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The colorful cast of characters who appear in Octopath Traveler II.

Main Characters

  • The Travelersnote 
  • The Moonshade Ordernote 
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Supporting Characters

Ochette's Route

    Juvah 

Voiced by: Yasuhiro Mamiya (Japanese), Jamieson Price (English)

A white lion capable of human speech. He is Ochette's mentor as a hunter, and watches over the beastlings of Toto'haha.
  • Exact Words: After the events of Ochette's first chapter, he says he's tired and needs to sleep. Given the injuries he sustained, Ochette believes he's dying... and then she hears him snoring and understands that he really did just need sleep.
  • Fantastic Racism: He has a strong mistrust of humans, and is rather curt with the representatives from the human side of the village, as well as reluctant to go looking for a human child who wandered into some ruins. Justified since the humans are pretty racist against beastlings themselves, so he has no real reason to play nice.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: Subverted. The scene after Ochette's final Chapter 1 boss fight plays out in the typical way that would lead to most mentors' deaths, complete with Juvah slowly lying down to close his eyes. Then it turns out he just wanted to go to sleep.
  • Really 700 Years Old: He has the voice of a middle-aged baritone, but using info Path Actions on him reveals that he is 233 years oldnote . It is implied that he is in his older years, as he mentions several times that Ochette will become the island's protector when he dies.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure:
    • He's the warden of the island who tries to keep peace and will throw himself into the battlefield if necessary.
    • Despite his racisim towards humans in general, if one is of good nature—like Partitio wanting to buy items from him—Juvah will recognize this and permit the transaction.
  • Talking Animal: He's a big talking white lion.

    Akalā and Mahina 

Voiced by: Ryo Sugisaki (Akalā; Japanese), Daman Mills (Akalā; English), Marie Miyake (Mahina; Japanese) Cristina Valenzuela (Mahina, English)

Ochette's possible hunting companions — Akalā is a lājackal and Mahina is a malamaowl. She befriends one as a child, after which the other runs away.


Tropes that apply to both:

  • 11th-Hour Superpower: During the fight against the Darkling of the Sorrowful Moon, whichever partner Ochette chose is empowered by the Sacred Flame, and gains special attacks and a giant detailed sprite. This can be repeated afterwards if the player max-Boosts their summon.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Their abilities when Ochette summons them to the battlefield. Akalā can hit a random physical weak point, while Mahina can hit a random magical weak point.
  • Climax Boss: The one that was not chosen becomes the Final Boss of Ochette's story.
  • Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: They tend to rein in Ochette when she loses focus (usually over food) and are a touch more responsible than her.
  • Loyal Animal Companion: By the time of her first chapter, Ochette will have been with her companion for ten years.
  • Male Sun, Female Moon: Akalā is a male lājackal associated with the sun, and Mahina is a female owl associated with the moon.
  • Meaningful Name: The "Lā" in Akalā means sun in Hawaiian, and Mahina means moon in the same language. Juvah associates lājackals and malamaowls with the sun and moon respectively.
  • Talking Animal: They both can talk, but only Ochette can understand them.
  • Team Pet: The one Ochette chooses at the beginning of her story becomes her companion (and Cloudcuckoolander's Minder). The one she doesn't choose becomes possessed by something evil and flees. Fast forward ten years, and Ochette is still wondering where they went.

Akalā:

  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He's reserved, a bit snarky, and much stricter with Ochette than Mahina is. Still, it's clear he cares about her very much.

Mahina:

  • Cute Owl: She's a malamaowl who speaks in a soft voice and is very affectionate with Ochette.
  • Head Pet: Downplayed. She normally flies behind Ochette, but perches on her head as part of the ladder-climbing animation.
  • My Instincts Are Showing: She can be seen preening her wings during the cutscenes where Ochette talks and Mahina is around.
  • Nice Girl: She has a quiet and pleasant personality, and is more openly affectionate than Akalā.
  • Verbal Tic: She has a tendency to repeat her proverbs during her sentences.

    Cohazeh 
The chief of the human side of Toto'haha who has a history of often fighting with the Beastlings for more land.
  • Everyone Has Standards: While apathetic towards the Beastlings, she will not stoop to needless antagonism, as seen when she apologizes to Juvah for her people’s recent harassment of them, as well as presenting an offering of meat.
  • Fantastic Racism: She doesn't care about the Beastlings at first, only wanting them gone to make more room for the humans. However, the events of Ochette's story humbles her and she learns to accept the Beastlings.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: She becomes more open to the idea of humans and Beastlings co-operating as equals after fighting alongside them in defense of the island during the Night of the Scarlet Moon.
  • Old Friend: A late-game sidequest reveals that she and Clarissa were once fellow scholars and good friends; the sidequest has them reuniting and catching up.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: After the events of the Scarlet Moon, she's more accepting of the Beastlings. Lampshaded by Clarissa when they meet up in a sidequest, who notes that the Cohazeh she knew wouldn't have even tried to understand or play nice with the Beastlings.

    The Villagers 
Human residents of Beasting Village, which is segregated between them and the Beastlings. Their desire for more land creates conflict with the Beastlings and Juvah.
  • Children Are Innocent: The human children are without prejudice towards the Beastlings. One sidequest is to bring a human child and a Beastling child together as friends. One of the human girls is a little wary around Ochette at first, but even then quickly warms up to her after Ochette explains that she came to help her (contrasting with how some of the adults remain biased for much longer).
  • Fantastic Racism: The ones that appear in Ochette's story aren't friendly to the Beastlings, and want to take some of their land for themselves. It's not until the events of the Night of the Scarlet Moon that they agree to work together with the Beastlings to protect the island.
  • Hidden Depths: Using info Path Actions on them reveals a division between villagers who discriminate against the Beastlings and villagers who want to co-exist with them.
  • Too Dumb to Live: In their introduction near the start of Ochette's story, one particularly salty villager decides that it's a great idea to threaten a group of Beastlings with a knife... right in front of Juvah, who is a lion. Good thing Ochette shows up to drive the villagers off with Provoke, else the one with a knife would have likely ended up seriously injured at best.

    Alpione 

Voiced by: Kayleigh McKee (English)

The self-proclaimed Guardian of the Waves, who guards the den of the legendary Cateracta.


  • Amazonian Beauty: According to Zeto in the epilogue, she has some nice muscles.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Her post-story side quest has her in Gravell wondering what she is to do now that her duty in protecting Cateracta's den is done. She muses that fighting is all she knows. When the travelers tell her of a man looking for a strong person to help hunt monsters she beats up the man and instead becomes a protector of benign monsters and even takes in an orphaned monster.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: As she tells Ochette, ever since the Dark Hunter killed Cateracta, whose scales were as valuable as jewels, she has taken this stance.
  • Last of Their Kind: She was part of a whole tribe of guardians, but the Dark Hunter killed everyone but her when they tried to interfere with their quarry.
  • Sand In My Eyes: At the end of Cateracta's Route, Ochette's determination causes her to have hope again, and she says that the salty ocean air is just stinging her eyes.
  • Ship Tease: She's flattered when Zeto in the epilogue calls her an Amazonian Beauty.
  • Uneven Hybrid: Her Inquire/Scrutinize data mentions that her tribe has a little Beastling blood.

    Pom 
A Crackridge youth who's more concerned about staving off his own hunger than the danger of Tera, the beast that lives underneath his hometown.
  • Admiring the Abomination: Downplayed, but he's the only person Ochette meets in Crackridge who isn't terrified of Tera. He even comes along for the battle so he can see Tera for himself.
  • Big Eater: He has stated an interest in becoming a hunter like Ochette to be able to gather all the food he'd ever want. He can also be later found in Conning Creek after completing the Tera route, sampling various meats he can get.
  • Call to Agriculture: He briefly considers becoming a hunter like Ochette, but decides it isn't the life he wants after she brings him along on one of her hunts. Instead, he declares his intention to become a rancher and raise the tastiest beef-cattle he can.
  • Forgotten First Meeting: According to his Inquire/Scrutinize data, Pom was saved by Tera once when he was a child, but he's forgotten about this by the present day.
  • Tastes Like Friendship: He and Ochette immediately bond over the taste of jerky, and when Ochette hunts a meal for him in exchange for guiding her to Tera, he decides to follow in her footsteps and become a hunter himself in order to obtain his own meals.

    Creatures of Legend 

Cateracta, Tera and Glacis

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Cateracta
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Tera
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Glacis
A trio of extremely powerful creatures, said to protect the island of Toto'haha during the Night of the Scarlet Moon. They serve as Ochette's motivation during her story, as it's her job to gather them together.
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: Acta assumes the form of its mother, Cateracta, at the start of the final fight against the Darkling of the Sorrowful Moon, bestowing powerful party-wide buffs. This can be repeated afterwards if the player max-Boosts its summon, but only once per fight.
  • Anti-Villain: Tera and Glacis are initially hostile towards Ochette—Tera is grouchy from being forcefully woken up from a long slumber by Ochette, while Glacis is in a blind rage from her egg being smashed by the Dark Hunter—and must be fought as bosses before Ochette calms them down and convinces them to join her side.
  • The Berserker: Tera has clear anger issues and usually ends up causing mass destruction whenever pissed off. It gets humorous during the Night of the Scarlet Moon, where he screams at the Shadows to stop destroying his island, only to start tearing apart the landscape himself with his sheer power, to Juvah's shock. His attack when summoned by Ochette is even called "Tera's Fury."
  • Crutch Character: Both Tera and Glacis are quite powerful at the time they can be acquired, but they heavily lag behind in power as soon as the player begins to tackle the late-game threats. Acta averts it somewhat, as it remains useful well into the late-game, especially once it is able to assume the form of its mother, Cataracta.
  • Dead Guy Junior: Cateracta's child is named Acta.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Both Tera and Glacis fight Ochette (Tera due to crankiness at being woken up, Glacis out of blind hatred and grief) before she captures them, with her talking them down and bringing them around to her side afterwards.
  • Destructive Saviour: In one cutscene, Tera tries to help Ochette and Juvah against some monsters by summoning a giant fissure that the monsters fall into. Juvah then complains that he just did more damage to the environment than the monsters were doing.
  • Expy: Cateracta, Tera and Glacis are essentially Milotic, Groudon and Articuno, respectively, with Octopath mechanics and the ability to speak. Their Land, Sea, Sky mechanic and Tera's obvious parallels to Groudon tie in neatly with Pokémon's own weather trio, which incorporates Kyogre and Rayquaza into the mix.
  • Land, Sea, Sky: Tera represents Land, being a lava being who burrows deep beneath the earth when not being called upon; Glacis represents Sky, being a massive bird that makes its home on a high mountaintop; Cateracta represents Sea, being a large sea serpent with power over water.
  • Olympus Mons: A trio of enormous and extremely powerful creatures who performed extraordinary feats of power in legend. Although none of them have the power to stand up to the Darkling on their own.
  • Posthumous Character: Cateracta was killed before the events of the game, having been slain by a group of hunters. However, Ochette is able to recruit her child, Acta.
  • The Worf Effect: Each of them is talked up as being obscenely powerful and terrifying in their own right, but when faced with the Darkling in Ochette's final chapter, neither Tera nor Glacis are able to even injure it with their initial attacks, simply bouncing off.

    Heig 
A hunter Ochette meets in Stormhail while searching for Glacis.
  • Easily Forgiven: Ochette declares him unforgivable for his actions... then almost immediately forgives him. He's lucky she's practically (and literally) incapable of holding a grudge.
  • Glory Seeker: He and his band were convinced by the Dark Hunter that killing a legendary beast like Glacis would lead to glory.
  • Florence Nightingale Effect: He gains a crush on Castti after she nurses him back to health, but she doesn't notice.
  • Never My Fault: He blames Glacis for killing his entire party even though they were the ones who attacked it first. It is not until after Ochette admonishes him that he expresses remorse for his actions.
  • Vengeance Denied: He has a brief moment of this after Ochette pacifies Glacis - he'd dedicated his life to killing Glacis in order to avenge his hunting party, and with that taken away from him, he thinks there's nothing left in his life except for dying on the mountaintop.

Castti's Route

    Malaya (SPOILERS) 

Voiced By: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Heather Gonzalez (English)

A traveling apothecary who meets Castti when the latter arrives in the western continent.
  • Dead All Along: Malaya is revealed to have died a few days before the story even began, having sacrificed herself to save Castti's life after she was infected by Trousseau's plague. The Malaya Castti encounters throughout her story is in fact a hallucination she subconsciously created in order to help herself regain her memories.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: She used the only available boat to get Castti away from the continent, saving her from Trousseau’s poisonous rain while dooming herself.
  • Rivals Team Up: Inquiring her reveals she was once a rival of Castti who eventually came to respect her and became her right hand in Eir's Apothecaries.
  • Secret-Keeper: Despite sending Castti adrift and wishing her to create a certain cure only she can create, she doesn't bother to remind the amnesiac Castti about anything regarding Eir's Apothecaries. This is not without reason: the Malaya Castti meets is a manifestation of Castti’s lost memories, thus the information she provides is only that which Castti is able to recollect. The real Malaya, meanwhile, is dead.
  • Walking Spoiler: Virtually nothing about her can be discussed without giving away one of the biggest twists of Castti's storyline.
  • Walking the Earth: She travels the region to create a cure while doing her craft.

    Edmund 
The leader of one of the factions of Sai's civil war, who seems very disdainful towards apothecaries.
  • Back for the Finale: He returns for Castti's final chapter, with he and his mercenaries having moved to Timberain.
  • Character Development: Castti’s first meeting with Edmund starts off with him chastising his men for being weak. What makes this stand out is his eventual development into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and his treatment of his own men (especially with the threat of no food) is never touched upon after. No one would blame you if you thought you’d have to beat sense into him, something reserved for the worst individuals throughout the series.
  • Character Witness: After his time with Castti in Sai, he comes to trust the "bonemender." When she arrives in Timberlain claiming someone will try to unleash a poisonous rain, he is the first to believe her and mobilizes all the guards in the city to get people to shelter inside and seal their doors and windows.
  • Contagious Heroism: Initially presented as a cruel mercenary, Castti brings out more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold side to him and gets him to help her rescue some injured soldiers, even though they're supposed to be his enemies.
  • Denied Food as Punishment: His first scene has him threatening to withhold food to his soldiers who are too injured to fight.
  • Good Is Not Nice: He defected from Timberain because the government discriminated against the immigrants of Sai and he's dedicated to protecting the town, but when he's first met, he's a very harsh and merciless boss. He mellows out once Castti convinces him to save the wounded enemy soldiers from the Sand Lion and treats his soldiers.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: He hated how his kingdom treated immigrants as a drain on society, but in the present, he calls his own soldiers useless for needing time to recover from wounds and forgot the humanity of wounded Timberain soldiers. If it weren't for Castti, he could have become the very thing he was trying to oppose.
  • Insult of Endearment: He calls Castti "bonemender" almost exclusively. Though it starts off contemptuous when he first meets her, it becomes a term of endearment when he warms up to her.
  • Knight Templar: He wants to protect the immigrant community of Sai from his former kingdom, but is overzealous about it to the point of pushing his soldiers too hard and showing no mercy to enemy soldiers even when they're wounded.
  • Jerkass: At first, he treats his underlings horribly, forcing them back onto the battlefield regardless of whether they've healed from their wounds.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's still somewhat rude after getting to know Castti, but her compassion definitely rubs off on him.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The quicksand traps that he set caused the Sand Lion, who was already stirring from the fighting above its territory, to hit its Rage Breaking Point and go on a rampage.

    Rosa Glenville 
A sickly woman who is the ruler of Winterbloom, whom Castti has treated in the past prior to losing her memories.
  • Delicate and Sickly: She is not seen outside of her bed during Castti's Chapter 2 - Winterbloom Route or anytime before completing the chapter. She suffers bouts of painful paralysis that require strong herbs to numb.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Rosa passes away from her terminal illness at the end of Castti's Chapter 2 - Winterbloom Route, happy that Melia will inherit her title as ruler of Winterbloom.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: Rosa suffers from a terminal illness that not even Castti can save her from. Part of said illness is violent coughs.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: She is dying of a terminal illness, and passes away near the end of Castti's Chapter 2 - Winterbloom Route.

    Melia Glenville 
The daughter of Rosa, next in line to rule of Winterbloom upon reaching 12 years old.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: Becomes the next ruler of Winterbloom upon her twelfth birthday, after which her mother can pass away in contentment.
  • Adorably Precocious Child: She's 12 years old, yet she acts more like a young adult mainly due to taking over as ruler of Winterbloom.
  • Young and in Charge: At the age of 12, she meets the minimum age requirement to take over her mother's duties.

    Lily 
An elderly butler to Rosa and Melia's services.
  • Good Parents: She knows that she'll never replace Rosa, but she takes over as a loving guardian for young Melia and does the job with a mixture of firmness and kindness.
  • Parental Substitute: She assumes guardianship over Melia once Rosa passes on, finding a balance to be both strict and doting to the young ruler. Gaining info from her reveals that she knows that she can never replace Rosa.

    Greg 

Voiced By: Khoi Dao (English)

The nephew of Rosa, Melia's older cousin, and the eldest son of a poor noble family. He would've been next to inherit Rosa's title as ruler of Winterbloom should she expire before Melia reaches 12 years of age.
  • Anti-Villain: Not evil so much as an insensitive, extremist idiot.
  • The Atoner: After being humbled by Castti, he seeks to sincerely make amends with Rosa and Melia, and he becomes the latter's advisor after they forgive him.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Implied. Despite having a lot of ideas on how to improve Winterbloom, he's shown passing off most of the actual work to Melia in her lategame sidequest.
  • Didn't Think This Through: He didn't expect the bandits he hired to intimidate Castti to actually try and hurt her instead.
  • Honest Advisor: Lazy though he may be, there's no doubt that he wants what's best for both his town and his cousin.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At first he wants Rosa to die to inherit Winterbloom himself, even insulting her directly. After Castti defeats Plukk, Mikk, and Makk, he changes his tone and admits that he just wanted to make Winterbloom a better place, but he was just too impatient.
  • Kick the Dog: He says that Rosa should die already so he can take over the estate to her face. He does come to regret his words later.
  • Lack of Empathy: He tells the terminally ill Rosa to her face that she should die so that he can look after her lands. Fortunately, he eventually regrets this.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: He feels genuine remorse for what he put Rosa, Melia, and Castti through as a result of his selfishness.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: He desires to improve Winterbloom, but is impatient about going about reforms without considering the needs of the people. As such, he strove to drive away Castti from prolonging Rosa's life until Melia is of age by any means necessary, including hiring a small pack of bandits to intimidate her. Unfortunately for him, he didn't think he would be easily betrayed by them.

    Yorna 
The little sister of Trousseau—a member of Eir's Apothecaries—who died of an incurable malady despite her brother's best efforts.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Her death served as one of these for Trousseau. Claude was able to manipulate him with the Book of Night so easily because Trousseau had spiralled into despair after failing to save her.
  • Posthumous Character: She dies shortly before Trousseau joined Eir's Apothecaries. It is heavily implied that the combination of failing to save her and being exposed to the teachings of the Moonshade Order is what caused Trousseau to eventually fall into despair and become a genocidal nihilist.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: She was dying of an incurable disease. Trousseau became an apothecary in hopes that he could discover a way to save her, but ultimately was unable to.

    Eir's Apothecaries (SPOILERS) 
A band of traveling apothecaries lead by Castti, consisting of Malaya, brothers Randy and Andy, Elma, Trousseau, and their horse Jeyah. They all die before the start of Castti's story.
  • Combat Medic: According to Andy's Inquire data, he planned to become a soldier before Castti taught him that saving lives might create more value than taking them.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Andy's Inquire data reveals that he's in love with Castti. Naturally, he dies before he can try getting into a relationship with her.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Implied with Elma; she gives up her life to save Jeyah. It is also implied that her primary focus during the group's work in Healeaks was taking care of their horses and livestock.
  • Frontier Doctor: The entire group were traveling apothecaries as one scene showing them takes place in Sai, on the opposite continent. However, their home base was in the remote village of Healeaks.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • Andy and Randy give their lives putting out Trousseau's fire, but succumb to the poison smoke.
    • Elma sacrifices her own life to ensure Jeyah survives the poison rain by giving him her cloak and other thick clothing she could have used to protect herself.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: No thanks to their former colleague, Trousseau, wiping out Healeaks with his poison rain, Eir's Apothecaries has a bad reputation of being pestilence-mongers going around poisoning people for fun.
  • I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Randy was mentioned to have very begrudgingly joined the Order, only doing so because his brother was doing it. He quickly became one of the most intense about saving people even by the standards set by the others.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • "Eir" is Old Norse meaning "protection, help, mercy" reflecting the group's goals to help those in need.
    • Eir is also the name of a Valkyrie who is associated with medical skills. As the group is lead by Castti, a healer and warrior, and, save Castti, each die trying to save the lives of others, it is befitting they share the name of Eir.
  • Posthumous Character: The entire group dies shortly before the opening scene of Castti's story.

Throné's Route

    Pirro 

Voiced By: Takamasa Magi (Japanese), Sean Chiplock (English)

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Initial Form
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Resolution Form
A fellow "brother" to Throné among the Blacksnakes.
  • Anti-Villain: He ends up trying to kill Throné in hopes of taking over the Blacksnakes, seeing it as the only way to be free from all the bloodshed and fear. All the while he is shown taking no pleasure in the act.
  • Character Death: He dies after his fight against Throné for the succession spot.
  • Establishing Character Moment: When Throné is being punished by Mother, Pirro steps in and offers to be whipped in her place, establishing that he's noble at heart and how much he cares for Throné. Which, in turn, makes the ultimate fight against him that much more of a twist of the knife since it's clear neither he nor Throné actually want to fight each other.
  • First-Episode Twist: Little can be said about Pirro without revealing that, despite their close friendship, Throné's first chapter ends with him trying to kill her.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Alongside Scaracci, he assists Throné in the opening segment of her route.
  • Honor Among Thieves: He greatly cares for Throné and wishes the organization to change for the better. Unfortunately, if it means being put into a killing contest against Throné to succeed Father and Mother, he will not hesitate to kill her.
  • One-Hit Kill: His "Pierce Through" attack instantly KOs Throné if her HP is low. The illusion of him summoned by Claude in the latter's battle can do this regardless of the traveler's HP.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: With Throné. Unlike Scaracci, Pirro shows no sign of being attracted to Throné, and seems to be her best friend among the Blacksnakes. Unfortunately, he's willing to kill her if it means taking over the Blacksnakes and being free from all the bloodshed and terror, and it's being forced to kill him in self-defense that convinces Throné to try to leave the organization.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: While Throné's desire for freedom had always been there, the tragedy of having to kill him is what pushes her, once and for all, to leave the Blacksnakes.
  • Smoking Is Not Cool: He likes to smoke, even though Throné doesn't like the idea. He counters this by saying that they need any sort of respite to enjoy their oppressive lives as thieves.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He has quite a bit in common with Yusufa from the first game. He grew up with Throné in an abusive environment, is her best friend, and is deceased by the end of her first chapter. The main difference is that, instead of being directly murdered by Mother and Father (who are Suspiciously Similar Substitutes of Helgenish), he is killed by Throné in self-defense after Mother and Father set them up, along with Scaracci, to kill each other to determine who is worthy of succeeding them.
  • Weapon Specialization: Knives are his main weapon.

