Koudelka | Shadow Hearts (Yuri Hyuga) | Covenant | From the New World
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Party Members
Yuri Hyuga
Yuri Volte Hyuga / Urmnaf "Uru" Bort Hyuga / "Rude Hero"
Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi (JP), Ted Lewis (EN, Shadow Hearts)
The protagonist of both Shadow Hearts and its first sequel, Shadow Hearts Covenant, Yuri is a half-Japanese, half-Russian Harmonixer, with the power to take on the form of demons he has slain and use their powers in battle. He follows the orders of a voice he hears in his mind. This voice is the one that tells him to board the train where he meets and ends up saving a girl called Alice Elliot. Despite initially being annoyed by his newfound duty to protect her, and believing her to be somewhat of a pain, Yuri rapidly warms to her, and vows to protect her no matter what.For tropes on him, see his own page.
Alice Elliot
Alice Elliot / "Girl in Danger"
Voiced by: Chie Sawaguchi (JP), Veronica Taylor (EN, Shadow Hearts), Michelle Ruff (EN, Covenant, credited as Georgette Rose)
Appearances: Shadow Hearts | Covenant
Alice is a practitioner of White Magic. She worked with her father as an exorcist, traveling throughout Europe banishing demons. She was actually born with a rare and hidden power, something highly desirable to the villains. Her father dies protecting her from Bacon during an incident in Rouen. She is saved by Yuri when she is nearly abducted by Bacon a second time at the very beginning of the game, and from there Yuri promises (because of the voice in Yuri's head) to protect her in their travels.Appearances: Shadow Hearts | Covenant
- Back from the Dead: Subverted. Roger decides to bring her back for Yuri, and the two NEARLY succeed in doing so, but the ritual fails at the last second. She was alive long enough to exchange "I love you"s with Yuri, though. Word of God confirms that Yuri manages to go back and save her to achieve the Good ending from the original SH.
- Damsel in Distress: Justified, as the villains need her powers for their plans to work. Also, she lacks combat experience and is quite delicate. That said, she Took a Level in Badass after the timeskip and even manages to defeat Arcane Olga by herself.
- Deal with the Devil: One of the very rare examples in this series that doesn't amount to a deal for power.
- Enlightenment Super Powers: According to Zhuzhen, Alice has some form of ESP, but the reason it manifests as holy powers certainly comes from her devotion to Biblical study.
- Eye Beams: "Advent", one of the two attack spells she learns, does this.
- Feather Motif: Alice's light powers manifest in battle as white feathers flying upwards.
- Foil: To Arcane Olga. Where Olga is the constant female companion of our Big Bad with unholy powers and a flare for sadism, Alice is the constant female companion of our hero with holy powers and an empathetic nature.
- Foreshadowing: The small grave that appears in Yuri's graveyard after Alice's Deal with the Devil, whose name is clouded until very late in the game.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Many, many, MANY characters comment on Alice's beauty throughout the game.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Alice sacrifices her soul in place of Yuri's.
- The Ingenue: Alice starts out as quite innocent.
- Light 'em Up: Light is her elemental affinity. She also uses light magic for healing, protection, and offensive attacks.
- Magikarp Power: Alice starts off with only one healing spell, and has weak physical power (to say nothing of her Sanity Points, which are the lowest of the main party). However, as the game goes on, her healing spells get stronger and she gains an attack spell that hits like a TANK.
- Mystical White Hair: She's a girl with mysterious power, not to mention a White Magician Girl, so the white hair is pretty appropriate.
- Official Couple: With Yuri.
- Rescue Introduction: Yuri rescues her from Roger Bacon in the beginning of Shadow Hearts.
- Secretly Dying: After taking on Yuri's curse from the vengeful masks.
- Shrinking Violet: She starts off very shy and timid.
- Squishy Witch: Is great with magic, but her HP, offense, and SP values are rather low.
- Take Me Instead: When the Four Masks come to claim Yuri's soul, Alice offers her own to them in order to spare him, essentially transferring Yuri's Curse to herself. She succumbs to the Curse during a train ride with Yuri, dying in his arms. In Covenant, the last remnants of her spiritual essence took up residence in Yuri's Graveyard, watching over him from afar. The Curse of the Holy Mistletoe is no match for her love for Yuri. It is implied that the Timey-Wimey Ball at the end of Covenant makes it possible for Yuri to save her.
- Throw the Book at Them: While Alice is mainly a magic user, she can also bash enemies with a book.
- White Mage: She is the main healer of the party.
- White Magician Girl: She's the party's healer and status buffer.
Li Zhuzhen
Li Zhuzhen / "Quack Oracle"
Voiced by: Kenichiro Sanada (JP), Maddie Blaustein (EN)
Appearances: Shadow Hearts
A Taoist sage, initially met while investigating a town of monsters that Yuri and Alice have stumbled into. He rejoins them when Alice is attacked by Li Li, and on hearing about their encounters with "Roger Bacon" and Dehuai, attaches himself to the group.Appearances: Shadow Hearts
Following the post-Shanghai Time Skip, Zhuzhen and Alice work as exorcists, and are called to the small town of Bistritz...
- Asian Rune Chant: Used to cast his magic.
- Cain and Abel: The Abel to his half brother, Dehuai, representing Cain.
- Cool Old Guy: No arguing with it when he's a Taoist master sage.
- Foil: To Dehuai. They are both Taoist oracles with a connection to nature who trained together under the same master, but Zhuzhen maintained a reverence for nature rather than trying to control it and uses his powers for good, whereas Dehuai frequently corrupts nature and uses his powers for evil.
- Good Counterpart: He is this to Dehuai, who is his brother.
- I Did What I Had to Do: His reason for killing Yuri's father: Ben Hyuga was taken over by the demon he'd absorbed.
- Magic Staff: His scepter.
- Mercy Kill: Ten years before the game, Zhuzhen assisted Ben Hyuga, Yuri's father, in battling Dehuai. Ben attempted to absorb the demon Dehuai had summoned, and when he failed to properly control it, Zhuzhen had no choice but to kill him.
- Playing with Fire: His innate element.
- Put on a Bus: Is not mentioned after the first game, nor does he receive cameos like Margarete and Keith.
- The Smart Guy: For the first half of the game, he's the Mr. Exposition.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Yuri. Alice and Keith even discuss it near the beginning of Act 2.Keith: My goodness, it's hard to know whether these two are bosom buddies or sworn enemies... Which is it?Alice: Oh, I guess you could say both.
Margarete Gertrude Zelle
Margarete Gertrude Zelle / "Alluring Spy" / "Malkovich, an Ordinary Citizen"
Fortunately, Yuri and Alice had no choice but to follow her given that the authorities were hot on their trail, and Margarete ends up joining them. While she initially stays to find out more about their mysterious powers, believing it to be valuable information that she can use for her own personal gain, Margarete finds herself becoming close to the pair, and even envies the bond that they share. She then becomes a loyal ally, and remains with the team no matter what.
- Ace Pilot: She manages to pilot a plane that was halfway falling apart some distance.
