http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/StrangerOfParadiseFinalFantasyOrigin

Character sheet for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. For their counterparts in Final Fantasy, see here.

Some spoilers are unmarked.

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"Warriors of Light"

See their page here. Beware of unmarked spoilers.

Kingdom of Cornelia

King of Cornelia

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore (English), Mugihito (Japanese)

"Deliver this world from the clutches of darkness."

The ruler of Cornelia who sends Jack and his friends on their quest to save the Crystals from darkness.

The Good King: He's concerned about the people of Cornelia, considering it his duty to see if they're protected and sated.
Killed Offscreen: In at least one time loop - the one that most of the story takes place in. When monsters and pirates fallen to Chaos attack the city, he, Queen Jayne and Minister Lagone try to go out of the palace to calm the masses and they are all killed for their efforts.
Mr. Exposition: He lays out for Jack and his friends the importance of the Crystals to the world's health and what their corruption is doing to the land.
No Name Given: Especially notable since both Jayne and Mia were Named by the Adaptation, and he was not, despite having more screen time and dialogue than both of them.

Princess Sarah

Voiced by: Cherami Leigh (English), Yume Miyamoto (Japanese)

"May the Crystals' blessing be with you always."

The elder princess of Cornelia. Loved and respected by her people, she is a talented lute player and appreciator of music.

Age-Gap Romance: With Jack, who is 32 while she is 19.
Bonding Through Shared Earbuds: With Jack in a flashback using a Lufenian device to listen to it. Sarah enjoys it and looks forward to adapting it to her lute, which turns out to be the opening theme from Final Fantasy. It is during this scene that she confesses her love to him.
Died in Your Arms Tonight: In at least one time loop - the main one that the story primarily takes place in. During the second attack on the city near the end of the game, she falls in the streets of Cornelia along with her sister, and dies in Jack's arms.
Damsel in Distress: The game opens with with her being kidnapped by Garland to be held hostage in the Chaos Shrine in the original Final Fantasy.
Hope Bringer: She aspires to be this, and for the most part succeeds.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: She is a source of light that can single-handedly offset all the darkness in the world, so the Lufenians try to take her out to restore the balance.
Informed Attribute: When Cornelia is under attack the first time, she mentions that she has some experience in swordplay and is capable of protecting her family, but she never gets to display this.
Princess Classic: A beautiful young lady clad in an elaborate white gown that bids the heroes luck on their quest to save the world.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: She angrily calls out Lagone, and by extension, the people of Cornelia, for denouncing Jack and the others after restoring the crystals, pointing out that they have never truly known a world without Chaos and the darkness, so any positive change cannot be immediately seen yet.
Ship Tease: With Jack. They actually fell in love in a previous Time Loop, which is what spurred Jack to find a way to combat the Lufenians and free her kingdom from their machinations.
Sarah: You never forget your first love.
Silk Hiding Steel: Talk to her in the throne room while the pirates of Pravoka attack Cornelia and she'll claim to have some training in swordplay. She vows to defend her family with her life while you help protect the citizens.
Solar and Lunar: Sarah is described as Cornelia's gentle moon, while Mia is described as its shining sun. What this means is unclear, but likely references their personalities.
Spanner in the Works: Ironically, without actually doing anything herself, she becomes one to the Lufenians. Jack leaves his original crystal with her and after it breaks, he gets back his memories and goes through with his plan to become Chaos.
Undying Loyalty: She never doubts Jack and the others in the least, even when the rest of Cornelia, including her parents and the minister, turn on them.

Lagone

Minister Lagone

Voiced by: Tom Taylorson (English), Akio Hirose (Japanese)

The prime minister of Cornelia who is skeptical of the Warriors of Light prophecy, but still helps them on their quest.

Killed Offscreen: Along with the king and the queen in at least one time loop.
The Narrator: He narrates the story of Jack and his companions, writing down the details in his book.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Averted. Although he isn't happy to be working with Jack, he still provides all the necessary aid at the king's request.

Queen Jayne

Voiced by: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English), Miyuki Ichijo (Japanese)

The queen of Cornelia, wife of the king, and mother to Sarah and Mia.

Adaptation Expansion: Downplayed. She has only about one line in the original Final Fantasy, but here she gets a few more scenes and characterization.
Killed Offscreen: Together with her husband and Minister Lagone in at least one time loop.

Princess Mia

Voiced by: Isabella Crovetti (English), Natsuki Inaba (Japanese)

The younger princess of Cornelia, Sarah's sister.

Adaptation Expansion: She is in Final Fantasy, but she is easily missed and can be found in one of the other rooms of the castle. Here, she is often seen together with her older sister and has more screen time than Jayne.
Cheerful Child: Not much gets her down; she even keeps her brave face when the city is under attack.
Death of a Child: She dies in the second attack on the city near the end of the game, shortly after her parents and along with her sister. Unlike Sarah, she is Killed Offscreen. Neon and Sophia discover her and don't have words for Jack.
Hope Bringer: Together with Sarah, both princesses are symbols of hope for their people.
Solar and Lunar: Sarah is described as Cornelia's gentle moon, while Mia is described as its shining sun. What this means is unclear, but likely references their personalities; Mia is the more outgoing of the two.
Undying Loyalty: She stands with her older sister when it comes to believing in Jack and the others when they're accused of bringing darkness to the world after restoring the crystals.

Villains

Main Antagonists

Chaos

A great and terrible evil said to be responsible for darkness shrouding the world. Defeating him is the goal of the Warriors of Light.