    Scaracci 

Voiced By: Ryohei Arai (Japanese), Eliah Mountjoy (English)

Another "brother" to Throné among the Blacksnakes.
  • Character Death: Pirro ends up killing him after realizing that Father set them and Throné up to kill each other to pick the survivor as the new successor for the organization.
  • Dirty Coward: Despite putting on a tough guy persona, Scaracci is shown to be very cowardly at heart. His abilities negatively affect his own allies (either dropping their defenses while his is unaffected or letting an ally take damage for him). After the mission at the beginning of Throné's story goes wrong, Scaracci pins the blame on Throné so he would be spared punishment.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Alongside Pirro, he assists Throné in the opening segment of her route.
  • The Mole: Father brands him as such, working with Diamanté to infiltrate and disrupt the Blacksnakes. Only it was all a set-up for Throné, Pirro, and Scaracci to try to kill each other and see which one of them would survive and be accepted as Father and Mother's successor for the Blacksnakes.
  • Surprise Incest: His attraction to Throné, since unbeknownst to both of them, they're half-siblings.
  • Weapon Specialization: Axes are his main weapon.

    Donnie 
Another "brother" to Throné among the Blacksnakes. Known to be good at picking locks.

    Diamanté 
A wealthy man living in New Delsta, who owns a certain staff. He is targeted by Throné, Pirro, Scaracci and Donnie when a client hires them to steal the staff.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The finale reveals that the staff that Throné and co. stole from him in Throné's Chapter 1 is the Darkblood Staff, which, along with the Darkblood Blade, Bow and Grimoire, is essential for resurrecting Vide the Wicked. After Throné gave it to Father, he passed it on to Claude, who passes it to Ori, who passes it to Arcanette, who uses it to kill Tanzy in a ritual to Vide before wielding it in her battle against the party.
  • The Hedonist: Father tells Throné that he "craves the pleasures of the flesh, and often invites women to his estate to sate those desires", all but stating that he supports the prostitution industry. Throné uses this knowledge to infiltrate his estate for a second time in pursuit of Scaracci by stealing a brothel outfit.
  • The Mole: Father brands him as this, working with Scaracci to usurp the Blacksnakes. It's actually part of Father and Mother's set-up to get Throné, Pirro, and Scaracci to kill each other to determine who is worthy of succeeding them as the leader of the Blacksnakes after they die.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: His ownership of the Darkblood Staff makes him a target of the Blacksnakes, who are hired by Arcanette to steal it from him. While they are successful, Donnie dies in the attempt, and the following infighting that results in the deaths of Scaracci and Pirro motivates Throné to try to leave the Blacksnakes.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: He is killed by Pirro near the end of Throné's Chapter 1.

    The Masked Boy 
A young boy who Throné encounters in Oresrush while looking for Mother.
  • Identical Stranger: He looks almost exactly like a younger Pirro, as Throné notes. There's a reason for this, as revealed later.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: He doesn't make another appearance after Throné's second chapter.

    Mira 
One of the orphans of Mother's Garden, and a Blacksnake in training.
  • Happily Adopted: She agrees to let the Elderly Guard become her new father in the sidequest they share after Throné's story concludes.
  • Identical Stranger: She looks very similar to the young Throné seen in some flashbacks. There turns out to be a good reason for this.
  • Revenge: After watching Mother die in front of her, she plans to get revenge on Throné and to this end follows her to Lostseed. However, her desire for revenge goes out the window once she learns the true circumstances of her birth, and of the Blacksnakes as a whole.
  • Tyke Bomb: Just like every other orphan at Mother's Garden, she's being raised to lead a life of crime. Thankfully subverted — she is able to leave this life behind after the events of Throné's story.

    The Elderly Guard 
The guardian of Mother's Garden.
  • Ascended Extra: You don't even need to talk to him during Throné's visit of the orphanage, but he's the main focus of the post-story quest based around it. Throné did kill or antagonize every other major character in her story, after all.
  • Identical Stranger: Looks like the long-lost brother of the Guide of Lostseed and probably is, given Claude's whole thing, to the point he states it's like looking in a mirror. They start keeping in touch with each other after their story ends.
  • Token Good Teammate: He's not completely white (he couldn't go up against Mother, and there's strong implications he once assassinated a nun who came close to finding out the truth of Mother's Garden) but he's the only Blacksnake member to have purely altruistic motivations, only looking to take care of the kids at the orphanage. By the end of the game, he's fully in charge of Mother's Garden, and even offers Mira to personally adopt her.

    Throné's Mother (SPOILERS) 

Marietta

Mother and Father's predecessor as the head of the Blacksnakes.
  • Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear how Marietta was wooed away from Sebastian or how their baby died. Did Marietta willingly leave Sebastian, or was she tricked by Claude? Did Marietta kill her child, or did Claude do it so he could have Marietta to himself? Was she truly a despicable person as Mother claimed, or was Marietta simply misguided and unsure of herself? As the game doesn't provide enough context, the true answers may never be known.
  • Mythology Gag: Since she's an older thief, Marietta's illusory clone fought in Chapter 4 uses the Thief moveset from the first game, with moves like SP Thief that aren't in Throné's arsenal but were in Therion's.
  • Offing the Offspring: According to Father, she killed the baby she had with him after falling in love with Throné's real father.
  • Posthumous Character: Only seen in Father's flashbacks in Chapter 3 and a flashback after defeating Claude in Chapter 4. She's also fought, in a manner of speaking, via one of Claude's summoned illusions.
  • Shotgun Wedding: Marietta was in a romantic relationship with Father and became pregnant. When she told Father, he proposed on the spot, and they were married in the Abandoned Church in the Crestlands.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: She and her daughter look very much alike.

Osvald's Route

    The Cellmate 
A shifty prisoner who shares a cell with Osvald at the beginning of his story.
  • Asshole Victim: He is killed by Warden Davids after the cold renders him unable to work anymore. However, it's difficult to feel sorry for him because of a combination of being a Manipulative Bastard and dying almost as soon as he's introduced.
  • Jerkass: He's a manipulative and unlikable prisoner.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He steals Osvald's notebook, pressures Osvald into fighting him to get it back, then tells the guards that Osvald attacked him without mentioning that he stole the notebook, resulting in Osvald receiving a beating from Warden Davids.
  • No Name Given: His name is unknown.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: His only real purpose is to serve as a tutorial for Osvald's nighttime Path Action, Mug, and dies the day after he's introduced.

    The Provisioner 

Bale

A prisoner within Frigit Isle prison. He is known for procuring goods, which he trades with his fellow prisoners. Osvald trades information of his stealing Warden Davids's coin purse for warm clothing.
Outside of Osvald's Chapter 1, he can be found at Crackridge Harbor: Anchorage at night-time only.
  • One-Steve Limit: He shares his name with the captain of Wellspring from the first game, whom Olberic helped fend off a group of lizardmen in his third chapter.
  • Riddle for the Ages: It's never confirmed how he gets his hands on the goods he trades, though it's strongly implied that he does so illegally.

    Emerald 

Voiced By: Eiji Takeuchi (Japanese), Andy Barnett (English)

An informant and prisoner within Frigit Isle prison.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: He's able to figure out that Osvald plans on escaping Frigit Isle just by observing him carefully for the past five years. Osvald is even impressed by how keen he is.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The lighthouse keeper on the island near Frigit Isle finds a Message in a Bottle addressed to "Ruby", who turns out to be Emerald's mother, and the message (or at least its postscript) was written by Emerald knowing he was about to die on the inspection ship. Even in the face of death, he wanted his mother to not worry about him.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: He assists Osvald in his prison escape.
  • Healing Hands: He comes with the Apothecary skill "Heal Wounds," which makes him a very useful ally for Osvald.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: He attempts to take off on the inspectors' ship despite Osvald pointing out that every guard is looking for them and that escaping on the ship will still end up with them being cornered. When Emerald realizes this when he's cornered, he decides to go down with the ship by setting it on fire, which apparently fools the guards into thinking Osvald also died, letting him escape without being followed again.
  • Outliving One's Offspring: Scrutinizing Emerald after parting ways with him reveals that his wife and daughter were murdered by the criminal organization that Emerald embezzled from.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: Osvald points out that taking the inspectors' vessel is a death sentence waiting to happen after everyone is alerted of their prison break, but Emerald stubbornly goes for it after not having faith in Osvald's ice boat being useful enough to get to the mainland. Sure enough, Emerald suffers the consequences and sacrifices himself to let Osvald escape. Though the sacrifice was beneficial to Osvald, Emerald didn't really have to die for it. Though possibly subverted since beforehand he asked Osvald if he truly killed his wife and child and Osvald didn't answer, which may have caused him to realize Osvald was innocent and deserved freedom, which implies he knowingly killed himself, hijacking the boat to increase Osvald's odds of escaping.

    The Retired Scholar 
A kind elderly man who finds Osvald washed up on the shore by Cape Cold after escaping Frigit Isle, nearly frozen to death.
  • Nice Guy: Despite Osvald's status as a criminal, he brings him into his home and gives him a fire, food, and a robe, with his only request being that Osvald leads an honorable life.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: If he hadn't brought Osvald into his home after the escape from Frigit Isle, Osvald likely would have died.

    Lady Clarissa 

Voiced By: Yoko Soumi (Japanese), Leigha Horton (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_6585.gif
Osvald's former assistant, and keeper of his old laboratory.
  • Action Girl: When testing Osvald to see if it's really him, she shows herself to be a capable mage and fighter, able to wield a staff and magic well.
  • Adventurer Archaeologist: A sidequest has her delving into ruins on Toto'haha to research and test a theory.
  • Always Someone Better: To an extent, according to Ori, as noted in her journal. She recounted a time that Clarissa had actually managed to sneak up on her while she was trying to observe Elena, saying that no one else had ever noticed her when Ori didn't want to be noticed. That, combined with Clarissa apparently doubting her cover story, scared Ori enough to dissuade her from watching Elena.
  • Badass Bookworm: Fittingly for the Number Two of one of the smartest men on the continent, Clarissa is smart enough to hold her own in an intellectual discussion with Osvald and badass enough to challenge him to magical combat.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: She can be seen in the audience for Osvald's trial two chapters before her introduction in the present day.
  • Old Friend: A post-chapter sidequest reveals that she and Cohazeh were once fellow scholars and good friends: the sidequest has them reuniting and catching up.
  • Parental Substitute: After Osvald saves Elena from Harvey, Clarissa takes her in as a ward, as Osvald doesn't want Elena to see him until she's ready.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: She and Osvald see each other as this, as Clarissa correctly believes that Osvald is completely innocent of the crime he was convicted of, and Osvald trusts Clarissa enough to watch over Elena and be a proper parent until she and Osvald are ready to reconnect.
  • Vengeance Feels Empty: She tries to advise this of Osvald to dissuade him from killing Harvey, though it doesn't work.

    Ethan 
Clarissa's deceased husband. He was a member of the Conning Creek guard who met Osvald, who lived there, after apprehending a thief that broke into his house, and then encouraged him to take on his wife as an apprentice.
  • He Knows Too Much: Clarissa believes that he knew the truth of what happened to Osvald's family, but Stenvar killed him and reported it as a suicide to shut down further investigation.
  • Posthumous Character: According to Clarissa, his body washed up on the shore mere days after Osvald was sentenced and taken away.
  • Suicide, Not Murder: Inverted. Stenvar arranged for him to be murdered, but it was made to look like a suicide instead. Clarissa points out that he had no reason to kill himself, but no one else questions it.

    Elena (SPOILERS) 
Osvald's young daughter, who perished with her mother in the house fire that framed Osvald... or so it seems. It turns out that she is alive but is brainwashed by Harvey into thinking the latter is her father.

  • Daddy's Girl: She is shown to adore her father Osvald and wishes to become a scholar like him.
  • Disney Death: She was assumed dead at the start of Osvald's story, but Chapter 4 reveals she was actually abducted by Harvey.
  • Famous Ancestor: Her ancestor is Aelfric the Flamebringer, making her blood very valuable to Harvey.
  • Girlish Pigtails: In flashbacks, Elena has her hair tied up in pigtails, helping emphasize her childishness.
  • Wistful Amnesia: Despite no longer remembering him, when she uses the pen that Osvald gave her long ago, she mentions that it feels familiar.

    Gratton 
The scholar who first suggested the possibility of the One True Magic, after observing the Pit of D'arqest. His hypothesis is sought by both Osvald and Harvey.

Partitio's Route

    Papp Yellowil 

Voiced by: Mitsuki Nakamura (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English)

Partitio's father, and one of the founders of Oresrush alongside Roque.
  • Abusive Parents: The info you get from him via Path Actions reveals his own father was an abusive drunkard, and Papp ran away from home at just 8 years old.
  • Affectionate Nickname: He used to call Partitio "little chickadee," only stopping near the end of Partitio's first chapter, showing how much he cares about his son.
  • Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Path actions like Scrutinize revealed that Papp was abused as a child by his father. By contrast, Papp himself is a loving and supportive father to Partitio.
  • Dub Name Change: The German translation changed his name to "Pepe".
  • Failed a Spot Check: He didn't notice the clause in the contract he signed that gives the landowner the right to buy Oresrush back from him. That's because the landowner snuck in that clause after he signed it.
  • Fisher King: In a sense. When he's in charge, Oresrush is prospering. When Oresrush falls on hard times and under the control of Giff, he finds himself having fallen into a sickbed along with it, but once Giff is dealt with and he's back on his feet, Oresrush is once again rebuilding and returning to prosperity.
  • Good Parents: He is a loving father to Partitio. Even at a young age, he is firm but supportive of his child.
  • His Name Really Is "Barkeep": 'Pap' is generally an endearing term for a child's father in the American south. As it turns out, Mr. Yellowil is actually named Papp Yellowil, as evidenced by Roque using the name in various scenes.
  • Incurable Cough of Death: Subverted. He does start off the present-day section of Partitio's Chapter 1 having worked himself into a sick bed with a mysterious cough, and he mentions that he's the only reason Partitio is still in town. Yet the medicine Partitio buys for him, coupled with Giff being cast down allow him to get back to his feet and return to good health.
  • Like Father, Like Son: He inspired his son to become a merchant like him.
  • Signature Headgear: His fedora, which he passes on to Partitio at the end of his first chapter.
  • So Proud of You: He is extremely proud of Partitio for his actions in the first chapter that bring life back to Oresrush, and wishes him luck as he sets off on his adventures.
  • Upbringing Makes the Hero: He's the one responsible for instilling good moral and business ethics in Partitio.

    Floyd 
The descendant of the man who made the first steam engine, now trying to create a mass-produced version while under the employ of The Landower.
  • Bungling Inventor: Partitio first meets Floyd when the latter is too preoccupied with thinking about engineering designs to notice he was about to walk right into Partitio, and then meets him again when Floyd's prototype new steam engine is right about to explode.
  • Workaholic: A post-chapter sidequest has you knock him unconscious for working too much without any sleep.

    Ori 

Voiced By: Fairouz Ai (Japanese), Jeannie Tirado (English)

A young scrivener with the New Delsta Times who starts publishing stories about Partitio's exploits.
  • Bungled Suicide: She stabs herself as a sacrifice to douse the Sacred Flame, but the fond memories she harbored of Partitio seem to have prevented her from ultimately going all the way through. She is later picked up by an apothecary and brought back to Crackridge's inn, and can be encountered again there following the final boss fight, recovering from her injuries.
  • The Cameo: She has a speaking role interviewing Castti at the end of Castti’s fourth chapter. She also appears hidden away in crowd shots in various other scenes, such as Harvey’s lectures and Osvald's trial. The final chapter reveals that there’s a reason for this beyond simple news reporting, and that she knows a lot more than she lets on.
  • Genki Girl: Everything she does, she does with a lot of energy and verve. Her English VA especially makes sure to practically shout all of Ori's lines so the player knows she has inexhaustible energy. Except most of it is a front. Her last scene with her speaking has her cut out most of the energy, and the change from "peppy reporter" to "broken nihilist" is jarring.
  • Intrepid Reporter: She'll go wherever there's a big story waiting to happen. She even refuses to run away, citing that she'll miss a huge scoop, when Roque sics the Steam Tank Obsidian on Partitio, only relenting when Partitio convinces her to flee.
  • Large Ham: Much of her dialogue consists of shouting. In some scenes you can even hear her VA’s mic peaking!
  • Playing Sick: When she and Partitio are caught in the Roque Company headquarters, she fakes an illness in order to get the guards off her back.
  • Uncertain Doom: Subverted. While Partitio and Osvald's banter following the restoration of the Fellsun Ruins' Sacred Flame implies Ori's fate is left vague, she can later be encountered in Crackridge's inn having survived her injuries. During Agnea's performance in the final scene of the Epilogue, she can also be seen hanging out in the furthest back of the crowd.
  • Vague Age: As there's no opportunity to Inquire/Scrutinize her, her age is unclear—her energetic attitude can make it easy to think she's fairly young, but her journal in the final chapter, which mentions that she's observed Hikari since he was a child, implies she's around Hikari's age at youngest.

    Alrond Rondwell 
An eccentric nobleman living in Wellgrove, said to be the richest man on the western continent.
  • Actually, I Am Him: When Partitio enters Alrond's study, he finds the young man he was speaking to earlier in the tavern... who reveals himself to actually be Alrond.
  • Crazy-Prepared: He anticipates Roque not accepting the check he wrote for Partitio, so he and Misha load up his ship with 80 billion leaves in physical currency and sail all the way to Roque Island to make sure that Roque will honor the deal.
  • Experience Booster: His ability when summoned in combat is "Treasure Smell," which gives a random boost to either EXP or JP earned after battle, up to 100x. With a little Save Scumming, this makes Alrond the single quickest and most reliable Level Grinding method in the game.
  • I Gave My Word: He makes good on his promise to give Partitio the money to purchase the rights to the steam engine after he stimulates Wellgrove's economy.
  • Nice to the Waiter: He explains that one reason he likes to disguise himself is to see how people treat him when they think he's equal to them. Also, he treats his butler Misha quite well.
  • Slumming It: One of his favorite pastimes, much to Misha's chagrin. He justifies it as a means of finding "treasures," like how he met Misha on one excursion when he was younger.
  • Uncle Pennybags: He's an exorbitantly wealthy nobleman who genuinely wants to improve his town and is more than happy to be Partitio's benefactor once he proves his mettle.

    Misha 
Alrond's butler and long-standing friend, he frequently worries about the antics his lord gets into, particularly when he masquerades himself among the common folk to go "treasure hunting".
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Completing his next chapter quest reveals that Misha came from an impoverished background and was sifting through trash to support his family until a disguised Alrond came across him and evaluated his character for himself before revealing who he really was. Alrond expressed fondness over Misha's earnestness, describing Misha as a "diamond in the rough" and immediately offered the poor young man employment. While shocked over Alrond's eccentric behavior and his finding value in himself, Misha accepted the offer and has been by Alrond's side ever since.
  • Forbidden Friendship: While he's genuinely grateful to Alrond for offering him a job, Misha's profile states that he tries to keep their relationship formal due to the fact that he's a butler and Alrond is his boss.
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: According to Alrond's profile, Misha delivered one of these to him while Alrond was wallowing in grief over his parents' deaths.

Agnea's Route

    Cuani Bristarni 
Agnea's deceased mother who became a star, to whom Agnea seeks to follow in her footsteps.

    Gus 
Agnea's Childhood Friend and local bartender of Cropdale.
  • Childhood Friend: Of Agnea. He even provides the last 1000 leaves she needs to follow her dream of becoming a famous dancer.
  • Cowardly Lion: He's shown to be quite nervous and reluctant to fight, but he still helps Agnea during her first chapter anyway.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: He assists Agnea in her first episode to find her sister Pala in the forest.
  • Just Friends: With Agnea. Throné teases Agnea in a tavern banter between the female party members, asking her about her relationship with Gus. Agnea is flustered and insists she and Gus don't have anything going on.

    Garud Bristarni 
Agnea and Pala's father. A tailor who met his former wife while creating her dancing outfits, he now resents the job of dancer after she worked herself to death.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Justified. His wife died from overexertion while working as a dancer and fears the same happening to Agnea. Rather than completely forbidding her, though, he tasks her with saving up 10,000 leaves from dancing in town before he'll let her depart, with her reaching her goal at the start of her story, and even then he is not fully supportive. He finally changes his mind after Agnea returns from fighting the Duorduor, noticing that her regular outfit was torn in the scuffle and gifting her Cuani’s dress for the town festival.
  • Good Parents: Despite his gruffness, he really does love Agnea and Pala and only wants what's best for them. When he sees that Agnea is both tough enough to travel as a dancer and determined enough to make her dreams come true, he sends her off with his blessing, and is one of her biggest supporters.
  • Manly Tears: He is seen crying as Agnea leaves Cropdale for her adventure.
  • The Quiet One: Both his daughters note that he doesn't talk more than necessary.

    Pala Bristarni 

Voiced By: Tomoyo Takayanagi (Japanese), Brenna Larsen (English)

Agnea's younger sister.
  • Ambiguously Gay: She's a bit quick to show interest in women, and doesn't demonstrate the same fascination for men she does for those of the same sex. She's one of a very small number of characters who make reference to the fact Agnea's path actions are just as effective and alluring to women as they are men, and her personal sidequest following Agnea and Hikari's stories and Crossed Paths is dripping with both subtext and outright text with Mikka, a young woman around Pala's own age. Notably, Mikka gives Pala one of a pair of earrings meant for people with a significant bond, and it's ambiguous if Pala's joking about Mikka being a potentially perfect wife.
  • Damsel in Distress: Gus informs Agnea before the festival that she hasn't come back from picking up berries from the forest, and he fears that the duorduor is putting her in danger. Though it turns out Pala was nowhere near the duorduor but simply went another way to find berries, so this is subverted.
  • The Gadfly: During Agnea's prologue, Pala pokes fun at Agnea to use her "talents" to get people to help her out. In the Japanese script, she instead tells Agnea to make use of her "peaches," and is clearly referring to her sister's breasts.
  • Genki Girl: Her profile states that she often has trouble with delicate tasks due to how much energy she has.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Her being younger than Agnea (with an otherwise-similar-size sprite) and a bit too young to go traveling with her is emphasized by her having a twin-tailed hairstyle. The epilogue shows her sporting loose hair, implying a timeskip and a newfound maturity to go with it.
  • Ship Tease: She has some with Mikka during a sidequest after Hikari's final chapter. The two of them split a pair of reunion earrings that Ritsu gifted to Mikka that Mikka had been saving for "someone special", and Pala remarks that Mikka would make for a perfect wife.

    Gil 
The owner and bartender of Montain's Tavern, a rundown tavern in New Delsta's slums. Despite his poverty and floundering business, he maintains a positive attitude.
  • Artsy Beret: Bowler hat in this case, and he has some talent as a pianist.
  • Character Catchphrase: He has a tendency of referring to things that impress him as "hot." Agnea even acknowledges that this is a "Gil thing" in a travel banter with Hikari.
  • The Chew Toy: Gil has been dirt poor all his life, his old dream of being a pianist fell through, the tavern he inherited from his late mentor is rundown and barely profitable, and he's constantly harassed and abused by La'mani and his goons. Thankfully, Agnea's intervention manages to turn his fortunes around.
  • Cut Himself Shaving: After La'mani beats him up for "stealing" his customers, Gil claims that he just slipped and fell. Agnea immediately sees through this excuse.
  • Dreadful Musician: Ultimately subverted. When telling Agnea about his past, he claims that he was never good at playing the piano no matter how much he practiced and was always ridiculed whenever he performed. However, when Agnea inspires him to take up the piano again after La'mani's defeat, he turns out to be pretty good.
  • Memento Macguffin: At the end of Agnea's second chapter, he gives her the sheet music for the Song of Hope, which Agnea proceeds to build up lyrics for during the rest of her story.

