SaGa Frontier / Characters

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The Protagonists

Asellus

Formerly a normal human girl who lived with her family, which formed good relations with the Okonogi family in Shrike. Asellus's old life ended abruptly when she was accidentally run over by the carriage of the Mystic Charm Lord Orlouge and to save her life, she was infused with his Mystic blood, making her the world's only Half-Mystic. Feared by humans and despised by Mystics, Asellus has to find a place for her own in this world while being hunted by her kin.

Alien Blood: Purple.
Awakening the Sleeping Giant:
- Orlouge really shouldn't have messed with Asellus, though it's understandable that he'd want to get White Rose back from her. In the Half-Mystic ending, he forces her into a fight because he thinks her life's worthless, completely missing the fact that he created the most powerful Mystic in the world. His death appropriately ensues.
- Ciato has no excuse, however. He tries to kill her pre-emptively because she might become so powerful that she could destroy him permanently. So, of course, that's what she does.
- Rastaban did this intentionally. He wanted a Mystic strong enough to defeat Lord Orlouge and bring change to Fascinaturu again. However, if she doesn't embrace her Mystical side, then this backfires. She's a stronger Mystic than Orlouge, but she has every reason to hate his guts for what he did to Gina, and has no interest in his ambition. She kills him.
Big Sister Instinct: Before getting ran over with Orlouge's carriage, Asellus used to play with Red when he was a toddler, being his non-blood related Cool Big Sis since her family has good relations with the Okonogi. When she ends up joining Red temporarily during the Cygnus hijacking, Asellus uses this trope as a reason; she's worried about Red.
Boyish Short Hair: Asellus's hair is kind of short, further reinforcing how Gina mistook her as 'Facinaturu's new prince' before meeting her and enforcing how much she ends up as Discount Lesbians.
Discount Lesbians: She's gay (or at least bisexual) because of the Charm Lord Orlouge's blood in her veins. In the ending where she gives up her Mystic powers, she marries a man.
Disc-One Nuke: Asellus is uniquely positioned to get Asura before any other character. As one of the most powerful swords in the game, Asura will take a lot of the pressure off the party in the early game, and will remain useful until the end as long as its wielder is appropriately leveled. If you play as Asellus it's taken for granted that you'll get Asura.
Emergency Transformation: After being hit by Orlouge's carriage, she's infused with his blood, turning her into a Half-Mystic and saving her life.
Even the Girls Want Her: Largely because of a Charm Person effect, both human and Mystic women display attraction to her. But it's implied that Gina's feelings were more than that.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Is the target of this from about half of the Mystic nobility. She's an ordinary girl, who has no desire to conquer Fascinaturu, build a harem, rise in the nobility over the bodies of her rivals, or any of that - and they don't get that. If they had, they might not have drawn her into their games, to the sorrow of just about everyone who tries.
Expy: Of Terra Branford. Both being Half Human Hybrids, and have a similar color scheme, and look, but Asellus is a bit more masculine. Both also have identity crises, albeit for different reasons. Both also have the ability to transform into a form that accentuates their nonhuman blood.
Face–Heel Turn: In the Full Mystic ending, she decides that as a Mystic, she'll become even more powerful than Orlouge, becoming a nasty Evil Overlord and discarding any notions of humanity with her, turning Gina into her love slave.
Giant Poofy Sleeves: Her outfit has these.
Glass Cannon: In a way. Since Asellus is positioned in a place where she could get the Asura sword. But it will cost her 3 LP permanently, and thus while she could end up being a Disc-One Nuke and stayed relevant to the end, Asellus can potentially trigger 'Loss of LP' Game Overs more often than any other main characters if they just forego Asura (which often happened). Even more so if Asellus wanted to get Time Lord, so she'll have to sacrifice an extra 1 LP for the Sand Vessel at that point.
Gone Horribly Right: In the Full Mystic ending, Asellus has become exactly the heir Lord Orlouge wanted, and he couldn't be more proud of the fact that she's about to kill him and take his throne.
Guest-Star Party Member: She, along with White Rose, can join Red's quest during the Cygnus hijacking scenario, but permanently left afterwards. Averted in Emilia's quest, where they (plus Zozma) join permanently.
Half-Breed Discrimination: Hated by humans for being a Mystic, mocked by Mystics for being human.
Half-Human Hybrid: Half Human, Half Mystic.
Heroic Neutral: Asellus just wants to live her life with White Rose. The problem is that, first, Orlouge considers White Rose his personal property, second, Ciato wants Asellus eliminated as a threat to his power, and third, Rastaban wants her made into a Mystic who can overthrow Orlouge. She has a lot of Mystical asses to kick if she wants to be able to do this. As a Full Mystic, she abandons this trait once she realizes she can't live as a human anymore; she has to live as a Mystic, which means taking her rightful throne. In the Human path, conversely, she's a lot more proactive about cleaning up Fascinaturu: Not only does she kill Orlouge to free herself from her curse, she calls out and kills Rastaban for being a manipulative dick.