All Your Powers Combined: In the first phase of the fight, he can use the signature abilities of all Four Fiends.
Ambiguous Situation: Neon believes that Chaos doesn't actually exist, he was made up to be a convenient scapegoat for people to blame their problems on. The game explores the question if she's right or not. The answer is a bit of both. Chaos does exist, but instead of being an Evil Overlord or ancient demon, it's a force of nature that occurs when darkness combines with negativity... and then an actual being spawns from this power, creating a real Chaos after all.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Of, well, Chaos. Specifically, it is formed out of all the darkness and negative emotions of the world that Jack and his comrades absorbed.
As Long as There Is Evil: As long as negative emotions and the darkness they generate exist, so shall it. This even causes various characters to question if it's merely an idea rather than an Evil Overlord that can be killed. In fact as long as negative emotions and darkness exist, they will always combine into the force known as Chaos, and someone or something will always become the embodiment of that force as more and more chaos is concentrated into a single being.
Big Bad: He's presented as the main villain of the game that Jack and his comrades have to defeat. A version of him is the Final Boss, "Darkness Manifest", but he's not the Big Bad — the Lufenians are.
Blade Spam: His Condemn attack in the second phase has him conjure two swords made of darkness for a furious series of slashes.
Blood Knight: When Jack manages to put a hole through Chaos' chest, Chaos laughs as he uses his darkness to heal himself, implying that he's clearly enjoying the fight.
Bring It: When Jack challenges Darkness Manifest for the mantle of Chaos, the being is amused by Jack's ambition and accepts his challenge.
Chaos: Ambition. Good. Now show me you are worthy. Bare your soul to me!
Call-Back: Some of the attacks of the shadow you fight are named after attacks Chaos had in Dissidia, like Negashock and Condemn.
Casting a Shadow: In the second phase, all of his elemental attacks are replaced with dark energy attacks of various shapes and sizes such as waves (his Ruin attack), energy balls (his Anguished Shadows, Negashock, and Implacable Darkness attacks), spikes (His Chaos attack), and sword beams (his Cataclysm of Chaos).
Chaos Is Evil: He's named Chaos and he's the Big Bad responsible for the Crapsack World of the game. Or rather, Chaos is a natural phenomena when negative emotions and darkness combine, one the Lufenians have weaponized against the rest of the world, and Jack seeks to now weaponize that darkness and negativity against them by becoming its Anthropomorphic Personification.
Collective Identity: Chaos is in fact a title for a myth. It is also a force created from the merging of negative emotions and the energy known as darkness; and the being with the most concentrated negative emotions and darkness, which can suck all other darkness and monsters into its orbit. The final battle is even over who will take the title of the true Chaos: "Darkness Manifest", the manifestation of the Lufenians' negative emotions; or Jack Garland, who has suffered a Trauma Conga Line and absorbed the darkness of countless monsters over multiple time loops.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of his four hands is colored after one of the elements of the Four Fiends. You can tell which element he'll use simply by paying attention to the hand he uses.
Composite Character: While this version of Chaos primarily takes cues from his FFI and FFXIV incarnations (his general appearance, use of elemental powers), he also takes cues from his Dissidia counterpart (having a more agile fighting style, using two swords, two of his attacks being named after attacks he used in Dissidia).
Dark Is Evil: He's a demon fueled by darkness and negative emotions like hate.
Deadly Disc: His Malicious Waters attack has him throw a disc of water at you.
Elemental Powers: The shadow you fight can use the elements of the Four Fiends — earth, fire, water, and wind — as well as his personal dark magic. One of his attacks in particular has him fire an Energy Ball composed of all four elements.
Energy Ball: One of his attacks in the first phase has him fire a large energy ball composed of all four elements. In the second phase, his Implacable Darkness, Negashock, and Anguished Shadows have him fire orbs of dark energy at you.
Final Boss: He's the final opponent you face.
Gravity Master: Downplayed. His Negashock attack has a slight gravitational effect that will pull Jack towards the orb if he's too close.
Healing Factor: During their fight, Jack manages to put a hole through his chest. Chaos simply uses the darkness to heal himself.
Lightning Bruiser: Despite towering over Jack, Chaos is surprisingly swift and agile, with one attack having him jump off a wall before diving at you. He also has an arsenal of powerful attacks that at higher difficulties can kill you in one or two attacks if you aren't prepared.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: As per usual, Chaos is portrayed as a large four-armed demon.
Not His Sled: Played with. A Driving Question of the game is if Chaos actually exists or not, and if he does, what role he has in the events of the game. Eventually the party learns that a being called Chaos doesn't exist, but a force called Chaos does, and that's what they're told to be careful of, giving into their negative emotions and being corrupted by them. Then at the end of the game all the Lufenians' darkness and negativity coalesces into a physical form that bears an unmistakable resemblance to the Chaos of the original Final Fantasy, but it is referred to as "Darkness Manifest" in subtitles and declares itself Chaos. The subsequent boss battle between him and Jack is to determine which of them will truly bear the mantle of Chaos, and Jack prevails, ensuring he'll transform into the Chaos someday.
Power Gives You Wings: A variant. This Chaos lacks the wings that his other incarnations usually have, but in the second phase of the fight, four jets of darkness eject from his back like rocket thrusters, giving him the appearance of wings.
Spikes of Doom: His Dread Earth attack has him conjure two spiked rows of jagged earth. In the second phase, his Chaos attack is an AOE that conjures spikes of darkness around him.
Sword Beam: His Cataclysm of Chaos has him create a sword of dark energy and fire two dark energy crescents.
Theme Naming: All of his attacks are named after negative emotions or adjectives plus the element of the attack; Furious Flames, Dread Earth, Odious Winds, Malicious Waters, etc.
Walking Spoiler: Talking about him in-depth requires a thorough understanding of the plot to contextualize his importance properly.
You Kill It, You Bought It: Invoked. Jack purposefully breaks into the Lufenians' dimension and kills the embodiment of all the darkness and negativity of their people so he can absorb it, thus becoming Chaos and stripping the Lufenians of the ability to weaponize the darkness against the Cornelians.

The Four Fiends

In General

Four powerful demons who serve Chaos. They have taken the crystals and use them to spread disaster throughout Cornelia. Jack and his team are charged with defeating them and freeing the crystals from their power.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the four elements of Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind. They came into existence originally when the Lufenians placed the Crystals in Cornelia to control the power of the elements, keep reappearing whenever Lufenia resets the world. It is implied that As Long as There Is Evil is in play — the Fiends will manifest from a combination of darkness from humans and the power of the Crystals, and by the nature of how the Lufenians conduct their experiments, they've guaranteed that the circumstances allowing the Fiends to exist will never change.
Anthropomorphic Shift: They have much more humanoid body types than previous incarnations, which is especially noticeable with Tiamat. This is foreshadowing that they were humans.
Elemental Powers: Each of them wields one of the four elements: Fire, Earth, Wind and Water.
Four Is Death: They are four powerful monsters who serve the demon Chaos.
Gender-Equal Ensemble: Tiamat and Marilith are female while Lich and Kraken are male.
Monster Progenitor: Their presence creates some of the monsters the Light Warriors face. In the "Wanderer of the Rift" DLC, it turns out the monsters are devoted to their fiends.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Ironically, despite acting like unapologetic Card Carrying Villains, they don't seem to be causing any trouble themselves. Marilith in particular was actually sleeping in her lair and attacks the party primarily out of irritation from being woken up. And Kraken implies that the world was more harmonious and peaceful before Jack and his friends slay them and restore light to the crystals they're guarding. It's actually Foreshadowing how none of them are truly evil and that it's actually some other entity responsible for the chaos and turmoil plaguing the land.
Voice of the Legion: They all have very distorted, echoing voices befitting such powerful demonic entities. It also does a decent job hiding how much they sound like Jack's friends.
Was Once a Man: They were once Jack's four allies and friends. Flavor Text for the optional Ebon Memory rematches against them go into better detail about how such forms first manifested.

Tiamat

"This journey ends here!"

A multi-headed dragon that has made the Flying Fortress her roost. She is the Fiend of Wind who guards the Wind Crystal.

Adaptational Early Appearance: In the original Final Fantasy, Tiamat was the last of the Four Fiends to be encountered by the Warriors of Light. In this game, she is the first of the Fiends to be fought and defeated, even serving as the game's tutorial fight.
Anthropomorphic Shift: The original Tiamat was a classical dragon. Tiamat in this game has a different body structure that is more humanoid while still being recognizably draconic - namely a humanoid woman's body bound at the arms and legs in a bipedal dragon humanoid, serving as its core.
Attack Its Weak Point: In the second phase, Jack can chop off her heads and prevent Tiamat from using some of her attacks as well as deal break damage.
Blow You Away: Her attacks are mostly wind-based.
Breath Weapon: Like any good dragon, many of her attacks like Breath and Macro Burst are breath attacks, with her Tri-Disaster attack being a full-on Wave-Motion Gun.
Counter-Attack: Her Ire of Dragons attack has her assume a stance as wind gathers around her. If she's attacked in this state, she'll retaliate with a powerful whirlwind.
Damage-Sponge Boss: Her health-pool isn't as gigantic as Lich's, but her powerful regeneration makes up for it. Her second phase in particular is all about reducing her break gauge while all-but-ignoring her health gauge.
Elemental Powers: In addition to her wind powers, she also has power over poison and lightning. In the first phase, she'll cycle between poison and wind. In the second phase, she starts adding lightning attacks to the mix, with some of her attacks such as Tri-Disaster and Breath using all three elements simultaneously.
Ground Pound: Occasionally she jumps into the air and smashes down onto the hapless opponent.
Hydra Problem: Once most of her heads are chopped off, she can regenerate them at the cost of her Break meter. Thus the goal of the fight is to reduce her Break gauge to zero so Jack can finish her off with a Soul Burst.
Logical Weakness: Dragons, like many other reptiles, are cold-blooded and thus affected by cold temperatures, so Ice works very effectively against her. Being a densely-packed Multiple Head Case with a Hydra Problem also means that area-of-effect attacks will be particularly devastating against her. Put two and two together, and it becomes obvious that the Black Mage's Blizzaga spell and various Ice-elemental katana abilities will completely, 100% ruin her day - and, indeed, that's exactly what they do.
Man Bites Man: She mainly attacks by biting the party with her heads.
Morphic Resonance: A huge multi-headed dragon whose original human form had access to the often dragon-themed Dragoon Job with a powerful jumping ability and could equip a number of dragon-inspired armor and weapons.
Multiple Head Case: She's a dragon with six heads. This is also extremely important for the boss battle against her - she's one of the few enemies in-game with multiple hitboxes connected to the same health-pool, making area-of-effect attacks uniquely devastating against her, and her necks also count as weak points that inflict bonus damage and reduce her break gauge when struck, which is key to bypassing her health regeneration in her second phase.
Poisonous Person: She can use poison attacks like Poison Gas in addition to her wind powers.
Secret Identity: She is actually Sophia.
Shock and Awe: She can use electrical attacks like Thunderbolt in addition to her wind powers.
Tail Slap: She can use her tail to swat anyone standing behind her.
Wake-Up Call Boss: Her actual boss fight is the first real hurdle the players will face, as the previous bosses could be easily defeated by brute force and little planning. Tiamat is a test of endurance, requiring the player to utilize advanced techniques like Soul Shield parrying to get her down for the count.
Wave-Motion Gun: Her Tri-Disaster attack is a powerful laser beam composed of Wind, Thunder, and Poison that can easily wipe out an unprepared player. Thankfully, with proper timing it can be Soul Shielded just like any other attack, and if you're able to dodge it, it offers a peerless opportunity to attack her necks and deal that all-important break damage.