- Adaptational Modesty: Historically, Margarete “Mata-Hari” Zelle was usually publicly wearing a chorus-girl outfit, if that; in Shadow Hearts, she goes around in short-shorts, a corset, and a Bad Ass Long Coat.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: We meet Margarete's father, who is a lottery member. He wears a fake nose and embarrasses Margarete, but not before wishing her luck and giving her her ultimate weapon.
- Anachronism Stew: She has a cell phone and what appears to be a microcomputer pre-WWI.
- Badass Longcoat: Sports quite a stylish one.
- Badass Normal: Margarete is the only playable character in the entire series to have no magical abilities whatsoever, all she has is conventional weapons.
- Becoming the Mask: States in a confession scene that she was actually sent by the "Powers" (presumably, the Triple Entente pre-WWI) to keep an eye on the situation in Asia, and fully intended to use Yuri for her nation's betterment. But as she traveled with him, she became attracted to his way of life and abandoned that goal.
- Boom, Headshot!: Her "Snipe" special skill.
- Continuity Nod: She makes a cameo in Covenant if you make the right choices in the Chain of Deals sidequest.
- Family-Friendly Stripper: Though displaying a firm comfort of her own sexuality, we never see the famous prostitute-spy, stripping.
- Foil: To Kawashima. Both spies for major powers, both trying to recruit supernatural resources for their countries, both based on real people, who get disavowed by their countries and executed as spies. Margarete just happens to be working the party from the status of “friend” where Kawashima is only pretending to be friends right up until she can get them shipped off to Japan. Ultimately, both also have a change of heart for having known Yuri & co. Had Kawashima joined the party, they would be near identical, role-wise.
- Gun Fu: When she gets all 3 attacks in her Judgement Ring, she ends her combo by shooting the enemy while backflipping.
- Historical Beauty Upgrade: While real-life Mata Hari wasn't ugly by any means, she wasn't a busty blue-eyed blonde like in this game. She was instead a dark-eyed brunette, and very modest in the chest department.
- Historical Domain Character: She is based on the real life Mata Hari, although with the "spy" elements played up instead of the "stripper" elements.
- The Lancer: To Yuri. She takes charge following Yuri's disappearance after his failed fusion with the Seraphic Radiance.
- Making a Splash: Her element is Water.
- Ms. Fanservice: The original one in the series. She makes her introduction to the party by letting Yuri look up her skirt and flashes her panties every time she attacks. During the ending, the player is treated to a shot of her in a (highly anachronistic) bikini.
- Secret-Keeper: In the canonical bad ending, Margarete is the only person Alice tells of her impending death. She doesn't tell anyone else.
Keith Valentine
Keith Valentine / "Bored Vampire" / Silver Bat
Voiced by: Kenji Nojima (JP), Scott Rayow (EN)
Appearances: Shadow Hearts | Covenant | From the New World
A vampire, one of the Valentine vampire clan (a running gag in the series). He lives in a castle near the small town of Bistritz, Germany. Despite being a vampire, he's a very cultured man, and has befriended a fatherless girl who lives in the village.Appearances: Shadow Hearts | Covenant | From the New World
He offers to assist Alice and Zhuzhen in their investigation and, after it's settled, asks their help to defeat a monster that showed up in his castle's tower...
- Animorphism: Can turn into a silver bat.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: It's a bit dated, but it's still quite fancy.
- Berserk Button: Though cool-headed and mellow throughout the rest of the game, even in the face of potential death, the notion of someone stealing his family's blood rites and using them to harm/kill the very people of his land is enough to make Keith out for blood.
- Blood Magic: All his special abilities are thanks to his family's ceremonial blood rites. Apparently it's not a vampire thing, it is specifically his family's in particular.
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Broken Aesop: May overlap with Our Vampires Are Different — Keith claims vampires do not drink blood and that is a myth, even though he and his family very clearly do have a life-drink ability. It may be that this is a trait of his family's Blood Magic and not intrinsically tied to vampirism in the Shadow Hearts universe. - Camp Straight: As fabulous as he acts, we only ever see him make a brief chivalrous advance on Margarete. (As well as apparently going back to sleep with a gaggle of vampire women.)
- Continuity Nod: With the defeat of Albert Simon and Meta-God, Keith goes back to sleep in his coffin. He's awake in Covenant, now working as a lottery member, and not entirely pleased about Joachim's new choice of business... He also appears in From the New World, being one of the few characters to appear in all three games.
- Dishing Out Dirt: His elemental affinity is Earth.
- A Father to His Men: While he may only be an antiquated lord, he will react violently if his subjects are in danger.
- Flash Step: How he moves during battle; while the others are seen moving, he just teleports towards the enemy.
- Foil: To Kevin. Kevin is the modern owner of Bistritz who's using the Valentine blood rites; Keith is the antiquated lord of Bistritz and using the same blood rites but focused on protecting the people rather than sacrificing them.
- Friend to All Children: He gets along marvelously with Nina; he sings and dances with her. John and Yuma also seem to take a liking to him when he shows up looking for Joachim.
- Invisibility: One of his vampire powers. Only used during cut-scenes.
- It Amused Me: He joins the party after Yuri is out of his tower solely because he was otherwise bored.
- Middle Child Syndrome: Completely reversed. Despite having a much stronger elder brother and magical adept younger sister, both are major bimbos, so his parents proclaimed him the family heir. Both other siblings seem happy to have avoided the position.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The most normal of the Valentine family. Relatively speaking of course. The vampires themselves are rather different; he's not bothered by daylight, garlic, or crosses.
- Recurring Character: Appears in all three games.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Him and his entire family. He point blank states that even if he is now an antiquated lord, if he were actually callous enough to let the people of his lands be preyed upon (by his family’s stolen Blood Rites, no less), his predecessors would fly out of their graves and drag him to hell — at which point he grabs his rapier, then heads down from The Blue Castle to save Bistritz.
- Summon Magic: Most of his skills involve him summoning something via a ritual.
- Vampire Vords: In his one voiced scene in the game, he talks with these. The rest of the game, he doesn't.
Halley Brancket
Halley Brancket / Harry Plunkett / "Heckling Brat"
Voiced by: Satoshi Hino (JP), Vinnie Penna (EN)
Appearances: Shadow Hearts
An adolescent boy running around the streets of London, protector of a group of orphans. When some of them are abducted by Jack, a psychopath running an Orphanage of Fear, he turns to Yuri (who came to him to get his wallet back after one of the orphans swiped it) to assist him in saving them. After Jack's defeat, he discovers where his kidnapped mother was taken and, as that's where Yuri's party is going, joins up.Appearances: Shadow Hearts
- Arc Hero: The party’s time in London and Callus has Halley as a central plot point and driving motivator.
- Awesome, but Impractical: His powers. His E.S.P. abilities have a huge damage output, but their mana cost is so high and his MP is so low, he’s likely to be tapped after one or two uses; Great to end a normal encounter right away, utter garbage for bosses.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: He really has no motivation to keep following Yuri & Co after his mom is free, yet refuses to let the folks who saved his mom out of pure altruism, face a mad-warlock alone. He’s a street urchin after-all - adults showing him kindness is an addictive new sensation to him.
- Blow You Away: He's Wind affinity.
