Characters / Tales of Xillia 2

The characters from Tales of Xillia 2. For tropes pertaining to the returning cast, see the first game's page.

Beware of unmarked Late Arrival Spoilers from the prequel.

New Main Characters

Ludger Will Kresnik

Voiced by Takashi Kondo (Japanese), Jessie James Grelle (English)

"Hm."

A twenty-year-old cook who lives in Elympios. He turns out to possess the power of the Chromatus, allowing him to enter Fractured Dimensions.

His special ability is Weapon Shift and allows him to freely switch between three different weapons in combat, each with their own moveset. His Support Skill, Mirror, lets him copy the Support Skill of his Link Partner.

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• Adaptation Personality Change: He never keeps his Heroic Mime features in spin-off media, and he's also more Hot-Blooded compared to his reserved demeanor in his home game. The manga adaptation turns him into an outright Motor Mouth Keet with a strong case of Big Brother Worship.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed with his Chromatus form in escort games. It's much weaker than in his home game, but on the flip side it no longer threatens to kill him or Elle.
• All There in the Manual: Although Ludger doesn't talk much, you can still get a good understanding of his views and personality by reading the synopsis, which is written from his perspective.
• Aloof Big Brother: Inverted if the player chooses the more dismissive and apathetic dialogue options towards Julius.
• Always Save the Girl: Ludger is frequently characterised as being willing to put the life of someone he loves, either Elle or Julius, over the safety of the world, even if it puts him at odds with others he cares about:
  • In the Bad Ending, Ludger's unwillingness to see Julius die for the sake of saving the world results in him turning against his friends and killing them all, forsaking saving Elle and the world. This is despite Julius being a completely willing sacrifice who doesn't have much longer to live anyway.
  • One of the ways to achieve the Ludger Ending is if Ludger wishes for Elle's safety over the fate of the universe. When pressured on what they'll do about saving the world, Ludger says he can use his own powers to resolve the situation, but Elle ultimately refuses to let him do that because the power will kill him, and instead sacrifices herself to save both him and the world.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Exaggerated in a Drama CD of all things. He's apparently so beautiful as a girl that he's unrecognizable as himself and ends up catching the eyes of both Julius and Bisley, two extremely professional men who suddenly drop everything to escort this pretty young woman away from a crowd of fangirls, to Ludger's increasing discomfort. Even his own Fractured self is captivated.
• Big Brother Instinct: He gets along quite well with children, primarily shown with Elle, but also towards Elize. This is usually reflected in escort titles too, with him befriending the younger Tales characters from other games. Dialogue options suggest he picked this up from how Julius treated him.
• Big Brother Worship:
  • Downplayed in the game, since due to Ludger's Heroic Mime status he doesn't talk about Julius much, but his friendlier dialogue options with Julius as well as his description of Julius in the synopsis reveal he does respect and admire him.
  • The manga adaptation features Ludger talking extensively, and his internal narration gushes over how accomplished Julius is at everything (except housework), and how he wants to follow in his footsteps as a Spirius agent to get closer to him.
• Boring, but Practical: Ludger's support skill is the most basic one in the game, but because it's able to copy another character's support skill, it makes it the best way to use certain characters more effectively.
• Born Unlucky: As an homage, his appearances in escort titles sometimes have him run into the huge debt in one way or another, though this is mostly Played for Laughs.
• Butt-Monkey: In victory quotes and many skits, Ludger is everyone's punching bag.
• Children Do the Housework: He's been doing all the cooking and cleaning for himself and Julius since he was seven years old, because Julius is woefully incompetent at it. Before that, though, Julius simply ordered food delivery and hired cleaning services.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His Chromatus form gives him intimidating black armor with yellow accents, but he's mostly a moral person. Mostly.
• Deadpan Snarker: Some of his dialogue choices, especially the more aloof or mean-spirited ones, usually involve him being snarky or sarcastic to the rest of the party.
• Duality Motif: According to his character designer, his light silver hair being partially dyed black signifies him being between good and bad, whereas his Fractured counterpart, Victor has completely black hair to signify him becoming a villain.
• Elemental Powers: His Twin Pistol Artes in particular compensate for their low power by giving him a variety of elemental artes. While none of his three styles can use every element on their own, when combined they make Ludger the one of only four characters (alongside Jude, Milla, and Alvin) to have access to all six.
• Embarrassing Nickname: In a Fractured Dimension featured in the Winter 2014 Drama CD, Ludger is a very popular Spirius agent known by the nickname of "the Prince of Debt". Neither he nor Prime Ludger find it endearing.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Even without his Chromatus he's still a Multi-Melee Master and in cutscenes is shown to be more than competent in a fistfight.
• Exotic Eye Designs: His green eyes have a distinct yellow ring around the pupils.
• Facial Markings: In Chromatus form, he has yellow bolt-like marks on his face, which get more and more prominent the higher the level.
• Family Eye Resemblance: According to Julius in the Scenario Book stories, he has his mother's eyes.
• Following in Relative's Footsteps: Ludger has wanted to become a Spirius agent just like his brother Julius is. Although he fails the entrance examination, he does end up becoming a DODA agent during the events in the game using his Chromatus ability, and both he himself and other characters can remark on how he's following in Julius' footsteps. However, it turns out Julius himself never wanted Ludger to become an agent, wanting to protect him from Origin's Trial and Bisley.
• Friendless Background: Implied and subverted. Nova and Aaron are the only people mentioned to have been Ludger's school friends, but it's stated that Ludger hasn't kept in touch with either of them since they graduated a few years prior to the story. However, it doesn't seem like he's really bothered by it either (at least not until the terrorism accusations ruin his and Julius' reputations), and he adjusts quite well to befriending Jude and the rest of the party.
• Future Me Scares Me: Victor, who murdered the entire Xillia party in a fractured dimension, as well Bisley and Julius, is that dimension's version of himself.
• Hairstyle Inertia: Despite the black fringe of his hair being dyed during his teens, depictions of Ludger as a child in spin-off material keep the black part when he's as young as five years old.
• Happily Adopted: Implied, even if one chooses to play him as more antagonistic towards Julius, Ludger doesn't seem all that concerned about being an orphan or finding out what happened to his parents.
• Heroic Bastard: Implied in the game. Bisley is only ever referred to being married once, and it was to Julius's mother. Supplementary materials confirm that Ludger was conceived in a one night stand between the recently widowed Bisley and his sister-in-law.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: After Julius is framed for the Oscore attack, Ludger is shunned as the brother of a terrorist and for being in so much debt he's under travel restrictions. Talking to a little girl outside Freres Apartment will reveal that Ludger being Mistaken for Pedophile has also reached the rumor mill. He spends most of the game judged by other Elympions.
• Heroic Mime:
  • Zig-Zagged. Ludger's not entirely mute, but he's as close to the series has ever gotten to having a silent protagonist in a mothership title. Short of calling out attacks, most of his dialogue (which can be voiced in New Game Plus) in skits and cut-scenes is player-input, much like the Descender, but he mostly grunts or gestures otherwise. The English dub gives him some very rare exclamations like saying "Oh crap!" at the start of the game when he realizes he's woken up late, and trailing off "I—" after being told he's failed the Spirius exam, and muttering "Damn it!" when he realizes he's in Julius' Fractured Dimension.
  • Averted with his Fractured counterparts, who all speak normally.
  • Averted with just about every single Tales adaptation he appears in. It was even parodied in Tales of Festival 2014, when upon appearing on-stage, he uses a Dialogue Tree to decide how to address Julius (referencing the first dialogue choice of the game, where he either refers to Julius as "nii-san" or by name), after which Julius asks him to speak normally.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Downplayed. He's capable of using dual pistols and hammers, but swords are his starting weapon and many official artworks also often depict him with it.
• Henshin Hero: His Chromatus ability grants him immense power and the ability to destroy Divergence Catalysts, but is limited by a timer and will eventually force him to transform back.
• House Husband: Even more than Jude was in Xillia, as Ludger has been doing all the cooking and housekeeping in the apartment since he was a kid.
• Instant Expert: He's surprisingly quick to adapt to dual wielding guns and fighting with a hammer.
• Jack of All Trades: Oh yes. Aside from being a Chef of Iron who works for an organization that's basically the Dimensional Police, he can switch between three different weapons and can copy his Link Partner's skills.
• Kid Hero: Averted, he's one of the older Tales protagonists who is both the age he appears to be and is actually treated as an adult by most people who aren't Julius.
• Lightning Bruiser: In Chromatus form. He's incredibly fast, inflicts enormous amounts of damage that no enemy can resist, nullify or absorb, possesses a very varied moveset to hit enemies both close and far away (complete with a quite powerful Mystic Arte), and he doesn't even take damage while in this form.
• Magnetic Hero: Subverted. The only character from the first Xillia game that Ludger befriends on his own merit is Jude. While the rest of the party do end up genuinely liking Ludger, they are largely convinced to tag along because they're Putting the Band Back Together or because of the brewing plot.
• Master of All: He gains the ability to hit any weakness within the first third of the game. This is in a game where damage output is based on how many weaknesses you can hit in quick succession. The only thing that really limits a player in this case is their skill in switching weapons and move sets. Oh, and every other party member suffers from Crippling Over Specialization in some regard (some, more than others).
• Maybe Ever After: In the Ludger Ending he meets Lara, Elle's mother, and it's implied they'll get together like Victor and Lara did.
• Meaningful Name: "Ludger" is German for "the people's lance", fitting for a character who wields one in his Chromatus form and also serves as one of humanity's representatives as a descendant of Kresnik.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: Considering his ideal career is that of a chef, and that Julius didn't want him to become a Spirius agent, Ludger is very competent in combat, able to take on an Exodus terrorist unarmed with Combat Parkour. And that's before he becomes a Multi-Melee Master.
• Morality Pet: It's revealed in a sidequest and further documented in supplementary books that Julius was at first an Aloof Big Brother who only took custody of Ludger (after having accidentally murdered Ludger's mother in self-defense) in order to use his Chromatus watch to boost his own powers. After seven-year-old Ludger hurt himself while cooking for Julius, he had a change of heart. This remains through the course of the game proper, as Julius' entire driving goal is to protect Ludger, and Ludger is pretty much the only person Julius shows any consistent affection or concern towards.
• Multi-Melee Master: Ludger's specialty allows him to change weapon styles on the fly, making him very versatile (especially since Xillia 2 adds in weapon types as part of the game's Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic). Lampshaded for laughs in one of his victory quotes in Tales of Crestoria.
  Ludger: Well, time for post-battle weapons maintenance. Ugh, why do I have so many?!
• Nice Guy: Although the dialogue choices allow the player to make him more of a jerk, by default he'll go out of his way to help others, taking Jude to the train station personally and rushing onto a train in the midst of a terrorist attack to save a little girl even though she just framed him for kidnapping. This trope played up more often in escort games, with the manga adaptation kicking off his and Jude's friendship over both of them being "do-gooders".
• Not So Above It All: Ludger's body language is largely reserved, but there's one scene at the end of the Bonus Episode, where after Ivar dramatically points to himself claiming that he saved the day, and everyone else ignores him, Ludger mimics his exact pose, complete with the same cheeky grin.
• Official Couple: In the Ludger Ending, he's implied to fall in love with Lara Mel Marta and eventually have his dimension's Elle, just like Victor did.
• One-Man Army: He has three different fighting styles, all of which he can swap between on a whim, his Chromatus can make him Nigh-Invulnerable and hit like a truck, the opening animation shows him mowing down whole crowds of Exodus agents all on his own, and then there's the Bad Ending, where he comes out victorious in an 8-on-1 fight with the original Xillia characters.
• Parental Substitute: By Elle's own admission, the stuff Ludger does for her are things her father did.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Inverted, his Chromatus powers undye the black part of his hair.
• Rookie Red Ranger: He has combat training from Julius, but he's lived a mostly mundane civilian life in Trigleph under his brother's protection, and unlike the original Xillia cast, was absent from the events concerning the Schism. Yet, largely due to his Chromatus ability, he supplants both Jude and Milla as The Hero.
• Sibling Rivalry: Played With. Some of Ludger's dialogue options can be downright apathetic or scornful of Julius, but most of their required animosity comes from Julius' own sudden aloofness to Ludger and his refusal to tell Ludger anything about what's going on.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: He's the only playable character not introduced in the first game, and has the option of killing all of them in the Bad Ending.
• Suddenly Voiced: In Julius' Fractured Dimension, Ludger's counterpart speaks normally and is a lot more expressive and goofy.
• Supreme Chef: Ludger is considered a really good chef by most of the characters in the game, having learned to cook on his own when he was seven years old.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: When he was five years old, Ludger witnessed his mother being killed by Julius, causing him to lose his memory of his entire life, including that incident. He never recovers those memories.
• Through His Stomach:
  • His cooking skills earn him the affections of both Elle and Fractured Milla, though the former insists he's still second-best to her father, and the latter has a rivalry with him over who's the better cook.
  • In the third J-code sidequest, it's revealed that child Ludger cooking for Julius was what prompted Julius' Heel–Face Turn and lead to him striving to protect his younger brother instead of using him. Their relationship is largely marked by the tomato dishes that Ludger makes for him.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Due to his lack of real fight experience at the beginning, in his appearances outside of his home game, he'll comment about not being good with his weapons and needing to train more.
• Unusual Eyebrows: His right eyebrow is dyed black to match his dyed black fringe, and although it's normally hidden by his hair, Ludger's eyebrows also curve inwards at the ends, similar to Bisley, his father.
• Voice Grunting: All you'll ever hear him do outside of a New Game Plus. Ludger calls his attacks in battle, and either gives short answers like "yes," "right" or "got it" or just gasps and grunts in skits, cutscenes, and after-battle quotes.
• Weapon Specialization: Ludger initially specializes in Dual Wielding twin swords, due to learning the style from his older brother Julius. Through the course of the game, he's given dual pistols and a hammer by Ivar and Spirius, which he's able to switch between mid-battle as part of his unique ability. He also gains a lance while using his Chromatus, something that is exclusive to him, since every other Chromatus bearer only gets an adaptation of their existing weapon.
• Would Hurt a Child: In the Bad Ending, he doesn't hesitate to kill Elize on the way to killing the rest of the party, and his actions indirectly abandon Elle to Bisley.

