Characters page for Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia, with characters from Final Fantasy XIII through Final Fantasy XV.
Return to the main Character page here.
See also:
- Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia I To III
- Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia IV To VI
- Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia VII To IX
- Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia X To XII
- Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia Spinoff Games
Beware: Late Arrival Spoilers are untagged for their respective games.
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Introduced in Final Fantasy XIII
Lightning
Lightning
Alternate Skin 1
Alternate Skin 2
A former sergeant of the Guardian Corps that goes by the name of Lightning. In an effort to save her one and only sister, she gives up everything she has to battle against destiny. While her unsociable demeanor once made her seem unapproachable, she realizes that she is not alone in her journey, ultimately opening her heart to others.
Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto
First encountered by the party at the end of Chapter 8, Capta Est Tower. Before the party even finds her, she clashes with Garland repeatedly, saving the group from him. Trusting neither Materia nor Mog, finally joins at the end when the party decides to go meet with the goddess Materia and ask her questions of their own.
- Balance Buff: A very late one in the COSMOS era without an Lv. 70 awakening event; both skills now have their respective unique framed buff stackable up to 2 times with Sparkstrike Extend now having an HP damage finisher, turning them into + versions and also allowing her new BRV and HP attacks to raise the stacks without skill usage.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Lightning hates Materia for being imperious and cagey, an opinion not improved by learning that Materia went into their memories and edited things out. When the general lack of faith results in Materia being too weak to defend herself or even hold herself upright, Lightning is dismayed.Lightning: I wanted to get back at her for what she's done, but... not like this.
- Blade Spam: Her second ability, Flourish of Steel, and her EX ability, Army of One. Her FR attack also follows suit.
- The Comically Serious: When the word "booyaka" starts being thrown around, Lightning assumes it's some kind of secret code and becomes very concerned with figuring out what it means.
- Cool Big Sis: By Lightning's Intersecting Wills event, she has noticeably mellowed out after having regained her memories, and she essentially becomes this not just to Serah, but to the entire group overall.
- Extra Turn: Her biggest gimmick that's heavily enforced upon the release of her EX and post-rework. Her Knight of Etro buff allows her to gain a free turn with no turn count increase whenever she breaks a target, and her Awakening Ability has the property of reseting the enemy's Break status while also allowing her to get another free turn from her next Break much like all AA abilities do with characters that have buffs and abilities that allow them to take extra turns, such as King and Aranea. With her EX+ fully upgraded, she can use any one of her skills for free, her first turn has no turn delay, her EX will be fully charged after using either of her skills and in addition to dealing much more damage overall, her EX also resets the enemy's Break status as well, allowing her to use either one of her skills to Break the enemy, use her EX to remove the enemy's Break status prior to breaking them again, use her AA ability for free thanks to her EX to reset their Break and then Break the enemy again and gain another free turn without using a single ability use to do so, something she can repeat at her leisure whenever her EX is available. Her LD ability takes this even further by granting her 2 instant extra turns that don't increase the turn count and during which her abilities are free to use.
- Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Like in XIII-2, she gains them in her Knight of Etro costume, which is an alternate costume option in this game.
- Fragile Speedster: Steals turns very frequently, and has ways to increase her own BRV especially after she's Awakened, but if not setup properly, often hits like a wet noodle compared to other DPT units. Before her rework, she was considered poorly turn efficient due to both stealing turns and not dealing as much damage; even after her rework, she's still considered only decent at best due to her low damage output unless she's specifically paired against an enemy she's very strong against.
- Hypocritical Humor: In Lenna's event, she and Faris commiserate over the difficulties of having reckless little sisters. Serah is quick to point out that Lightning has no grounds to criticize anyone else for jumping into danger.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: When Serah joins the party, Lightning insists on covering her from every attack in every encounter. When Serah tries to talk her out of it, Lightning goes on a rant about how she won't let Serah fight because she isn't a warrior even though it's clearly evident that Serah does have combat skill now, and that there are more people than just Lightning to watch her back anyway. It takes several other party members, namely Galuf, to make Lightning back down. Even then she stomps off with a huffy "do what you want" rather than acknowledging their point. She finally relents in full and respects Serah as a warrior when Snow backs her up and reassures her that everyone will be protecting her and she's strong enough to protect them in turn.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lightning's insistence on defeating Garland eventually leads her to realize that battling can agitate a Torsion and make it bigger, but she keeps on fighting him until it grows so unstable that a Dark Bahamut emerges from it.
- "Not So Different" Remark: She is compared to Faris in that they are both protective of and show their sisters tough love but care about them deeply.
- One Woman Army: It's lampshaded by her "Army of One" EX ability. Gameplay-wise, she has also been known to solo several infamous Chaos-level fights.
- Petal Power: She retains the rose petal motif with most of her attacks she gained from Odin in her original game. She doubles down on this with her FR attack with Firion, who is also associated with a flower motif.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Fittingly, she never has any allegience to Materia and joins the Returners right away. She only joins the party officially when they declare their intentions to go to Materia and ask her some pressing questions.
- Secret Test of Character: She puts Noctis through a downplayed one - after she learns that he died in his world at the whim of the gods, she tells him off for it and says that she can't follow someone like him into battle against Ardyn while he has such a weak will and needs Ignis to talk for him. Later, after Noctis talks with his friends and regains his resolve, he asks to talk to Lightning and explains that he did it not because the gods told him to, but because he wanted to bring peace to Eos. Satisfied with his answer, she and Vayne pledge to join him in battle against Ardyn. Afterward, Tidus wonders if she's being a Hypocrite once he learns from Hope that she fought as the goddess Etro's champion at the end of time, but Hope says it's because she can relate to him and she was really doing this trope.
- Shock and Awe: Sparkstrike deals lightning elemental damage.
- Spam Attack: Her Force rework turns her EX into this by doubling its previous HP dump count to 12 and granting her Burst buff the ability to instantly max out her EX gauge whenever she breaks the enemy.
- Stance System: Sparkstrike grants her the Ravager stance unique buff (which raises max BRV and speed) and Flourish of Steel grants her the Commando stance unique buff (which raises max BRV and attack). Post-rework, using either skill once respectively turns it into a + version, as either buff now becomes stackable.
Sazh Katzroy
Sazh Katzroy
A cheerful airship pilot best known for his afro and chocobo chick. He sets out with the intention of destroying the godlike beings, the fal'Cie, to save his beloved son, Dajh, but is branded a Pulse l'Cie and made an enemy of society. While at times heavyhearted, he's always there to be the adult and talk some sense into his comrades.
Voiced by: Masashi Ebara
Sazh is one of the few party members present right from Chapter 1, becoming playable shortly after Vivi and Rem after they regroup with him when he went scouting ahead. Sazh gets the honor of being the party's main airship pilot, though he occasionally lets the other airship enthusiasts get a turn (except for Vaan).
- Ace Pilot: In a series full of Ace Pilots, Sazh stands out for being the party's first and most consistent airship pilot.
- Always Accurate Attack: Sazh's Aim and Cold Blood both ignores SPD checks and never misses it's targets.
- Character Catchphrase: When a positive outcome is promised, Sazh will say things are "sugar and rainbows".
- Critical Hit Class: His Attack Boost, when enhanced with his 35CP passive, gives a unique buff called "Critical Hit Rate Up" which also adds generic yet potent Max BRV Up + Attack Up buffs (while Sazh also gives himself a Speed Up buff of the same potency). This causes characters outside of hitting an already broken enemy target to achieve monstrous BRV damage numbers due to more frequent crits + a potent attack up buff (with the Max BRV Up making them hold more BRV to dump).
- Drone Deployer: His LD skill involves him summoning a number of small drones that are usually deployed by Brynhilldr to assist him.
- Dual Wield: Dual-wields his guns, which he certainly makes use of during his Cold Blood EX.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: He is able to acknowledge that Nabaat saved the heroes from the Emperor's trap, allowing them to stop his plans, even though he can't magically forgive everything she's done. But, since everyone has crossed over into the new world of Final Fantasy XIII already, he doesn't want to hold on to grudges from the old world.
- Fragile Speedster: Average HP and Defense, but while Sazh's actual speed stat is fairly low both his Aim and Attack Boost abilities have very high turn rate, so he'll often jump up in turn order.
- Head Pet: The chocobo chick still lives in his afro and will occasionally pop out.
- More Dakka: His EX Cold Blood has a staggering twenty brave hits split between three HP dumps when completely realized (7 hits + 7 hits + 6 hits all AoE), at the time of its release it was one of abilities in general with the most amount of brave hits.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Uses the trope name to describe himself and Barret - while they are opposites in personality, they both have children they care about and would do anything to protect.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The chocobo chick he always carries around in his afro, which is a gift for his son. It becomes the special effect of his EX called Chocochick Fever, giving a healthy buff to both himself and the party while active.
- Support Party Member: Attack Boost grants an Attack Up, Max Brave Up, and Critical Hit Up to the party. Back in the early days of Global DFFOO Sazh getting Spica, his Attack Boost weapon, early turned him into the quintessential support option for a time. His EX buff further increases the party's overflow and critical hit BRV damage, and his LD buff increases the BRV they gain from dealing BRV damage as well their HP damage with additional increases if the enemy is broken.
- Team Dad: One of several in the party.
- Took a Level in Cynic: When Nabaat finally makes her appearance, he tries to convince her to stand down. She ignores him and defeats him along with Snow, Vanille, Vivi, and Fang by herself. When she later makes a play to get recruited by the team to escape the Emperor, Sazh refuses to believe her, saying several times that she's a cold person to her core who could never be trusted, even if she were willing to accept she had been manipulated by Dysley and the fal'cie.
Hope Estheim
Hope Estheim
A young boy who grew up living a rather uneventful life in a highly advanced civilization known as Cocoon. Caught up in the Purge, he loses his mother before his very eyes and soon after ends up being branded a Pulse l'Cie - a threat to society. Hope learns to face his problems through the hardships he endures while fighting alongside his friends.
Voiced by: Yūki Kaji
Recruited in Chapter 1, Primus Island. The party comes across Hope shortly after he arrives in the world of Opera Omnia, rescuing him.
- Adaptational Badass: In that he actually uses physical attacks. In XIII, he only throws his airwing when ambushing until the "Commando" path is unlocked very late in the game.
- Ambiguous Situation: When last seen in Act 3, Chapter 3, he prepares to face off against Eald'narche all alone inside of a Torsion, with Bhunivelze's power emerging from within him. It isn't until Chapter 10 where we find out what happened: Bhunivelze took control, and he wants the party to unseal the Warrior of Light from his Forever War with Garland in the old world to force the world to become unbalanced toward light.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: As a Call-Back to his moment with Lightning in the first game, he has this with Vivi when they go into a Torsion together, telling Vivi to go on ahead while he watches his back.
- Barrier Warrior: Hope can cast both Protect and Shell in combat.
- Battle Boomerang: While Hope can use any Throwing Weapon, his signature weapons are collapsible boomerangs. His Force ability takes this even further with Eald'narche powering him up with darkness, allowing him to manifest Bhunivelze's double-sided scythe that he then throws at the enemy.
- Death from Above: Purification has Hope summon the turrets from Alexander in order to lauch a barrage of lasers from above the enemies.
- Demonic Possession: Eald'narche forces Hope to remember his time possessed by Bhunivelze, making him think he is possessed again and about to go One-Winged Angel. It turns out Hope really was possessed by Bhunivelze, and he manifests in Chapter 10.
- Magic Knight: While Hope uses a ranged melee weapon in combat, his attacks are all magic-based.
- "Not So Different" Remark: He recognizes how destructive Ashe's desire for vengeance could be, having felt it himself.
- Older Than They Look: When Hope restores his memories, he realizes that he is in fact Hope from XIII-2 - that is, an adult - but willingly took the body of his child self upon coming to this world because that was when he last saw Lightning and cherished that time with her. Hilariously, Vivi's view of him totally changes, perhaps because there is now one fewer child member of the party.
- One-Winged Angel: Surprisingly, as of Act 3 Chapter 3 Part 1, it is explained that he too has a powerful form that was sealed up along with those of the villains within the crystal core of darkness. Bhunivelze eventually breaks free in Chapter 10.
- Ship Tease: With Lightning, as a carry-over from Lightning Returns. Act 3, and particularly Chapter 10, focus a lot on Hope's relationship with Lightning and she in turn is the most concerned about him, and while the hints of romantic interest between them are heavily downplayed compared to Lightning Returns, they're not entirely absent. This is heightened by the story drawing parallels between Hope and Lightning, and Snow and Serah, such as in Machina's Intersecting Will, where both Snow and Hope worry about how the two women feel about their actions in Chapter 10 and want to make it up to them.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Caius tries to tempt him by offering the chance to go back and undo Nora's death. Hope rejects him flatly.
- Summon Magic: In Enna Kros' FR attack, Pretty-Close Solution, Hope summons Alexander's left arm while Enna summons the sword and right arm of the Omega God. The two hands together hold the sword for two mighty swings.
- Support Party Member: Hope's damage output is barely notable, but he is notable for his strong defensive buffs and good offensive auras to support his allies, and with his instant-turn skills plus his Force Ability, he can quickly charge the damage bonus during Force Time and then pass his turn so his allies can hit like a train.
Bhunivelze
- Originated in: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
- Big Bad Ensemble: He cements himself as a threat to the fabric of the world, the equal and opposite to the Cloud of Darkness.
- Final Boss: Of Act 3, Chapter 10. However, he is not the final boss of Act 3 as a whole.
- Foil: To the Cloud of Darkness. Bhunivelze represents the absolute dominion of light, and the Cloud of Darkness appears when the world has been imbalanced toward either light or darkness. The stronger the light is, the deeper her darkness is.
- Hidden Villain: Throughout Act 3. Eald'narche first believes him to be a Superpowered Evil Side to Hope and tries to coax him out like he does for the other villains, but it turns out this is the same Bhunivelze as in Lightning Returns and he has designs of his own.
- Manipulative Bastard: He is the source of the light compasses that allowed the party to come together again after being separated at the end of Act 2. The party first believed them to be a gift from the Warrior of Light to guide them and help them find him, but it was all part of Bhunivelze's plan to tip the balance of the world toward light.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He may have tipped the balance of the world toward light and guided the Savior, Lightning, to free the Warrior of Light, but it empowered the party to fight against him and ultimately defeat him for the second time.
- People Puppets: Just like in Lightning Returns, he takes control of Hope's body.
Oerba Dia Vanille
Oerba Dia Vanille
An admirer of nature with a grave secret concealed under her innocent demeanor. She travels alongside her friends with the fate of being a l'Cie resting on her shoulders, but her overly naive behavior and unusual ignorance only further shroud her past and intentions in mystery.