Hybrid Power: Quite possibly the most powerful being in the world. She can gain stats like a human and spark Sword, Fighting and Gun skills, but she can also absorb the souls of monsters and transform into a Mystic at will and get their stat bonii, she has the gift for Mystic magic, and she doesn't have any of her inventory slots locked by Mystic gear (particularly the painfully-weak MysticMail).
I Hate You, Vampire Dad: In the Full Human ending, Asellus kills Orlouge to free herself from her Mystical blood.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Asellus just wants to go back home and live an ordinary life. Neither Orlouge nor Ciato will allow that. In the Full Human ending, she gets what she wants; in the Half-Mystic and Full Mystic endings, she comes to accept that she will never be human, and either comes to terms with her dual heritage or decides to take her place as a Mystic Lord by force.
Leitmotif: Has her own theme here. Surprisingly more whimsical, it would've played during the original sequence wherein Asellus and White Rose escape from Fascinaturu. See it here.
Lesbian Vampire: Played straight in the Full Mystic ending, ambiguous and Dark Is Not Evil in the Half-Mystic ending.
Locked into Strangeness: Comments by other characters, unused artwork, and her full-human ending, with several photographs of Asellus's human family, apparently going back to her own childhood before the accident) reveal that, before she became a half-mystic, her hair was bright red, and would have faded to brownish orange-red if she had aged at all.
- Her hair actually changes to green, although Mystical Change tints it to where it looks blue.
Magikarp Power: Starts with no skills and horrible stats, but can develop in any direction she chooses, and by combining her human and Mystic abilities, can become the mightiest of all the starting characters.
Mayfly–December Romance: In the Half-Mystic Ending, she and Gina share this; Gina's an old great-grandmother while Asellus is still eternally young and beautiful.
No Sympathy: Unlike White Rose, Asellus showed no sympathy for the young lord of the Owmi Manor after helping Mesarthim get back to the lake, saying that humans and mystics can’t possibly be happy together (most likely lashing out at her own half-human, half-mystic circumstances). Depending on the path taken in the game, she may decide to get over it or succumb into the darker outcome of the trope.
Older Than They Look: Stopped aging at 17 after becoming a Half-Mystic, making her 29 when her story starts. She's at least 70 during her Half-Mystic ending.
Phlebotinum Rebel: Though she isn't so much actively rebellious as just wanting to go home and live a normal life with White Rose. After escaping from the Labyrinth, she comes back to confront Orlouge for one reason or another, depending on how Mystical she's become.
Power Dyes Your Hair: Her blood transfusion dyed her hair green. Also, when she uses her Mystic abilities, 'Mystical Change' activates and adds the stats of the absorbed monsters onto her own— this change is signified by some glowing, floating, and her hair turning from green to bright blue.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Since the accident happened 12 years before the game started, and not 'yesterday' as she previously believed, Asellus's aunt believed her to be dead.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In her Half-Mystic ending, she tells Orlouge this. Orlouge decides to kill her for it.
She Is the King: A two-fer:
- She's the "Prince" of Fascinaturu, for multiple reasons; chiefly, she's Orlouge's heir rather than his mistress, and Mystics don't care all that much about gender. But it's also there because she's in the role of a fairy-tale prince, particularly to Gina.
- After Orlouge's death, as Half- or especially Full-Mystic, she is the Charm Lord. "Lord" is another gender-neutral Mystic title.
Super Mode: Mystical Change. Borders on a Superpowered Evil Side, as too much use of this will lead to her getting Drunk on the Dark Side.
Then Let Me Be Evil: A very subtle example. In her Full Mystic ending, Asellus realizes that she will never be able to live among humans or be accepted by them, so she decides to take her place as the new Charm Lord with all that entails, completely abandoning her humanity and morality in the process.
They Would Cut You Up: Although it was removed from the original game due to time constraints, Asellus was supposed to visit Dr. Nusakan and the Bio Research Lab as well as paying a visit to Trinity Base on her scenario instead of being a guest in Emilia's chapter, where she would end up in a torture chamber...
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Asellus is basically the tomboy towards not only her main partners, Gina and White Rose, but also the only other female protagonist in the game, Emilia. Her boyish haircut and mostly preference to physical actions is a giveaway for that.
Walking the Earth: Asellus doesn't have a quest as such. She's just travelling the regions trying to get away from Orlouge's assassins, at least until White Rose is trapped in the Dark Labyrinth. In the Half-Mystic ending, she becomes a wandering adventurer, with no real place in the world except for her ties to the aging Gina.
Who Wants to Live Forever? - A source of Angst in the Half-Mystic ending, where she finds it hard to return to Gina for her yearly reunion, who's living a mayfly human life.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: In her Full-Mystic ending, she goes mad with power, becoming a worse tyrant than Orlouge was.
Worthy Opponent: Orlouge considers her this in the Full Mystic ending, when she returns to take his throne as Charm Lord. He's much more contemptuous of her in the other two endings.