Elle Mel Marta

Voiced by Mariya Ise (Japanese), Brina Palencia (English)

"Daddy told me a promise isn't really a promise unless you pinky-swear on it."

An eight-year-old girl who seeks a way to Canaan, a mythical land that grants wishes, in order to save her father. She does not participate in battle.

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• Animal Motifs: Butterflies, a fitting motif for a young girl with appropriate symbolism (in this case, "change for the better").
• Badass and Child Duo:
  • With Ludger, and Fractured Milla.
  • Also briefly with Yuri Lowell in Tales of Asteria.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Elle tends to act like she's an adult and doesn't like it when people treat her like a child. This aspect of hers shows up less and less as the game goes on.
• Captain Obvious: What's that? Slash the enemy? You mean that thing I've been doing? Way to contribute, Elle!
• Demoted to Extra: In escort series, Elle usually gets Put on a Bus or Stay in the Kitchen treatments. Justified as Ludger is capable of talking outside of his home series so Elle's role as Exposition Fairy is not needed, and Elle is still only eight years old.
• Disappeared Dad: She gets separated from her father at the start of the story and seeks the Land of Canaan to get back to him.
• Does Not Like Spam: She really isn't fond of tomatoes, much like certain other characters, and contrasting both Ludger and Julius. She gets over this in the Elle Ending, where she promises to Ludger she'll eat her tomatoes, and is shown to be eating one after the Time Skip.
• Exotic Eye Designs: Elle has the same green eyes with a ring of yellow as Ludger, which she inherited from a Fractured version of Ludger.
• Exposition Fairy: She speaks and interprets for Ludger in-game, though this is averted for any other appearances in the franchise, where Ludger can speak for himself.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Her distinctive eyes are inherited from her father, who's a Fractured version of Ludger.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. She's eight years old and still developing polite social skills, so she can come off as abrasive and brutally honest.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Pretty much takes over as Rollo's owner after she meets Ludger. She's also taking care of all the other cats the party finds.
• Heroic BSoD: The end result of Chapter 12 leaves her a wreck for the rest of the game, believing that her father didn't really want her and only wanted the Prime Dimension Elle, and she then projects this onto Ludger as well.
• Innocently Insensitive: Elle doesn't know the meaning of the word tact, which causes her to say some rather hurtful things while meaning no harm at all by it. Justified by her age though.
• Kid from the Future: She is Ludger's daughter from a Fractured Dimension ten years in the future.
• Kid Hero: The youngest main character the series has seen yet, being eight years old and actually matching her chronological age. She is not playable though, for obvious reasons.
• MacGuffin Super-Person: She's the "Key of Kresnik", which means she has a direct connection to Origin's Power of the Void. Elle has the power to leave a Fractured Dimension without destroying it, bring people from Fractured Dimensions into the Prime Dimension, and bear the cost of a Chromatus user's powers.
• Morality Pet: She is the only character in the party that Milla is consistently fond of, and Milla is willing to let herself die to protect Elle from Rideaux.
• Mysterious Waif: She's perfectly willing to talk to people about her past and her father, but she's eight years old and she herself doesn't quite understand the circumstances around her arrival in Trigleph, only that her father was in danger and sent her to find the Land of Canaan.
• Non-Action Guy: She never partakes in battle, though she'll offer commentary during the fight and participate in the post-battle skits.
• Plucky Girl: Elle is very determined and it takes a lot to get her down.
• Promoted to Playable: She's unplayable in Xillia 2 due to being eight years old, but she becomes playable in Tales of Asteria.
• She's All Grown Up: In the epilogue of the Elle Ending, she's now eighteen years old and wears an outfit similar to Ludger's, but with shorts and a Navel Window.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She's the spitting image of her mother, just with Ludger's eye color.
• Third-Person Person: In the Japanese version, she speaks of herself in third-person as a Verbal Tic emphasizing her young age.
• Token Mini-Moe: She's a cute and clumsy but brash young child in a party of teenagers and adults.
• Tsundere: Downplayed. She tends to deny her affection and concern for people at first, but it's understandable as she's still very young.
• Unstable Powered Child: Her Key of Kresnik powers allow her to transport herself and people around her between universes. However, they're also triggered if she's frightened, and she spends several chapters of the early-game accidentally dropping the party into Fractured Dimensions without even realizing it. It's eventually revealed that her father invoked and exploited this at the very start of the game, setting up an elaborate assassination attempt on his own life just to traumatize her into teleporting herself into the Prime Dimension.
• Voice for the Voiceless: While Ludger does talk outside of the player's control, it's just in short one word responses at the most. As a result Elle will very frequently speak for him, especially during the victory quotes.

