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Playable Characters
The Invisible Boy
"Hm? Well now I seen everything. If you ain't just some walkin' clothes." — Curio
The main character. Playing the game called Fake Moon, he finds himself trapped in the game's main setting, Love-De-Gard. His mission is to find love, and help the animals that the Hero callously kills for experience points.- Heroic Mime: He only speaks two lines before getting sucked into the game during the opening sequence. He remains mostly silent for the rest of the game, only speaking when the player chooses a dialogue option.
- Invisible Main Character: While he's in Love-De-Gard for the majority of the game, he is completly invisible to the other residents, with his in-game clothes being the only visible thing on him, allowing him to interact with the other characters. At the end of the game, he becomes visible again when he's sent back to the real world after the Hero kills his in-game character.
- Invisible to Normals: He is invisible to everyone during the first day after landing in Love-De-Gard, though they can still hear and react to the noise he makes. The only characters who actually notice his presence are Gramby, an old lady with poor eyesight, and her pet dog Tao.
- Mistaken Identity: Gramby mistakes him for her grandson, who she still believes to be alive despite everyone else assuming he's dead.
- Non-Action Guy: As the Hero's foil, the Invisible Boy has no fighting skills whatsoever, and survives by helping others with their problems. That's enough to get him to the end of the game. Unfortunately, when you reach the Moon, your lack of fighting skills proves an issue against the Hero. Fortunately, winning was never the point anyway.
- The Power of Love: Harnessing this is the Invisible Boy's main mission in Love-De-Gard.
The Hero
- 100% Heroism Rating: In Fake Moon, everyone showers him with praise and love. Averted in the actual game, where almost everyone has something negative to say about him. As suggested below, all the characters' praise comes from his distorted perception of reality while in the armor.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Implied to have become one to Clis during his stay at the Wildcat restaurant.
- Audience Surrogate: He's a clear send-up to RPG heroes like the ones in Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but in practice has the worst traits of the kids that play them. He steals things and kills stuff because he thinks that's what a hero's supposed to do, and acts like Love-De-Gard is a game for him to win instead of a living world.
- The Berserker: The armor he has turns him into one of these, with the singleminded goal on slaughtering everything he views as a monster.
- BFS: Played with. The Hero's sword isn't actually that large, but the sheath is.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The armor possessed him as soon as he put it on, forcing him into a murderous state. Unfortunately, he never snaps out of it, and dies after everything is over.
- Calling Your Attacks: He does this with his special attacks in Fake Moon.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: The Hero is one for general RPG protagonists. His wanton killing of innocent creatures, kleptomaniac tendencies, and singleminded goal of killing the Dragon all go to show what kind of person someone like him would be like in a realistic setting: a raving madman disliked by all.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After hitting a road block in his quest to reach the Dragon Palace, he's drinking and making a mess of the restaurant he's in.
- Empty Piles of Clothing: The only thing left of him.
- Foil: To the Invisible Boy, RPG Protagonist traits-wise. Where the Invisible Boy got the positive traits of a usual hero (curious, helpful, learns what's up with the place before setting out), the Hero got the negative ones (callous, brash, and murder-happy). Even the nature of their characters differ: while the Invisible Boy has the freedom to stop playing and live his life, the Hero was controlled from the start and therefore could never stop "playing" until his life ends.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: At the start of the game he is level 1 and can barely deal 1 damage per turn with his physical attacks. By the end of the game, each of his attacks deals 9999 damage, allowing him to one-hit kill pretty much anything.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: A rather nasty sort. Whereas he was controlled by a player in Fake Moon, his "real" counterpart is controlled by the very armor he's wearing.
- Hated by All: The Hero is seen with a negative viewpoint by nearly all the characters in Love-De-Gard, ranging from mere annoyance to flat out contempt for him.
- The Juggernaut: Nothing can stop him in his quest to slay the Dragon. Even when the Invisible Boy manages to save Perogon from him, it's only by trickery that he manages to do so, and the Hero mistaking the Invisible Boy as a genuine monster and not by overpowering him.
