Major spoilers in the trope lists for Bel, Butterfly, Cai, and God especially. Finishing the game is recommended before proceeding.
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Characters
Bel Kaneiki
- Berserk Button: Bel comes off as a quiet, bashful, polite man who would rather talk things out than get into a fight. Speak too casually to his older brother, though, and he’ll begin aggressively berating you on showing the proper amount of respect.
- Big Little Brother: Bel is 9 cm taller than Cai.
- Blind Obedience: Coincides with Big Brother Worship. Bel believes that Cai is an exalted being who can do no wrong, that every word of his is solid gold, and that all he can do is follow Cai and spread word of his greatness to those around him. When his faith is shaken, though...
- Preemptive Apology: Right before stabbing Cai with a scythe.
- Sibling Murder: Attempted in all routes, successful in Bel's Destruction route.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Bel wears glasses due to poor eyesight. He is also a Word esper, a category of esper that thrives from mental engagement. He is fond of reading, uses books as weapons, and writes a great deal about Cai.
- Taking Up the Mantle: After Bel kills Cai in the Destruction Route, Cai gives Bel his power of Destruction. Bel interprets this as Cai telling him to destroy everything in the world in his stead, and he sets off to do so.
- Tsundere: Bel always speaks harshly to Butterfly even after they have grown close, refusing to praise him or following up any kindness he shows with a cutting remark. Butterfly often teases about being a tsundere in turn.
- Went Crazy When They Left: Cai only left Bel behind at the Resistance’s hideout to keep him safe, but Bel interprets it as abandonment and tries to commit suicide. He only lives because God saves his life and convinces him to erase his suffering by killing Cai instead, which Bel actually goes through with out of desperation.
Butterfly
- A Dog Named "Dog": A butterfly named Butterfly. Could be considered subverted because God originally called Butterfly the Observer, but that is more of a title than a name.
- Custom-Built Host: God created Butterfly so that they could observe the world through his eyes and take over his body when needed.
- Extreme Omnivore: Butterflies are typically herbivores, but that won’t stop Butterfly from eating anything he thinks looks tasty, including meat and pastries.
- Literal Surveillance Bug: God can see the world through Butterfly’s eyes. Having lost his memory, Butterfly is none the wiser.
- Master of Illusion: Seen in the True Ending. As the assistant inspector chases after the party for stealing, it is revealed that Butterfly has made him chase after an illusion instead.
- Missing Time: When God takes over his body, Butterfly has no memory of what they did or said.
- Talking Animal: Butterfly is physically a butterfly, even if he speaks human tongue. Could be considered subverted since God created him in the form of a butterfly with magic, so he isn’t a real animal.
- Teleportation: Butterfly has the ability to teleport the party to specific locations during the game with his Jump skill.
- Token Non-Human: Everyone else looks human, and then there’s Butterfly. Technically includes all Non-Player Characters as well, if you can consider Rimm’s “dogs” to still be human.
Cai Kaneiki
- Aliens Love Human Food: As a creation of God who is sent to Earth with only his mission, Cai is entirely unfamiliar with the human world and its food. In his time spent on Earth, he grows to adore the wide variety of flavors found in human food, having no true preferences and trying whatever he finds interesting.
- Big Brother Instinct: Though Cai has trouble expressing his affection verbally, he would do anything, murder included, to protect Bel and make sure he is happy. Also a literal presentation, as his big brother instinct is something imposed on him physically by the source of his body.
- Clones Are People, Too: Finding out that he’s been nothing but a copy of the original Cai the entire time is crushing to Cai, but upon realizing that it’s him who knows what Bel’s childhood dream was, not the original, he accepts that he himself still has worth in his role of Bel’s older brother, even if he is a replacement.
- Copied the Morals, Too: While Cai was created with the duty to destroy espers and bring their energy back to God, the original Cai’s desire to protect his younger brother was so strong that it affected even the copy, who forgets his actual duty and takes on the original’s instead.
- Destroyer Deity: An entity created by God specifically to destroy strong espers and their worlds and return the stored energy to God.
- Diving Kick: During the fight against Mimimi.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: Cai would rather avoid Destroying Rimm at all if he could, but Rimm has to stop threatening him first.
- Impersonation-Exclusive Character: The Cai we know the entire game is actually just a copy of the real Cai, who God says died years ago. In truth, the real Cai is still alive, but kept on the verge of death in a room sustained by supernatural powers. The party has been interacting with him the whole game as the Mysterious Fanboy.
- Magical Floating Shawl: Visual similarities aside, Cai’s stole is explicitly referred to as a hagoromo in the 1st Anniversary Bonus Game. The character design notes confirm that Cai was given a stole to make him visually resemble a goddess.
- Name of Cain: Cai is directly named after Cain from the Bible. He is also an older brother with gray morality, but has a more positive relationship with his younger brother.
- Occidental Otaku: His last name might be Kaneiki, but Cai apparently isn’t from Japan, because he is obsessed with everything Japanese.
- Sentimental Shabbiness: Cai’s most precious treasure is a paper Bel gave him when they were children. The paper itself is yellowed and worn, but Cai still has it on display in its own room.
