Playable Characters: Story | Present (Miglance Castle | Garulea) | Future (IDA Academy) | Antiquity (Zerberiya) | Spacetime Rift and Other Eras | Parallel Time Layer Counterparts | Symphony
Others: Sidekicks | Antagonists | Other NPCs
IDA Academy
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IDEA
General Tropes
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: In addition to being the IDA School's student council, the IDEA also acts as campus police. Apparently, they are also powerful enough to bargain with the EGPD (Elzion's police force), as shown in Isuka's first character quest.
- Custom Uniform: All members of IDEA wear a white uniform so that they can be easily identified, as well as serving as a reminder of their duty. On top of that, each (named) member has a customized version of said IDEA uniform.
Claude von Kelkale
Click here to see AS Claude
Click here to see ES Claude
- Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Rory Fleck-Byrne (English)
- Ancestral Weapon: Duon Helios, which he uses in the IDA episodes and the Apocrypha.
- Badass Bookworm: Along with being a skilled archer wielding a powerful Ancestral Weapon, Claude is an avid lover of books—to the point of being IDA Academy's de facto librarian—despite being from an era where paper books are seen as old-fashioned.
- Brutal Honesty:
- In Isuka's own words, Claude can be blunt, as he has no issue with calling Saki's insecurities (which keep her from taking action) a pathetic excuse. She takes it to heart, learning to move forward as Claude wanted her to.
- Chapter 3 of the Apocrypha and his ES quest show that he also tends to be truthful even when the truth sounds insane and he knows no one will believe him, whether it's because he wants to get to the point or because he finds withholding the however outlandish truth to be distasteful.
- Cloudcuckoolander: His thought process can be... out there, at times. It's largely an act, though, and he's notably more down-to-earth in the IDA episodes when he's on the job.
- Dare to Be Badass: He delivers this kind of speech to Saki and later Jade to encourage them to take action with their powers rather than fear them. He also uses this to try and recruit them into IDEA.
- Disney Death: In his ES quest, he seemingly dies after he kills himself within his mental world and Hismena stabs him in the outside one, with him being "dead" long enough for his friends to start mourning him. However, the dragon Kelkale saves/revives him.
- Heroic Suicide: In his ES quest, he becomes possessed by a malevolent spirit and the only way to stop it is Claude's own death, which he easily decides to go through with, much to his friends' dismay. Ultimately, he survives, but his heart did stop for a while.
- Large Ham: Coming from a time where royalty doesn't really exist anymore, Claude feels the need to act kingly as much as possible.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Long hair he keeps in a loose ponytail, and one of the more Bishōnen units in the game.
- Modest Royalty: Isuka mentions that Claude is rich, but spends all of his money on researching his country. As a result, he chose the cheapest student residence, to the degree that he actually lives in worse conditions than the average student.
- Mundane Luxury: When Mother transforms everyone into a dream beast, his dream world involves living in a castle so large and vast that the bedroom can fit both a bed and a desk into it.
- Number Two: While he doesn't officially hold this position in IDEA, he's Isuka's most staunch supporter and her partner during their investigations.
- The One Guy: In this timeline, at least, he's the only named male member of IDEA between him, Isuka, Hismena, and Saki.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Even if he is only technically a king, Claude never shies away from his duties as an IDEA member or a student, believing being king means putting yourself at the service of his subjects.
- Shoot the Dog: In Chapter 3 of the Apocrypha, Claude chooses to destroy Kelkale's magic transformer, thus dooming the kingdom and forcing its people to abandon the land, in order to prevent the king from attempting the Rising ritual that will unwittingly kill everyone instead.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: As noted by Aldo. When Claude makes a remark about Jade, Aldo replies that while he's standoffish, he has a good heart, not unlike someone he knows... while staring straight at Claude.
- Support Party Member: In all three of Claude's forms, his focus is always on supporting other units while his own damage output is lackluster. Specifically, his NS form specializes in pierce support; his AS form specializes in wind support; finally, his ES form serves as a support for any team.
- Too Awesome to Use: Defied regarding his Ancestral Weapon. Though Isuka expresses some reluctance as Claude has only a limited number of arrows, he makes it clear that it's to be used, not kept locked away out of an ambiguous fear—as an obvious parallel to Saki's situation.
- The Wonka: As his longtime NPC friend puts it, Claude is the sort of person who comes up with crazy ideas but manages to make them work, usually through sheer force of will. Though the Cloudcuckoolander aspect is to an extent an act, the utter confidence in himself isn't.
- You Cannot Kill An Idea: Claude's plan to "rebuild" his kingdom of Kelkale is as simple as recovering his ancestors' records of Kelkale's history, and spreading it throughout Elzion so that it will live on in the knowledge and memories of the people.
Curio
- Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese)
A young man who wears the white uniform of IDEA at the IDA School. He has the grace of a butterfly, calmness of a quiet lake, and the sharpness of a razorblade. There is a particular person he respects and has vowed to become like them. Despite his age, others recognize his abilities and he has been given the role of a leader. However, he does tend to get lost in his own curious pursuits.
- Alternate Timeline: He comes from one where he is the head of IDEA instead of Isuka, which he dubs as Twilight Time Layer.
- Animal Motifs: He similarly has butterfly motifs in the same manner as Isuka, and like her, his 5-star class name is also derived from a butterfly type.
- Beware the Nice Ones and Beware the Silly Ones: At first glance, he may seem to be a paragon in a similar manner to Dawn Isuka and something of a prankster, but as the final chapter of the Mythos reveals, he is also not as straightforward as he seems and capable of surprisingly ruthless deeds. In reality, he is another Twilight Cardinal Vestige agent tasked to kill Aldo after he uses Origin Force to fix the Multi-Dimensional Timequake problem so the power will no longer be further threat for them, and after the final battle, he killed Dawn Curio with his own hands without hesitation while also managing to override both Isukas' attempts to stop him.