Voiced by: Yukari Fukui
Recruited in her event, "The Girl from Oerba". Vanille is exploring a forest when the party finds her, sensing a mysterious energy emanating from somewhere within it.
- Anti-Armor: Deprotect inflicts a hefty 80% Defense down on the enemy; at the time of her release this was one of the most potent defense downs in the game.
- Artifact of Doom: Her unique armor, the Starfall Pendant, warps the forest around it and gives off an unpleasant aura to most of the party when they find it on the ground. She picks it up right away and wears it without any problem.
- Cynic–Idealist Duo: She forms this with Sazh in Act 4, Chapter 6 Part 1, after Nabaat is formally introduced in the story, making the Idealist half of the duo. While Sazh understandably has his doubts due to how she used his son for her own goals, Vanille reasons that due to being in a new world, away from the situation that drove her to her actions, that even Nabaat could start over and live a different life. This is particularly big for Vanille considering she, along with Sazh were nearly executed by the woman, and she had attacked them both soon after being summoned.
- Death Seeker: Her former belief in this is given a nod when she questions Maria and Penelo about whether Golbez is right to believe this trope as a form of Death Equals Redemption. Everyone disagrees, leaving Vanille satisfied with their answer, but it is a subtle comparison drawn between Vanille and Golbez.
- Damsel in Distress: When the party first encounters her, they have to save her from some monsters. The name of her recruitment cutscene is even "Damsel in Distress."
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Like many debuff-focused characters, her Oerba's Favor buff from her EX boosts her BRV Damage by 10% per debuff on the enemy (so up to an 80% BRV Damage boost at 8 debuffs).
- Rod And Reel Repurposed: Her weapons are binding rods, her unique multi-reeled grapple-wire weapons from her own game. However, in Opera Omnia they are classified simply as staves and she doesn't use the wires.
- Status-Buff Dispel: Her ability Dispel lets her remove buffs from enemies while also granting BRV to her party. The Assassination trap from her EX also can dispel up to two buffs from the enemy.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Not to the same extent as Leonora due to their history, but she has long since moved on from the events of the original game. That said, she understands that unlike the rest of the party, Nabaat is still "stuck in that moment of time" due to her death, so she truly doesn't understand to what extent she had been used by the fal'cie.
- Trap Master: Her EX Death (XIII) inflicts the Assassination debuff on the enemy, which does BRV damage and dispels two buffs when fully realized. She was one of the earliest characters to have a trap debuff. Her lv90 rework makes it deal HP damage twice and reapply her main debuffs on top of dispelling buffs.
Snow Villiers
Snow Villiers
Alternate Skin 1
Alternate Skin 2
Known for his massive physique and rugged appearance, he is the leader of the anti-Sanctum resistance group NORA. He is determined to save his fiancee, Serah, from her tragic fate as a l'Cie and will do anything it takes to be reunited. His optimistic nature sometimes causes friction within the group, but it's also what keeps them together.
Voiced by: Daisuke Ono
Recruited in his event, "A Burning Passion". Snow arrives to the party's location just in time to save Hope from monsters, eagerly joining up with them and elated to be reunited with Serah and his friends.
- An Ice Person: Frostrike does ice elemental damage.
- Armor-Piercing Question: He delivers one to Rinoa when he asks her if she would do the same as him if she were in his position, after the party confronts him for guarding the memories of Serah's fate. Rinoa urges him to lean on his friends, but admits that she doesn't know what she would do if something happened to Squall.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: His alternate skin is his Patron of Yusnaan business suit.
- Battle Couple: He's more than happy to support Serah in battle and respects her combat ability, even if he's from a point in time before she had any.
- Big Brother Mentor: Tries to become this to Noel, but Noel tells him to knock it off.
- Big Damn Heroes: He makes his Dynamic Entry protecting Hope from some monsters.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Technically speaking his weapons aren't actually the gloves he wears, but the magical patches stitched onto them. They are considered standard hand-to-hand weapons in the game though for simplicity's sake.
- Declaration of Protection: Rather than just being determined to protect Serah, Snow declares that he is going to protect everybody in the party.
- Difficult, but Awesome: With the introduction of Snow's Burst Effect comes a strategy fans refer to as "Snowverflow", which allows retention of overflowed Brave far beyond a character's normal Max Brave limit. Using it successfully can be very finicky as it has several prerequisites, but if done correctly can result in bonus damage in the range of extra millions.
- Draw Aggro: Steelguard and Sovereign Fist both draw enemies' attention.
- Enhanced Punch: His EX Sovereign Fist has Snow leap into the air before slamming his fist down exploding with power.
- Family of Choice: He declares that everyone in the party is part of his family, and that anyone in ''their' families (found or kin) are in his family too.
- Hot-Blooded: Tends to act impulsively when his friends are in danger: this is also reflected in his LD buff, which lets him deal a pre-emptive full AoE BRV+HP attack before his turn or after he uses an instant action that deals a vastly increased number of BRV+HP dumps the next time it triggers if he was attacked by an enemy or used his LD ability beforehand.
- The Lost Lenore: He eventually regains his memories of losing Serah after he went off to find Hope, and his anguish at failing to protect her leads him to keeping the memories of those events away from the party. It isn't until Serah reveals she remembered all along that he gives in and offers their memories back, but only once they fight him first (since he locked them inside himself).
- No-Sell: Steelguard starts off with reducing the BRV damage Snow takes by 50% and reduces it by a further 10% whenever he's attacked, meaning he nullifies BRV damage completely after taking 5 attacks for as long as the buff lasts.
- Sneaky Departure: He attempts it in his Intersecting Wills chapter to search for the missing Hope, but Cyan, Paine, and Raines catch up with him and join him in his search. Getting more and more frustrated at his lack of memories and knowledge of what happens to Hope, Serah, and himself - and Raines's hints that something terrible happens to all of them - everything comes to a head when the party of four confronts Eald'narche. Tempted by the possibility of getting his memories returned, Snow leaves the party and vanishes with Eald'narche.
Oerba Yun Fang
Oerba Yun Fang
A compassionate and frank warrior. With a fierce temperament, she is the type to act before she speaks. She is deeply devoted to her friends and home, and above all, Vanille. Fang would readily make enemies of anyone and everyone if it were necessary to protect her childhood friend.
Voiced by: Mabuki Ando
Recruited in her event, "Fangs of Promise". Discovered by Jecht as she is fighting manikins, Fang initially mistakes him for another enemy and tries to fight him, but even after he defeats her she still puts up a fight and refuses to believe they're not all manikins. It isn't until she reunites with Lightning and Vanille that she realizes it's really them, so she joins the party.
- Always Save the Girl: Fang states her desire to protect Vanille once again, at all costs.
- Commonality Connection: Fang and Vanille bond with Yuri and Chelinka upon learning that they're both from small villages where everyone knows each other. Furthermore, after Fang and Vanille tell their story, Vincent points out that he was also under a long sleep where he didn't age.
- Double Weapon: While Fang can use any spear weapon, her weapons of choice are double-ended spears.
- Hot-Blooded: She encounters mostly manikins when she arrives in the world. When a real person turns up and starts talking to her, she refuses to listen and insists on fighting him instead. Since that person is Jecht, he does.
- I Work Alone: Attempts this after joining the party by going off and fighting monsters on her own, the group all gang up on her to berate her on putting herself in danger and demand they be allowed to follow her next time she feels like running off. Eventually Fang caves in and tells them if they want to tag along with her, she won't stop them.
- Launcher Move: If Whirlwind attacks a BRV Broken target, or manages to Break the target, it'll give a guaranteed launch sending the enemy flying.
- Partial Transformation: For her LD, Aerial Loop, Fang gains Bahamut's dragon wings and flies around the battlefield to assault her foes.
- Spin Attack: Whirlwind Extension transforms Whirlwind from a single target attack into a twirling attack that hits every enemy on the field.
- Stance System: Similar to Lightning, switching between her two abilities grants her Saboteur F and Commando F buffs from Umbral Vise and Whirlwind, respectively. Both increase Max BRV, but Commando F also increases Fang's Attack.
Serah Farron
Serah Farron
Alternate Skin 1
Alternate Skin 2
Lightning's younger sister and Snow's fiancee. At one time an ordinary young woman, her involvement in an accident sets the wheels of drama in motion. Some time following that drama, a certain incident would cause her to pick up the bow and set off on a journey to resolve time-distorting paradoxes.
Voiced by: Minako Kotobuki
Recruited in Chapter 9, Utopia Niveus. Serah is discovered fighting against some monsters, taking her sister Lightning by surprise because the Serah she knows shouldn't have any combat ability. Serah, who up until this point thought she was in some time paradox, is able to figure out the situation she's in and explains to her sister that she's not quite the same person she last saw. From then on, Serah decides to enjoy the time she gets to spend with all of her friends from their younger days.
- Assist Character: She summons Valkyrie Lightning to assist with her Burst finisher and while her Burst buff is up, she follows up Serah's attacks with one of her own that deals HP damage to all enemies based on Serah's maximum HP damage cap cap 3 times.
- Balance Buff: Received a rework during the Shiva Ultimate Trials in JP which also released her EX weapon; thanks to her new unique framed buff that enhanced all of her skills, it greatly shifted Serah's focus much more to area of effect damage with HP splash on both skills (and 100% undivided HP damage for her EX). Due to how much more her rework + EX's overall perks have changed her, Serah became one of the most reliable COSMOS difficulty units to use for quite some time.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Averted, unlike her home game. Here, her friend Mog, who transforms into her weapon in her home game, seems locked into his bow form, only transforming into the sword for Serah's Burst attack.
- Dispel Magic: Her first base skill gains the ability to remove 2 buffs from all enemies with her Burst and Force rework.
- Genre Savvy: Serah picks up on the fact that her friends are all pulled from her past rather than being the same friends she knows pretty quickly, thanks to her own experiences with Time Travel.
-
Iconic Sequel Outfit: Serah's default outfit is the one she wears in XIII-2, which makes sense because that is the game where she becomes a playable character (and the main one to boot). However, her original XIII costume is available as an alternate outfit choice. - Jack of All Trades: Serah is able to debuff enemies, support and buff the party, and inflict damage, all of which she does pretty well. Post-rework during the Shiva Ultimate Trials, she has better BRV+HP damage with overflow across both skills (mainly her Wound Extend having a + version), making her extremely effective since then in the COSMOS era. As described above, she also gains the ability to dispel enemy buffs with her later reworks.
- Mr. Exposition: Serah takes on the role of explaining any differences to new party members who are pulled in from different frames of time than their other friends in their world (like Alisaie, for example, who is pulled from later in XIV's timeline than her friends).
- "Not So Different" Remark: Her relationship with her sister Lightning is compared to Lenna's with her sister, Faris.
- Poisonous Person: Wound inflicts poison on enemies, but also lowers their max BRV, severely hindering their ability to hurt her allies. Her EX and LD also inflict a poison debuff called Goddess's Light, giving her two sources of poison that stack with each other.
- Resurrected for a Job: She finally remembers in Act 3 that she died at the end of XIII-2 when talking to Amidatelion, making her summoning into the world of Opera Omnia this.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Serah's bow is unable to transform between sword, bow, and moogle as it usually does, leading her and the others to think her Mog was sealed by the other Mog.
- Support Party Member: A staple offensive support, Serah is a solid BRV battery and debuffer rolled into one. Post-rework, her new framed buff, Unwavering Will, also enhances her own skills with extra BRV hits into HP damage with overflow (via Wound+ and Moonlight+), along with giving her BRV and HP Attack+ moves. The Unwavering Will buff itself is also a party-wide Defense + Speed Up along with being a Max BRV Up + Attack Up for Serah herself.
- Your Magic's No Good Here: Sazh suggests this explanation for why Serah's bow is unable to transform into her moogle as it usually does, but Lightning wonders if it's so Serah's Mog can't spill the other Mog's secrets.
Noel Kreiss
Noel Kreiss
Alternate Skin 1
Alternate Skin 2
The last remaining Farseer from seven hundred years after Lightning's time, he is responsible for leading Serah on her journey through time. He has a deep connection with Caius. He understands the value of life more than anyone and fosters an unshakable will to bring hope to the future.
Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio
Originally introduced in Final Fantasy XIII-2
Recruited in Act 2, Chapter 5. When first summoned by Materia, Noel is released far away from anyone else, causing him to wander for an indeterminate amount of time by himself through a desert. With only a mysterious disembodied voice to keep him company, he treks on until finding an empty city, whereupon he finally reunites with Serah and the others. He joins the party, happy to not be alone anymore, though he still seeks the identity of his mysterious, unseen companion...
- The Aloner: Spends "days, months, or even years" lost alone in the world of Opera Omnia before he finds the party, which is unusual because usually Materia deposits new warriors near their allies. He only had the mysterious disembodied voice for company. When speaking to the others about this, Celes can relate to the feeling of being the last person alive, since she thought she was for a time in the World of Ruin.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Meteor Javelin ignores enemy defense.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: With Locke and Noctis in Act 2, Chapter 5's cover art.
- Birds of a Feather: Strikes up a quick friendship with Noctis upon learning that they both enjoy hunting and gathering recipes for food.
- Blade Run: During his Force Attack, Gladious will let Noel use his BFS as a springboard to launch himself into the air so they two can attack the enemy from two different angles.
- Commonality Connection: With a couple characters as noted in other trope entries, like Celes, Eiko, and Ultimecia. Materia invokes this trope when she introduces Iroha to Noel.
- Deadpan Snarker: When the party meets Amidatelion and wonders about the Yukes, Keiss begins to explain but says since Layle is a Clavat and he is a Selkie, they should just ask Amidatelion. Noel has this to say:Noel: Thanks, Keiss. That explains almost nothing.
- Elemental Powers: Tempest Strike deals ice and wind damage.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: All of Noel's abilities become enhanced when attacking a broken target. In addition, with the Extend passive equipped, Tempest Strike is capable of breaking, unbreaking, and then re-breaking an enemy. Ultimately, every single skill of his becomes able to rebreak the enemy and his LD buff gives him a followup that triggers whenever he breaks the enemy. His Force Time extends this to the entire party by unbreaking the enemy before whenever someone attacks them and increasing their HP damage cap and HP damage done by 50% on broken enemies while it's active.
- Last of His Kind: As the last human alive in his time, Eiko relates to him because she grew up alone as the last survivor of the Summoner tribe.
- The Promise: He remembers his to Always Save the Girl, and together with Locke notes how they both failed theirs (Noel with Yeul, and Locke with Rachel). They vow to never let it happen again.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: Noel's Unique Weapons are a Greatsword and a Stabbing Sword that can combine together into a Glaive.