Blue

One of the top magicians in the Magic Kingdom. Graduating from the Magic Academy was the beginning of his journey to becoming the master of all magic. Blue must learn all the kinds of magic he can until the time comes to face his brother, Rouge, in a magic duel to death.

The Archmage: Blue has high growth rates in his relevant magic stats, the single highest magic learn rate in the game, is the only character who can use gifts from opposing magic schools, is the only character with access to the extremely useful life magic, can access every school of magic save the very limited Evil magic and the mostly useless Mirage magic, and will have all of his magic-oriented stats doubled if he wins his duel with Rouge. All of this together makes Blue the single most versatile character in the game, and a definite contender for its strongest.
Cain and Abel: Told to be the Cain of the equation by the Magic Kingdom. Rouge was no doubt told the same thing. He also fits the Cain part: he's the insensitive jerk to the more social Rouge.
Colorful Theme Twin Naming
The Exile: Not allowed to return to the Magic Kingdom until he kills Rouge.
Evil Twin: He is Rouge's Evil Twin. Or rather, Rouge's Evil Literal Split Personality or the part that gets dumped with the majorly negative traits of the original Blue/Rouge.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: In Fuse's scenario, if Blue is the one who comes out victorious from their duel, he will accept the responsibility of fixing the Magic Kingdom and teaching the next generation, making sure his problem would not be repeated again.
Heel–Face Turn: If he wins against Rouge, Blue also inherits some of his good heart, and eventually he agrees to travel to Hell to seal Hell's Lord for eternity, saving mankind and developing from his Villain Protagonist status.
Jerkass: He just sits in his suite on the Cygnus when it's attacked, refusing to help Red because of his name. On his own quest, if swallowed by Tanzer, he ignores the attack by Nomad's fighters against the other passengers, and abandons Fei-On in Tanzer's stomach. He also kills Kylin to take his gift of space magic, even if it meant doing so would cause the destruction of his paradise he made for children (some of his party members even call him out on this).
Lack of Empathy: Blue couldn't care less of how other people feels as long as he can fulfill his mission of obtaining Magic Gifts and defeat Rouge. Jerk.
Leitmotif: His theme here plays only at the beginning of his quest, and it sounds more ominous than the others, as a sign that Blue is more Villain Protagonist than either his brother or the other protagonists.
Manipulative Bastard: His monologues when it comes to recruiting members are mostly about how much he can manipulate them in order to reach his goal.
Master of All: Though heavily built toward being a mage, Blue can easily go with any combat style he wants; he's extremely talented at learning most of the good sword techniques (really only missing out on LifeSprinkler), a fair number of fighting moves, and since guns and magic share the same development chance, he picks up gun techniques every bit as quickly as spells.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Blue can be picked up by Fuse, but by doing so, Rouge would vanish from his usual recruitment place.
Polar Opposite Twins: Blue is an absolute Jerkass in comparison to his more kindhearted brother Rouge, though their both rather rude.
Pretty Boy: Fuse actually mistakes him for female in Essence.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After getting the Vitality Rune, Blue decides not to bother with Fei-On and escorting passengers getting out of Tanzer with the plane they came with, and just gets out with his Region Map, that asshole. Likewise, in Fuse's scenario, when he could pick up Blue in his party, he still would leave Fuse if he decided to travel to Magic Kingdom, and he's just less polite about it ("The time hasn't come").
Took a Level in Kindness: After fusing together with Rouge in their Wizard Duel, Blue starts to become more like Rouge, helping out the Magic Kingdom despite them being directly responsible for the strife the two had to go through to become it's magical Super-Soldier. Fuse mentions that he also starts to genuinely smile as he teaches future magicians in Magic Kingdom to make sure no one has to go through what he went through again and promises to call on Fuse for help if he needs it.
Unscrupulous Hero: He's single-mindedly interested in mastering magic and defeating Rouge. He refuses to get involved in any troubles not related to this, insults Red and refuses to help him specifically because of his name, manipulates his allies into helping him and discards at least one when he's no longer useful, and is willing to murder Kylin and destroy his paradise for children simply because he needs Space Magic (while Rouge is able to Take a Third Option). The only reason he's not a straightforward Villain Protagonist is that (even if he doesn't know it) he's doing all this to protect the Magic Kingdom and fight Hell's Lord.
Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Gains all his brother's magic spells if he wins their duel.
White Hair, Black Heart: His sprite has blond hair, though in all the artwork, it's white like Rouge's. Hair color aside, as for why he fits these, see Jerkass above.

