Characters / Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin - "Warriors of Light"

Warning: Unmarked spoilers for the Endgame Ahead!

Five disparate adventurers, led by a man named Jack, attempting to fulfil the Warrior of Light prophecy to vanquish the fabled source of all darkness, Chaos, and in the process restore the corrupted Crystals that once brought peace and prosperity to the lands. However, it quickly becomes clear that Chaos and his allies the Four Fiends do not yet exist as we knew them in Final Fantasy, and the path our heroes find themselves on is an altogether darker one...

For tropes pertaining to their original appearance, see the folders for Garland and the four fiends in Final Fantasy's Character Page.

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In general

• Adaptational Heroism: Unlike Garland and the Four Fiends in the original Final Fantasy, their villainous actions are actually part of a Zero-Approval Gambit to unite the world and free them from the control of the Lufenians.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: After regaining their memories of previous time loops, each realizes they're actually Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villains out to wipe out the Greater-Scope Villain Lufenians by hijacking their Forever War, rather than Warriors of Light with the generic goal of being "here to kill Chaos".
• And Then John Was a Zombie: The five of them turn into Garland and his four fiends from the original game in the end.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Even after recruiting a fourth party member, the player is limited to two active allies in battle, plus Jack.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: After becoming Chaos and the Four Fiends, the party made good on Garland's promise that they'd be back to wipe out the Greater-Scope Villain Lufenians after Nil's coup, leaving Final Fantasy's Warriors of Light free to only face Garland as the Big Bad rather than deal with any Greater-Scope Villain.
• Birds of a Feather: While they're not above a spot of mutual bickering and teasing, Jed and Neon (the two youngest and least experienced Warriors of Light from the two most modest backgrounds) have a closer friendship with each other than they do with anyone else.
• Canon Character All Along: In the end, Jack is revealed to be the Garland of Final Fantasy and his comrades become the Four Fiends.
• The Chosen Many: Played with. They claim to be the prophesied Warriors of Light, and are taking the quest the protagonists of the original Final Fantasy did to restore the Crystals and defeat Chaos. But many other groups before them have failed that quest, so it remains to be seen if they live up to their titles. That turns out to have been a lie. In reality, time resets every time they succeed, as part of a Stable Time Loop the Lufenians created to maintain their control over Cornelia.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Their outfits increase their stats and may change their abilities as well.
• Create Your Own Hero: Invoked. Using their own experiences as Fake Ultimate Hero Warriors of Light, they made a perfectly planned adventure for Final Fantasy's Warriors of Light to grow into champions who would then kill them and destroy all that remained of the darkness the Lufenians had dumped into the world.
• Dark Is Not Evil: For "Warriors of Light", A rather large portion of the gear they can wear tends towards dark, dreary, and ominous looking with even their starting outfits incorporating a lot of black. This is taken even further when they all end up transforming into Chaos and the Four Fiends but are only fighting for the sake of ensuring a future where Everybody Lives and the Lufenians are no longer a threat.
• Defector from Decadence: All of them save Neon are natives of Lufenia, but turn on them after learning of how they've been treating Cornelia.
• Doomed by Canon: This version of them anyway. As they're Chaos and the Four Fiends, they're already doomed to die in the original Final Fantasy and this game's true ending to the Warriors of Light. Possibly subverted in the third and final DLC Different Future. When Jack chooses to pursue Nil's crystals at the Moogle's behest, he will defeat the the Lufeanians ,leading to a chain of events that has him and the Warrior of Light replacing the gods of Discord and Harmony, respectively. It's unclear if their influence is limited to World B or all the worlds connected by Rifts
• Expy: Of the Warriors of Darkness from Final Fantasy III as a group of heroes from a previous generation who martyr themselves so that their successors can save the world from ruin.
• Fighting Your Friend: Near the end of the game after Sarah's death, Jed, Ash, Neon, and Sophia suddenly turn on Jack and he has to fight every single one of them to the death as darkness and chaos begin to overwhelm him, as part of The Plan to turn him into Chaos and save the world from the Lufenians. They taunt him and egg him on to keep fighting and eventually kill them, or they'll kill him first. Jack can't remember at this point, but it was all his idea, and at the end of the game when he is Garland and they are the Four Fiends, their plan successful, there are no hard feelings from any of them.