- Spam Attack: With his Burst and lv90 rework, his moveset more or less becomes centered around spamming his powerful EX: his Burst finisher fills up his EX gauge instantly and increases the rate it recharges by 50%, he gets unlimited normal skill uses for the duration of his Burst buff to make sure he can use his EX every second turn and his BRV attack becomes Fearsiphon++, which, when breaking an enemy, gives him an instant turn and instantly recharges his EX to full. His Force rework upgrades the Burst buff effect to instantly refill his EX after his turn, letting him spam it every turn.
- Sympathy for the Devil: He is the first person to show sympathy for Ultimecia, the owner of The Voice he heard. He finds it hard to believe the party when they tell him how evil she is, because she helped him and kept him company when he was all alone. Not only that, but they are both victims of a Bad Future Because Destiny Said So, and both are able to recognize that similarity.
- Used to Be More Social: Upon meeting him again, a few of his friends note that he used to be a lot more outgoing and cheerful, and are confused about why he seems so withdrawn. Noel says it is due to his time as The Drifter with only the dismebodied voice for company. It's also because he's just not used to traveling around with numerous characters, since he comes from a Bad Future where he is the Sole Survivor of his kind, or that he is used to traveling with only Serah. He eventually warms up to everyone with the help of Locke and Noctis.
Caius Ballad
Caius Ballad
A mysterious man who stood in the way of Lightning and the others after their battle on Cocoon. Guardian of the seeress, he wielded the power of chaos to confront Serah and her comrades. Even if he continues to be bound to this world, it doesn't change his feelings.
Voiced by: Hiroshi Shirokuma
Originally introduced in Final Fantasy XIII-2
Encountered as an enemy by the party in Arc 2, Chapter 1. Relating the power of the Torsions to chaos energy, Caius wishes to use them to go to the world of Orience in order to use their crystal's power to erase the memories of the dead and change history. To that end, he manipulates the Dark Manikins to try to get the party, namely Lightning and Serah, to side with him, wishing to right the wrongs he did to their world and their family. At first, only Serah recognizes him, and warns the party about how dangerous he is. He is eventually recruited in the "Keeper of the Farseer" event, where he encounters the party again and they take his dimensional coordinates to better keep track of him.
- The Atoner: Surprisingly, he seems serious about wanting to save Lightning and Serah from the horrible battles he's put them through.
- Commonality Connection: He forms an easy rapport with Astos after some initial suspicion about all the darkness the latter bears. The two spend some time in Astos's debut chapter getting to know each other. They fight for the sake of defending the world and acknowledge that they both suffered endlessly in silence - Caius by watching repeated lifetimes of Yeuls dying and Astos by his closest friends forgetting him loop after loop and facing him as an enemy.
- Ignorance Is Bliss: Since coming to the World of Respite, Caius has adopted this mindset. He belives everyone would live happier lives if they weren't burdened with the sad memories Materia took from them. He's attempted to force Orience's power to erase those who die from memory onto his own world and has tried to stop the heroes from collecting Brilliance and the lost memories with them.
- Lady and Knight: The Black Knight to Ultimecia's Dark Lady. In Act 2's Final Chapter, they form a temporary Enemy Mine situation to prevent Ardyn from using the crystal core of darkness to manipulate them.
- Noble Demon: Even when he is overflowing with chaos energy, when left alone with Keiss he lets Keiss go, unwilling to fight him without the latter's allies to back him up.
- Not So Similar: When Auron tries to say they're no different in that they're both guardians who lost a lot but have to keep fighting, Caius retorts that the cycle Auron is caught in has a monster at the center, not a girl he cares about.
- One-Winged Angel: Eald'narche forces this on him by making Caius take his Chaos Bahamut form again so that the darkness can get stronger and balance out the world's overflowing light. It disperses after the party defeats him in the recreated Academia.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: His goal is to alter history by letting Shinryu break down the barriers between worlds so he can go to Orience and change their world orders. He strongly implies that he wants to forget about all the terrible things that happened to the Yeuls throughout time.
- Ship Tease: He's heavily implied to have been brought from beyond the end of Lightning Returns, so he tells Lightning he wishes to "atone for [her]". His desire to wipe away old memories ties into that, as it means she would forget him (and thus every bad thing he did to her), too.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In contrast to the other villains who offer their dimensional coordinates to the party (with the party accepting this with varying degrees of tolerance), Noel and Locke actually collaborate to steal Caius's dimensional coordinates so they can keep track of him better (and so Noel can try to convince him to truly side with them). Caius himself wasn't happy about it but does say they can use the coordinates to summon him in battle. He seems to grow out of this as by the end of Act 3, he is shown helping the heroes against the Cloud of Darkness, and by Act 4, he's traveling with the group.
- Underused Game Mechanic: In addition to delaying the target for a turn, inflicting a break will also grant a Break Bonus for the party doing so, which is a fixed amount of BRV shown in the top middle of the screen, the amount varying depending on the battle: normally, this extra BRV amount is largely insignificant to the player since the listed amount is divided by the number of party members present, meaning it never amounts to more than a single BRV hit, and due to Health/Damage Asymmetry, it'll almost always benefit the enemies more than the player. Caius' Burst buff turns this around: it multiplies the Break Bonus by 6, turning it into a decent extra chunk of battery for the entire party and it also makes it so that as long as the enemy is inflicted with one of Caius' unique debuffs, they get automatically broken after his turn. Combining this with the fact that his Doom debuff is now upgraded to break the enemy every time its duration is lowered instead of just when it expires, this allows him to function as an offensive pseudo-support that can bypass Lufenia BRV gain reductions since Break Bonus isn't affected by them.
Cid Raines
Cid Raines
Alternate Skin
The unflappable brigadier general of the Sanctum's elite Guardian Corps unit known unofficially as the "Cavalry," and commander of their flagship, the Lindblum. Unable to wholly trust the government he serves, the doubts he harbors lead him to aid Lightning and her comrades in escaping the Sanctum's grasp.
Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura
Recruited in his event, "Lofty Souls." Summoned by the will of the new world, Cid Raines is found by Spiritus and Kam'lanaut, the latter of whom takes it upon himself to bring him to meet Lightning and Snow in order expedite the flood of light. Although brought to them under nefarious means, Cid Raines is shocked to find in this new world he has his own free will and requests to join the hero party in their mission, which they are happy to have Raines with them.
- Ambiguously Human: Raines has memories up to Lightning Returns, long after he died. He did appear in that game, but only as the Speaker for the Dead, a representative of lost souls that takes A Form You Are Comfortable With for Lightning, so it may have not actually been Cid Raines himself. Furthermore, in Snow's Intersecting Wills chapter, Snow lays a hand on Raines and is jolted by the chaos energy welling up within him.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: His aerial follow-up attack to his launches, Impact Strike, ignores enemy defense.
- Combat Medic: While nothing in his kit heals HP naturally, his EX Ability Seraphic Ray cleanses the party of all debuffs similar to Yuna's Esuna or Penelo's Evanescence.
- Extra Turn: In order to make the most out of his launching abilities, several of Cid's attacks change the turn order. Cavalry Rush moves one ally's turn directly after his, while Heavenly Fist moves both of his allies after his own turn, guaranteeing a full party launch. Seraphic Ray delays all enemy targets by a turn, and his boosted HP attack after his LD is an instant turn attack that also delays all enemies, giving Cid a lot of spacing options overall.
- Feather Motif: Most of his attacks involve either sprouting wings, conjuring circles of feathered wings to fire his attacks through, or both.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: His weapons of choice are all gloves; and Cavalry Rush, Heavenly Fist, and his knockback follow-up Impact Strike all have Raines using his fists and kicks on the enemy.
- It's All My Fault: He tells Snow You Are Not Ready to know the events of Lightning Returns (believing, like Kain with Cecil, that the knowledge would mean nothing without actual memory). Unfortunately, this allows Eald'narche to manipulate Snow by offering to share. Cid blames himself for Snow leaving the party, wishing that he had told the truth even if lacked context.
- He learns from this by the time Nabaat is summoned to the world, immediately telling her the truth regarding the circumstances of her death to get her to stand down and reconsider her stance, particularly concerning Dysley and his orders. He tries this again in Act 4, Chapter 6, Part 1, but ends up having to fight her to get her to listen. His efforts eventually pay off when she pulls a Heel–Face Turn in the following chapter.
- Last-Name Basis: He's the second Cid to get added to the game after Cid Highwind, but no attention is brought to it during his character event and everyone only ever calls him Raines; even when he speaks in cutscenes the text box just labels him "Raines."
- Launcher Move: The single most launch-heavy and launch-focused character in the game so far, with the possible exception of Layle. Three of his four abilities automatically initiate launch by themselves, plus his LD Buff makes it so the rest of his attacks all cause knockback as well. Not only that, but Cid Raines has the special ability to follow-up his own launches after his allies with a final attack called Impact Strike that ignores defense, not to mention his buffs granting himself a staggering 40% HP Damage Up while in the air. His Burst buff and Force Time naturally take this even further, with his Burst buff giving him an even stronger launch follow-up attack and increasing maximum HP damage cap during launches and his Force Time increasing the damage multiplier when the enemy is launched and for every character participating in a launch.
- Light 'em Up: Seraphic Ray attacks all enemies with a blinding flash of light; although the damage is non-elemental and not of the Holy-element in spite of it's angelic theme naming.
- Magic Missile Storm: Ruinga Storm, an upgraded version of the FFXIII non-elemental spell Ruinga.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter:
- Is one of the few fighters whose overhead icon Special Effect aura is tied to his EX as opposed to his LD (most Final Fantasy XIII characters have them tied to their LD, the only other fighters who tend to have them attached to their EX are the reps from FFXIV).
- Is the first character who can follow-up his own launches with an additional attack; Impact Strike or Impact Strike+, even if Cid is the only fighter in the launch.
- Mentor Archetype: Former brigadier general and counsel to Lighting as the savior; the other party members even comment on his natural wisdom. Lightning approaches Cid in what to do about Hope, to which Cid acknowledges that Hope has right to be concerned for their safety, although his only advice would be when Hope was ready to make sure to be there for him. He is also the most invested in trying to advise Nabaat and encourages her to talk to the other members of the party so she can get a better perspective on things after starting over. This plays into his moveset as well, he comes with a lot of spacing and launch options, meaning he gets the best damage output when commanding the party.
- One-Winged Angel: His alternate costume is his half-crystalline Cie'th form.
- Power Echoes: In his alternate costume Cie'th form, his voice becomes distorted likely due to half of his body being crystalline. He and Gabranth are the only two characters in the game in which their paid costumes actually change their voice lines (by adding or removing distortion, respectively).
- Power Gives You Wings: His EX and LD has Raines sprouting his six angelic Cie'th wings, which are also used as the icon for his EX Special Effect, Metamorphose.
- Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: At first Cid Raines is distaught when he assumes Spiritus being a god means he's been summoned to just act as a puppet once again, only for Lightning to point out the gods have no authority over them anymore and he can do as he wished. Cid is excited, but does quip its been so long since he's been able to exercise his own humanity he's not sure he even remembers how. His LD Buff is even called [I, too, will challenge my fate].
- Status-Buff Dispel: In addition to cleansing the party of debuffs, his EX Ability Seraphic Ray dispels all enemy buffs.
Jihl Nabaat
Jihl Nabaat
Colonel of PSICOM, a special agency of the Sanctum military. She has a soft exterior, but a cold heart and is willing to treat people like tools if that is what it takes to achieve her goals. Seeing an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that she was there when Sazh's son was turned into L'Cie, she takes him hostage and tracks down Sazh and Vanille, pitting them against each other.
Voiced by: Mie Sonozaki
First introduced in Sephiroth's Intersecting Wills chapter, but then becomes playable in her own Lost Chapter "A Thin, Icy Smile" when she comes to this world immediately after experiencing death in her own world. She is quick to run into Sazh and vows to finish hunting the l'Cie, wanting nothing more than to have them suffer at her feet. Being taught to control the power of her will by the Emperor, she overpowers the l'Cie only to be ordered to stand down by Cid Raines. Being informed that Cocoon and the Fal'Cie no longer exist Jihl decides to venture off on her own to figure out how this new world works, and what the truth is regarding the world she left behind.
- Affably Evil: Just like in her home game, Nabaat seems perfectly friendly on the surface, introducing herself to Sephiroth and Seymour as they respond in turn. Her black heart is revealed shortly after when she calmly tells Sephiroth and Seymour that she wants the l'Cie dead. During her own event she is just as welcoming towards Vivi, convincing him to assist her finding something she lost before cornering him and bartering his life in return for the l'Cie.
- Arch-Enemy: As usual, she is Sazh's most hated foe. Even when Raines and Reno get her to stop fighting, and the latter considers convincing her to join their side, Sazh would have none of it and says they can never trust her, no matter what she says or does. Even after all the centuries that have passed (at least from his point of view), he has never forgotten what she did to Dajh.
- Assist Character: Call Reinforcements summons an Azure Behemoth who will attack the enemies after every one of Jihl's actions until the counter runs out or Jihl uses Sacrifice Pawn.
- Back from the Dead: Sazh flat-out tells her Dysley killed her after questioning her motivation for attacking the party. Even though she initially rejects it, she admits privately to herself it's possible they're right just going off from what she could piece together of her final moments.
- The Beastmaster: Summons the Azure Behemoth, a massive Beast of Battle that bolsters Jihl's Attack and Max BRV, will attack after any action she takes, and can be sacrificed for its power to allow Jihl to use an upgraded version of her EX Attack.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Jihl's personal morality system returns in full force from her original game. To her, people only exist to serve those above them, and she applies this to herself to the point where she still bases all of her actions around what Dysley told her to do in her home world. Even after Raines as her commanding officer informs her of her situation, including that Dysley was the one that killed her, Jihl still states that her goal is to kill the l'Cie and anyone who gets in the way of doing so, as it's what she's been commanded to do.
- Character Development: She gets a significant amount of it in Act 4, Chapter 6, Part 2. After realizing she had been caught in the same trap the Emperor set up for the heroes after setting them up to fall for it, she confronts the Emperor and asks him why he was ready to kill her even though she followed all his orders. When he tells her he requires "pawns, not people," she is forced to confront the nature of her original demise at Dysley's hands. That, and Leonora and Palom's repeated insistence that failure is not the end, has Nabaat hand over the stored energy she collected from the heroes' restoration effort to Lightning to have the heroes freed, and she later works with them to fight against the Emperor. After Leonora saves her from the Emperor, and Raines reminds her again that her orders were nothing more than lies perpetuated by the fal'Cie, she thanks Leonora for her efforts and, albeit reluctantly, ends the chapter throwing her lot in with the heroes.
