Characters / Breath of Fire III

Warning: Some of the characters are Walking Spoilers.

Playable Characters

Ryu

• Badass Longcoat: As an adult.
• The Berserker: Turning into the Kaiser Dragon at first turns him into an uncontrollable force that targets allies and enemies alike. There are only two gene combinations that avoid this, the simpler one reduces his stats gained from the transformation so much you might as well not bother and neither one is even hinted at in-game.
• Can't Drop the Hero
• Character Development: Subtle for a Heroic Mime, but at the beginning of the game an inexperienced and scared Ryu just screams and flails his sword at foes, and cowers for defense. Once he starts having to undergo his own journey to find Rei and Teepo, his combat style alters to something more practical to reflect his growing self-confidence. By the time he's an adult, Ryu's become a cool and efficient combatant dead set on his goals.
• The Chosen One: Of the people of Dragnier, it's stated that he's believed to be the one to defeat Myria for good.
• Combat Medic: He's the best healer and also one of the best physical fighters in the game. He also makes a very good attack mage if you can get him enough AP and skills.
• Coming of Age Story: The first half of the game.
• Elemental Powers: This time, Ryu gets the ability to infuse elemental powers to his dragon forms by using specific genes: Flame Gene, Frost Gene, Thunder Gene, Shadow Gene and Radiant Gene.
  • There's also the Trygon, which combines all three main elements.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Burns nearly all unlucky miners at the beginning alive. Their charred corpses can be seen after the battles.
• Guide Dang It!: Accessing certain forms through certain gene combinations.
• Heroic Mime: He never actually speaks, but he nods his head and it's implied that he has dialogue the player can't see.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: In human form, he was trained as a swordsman.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: To the Wyndian Royal Court, at least. He is portrayed as a terrorist who abducted Nina, while the truth is that he helped Nina escape. This becomes a problem later on to acquire a new passport, since the previous one expired. The charges against Ryu are never dropped.
• I Will Find You: Most of Ryu's motivation through the first half is to search for Rei and Teepo.
• Kid Hero: During the first half.
• Last of His Kind: He's the last living dragon. Until you reach Dragnier.
• Master of All: With proper training, usually becomes one, able to deal more damage, take more hits and heal better than anyone else.
• Naked on Arrival: Happens twice, at the beginning and after the Time Skip.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He is the heir to the power of the Brood, a power that could easily destroy the world if misused, or end the reign of God for good.
• Protectorate: Ryu will not let anything hurt Nina. Notably shown during the Balio and Sunder arc.
• Supporting Protagonist: In the Adult Arc, the main plot is Garr's quest to find and speak to God, and Ryu is largely following along, with half of his journey to find Rei and Teepo complete and the other half generally put on hold.
• Took a Level in Badass: Twice.
  • As a child, his attack animation for the first arc is just wild flailing with his eyes closed. After Nina joins and he takes on the job to protect her, his attacks are more straightforward sword strikes.
  • As a child, his dragon transformations are done in the fetal position with terrified wails. As an adult, his stance is one of confidence and power while the yell is more of a battle cry.

Rei

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Momo.
• Best Served Cold: After losing Ryu and Teepo, Rei dedicated himself to making The Organization pay for their crimes. Over the years, he has observed the comings and goings of various gangsters, eventually managing to deduce the power structure of The Organization and identifying many of the people working for them. Once he has this information, Rei goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, using his Weretiger form. By the time he is reunited with Ryu, Rei has already killed many gangsters, whether or not they were directly involved with his tragedy. Curiously, Rei never learned that Ryu already killed Balio and Sunder years ago until Mikba tells him with his dying breath.
• Blessed with Suck: Rei has always feared his strength, and "played robber" because he really didn't want to hurt anyone.
• Break the Cutie: He starts out as a teenage goofball thief, but he doesn't take losing his family well.
• The Cameo:
  • In IV's Endgame+.
  • Also gets a small cameo in Hawkeye's ending in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• Can't Catch Up: While he's originally much stronger than Ryu, by the time they reunite, Ryu is far stronger.
• Cat Folk: He's a member of the Woren tribe, though very few Woren are actually seen in this game.
• Catchphrase: "Doesn't that just beat all?"
• Chick Magnet: Several maids in Castle Wyndia are quite taken with Rei.
• Crutch Character: In the first part of the Childhood Arc, he's Level 5 when Ryu and Teepo are Level 1, he gets Extra Turns in almost every fight due to his high speed and he will be capable of killing almost any random encounter by himself and can deal some good damage to bosses. When he reappears in the Adult Arc, he's around Ryu's level and more of a Fragile Speedster than a powerhouse (though he never exactly stops being useful). He even lampshades this after you beat the Weretiger, admitting that he knew he could never beat Ryu.
• Cute Monster Guy
• Darker and Edgier: After the Time Skip.
• Devious Daggers: A Gentleman Thief who wields two knives.
• The Dreaded: People have been wary of passing through Ogre Road because of the Weretiger prowling through the area.
• Dual Wielding: Uses two Devious Daggers as his weapons.
• Fragile Speedster: He's always the one to go first unless you cast Speed multiple times on someone and is the most likely to get Extra Turns, and while he can deal some decent damage, he can't take it very well.
• Gentleman Thief: He'd never hurt the townfolks as he steals to survive. Although after the timeskip he "jokingly" asks Ryu if he wants to go slaughter the population of McNeil together. He also states, vaguely, that "I wasn't even able to control my own power. All I did was just run around attacking things..."
• He Who Fights Monsters: Played with. After killing many gangsters indiscriminately in his quest for revenge, Rei briefly wonders if he could be worse than those who have hurt him and his friends.
• The Lancer
• Master of Unlocking: If there's a locked door that doesn't need to be electronically unlocked, Rei can pick it for you.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Mikba's dying words reveals to Rei that Ryu already killed Balio and Sunder, and it can be inferred he realizes or gets told off-screen that it was pre-Time Skip at that. This causes Rei to briefly snap when he realizes that his Weretiger rampages to slaughter the mafia in revenge may have been almost entirely pointless and made him as bad as those he hunted.
• Mr. Fanservice: His chest is visible due to the way he dresses.
• My Greatest Failure: Losing Ryu and Teepo.
• Required Party Member: You can't get to Eden without his lock-picking skill. You are also forced to use him against Mikba.
• Shock and Awe: He specializes in electric magic.