- Blow You Away: His secondary element is Wind.
- Casting a Shadow: His primary element is Shade, of the "Sacrifice" subtype.
- Cain and Abel: At first glance, he is introduced as the Abel to the Black-Clad Swordsman, AKA the parallel Isuka, who is an internationally wanted criminal in their time layer and later comes into Aldo and friends' time layer as a terrorist, to which Curio tries to stop her. However, this is subverted when it is revealed in parallel Isuka's first character quest that the reason why she commits said terrorism is partially driven by her wish to protect the time layer they hailed from, and with that, Curio himself.
- Compelling Voice: Much like Isuka, he has the ability to influence others using his speech due to being former test subject to of Lab 1 that specialized in power to control others, which he demonstrates to break the influence of the Black-Clad Swordsman on the hypnotized Elzion's citizens.
- Damage-Increasing Debuff and Master Poisoner: His additional skill "Thorn Throne" available from his personal weapon can preemptively inflict Poison status regardless of enemy resistance, in addition to inflicting the damage-doubling "Break" status.
- Declaration of Protection: Towards Isuka from all of the time layers in Chapter 5 of the Mythos. This also culminates in his 5-star class upgrade after he decides to stop fearing his power so he can save them all.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the Mythos, while discussing about the Black-Clad Swordsman, Curio brought up about Cardinal Vestige and expressed his surprise when Aldo said that he knew about them, even though in Curio's own words, they're supposed to be organization that very few people know and doesn't officially exist. While at first this can attributed to him actively keeping tabs on the Black-Clad Swordsman since he's trying to bring her back, the context hits full force following the reveal in the final chapter that he is also one of Twilight Cardinal Vestige's agents tasked to play ally to Aldo's party up until the point Aldo gained Origin Force.
- Glass Cannon: By the virtue of being "Sacrifice" subtype Lunatic unit that can boost offensive stats at the cost of defensive stats' depletion. He possesses fairly high Attack and Speed stat by default that can also be amped further using his personal "Regulator's Scorn" grasta (which also extends his Lunatic mode by whopping five turns), but his defense is about as strong as a wet paper even without the Lunatic mode active. He hits hard especially with his personal weapon, but can also be potentially One-Hit KO-ed even with the enemies already debuffed.
- Magikarp Power: Downplayed compared to Aldo and Serge, but it's there. He works best with his personal weapon Regret, which in itself needs to be upgraded through a series of difficult fights against EPS series superweapons. Furthermore, the full power of his 5-star skills can only be unlocked by defeating ARPX-Sophie.
- Master of Disguise: He is introduced in the story being busted after he disguised as Hismena, which would've worked flawlessly had it not for his slip-up while trying to impersonate her.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: In addition to his gimmick as detailed under Support Party Member below (which basically makes him more of a Wind DPS with Lunatic capabilities rather than a proper Shade DPS), Curio is the only non-Parallel Time Layer counterpart character that can use Another Zone so far, which can be used by having him activate Lunatic mode the first time. However, he lacks the Another Sense passive that his Parallel Time Layer compatriots have.
- Morality Chain: If the Black-Clad Swordsman's character quest is anything to go by, Curio is this for her. The native time layer Curio suggests that the reason why she hesitates to involve more innocent citizens is due to her fondness to the playable Curio. It's still not enough to stop her from pulling more dubious activities, though.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He has this reaction after goading Aldo into using Origin Force to stop the Multi-Dimensional Tremor under Cardinal Vestige's orders... only for an even bigger timequake to appear anyway and practically caused The End of the World as We Know It despite the Cardinal Vestige's claims that they would triumph over it. Even as he learned that Cardinal Vestige had predicted the outcome and possibility for Aldo to eventually triumph over it, it was enough for him to finally turn against Cardinal Vestige.
- The Prankster: He has shades of this, given his Master of Disguise ability and the few times he tries to mimic Aldo's lines in Chapter 3 of the Mythos just for the kicks.
- Pure Is Not Good: He has very strong conviction, to the point that he doesn't hesitate killing the Dawn Curio and firmly states that it is a sin that he won't regret, to the point he can also override both Isuka's attempts to stop him despite he was able to stop Isuka from killing her Midnight counterpart earlier.
- Shared Family Quirks: In a strange case of this trope, he shares some animations with the normal Isuka including their Victory Pose, despite the two not being directly related due to the whole Alternate Timeline thing. Not so much with the parallel Isuka, though, despite them being directly related.
- Situational Sword: Downplayed. He is a solid unit on his own, but as a Wind DPS, he works best when there more party members affiliated with the IDA School or Lost Laboratory up until three units excluding him, since his "Ups & Downs" skill receives extra damage boost for each.
- Spam Attack: His strongest Wind skill after unlocking his 5-star class is one of the rare skills that can hit up to five times. It also has innate ability to increase AF combo rate by 20 percent.
- Support Party Member: Curio is half this and half DPS. When compared to other Shade units, his mainline skills have low damage output, but they can buff attacks of allies, even moreso when a standard attack or type zone is active. On the other hand, his strongest attack skill "Ups & Downs" is a rather strong Wind-based Spam Attack that gets stronger with each use, under the catch it needs to be used consecutively. It also helps that his personal weapon gives innate critical damage boost, and "Ups & Downs" gives one guaranteed critical hit if he is in Lunatic mode.
- Sweet Tooth: Has this trait. He can also be seen hanging out in La Vie En Rose due to his fondness for the place's jam tea.