• Finishing Move: Soul Burst: Any enemy that has their Break Gauge depleted will be stunned and able to be instantly taken down by turning the enemy into red crystals and shattering them. Jack himself will brutally beat down and rip apart monsters with his bare fists with a unique animation for every monster type though humans like the pirates simply get knocked out with a heavy uppercut. The other party members can also perform Soul Burst whether as A.I. partners or controlled by other players but they will simply use more generic attacks specific to the weapon they're holding.
• Good Needs Evil: Invoked by Jack Garland who willingly becomes the villain to create a new generation of Warriors of Light to defeat him. Become the guiding darkness to their light.
• Heroic Sacrifice: They willingly become Garland and the Four Fiends, knowing that they will be slain by a new party of Warriors of Light they trained to do so, in order to free Cornelia from the darkness that perpetuated the Lufenians' Forever War.
• Multi-Melee Master: While Jack's the only example in single player, playing multiplayer allows any of them to access any job class and weapon effectively making them carbon copies of Jack. It certainly makes the team seem a lot stronger than they already are.
• Necessarily Evil: As part of their Zero-Approval Gambit, they unfortunately have to partake in ravaging Cornelia and killing innocent people. But, it's all to unite the world against the forces of darkness, and the party sets up a Stable Time Loop paradox to ensure Everybody Lives at the end of Final Fantasy once their successors have been trained.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • As the party defeats the Four Fiends and restore the elements they've been suppressing, you can speak to the citizens of Cornelia see how that hasn't exactly been having a wholly positive effect on the lands: The increase in wind storms, increased presence of fire, and altered incompatible soil have ruined the upcoming harvest resulting in less food and increased unrest among the populace.
  • There's also the matter of the pirates of Provoka who've grown restless due to the way that they've saved the Water Crystal to be the last to be restored, resulting in the seas becoming too windy to sail safely. According to Astos, they even wonder if the Warriors of Light are conspiring with the King to ruin them. This causes the pirates to eventually become corrupted by the darkness due to their anger at the situation, and attack Cornelia in revenge for what they think is them being screwed over by the heroes.
  • By the time they've restored all four elemental crystals, the land of Cornelia is clearly falling into darkness as the elements rage out of control and the townsfolk have begun blaming Jack and his allies for everything going wrong, calling them frauds.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: The game tells the story of how they became Garland and the Four Fiends that the Warriors of Light fought in the first Final Fantasy. In a twist, they deliberately became generic evil villains in order to unite the Cornelians and allow them to destroy all the darkness that was used by the Lufenians to control them.
• True Companions: The five main characters form a close bond over the course of the game, which makes it all the more tragic when the plan necessitates Jack killing his friends. It totally tears him apart, and it is their sacrifice that pushes him onward to finish the job and save Cornelia from the Lufenians. In his walk to the final battle he calls out to all four of them, baring his heart in a monologue for each of them individually. At the end, when they're all together again, despite the circumstances they all look truly happy.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: It seems they're able to freely switch between their human and Garland/Fiend forms, as shown in Trials of the Dragon King.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: By becoming Garland and the Four Fiends they ravage the land of Cornelia and kill numerous innocent people, as shown by Garland in the ending. However, it’s the only way to free the land from the Lufenians and the true Warriors of Light breaking the Stable Time Loop ensure that all the damage is reverted and the people can now choose their own paths.
• Wistful Amnesia: They've all forgotten pretty much everything about their past, but as the journey continues they start finding the areas they visit oddly familiar. Gradually, they remember more and more as they use their crystals to capture the darkness released after certain boss fights.
• Wolfpack Boss: At the climax of the game, Jack's companions turn on him and are fought as a single boss fight.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: They become Garland and the Four Fiends in the end in order to unite the world against them and break Cornelia free from the machinations of the Lufenians.