- Brats with Slingshots: He fights with slingshots.
- But Now I Must Go: After taking out Albert Simon and Meta-God, Halley and his mother travel to America to meet up with his father.
- Connected All Along: His mother and the voice in Yuri's head are revealed to be the same woman: Koudelka; his father is implied to be Edward Plunkett, given his surname.
- Dub Name Change: An unintentional example. "Halley Brancket" is a mistranslation of "Harry Plunkett".
- The Fagin: He's only 12 (according to the official Japanese Shadow Hearts website) but already functions as a big brother figure to the other orphans, teaching them how to steal things and giving them a place to hide afterwards. The crime aspect is less an end than a means, since an orphan's gotta eat.
- Foil: To Jack. Where Jack is a momma’s boy who never grew up and is hurting people to get his mother back, Halley is a momma’s boy who has had to grow up before his time and is trying to help people so they don’t end up as helpless as he did when he lost his mother.
- Heroic Bastard: Implied to be the illegitimate son of Edward Plunkett.
- Momma's Boy: His character development sees him going from hiding this to fully embracing it once he finds out what happened to his mom.
- Parental Abandonment: His father is in America, and his mother is locked in an insane asylum and being tortured by Albert Simon.
- Power Incontinence: He has a very poor handle on his powers, and they flare up when he's upset.
- Psychic Powers: He gets them from his mother.
- Satisfied Street Rat: Firmly claims to be this when first met. Ultimately subverted when we find out about Koudelka; he was just putting on a brave face, and he genuinely misses his mother.
- Secret Other Family: Halley would have been born just as his father was getting married to Beatrice Child Villiers. Though there is no indication Koudelka told Edward about him, by the end they are sailing off to find him.
- Sixth Ranger: Adds far less social dynamic to the team than even the "bored vampire", but his introduction chapter is at least thorough if a bit late to gel with the others.
- Spin-Offspring: He is the son of Koudelka Iasant (the protagonist of Koudelka), and Edward Plunkett (one of her two allies in that game) is heavily implied to be his father.
- Tagalong Kid: He really doesn't have much more motivation for staying after he gets his mother back than anyone else would; God is about to carpet bomb the world, and Halley would prefer otherwise since he is living there. But the extra psychic hand is appreciated, so the rest of the team is happy to have the help.
- Token Mini-Moe: The only tween party member in a party of otherwise older teens, adults, old people and ancients. He’s very clearly the projection point for the younger players.
- Unskilled, but Strong: He has very poor control of his powers and needs to go into rage-fits to activate them, but the room literally shakes when he does.
Villains
Albert Simon — WALKING SPOILER
Albert Simon / "Roger Bacon"
Voiced by: Daisuke Gōri (JP), Scott Rayow (EN, Shadow Hearts), Paul St. Peter (EN, Covenant, credited as George C. Cole)
Appearances: Shadow Hearts | Covenant
Albert Simon is a British warlock who once studied underneath the infamous alchemist Roger Bacon, and was considered his most talented pupil. Unfortunately, Albert's strong beliefs that all people are born equal under the eyes of God, and should be treated as such, caused him to clash with the Vatican. He was imprisoned and tortured for several years, and on seeing how cruel and wicked the world was, decided that the only way to save it was to destroy it. For this, he needs Alice Elliot; by using her power, he can summon the Seraphic Radiance to bring the world to an end.Appearances: Shadow Hearts | Covenant
Albert Simon spends the majority of the game going by his former master's name, Roger Bacon.
- Admiring the Abomination: Learning that God is an Eldritch Abomination doesn’t shake his faith for even a moment. But then again, humanity already screwed up his standards.
- Affably Evil: Albert is pretty well mannered and polite, despite trying to destroy the world. He even comes across as being more pleasant than Yuri, the actual hero.Albert: I will create a new world, perfected to God's will. A pure world, without deceit or defilement. I really wanted to show it to all of you.Yuri: ... I see. In that case, fine. Let's promise then. No matter who wins, no hard feelings, eh?Albert: Leave the surviving world to the mercy of fate? Fine, I promise you. There need only be one fight that determines the course of the planet.Yuri: Now there's my Albert.
- Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: After his death, his soul bonded with Yuri's, placing him in a pleasant and idyllic Japanese forest inside Yuri's memories, where he calmly and happily spends the rest of existence.
- At Least I Admit It: He has a genuinely noble end-goal, but fully admits to Alice he believes he is going to Hell for things like murdering her father to achieve it.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He fights wearing an elegant tuxedo and has a nice hat.
- Barrier Warrior: He uses scythe-wielding monsters to float around his person and deflect bullets.
- Beneath the Mask: Through-out the game he mostly comes off as a sort of pre-Bond-villain nefarious mastermind, but we see shades of the true him occasionally, most prominently when he speaks with Alice in France; He’s actually an incredibly pious yet frustrated civil right’s crusader who’s had a mental-breakdown from seeing his efforts for equality torpedoed so those in charge can keep using prejudice as a political tool.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of the first Shadow Hearts.
- The Chessmaster: So he gets the god-like power of the three books and what is the first thing he does with them? Starts testing them out, of course. He had been setting up test runs of the powers he planned to unleash ever since the events of Koudelka, and he seems to have no end of back-up plans and decoy plays.
- Criminal Mind Games: He operated under the name of his old mentor Roger Bacon for a long time.
- Cynicism Catalyst: While witnessing the Vatican's Fantastic Racism didn't destroy his faith in humanity, it gave him an utterly cynical view of his previous Christian values.
- In Covenant, we meet his traitor pupil turned evil, which appears to have been the breaking-point of Albert's faith in basic humanity.
- Dark Is Evil: Like Yuri, his element is Darkness.
- Defector from Decadence: Albert became so appalled by the decadence and corruption of The Vatican, and later his own counter-cultural organization, Sapientes Gladio, that he took a hard-left turn in the opposite direction and decided to embrace heresy as a path to salvation instead of religion.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: He has no inherent desire to kill Yuri and his friends and even offers to let them sit back safely with him while he is remaking the world, as he considers them some of the good parts not in need of correction. Alas, Yuri feels that just wouldn't be any fun.
- Enlightened Antagonist: One of only three people to read the Émigré Manuscript without getting distracted by all the ultra powerful spells and thus decipher the will of God. Considering what God is... a whole bunch of Albert's rationale starts making sense'.
- Establishing Character Moment: At the start of the first game, he pauses on a train to let an elderly woman pass him by. He then brutally massacres the train's guardsmen with his ungodly powerful magic.
- Evil Brit: Albert is as British and as evil as they come. Somewhat subverted when we find out that he was trying to save the world from the hellish future his treacherous disciple Rasputin would create.
- Evil Counterpart: Has the same powers, mindset, and training as the real Roger Bacon.
- Evil Former Friend: To both Roger and Jovis. He dislikes Roger for trying to defend The Church and moderate his progressive views. Jovis, on the other hand, simply refused to help him, so he seems less upset about that one.
- Evil Sorcerer: To the point that he invokes Lovecraft's Necronomicon during his spellcasting attacks; his Japanese actor is saying, "al-Azif", the original Arabic name of the book, followed by its author's last name, Alhazred.