Rollo

Voiced by Haruna Ikezawa (Japanese), Erin Fitzgerald (English)

Ludger's pet cat, who has a reputation for being the "boss cat" of his neighborhood's critters.

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• Acrofatic: He is very agile despite the size. Even Yuri Lowell has trouble catching him in the escort series.
• Big Fun: That is a pretty lardy cat.
• Large and in Charge: Rollo commands great respect from other cats, and is known as the King of Cats.
• Team Pet: Just about everyone in the party adores Rollo, often doting on him in skits.
• The Rival: To Teepo, as both realize they're the Team Pet.

Milla (Fractured)

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Minae Noji (English)

"Whoop-de-do. I'm the Lord of Spirits. Beat that."

An alternate version of Milla Maxwell from a timeline where her mission was accomplished when she was only six years old. Thus, she was no longer required to have the power of the four Greater Spirits, and grew up in Nia Khera as a human under the care of Muzet, who was blinded helping Milla complete her mission and denied re-entry to the spirit realm by Maxwell, and takes her anger out on Milla.

Her special ability and support ability are the same as her Prime Dimension counterpart.

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• Action Girl: Just like Prime Milla, she's quite capable in a fight, and defeated Exodus when she was only six years old.
• Alternate Self: She comes from an alternate dimension where her mission was completed without ever meeting Jude and the others. She's taken to the prime dimension by Elle as hers is destroyed, which causes the prime Milla to be stuck in the dimensional abyss.
• Boob-Based Gag: Her chest is used for comedy much more often than the previous game's Milla. This includes a Thanks for the Mammary moment with Ludger (depending on the choices made) and Elle rather bluntly pointing out Milla's chest size in a chat.
• Cooking Duel: Milla's Character Episodes focus on her trying to beat Ludger and Elle's father for first place as Elle's favorite cook, going on a quest to create the ultimate soup. Sadly, she dies before she's able to make it for Elle, although the manga has her pass on the recipe to Ludger.
• Clone Angst: She's well-aware that she isn't the Milla that everyone else, especially the Xillia party, are all looking for, and gets morose when she's compared to her.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's initially very detached to the party and doesn't want anything to do with them, but shows concern for both Elle and Rollo and agrees to help Ludger under the impression that he'll be able to save her sister from her corruption. She's pissed when it turns out to have been a lie to destroy her entire world, and the rest of the Xillia party don't get that close to her due to having met Prime Milla already. However, she remains friendly with Elle, and eventually becomes somewhat friends with Ludger, which makes it all the worst when she ends up dying to summon Prime Milla, especially when Elle is valiantly crying that Fractured Milla isn't a fake, because "Milla is Milla".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Having completed her mission to eradicate Exodus at only six years old, she no longer has the Four to guide her and is worshipped by the Nia Khera villagers as their savior, causing her to be rather isolated. Thanks to Muzet's corruption by the Divergence Catalyst, her sister's abuse of her turns into someone a lot more abrasive than her cool-headed Prime counterpart, though she still defends her sister's treatment of her. She's a good person, however, and takes a shine to Elle.
• Kick Chick: In Tales Of The Rays, in order to differentiate her from Prime Milla, Fractured Milla's artes were given a large emphasis on kicking attacks
• Magic Knight: An odd take on the class since the original Milla was one herself. This Milla combines the use of magic artes with melee to perform combos better then the original Milla did. However, she does not have the original's powerful summon attacks.
• No Social Skills: In a different way to Prime Milla, who is benevolently ignorant, Fractured Milla is brashly dismissive.
• Parental Substitute: Along with Ludger for Elle.
• Supreme Chef: Compared to the Prime Milla, this Milla has pretty good cooking skills. Her character episodes revolve around her making the ultimate soup for Elle.
• Tsundere: She can be very insecure and hilariously dishonest about her feelings, often going into denial when she's flustered, but she's genuinely affectionate towards Elle and later Ludger. When Elle is insisting that she's just as real as the Milla that Rideaux is trying to bring back, and when Ludger refuses to let her go despite Elle being in danger, instead of lashing out, she tearfully tells Ludger to let her go for Elle's sake, and in the manga she even apologizes to him and asks him to make her soup for Elle in her stead.
• Undying Loyalty: She's so devoted to Elle that she'd rather pull a Heroic Sacrifice than to see Rideaux kill her. If Ludger chooses as much, and has enough of a strong bond with her, Milla will force Ludger to let go for Elle's sake.
• Weak, but Skilled: Since she doesn't have the Four Great Spirits, she's basically a normal human. However, she's much more skilled then Milla was in the first game, since she actually had to learn her skills from an early age.

New Supporting Characters

Julius Will Kresnik

Voiced by Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese), J. Michael Tatum (English)

"It's called the "Hymn of Proof". It's supposed to be about longing to see someone."

Ludger's older half-brother, who lives with him in the city of Trigleph and works as an agent of Spirius Corporation. Like Ludger, he can use the Chromatus ability to transform into a monstrous warrior.