- Colonel Kilgore: She is the colonel of PSICOM and dedicated to carrying out the will of Cocoon, perfectly willing to get her hands dirty to do so. Used to following orders, she becomes subservient to the Emperor moments after meeting him since he can tell her more about this world. Even as she gets the upper hand in battle against the party, she doesn't let up until the arrival of her commanding officer Cid Raines arrives to get her to stand down.
- Combat Medic: Draining Slash and Sacrifice Pawn+ both heal herself based on damage dealt, with any excess healing given to the party.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Played with; she was ordered by The Emperor to infiltrate the heroes but quickly loses patience with how soft and understanding they are when it comes to mistakes and failures (in particular regarding Leonora). However, after being beaten in a battle she agrees to join their ranks claiming to have no other choice. Although she does send word back to The Emperor of her progress, even he is dubious on if she is actually following his commands or going off on her own.
- The Dog Bites Back: When she confronts the Emperor for forsaking her, he basically tells her she was disposable. It's enough to convince her to be done with everything and align herself with the heroes against his plans.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Said almost verbatim once Leonora learns of how Jihl was cast aside and killed on Cocoon simply for outliving her immediate use, insisting Jihl joins them and be able to grow in an environment that won't punish her for making mistakes. Jihl is angry at the perceived pity, but does acquiesce to joining them since they bested her in a battle so she claims it's not like she has any other choice but to follow their orders.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She appears near the beginning of Sephiroth's Intersecting Wills chapter offering information to him and Seymour, months before her actual debut in the game due to a change in event releases. She has been following the party by tracking their efforts to restore life to the land, only making her first move when she discovers Sephiroth and Seymour trying to counteract those efforts.
- Enraged by Idiocy: Was tasked to infiltrate the heroes' ranks, however after seeing the lackadaisical way Onion Knight leads everyone coupled with Leonora constantly messing up and not being held accountable for it, Jihl just throws up her hands and attempts to leave, not wanting to deal with the group.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: She still believes Cocoon is in the sky and that the Sanctum is in power. Vanille informs her that Cocoon and the Sanctum fell about a thousand years ago, and she doesn't believe them at first. It is enough to leave her shaken when Cid Raines confirms Vanille is telling the truth.
- Hair Flip: Like Beatrix, she has one as part of her Victory Animation.
- His Story Repeats Itself: The Emperor attacks Nabaat with a magical blast, similar to how Dysley killed her in the original game, and both instances happened after she outlived her usefulness to them. The only difference here is that she actually was facing her attacker this time, and so she was ready to defend herself.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Jihl points out she's hard and cold because she has to be, there was no other way she could have survived in her world if she didn't follow every order given to her by her superiors. She loses her patience with how soft and naive Leonora is, pointing out if Leonora has been born on Cocoon she would have been quickly discarded.
- Last-Name Basis: Like her fellow officer Raines, she is referred to by her surname only by the text boxes after introducing herself the first time.
- Lawman Baton: She uses batons just as she did in her home game. Unlike Reno, who also uses batons, hers are considered swords while Reno's are considered daggers and she wields it like a Royal Rapier.
- Life Drain: Draining Slash will convert the damage done to restore Jihl's health, with any excess healing then used to heal the party. If her Azure Behemoth overhead is active, her EX will also heal herself and the party as well.
- Misplaced Retribution: Alisaie states that Nabaat's anger at Leonora's perceived incompetence is this trope. Because Nabaat sees her own death at Dysley's hand as a result of a personal failure, she can't accept someone like Leonora who is constantly making mistakes, only to be treated lightly by the others.
- My Master, Right or Wrong:
- She is still incredibly loyal to "her Eminence," Primarch Galenth Dysley, and is completely unaware that he killed her in her world. As soon as she sees Sazh she becomes dedicated to continuing her hunt of the l'Cie for the benefit of Cocoon.
- Works to the heroes benefit as well, as she still recognizes Cid Raines as the brigadier general. As such because he outranks her his orders must be obeyed, even though he is clearly working with the l'Cie.
- The Paralyzer: The + version of her EX ability inflicts Daze on all enemies, which makes them unable to act and increases BRV and HP damage they take. Her Force Attack also inflicts the same Daze debuff.
- Spam Attack: While Jihl has her Azure Behemoth by her side, the beast will attack on her behalf after any action she takes. While her Burst Effect is active, not only will Azure Behemoth's attack trigger twice, but anytime the overhead expires Jihl will automatically use Call Reinforcements to bring it back. Since her EX skill becomes the + version if she has her overhead buff active and consumes it in the process, this will allow her to use her strongest skill without having to reapply her overhead buff, and since the automatic use of her second skill is both free and counts as an actual use of the skill, she can automatically charge the Force Gauge or increase the Force Time multiplier an additional +30% for every one of her turns while keeping up her offense, which is further assisted by the fact that her LD skill also refills her EX gauge to maximum and has instant turn rate.
- The Strategist: Gets called as such, even though she blindly takes orders from her superiors Jihl is a master strategist to get her orders done. This is part of the reason she is so dangerous, because she quickly learns how to close the gap between her power and her enemies even though she's only been in the World of Respite for a short time.
- Take Over the World: At the end of her Lost Chapter, Nabaat declares to herself that if Cocoon truly is gone from her home world, she will just gather information and rule this one herself.
- Took a Level in Badass: After the Emperor tells her how to utilize will in this world, she uses it to great effect. When she confronts Sazh and the others, she is able to match the strength of him, Snow, Vanille, Fang, and Vivi all at the same time. It is because her will to serve Cocoon is ironclad and she is determined to kill the l'Cie.
- Walking the Earth: She chooses to go on her own independent investigation of the world rather than follow The Emperor at the end of her LC, in order to better understand its ways and to strengthen herself for another fight against the L'Cie. And as stated earlier, she had since spent that time keeping tabs on the party and their actions, eventually providing that information to Sephiroth and Seymour.
- Villainous Rescue: The heroes only managed to escape the Emperor's trap thanks to Nabaat beginning her Heel–Face Turn.
- Would Hurt a Child: She isolates Vivi from the party in an attempt to use him to get close to Sazh so she can kill him. She states that she's going to kill Vivi too, echoing what she planned with Dajh, but thankfully Vivi is a powerful black mage. His magic took her by surprise enough for him to get back to the others.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
- When Jihl has an Azure Behemoth, Sacrifice Pawn becomes Sacrifice Pawn+ which destroys the Behemoth to empower Jihl's next attack.
- This also applies to Jihl herself, as Sazh and Raines namedrop this trope when discussing with the others how Jihl met her end at Dysley's hands.
- Seems Jihl cannot escape this fate, as once The Emperor gets his hands on The Spirit of Xande's world he decides since she's never pledged her fealty to him that she had outlived her usefulness. He attempts to end her along with several other heroes in one of his traps, only escaping when Leonora barely managed to push her out of the way.
Introduced in Final Fantasy XIV
Y'shtola Rhul
Y'shtola
Alternate Skin
A Miqo'te conjurer and a Scion of the Seventh Dawn who is not only capable of advanced magic but also well-versed in ancient language and lore. Wise and mysterious, she is an expert in conjury - the art of healing. She is a woman of strong convictions, but that's also what makes her stubborn from time to time.
Voiced by: Ai Kayano
Encountered by the party in Chapter 1 investigating the source of the monsters and Torsions by herself, but she quickly joins up with them.
- Balance Buff: Next to Thancred in JP, Y'shtola's case was a very notable rework as it was one of the first ones in the game. Though in that case, it was during the XIV anniversary of 2018 in JP (the GL version so far, has it during the 2019 Summer Campaign). From then on, Y'shtola becomes a very efficient BRV battery as one of the most standard yet effective ones in her usage span (even up to CHAOS as soon as she has her EX+).
- Combat Medic: The release of her LD and BT weapons enables her to take on a more offensive role with Scion's Aero II, Afflatus Misery, and Scion's Holy, letting her contribute to dealing damage while keeping her support power.
- Cycle of Hurting: Unlike other elemental characters who are rendered helpless by enemies who absorb their element of choice, Y'shtola actually benefits more from the enemy absorbing Earth damage. Casting Stone grants the enemy BRV, but it still delays them, letting Y'shtola's allies Break the enemy again, delaying them further. Rinse and repeat for hilarious results.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Stone, which also delays the enemy target's turns.
- Evolving Attack: After using Scion's Holy, her standard BRV attack becomes Aero II of the Seventh Dawn and later Afflatus Misery.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Y'shtola can use Afflatus Misery as an spell here, but that spell was introduced in Shadowbringers, where Y'shtola was a Sorceress and focuses on using her unique black magic.
- Healer Signs On Early: A variant. Similar to Rem, she is recruited in Chapter 1 of the story (though Rem is available right from the start, Y'shtola is one of the very first recruits to the party after her). At the time, Y'shtola had no HP healing abilities, but she was the very first BRV battery of the game.
- The Medic: Taken to new levels with her EX ability, Pulse of Life, which restores BRV, HP, and revives her fallen allies with very high potency standard buffs across the party (but is counterbalanced by the fact that it's one of the longest charging EX abilities in the game). The EX+ version also grants her a free turn right afterwards. Even then on her Medica skill, both skills provide Y'shtola with a great turn rate for clutch battery charges in tighter battles, especially with her increase in BRV battery, skill count restore, and HP Attack+'s functions her EX provides her.
- Prophet Eyes: Her alternate skin gives her these from her Heavensward appearance.
- The Smart Guy: Like others in the role, she is always the voice of reason and often discusses the circumstances behind whatever is happening, seeking to understand the world they've all found themselves in. She differs from others in this category in that she is also one of the wisest party members, unlike Shantotto who is a more shrewd flavor of smart gal, and Onion Knight, who tends to be more skeptical.
- Support Party Member: Is another early one in the story, along with with a 4/5 in Speed and HP and high base Initial BRV (5/5), but with 3/5 on Defense with a poor 2/5 in Attack and Max BRV. She's more focused on making use of battery to deal HP damage without needing to focus on BRV shaving (one of her biggest lacking traits). Post-rework and with her EX, her issues of needing to conserve her abilities in most fights are greatly solved as she can now liberally use her skills to perform her job more often.
Yda/Lyse Hext
Yda
Yda
Lyse
Yda:A cheerful and whimsical Hyuran Scion of the Seventh Dawn versed in the art of fighting. Unlike her partner Papalymo, she doesn't think twice about fighting, which ends up getting them in trouble more often than not.
Lyse:A young woman who long operated as a Scion of the Seventh Dawn under the guise of her older sister, Yda. She would finally remove her mask and reveal her identity to her comrades during the effort to reclaim her homeland. She carries on to fulfill her role, entrusted with the hopes of many Eorzeans.
Voiced by: Aya Endou
Recruited in Chapter 2, the Ruins of Deserta. The party finds Yda lost and alone, fighting monsters by herself and trying to search for her friends. Elated to see Y'shtola, she eagerly joins up with the party and is pumped up to fight more and close the Torsions.
- Balance Buff: In Yda's case, she was plagued with an early awakening that gave her subpar passives (to the point where she too, as was considered a meme for low-tier); her overloaded rework and EX weapon on Alphinaud's event made her usable for COSMOS level fights before CHAOS overshadowed her.
- Yda later gets another rework to go with her LD weapon, giving her more HP attacks with her abilities, and her LD Ability, Six-sided Star, manages to beat out Tifa's in sheer damage!
- Borrowed Catchphrase: She borrows "This is my story" from Tidus, explaining to him and the others that it was all she could think upon meeting her Dark Manikin. It helped her come to terms with revealing her true identity to the party even without all of her memories.
- Extra Turn: Yda's upgraded HP+ attack granted by her LD buff gives her 2 extra turns when breaking an enemy, the first of which doesn't count towards turn count: since it also extends the duration of all her buffs by 2 and because broken enemies naturally recover in 6 turns, she can gain infinite turns as long as there's 3 enemies present and she rotates between them or if an effect like Sephiroth's burst buff makes enemies repeatedly breakable. However, she needs to use her BRV+ first before she starts this cycle, as otherwise only half of her turns don't count toward the turn count due to the order and priority in which the instant and free turns are granted to her or any fight she can finish this way via her Death of a Thousand Cuts Cycle of Hurting will inevitably have low enough score from her massive turn count that you'll lose out on most of the rewards from beating a fight this way.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: As Yda is only a Pugilist, she technically shouldn't be able to use Tornado Kick and Six-sided Star, as those abilities are only usable when the Monk soul crystal is equipped. Averted with Lyse, who actually is a Monk, and can use her listed abilities in her home game.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: She is prone to this throughout Act 2, Chapter 6, her Day In The Limelight. She wonders if the party would think any worse of her for hiding her identity, but a conversation with Cecil (himself prone to this) proves otherwise. She also admits that she's "too stupid" to understand much about the gods or the World of Respite, but Galuf calls attention to this and disagrees.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Lyse's Elixir Field has her gather Ki in her hands, jump into the air and blast it downwards to hit all enemies.
- Mythology Gag:
- The string of attacks Yda uses during Pax Phoenice is the Area of Effect combo for Monks in XIV once they've reached level 86. Perfect Balance, Shadow of the Destroyer, Four-point Fury, Rockbreaker, and Rising Phoenix all in succession.
- Yda's Burst attack, Our Final Heaven, recreates the last scene for Yda and Papalymo in A Realm Reborn when Yda is struck in a way that damages her mask and exposes her eye, after which Papalymo empowers her to deliver the Final Heaven Limit Break against their attackers.
- Open Secret: Yda reveals her true identity, Lyse, to the party after coming to terms with the fact that they wouldn't think anything less of her, and when the Warrior of Light asks if her friends from her world knew, Papalymo and Y'shtola respond that they knew all along. This surprises Lyse, since other than Papalymo they kept it from her... and this time, Alphinaud and Alisaie know, too, because they have more of their memories!
- Poisonous Person: Yda's Touch of Death inflicts poison on enemies, later upgraded to HP Poison and Sap.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Yda's first ability, Snap Punch. Also can apply to her reworked normal BRV Attack which uses the same animation, but without the HP damage dump at the end.
- Spam Attack: Yda's LD Ability, Six-sided Star, can basically be described as an AOE version of Tifa's Meteor Crusher ability, dealing 3 BRV+HP attacks repeated 6 times to all enemies on the field for full ungodly damage as well as having an innate HP damage +20% just for that ability on top of all other active sources of it, at the cost of having a low turn rate (as a nod to how it worked in the game), but it also grants Yda a single turn of complete evasion of all attacks to compensate for her downtime so that she doesn't get broken and get her turn pushed back even further as a result. Her Burst rework doubles the LD ability's number of HP dumps to 12 and her Burst buff more than doubles her HP damage cap by itself at maximum stacks, making her one of the strongest AoE damage dealers in the game and probably the best user of the crystal passive that increases the user's LD ability uses by 2.