- Evil vs. Evil: He is opposed to Sapientes Gladio and Raspuntin in particular. He sets up Shadow Hearts and Koudelka specifically to get rid of them before they plunge the world into oppression and chaos.
- Subverted with Dehuai. Dehuai views him as a rival charlatan magician - which in retrospect is hilarious both considering how far about Dehuai he actually is and that Dehuai is just his Unwitting Pawn.
- Faith–Heel Turn: A man of devout Christian values, ethics and empathy, utterly disgusted with how those who ran his Church were actually doing things.
- Final Boss Preview: He is the main villain of the first game and easily defeats Yuri in the prologue.
- Foil: To Yuri. A noble sophisticated anti-villain to counter Yuri’s petty, brash anti-hero.
- Gentleman Wizard: Albert is a moderately wealthy (Rags to Riches), highly educated, polite warlock, who always dresses in a dark suit, white gloves, and top-hat, while summoning the forces of darkness. He could only embody the trope more if he has a monocle and wand.
- Graceful Loser: At the end of the first game, he takes his defeat quite well, holds nothing against Yuri and company for it, and even wishes them all luck against the Final Boss.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Like Roger. In Albert's case, it seems to have come full circle into a Tranquil Fury.
- Healing Factor: He can reform destroyed parts of his body. Yuri literally smashes his face into bloody pieces in the opening, but a curse and a little Healing Hands later, he's back to normal.
- Heel–Face Turn: In Covenant, he offers support for Yuri as a spirit.
- Heel Realization: He admits that humanity may yet have a chance to prosper after he's defeated, and passes the torch to Yuri and the party, offering his blessing.
- The Heretic: He was branded a heretic by the Church for speaking up for civil rights. After that, he figured he might as well become a true heretic and took up black magic.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: It turns out his true enemy in the first game was Raspuntin and Sapientes Gladio all along, whose destruction went hand-in-hand with what he had planned for the world. We don't learn of this until the second game, though somewhat justified given Albert's Heel–Face Turn in-between.
- I'm Going to Hell for This: Used without irony. Albert can justify things like murdering Alice's father to give the world a restart, but he firmly believes he is going to hell for them, justified or not.
- Kick the Dog: Having Koudelka tortured until she couldn't speak to get her to access the magic he needed for his plans was pretty horrible, but he also tortured her son Halley to near death when he tried to rescue her just for kicks. Admitting he killed Alice's father to her for his goals only adds to it.
- Large Ham: He has his moments.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: It wasn't the power of the Émigré Manuscript or Amon that sent him over the edge. It was the worst of humanity that did it. He eventually decided humanity was so far gone, the only way things could improve was to wipe the slate clean and start over.
- Manipulative Bastard The entire game Koudelka and the first half of Shadow Hearts were all part of Albert's machinations.
- Mask of Sanity: At first glance, he is a kindly upper-class gentleman with a pleasant if vacant gaze. However, once he starts slaughtering a train-full of people, that warm pasted-on smile takes on a frightening new meaning, instead reavealing a merely controlled violent insanity. And those same mannerisms stick with him even as he is bringing about the Apocalypse. The mask slips off when he finally summons his "God", angrily ranting about finally having his revenge for his past mistreatment by society.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Whether he is telling a bereaved widower about a Tome of Eldritch Lore, a mad Taoist with an axe to grind about a holy virgin who would just make the perfect sacrifice, or speaking with his ghost minion over tea, Albert is remarkably casual about some very demented things.
- Nothing Personal: He invokes this at the end of the first game. The apocalypse is just a logical conclusion for him.
- Odd Friendship: He and Yuri develop one in the second game.
- One-Winged Angel: Thanks to his Soul-Pact with Amon.
- Pet the Dog: Though he intends to use Patrick as a pawn he is still touched enough to warn him of what’s likely to happen with the Émigré Manuscript. Ditto for Jack.
- He also takes a moment to comfort Olga, who feels bad for failing to stop Yuri.
- Standing over Dehuai’s corpse, he briefly mourns him as a somewhat talented pawn.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: The polite villain to Yuri's rude hero.
- Psychotic Smirk: His default expression, both in most of his screen-plays and as part of his default portrait.
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: He was Roger’s prized student until the Vatican imprisoned him for pursuing civil-rights of the downtrodden.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Albert has everything other than the monocle and over the top British phrases.
- Really 700 Years Old: Albert is just over 700 years old, but looks to be in his early fifties.
- Redemption Equals Death: Made apparent in Covenant.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His entire scheme is a Tranquil Fury version of this, wishing to wipe out humanity because all the evils and corruption of human society destroyed his ideals for peace and equality and put him through humiliating suffering for years. He tells as much to Alice as a Blunt "Yes" when she asks about his motives.Alice: Why is it that you want to destroy the world?Albert: I am motivated by .... revenge.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Albert's always seen in a suit and top hat.
- Sophisticated as Hell: He is as deadly as as he is polite, and he is very polite.
- Spanner in the Works: Koudelka, Edward, and Roger never seemed to find the Émigré Manuscript after Patrick's mad experiments and just assumed it went up in flames with the rest of his home... apparently someone should have checked...
- This goes a step further in the Koudelka manga — The Royal Medical Society was sponsoring Patrick Heyworth's experiments to get their hands on the Émigré Manuscript when he was done; Lord Lesley was using the ambition of the Society as an excuse to resurrect his daughter; and De Gaulle was just giving Lesley false hope so he could get his hands on the Émigré Manuscript to become an Eldritch God. Despite this massive web of conspiracies behind conspiracies behind tragedy, no one factored in the guy who actually stole the Émigré Manuscript for Patrick in the first place, coming back and swiping it before anyone could get their payoff.
- Even with Dehuai sacrificing himself to complete his ritual, it was still too far beyond his pay-grade to do anything. But after that initial sigh of relief that it was an Anti-Climax instead of Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever, you may wonder: how did Dehuai come across that spell in first place if it was so far beyond him? At which point "Bacon" shows up… Oh, Crap!!
- Spirit Advisor: In Covenant, Yuri's memory of Simon appears in the Graveyard to help him unlock the Amon and Neo Amon fusions.
- Teleport Spam: So much of the above Spanner example comes from the fact he can just pop in, grab/drop off/activate something, and then just pop out.
- The Starscream: Dehuai thought of Bacon as this. As it turns out...
- The Man in Front of the Man: Albert may appear to be one of Dehuai’s helpers, albeit one with an agenda of some kind, but in fact he is genuinely trying to help Dehuai out; it just turns out Dehuai had been Albert’s Unwitting Pawn the entire time, so of course he'd be there to help move things along.
- Touched by Vorlons: The main source of his powers. Comprehending God/Meta-God gave Albert a revelation. His best spell is even called "Revelation", and he is more than happy to share his Revelation into the true nature of God and reality with you!
- Unfinished Business: Except not really. He's bound to Yuri's soul after his death, but doesn't have any particular goal now that he can't directly fight Rasputin. He instead gives Yuri help and advice (as well as unlock Neo Amon).
