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Desperately attempts to do this to Yoseph by using his own Legion cores and Blue Evolve formula against him, but her efforts ultimately just help him in the long run.
- Humans Are Special: A firm advocate for this belief. She genuinely believes that humans have the power to save themselves from extinction (albeit while using enhancing drugs like Blue Evolve), which is contrasted with Yoseph's belief that humanity has to "become as gods" and evolve to evade extinction. When faced with the player's Legion Fusion, she uses her last words to chastise them for throwing away their humanity.In the end... can you... can you call yourself human?
- Karmic Death: After almost killing Akira by running them through with her sword arm, she is similarly dispatched when the now berserk protagonist impales them with their Legion Fusion form's talons.
- Knight of Cerebus: Things immediately take a turn for the worst when she shows up and considering how bleak the game already is, that's saying something. Most prominent in file 6, where she only appears for a few seconds yet it's implied she manipulated both the hero and the Hermits into retrieving Douglas, which leads to a gigantic chimeric outbreak all over the Ark.
- Mad Scientist: She's not exactly all there but no one can deny that she is a brilliant scientist. She managed to decipher the secrets of the Astral Plane and managed to create the Homunculi, beings that could easily defeat Chimeras (which were treated as the most dangerous things in the world).
- Moral Myopia: During her Do Not Adjust Your Set manifesto, she claims UNION will use fear of the unknown to take everything from the population. In the very next sentence she tell them to prepare to sacrifice themselves for her salvation. Yet another sign she's not playing with a full deck.
- Older Than She Looks: She's been missing for over twenty years, but doesn't look a day over thirty. Likely a result of being in the Astral Plane.
- One-Winged Angel: Uses two of these in her final boss battle, neither of which would look out of place in Shin Megami Tensei or Persona.
- Poor Communication Kills: She wants to solve the Astral Plane problem as much as the protagonists and manages to come up with a fairly impressive countermeasure in the form of the Homunculi, but for as much as she likes to gab, she does a poor job at explaining herself. Case in point - apart from the Ark Mall incident - she generally brings out a Homunculus to "fix" Gates and Chimera outbreaks, but she doesn't care enough to reign them in afterwards whereupon they wildly rampage around the Ark.
- Purple Is Powerful: When empowered, she becomes enshrouded in a purple aura and many of her attacks are purple. Her two One-Winged Angel forms are also purple.
- Unkempt Beauty: There's a beauty somewhere underneath all that dirt and crazy.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In file 4, had she not fatally wounded Akira, Yoseph likely wouldn't have gotten his idea to make the Raven Corps or at least it wouldn't have gotten as powerful as it did. This also means Yoseph likely wouldn't have the assets necessary to make Noah and fuse with the Astral Plane and Akira wouldn't have had to make a second Heroic Sacrifice.
- Villainous Breakdown: After you break both of her final form's arms, the only attack she'll use is a desperate barrage of fireballs that she'll spam over and over again in a last-ditch effort to finally kill you.
- Villain's Dying Grace: After spending five chapters trying to murder the Howard twins, she spends her last moments saving Akira from the frenzied Legion Fusion protagonist.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Jena's ability to freely traverse the material world and the Astral Plane makes her impossible to capture as she just waltzes off to either to leave her pursuers behind. Only her vendetta against Yoseph makes cornering her possible as she's too fixated on her revenge to entertain the idea of escape.
- Villain Has a Point: She may be a terrorist, but she is right in insisting that Yoseph isn't the savior he claims to be, and that the Howard siblings are Unwitting Pawns to his plans. When Yoseph reveals his true colors, Hal and Olive realize that Jena really was trying to warn them.
Homunculus
A species of colossal living weapons created by Jena Anderson.
- Combat Tentacles: They appear to be made of these. The Ark Mall is infested with these things and even the humanoid Homunculus bosses can split their faces into a larger version of the tentacle's opening.
- Evil Evolves: Each Homunculus boss is more advanced and powerful than the one before it.
- Purple Is Powerful: Like their creator, this is a major clue that they aren't affiliated with the Legions or Chimera.
- Wrong Context Magic: Whatever they are, they're not chimeras, and are frequently seen attacking and eating them.
Kyle Merkulov
- Voiced by: Takaki Ootomari (Japanese), Brad Venable (English)
- Blood Knight: He loves a good fight, but draws the line at harming his Hermits, even if they've mutated into aberrations.
- Can Always Spot a Cop: He nails you for one within the first few seconds of you meeting him.
- Cool Mask: Kyle's digital mask shifts with his facial expression.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Like the other Hermits, his use of Blue Evolve lets him see and fight Chimeras even without a Legion, and he can fight the Protagonist and their Legion to a standstill. Hal even goes as far as to doubt that he’s really a human.