- Walking Spoiler: His presence alone gives away quite a lot of things regarding Isuka's background, which the player otherwise won't learn until her third character quest.
Hismena Lunabright
Click here to see AS Hismena
- Voiced by: Asami Seto (Japanese), Riona O Connor (English)
The best lancer in IDEA of the IDA Academy's student council. She has a tendency to take action based on instinct rather than deep thought. It is rumored that when it comes to close combat, even the school council leader Isuka has trouble keeping up with her. She is the child of one of the three parts of the Lunabright family of Elzion and stands to inherit the head position. However, she does not seem very happy about this...
- Affectionate Nickname: She has one from Melody who calls her "Cifer", based on the online handle she used to have while playing an older game.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Every one of her skills is a piercing attack, and all but one of them is also a water-type attack. Even her Valor Chant inflicts damage.
- Cast from Hit Points: Argus Baile is one of the rare skills that hits four times, which leads to a large Another Force boost if it connects on an enemy weakness. In exchange, it damages Hismena.
- A Day in the Limelight: She gets significant focus in IDA School Part 3, to the point becomes the playable character in some segments.
- Gamer Chick: She plays Lord of Mana of course, and her first character quest is actually about her meeting up with her former guildmates from another online game she used to play. She plays games as a form of Escapism from her status and responsibilities as the heir of Lunabright, since in online spaces where people don't know her, she can prove her worth through her hard work instead of letting people defer to her because of her status.
- Kill the Ones You Love: In Claude's ES quest, Hismena's the one who decides to take up Claude's request to kill him, after witnessing Isuka hesitate to do so.
- The Lancer: Aside from, well, actually wielding a lance, Hismena plays this trope to Isuka during IDA School Part 3. She's the most proactive of the IDEA members throughout the episodes' events, and has a brawns-and-brains dynamic with Isuka in both story and gameplay.
- Something Only They Would Say: She is very adamant about not taking advantage of her status as the daughter of Lunabright family. This is how Isuka immediately outs the "Hismena" waiting for them in the first chapter of "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales" as an impostor - i.e. the playable Curio in disguise.
- True Blue Femininity: She has a predominantly blue colour scheme and is associated with blue roses as well.
- You Are in Command Now: Or rather, You Are The Only Person Who Can Do Anything. In a Bait-and-Switch moment, when Mother begins trapping everyone in the virtual world, it seems as though Hismena is the one who will ensure Isuka, their leader, will escape through the opening Claude and Saki created... only for Isuka to throw Hismena out the opening instead.
Isuka
Click here to see AS Isuka
Click here to see ES Isuka
- Voiced by: Yui Ishikawa (Japanese), Samantha Dakin (English)
- The Ace: One of the best students at the Academy. Even the other elites in the student council look up to her. This image is exaggerated and turned on the party in IDA School Part 2, where Mayu's admiration for Isuka creates a nigh-invulnerable dream duplicate (read: always one-shots your ENTIRE PARTY on turn 1 for certain fights), much to Isuka's annoyance. As her third character quest reveals, it is no surprise that she comes across as one due to being a Designer Baby that was created as part of experiment to create someone with strong leadership qualities to guide humanity.
- All for Nothing: Her persistent attempts to bring Dawn Curio to justice without killing him ultimately failed by the time of the final chapter of Lost Lab Mythos, as he is killed by playable Curio and calmly accepts his fate. Clearing her Extra Style quest after completing the Mythos makes it worse — even though he had prepared a Body Backup Drive that he tasked "to see how the world had become after he was gone", said body doesn't last long and expires at the end anyway... meaning that Isuka failed twice.
- Animal Motifs: Butterflies in her case, and her class name is derived from a type of butterfly. This acts as a subtle clue of her importance in Mayu's Dream World.
- Big Sister Instinct: The reason why she is very adamant about catching the native time layer's Curio on her own, who is an internationally wanted criminal. She believes that as his sister, it is her responsibility to stop him.
- Cain and Abel: Isuka's third character quest delves into her background and reveals that she is the Abel to the native time layer's Curio in the facility she was raised in, of whom she was a prototype Designer Baby for. The native time layer Curio burned down the facility in the past and killed the researchers and other children alike, leaving them as the only survivors, and it became one of her missions to stop Curio should they cross paths again.
- Compelling Voice: As part of her nature as test subject to create "ultimate leader of mankind", she has the ability to make people listen and follow her regardless of reason. She dislikes using it, however, but finally forced to use it to break the Black-Clad Swordsman's influence of Elzion citizens mind-controlled to kill Leo in the first chapter of "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales".
- Hime Cut: While she's not the royalty in IDEA, she's a Lady of War who certainly gives off Ojou vibes with the haircut to match.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Implied with her Dream World, which suggests that she longs to be a normal student living in peace.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: She uses a sheathed style when fighting with her katana.
- Injured Vulnerability:
- With her fully-upgraded Manifest weapon, her Utopia skill hits harder on heavily-debuffed enemies, and gets even stronger on enemies inflicted with Pain. To support this, her Butterfly's Dream skill inflicts three debuffs on top of Pain. It's to be noted that it debuffs piercing resistance which she cannot capitalize on herself, and is better suited for her fellow IDEA members Hismena and Claude, the latter of which can deploy a Wind Zone (if it's Claude AS) which fixes most of Isuka's problems.
- Master her Another Style's Manifest weapon, and the "Billowing Cloud" skill will hit harder on enemy with Pain status. In addition, the upgraded "All Equal" will inflict resistance-ignoring Pain for three turns.