Jack

Jack Garland

Voiced by: Mocean Melvin (English), Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese)

"I only know one thing - I'm here to kill Chaos."

An amnesiac man who accepts a quest to go to the Chaos Shrine and hunt down and kill Chaos, the creature believed to be responsible for all the world's evils. However as his memories slowly return over the course of the game, he begins to realize something much more complicated is going on.

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• 11th-Hour Superpower:
  • In the final level, he is consumed by darkness after being forced to kill his True Companions in self-defense. He gains infinite MP and break meter, and his own attacks rip through enemy break meters like a hot knife through butter. He loses this power for the first stage of the final boss fight, but gets it back for the second.
  • In the post-game, he unlocks the game's ultimate job, the Cyclic Warrior, which allows him to use the power of Chaos at the expense of massive power cost.
• Action Genre Hero Guy: Only a decade after the origins of the fad — a Caucasian man with a blond buzzcut, a monosyllabic name, and relatively featureless compared to his companions.
• Age-Gap Romance: With Sarah, who is 19 to Jack's 32.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Throughout the game he seeks Chaos, believing it to be an actual being that can be slain and defeated once and for all and rejecting every notion that it may not physically exist. But near the end he realizes that Chaos isn't even his real enemy, it's the Lufenians who sent him and other Strangers to play hero and keep the World of Cornelia under their thumb, so he embraces Chaos and defeats the manifestation of all of the darkness of his people, claiming it for himself and becoming the embodiment of the very same thing he sought to destroy in the beginning.
• Anti-Hero: Jack is a jerk, but he's fighting to save the world from Chaos. Or rather, to save the world from the Advanced Ancient Humans who have been sending monster-creating dark energies and agents to play the role of heroes, all to keep a Forever War going that leaves the rest of the world in a Medieval Stasis and under their control.
• Blood Knight: Jack enjoys a good fight. It's about the only thing that gets him in a good mood.
• Brutal Honesty: He doesn't like mincing his words, instead telling everything as it is.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: He has a very brutal fighting style and a very straightforward and single-minded mindset. Appropriately, his initial weapon is a giant greatsword. His canon job, Cyclic Warrior, also specializes in greatswords and equally brutish axes.
• Canon Character All Along: He is the knight Garland.
• Character Tics: Likes to bump fists with his allies in friendly celebration even if it's as simple as agreeing to help him in his quest to kill Chaos which he does for every new ally.
• The Comically Serious: His gruff, hardass mannerisms and behavior hide the fact that he is more caring and wise than others realize, but it actually gets pointed out to hilarity that he can't even earnestly thank someone without coming off as a rude jerk. Combine this with his tendency to end up in all sorts of garish, flamboyant attire for the various Jobs that can clash with his Good Old Fisticuffs and violence, and Jack ends up potentially looking like a bit of a crazy goofball Anti-Hero, especially when his Not So Above It All moments show up.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To the Warrior of Light of Dissidia Final Fantasy. The Warrior of Light was The Cape, a gallant paragon of virtue and heroism who fought valiantly to save the world from Chaos and refused to back down or be dissuaded no matter what challenges he faced. Jack is a Knight in Sour Armor at best, a snarky and angry man who is on a quest to kill Chaos for personal reasons, but in his own way he's just as determined in his quest as the Warrior of Light was in his. The Reveal of the plan to become Chaos cements that Jack is actually The Cowl to the traditional Warrior of Light's Cape.
• Deadpan Snarker: When Neon tells the group about her Dark and Troubled Past, Jack replies simply "bullshit".
• Deconstructed Character Archetype
  • Of the '90s Anti-Hero. Jack has a bad attitude, a predisposition towards violence, tends to deliver Shut Up, Hannibal! interruptions to monologuing bad guys, and has a single-minded obsession with killing Chaos. Every single one of these traits is a result of serious Mind Rape at the hands of the Lufenians, who erased his memory and essentially left him as a near blank slate. As his memories return and players see more of him, Jack is revealed to be surprisingly kind and thoughtful towards his friends and allies, and fell in love with Sarah. His obsession with Chaos is also the result of programming by the Lufenians to participate in their Forever War rather than of his own genuine desire. Essentially, every single trait that is normally associated with the archetype isn't there to make Jack look cool and badass, but to show him as a victim of powers beyond his control reducing him to a Flanderized parody of the person he used to be.
  • Of the Featureless Protagonist. As presented to players at the start of the game, Jack has no backstory or past, and no interest or motivation beyond hunting down and killing Chaos. The game thus portrays the extremes of what such a person would actually be like: violent, brusque, and tunnel-visioned on achieving their objective for its own sake with no hints of altruism. Then its revealed that this is an Invoked Trope by the Lufenians, who extract Jack's memories before sending him into Cornelia and leave him with only the barest information necessary for him to function, because they want their agents to be Blank Slates who won't form attachments or get distracted and just stay focused on their objective. But as Jack's numerous forays into Cornelia show, adventuring around the world without caring about it or its people is impossible, he always ended up undergoing Character Development of some form of another and became personally invested in saving Cornelia...and then he completed his mission and returned to the Lufenians and got his memories wiped.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Invoked. As he begins to channel all the powers of darkness he's gained between Astos's sacrifice of himself and several Lufenians, and the monsters he's slain along the way, his gruff, distant demeanor gives way to unbridled, rage-fueled glee at the idea of slaughtering everyone involved with the perpetuation of Cornelia's cycles. This is all, however, a case of Obfuscating Insanity to take them unawares as he locks them out of control over that dimension.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • By virtue of the first Final Fantasy ensuring Everybody Lives after the Warriors of Light break the Stable Time Loop and Garland explicitly having a Heel–Face Turn in the new present. Jack will no longer be doomed to continue being Chaos to serve as a Barrier Maiden for the Lufenians' weaponized darkness, and finally get a chance to live a happy life with Sarah as her knight. What happens to the rest of his party is unfortunately unstated.