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• Adaptational Badass: Downplayed in the manga, which removes scenes where Julius is required to lose a fight so Ludger can do it instead. He's competent enough that he goes undefeated for the entire manga until Ludger kills him for the Soul Bridge.
• The Atoner: He protects Ludger and watches over him due to the fact that he killed Ludger's mother.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • The Julius from the very first Fractured Dimension of the game is the true mastermind behind the Striborg hijacking and the Oscore attack. He singlehandedly slaughters the passengers on the train, as well as Nova and her boss for no reason other than because he can, and Ludger merely questioning him, or Elle even mentioning Canaan is enough to send him into a murderous frenzy.
  • In his letter to Ludger in the third J-code mission quest, he admits he used to take his anger about the burdens of Origin's Trial out on Fractured Dimensions, pragmatically massacring people until he found the Divergence Catalyst and making it a competition with Rideaux to kill as many people as possible. Supplementary short stories confirm this, but coming to care about Ludger tempers this aspect of his personality considerably.
• Big Brother Mentor: Defied, Julius is actively trying to stop Ludger from following in his footsteps as a Spirius agent and Chromatus user, and thus the few times he is present to advise Ludger, he's questioning Ludger's ability and pushing him to give up, and he's otherwise absent while Ludger works with Spirius because he's too busy trying to stop Chronos himself.
• Crazy Jealous Guy:
  • A familial example, implied by the Fractured Dimension he creates when he becomes a Divergence Catalyst. It's a world where he and Ludger are living together peacefully, to the exclusion of all of Ludger's friends—who, while happy and successful, are strangers to Ludger—and the total absence of Elle, the only person who could come between them. Julius himself admits that, in the Bad Ending, the world he wanted was one where he was the most important person to Ludger. Defied, however, as he ultimately wants Ludger to be happy and won't give any indication of what he really wants unless Ludger actively chooses him over everyone else.
  • Implied by his Fractured counterpart on the Striborg train, who according to the Official World Guidance, snapped after Ludger got close to Bisley and refused to heed Julius' warnings about him, estranging the two and inspiring Julius to assassinate Bisley instead to protect Ludger, though it doesn't prevent him from trying to murder Ludger too while he's at it.
• Dark Secret: He killed Ludger's mother in self-defense as a teenager, and adopted Ludger in order to use his pocketwatch to increase his own power. Although this is never actually revealed in a way that impacts either himself or Ludger, it's implied in his mission logs and in supplementary material that he still carries the guilt of his actions.
• Duel Boss: In Chapter 15, he fights Ludger one-on-one in order to test him before the creation of the Soul Bridge. Ludger wins.
• Dual Wielding: Just like Ludger, though unlike Ludger, he also wields dual swords for his Chromatus.
• Embarrassing Nickname: In English, he objects to Elle's nickname of "Glasses Guy" since he thinks it's embarrassing, something Elle teases him about. In Japanese, it's instead because of Ma'am Shock, since Elle addresses him with the terminology for a middle-aged man, even though Julius is only in his twenties.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Zig-Zagged. He only started wearing fake glasses at fifteen to hide how intimidating he was and better blend in as an assassin. However, their continued presence actually marks his Heel–Face Turn into a kinder and less violent person due to Ludger's influence.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Speaking to the employees in Spirius' building will reveal that Julius used to belong to the network technology development branch, and was the one who created the GHS' tracking system.
• Hypocrisy Nod: He's very much aware that he's being completely hypocritical by telling Ludger he's not suited to dealing with the divergence catalysts, while he himself is barely able to as well.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Unlike Ludger's green eyes, he has nearly grey blue eyes, identical to Bisley's, and spends much of the game reticent about everything he knows.
• I Have No Son!: Inverted, between his mother's death and his discovery of Ludger, Julius cut personal ties with his father and started living on his own by the time he was thirteen.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: He occasionally suffers from a vague, but crippling, pain in his left arm. This is because he is on the verge of transforming into a divergence catalyst, having over-extended his Chromatus.
• Improbable Age: Justified. While he became Director of the Department of Dimensional Affairs at just 20, he's been an agent since he was 15 and destroyed his first Fractured Dimension at 11, and before the events of the game, he was the second-strongest Chromatus user in the department.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: He adores Rollo and dotes on him a lot, more often depicted in spin-off materials, where Ludger chides him for his tendency to spoil him with food, and he's stated in supplementary materials to be the reason why Rollo is so fat. Besides Ludger, the only time he speaks fondly of anyone in the main story is towards Rollo.
• Meaningful Rename: His birth name was Julius Wi Bakur. After severing ties with Bisley, he changes his middle name to match Ludger's and his surname to match their mothers', becoming Julius Will Kresnik.
• Mirror Boss: Somewhat. He fights using the same twin-blade style as Ludger (he did train him, after all) and has Chromatus (though he doesn't use it except in the final moments).
• Nom de Mom: As part of cutting ties with Bisley, he took on his mother's last name: Kresnik.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: A sympathetic example, he rigs Ludger's exam to ensure his failure so that he doesn't get caught up in Bisley's schemes.
• Papa Wolf: He had to raise Ludger alone, and he definitely won't forgive you if you threaten his little brother.
• Promotion to Parent: Raised Ludger himself due to killing Ludger's mom, his aunt, in self-defense.
• Promoted to Playable: In the escort titles, such as Tales of Link, Tales of Asteria, Tales of The World: Reve Unitia, and Tales Of The Rays.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Supplementary short stories reveal that his glasses are fake and were suggested by Rideaux in order to make fifteen-year-old Julius seem less scary. In a Tales of TV gag comic, it's concluded that he wears them to hide his feelings via glasses flash.
• Scars Are Forever: The Official World Guidance reveals that the scar on Julius's left eyebrow comes from when he was sixteen and fought a Fractured version of Claudia, Ludger's mother. The scar remains twelve years later and results in a bald patch that splits his eyebrow.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: All the time, sometimes for comedy but more often for horror or drama, notably in Ludger's nightmare sequence at the start of the game, which contrasts greatly against Julius' skin being pitch black. A Tales of TV gag comic jokes that he only does it to hide his feelings, which he also does when he's being particularly stoic.
• Sibling Rivalry: Subverted. He's established from the very beginning of the game fighting Ludger and mocking his lack of skill, and a chunk of the animated opening is dedicated to the two of them going toe-to-toe in battle. In the story proper, he spends most of his interactions with Ludger at odds with him, hiding his intentions and trying to take back Ludger's pocketwatch and later Elle to use their powers for himself. However, he's ultimately benevolent, and not only is everything he's been doing meant to protect Ludger, Ludger is the person he cares most about.
• Strong Family Resemblance: His facial structure is very similar to Bisley's, but his concept art makes his face resemble Ludger's more.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Julius is actually quite kind and silly at times, but it's mainly limited to spin-off media due to how serious the stakes are for him during the game itself. In-game, dialogue choices permitting, he'll tease Ludger about his new job and has comedic banter about Rollo's diet. Once the plot starts, however, he spends most of the game cold and angry, including towards Ludger, though he eventually goes back to being cheerful and kind when encouraging Ludger to kill him in his Fractured Dimension.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Tomatoes, just like Ludger and unlike Elle.
• Trauma Button: In a pre-game short story, he and a teenaged Rideaux discover the Divergence Catalyst to a Fractured Dimension is a seven year old Ludger, protected by his mother, Claudia, was never discovered by Julius the way they were in the Prime Dimension. When Rideaux suggests they kill the mother in front of the son, which is exactly what Julius did three years ago, Julius proceeds to beat him unconscious.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Most evident in the supplementary material and mission logs before Ludger defrosts him, he's been destroying fractured dimensions since he was eleven years old, and used to slaughter entire villages instead of tracking down the specific Catalyst. One Scenario Book short story depicts him at fifteen years old, competing with Rideaux to see who could kill the most terrorists before the dimension was destroyed, framing it as a game to collect the most amount of pins on the group's uniform. Even Rideaux is taken aback by this. According to Rideaux in the Official World Guidance, it was Julius who suggested doing whatever they pleased in Fractured Dimensions, since the worlds were set to be destroyed anyway.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • The Scenario Book has him acknowledge he could have killed five-year-old Ludger and taken his Chromatus watch, but kept him alive to atone for killing Claudia.
  • The Official World Guidance book has him kill a seven year old Ludger, who was the Divergence Catalyst, though he suffers a breakdown afterwards and begs for forgiveness.
• Worf Had the Flu: Subverted. Throughout the game, Julius is frequently incapacitated despite being heralded as a top Spirius agent, especially in scenes where he could help Ludger. It's eventually revealed he's suffering a painful transformation into a Divergence Catalyst. However, come Chapter 15, in his and Ludger's Duel Boss fight, his desperation for Ludger to prove he can handle Origin's Trial makes him reach Level 3 Chromatus without Ludger's pocketwatch for the first time, and he proves to be a formidable enemy.
• Your Days Are Numbered: He's been using his Chromatus since he was young, so he's close to becoming a catalyst.

Nova

Voiced by: Satomi Sato (Japanese), Cristina Valenzuela (English)

"Hey, hey hey, it's payday! ...Well, for the bank, anyway."

Ludger's friend when they were both in school together. She's now working as a debt collector for Verland Bank and gets assigned to Ludger's case. She is Vera's younger twin sister.

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• Childhood Friends: Nova and Ludger were classmates when they went to school together.
• Dogged Nice Girl: To a painful extent. This is the cause of her always-on Genki Girl attitude while talking to Ludger. Unfortunately for her, she gets Locked Out of the Loop and often ends up spouting a oblivious happy-go-lucky remark at exactly the wrong time, losing her points with Ludger.
• Genki Girl: She's incredibly energetic and upbeat, cracking jokes and trying to appear positive. When Elle suggests she isn't being upbeat enough, she takes it even further and screams her announcement that one of Ludger's travel restrictions has been lifted.
• Innocently Insensitive: She is completely out of the loop on the Department of Dimensional Affairs' missions, and so tends to call at the most inopportune moments asking for debt payments after major plot events like Fractured Milla dying, or Ludger killing Victor. She also has a habit of comparing Ludger and Julius, which tends to be met with dismay from Ludger.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Chapter 15, if Ludger hesitates to go to Marksburg because he can't bring himself to kill Julius, the normally cheery Nova will show up acting quite subdued and quietly asking if Ludger is okay.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The extremely upbeat, cheery, and emotion-driven red to her twin sister Vera's cool, stoic, and logical blue.
• The Tease: Towards your wallet. One of her lines when you haven't paid for a while.
  Nova: Hey there, Ludger. It's Nova, your wallet's honey bunny. I do have needs and-What? We're in the middle of a meeting? Crap!
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Ludger did have feelings for Nova in the past. She rejected him, though, and three years later the tables turned and put poor Nova on the wrong side of an unrequited love situation. Funnily enough, it seems that she (initially) had feeling for Julius, and her rejection of Ludger as a result pretty much made sure that when she ended up developing a thing for him, he'd already let go of his crush on her years ago.

Vera

Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (Japanese) Michelle Ruff (English)

"DODA here. We've detected a new fractured dimension. I'm sending you the coordinates now."

Nova's older twin sister. She works as a secretary to Bisley and contacts Ludger whenever a new Fractured Dimension is detected. The Official World Guidance reveals her full name is "Vera Lou Leshy".