Teepo (Massive Spoilers)

• All There in the Manual: The story about how he and Rei met.
• Ambiguous Situation: Late in the game during Ryu's journey into his mindscape, Teepo summons an undead being, Arwan, to fight Ryu. The exact detail how is never explained whether it is an extension of his powers or that given to him by Myria.
• Anti-Villain: Not really a villain, but he does agree with Myria that the Brood need to be contained or destroyed.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Teepo agrees with Myria's views about the Brood, and sees their power as something that only causes destruction, war and death. And why he thinks both he and Ryu need to be isolated, to prevent more of that from happening.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Teepo forces Ryu into one during their reunion in Station Myria.
• The Cameo: With Rei in IV's Endgame+.
• Conveniently an Orphan
• Crutch Character: Players will be relying on Teepo early in the game because he's the only one at that point with access to powerful magic.
• The Dragon: To Myria.
• Early-Bird Cameo: His adult form is seen at the very beginning of the game.
• Evil Counterpart: To Ryu. Both have similar starts, and while Teepo is attracted to Myria's view of his powers and the Brood and sides with her, Ryu chooses free will and confronts her. And unlike Ryu, Teepo likely didn't have a group of friends to help him in his time of need, and thus, found no meaning in his own life.
• Expy: Seems to be channeling Magus's design in both looks and in combat to an extent.
• Face–Heel Turn: By the time Ryu encounters him again, Teepo has fully accepted Myria's dogma and worldview, putting him at odds with his former friends. Teepo does everything he can to either persuade Ryu to seclude himself in Eden or kill him to prevent him from challenging Myria. This results in Teepo's death.
• Foreshadowing: He comments twice that Ryu was found abandoned just like himself, followed immediately by Ryu having a dream that shows Teepo's adult form loosely referring to his prior words. Without actual context, however, one may not realize they're the same person, and the adult form's words are explicitly missing any context to link him to the truth of future events.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Until his Face–Heel Turn.
• Hot-Blooded: So very much.
• Magic Knight: He starts with Flare and from there learns Frost, Iceblast, Simoon and Fireblast until about 14 and also wields a sword.
• More than Mind Control: The heroes assume that Teepo has been Brainwashed to accept Myria's dogma, but Teepo assures them that he believes that the Brood are too dangerous to be allowed to live with all his heart. It is likely that both cases are true.
• Playing with Fire/An Ice Person: Handles both elemental spells.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Undying Loyalty: Although he admits that he would rather live a simple life with Ryu and Rei again, he still believes in Myria even with his dying breath, citing his battle with Ryu as more evidence of the Brood's destructive power.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He doesn't like ghosts and finds it ironic that Ryu isn't afraid of them whatsoever.