  • In the final DLC , Different Future Jack by himself kills his way through the Lufeanian's ranks into becoming the God of Discord after absorbing the Crystal. Doing this he accomplishes the same goal he set without the Warriors of Light, as he's ensured that the events of the original Final Fantasy never need to happen at all as the Lufeanians no longer exist, but still allows his physical body to be killed by the warrior of light so the Warrior can ascend as the new god of Harmony.
• Elemental Powers: Jack can cast elemental magic: Fire, Ice, Thunder, Water, Quake, Aero, and Flare.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: He's revealed to be an elite Lufenian agent, put in charge of the Strangers' operations in Cornelia. His more established status causes others, like Jed, to question their own worth.
• Experienced Protagonist: Jack has been known before the game begins as a warrior who has fought more then his share of battles.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Has one in the middle of giving his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the Lufenians when he realizes how to free Cornelia from their Forever War.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Invoked.
  • He's so utterly Large Ham and For the Evulz as Garland and Chaos in Final Fantasy because he wants to unite the whole world and create a set of heroes to stand against him, all so the Cornelians can take out all the monsters and plans left behind by the Greater-Scope Villain of their world, the Lufenians.
  • Jack similarly acts totally unhinged when confronting the Lufenians and tells complete lies about how he's going to Take Over the World so they'll think he's lost his mind, unaware he's purposefully trying to hijack their entire "Groundhog Day" Loop and Forever War system for the sake of Cornelia.
• Genius Bruiser: The original Jack, from before the player controls them is pulling off a Zero-Approval Gambit to disrupt his own bosses' control on the world, that requires the playable jack, to fulfill via pure strength of will and physical might that he is said to have always had. Which he's able to accomplish.
• Given Name Reveal: A late game flashback reveals his full name is Jack Garland, and yes, he is supposedly the Big Bad of the original Final Fantasy, Garland/Chaos.
• Good Is Not Nice: Jack may be a hero, but he doesn't have the best people skills. He's blunt, crass, gruff, and can be rude at times. Only his friends and Princess Sarah get to see his softer side. This is actually revealed to be the result of heavy memory manipulation on the part of the Lufenians, turning him into a rage-filled warrior obsessed with killing Chaos. When his memories are restored, he's shown to be much kinder and more introspective.
  • This is more so in the ending of Different Future where he makes the choice to become the God of Discord, which means he'd be in charge of all that goes wrong in the future, but he seems to have no intention of being any different when offered the role.
• Good Is Not Soft: Jack is a hero, yes, but he does not hold back in battle. This is best shown by his Soul Burst finishers, most of which involve him punching, kicking, throwing, and smashing his crystalized opponents into shattered pieces in ways that are borderline sadistic. Even against human enemies, Jack will not pull any punches. Captain Bikke, Jed, Neon, Sophia, and Ash learn this the hard way.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Jack's Soul Burst finishing moves involve him punching, kicking, throwing, and smashing his crystalized opponents into shattered pieces. He even ends his fight with Chaos Advent by punching him out bare-handed.
• Handshake Substitute: Jack is very fond of fistbumping his allies and friends. Played for Drama in the final battle, where Jack reaches out for a fistbump and no one reciprocates because the rest of the team is dead as part of a gambit to turn Jack into Chaos.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: He is the main protagonist, and his default weapon is a heavy greatsword. He also wields them after he becomes the familiar Garland, and his final postgame job uses them along with axes.
• Hero Killer: Jack kills the Warriors of Light at the beginning of Trials of the Dragon King and even kills a much stronger iteration of the same characters blessed by Bahamut at the end.
• In the End, You Are on Your Own: After his companions attack him to force him to kill them and fill him with enough despair to turn him into Chaos, he is made to face the final dungeon and a half and two boss fights on his own. The DLCs keep up this trend of having Jack being canonically alone.
• Irony: After spending the whole game trying to find it, telling his fellow companions that Chaos is a real, living being, Jack finally gets to fight the physical the manifestation of Chaos ...and doesn't seems to care one bit about fighting him, only wanting to kill it so that he can absorb its darkness. This is right after Jack has found about the Lufenians being the true cause of all this and right when he no longer desires to "kill Chaos", that he's now given a physical representation of Chaos to fight.
• Jack of All Stats: Pun aside, he has the most versatile skillset of the protagonists shown, able to use many different weapons, types of magic, and fighting styles in general. The achievements system actually calls him a "Jack of All Trades" when he unlocks every job.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although he's brash and aloof, he cares very much for his comrades.
• Large Ham: In the game's finale, Jack goes full Drunk on the Dark Side and launches an attack on the Lufenians' pocket dimension, hamming it up all the way as he declares he'll take their power and drown Cornelia in darkness. While it was revealed to be largely an act, he was clearly having fun being the bad guy. Even when he realizes/remembers what the true plan was, he hams it up, laughing before cutting off his old Bosses' control over the Dimension.