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• Improbable Age: It's stated by an NPC that she's some sort of prodigy, being a top student at Trigleph University and attaining the rank of head secretary to Bisley despite only being 20 years old, giving her knowledge on everything about the Department of Dimensional Affairs. Unlike other examples in the game, hers does not appear to be justified by any bloodline connection to the Kresnik clan.
• Mission Control: Once Ludger starts working as a Spirius agent, she's the one who sends him out on jobs and hears his reports.
• Not So Stoic: According to Nova, Vera is really nervous around guys to the point where she can't even talk to them on dates, and she has to go through mental preparations to even function at her job. Vera keeps asking Nova to comfort her when she's drunk after getting dumped (due to her strict personality).
• Prim and Proper Bun: She appears very collected and professional, and wears her hair up in a bun.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The cool, stoic, and logical blue to her twin sister Nova's extremely upbeat, cheery, and emotion-driven red.
• The Stoic: So much so that you'll likely be hard pressed to find a moment where her tone is above apathetic. She has little reaction to the tragedies of the main story and remains professional to the very end.
• Stoic Spectacles: She pulls this off even better than Julius does, rarely expressing any emotion, not even anger.
• Younger Than They Look: Being Nova's twin, she's the same age as her and Ludger, but her professionalism makes her seem older than either of them.

Rideaux

Voiced by: Koji Yusa (Japanese), Eric Vale (English)

"Ah, Julius. You remember what it's like to crush the dreams of the young and foolish, don't you?"

An elite medical agent of Spirius Corporation who dresses in red and black. He became famous for the development of a new wonder drug, though there are rumors that he is involved in the trade of illegal medical technology, fueled by his obsession with acquiring wealth and fame.

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• Asshole Victim: While not wanting to be sacrificed to make a Soul Bridge is one thing, Rideaux is such a Sadist in his attempts to avoid his fate that he loses almost any sympathy he may have otherwise been entitled to by the time it actually happens.
• Bad Boss: Most of the Spirius employees are not thrilled to have him as their boss. One comments on how impossible it is to maintain his schedule, another complains that the new director is running him into the ground, and he literally steps all over Ivar.
• Blow You Away: All of his elemental artes are wind based.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: He's made adjustments to his spyrix organs to enhance his abilities, but the strain is more than his naturally weak body can handle.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was born into a poor family and was ill since birth. The expenses from his medical care led to his family falling apart, and he ended up on his own struggling to survive until Bisley found him and took him in as a Spirius agent at the age of 12. Part of his medical care involved a surgery to replace his faulty organs with aspyrixis devices, which according to the first game result in constant pain that the recipient just has to adjust to. It's implied that he's using the toxic Mysterious Beads you bring him in one job request to deal with this pain.
• Deadly Doctor: He's a medical doctor who uses surgical knives to fight.
• Deadly Upgrade: He's used his aspyrix organs to upgrade his physical abilities, though it's heavily implied this is taking a toll on his already weakened body.
• Evil Counterpart: To Alvin, and lampshaded during his non-Chromatus boss battle. They both had the Freudian Excuse of their family breaking up due to bad circumstances and resorted to Dirty Business to support themselves. While Alvin is slowly redeeming himself, Rideaux stays a Jerkass to the bitter end.
• Hated by All: Just about everyone in the game hates his guts. Elle sums it up:
  Elle: Bleah, Rideaux's here.
• Hidden Depths: At the end of his Official World Guidance short story, he sees Julius begging for forgiveness after murdering a Fractured Ludger, prompting Rideaux to rage in his narration that Julius has no reason to apologize, they're the ones who should be apologized to, since they're the ones cursed with the power of the Chromatus and are being forced to use it. Though he mocks Julius, the narration implies that Rideaux himself is also crying.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He is eventually rendered helpless by the aspyrixis devices he's been relying on for his heightened physical abilities.
• Hypocrite: Accuses you of trying to strongarm him in your first encounter, only to forcibly grab Elle by the arm and suggest keeping her as collateral less than a minute later.
• In Love with Your Carnage: A short story written from his point of view shows that he's delighted by Julius' violent behavior, before Julius Took a Level in Kindness. He spends the story trying to goad Julius into returning to his old ways, and expresses appreciation and excitement when Julius does, even when Rideaux is the one on the receiving end of his rage.
• Insistent Appellation: As a teenager, he addresses Julius sarcastically as onzoushi, referring to Julius being the CEO's son, despite and because of the ire it incurs since Julius has severed ties with Bisley. He's apparently stopped doing this by the time of the game's events, however.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: NPC dialogue and supplementary materials highlight that he suffered a very rough childhood as a sickly child whose medical expenses put his family in debt and eventually caused his parents to abandon him, and the Official World Guidance short story from his perspective reveals that despite his bloodlust, he holds resentment for his destiny as a Chromatus bearer and a potential sacrifice for the Soul Bridge. However, he nevertheless remains unrepentant, cruel and selfish throughout the entire game.
• Malicious Misnaming: Rideaux's internal narration in the Official World Guidance introduces Julius as "Julius Wi Bakur", before sarcastically correcting himself to Julius' new names. He freely admits he likes doing it because Julius gets furious about it.
• No Infantile Amnesia: The Official World Guidance reveals that he's able to remember the moment of his birth, saying that the ticking Chromatus watch he was born with was proof that he was alive, and he remembers the disappointment on his parents' faces when they learned of his illness. He considers those who can't to simply have a bad memory.
• Only in It for the Money: Subverted; Bisley was actually the one who arranged for him to put Ludger into debt, and Rideaux's life pretty much depends on his performance.
• Only One Name: He is only ever referred to by his given name in the game; his full name is only revealed in a supplemental guidebook as part of an official Spirius report. Given his history, it's possible this may be intentional.
• Rags to Riches: A darker take. His family was mired in debt because of his medical expenses. He then had to resort to Dirty Business to pay it off and was struggling just to eat until Bisley found him. Ironic considering he put Ludger into debt too.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Both his suit and his Chromatus use a red and black color palette.
• Secret Legacy: His family is a distant branch of the Kresnik bloodline, and his parents didn't know what it meant when he was born with a Chromatus watch.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Subverted. He orchestrates events to bring back Prime Milla and allow the party to reach the final Waymarker to Caanan and save the universe. Him succeeding in this does nothing but HELP the party in their goals, but he executes the plan via colluding with Exodus to invade the Rieze Maxia and Elympios peace conference, using Jude and Alvin as living conduits to power the ritual to summon Maxwell, and murdering Fractured Milla to allow Prime Milla to exist in the Prime Dimension. When Elle tries to interfere, he tries to kill her. However, he doesn't do this out of any desire to complete the Trial or save the world, rather to prove his usefulness to Bisley and convince his boss not to use him as a human sacrifice.

Bisley Karsci Bakur

Voiced by: Tsutomu Isobe (Japanese), Mike McFarland (English)

"Ludger, for the sake of this world, the true world, you must help us."

CEO of Spirius Corporation, a MegaCorp that deals with everything from military weapons to household appliances. He tasks Ludger with travelling into the alternate worlds and destroying the Fractured Dimensions that threaten the Prime Dimension.