- Killed Off for Real: After falling apart with his mission complete, he doesn't return to the real world with everyone else in the game's ending.
- Light Is Not Good: He possess bright armor, but they only highlight his genocidal nature.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: He kills everyone on the Moon, including the Invisible Boy, but his body falls apart shortly after since he completed his mission. Everyone else comes back, but his fate is unsure.
- No Body Left Behind: Upon killing the Invisible Boy during the climax (which sent him back to his bedroom in the real world), he falls apart, due to having completed his purpose.
- Nominal Hero: He has the title and costume down, but in practice, he's a tabletop "murderhobo": he sees wildlife as EXP, loots people's houses, and cares little about the world around him save what he can directly benefit from. Pretty much everyone and everything hates him for the trouble he's caused, but they leave him be because he's too strong to be dealt with normally. About the only resemblance he does have to a typical JRPG hero is him being just a kid caught in circumstances beyond his control, but even then, nothing ever comes of it.
- Omnicidal Maniac: He targets only animals at the beginning, but eventually moves on to killing almost everyone, including humans and aliens.
- Psycho Electro: The Hero is shown killing various monsters with lightning spells, and is a murderous villain hellbent on killing everything in his path.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: It's implied the Fake Moon segments are how the Hero sees things while under the armor's control.
- Tragic Villain: The Hero's Legendary Armor was cursed, making him lose his memory and mind as soon as he wore it. After he completes his genocide of everything, his body falls apart, with nothing but his armor left behind, and he isn't seen in the game's ending credits, implying that he is the only character who actually died, while everyone else is freed from the game world as they start living in the real world.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He's actually a child who was essentially killed and brainwashed to create the genocidal Hero as we know him.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He was just a normal boy before getting forced to become the murderous "Hero" through no choice of his own.
Residents of Castle Town
King Carefree XIII
The King of Love-De-Gard.
- Animal Lover: He is seen feeding the birds in the castle's front yard every morning.
- Manchild: Implied. His idea to getting to the moon involves using balloons. In addition, he is shown making child-like drawings.
The Minister
- Greater-Scope Villain: He was the one responsible for picking Gramby's grandson to be the Hero, resulting in the events of the game. Though as revealed by the Rumroms on the moon, this was programmed into him by Love-de-LIC to serve as the game's background.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Minister is a minor character who lacks influence outside of Castle Town, but as the one who selected a young boy into becoming the Hero, he's indirectly responsible for everything the Hero causes.
Flora
A young woman who runs a flower shop near the center of Castle Town.
- Caring Gardener: She takes care of flowers and even tries to save Harpflower (which is technically an animal) after it is killed by the Hero.
Baker
Castle Town's bread baker.
- Dark Secret: Downplayed. The bread he sells is actually his day-old head, replaced by a new one at midnight — which is only a mildly disturbing fact considering how weird everything in the game is.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Unlike characters like Gramby or the Minister, his name is stated explicitly.My name is Baker.
I'm a baker.
Shambles
A homeless man who carries a bag full of items to sell.
- Tsundere: He usually acts mean towards Flora, but secretly has a crush on her and even writes her a love letter, which he then throws in the trash bin.
Curio
A old merchant.
Bilby
One of the two guards at the Castle Love-De-Gard.
- 24-Hour Armor: If you enter his and Fred's room at night, you can see them both sleeping in full armor.
- The Alcoholic: Three times a week, he leaves the castle at night to go to Bar Wanda.
Fred
One of the two guards at the Castle Love-De-Gard.
- 24-Hour Armor: See Bilby's example.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Fred's name, as well as his extravagant rock performance which the player can witness by following him to the castle's throne room at night, are a reference to Queen's legendary frontman Freddie Mercury.
Noge
A transfer student who came to Love-De-Gard from Toyland.
- Expy: Of Geno from Super Mario RPG, a game that several members of Love-de-Lic worked on.
Yoshida
A surprisingly intelligent talking bird who runs a travel agency near Bar Wanda.
Wanda
Flora's mother who runs a bar in the western part of Castle Town.