- Enemy Mine: Subverted when his mutated Hermits attack both him and the protagonist. Kyle is so reluctant to hurt them that he's not much help in the fight at all (you actually have to protect him during this) in spite of showing what a capable combatant he was during his boss fight.
- Genius Bruiser: Skilled hacker. Something of a Blood Knight.
- Heel–Face Turn: Implied to have teamed up with Hal in restoring Zone 09 during File 12.
- He Who Fights Monsters: To stress how dangerously powerful Blue Evolve makes him, he has a C-Scale of 4. This is a rank shared by Diomedes, Ocypete, and Briareos, who are actual Chimera that easily dwarf Kyle in terms of height.
- Irony: A man in charge of one of the Ark's biggest intelligence networks never bothers to question what Blue Evolve is and how it works.
- Oh, Crap!: Has this reaction when his teammates transform into aberrations after drinking Blue Evolve that was tainted by Yoseph.
- Out of Focus: After the mission where you save him, he disappears from the rest of the game, even in the part where you return to Section 09. However, the Where Are They Now segment in the epilogue shows that he's still alive, and implies that he's teamed up with Hal.
- Large and in Charge: He stands a whopping 204 cm (about 6'8") tall, making him far taller than the Hermits he leads.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Leads a whole gang of them.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: His last name implies he's Russian.
- Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot: A Russian hacker slumlord revolutionary who partakes in Psycho Serum and wields a futuristic nodachi.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Hermits may be a somewhat ruthless gang in Sector V and Kyle has no qualms about using the Player and Hal as bait to draw out their supplier, but he also honors a deal made with the protagonist after they beat him fair and square, and outright states that the only reason he's betraying them for more Blue Evolve is to fight chimeras and the government that knows Sector V is composed of survivors of an outbreak of corruption 20 years ago and refuses to let them out.
- Redemption Equals Life: He's the only major antagonist in the game who chooses to keep his humanity when the opportunity to exchange it for enormous power was presented to him.
- Slasher Smile: The default expression on his mask. It only breaks when his men begin turning into aberrants due to the corrupted Blue Evolve, at which point the smile turns into a worried frown.
- The Unreveal: What exactly lies under his mask is never divulged, although the art book showcases a number of possibilities the designers threw around including the reveal that Kyle was secretly a Bishounen or a Mobile-Suit Human piloted by a disgruntled child.
- Villain Has a Point: Even as Douglas and the protagonist try to warn him not to take the latest batch of Blue Evolve, Kyle points out that it's literally the only chance the Zone 09 inhabitants have against the chimeras, since UNION (and by extension Neuron) has basically left them to die and they don't have access to Legions to help them. If you're going to be turned into an aberration one way or the other, you might as well go down fighting. And besides, he and his gang had used Blue Evolve before; how was he supposed to know that this batch would finish them off and set off an Astral Plane invasion?
- Younger Than They Look: His voice, size, and mannerisms give off the impression of a grizzled and cynical hacker overlord, but he's actually two years older than the 19-year old protagonists.
The Final Boss (SPOILERS)
Noah
The project and creation of Yoseph Calvert, created by the fusion of Yoseph, the Akira clones and Akira, and the Final Boss of the game.- Advancing Boss of Doom: In the first stage of the fight, Noah is so big that you can't really fight him. Instead, he tests your proficiency with the Chain Jump as you flee from platform to platform. You only get to fight back after he sucks you inside himself.
- Attack Its Weak Point: You can't actually fight his first form; it's just too big. Luckily, he soon sucks you into his body, so you can attack his core directly. Watch out, though, because the core itself fights back.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Noah's first form, Noah: Soul of Ambition, is massive, being the biggest boss the player character must fight.
- Bishōnen Line: Noah's main body is ENORMOUS at first, then he sucks you in and you have to fight just his core (which is still bigger than you), and then you have to fight Noah Prime, who is closer to human-sized, but immediately proves much tougher than all the previous forms. There's also Final Noah Prime, but he doesn't significantly change his appearance from the previous phase.
- Clipped-Wing Angel:
- As powerful as it is, Noah is actually a material vessel for the entirety of the Astral Plane. Rather than a parallel dimension mankind would have little hope of directly combating, Noah is instead a being that can be physically fought and battered into submission with Legions and the X-Baton.
- Noah Prime is this trope twice over. While Noah's Soul of Ambition form can't be fought directly until it tries to absorb you (letting you attack its core), Noah Prime can be fought the same way as any other chimera, and doesn't even have Contractual Boss Immunity against stun attacks like the Beast Legion's howl or the Sword Legion's slashes.