Lich

"No matter how much you wish it, that season will never come. For I am Lich! And I shall devour all that is good!"

The Fiend of Earth, a humanoid skeletal creature who has who has taken residence in the Cavern of Earth. He uses the Earth Crystal to poison the soil.

Adaptational Ugliness: Lich in the original Final Fantasy was simply a skeletal warlock, but here he is way more monstrous, akin to how the Lich in Final Fantasy IX was designed.
An Arm and a Leg: His forearms get blown off by a deflected Flare spell in the transition to his second phase. This prevents him from casting most of his spells and encourages him to get more aggressive with his Razor Wings.
Barrier Warrior: He can throw up a barrier to block your attacks, but he only does it in cutscenes.
Breath Weapon: His Curse attack has him spit out dark fireballs in the shape of his head.
Card-Carrying Villain: He proudly declares that he "shall devour all that is good" right before his boss fight.
Confusion Fu: Downplayed. While you can tell what spells Lich will use by looking at the color of the orbs in his hands, Lich is quite fond of using two spells at once to throw you off and can use quite a few combinations ^note, turning the first phase of the fight into a guessing game.
Damage-Sponge Boss: His frame may be skeletal, but it's also as hard as rock. Chaos difficulty in particular makes it clear that when adjusted for level, he has one of the largest health-pools of any boss in the game. He makes up for it by offering several large windows for you to attack him largely unopposed (though not entirely without risk).
Dishing Out Dirt: Some of his most destructive spells, such as Earthquake, are Earth magic, fitting for the Fiend of Earth.
Elemental Powers: Aside from Earth magic, Lich can also use Ice, Flare, Poison, darkness, and Thunder magic.
Evil Sorcerer: Contrasting the other Fiends, who are all physical powerhouses, Lich specializes in powerful magic.
Flunky Boss: His Call of the Underworld attack has him summon two Dark Skeletons to harass you. In the second phase, his Putrid Ground attack also summons two Dark Skeletons. If the Dark Skeletons are destroyed, Lich will absorb their essence to power his Flare spell.
Glowing Eyelights of Undeath: A purple flame burns within Lich's open skull. Naturally, this flame is visible through his empty eye sockets.
Grapple Move: His Terrifying Embrace attack has him grab Jack with his wings and if successful, will fire off a point-blank Curse spell.
Having a Blast: He can utilize the Flare spell and his Fellflame spell creates stationary orbs of fire that explode after a short delay.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Twice. First, Lich gets his arms blown off when Jack uses his Soul Shield to absorb his Flare spell and use it against him. Then, Jack finally kills Lich by decapitating him with one of his own wings.
Holy Burns Evil: As an undead creature, Holy-based attacks are quite effective at damaging him.
An Ice Person: His Ice Dust spell launches a volley of icicles at his target.
Irony: While Ash serves as the team's close combat powerhouse, his Fiend form is the least phyisically-oriented of the four, preferring to summon skeletons or pelt his enemies with spells from a distance rather than getting close and personal.
Long-Range Fighter: Contrasting the other Fiends, who have no problem getting up close and personal, Lich prefers to hang back and bombard you with various spells. Even his Bone Nail attack has him extending his fingers and skewering you from a distance. It's only after his arms get blown off does he decide to use more physical attacks.
Morphic Resonance: His Razor Wings are reminiscent of the sash wrapped around Ash's waist.
Necromancer: He can summon Dark Skeletons to back him up.
Poisonous Person: His Putrid Ground attack has him jam his wings in the ground and create a pool of toxic miasma, inflicting Poison on anything standing too close and summoning Dark Skeletons to aid him, while his Bone Nail move poisons the target on contact.
Power Floats: As he has no legs, Lich mainly hovers above the ground.
Razor Wings: In the second phase, after losing both of his arms, he uses his wings to slash at Jack.
Secret Identity: He is actually Ash.
Shock and Awe: His Judgment spell bombards random spots with bolts of lightning.
Squishy Wizard: While Lich has a plethora of deadly spells and can use two spells at once to throw you off, he doesn't have many quick defensive options and some of his stronger spells such as Earthquake and Flare have a slow start-up time, allowing you to get in some free hits and can even cancel his spells if hit enough.
Status Infliction Attack: His Curse spell inflicts the Curse status, reducing your maximum break gauge while Putrid Ground inflicts Poison and Curse to anyone standing in the puddle of sludge created by the attack.
Super-Scream: One of his new attacks on Bahamut difficulty has him do a sonic scream, similar to the Supersonic Wave used by Leech Bats.
Teleport Spam: Frequently teleports around the arena.
Wolverine Claws: His Bone Nail attack has him extend his fingers into sharp spears to impale targets with them and inflict Poison.
You Will Not Evade Me: He can use a Bindga spell to grab Jack and if successful, will fire off a point-blank Flare spell at him.

Marilith

"The power of fire is mine! I will reduce you all to ashes!"

A six-armed snake person that is the Fiend of Fire. She has taken control of the Fire Crystal and has made Mount Gulg her home.

Adaptational Modesty: While the original Marilith was just a six-armed lamia woman wearing nothing but a bikini, here, the design of the Marilith implies that scales, robes, and porcelain-like armor cover her torso.
Blade Spam: Her Raining Swords attack has her perform a flurry of rapid stabs with her blades.
Confusion Fu: Her attacks are fast and difficult to predict thanks to her constant writhing, and her longer combos can branch off in one of two different directions halfway through with absolutely zero warning. The overall effect is to discourage Soul Shielding unless you're extremely confident about what she's about to hit you with, and encourage the safer options of blocking and dodging instead.
Dash Attack: Her Flaming Fury attack in the second phase has her perform a spinning charge attack. It also demonstrates the disadvantage of such a reckless move - unlike most of her attacks that leave her better-anchored, successfully Soul Shielding Flaming Fury will interrupt and stun her.
Flaming Hair: Fittingly for a fire demon, her hair has a flame-like pattern.
Flaming Sword: She sets her swords on fire for her second phase.
Glass Cannon: Marilith is blindingly fast and can deal out several quick attacks, made all the more dangerous by her ability to petrify the party with Stone Gaze and increase her attack with Blade Dance. But she is not as durable as the other Fiends - and is in fact one of the most fragile bosses, period. Her health-pool is low, and it's surprisingly easy to interrupt her via staggering.
Irony: Marilith is the Glass Cannon offensive force of the Four Fiends while Neon is the Stone Wall of Jack's team. Even better Neon's starting class is the Counter-Attack favouring Sword Fighter.
Logical Weakness: Fire is inevitably vulnerable to water. Water magic is quite effective at harming her.
Master Swordsman: She's the only tool-user of the Four Fiends, and she's very good at it - her swordplay with her six scimitars is astonishingly swift, elaborate, and deadly.
Morphic Resonance: Her robes have a high collar and twin trails. Much like the design seen on Neon's dress.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: She is a fire demon with six arms and six swords.
Mythology Gag: Marilith was sleeping when Jack and his comrades come upon her and wake her up. In the original Final Fantasy, each of the Four Fiends went active 200 years apart, but Marilith hadn't yet, until the Warriors of Light killed Lich and the disturbance awoke her early.
Playing with Fire: Representing the Fiend of Fire. In the second phase, she will imbue herself and her swords with fire, enhancing her attacks and giving her two new ones. Her Inferno attack has her plant her swords in the ground, causing geysers of flame to erupt around her. On Bahamut difficulty, her Inferno attack also creats a line of fiery eruptions in front of her.
Sadist: Implied. When the party reaches her lair, she comments that she just had a "wonderful" dream about a blood-soaked castle, screaming women, and crying children.
Secret Identity: She is actually Neon.
Sinister Scimitar: Her blades are ornate scimitars, all with slightly different designs and some with serrated blades.
Snake Person: Like her Final Fantasy I counterpart and her D&D namesake, she's a six-armed demoness from the waist up and a giant snake from the waist down.
Spin Attack: Her Rakshasa Slash has her perform a spinning slice with all six swords.
Sword Beam: Her Asura attack is a barrage of crescents launched from her swords. In her second phase, they will be infused with fire.
Tail Slap: When not using her swords, she will often lash out with her tail. One of her most dangerous attacks is a somersault tail slam that she uses whenever a different member of the team successfully gains aggro on her while she's attacking someone else - it comes out fast and deals a lot of damage.
Taken for Granite: She can petrify the party with her Stone Gaze attack. Like other gaze attacks, it can only be avoided by staying out of her line of sight.