Emilia

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

Former super model who found love with an IRPO officer named Ren. One day, Emilia found Ren murdered and was convicted for the murder and thrown into prison. She managed to escape and ended up joining Gradius in order to track down the one who killed Ren: an enigmatic figure known as "Joker."

Battle Ballgown: Emilia wears a wedding dress during her final battle.
Best Served Cold: Not on Joker... but Fuse in Essence. After her quest, Emilia, now a seasoned combatant, still remembered how he tossed her to jail. After learning the DSC from Liza, she proceeds to smack Fuse with that move for vengeance. This is carried over in Fuse's playthrough on Emilia's case. After freeing Ren from the Joker mask and the two marrying for real, Fuse and the IRPO crews take part in the group photo and it shows him with some bruises on the face; and the accompanying sound effects on Fuse's beating sounds like Emilia didn't do just DSC, she gunned him down and also beat him up with fists and a sword. Fuse just came out with a bruise on his face.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Emilia (blonde), Liza (brunette), and Annie (redhead).
Broken Bird: Emilia was about to live a happy life with her fiancee, Ren, but that was brutally ripped away from her and was jailed soon after. In Essence, she was so traumatized that after saving Ren, Emilia proceeded to break up with him because the utter shock from that shook her to the core.
Buxom Beauty Standard: In her opinion, this is Defied. She finds the disproportionately-oversized breasts of the girl in the porn mag disgusting, because "she's out of proportion" and "size isn't everything."
Chekhov's Gunman: Can be seen this way in Red’s path. Emilia and Ren are seen together aboard the Cygnus in the beginning discussing their future together. Red can later recruit her if taking on the Arcane quest.
Clothes Make the Superman: Being an ex-supermodel, Emilia can get stat boosts in her clothes. Two of her four outfits give a minor benefit in a different skill. More specifically, they swap her "Spark Talent List"—that is, the moves she's most likely to learn, with the other ladies of Gradius.
- Pink Tiger outfit boosts her barehanded attacks by swapping her list with Liza's.
- Bunnygirl outfit was likely meant to boost her magic skills, but has no effect.
- Belly Dancer outfit boosts her sword techniques by swapping her list with Annie's.
- Soldieress outfit was likely meant to boost her gunplay (possibly by swapping her hidden gun/magic stat (0) with Roufas (6)), but has no effect.
Cry into Chest: At the bad ending, Emilia cries on the hug of both Annie and Liza, since she just ended her vengeance by killing Joker and indirectly Ren and is utterly confused on what to do after her vengeance was done and she felt no accomplishment at all.
Dance Battler: Technically when she wears the belly dancer outfit. Used to great effect when using swords.
Dumb Blonde: Downplayed. By all means, Emilia isn't dumb... but she tends to take on the wrong assumptions on things, such as thinking the Shingrow tournament is actually a dance party, not a battle tournament. Even Blue thinks by looking at her alone that Emilia 'looked a little stupid' - but then, it's Blue. Gameplay-wise, she will most likely struggle in learning Magic, a skill governed with Intelligence, so perhaps Blue had a point.
Early-Bird Cameo: In the beginning of Red’s scenario on the Cygnus, Emilia is seen with Ren in one of the viewing rooms discussing their planned marriage.
Earn Your Happy Ending: Emilia’s good ending where it’s revealed that Joker is actually a possessed Ren who tells her to shoot his mask off to free him. Afterward, they finally get married. In Essence, however, it's subverted. Marriage did happen, but Emilia has become broken by her whole quest that she amicably divorced with Ren shortly after. But then double-subverted in Fuse's scenario about her case. Emilia still marries Ren without divorce, and also manages to get back at Fuse for unfairly jailing her.
Everyone Has Standards: Emilia draws the line at 'selling herself to slavery because she's hot'. Even if Joker's on the line, she will refuse. Unfortunately, Roufas has other ideas to make her do it.