- Her Extra Style skill "Multa Poena" deals more damage when the target is inflicted with Poison or Pain. She can also inflict resistance-ignoring Poison on all enemies at the start of the battle that lasts for five turns.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Her Another Style trades her IDEA uniform for a long cocktail dress.
- Lady of War: Her character bio describes her as being "as graceful as a butterfly".
- Nerves of Steel: Not even being suddenly summoned by Aldo can faze her.
- Not So Above It All:
- At the end of IDA School Part III, when the others run off to finish Lord of Mana, Isuka sighs over their immaturity... and then immediately zooms away to join them, not wanting to be outdone. With that said, Mana suspects they were all faking it to keep her spirits up.
- In the first chapter of "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales", she also willingly descends into Large Ham theatrics to snap Suzette out of her comedic Heroic BSoD upon learning that she failed to get the new dessert in La Vie En Rose.
- Ojou: Aside from living in Aqua Hills, she's the head of IDEA aka the Absurdly Powerful Student Council—who, as a whole, are regarded as the School Idol—and The Ace of it.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Dream Isuka has red eyes and a permanent smirk.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Isuka's Another Style dress exposes her back and the game also highlights it through her Victory Pose. Lampshaded when she complains at how it doesn't provide decent coverage.
- Stance System: This is the main focus of her Another Style. Using Billowing Cloud will cycle her through any of her three forms, which will in turn change the secondary effect of her All Equal skill. This feature makes her Difficult, but Awesome due to needing to time the right effect for the situation.
- Support Party Member: Her attack skills aren't outstanding, since they are single-hit and aren't very good for charging or extending the Another Force bar (Unless you deployed a Wind Zone, at which point she becomes extremely powerful due to her manifest giving her significantly more damage output, and hit count not mattering at all when a Zone is active). However, her Valor Chant provides a powerful debuff to both PWR and INT, making her excellent for survival when used well.
- Theme Naming: Isuka's name, alongside Curio's and presumably their other fellow test subjects, are the shortened version of their research codenames. However, in Isuka's case, this is not immediately apparent due to Lost in Translation case - the English script opted to translate her codename into the English word "Seeker", whereas in the original Japanese script, her codename is derived from the Russian word "Iskateli" (Искатели), and therefore rendered in as イスカチェーリnote .
- Tranquil Fury: Claude's ES quest sees her calmly claim that Claude's not a very good king yet after his Disney Death, to which Claude realizes that this means Isuka's pissed.
- You Are Number 6: A variant in the form of personality trait instead of numerical code. Her third character quest reveals that in the facility she was raised in, she was coded as "Seeker", befitting her ever-searching nature. However, this is also played straight in Chapter 4 of "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales" Mythos, where it is revealed that her test subject designation while she was in Sapient Complex was ARP1-Steller.
Spoiler Character
See Saki Altridge.
Other Students and Faculty Staff
Cerrine
Click here to see AS Cerrine
- Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa (Japanese)
- Alpha Strike: Her Another Style is the third Flash Strike zone deployer after Melissa and AS Hardy. That said, it is much more situational due to requiring four "IDA School" or "Outlaw" personality units in order to activate.
- Coat Cape: Her Another Style dons one, which was actually part of her outfit during her time as a mob boss.
- Cool Teacher: She has developed into this by the time of her Another Style quest, thanks to being a stern yet dedicated teacher who will go so far to personally rescue her students when they're in danger. In fact, when the faculty is about to dismiss her due to her alleged past ties to criminal organization, all of her students protest the decision and beg for the decision to be annulled.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- She and her twin sister — the original Cerrine — were orphans raised in an institution, and while the original Cerrine eventually got adopted, she had to survive on her own in the streets and eventually formed underworld organization in order to provide those in similar position as she was a place to return to.
- On account behind her personality shift and as explored in her Another Style quest, the original Cerrine died in what seemed to be an accident, motivating her to step down from her position as "Queen o' One Thousand" and take over her place as teacher. In reality, her sister was a collateral damage during her battle against another underworld organization member who also happened to come from the same institution as they were — they mistook her sister for her and her sister fell into the trap intended for her.
- Defeat Means Playable: Like the other Chance Encounter units, Cerrine must be fought several times, with her fifth defeat adding her to your roster.
- Dominatrix: Her use of a whip, elegant but stern looks and love to inflict pain on her opponents and students (and, funnily enough, not minding that much being on the receiving side) gives this vibe. Not surprising since she was a mob boss before impersonating her sister.
- The Glasses Come Off: She removes her glasses before entering a fight, even as a playable character. The glasses are purely aesthetic and she can see perfectly without them — they're a keepsake of her dead twin sister.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: She uses a whip in battle, but since that weapon class is not available in-game, her specific weapon is fists. Almost all her attacks, including her normal attack, are piercing rather than blunt to reflect the use of her whip.
- My Sibling Will Live Through Me: She decided to impersonate her sister in order to look after her students, since the original Cerrine was concerned about abandoning her students.
- Puzzle Boss: After 3 turns in-battle, she imposes a task on the player on top of adding buffs and debuffs to her and the party respectively. Failing to accomplish the objective in 3 turns results in a party-wide earth attack before being forced to repeat the same task. Completing the task causes her to impose a different one, and each subsequent fight leads to her adding more tasks until the final battle.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She has developed into this by the time of her upgrade quests. She will chastise students for ditching their voluntary work or being reckless, but if they have good reason to do so, she will also take those into account and even go so far to highlight positive qualities of them.
- Retired Outlaw: The fake Cerrine took the helm of one of Elzion's biggest criminal outfits in her teenage years and didn't gave up her seat until her sister's death. She still has lots of sway over her former associates.
- That Man Is Dead: She outright refuses to tell Aldo what her original name was before the Twin Switch, preferring that Aldo stick with calling her Cerrine.