Nina

• Action Girl: The team's best spellcaster after Teepo.
• Character Narrator: In the Drama Album adaptation of the game.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: It only happens once, but Nina didn't seem amused when Ryu blushed about seeing Deis in her birthday suit, eh?
• Damsel in Distress: Once in a while in the childhood arc, somewhat justified by her being a Princess without much life experience.
• Early-Bird Cameo: You can have a brief glimpse of adult Nina if you return to McNeil Manor and fiddle with the camera angle at the gate.
• Genius Ditz: Not as much as Momo, but she has her moments of both slight stupidity and great ideas, usually at the same time.
• Glass Cannon: Even early in the game, she can do a ton of damage. Over the course of the game, she does get a little more balanced, though "lots of damage, hope you dodge" still remains her role. This does make her somewhat unreliable, though she still remains useful in many situations.
• Loved by All: In the lower levels of the castle, Nina is more respected than her parents. They support and cover for her decision to rebel, and she can come and go as she pleases even after running away.
• Magic Wand: Uses one as a child, which turns into a proper staff when she's older.
• Ms. Fanservice: Long legs, a short dress and some knee-high boots. She definitely counts.
• My Beloved Smother: Her mother Sheila. Returning to Castle Wyndia and speaking with the people inside, they express their favor for Nina's choice of living (even the king, though in his case it's only implied). Sheila really is the only one who disapproves.
  "You belong to Wyndia...And you belong to me..."
  "I'm saying this for your own good."
• Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Princess of Wyndia, wears a lot of pink (though red in the artwork), has fairy-wings and a magic wand, and is the most powerful spellcaster in the group.
• Rebellious Princess: She refuses to live in a gilded cage and wants to experience the world, but her mother won't let her. Nina's last words to her mother in the story are that she has to be free to be herself before fleeing the castle.
• Royal Blood: A member of the Wyndian royal family. She also has to deal with the expectations that the Queen places on her because of it.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She personally leads the investigations of McNeil, Syn City and the Plant. The guards joke that she's doing so much that she'll run out of reasons to leave the palace.
• She Is All Grown Up: After the Time Skip. She gets the typical reaction upon seeing Ryu too.
  "Garr? And...Ryu!?"
• Ship Tease: With Ryu.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Tries to hook up Beyd and Shadis, much to the chagrin of the rest of the party.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Not exactly, but invoked by Garr to sneak past the checkpoint that leads into the Raphala region since Nina left the castle without permission and decided to stick with the party. The guard they fooled to sneak in remarks that her mother must be beautiful.
• Warrior Princess: The Princess of Wyndia is one of the most powerful magicians in the world, and in adulthood, is personally responsible for cleaning up the kingdom's criminal element.
• Winged Humanoid: Much less noticeable due to the race's decrease in power.
• Wings Do Nothing: The only Nina whose wings grant her no special skills or abilities. It's even hinted they're just accessories and Wyndians don't have wings anymore.^note This makes more sense in the context of anyone who has played Breath Of Fire 1 and 2, the tapestry seen at the opening and game is referred to as the past and has the first Nina, who appears in the second game and tells that Nina that the Wyndian winged genetics are fading as a result of her race mixing. These events are never mentioned in this game.

Momo

• Absentminded Professor
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Rei.
• BFG: Her magic bazooka. That she can't seem to hit the broad side of a barn with.
• The Cameo: In IV. Lampshaded in that an experiment she performs literally blows her into another dimension — the world IV takes place in. The circumstances actually have given some fuel to those arguing that IV takes places in an Alternate Universe or Alternate Continuity (instead of being a Non-Linear Sequel).
• Genius Ditz: She's very ditzy and kind of absentminded, but she's an expert when it comes to technology and can do just about anything with it.
• Glass Cannon: Her offense is what you'd expect from a bazooka, but her health and defense are quite low.
• Little Bit Beastly: To the point it's incredibly easy to miss. Those aren't feathers in her hat - those are her ears. Apparently she's descended from the Grassrunner Tribe.
• Miss Fixit: Need to fix the Lighthouse? Bring in Momo! The ship isn't working and nobody understands why? Call Momo! There are problems in the Plant? Gee, I wonder who can help us?
• Porn Stash: Momo mentions that her father used to spend all his time in his lab. When you enter said lab and examine all the bookshelves, it's practically a porn library.
• Required Party Member: Any time there's a machine/computer involved in the story, don't forget to bring her with you. The game doesn't force her into your party, though, and often the place you need her is halfway through the dungeon, forcing you to walk out, put her in your party, and walk back. Especially notable in the Factory, where you need her bazooka to blow open a malfunctioning door that blocks your progress. The game gives you zero hints about this.
• Robot Buddy: Honey.
• The Smart Girl
• Status Buff: Her magical specialty. She can also serve as The Medic, but her low AP limits her capabilities.

Peco/Pecoros

• Breath Weapon: Naturally gains the Firebreath and Icebreath spells. Which are both HP based, and you can easily raise Peco to have the highest HP in the game.
• Elite Tweak: He starts at Level 1, allowing players who have mastered the Master system of the game to easily manipulate his stats.
• God Was My Copilot: Turns out that Peco is part of the Yggdrasil network.
• Heavy Sleeper: Half the time you see him in the camp, he's soundly asleep.
• Magikarp Power: Thanks to him starting at Level 1. Most people disregard him right off the bat, while others take advantage of the Masters system to raise him into a game breaker.
• Plant Person: He's a large onion.
• Power Fist: Though some of his weapons are claws.
• Stone Wall: Has the highest base HP of the whole party and the second-highest base defense, plus regenerative abilities and the biggest reprisal rate. Well-raised, one can win most battles in Auto Battle.
• Team Pet
• The Unintelligible: He speaks in sound effects, though Yggdrasil can translate for him.
• Use Your Head: His field ability is to headbutt stuff.
• The World Tree: At the end of the game, he's revealed to be connected directly to Yggdrasil, which proceeds to give the team a hand against Myria.