- The Bartender: Hers is the only bar in all of Moon World.
- Formerly Fit: She used to be a very slim woman, much like her husband Florence.
Professor Owl
An old owl who gives lectures at the Midnight University.
Other NPCs
Moon Queen Aphrodite
A strange woman who appears in the Invisible Boy's dreams, who is in charge of love in Love-De-Gard. She gives the Invisible Boy the mission to amass as much love as possible, but there may be more to her than meets the eye...
- Oracular Head: She appears as a floating head in your dreams. The queen is just a head on a pedestal.
Dolottle
A man made out of clay, who tasks the Invisible Boy with saving all of the animals slain by the Hero.
- Human Alien: It's clear from his art-style that he's not from Love-De-Gard, but it's soon revealed that he and all of the animals hail from the moon.
- Punny Name: His name is a Shout-Out to Doctor Dolittle.
Gramby
The kind old lady who lives in the outskirts of Castle Town and is the first person who notices you and gives you attention, giving you clothes so that you can be seen by others and interact with them.
Tao
Gramby's pet dog.
- Hellhound: In Fake Moon, it's portrayed as a rabid dog.
- Legacy Character: After some of the team from this game went on to become Skip Ltd., Tao subsequently appeared in three of their games: Chibi-Robo!, Giftpia, and Captain Rainbow.
Dr. Stein Hager
A scientist who constructs various devices found throughout Love-De-Gard.
- Mad Scientist: Subverted. He is shown to be a genius and his character design makes him look like a freak, but he is relatively sane and not at all evil.
- My Brain Is Big: Exaggerated. His head is abnormally big, almost to a disturbing extent.
Nikka
An old man who gives his house to the protagonist.
Pokka
Nikka's ex-partner who is tied to a pole outside the protagonist's house.
Burrn
A musician and music critic who plays guitar and sells records in a cave near the protagonist's house.
Adder
A strange man who mistakes the Hero for "God".
- A God Am I: After Sid Vitness is sent to the moon, Adder takes the role of God himself.
- Hint System: He becomes a hint guy after assuming the role of God. Whenever you get stuck, you can pay him to give you advice on how to obtain more love, though this only works for events that don't involve catching an animal.
The Kakunte tribe
The native people of the Mushroom Forest.
- Chekhov's Gunman: At one point during the final ride to the Moon, the Hero tears a hole in the rocket with his sword, which rapidly drains the oxygen supply. Luckily, the Kakunte people come to the rescue, closing down the hole with their bodies.
- Hollywood Natives: They are seen performing dances and rituals akin to stereotypical African tribes.
- Lilliputians: They are much smaller in size than other human characters.
- You No Take Candle: In the English release, they speak in a mix of their own "Kakunte language" and a dumbed down version of English.
Wisper
A ghost who haunts the Haunted House.
- Big Eater: Wisper's quest involves helping him regain the memories of his human life, during which he was a perpetually hungry obese man.
Kenji
The owner of Wildcat House, a restaurant at the far east end of the map.
Clis
Voiced by: Krysta Ashley Schulze
A young woman who works as a waitress at Wildcat House.- Idol Singer: She dreams of becoming one. Her dream gets fulfilled with the protagonist's help, and she leaves her job to perform full time, but eventually comes back to work for Kenji again.
Florence
Wanda's husband who went to the Mushroom Forest many years ago and hasn't been seen since.
Cave Guy
A guy who lives in a cave southwest of Tropical Fields.
- Talking with Signs: His only method of communication.
Pappas
The dad of the family living at the American House.
- Writer's Block: He is a comic book artist who struggles to come up with good ideas until he witnesses the Hero fighting Darlia's Perogon. This inspires him to start a new comic called YOUSHAMEN.
Mammas
Pappas' wife and Darlia's mother.
Darlia
Pappas' and Mammas' young daughter.
- Vocal Dissonance: Despite being a child, she has the voice of an adult woman.
MadiSuma
The sole human inhabitant of Bali Bali Island.