- Villain Has a Point: The party feels this way about him in the first game, but still fights him. His mentor Roger Bacon even believed Albert's views were completely correct, but fell under The World Is Not Ready for his egalitarian beliefs in such intolerant times. Of course, the second game reveals that he was actually trying to stop Rasputin the whole time.Albert Simon: Only an illusion of peace exists in the superficial calm of our lives. In fact, the blood and tears of the poor are sacrificed daily by a handful of elite power-mongers. No matter how far science and technology advance, repression will never cease. We’re only human. Whenever the calls for revolution turn into concrete action, instigators are met by the full resistance of the elite, who stop at nothing to keep their power.
- Villain's Dying Grace: Justified. Before their climax battle, he and Yuri agreed to not hold a grudge if they lose. After his defeat, Albert heals the party and warps them to the stratosphere so they can confront the Meta-God.
- Villainous Friendship: Olga is ultimately a minion to him, but she is the only one he openly discusses plans with, which they apparently do over tea while waiting for the heroes to break in. This is a notable detail, since he just manipulates everyone else without them even knowing it.
- Another case of this is also shown in the opening screenplay between Albert and a nameless Wind-Scythe. Apparently it wasn't just a mindless kill-beast; after Yuri crushes its skull in his hand, Albert disappointedly exclaims, "I was fond of him."
- Walking Spoiler: It is impossible to even reference his real name without giving away the first three-fourths of Shadow Hearts, given that until then he pretends to be Roger Bacon.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: In Covenant, it turns out that Albert was actually trying to save the world from Rasputin. They were both part of a group known as Sapientes Gladio, but Rasputin rapidly became consumed with power, and wanted to take over the entire world. Albert's attempts to destroy the world were actually a misguided attempt to save it.
- Worthy Opponent: To Yuri, who even mocks Disc-One Final Boss Rasputin in the second game for being that much weaker than Albert.
- For good measure, even Nicolai, who considers Albert a worthy opponent, transfers much of his concerns to Yuri at first based on the fact that someone actually managed to take down "the great traitor, Albert Simon".
- Would Hurt a Child: He has no compunctions of hurting children or torturing women if it helps him reach his goal. He had Koudelka tortured until she couldn't speak to get her to access the magic he needed for his plans and tortured her son Halley to near death when he tried to rescue her.
- Xanatos Gambit: So what if Patrick died? Albert still considered the events of Koudelka a worthy test run.
- Dehuai summons a god? If it succeeds, Albert can kick-start that apocalypse he was planning; if it fails, it wipes out a mouthy pawn and he gets a smaller preview of what is to come. Worst-case scenario, he gets other people to die trying what might have claimed him.
- You Have Failed Me: Averted entirely: he takes even failures of his pawns as worthy lessons to learn from for next time. However, he is not above...
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: First Patrick, then Wugui, then Dehuai, then Jack, then Olga.
Arcane Olga
Arcane Olga
- At Least I Admit It: Her attitude toward the self-righteousness of Viscount Rausan and his inquisitors.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: How the insane asylum was run under her direction. Her torturous mind games also qualify.
- Dark Is Evil: Like her master, her element is Dark and she is an evil witch.
- The Dragon: To Albert. She's his last and most powerful underling, gladly acting as his go-to ghost.
- Demonic Possession: Appears to have this power as demonstrated when Alice first fights her in Prague.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She hates the Inquisitors, but not for the torture — she's fine with the torture. She hates them for using Christianity to justify it. The only reason she doesn't kill them is they are essential pawns.
- Evil Gloating: Whenever she kills someone she takes the opportunity to cackle about it before teleporting away.
- Foil: To Alice; she is the constant female companion of our Big Bad, the two of which share an Odd Friendship, but Olga is an unholy sadist where Alice is a spiritual nigh-pacifist.
- Giggling Villain: Lets out a hearty cackle whenever she attacks or teleports away.
- Ironic Name: Olga means "holy", which is in stark contrast to her personality and appearance.
- Mirror Monster: Takes the place of Alice's reflection, then reverses it to look like Alice and make Alice look like her.
- Noble Demon: In her last encounter she willingly gives her unlife so her boss can get away.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Not just a ghost, but a ghost witch.
- Perky Female Minion: To her urbane master if not to the party. He seems to find her unchecked sadism as charmingly quirky.
- Psycho Supporter: To her master. He is cordial and only as violent as he needs to be for any given situation, and while Olga reins in her sadistic tendencies while her master is around, if left to her own devices, she will go for abject cruelty.
- Subordinate Excuse: By all accounts, the only reason Olga is working with our Big Bad is she likes the way he works.
- Teleport Spam: Done less than her boss all-in-all but a lot more frequently.
- Undying Loyalty: Unlike Albert's other pawns, Olga is following him entirely out of loyalty to him. She even throws her life away to give him time to get away.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Despite the initial beatdown she should offer the player as Alice, she gets progressively easier in her following appearances. Her stats do raise, but only slightly.
- Villainous Friendship: Olga is the only one of her master's minions that he treats more like a friend than a pawn. They drink tea together over mission reports and engage in friendly banter while discussing what to do next.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Considering Alice is the White Mage, you may have assumed she would never need to kill anyone herself, and certainly never by herself... You would be VERY wrong about that, and Olga arrives to deliver that message right before Shadow Hearts takes off the kid's gloves.
- We Need a Distraction: Acts as one so her master can escape with his hostage.
- Wicked Witch: Stereotypically so and proud of it.
Dehuai
Dehuai
Dehuai escaped the battle with major injuries, losing his arm and leg. Vowing revenge on Ben, he sent minions to kill his wife and son. He was then contacted by Albert Simon, some years later, who explained his plan to summon the Seraphic Radiance. Dehuai agreed, believing he could use the power to destroy Japan, and joined Albert in his quest to kidnap Alice Elliot.
- Absolute Xenophobe: As far as Dehuai is concerned, if you are not Chinese, you are the enemy.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Zhuzhen more or less says this as he mourns his brother after their final battle, colossal Jerkass that he was, it’s only a momentary lament. Albert pops in seconds later to second the sentiment.
- An Arm and a Leg: Literally, after his fight with Yuri's dad left him severely injured.
- Artificial Limbs: A prosthetic metallic arm and a peg leg, respectively.
- Arc Villain: Of the China arc.
- Berserk Button: Dehuai always loses his temper when the heroes start making fun of him, most notably when he was possessing the body of a small puppy.
- Big Bad Wannabe: It's almost adorable the way he thinks Albert is just some charlatan magician. It never occurred to him the man who gave him his Artifact of Doom like it was nothing might be a few leagues above him.
- Butt-Monkey: The heroes REALLY like making fun of him.
- Cain and Abel: The Cain to Zuzhen's Abel.
- Deceptive Disciple: To Master Xifa, whom he and Zhuzhen studied under together.
- Demonic Possession / The Beastmaster: Sort of straddles the line since he not only controls animals, but actually possesses them. Poor Master Xiofang...
- Diabolical Mastermind: He is an evil wizard that sits in his dark tower overlooking a major city alright, but what influence he has over Shanghai is criminal, not political or magical.