Garr/Garland

• The Alcoholic: Stated in his profile, and briefly hinted in-game: After Balio tells Fahl to watch his drinking, he tells Garr the same. He's also mentioned to be a regular at the bar.
  • He's shown (seemingly) hammered in the Audio Adaptation, right as Nina and Ryu are trying to escape from Fahl.
• Artifact of Death: His most powerful weapon, the Beast Spear, slowly drains his HP.
• The Atoner: During the second half of the game, after realizing that if they had wanted to the Brood could have easily killed him and the other dragon slayers during the war. He begins to wonder why the Brood let themselves be killed, then spends the rest of the game trying to learn why God wanted them killed in the first place. Interestingly enough, Ryu and the Brood of Dragnier holds no grudge against him for it. Deis isn't so forgiving.
• The Big Guy
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: An unusual take on the trope, in which simply choosing to participate in the final battle turns out to be the heroic sacrifice. The others don't know until it's already too late.
• Big Damn Heroes: His timely appearance just as Balio and Sunder have the party surrounded.
• The Cameo: Appears in Doctor Strange's ending in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• Church Militant: The Guardians (of which Garr is part) were created specifically for this by Myria, and are profoundly devoted to her.
• Climax Boss: He's fought at the end of the Childhood Arc at the bottom of Angel Tower as a Duel Boss. After beating him, the Adult Arc begins.
• Death Glare: Delivers one that has Balio and Sunder scared shitless.
• Deuteragonist: The main plot of the game (finding and speaking to God) is his mission. While Ryu is The Chosen One and the party leader, it's Garr who's personally interested in finding out why the Brood had to die.
• Dragon Slayer: The last one still inhabiting the world, but after losing to Ryu in Angel Tower, he realizes that the Brood could have easily crushed the Guardians if they had wanted to.
• The Dreaded: He's the only person who can instill fear unto Balio and Sunder. The only reason Ryu and his friends were able to escape Genmel even after losing the tournament was because Garr's requested "prize" is to let them go, and Balio and Sunder couldn't do anything about it without angering him.
• Dropping the Bombshell: Ryu's goal of finding his family are completely dashed when Garr spells it out for him that, Balio and Sunder being cutthroat criminals, Rei and Teepo have a slim chance of still being alive. Of course, Garr would be proven wrong later on, but...
• Duel Boss: During the final battle of the Contest of Champions and again in Angel Tower.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: During the Inevitable Tournament.
• Knuckle Cracking: He loves to do it.
• Mighty Glacier: The second slowest party member after Peco, but also the strongest and with high defense as well.
• Mission from God: The reason for his actions in his backstory. He starts to question it later, and comes with the party so he can meet Myria and question her about the reasons for it.
• Oh, Crap!: His reaction at the Angel Tower that for as weak and fleshy as the young Ryu is, even despite the potential granted by the Brood blood in his veins, the boy's transformation into Kaiser form is so overwhelmingly powerful despite being a mere child. This also triggers him realizing a hole in the logic of his faith; if Ryu could've killed him with zero effort, how did the Brood lose?
• One-Man Army: The Contest of Champions is fought in 3-man groups, but Garr fights in it alone. He also takes care of a full group of Balio and Sunder's thugs right before joining the party.
• Our Angels Are Different: Boy, are they ever.
• Overrated and Underleveled: His status as an uber-badass is driven home several times before he joins. When you fight him at the tournament, you can't win; he wipes out about a dozen of Balio and Sunder's thugs right before joining; and until he joins, Balio and Sunder are impossible to defeat. When he joins you, he's slightly above the rest of your party in level and combat ability.
• Protectorate: Deis extracts a promise from him to keep Ryu safe on their journey to find Myria. She need not have bothered, though.
• Playing with Fire: His magic specialization.
• Pose of Supplication: When KO'd in battle, he slumps forward in a humiliating pose where he's bent over on his knees, with his butt protruding upward.
• The Quiet One
• Red Baron: The referee at the Contest of Champions introduces Garr with a list of badass epithets.
• Redemption Equals Death: Quite a literal one. All Guardians are strengthened by Myria's energy, so once she's defeated for good he turns into stone.
• Religious Bruiser: A beefy guy who doesn't seem like the religious type at first, prayer beads aside...and then you reach Urkan Tapa.
• Taken for Granite: The "Dream of Stone", the fate of all Guardians.
• Turn Undead: He is the only character who can learn Kyrie just by gaining levels, which proves to be useful against a certain boss.
• Warrior Monk
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Though to be fair, only Ryu knows the true story of what happened at Angel Tower.
• Wings Do Nothing: Unless you count his "defend" animation.
  • Natural Weapon

Antagonists

Mayor McNeil

Mayor McNeil and ghost ancestors (Kanzei, Torast, Kassen, Galtel, Doksen)