• Last-Name Basis: In the ending, he starts going exclusively by his surname, Garland.
• Light Is Good: Even after his metamorphosis, he still believes in Light representing goodness, scoffing at the Lufenians claiming to be associated with it given how villainous they are.
• Love Makes You Evil: The end of the game reveals that everything he has done was driven by his first love. In a previous time loop Princess Sarah and Jack fell in love. And Jack, unwilling to see Sarah and her people continue to suffer for the sake of the Lufenians' dominance, hatched a plot to take control of the Lufenians' Forever War by becoming the controlling entity of their monsters, Chaos, and then playing the Generic Doomsday Villain to be able to train an actual set of Warriors of Light, instead of the Lufenian Fake Ultimate Hero he was, all while playing out the 'joke' scenario he and Sarah talked about.
• Magic Knight: He can cast an array of powerful magic and is proficient in melee combat; the balance between those depends on his job and equipment.
• Manly Man: Possibly the most masculine main protagonist in the series yet between his deep gruff voice, foul mouth, strong, muscular build, absolutely brutal fighting style, love of fighting, and single-minded determination in reaching his goals.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: His soul crush on harpies is to slam them twice on the ground, crystallize them, then have the third slam finish them off.
• Mook Horror Show: His preferred method of monster slaying. He's so brutal that upon seeing him in action for the first time, most of the townsfolk are horrified comparing him to a demon even though he's technically protecting them. This comes full circle in the end when as the Dark Knight Garland, he's shown to be slaughtering the knights who come to Princess Sarah's rescue, effortlessly and is envisioned as a demon like being when we see their eyes gazing on him.
• Mr. Fanservice: Jack's got a Heroic Build, a chiseled jaw, and, if the player so chooses, can fight giant unspeakable horrors in nothing but a pair of boxers.
• Multi-Melee Master: Jack starts with greatswords, but he can later on pick up dual daggers, knuckle dusters, magical maces, lances, axes, katanas, staves, and one-handed swords along with shields.
• The Musketeer: His DLC jobs allow him to use guns in addition to melee weapons, making him a threat at any range.
• No Full Name Given: He can only remember his name is "Jack" due to his amnesia. His last name is Garland, which is given in a flash back.
• Not So Above It All: While he's normally stoic and goal-oriented to the point of obsession, he does join his comrades in teasing Jed about his fear of lightning and Neon about her promise to respect him if he proves Chaos exists.
• Obfuscating Insanity: He pretends to be Drunk on the Dark Side so that the Lufenians will believe that he's lost his mind and won't consider that he might be attempting to hijack their entire Forever War system to free Cornelia from their control.
• Passing the Torch: After the Warrior of Light defeats him in Different Future, he curtly voices his approval, and tells him to begin fixing the world where he couldn't.
• Pet the Dog: A very minor example, but he chooses to spare the knights who refuse to fight him out of fear as he’s kidnapping Princess Sarah. While he accepts becoming a Generic Doomsday Villain to save Cornelia it shows he’s still capable of humanity.
• Power Copying: Jack can use the Soul Shield to absorb some enemy attacks and use them with limited charges.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • When the Lich starts to monologue about how he'll devour all that's good, Jack snaps back with a rather crass response.
    Jack: I don't give a fuck who you are!
  • He gives another one to the Lufenians when he calls them out on their playing God with Cornelia.
    Jack: WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: He is Garland from a world that appears to be the original Final Fantasy, who eventually abducts Princess Sarah and holds her hostage in the Chaos Shrine. With that being said, according to Word of God, Jack is not in fact the Garland from the original game, nor is this game set in the world of the original game.
  • By following the Moogle in Different Future it becomes a Protagonist Journey to Godhood.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: He gives Barrett & Cid from VII a run for their money as the most foul-mouthed character in a Final Fantasy game, or at least up until that point. Most of the F-bombs come from him.
• Slasher Smile:
  • Cracks a big wide smile while performing the second Soul Burst on the Black Knight boss.
  • Gains one again when he appears Drunk on the Dark Side near the end of the base game.
• Strong and Skilled: Jack is easily able to master a lot of weapons and skills, which, in conjunction with his innate abilities, makes him a force to be reckoned with.
• Superpower Lottery: Jack's Soul Shield is easily the most versatile power in his arsenal. With it, he can not only parry most attacks, but he can copy an enemy's powers. The only two limitations are that he has a limited use of these abilities and he can only copy one ability at a time.
• Super-Strength: Jack is far stronger than the average human, regularly tossing around larger opponents like ragdolls and wielding large weaponry with relative ease. In the battle with the Chaos Advent, he smashes their sword and breaks their helmet with bare-handed punches, regardless of his job and equipment.
• True Final Boss: The absolute final stage of the Different Future DLC is an inversion of the first DLC's, where you instead play as the Warrior of Light and battle this version of Garland instead.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Jack returns to a checkpoint upon death, regardless of his allies' health. This is most likely due to the fact he's required for the secret Zero-Approval Gambit and the only canonical character of the five playable characters with the ability to heal via magic.
• Would Hit a Girl: Jack will not hold back against female opponents. Also, when monsters start attacking Cornelia and Princess Sarah refuses to leave, Jack responds by punching her in the gut and knocking her out.
• Wrestler in All of Us: His soul crush on Guardians is a power bomb followed by a stomp. For Sahagins, he puts them in an Argentine backbreaker.
• You Talk Too Much!: Jack has little patience for people droning on and on and is quick to cut them off when they start monologuing, usually via a yell and attack combo.