Captain
An informant who lives in the World of Idols. He knows a lot about Mimimi and serves as a source of information for Cai and the others.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Captain feels like Mimimi betrayed him by trying to become popular rather than focusing on her music, so he tries to murder her.
God
The God of Paradise. Cruel and irritable, they care little for the wellbeing of others and prioritize their own goals.
- Ambiguous Gender: God’s true form has no physical body, and they are not human. They consider themself and their older sibling to be brothers, but Japanese lacks a gender-neutral term for sibling, so brothers is as neutral as can be achieved. In a short story, the Mysterious Fanboy doesn’t know what pronoun to use when referring to them.
- Asshole Victim: God was banished from the universe they were born in, trapped in the form of a meteorite, made unable to use their powers, and forced to helplessly drift through space after revolting against their brother and losing. But then they stole a child’s body, created a world dedicated to exploiting people’s wishes so that they could be killed in order to harvest their energy, and treated others just like they hated to be treated before, so...
- Big Bad: The reason things ultimately go badly for everyone involved with Paradise, from causing their supernatural abilities in the first place to having them live in worlds that exacerbate their worst qualities.
- Body Snatcher: God, in the form of a meteorite, crashes into Original!Cai’s body and begins to control it. They then use its components to create new bodies for themself, Destroyer!Cai, and Butterfly, leaving the body for dead.
- God Is Evil: God created Paradise in order to kill espers and absorb their energy to regain their power so that they could exact their desired revenge.
- Parting-Words Regret: Inverted. As they die, God cries out for their older brother, who they have been intending to exact vicious revenge on for 15 years.
- Revenge: God’s desire for revenge against their older brother is what kickstarts the entire plot of the game.
- Seeing Through Another's Eyes: God to Butterfly.
- The Maker: Creator of Paradise. Was also created to engage in the cycle of creation and destruction of universes alongside their older brother, but rebelled against this role.
- This Cannot Be!: In the endings where the party defeats God, they are often indignant and confused at how those they deem far beneath them were able to defeat them despite their power.
- Unfeeling Heavens: God considers all mortal emotions and hobbies to be worthless and beneath them, and are described to have a facial expression that barely changes. The Mysterious Fanboy mentions that in the 15 years God has spent linked to him, they have become “100x more human,” though.
Mimimi
- Accidental Murder: As Captain tries to kill her on a populated street, Mimimi screams, and her strong fear causes her to awaken abilities that turn her voice into a weapon. At the police station, the assistant inspector mocks her for being an idol and yet killing everyone who was present, including her fans, with her voice.
- Unnecessarily Cruel Rejection: When a fan tries to give her red lipstick that he made, she crushes it beneath her heel, tells him that he should have known that she hates red lipstick, and kills him on stage.
Mysterious Fanboy
A man who resides in a room that somehow has a door in every world. Cai, Bel, and Butterfly often stop by to rest. Easily exasperated, but lax towards others.
- Implicit Prison: Cannot leave his room. If he tried, he would immediately die.
- Otaku: To be specific, he is an idol fanboy enamored with the group WHITE★knight.
- Touched by Vorlons: A normal human boy until God kidnaps him to use as a vessel. He is given the ability to float (necessary, as his feet were taken to make Butterfly), frozen in time (so that his organ-less body would not die), and able to prevent the use of abilities in his room. He has no choice in the matter.
Rimm
- Child Soldiers: Not by choice. Rimm and Wil were kidnapped by an organization to serve as soldiers for their utopian cause. Rimm, wanting to protect Wil and the other children, took on more tasks so the others wouldn’t have to, and was heavily traumatized as a result.
- Perpetual Smiler: Rimm is always smiling, even when his words and actions don’t suit his expression.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Rimm just wants all siblings to live safely and happily in harmony forever, so it’s fine that he turns every adult that enters the world into a “dog” and punishes those who seem like a threat, right?
Temple
- Light Is Not Good: Temple is cloaked in white and gold and bears light-based powers that can immobilize people, but he sacrifices the well-being of others to accumulate money. Some of the stained glass in his church depicts the sun’s rays, and the town the church is located in is white and clean.
- Not So Invincible After All: Using the power of his necklace, Temple is able to OHKO the entire party with ease. This will happen every time you fight him unless you give An the signal in time to attack from afar. Once she does, he falls quickly.
- Perfect Poison: Temple obtains this to drink and share with his followers after Diantha dies. He drinks it and falls to the floor, but Diantha’s spirit saves him by turning him into an esper before he dies.
- Scam Religion: The central religion of the World of Religion is just a way for Temple to collect excessive amounts of money from the populace, to the point of bankrupting them. Technically, God is real and Temple knows them personally, but the worship means nothing to either of them.
- The Scrooge: Temple is obsessed with accumulating money by any means possible. He tries not to spend it, having in the past foraged for wild vegetables in the hills rather than buy them.
- Younger Than They Look: Everyone always treats Temple like he’s old, despite him feebly reminding them that he’s technically still in his 20s.
Wil
- Demolitions Expert: Wil has, alongside his robotics expertise, experience with making explosives. He uses this to blow up a giant boulder blocking the way to the ruins.
- Never Bareheaded: His helmet never comes off, and we never see what is beneath it. Character design notes state that he looks similar to Rimm, though.
