Alisa (or Alyssa)/Alis Landale

• Hot Chick with a Sword
• Kill It with Fire: The "Fire" spell
• Magic Knight
• Spell My Name with an S: Fans are torn whether her Japanese name is Alisa or Alyssa.
• Warp Whistle: The "Fly" spell, which transports the party to the last church visited. This works across planets.
• You Killed My Brother

Myau

• Magic Knight: Not as traditional as Alis, but Myau hits hard up until the end game, and even then he's not too bad.
• Non-Human Sidekick: One of the Palman musk cats.
• Punny Name: Yep, that's a cat's meow he's named for.
• Talking Animal
• Team Pet
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: When fed a certain type of nut.
• White Mage: All of Myau's magic is healing, stat buffing, or effects the area (disarm traps, open doors, etc.).

Tylon (or Tyrone)/Odin

• An Axe to Grind: He's the only character that can use axes and one is his most powerful weapon.
• Mighty Glacier
• Only One Name
• Spell My Name with an S: Like Alis, fans can't decide if his Japanese name is Tylon or Tyrone.
• Superhero Packing Heat: Odin is the only character who can use guns which compensates for the fact he can't use magic.
• What an Idiot: While Odin had the foresight to hunt Medusa with a medicine that cures petrification, he gave it to a creature incapable of opening the bottle!

Lutz/Noah

• Blow You Away: The "Wind" spell
• Dub Name Change: Different from Alis and Odin in that Lutz would have fit the four-character name limit.
• Kill It with Fire: He also has the "Fire" spell.
• Red Mage: He has the "Cure" spell, though he can't use it in battle. He's also the only character that learns "Rise".
• She's a Man in Japan: The sufferer of a famous inconsistency in pronouns in the translation, but he's supposed to be a man everywhere.
• Shock and Awe: The "Thunder" spell
• Squishy Wizard

Rolf

• Fanon: Often given the surname "Landale", but it's not explicitly canon.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Though he can also used knives and low-caliber guns.
• Magic Knight
• Parental Abandonment: Lost both of his parents when he was 10.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Nei

• Cast from Hit Points: Two of her four techniques sacrifice her life to heal party members.
• Crutch Character: Nei levels twice as fast as anyone else, but only learns a handful of techniques compared to the others.
• Cute Monster Girl
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Easily the most recognizable character in the entire Phantasy Star series.
• Fragile Speedster: Her defensive equipment sucks, but she'll almost always strike first, plus she's made for Dual Wielding.
• Half-Human Hybrid
• Meaningful Name: According to in-game text, Nei means "the human that is not human."
• Plotline Death: Years before FinalFantasyVII made it popular
• Required Party Member: Up to and including Climatrol.
• Wolverine Claws: Oddly refered to as bars in the localization.

Rudolf "Rudo" Steiner

• The Gunslinger: All of his best weapons are firearms.
• Mighty Glacier: He's an Expy of Odin, after all.

Amy Sage

• The Chick
• Red-Headed Hero
• The Medic
• White Magician Girl

Hugh Thompson

• Squishy Wizard: Moreso than any other character in the game. His best armor is the Ceramic Chest, for crying out loud.
• Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: Specializes in destroying organic enemies.
• Useless Useful Spell: Has a lot of status debuffs that don't really help much.

Anna Zirski

• Lady of War: Fights exclusively with whips and slashers.
• The Quiet One

Josh Kain

• Last Name Basis: "Kain" is his default name.
• Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: Specializes in destroying mechanical enemies.
• Walking Tech Bane: The basis for his expertise in robot-affecting techniques. His job is even listed as "Wrecker".
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Shir Gold

• Blow You Away: Specializes in the Zan techniques.
• Fragile Speedster: Even more than Nei.
• Gravity Master: Specializes in the Gra techniques, and is notably the only character to learn Nagra.
• Knife Nut
• Punny Name: "Sure gold", or easy money.
• Sticky Fingers

Neifirst

• Artificial Human
• Climax Boss
• Disc One Final Boss
• Evil Twin
• Half-Human Hybrid
• Hero Killer
• Meaningful Name: According to in-game text, Nei means "the human that is not human."
• Monster Lord
• Psycho Prototype
• Wolverine Claws
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds

Mother Brain

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• The Computer Is Your Friend
• Master Computer
• One Bad Mother

Rhys

Alys Brangwin

• Bruiser with a Soft Center
• Crutch Character: Alys is much more powerful than the other early game characters at first, but even leaving aside the fact that you lose her after her Plotline Death, her growth curve is such that other characters quickly catch up if you level grind.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Decoy Protagonist: Considering how similar her name is to the protagonist of the first game, you'd think she was the main character, wouldn't you? Beside, she's usually swapped into the first character slot when she joins and acts like a leader.
• Plotline Death
• Precision-Guided Boomerang
• Red Baron: She's known as 'Alys the Eight Stroke Sword', or in the original Japanese, the much more awkward 'Rip-Their-Guts-Out Lyla'.

Chaz Ashley

• Heroic BSOD
• Heroes Prefer Swords
• Magic Knight

Hahn Mahlay

• Butt Monkey: He falls for Alys' extortion schemes quite often.
• Knife Nut
• Squishy Wizard

Rune Walsh

• Badass Longhair
• Carry a Big Stick
• Crutch Character: When he first joins the party, he's usually ten levels stronger than your highest-leveled character (unless you did some level grinding). This also applies when he rejoins the party, though it's not as pronounced.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Guest Star Party Member: The first time he joins the party. Midway through the game he comes back as a more permanent fixture.
• Squishy Wizard
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Gryz

• An Axe to Grind
• Mighty Glacier

Rika

• Combat Medic
• Cute Monster Girl
• Wolverine Claws
• Younger than They Look: She's only a year old!

Demi

• Older than They Look: She's 324.
• Robot Girl

Wren

• The Gunslinger
• Legacy Character: Of the Phantasy Star III cyborg, of course.
• The Spock

Raja

• Cool Old Guy
• Deadpan Snarker
• Dirty Old Man
• Good Shepherd
• The Medic

Kyra Tierney

• Cool Big Sis
• Magic Knight
• Precision-Guided Boomerang
• Tomboy
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Seth

• Adventurer Archaeologist
• Guest Star Party Member
• The Mole
• Token Evil Teammate

Zio

• The Antichrist
• Barrier Warrior: His signature technique is the Magic Barrier, which makes him effectively invincible until it's dispelled.
• Black Blood: It's even the name of his appearance music!
• Black Mage
• Dark is Evil
• Dark Messiah
• Disc One Final Boss
• Evil Sorceror
• Fantastic Racism: Towards Motavians, apparently.
• Hero Killer
• Hopeless Boss Fight: There's no way to win the first encounter with him.
• Omnicidal Maniac
• Red and Black and Evil All Over
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Religion of Evil
• Shoulders of Doom
• Sinister Minister