Fairytale Wedding Dress: Emilia tries one on just before her Big Bad crashes in.
Giant Poofy Sleeves: On her wedding dress.
Guns Akimbo: In most of her art, Emilia is prominently seen using guns.
Go-Go Enslavement: Her "Sword Dancer" outfit, unlocked when she's captured by Trinity and forced to join a harem.
Hopeless with Tech: Says as much when talking to T260G in Scrap. She and Asellus are the only two protagonists who can't recruit any mecs.
"I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Emilia has this with Ren, who is revealed to be bodyjacked by Joker the whole time in her good ending.
Inconsistent Spelling: Due to translation error, her name in the original was 'Emelia'. The Remastered fixes her back into Emilia.
I Was Never Here: In the bad end, Emilia takes on the final mission of forgetting that she ever joined Gradius on Roufas's request.

Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Emilia fights the final boss of her story while wearing her wedding dress.
Leitmotif: A surprisingly 'relaxed' one for someone with intents of vengeance like her. This plays when renaming her, or during her first trip at Trinity's Lambda Base.
Leotard of Power: Emilia dons one in her Pink Tiger outfit. Ditto with her bunny girl outfit.
Ms. Fanservice: Thanks to loads and loads of Fanservice Pack she could wear and all of them are quite attractive, and her default look is also a pretty blonde, Emilia is one of this game's major fanservice providers.

Playboy Bunny: While on her Baccarat mission.
Power Trio: She's usually forming this dynamic with Annie and Liza, as 'Roufas's Angels' in Gradius on Emilia's story. She's usually more detached from them in other scenarios as she's recruited via the Arcane Quest.
Power-Up Letdown: Emilia's gameplay gimmick is the ability to change between outfits that change her proficiency with specific fighting styles. However, her magic-oriented bunny outfit and gun-oriented commando outfit don't change anything, and leave Emilia with her default learning rate—which is the worst in the game. Her dancer outfit is meant to increase her spark rate with sword skills by switching her proficiency list with Annie, but her default list is arguably superior. Only Pink Tiger has any real use.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Fuse's case on her, if you attempt to do Gold Card Arcane Quest, Emilia will recognize Fuse as the guy that threw her to jail and then runs away, not joining Fuse. This doesn't bar you from getting the Gold Card, however.
Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: In one piece of her official art.
Shout-Out: Emilia getting forced into a harem in a skimpy belly dancer outfit is like how Leia was forced into slavery by Jabba the Hut in Star Wars.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Emilia is the girly girl when compared to the other female protagonist of the game, Asellus. She has more proficiency with non-physical things (although a bit dumb and can still be geared towards being a melee fighter), she's a successful model, possesses long hair and generally being the Ms. Fanservice.
Win Your Freedom: Emilia and other inmates of Despair are given a chance for freedom if they can get to the Freedom Rune hidden within the prison. She, Annie, and Liza were the first to do so and thus released.
Wrongly Accused: Accused of murdering her fiancé, Ren. Unfortunately for her, Ren was Fuse's best friend, so he had her thrown into Despair with no trial.