    Giselle's Traveling Troupe 
A wandering troupe of talented performers that travel throughout Solistia to bring smiles upon others.
  • Childhood Friends: Using Inquire/Scrutinize on Rico and Coda reveals that they've known each other since they were kids, which is also stated to be why they work so well together.
  • Performance Anxiety: Giselle suffers from this, and it takes Agnea's encouragement for Giselle to beat it.
  • Stepford Smiler: Giselle acts breezy and upbeat, but it's revealed that she's more insecure than she lets on, and suffers from terrible stage fright.
  • Those Two Guys: Rico and Coda, being Giselle's two assistants who are never seen apart.
  • Token Religious Teammate: Tanzy, who is always making reference to a "goddess" that she follows. Turns out this "goddess" is Arcanette, who Tanzy is devoted to... to her detriment.
  • Walking Spoiler: There is more to Tanzy than being a active member of the traveling troupe.

    Laila 
A young orphan who takes up dancing after Agnea inspires her.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: While others were kind to Laila in her life, Agnea inspired hope in her that life can become better, and she can be more than a girl from the slums of Sai. For this reason, when she comes to the Gala to see Agnea perform she doesn't hesitate to be a distraction and later kicks the thugs going after Agnea.
  • The Cynic: At first she feels there's nothing worth living for, but then Agnea dances and she becomes inspired.
  • Fiery Redhead: A spirited (if blunt) young woman with bright red hair.
  • History Repeats: Agnea takes this young orphan under her wing and shows her how to utilize her talent for dancing. She learns after a lesson from Laila's grandmother Cuani took in the orphaned Dolcinaea as a student as well.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's a snarky troublemaker at first, but her encounter with Agnea shows her softer side. She does care for the town and tries to bring cheer, though she remains blunt in her words.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She is only as tall as Garud's shoulder, based on the closing image of Agnea's Story, but she has enough power in her body to knock out two thugs trying to stop Agnea from entering the Gala with one kick. That isn't one kick each, one kick and both go down.
  • Teen Genius: Laila has a raw talent for dancing: one session learning from Agnea is enough for her to become a capable dancer, and a sidequest has her impress Hermes, a capable and famous dancer in her own right, with her potential.

Temenos's Route

    Crick Wellsley 

Voiced By: Jun'ya Enoki (Japanese), Stephen Fu (English)

A newbie and newly-appointed Sanctum Knight sent to Flamechurch to visit the pontiff. To his eventual dismay, he's guided by Temenos to meet up with him.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: As he assists Temenos, Crick's poor patience and virtue is often put to the test due to the inquisitor's methods and his casual disregard for rank and protocol.
  • Character Development: At the start of Temenos's story, Crick started out as a straight-laced and rule-abiding Sanctum Knight to the point of naivety. Temenos described Crick as seeing life through a keyhole. As the story goes on, Crick learns to stop being blindly obedient to the rules and make his own choices rather than allowing himself to be dictated by blind faith. This makes his death all the more tragic, considering he died getting important information to Temenos that allowed him to discover the corruption within the Sacred Guard.
  • Cowardly Lion: Perhaps invoked because he is a novice Sanctum Knight, but Temenos makes fun of Crick forgetting to defend him properly on the way to the cathedral.
  • Dork Knight: He starts off as rather naive and awkward, but he's also very dedicated to doing his job.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Temenos calls him a "lamb" because of his novice status as a Sanctum Knight. Crick quickly comes to loathe the nickname.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: For the first chapter, though not without being made fun of for being a guided person by Temenos before Crick does join as a temporary playable character.
  • He Knows Too Much: Cubaryi and Kaldena kill him for getting too close to figuring out the truth behind Vados' murder.
  • Impoverished Patrician: Crick hails from a noble house, albeit "one fallen from grace" where his parents had him become a thief to get by.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: His best friend and fellow Sanctum Knight, Ort, comments that Crick's goodness and strength of convictions to do the right thing is a trait he has for years. Ort suspects that Kaldena knew when she tested the pair to see if they could graduate to being Sanctum Knights, that in those few clashes of their blades she could never make Crick bend to her will while Ort was made her bodyguard.
  • Naïve Newcomer: To Temenos's delight, Crick quite often forgets common etiquette as a Sanctum Knight, though Crick's heart is in the right place.
  • Sacrificial Lion: His death permanently changes the tone of Temenos's story, and makes Temenos's goal just as much about getting justice for Crick as it is about finding the truth.
  • Smarter Than You Look: While Crick mostly serves as Temenos's naive assistant who follows him around and does as he says, he's resourceful enough to single-handedly locate the hidden archives in the Sacred Guard's headquarters, with Temenos praising this accomplishment posthumously as that of a true knight.
  • The Watson: Plays this role to Temenos, being someone Temenos can explain his deductions to and acting as his assistant for several chapters. This may even be the source of his name, a Shout-Out to another famous Watson (James), who, with Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick, first determined the double-helix structure of DNA.
  • White Sheep: A minor case, but the way Crick talks about his family doesn't paint them in the best of lights, as his parents advocated for using other people as stepping stones — a mindset that Crick couldn't get behind and what led him to becoming a protector instead.

    Pontiff Jörg 

Voiced By: Fumitake Ishiguro (Japanese), Jay Preston (English)

The leader of the Flamechurch branch of the Order of the Sacred Flame, who personally appointed Temenos as an Inquisitor.
  • Good Shepherd: He's a priest who's shown to be very concerned with the safety of his town, is happy to interact with the children at the schoolhouse, and even took in and cared for two orphans (Temenos and Roi). His funeral also draws a huge crowd, suggesting that the residents of Flamechurch all loved him.
  • He Knows Too Much: The finale reveals that he was killed because he'd discovered the identity of the Moonshade Order's leader.
  • Parental Substitute: He took in Temenos and Roi when they were children and raised them like they were his own.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: It's the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death that kicks off Temenos' storyline.
  • Secret-Keeper: He knows many of the secrets of the Order, and keeps things from even Temenos.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Archbishop Josef from the first game. Just like Josef, he is a high-ranking member of the Order of the Sacred Flame who took in an orphaned child and raised them lovingly, and is murdered by a major antagonist during the Cleric's route.

    Mindt 

Voiced By: Reina Ueda (Japanese), Judy Alice Lee (English)

A cleric in the Flamechurch branch of the Order of the Sacred Flame, and a close friend of Temenos.
  • The Atoner: Her biography mentions that she prays for atonement, though for what is never expanded on.
  • Friend to All Children: She spends most of her time watching over the town's children, or at least enough that she knows Temenos regularly flubs his lines in the puppet show he puts on for them.
  • Nice Girl: A very soft-spoken and kind young woman.
  • Important Hair Accessory: She loses her headband shortly after Temenos finishes the hunt for the pontiff's murderer, but before he departs again. Sure enough, her sprite changes for the rest of the game.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: When the pontiff comes to speak to Temenos at the start of his story, Mindt teasingly asks if they're keeping secrets from her. After the pontiff's murder, Temenos goes out of his way to avoid sharing specifics about his activities or intentions with her.
  • Out of Focus: She has a supporting role in Temenos's first chapter and briefly appears at the end of his fourth, but most of her lines are in a chapter she doesn't appear physically in.

    Lucian 
A theologian from Canalbrine who studies obscure rituals. He's the last person to see the pontiff alive, making him a person of interest in Temenos's investigation.
  • Character Death: When Crick and Temenos burst open the door to his house, they find him already dead on the floor.
  • Red Herring: Temenos initially finds him suspicious and thinks he might have had some role in the Pontiff's murder. Then he turns out to be one of the real killer's victims.

    Hermes 
A dancer who performs in Canalbrine, talented to the point of being called the city's goddess. She later appears in Merry Hills after Agnea and Temenos complete their stories.
  • Busman's Vocabulary: Hailing from the port city of Canalbrine, her dialogue is sprinkled with nautical metaphors, like referring to her audience as "little fishies" and encouraging Laila to swim in her ocean.
  • Chekhov's News: Temenos and Crick first hear of her from a Harker on their way to investigate Lucian's home. Once there, they realize a serial killer is targeting people connected to the gods, and next on the list is Sealticge, the Lady of Grace and patron of dancers.
  • Nice Girl: A sidequest involving her and Laila has her voice support and admiration for Laila's dancing. Additionally, when it's revealed that the contest in the sidequest is rigged in Hermes' favor, she's outraged on Laila's behalf and reports the matter, voiding her own win without regret.

    Ort Edgeworth 
A newly raised member of the Sacred Guard who has been assigned to be Captain Kaldena's bodyguard on account of his sword skills. Trained alongside and best friends with Crick.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: By observing the markings on Crick's corpse before the latter is buried, he figures out that it was Kaldena's sword that ended Crick's life.
  • Not Quite Dead: When Temenos catches up to the Sacred Guard at the Nameless Village, Temenos finds him barely hanging on and begging Temenos to stop Kaldena after her true nature is revealed. He manages to escape, and is perfectly fine by the end of Temenos' story.
  • Redemption Earns Life: Of the Sacred Guard members who join the expedition to the Nameless Village, Ort is the only one to display any moral fiber and turn on Kaldena when he realizes that she murdered Crick, which also makes him the only knight present who isn't caught up in the resulting slaughter.
  • Red Herring: He's set up as an obvious Foil to Crick, and is clad in the same red and black armor as Cubyari and Kaldena, but proves to be one of the only members of the Sacred Guard besides Crick who isn't corrupt.
  • The Rival: He briefly clashes swords with Crick at the end of Temenos's Chapter 2, and is roughly his equal in swordplay.
  • Sole Survivor: He is the only major side character in Temenos' story who survives the events of the game. Pontiff Jörg is murdered by Vados the Architect, who is later murdered and removed from the Sacred Guard's records by Captain Kaldena to throw Temenos off her trail. Near the end of Temenos' story, Cubaryi and Kaldena murder Crick for getting too close to the truth, only to later be killed in battle against Temenos.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Since Crick is otherwise occupied after completing Temenos's story, Ort ends up filling his role, serving as the route's voiced sidequest provider. He even uses, and can teach Hikari, the same Sacred Slash skill as Crick.

    Roi 
Temenos's best friend and predecessor as Inquisitor. He vanished 5 years ago after discovering some of the Church's secrets, and is still missing to this day.
  • Chekhov M.I.A.: It's heavily implied that Petrichor hunted him down for the Darkblood Bow he took from the Church, transformed him into the Dark Entity, and then loosed him onto the Beastling Village where he was killed by Ochette.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He has very little screentime, but Roi inspired Crick to join the Sacred Guard, was hunted for the Darkblood Bow by Petrichor, was the first boss of Ochette's story, thus heralding her journey, and his disappearance was a Cynicism Catalyst for Temenos.
  • Super Gullible: Temenos describes him as honest and not even knowing the concept of doubt.

    The Heretic's Father (SPOILERS) 

Kaldena's Father

The father of Captain Kaldena, who was killed by the Moonshade Order along with the rest of the Kal clan except Kaldena herself.
  • Good Parents: He was evidently a loving father to Kaldena, who is traumatized by his death.
  • No Name Given: His name is never revealed.
  • Posthumous Character: He died thirty years before the story begins.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Before being killed, he told Kaldena to avenge their clan. Kaldena would eventually attempt to harness Vide's power and orchestrate several murders along the way in order to do just that, before she lost control and devolved into a mindless monster. Kaldena's actions would also pave the way for the Moonshade Order — the very group responsible for her father's death — to fulfill their ambitions.

Hikari's Route

    Captain Saji 
A captain of Ku's military, who fights the southern tribe at the beginning of Hikari's story.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Implied by Hikari's reaction to his death. Ritsu has to tell Hikari to keep his eyes focused on the battle.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: He is killed by a southern soldier shortly after Hikari and Ritsu's first battle.

    Tsuki 
A royal attendant of Ku, who serves Hikari during his time as the overseer of Ku's Castle Town.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: She dies in Hikari's arms, after he comes across her body amidst the wreckage.
  • Nice Girl: Her biggest character traits are being kind, friendly, and polite; she admires Hikari's gentler leadership style and left home voluntarily so her parents didn't have to choose between raising her or Yomi.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: She dies in Chapter 1 as a result of Mugen's attack on the city, making the slaughter that much more personal to Hikari.

    Kazan 

Voiced By: Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese), Edward Bosco (English)

The "Eagle of Ku", a legendary strategist and advisor to King Jigo.
  • The Alcoholic: He frequently mentions going out for drinks in order to celebrate, much to Hikari's chagrin.
  • Animal Motifs: The eagle, as goes without saying. Aside from being his moniker, he makes a number of metaphors about taking flight (or his inability to do so, given his debt).
  • Blatant Lies: He tells Hikari that the favor he wants from him is nothing too dramatic right before he very dramatically shoves Hikari off a ledge and into the gladiator arena.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a brilliant strategist but a little odd as a person and certainly difficult to deal with as a friend. Lampshaded by Temenos in a party banter, who notes that geniuses tend not to be bound by common sense and can behave incomprehensibly (that this is coming from Temenos, a quirky genius himself, is not lost on Hikari).
  • The Chessmaster: He's known for his manipulations and deceptions. Hikari notes that Kazan sometimes even lies to and deceives his allies until his goals are achieved. This is seen in Hikari's chapter 2 where he goads Hikari in taking part in Montwise's Arena, to force Bandelam to face him so the other gladiators can revolt and free themselves. And that's not going into his role as one of the masterminds behind the advent of Vide the Wicked in the overarching plot.
  • Crazy Enough to Work: His plan to get into Ku via the front gate involves manipulating the environment to cause a sandstorm. Hikari points out how implausible that is, but also admits that if anyone can pull it off, it's Kazan.
  • The Gambler: He admits he's got a gambling problem, asking Hikari to fight in the arena to cover his debt. It's a lie, he actually wants Hikari to fight as part of his plans to free the gladiators.
  • Rags to Riches: He was born a lowborn and poor, till King Jigo recognized his talent and made him a member of the court.
  • Red Baron: He's known as "The Eagle of Ku" for his foresight and strategies.
  • The Strategist: He's known for his schemes and strategies.

    Zeto the Butcher 
A gladiator of Montwise's Underground Arena, who has a strong kinship with the other gladiators that are forced to battle and lose their lives to line the pockets of wealthy corrupt gamblers.

    Rai Mei 

Voiced By: Mie Sonozaki (Japanese), Katelyn Gault (English)

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Levin Stance
Click here to see her second stance
A member of Clan Mei, and one of Hikari's allies during Ku's final war.
  • Anti-Villain: Unlike Ritsu, who is genuinely loyal to Mugen and his ideals, Rai Mei clearly hates serving Mugen, only doing so because she doesn't think anyone can stop him and that he will destroy Clan Mei if she doesn't obey.
  • Big Damn Heroes: She and Clan Mei come to Hikari's aid in his final chapter after he signals the next phase of Kazan's plan with the Bell of Dawn, helping him fight off Ageha's ambush and allowing him to proceed to Mugen.
  • Braids of Action: As a notable spear-wielding Action Girl, she wears her long hair in a braid.
  • Broken Tears: She breaks down crying after Hikari defeats her, as she thinks her failure will result in her clan getting slaughtered.
  • Contralto of Strength: She's known as a strong soldier, and she has a deep voice to match.
  • Elemental Motifs: Lightning. Rai Mei wields the Levin Spear, the ancestral weapon of her clan. She can use lightning based attacks and uses it to transport herself and her troops to the Battle in Ku after Hikari rings the Dawn Bell.
  • Full-Name Basis: Everyone outside her clan refers to her as "Rai Mei" and never just "Rai".
  • Guest-Star Party Member: She and Ritsu are fully playable during the first part of Hikari's first chapter.
  • Lady of War: Is a very capable soldier, which seems to come with the territory for her family — Clan Mei is referred to as "the spear of Ku".
  • Meaningful Name: "Raimei" is the romanization of 雷鳴, which is Japanese for thunder, befitting her electricity-based attacks.
  • Mythology Gag: One of her skills she uses during her battle against Hikari is "Spearhead", which was a Warrior skill in the original game.
  • Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: After her defeat, she begs Hikari to finish her off, knowing that Mugen will have her and her clan killed otherwise, even revealing Clan Mei's role in his mother's death in an attempt to goad him into doing it. Hikari, however, refuses, as he still believes that Rai Mei will do the right thing in the end.
  • Shock and Awe: Her spear is capable of shooting out lightning.
  • Weapon Specialization: She and her clan specialize in using spears as weapons, which is fitting to their epithet as "the spear of Ku". Her weapon is also called the Spear of Levin, which is also capable of casting electricity.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: The reason she tries to execute Hikari? She believes it will save her clan from Mugen.

    Jin Mei 
A member of Clan Mei, Rai's older brother, and Hikari's mentor in swordsmanship growing up.
  • The Mentor: In Hikari's Chapter 4 flashbacks, he helped a young Hikari hone his swordsmanship despite Hikari displaying incredible talent.
  • Posthumous Character: He is dead at the present time, having been offed by Mugen when he failed to have Hikari assassinated alongside his mother.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Though Hikari fended off the initial assassins, Jin Mei could've easily cut him down himself, given that he apparently knocked Hikari out offscreen. However, ashamed of what he'd done, Jin Mei told Rai Mei that he wanted to redeem himself to Hikari and instead spared the latter, knowing full well that this would seal his own fate with Mugen.
  • Sadistic Choice: Jin had the options to either follow Mugen's order to have Hikari and Kura killed or witness Mugen butcher Clan Mei off the face of Solistia.
  • Take a Third Option: A very dark option in this case. Hikari managed to kill the bandits Jin Mei sent to assassinate him. Jin couldn't bring himself to kill Hikari personally but also wanted to spare his clan. As such, he willingly offers himself to Mugen and accepts being killed himself as long as Clan Mei is spared.
  • You Have Failed Me: Under Mugen's orders, he was the one to arrange the bandit attack on Hikari and his mother. He succeeded only in getting Kura killed, which awakened the Curse of Ku in Hikari's blood. Furious at the outcome, Mugen killed Jin off.

    Benkei 
King Jigo's right-hand man, who almost never leaves his side.
  • Back for the Finale: He turns out to survive the clash with Mugen's men in Hikari's first chapter, and returns to fight alongside him in his chapter 5.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Pulls this near the end of Hikari's first chapter so that he can escape from Mugen.
  • Meaningful Rename: As a reference to the real life Benkei, his original name was Musashi, but he changed it after becoming Jigo's retainer.
  • Screaming Warrior: Implied by Hikari, who states in a travel banter with Ochette that she's "even louder than Benkei."
  • Undying Loyalty: To Jigo and to Hikari.
  • Weapon Specialization: He is shown wielding a polearm as his weapon. After Hikari's story, he can be found in Castle Ku, having the Battle-Tested Spear in his possession.
  • World's Strongest Man: He's said to be the strongest person in Ku. Played for Laughs in a party banter, where Hikari and Partitio use his muscle strength as a frame of reference for how strong the steam engine might be.

    King Jigo Ku 
Hikari and Mugen's father, and the king of Ku at the beginning of the game.
  • All for Nothing: He admits to Hikari that, in his old age, he has realized that his dedication to conquering nearby lands over his lifetime was pointless, and believes that Hikari will be a better king than his older brother, Mugen.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Jigoku is Japanese for "hell", making his full title King Hell.
  • Broken Pedestal: It's implied that Mugen used to respect him before he came to agree with Hikari's vision for Ku's future and planned to abdicate the throne to him instead of Mugen. Mugen is not happy about this, so he kills Jigo and seizes the throne.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: He dies in Hikari's arms after his fight with Mugen.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: His endless appetite for bloodshed and conquering, even when Oboro came up with a plan to minimize the number of casualties, is what drove Oboro and his sister into nihilism and joining the Moonshade Order.
  • Informed Attribute: Three years after the war, King Jigo is apparently so old and frail that he can barely lift a sword. Despite this, he singlehandedly defeats several of Mugen's men before Mugen himself kills him.
  • Like Father, Like Son: In his youth, he was just like Mugen, driven by ambition and bloodlust.
  • Love Redeems: If Mugen is to be believed, his relationship with Kura, Hikari's mother, is what ultimately softened him and led him down a more pacifistic path.
  • Offered the Crown: He asks Hikari to become king, despite Mugen being the heir apparent, because Jigo believes Mugen's bloodlust will bring Ku to ruin. Mugen is having none of this, so he kills Jigo and takes the throne himself.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Although Mugen is next in line to ascend to the throne, Jigo decides that Hikari would make a better king since he's much better with the townspeople.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His ambition for conquest in his earlier years caused Oboro and Ori to cross the Despair Event Horizon and join the Moonshade Order. Oboro would eventually willingly give his life to resurrect Vide the Wicked.

    Kura 
Hikari's mother. While deceased in the current day, she features in some of Hikari's flashbacks.
  • Deceased Parents Are the Best: She's been dead for years, and Hikari has nothing but fond memories of her.
  • Famous Ancestor: She's part of the Lumina bloodline, meaning she's descended from Aelfric, which also makes her distantly related to Alpates, Rita, and Elena. This is why Mugen wanted to have her killed.
  • Good Parents: She raised Hikari very lovingly.
  • Morality Pet: Implied to be one to Jigo, as Mugen claims that she softened him up.
  • Nice Girl: Like Hikari, she's shown to be very popular with Ku's citizens due to the fact that she spends time with them and is always kind and polite.

    Mikka Mishuyo 
Ritsu's younger sister.
  • Alliterative Name: Mikka Mishuyo.
  • Morality Pet: Ritsu's love for her is his most humanizing quality.
  • Ship Tease: She gets a bit with Pala during her lategame sidequest.
  • Workaholic: She takes Ritsu's death very badly. In her sidequest after Hikari's story, she's working herself to the bone trying to rebuild Ku just so she doesn't have to think about her grief.

Crossed Paths

    Alpates 
A treasure that Throné and Temenos search for in their Crossed Path, which turns out to be a person; the last of an ancient clan, in fact, who had been kept safe in the Flamechurch Cathedral by the Pontiff, and must now seek her destiny following his passing.
  • Bound and Gagged: Zigzagged in such a way that allows Throné and Temenos to realize what happened to her before her murder. Though her wrists and ankles were bound, the killer made no effort to gag her, meaning that she would have been in a location where crying for help would not avail her, and, more saliently, her killer had attempted to interrogate her.
  • Determinator: Implied. Despite her capture and subsequent interrogation, she never broke, which kept the location of both mirror fragments hidden from her assailant. In the end, the killer had to settle with silencing her and hoping she took her information to the grave.
  • Famous Ancestor: After the second half of his and Throné's side story, Temenos realizes that her clan is part of the Lumina bloodline, meaning she's descended from Aelfric.
  • Legacy Character: She claims that her tribe has passed down the name Alpates for generations.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: She suffers Character Death before the second half of Throné and Temenos' Crossed Path, but without the two of them meeting Alpates and following the clues she left behind, the party wouldn't have the mirror with which to re-ignite the Sacred Flames in the final chapter.