- Support Party Member: While she doesn't have any mechanics that outright revolve around granting unique effects to party members or sources of offturn damage, Lyse posesses a huge number of useful general purpose party aura effects, including increasing party's and reducing the enemy's BRV and HP damage dealt/received, granting them Last Stand and making them immune to breaks.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Yda and Papalymo have a friendship like this, although the rest of the adventuring party actually finds their constant bickering both amusing and endearing.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A big part of her character arc before recovering her memories is realizing this, and Galuf more or less says this to her when she calls herself stupid. She later gives similar advice to Noctis.
Thancred Waters
Thancred
A Hyuran Scion of the Seventh Dawn. While known for his charm and flirtatious nature, his remarkable skills in battle make it clear that he is no ordinary man. He has done some questionable work in the past, which he chooses to keep to himself.
Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura
Recruited in his event, "He Who Sings Of Love." Thancred had been tracking his friends and allies when he comes across the party, but when a few of the guys ask him to join he declines, saying it's because they don't have any women with them. When he meets Terra and Rem later, he changes his tune, and is shocked to see Y'shtola and Yda already with them - who both reprimand him for his lecherous ways.
- Army Scout: Though the party isn't (officially) an army, Thancred takes on the role of scouting ahead whenever they're on the ground to find the least dangerous routes for the party to traverse. On one such occasion, Hope, Vaan, Penelo, and Tifa didn't know he was doing this and get angry at him when he returns wounded, though he insists it's an important job and promises he'll be more careful next time.
- Back Stab: One of his crystal passives, where he can deal more damage to enemies not targeting him.
- Balance Buff: Thancred was literally the very first post-awakening character rework in the game in both versions, coming out sooner in the GL version. To solve his turn inefficiency and BRV leakage problems, he mainly had his ability and buff potency increase, an HP damage trigger on his skill 1 (albeit conditional), overflow on his skill 2, and higher skill counts.
- Big Damn Heroes: In Alisaie's event, he rushes in to save her from some monsters, not even recognizing her at first.
- Charge Meter: His unique mechanic that takes creative inspiration from his roots as a Final Fantasy character with the Ninja job. Whenever his EX Ability is equipped, a unique scroll icon indicating Ninki appears above his head with a counter that goes up from 0 to 5. BRV Attacks and HP Attack give 1 Ninki stack while either skill gives 2 each; then around 3 stacks or higher, both his BRV Attack and EX Ability are enhanced. The former when used can have a high poison chance with higher overall damage and grants his next skill use a free zero-cost for one turn, while the latter gains 200% Max BRV Overflow. However, when used, either Ninki-enhanced attack will consume 3 Ninki stacks (making Thancred have to build them up all over again).
- Crippling Overspecialization: Due his poison forte, all it takes is just a single enemy/boss that is immune to the poison debuff (or can also counter against any debuffs at all for that matter) to completely ruin Thancred's day.
- Dash Attack: His EX Ability, Bhavacakra, where he dashes forward at his foe before leaping back.
- Fragile Speedster: A 3/5 in both his base Attack and Defense with a 1/5 in HP (meaning he can be one-shotted by high HP damage), but has 4/5 in both Initial BRV and Max BRV with a 5/5 in base Speed, along with very high BRV damage potencies on a poisoned target. The Attack Up from his Jugulating Wasp helps.
- Full-Contact Magic: The fact that his EX does magic damage, which might hinder Thancred in any fights where a target is resistant to either melee or magic damage. Due to such a nature, this skill is one of the two of his that cannot inflict poison upon enemies, nor does it scale with the poison-enhanced potency of his kit.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Thancred's EX and LD abilities are only usable by the Ninja in XIV, but he technically shouldn't be able to use those attacks due to him only being a Rogue and lacking the soul crystal.
- Handsome Lech: While characters like Edge or Zidane are skirt-chasers, their positive aspects tend to make their behavior forgivable by the rest of the party. Thancred, on the other hand, is introduced as a rather creepy bard talking about singing whispers of love into women's ears, and ditching the party until he finds out they do, indeed, have female members in their ranks. What really solidifies this trope, however, is once his lecherous ways are revealed Terra and Rem quickly recoil away from him. Yda has to tell him to knock it off because he's making them uncomfortable. Funnily enough, this is also a case of Characterization Marches On, as in the FFXIV storylines concurrent to DFFOO's development, Thancred's lecherous tendencies have faded substantially after certain events.
- In Name Only: His skill 1, Jugulating Wasp would be assumed to be a decapitation technique, but the way the models are animated when receiving damage shows no sign of this. Even then, despite Thancred prepping up a purple liquid on his knives before the attack, it is also the only poison damage based skill that cannot inflict poison to a target on its own.
- Instant Runes: Runes can be seen during his EX ability's effects, especially since its name in both versions has a religious motif to it.
- Poisonous Person: Focuses solely on this; his stats get buffed each time an enemy target is poisoned, which he can do with almost all of his abilities. This makes Thancred a good teammate for anyone who can inflict poison, especially since his awakened version has invisible buff passives activated when an enemy target has any debuffs on them.
- Spectacular Spinning: His skill 2, Shadow Fang, where it involves spinning slashes and kicks (including somersaults) during the animation.
Papalymo Totolymo
Papalymo
While well-mannered in nature, he is possessed of a sharp tongue and often bumps heads with his impulsive partner Yda. While thoroughly versed in thaumaturgy and an expert of black magic, he only fights when he has to.
Voiced by: Eri Kitamura
Recruited in Chapter 8, Capta Est Tower. Papalymo is found researching the high levels of aether in the surrounding environment and its effects on the Torsion, trying to find the correlation between the two. As such, he resists joining the party at first, especially since he argues with Yda, but she later comes to his aid against a bunch of monsters.
- Acceptable Breaks from Canon: For his Burst Finisher he uses the Tupsimati to cast the immensely powerful unnamed spell Louisoix used to try and contain Bahamut, which Papalymo had only ever cast once at the cost of his life. Obviously as his BT Attack, not only does it not kill Papalymo to use it, but if his Burst Weapon is fully unlocked he can even use it twice in a fight.
- An Ice Person: Umbral Ice does ice elemental damage and gives him BRV regen, mimicking its ability to restore MP in his home game. When in his Umbral Ice stance, he also gains access to Blizzard IV as his EX ability.
- Badass Bookworm: He is usually the first person to ask about how magic works in different worlds; when he questions Lulu about how she controls her dolls, he reacts with surprise when she doesn't know - she didn't have the luxury of studying magic for the sake of knowledge, and instead uses her magic for survival.
- Birds of a Feather: He gets along with his fellow tiny Insufferable Genius Black Mage Shantotto, and even readily admits her magic is more powerful than his.
- Casting a Shadow: By building stacks of Polyglot, Papalymo changes his BRV hit into Xenoglossy and his HP Hit into Foul, two spells that generate crystals of darkness that expel dark energy to damage enemies.
- Commonality Connection: With this Force Partner, Vivi. Both are powerful yet pint-sized users of black magic (with Vivi being a Black Mage and Papalymo being a Thaumaturge). Both also do not survive to the end of their games (Papalymo sacrifices his life in Heavensward, while Vivi dies off-screen sometime prior to the epilogue).
- Enraged by Idiocy: Gets fed up with Palom trying to goad Vivi and Terra into a contest to see who can melt the ice walls in the Lifa Tree the fastest, and just ends up doing it himself when their backs are turned.
- Extra Turn: The BRV and HP attack replacements he gets with a stack of Polyglot active, both versions of his EX skill and his LD skill are all instant, letting him take a large number of turns in a row: what's more, his LD passive increases his maximum Polyglot stacks to 2 and lets him gain more stacks of it every time a total of 10 enemy or party turns pass on top of him gaining them from using his EX or LD skills, giving him a reliable way to gain more of them.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Subverted in Act 2, Ch. 6 "Second Partner". Papalymo prepares to sacrifice himself to destroy the barrier shielding a Planesgorger, but Lyse flatly denies him and convinces him to work with the rest of the party to put an end to the beast instead.
- His Burst Attack is based off his final stand against Shinryu's rampage from the XIV expansion Heavensward (although obviously, the spell does not kill him casting it in DFFOO).
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Fire IV, Blizzard IV, Foul, Despair, and Xenoglossy are all spells exclusive to the Black Mage, which means Papalymo technically shouldn't be able to use those spells due to only being a Thaumaturge and lacking the soul crystal.
- Older Than They Look: He gets annoyed with Palom and Eiko when they try treating him as a kid around their age. He is actually a Lalafell, meaning he is a diminutive race that looks like a child (similar to Shantotto who is a Tarutaru) even though he is a full grown adult. In fact, he's actually the oldest among the currently playable XIV cast, at 42 years old.
- The Paralyzer: His Burst Finisher inflicts all enemies with a gold debuff that increases the HP damage they take, paralyzes them and causes them to take an extra 10% HP damage for every HP dump the party deals to them.
- Playing with Fire: Astral Fire does fire elemental damage and raises his max BRV and attack. He also has Fire IV as his default EX ability. His LD Ability is Despair, a very powerful fire spell of the Black Mage.
- Spam Attack: Papalymo's LD attack starts with him using Triplecast to cast three Fire IV spells in rapid succession before capping off with Despair.
- Stance System: Not only do Astral Fire and Umbral Ice change his attacks to that element as stated above, but they also function in different ways: Astral Fire focuses on dealing multiple BRV hits and dealing partial damage to non-targets, while Umbral Ice focuses on batterying Papalymo either via the attacks themselves or via his BRV regen and dealing more single-target damage. His Burst buff further emphasizes these properties and applies them to the entire party: Astral Fire enchants the entire party with fire, makes their BRV attacks ignore enemy defense and doubles their BRV hit counts, while Umbral Ice enchants them with ice, allows them to battery themselves based on their maximum BRV after every HP dump and grants them BRV regen.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Yda and Papalymo have a friendship like this, although the rest of the adventuring party actually finds their constant bickering both amusing and endearing.
- Wrecked Weapon: Papalymo's Burst weapon is Tupsimati, the head of a Magic Staff that once belonged to his mentor Louisoix which broke into pieces during the Seventh Umbral Calamity.
Alisaie Leveilleur
Alisaie Leveilleur
An Elezen Scion of the Seventh Dawn, and granddaughter of Louisoix, the sage who gave his life to save the world. Together with her twin brother, Alphinaud, she seeks the truth behind her grandfather's death. Initially operating apart from the Scions, she later joins up with other adventurers as a red mage.
Voiced by: Rie Murakawa
Recruited in her event, "Another Realm." Alisaie is struggling with some monsters when the party finds her and comes to her rescue. She subsequently joins the party, intrigued by the Torsions and by the fact that her friends are not quite the same people she knows, since she was pulled from later in the XIV timeline than they were.
- Balance Buff: While Alisaie was considered a unique and fun addition to the roster, her lack of a frequent BRV+HP per turn greatly hindered her on top of her already complicated mechanics. Post-rework via her Lost Chapter, EX banner and Lv. 70 Awakening, Alisaie now gains BRV+HP damage on all versions of her spells, with Verholy, Verflare and Enchanted Redoublement gaining overflow for even better damage reward.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Taking most of her job's mechanics from her home game, Alisaie is one of the most complex characters to use properly, but rewards good play with lots of free turns, ability uses and damage. Ironically, Red Mage is the easiest Magical DPS job to play in her home game.
- Elemental Powers: Of all the characters, Alisaie has access to the most elements in a single battle (the only other one who beats her is Relm and Lann and Reynn, with Relm's depending on what summon is equipped, and the twins have one more element than her.). First wave of spells are both Veraero and Verthunder, with the former turning into Verstone and the latter turning into Verfire. These spells revert back and forth upon usage of each other (e.g. Veraero to Verstone to Veraero and so forth). Her second wave of spells are Verholy (which actually does not do holy damage), converted from Veraero/Verstone, and Verflare, converted from Verthunder/Verfire. Both these two are each accessed for one use only when Alisaie manages to perform an Enchanted Redoublement. Upon doing so, they revert back to their base Aero/Thunder versions. This also presents the usual problem of having her damage tank in fights where bosses will naturally resist any of her selection of elements, which may dampen the effectiveness of her ability rotations. Thus, Alisaie is always best in any fights where no elemental resistances exist and/or can linger for long periods of time (a good example of this is the boss in her own event/Lost Chapter). Alisaie's LD buff, Sword of Eorzea, enchants her non-elemental attacks with fire, thunder, earth, and wind, which simulataneously increases the potency of her elemental attacks, which combined with her ability to imperil all four of those elements, makes her damage output a lot more consistent.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Even moreso than many of the grand team, the shock of the disjointed time frames for being brought into the Opera Omnia world hits Alisaie hard. This is because, as anyone passingly familiar will note from her outfit, Alisaie here is from the timeframe of the Stormblood expansion. Most of the other Scions haven't even gone through A Realm Reborn yet. This means Alisaie knows who "Yda" really is, knows that the Scions will be betrayed in Ul'dah resulting in Y'shtola being blinded and Thancred losing all access to aetherial manipulation, and that Papalymo is going to die. And she can't mention a word of it because she's not yet sure if it might mess with time if and when everyone goes back. And her best friend and ally, FFXIV's Warrior of Light, is totally absent.
- It gets a little easier for Alisaie once her brother joins the party, as his memories go up to the same point hers do. Even later, Yda meets her Dark Manikin and reveals her true identity as Lyse, and it leads to Y'shtola, Thancred, and Papalymo getting their memories back as well, allowing them to "catch up."
- Flying Weapon: Her LD ability lets her create a large number of glowing energy swords that she throws at the enemy repeatedly and grants her a buff that increases her overall BRV and HP damage and lets her gain an amount of BRV equal to 20% of her maximum BRV with each critical BRV hit she deals.
- Hero Worship: Vivi can't help but admire her power and says he wants to be just like her some day. For her part, Alisaie thought his ability to wield black magic was even better.
- Magic Knight: As a Red Mage, she is another good example of the trope.
- Mana Meter: The counter above her head with 2 different numbers, which also plays the trope straight as per All in the Manual. Using a white mana ability grants her white mana while using a black mana ability gives her well, black mana. The main gimmick here is that once both mana amounts hit a certain threshold, her HP Attack is enhanced. Having at least one of each mana unlocks Enchanted Riposte, a magic BRV+HP Attack that consumes one unit of both mana. When both of her mana amounts are above 4 however, it instead grants her Enchanted Redoublement, a much stronger BRV+HP Attack that costs 5 of both mana (with overflow via her reworked Verthunder Extend passive) that not only hits harder, but also has a high turn rate and turns her spells into Verholy and Verflare regardless of their current states for one use.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Quite so, in that she is a very faithful attempt at replicating the mechanics of a FFXIV Red Mage in the game systems of Opera Omnia. This means that she has eight abilities, depending on the state of her unique resource gauge, and the player has to juggle their resources just like in FFXIV to get the most out of her. This makes her a bit fiddly to use, but her damage potential when played correctly is bonkers on top of being able to manipulate turns continuously and giving herself frequent free cost ability usages. Her rework fixes up her initial DPS/DPT issues via making any part of her abilities hit 5 or 6 times with HP damage dumps plus overflow as compensation, among other minor tweaks.
