Discount Lesbians - She's gay because of the Charm Lord Orlouge's blood in her veins. In the ending where she gives up her mystic powers, she marries a man.
Emergency Transformation- After being hit by Orlouge's carriage, she's infused with his blood, turning her into a Half-Mystic and saving her life.
Mayfly December Romance: In the Half-Mystic Ending, she and Gina share this; Gina's an old grandmother while Asellus is still eternally young and beautiful.
Power Dyes Your Hair- When she uses her Mystic abilities, 'Mystical Change' activates and adds the stats of the absorbed monsters onto her own— this change is signified by some glowing, floating, and her hair turning from green to bright blue.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated- Since the accident happened 12 years before the game started, and not 'yesterday' as she previously believed, Asellus' aunt believed her to be dead.
Jerkass- He just sits in his suite on the Cygnus when it's attacked, refusing to help Red because of his name. On his own quest, if swallowed by Tanzer, he ignores the attack by Nomad's fighters against the other passengers, and abandons Fei-On in Tanzer's stomach.
White-Haired Pretty Boy / Blond Guys are Evil- Manages to pull off both of these—His sprite has blond hair, though in all the artwork, it's white like Rouge's. Hair color aside, as for why he fits these, see Jerkass above.
Emelia
Clothes Make the Superman - Being an ex-supermodel, Emelia can get stat boosts in her clothes. Two of her four outfits give a minor benefit in a different skill. More specifically, they swap her "Spark Talent List"—that is, the moves she's most likely to learn, with the other ladies of Gradius.
Pink Tiger outfit boosts her barehanded attacks by swapping her list with Liza's
Bunnygirl outfit was likely meant to boost her magic skills, but has no effect.
Belly Dancer outfit boosts her sword techniques by swapping her list with Annie's
Soldieress outfit was likely meant to boost her gunplay, (possibly by swapping her hidden gun/magic stat (0) with Roufas (6)) but does has no effect.
Wrongly Accused- Accused of murdering her fiance, Ren. Unfortunately for her, Ren was Fuse's best friend, so he had her thrown into Despair with no trial.
Lute
The Alcoholic- Not as bad as Gen, but he has shades of this- He's always found in the Pub in Scrap, and during his story, if you do the quest for the Grail Card, finding the card becomes an afterthought to "Free sake!"
All Your Powers Combined - Essence states that his quest was finished last, mainly because he was so busy helping out all the other characters. So they returned the favor and all joined him to finish his quest. All of them. The villain of his story is also revealed to be the Man Behind the Man behind most other villains in the game.
Basement Dweller- Actually starts off his quest because he's tired of being a burden to his mom (read: he gets kicked out.)
Lazy Bum- Starts as of these, and he's forbidden from going back home until he gets a job. His intro outright calls him "shiftless."
Magikarp Power- He starts out with, essentially, no abilities to speak of, but can be developed to any level in any direction, and learns skills unusually quickly.
Magnetic Hero- Always found in the pub in Scrap, gets the other hero to talk about their self, and winds up joining their team. In his own story, he's genuinely friendly to anyone and gets people to join his team easily. In-game, he's got a very high "Charm" stat.
Walking the Earth- He leaves home in search of adventure. Adventure and a decent job.
Red*
Retsu Okonogi
Anime Hair- A few drug users comment on it, calling him "Cactus Head". Also, Doll finds it easy to find him due to his "hip-hop hairdo".
Crutch Character- Alkaiser form. While few non-bosses can stand up to his immense power, ending a battle as Alkaiser voids any stat bonuses that Red would get. Since Red's stats directly influence Alkaiser's, the result can be a very weak superhero.
Emergency Transformation- After nearly being killed by Shuzer, he's turned into a superhero by Alkarl in order to save his life.
Expy- His appearance appears to be based off that of a character named Red in a little-known Square Soft game called Treasure Hunter G. There's also a Blue in that game, although he looks nothing like this one's.
Parental Abandonment- His family is killed by Black X about thirty seconds into his game. It's revealed that his mother and sister are actually still alive near the end
Power Glows- Morphing into Alkaiser is accompanied by glowing and a flash of light.
Idle Animation-The only character with one. Leave him alone long enough, and he rocks back and forth.
Kid Hero- Though his actual age is unknown, he definitely behaves as though he's a kid. Probably in part due to being a Fish out of Water.
Kitsune- A Lummox actually, but the combination of his multiple tails and shape shifting certainly invokes it.
Mega Manning- As a monster, it comes with the territory.