- Dirty Old Man: After noticing his obsession with Alice, Margarete wonders if Dehuai is just a perverted old man with a lolita complex. After beating Wugui, Yuri orders him to tell Dehuai that he should stick to his girlie magazines and fittingly enough, we do find the "Shanghai Angels" erotic book in his tower. After Yuri hands over the magazine to Roger, they notice that one of the pages is "sealed".
- Disc-One Final Boss: He may ultimately be played for a chump, but the build-up for him is palpable; if you missed the one or two foreshadowing signs for "Bacon", you could be forgiven for thinking Dehuai was the end.
- Elemental Powers: He may be classified as being of the Fire Element but he has access to water, earth and wind spells as well.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: His Yamaraja forms.
- Evil vs. Evil: He is the Arch-Nemesis of Kawashima.
- Fantastic Racism: He refers to the Japanese, or even half-Japanese as dogs. He seems to have light disdain for Caucasians as well.
- Foil: To Zhuzhen - both learned Taoist oracles attuned to the natural world and a sense of awe for their homeland, but Dehuai is using said patriotic awe as an excuse to hurt people and bend the natural world to his whims. They are also both siblings and trained under the same master — one just went evil where the other went good.
- Food Chain of Evil: Kawashima is trying to put a stop to him, Wugui willingly submits to him as his mystical benefactor, local Chinese boogeymen are actually easily dominated by him, woe unto any who would cross the great Dehuai! Hey, Bacon? What are you chuckling about?
- Full-Potential Upgrade: With the Pulse Tract as an upgrade from his last attempt, Dehuai seems unstoppable. That fool, Bacon, had no idea that tome he gave Dehuai to study was actually so powerful that when used by a master summoner like Dehuai, it would allow him to take over all of China! Pst, yes he did.
- God Guise: For at-least two of the four Taoist idols he corrupts, we find he’s spoken through them pretending to be said totem.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Dehuai left his master's tutelage and took up arms against the Japanese, as the Japanese Foreign Minister was a Fantastic Racist and filled with Patriotic Fervor. Sure enough, Dehuai himself picked up the same traits, just focused on the Japanese.
- The Heavy: Certainly not the biggest threat, but he is the center of both Yuri and Zhuzhen's personal angst, regardless of how much they want to admit it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He wants us to believe he’s just trying to protect his country from occupation, and while that may be true, in between his schemes he exploits tortured spirits with Hope Spots, mentally dominates and then kills small animals, is a racist, a xenophobe and arrogant beyond words.
- Kick the Dog: A near literal example, as he causes Possession Burn Out in the animals he possesses.
- He goes as far to make a cat familiar kill its’ beloved master, seemingly just out of sadistic glee.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He has some serious talents in Taoist summoning magics, but other than that, he’s a small town old-crank-mage who’s only a threat to the world outside of Shanghai due to A. criminal connections and B. the Pulse Tract.
- Patriotic Fervor: Has a MASSIVE dislike of the Japanese that are occupying China. Though whether this is a legitimate gripe due to historical brutality towards the Chinese by Japan or just an excuse to give him a target is anyone's guess.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a racist xenophobe who's end goal is to banish/kill all non-Chinese people from China. He has contempt for Caucasians and even mix-race Chinese citizens but he particularly hate the Japanese.
- Sinister Minister: Of the Taoist variety as opposed to the more common Christian version.
- Skilled, but Naive: He is a very talented summoner, but so drunk on that talent he can’t tell an actual threat or rival when he sees them.
- Unwitting Pawn: Albert plays him like a violin.
- With My Dying Breath, I Summon You: Subverted in an initially hilarious but ultimately terrifying manner. Even with all his life-force put into his ritual to summon the Seraphic Radiance, the miserable old bastard simply was out of his arcane weight class... But then Bacon teleports in over Dehuai's corpse and gives it one last push.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He apparently thinks nothing of possessing animals then letting them die once he is done.
Wugui
Wugui
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: To everyone but Dehuai. His Game of Death move means he can take down nearly any opponent in a one on one fight and he has gotten pretty used to getting his way because of it.
- Bad Boss: After acquiring their bar, he pays Qiuhua and Old-man Zhen less than minimum wage, outright docks their pay at the slightest excuse, insists they work long hours and regularly beats them.
- The Dragon: To Dehuai.
- Evil Virtues: Being a pathetic suck-up, he still offers genuine concern to his boss that the evil plan isn’t too much for him.
- Fate Worse than Death: Wugui ends up dying, but is bought back as an undead puppet by Albert Simon.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: The evil jerk works for warlocks and torments locals but keeps getting away; Still, Zhuzhen, Yuri and Margarete are in agreement that being condemned as a still conscious zombie is worse than he deserves.
- Kick the Dog: He beats up Mr. Zhen and literally kicks him on the ground just to assert his dominance, a process he repeats once has has Zhuzhen on the ropes.
- One-Hit Kill: His Game of Death spell can instantly kill the party.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: To Dehuai.
- Properly Paranoid: He cautions Dehuai that Bacon is neither trustworthy nor as charlatan as Dehuai seems to think; Dehuai dismisses him as overestimating Bacon’s power, but is keeping an eye on him. Turns out Wugui’s is actually a under-estimating “Bacon”!
- Recurring Boss: Wugui is fought four times during the game (the first time in a flashback, and the last as an optional boss).
- Shout-Out: His Signature Move, "Game of Death", is a reference to the film of the same name.
- Tattooed Crook: In his official artwork.
- The Triads and the Tongs: Originally, he was a crime boss hailing from the Kowloon Walled City.
Li Li
Li Li
- Arc Villain: Subverted. While she appears to be an independent villain, it is revealed that she is a Unwitting Pawn to Dehuai.
- Back from the Dead: Her restless spirit is summoned to haunt Dalian by the Blue Dragon (actually Dehuai) and specifically to capture Alice.
- The Corruptible: She was once an innocent woman until her local totem offered her a series of sadistic choices at first to save her father and then to find true love if she killed him. It’s no wonder she is now haunting her village as a lost soul.
- Dark Is Evil: Li Li is a vengeful ghost and her element is Darkness. However, it's is revealed later on that Li Li was forcibly summoned by Dehuai, and was under his control the entire time.
- Dying as Yourself: Freed from Dehuai's controll, she thanks Yuri and his friends before passing on.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Li Li is a creepy ghost girl with pale skin and black hair.
- Hope Spot: She finally got up the resolve to undo her curse by killing her father quickly in his sleep for the Blue Dragon, but he’s gone out fishing and gets killed at sea at the whims of The Blue Dragon, making the curse permanent. Turns out “the Blue Dragon” was Dehuai the entire time just screwing with her once he’d subverted her local totem.
- More than Mind Control: She is being corrupted by undeath and Dehuai but the tragic life she had has destroyed her ability to even try to fight it.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She prays and begs the Blue Dragon God to save the life of her father during a terrible sea storm, which was repaid with her own voice being switched with her father's.
- One-Winged Angel: Li Li transforms into a octopus-like creature during the second boss battle against her.
- Purple Is the New Black: Her boss form is a purple monster that uses Darkness-based spells.