- Multi-Ranged Master: Irvine and Edge note how well she fights from a distance with magic and up in close range with her sword, with Edge even admitting that he could learn a thing or two from her about smoothly transitioning between the two.
- Non-Indicative Name: Her Verholy spell is actually non-elemental and not light elemental, as a nod to how the spell in the actual game is listed as "unaspected".
- Took a Level in Badass: Yda and Thancred are shocked to see how much stronger she is as a Red Mage, and Alisaie says it was because she couldn't bear to continue relying on others.
- Tragic Keepsake: Yuffie observes that Alisaie always carries around a grimoire and wonders how valuable it is (so she can steal it), only for Alisaie to reveal that it was a precious gift from her grandfather.
Alphinaud Leveilleur
Alphinaud Leveilleur
An Elezen affiliated with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and Alisaie's older twin brother. His genius earned him admission to the Sharlayan Studium at the tender age of eleven. Playing a central role in the Scions, he travels Eorzea in hopes of fulfilling his grandfather Louisoux's dying wish.
Voiced by: Shinnosuke Tachibana
Recruited in his event, "Walk This Way." When first found wandering in the woods, the party recognizes that he must be Alisaie's brother and takes him to her, whereupon she explains the situation to him - particularly, that the other Scions are overly formal to them because they don't know the twins as well yet. Afterward, he joins the party and is happy to give them his wisdom and experience.
- Achilles' Heel: Getting broken. While everyone is bound to suffer a Bravery Break at some point, Alphinaud suffers far more when he is broken, as his summoned Carbuncle, whether it's Moonstone or Obsidian, instantly disappears, forcing him to waste a turn and an ability use to resummon it. His LD Ability fixes this issue by granting a buff that outright prevents the party from getting broken for 12 turns.
- Damage Over Time: Alphinaud is the second character after Exdeath who is capable of inflicting a poison debuff that deals HP damage to the enemy every turn with his LD Ability.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: When displaying his skills to the party in a cutscene, he summons Obsidian Carbuncle, but in battle he can only do that with his EX ability which isn't available until his Lost Chapter.
- Improbable Age: Lampshaded by Krile, who calls him a grown-up despite the fact that they're close to the same age. Despite being only sixteen, he says he will bring his wisdom and experience to help the party - of which he has plenty.
- Innocently Insensitive: When he explains primals to summoners and compares to them to Espers/Aeons/etc of their worlds. He says they are not benevolent forces and instead antagonistic on his world....and Terra is nearby who happens to actually be half-esper herself. While he does try to explain that his world's incarnations are completely separate and he isn't judging them together, she is still taken quite aback and seems lost for words.
- Life Drain: Energy Drain damages enemies and restores HP to the party.
- Ma'am Shock: Like Alisaie, he receives this when Y'shtola and Yda call him "Master" Alphinaud, which he hasn't heard them call him in quite some time.
- Power Crystal: Summons Carbuncles through invocations through Moonstone or Obsidian.
- Poisonous Person: His HP+ and LD abilities inflict the enemy with BRV poison and HP poison debuffs, respectively, the latter of which dealing HP damage every time anyone takes an action
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Should Alphinaud be broken in battle, Carbuncle will immediately de-summon and leave his side, requiring him to summon it again.
- Simplified Spellcasting: Summon Moonstone calls Carbuncle to his side, not only does this action immediately allow Alphinaud to take another action, but it also doesn't take up a turn in the counter (although it will still use a Summon/Assist turn). His EX summoning Obsidian Carbuncle works the same way coupled with a powerful attack.
- Spell Book: He wields grimoires in battle, which are considered Unique weapons that only he can equip.
- Squishy Wizard: At one point, he tries to keep up with the much more physically-oriented scouts as they're hiking up a mountain at a faster pace than everyone else. Since this group includes Sabin, Yang, and Zack, Alphinaud struggles quite a bit, but acknowledges how he has grown enough to be able to admit to his shortcomings. Despite that, he declines their offer to slow down or wait for the next group, and pushes on ahead like the hero he admires would (though he decides not to train with them when they get to the top).
- Summon Magic: Alphinaud summons Moonstone Carbuncle to fight at his side in battle to improve his offensive power and buff the party. Later, he gets his EX ability which allows him to summon Obsidian Carbuncle.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He seems unfazed by the fact that Krile shares the same name as his terrifying teacher, although perhaps he's just refusing to think of it as anything but coincidence.
Introduced in Final Fantasy XV
Noctis Lucis Caelum
Noctis Lucis Caelum
Alternate Skin
Crown prince of Lucis, a kingdom under the divine protection of the Crystal. To prepare himself for his upcoming wedding, he takes a road trip with his friends Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto, earning a wealth of experience along the way. Uncomfortable with special treatment, his personality is not particularly princely.
Voiced by: Tatsuhisa Suzuki
Recruited in his event, "Royal Hope". Noctis finds himself in the world of Opera Omnia totally bewildered about the situation and helps Vivi, Yuri, and Chelinka deal with some monsters. Confused about meeting three children capable of fighting as they are, the others are able to explain the situation to him.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: With Locke and Noel in Act 2, Chapter 5's cover art.
- Bequeathed Power: Uses the Power of the King in his Armiger buff, which gives him access to all the weapons of the royals of the past.
- Big Eater: Noctis bonds with Prishe over how they both want to eat behemoth steak.
- Birds of a Feather: Strikes up a quick friendship with Noel when they both bring up the fact that they enjoy hunting and gathering recipes for food, though Noct admits that he doesn't do the cooking.
- Death from Above Launcher Move: His first ability, Shooting Star.
- Disappeared Dad: Noctis witnesses a discussion that comes up about whether the trope Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You is ever valid, since both Yuri and Krile were left behind by their father figures to protect them. Laguna and Galuf argue that sometimes they have to, because otherwise they'd be worried too much about keeping their children safe, and they would have something to look forward to when they get back home. This resonates with Noctis and Edge, who both lost family to their enemies.
- Evolving Attack: Whenever he hits an already-broken target or BRV-breaks a target with his skills, they turn into + versions for one use, having increased potencies. In the case of his Death Drop/Warp-Strike+ (via the Extend passive), it grants him a Royal Arms buff stack outside of using his EX ability. Another way to access his + skills is to use his Lv. 65 Additional Ability, Set Warp, just in case he's against a target that he cannot inflict a BRV break upon on his own, or needs a clutch successive use of a + version ability. Even then, having 5 max stacks of Royal Arms post-rework now grants Noctis extra benefits on not just his skills, but also his BRV and HP Attacks being enhanced to + and ++ versions where they do more hits, and for the latter, also triggers the second Warp-Strike animation.
- Extra Turn: On top of enabling his Warp Strike followup, the + versions of his base skills are free turns and move his next turn right before the enemy targetted by the skill. His LD ability extends this to the entire party by granting them a 2 turn buff with both of the above properties, enabling the party to finish almost any fight with an extremely low turn count.
- Jack of All Stats: With all that in mind, Noctis is 3/5 in base Attack, Initial BRV and HP along with having a 4/5 in Max BRV base with a poor 2/5 Defense. His Speed being 5/5, along with his turn manipulation gimmicks easily rocket him into being a solid all-around attacker with great turn rate (especially post-rework). However, due to Noctis's own average attack stat, he needs a lot of attack power if he needs to break enemies as often as possible on his own just to access his + skills, especially if the target(s) in question can reach high BRV thresholds.
- Modest Royalty: As opposed to his formal black and gold kingly attire available as his alternate costume, Noctis's default outfit has him in his standard travelling gear which he wears for the majority of FFXV.
- Picky Eater: Noel, Prishe, Steiner, and Paine pick on Noctis for this because of his dislike of vegetables.
- Princely Young Man: Setzer assumes he is one of these due to his regal bearing and calls him "Prince" as an affectionate nickname, prompting Noct to react with surprise since he never actually told the party of his royal heritage. Setzer apologizes after being corrected.
- Socially Awkward Hero: He admits several times that he gets uncomfortable talking to people and usually lets Ignis do it for him, but at one point when Lightning is testing his resolve she says she wants to hear it straight from Noctis instead. After getting his memories back of being ten years older, he gives a speech to the others about how he sacrificed himself and that he's ready to do it again if he must - not for the gods, but to keep his world and the people he cares about safe. After everything, though, he still admits that saying all that tired him out.
- Spam Attack: With maximum Conjure Armiger stacks, his attacks gain extra BRV hits, the + versions of his base skills, HP+ attack or EX skill and his LD skill are followed by Warp Strike, and with his Burst buff up, he follows up all party attacks with a single target BRV+HP attack of his own.
- Walking Armory: While Armiger is active, Noctis has about a dozen extra weapons floating around him, which he can summon to grant him a single bonus hit on both his Warp-Strike and EX ability while increasing his Max BRV per stack (a total of five) for the duration.
- The Wise Prince: He takes on this personality again after regaining his memories, walking to defeat Ardyn without any hesitation despite knowing that it'll lead to his death again in his world.
Prompto Argentum
Prompto Argentum
Alternate Skin
A close friend of Noct's since high school. Though he has no affiliation with the royal family of Lucis, he proves an irreplaceable companion to the prince on his journey. Understanding the heavy burden placed on his comrades, he tries to keep everyone's spirits up while on the road.
Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara
Recruited in his event "On the Road", Prompto stumbles into the world of Opera Omnia after being separated from his Chocobo mount. Being found by the party, he is convinced to meet the others in case someone from his own world may also be here, and thus finds his best friend Noctis, whom strongarms Prompto into joining the party since he can't just go back home anyway.
- Birds of a Feather:
- Quickly bonds with Bartz and Ace due to their affection for Chocobos, the three become fast friends mere seconds after they first find Prompto.
- Also bonds with Irvine over their shared love of cameras, Prompto and his photo camera, and Irvine and his video camera.
- Camera Fiend: Prompto is distressed to realize he lost his camera somewhere between arriving in the world of Opera Omnia, and states his sadness at not being able to take pictures of the party in action like he used to do back home. Eventually, he uses the power of his will to make it work again just like Ignis did with his cell phone and takes a picture of Bartz, Noctis, Noel, and Locke together, as a Call-Back to the final picture Noctis took with his friends before going to face Ardyn.
- Coordinated Clothes: His alternate outfit had him in his black and silver uniform as a royal guardsman, which he shares with Gladio and Ignis. The three of them coordinate with Noctis's own kingly uniform in black and gold.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: His Trigger Happy EX Ability only hits for minimal BRV + HP Damage, but does so ten times in a row in fast succession. The moment it is realized, the BRV hits are group-based, meaning that 2-3 wave foes will now receive more damage because it is no longer distributed.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Invoked when Prompto talks about his love of using a camera in battle to take pictures, confusing members of the party from more primitive and medieval settings such as Cyan and Maria. Eventually Prompto (as well as Irvine) describe it to them like painting a portrait but instantaneously. Even then Cyan doesn't quite get it as he suggests Prompto take a picture of his deceased family so he can better remember them.
- Flare Gun: Starshell has Prompto firing a flare into the air to provoke the entire enemy team. May also qualify as a Flash Bomb since it guarantees Prompto will dodge the next attack, but it only affects Prompto and not the rest of the party (in the case of an enemy All-Attack).
- I Just Want to Be Special: After meeting Palom and seeing how outgoing he is, Prompto admits that he was much more shy at that age, which leads Palom to declare his dream of becoming a sage so that others can look up to him. With a little encouragement from some of the others, Prompto comes to the conclusion that he also wants to become someone cool that others can look up to as well.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: The effects of his Life of the Party Buff, it transforms his HP+ and BRV+ Attacks into the more powerful Overkill and Crackshot if Prompto uses them on a target that has just been broken, or hit by an ally while they were broken, as indicated by his unique Break Mark mechanic. His LD buff also gives him the ability to follow up any ally attacks with Link Attack, which is a 2 hit BRV+HP attack repeated twice that batteries the party and instantly breaks the enemy as long as he has 2 stacks or more on his LD buff which are consumed by his Link Attack, but they can be restored to a maximum of 4 stacks instantly by attacking an enemy with a Break Mark, who'll also take 30% more BRV and HP damage if inflicted with a Break Mark thanks to his LD buff.
- More Dakka: For his LD he swaps out his handgun for an automatic assault rifle before finishing off with a rocket launcher! His upgraded Trigger Happy attack also shoots all enemies 10 times for full damage.
- Muggle Best Friend: Prompto hints at a bit of insecurity about this, especially after finding himself in another world with all kinds of fantastic warriors. Hope and Penelo then assure him that they were pretty normal before their own adventures, too.
- Older Than They Look: After he gets his memories back, he reveals that he's thirty - and is shocked to learn that it makes him older than Vayne once Vaan points it out.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Prompto's chocobo mount is quickly forgotten about. To be fair the party does suggest that Prompto may have left the mount back in his home world, but that is only because they don't want to waste time searching for a Chocobo mount who may not even be in the same world anymore. Ultimately the fate of the poor bird is unknown.
Ignis Scientia
Ignis Scientia
Alternate Skin 1
Alternate Skin 2
A cool and collected young man born into a line of retainers to the royal family, raised to ever be by Noctis's side. Endeavors to improve himself all the while supporting the prince. Thanks to his keen wisdom and intellect, he fulfills his duties admirably during the party's travels.
Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano
Recruited in Act 2, Chapter 7 of the main story. Summoned by Materia with all his memories intact, he chose his current appearance to be more in line with his friends, content with journeying alongside them and determined to protect Noctis. Though Noct's lack of memories proves to be a bit of a problem, he nonetheless devotes himself to the party as a whole.
- Artifact of Death: For his Burst Finisher, Ignis will use the Ring of Lucii; an item of immense power that can only be used safely by one of the Kings of Lucis, like Noctis. Ignis used the ring only once in FFXV during the siege of Altissia, although because of his lack of royal lineage, it permanently costs him his eyesight (he suffers no ill-effects using the ring in DFFOO, however).
- Ascended Meme: Yes, his second skill is named Quick Recipeh, as a humorous nod to his pronunciation of it in the game's English dub.
- Balance Buff: Ignis's Level 90 upgrade improved his damage output, with his BRV and HP attacks from his Recipehs now filling up his EX gauge to actually let him use it reliably.