Ring of Power- Has the "Guardian" ring. In-story, it's the reason Margmel managed to go so long without dying. In-game, it boosts the party's defenses.
Heart Drive- T260's "core" apparently functions as one of these, enabling it to swap body types at will. Presumably, it's the same for other Mecs, too.
Living Ship- Its original original body, before crash-landing in Junk.
Undercover Cop Reveal- Lies to Red at first about why she wants to go to the ruins in Shingrow, just before the fight with Berva, she reveals herself as an IRPO patrol officer.
Dead Partner- Ren, Emelia's fiance, was his partner and best friend from way back in their academy days.
Demoted to Extra- Was originally going to be one of the main protagonists, but his quest had to be cut due to disk space.
Jerkass- Knocks Red unconscious for talking out of turn, gets Emelia thrown in Despair with little evidence because he doesn't like her, insults Lute a bit... he's not a particularly pleasant individual.
The Alcoholic- A full-blown drunk. Just sits around getting wasted in Scrap and Junk, and both his status screen and victory pose involve him drinking.
Cool Old Guy- Has the personality, and at age 35, he's definitely this to Rose(14) and Thyme(12). To everyone else in-game, he's borderline- none of the protagonists are older than 25 (Lute), and short of Roufas(40) and Capt. Hamilton (48), he's still got 6 years on the next closest character who can join the group.
Drunken Master- A drunken samurai, and possibly the best sword user in-game.
Implausible Fencing Powers- He cuts through a rope by using an iron pipe as a sword, although he later claims he didn't use the pipe to cut it. Lampshaded by T260, who Divides By Zero trying to figure it out.
Cool Shades- Never takes 'em off. Not even while cooking. Not even at a wedding.
Rated M for Manly-When you run into him at Mu's Tomb looking for the Victory Rune. He'll only join human, male characters who answer with a Testosterone Poisoned "YEAH!!" when asked if Victory is the mark of a real man.
The Exile- Not allowed to return to the Magic Kingdom until he kills Blue. Due to a lack of Gameplay and Story Segregation, he'll actually leave the group if you try to bring him.
Famous Last Words- If defeated by Blue, he gives the last bit of their shared last words-
The Power of Friendship- In Essence, he's able to muster the strength to get out of Hell, because he knew there were people who cared about him outside.
Recruitable Mystics
Dr. Nusakan
Back Alley Doctor- Runs a small clinic in the backstreets of Koorong.
Minored in Ass Kicking- Essence states that he's as powerful as a Mystic Lord, but couldn't care less about the Mystic hierarchy. He'd rather continue his morbid research. In game, he has the Death spell, despite it being a high-level Arcane spell and him not having the Gift for it.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold- Although his heart of gold doesn't show up until near the end of Asellus' game when he rejoins your party following The loss of White Rose.
Oranyan: To Rastaban. He's well aware that Rastaban's completely off his rocker, and doesn't mind snarking bitterly at him whenever they get a scene together, but he does love him.
Happiness in Slavery - She's quite eager to be Asellus' slave when Asellus comes back to her. Averted with the Lord of the Manor; she's not happy at all when he confines her to his house.
I Owe You My Life- If Asellus goes back to Owmi for her after the Dark Labyrinth, Mesarthim invokes this trope, insisting that she be Asellus' slave. Incidentally, she also feels this way about the Lord of the Manor, but can't stand the constant smell of humans or her confinement in his shower.
Better to Die than Be Killed- She threw herself into the fires of Kurenai, so she wouldn't have to live as one of Orlouge's mistresses.
Boomerang Bigot- In Asellus' game, the first thing she says is "I smell the foul stench of a Mystic," referring to White Rose, despite she herself being one.
My Hero Zero- "Rei" means "Zero" in Japanese, and she's the only character able to use Mirage magic.
Pride- Essence says that her portrait during the battle with Orlouge symbolizes "Pride that bows to none."
Reincarnation- Committed suicide to be reborn into human flesh, by using the "cycle of birth".
Wise Beyond Their Years- Despite knowing about Time and Space magic, having mastered Mirage magic and her reaction to Asellus and White Rose, she's only 12. Justified, since she's been re-incarnated.
Impractically Fancy Outfit- Somewhat justified since most mystics dress rather fancily. Fuse hates his dress style and even gave him a nickname because of that (see trope below).