Jed

Jed

Voiced by: Alejandro Saab (English), Yusuke Suda (Japanese)

""It's a mercy to forget." Those were your words, Jack."

One of Jack's friends and allies.

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• Butt-Monkey: He tends to be the target of teasing from just about everyone in the party at one point or another.
• Canon Character All Along: In the end leading to the next Final Fantasy time loop, he becomes Kraken, one of the Four Fiends.
• Cowardly Lion: Downplayed. He doesn't keep his cool in dangerous situations as well as the others and is usually the first to show fear but he's still very formidable and is proud to be a Warrior of Light.
• Deadpan Snarker: Rather quippy and irreverent especially in contrast to the rather solemn and taciturn Jack and the laid-back yet supportive Ash.
• Dual Wielding: Jed's preferred weapons are dual daggers with the starter class Duelist, which eventually lets him graduate to a Thief and later an Assassin.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: While exploring the Ruins of Machina, he starts to reminisce over the his past and how despite how little he remembers about it, he still misses his home. The others are stay completely silent causing him to get angry and question if anyone's even listening to him.
• Fiery Redhead: He's redheaded and also the most emotional of Jack's companions, ready to quickly come up with a quip or question his own character.
• Fluffy Tamer: He finds the Marlboro cute. The giant, betentancled, poisonous Marlboro.
• Fragile Speedster: Begins the game as a knife-wielding Duelist with little in the way of defense or even damage. However, he has the highest Agility in the party and can deal a lot of critical damage and break gauge damage with the right skills.
• The Heart: Besides being the plucky comic relief...He's the one who encourages Jack to actually LOOK at his memories. He's also the most eager about being a heroic and respected Warrior of Light ... as well as the one who's most disappointed by how their attempts at heroism only seemed to lead to turmoil in the kingdom and the ire of its people.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: In a flashback as a Lufenian, he views himself as being a nobody, the least useful of his peers, and as a liability despite being as equally skilled as his peers as noted by Astos. Apparently being the Lufenian equivalent of a commoner is probably the cause of some of his insecurity. That and having to work with someone as obscenely skilled and powerful as Jack. Additionally, he's the most sheepish when a battle goes poorly for the party, usually apologizing for it.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Over the course of the game, he gets advanced jobs that allows him to use katanas (Samurai and Ninja).
• Magikarp Power: Apparently back in Lufenia he was a nothing, which has resulted in some severe self-confidence issues. However, Astos notes the sheer power of his Kraken form.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Provides most of the comic relief in character dialogue.
• Sad Clown: His comic moments hide the fact that he's the most insecure member of the Warriors.
• Sympathy for the Devil: He is the one who seems the most affected by Bikke's demise, kneeling down to listen to the pirate captain's final words and seemingly distressed upon first witnessing what happened to him.
• Weak, but Skilled: Tends towards weapons with trickier less straight-forward means of combat with his knife skills being reliant on being able to evade attacks and hit enemies weak-points whereas fighting with a katana is most effective when using the Senshin Stance which requires a bit of careful set-up to truly make the most of.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • He is afraid of lightning. This makes his later incarnation as Kraken being weak to electricity make much more sense.
  • He's also not fond of bats.
• With Catlike Tread: His idea while going through the Pravoka Seagrot looking for Bikke? Yell out to any pirates who might be listening that the party has treasure and rum.

Ash

Ash

Voiced by: Mark Neely (English), Atsushi Miyauchi (Japanese)

"Good. We're all on the same hunt."

One of Jack's friends and allies.

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• The Big Guy: He's taller than his companions and the most physically-oriented of them, using knuckle dusters and later great axes to fight.
• Canon Character All Along: In the end leading to the next Final Fantasy time loop, he becomes Lich, one of the Four Fiends.
• The Confidant: Aside from Astos, he's the only member of the team that Jack entrusted with every detail of the plan.
• Hunk: He's the biggest and beefiest member of the Warriors of Light, but that doesn't stop him from being as good-looking as everyone else in the team.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: His expert Tyrant job allows him to utilize magic along with his fisticuffs by infusing his gloves with elements.
• Lightning Bruiser: The equipment he wears and jobs he can access tend to grant him high attack and defense on top of his skills in fisticuffs having some of the fastest attacks in the game.
• Mighty Glacier: His axe-wielding jobs specialize in high damage and strong defenses with the only caveat being how sluggish his attacks are.
• Nice Guy: Ash is laid back and friendly to all of the party.
• Power Fist: Ash's preferred weapons are knuckle dusters for close combat, and starts off as a Pugilist that graduates to Monk.
• The Reliable One: While the other companions often question Jack and are not afraid to get argumentative, Ash is the one who consistently supports him in most of his decisions. It's possibly why he's the only one other than Astos to be entrusted with Jack's full plan.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His default outfit is a white sleeveless tank top.
• Spell Blade: He later gets access to the Tyrant expert job, which is a version of this that focuses on Elemental Punches.
• Survivor Guilt: Memories of being the only surviving member of a group of Adventurers resurface while exploring the Hallowed Massif. He blames himself for what happened though Jack assures him that he's not the kind of person who'd just let that happen.
• Team Dad: Tends to be the mature, supportive and emotionally balanced parental figure of the team when Sophia's not being the Team Mom. Protecting his friends is his primary goal in life, to the point where his inability to do so was what turned several incarnations of him into Lich.