Lute

A wandering minstrel who stayed at his mother's house in Yorkland and wants to make a name for himself. He's usually seen helping others.

The Alcoholic: Not as bad as Gen, but he has shades of this- He's always found in the Pub in Scrap, and during his story, if you do the quest for the Grail Card, finding the card becomes an afterthought to "Free sake!"
All Your Powers Combined: Essence states that his quest was finished last, mainly because he was so busy helping out all the other characters. So they returned the favor and all joined him to finish his quest. All of them. The villain of his story is also revealed to be the Man Behind the Man behind most other villains in the game.
Basement-Dweller: Actually starts off his quest because he's tired of being a burden to his mom (read: he gets kicked out.)
Cool Big Bro: To Thunder.
Disappeared Dad: Lute's father was absent for most of his life due to being murdered.
Expy: He's not the only friendly traveling bard in a game in the SaGa series — the Minstrel in Romancing SaGa fits that description as well.
Lazy Bum: Starts as of these, and he's forbidden from going back home until he gets a job. His intro outright calls him "shiftless." In the end he's running Trinity after killing off Mondo and usurping his position. He winds up in hiding back home away from everyone.
Magikarp Power: He starts out with, essentially, no abilities to speak of, but can be developed to any level in any direction, and learns skills unusually quickly.
- Lute has a mediocre spark list, the worst stat growth of any human, no starting abilities, and terrible equipment. His weakness can actually be a minor benefit, though; characters spark faster against stronger enemies, and Lute starts off so weak he can quickly fill out his arsenal while he catches up to the rest of the party.
Magnetic Hero: Always found in the pub in Scrap, gets the other hero to talk about their self, and winds up joining their team. In his own story, he's genuinely friendly to anyone and gets people to join his team easily. In-game, he's got a very high "Charm" stat.
Punny Name: A wandering minstrel named Lute...
Walking the Earth: He leaves home in search of adventure. Adventure and a decent job.

Red^note Retsu Okonogi

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

Son of Dr. Okonogi, Red lost his family after a sudden attack by the terrorist group BlackX and was nearly killed by them, too. He was saved by the mysterious hero Alkarl, who made him into another superhero, Alkaiser, in order to save his life. A year later, Red now works for the cruise ship Cygnus under the supervision of Hawk, but he still desires vengeance against BlackX.