The Voiceless- It's rumored that he lost his voice when trying to absorb Tanzer, although Word Of God says he's a natural mute. Under the right circumstances, he'll speak in Red's game near the end, but it's in a scene where the second and third members of the group ask Red-as-Alkaiser about where Red is, so it's likely just an oversight or glitch.
"Time Lord"
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep- No one knows what his true name is- "Time Lord" is just a title he's taken for himself.
Power Perversion Potential- Invoked in Essence when he uses Time Leap to allow Fuse to feel up Doll. Unfortunately, since the person is outside of time, they can't be affected by anything, and feel as hard as stone. Unfortunately for Fuse, Time Leap's effect doesn't last very long.
Heroic Sacrifice- In the Dark Labyrinth, in order to for anyone to leave, someone has to stay behind. White Rose decides that she deserves it as punishment for disobeying Orlogue, and stays so that Asellus and co. may leave.
Rival Turned Evil- To Dr. Okonogi. They went to college together, but Klein "became obsessed with strange and dangerous experiments for a secret organization [...] and was eventually expelled." Okonogi still considers him a friend, wishing only to stop Klein before he commits any more crimes..
What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unclear what happened to her after her second defeat by Asellus. In the Human and Half-mystic endings,she shows up on a scrapbook card with no context, although it's implied by the Full-Mystic ending that she and Orlouge's other princesses are killed.
Parental Substitute- After Red's family is killed, he takes over as father and employer.
Metal Black*
Shortened to MBlack in battle
Evil Knockoff- Metal Black III is modeled after Alkaiser, and has his own version of Alkaiser's Al-Phoenix, called Dark Phoenix. In fact, MBlackIII's Japanese name is Metal Alkaiser.
Affably Evil-At first, he seems like a genuinely nice guy- In Emelia's quest, he gives her the Angel Broach, and in Lute's game, he gives him a ride out of Yorkland... he's also the head of Trinity, killed Lute's father, and plans to rule the world with a Humongous Mecha.
Rival Turned Evil- He was Lute's Dad's best friend...then he killed him.
The Man Behind the Man- Between events in game and happenings in ''Essence'', he's in some way involved in at least five out of the seven stories.
Wave Motion Gun- The Spriggan's "Buster Launcher", which does about 1,000 damage to the first person it hits, and 10-100 to everyone else.
Orlouge
Bad Boss/Villainous Demotivator- After Asellus' escape, Ciato questions the wisdom of not punishing Ildon... and gets hurled around the room for his trouble.
Stalker with a Crush- For lack of a better trope, yes. As White Rose puts it, he never lets go of things he has acquired, ever.
Rastaban
The Chessmaster- Turns out, he's behind a plot to help Asellus overthrow Orlouge. Depending on how Mystical she is, he either gives her some Pluto Armor or fights to absorb her mystical power and be strong enough to fight Orlouge himself.
The Starscream- One of the few mystics of Chateau Augille not loyal to Orlouge, plotting his downfall either by way of Asellus or overthrowing him on his own.
Luke, I Am Your Father- Although he may just be trying to mess with Red's head, during the battle at his base in Koorong, just before Alkaiser deals the final blow, he claims to have Dr. Okonogi's brain and asks Red/Alkaiser if he could kill his own father.
Rocket Punch- He shoots his hands off when he uses the move "Claw Bit". Once every turn they fly back around and attack a character.
Swiss Army Appendage- While his hands are detached, the rest of his arms can function as a rail gun, machine gun, or flamethrower.
Cool Chair- A golden bat and angel winged throne set atop a massive dragon!
No Celebrities Were Harmed- In Essence, he's also referred to as "Fireworks Lord". The artist based his face on her favorite Visual Kei band vocalist- Atsushi Sakurai. Sakurai's band is named "Buck Tick," which is pronounced "bakuchiku," which translates to "Firecracker."
Living Forever Is Awesome- Quite a few of the scientists remark on having a "disease-free, immortal body", either by offering you one or having one themselves. They don't even seem particularly bothered by the Body Horror that comes with it.
Slave Mooks- Berva's mooks in Shingrow are would-be tomb robbers who've been captured and forced to join Black X.
The Caballero Family
The Mafia- Runs a protection racket in Junk, a factory in Scrap.
Gradius
IRPO*
Inter-Regional Patrol Organization
Oddly Small Organization- The only patrol officers are Fuse, Ren, Doll, Silence, Cotton and Rabbit. In Essence Suzaku, Engineer Car, and ZEKE are deputized as well. Fuse also deputizes Red in one instance.
Space Police- Although whether the regions are planets or just places is... kind of ill-defined.