Neon

Neon

Voiced by: Alejandra Reynoso (English), Kana Okazaki (Japanese)

"All I know now is...I want to see this through to the end. And...I want it just as badly as you guys do. I won't give up. I know we can do this together."

A young woman who joins up with Jack and his friends on their quest.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: According to the official script book released with the Japanese collector's edition, Neon is the youngest of the group by a fairly wide margin, at 18. Jed is the closest to her in age and he's 26.
• Badass Adorable: Neon is a cute young lady who is highly proficient with swords that are as tall as she is, and packs a punch with them.
• Canon Character All Along: In the end leading to the next Final Fantasy time loop, she becomes Marilith, one of the Four Fiends.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She is the only survivor of a failed journey to kill Chaos, and she has not taken it well.
• Designer Babies: Neon was the result of a Lufenian project to create a Cornelian "Stranger" that would be compatible with a Dark Crystal, which is why Astos picked her to get one, as he mentions in his missives.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Neon's preferred weapons are one-handed swords, allowing her to equip a shield in her other hand. Her later jobs allow her to swing a BFS.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Non-fatal version. She willingly surrendered to the darkness, so that the Warriors of Light would defeat her and no one would have to look for Chaos again. Turns out this was actually the right idea... she just wasn't the person who could do it.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: She is noted to like cats and dislikes snakes. One of her quotes in battle when facing a coeurl is an exclamation of "Kitty!"
• Lady of War: She's not quite as much of an example as Sophia, being more immature and tomboyish, but she's still a swashbuckling lady knight who backs up her fearsome swordplay with modest but refined use of magic in all her jobs.
• The Lancer: After joining the group, she becomes one to Jack, as the one who has the most similar fighting style to his, as well as the views clashing with his, being the one member who doesn't believe in Chaos existing. She is also a Cornelian, setting her apart from the rest of the party, all of whom are Lufenian Strangers.
• Magic Knight: She starts off with the Swordfighter class, which doesn't use magic, but eventually graduates to Red Mage, Knight, and even later Void Knight and Paladin.
• Modesty Shorts: She wears white shorts underneath her dress.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: The smallest, skinniest member of The Warriors of Light but she relies pretty heavily on close quarters combat with a longsword and shield. Some of her classes have her to swing around a huge BFS with the same ease as Jack.
• Nice Girl: Aside from maybe Jed, she is the most outwardly kind of the party and shown to be very supportive of her friends, especially if Jed is the target of teasing or he's getting ignored. That said, early on she openly states she does not respect Jack, and her official bio on the website says she sometimes clashes with him. Later on, though, she becomes closer with the party, and tends to be the most jovial and happy of the group when talking.
• Odd Name Out: While the other party members have fairly generic names that wouldn't stand out in the real world, Neon is named Neon. Considering she's the only one from Cornelia instead of a brainwashed Lufenian agent, it makes sense that her name would be different from the others; but even then, she is unlike other Cornelian names like Sarah and Mia.
• Red Mage: Her advanced Red Mage Job allows her to utilize swords and magic in tandem.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Neon believes that "Chaos" does not exist and is just a boogeyman that people blame the world's problems on. Jack handily disagrees with her. She's technically correct: instead of a true external threat, Chaos is a natural phenomenon created from the combination of darkness and negative emotions.
• Sixth Ranger: Neon joins Jack's party after Jed and Ash, shaking up the group dynamic and gameplay. She's also revealed to be this for the original four Lufenian Strangers, Jack, Jed, Ash, and Sophia. Neon is from Cornelia and not Lufenia like the others, and she is why there are five Warriors of Light despite Lukahn's prophecy specifying only four. Jack even thanks her for sticking with them in their plan, even though she has no responsibility over what the Lufenians have done to the world.
• Stone Wall: Her great sword-wielding jobs grant her some of the best HP and defense in the party along with the great-sword and relevant jobs having a variety of defensive techniques. However her attacks are somewhat sluggish and her attack output tends to be on the lower end relatively speaking.
• The Unchosen One:
  • Of the party, she's the only one not from Lufenia. Rather, Astos gave her a crystal as part of his and Garland's plan.
  • Subverted in Astos's missives, as he mentions she's actually been prenatally modified by the Lufenians to be compatible with a Dark Crystal.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She is noted to dislike snakes. Ironically, she becomes a Snake Person when she turns into Marilith.