- Tough Love: In a sense, her domineering personality partially stems from this — she created the underworld organization she once led as means to provide those in unfortunate situation like she was a place to return to, and the code of conduct she taught to her former underlings are meant to foster strength and camaraderie among them.
- Turns Red: Once the player has completed all her tasks in her final battle, or has sufficiently reduced her HP, she gets serious and uses a more dangerous attack pattern.
- Twin Switch: Her final character quest reveals that the current Cerrine is her older twin sister, taking the previous Cerrine's place after her unfortunate death. The stark differences in the sisters is the reason for her personality shift.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: She threatens with her whip at the slightest provocations, without any sense of tact. This has lessened by the time of her upgrade and AS quests, although she still resorts to it to keep some people in line.
Foran
Click here to see AS Foran
- Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (Japanese)
- All Amazons Want Hercules: Her reaction to be confessed to is to insist the guy beat her in combat first. While she only said that because she panicked, Foran admits that she really wouldn't be happy with a guy that couldn't match her.
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: How she sees using a spear in Elzion, where ray guns and other advanced weapons are common. It doesn't have any influence gameplay-wise.
- Custom Uniform: Wears a Sailor Fuku instead of the blazer uniform most of the other IDA students wear. If Ruina chasing her out during her Another Style quest is anything to go by, yes, it is a severe violation of the school rules.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: When one of her dojo members mistake Aldo as her boyfriend, she immediately becomes flustered and denies it. They're "arse-kicking allies, platonic punch-facers", as she puts it.
- Joshikousei: She's a student wearing a Sailor Fuku.
- Lightning Bruiser: As of this article's revision, her Another Style possesses the highest base speed stat at 258 at maximum level, and her skill Tiger's Roar Flash can be especially hard-hitting when fully charged and combined with her critical hit and damage buffs.
- Making a Splash: She is a water-based unit.
- Raised by Grandparents: Her grandmother raised her. Foran claims she is very strict and tried to talk her out of following in her father's footsteps, causing her to double down on her spear training.
- Selfie Fiend: She likes to snap photos for her social media accounts. If you have her in the party, she'll take a picture at tourist spots for the other party members.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She had bad experiences with her grandmother's cat, which makes her refuse to go near cats even while trying to help her friend find their lost cat. She's one of the few characters with the 'Cat Hater' personality trait. Her Another Style quest reveals why she's so afraid of cats: dear old Mittens is actually a tiger, and Foran had to fight her as part of her training. She never won.
Jade Altridge
- Voiced by: Kazuya Nakai (Japanese), Jackson Milner (English)
- Ambidextrous Sprite: His outfit is very asymmetrical, but his walking sprite is the same whether he's facing right or left. This results in things his bag strap switching which shoulder it's slung over.
- Big Brother Instinct: He really wants to rescue his sister, even after she pushes him away.
- Big Damn Heroes: When the monsters from Mayu's Dream World began leaking out to the real world and one of them nearly got Saki, guess who showed up and saved the day?
- The Comically Serious: Rare, but it's there.(upon facing the zombified occult writer girl in his 5-star upgrade quest)
Jade: Is this...a new type of enemy? - Defrosting Ice King: Aside from being his own quest to rescue Saki from the Dream World, the part 1 of IDA School story is basically Jade's story on learning to accept others' presence in his quest, which is also reflected in the changes in his Valor Chant quips.
- Given Name Reveal: We only learn his surname when Sophia asks him for it in the quest for his personal grasta.
- Hypocritical Humour: Twice.
- In IDA School Part I, when the Sky Terrace becomes off-limits, Jade disapproves of Sevyn expressing annoyance over the ban... despite Jade himself having been equally annoyed literal seconds ago. Naturally, Aldo lampshades it.
- In his 5-star upgrade quest, after he and Aldo are being chased by the zombified occult writer (It Makes Sense in Context), he proceeds to question Aldo whether he has any normal friends at all. Considering his nature, Aldo then calls him out for it.
- Ineffectual Loner: He insists on doing everything alone, but this doesn't work out great for him. He learns his lesson and accepts Aldo's help.
- Injured Vulnerability: One of Jade's final skills deals extra damage towards targets inflicted with Pain status similar to Deirdre, and this is also reinforced further with his personal Grasta. To match this, his "Blazing Lance" skill is upgraded to inflict Pain towards the target in v2.5.1.
- I Work Alone: He rebuffs Aldo's offer to help because the last person who agreed to help him died.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's very cold, but he cares a lot about his sister Saki. The plot of his episode is kicked off when she gets into serious danger.
- The Lost Lenore: Non-romantic example with his deceased friend from IDEA that died while rescuing Saki. As his class upgrade quest reveals, this becomes one of the sources of his hang-up regarding his power.
- Mystical White Hair: His natural hair color is black, judging by flashbacks; it's likely turned white from the grimoire experimentation conducted on him.
- Nom de Mom: He and Saki use their mother's last name, rather than their father's. Not surprising when you consider what their dad was like.
- Out of Focus: In IDA Parts 2 and 3 he steps out of the limelight, as he's not as involved with the incidents as Saki and IDEA are and would prefer to support from the shadows. His 5-star upgrade quests address his reluctance to be more openly active, leading to his class upgrade.
- Power Incontinence: Jade is in danger of this in his 5-star upgrade quest, as the grimoire power within him has reached its limit and starts manifesting itself as dreams and apparitions in IDA School. Although he ultimately manages to control it once again in the end, the danger is still there since unlike Saki's power that can be calmed down by their late mother's scores, there is no external mean to keep Jade's power in bay. This is why he ultimately refuses the offer to join IDEA in the end lest becoming a danger to everyone, although he vows to support them from shadows instead. However, in the epilogue of this subquestnote , Sophia gave Jade a "bookmark" (probably his personal grasta) made from her silver ink that stabilizes his power, thus taking away the danger at last.