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• Absurdly Youthful Father: Although it's not immediately obvious, he was actually 15 when his first son was born, and was younger than his eventual wife by seven years. When he was around 21-22, he slept with Claudia, his sister-in-law, who became pregnant with his second child, Ludger.
• Abusive Parents: While it's implied that he's genuinely proud of Ludger and Julius, he considers them as expendable as everyone else in his agenda.
• Affably Evil: He's fairly polite, holds his own end of his deals, and rarely raises his voice in the game. However, he's willing to do anything and use anyone, even his wife, his sons, and his granddaughter to complete Origin's Trial.
• Age-Gap Romance: He was seven years younger than his wife, who was his tutor and three years younger when he had a one-night stand with his wife's sister, who was his maid.
• Ambiguously Brown: His skin color is darker than any of the other Elympion characters introduced in the game, barring generic NPCs. This is also why Julius ends up slightly tanner than Ludger does.
• Archnemesis Dad:
  • He raised Julius to destroy Fractured Dimensions and later become a potential sacrifice for the Soul Bridge, and has no qualms framing him for terrorism and using Ludger too. However, Ludger is only given hints that Bisley is their father, and his own animosity with Bisley is more to do with forcing him to work for Spirius. Julius on the other hand is fully aware of his relationship with their father.
  • Victor, on the other hand, is fully aware that Bisley is his father, and dyes his hair to avoid association with the man who tried to take his daughter from him.
• Badass Longcoat: Like other top members of Spirius, he wears a coat over his Elympion suit.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Unlike most martial artists in the series, he uses nothing but his fists, and uses typical boxing stances, as well.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He has unusual ones shaped like the letter Z.
• Big Bad: His true motivations are revealed at the end of the game: he wishes to use Origin's wish to enslave all spirits, robbing them of their free will and putting them under humanity's control. Naturally, for a party that includes Rieze Maxians and spirits themselves, this puts him at odds with the protagonists.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Zigzagged, due to him being a Well-Intentioned Extremist. He does many under the table deals, bribes, even murder, but it's all for the sake of humanity.
• Defiant to the End: He more or less punches Origin's clock, choosing to commit suicide before his Chromatus transforms him into a Catalyst and causes humanity to fail the trial.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The supplementary material and the quest for giving Princessia flowers to his sister-in-law after realizing she's dead because Julius is taking care of Ludger aside his wife shows the only people he seemed to genuinely loved and/or cared for were Ludger and Julius' mothers. After Claudia ran away with Ludger, Bisley never sent any spies or anyone to track her down whether he was aware or not she was pregnant with Ludger having the Chromatus abilities. It's implied his wife's death is what caused him to hate spirits with a passion and wanting to do Origin's Trial so badly. It doesn't stop him from treating his own sons and grandaughter like expendable tools although he is shown to be proud of his sons.
• Evil Counterpart: He comes across as one for Gaius in the first game. Both are Well Intentioned Extremists who want to do what they can to protect their world. The difference is that Gaius is willing to come to an understanding with his enemies while Bisley is too consumed by hatred to do the same, leading to his plan to enslave spiritkind.
• Evil Versus Evil: A man who wants to make all the spirits into tools for humans versus a Prime Spirit trying to prove that Humans Are Bastards and make humans into "mindless mana producing objects". Good job the party is there to Take a Third Option.
• Graceful Loser: Subverted. He compliments Ludger on his victory and warns him that his Level 4 form will turn him into a Divergence Catalyst very quickly. Then he spends his last moments raging at Origin.
• Hidden Depths: Despite his extremely pragmatic relations with his sons, he seems to have genuinely cared for his wife and sister-in-law as people, with Vera noting in a sidequest that he's left princessia flowers on Cornelia's grave every year since her death twenty years ago, and he leaves an additional one for Claudia upon finding out that Ludger was in Julius' care. In addition, Julius notes in the Scenario Book stories that while Claudia was clearly terrified of being found by Spirius, Bisley never actually made any attempt to track her down, putting holes into Julius' own theory that Bisley intentionally fathered Ludger with Claudia solely for his Chromatus abilities.
• Icy Blue Eyes: He has blue eyes that are almost grey, and is very calculating, manipulating Ludger into working for Spirius, and turned his own son into a Child Soldier.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fast enough to dodge Julius' attacks with no effort, and hits like a friggin' truck.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The Perfect Guide confirms that Bisley is Ludger and Julius's father, and that the Bakurs are an offshoot of the Kresnik clan. Their relationship is hinted at in the game but never made explicit, and never becomes relevant either.
• Megaton Punch: His Mystic Arte, Absolute Fist.
• Obviously Evil: Double Subverted. He very blatantly manipulates Ludger into working for Spirius and clearly has something against Julius. However, his desire to destroy all Fractured Dimensions are well intentioned to preserve the Prime Dimension. Ultimately, though, his methods are too extreme for the party to tolerate, intending to enslave all spirits.
• One-Hit Kill: His Mystic Arte. Though it doesn't have an "instant kill" effect, it does so much damage that it's practically a TKO anyway. And at one point during your fight with him, it literally knocks you out of the battle!
• Pet the Dog: Despite raising his son, Julius, solely to serve in Origin's Trial, and showing no concern for him before or during the game, as well as manipulating his other son, Ludger for the same reasons, an endgame sidequest reveals that he's been putting a princessia flower on his wife, Julius' mother, Cornelia's grave every year since her death twenty years ago, and nevertheless leaves a second one when he realizes Ludger's mother, Claudia, who was also his wife's sister is dead.
• Power Gives You Wings: In Chromatus, he gains two wings seemingly made out of energy.
• Rage Against the Heavens: When Ludger defeats him and he's forced to kill himself to prevent himself from becoming a Catalyst, he spends his last moments telling Origin how his greatest wish is to punch him, and settles for punching Origin's clock instead.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He favors black suits with a red coat and the Chromatus form he takes for the final battle is black with glowing red lines.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He asks Ludger to destroy Fractured Dimensions to save his own world. Tying into the game's theme, Bisley is a character willing to sacrifice anything to save the world. The party is willing to destroy Fractured Dimensions, but oppose him when he reveals that he wants to strip spirits of their free will.
• Would Hurt a Child: He freely manipulates and exploits Elle for her abilities as the Key of Kresnik, then tries to kill her without hesitation when it looks like she might try to help Ludger. He is fully aware that Elle is his granddaughter from a fractured dimension.
• Younger Than They Look: You wouldn't think from looking at him that he's only forty-three.

The Great Spirits

For tropes associated with Maxwell, see the first game's page.

Chronos

Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Joel McDonald (English)

"It's time you learned some things in this world are truly indestructible!"

One of the three Prime Spirits, the first three Spirits to ever have existed (along with Maxwell and Origin). He is the Great Spirit of Time and guardian of the Land of Canaan in the Human World, and involved with both the emergence of the parallel worlds and the powers of the Kresnik bloodline.

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• Big Bad: Considering that he helps to set up the trial against humanity and is more than willing to tilt the scales against them, he's most definitely one of them.
• Death by Irony: After spending hundreds of years manipulating the Kresnik's to destroy each other, Bisley manipulates him into being beaten by Ludger and the crew.
• Evil Versus Evil: What the conflict between him and Bisley practically comes off as.
• Graceful Loser: Averted in the Ludger ending but subverted in the Elle one. He technically won because humanity failed Origin's Trial like he wanted, but it's an empty victory because of Ludger's actions going above and beyond his perception of humanity's self-serving nature, to which he ruefully calls "profoundly foolish". When the party vows to Origin that they (humanity) will strive to overcome their "impurity", he considers that harder than any challenge he could throw at them and accepts defeat.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Invoked twice by the portion of his power he gave to the Kresnik Clan that manifests as the chromatus ability. One is that Ludger is required to use it in their final boss fight to defeat him. The second is in the Elle ending: The Chromatus ability was intended to prove that humanity would selfishly abuse and fail the trial (overuse turns the user into a catalyst of a new fractured dimension) but Ludger intentionally overused it to perform a completely selfless act, winning Origin's favor.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: During your second battle against him, he constantly rewinds time to heal himself. Your only solution is to keep fighting until Cutscene Incompetence takes over.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: His main belief, which is why he helps Origin set up the trial and why he takes an antagonistic role despite the fact that he is supposed to be a neutral arbiter.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • He's stabbed by four blades at once by Gaius, Ludger, Muzet, and Milla. Unfortunately, he manages to heal himself by reversing time.
  • Bisley uses the Lance of Kresnik to stab him in the final chapter, and because the lance uses Origin's Power of the Void, Chronos is unable to free himself or heal.
• Implacable Man: Sure, you can injure him, but he'll simply reverse time and be perfectly fine. He survives being stabbed FOUR TIMES AT ONCE before said reversal. He just simply won't die.
• Instant Runes: Both of his Mystic Artes create spiraling runes around him.
• Karma Houdini: Although he does help Origin with the soul purification process, which is apparently incredibly painful.
• Killer Game Master: Despite the fact that he's supposed to be a neutral arbiter, Chronos really hates humanity and has no problem with stacking the deck to ensure they fail Origin's trial.
• Love Makes You Evil: A platonic example. Chronos cares deeply for Origin and wants him to stop suffering because of the soul purification process.
• Made of Iron: Easily catches bullet's in his fingers in his introduction with no injury what so ever. He survives also being impaled four times and survives being impaled towards the end.
• Out-Gambitted: Bisley fools him into thinking Ludger is the Key of Kresnik instead of Elle and is caught off guard when Bisley uses Elle's power to bind him.
• Reset Button: One of his abilities, which turns back time and heals himself. From the second battle onwards, you can interrupt this ability by activating Chromatus.
• Satanic Archetype: Given that he's subservient to Origin, who likes humans enough to skew the results of the trial in their favor in the Elle Ending, he comes across more like a rebellious angel than an actual higher power.
• Superboss: In Tales of Arise, he's the game's ultimate boss and most difficult encounter.
• Time Master: Can use "Time-Elemental" magic and artes.
• Wave-Motion Gun: His second mystic arte is more or less one.

Origin

Voiced by: Aya Endo (Japanese)

"I hereby grant these representatives of humanity the right to make one wish."

One of the three Primodial Spirits, Origin is the Great Spirit of the Void and the judge of the Trial. He exists in the Land of Canaan, where he guides humanity's cycle of reincarnation. Unfortunately, the aforementioned souls release a sinister energy called Miasma, which, while not fatal to him, places him constantly in an incredible amount of pain as he guides humans into their new lives.