Sophia

Sophia

Voiced by: Laura Post (English), Mayumi Asano (Japanese)

"I want nothing more than to destroy Chaos. Until I do, there is a yearning inside of me that cannot be sated."

Another ally who joins Jack in his adventure. She holds the same unwavering conviction as Jack and his friends - that they must defeat Chaos.

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• Canon Character All Along: In the end leading to the next Final Fantasy time loop, she becomes Tiamat, one of the Four Fiends.
• Carry a Big Stick: As a Mage, Black Mage, and Sage, she wields maces and shields.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts as one towards Neon, being quite affectionate and caring towards the younger girl, and to a lesser extent, Jed.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She looks and acts like The Baroness - elegant, darkly cynical, and a vicious fighter - but she's a loyal and caring ally to the rest of Jack's team for the whole game, and is just as invested in saving the world as they are.
• Deadpan Snarker: Along with Jed. She's full of quips as you make your way through various dungeons and monster hordes. Having her use an ability when offline has her practically rubbing in the idea that Jack is asking for her help.
• Foreshadowing: Her having the exact same '90s Anti-Hero motivation as Jack is one of the first big hints that there is something more going on with the heroes' quest than just the bog-standard Saving the World. Furthermore, she only appears right after Tiamat is beaten, setting up a connection between the Fiends and the rest of the party.
• The Gadfly: She is not above pushing some buttons for her own amusement. In one instance, she asks the guys how they feel about taking Princess Sarah's hand in marriage as a reward for completing their quest, which results in her and Neon calling them immature boys with outdated views when they seriously consider her question.
• Lady of Black Magic: Her initial job is Mage, which she has developed into a Black Mage and later a Sage. She's also got the style, the elegance, and the dark, cynical personality (despite being a kindly and helpful Team Mom underneath it all).
• Lady of War: She's the classy one in Jack's team, and it carries over into her fighting style - she's either an elegant, acrobatic spearwoman (Dragoon/Breaker) or a terrifyingly potent mistress of the mystic arts (Mage/Black Mage/Sage).
• Late Character Syndrome: While catching up isn't very hard, Sophia joining around the halfway mark means she joins with all her classes being level one, meaning she has catch up in class levels compared to the other characters, who have been around since the first two chapters. Unless she is used a lot from that point on, she'll have a lot of catching up to do, making it harder to use her over the others.
• Not So Stoic: She generally keeps her cool the most out of the party, along with Ash. However, after they restore the four crystals and return to Cornelia only to have the townspeople turn on them, Sophia is the most angered and shaken by their responses and demands to know who started the rumors that they're behind the darkness plaguing the world now.
• Older Than They Look: Not drastically, but according to the official script book released with the Japanese collector's edition, Sophia is the oldest of the party at 37^note Coincidentally, this ties her with Rosa for oldest playable female character in the series who isn't supernaturally young, but she could pass for being in her late 20s, perhaps due to being a Lufenian. The next oldest, Jack, is five years younger than her. That said, looking closely at her face shows that she has some slight age lines, emphasizing her age.
• Out of Focus: Gets less character focus than any other Warrior of Light for multiple reasons. She joins considerably later than the others, she's apparently not part of Jack's specific team of "Strangers" since she doesn't show up in any of the flashbacks with Jack, Jed, and Ash, and she doesn't get the sort of focus Neon gets for being the only non-Lufenian part of the team. Thus she ends up being the member that adds the least to the over-arching plot aside from putting their status as "Warriors of Light" into question and trying to Shame The Mob when the people of Cornelia start to turn on the heroes.
• Shaming the Mob: She's extremely pissed off when the people of Cornelia denounce Jack and the group as demons for bringing about the darkness despite following the prophecy of restoring the crystals, and furiously demands to know whose idea it was to brand them as such.
• Sixth Ranger: As the fifth Warrior of Light, she shakes things up even more than when Neon joined, especially because she seems to know a little more than she lets on. Later subverted. She only had slightly more memories than the rest of the party, and they were pretty vague, and it later turns out that Neon is the one who is the true Sixth Ranger and outsider to the party after all, having never been an official Stranger.
• The Smart Girl: She's the most erudite of Jack's companions, able to use all sorts of magic and is also the most well-spoken of them.
• Team Mom: Immediately appoints herself to this position within the party upon joining them, acting as a confidant and source of emotional support while fussing over things like whether Neon is wrapping up warm in icy environments or Jack is using too many health potions.