- Shared Family Quirks: Both him and Saki's victory pose has them closing their eyes and looking down.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: With his sister Saki. Jade is a Perpetual Frowner, a physical fighter, and has fire-based attacks. Meanwhile, Saki has warmer personality, has magic ability, and has ice-based attacks.
- Tsundere: Jade is noted to be a big softie at heart despite his cold demeanor, and the line below is one such example.Jade (to Aldo): I'll only say this once. Having a friend like you is something I'm... (pauses) Truly grateful for.
Mana (Spoilers for the IDA Episodes)
- Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Japanese)
- Difficult, but Awesome: A lot of her unique buffs affect all allies and enemies. Used correctly, and it can create devastating setups; mistime them, however, and a Total Party Kill can ensue.
- Fairytale Motifs: Her character and the entirety of her arc as a whole clearly takes page of the Snow White fairytale. Her class is named "White Snow", and she is the first victim of the dark apple given by a mother-like figure (the Mother AI). Unlike the original fairytale, however, Mother genuinely loves her - albeit misguided in her actions.
- Guide Dang It!: Her Lvl 3 VC quest. In order to unlock it, you need to clear the Lord Of Mana main quest completely (which is by itself, a sidequest), talk to Fukahire to learn of another anomaly in that game, then randomly walk offscreen in a specific room to reach a location otherwise inaccessible. Nowhere in the game does it tell you how to get to said quest, nor does it even hint at it's existence in Mana's profile.
- Heartwarming Orphan: She was the only orphan who fully accepted an AI as her mother, and the two loved each other dearly. Unfortunately, Poor Communication Kills...
- Older Than They Look: Due to being in cold sleep, Mana's body was prevented from aging for the thirty years she was in the virtual world. Thus, she still looks very youthful despite having lived for over 40 years.
- Reduced Mana Cost: Her unique Valor Chant applies a large cost reduction for the party's skills. It initially only gives a 60% reduction, but can be improved to 90%.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: She's a kind and innocent child who simply wants to be reunited with her mother and help out others in the process.
- Skewed Priorities: During the talk when the IDEA finally meets her properly, Mana laments about on why Mother gave her the dark apple in the first place... because it tasted terrible. To cement it further, the screen briefly shakes with comical sound effect when she said it, and a similar effect occurs when Hismena backed up her claim later.
- Status Buff: A majority of her skill set involves bestowing or purging buffs. She holds the distinction of a 5-star unit with a Status-Buff Dispel skill.
- Support Party Member: She only has one attack skill, and the rest of her skill set is focused on buffs and debuffs.
- Walking Spoiler: Her existence itself is the key to the IDA School episodes.
Mayu
A student from Elzion's IDA School. Afflicted by a grave illness, she has been a patient at Elzion Medical for a very long time. Her fear and uncertainty caused Dark Apple incident. Dealing with the incident cured her, and she's been enjoying her school life since then. Though quiet, she has a strong sense of self. She cares for Isuka, her savior.
- Delicate and Sickly: She's hospitalized for a terminal illness which also claimed her mother.
- Despair Event Horizon: Like anybody who ate a Dark Apple, Mayu was at her wits' end with her illness gnawing at her and Saki insulting her by accident when she was given the apple. Once rescued, Saki making up to her and her father's research about a cure for her illness give her a new drive in life.
- Enemy Without: Like with Saki, Mayu's Dream World manifests a Heart Guardian that does its utmost to keep her asleep.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: A recurring theme in her Dream World is the clock tower's bell. Its ringing reminded her of her numbered days. In her Dream World, its ringing signals when she uses her time control powers.
- Her Codename Was Mary Sue: While she's much more strong and powerful than in the real world, making herself the IDA Vice-Chair and able to fly, she turned Isuka into her invincible protector, able to outspeed anything and even cut down divinely-powered arrows.
- I Owe You My Life: She worships Isuka since she saved her from the burning hospital ward where Mayu was when they were younger.
- Parental Abandonment: Her mother died from the same illness that plagues her, and her father died in a disaster that befell her previous treatment ward.
- Promoted to Playable: After completion of IDA School Part 3, she's progressed enough in her recovery to move from the hospital to the school's infirmary, and she can be recruited into the Lord of Mana subgame. Completion of the Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales Mythos unlocks a bonus scenario where Mayu makes a full recovery and joins your roster as a full-fledged party member.
- Support Party Member: Her main skills are focused on healing the party and reducing the amount of damage they take.
Melody
- Voiced by: Kana Ueda (Japanese), Lizzie Waterworth Santo (English)
A medical student studying at a branch of the IDA Elzion medical school. She is extremely shy and has trouble meeting new people. The costume she wears is a hand-sewn reproduction of one that she used to wear as a child. While wearing it, she wants to dazzle people around her and bring love to their lives.
- Club Stub: Her second character quest revolves around her Cupid Club at the risk of getting shut down due to not accomplishing anything (as she's had to keep Pom from doing anything dangerous) so she's scrambling to rectify that. At the end of the quest, she's discovered that the club wasn't in danger of shutting down and only needs a minimum of three members to continue functioning, so she forcibly recruits Aldo to that end.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: She's in 24/7 cosplay and rather famous in the circle.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She is first introduced in Hismena's Another Style quest, few months before she properly made her debut.
- Gadgeteer Genius: She's quite handy with robotics, to Aldo's surprise.
- Odd Friendship: With Pom, whom she shares a club with.