- Commonality Connection: With his Force Partner, King (from Type-0). Both are extremely focused and competent, and can come off as cold or aloof. However, both also have a Hidden Heart of Gold and do actually care deeply for their friends. More surface level, both also Dual Wield their weapons, with Ignis using two daggers and King using twin handguns.
- Coordinated Clothes: His alternate outfit had him in his black and silver uniform as a royal guardsman, which he shares with Gladio and Prompto. The three of them coordinate with Noctis's own kingly uniform in black and gold.
- Cultured Badass: Is able to have a polite, friendly, and informative conversation with Vayne upon meeting him, since Vayne is the first person Ignis runs into upon getting to the World of Respite. He is able to recognize the same trope in Vayne, but it isn't until meeting Vaan and the others that he realizes Vayne is more Wicked Cultured - even then, the two of them are still able to exchange information together privately, recognizing that it is mutually beneficial to them both.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: For Ignis's second costume, he has his dressed down look from after he puts on the Ring of Lucii (although minus the scars or signs of blindness). This was an important point in Ignis's character in the original XV as he finally came to realize what they were fighting for, and what would happen to Noctis should he succeed in his mission as king.
- Mundane Utility: He is informed by Materia and Vayne that the warriors can create things in the world should they bend their will to it. Ignis promptly uses it to restore his party's cellphones to functionality and calls Noctis.
- Playing with Fire: His LD ability, Sagefire, does fire damage and enchants him and the other party members with the fire element.
- Secret-Keeper: Noct and Prompto quickly realize that Ignis is hiding something from them, since they can't remember as much as he does. Ignis doesn't tell them even when confronted - not because they aren't ready, but because he isn't, and it makes him happy to see them happy and unburdened.
- Spam Attack: The majority of Ignis's skills have instant turn rates, letting him rapidly heal and battery the party as he wishes. This is a double-edged sword however, as while he can provide very strong support on demand, it can also eat into Lufenia countdowns if he isn't careful.
- Stance System: Dishes (Memory Lane Pastry) is Ignis' defensive stance, which grants BRV and gives the party HP Regen as well as complete debuff evasion. Dishes (Papa Bird & Baby Bowl) is his offensive stance, which raises the party's attack and Max BRV overflow limit.
- The Strategist: He is noted for being Noct's tactician and adviser more than once, and is the first to figure out how to deal with the Dark Manikin clones that Sephiroth sent after the party. He figures out how to Spot the Impostor almost as soon as the Noct and Prompto copies open their mouths, noting that his real friends aren't so perceptive.
- Stuff Blowing Up: During his Force Attack King will toss two loaded magazines towards the enemy, only for Ignis to use his Sagefire to ignite the gunpowder and cause an explosive reaction.
- Team Chef: As soon as he joins the party, Ignis becomes the team's primary cook and wants to make sure everyone has a nutritious diet. He even uses it as his battle mechanic!
- Team Mom: Aside from cooking for the team, he also tries to make sure everyone is getting plenty of rest and that they're all properly cared for.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: His Burst Effect gives him the follow-up attack Total Clarity, where he throws flaming daggers at the enemy in an explosion of fire after every action Ignis takes, whether it's an attack or a passive action.
Gladiolus Amicitia
Gladiolus Amicitia
Alternate Skin 1
Alternate Skin 2
The Amicitia family has long served as the shield protecting the kings of Lucis and their household, and Gladiolus is its eldest son. The bond he shares with Noctis transcends that of a bodyguard and his liege. With his prodigious strength, he stands ever ready to keep his companions from harm.
Voiced by: Kenta Miyake
Recruited in his event, "Around the Fire." After getting briefed by Materia, Gladio is dropped off in the world and runs into Seifer and his posse, who confront him in their usual manner before leaving him alone. Shortly afterward, he reunites with Noctis, Ignis, and Prompto and lends his sword to the party.
- Big Brother Instinct: It's displayed when Selphie rushes on ahead without being careful of possible traps in the area. When he gets protective of her, it's revealed that Selphie reminds him of his younger sister Iris.
- Counter-Attack: His LD buff lets him counter enemy attacks with a BRV+HP attack that batteries him based on his Attack beforehand, deals 50% splash damage to other targets, batteries the party based on HP damage dealt and inflicts the enemy with a debuff that reduces their Attack and Defense.
- Coordinated Clothes: His alternate outfit had him in his black and silver uniform as a royal guardsman, which he shares with Promto and Ignis. The three of them coordinate with Noctis's own kingly uniform in black and gold.
- Dual Wielding: He pulls out a second sword in the middle of Maelstorm and uses both it and his equiped sword to continue the move.
- Jack of All Trades: A variant. He covers most of the tank roles in the game throughout his moveset in that he can take damage in place of allies, reduce overall party BRV and HP damage, Counter-Attack, grant party HP regeneration, significantly buff their Attack and BRV overflow from attacks and everything he does batteries the party's BRV.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: His LD buff, "Blink," reduces all BRV and HP damage he takes to 0, allows him to evade all debuffs, and he counters all attacks directed at him — including single-target attacks he intercepts on allies. This makes Gladio almost invincible unless the enemy has mechanics to ignore effects that reduce damage or immunity to buffs.
- Romantic Wingman: Gladio is the advice, feedback, and moral support type for Tidus and Palom, giving them advice about women and how to make them happy. Selphie approves.
- Secret-Keeper: Like Ignis, he has memories up to the end of FFXV so he's aware of Noct's ultimate fate, but the two decide not to tell him.
- Surpassed the Teacher: When Cor explains he received his nickname of "The Immortal" by being the first Crownsguard to survive a duel with Eos's Gilgamesh, Gladio reveals he actually received Gilgamesh's blessing as "Shield to the King". Cor admits this proves Gladio is the superior warrior and has nothing left to teach him.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: His second outfit had him in his costume earned by completely Episode: Gladious, where he ditches the top half of his clothes.
Aranea Highwind
Aranea Highwind
Alternate Skin
Commodore of a Niflheim airborne division who pilots a red assault craft. Her subordinates, whom she takes good care of, trust in her implicitly. Her speed and skill in the air with a magitek lance has deservedly earned her the moniker "the Dragoon."
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro
Aranea is the second Global-first character released in the game. Recruited in her event, "Commodore of the Skies." Another warrior summoned by Spiritus, he informs her that she can do whatever she likes as long as she fights. Afterward, she runs into none other than Gilgamesh who eagerly indulges in a clash, after which he lets her go on her way and tells her where to go. Subsequently, she runs into Noct and the party, joining up with them after another brief fight.
- Anti-Air: Not so much in gameplay, but in a cutscene she teams up with fellow Dragoons Kain, Cid, and Freya to take down a flock of birds. All four Dragoons have such a great time with it that Aranea suggests creating a new airborne division in this world with Cid as the leader (despite the experience in leadership that Aranea herself and Kain have) because he'd be the most fun.
- Cool Big Sis: To Prompto, as usual, but she gives this vibe to the rest of the party as well, especially towards Reynn, Porom, and Maria in her Intersecting Will chapter.
- Critical Hit Class: Aranea specializes in these, and allows her party to also inflict automatic critical hits with their attacks and increases their damage as long as the Vitalcrusher debuff is active on enemies.
- Extra Turn: She can both gain extra turns and delay the enemy at the same time with most of her turns: her EX buff allows her to do the former whenever she breaks an enemy, her LD overhead unbreaks the enemy befor she attacks, and during her Force Time, any enemy delayed by her breaking them is delayed for an additional turn.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted... sometimes. Whenever she is in battle, she dons her helmet, but in cutscenes when she's not in a battle stance she keeps it off. This leads to some awkward cutscenes where she switches in and out of her battle stance and her helmet keeps appearing and disappearing.
- Launcher Move: With her Burst buff up, she gains the ability to launch the enemy on every attack and gains a launch followup very similar to Raines.
- Lightning Bruiser: When fully powered up, she's capable of dealing massive amounts of damage extremely quickly: she has high base speed and multiple passive abilities that increase her speed from various actions, Dragoon Dive delays the target for 2 turns with Overclock active, Highwind cancels the enemy's break before dealing damage and High-Speed Maneuver gives her an extra turn when she breaks an enemy, and as stated, Vitalcrusher forces critical hits on unbroken enemies as well and increases their damage by 50%, making it an especially powerful debuff. Her main problems are that she can't refresh her Overclock duration once it's active with anything but Air Superiority's + version which extends it by 4 turns and her high speed can end up working against her by consuming buff turns at a higher rate than other characters.
- Poor Communication Kills: Spiritus told her she could do whatever she liked as long as she kept fighting. She took this to mean she always had to fight, especially after meeting Gilgamesh, so she fights Noctis and co. immediately upon meeting them. This being Aranea, she didn't mind too much either way, and said she was too excited at seeing him to hold back.
- Power Glows: When she has Overclock active, the middle of the blade of her spear glows red.
- Resigned to the Call: She accepts the fact that she's in a different world pretty easily, and when Machina asks if she's okay with it, she says there's not much she can do about it so she might as well come along and crying about it won't change anything.
- Spectacular Spinning: Both her second skill Highwind and her EX ability Air Superiority involve her cradling the shaft of her spear and twirling around it in midair before driving it into the enemy, with her EX ability also resulting in a Ground-Shattering Landing. Her Burst finisher is also essentially this, except she's surrounded by a glowing red aura as she dives downwards and she repeats it multiple times in a row.
- Winter Warfare: Her alternate costume has her in the cold weather gear she wore during Episode: Prompto.
Cor Leonis
Cor Leonis
Alternate Skin
Leader of the Crownsguard who once traveled with King Regis of Lucis. Known as "Cor the Immortal" for his unparalleled martial prowess. Burdened with the guilt of having failed his liege, he relates the King's sentiments to Noctis while watching over his journey.
Voiced by: Hiroki Tōchi
Cor is the third Global-first character released in the game. Recruited in his event, "The Man Known as The Immortal." After being summoned by Materia, he stumbles upon Gilgamesh struggling against a powerful foe and comes to his aid, before being found by the rest of the party. At first dubious of the Goddess's claim that Noctis was alive and well, he is pleased to learn the laws governing the World of Respite indeed allow the young King to live again, and happily joins the team to once again act as one of Noctis's Crownsguard.
- Ascended Glitch: Shortly after he was added into the game, people figured out a way to apply his main buff to both party members when it's intended to only be active on a single party member at a time and trying to apply it to the other party member normally dispels it from the first, and the ability to have it active on both party members greatly increases the number of extra attacks he can perform, and by extension, how often he can use Reaper's Gale. With his Burst, this is made into an official mechanic and he's able to apply his buff to both characters at the same time with his Burst buff up.
- Blade Spam: His LD attack Reflorescere performs the "Split-Second Blade Spam" variant, with Cor rushing towards the enemy only to sheath his sword ... to reveal he's already slashed the enemy several times over.
- Chef of Iron: Downplayed: while he doesn't actually use any cooking implements in combat, Quina praises his skill with katana as being compareable to knifework of a master chef when they witness the precise cuts he has left on a monster he's killed and one of his Lost Chapter events revolves around Noctis catching a lot of different fish and Cor offering to prepare them instead of having him fetch Ignis, acknowledging that although he's nowhere near as skilled of a chef as he is, he's still vastly more capable when it comes to cooking than Noctis and the rest of group he's in are, with Noctis and the rest of the group commenting his food as tasting different from Ignis' cooking but just as good.
- Counter-Attack: Is the first character to have a "pre-counter attack" referred to as being a Linked Attacker; Cor can attack before an ally or himself, or before an enemy targeting himself or the selected allynote . If an enemy is targeting both himself and said ally, Cor can actually pre-counter twice consecutively, and if both of his allies have the buff, he'll perform his extra attack 3 times.
- Dual Wielding: For his FR Attack, Gilgamesh (from Final Fantasy V) loans his own Genji Sword to Cor and allows him to dual wield with katanas; this being a Call-Back to XV in which Cor lost his own Genji Sword to their world's version of Gilgamesh (not the same one as V).
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: Cor's fighting-style, thus while all of his weapons are katanas they are considered part of the Unique category since they also include the katana's sheath, and therefore can only be used by Cor.
- Inspiration Nod:
- Cor is introduced in his reveal trailer coming to the aid of the Gilgamesh of Final Fantasy V who is wielding the Genji Sword. Cor gained his nickname as "The Immortal" by surviving a fight against his homeworld's version of Gilgamesh, although lost his Genji Sword in the process.note
- This gets a proper in-game reference with Cor's FR Attack, in which teaming up with V's Gilgamesh which sees the fiend loaning Cor his Genji Sword.
- No-Sell: Both the 'Oath of Absolute Defense' buff he can give to his allies as well as the 'One of Luci's Three' buff he can grant himself prevents the enemy from being able to inflict Break on that party member through Brave Attacks (although they can still be broken through special effects).
- Older and Wiser: Much ado is made about Cor being older than the other heroes and he solidifies himself as a mentor and protector to the others, especially since he was older to begin with and has memories of after the time skip in XV. Due to this, he gets along well with Cyan and Sherlotta and complies with Jack's request for training.
- Red Baron: Explains how he received his nickname of "The Immortal"; in order to prove himself as worthy as the "Shield of the King" he challenged his world's version of Gilgamesh, the Blademaster. While Cor did not best Gilgamesh, he was the first Crownsguard to ever survive an encounter with the Blademaster thus earning him the name.
- Surpassed the Teacher: Discussed when Cor revealed his duel with Eos's Gilgamesh; while Cor had barely escaped the encounter with his life, Gladio had successfully received Gilgamesh's blessing as the "Shield of the King", thus proving in Cor's mind that Gladio had surpassed him. Sherlotta points out that it's a good thing when the young can surpass the old guard, to which Cor agrees.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: He's the first GL character with access to the "maximum damage" mechanic which was originally introduced with Setzer's LD in Japan: when his overhead buff is at maximum stacks, his HP attack changes into Reaper's Gale, a BRV+HP attack repeated 5 times that always deals maximum possible BRV damage per hit regardless of enemy defenses or damage reductions with rainbow-colored damage numbers to signify its effect.
- Time Skip: His alternate costume is his appearance after the 10-year time skip from XV, showing signs of aging, greying hair, and wearing the Royal Crownsguard uniform he used to wear while serving Noctis's father, King Regis.
Lunafreya nox Fleuret
Lunafreya nox Fleuret
Alternate Skin
The Oracle burdened with the responsibility of purifying the world by virtue of her power to commune with the gods. Gallant and committed to her task, she has the respect of not only her countrymen but the world over. Despite their engagement being one of political expedience, she treasures the short time she spent with her betrothed, Noctis.