    Regulus 
An eccentric, absent-minded scholar and old colleague of Osvald. He seeks to create a telescope capable of observing the stars themselves.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: For all his eccentricities and odd behavior, he's a truly talented scholar and inventor and is indeed able to create a working telescope once he acquires the necessary funds and materials.
  • Forgets to Eat: He has a bad habit of getting so engrossed in his work that he goes entire days without eating. Partitio and Osvald first encounter him on the brink of starving to death.
  • Money Dumb: He is notoriously poor at handling his finances. He is first met after having blown all the money he had saved for his telescope project on gambling, and later own ended up having to take out a loan from a local gang who then proceeded to con him into giving them more and more money, and ultimately his telescope research, even after he had long since paid off the loan.

    Yomi (SPOILERS) 
A lute player who lost her sister when Mugen took the throne.
  • Duel Boss: She and Hikari duel in his and Agnea's second Crossed Path.
  • Family Honor: Yomi blames Clan Ku for her sister Tsuki's death and is willing to duel and die by Hikari's sword. Both Hikari and Agnea talk her out of it after the battle, and the three choose to honor Tsuki and all the lives that were lost through Yomi's song and Agnea's dance.
  • An Ice Person: She has a unique skill that she uses and Hikari can learn, named Forlorn Requiem, that deals ice damage to all enemies and can put them to sleep.
  • Meaningful Name: Her name, and that of her sister Tsuki, are a reference to Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, the Japanese goddess of the moon (whose name is sometimes spelled Tsukiyomi). Fittingly, during the first half of Hikari and Agnea's Crossed Path, Yomi plays for them in the light of a full moon.
  • Revenge Before Reason: She admits that Hikari personally is blameless for Tsuki's death, but given that he's the only remnant of Clan Ku, wanting him dead is all that Yomi has left to hold onto.

Antagonists

Ochette's Route

    The Dark Entity 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7783.gif
A strange, misshapen monster that suddenly attacks Ochette's village one night.
  • Animalistic Abomination: While it may look like a diseased bovine, it becomes clear during its boss fight just how wrong the Entity looks. Its entire body is misshapen, its head is capable of folding back into a massive toothed maw for when it uses its bite attack, and its "hooves" look more like mangled, misshapen human hands.
  • Clothing Damage: Scraps of blue cloth are attached to the monster's back. The last bits of Roi's priest robes, judging by the color.
  • Flunky Boss: It constantly summons Mini Darklings to help it throughout the fight.
  • Madness Mantra: As it dies, it repeats snippets of what Roi said in his final meeting with Temenos, further adding credence to the idea it's him.
  • Starter Villain: The first boss of Ochette's route.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Redeye from the first game. Just like Redeye, it's an unholy abomination that appears in the Hunter's route and used to be human. A difference is that it's a Starter Villain, whereas Redeye was an Arc Villain.
  • Tragic Monster: It's heavily implied to be a mutated Roi.
  • Was Once a Man: Is all but stated to be a mutated Roi, a priest of the Sacred Flame and close friend of Temenos who vanished while trying to dispose of the Darkblood Bow.

    The Darkling (SPOILERS) 

Akalā/Mahina, Lājackal/Malamaowl of the Sorrowful Moon

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Akalā’s Initial Form
Click here to see Akalā’s second phase
Click here to see Akalā’s third phase
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Mahina's Initial Form
Click here to see Mahina’s second phase
Click here to see Mahina’s third phase

One of two possible animal companions for Ochette: one becomes her loyal companion, the other runs away. The latter shows up during the Night of the Scarlet Moon, having been tortured for years into rage and insanity, and serves as Ochette's final boss.


  • Being Tortured Makes You Evil: For ten years, it was tortured by The Dark Hunter and Harvey in experiments. As a result, it's become violent, erratic, and insane with rage.
  • Body Horror: As the battle progresses, it becomes increasingly mutated; Akala grows tentacles from his body and his jaw becomes more fanged and lamprey-like, while Mahina's face becomes increasingly distorted and bloody.
  • Evil Makes You Monstrous: The evil energy Harvey used to torture it has turned what was originally a simple owl or jackal into an enormous and vicious monster.
  • Final Boss: Of Ochette's story.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Originally, both of them were normal (if gifted) animals. After being experimented on and tortured for a decade, they become powerful enough to oppose both Tera and Glacis.
  • HP to 1: Its preying attack reduces a traveler's HP to 1, and it will gain buffs and new skills based on the traveler it preys on. It will always prey on Ochette last and begin the final phase there, and the new attack it gains (and immediately boosts for) is an attack that reduces the entire party's HP to 1.
  • Ominous Owl: Mahina qualifies when she's the Darkling.
  • Peaceful in Death: After defeating it, Ochette sits with it and shares jerky with it, hoping to give it at least a little happiness and peace after its horrific life. It quiets when she does, implying she may have succeeded.
  • Power Copying: Its preying attack can get itself skills and abilities based on traveler it preys on, such as HP regeneration and status-inflicting attacks to mirror Castti's ability of healing and concoction, or the ability to take an extra action and use "Blacksnake" to give the team defense debuffs to mirror Throné's Latent Power and her abilities to inflict debuffs.
  • Scripted Battle: Right at the beginning of the battle, Acta will begin to make noises, and the game will force Ochette to act first, have full boosts, and summon Acta, which will then become Cateracta and give the team some buffs.
  • Tragic Monster: It was just an ordinary animal until Harvey got his hands on it. After ten years of torture, it's become a violent monster incapable of anything but mindlessly attacking everything around it. Both Ochette and her companion express horror and grief at its fate.
    Ochette: I can tell, you know. It wasn't really this wicked. Just hurt and suffering...for a long, long time.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: It's the biggest threat to Toto'haha when the Scarlet Moon arrives, but it's severely suffering from all the abuse it endured.

Castti's Route

    Veron and Doron 
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Top: Veron, Bottom: Doron
A pair of infected apes that broke into Canalbrine's water source, subsequently infecting the water with their disease.
  • Body Horror: Their bodies are covered in disgusting green growths to show how badly they're diseased.
  • Cannibalism Super Power: Once one of them is defeated, the other will cannibalize it and gain a significant power boost.
  • Dual Boss: They're both boss-level enemies that Castti fights at the same time.
  • Fat and Skinny: Veron is short and tubby, Doron lean and mean.
  • Lone Wolf Boss: While they're a random pair of infected apes that have no connection to the misdeeds of Eir's Apothecaries, they are integral for helping the townsfolk to trust Castti and her remembering her apothecary skills.
  • Starter Villain: The first bosses in Castti's route.
  • Uncertain Doom: It's unclear if Castti kills the one that cannibalizes its partner or just drives it off.

    Sand Lion 
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An enormous antlion Castti runs into in Sai. Driven to rage by the fighting above its territory.

    Plukk 
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The leader of a bandit gang recruited to act as muscle to intimidate Castti.
  • Call to Agriculture: She ends up working for Melia as a herb gardener after Castti's story concludes.
  • Crocodile Tears: After Castti's story, she writes to Melia claiming that she and her gang have renounced their ways — unfortunately for her, Melia is not fooled.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Even she found Bergomi selling women into slavery to be going too far.
  • Eye Scream: Her personal information reveals that she lost an eye as punishment for defending a friend of hers.
  • Hidden Depths: Turns out to enjoy her postgame job as a gardener for Melia, and information you get from her via path actions reveals that she used to dream of being a florist before she ended up as a prostitute and later a bandit. Mikk and Makk also have their own tragic backstories (ex-slave and whistleblower targeted for murder by his crooked boss, respectively).
  • Heel–Face Turn: She and her two flunkies do this when Melia offers to hire them as her gardeners, despite their rocky history.
  • More Deadly Than the Male: Compared to Greg, who hired her to intimidate Castti, Plukk is much more willing to attack her targets, something that Greg didn't take into account.
  • One Degree of Separation: As is revealed after Castti and Throné's stories, Plukk, Mikk, and Makk are actually members of the Snowhares, working under Bergomi, though they keep a notable distance from him, as he thoroughly disgusts them over the fact he participates in human trafficking. They seem to try to work as independently from the rest of the Snowhares as possible as a result.
  • The Starscream: Immediately betrays Greg who only wanted her to intimidate Castti and instead attacks her.
  • Taking the Fight Outside: While Castti encounters her inside a tavern, the actual boss fight takes place outside.
  • Wolfpack Boss: She's fought alongside two other named bandits who, while not quite boss level, are still very much Elite Mooks.

    The Plaguemaster (SPOILERS) 

Trousseau

Voiced By: Clifford Chapin (English)

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Initial Form
Click here to see his second phase
A former member of Eir's Apothecaries, Trousseau was a kindhearted, softspoken man until one fateful day he encountered a member of the Moonshade Order, who told him of the world's dark, bloodsoaked history. Driven irrevocably insane by this knowledge, Trousseau came to view life as pointless suffering, and now seeks to bring the "salvation" of death to as many as he can with a rain-spread poison.
It is revealed in the final chapter that the one who taught Trousseau the worst aspects of humanity, was Claude.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Castti mourns his death, even though she had to kill him to save thousands of lives from his poison rain.
  • Anti-Regeneration: He can use Hinder Healing to prevent a character to use healing abilities or even healing items. The affected character can still receive healing from other characters, though. This is very deliberate, as he's expected to fight Castti, whose latent power and class both give her access to a bevy of healing abilities. He's also likely to start his second phase off by using Hinder Healing directly on Castti.
  • Arc Villain: Of Castti's story.
  • Battle in the Rain: The battle with him takes place atop Timberain Castle, under a heavy downpour laced with poison.
  • Became Their Own Antithesis: He used to try his hardest to ease people's suffering, keeping them in good health and working tirelessly to treat people's illnesses. After his fall from grace, he seeks to ease people's suffering by killing them instead.
  • Beyond Redemption: Before fighting him, Castti admits that she had hoped that deep down, her former friend was still there, but is now convinced that he is gone forever and proceeds to use lethal force.
  • Broken Tears: Trousseau constantly sounds like he's about ten seconds away from breaking down sobbing, showing just how broken he's become.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: In the second phase of his battle, he gets more attacks and increases his shield value to 12, but he also increases the number of his weaknesses instead of reducing or reshuffling them, adding Sword, Staff and Lightning to the weaknesses. This makes it easier to break him than in the first phase. He also gets affected by the poison rain and loses max HP, but this won't affect the battle because his HP pool is too large anyways.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Miguel, the Arc Villain of the Apothecary's path in the original game. Both betray their respective protagonists and are eventually considered to be Beyond Redemption by them. However, Miguel was a psychopath who committed crimes for the sake of survival and the fun of it, while Trousseau is a broken man who failed to save his sister's life and was then taught the worst aspects of humanity, resulting in him falling into despair and killing people out of a misguided belief that death is the only way to save them from themselves. Thus, Trousseau is more pitiful than Miguel.
  • Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Used to emphasize his youth relative to Castti (she's twenty-nine to his twenty-four) and how utterly gone he is mentally by the time you fight him. He's always had a high voice for a man, but the unhinged glee that creeps in as he gives in to nihilism entirely and sees salvation in murder manages to make it even higher.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Before departing Healeaks, he reveals that he plans to create more poison clouds above Timberain when it holds a coronation, certain that his audience will all be dead long before then. However, because Malaya is able to save Castti at the cost of her own life, Castti is able to make it to Timberain in time to stop him.
  • Dying as Yourself: In reality, this is not the case, as his last words to Castti make it clear he has not seen the error of his ways, but her ending suggests she would like to believe he was freed of the Order's influence in death, or at least that she chooses to remember the kindhearted man he once was. In the To Absent Friends ending image of Castti's route, she is shown surrounded by smiling apparitions of her fallen comrades, including Trousseau, standing apart from the rest with his back turned yet still looking back at them with a gentle smile.
  • Evil Costume Switch: Formerly wearing the light blue uniform of Eir's Apothecaries, he now wears darker robes and a Plague Doctor mask to show his new purpose as a plaguemonger.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Castti. Both start their stories as healers, but while Castti has lost patients, she has the strength to carry on and keep working to save the next person. Trousseau, though he buries his feelings, is stuck on the fact he couldn't save his sister from her illness and cannot save Rosa's life either. Castti uses her great medical knowledge to mend and heal all around her, without even meaning to make people better characters. Trousseau uses his medical knowledge to craft a poison that results in a slow and painful death to those who are exposed over time. Both looked at the book of all the world's evils, but where Castti walked away with her heart untouched, Trousseau broke and gave into despair.
    • Could also be seen as one for Edmund. Edmund was initially a Jerkass but ultimately became a better person thanks to Castti’s (positive) influence. Trousseau went the other way around, beginning as a kind and selfless apothecary, only to then become an Omnicidal Maniac after Claude and his Book Of Night influenced him negatively. The climax of Castii's story involves Edmund helping her to protect innocents from the poisoned rain while Trousseau seeks to murder everyone in Timberain.
  • Fallen Hero: He used to be an exceptionally kind apothecary, but exposure to the teachings of the Moonshade Order caused him to lose all hope in humanity and fall into evil.
  • Fatal Flaw: Heavily implied to be his purity and naïvete in regards to his profession. He is everything Alfyn was in the previous game, but unlike Alfyn, he couldn't find his footing again after his first test of character. As an apothecary, it was an inevitability that, at some point, he was going to be challenged with the fact there was going to be a patient he couldn't save, and his lack of maturity on the matter causes him to break down at the loss of his patients. This means he fell hard when he was introduced to the Book of Night, unlike Castti, whose emotional maturity and ability to deal with loss meant the book did nothing to her, and Tanzy, who, while still negatively affected by the tome, never knowingly sank to Trousseau's maddening, nihilistic depths. The rest was history — a decisive collision with Castti's party was an inevitability.
  • Final Boss: Of Castti’s story.
  • Fixed Damage Attack: His Prickly Tonic deals a fixed 1000 damage to the party.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Learning just how dark and rotten the world's history is caused him to snap completely. He outright calls the world a "diseased, decayed carcass", with humanity little more than maggots feasting on its remains.
  • Herd-Hitting Attack: He doesn't hit hard, but his damage is consistent, and he generally hits everyone on the field. This is to help facilitate the major gimmick of his fight, since he's aiming for the party (especially Castti, who he is guaranteed to fight against) to waste its time healing off the damage and status afflictions he sets up so they're slowly whittled down by the rain.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: He is killed by his own poison rain after his Plague Doctor mask is broken during his battle against Castti.
  • Hypocrite: He believes that death is salvation and living is suffering, yet he chides Castti for being willing to use lethal force against him, rather than thanking her by his own twisted logic. Granted, he could have just been taunting her.
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Back when he was still sane, he blamed himself for his little sister's death, and tried to save Rosa's life as a way of partially making up for failing to save his sister.
  • Laughing Mad: Tends to slip into maniacal laughter often, following his descent and corruption.
  • Master Poisoner: After his descent to madness, he utilized his medical knowledge to become this.
  • Meaningful Name: His name has quite a few meanings attached to it:
    • The word "trousseau" in French alludes to a key ring. In Castti's story, he is the one responsible for her predicament and, ultimately, holds the keys to her lost memories, as remembering what he did is what allowed her to recover said memories.
    • Armand Trousseau was a French doctor who lived in the 19th century. He was once appointed by the government to investigate epidemics caused by the yellow fever. The game's Trousseau inherits his name and profession, but is the cause of a fatal epidemic.
    • Trousseau's syndrome is a medical sign involving episodes of vessel inflammation due to blood clot which are recurrent or appearing in different locations over time, most of the time associated with some cancers. In the game, Trousseau's victims show signs of black swelling all over their bodies, as well as coughing blood, signs that Castti recognizes as potential poisoning.
  • Nice Guy: Tragically used to be this, but learning about the darkest depths of humanity drove him to genocidal nihilism, to the point that Castti bitterly concludes that he is Beyond Redemption.
  • Pure Is Not Good: He was said to be the kindest and the purest among Eir's Apothecaries. Malaya points out to Castti during a Chapter 3 flashback that being as pure as he is, this made Trousseau susceptible to corruption following his encounter with the Moonshade Order.
  • Plague Doctor: Wears a mask to resemble one to protect himself from the poisonous rain he creates.
  • Put Them All Out of My Misery: After losing his mind and falling headlong into a Despair Event Horizon, Trousseau comes to the conclusion that the only way to save the world is to kill everyone in it.
  • Shadow Archetype:
    • To Castti, embodying what she might become if she ever gives up on life and on her resolve to help people in spite of the inevitability of suffering and death.
    • To Alfyn, Castti's counterpart from the first game. Like Trousseau, Alfyn was idealistic to a fault and had his resolve severely shaken when he made the serious mistake of saving the life of a murderous criminal without taking precautions, similar to how Trousseau failed to save his young sister's life despite believing it was his duty as an apothecary to do so; but while Alfyn was eventually able to find his way back to his ideals, Trousseau gave up on not only his ideals, but life itself after being exposed to the nihilistic teachings of the Moonshade Order, becoming the monster he ultimately died as.
  • Start of Darkness: Though the Book of Night was what ultimately broke him, it's implied, given Castti was right there with him when the Book of Night was shown to him, that there was a catalyst that allowed the book to be as effective as it was. It's heavily implied that Trousseau's purity meant that his inability to save a few people, such as his sister, despite being an apothecary hit him far harder than it would with anyone else, though it's ultimately left ambiguous if this was really a part of his fall.
  • Status Infliction Attack: Like Kaldena below, his fighting style also revolves around status affliction, though in Trousseau's case it's a matter of wearing down the clock as a form of defeating his foes in the long game — he's knocking out his opponents so the rain will get to them in the long run, since he has less to fear from it than the party does.
  • Straw Nihilist: His encounter with Vide the Wicked's cult caused him to become just as bitterly nihilistic about the world and humanity as they are.
  • Time-Limit Boss: The fight begins with his poison rain draining the party's max HP, and it grows more intense during the second phase of the fight. The longer the fight drags on, the less effective any healing will eventually become, and once the party falls below 1000 HP, his Fixed Damage Attack will be a guaranteed wipe.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After beating his first phase and shattering his Plague Doctor mask, he flies into a rage, demanding to know why Castti is fighting so hard to save people who are just going to continue suffering and experience pain and loss until their inevitable deaths.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Willing to kill any and everybody, but he specifically kills two children he used to take care of in Healeaks in order to lure the rest of the villagers to their deaths.

Throné's Route

    Mother and Father 

Voiced By: Tomie Kataoka (Mother, Japanese) Meli Grant (Mother, English), Kenyuu Horiuchi (Father, Japanese), D.C. Douglas (Father, English)

The two leaders of the Blacksnakes who have groomed Throné and the others into doing their bidding.


Tropes that apply to both:

  • Abusive Parents: Both of them, but in different ways. Mother is more physically abusive with her punishments being whipping her "children" for failing her, while Father uses his words to mold them into the thieves they are today. They also forced poisoned collars onto their "children".
  • Co-Dragons: They are Claude's highest-ranking minions.
  • Faux Affably Evil:
    • Mother will go from displaying fake affection towards the Blacksnake members to sadistically whipping them at the drop of a hat. When Pirro tries to take the blame for a failed mission in Throné's place, Mother compliments him for his nobility before whipping him as well. This is played for horror in her Orphanage of Fear, since she uses a combination of praise and brutal whipping to make the young Blacksnakes fanatically loyal and dependent on her for validation.
    • Father is a more downplayed case, as while he's not as sadistic as Mother and comes off as more reasonable towards the rank-and-file Blacksnakes, he's willing to set them up to kill each other in order to create a successor. He's genuinely Affably Evil towards Throné and Marietta and wants Throné to surpass him, but it's clear he doesn't care about the other Blacksnakes beyond being fodder to make Throné stronger.
  • Foil: To each other. Mother is physically abusive while Father prefers mind games. Mother is sadistic while Father, though bloodthirsty, would rather provide instant death. Mother hated Throné and her real mother while Father genuinely loved both.
  • Hate Sink: They manipulated their "children" into killing each other. Later subverted with Father, as the story reveals his Freudian Excuse and that he truly loved Throné. Played Straight all the way through with Mother.
  • It's Personal: Mother set up the previous head of the Blacksnakes to be killed by Father so that Mother could take control of the Blacksnakes. Meanwhile, Father killed the head of the Blacksnakes because she left him for another man and killed her and Father's child.
  • Jerkass: While both of them are unpleasant people, Mother is much more antagonistic, insulting and hurting without any remorse.
  • Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: Mother set things up so Father would kill Marietta, previous head of the Blacksnakes, in order to sieze control of the guild for themselves, then Father raised and groomed her daughter Throné into becoming an assassin within the guild.
  • The Starscream: They overthrew the previous leader of the Blacksnakes, none other than Throné’s birth mother.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They have a lot in common with Helgenish from the first game. They all took in girls who are one of the protagonists, but rather than raise them with genuine love and care, they made them do a lot of dirty work. And just like Helgenish, they are nothing more than lackeys to the true leader of the Blacksnakes, Claude. Mother in particular fulfills the role of a Helgenish substitute, since she's a sociopath, dresses in red and black, and has no redeeming qualities, unlike Father, who is a Death Seeker with a Dark and Troubled Past and genuinely loves Throné in spite of their twisted relationship.
  • The Syndicate: The leaders of the Blacksnakes, a group of assassins with a stronghold on New Delsta.
  • Unnamed Parent: The Blacksnakes only know their "parents" as Father and Mother. However, Chapter 3 reveals Father's real name to be Sebastian.
  • Villainous Valour: Interestingly, this usually sympathetic trope is Inverted between the two. While Father is generally the more sympathetic of the two, his fight—including his battle cry of "My heart's all dried up!"—is less about his own courage in the face of danger and more an admittance that he has basically nothing left to live for except battle itself. Mother, on the other hand—in her one redeeming quality—openly admits that she sees the fight with Throné as merely a continuation of the "battle of successors" that she herself won against Throné's own mother Marietta so many years ago; while Mother clearly doesn't want to lose, she doesn't view Throné's actions in a particularly negative light, and fights bravely when pressed against the wall.

Mother

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7803.gif
  • Asshole Victim: The only one to mourn her death was a child she essentially brainwashed.
  • Defiant to the End: When she dies, she spends her last moments reaffirming her hatred for Throné and her mother.
  • Fan Disservice: Her battle sprite shows she has a pair of breasts almost as big as her head, but she's otherwise a fat, ugly, and cruel woman.
  • Fat Bitch: She is certainly round, and is much more unpleasant than Father.
  • Females Are More Innocent: Inverted; she is nastier than Father. Mother directly abuses the Snakes for their failures and beats children in her care to be submissive thieves.
  • Obviously Evil: She dresses in red and black, and her makeup makes her look like the Joker (especially in her battle sprite).
  • One Bad Mother: She's one of the cruelest characters in the game, and she's only ever referred to as "Mother."
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: She wears a red dress, a black bra and boots, and is a heartless woman.
  • Sadist: She relishes in causing pain to her "children" with her whip, as shown when she whips Throné and Pirro. She also gets pissed off when Throné doesn't cry out in pain.
  • The Sociopath: She has no empathy, views lower-ranking Blacksnakes as her slaves, and puts on an affectionate façade towards her "slaves" before physically abusing them for the pettiest of reasons and for stimulation.
  • Tempting Fate: She tells Throné that she can take the key to the collar "from her cold, dead body". Throné gladly obliges and kills her on the spot, despite Mira's protests.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: She owns and runs an orphanage in Wellspring that's backed by the local monastery and seems to be looked upon favorably in the town. This is all a front to the hideous woman she is and the fact that the orphanage is trafficking children to be the next generation of Blacksnakes.
  • Whip of Dominance: She wields a whip that she uses to punish Snakes who either disobey her or fail in their missions and uses it in her Orphanage of Fear to keep the children she raises there in line. She also imbues the whip with darkness in her boss fight to inflict status debuffs on the party. In the first chapter of her story, Throné explains that she had been whipped so many times by Mother that she no longer feels pain.
  • Would Hurt a Child: She frequently whips the children she's training as thieves and assassins if they fail to please her or show disobedience. Throné has been whipped so often from such a young age she doesn't even feel pain anymore.