- Dark Reprise: The ominous track that plays as the protagonist stumbles towards Noah Prime to deliver the finishing blow is an orchestral version of Saviour, the game's upbeat opening song.
- Evil Counterpart: To the Sword Legion. As it was with the Sword Nemesis boss fight, Noah Prime eliminates all other third parties so that it and the protagonist can have a proper duel, but instead of interfering chimeras, he shoots down Hal's drone. The Sword Legion has the ability to cure Redshift whereas Noah Prime casually Redshifts the battlefield with such force that he can distort it with a whim. Finally, the game's story begins with the Sword Legion being bound by Astral Chains and it ends with a similar fate befalling Noah.
- Fighting from the Inside: Akira tries to wrestle control away from Yoseph at several points during the fight. They finally succeed in restraining Noah long enough for the Player Character to finish Noah off.
- Final Boss: Of the game's main story. Noah's final forms, Noah Prime and Final Noah Prime, will utterly wreck you if you don't master the game's mechanics.
- Final-Exam Boss: Similar to Senator Armstrong, Noah Prime tests the player's mastery of the game's mechanics, including the usage of Legions, and will wreck the player if they don't have full mastery. Several attacks from Noah Prime and Final Noah Prime require proper usage and knowledge of the five Legions' abilities in order to minimize harm done by Noah.
- Fusion Dance: As stated in the description, he's a fusion of Yoseph, the Akira clones, and Akira themselves. Yoseph is the one who is primarily in control.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He's stabbed in the chest twice. However, this doesn't kill him.
- Level in Boss Clothing: His first form.
- Marathon Boss: The fight with Noah is split into several phases, each of which will test a different subset of everything you've ever learned. And each one has huge amounts of HP, while constantly threatening you with attacks that will eat up all your AED batteries if you don't figure out how to avoid them fast. It may take more than half an hour to beat him, assuming you play it safe enough to not get wrecked.
- Rasputinian Death: First, his core explodes, destroying his giant form. Then he gets a massive beating as Noah Prime. Then you pierce him through the chest with your Gladius, throw him into the air, punch him repeatedly ending in a Megaton Punch, shoot him with a giant arrow, smash him with the Axe Legion, Chain Bind him, and finally shove your X-Baton through his chest while the Axe Legion pierces him through the heart. After even all that doesn't kill him, Akira restrains him so you can finally destroy him.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: After being sucked into Noah's body and beating up his core, he'll spit you back out. And then he'll transform into Noah Prime...
- Turns Red: After a while of fighting Noah Prime, he'll gain a glowing red Battle Aura, and all his attacks will become even faster and stronger. At this point, his health bar labels him as "Final Noah Prime", in case you were worried that he might have even more forms.
- Walking Wasteland: Legions and Chimeras just lightly redshift the ground they stand on. Noah can distort the entire landscape with a thought.
- Womb Level: For the second stage of the fight, Noah sucks you in and pits you against his core in a mix of this and Final Boss, New Dimension. He'll use some tricks the chimeras haven't used on you since the first few Files, such as trapping you in a slowly-shrinking barrier with generators outside, which your Legion must destroy before it's too late.
Secret Boss (SPOILERS)
Aether - HUM-C-000-00
A feminine Chimera who appears on top of the ARI building after completing 69 of Olive's cases in File 12.- Cosmetic Award: Your reward for defeating her is the Legionis License, which simply states that you've defeated the strongest Chimera the Astral Plane had to offer.
- Elemental Powers: She wields all of the game's different variety of elemental attacks, including whipping up tornadoes, lightning strikes, fire balls, and freezing the ground. When she gets to the second phase, one of her more common attacks is to throw all four at you in sequence.
- Marathon Boss: For the average player, Aether can be a long 20-30 minute fight. She leaves herself few, but crucial openings for attacks and if your timing isn't on point, you can expect to be riding on the Beast Legion for a while before you find that opportunity to get chip damage in.
- Moveset Clone: She shares many of her moves with Noah Prime, including some melee attacks, ice field, meteor shower, and black hole attack. This many possibly imply some kind of connection between the two.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: She has six arms in total, which don't get full use until the second phase.
- One-Hit Kill: Aether has multiple methods to kill you with one hit, including using a clone to smack you into the ground, and a black hole that tries to suck you in. If you come into the battle without any defense bonuses, many of her other moves, such as her tornadoes, can also kill you in one hit.
- Self-Duplication: Is capable of creating two copies of herself in the first fight and both clones have the same movement and damage as she does. If you're really unlucky, the clones are also capable of duplicating themselves.