Kraken

"You dare brandish your blade at the Kraken!? You forget your place!"

The Fiend of Water. A humanoid octopus creature who has taken hold of the Water Crystal and has made the Sunken Shrine his lair.

Adaptational Ugliness: The Kraken in the original game was invokedUgly Cute, being a chubby squid person. While he is bipedal and lean in this form, he is covered in nothing but tentacles and is much more demonic in appearance.
Armor-Piercing Question: When Neon demands Kraken return the Water Crystal, Kraken responds by asking what would the party do if it was returned to them, noting that they had fared well without it so far. Neon is left at a loss for words.
Kraken: You demand to have the crystal back, yet have fared well thus far without it. What would you do with it returned to you?
Neon: What would we... do?
Kraken: You have come all this way, yet know naught of its brilliance.
Neon: [stammers]
Jed: Neon, say something!
Kraken: You would bring mayhem to the world.
Battle Aura: In the second phase of the fight, whenever Kraken emerges from the water, he will be wreathed in an aura of water that protects him from your attacks.
Body Horror: During the end of the fight, a lot of damage is shown on his body, such as part of his brain being exposed.
Boss-Arena Idiocy: His arena has four generators that will explode when struck, releasing an electrical pulse. These pulses don't harm Jack's party, but they do harm Kraken, and the player can easily trick him into setting them off. A well-timed pulse will even stop Kraken from using his most powerful attack, Tsunami.
Breath Weapon: He spits out a highly pressurized stream of water during his Water Laser attack.
Combat Tentacles: In the first phase of his fight, the Kraken makes use of his long prehensile tentacles to attack the protagonists. After Jack rips out most of them, the Fiend becomes more reliant on water magic and physical attacks.
Creepy Long Fingers: The Kraken's tentacular fingers are almost as long as his actual legs.
Furry Reminder: His Inky Envy attack has him spit out ink like any good octopus.
Giant Hands of Doom: Many of his attacks involve swatting or smashing the party with his gigantic hands.
Lightning Bruiser: He's just as fast as Marilith, scampering and flipping across his boss arena while bombarding Jack's team with terrifyingly-fast slaps and tentacle strikes, but he's significantly more durable, especially when armouring himself with water in his second phase.
Logical Weakness: Water is a great electricity conductor, so using Thunder against him is a great way to deal a lot of damage. It also ties into the fact that he, as Jed, used to be afraid of lightning.
Making a Splash: He utilizes Water magic in combat, such as Tsunami and Nova Splash.
Morphic Resonance: Kraken has tentacles growing from the right side of his head, covering his face like bangs. Jed also has bangs on that side of his face. This is not a coincidence.
Primal Stance: As his profile picture indicates, he normally stands upright like a human being, but his long arms and enormous hands make it equally comfortable for him to go down on all fours, and he's capable of alarmingly rapid quadrupedal movement.
Secret Identity: He is actually Jed.
Tentacle Rope: His Resentful Embrace has him use his tentacles to grapple a party member. If successful, he will steal any buffs that member has.

Other Antagonists and Bosses

Armored Warrior/Chaos Advent

Armored Warrior/Chaos Advent (Garland)

Voiced by: Christopher Sabat (English), Kouji Ishii (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fakegarland.jpg

"I will become Chaos!"

A Black Knight wielding a giant sword that Jack and his friends confront in the Chaos Shrine early in the game. They bear a striking resemblance to the Garland of Final Fantasy and Dissidia, but the truth is a fair bit more complicated.

Adaptational Badass: Garland in the original Final Fantasy only had physical attacks, and while his Dissidia incarnation was a major step up, he was a Mighty Glacier who moved and attacked slowly, and relied on physical blows and only used magic for a few attacks. In this game, the Armored Warrior is a Lightning Bruiser who can dash across the room in an instant, deal massive damage with their attacks, and is much more proficient with magic and not shy about using it.
Arc Villain: They're an opponent fought early in the game, but they're one step to a much bigger storyline.
BFS: Their weapon is a massive sword.
Cast as a Mask: Voiced by Christopher Sabat, many expect them to be the Garland described by Princess Sarah. They are actually a woman named Neon who used the darkness of the Chaos Shrine to create a suit of armor for herself.
Evil Sounds Deep: A given considering their voice actors, and the metallic distortion from their helmet amplifies it.
Fire, Ice, Lightning: They can use fire, ice, and lightning magic in various forms.
Foreshadowing: Their battle stance, standing upright with their sword held to their side, is rather elegant and poised, traits one would not associate with the Garland of the original Final Fantasy and Dissidia. This is because it's actually Neon, a female character, under the armor. When she joins as a playable character, her battle stance is similar and she wields a shield alongside a sword.
Kung-Fu Wizard: After Jack breaks their sword during the transition to the second phase of the fight, they briefly engage him utilizing hand-to-hand attacks imbued with magic.
Lightning Bruiser: They are much quicker than you'd think a knight wearing armor like that would be, but they still hit as hard and take as much punishment as you'd expect, too.
One-Handed Zweihänder: Wields a greatsword in one hand with as much elegance as one would a shortsword.
Samus Is a Girl: It's Neon under the armor.
Spell Blade: They can temporarily imbue their sword with fire, granting them new attacks and powering up their normal attacks. In their second phase, they can form a sword entirely of ice to replace their previous sword that Jack shatters.
That Man Is Dead: When Jed recognizes the Armored Warrior from the princess's description as Garland, they reply, "No. I am to become Chaos!" Showing that they've thrown away their mortal identity. Or that it's not Garland.

Garland

"There was a knight who left on the same journey as you but never returned. His name was Garland. If you could, I would be grateful you looked for him."

—Princess Sarah

The iconic Black Knight from the original Final Fantasy. Though he's still currently a loyal knight of the Kingdom of Cornelia, he's gone missing due to mysterious circumstances.

Chekhov M.I.A.: He's gone missing by the time the events of this game occur with Princess Sarah requesting the heroes to find him. In reality, he's actually the amnesiac Jack.
The Dreaded: Oh yes. A guard Garland spares during his massacre in the opening perceives him as some sort of Humanoid Abomination wreathed in flame (Chaos) while Princess Sarah states his helmet is 'terrifying to behold'.
Final Boss: He's the final boss of one of the Different Future DLC's branches and, by extension, the entire game for those who follow it.
Flash Forward: The game's R-Rated Opening begins with one showing Garland cleaving through all of the castle defenders in his way as he escapes with Princess Sarah in his clutches.
The Ghost: Barring Chaos Advent, he's mysteriously absent for most of the game. Though this is mainly because Jack has yet to remember that he's Garland.
Mighty Glacier: Much like his Dissidia incarnation, he's slow but absolutely devastates the opposition in his way utilizing just his sword.
The Quiet One: He never speaks a single word during his appearance in the opening. Though that's mainly to avoid giving away The Reveal regarding his true identity.
The Real Remington Steele: Despite Chaos Advent bearing his visage and briefly being referred to as Garland, he is the genuine article.
Secret Identity: He is actually Jack.

Bikke

Voiced by: Jake Eberle (English), Kosuke Goto (Japanese)

"For what it's worth, you four don't look like easy pickings."

A pirate that the party encounters in their quest.

Adaptational Badass: In Final Fantasy, Bikke didn't directly fight the party, he sicced his men on them, and when they won he surrendered and gave his ship to them. In this game Bikke is a boss fought alongside his pirates, and his pirates are just Mooks to aid him.
Alas, Poor Villain: After getting corrupted by darkness, Bikke dies rather solemnly, with his death treated with genuine pathos.
Badass Longcoat: Fitting for a classical fantasy pirate captain, he wears a purple coat with gold trim and a high collar.
Badass Normal: While he's not quite on the level of the Warriors of Light, he still puts up quite a fight for a completely ordinary man.
Berserk Button: He really doesn't like when nobody laughs at his (admittedly rather lame) jokes.
Bikke: I've got fleas that bite harder than you!
Jack: Your jokes suck.
Bikke: Shut your trap!
Boisterous Bruiser: Definitely one of the louder, more cheerful members of the cast while also swinging around his massive axe with ease.
Dressed to Plunder: He's dressed like a stereotypical pirate, with a plumed tricorn hat and a greatcoat.
Dying as Yourself: After the final fight with Jack, he manages to regain control over his body and realizes what he has done, giving the team the information on how to find Astos and expiring of his wounds afterwards.
Forced into Evil: Bikke is possessed by darkness, and becomes a dangerous foe that Jack and the others are forced to fight.
King Mook: To the somewhat uncommon Pirate type enemy that heavily occupy his level, being their Captain. He even shares their Molotov Cocktail ranged attack.
Recurring Boss: He's fought twice over the course of the main story, the second time happens while he's possessed by darkness.