Father

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7804.gif

  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Downplayed. After Bergomi's defeat, Throné is about to kill him when he throws a knife into her back. He then finishes the job while she's incapacitated.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Father (whose real name is Sebastian) became a thief at a very young age before leaving to join the Blacksnakes when he turned 17. After joining, he met Marietta and fell in love with her, even running away with her. When she was revealed to be pregnant with his child, Sebastian proposed to her and prepared to leave his thieving ways behind him. Tragically, Claude wooed Marietta away from Sebastian, even killing their baby so he could have her all to himself. It's heavily implied that Mother made Sebastian think that Marietta killed his child, so he killed her in revenge and went on to become Father, the leader of the Blacksnakes. Now he's a broken man who wants to die.
  • Death Seeker: After how much of his life has been terrible, he admits to Throné in their last battle that the reason he took such interest in raising her to kill was so he could die at her hands.
  • Dual Wielding: He fights using two daggers.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He did genuinely care about Throné. It's revealed that he even wishes he was her biological father.
  • Freudian Excuse: He used to be a relatively sane man who himself desired to escape the Blacksnakes and elope with Throné's mother and raise their child, until she left him for Throné's father and murdered the baby they'd had together.
  • I Call It "Vera": The dagger he drops upon defeat is called "Marietta," in honor of Throné's birth mother.
  • In Love with Your Carnage: He claims to have fallen in love with Marietta from looking at the corpse of a man she murdered - in his own words, the stab wound was unlike anything he'd ever seen before, as if a goddess had wielded the blade that killed him.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Subverted. Before his boss fight, Father tells the story of how he and Marrietta met each other as well as her revealing that she is pregnant. At first, Throné assumes that Father is revealing that he really is her biological father, but then he states that it’s not the case and that his real child was killed shortly after birth.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He relies more on using his mind games to get the guild members to do what he and Mother want. And then, they trick Throné, Pirro and Scaracci into killing each other to see who their successor will be.
  • One-Hit Kill: He has a few abilities that can instantly KO a traveler. Killing Blow will instantly KO a traveler when their HP is below 50% (indicated by them being covered in a bloody cloud), though he will only use it if a traveler is in the right condition. When he unleashes a charged attack, he'll KO a traveler regardless of their HP.
  • Papa Wolf: Mother reveals that Throné has always been under his protection since she joined the Blacksnakes. Despite Mother hating Throné's birthmother, she never tried to kill Throné until Throné came to kill Mother because Father made it clear he would kill Mother in retribution.
  • Parental Favoritism: Throné's status as his favorite child is not a secret amongst the Blacksnakes. Her being the daughter of the woman he loved has a lot to do with it.
  • Peaceful in Death: When Throné asks while he's dying if she can call him "Dad", Father remarks he's "finally become a real parent" and dies content.
  • Pet the Dog: While Mother always hated Throné, his last moments demonstrate that he genuinely loves her and wishes she was his true daughter.
  • Psycho Knife Nut: The man is practically obsessed with knives, quoting his skill with daggers as his biggest treasure and taking most of his time with Throné to teach her how to use them. It was bad enough that he fell in love with another thief because she was really, really good at stabbing people. And obviously, he's a tad unstable.
  • Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: He goads Throné to kill him with everything she’s got.
  • Sympathetic Murderer: By the time Throné confronts him, it's made clear that he's a very heartbroken man who has nothing left to live for, even acknowledging the only thing that reminds him he's still alive is when he takes another life.
  • Walking Armory: He carries dozens of knives on him, with his coat alone being lined up with so many shivs that it's hard to count them.

    The Slaver 
A mysterious member of the Blacksnakes who runs a slave-trading ring in Oresrush. Throné meets him while looking for Mother.
  • Cutscene Boss: Throné doesn't fight him, as he admits he's no good in a fight — instead, she plays Russian Roulette with him. It's still possible to lose to him, however, as the player has to make the final choice of which cup to pick, although the interface makes it clear which one is the wrong decision.
  • Graceful Loser: He accepts his defeat at Russian Roulette and even proceeds to drink the deadly poison as the rule demands even though Throné likely would have spared him once he reveals the location of Mother.
  • Honor Before Reason: He already knows which cup is poisoned due to his keen nose, but he doesn't drink twice in a row despite how doing so would leave Throné with the poisoned cup, since he wants to test her. This is after Throné already established that drinking twice in a row is within the rules.
  • Karmic Death: He succumbs to the same poison that has killed countless people at the foundry — a poison that he himself says causes a slow, painful death.
  • No Name Given: He's only ever referred to as "the Slaver".
  • Russian Roulette: He forces his slaves to play this for others' amusement, but with poisoned chalices instead of a gun.
  • Villains Never Lie: His one redeeming virtue, strangely enough. When he recognizes Throné is a Blacksnake like himself, he abides by his earlier promise to tell her where Mother went, even voluntarily drinking his own poisoned cup to prove he's serious.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: He is introduced and killed off in the same (short) chapter.

    Bergomi 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7806.gif
The leader of the Snowhares, a thieves' guild in Winterbloom. Throné ends up fighting him while searching for Father.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After Throné defeats him, he promises to do anything she would want of him, even offering to lick her shoes (the bottoms of them, even!).
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: His attempt at breaking things off with the Blacksnakes simply led to him getting killed by Throné and Father.
  • Human Traffickers: A woman that Throné meets says the Snowhares plan on selling her into slavery.
  • One Degree of Separation: He's the boss of Plukk, Mikk, and Makk, though it's implied that relations between him and the trio are on ice given his willingness to sell people.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: He broke the Snowhares' alliance with the Blacksnakes because he thinks the Blacksnakes are old hat and he'd find stronger allies.

    The Progenitor (SPOILERS) 

Claude

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7805.gif
The Ageless man who founded the Blacksnakes. Having grown tired of his eternal life, he wished to leave behind a legacy in the world by siring countless children with many women. He then used the Blacksnakes to weed out the unworthy ones in hopes that one would become strong enough to kill him so he could obtain freedom.

It is revealed in the final chapter that Claude was exposed to the blood of Vide the Wicked by his grandfather, D'arqest, while in the womb. He was intended to be a vessel for Vide the Wicked, but he decided to pass that role over to the above-mentioned heir.


  • Abusive Parents: Had no problem making his children engage in battle royale for the goal of weeding out "unworthy" ones.
  • The Ageless: He does not age because he carries the blood of Vide in his veins, but he can still be killed by unnatural causes.
  • Arc Villain: The true main villain of Throné's storyline.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Throné tracking him down and killing him is exactly what he wants, and in the end is what he gets. Despite Throné not wanting anything to do with being his successor, Claude is nevertheless content with one of his children finally being strong enough to kill him.
  • The Casanova: He's a giant lech who has slept with countless women both for his own carnal pleasure and to make his perfect heir, and he has no problems wooing them away from their partners, as Father found out the hard way.
  • Chain Pain: He wields a long chain, and it's wrapped around the baby he's holding in his boss sprite.
  • The Corrupter: He's the one responsible for Trousseau's fall into misanthropic insanity by showing him the Book of Night.
  • Dirty Old Man: An unusually attractive example. In her journal, Ori describes an instance where Claude "looked [her] up and down", "as if he was seeking to plant a murderous seed inside [her], too."
  • Evil Counterpart: To Throné. Both are born and raised with the expectation of inheriting a position an elder in their lives wants for them. Claude is expected to be Vide's vessel as set up by his grandfather D'arqest while Throné is tapped by Father to inherit his position in the Blacksnakes, and later by Claude to take his place as Vide's vessel. Both Claude and Throné fight these plans set forth, but where Throné aims to minimize the people she must kill to gain her freedom, Claude doesn't care how many children he has to father in order for one of them to become strong enough to kill him. Throné has the courage to face her challenges head-on, where Claude wants to die but lacks the courage to just take his own life. Throné forges her path with her own hands, where Claude hides in the shadows and uses others to accomplish his goals.
  • Expy: He looks strikingly similar to Sephiroth, what with his long, silvery hair and flowing trench coat. Though it's white instead of black.
  • Fan Disservice: His battle sprite makes it apparent that he's an attractive man who leaves his shirt open, exposing a muscular build. He's also a sick psychopath and an implied rapist.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He is nothing but polite and courteous to Throné during the final confrontation, which just makes his sheer sadism all the more unsettling.
  • Final Boss: Of Throné’s story.
  • Four Is Death: Four of his children make their way to him. The fourth one is the one to kill him.
  • Glory Hound: Besides finding a new, suitable host for Vide, everything he does is for the sake of ensuring that his name is remembered by history, with no regard for the abhorrence he puts his children through. He succeeds.
  • Graceful Loser: After the battle, he welcomes his loss to Throné, content that he has finally found the worthy heir.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Of Castti's story, being the one who drove Trousseau mad to begin with.
  • Hate Sink: Claude is undoubtedly one of the most vile antagonists in any Octopath game. His multiple atrocious actions include:
    • Fathering multiple children to watch them kill each other and be subjected to inhumane cruelty.
    • Stole Marietta away from Father, so he could have her for himself.
    • Implied to have raped many women to further his goals.
    • Shows no remorse and takes sadistic pleasure in the suffering of his children, not caring at all of the cruelty they endure
    • Treating his children as nothing more than pawns for his own ego
  • Immortality Immorality: Used his eternal youth to father an organization of assassins that would kill each other so that the strongest one could end his own life.
  • Immortality Promiscuity: By his own admission, Claude purposely impregnated countless women over his very, very long lifetime.
  • Kavorka Man: Downplayed in that he isn't conventionally unattractive, but is instead Obviously Evil in terms of personality. Claude has a long list of romantic conquests, sometimes even wooing women away from their existing partners, despite being a depraved maniac and making no effort to hide it.
  • Lack of Empathy: He does not care that what he makes his children go through is inhumanly cruel and traumatizing.
  • Lazy Bum: He manipulates the rest of the Blacksnakes from the shadows instead of getting his own hands dirty, using Mother and Father (and before them, Marietta) to enforce his will.
  • Light Is Not Good: Claude wears white-colored clothing and has white hair, but is a cruel psychopath and a sadist. This contrasts him with his dark-colored daughter, Throné.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: And not content with leaving it at that, he reveals himself to be the father of every major character in Throné's story. The sheer insanity of that reveal leaves the usually unflappable woman completely freaked out.
  • The Man Behind the Man: The true leader of the Blacksnakes, with Mother and Father as his Co-Dragons.
  • Master of Illusion: During his boss fight, he's able to create illusions of Pirro, Mother, Father, Marietta, and Throné herself.
  • Offing the Offspring: 3 of his children have fought him before Throné's arrival, and all 3 were killed by him.
  • Orcus on His Throne: He doesn't directly get involved in Throné's path until she kills Mother and Father, at which point he writes a message on Pirro's gravestone giving her a hint to his whereabouts and waits for her to find him.
  • Really Gets Around: A lot of characters in Throné's story, including Throné herself, are revealed to be his children. Claude personally confirms that he fathered Pirro, Scaracci, Donnie, Mother, and Father, and refers to the Blacksnakes as a whole as his "children." Evidently, he had no intention of slowing down, because he is introduced holding a baby, who can even be seen in his boss sprite.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Being exposed to the blood of Vide the Wicked by his grandfather during conception has rendered him semi-immortal. He has lived for decades past the natural lifespan of humans, if not centuries.
  • Sadist: He gets joy from making his children fight to the death and from all the agony Throné suffers from upon realizing the truth about her father.
  • The Sociopath: Claude is easily one of the most twisted antagonists in the entire series. He fathers a clan of half-siblings that are raised by his subordinates to be assassins from birth, forces them to kill each other to determine who's the strongest, and it's even implied that many of his children were conceived by rape. To top it off, he does not care that his children have suffered inhumane cruelty.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: With Pirro. Throné even mistakes him for Pirro when she first meets him. This also applies to the masked boy in Oresrush, as Throné also notes his resemblance to Pirro.
  • Supernaturally Young Parent: Of the immortal variety.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Simeon from the first game. Just like Simeon, he is the Arc Villain of the darkest story, is the founder and leader of a criminal organization, has white hair, and is a twisted Sadist who has caused no end of misery to his victims and relishes every single moment of it. He manages to be even worse than Simeon as most of his victims are his own biological children.
  • Villain Takes an Interest: According to Ori's journal, he was disappointed, despite bringing Trousseau to their side, because he wasn't also able to persuade Castti to join them. Ori notes that he took an interest in her compassion and "motherly strength." Claude being Claude, it's possible he was more disappointed that he couldn't get her in his bed than anything else.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: He has white hair and is a sickeningly cruel psychopath.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: He decided that eternal life was too much to handle, so he went about fixing that problem in an extremely twisted way.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He murdered the child Marietta had with Father, purely to sever any remaining ties she had with Father so he could have her all to himself. He also has a chain wrapped around the baby he holds in his battle.

Osvald's Route

    Warden Davids 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7819.gif
The Warden of Frigit Isle, who takes joy in overworking and beating the prisoners when they act out of line.
  • An Ice Person: He's actually a fairly competent caster, having powerful ice spells at his disposal. This could help explain why he's not as bothered by all the cold.
  • Arc Villain: The main antagonist of Osvald's first chapter.
  • Badass Boast: When Osvald stands up to him after Emerald unlocks the muzzle, he is amused.
    Warden Davids: Ohoho! You're not the first, you know. I've seen countless like you. So many have tried, and every last one died a tragic death. And so it would be my honor to put you back in your place!
  • Character Death: Returning to Frigit Isle after completing Osvald's story and speaking with visiting inspectors investigating the prison guards' corruption reveal that Warden Davids died at some point after Osvald's escape.
  • Jerkass: He sees the prisoners as akin to animals, and treats them about as well as you'd expect. Granted, they are criminals, but still...
  • Smarter Than You Look: During the climax of Osvald's first chapter, he reveals that he was onto his escape plan from the very beginning, and kept tabs on all of the prisoners who could have served as his accomplices. And considering the fact that Osvald ruefully admits he's underestimated him, you definitely wouldn't think he was that savvy. To play into it further, his boss fight shows he's even an accomplished mage, something it's implied he kept under wraps just in case something like this ever happened so that his ice magic can serve as an ace in the hole.
  • Starter Villain: The first boss in Osvald's route.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: As if being Smarter Than He Looks isn't bad enough for Osvald and Emerald, he's among the most difficult Chapter 1 bosses in the game, mostly because of Osvald's SP-reliant playstyle and not having access to decent equipment at the time, what with being locked up in prison and all.
  • Wardens Are Evil: He's a sadistic brute that gets joy from punishing his prisoners.

    Captain Stenvar 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7820.gif
The corrupt captain of the guard in Conning Creek. He aided Harvey in framing Osvald for the murder of his wife and daughter in exchange for coin.
  • Arc Villain: The main antagonist of Osvald's third chapter.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: He's introduced in a flashback at the beginning of Osvald's Chapter 2, and turns out to have been a valuable player in framing Osvald for the murder of his family.
  • Dirty Cop: A corrupt guard captain who took a bribe in exchange for helping to get Osvald framed for murder, and has one of his subordinates killed because He Knows Too Much.
  • Evil Is Petty: He aided Harvey in framing Osvald for the murder of his wife and daughter because... money.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He never drops a civil persona during his confrontation with Osvald until his defeat.
  • Hate Sink: Given that he helped Harvey ruin Osvald's life purely out of greed and that talking to the citizens reveals that nobody had anything nice to say about him, it's made clear that he's not meant to be likable in the slightest.
  • Hit Them In The Pocket Book: After his defeat, Osvald uses his fire magic to burn down the treasury where his ill-gotten wealth is stored.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: He helped frame Osvald for murder in exchange for coin. After losing his battle against Osvald, Osvald decides that his life isn't worth taking and contents himself with using his fire magic to burn all his money to ash.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: Clarissa believed that he killed her husband, whose death was reported as a suicide, for trying to uncover the truth behind Osvald's sentencing.
  • Not Worth Killing: Osvald decides that taking his life isn't worth it, and decides to burn all his money instead.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He plays a major role in Osvald being framed for murder, but is discarded by the plot after the latter's third chapter.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of AlbusWho? from the first game, being a corrupt guard-captain in league with the Arc Villain.
  • Villains Want Mercy: Upon being defeated by Osvald, he begs for his life and acquiesces to all Osvald's demands.
    • During the battle against him, when he runs out of summons and is low on HP, he may even beg for his life and give you leaves with no downsides or scary follow-up attacks!
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: He is not seen or mentioned again after his defeat, even after completing Osvald's story.

    The Grieving Golem 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7821.gif
A monster created by Harvey through his experiments into researching the One True Magic. It attacks Osvald when he confronts Harvey in his secret lab.
  • Climax Boss: It is the boss of Osvald's penultimate chapter, and its appearance and defeat pave the way for some major reveals.
  • It Can Think: The Grieving Golem isn't entirely mindless despite its current state and the fact it's simply made from the blood of Rita. If brought to its last legs but not killed outright, it will use a viciously powerful attack that will almost certainly take out anyone in the party that isn't built for high HP or defense, and then cry after seeing what it has just done. Its next action, if not taken out, is to self-destruct in agony.
  • Staking the Loved One: Subverted. Harvey wants Osvald to think that the golem is Rita, but Osvald realizes after the battle that it wasn't really her.
  • Tragic Monster: As Harvey gleefully reveals, the golem is created using the blood of Rita, Osvald's wife, which somehow imparted some of her characteristics to it.
  • Was Once a Man: Subverted. Osvald initially suspects that it may be a mutated form of his wife, Rita, but realizes that it is simply created using her blood and lacks her soul.
  • Walking Spoiler: It's all but impossible to discuss the Grieving Golem without spoiling what really happened to Osvald's wife and daughter.