- Self-Made Orphan: Subverted in her backstory. It was said that Li Li's voice can be returned if she kills her father, but she couldn't do it.
- Shock and Awe: During cut-scenes, Li Li attacks her foes with a stroke of lightning.
- Slasher Smile: A very creepy one, as seen in her Character Portrait.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Li Li dresses in white and her dark hair cover one of her eyes.
- Tragic Villain: The circumstances behind her death is rather tragic, since she was driven to suicide over the humiliation of having her father's gruff voice due to a curse from the Blue Dragon God, and thus being unable to proclaim her love to one of the actors of a travelling theatre troupe who was visiting Dalian. She had even agonized over her choice of killing her father to regain her lost voice, with even her father consenting if it had meant that he could return her voice, but ultimately she could not do it. Then her spirit was summoned by a warlock, and was forced against her will to torment the village of Dehuai as a vengeful spirit, and to capture Alice.
- Vocal Dissonance: Justified and Played for Drama. Li Li has her father's gruff voice due to a curse, and it had caused her endless anguish due her inability to confess her love to someone due to her fear of being rejected out of humiliation. It would then lead to her to commit suicide by carrying the reanimated corpse of her father, and submerging themselves into the sea together.
Jack
Jack
Voiced by: Tetsu Inada (JP)
Jack is a doctor who also runs an orphanage in London, out of the house that used to be Albert Simon's home. After the horrific death of his beloved mother, Jack took an interest in the dark arts, and believed that she had been cursed. Roger Bacon gave him the Émigré Manuscript, a book that explains how to bring people back from the dead, and Jack became obsessed with bringing his mother back to life. As the ritual required the use of several bodies, Jack opened the orphanage to collect children from the street for that purpose.- Alchemy Is Magic: It's hard to tell where the line is between science and necromancy with Jack.
- Arc Villain: Of the London/Halley story arc.
- Expy: His backstory is similar to Patrick Heyworth (from Koudelka), only without the guilt.
- Foil: To Halley, a melancholy son who lost his mother and will do anything to get her back, he’s just the grownup and crazy version. Additionally, while Haley has to grow up before his time, Jack has reverted to his inner-child.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: The Émigré Manuscript had its standard reaction. Though Jack may have been circling the sanity drain even before that.
- Kill It with Water: Water-elemental.
- Mad Scientist: Somewhere between this and a mad alchemist; he uses both twisted biological experiments and arcane rituals in his effort to bring his mother back.
- Making a Splash: His element, according to the NPC library.
- Momma's Boy: Psychotically so. All of the horrific shit he pulled in the Orphanage was to bring back his mother. Just like Patrick, he fails so badly that the thing he creates kills him on sight.
- Necromantic: In a non-sexual sense. Jack just wants to bring back his mother. All he succeeds in doing is creating a hideous monster with her face, which kills him on the spot and then attacks the party.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Jack use his and his mother's birthdays as passwords for the orphanage rooms.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Tries to pull this off on Haley's friend, Chris.
- Sanity Slippage: His diaries you can find throughout the Orphanage make it clear he used to have some level of composition. Then his mother died and everything fell apart.
- Split Personality: His journals and the journals of one of the children in his orphanage are starkly contrasted. In front of the kids, his inner child takes over, and in the lab, his standard mad scientist personality runs the show. However, both are raving psychopaths. He starts with a monologue of evil, but his final words are that of a scared child apologizing to his mommy.
Fox Face and the Four Masks
Fox Face claims to be Ben Hyuga, Yuri's deceased father.
- The Dreaded: Yuri fears Fox Face more than anything else.
- Enemy Without: Fox Face is a Nigh-Invulnerable assassin the Four Masks summon if you don't check your Malice buildup.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Alice offers her life to spare Yuri's soul, the Masks are utterly perplexed as to why she would do this. The Sword Mask in particular is down-right intrigued by the absurdity of love.
- Evil Laugh: The masks are constantly giggling.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Fox Face is impossible to defeat in his first encounter. It is possible to defeat him with some effort later on in the game, but he brushes it off and keeps coming at you until your malice is depleted.
- The masks send Alice to face Atman later in the game, which is unwinnable for her alone. Canonically, she loses the battle, and her soul and her life in the process, but in the good ending (which, if you look at it with Covenant's good ending in mind, can have a place in canon), Yuri pulls himself together in time to show up and defeat him, saving them both.
- Jerkass: All of them.
- Karma Houdini: Canonically, the Four Masks are not confronted, and for all intents and purposes get away with using Atman to kill Alice. They are never seen again after the first game.
- Optional Boss: You don't have to fight the masks themselves; and as far as the plot's concerned, you didn't.
- At least, until the time loop from the second game kicks in and Yuri does fix his mistakes.
- Revenge: The masks desire vengeance for the monsters Yuri's slain, and intend to take his soul in retribution.
- Shadow Archetype: Fox Face is a part of Yuri himself, one which is unafraid of turning into a monster and welcomes the chance.
- Would Hit a Girl: Fox Face smacks Alice to the floor when she confronts him.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Alice gives them hers in Yuri's place, leading to her death.
Yoshiko Kawashima
Yoshiko Kawashima
Voiced by: Sara Nakayama (JP)
A Lieutenant Colonel in the Japanese army, Kawashima was the one who was arranging Alice's transfer to Japan via train at the start of the game. She investigates the ordeal after the soldiers delivering her were butchered by Albert Simon, which leads her to encounter Yuri, Alice, and the party.After journeying with the party for some time, she reconsiders her position and abandons her pursuit of Alice. However, her lack of contact with the military led to an investigation into her activities, and she's shot and killed by a firing squad under the pretext of summons to the capital. She was the romantic interest of her assistant, Masaji Kato, in whose arms she died.
- Badass Decay: In-Universe, and she's well aware of it.
- Back from the Dead: She was resurrected by Kato using the Émigré Manuscript, which didn't work perfectly (she's clearly not the same as she was before, and even thinks of Kawashima as an entirely different entity), but did give her physical body life again. She became known as Ouka.
- Break the Haughty: She is more wounded by her father washing his hands of her than the bullet through her back.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Subverted. In the second game, her father adopted a girl and gave her the name "Yoshiko Kawashima", which confuses Yuri, though it was more to honor her memory than to impersonate her.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Ends up dying in Kato's arms.
- Evil vs. Evil: She is Dehuai's Arch-Enemy, and specifically hangs around as the Interim Villain to get to Alice and Yuri to use against him.
- Family Honor: She is being the best soldier she can be in order to win glory for her father.
- Foil: To Margarete. Both spies/star agents for their governments, both femme fatales, both based on real people executed as spies. Where Margarete eventually becomes the sort of altruist she was pretending to be, Lt. Col. Kawashima never loses sight of her goal, though she does develop a conscience along the way. And where Margarete is working with the heroes, Kawashima is trying to catch them.
- Four-Star Badass: A high-ranking soldier with several honors to her name and an utterly ruthless attitude.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: She's killed shortly after turning over a new leaf.