Other Characters

Astos

Voiced by: Todd Haberkorn (English), Yoji Ueda (Japanese)

"Those who are to forge the future mustn't be concerned with trivialities."

The King of the dark elves who lives in the Western Keep, and seems to know about the Crystals, and Jack and his friends.

Adaptational Attractiveness: The original Astos used a generic NPC sprite as a human disguise and then shifted into a more monstrous form in battle. In this game, Astos possesses a dark, rugged air of beauty befitting the idea of a "dark elf". On the other hand, when he transforms he's more monstrous than ever.
Adaptational Badass: In the original game Astos was a dangerous boss primarily for knowing Death, and otherwise was a decent challenge but not remarkable. Also, design wise he was merely a monstrous humanoid elf. In this game, he is a full-on Kung-Fu Wizard who mixes magic with martial arts. Oh, and he transforms into the Ultima Weapon.
Adaptational Heroism: Played with. He offers help to Jack and his party in finding the Crystals, but his demeanor and the fact he knows their names before they give them imply he knows more than he lets on and may not be trustworthy. Played straight when it revealed he's in on their plan to wrest control of the world from the Lufenians, and over multiple cycles he and Jack formed a genuine friendship.
Adaptation Expansion: Astos plays a much larger role in this game than he did in the original Final Fantasy.
Back from the Dead: Jack manages to get another clone of Astos and restore his memories, bringing him back.
Battle Aura: His Dark Matter attack wreaths him in an aura of darkness that makes him more resistant to your attacks.
Breath Weapon: One of his attacks as the Ultima Weapon is Shadow Flare, breathing a stream of dark flames from his mouth.
Casting a Shadow: Many of his attacks his boss fight utilize darkness, usually shaping it into various weapons. His Dark Slash and Dark Revolution attacks have him generate a sword made of darkness, his Dark Hammer attack creates a hammer to pound the ground with, His Cremation attack creates and his Dark Thrust attack creates lances that he fires at you. As the Ultima Weapon, he can use Shadow Flare, breathing a stream of dark flames from his mouth. His Dark Calamity and Crossover attacks involve swiping at you with darkness-empowered claws, his Antimatter attack has him fire homing blasts of darkness, and his Void Sprout attack has him conjure a shadow that follows you a bit before unleashing a geyser of dark energy.
The Confidant: He's actually in on Jack's plan to stop the Lufenians from interfering with Cornelia, tasked with guiding his group no matter if they have no memories of their actual mission.
Despair Event Horizon: Crosses this just before his boss fight, when he realizes Jack has no idea who he is.
Elemental Powers: Can use Fire, Ice, Lightning, and darkness magic.
Expendable Clone: As the organic recon unit, he's not as valuable to the Lufenians as their Strangers, so in case anything happens to him, they can simply create another version of Astos as a replacement. Needless to say, this fate has been pushing Astos towards his Despair Event Horizon.
Fantastic Nuke: Aside from his Dark Flare spell in the first phase, as the Ultima Weapon he can use his own version of the Ultima spell called Ultima Origin.
Fighting Your Friend: Forced into fighting him, leading to The Reveal.
First-Person Smartass: He's the author of Fool's Missives, and he takes every opportunity to dish out some snark in his notes.
Forgotten Friend, New Foe: Astos is Jack's assistant within the cycle, and the one who acts as his grounding point and contact with Paradise since he never has his memory wiped during a reset of the loop. He grew very fond of Jack as a friend, but when Garland suggests his final plan, Astos grapples with the fact that it will involve Garland giving up his crystal to someone else and thus having no way of remembering Astos. When he realizes that Garland truly has no idea who he is within the course of the game proper, he goes berserk trying to remind him.
Fridge Logic: invokedThis game serves to explain some regarding the original Final Fantasy. Astos calls himself the king of the dark elves, but aside from generic enemies that are all palette swaps of him, no "dark elves" exist in the game, and those enemies don't even appear in his castle. Stranger of Paradise reveals that Astos is a reincarnated elf turned artificial servant created by the Lufenians. One could take this to mean that there are other "dark elves" that serve a similar role as Astos to the Lufenians and we just don't see them, or that the Lufenians didn't care much about having his cover story make sense, since he lives in isolation and the people of the world get their memories erased regularly and wouldn't investigate Astos too deeply.
Having a Blast: In the first phase of the fight, he can use Dark Flare, a darkness-empowered Flare spell.
Holy Halo: As the Ultima Weapon, he has a large halo floating behind him. When he uses his Energy Emission attack, it will charge the halo (signified by it going from colorless, to red, to purple). When fully charged, he will either use his Flare Star attack, or more rarely, his Ultima Origin attack.
An Ice Person: He can cast Blizzaga and his Primordial Frost attack has him fire a volley of ice shards at you. As the Ultima Weapon this is upgraded to Calamity Frost, where he rains down ice shards in a row in front of him.
I Never Told You My Name: He knows the names of Jack, Jed, Ash and Neon immediately in their first conversation with him, which confuses Neon. It's unknown exactly how he knew their names, partially because Jack impatiently cuts him off when he starts explaining.
Kung-Fu Wizard: While a powerful spellcaster, Astos is also a skilled hand-to-hand fighter. Some of his attacks involve kicking you.
Lightning Bruiser: As the Ultima Weapon, he can move far faster than a gigantic centaur-like monster of his size should be able to.
Morphic Resonance: His Dark Elf form, due to being a king, has several pieces of jewelry reminiscent of the different bands and halos his form as Ultima Weapon Origin possesses.
Mythology Gag: As the Ultima Weapon Origin, he has attacks from numerous other incarnations of the Ultima Weapon throughout Final Fantasy, including Full Power, Flare Star, Shadow Flare, Shimmering Rain, and Antimatter. He also has Ultima, a spell Ultima Weapon has had in several games, but here it specifically looks like it did in VI. His appearance is an amalgamation of the two most recurring Ultima Weapon designs — the centaur-like body and the glowing red/purple ring around his back call to mind the VII and XIV incarnations, but his more organic appearance and the rows of yellow spikes around his limbs and along his back are like the VI design.
One-Winged Angel: In his second phase he transforms into Ultima Weapon Origin, a centaur-like monstrosity with great power.
Our Centaurs Are Different: In his One-Winged Angel form, Astos is a robot-like Centaur machine monster. Astos possesses the bottom of a horse and a demonic-looking humanoid top with shiny, metallic colorings.
The Paralyzer: His Dark Surge attack has him fire a cloud of darkness that will immobilize targets.
Promoted to Playable: The Wanderer of the Rift DLC allows players to play as Astos after completing the game.
Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: He collects all the information from the Strangers and doesn't get his memory wiped so that he can be a guide to a new party, aware of all iterations of the Forever War. Needless to say, Jack uses this to make sure that Astos would remind him of his original plan and lead him towards his real goal.
Shock and Awe: He can cast Thundaga and his Primordial Bolt attack has him fire bolts of lightning directly in front of him. As the Ultima Weapon, this is replaced with Calamity Bolt, firing rows of lightning from either side of him.
Shout-Out: Many of his darkness attacks in the first phase of the fight resemble the Sealed Verses from Nier and its remake (Another Square Enix property). His Dark Thrust attack is the Dark Lance in all but name, his Dark Slash and Dark Revolution resembles the Dark Whirlwind, and his Dark Hammer is a shout out to the Dark Hand.
Spikes of Villainy: His outfit has a crown with several horns and a collar with spikes around his upper torso.
Teleport Spam: In the first phase of the fight, he frequently teleports around the arena.
Villainous Breakdown: He has a mental breakdown when he finally realizes his old friend Jack has completely forgotten his friendship.
Astos: I despise the Lufenians. I hate them so much I could scream. I was born in Cornelia. I traveled with the Lufenians across the planes. And I was reborn. I came back. And now… I don't know where my heart should lie.
Walking Spoiler: Talking about Astos is impossible without revealing his importance to the story.
Wave-Motion Gun: His most powerful attack as the Ultima Weapon is Flare Star, firing a massive beam of flame at you.
Weather Manipulation: One of his attacks as the Ultima Weapon is Simmering Rain, conjuring localized storm clouds that rain down above you.
Wolverine Claws: As the Ultima Weapon many of his attacks such as Crossover and Dark Calamity involve swiping you with his claws.