- Older Than They Look: Aldo is shocked to realize Melody is older than him.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Melody is just her handle. Her real name's Moyna, as Pom reveals.
- Otaku: For Pure Melody and the overarching Magical Girl franchise it belongs to. She says it spans 874 episodes and 17 movies, all of which she has encyclopedic knowledge of.
- Shrinking Violet: Shy to the point of being a Nervous Wreck when she has to talk to people.
- The Shut-In: By her own account, she isn't just shy, but agorophobic and only has the courage to even go outside when cosplaying.
Mighty
Click here to see AS Mighty
- Voiced by: Natsuki Hanae (Japanese)
- Cannot Dream: He lost the ability to have dreams of his own to protect himself from the Nightmares he hunts.
- Charged Attack: His Another Style has a Meditation skill, where he goes to sleep for a turn but also gains Hypnosis counters, which enable his magic attacks to land Critical Hits. If he wakes up on his own (no ailment curing or sleep-breaking damage allowed), he is healed and gets a large INT buff. If his AS Manifest weapon is mastered, he will gain the INT buff regardless he gets interrupted or not.
- Cloudcuckoolander: His reason for switching from his IDA uniform to his Nightmare Hunter robes is because he kinda looks cool wearing them. Or so he says. He isn't sure.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Lots of his fellow students thinks he can't do crap except sleeping in class (when he bothers to show up) and hanging out at night. In reality, he is one of the best Nightmare Hunters.
- Dream Walker: He actually has the ability to go into dreams (human or animal), taking people along if he wishes. He works as a Nightmare Hunter, which is why he's so sleepy. This proves useful in Mayu's Dream World as he can "speak" with sleeping people.
- Fighting from the Inside: Once he's inside a dream, he can fight Nightmares, destroying them for good.
- Making a Splash: Water magic is his forte.
- Mighty Glacier: Pun aside, Mighty's Another Style is even slower than his fellow mages in exchange for better defensive stats. This does work to his favor, though, as it allows him to set up Meditation after most enemies have acted, ensuring his nap isn't interrupted that same turn.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: His fatigue and nonchalant behaviour drops the second he suspects there's Nightmare-related trouble afoot.
- Playful Cat Smile: His default expression is a playful cat smile, and he has cat-like mannerisms to some extent, at least when it comes to the sleeping part.
- Sleepyhead: So much so that he can fall asleep in the middle of a conversation. His Another Style's Meditation skill has him voluntarily take a nap mid-combat.
Ruina
Click here to see AS Ruina
- Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese), Rebecca Kiser (English)
- The Comically Serious: One humorous moment from the IDA School episodes is Ruina, of all people, attempting emotes in Lord of Mana to communicate more effectively.
- Custom Uniform: Her uniform actually resembles the standard IDA school uniform, unlike a lot of recruitable IDA students, but she uses a green tartan patern where the NPCs would have solid green. Even so she scolds the other students if they don't stick to the dress code.
- Dual Wielding: Her portrait depicts her wielding dual swords. During gameplay, however, she uses just one sword like everyone else. Her Another Style does actually dual wield in battle.
- Extracurricular Enthusiast: She decides to help Aldo as one of her extracurricular activities.
- In-Series Nickname: The Walking Dictionary, due to the knowledge she's accumulated through her long life.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Narrowly subverted. In her AS quest, she declares that she's going to kill the thief as punishment (much to Aldo and the Archaeology Buff's horror)... before standing down and declaring that's what she would've done in the past, at least.
- No Social Skills: Social nuances are not Ruina's strong point.
- Oblivious to Love: Her second sidequest has her and Aldo investigate a "mysterious couple", not knowing that they are the couple in question. In fact, Ruina is largely clueless of romance throughout the whole quest.
- Older Than They Look: As she is an elf, she has lived longer than the others, to the point she actually remembers what living on the surface was like. In fact, she's outlived her parents and the rest of her family, since they were dark elves and had lifespans more comparable to humans.
- Pointy Ears: She has pointed ears, as fitting for her elven heritage.
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: She admits that the glasses in her Another Style are just for fashion.
- The Spock: She's intelligent, seemingly aloof, and doesn't really understand emotions.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: At the end of her second quest, where she tries to decipher if the warm feeling she has around Aldo is love. In an unusual twist on this, though, it actually isn't (not romantic love, anyway). She concludes that "friends" is a better descriptor for them than "boyfriend and girlfriend", but is quite content nevertheless.
Saki Altridge
Click here to see AS Saki
- Voiced by: Chika Anzai (Japanese), Ina-Marie Smith (English)
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: She's scared of her ice powers, due to Power Incontinence. Much of the IDA School Part 2 episode is her moving past this.
- All of the Other Reindeer: When she first returned to school, there were rumours that she were cursed. With that said, it's not as bad as Saki feared it was, and it's likely that after waking up from her Dream World, she manages to fit in just fine.
- Can't Catch Up: While she does get her own Another Style early to expand her moveset and eventually gets a personal Grasta, she still falls behind her peers in IDA, who get significant upgrades like stronger Another Styles and Manifest Weapons.
- Character Development: After joining IDEA in the investigation of Mayu's Dream World, she feels overshadowed by Aldo, Isuka, and Claude, on top of her hesitance to use her powers. It takes a moment of crisis for her to develop the confidence to use them, and her increasing confidence and power is also reflected in her new Valor Chant lines and unlocked Ability Boards.
- Counter-Attack: Her Jotunn Effect skill not only gives the team a large Fire resistance buff, but also causes her to immediately counter with a strong water attack to all enemies when she gets hit with a fire attack. If multiple fire attacks hit her while she's in this state, she will counter for each hit, and can mow down flunkies that are fond of such attacks.