- True Final Boss: She only appears in the post-game File 12, and only after clearing every other available case Olive has (besides the Lappy case).
- Turns Red: When her health reaches the half-way point, she turns red and becomes much more aggressive and faster, making it even more difficult to find openings to attack than in the first phase.
Chimeras
In General
A race of monstrous, extradimensional creatures from an alternate dimension known as the Astral Plane who have invaded Earth. They are the game's main enemies.
- Elemental Powers: Some variations of the different Chimera types have additional abilities based on either fire, ice, lightning, or wind.
- Elite Mook: Black Chimeras are noticeably larger and more aggressive than other Chimeras of their respective classes.
- Evil Is Bigger: Every Legion besides the Sword Legion is typically a smaller version of the corresponding chimera of its type. For instance, while there are lupine foes smaller than the Beast Legion, there is no Arm-type enemy who the Arm Legion towers over.
- Dark Is Evil: The ten Black Chimeras found, named because of their near-black coloration, are more violent than their brethren.
- Invisible to Normals: Unless you have the right sort of camera or if your corruption levels are high enough.
- The Killer Becomes the Killed: Both Jena and Yoseph's plans involve scientific plots to destroy and assimilate the Astral Plane respectively.
- Mook
- No Body Left Behind: They dissolve into pixels upon death.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The larger Chimera get their codenames from figures in Greek mythology.
- Was Once a Man: Jena reveals that humans who get pulled into the Astral Plane return to Earth as Chimera, giving you a whole new perspective on the Legions you keep on a leash.
Humanoid
This class of Chimeras features human-like in appearance that generally excel at performing physical attacks.
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: The claw-type humanoids attack with these.
- Bishounen Line: Inverted. The smaller humanoid Chimeras are typically savage with their larger boss counterparts being more composed in the way they fight.
- Foreshadowing: Astraeus-Capaneus's creation hints that Chimera are capable of fusing to become stronger, a quirk that comes into play during the climax of the game and alludes to what might have happened between Max and his Axe Legion.
- Fusion Dance: The result of one between Astraeus and Capaneus.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- Eris attacks with energy orbs reminiscent of her namesake's infamous Apple of Discord.
- Pygmalion is named after a reclusive sculptor. This boss is a larger and more powerful version of the humanoid chimera that can turn themselves invisible.
- Hector wields a sword reminiscent of his namesake's Durandal and a mask evocative of Hector's moniker relating to his "shining helmet."
Power
Large, gorilla-esque Chimeras that tower over the player.
- Confusion Fu: The Minotaur exchanges the elemental gimmicks of higher-end Power types for a far less predictable fighting style, being the only one of its kind that can kick with its hind legs if the player gets behind them.
- Dual Boss: Kottos and Gyges appear together in the main story and have an altered moveset where they're capable of attacking together in addition to attacking individually.
- Killer Gorilla: They resemble large, monstrous gorillas and are bent on killing the player.
- Spin Attack: One of their common shared attacks is to spin their fists around in a quick tornado.
- Theme Naming: Generally named after Greek giants or Titans.
Beast
This class of Chimeras consists of several quadrupedal, beastly creatures that resemble wolves. They often attack in packs.
- Asian Fox Spirit: Teumessian resembles one, having nine tails and a kitsune-esque mask on its face.
- Enemy Summoner: The larger ones are capable of summoning smaller copies of themselves for assistance.
- Savage Wolves: Many of the members of this class act in this fashion, attacking the player in large packs.
- Theme Naming: Take their names from several Greek mythological beasts based off the dog or large cat varieties.
Wing
Chimeras with feminine bodies and wings protruding from the sides of their head.
- Armed Legs: At close range, their melee attacks consist of flinging their clawed-feet at you.
- Blow You Away: Some of the larger variations can create strong drafts of wind to push you away. The only way to outrun the wind is to mount the Beast Legion.
- Feather Flechettes: Some varieties are capable of throwing a storm of feathers at you for damage.
- Harping on About Harpies: All of the Wing types take inspiration from the general Harpy design.
- Theme Naming: All named ones take their names from Harpies in Greek mythology.
Arrow
Chimeras that primarily attack using bows, similar to the Arrow Legion.
- Rain of Arrows: One of their most common attacks is to send an arrow rain in your direction.
- Chameleon Camouflage: All members are able to turn invisible, and can only be seen in this state by the IRIS or Beast Legion. The game's Subject Logs states that when they do this, they're camouflaging themselves.
- Theme Naming: Generally take their names from Greek gods/goddesses associated with hunting and archery.
Arm
Large floating Chimeras that primarily attack using their fists. The Arm Legion falls into this class of Chimera.