    Professor Harvey 

Voiced By: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Craig Lee Thomas (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7822.gif
Initial Form
Click here to see him chanting
Osvald's former scholar partner, who grew distasteful of being inferior to Osvald and ended up killing Osvald's family and stealing his research for the One True Magic to take the credit.
  • Abusive Parents: He brainwashes Elena into believing he was her father, but he's still willing to use her for his blood magic.
  • Always Second Best: He felt this way towards Osvald, driving him envious enough to murder Osvald's family.
  • Arc Villain: Of Osvald's route, being the one who killed Osvald's family and framed him for the murder.
  • Ax-Crazy: When charging up power to use his source of the One True Magic, he has a murderously insane expression on his face. His willingness to work with a cult that wants to end the entire world just for the chance to one-up Osvald is another giveaway that he is not right in the head.
  • Bad People Abuse Animals: The final chapter reveals that after the beast Ochette doesn't choose as her starting companion was possessed by Vide's power and ran off, Harvey captured it and conducted torturous experiments on it in order to turn it into a Darkling that the Moonshade Order could use for their plans. Ori notes in her journal that Harvey took a deeply sadistic enjoyment in torturing the beast.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's capable of acting like a civilized and cultured gentleman, but it's a façade to conceal an extremely cruel person.
  • Blood Magic: His particular field of interest is the blood of monsters, believing that it would lead him to the One True Magic, harkening back to Gideon, another sociopathic scholar from the first Octopath Traveler who was infamous for kidnapping people for their blood for his own experiments. In Osvald's Chapter 4, his many experiments involve creating chimeras through blood combinations, which Osvald reveals is a forbidden practice, as well as using Rita's blood, as a Lumina, to power the Grieving Golem and eventually use a brainwashed Elena's blood to master Shadow magic.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: An unabashed Sadist who openly relishes every moment of emotional pain he puts Osvald through. He even says "This is the apex of evil!" when casting level one of his source of the One True Magic.
  • Childish Villain, Mature Hero: With Osvald; Harvey is a Psychopathic Manchild compared to Osvald's more reserved, Deadpan Snarker nature.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Lucia, the Arc Villain opposing the first game's Scholar character. Lucia was a cold woman who rarely raised her voice, sought to become immortal so she could hoard knowledge for the sake of feeling superior to everyone, was a tactical mastermind who could plan ahead for many years and be prepared for interference with her plans, and wasn't sadistic. Harvey is a hammy man who regularly raises his voice to chew the scenery, seeks the power of the One True Magic to satisfy his unhealthy obsession with one-upping a specific individual, shoots himself in the foot by letting him survive multiple times just so he can emotionally torture him, and is extremely sadistic.
  • Driven by Envy: What caused him to kill Osvald's family and frame him with the crime so that Harvey would become a better scholar by continuing the research on the One True Magic. In fact, Harvey actually bribed the judges to sentence Osvald to life imprisonment instead of execution, because he wanted to show off the results of his research on the One True Magic to Osvald once the latter inevitably escaped. His hatred and envy of Osvald runs so deep, that he's fine with aiding a world-destroying cult even if it means besting him.
  • Evil Counterpart:
  • Evil Genius: His intellect can rival Osvald's, but he uses it for wicked purposes.
  • Evil Is Hammy: When not pretending to be normal, practically every line out of his mouth is delivered as gloriously bombastically as possible.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: He continues to wield the Shadow even when it's clear he can't fully control it. It eventually blows him up, fatally in the Japanese version.
  • Evil Is Petty: Exaggerated. Almost all of his actions are done purely to spite Osvald.
  • Evil Redhead: He has red hair and is an absolute psychopath.
  • Evilutionary Biologist: His method of unlocking the One True Magic was studying the biology of beasts and humans. He also used this knowledge to turn Akalā/Mahina into the Darkling of the Sorrowful Moon.
  • Expy: Between his Japanese voice actor, his utter cruelty toward Osvald, and even the pose he takes during his boss fight, Harvey takes a lot of inspiration from Dio Brando.
  • Fatal Flaw: He has a few.
  • False Friend: Back when he and Osvald first met, he was already hiding his malice underneath a pretense of friendship. It's clear he only put up the act in order to steal Osvald's research in the long run.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He can act friendly, but it hides how very much batshit insane he is.
  • Final Boss: Of Osvald’s story.
  • Foil: To Osvald. They are both scholars driven by unhealthy emotions (envy for Harvey, revenge for Osvald), but Harvey never gets over his envy, unlike Osvald.
  • For the Evulz: Many of his actions are spurred on by a childish, petty hatred of Osvald and a resulting desire to make him suffer. Hence, a lot of the steps he takes in his plan to acquire the One True Magic take special care to specifically torment Osvald, because Harvey takes pleasure in Osvald's misfortune. The Grieving Golem, for example, was made in part to force a battle with Osvald where Osvald would think he was fighting and killing his wife. He didn't need to keep the Grieving Golem around and he knew Osvald was coming anyway, so he could have just moved to the final phase of his plan, but waited to do so just to stick it to Osvald. This is a major aspect of his undoing, because all the extraneous steps he takes to torture Osvald means he gives Osvald several opportunities to get back up and chase him down again. Endangering Elena to break Osvald is what gives Osvald access to the One True Magic.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Of Ochette's story. He helped the Dark Hunter capture the beast Ochette didn't choose as her starter companion, and his experiments on it turned it into the monster that becomes the Final Boss of Ochette's story.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: His envy of Osvald's intellect transforms into an obsession with making him suffer and delight in doing so.
  • Hate Sink: Easily one of the most despicable villains in the game, since he combines the jealousy and treachery of Darius, the obsessive sadism of Simeon, and the callous pursuit of knowledge of Lucia, all in one nasty package. See the Mad Scientist entry below. It says a lot when even one of the overarching villains whose goal is to destroy the world is disgusted by his actions and wishes to keep her distance from him as far as possible. He's so bad that Partitio of all people will actually support Osvald's goal of revenge in a travel banter.
  • His Own Worst Enemy: In point of fact, Harvey is a brilliant scientist whose greatest achievements takes the magical world of Solistia by storm. Even if he had to steal much of Osvald's research to claim the One True Magic, he was exceptional in his own right. However, he wastes all his potential and intellect on tormenting someone who was willing to help him due to a debilitating inferiority complex. Ultimately, what does Harvey in is his pathological need to one-up Osvald, since he won't be satisfied with just killing the man and being done with it. Even when he does claim to have surpassed Osvald, he always gives Osvald a chance to recover, because he never seems to be satisfied with his latest victory. If he had been satisfied with stealing Osvald's research and using that to claim the One True Magic, or settled with being the most celebrated magician of his time, he'd never have given Osvald the myriad opportunities his rival needed to strike Harvey down.
  • It's All About Me: At the end of the day, Harvey is a petty, entitled man who believes anything he wants should belong to him, and doesn't care who gets hurt as long as he gets what he wants.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: In Osvald's Chapter 4, he mentions what to buy for his daughter's birthday, implying that underneath all his sins, he still cares about his daughter. Then it's revealed that his "daughter" is just Osvald's daughter, Elena that he brainwashed and that he only cared about using her for his dark magic.
  • Lack of Empathy: He feels no remorse for any of his atrocities, neither does he care how much pain he causes Osvald, his family, or the animal Ochette didn't choose when she was 10. On the contrary, he relishes in the destruction he causes.
  • Mad Scientist: Has zero hesitation about committing atrocities in his pursuit of the One True Magic. The list includes using Osvald's wife and daughter in his lethal research after making it look like they died in fire, framing Osvald for their "murders," and torturing the animal companion who wasn't chosen by Ochette to complete madness.
  • More Despicable Minion: To Oboro, the man who recruited him to the Moonshade Order and Greater-Scope Villain of Osvald's route. Oboro is significantly more sympathetic than Harvey because he grew up in poverty and in a land decimated by constant war, was forced to become the advisor to the leader of his homeland's enemy nation after failing to assassinate him, and eventually gave up on humanity after seeing how greedy and violent they can be. Meanwhile, Harvey is a Psychopathic Manchild who can't tolerate the idea of being beat by Osvald in their studies, and commits heinous crimes just to spite Osvald.
  • Nap-Inducing Speak: In the battle, he can make a party member fall asleep by delivering a boring lecture.
  • Narcissist: Where to even begin? The “man” has an ego larger than the entire continent of Solistia, feels entitled to fame and fortune at any cost, regularly engages in Disproportionate Retribution towards Osvald for daring to rival his intellect, has zero empathy, and when he is defeated, he throws a tantrum.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • In the final chapter, you read Ori's journal and learn that the original plan was for Osvald to be executed, but Harvey instead bribed the judge to sentence Osvald to life-imprisonment so he could gloat about mastering the One True Magic and about what he did to Osvald's wife and daughter. Ori wondered if this would impact their plans, and while they did manage to snuff the Sacred Flames, the Travelers wouldn't have been able to reverse that without Osvald.
    • Besides unlocking the One True Magic, Harvey's goal had always been focused on torturing Osvald. His every action was meant to cause Osvald mental grief and anguish, from having him lose years of his life on Frigit Isle, to stealing his research, to taking all the accolades meant for Osvald. Ironically, his attempt to taunt Osvald by showing off that Osvald's still-living daughter has been brainwashed to see Harvey as her father... just leaves Osvald elated after he recovers from the shock, because Harvey has shown Elena still lives. As the narration itself describes, Osvald's motivations and outlook on life instantly change for the better, as his quest for revenge is replaced by a quest to save his daughter, eliminating any of the And Then What? conflict Lady Clarissa had been worried about Osvald going through. Part of that hope and desperation is even how Osvald finally taps into the One True Magic, meaning Harvey accidentally bungled Osvald into reaching the answer he wanted to be famous for.
  • Not in This for Your Revolution: Officially, he is a member of the Moonshade Order. In practice, he has zero interest in their goal beyond what they can bring to his research and his petty hatred of Osvald. They are well aware of it, too. Ori's journals directly complain that he might have screwed up the entire plan by getting Osvald's death sentence overturned (he did), and he proves so untrustworthy that Oboro plans to just get him killed during his revenge plans and steal the Book of Demons off his corpse rather than count on him to give it to the Order after completing it.
  • Not Quite Dead: Upon his defeat, Harvey is seemingly consumed and destroyed by the Shadow magic he commanded, with Osvald even giving a Bond One-Liner about the battle having been their "final debate". However, during the final chapter, Ori's journal claims that Harvey in fact survived and managed to escape.note 
  • Omnicidal Maniac: By proxy, but yes. Ori's journal indicates that Harvey is fully aware of the Moonshade Order's plans to destroy the world, but he'd "gladly give up the dawn if it meant he could best the man."
  • Psychopathic Manchild: For all his intelligence, Harvey is a narcissistic, sadistic excuse for a man who is almost entirely motivated by petty envy, speaks in an unnecessarily bombastic manner like somebody desperate for attention, and cannot resist the opportunity to gloat about how much he's hurt Osvald. During his Boss Banter with Osvald, he even repeatedly asks, "Why, why, why!?" when the latter stands defiant in the face of his source of the One True Magic, like a toddler throwing a tantrum when they don't get their way.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Osvald's Blue. As highlighted when they interact, Harvey is a bombastic Large Ham empowered by The Power of Hate, while Osvald is a laconic Stoic and is eventually empowered by The Power of Love.
  • Sadist: One of the biggest in the entire series—and given how evil the villains who are portrayed as Hate Sinks tend to be, this is saying a lot. The entire battle, Harvey is only too gleeful to salt the wounds about mutating Rita, brainwashing Elena and rubbing it over and over in Osvald's face that he's done this purely to hurt Osvald. He also tortures one of Ochette's possible animal companions for a decade, with hints he may have gotten overly invested in the task.
  • Say My Name: At the start of his second phase, he caps off his Villainous Breakdown by roaring Osvald's name in pure hatred. Also during his battle, a fully boosted Osvald will yell out Harvey's name in both languages.
  • The Sociopath: He has an exaggerated sense of self-importance, a need for stimulation, puts on a charismatic façade to conceal his true nature, and commits abominable acts for extremely petty reasons and without a shred of remorse.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: He survives in the English version, whereas he dies in the Japanese version.
  • Static Character: Lampshaded by Osvald during their Boss Banter. Harvey is so obsessed with the One True Magic and one-upping Osvald that he hasn't developed a bit in all the time they've known each other, contrasting Osvald who is now fighting for more than just revenge after finding out that his daughter is still alive.
    Professor Harvey: Why!? Why, why, why!? It does not stand to reason! How can you remain so defiant in the face of the One True Magic!?
    Osvald: Is that all you can think of, Harvey? You've not changed at all since we met. But some things do change. I have changed.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • The Unfettered: By Harvey's own admission, there is no low he would not stoop to if it means finding the source of the One True Magic and surpassing Osvald.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: His version of the One True Magic hits everyone on the field, including his own side, showing that it can't be controlled easily. In contrast, Osvald's version of the spell only hits enemies and can be focused onto a single target using his Latent Power. In the post-battle cutscene, Harvey attempts to pour even more power into the One True Magic, but only succeeds in blowing himself up.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Not that he was stable before, but Harvey loses it when Osvald stands defiant in the face of his source of the One True Magic during their battle, roaring Osvald's name in pure hatred.
    Professor Harvey: I will use whatever it takes to defeat you! OOOOOOSVAAAAAALLLLLLD!
  • Would Hurt a Child: He has no problem with using Elena in his experiment to unlock the One True Magic. When he uses the One True Magic, he tries to vaporize both Osvald and Elena with it.

Partitio's Route

    Giff 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7824.gif
The leader of a gang harassing Oresrush for years, but was always driven off... until he suddenly gained power over the citizens.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After his boss fight, Giff immediately starts begging for Partitio to spare him.
  • Arc Villain: He's the main antagonist of Partitio's first chapter.
  • Defeat Means Menial Labor: He's put to work as a laborer supporting Oresrush's businesses after Partitio exposes his corruption.
  • Fat Bastard: He's quite rotund, as his battle sprite shows.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: He goes from the leader of an ineffectual gang to the main enforcer of the landowner's will, gaining a mansion and power over the citizens in the process.
  • Heel–Face Turn: He eventually settles into working for Partitio and turns over a new leaf.
  • Hit Them In The Pocket Book: After his defeat, Partitio declares that the money he's been extorting from Oresrush was claimed in bad faith, siezes it and reinvests it back into the town.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: He gets rich off of enforcing the landowner's laws and pushing the citizens into poverty — after being defeated, he's forced into working for the town as a simple laborer untill he pays off his debt.
  • Small-Town Tyrant: After he and his gang get hired as the landowner's enforcers, Giff essentially becomes Oresrush's de-facto ruler, and openly gloats about squeezing the population like lemons.
  • Starter Villain: The first boss in Partitio's route.
  • Villains Want Mercy: After getting beaten, Giff wastes no time in opening up the safe and trying to bribe Partitio and the townspeople with money. Unusually, they accept this offer... and also take pretty much everything else the man owns.

    The Landowner 

Roque Brilliante

Voiced By: Takaya Hashi (Japanese), Richard Tatum (English)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7829.png
The landowner who sold the land to Partitio's father at the start of his story, and then took back the land once Oresrush was built and started bringing in money. Neither Partitio nor his father knew his true identity because all the negotiations were done by post.
Giff eventually reveals that the true identity of the landowner is Roque, the Yellowil family's business partner.
  • Arc Villain: Is this in Partitio’s final chapter despite being revealed to have been behind all the horrible things that happened in the first chapter.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Partitio and his father think of him as a good business partner. However, sixteen years after he anonymously sold land to them, Partitio finds out that he had been plotting against them all along.
  • Broken Pedestal: To the Yellowil family, once Giff tells them about Roque's true colors. Ultimately subverted; Partitio reveals towards the end of his story that he could never stop admiring Roque on account of just how skilled he is, and he correctly deduces Roque is misguided rather than truly bad, which pays off when he talks Roque into a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Cognizant Limbs: The Obsidian really stands out by being made of four parts (the train itself, the front armor, the furnace and the main cannon) when most other bosses are either alone or rely on summoning mooks.
  • Cool Train: In Partitio's final chapter, Roque fights him with a massive armored steam engine train dubbed the "Steam Tank Obsidian". It's also the root of his Heel–Face Turn; Partitio sees the Steam Tank for its potential in transportation over warfare, and convinces Roque to give honest, fair, mutually beneficial merchantry a shot by pointing out what an amazing concept the locomotive is.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Herminia. Both are obsessed with amassing as much personal wealth as possible, but for different reasons. While Herminia seeks wealth because she believes it's the only thing that can grant her comfort and power due to her Dark and Troubled Past, Roque seeks wealth because he believes that only those with wealth can change mankind's history. Their fates also contrast; While Herminia goes to her grave refusing to change and continuing to cling to her greed to the very end, Roque ultimately realizes how much his greed has cost him and how far he's fallen, and resolves to become a better man.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: A ruthless tycoon who would steep to treachery to squeeze as much profit as he can from his workers and everyone living off the lands he posesses.
  • Create Your Own Hero: The years of poverty caused by his initial scam in Orerush was the main catalyst for Partitio's growth from regular salesman to madly idealistic philantropist, and the biggest threat to Roque's plans for a monopoly on steam technology. Partitio directly thanks him for it in their showdown.
  • Easily Forgiven: Despite Roque's ruthless laws that drove Oresrush into poverty, betraying Partitio's trust, taking credit for the accomplishments of others, initially refusing to honor his deal with Partitio to sell the steam engine and even outright trying to kill Partitio, Partitio gives him a second chance as he believes he has too much talent to simply throw away.
  • Evil All Along: He had always intended to take over the land he sold to Partitio's father once it grew prosperous and drive its residents into poverty with his ruthless laws.
  • Evil Virtues: He shows a great deal of patience, waiting for over a decade after selling the land until it prospered before buying it out. He's also very intelligent, with Partitio noting how much potential his inventions have even when Roque uses one of them to attack him.
  • Final Boss: Of Partitio’s story.
  • First-Episode Twist: The main antagonist of Partitio's route, as revealed at the end of his Chapter 1, is his family's old friend from the prologue.
  • Freudian Excuse: Roque originally came from a dirt poor background and struggled daily just to make ends meet. Then one day, he saw a pocket watch in a market that he became determined to buy, and committed himself towards working hard and making enough money so he could buy it. However, once he finally managed to afford the pocket watch, it wasn't long until another luxury caught his eye and he went right back to making money so he could buy it out. Eventually, this cycle went on for so long that Roque lost sight of why he wanted to be rich to begin with and just became obsessed with amassing as much wealth as possible, consequences be damned. It's not until Partitio destroys his steam train that he realizes how far he's fallen and how foolish he's been.
    Partitio: Mister Roque...what did you want so bad that you'd do so many horrible things to get it?
    Roque: *sigh* I don't even remember anymore...
  • Heel–Face Turn: After his steam engine is destroyed and his subsequent Heel Realization, he finally lets go of his greed and agrees to join Partitio as his business partner.
  • Hypocrite: Despite taking advantage of Exact Words in all his previous contracts to extort as much money from his victims as possible, he refuses to follow the contract (which he himself proposed and signed no less!) for the right of steam engine and tries to kill Partitio when Partitio brings 80 billion leaves in currency.
  • Interface Screw: One of the effects of his steam train is that it can completely obscure the order of character actions for every turn.
  • Long Game: He apperently planned his takeover of the land before even selling it to Partitio's father and waited for over a decade before buying it out.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Giff is really only enforcing Roque's laws; Roque is the real mastermind behind the ruthless exploitation of the town.
  • Meaningful Name: His first name is one letter away from "Rogue", and he's done some very shady dealings to get all the power and money he owns. His surname, "Brilliante", hints at the fact that he's capable of being a shrewd businessman and inventor in spite of this.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: Being an elderly man, Roque has no physical abilities in a fight. He makes up for this in his boss fight by piloting a heavily armored steam-powered tank. Even when challenged outside of Partitio's story, he's at best a bit above the average person in terms of combat ability, largely owing to his dog Garnet.
  • Plot-Irrelevant Villain: He is one of the two Arc Villains (the other being Dolcinaea) whose actions aren't influenced by the Moonshade Order in some way.
  • Read the Fine Print: Subverted with the Orerush contract. It's presented as a regular case at first, but he actually added the fine print after the contract was signed, counting on the more idealistic Papp to assume he was merely deceived and not outright scammed.
  • Snipe Hunt: When Partito tries to buy the rights to the steam engine off him, Roque asks for eighty billion leaves, a comically massive amount, with the clear goal to make it as unreachable as possible without outright blowing him off. In fact, he even has a failsafe: the number is so absurdly high that he knows Partitio physically cannot bring him the sum in cash, so that's of course the only payment he'll accept. He was not ready for Alrond to load up his personal ship with enough coins to nearly sink it.
  • Villain Respect: Even at his worst, he holds Partitio’s mercantile skills in very high regard, even offering him a place in his company before his Heel–Face Turn.
  • Wolfpack Boss: His Steam Tank Obsidian consists of four components, each with their own set of attacks.

    Garnet 
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The Landowner's favorite guard dog, a fanged bulldog with a chain for a leash.
  • Evil Is Bigger: While it's standard issue for bosses in this series, Garnet stands out because her overworld sprite is the size of any ordinary dog, making her barely come up to Partitio's knee, while her battle sprite suddenly makes her out to be larger than the entire party combined.
  • Flunky Boss: While there are some bosses in the game that are like this, Garnet is unique in the fact that her flunkies are skeletons that she digs out of the ground and come to life, which, for some reason fight alongside the dog.
  • Right-Hand Attack Dog: Thurston orders Garnet to attack Partitio for trespassing on company property, serving as the boss fight of his Chapter 2. If Roque is fought via Path Action after clearing Partitio's story, one of his attacks is to summon Garnet.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Offhand dialogue from Thurston after Partitio's final chapter reveals Garnet to be female.

    The Enemy in the Mist 

Thurston

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The Enemy in the Mist
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Thurston

Roque's right-hand man following the establishment of the Roque Company. He oversees production at the factory in Clockbank.


  • Arc Villain: The main antagonist of Partitio's second and third chapters, with Garnet fighting in his stead during the former before taking on Partitio personally during the latter.
  • Bad Boss: He treats his workers like dirt and is unforgiving when it comes time to collect taxes... even from children. Become the exact opposite of this trope after Partitio's storyline.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Blaming Partitio for Roque firing him after the events of Chapter 2, he tries to kill Partitio during Chapter 3.
  • Dual Boss: His boss fight has him hauling around a portable steam engine that has its own attacks, and keeps Thurston hidden in steam until it's destroyed.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's flabbergasted that Partitio would offer him a job after Thurston attacked him: thankfully, he takes him up on the offer and undergoes a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Heel–Face Turn: He becomes much nicer after Partitio offers to hire him after Roque cut him loose.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Thurston takes a huge one in his postgame sidequest. He says that he's been trying to watch over the company's employees, and he's especially concerned about Floyd's workaholic tendencies, to the point of giving him a speech about taking better care of himself. Thurston even remarks afterwards that Partitio must be rubbing off on him.
  • Unknown Rival: He sees Partitio as the reason Roque cut him loose, but Partitio doesn't even remember Thurston's name when he appears in his chapter 3.
  • Villainous Breakdown: When he reappears in Partitio's Chapter 3 in a boss battle, he is so desperate to get back into Roque's good graces that he is willing to go as far as trying to assassinate one of the wealthiest people in the continent.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Stat-wise, he's actually weaker than story bosses that are rated for around the same level. However, he makes up for it by using his steam engine to produce a smokescreen. He's also a skilled mechanic, since he can repair the steam engine in the middle of combat and upgrade it.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He's introduced threatening to break a child's knees for not paying taxes. Partitio's presence stops him from going through.
  • You Have Failed Me: Roque fires him after the events of Partitio's second chapter.

Agnea's Route

    Duorduor 
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An elephant-sized boar that is attracted to the food at the festival being held in Agnea's hometown.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: It appears again on Ochette and Castti's Crossed Path, wounded and rampaging. After having to fight it and then patching it back up, Castti names it "Wooly-Ooly".
  • Full-Boar Action: It's a giant, fierce boar.
  • Lone Wolf Boss: It gets some build-up prior to Agnea's confrontation with it, but ultimately has no relevance to her route beyond being a Starter Villain.
  • Non-Lethal K.O.: It's just rendered unconscious after Agnea defeats it.
  • Non-Malicious Monster: Not evil so much as it is a hungry, bad tempered, destructive beast. As boars often are.
  • Starter Villain: The first boss in Agnea's route.

    La'mani 

Voiced By: Kellen Goff (English)

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The manager of New Delsta's theater.
  • Bait-and-Switch Boss: In Agnea’s final chapter, he tried to bar Agnea’s path to the arena where she and Dolcinaea are due to have their duet out of revenge for humiliating him in her second chapter, suggesting you’re gonna have to fight him again to get by. Instead, Veronica jumps in and sucker punches him out of the way.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Played humorously for Agnea's route. He's the entire reason the Shrine of Ul'Sterra's reception area is full of monsters and street toughs trying to kidnap Agnea, and he paid various thugs to slow her down on the way there. He's trying to make Agnea so late for her duet with Dolcinaea that Dolcinaea has to go on without Agnea, forever shaming her, all because he blames Agnea for a bunch of dogs attacking him after she beat him up in his theater for crimes he perpetrated. However, his goons are incompetent and he himself is just a footnote to Agnea, who admits she'd forgotten him when he reveals himself to her, ready for a rematch. He doesn't even get that rematch, either, as Veronica charges him and cold-cocks him, taking him out in one comical blow to the gut.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Helgenish. They are both greedy and unpleasant managersnote 1 who wear a red shirt and a black jacket, and are the first major antagonists of the Dancer's journeysnote 2. However, Helgenish was much more sinister, a downplayed example of a Not-So-Harmless Villain when he went from a "mere" abuser to a murderer, and was ultimately killed by Primrose; whereas La'mani, as unpleasant as he is, never stoops as low as Helgenish, isn't taken seriously after his debut, and survives Agnea's journey. Finally, whereas Helgenish managed Primrose, La'mani manages Agnea's rival, Dolcinaea.
  • Expy: He is very clearly what Erutus Profiteur would be if the Merchant of Death was taller, blonde, and entered into entertainment. They're both victims of the same vices and both take a similar stance to threats to their money and character, and they even go down roughly the same path towards becoming better people. About the only meaningful difference between them besides hair color is that even at his lowest, La'mani was never quite as vile or vicious as Erutus could be.
  • Fat Bastard: He's not a nice person and his girth certainly doesn't make him look any better.
  • Greed: The man beats up Gil because he has Agnea dancing for free, making competition to his theater, and kicks away a beggar he comes across, expressing disdain for all poor people who can't afford his show.
  • Harmless Villain: Not initially, as he is the major antagonist for Agnea's second chapter, but by Agnea's final chapter he ends up with incompetent goons easily waylaid by doves and pigeons, and he himself is taken out by Veronica before he can accomplish anything substantial. This is justified; much of what makes him a threat in Agnea's second chapter is the fact he can summon goons to his side to defend him and support his ability to fight better, meaning he would have stood no chance against Agnea on his own after the rest of Agnea's adventure toughened her up, and Veronica herself is a mass of muscle paid to remove threats to an international superstar who would utterly trample over La'mani in a serious fight.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Following Agnea's performance in her final chapter, he admits he was moved by her performance and declares himself one of her fans.
  • Jerkass: He beats up Gil for "threatening" the theater he manages by allowing Agnea to dance there, diverting poorer people from the theater, attacks Agnea when she stands up to him (resulting in a boss fight), and sends goons after Agnea to ruin her chance to compete against Dolcinaea, as well as attacking a stray dog out of anger at being defeated by Agnea in their first confrontation, despite their battle being a result of his own actions. He gets better.
  • Karmic Butt-Monkey: Ends up becoming this by Agnea's final chapter. He reveals that shortly after his defeat in Chapter 2, he attacked a dog, only for an entire pack of dogs to attack in retaliation. All of the thugs he hires to attack Agnea end up being either defeated by either Agnea herself or stalled by her allies in humiliating ways. Finally, La'mani himself is punched out by Veronica for his antics.
  • Kick the Dog: It's revealed in the final chapter that, after his defeat, he attacked a stray dog and nearly died from being savaged from said dog.
  • Never My Fault: He blames Agnea for forcing him to beat up and intimidate Gil, since she diverted business from the theater by dancing at the tavern. His reappearance in her final chapter shows this hasn't changed, since he blames her for getting him reprimanded by Dolcinaea and savaged by a dog, despite both these misfortunes being the direct result of his own actions!
  • Offended by an Enemy's Indifference: He doesn't take it well when he confronts Agnea during her final chapter after sending a group of goons to ruin her chance to compete against Dolcinaea, only for Agnea to ask him to remind her who he is.
    La'mani: You foolish little star. You've fallen right into my trap.
    Agnea: You're... Uhh... Who are you again?
    La'mani: I am the theater manager, La'mani! Don't you dare say you've forgotten!
    Agnea: Now that you mention it, you do look familiar.
  • Punny Name: 'La' is French for 'the,' going along well with La'mani's status as an Expy of Erutus Profiteur, who had a similarly French name and a French accent. Going further, 'mani' can be read to resemble 'money,' meaning his name roughly sounds like 'the money,' going along with La'mani's focus on greed.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Like Helgenish before him, La'mani wears a red shirt and a black jacket, and is an antagonist. He also wears black trousers. Unlike Helgenish, however, La'mani is not evil so much as he is just unpleasant.
  • Unknown Rival: By Agnea's final chapter, he's become this to her: he blames her for all his misfortunes and hires goons to kidnap her and ruin her chance at dueting with Dolcinaea, but when he confronts her face-to-face, she doesn't even remember him.