Voiced by: Rina Kitagawa
Recruited in Act 3, Chapter 9, when the party journeys to Altissia. Here, they run into Ultimecia again, who has enslaved Lunafreya to her will by stealing her memories. Wishing for the innate powers of the Oracle, Ultimecia keeps her around until she can set her eyes on a bigger prize: another Sorceress, Rinoa. Once the party defeats Ultimecia and frees Luna from her control, Luna at last reunites with her husband, Noctis.
- All Your Powers Combined: For her Burst Attack she calls on the powers of all of the Astrals of Eos (minus Ifrit); calling down the attacks of Ramuh, Leviathan, Titan, Shiva, and Bahamut.
- Amnesiac Lover: Luna doesn't remember who Noctis is or that they finally had their wedding when they were Together in Death. Here, though, they can finally be together for real once the party restores Luna's memories.
- Amnesia Missed a Spot: Despite not even knowing her own name, Lunafreya remembers her desire to protect Noctis.
- An Ice Person: Frigid Fubuki and Diamond Dust both call on the Ice Astral Shiva to attack on her behalf.
- Criminal Amnesiac: Lunafreya never does anything villainous nor does she fight the party while under Ultimecia's memory loss-induced Mind Control, but she does consider herself allied with Ultimecia during this time.
- Ethereal White Dress: Her alternative costume has her in the ethereal gown she wore in the vision Noctis had of her after her demise.
- Extra Turn: Her Quick Prayer buff grants instant and free turns to the party. By using Awakening, she can grant the buff to herself along with Heavy Prayer.
- Living Battery: Ultimecia keeps her around as one in Luna's introduction chapter; it gives Ultimecia enough power to fight off several members of the party at once.
- Making a Splash: Combines her powers with Rydia to call upon Leviathan in her Force Attack; this ability also grants the entire power a true water enchant for all long as Force Time is active. Interestingly, none of Luna's attacks natively deal water damage; she only enchants her Non-Elemental abilities to do water damage and she can lower water resistance with her EX. She is more associated with ice and Shiva than she is with water and Leviathan, but it's still there.
- Prongs of Poseidon: While all of her weapons are classified as staves, her EX Weapon is the Trident of the Oracle. Her stacking overhead buff also uses the Trident to signify her Oracle powers.
- Religion is Magic: As an Oracle, Lunafreya can use prayers to strengthen herself and her team; Quick Prayer gives the target free turns, while Heavy Prayer greatly increases their offensive prowess. Her LD Ability, Awakening, can grant both to herself and one each to her allies at the same time depending on their party position relative to her: party members to her right of her get Quick Prayer and party members to the left of her get Heavy Prayer.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Frigid Fubuki has Lunafreya summon Shiva to attack, Diamond Dust has her invoke several Shivas for a combined attack.
- Third-Act Misunderstanding: Part of one during Iris's debut chapter when she eventually overhears Iris talking about the "secret date" (that wasn't actually a date) with Noctis during his adventure. Unsure how to feel about learning this, she runs off and loses her notebook, leaving Iris to feel devastated that she may have inadvertently hurt a new friend and caused Luna to lose her precious treasure.
Iris Amicitia
Iris Amicitia
Younger sister of Gladiolus Amicitia. Though not a powerful warrior like her brother, she supports those dear to her from the back lines. She is on good terms and like a childhood friend to Noctis and the others, and has a bit of a crush on the prince. Strong-willed, she stays optimistic in the face of adversity.
Voiced by: Megumi Han
Iris first meets the party in Act 4, Chapter 2's Part 1, but doesn't become playable until Part 2. She meets the party when they are lost in the forest, and she shows up saying it is one she recognizes. Confusing the party because she acts older than she looks, Iris is surprised to learn she has a physical age ten years younger than she's used to. She reunites with Gladio, Noctis, and the others and comes to learn about this world, in the meantime helping Machina achieve the dreams of various members of Class Zero.
- A Day in the Limelight: Iris is the key focus character both Part 1 & 2 of Act 4, Chapter 2. In the first part where she is introduced she is ever-present in assisting the Type-0 character enjoy new experiences, while in the second part she is even more of the focus as her childhood crush and "secret date" with Noctis is explored, as well as how she interacts with Lunafreya, Noctis's actual betrothed.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: When she first appears she becomes so distracted in trying to help Class Zero to try new things and have fun that she completely forgets to tell the party about the deadly Bandersnatch enemy from her own world that was in the area. Not a new trait for Iris either, as she explains the first time she was supposed to meet Prince Noctis she instead got distracted chasing a cat and got lost out in the rain, only to have to be rescued by said prince.
- Birds of a Feather: With her Force partner Serah; both are younger siblings (Iris to Gladiolus and Serah to Lightning), both ended up stepping up into their own as fighters (Iris during the 10-year time skip and Serah during FFXIII-2, and both have a connection with an adorable Moogle (Iris with her Moogle Plushie, Serah with her Morph Weapon Mog).
- Brother–Sister Team: For her Burst she attacks the enemy with her brother, Gladious. She'll land the first blow before he launches her into the air one-handed so she can land in a Repeat Cut split kick to finish the attack.
- Commonality Connection:
- After learning about Iris's "secret date" with Noctis it comes out the two had been friends since they were children, leading Queen, Deuce, and Cinque to assume its a Childhood Friend Romance. As such, Iris gets compared to the likes of Rem (with Machina) and Rosa (with Cecil). The difference there being, of course, Machina and Cecil reciprocated their feelings.
- After peace is made with Iris's feelings in wanting to see Noct and Luna happy, Eiko pulls Iris aside and asks her if she is really alright with this. When Iris affirms the positive, Eiko states that makes the two of them the same, since she wants to see Zidane and Dagger (Garnet) happy together as well.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Iris joins the party in Part 1 of Act 4, Chapter 2, but she isn't actually playable until Part 2 of the Chapter. There is no in-story reason for this, as in Part 1 she meets with the entire FFXV cast (so she isn't waiting to meet people she is familiar with), and seems to take part in fights off-screen (such as with Eight's hand-to-hand tournament or readying her fists to face the Bandersnatch). When she finally does join the party in Part 2, there's absolutely no fanfare around it either, the game just decides she's usable now as opposed to before.
- Healing Potion: Potion Pass, which is an instant turn-rate move that heals and batteries the party. It is fantastic for charging the party's Force Gauge.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Her debut chapter expands on her feelings from the original game where she accepts that Noctis and Lunafreya are the Official Couple, citing that she was just happy to get to spend time with the gang. In this world, she finally gets to meet Luna as well, and the focus of the chapter is on their developing friendship and that despite Luna learning about her feelings, Iris has long ago accepted that Luna and Noct make each other happy.
- Kick Chick: Attacks that do not involve her Moogle doll will have Iris pummeling the enemy with her powerful kicks.
- Magical Accessory: While Iris is unofficially considered a Good Old Fisticuffs user when she participates in an impromptu tournament with the likes of Ursula and Eight, in actual gameplay her weapons are wristbands and are considered Unique Weapons only she can equip.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Iris's EX is unusual in that the damage is based on the last ally turn's total damage uncapped by Iris's own Max BRV. This includes modifiers from unique effects or the Force Gauge, as well as any damage from launches.
- Mistaken Age: Like many others (including the rest of the XV cast), Iris is summoned to this world at a different age than she's used to. In her case, she has all of her experiences from after the Time Skip, including her reputation as a Future Badass, yet she still looks like a teenager. Some of the characters get confused by her comments and have to tell her to look at her reflection to see the truth.
- Not a Date: Her and Noct's "secret date" becomes the gossip of the hour for Queen, Cinque, and Deuce during her debut chapter. Eventually news of the not-date makes it back to Lunafreya, leading to some confused feelings for everyone involved.
- Repeat Cut: During her Burst Animation for Eclipse Gladio launches Iris into the air only for her to drop into a split kick repeated three times, however, each cut of the same drop kick is still treated as a separate attack (the final one even making a crater).
- Sentimental Homemade Toy: Discussed when Iris brings up the Moogle Plushie she made for Noct for his journey, and was happy to hear it brought the boys good luck on their adventure. For her EX Iris utilizes the Moogle Plushie herself, however, instead of using it to distract the enemy she instead can use the plush in order to copy the last ally's previous damage output; even taking into account Force boosts and launch damage. Iris also uses the Moogle Plushie during her Force attack with Serah, this time smacking the enemy with it like it was a volleyball.
- Support Party Member: Iris is a dedicated support character, offering strong heals and battery, along with HP/BRV Regen and decent party buffs. She offers some light turn manipulation, quick Force Gauge charging, and strong attack potential by copying her last ally turn's total damage using her EX. Her Burst effect also offers a unique debuff aura that reduces enemy Attack, Defense, and Max BRV to 0, along with the standard party gains.
- Taking the Bullet: After feeling like the cause of Lunafreya running off to look for her notebook (which was dropped when Luna learned of Iris's Not a Date with Noctis), they eventually find her being attacked by Magitek armors. Without thinking Iris throws herself in front of Luna, taking the full brunt of the attack to protect the Oracle.
- Third-Act Misunderstanding: Part of one during her debut chapter when Lunafreya eventually overhears the group talking about Iris's "secret date" (that wasn't actually a date) with Noctis during his adventure. Unsure how to feel about learning this, Luna runs off and loses her notebook, leaving Iris to feel devastated that she may have inadvertently hurt a new friend and caused Luna to lose her precious treasure.
- When I Was Your Age...: In her debut chapter she makes comments about what she was like when she was younger and the lessons she learned, and that the younger members of the party will one day learn the same things. At one point even tells some of the younger cast to respect their elders. It almost comes across like she's insecure about being older than them and she's trying to drive the point home that despite how she looks, she's really ten years older.
Ardyn Izunia
Ardyn Izunia
Alternate Skin
Chancellor of Niflheim. Rose to power through introducing magitek to Niflheim's military. His nonchalance puts others at ease, allowing him to guide them as he sees fit. Elusive, his cunning is reminiscent of political leaders of the past.
Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara
First mentioned by name in Act 2, Chapter 10, it is revealed that he has been behind many of the problems throughout Act 2 involving the crystal core of darkness. He finally begins to influence things directly at the end of Chapter 10, though he is not yet seen by the party. He later joins the party on their airship at the end of Act 2, Final Chapter (Part 1) after Noctis extends a truce in order to defeat Shinryu.
- Berserk Button: Literally anything to do with Noctis, Lunafreya, or their friends from XV. It doesn't matter if their motives are aligned or working together would be mutually beneficial, Ardyn will typically refuse to work with them out of pure spite (although will usually be willing to work with the heroes from the other worlds). During the start of Act 4 he actually pouts while trying to dissuade Aerith from restoring the flowers of the world simply because she wants to include Sylleblossoms, seemingly because he loathes of the idea of anything that might bring Noctis and Lunafreya any happiness (although, it's also implied he has some personal resentment over the flowers).
- Big Damn Heroes: Has one saving Noctis and Lunafreya, the very people he worked so hard to achieve vengeance against back on Eos. When Ultimecia had them cornered behind her impenetrable defense, it's Ardyn's power of darkness that is able to break through her shield and force the sorceress to run. When asked about it afterwards by Lunafreya, he says he was merely paying back a debt.
- Complete Immortality: The area he's taken over in the world of respite is stated as being able to keep people from dying regardless of how much damage they sustain while inside of it. This is also how his unique gameplay mechanic works: his LD skill reduces him to 0 HP, increases his BRV based on the amount of HP lost and grants him a framed buff that makes him unable to be killed by any means for as long as it's active.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: While draining the power from the crystal core of darkness, Ardyn was overwhelmed by the collective memories and dark power inside which drove him to his goal of killing all gods across all worlds. Once Shinryu devoured the core and severed the connection, Ardyn became more reasonable and lucid to the heroes.
- Easily Forgiven: Once Gladio informs Freya and some other members of the party that Ardyn is the one who killed Luna (the person they are currently trying to save), Freya finds him despicable and Ardyn discusses his reasons and that it was Nothing Personal. Luna herself, however, forgives Ardyn easily.
- Enemy Mine:
- He ends up joining the party and even teleports to hang out in the airship's hold with Vayne and Gabranth in order to get a chance to defy the gods and defeat Shinryu.
- He does the same with the FFII party, specifically Leon, in order to get his comeuppance against the Emperor.
- Energy Absorption: His Force attack, Revenant Roar, has Leon fill Ardyn with darkness before Ardyn walks over to the enemy to expel all the excess energy.
- Field of Blades: His Burst ability, Royal Retribution, creates one in the wake of his Storm of Blades.
- Finger Framing: He poses this way prior to using his LD skill, Dark Tornado.
- Heel–Face Turn: Ardyn is perfectly content in the new world and feels free of his fate in Eos, feeling that it allows him to "bask in the light." He helps Mog (VI), who just met him and doesn't know about the situation much at all, no strings attached. Despite Vaan and Locke being hesitant to trust him, he later helps them too, and protects the party from the Cloud of Darkness when the latter is trying to deal with things being unbalanced toward light. Despite these heroics, Ardyn is still insistent that he hates everyone from Eos, and probably only helped because Noctis and the others weren't there.
- Hidden Villain: Through most, if not all, of Act 2. There aren't even any suspicions of his presence until Chapter 9, and Chapter 10 finally confirms it, but he still isn't seen until after that.
- Kill the God: Essentially his goal, just like in FFXV. But this time, he wants to take the crystal core of darkness's power to kill the gods in every world.
- "Not So Different" Remark: He compares himself to Leon as someone who can't turn away from the darkness inside of him, which leaves Leon shaken and doubting himself - which was likely Ardyn's intention.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Seymour suggests that Ardyn is one of these, since he wants to remove the Power Limiter that Spiritus placed on all of the villains, giving them all the ability to let loose and destroy all of the worlds. Seymour fully supports him in this.
- Palette Swap: A minor example: his first skill is basically identical to Noctis's Warp Strike and shares its name, as is the followup that's triggered off any attack that deals HP damage and he also specializes in gaining extra turns like Noctis does, but the method he does so and the rest of his moves are quite different.
- Psychological Torment Zone: The recreation of the Pharos at Ridorana is one of these, which he fills with "negative will" that the party thinks is the Mist at first. He does it to stall the party and make them get lost in the maze in an attempt to break their will.
- Redemption Demotion: The Emperor defeats Ardyn without much effort once Ardyn begins straddling the line between light and dark, and even when he has Leon and the others at his side they still fail to defeat the Emperor.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: Ardyn insists that the darkness will always be part of him, and only joins the party because it'll give him a chance to defeat the Emperor, who defeated him once. He still tries to drag Leon into the darkness with him, because he senses a kindred spirit and seems irritated at the fact that Leon has a family who cares about him.
- Touché: Ardyn can't help but rib Leon over Cinque calling him "Leonie". But when Cinque immediately dubs him "Ardie", Ardyn admits he had that one coming.