- Driven to Suicide: For all intents and purposes, her eating the dark apple was this, as her wish was to never have to wake up again.
- Enemy Without: Because she's trapped in a world based around her mind, her subconscious is able to manifest as a physical entity will do whatever it takes to keep her asleep.
- Hope Is Scary: One of her subconscious projections is the embodiment of her hope. The rest of her subconscious tries to repress this side of her, because she believes that hope causes more pain than it's worth.
- Ice Magic Is Water: Her ice-based spells are functionally water attacks within the game's mechanics.
- An Ice Person: Her father's experiments gave her ice powers. Her Dream World is a frozen version of her school. Since there's no Ice element in-game, her attacks are Water spells.
- Innocently Insensitive: An innocuous comment from Saki rubbed Mayu the wrong way, causing both friends to be driven apart and facilitating Mayu's downward spiral into despair. Saki eventually addresses this to fix their friendship.
- The Lost Lenore: In "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales", she—or rather, the Saki of those time layers—served as this to the Twilight and Midnight Deweys, as she was the first person they ever killed (by accident). The Twilight Dewey admits that he dreamed of dying by her hand, but finds some closure in her forgiveness instead.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Keeping the trend of Cerrine and Felmina, Saki fights with her ice powers and their manifestation as the Absolute Zero Chain (a literal chain made of magic ice), but her class weapon is staves.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Has a minor one in Jade's class upgrade quest upon learning about her brother's deceased friend, realizing that she had taken her brother's kindness for granted and never thought about his own suffering during the time she pushed him away.
- Nom de Mom: She mentions in "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales" that she and Jade use their mother's last name (most likely because, well, their father went nuts).
- Power Incontinence: She can't control her powers, and nearly hurt one of her friends. Even after she is rescued from her Dream World, she holds herself back out of fear of a repeat incident.
- Promoted to Playable: She becomes a playable party member during the IDA School Part 2: Butterfly's City and Heaven's Cradle (v 1.6.5) Episode.
- Rank Up: At the end of IDA School Part 2, Saki is offered a position in IDEA. She keeps the offer on hold as she prioritizes caring for Mayu, before fully embracing it (with a free Another Style upgrade) in the After Incidents Epilogue.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Not her, exactly, but in "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales", she died in other time layers protecting Jade from Dewey, only for Jade to die trying to avenge her immediately after.
- Shared Family Quirks: Both her and Jade's victory pose has them closing their eyes and looking down, at least in the standard form.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: With her brother Jade. Jade is a Perpetual Frowner, a physical fighter, and has fire-based attacks. Meanwhile, Saki has warmer personality, has magic ability, and has ice-based attacks.
- Survivor Guilt: Mayu isn't dead, but in an inversion of the Misery Poker, Saki's second Dream World reveals that Saki feels guilty over returning to a normal life, while Mayu is still stuck in the hospital.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Her Another Style form has one job: namely, to shut down fire-element bosses. When compared to her fellows, Saki's skill modifiers are pitiful and she doesn't have a good attack, but she has a party-wide 50% fire resistance buff that also allows her to counter with ice magic when she gets hit by fire. This makes her valuable in fights against more difficult fire-based bosses such as Suzaku, and when combined with Water Zone, not only this will boost the party's survivability against fire-based bosses, it will also allow to quickly charge Another Force bar whenever she counterattacks.
Sevyn
- Voiced by: Makoto Ishii (Japanese)
- All of the Other Reindeer: As a shaman, he's grown up as a bit of an outcast, due to everyone thinking he's a liar. It gets subverted at the end of his 5-star quest, however, where he's shocked to realize his classmates don't hate him and welcome him with open arms.
- Blow You Away: His spells are wind-based, and following his 5-star upgrade, he gets a skill that lets him establish a Wind Zone.
- Boyfriend Bluff: A classmate claims to be Sevyn's girlfriend to scare off an admirer. Sevyn has no interest in playing along, and would've walked away if the other guy hadn't accused his powers of being fake.
- Cassandra Truth: As of the Future era, most people can't see or hear spirits and dismiss their existence as nonsensical. Sevyn has grown used to it, but notes that the path of a shaman is a difficult one for this reason.
- Delinquents: Doesn't respect authority, doesn't show up to class, and doesn't wear a school uniform.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Has fancy-looking goggles strapped on his hat for whatever reason, though it serves no actual purpose outside for aesthetic. It still gives him the "glasses" trait for performing Combination Attack, though. Subverted in Chapter 4 of "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales", where it turns out that they serve to help him see lesser spirits, since spirits in the Future era are a lot less abundant and therefore harder to track down.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his apparent apathy, in Chapter 4 of "The Apex of Logic and Cardinal Scales", he offers to substitute for Saki when the party intends to go on rescue mission in the Midnight version of Sapient Complex and goes out of his way to rescue the child who was forcibly turned into ogre because as he puts it, the boy is his disciple.
- Rebellious Spirit: He hates being told what to do and makes a point of doing only what he wants.
- Tsundere: As noted, he wishes for someone who can challenge and/or accept him for who he is, but he won't admit it. In his quests, he also complains every time Aldo ropes him into whatever triggering the quests, but at the end of the second quest he internally remarks that he "kind of likes" Aldo despite (or because of) his tendency on taking things a bit too far.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: He wears a jacket with no shirt.
- Willing Channeler: As a shaman, he can allow spirits to enter his body and use him as a medium. The end of his Chance Encounter has him take in the Pseudo-Sylph in order to prevent the spirit from dying, though said spirit vows to stick around forever despite Sevyn's offer to take him to the World Tree for recovery.