    Veronica 
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Dolcinaea's bodyguard who fights Agnea to protect her.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: The musculature on her arms and legs are not for show. Veronica's body is a well-trained weapon, and she fights entirely with her bare hands.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: A sidequest reveals that this is the reason for Veronica's Undying Loyalty to Dolcinaea. Despite her prodigious strength and fighting talent, Veronica was often forced to act more ladylike. After stumbling onto one of Dolcinaea's performances, Dolcinaea encouraged Veronica to Be Yourself. Veronica was so touched and affected that she became Dolcinaea's bodyguard out of gratitude.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Shows up to smack La'mani after he confronts Agnea so she can have the duel with Dolcinaea without interruptions.
  • Bodyguard Babes: A tall, muscular, and quite attractive woman who works to protect Dolcinaea.
  • Bodyguarding a Badass: At first it seems to actually be subverted despite Dolcinaea coming after Veronica as a boss in Agnea's story because, in that context, the fight is implied to more be a very creative, very heated performance between Dolcinaea and Agnea's party; no actual violence is occurring, and Dolcinaea is in her element. As it turns out following Agnea's story, however, Veronica and Dolcinaea are actually completely even in terms of how the game determines what makes an opponent a challenge, as both are exactly two ticks off from filling the 'threat' meter. The major difference between them is that Veronica is an unstoppable force of muscle while Dolcinaea is a master of magic.
  • Boxing Battler: Most of her attacks are named after moves pugilists use, and while her legs are appropriately muscled themselves, she defaults to her hands in a brawl.
  • Contralto of Strength: Veronica is a physically-tough bodyguard who loves training, and she fittingly has a deeper voice than Dolcinaea.
  • The Dragon: She's Dolcinaea's Number Two and the one Agnea fights in her penultimate chapter.
  • Heel–Face Turn: After her defeat, she becomes a supporter of Agnea.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Veronica is rather easy on the eyes, with long, flowing hair and a blemishless face. She's also massive, standing tall as a mountain next to most other characters, and her thick thighs and beefy arms leave no doubt she's Dolcinaea's muscle, both figuratively and demonstrably.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Veronica faced this trope in the past; despite being a capable bodyguard, she was replaced with a man at one point, and has suffered at the hands of gender norms, since most people want her to 'act more ladylike.' Dolcinaea's earnest appreciation of Veronica and her refusal to hold Veronica to those norms is what bought Veronica's absolute loyalty to Dolcinaea.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy to Dolcinaea's Girly Girl. While Dolcinaea is a feminine dancer who wears a very loud dress and has the personality of an upper class woman, Veronica is a buff bodyguard who's focused on keeping her physical strength strong and dresses in more masculine clothing.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Dolcinaea.

    Dolcinaea Luciel 

Voiced By: Satomi Arai (Japanese), Amanda Lee (English)

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Dolcinaea
Click here to see her second battle
A world famous dancer who quickly becomes Agnea's primary rival.
  • Alpha Bitch: When first met, she is incredibly vain and snobbish. As Agnea proves herself as a dancer, this attitude slowly fades, and after their duet together at the end of Agnea's story, Dolcinaea has become much nicer.
  • Arc Villain: Though not remotely evil, she's the closest thing Agnea's story has to this, due to being her main and most recurring rival.
  • Beehive Hairdo: She somehow manages to wear her hair long and in one of these.
  • Benevolent Boss: She stands out as this, and it's one of the early hints that she barely actually qualifies for a villain. When it becomes clear Veronica stands no chance against the party, Dolcinaea has Veronica take five under her parasol rather than admonish her for losing.
  • Blasphemous Boast: She declares herself a better entertainer than Sealticge, Lady of Grace, during the Grand Gala.
  • Charm Person: She can do this during the boss battle, taking control of one party member and using him/her against the rest.
  • Compelling Voice: While in phase 1 of her boss fight, she summons her fans to her aid. Phase 2 has her using her voice to charm your characters (sans Agnea) and have them fight for her, granting her immunity to most of her weaknesses.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Simeon. While both of them are the primary Arc Villain of the Dancer's storyline, that's where their similarities end. Simeon was easily one of the most evil and reprehensible villains from the original game, being a sadistic sociopath who made it his life's mission to emotionally and psychologically torment Primrose purely to see her give in to despair before he killed her. Dolcinaea, by contrast, can barely even be called a villain, as her only real "crimes" are her being an arrogant snob and disregarding the feelings of East Sai's populace in her plan to tear down and renovate the district.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Once Agnea beats her in a dance, Dolcinaea ends up becoming a friend to her, even serving as one of her hype women prior to her big show in the epilogue.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: She can even entice the female members of the party in her boss battle, except Agnea.
  • Final Boss: Of Agnea’s story.
  • Graceful Loser: When Dolcinaea loses to Agnea at the end of the latter's story, she respectfully leaves the colosseum and tells Agnea that she's the one who deserves the last spotlight on the stage. Veronica even points out that it's the first time she's seen Dolcinaea genuinely happy.
  • Hero Antagonist: Her goals aren't evil. She's egotistical, and the reasons for her actions are selfish, but ultimately she's a wealthy landowner trying to raise the standard of living in her old neighborhood by converting eastern Sai into Dolcinaealand. Not only did she give the people of Sai time to relocate, she's been feeding the town money and bought the land through legal channels. She even has La'Mani stand down when the man tries to enforce a monopoly on entertainment in New Delsta, even though that potentially allows a competitor to her fame and glory to pop up. If not for the fact she didn't bother to take into account the feelings of the Saians regarding her buyout and nearly resorted to violence, she'd be an out-and-out hero actively spreading joy through her performances, which is a major reason Agnea's route is one of the more hopeful, optimistic ones.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although she can be quite haughty and selfish, she has her moments of kindness. In the past, she told a depressed Veronica to be herself during a concert. In Agnea's Chapter 2, she also prevents La'mani from further harassing Gil, calling his behavior disgraceful and threatening to not perform at his theater anymore if he doesn't comply. Also, it is heavily implied that she secretly makes donations to the orphange in Sai's East District where she grew up.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Her motivation for telling La'mani to leave Montraine's Tavern alone is not kindness, but the belief that the tavern poses no real competition to her. Considering that she's a realm-famous star and that the tavern attracts customers who are too poor to afford tickets to her performances, she's not wrong.
  • Kick the Dog: While she isn't evil at all, her attempt to demolish Sai's East District without any consideration for its inhabitants is definitely this.
  • Lonely at the Top: Discussed in a banter between Agnea and Ochette, with Ochette claiming she smelled some loneliness off of Dolcinaea after meeting her in Agnea's Chapter 4 story.
    Ochette: When you say "star"... you're talking about the ones in the sky, right? They're so high up that people can't reach them...maybe she's lonely up there.
  • Magic Music: She mostly uses music attacks in combat, and they deal elemental damage.
  • Noblewoman's Laugh: Complete with her sprite performing the famous hand gesture!
  • Odd Friendship: The prissy, girly Dolcinaea and the butch, stoic Veronica are wildly different but absolutely and unbreakably loyal to one another. It's clear that though Doncinaea pays Veronica to guard her, their friendship comes for free.
  • Old Shame: She grew up in Sai as a street urchin before clawing her way to the top of the entertainment business. She's deeply ashamed of this, and fervently denies it when people confront her with it.
  • One-Winged Angel: Inverted. Phase 1 of her fight has her in quite a glamorous angel/valkyrie-like outfit, hovering above the ground. However, once phase 2 starts, she drops the costume, fights in her regular outfit and starts using several abilities and spells that make her much more dangerous than in phase 1.
  • Plot-Irrelevant Villain: She's one of two Arc Villains (the other being Roque) who has no ties to the Moonshade Order.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Veronica's Tomboy. While Veronica is a buff bodyguard who's focused on keeping her physical strength strong and dresses in more masculine clothing, Dolcinaea is a feminine dancer who wears a very loud dress and has the personality of an upper-class woman.
  • Villainy-Free Villain: Aside from being a snobby priss, there's nothing even remotely evil or villainous about her. The "final battle" between her and Agnea is actually the two performing a duet together (though it's still framed as a life-or-death battle in gameplay). Even when she wants to destroy the East District of Sai, it's not that she's being evil, but simply inconsiderate of those living in said district.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the East District of Sai, a Dancer's Journal can be found in a building that is blocked by an NPC, the journal implied to have been Dolcinaea's prior to rise to stardom as chests containing a tattered dress and shoes can found alongside the journal. In the journal, she wrote how she wanted to bring new life and happiness to the slums she grew up in as part of her motivation to practice her dancing, which included a grand theater for all of them to dance and have fun upon. In Agnea's Chapter 4, Dolcinaea buys out the land of Sai's East District, wanting to demolish and rebuild it in her image without consideration of the remaining inhabitants while openly denying her own impoverished roots.
  • When She Smiles: After the duet at the end of Agnea's story, Veronica notes that this is the first time she's ever seen Dolcinaea truly happy.
  • You Are Already Dead: Her Endless Lullaby ability puts a party member to sleep, as well as applying a countdown to them that will instantly defeat them when it hits zero. It can be removed by simply curing the sleep status.

Temenos's Route

    Felvarg 
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A lupine arcane beast that attacks and kills the Pontiff.
  • Animal Assassin: It's lured to the cathedral with a special kind of incense that attracts varg-type monsters, with the intention that it will kill the pontiff.
  • Lone Wolf Boss: Subverted. It seems to be a random wild animal wandering the Cathedral that was thrown in for the sake of a boss fight. However, Temenos soon finds out that the cathedral window was shattered from the inside and its shards manually scattered across the floor, and that a nearby sensor is releasing a scent that attracts varg creatures, which means that the Pontiff was murdered.
  • Savage Wolves: It's an arcane beast that resembles a wolf.
  • Starter Villain: The first boss in Temenos's route.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Hroðvitnirnote  from the first game. Both are wolves fought during the Cleric's route, though Felvarg has more relevance to the story than Hroðvitnir, as mentioned above.

    The Assassin (SPOILERS) 

Vados the Architect

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The man behind the Pontiff's murder. Originally masquerading as one of the architects of Flamechurch's cathedral, he is in fact a devout follower of Vide the Wicked who commits his murders in accordance with a twisted prayer to his god.
  • Calling Card: His murders are based off a dark prayer to Vide, which each of his targets representing one of the gods who helped seal Vide away. The Pontiff represented Aelfric the Flamebringer, the unnamed apothecary at the start of Temenos's second chapter represented Dohter the Charitable, Lucian represented Alephan the Scholar-King, and Hermes would have represented Sealticge the Lady of Grace.
  • Character Death: Temenos finds him dead in the graveyard by the Sacred Guard's headquarters.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Temenos must Coerce him in Chapter 1 to find out about the secret tunnel entrance to the Cathedral.
  • Flunky Boss: His main way of attacking outside his magic is to summon elementals to aid him. In fact, his Limit Break is to summon elementals that are much more powerful then his normal summons.
  • Interface Spoiler: The fact that he's the only one of the three NPCs in the Coerce tutorial who not only has a given name, but also voiced dialogue, is the first clue that there's more to him than meets the eye.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: How he murdered the Pontiff. He lured the Felvarg into the cathedral by spiking an incense burner with special bait, locked the cathedral doors so the Pontiff couldn't escape, then moved the pieces of the shattered window the Felvarg broke through in order to make the murder look like a random monster attack.
  • Starter Villain: In a weird way; he's likely the very first agent of the Moonshade Order the party will face in the story.
  • Theme Serial Killer: Each of the three people he kills has a connection to one of the eight gods worshipped in Solistia. Temenos is able to figure this out, and that the killings will be happening in a particular order based on a certain prayer, allowing him to intervene and prevent the fourth killing.

    The Heretic's Right Hand (SPOILERS) 

Deputy Cubaryi

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The current deputy and second-in-command of the Sacred Guard, who answers to Captain Kaldena. Temenos's investigation of the murders reveals her complicity in a plot to gain power to avenge the Kal tribe.
  • Arc Villain: The main antagonist of Temenos's third chapter.
  • Barrier Change Boss: In addition to the ability of changing her weaknesses like most other bosses do, Cubaryi also uses different kinds of shields in battle. Nullifying Shield prevents debuffs, Reflecting Shield reflects elemental attacks, and while Poison Shield doesn't protect her against physical attacks, it poisons the attacker.
  • Bitch Alert: Her first scene has her act incredibly snide toward Temenos, and she only gets worse from there.
  • Defiant to the End: Even after being fatally wounded in battle, she refuses to tell Temenos where Kaldena is before dying, leaving Temenos to figure it out himself.
  • The Dragon: The secondary antagonist of Temenos's route, answering directly to Kaldena.
  • The Faceless: Her face is never seen, as it is always concealed beneath her helmet.
  • Jerkass: She was discourteous even before she was revealed to be a villain.
  • Kick the Dog: She casually mocks Temenos for being angry at Crick's murder.
  • Laughing Mad: Once she shows her true colors, about half her dialogue becomes insane cackling as she taunts Temenos about Crick's death.
  • Meaningful Name: Corvus kubaryi is the binomial name for the mariana crow. Temenos refers to members of the Sacred Guard as crows, whom Cubaryi is a high-ranking member of.
  • More Despicable Minion: While she is, by all rights, Kaldena's minion, Kaldena has a Dark and Troubled Past, in addition to showing arguable respect to Temenos. Cubaryi has neither of these things, and shows herself to be quite the sadist, particularly when she taunts Temenos about Crick's demise.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: She is clad in red and black armor and is working with Kaldena, in addition to having personally helped murder Crick.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She has quite a bit in common with Headmaster Yvon from the first game. She's introduced in Chapter 1, is in a position of power, has a tense relationship with her corresponding protagonist, was already unpleasant before she is revealed to be evil in Chapter 3, is The Dragon and Chapter 3 boss of her corresponding protagonist's arc, and tries to kill someone close to her corresponding protagonist for knowing too much. The difference is that she and Kaldena succeed in killing Crick, whereas Yvon failed to kill Therese.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Kaldena. It's probably the only redeeming factor she has.
  • Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: She tells Temenos that Crick ended up being more difficult to kill than she expected, and that Kaldena had to intervene personally to finish him off.

    The Heretic (SPOILERS) 

Captain Kaldena

Voiced By: Brittany Cox (English)

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Captain Kaldena
Click here to see her consumed by Vide’s power
The current captain of the Sacred Guard and the lone survivor of the Kal tribe. She orchestrated the murders to gain the power needed to avenge her tribe.
  • 13 Is Unlucky: During the second phase of the battle against her where she transforms into Kaldena of Night, she has 13 shield points, on top of her vicious attacks.
  • All for Nothing: Kaldena was always doomed the moment she set out on her revenge quest, seeing as she was assisted by Arcanette—the leader of the group she wanted revenge against. Everything she did eventually led her to a flawed power-summoning ritual, ensuring that she destroyed herself when Arcanette no longer had any use for her.
  • Arc Villain: Of Temenos's route, for orchestrating the murders of the Pontiff, Lucian and Crick. The end-game reveals that the murders of the Pontiff and Lucian are disconnected from her crusade against the gods; Vados was working for Arcanette, not her.
  • Big "NO!": She shouts this as she gets consumed by the power of Vide.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Mattias. Like Mattias, she renounced her faith in the gods due to blaming them for a tragedy in her past, and her plan involves siphoning the power of the resident God of Evil for herself and using it to advance her own agenda. However, while Mattias had enough knowledge of how Galdera's power worked to know to only take what he needed, Kaldena isn't nearly as knowledgeable about Vide's power as she thinks she is, and is ultimately consumed by it and turned into a mindless monster.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: The rest of her clan was slaughtered by the Moonshade Order, including her father who she saw die right in front of her. The trauma would kindle a deep hatred within her towards the Order for killing her clan, the rest of the world for doing nothing to stop them, and, more than anything, herself for being too young and powerless to save her clan.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Captain Kaldena sought to steal Vide's power for herself so she could take revenge on the Church for her clan's massacre. Instead, Vide's power ends up being too much for her and turns her into a mindless monster.
  • Fatal Flaw: Her hunger for revenge, which inevitably dooms her.
  • Final Boss: Of Temenos’s story.
  • Hates Everyone Equally: She hates both the Moonshade Order for slaughtering her people and the rest of the world for failing to stop them.
  • Hero Killer: She murders Crick for closing in on what she and Cubaryi are up to.
  • Hypocrite:
    • Due to her vengeful agenda, she believes that the gods deserve to be punished for creating humans, even though she's a human herself.
    • She also believes that humans are weak because they need to cling to something for survival, but as Temenos promptly retorts, she clings to power.
  • Irony: The leader of the Church of the Sacred Flame's military turns out to be a heretic with a bitter grudge against the very Church she claimed to serve, as well as being an Unwitting Pawn to the leader of the cult that slaughtered her tribe in the first place.
  • Madness Mantra: Right at the beginning of Temenos's final chapter following the flashback of the Kal tribe slaughter revealing her motivation, she repeats "I hate them" over and over, showing how much the tragedy of her tribe had messed her up and how the fullness of her hatred has been redirected towards the Church and the gods.
  • Meaningful Name: Kaldena is the last of the Kal tribe. Her flashback of her father's murder reveals that her birth name is Dena, with the "Kal" prefix supposedly being added later as a reference to her origins.
  • Mole in Charge: She is the captain of the Sacred Guard, and uses her position to help her plan to destroy the Church she pretends to faithfully serve.
  • One-Hit Kill: "Dark Tomb" insta-kills a target afflicted with the Blindness status.
  • One-Winged Angel: Halfway through her boss fight, the power of the Shadow transforms her into a Humanoid Abomination.
  • Painful Transformation: The transformation towards Kaldena of Night is certainly not pleasant, judging from her Big "NO!" scream in both languages.
  • Rage Against the Heavens: She utterly loathes the gods, believing they allowed the Kal Clan to die out.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: She is clad in red and black armor, and is plotting to harness Vide's power so that she can get revenge on the Church and the gods for "allowing" her clan to be slaughtered.
  • Revenge: Her main motive for wanting Vide's power for herself is to get her revenge on the Moonshade Order and the Church, the former for slaughtering her tribe, the latter for "allowing" it to happen.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Her Fatal Flaw. In the thirty years since her clan was slaughtered, Kaldena's burning desire for revenge against the Moonshade Order has degenerated into hatred for the entire world for "allowing" her clan to die, including the Church and even the gods themselves. This override of common sense is what allows Arcanette, the leader of the Moonshade Order to manipulate Kaldena into unwittingly helping her accomplish her goals.
  • Status Infliction Attack: Several of her attacks inflict Blindness — which spells danger for Temenos and co. because she also has an attack that OHKOs Blinded targets.
  • Tragic Villain: Despite all that she does, it's impossible to avoid the simple fact that Kaldena's life was irrevocably ruined through no fault of her own, and that her lashing out is just a decades-long build-up of a wounded soul. The fact that the path to power she sought for her vengeance was one that was literally never going to work—that she was screwed over by her enemies before she even really began her own endgame—just furthers the tragedy. No matter what, Kaldena was never going to have a happy ending.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Arcanette played her like a fiddle in order to get her to eliminate the Moonshade Order's enemies. Kaldena never stood a chance of achieving her goals; Arcanette purposely taught her a flawed rite, which inevitably went sideways and set her up to be taken out by Temenos.
  • Villain Respect: She shows a minor amount towards Temenos. Despite constantly being annoyed at his interference, she does admit that he's intelligent and offers to let him work for her. Temenos has none of it, however.

Hikari's Route

    Ritsu Mishuyo 

Voiced By: Yu Hayashi (Japanese), Phillip Reich (English)

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Ritsu Mishuyo
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General Ritsu
A commoner from Ku, and one of Hikari's allies during Ku's final war. He possesses both ambition as high as the heavens and the drive to achieve it by any means necessary, qualities Mugen holds in esteem...
  • Alas, Poor Villain: After his final defeat, as he dies he finally realizes that Hikari's ideals are the right ones and he begs him to create a new Ku where commoners like him are not downtrodden by the nobility, as well as asking him to take care of his sister. After Mugen's defeat and Hikari's coronation, Hikari and Ritsu's sister are seen mourning him at Ku's graveyard.
  • Always Someone Better: It becomes apparent very quickly that Ritsu harbors an inferiority complex towards Hikari due to his superior swordplay and charisma as a leader: in the final battle against him, Ritsu angrily rants about how, despite allying with Mugen and ascending to the level of general, Hikari is still stronger than him.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Ritsu's desire to rise out of the peasant class he was born into causes him to side with Mugen's coup and the atrocities perpetrated in its name, turn against his former friend Hikari, and assassinate a Ku general in a bid to make himself look good.
  • Became Their Own Antithesis: Ritsu met Hikari after soldiers of Ku murdered his father because he was a lowborn, who they viewed as subhuman. Ritsu lamented how the lowborn are oppressed in Ku afterward. Fast forward to the present where Ritsu sides with Mugen, becoming a Blood Knight who cheers on as Mugen purges the lowborn folk of Ku castle, and no better than the men who murdered his father.
  • Big Brother Instinct: One redeeming quality about Ritsu, despite his betrayal to Hikari, is that he wants to ensure life for his younger sister isn't filled with hardships through his ranking under Mugen, even though Mikka herself does not approve of his actions.
  • Blatant Lies: He fabricates a story to Mugen about how he beheaded General Rou for conspiring with Hikari, when the truth is Rou refused to let Ritsu finish off a wounded Hikari because doing so could trigger the Curse of Ku. Though Ageha sees through this lie, Mugen couldn't care less about it (though Mugen also admits it's transparent).
  • Blood Knight: Has shades of this during The War Sequence.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Ritsu thinks Hikari is taking pity on him during their final duel, despite that Hikari genuinely wants Ritsu to come over to his side as an equal.
    Ritsu: "You're still pitying me! I spit on your pity, Hikari!"
  • Elemental Motifs: Earth, specifically sand, as he has the ability to throw sand in an enemy's eyes to lower their accuracy, and most of his Limit Breaks are themed around sand.
  • Establishing Character Moment: His first appearance has him declaring that he will achieve so much glory that his name will be written in the heavens, and then tries to kill defeated enemy soldiers, showing both his ambition and his ruthlessness. It wasn't any surprise that he would join hands with Mugen who shares the same mindset.
  • Evil Former Friend: Ritsu was a close friend of Hikari, till the time skip, where he's joined Mugen, tries to kill Hikari, and rejoices at Mugen's sacking of Ku Castle.
  • Fatal Flaw: Egotism. Ritsu is determined to rise from his lowborn status and 'have his name written in the heavens'. This tragically leads him to betray Hikari and side with Mugen in the hopes of rising in the ranks in Ku's army. His egotism also leads him to view Hikari's genuine attempts to reach out to him as pity and looking down on him. This would unfortunately lead to his death as he refuses to fight alongside Hikari, only learning to accept Hikari's ideals before he dies.
  • First-Episode Twist: It's virtually impossible to say anything about Ritsu without revealing that Hikari's close friend from the opening sequence is on Mugen's side by the end of the first chapter, and that he goes on to become a recurring antagonist.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: He and Rai Mei are fully playable during the first part of Hikari's first chapter.
  • Hypocrite: He denounces Hikari spending time with commoners, even though that's precisely what made the two friends to begin with, and gave Ritsu the opportunities in life he got, including his first meeting with Mugen.
  • Pet the Dog: Possibly. After Hikari's story is completed, Inquiring/Scrutinizing a child NPC in Ku reveals that they survived the events of Hikari's Ch. 5 through the help of a soldier with a headband. Their savior is never named as Ritsu, but Ritsu is the only Ku soldier seen wearing a headband, and it's mentioned that the child hasn't been able to find the soldier again.
  • Pre-Final Boss: He's fought for the last time right before the Boss Rush in the climax of Hikari's story. The player is given the opportunity to rest and save after beating him.
  • Rival Turned Evil: He and Hikari would spar often as children. In party banter with Temenos, Hikari draws comparisons between their past and present, noting that even now, they continue to swing their swords in the name of their beliefs—just in a much darker manner now.
  • Starter Villain Stays: The first boss of Hikari's route, and he sticks around as a recurring antagonist all the way until the climax.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Halfway through the final fight against him, he furiously rants that he's worked himself to the bone clawing his way up Mugen's ranks and earning the power, prestige and recognition of a General, and he's not going to let Hikari take it all away from him. He calms down in his final moments after his defeat, though.
  • We Used to Be Friends: In the three years that passed between the war and the current day, Ritsu came to resent Hikari and fell in with Mugen.