Lufenians (Unmarked Spoilers)

Lufenia is a glittering jewel. A utopia. Uncontrollable variables have no place here.

An ancient race of humans who are frequently mentioned in the story's lore.

Abusive Precursors: It is said that they were the ones who created Cornelia before mysteriously vanishing. Nowadays they've been subjecting the surface world to perpetual conflict for the sake of "maintaining Light and Darkness" even if it means flooding the lands with Darkness to balance out the light, killing many innocents and turning others into savages and mindless monsters.
Adaptational Villainy: In the original Final Fantasy, the Lufenians were people whose ancestors lived in floating cities and were rather technically advanced (one of them created the airship that you acquire during your quest) before they were cast down to earth by Tiamat, the Fiend of Wind. In Stranger of Paradise, they are the faction Big Bad of the game, who have created a Forever War situation in order to keep Cornelia firmly under their control.
Bright Is Not Good: Strongly associated with the color white and other bright colors such as bright blue or golden yellow but they don't give a damn about the suffering they cause for humanity.
Control Freak: They're fixated on maintaining control over the surface world. To this end they've created balance between the elements on Earth by creating the four elemental crystals. However in order to balance out the Light that humans are affiliated with, they "inject" Darkness into the world with often disastarous results for humanity. Should the need arise, they will even perform a "reset" to restore the world to a more stable state. Overall, they seem to despise how chaotic the surface world below is compared to Lufenia.
Doomed by Canon: The majority of them are already dead come Final Fantasy, and all their plans came to naught, after Chaos and the Four Fiends destroyed their civilization just like Garland promised he would. If Gilgamesh is to be believed, the downfall already started before Garland meets them, as his actions that caused their reality to get cut off drove his former handler insane with revenge, leading to her destroying a significant part of the Lufenian's realm to overthrow it for her plans.
Early-Installment Weirdness: They explain some of it. The original Final Fantasy was heavily based on Dungeons & Dragons, which included races of dwarves and elves, which aren't that common in future Final Fantasy titles. Stranger of Paradise explains that the dwarves and elves of Cornelia are experiments created by the Lufenians and genetically engineered to have their typical fantasy traits. Astos speculates they did this to create Slave Races to serve them.
Final Solution: When their research leads them to conclude that humanity is innately prone to corruption by darkness and there is nothing that will change that no matter what experiments they may try, they decide to exterminate them all. It's implied this would have been the result of the final reset of Cornelia, but Jack derailed that plan.
Forced Transformation: Those white bats that the Warriors of Light keeps seeing around Astos are revealed to be former Lufenians transformed by Astos' magic. The friendly monsters that you can recruit in the Wanderer of the Rift DLC also reveal that a lot of them were humans before being warped by Chaos, or animals experimented on by the Lufenians (Jester).
Greater-Scope Villain: They are gradually revealed to be the source of all of Cornelia's troubles due to them weaponizing darkness and sending "Strangers" to battle it, keeping Cornelia trapped in a cycle of eternal conflict.
Hidden Agenda Villain: It's said both in Astos' reports and the Lufenians' own research logs that all of their experiments in Cornelia are not merely For Science!, but for a specific purpose they want to achieve. What that is, however, is unclear.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: A nasty habit of theirs is that their experiments backfire with horrible results.
- They placed the Crystals in Cornelia in order to control the elements of nature and maintain stability as they play with the balance of light and darkness. Inexplicably, the Crystals ended up giving rise to the Fiends, beings which could not be erased no matter how many times they reset the world and would always be reborn even if killed. Astos laughs at the irony that the very things the Lufenians used to control the world created monsters they have no way to control.
- Their own agents turn on them and come up with a plan to wrest Cornelia from their control, forcing them to disconnect from it and irrevocably ruining it as a testing ground for their experiments. And in the end, those same agents killed them.
Humans Are Morons: Their reports display a very disdainful view of humanity due to the way their affinity with Light forces the Lufenians to introduce Darkness in the lands to keep the elements in balance, resulting in countless humans becoming corrupted and sometimes transforming into monsters. They outright call humanity a blight that they should have wiped out entirely the last time the Lufenians clashed with them.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Their research log The Stranger Project: Origin indicates that they were initially interested in saving Cornelia, as the balance of light and darkness had become so broken that the world would be totally destroyed in 2000 years. Thus they began experimenting on new ways to keep the balance, enabled by the Stranger Project and the dimensional crystal matrix. As time went on, their goals became less altruistic, and by Collaborator Proposal, they decided to wipe Cornelia out themselves, since it was no longer usable for their research. By the Wanderer of the Rift DLC, it is revealed that even though Lufenia has moved on from Jack after cutting ties with his reality, Nil is so furious at his betrayal that she's willing to not only tear down the fabric of dimensions by sending the Death Machine on Gilgamesh's trail, but also overthrow Lufenia itself to make sure no one stands in her way — which may leave the Lufenians unprepared for their inevitable clash with Chaos.
Killed Offscreen: Jack doesn't actually face them directly in Origin, but given their situation in Final Fantasy, it seems Chaos and the Four Fiends killed the majority of them in the 2000 years before the start of that game, with only a few from the Flying Fortress that Tiamat missed surviving in exile. Wanderer of the Rift does feature Jack giving Nil her personally comeuppance on-screen, however.
Mad Scientist: They treat their Forever War in Cornelia very clinically like a large scientific experiment. Most of the friendly monsters in Wanderer of the Rift detail the effects of Lufenian tampering in their past, leading them to their spiral into dark creatures.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: According to Lufenian Log 20_0000, Jack's becoming Chaos and contaminating Station 19 with his chaotic energies forced the Lufenians to sever all ties with the timeline he inhabits, effectively freeing his world from their control. Gilgamesh reveals later, however, that Nil is not onboard with this decision...
Terraforming: The "Fool's Missives" preceding every level go into detail the experiments they've performed in altering the environment based on locations from other dimensions that are clearly the worlds in other mainline Final Fantasy games. While most of these alterations serve some sort of practical function for the Lufenians, quite a few of them are clearly destructive to the environment and ecosystems present. For example, they've used the location of Mt. Gagazet from Final Fantasy X to transform the lush hills outside the Earth Shrine into the Hallowed Massif: a desolate snow-covered, avalanche-prone mountainside filled with undead warriors. There's a particularly grim moment when the party comes across a cave and comment on the walls being filled with frozen corpses.
Walking Spoiler: It is nigh impossible to talk about them without revealing major plot twists.

Nil (Unmarked Spoilers)

Nil

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sop_lufenian.png

Voiced by: Mari Weiss (English), Kimiko Saito (Japanese)

Jack's superior in Lufenia, who gives him his mission to stamp out the darkness of Cornelia. After Jack goes rogue and tries to wrest control of Cornelia from Lufenia, she takes it a bit personally and tries to eradicate him.

All Your Powers Combined: She wields attacks from multiple Final Fantasy games, particularly their final bosses or superbosses, including Grand Cross, Supernova, Great Attractor, and Neutron Ring.
Arc Villain: Of the DLC episodes; the first two involve her arranging for powerful beings to be sent into Cornelia in the hopes they'll kill Jack, and the third has her take center stage.
Eldritch Abomination: She fuses with three Manikins of Omega to become The Transcendent, a humanoid bio-mechanical creature with four tentacles emerging from its back and massive claws in place of hands.
Evil Is Petty: She's willing to defy her superiors and risk fraying the fabric of dimensions in the name of destroying Jack, and in large part her grudge against him is due to him betraying her and taking Cornelia from her.
Frickin' Laser Beams: She has other attacks, but her main offense comes from various types of energy beams fired from her tentacles.
A God Am I: While she doesn't directly claim to be a god, her actions and behavior show she definitely considers herself one.
Nil: With this crystal and the dimensional matrix at my disposal, I can create life - or take it away - at will.
Literally Shattered Lives: After defeating her, Jack crystallizes and then crushes her.
The Man Behind the Monsters: She can create Manikins and copies of Omega, and does so to pit them against Jack.
Meaningful Name: "Nil" means "nothing", and by the time of the DLCs she's decided to return the worlds to nothingness in order to replace them with a "utopia".
Omnicidal Maniac: She intends to destroy the world of Cornelia and create a "glorious utopia" in its place.
Revenge Before Reason: While the rest of Lufenia decided to just cut all ties with Jack's reality after Jack's betrayal, Nil was so furious by his betrayal that she decided to just overthrow them so that she could hunt down Jack unimpeded. This is despite the fact that her single-minded pursuit of Jack not only threatens the existing fabric of dimensions but also leaves the Lufenians unprepared for the clash against Chaos.
True Final Boss: As the Big Bad of the final DLC, she's this to the entire game; while there are other bosses, her defeat caps off the game's major plotlines and symbolizes Jack finally triumphing over Lufenia and freeing Cornelia from them.
Yin-Yang Bomb: She has a dimensional crystal matrix to let her reset worlds and wipe beings in them from existence, and a crystal to let her create new lifeforms as she sees fit.