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• Big Bad: Subverted. While he's judge of the Trial and the one responsible for making humanity go through it, his motives are far more complex than they first seem.
• Big Good: As it turns out, Origin is very much on the side of humanity and is even willing to twist the rules in their favour because he likes them so much.
• Light Is Good: He takes the form of a small boy made entirely out of light.
• Messianic Archetype: A divine being who suffers for the sake of humanity's redemption. Hrm, where have we heard that one before?
• Power of the Void
• Screw Destiny: His motivation for allowing the Miasma and the impurity within human souls to exist effectively boils down to this. He believes humans can rise above their impurities and achieve perfection.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: He does this to the terms of his own trial on humanity in the Good Ending. It's supposed to be considered a failure since Ludger became the millionth divergence catalyst, but since he willingly did so to save the one person who would not benefit from his wish (Elle), Origin was moved enough to deem humanity worthy and continue the sealing away of miasma.

The Kresnik Clan

Due to the proportion of spoilers present with these characters, all spoilers will be unmarked.

The Genesis Sage Kresnik

Milla Kresnik

The first human to summon the Great Spirit Maxwell. She created the Hymn of Proof and forged the pact that would result in Origin's Trial. She is the founder of the Kresnik clan, and Milla Maxwell was named and created in her image.

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• All-Loving Hero: She sought coexistence between humans and spirits, and even when betrayed by her own clan, she refused to leave to Rieze Maxia with Maxwell and stayed in Elympios in order to fulfill that dream.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: According to a Fractured version of Ivar, she was a singing handmaid with a wonderful voice, and she composed the Hymn of Proof as an offering for Maxwell.
• Constantly Curious: According to a Fractured version of Maxwell, she was a very curious person who pestered Maxwell about questions to everything.
• Divine Date: She's heavily implied to have won the affections of Maxwell, and Maxwell cared about her enough that her refusal to join him in Rieze Maxia was seen as a betrayal.
• Named in the Sequel: She's only known as "the Genesis Sage" in the first game. The sequel reveals both that Milla Maxwell was named in her honor and that Rieze Maxia has a direct connection to the Kresnik clan of Elympios.
• Pals with Jesus: She was incredibly friendly with Maxwell, with the original Hymn of Proof including a line where she threatens to pull his beard if he doesn't appear to her. A Fractured Aska saw her lack of reverence as insulting.
• Samus Is a Girl: She's revealed to be a woman in Xillia 2.

Ludger and Julius' Family

Claudia Il Kresnik

Ludger's mother and Julius' aunt. She was a maid for the Bakur family and disappeared a year after her sister's death.

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• Mama Bear:
  • According to supplementary materials. She vanished with Ludger to keep him away from Bisley and Origin's Trial, and was even willing to kill a thirteen-year-old Julius, her own nephew, when she thought he had been sent to retrieve Ludger. Unfortunately, Julius found them completely by accident and had no intention of taking Ludger anywhere, but Claudia didn't believe him and attacked him, resulting in Julius killing her in self-defense.
  • Her Fractured counterpart in the Official World Guidance short story, who was never found by Julius three years prior, remains just as protective as her Prime counterpart. When Rideaux confronts her, she manages to stab him, and he remarks that she's quite fast for someone with no combat training.
• My Secret Pregnancy: She became pregnant with Bisley's child after her sister's death, and ran away after discovering that child would be born with a Chromatus. She gave birth to Ludger in secret with her father's help and raised him in hiding.
• Parental Substitute: Due to her sister and brother-in-law being preoccupied with Origin's Trial, she was the one who often looked after Julius when he was a child.
• Shared Family Quirks: According to Julius, she was a great cook, just like her son would turn out to be. Julius even says that tomato pasta was her best dish.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In a Scenario Book story, Julius notes that Ludger inherited her green eyes and silver hair color. Rideaux corroborates this in an Official World Guidance story where he meets her Fractured counterpart.
• Would Hurt a Child: She attempts to kill thirteen-year-old Julius under the mistaken assumption that he was there to take Ludger to Bisley, despite Julius' protests to the contrary.

Marvin Orta Kresnik

A philanthropist who sponsors the Daily Trigleph, the newspaper that Leia works for. He is secretly Ludger and Julius' grandfather, and was formerly a butler for the Bakur family.

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• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Julius Catstantine the Third belongs to him, and he's rather fond of him.
• Meaningful Name: His middle name "Orta" means "shadow" and "one who does not betray", fitting his hidden role as Secret-Keeper to Claudia and Julius.
• Old Retainer: He worked as a butler to the Bakur family, complete with referring to his own grandson as "Julius-sama", even after Julius cuts ties with his father and Marvin leaves the family's service. He maintains this address even to the present day, though it's omitted in the English version.
• Outliving One's Offspring: By his own admission, after having lost both of his daughters, Julius (the cat) is the only constant family he has left, with Julius (the person) occasionally visiting.
• Secret-Keeper: He helps Claudia hide herself and her son from Bisley, and later helps Julius alter the family registry to hide Ludger's existence. The manga specifies that he also knows that Julius was the one who accidentally killed Claudia. He never even reveals to Ludger himself that they're related.
• Shared Family Quirks: Like his grandsons and great-granddaughter, he's a cat lover.

Spoiler Characters

WARNING: These characters are all Walking Spoilers with a long list of endgame details that can't be discussed without spoiling their identities. As such, these folders will have unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!

Elle's Father

Victor (Ludger Will Kresnik)

Voiced by Takashi Kondo (Japanese), Josh Grelle (English)

"What do you say, Ludger?"

Elle's father, who sent her to find the Land of Canaan. He is an older version of Ludger from an alternate world, and holds the final Waymarker of Canaan within himself.