• 13 Is Unlucky: Mayor McNeil is the thirteenth of his line, and the one who ends up screwing it up for the whole family.
• All Your Powers Combined: All ghosts merge to form the Amalgam/Conglomerate.
• Bilingual Bonus: As befits a line of money-grubbing aristocrats, McNeil's ancestors are named after business terms: Kanzei = customs, Torast (Torastu) = trust, Kassen (Kashisen) = "cashes in", Galtel (Karuteru) = cartel, Doksen (Dokusen) = monopoly. Their merged form Amalgam is called "Congermerate" (conglomerate) in the Japanese version.
• Corrupt Politician: Part of the reason why McNeil taxes his people heavily is because he has to pay protection money regularly to The Organization. While the details of his partnership with them are unknown, it is implied that McNeil has been dealing with The Organization for many years (or possibly generations) and, despite public knowledge, his crimes have gone unpunished for a long time.
• Dirty Coward: He's not a fighter, just a spoiled rich guy. The woman he was chasing before Ryu and company busted in told him that the bandits were way more manly than he was.
• Fat Bastard: McNeil.
• Haunted House: His manor.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In the Childhood Chapter, McNeil escapes punishment for his crimes and his townspeople remain cowed into submission. After the Time Skip, he is finally arrested by Nina on long overdue corruption charges.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Doksen can't even finish introducing himself before Teepo interrupts and starts the fight.
• Man of Wealth and Taste
• Mayor Pain: Both evil and incompetent; the mayor's a major weight on the people's shoulders, but he's a spoiled Manchild who only keeps his power because he's an appendage of far greater evils.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He's rather cowardly and weak. His "friends", on the other hand, are anything but.
• Palette Swap: The ghosts all look alike with different colors.
• Properly Paranoid: He has all his manor's doors and windows nailed shut in fear of bandits, though in reality he has been hearing the ghosts a little too much.
• Small-Town Tyrant: The boss of a farming village who squeezes the people to pay for his women.
• The Unfought: Kanzei, the eldest McNeil ghost. Also, the Mayor himself, because he's not a fighter.
• Villains Want Mercy: After being arrested, McNeil tries to bargain for leniency by revealing everything he knows about The Organization, including the names of the gangsters he's dealt with: Balio, Sunder and Mikba. He's told that all three of them are now dead and that he's lucky to be alive.

Loki (Zurusuru)

• Didn't Think This Through: He thought that it would be a good idea to have Ryu and his friends steal money from McNeil. As Bunyan reveals to the three of them (and the player) afterwards. McNeil is friends with Balio & Sunder, and he orders them to burn down Rei's house in retaliation.
• Dirty Coward: After McNeil is robbed, he flees town so The Organization won't get to him. He comes back a few years later to testify against him though.
• The Faceless: He's never seen without his hood.
• Greed: He takes advantage of Rei and co. being heroic and Just Like Robin Hood to get a chunk of money out of Mayor McNeil.
• Laser-Guided Karma: First half of the game he gets away scot-free from having used the heroes to rob McNeil. After the Time Skip, he is mauled badly by Rei/Weretiger.
• Manipulative Bastard: He used the party for his own selfish needs.
• Meaningful Name: Loki, as in the Trickster God of Norse Mythology.

Balio & Sunder

• Arc Villain: They're the main antagonists for a good portion of the Childhood Chapters.
• Annoying Laugh: Horse laugh, with the animation to go with it, too.
• Black Comedy Rape: If you take Peco instead of Momo to the tournament and leave her as the caged hostage to the brothers, she outright states that they said they would do things to her that get censored in the dialogue. The only reasons this gets played for laughs are that they don't get the chance, and Momo being the Genius Ditz that she is doesn't comprehend the thinly-veiled threat.
• Brains and Brawn: Balio's the Brains and relies more on using Lightning when you fight him and Sunder's the Brawn and relies more on physical attacks.
• The Ditz: Sunder. He even falls for the skill Influence, who forces low-intelligence enemies to attack a selected target.
• Evil Duo: They're brothers who work together.
• Evil Laugh: They have this horse-like cackle they indulge in when things go their way.
• Exact Words: In bargaining for their freedom with Nina, Balio promises not to harm Ryu again. She frees them, and they keep their word...because they're taking her instead.
• Fusion Dance: Their combined form, Stallion. Ironically, this is the only time they can actually be defeated.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The first encounter with them is unwinnable. The second time you fight them, you can actually drive them off if you've done some level grinding, but not defeat them.
• Jerkass: They're both remorseless killers whose first scene involves burning down the trio's home and trying to murder them, then stabbing Ryu, kidnapping Nina to ransom her for money after manipulating her into freeing them and knocking her out to fight Ryu, brutally assaulting Ryu and taking him and Nina to Gemmel and then chasing them all around the countryside and being smug assholes about it.
• Knight of Cerebus: The lighthearted adventures in the Childhood Chapters with Rei and Teepo come to a quick end when they show up.
• The Mafia: Members of The Organization.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Gameplay and Story Segregation aside, Garr would have never found out about Ryu being a dragon, thus setting the stage for Garr to "betray" them and set Ryu's party free, if Balio and Sunder hadn't told him themselves. Real smart, guys.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Their names and equine appearance reference a pair of immortal horses from Greek mythology.
• Shock and Awe: Balio uses Lightning in both of the battles where you fight him.
• Shout-Out: Stallion's design and trademark technique are one to Ultraman. He even strikes his popular L-pose while using it. For some reason, the references were removed in the PSP remake, with his color changed to brown and his technique renamed.
• Sibling Team
• Two Beings, One Body: They merge into Stallion.
• Would Hurt a Child: Their first appearance is brutally beating up and trying to kill Rei, Teepo and Ryu after burning their house down, then they stab Ryu in the back on the top of Mt. Myrneg to try and kill him. They then kidnap and knock Nina out to beat up Ryu and a little later when they're threatening to kill Nina, a princess from Wyndia to make Ryu surrender, they brutally assault Ryu into unconsciousness.