The Collaborator (Unmarked Spoilers)

The Lufenians' collaborator

A mysterious being that is referred to the Lufenians' reports. They gave the Lufenians the means to experiment on Cornelia to learn how to control the balance of light and darkness.

Ambiguous Syntax: Whenever they're mentioned, the way in which the Lufenians talk about them leaves it totally ambiguous as to who or what they are.
Greater-Scope Villain: All that the Lufenians have done to Cornelia couldn't have been accomplished without their help, but they play no direct influence in the story.
Hidden Agenda Villain: It's unclear why they aided the Lufenians in their experiments. The only benefit it seemed to have for the being is allowing it to absorb the energy produced by their resets to preserve Cornelia's Stable Time Loop, but they were the one who approached the Lufenians in the first place before they knew such a thing was possible. Even the Lufenians note that they're suspicious of their collaborator because they don't know why it would reach out to them and offer their help without (initially) asking for anything in return.
Kill All Humans: The collaborator's final proposal for the Lufenians is to increase the darkness levels in Cornelia to the maximum level, which both they and the Lufenians know will cause most humans to transform into monsters and slaughter each other.
Mythology Gag: Their relationship with the Lufenians is similar to Shinryu's with Cid in Dissidia — trapping a world in an endless cycle of conflict in order to balance light and darkness, and they syphon the energy produced by the continuous cycles. However, it's ambiguous if they are Shinryu or another being just doing the same thing as it.
No Name Given: While they have a name, it's never revealed to the player.
Spell My Name with a Blank: Any time their name would be mentioned in the game's logs, the text is blocked out.

Bahamut

The king of dragons. Bahamut judges the bravery of heroes and awards them titles for their efforts. Taking an interest in Jack's party, he lends them his counsel and strength.

Charged Attack: He can use Mega Flare in his boss battle, and can charge power to upgrade to Giga Flare and Exa Flare.
Composite Character: His general role is taken from the original Final Fantasy as the Dragon King who sends the party on a trial to prove their valor and earn his blessing, but he also takes some cues from Final Fantasy XV, namely his wings being made of blades he can manipulate and being treated as a god. It's implied he may actually be the XV Bahamut, as he claims he came from another world where he was worshipped as a god and tried to make it one of pure light, but he was betrayed and killed by humans, which is exactly what happened to the XV Bahamut in the Dawn of the Future novel. His spirit then floated between dimensions until something attracted it to Cornelia.
Flaming Sword: In the second phase, Bahamut's swords start burning with blue fire, with the flames growing more intense as he powers himself up.
Guest-Star Party Member: The Summoner temporarily swaps out Jack for Bahamut and has players control him directly.
Heel–Face Turn: Zig-zagged assuming that he is the same Bahamut as in Final Fantasy XV. His defeat has made him realize that eradicating humanity to create a perfect world was a mistake, and he now believes in the potential power of humans. However, he also agrees to the plan set by an Anti-Villain group, being complicit in their cycles of destruction and murder all for the sake of eventually creating a timeline where Everybody Lives, to say nothing about how his role in that plan involves attempting to kill the predestined heroes to test their worth.
Humble Pie: If he is the same Bahamut as in Final Fantasy XV, then being killed by Noctis and his comrades definitely taught him a lesson in humility. Bahamut now recognizes the potential of humans to achieve power surpassing gods, and that his Knight Templar attitude to eradicate darkness to create a perfect world of light was in error.
Light Is Good: He champions this viewpoint, along with Dark Is Evil, and is initially suspicious of Jack and his comrades for their ties to darkness and chaos. Over the course of his trials he comes to reconsider this perspective as they prove their worth to him and explain to him why they chose to embrace the darkness.
Master of the Levitating Blades: His wings are really a set of swords which float behind him. He can manipulate these swords with his mind or summon them into his hands.
Never My Fault: Ultimately zig-zagged, especially if he is Final Fantasy XV's Bahamut. He refers to his defeat at the hands of Noctis and his allies as a "betrayal" by his followers, even though they had only turned against him because he was planning to wipe out humanity. However, he does concede that it was wrong for him to write off humanity as beings that needed to be erased to achieve his perfect world and has become a much wiser and more benevolent being from the experience.
Outside-Context Problem: He didn't exist in the world of Cornelia until recently, and while Jack and his friends speculate the Lufenians may have been responsible for sending him to kill them, it's ambiguous.

The Heroes (Spoiler Characters)

The Warriors of Light

Warrior of Light voiced by: Grant George (English), Toshihiko Seki (Japanese)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sop_wols.jpg

When darkness veils the world, four warriors of light shall come.

A team of warriors that Jack and his allies prepare to end the time loop. They are the Warriors of Light from the original Final Fantasy.

And Now for Someone Completely Different: You assume control of the Warrior of Light for the game's true final battle.
The Cameo: They initially appear in the ending of the base game as shadows in silhouette, before appearing in full in the Trials of the Dragon King DLC.
Canon Foreigner: One of them is a Dragoon, a job that didn't exist in the original Final Fantasy.
The Chosen Many: They are the true Warriors of Light described in the prophecy.
Cool Helmet: The most visible distinguishing feature is a horned helmet worn by the warrior.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Trials of the Dragon King begins with Jack blasting back three of them without effort, and only the iconic Warrior of Light is able to stand up to him. Even then, Jack engages him blade-to-blade and kills him easily.
Duel Boss: All of your storyline battles against the Warrior of Light involve you facing him in single combat. Your party members aren't present, and his last about three seconds.
Holy Backlight: When they enter Jack's throne room in the Chaos Shrine, they're backlit by golden light to obscure their identities, and to contrast the shadows that follow Jack and his team.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: As a boss, the death blow against the Warrior of Light involves Jack impaling him with a spear of chaos energy.
Knight in Shining Armor: The leader is the Warrior of Light, who as always is clad in gleaming blue and silver armor with a sword, shield, and cape.
Mysterious Past: No one's sure where they come from. In Wanderer of the Rift, a monster tries investigating for Jack, but can't come up with anything, figuring they might be from another dimension altogether.
Mythology Gag: Almost all of the Warrior's attacks are taken from Dissidia NT, which was also developed by a collaboration by Square Enix and Team Ninja. These include Shining Wave, Radiant Sword, Shield of Light, and Coruscant Saber (renamed as Shining Saber), while his Ascension and Sword Thrust combos appear as normal sword attacks without utilizing the shield.
Promoted to Playable: In the final mission of Different Future's branch, the player controls the Warrior of Light in a fight against Jack.
Red Shirt: The three Warriors other than the leader are only present to fill out the main Warrior's party and get swatted by Jack.
Third-Option Adaptation: While three of them are jobs that existed in the original Final Fantasy (Warrior, Thief, White Mage), the fourth is a Dragoon.
The Worf Effect: In Trials of the Dragon King, Jack knocks out three of them in a single attack, and then takes on the Warrior of Light and easily beats him down. This is done to demonstrate just how powerful Jack has become and why the blessing of Bahamut is so important, to make the Warriors of Light formidable enough to stand a chance against him. Subverted in both of Different Future branches:
- One has the Warrior successfully prevail against Jack in the end.
- The other branch has Jack completely forgo the fight, return to Lufenia, kill his former superiors and then become the God of Discord, with the future God of Harmony being named as the Warrior of Light.

Gilgamesh

Voiced by: Keith Szarabajka (English), Kazuya Nakai (Japanese)

Another day, another world. My journey is never-ending...

A wanderer of the Rift, sent by the Lufenians without his knowledge to challenge Jack and his allies. This is the same Rift-faring Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V.