    Bandelam the Reaper 
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A powerful warrior who serves as the Arena Champion of Montwise's Underground Arena during Hikari's Chapter 2. He has no qualms in killing off warriors he defeats in battle.
  • Blood Knight: Similar to Mugen, he enjoys the thrill of battle in the arena, if only to come out on top and taking his opponent's life after.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: The initial Duel Boss fight against him is meant to be this, and if Hikari wins, The Battle Didn't Count — you then fight him with your full party regardless of the outcome.
  • Meaningful Name: He lives up to his title as the Reaper in the Underground Arena.
  • The Social Darwinist: He follows his creed that victors deserve to live while losers die by his blade.
  • Villain Respect: Despite Hikari refusing to shed any blood or take a life, Bandelam finds him interesting and comes to appreciate his strength in battle.

    General Rou 
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A general in Ku's army, renowned as the Wild Bull of Ku.
  • Dual Wielding: Wields a set of swords, hence his moniker as a "bull".
  • Ignored Expert: He knows about the Curse of Ku and warns Ritsu that attacking Hikari while the latter is struggling with it will just result in Hikari becoming an unstoppable berserker. He states that he saw other Ku clansmen succumb to the curse at the brink of death and slaughter their enemies. Unfortunately, Ritsu mistakenly believes he's coming up with excuses and kills him.
  • Know When to Fold Them: When Hikari struggles to control the Curse of Ku and seems to drop his guard as a result, General Rou orders a retreat. This is not out of honor, but rather, because he knows that attacking Hikari in this state will cause the latter to become a bloodthirsty berserker that he and Ritsu wouldn't be able to survive against. Unfortunately, Ritsu doesn't believe him and kills him for perceived cowardice.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: He's loyal to whoever the king of Ku is and served Jigo faithfully. Unfortunately for Hikari, that means he now serves Mugen with the same devotion.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: He doesn't have any particular ill will against Hikari and fights him solely because it's his duty to, as one of Mugen's soldiers.
  • Red Baron: He's known as "the Wild Bull of Ku," since he aggressively charges into battle.
  • You Have Failed Me: Ritsu is so annoyed about Rou losing a duel with Hikari and having to surrender a shipment of weapons to the rebels that he assassinates him, delivers his severed head to Mugen, and lies about him to ruin his reputation.

    General Mugen Ku 

Voiced By: Tsuyoshi Koyama (Japanese), Jason Marnocha (English)

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King Mugen
Click here to see him consumed by Vide's power
Hikari's older brother, who prefers to put the world into war so he can rule it with his strength.
  • 24-Hour Armor: Taken to hilarious extremes. Except for literally his final scene, there is not a single moment where even a single square inch of his armor is off, which has to get uncomfortable in a desert nation like Ku. It's implied this is for two reasons. The first reason is because of his Might Makes Right philosophy, since he never wants to show even a hint of weakness. The second is because as shown in Hikari's ending, he's been rendered a withered, walking corpse by tapping so much into his blood ties with D'arqest, and such a look runs the risk of making him look weak and frail in front of his subjects.
  • Always Someone Better: He's far stronger than Hikari; a fact even the emperor acknowledges before dying. Inverted when it comes to being a ruler as the emperor outright states Mugen's bloodsoaked conquests will bring ruin to the kingdom of Ku and chooses Hikari as the next king.
  • Ambiguous Situation: How much control does the voice of D'arqest have over Mugen? Hikari bitterly notes the curse took "everything" from Mugen after the latter is slain, and Mugen himself seems shocked when Hikari totally conquers the voice, but Mugen himself is never indicated to be outright possessed like Hikari was in a flashback—at least not until the final battle, where Mugen has willingly given himself to the Darkblood Blade's corruptive powers to become stronger. This begs the question if Mugen simply gave up trying to resist the voice or if he willingly allowed it to influence him (which appears to be the case, at the least, in the present day) for the sake of his own power.
  • Arc Villain: Of Hikari's route, for killing their father to take the throne for himself and ravaging the kingdom of Ku.
  • Ax-Crazy: Even before he becomes the Enshrouded King in Chapter 5, he is very unrestrained in his desire for bloodshed compared to the other major villains. He rants about how he wants to crush the weak, wants to spread the flames of war throughout the world, slaughters most of the civilians of his own country's castle town, commits genocide on a nation that Ku has a treaty with, and seeks to exterminate Kura's entire bloodline.
  • Baritone of Strength: He's given a deep voice, fitting for a general widely known for his combat prowess.
  • Bilingual Bonus: In Japanese, "mugen" means "infinite."
  • Blood Knight: He absolutely despises the idea of the kingdom being at peace and swears Ku will drown the world in war under his rule.
  • Cain and Abel: Mugen makes his disdain of his younger brother Hikari clear in Hikari's first chapter, calling him a "half-blood" for his commoner heritage via his lowborn mother and deriding his kindness as a weakness. When he slays their father and becomes king of Ku via a coup, he puts Hikari on the run from their country under threat of death, which Mugen is all too willing to follow by the time he faces him in his final chapter. Later flashbacks reveal that he's already attempted to assassinate Hikari even when the latter was a child. He only fails because Hikari's Curse saves his life from the attempt and that the incident made King Jigo closely guard his younger son's life more, preventing Mugen from making further attempts up until the game's story.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Both Werner and Mugen are violent rulers of a town who oppress people, use a sword, and ride a horse into battle, on top of being responsible for the destruction of the game's Warrior traveler town, forcing them to travel the world. The difference is primarily their origins; while Werner was a nobody who rose up with some help from Lyblac and overthrew Hornburg at her request, he had some amount of standards to cut ties with her after, and maintain control over his town by fear and violence. By contrast, Mugen is the eldest prince of Ku who took the throne by killing his father to stop someone else from taking it (Hikari), and is willing to sink to any means to maintain control over his land. Werner also has some amount of respect for Olberic, evidenced by offering him a spot in his town, while Mugen loathes Hikari so much he's willing to slaughter people just to stop them from maybe allying with him.
  • Crazy-Prepared: He slaughtered the citizens of the kingdom because they were all in favor of Hikari rather than him, so he wasn't going to let them raise an uprising against him after he became their king.
  • Curse: At the beginnning of Hikari's route, Hikari implies that Mugen can also hear "the voice" in his head, which Mugen tries to neither confirm or deny. In the final chapter, Mugen confirms that he can hear "the voice" as well as he expresses surprise at Hikari's resisting its influence.
  • Dark Is Evil: He is clad in red and black armor, rides a black Hellish Horse, can inflict the Terror status with his attacks, and is one of the most evil antagonists in the game.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: Everyone in Ku knows that he's an utterly ruthless warrior, but few suspected that he would kill his own father and slaughter innocent citizens because they would rather Hikari be their king and might rebel.
  • Died Standing Up: Upon defeat, he falls to his knees and remains in that position as he dies.
  • Dramatic Unmask: His mask is destroyed in the final battle, revealing that his face is withered and corpse-like. Hikari ruefully notes as Mugen dies that this was the price he paid for submitting himself to the Curse of Ku.
  • The Dreaded: He is feared by the masses and relies on the fear of others for their loyalty. And in his battle, a few of his attacks can cause the Terror ailment.
  • The Emperor: He seeks to become the next king of Ku, which he obtains by ravaging the kingdom's citizens who supported Hikari over him and killing his father. He further plans to become an actual Emperor, and already has Clan Mei waiting in the wings in the eastern continent to begin his expansion, though he only conquers one background nation in between chapters before Hikari shows up to stop him.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: He possesses a deep, commanding voice befitting an ambitious warlord.
  • Family Extermination: He reveals to have purposefully sought to eliminate the entire Lumina bloodline, of which Hikari's mother, Kura, is from as part of his conquests.
  • Fatal Flaw: His reliance on fear is ultimately what does him in. He's correct, to a degree, that fear keeps people in line, and he's rather adept at using fear as a weapon to get what he wants, but fear only controls people so long as the fear of punishment for acting out of line outweighs discontent with the current system. Unsurprisingly, the act of 'salting the earth,' so to speak, to prevent an out-and-out rebellion against him in retaliation for usurping the throne by setting fire to his own nation and killing scores of his civilian population serves to give him uncontested power over his nation in the short term but also leads to rebel cells disgusted with his rule and out for revenge for the loved ones lost in the long run. Clan Mei is another stand-out example; Rai Mei's loyalty was entirely contingent on the idea there was no way to stop Mugen from steamrolling over all the nations in his way. The moment Hikari proved he actually stood a chance against Mugen by beating Rai Mei and showed a gentler, more merciful side in refusing to do her further harm was the moment Rai Mei started having doubts in Mugen's invincibility, which causes her to eventually betray Mugen for Hikari.
  • Final Boss: Of Hikari’s story as both in his original state and as The Enshrouded King.
  • First-Episode Twist: He was a Devil in Plain Sight from the start, but is solidified as the main antagonist of Hikari's route near the end of his first chapter, after he hears that King Jigo wants to pass the crown to Hikari instead of himself, kills Jigo, usurps the throne, and frames Hikari for Jigo's death.
  • Hellish Horse: The steed that he is seen riding in battle is black with red eyes, along with a vicious temperament. Mugen ditches the horse after the first phase upon becoming the Enshrouded King.
  • HP to 1: His decapitation attack in the first form drops a character's HP to 1.
  • Hypocrite: He believes that power is the only thing that matters and the strong will always triumph over the weak. That is, until he loses to Hikari for the first time and starts screaming about how he refuses to accept losing to someone of low birth. Awfully convenient of him to change his beliefs once he's on the wrong side of it.
  • Insane Admiral: He's a brutal warlord that believes bloodshed is a testament of one's true strength.
  • Large and in Charge: He's notably larger than most characters in the game even with his overworld sprite, and the general and later King of Ku's forces.
  • Madness Mantra: While possessed by the power of the Darkblood Blade, Mugen the Enshrouded King repeats "Quench the flames. Call out to the night." when he is not mindlessly growling.
  • Might Makes Right: The concepts of compassion and camaraderie actually anger him even more than the existence of his hated brother, as do the people who spout their virtues, and he's quick to launch into a scathing tirade whenever the subjects come up. From his perspective, the only morality that exists in the world is the strength one wields — the weak are to follow those stronger than them, or they are to be cut down.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Using the power of Shadow contained within the Darkblood Blade transformed Mugen into the Enshrouded King, a six-armed monstrosity wielding all known weapon types in each hand.
  • Obviously Evil: He's a Tin Tyrant who wears an ominous red mask, towers over everyone even with his overworld sprite, one of his first lines is him talking about how the strong should rule the weak and is ruthless in battle. It's no surprise he ends up becoming a villain.
  • One-Winged Angel: Transforms into a multi-armed monstrosity using the power of the Darkblood Blade
  • Patricide: He kills his father, King Jigo, thinking him unfit to lead the nation and a coward for abandoning his conquest in favor of peace, his decision to name Hikari his heir being the final straw.
  • Practically Different Generations: During the flashback in Hikari's penultimate chapter Hikari is a prepubescent child, when Mugen is not only a grown man, but already a general.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: While warriors of Ku in general are clad in red and black armor, including Hikari, Mugen also has no compassion for his enemies and sees his younger brother as weak for having mercy to those he defeats. He eventually kills his own father, the emperor, after deciding that the latter is weak for forgoeing conquest in favor of peace.
  • Red Baron: He's known as "The Scarlet Demon of Ku" for his ruthlessness in battle.
  • Sequential Boss: His final battle with Hikari comes in three phases: First, he's fought normally. Then after defeating him once, the Curse of Ku suddenly tries to take control of Hikari by force, manifesting as a dark doppelganger of Hikari. After that's destroyed, Mugen uses the Darkblood Blade to transform into a monster for the final phase.
  • Shut Up, Kirk!: Near the end of his first phase, when Hikari declares that his bonds with his friends are the source of his strength, Mugen simply laughs in his face and claims that Hikari doesn't even know what "true" strength is.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • Of Werner from the first game. Like Werner, he's the Arc Villain of the Warrior's route and is a brutal warlord who uses his strength to oppress the weak.
    • He's the Ku version of Pardis III from Champions of the Continent, a red-clad, bloodthirsty warlord who usurped the throne from its rightful heir, is horrifically cruel and abusive to his family, plans on plunging the world into war to satisfy their boundless ambitions, and transforms into a misshapen monster in his final battle with the heroes.
  • Take Over the World: His ultimate goal is to conquer the entire world through war.
  • Unwitting Pawn: The finale reveals that Kazan played him like a fiddle in order to obtain the Darkblood Blade for the advent of Vide the Wicked.
  • The Usurper: King Jigo replaces Mugen with Hikari in the line of succession, deeming Mugen too dangerous to become king of Ku. Mugen retaliates by murdering Jigo and framing Hikari for it.
  • Villain Cred: When Ritsu tells him that he killed General Rou because the man had turned traitor and allowed Hikari to escape from their clutches, Mugen has Ritsu promoted to General on the spot. This is done to show how warped Mugen's morality is; when questioned by Ageha on the decision, Mugen reveals he is under no illusion Ritsu is telling the truth about the situation, but gave Ritsu the job anyway because Ritsu's ability to use a setback as a means of clawing for more power pleases Mugen greatly, since it shows Ritsu is taking initiative and is resourceful.
  • Virtue Is Weakness: One of the many things he loathes about Hikari is his willingness to show mercy to defeated enemies.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Ordered the massacre of people against him, including children.
  • You Monster!: Hikari calls him one after he admits that the reason he slaughtered innocent citizens by setting fire to their homes was to stop the possibility of being opposed.

    Ageha 
An ambitious minister of Ku who is all too eager to join Mugen's regime.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: After conquering a nation Ku previously had a peace treaty with, Mugen orders him to kill everyone in the conquered kingdom. Ageha is hesitant at first, stating that this includes children.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Kazan, serving as Mugen's right-hand and primary strategist, as Kazan does to Hikari. Subverted in the final chapter when Kazan turns out to be Oboro, a member of the Moonshade Order who serves Vide.
  • The Unfought: Despite being effectively Mugen's second-in-command, he's never actually fought directly. Instead, Rai Mei defeats him offscreen while Hikari deals with Mugen.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the final chapter, Oboro uses him as a Human Sacrifice to douse Ku's Sacred Flame.

    The Voice (SPOILERS) 

"Hikari"

An embodiment of the curse of Clan Ku in Hikari, who tries to influence him into spilling blood needlessly.

The Final Chapter

    The Moonshade Order 
A world-spanning cult with secret ties to each of the Travelers and whose members interact with them at different points in their respective stories. See their page here.

Other Characters

    Al 
A wandering merchant first met upon selecting a traveler and moving on from their first chapter. He serves to introduce side quests, having had his things stolen from a bandit before the player helps him. He shares a name with Alfred Hornburg from the first Octopath Traveler game.
  • Dimensional Traveler: The one person in the game to mention the world of the prequel, "Orsterra". At the end of his quest chain he says he's going home, shares his true name, and disappears in a flash of light.
  • One-Steve Limit: Shares the name of Olberic's liege lord, the last king of Hornburg in the original game.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's the sequel's equivalent to Kit, being a character that introduces sidequests after you complete your first story chapter. You continue to meet him as the game progresses and his quests culminate with you fighting Galdera.

    The Pantheon 
Eight of the gods of Orsterra hold dominion over Solistia as well. They once fought against the ancient god Vide as well as the Fallen. They appear in a story Temenos tells to the students at a class.
  • Adapted Out: Curiously, Solistia only has eight out of twelve Orsterran gods accounted for in their myths. Steorra, Balogar, Dreisang, and Winnehild are not part of the Solistian pantheon unlike in Orsterra, and their corresponding jobs were replaced by new, apparently non-divine ones (including the Armsmaster, a clear homage to the Warmaster in concept but very different in execution). They are however, referenced occasionally in different portions of the second game.
  • The Almighty Dollar: Bifelgan, the Trader, returns as the god of Merchants and Commerce. He will bless Partitio with the EX skill "Negotiate Schedule" that allows Partitio to buy an attack spot from an unbroken enemy for a certain amount of money. Even Vide will sell a spot for a price.
  • The Chooser of the One: Each one has chosen one of the Eight Travelers as their person to continue the duty of protecting the continent.
  • Divine Intervention: Each of their hidden altars will only grant power to their chosen hero. If the group that comes to the altar lacks the chosen one, the deity will tell the heroes to return with the appropriate person.
  • Divine Parentage: During Temenos and Throné's Crossed Path, it's revealed Aelfric once had a child with a mortal woman, and her descendents still bear aspects of the divine union.
  • God Is Good: They each care about human life and protecting it from great evils, even if it costs them much of their energy to defeat those evils each time.
  • God of Knowledge: Alephan, the Scholarking, is the patron of Scholars. Befitting the purpose of a scholar is to learn and teach, he bestows on Osvald the EX Skill "Teach." With this power, Osvald can grant a boost to his allies for so many turns.
  • Healer God:
    • Aelfric grants Temenos an initial healing power as a Cleric, and later bestows on him the EX Skill "Prayer for Plenty" which heals a single character beyond their max HP.
    • Dohter, the Charitable, is the god of Apothecaries and grants them several healing powers.
  • Nature Spirit: Draefendi, the Huntress, returns as goddess of hunters and the wilds. She bestows on Ochette the EX Skill "Indomintable Beast" which boosts Ochette's attack, speed, and evasion rates.
  • Top God: Aelfric is the leader of these deities and is the last god standing against Vide in their final battle.
  • The Sacred Darkness: Aeber, Prince of Thieves, represents benevolent darkness. Of their eight domains, Thief is the most morally questionable, but a thief who steals from evil and aides good is good at the core. Aeber also blesses Throné with the EX Skill "Veil of Darkness" which hits all enemies with a Darkness-elemental attack and will make their next physical attack to miss.
  • Super-Empowering: While job classes reflecting each god has certain skills unique to that job, adding that job as a subjob allows more people to use them. However, the hidden altars which activate only when the deity's chosen Traveler comes give an EX Skill which is unique to them and them alone.
  • War God: Brand returns as the God of Warriors and blesses Hikari during his travels with the EX Skill "Ultimate Stance" which lets Hikari's attacks reach all enemies on the field..
  • "With Our Swords" Scene: Their story opens with Aelfric the last one standing before the other seven gift him their strength to fight Vide.

    Karma 
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Initial Form
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Stance Form
A thief who steals the Keepsake Sword and hides in the Decaying Temple east of Sai.
  • Duel Boss: The Decaying Temple forces the player to enter with only one traveler, meaning they have to take this man on by themselves.
  • One-Hit Kill: After peforming a stance, Karma will change his sprite and use four attacks in succession unless he is Broken. If he reaches the fourth of these attacks, he will deal the maximum 9,999 damage and instantly incapacitate his opponent.
  • Optional Boss: He is the boss of the side story "Sword Hunter in the Decaying Temple".
  • Puzzle Boss: Effectively what Karma is meant to be. You go into his fight with only a single character so it's difficult to damage-race him down into the ground, and his gimmick revolves around working his way up to a One-Hit Kill move called 'Killer Karma.' Though this move can be survived with a Hang Tough build, he'll continue ripping into the traveler, and it'll be difficult to regain the advantage in the fight. The trick is that Karma resets his counter working up to 'Killer Karma' every time he recovers from being Broken. As such, the challenge is to figure out a configuration of abilities that can bring down his high shield count in four turns for each stance. His final stance is itself a puzzle, as he brings his Break Points to one but completely nullifies all weaknesses to him. To overcome this, the traveler needs to use abilities like Castti's 'Weak To Poison / Poison Axe' combo or Agnea's 'Ruinous Kick' to directly bypass weakness checks and force him into a Broken state before he gets off 'Killer Karma.'

    Priestess Hinoekagura 
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Normal Form
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Onslaught Form
The guardian of the Five-Tiered Tower that gives the Proof of Conjurer to those who pass the test of the tower.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: The three elements she imbues her attacks with. Fire attacks deal more damage, lightning attacks stun opponents, and ice attacks drain SP. Like Balogar in the previous game, the actual Conjurer ability can't grant these side effects.
  • One-Hit Kill: One of her Limit Breaks instantly incapacitates the traveler with the highest HP.
  • Optional Boss: She is only accessible after beating Hikari's story and restoring Ku. She acts like the four gods that guard the ancient jobs in the previous game, giving the Conjurer job when defeated.
  • Stance System: She alternates between the Young Woman stance and the Onslaught stance during her fight, which have different movesets.

    The Fallen (SPOILERS) 
Galdera the Fallen, the dark god of Orsterra faced as the True Final Boss of the first Octopath Traveler, he can be faced once more in the continent of Solistia after a series of optional side quests involving Al.

For tropes about Galdera from the first game, click here.


  • Adapted Out: This happens to Lyblac. Instead, you need to destroy Galdera's hand during the second phase.
  • Continuity Nod: One of the sidequests required to reach Galdera involves obtaining From the Far Reaches of Hell, the mysterious foreboding tome that Cyrus was after from the first game.
  • Legacy Boss Battle: The True Final Boss of the original game, back for another round and stronger than ever.
  • Superboss: He is optional to face due to a number of sidequests needed to unlock him. That said, he is much stronger here than when faced from the first game, and this is without any aid from his daughter, Lyblac.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: Reaching Galdera requires retracing nearly all of the steps that it did in the first game. Upon finishing their first chapter, the initial traveler meets a stranger by the roadside who offers the game's first sidequest. You meet them again after a seemingly unrelated sidequest, and after one final sidequest they set out to open the Gate of Finis where Galdera waits.

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