- The Eeyore: He is constantly depressed and calls himself "worthless" due to his lack of skill at the gyamlan, a musical instrument played by the monkeys of Bali Bali Island. When you give it a shot, he will also be very skeptical of your chances of success.You try your best. It will give me confidence to see you fail.
Spoiler Characters (Unmarked Spoilers)
The Dragon
The Final Boss of Fake Moon, a terrifying dragon who stole the moonlight. In truth, he serves as one half of the guardian of the Moon, the other being the Moon Queen.
- Oracular Head: The Dragon is just a head on a pedestal.
The True Main Antagonist
Love-de-LIC, the game studio behind Fake Moon, the bog-standard RPG about a Hero who slays a dragon and returns the moonlight. In truth, they've programmed everything that happens, including the NPCs and their cycles, trapping them within the game.
- Greater-Scope Villain: They created the world Fake Moon takes place in, and trapping the NPCs into their cyclical routines by the Rumroms.
- Karma Houdini: They are never faced directly, despite being the ones responsible for literally everything that happens in the game.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Though they do get comeuppance in the ending, where it's revealed that Fake Moon has been canceled thanks to their publishers.
The Voice
The boy's mother, who loves him dearly. Calls her son out when he spends too much time playing "Fake Moon".
Animals
The animals of Moon World. They are mercilessly killed by the Hero for experience points, their corpses scattering the land of Love-De-Gard. There are 51 in total, and your mission is to catch their souls and return them to their bodies. In General
- Alien Animals: Most of them have alien designs, which is appropriate since they all come from the Moon. However, there are a few that resemble real animals, such as Snacky (a snake), Elmo (a dog), and Tottoteruri (a coelacanth).
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: There are 51 of them you need to help.
- Money Spider: Justified. The money left behind is a reward from the alien who picks up the animals after you save them.
- No Body Left Behind: Throughly averted. Their corpses are scattered through the world, to further emphasize that this isn't your typical RPG.
Beck
Birdon
- Animal Pincushion: Its body is riddled with arrows when you find it.
Block of Tofu
- Animate Inanimate Object: A living block of tofu.
Bonzo
Chairby
Cyclolyphant
Drakey
- Expy: Of the "Dracky" enemies from the Dragon Quest series.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: The Hero kills Drakey this way.
Gajiro
- Terrified of Germs: It will refuse to be caught until the player has washed their hands.
Gigar / Perogon
- Shout-Out: Its nickname and long tongue are a reference to the Poxtongue enemies from Dragon Quest V, who are called "Berogon" in the Japanese version.
- Sole Survivor: Because it is the only animal you find alive, Gigar cannot be caught and doesn't count towards the total of 51 animals you need to save. The Hero does try to kill it eventually, but thankfully the protagonist comes to the rescue just in time.
Gluttandra
- Informed Attractiveness: Although her design may not look like anything special, her animal file mentions that a customer at her parent's restaurant called her beautiful enough to be an "advertisement" for the place.
Harpflower
- Non-Indicative Name: It's neither a harp nor a flower. According to its animal file, it's a "cranebird".
Mackarther
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Not a "celebrity" in the traditional sense, but Mackarther's name and appearance are both references to real-life American general Douglas MacArthur
. - Uncatty Resemblance: Though not Curio's pet, its soul can be found inside his shop, and it smokes just like Curio does at night.
Shlyme
- Cute Slime Mook
- Shrinking Violet: If she spots the player, she gets embarrassed and runs away. In order to catch her, the player has to wait for her to turn around, and then sneak up on her.
Slymy
- Cute Slime Mook: Even its animal file description is adorable.A mollusk which jiggle-hops up and down as it moves. Greatly enjoys when you pinch its little tippy-top part with your fingers.
- Expy: Of the iconic Slimes from Dragon Quest.
- The Goomba: In Fake Moon, Slymy is the first enemy encountered by the Hero. In reality, however, it is a completely harmless creature who gets slain by the Hero for no good reason.
Value Boy
- Greed: He charges you 525 Yenom for saving him.