Dimensional Traveler: As per his usual description. However, he seems to be stuck in Cornelia and tries to find a way to leave it.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: He can transform into his eight-armed form to wield eight weapons at once, and his attacks hit much harder and faster.
Mythology Gag: Just like in Dissidia 012, he regularly swaps his weapons out between the Excalibur, Zantetsuken, Naginata, and Battle Axe. Not only do the weapons look identical to how they did in Dissidia, but Gilgamesh dual-wields them two copies at a time, as he did with all his weapons in that game. For that matter, many of his attack calls are taken from Dissidia too.
Optional Boss: The Wanderer of the Rift DLC adds Gilgamesh as a boss, including an encounter on the Cornelian bridge.
Recurring Boss: The Warriors keep running in to Gilgamesh as they go through the Wanderer of the Rift DLC, getting increasingly more irritated with him as they go.
Signature Move: He has many of his typical attacks from his appearances in other Final Fantasy titles, including Sword Dance, Jump, Self-Destruct (renamed "Gilgasplode"), and Missile.
Trojan Horse: In a way. Gilgamesh's dimensional traveling is tracked by Nil, who sends the Death Machine on his trail to get at Jack.
Worthy Opponent: Comes to see Jack as one.

Moogle

Voiced by: Bailey Gambertoglio (English), Sumire Morohoshi (Japanese)

I have something to ask of you, kupo. I need Chaos's help.

A Moogle that comes requesting Jack's help in order to stop Nil from destroying the multiverse.

The Chessmaster: As the alternate ending reveals, and the new missives detail, the Moogle has been watching the events of the game from afar and occasionally influences events in order to groom Jack and the Warrior of Light into becoming the new gods of Discord and Harmony respectively, most notably sending Bahamut so that both can grow stronger. Nil's rise to power forces the Moogle to take more direct action, but even that plays into its plans as it allows Jack to absorb a crystal that is apparently key to securing its future.
Walking Spoiler: The true nature of the Moogle is one: The Moogle actually hails from World B as seen in the Dissidia games (as late as Dissidia Final Fantasy NT), and its presence in Jack's world is specifically to push him and the Warrior of Light into becoming the new gods of conflict in order to secure a new future. That it is also a manifestation of Cosmos' will is also only indicated in the reports found in Lufenia.

The Emperor

Voiced by: Christopher Corey Smith (English), Kenyū Horiuchi (Japanese)

This place is now under my dominion. Rejoice to kneel before me!

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sop_emperor.png

The Big Bad of Final Fantasy II, a despotic ruler from an alternate dimension who followed the Moogle's trail. He is not allied with Lufenia, and only wants total world domination for himself.

Beehive Barrier: His Magic Barrier spell creates a dome of tessellated hexagons to protect him from harm.
Brought Down to Normal: After the battle, all of his power is gone and all he can do is limply crawl away from Jack before being thrown into a portal back home.
Charged Attack: He can charge his Starfall spell up to three distinct levels if Jack doesn't interrupt him. Starfall XVI, the most powerful, produces the most meteors and is unblockable.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The Big Bad of the next chapter of the Final Fantasy franchise after the first. At his core, he's emblematic of how subsequent main villains will have greater control of their own destinies, and how they will all be inclined to abuse this freedom that Jack didn't have.
Early-Bird Cameo: An unusual variant — his Thirst for Chaos attack appeared before the release of the To A Different Future DLC in Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia, as Jack's Force ability. The animation in that game depicts the Emperor appearing to use the attack on Jack, who absorbs it with Soul Shield and then casts it on enemies; this reflects that in this game, Thirst for Chaos is the only attack of his that can be absorbed this way (in his initial form, anyway).
Evil Sorcerer: He's a powerful and power-hungry mage from another dimension who seeks dominion over the entire universe.
Foil: Shares Jack's dogged determination to survive and triumph even when reduced to nothing, and is prone to similar displays of arrogant bravado. However, every version of Garland has someone they value in their hearts, whether that be Princess Sarah or their fellow Warriors, while the Emperor's only has room for himself.
Kneel Before Zod: He caps off his introductory speech by declaring that Cornelia is now under his dominion and demanding that Jack kneel before him. Jack's response is typical:
Jack: I knew you'd start spouting bullshit the second I saw you. (he smirks) You've got the look.
Magic Missile Storm: One of his most basic attacks is to launch volleys of magical projectiles from his staff which home in on Jack.
Meteor-Summoning Attack: In his second phase he starts casting Starfall, which will bombard Jack with a volley of meteors if the casting isn't interrupted.
Multiversal Conqueror: While he had initially followed the Moogle to simply hurt it, he quickly realizes the powers at play and immediately attempts to claim dominion over Jack's world. The missives that are implied to be written by him also suggest that he'll use said powers to take control of more worlds. This is par for the course for him.
Mythology Gag:
- Almost all of his attacks are taken from Dissidia NT, which was also developed by a collaboration by Square Enix and Team Ninja. These include Stygian Swell, Hellish Gale, Thunder Crest, and Blue Soul, while his original attack Vessel of Pain is a re-imagining of Bombardment, throwing a sphere of energy on the ground that absorbs enemies towards it and stuns them, and Thrist for Chaos is an altered version of Dreary Cell.
- He can summon spectral monsters to attack for him, a Call-Back to the lore of II where he was said to be able to summon demons and monsters from Hell.
- Flare and Starfall use Roman numeral suffixes in the same manner as spells in II did. The Emperor can charge Starfall across three levels of power, each of which has a different animation, reflecting II where the animations for spells changed as they grew in power.
One-Winged Angel: After Jack whittles him down, he takes the form he used as the Emperor of Hell, The Hell Risen.
Outside-Context Problem: He's not connected to the main plot at all, he simply shows in Lufenia to try and subjugate it before being stopped by Jack.
Point of Divergence: Not himself, but his presence. Him returning to claim the Lufenians' crystals after Jack kills Nil is what leads to the path where Jack becomes the new god of Discord.
Post-Final Boss: He serves as this for Nil, though he's no pushover.
Spell My Name with a Blank: While the game generally makes no effort to hide his identity, the missives that are clearly written from his point of view blank out his name in their titles much like the collaborator's, although there's no indication otherwise that they're one and the same.
Summon Magic: He can summon apparitions of various monsters to attack on his behalf.
Twitchy Eye: His eyes twitch in anger after Jack responds to his demand to Kneel Before Zod with an insult.
Viler New Villain: A floating, preening reminder that true evil exists outside of the Lufenian cycles and the Necessarily Evil Zero-Approval Gambit scheme Jack has concocted.
Villain of Another Story: About as literal as you can get. He's the Big Bad of Final Fantasy II, and he is drawn into the world of Final Fantasy I and decides to wreak some havoc while he's in town.
Walking Spoiler: Not as bad as the Moogle, but while his presence in the DLC is heavily advertised, the implication that he's actually from World B is less so outside of him being familiar with a Garland.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite his clear interest in the powers in Jack's world, the primary factor in which of the two different endings occurs is whether or not he actually subverts this trope and comes back.

Omega (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Omega

Nil: Omega will crush you, and wipe all trace of Chaos from this world!

A war machine of alien origin, brought forth by the Lufenian mastermind Nil in a last-ditch effort to kill Jack and end his interference in their plans.

Adaptational Badass: Most of the 3D Final Fantasy titles featuring Omega depict it as a Mighty Glacier, and it either doesn't move very quickly or at all, since it can hit from range with its various lasers and missiles anyway. Omega here is much quicker and more mobile, able to leap around and dash to keep up with Jack, teleport above him, and swipes at him with its claws instead of just sticking to ranged moves.
Interface Screw: Of a sort. Players by this point will be familiar with bosses Turning Red at half HP or when their break gauge is depleted, which is marked on their HP bar. However, when Omega is reduced to half HP, it triggers a story cutscene after which Nil fuses with three copies of Omega, and she serves as the fight's second phase instead of a powered-up Omega.
Kill the God: Omega is described as a weapon created to strike down the gods.
Mechanical Abomination: Not so much Omega as "The Transcendent", a fusion of Nil and three Omega Manikins.
Mythology Gag: Most of its attacks are specifically taken from the Final Fantasy V incarnation of Omega, which was its first appearance: Rainbow Wind, Delta Attack, Black Hole, Maelstrom, and Lock-On. It also has Pilebunker from its XIII-2 appearance.
Wave-Motion Gun: Its signature Wave Cannon, which blasts a huge beam of energy at Jack.

Characters / Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

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