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• Action Dad: To Elle, as shown in the opening. All of his actions are motivated by a desire to protect her.
• Always Save the Girl: Like Ludger himself, he's deeply devoted to Elle, and will prioritise her survival over that of the world:
  • When it was discovered that Ludger's daughter would be the Key of Kresnik with the powers needed to save their world, Bisley and Ludger's friends and family try to convince him to give her up for the sake of their world. Ludger refuses and ultimately kills Bisley, Julius, and his friends, when Bisley tries to kidnap the newborn Elle.
  • In Arc 6 of Tales of Asteria, his backstory involves the violet-eyed Elle he travelled with being set to be sacrificed by her father, with the justification that it's for the sake of the world. Fractured Ludger refuses and declares he'll protect her even if it makes the entire world his enemy, and kills violet-eyed Elle's father.
    Ludger: It's not wrong that you're alive. What is wrong is sacrificing you to save the world.
• Anger Born of Worry: In Rays, while Julius was already speculating him to be Ludger, he never get a confirmation from the man himself. Once Victor feels like Julius trying to keep a secrets from both him and Ludger again. Victor flips out and calls Julius out for his action before reveal his identity to both Julius and Ludger.
• Ascended Extra: While he was Minor Major Character character in original Xillia 2, Tales Of The Rays gives him more screentime than his home game and expands upon his history.
• Badass Boast: Delivers one after transforming into a complete Chromatus, doubling as a Wham Line if you hadn't already figured out Bisley's relation to Ludger.
  I killed my father and my brother for this power!
• Badass in a Nice Suit: That's one fine suit. Bonus points for it being an attainable alternate costume for Ludger. He's also clearly got the upper hand during his fight with Ludger, and considering that he managed to kill the entire party on his own in his own dimension, he's definitely got the "badass" part down.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: He manages to catch Ludger's lance in his hands and fend him off.
• Battle Aura: In Rays animated short, he is shown to have dark-red battle aura.
• Clone Angst: The knowledge that he exists in a fractured dimension is a large part of what makes him snap.
• The Comically Serious: Mostly outside of his game. Victor tends to over-kill pretty much everything he does like catching a fish with his Mystic Arte or even act like a Super Sentai just to entertains Elle.
• Dual Wielding: Like Ludger, he dual wields swords in a style learned from his own version of Julius.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In addition to preventing Elle from identifying him as Ludger, he dyes his hair entirely black to avoid association with his father, Bisley, the man who tried to take his daughter from him.
• Fallen Hero: Given that he is actually Ludger in a Fractured Dimension. He went through the same story (for the most part) as Ludger, only to learn he was destined to fail due to being a Fractured Dimension. Learning that all the things he had done, ranging from killing his former friends to his remaining family, cause him to descend into desperation to maintain his and Elle's existence at any cost.
• Flash Step: Uses one to intimidate the party before leading them out of his house for a fight.
• Freudian Excuse: His unstable nature concerning Elle is implied to stem from one. In the past, he had befriended another alternate version of Elle. However, she had died on their journey and even though he gathered all the Waymarkers, he could not make a wish in his dimension to resurrect her because his dimension wasn't the Prime one, thus did not have the Land of Canaan. As a result, he becomes very protective of the Elle he fathers and kills his family and former friends to keep her safe. Plus, he's also possessed by the Divergence Catalyst of his world.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In Rays where he is Promoted to Playable, his play-style mainly focus on his dual guns and hammer despite the cutscenes and character art showing he still use dual swords as his main weapon. This is mostly to make him stand out as his own character instead of having a Moveset Clone to Ludger and Julius who he originally share the same fighting style with.
• Irony: One of his pre-battle quote in Rays had him saying this line if you have at least one Xillia member in the party.
  "How ironic... to fight alongside you again."
• Heel–Face Turn: In Tales Of The Rays, he is on the side of the villains as The Mole, and ends up helping both the heroes of the Rays cast as well as the cast from his home game.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: His ultimate goal is simply to live peacefully with his daughter without the fear of their world being destroyed or himself degenerating into a Divergence Catalyst.
• Mask of Power: According to an interview in the Official World Guidance, the mask supposedly prevents the Divergence Catalyst within him from revealing itself in Ludger's presence. He says he wears it to hide scars from previous battles, but it actually serves to hide his identity and the Divergence Catalyst taking over his face.
• Mirror Boss: Made especially evident by him and Ludger sparring right before the boss battle, where they match each other move for move.
• My Greatest Second Chance: In Rays, most of his motivation to help the protagonist's side aside from Elle was to help his former friends whom he killed including Fratured Milla whom he also failed to save in his own timeline.
• One-Man Army: Naturally, since Ludger himself already is one, and he's the future version of him. Unlike Ludger, however, he only kills the human party members, though he also kills Bisley and Julius in that same fight.
• One-Winged Angel: Being an alternate version of Ludger, he possesses the Chromatus ability and uses it against you in battle. Made worse, it's a Level 4 Chromatus too.
• Pet the Dog: Mostly in Rays since he is now lost any reasons to antagonize the cast, and in turn is the only villain/boss character who genuinely allies with the heroes' side from the very beginning. He is also actively avoiding the Xillia cast, implying that he still feels guilty for what he did to them in his world counterpart (even though the Xillia cast were exoflected from different times, and none of them except Julius know who he is).
• Red Baron: "Victor" is actually a title held by the warrior with the strongest Chromatus power. It's acquired by killing whoever held the title last.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His right eye has turned red due to his gradual transformation into a Divergence Catalyst.
• Sanity Slippage: He travelled a similar journey that the Prime Ludger did, with an Elle of his own who had purple eyes, but something happened during the acquisition of the final Waymarker and his first Elle died, and in the end it turned out everything had been All for Nothing, as Canaan failed to appear due to his world being a Fractured Dimension. He eventually met Elle's mother in his dimension and fell in love with her, giving birth to the green-eyed Elle of the main game. However, Bisley eventually convinced the rest of the party and Julius to try and trade Elle to the Prime Dimension, since she was a Key of Kresnik, and Ludger's refusal to hand over his newborn daughter lead to Bisley to try and launch a surprise attack on them. Ludger killed all of them except for Gaius, inheriting the Waymarker of the strongest Chromatus user, achieving a full Chromatus, as well as succeeding Bisley as CEO of Spirius.
• Self-Made Orphan: He took out his dimension's Bisley when the latter tried to use Elle's power as the Key of Kresnik, as well as Julius, who actually raised him.
• Supreme Chef: Even better than Ludger, according to Elle.
• Took a Level in Cynic: He is much more harsher than his Prime counterpart, though deep down he is still undeniably Ludger.
• Tragic Villain: He used to be Ludger and was a pretty good guy, but his desire to keep Ellie safe made him a monster.
• Voiced Differently in the Dub: In the original Japanese dub, Victor's voice is considerably deeper than Ludger's is, whereas in English he sounds a little older but simply speaks in a more formal tone than Ludger's.
• Walking Spoiler: While he's shown in one of the opening cinematics, once you learn who he is and what he's doing, the entire game turns upside down.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wants to be with Elle and live happily without the Trial, Elle's destiny as the Key of Kresnik, and his own transformation into a Divergence Catalyst threatening their lives. To do so, he kills the party, the rest of his family, and manipulated Elle so he could have them go to the prime dimension and be "reborn".
• What the Hell, Hero?: If Ludger tries to spare him, Victor will force his counterpart to kill him and call him out for hesitating.
• Worf Had the Flu: Like Julius, he's on the verge of becoming a Divergence Catalyst and is constantly in pain, which likely contributed to his defeat. Doesn't stop him from having the upper hand against his Prime counterpart.
• Would Hurt a Child: He killed almost all of the human Xillia party members off-screen, with Elize being among the group.
• Yandere: Victor is an otherwise kindhearted person who dotes on Elle and loves her dearly. However, due to having met a future alternate version of her who died in an endeavor to save the world that turned out to be All for Nothing, he snaps when Bisley tries to take her as a newborn baby to save the world, and murders not just him, but everyone who even considered supporting his plan, including the human Xillia party and Julius. He then raises her to execute his own plan to reincarnate them both in the "real" Prime Dimension. While he's still very loving and gentle towards her, he traumatizes her on purpose to trigger her powers as the Key of Kresnik, and insists that even if reincarnation will erase their current selves and they'll basically become new people, it will be worth it because they'll still be together and live "happily ever after". It's not until she refuses to go along with his wishes that his sweet demeanor falters towards her and he makes it clear that he doesn't care what she thinks about his goals.

Elle's Mother

Lara Mel Marta

The kindhearted chairwoman of the Rugen Consortium. Her Fractured counterpart fell in love with Victor and married him, giving birth to Elle.

Her Prime counterpart makes a very brief cameo in the Ludger Ending.

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• Death by Despair: After seeing her husband murder his former friends and family, her health declined and she died when Elle was very young.
• The Ghost: She's been dead for years in Victor's dimension, and is never seen in the Prime Dimension unless Ludger survives the Trial.
• Repressed Memories: She's shown suffering memory lapses as a result of witnessing Victor's massacre of the party, regressing to the time before Elle's birth. Victor plays along with her until her memories of Elle are triggered and she begins rambling about Victor's murders.
• Satellite Character: Although Victor's short story implies he did truly love her, her character is primarily established in relation to how she resembles the first Elle that Victor travelled with. Commentary in supplementary material confirms that when Ludger meets her in the Prime Dimension, he's really just happy to know that he can see Elle again.
• Shared Family Quirks: In Victor's short story in the Official World Guidance, she's revealed to be just as clumsy as her daughter when she trips over her own feet.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks like an older version of her daughter, right down to her straight-cut bangs and her hairstyle being a single-sided pigtail. She also passes on her purple eyes to another Fractured version of Elle.

Victor's Partner

Fractured Elle Mel Marta

The Fractured version of Elle who accidentally entered Victor's dimension and travelled with him in search of the Land of Canaan. She died during the retrieval of the final Waymarker.

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• Ambiguous Situation: It's never specified whether this version of Elle was yet another Fractured Ludger's daughter, or if Lara instead married someone else, since she has her mother's eyes instead of her father's.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Unlike the Elle who became Victor's daughter, this Elle had purple eyes like her mother, Lara.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Her death during the journey to collect the Waymarkers, which turned out to be All for Nothing since Victor's world is Fractured, inspires both the fierce obsession Victor has with protecting his version of Elle and his obsession with entering the Prime Dimension to complete the Trial and be reborn with the "true" Elle.

Tropes associated with Arc 6 of Tales of Asteria:

Voiced by Mariya Ise (Japanese)

"I'm not a helpless little girl anymore. I will protect those who are precious to me!"

An older Fractured version of Elle who accidentally entered Victor's dimension ten years ago and travelled with him in search of the Negative Catalysts.

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• Adaptational Skill: In Tales Of The Rays, in addition to her throwing knives, she wields twin pistols like Ludger and Victor, referencing how Victor’s primary weapon in Rays. In Asteria, she only wields knives.
• Alternate Self: She is the Elle from yet another Fractured Dimension who travelled with Victor ten years ago. Her personality is considered to be more mature than her Fractured child self's, though whether this is due to her age or because she's Fractured is ambiguous. Like her home game counterpart, she is distinguished by having her mother Lara's purple eyes instead of her father's green ones.
• Devious Daggers: She fights by Dual Wielding knives, and is significantly more ruthless than her younger self, tricking Ludger and ambushing both him and Julius.
• Moveset Clone: Her regular artes, Blessed Blades, Swift Pitch, and Infinite Wave, are all derived from Cheria Barnes' moveset, the latter two which are exclusive to Cheria in Graces.
• Palette Swap: She has a costume in Rays that borrows the dark colours of Victor’s outfit, along with adding higher socks.
• Perpetual Frowner: In contrast to her younger counterpart who's normally shown smiling, the adult Fractured Elle only smiles when she's fooling Ludger into trusting her. The moment Julius reveals she's one of the people who attacked him, she stops smiling altogether.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In Victor's backstory in Xillia 2, the Fractured Elle he travels with dies during the retrieval of the final Waymarker, but in Asteria's Crossover Alternate Universe, she survives due to Victor protecting her and grows up to adulthood.
• Undying Loyalty: She is very protective of Victor and cares greatly for him, and wishes to protect him the same way he did for her. As a result, when she believes Prime Ludger and Julius are going to kill Victor, she attacks them first.