Mikba

• Continuity Nod:
  • His speech regarding God, reveals that he is a demon created by Deathevan.
  • He is either the Last of His Kind or belongs to new generation of demons, which could mark the second coming of Deathevan.
• The Don: He is the leader of The Organization.
• Dirty Coward: He ran away after Rei (in Weretiger form) started killing off his minions.
• Fat Bastard: His heavy gut and lack of morals puts him into this territory.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Everything Balio and Sunder have pulled was done under his orders.
• The Mafia: Mikba is the supreme leader of The Organization and runs its operations from Syn City. Balio and Sunder work directly for him.
• One-Winged Angel: He transforms into a big demon.
• Poisonous Person: He uses a lot of poison attacks in combat.
• Red Herring: Sadly after his death, anything regarding Deathevan is not touched again by the story.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: He does this when Rei comes to call at Syn City. It doesn't last.

Final Boss (Massive Spoilers)

Goddess Myria

• Angelic Beauty: She's usually seen in the form of a winged woman with light all around her.
• Apologetic Attacker: If her words are genuine, she really doesn't want to kill Ryu, but sees his power as too dangerous for him to be allowed to roam free.
• As You Know: Says this word-for-word when she explains why Caer Xhan needed to be separated from the mainland to keep the Desert of Death from spreading across the planet.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Her battle form is absolutely massive, dwarfing any other adversary in the game, or even the largest dragon forms Ryu has access to.
• Back from the Dead: The Big Bad from the first game returns for the third outing. It's never quite explained how.
• Big Bad: She's Ryu's ultimate enemy, as the one who commanded Garr and the other Guardians to carry out the genocide of the Brood.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Deis' Abel.
• The Cameo: Appears as a card in the Heroes and Heralds mode of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first game, she was a villain For the Evulz and literally fed on being hated and feared. Here, she's a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to protect all life from destruction by destroying or imprisoning the Brood.
• The Corrupter: She ends up playing this role to Teepo, who becomes a fanatical believer of her doctrine.
• Demiurge Archetype: She seems to check most of the boxes. She pretends to be the one true God, but isn't, and she controls humanity to keep them in the "lands of life" and prevent them from attaining unrestricted power through technology. There's two tweaks to the formula, though. First, as far as we know, there isn't a One True God. While in the end, she can be found praying, no God answers her call and she isn't sure there's one there. The second tweak is that she's not really evil. She's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who has good reasons for what she's doing and fights to protect all living beings - she just thinks that the Brood are a threat to the world.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She appears right in the beginning in Ryu's dream.
• Fan Disservice: She wears Godiva Hair during her battle. Except for her default attack, where her guts rupture out to slap someone as her hair flies back.
• Glamour Failure: Should Ryu choose to challenge her, Myria's benevolent appearance will turn dark and foreboding, complete with black wings and red eyes.
• A God Am I: She follows this mentality, and believes herself in the right because of it. She seems uncertain after her defeat, though.
• Hero Antagonist: It's undeniable that she's fighting to preserve the world from the dangers of the Brood, the Desert of Death and uncontrolled technological advancement. The problem is, while the Brood are dangerously powerful, they're not evil. And you're one of them. Yggdrasil also points out that keeping the Desert locked away from the lands of the living prevents them from recolonizing it.
• Light Is Not Good: A beautiful, charismatic goddess, and while she isn't exactly evil, she is mortally antagonistic to the Brood. On top of this, she deliberately limits humanity from spreading beyond her set boundaries, and has cut off the Yggdrassil trees from one another.
• My Beloved Smother: She's this to all the Earth's inhabitants.
• Nightmare Face: Just watch her face briefly melt into a gaping maw when using her Holocaust attack.
• One-Winged Angel: She transforms into a nightmarish being for the final battle.
• Physical God: She is the God of the Urkans and has the power to back up that claim. Despite her claims, however, she isn't the God - if there is such a being.
• Power Source: It is stated the chrysm, the fuel for all machinery on the world, is a medium for Myria to provide the world with her magical energy.
• The Scottish Trope: The Urkans (and Guardians) are prohibited from speaking the name of their goddess, or that of her enemy the Brood.
• Snake People: Her One-Winged Angel form is an enormous winged snake-woman.
• Space Station: Her sanctuary, Orbital Station Myria.
• Villainous Breakdown: An unusually humanizing one. After her defeat, she uses her dying moments to lament what things have come to, rather than curse the heroes. She worries over how the world will continue on without her, questions her own decision to declare war on the Brood, and calls out to God ("if there is a God") to ask what she should have done instead.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: She's protecting life and the world by sending the technology of Caer Xhan to humanity via the Black Ship in manageable doses, keeping the Desert of Death away from humanity with an ocean barrier, and stopping the Brood from destroying the world with their power. Unfortunately, sending machines to humanity means making humanity dependent on her, keeping the Desert away from the rest of the world prevents humanity and Yggdrasil from colonizing and restoring it, and protecting the world from the Brood means either killing them all or imprisoning them in a false Heaven, regardless of whether or not they've done anything wrong.
• With Us or Against Us: Up until her death, this was her attitude towards everyone around her, including her own sister. Centuries ago, Myria decided that the Brood were too dangerous to simply exist in the world, leading her to commence a genocide upon them. When her sister Deis and Yggdrasil protested against this unprovoked genocide, Myria turned her wrath upon them as well and ensured that both would eventually be forgotten by the world. When Ryu refused her offer of eternal seclusion, Myria immediately accused him of declaring war on the entire world. For Myria, only her wisdom was best for the world and anyone who opposed her was foolish at best or downright evil at worst.
• Written by the Winners: After the Brood War, Myria erases or re-writes history to suit her own needs. For example, her sister Deis is portrayed in history as an evil witch for supporting the Brood. The Yggdrasil trees were also scattered throughout the world by Myria so that their collective knowledge and wisdom will eventually disappear, leaving mortals with no choice but to turn to her alone for spiritual guidance. By the time the Breath of Fire III story begins, no one questions the noble deeds of Myria and any attempt to do so is considered foolish, unthinkable and heretical.