- Gatling Good: They boast the same Round Bullet and projectile attacks of the Arm Legion albeit with much larger calibers.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Crius is capable of firing a huge, highly-damaing laser.
- Theme Naming: Many of the code-named ones take after Greek Titans.
Shell
Small Chimeras that generally aren't strong at combat, but make up for it by being able to link with other Chimeras and make its target and itself invulnerable to damage. Targeting the Shell Chimera with the right move will end this effect.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: The boss monsters from this category are larger, stronger, and tougher, but they usually fight alone and thus lack partners to forge symbiotic invincibility with that require Legion abilities to neutralise.
- Cute Monster: Compared to other Chimeras, these ones generally have cuter, less monstrous designs, resembling foxes, rams, squids, etc.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: The ones capable of linking up with other Chimeras grant this effect.
- Puzzle Boss: While they more often appear as standard enemies, their primary purpose is to force the player into using specific legions to break their link, and being unable to do so makes a battle with them impossible to win.
- Theme Naming: Take their names from Greek nymphs and feminine spirits.
Gel
Gelatinous Chimeras similar to frogs or toads. They often appear in large groups and are easily disposed of by the Arm Legion.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Beating the golden slimes in the main game clears a set of Orders that will grant your Legion different color schemes.
- Metal Slime: One of the varieties is a golden slime. They appear once per File, don't attack, and will disappear if they aren't defeated quickly enough. Defeating them grants a stronger chance for better ability codes and is required to clear a set of Orders.
- Nonindicative Name: The electric-type Gel is code-named Poseidon, the fire-type is code-named Zeus, and the ice-type is (according to a duty-report) Hades. Respectively, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon would make more sense given the Gods' traditional elemental affinities.
Serpent
Snake-like Chimeras capable of burrowing into the ground. They're among the last types of Chimeras you encounter in the main story.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Most members of this class appear to have humans faces inside of their mouths.
- Glass Cannon: They have devastating projectile attacks, but not much health.
- Mole Monster: Some of these types may burrow underground, only sensable with the Beast Legion.
- Snakes Are Sinister: As Chimeras, they're an obvious threat to man-kind.
- Theme Naming: The code-named ones take after serpent-based mythological Greek creatures.
Elemental
Spherical Chimeras that absorb energy as they take damage. They are only encountered twice in the main story and have the least members out of all Chimera types.
- Playing with Fire: The only ones seen have fire-based powers.
Other Characters
Douglas
- Driven to Suicide: After causing the events that lead to the Astral Plane merging with the Ark, he commits suicide, with the Player Character finding his body after pursuing him.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Him delivering the tainted Blue Evolve to the Hermits sets the events that kick off the second half of the game.
- Unwitting Pawn: To Yoseph, who told him that Blue Evolve was both a strength-enhancing and anti-Redshifting drug.
Carlos Kajioka
An almost embarrassingly sincere and dedicated police officer, Carlos sees a kindred spirit in the protagonist and asks them for aid in catching a suspected terrorist. Choosing to help him kickstarts an overarching subplot that takes Carlos and his principles from his beloved Harmony Square to much grimmer territory.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Goofy as he is, he does an excellent job at pursuing the Z09 Liberation Front all the way to the bitter end.
- Cerebus Syndrome: His seemingly quixotic quest to foil the schemes of the vaguely defined "They" takes a much darker turn in File 06 when "They" turns out to not only be very real but also the Z09 Liberation Front. As in, a bonafide terrorist organisation.
- Cowboy Cop: While he's an avid believer in the power of the law, he's willing to bend the rules to see justice done.
- For Great Justice: "This turns the tide in favour of the law."
- Foreshadowing: His File 06 quest has some members of the Z09 Liberation Front take a mysterious drug that greatly boosts their physical abilities. This drug becomes very important to the plot once the Hermits come into the picture.
- Hypocritical Humor: He cheerily tells the fugitive protagonist that he'll look the other way as thanks for helping him with his last quest, even though to foil the Z09 Liberation Front, he had to actually travel to Zone 09, which all cops are forbidden to do.
- Large Ham: Speaks with charming bombast, which puts him at odds with how his Cases require subtlety if not outright stealth.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Deconstructed if the player tells him to abandon the Z09 Liberation Front clan head in the Astral Plane. It's a deliciously ironic punishment on several levels, but it's very clearly not true justice, and the guilt from doing such an impulsively cruel act causes Carlos to retire from police work.
- My God, What Have I Done?: If the player encourages him to leave the leader of the Z09 Liberation Front to die in the Astral Plane, Carlos immediately regrets his decision and goes so far as to retire from the force before exiling himself to Zone 09.