- Historical Domain Character: The one who appeared in the first game shared the same characteristics as the real figure (wore men's clothes), although this would mean she was born earlier than her real counterpart. The Yoshiko in the second game is supposed to be said counterpart.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: In a cruel irony, all the work she was doing to earn her father glory made him a target for political rivals and she is killed for it. It gets worse still: her father needs to wash his hands of her in order to be allowed to slink away, thus the reward for all her tireless work is dying as a disenfranchised traitor.
- In the Back: How she dies, courtesy of her escort sent by Minister Ishimura.
- Interim Villain: She is the first threat who is not in any way an appendage of the Big Bad's carefully outlined plans. Her appearances balance out the sections of the game when Yuri and friends are waiting for the next Arc Villain pawn of a pawn of the Big Bad. For bonus points, she is easily the most competent threat other than the Big Bad himself.
- Lack of Empathy: At first. She gets better.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: As much of a capital-B Bitch she tries to be (and succeeds at, to be fair), it turns out deep down her family pride is no match for her conscience and she is willing to openly defy the chain of command to do what is right.
- Military Maverick: She frequently pushes the limits of her rank to complete her assignments, going as far as: convincing her handlers not to report her to high command, bribing civilians as spies, killing said spies, raiding public buildings, and attempting kidnappings of travelers who exhibit supernatural abilities.
- The Mole: She and Kato integrate themselves into the party early on in the game, though what they see compels them to renege a bit on their motives. Kawashima eventually abandons her pursuit of the party, and decides she wants to live freely like Yuri.
- Parental Abandonment: Kind of. A lot of her authority came from her father, and she surmises that him "abandoning" her is what resulted in her execution. He's encountered in the second game, clearly remorseful.
- Promoted to Playable: Downplayed. You play as Ouka (her clone) during parts of the second game.
- That Woman Is Dead: When she's resurrected as Ouka, she considers Yoshiko Kawashima to be a completely different person.
- Tragic Villain: Of the classic Heel–Face Door-Slam variety.
- Undying Loyalty: To her father. She is willing to do just about anything to do him proud. Even as she lays dying with a hole in her chest, she accepts that her father needed to sacrifice her in order to be spared by Minister Ishimura; as revealed in Covenant, he feels awful about it.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She was the one who arranged Alice to be secured and put on the train to Japan, to keep her out of Dehuai's hands. "Bacon" killed all of her men and kidnapped Alice anyway.
- You Have Failed Me: Says Major Tsuji and his men "don't deserve to live" for failing to secure Alice if they weren't already dead when she finds their corpses. Note that this was before her Lovable Alpha Bitch development happened, as shown by the example below.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Cowardly Chen reports to Kawashima about Yuri, Alice, and Margarete being in the town of Dalian, she initially dismisses him and reminds him to get his money before leaving. However, she then calls up two soldiers to dispose of Chen and "make it look like a traffic accident", which surprises her new subordinate Sergeant Kato.
Others
Ben Hyuga
Ben Hyuga / Jinpachiro Hyuga
Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka (JP), Wayne Grayson (EN, Shadow Hearts), Kirk Thornton (EN, Covenant)
Appearances: Shadow Hearts | Covenant
Hyuga is Yuri's father and the husband of Anne. He is a colonel of the Japanese Army Intelligence force. Like his son, he is a Harmonixer who is also skilled in martial arts.Appearances: Shadow Hearts | Covenant
- Aloof Big Brother: According to Saki, he always acted the part towards her.
- Archnemesis Dad: Strongly, strongly implied during the first half of Shadow Hearts, ultimately subverted. Fox Face, looks, sounds and dresses like Ben Hyuga inspiring an instinctive childhood fear in Yuri… It’s not him though, it’s Yuri’s personal power and his fear of it, so alien to him, he’s just been subconsciously dressing it up like his dad.
- Action Dad: Yuri’s daddy was a supernatural Japanese secret agent.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He has been dead since Yuri was eleven, and even before that he was noticeably absent during Yuri’s childhood; The reason being he was a special agent on assignment for long periods. His final disappearance though was due to sacrificing himself to save China and thus Yuri and Anne.
- Dub Name Change: Known as "Ben" in the English localization of Shadow Hearts, his original Japanese name "Jinpachiro" was changed back in Covenant.
- Fighting from the Inside: He is able to hold back the demon Dehuai summoned the first time for a few seconds before it fully possessed him. During which time he insists to Zhuzhen he be killed.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: His real name is “Jinpachiro” He is called “Ben” in the English dub, which is given as his nickname since he has a Western wife he’s more familial with. It also makes sense for a Japanese Special agent to have an alias in general.
- Grand Theft Me: His body was possessed by the last uber powerful demon Dehuai summoned. Ben is able to fight it off for only a few seconds during which time he insists he be killed to save China.
- Going Native: A Japanese citizen/soldier assigned to foreign missions, he marries a Russian pst, really German immigrant woman and lives in China during downtime with their son. By all accounts whenever not on the job he viewed himself as Chinese not Japanese.
- Guardian Entity: Jinpachiro has used their shared bloodline/Fusion abilities to remain with Yuri all along and has been the one who absorbed the Seraphic Radiance to protect/recover Yuri from Demonic Possession. Dad has been a fallback spiritual security measure all along keeping Yuri safe.
- Hero of Another Story: He was a secret agent for the Japanese military sent to take down Dehuai the first time he tried summoning a giant demon from hell ten years prior to the first Shadow Hearts. Along with Mr. Zhen and Zhuzhen as his party members.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Opts to let himself be possessed and then killed before the giant demon can takeover this saving China.
- It Was with You All Along: Jinpachiro has been in Yuri’s soul keeping it safe from the Seraphic Radiance all along, but he maintains he knows he won’t have to keep doing it, and once he lets down his guard and permits the Seraphic Radiance to possess him and attack Yuri through him, it will prove Yuri had the power to fuse with the titanic archangel all along. The final battle is potentially spiritually lethal, but Jinpachiro seems utterly unsurprised his son could handle it eventually.
- Love at First Sight: Not outright stated, but implied between him and Anne (Karen) .
- Mercy Kill: He asks for and gets one curtesy Zhuzhen before he can be fully possessed.
- Sacrificial Lion: He intentionally fuses with the first kaiju sized demon Dehuai summoned knowing he will get possessed so it can be destroyed by killing him with it.
- Strong Family Resemblance: He and Yuri look very very similar other than a few age lines and different hairstyles, and as we see in flashbacks in Covenant when Jinpachiro was the same age Yuri is now, the haircut is the only noticeable physical difference.
- So Proud of You: Yuri has been living in his father’s shadow for years, the fear of losing him, warped perspective of never seeing him, and fabrication of him being this larger than life authoritative force in his head has deeply deeply affected Yuri. But upon Jinpachiro’s spirit communing with Yuri, he finds out pa is actually very proud of him.
- Superpowerful Genetics: Yuri gets his Fusion powers from his dad, who is one of the last in a long bloodline of harmonixers. His sister and thus her son also have the same bloodline based abilities.
- Unwitting Pawn: His old war buddy, Ishimura, was using him to expand the influences of Japan by assigning him on what he presumably knew was basically a suicide mission, mission that Ishimura profited from after the fact.