Supporting Characters

Bunyan (Babadel)

• Cool Old Guy: He tries to keep an eye on Rei, Teepo and Ryu throughout the Childhood Arc and is genuinely disappointed when they break into his house but forgives them anyway and teaches them the value of honest work.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Rei really should've thought twice about choosing his hut to ransack.
• Disappointed in You: It's quite obvious that he's displeased with how the three orphans raided McNeil Manor.
• Dumb Muscle: Specifically, the Book Dumb type. As a Master, he teaches strength, toughness and honest work, and studying under him will damage your Intelligence.
• Gentle Giant: Outside of knocking out and tying up the trio for breaking into his house, he prefers to use words to teach and can give some of the best physical moves in the game as a Master.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: He saves the axe for log-cutting.
• Mentor: Becomes the second Master. He also imparts some wise words for all three little rascals in the early arcs of the game.
• Mighty Lumberjack: He's one of the biggest and strongest humans in the world, and a lumberjack. He makes Ryu and Teepo do it as well to teach them the value of honest work, and as a Master, encourages strength and toughness over all else.
• Mythology Gag: Starts one with the Babadel of the first game.
• Out of Focus: He's a major character in the opening, but after Ryu goes off to find Teepo, he's just another Master.
• Secret-Keeper: Rei implies that he knows about Rei's Weretiger power.
• Stealth Mentor: The whole Nue quest turns out to be a way of teaching Ryu and co. about honest work and getting them back in the town's good books.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He was so disappointed in Rei and company after they break into McNeil Manor, he didn't tell them outright, and instead had to say it "discreetly" (faking a conversation with a cow so that they could remain hidden).

Yggdrasil

• Big Good: With Deis imprisoned, and Jono and Ladon largely inactive, it's the most powerful active force fighting against Myria.
• The Corruption: Not its fault, but its sap can seriously mutate people or plants if used by a Mad Scientist.
• God Was My Copilot: Peco is its avatar.
• Hive Mind: Generally, Yggdrasil acts as one being with its own identity, though it's actually several trees that are (due to Myria's interference) not completely connected.
• Mentor: One of its trees serves as a Master.
• Physical God: While it's seen better days, it is one of the most powerful beings extant in the world, as it demonstrates when it recalls the party members who Myria banished from Caer Xhan, scaring Myria half to death.
• Un-person: Myria has scattered the individual Yggdrasil trees into secluded groves so that no one would call upon the trees' wisdom anymore. She did this so that she would be the world's only source of spiritual guidance.
• The World Tree: There are several of them, but collectively it/they qualify.

Beyd

• Arranged Marriage: Shadis' father Sinkar wants her to marry a strong sailor, so he's set one up for her with Zig. Beyd isn't too happy about this, and asks the party to train him in combat.
• Badass Normal: The badass part depends on the player's way of training him: If one is diligent enough, Beyd can end the battle in 1-2 hits.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: His and Shadis' child, Shayd.
• The Cameo: In IV. It's not hard to forget how he ended up in that game.
• Childhood Friend Romance: When you come back, they even have a child.
• David Versus Goliath: The fight with Zig is supposed to be like this, but as mentioned above, with the right training he can beat the snot out of Zig in just a few turns.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Zig stops the bullying and admits defeat, and then becomes the pilot of your ship.
• Girl Next Door: He and Shadis have been friends since childhood.
• Level Grinding: Training him so he can stand on his own may take some time.
• Love Triangle: Beyd wants to marry Shadis, but she's engaged to Zig.
• The Rival: Zig.
• Shout-Out: Beyd's rival, Zig, bears a strong resemblance to Bluto.
• The Smart Guy: He's the Guild's accountant.
• Statistically Speaking: You can overtrain him, make so he takes 1 damage from your + 30 level party and defeats Zig in a few rounds, taking no damage in the process. He's still beaten up and bandaged in the next scene.
• Theme Naming: All characters from Raphala are named after fishing equipment: Beyd is "Bait", while Zig, Sinkar and Shadis are named after the "Jig", "Sinker" and "Shad" baits. The region itself is named after a brand of fishing gear.
• Took a Level in Badass: Boy howdy. Wimpy bookkeeper turns into master swordsman and Leader of the Porter's Guild.
• Training from Hell: One of the best methods to train him is to hit him as hard as possible, which raises his defense.

Dr. Palet

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Initially offers to give the heroes safe passage to Wyndia in exchange for taking care of the Mutant, but he's actually in cahoots with Balio and Sunder. He let the goons take Ryu and friends so they wouldn't blab about the Plant's unethical research.
• Body Horror: After drinking Yggdrasil's sap, Palet immediately mutates into a mushroom-like plant monster named Shroom.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Palet's ultimate goal is to resurrect his dead mother.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Once he is confronted with evidence his unethical experiments, Palet's first act is to sacrifice his own humanity in a last-ditch attempt to protect his experiments.
• Mad Scientist: Palet is willing to do anything to ensure the secrecy and success of his experiments, even if it meant betraying the daughter of his one-time best friend, neglecting his job or becoming a monster. His experiments have also resulted in the creation of countless mutated animals and plants.
• Mercy Kill: Palet's mom receives it from Momo, who shuts down the machine she's stuck in so that she can rest in peace.
• Necromantic: A familial example - he's devoted to his mother's memory, and will stop at nothing to see her revived by his experiments.
• The Reveal: Palet reveals that the experiments to discover a method to resurrect the dead were started by Repsol, Momo's father and Palet's former friend, who originally wanted to bring his wife (Momo's mother) back to life. Repsol eventually felt that he was committing crimes against nature and decided to focus instead on experiments using chrysm to enhance crops, which led to the construction of the Plant. Failing to understand Repsol's change of heart, Palet continued the resurrection experiments on his own, this time with the goal of raising his own mother from the dead.
• Scale of Scientific Sins: Palet feels that there is no difference between experiments for crop enhancement and bringing the dead back to life, seeing only resources to used or disposed of for the sake of science. He also seems to have little regard for nature since he once called Yggdrasil a "good-for-nothing tree" despite using its sap for his experiments.
• Walking Spoiler: There's a lot about this man that isn't evident until later.

Gaist

• Church Militant: Formerly.
• Continuity Nod:
  • He transforms into a fire spawn quite similar to an enemy in the final dungeon of II, the Ifeleet/Ifrit.
  • Before transforming, he resembles the Amom/Amon enemy from said dungeon.
• Dead All Along: As he tells Ryu on his deathbed, he's been dead since he "became a Guardian".
• Duel Boss: He request this from Ryu, to see the Brood's true strength for himself.
• The Exile: Self-imposed.
• Fallen Hero: In the eyes of the Urkans, he is this because he lost his faith.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Garr's best weapon the Beast Spear can be found by searching his remains.
• No Immortal Inertia
• Playing with Fire: He even uses two torches to power himself up.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Gaist had second thoughts about killing dragons in the backstory, abandoning Urkan Tapa.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Asks Ryu to kill him in combat, since this is the only way to break Deis' barrier.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: His actions in the Brood War have left him rather haunted.
• Sinister Scythe: The artbook shows him wielding one.
• Threshold Guardian: He challenges Ryu in order to see if he's worthy to meet Deis.

Deis

• Cain and Abel: Abel to Myria's Cain; the latter locking her in stasis for centuries might have something to do with it.
• Demoted to Extra: Despite her formidable prowess in the previous two games, she doesn't join the party for this outing.
• Feeling Their Age: Says as much after teleporting to her shrine and giving Ryu the ability to find Myria. As soon as they're gone, her mask of bravado drops and she slumps down. At this point, she at least tens of thousands of years old, and starting to feel it.
• Good Is Not Nice: Not especially forgiving towards Garr over the whole "killing the Brood" thing. Also somewhat vain. Best flatter her a bit if you want her as a Master.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: She spoke out against her sister Myria for her unprovoked genocide against the Brood. Unfortunately, this only aroused Myria's ire and she put Deis into eternal slumber as punishment. She also ensured that Deis would be remembered as a wicked witch who aided the Brood.
• Humans Are Special: She believes that the people of the world have the ability to look after themselves and the world, with or without Myria.
• Meaningful Echo: "My Ryu..." The exact same words are spoken by her sister and the main antagonist, Myria.
• Naked on Arrival: When woken from stasis, she's naked.
• Permanently Missable Content: If you answer a certain question wrong during her exposition, she won't become one of your Masters.
• Physical God: Appears to have godlike powers of some kind, and her name is a feminization of "Deus" (Latin for "God"). Also, she's Myria's sister.
• Snake People: Her true form is a big half-snake woman.
• Together in Death: She joins her sister Myria in death and assures Myria that the world will find a way to survive no matter what happens.

Elder Jono (Bono)

• Cool Old Guy: He's got some excellent lines.
• Climax Boss: You'll face this guy around the point where you finally meet the rest of the Brood.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Every three turns during his battle, he'll waste a turn with the "Bad Back" skill. You can even learn it from him, though it doesn't do anything.
• Dirty Old Man: He will not allow you to undergo his "test" unless you take Nina with you, foreshadowing a Required Party Member scenario ^note  but actually subverting it, as you can switch Nina out for another member after she talks to him . This becomes hilarious when you take Momo to meet him instead and he outright complains that she "doesn't meet his qualifications" — which makes her furious.
• Mr. Exposition: He fills you in on part of the big mystery surrounding the Brood.
• Old Master: Being elderly hasn't done much to diminish his skills as a Brood warrior.
• Power Nullifier: He disables Ryu's dragon transformations during his Boss Battle. This doesn't stop him turning into a dragon and beating the snot out of you.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: He has sealed within himself the essence and powers of the whole Brood, which coalesce into the Infinity Gene once he is defeated.

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