And the Adventure Continues: Double meaning too. After Red loses the Alkaiser form, it's implied that another hero will take his place to fight more evil, so the Superhero battle will continue. In Fuse's scenario, Red later on gets to become an intern in IRPO on Fuse's recommendation, so he gets to use his experience against Black X to bring down more criminals even if he never becomes Alkaiser again.
Anime Hair: A few drug users comment on it, calling him "Cactus Head". Also, Doll finds it easy to find him due to his "hip-hop hairdo".
Bare-Fisted Monk: While Red can be adept in sword-fighting, most of Alkaiser's exclusive skills are martial arts-based, so he's mostly dealing with martial arts moves.
Brought Down to Normal: In his ending, Red’s Alkaiser powers are taken away by Alkarl, saying his mission is finally over and should live a peaceful live with his rescued family.
- Brought Down to Badass: Unless the player has been exclusvely relying on his Alkaiser form, Red Presumably ended up like this.
Boxing Lessons for Superman: Since Alkaiser's stats are based on Red's own stats, it pays to do a lot of fighting as red's normal self.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Being raised as a hero and to uphold the Hero's code, Red helps out anyone in need.
Covert Pervert: Red got a bit excited after he accidentally groped Annie when breaking into Shuzer’s base. He also got really excited if reading the porn magazine in Shrike.
Crutch Character: Alkaiser form. While few non-bosses can stand up to his immense power, ending a battle as Alkaiser voids any stat bonuses that Red would get. Since Red's stats directly influence Alkaiser's, the result can be a very weak superhero.
- That being said, Red can spark number of powerful moves that are unique to his Alkaizer form, so time spent fighting as Red won't be completely wasted.
11th-Hour Superpower: Using Al-Phoenix on M Black III causes him to counter attack with Dark Phoenix, which triggers Alkaiser to learn and counter counterattack with RE-Al-Phoenix, the most powerful Alkaiser skill in the game. Of course, at this point, there's no one else left to use it on except the final boss, unless Red is the last character used in the System Data and will be going to 4th Dimension after finishing his final boss.
Emergency Transformation: After nearly being killed by Shuzer, he's turned into a superhero by Alkarl in order to save his life.
Expy: His appearance appears to be based off that of a character named Red in a little-known SquareSoft game called Treasure Hunter G. There's also a Blue in that game, although he looks nothing like this one's. His Alkaizer form is one to the whole Kamen Rider franchise.
Full-Body Disguise: Near the end of Red’s story, he’s given a Black X uniform to disguise himself in order to sneak onto the Black Ray.
Gameplay and Story Integration: In line with keeping his superhero identity a secret, outside of scripted battles, you can't transform into Alkaiser unless all the humans and monsters in your party are either unconscious, blinded, or in some other state where their eyes just don't work. For some reason, this rule does not apply to Mecs.
Henshin Hero: He's basically a Kamen Rider in an RPG.
Hormone-Addled Teenager: 19 years old and comes with the teen perversion tendencies, including getting super excited at the porn mag in Shrike and thinking on Annie's impressive set of racks when he accidentally bumped to it.
Laser Blade: Alkaizer gets access to the Ray Sword after transforming.
Light 'em Up: Many of his moves as Alkaiser use light, either directly offensively or just as added special effects.
Light Is Good: As Alkaizer, Red has access to light-based attacks, and he's a bonafide super hero.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Word of God says his real name is 'Retsu'.
Parental Abandonment: His family is killed by Black X about thirty seconds into his game. It's revealed that his mother and sister are actually still alive near the end
Power Glows: Morphing into Alkaiser is accompanied by glowing and a flash of light.
Secret Identity: One that, if revealed, will lead to him being Depowered in addition to having his memory erased.
Shout-Out: To the sentai Henshin Hero genre. Alkaizer's signature move, Shining Kick, is a blatant one to Kamen Rider's Rider Kick.
Super Heroes Wear Capes: Even when he's not dressed as Alkaiser.
Theme Naming: Most of Alkaizer’s exclusive moveset are themed on light.
- Ray Sword
- Bright Fist
- Shining Kick
- Sparkling Roll
- Flash Turn
- Deflect Lance

Riki^noteCoon

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

A Lummox from the dying realm Margmel. Wishing to restore his dying home to its former beauty, Riki seeks the power of the Nine Rings, known to grant any wish.

Asian Fox Spirit: A Lummox actually, but the combination of his multiple tails and shape shifting certainly invokes it.
The Chosen One: The Lummox Elder claims that he was told to give Riki the quest for the rings by a dream from Margmel.
Cuteness Proximity: He's a cute Lummox, so if Emilia recruits him, she's not listening to his reasons, she just finds him cute and she's taking him with her.
Dub Name Change: In the Japanese version, he's known as "Coon." This was changed due to "Coon" being a racial slur in America. invoked

Horrible Judge of Character: Justified, he's a little kid who honestly doesn't know any better.
Idle Animation: The only character with one. Leave him alone long enough, and he rocks back and forth.
Kid Hero: Though his actual age is unknown, he definitely behaves as though he's a kid. Probably in part due to being a Fish out of Water.
Mega Manning: As a monster, it comes with the territory.
Ring of Power: Has the "Guardian" ring. In-story, it's the reason Margmel managed to go so long without dying. In-game, it boosts the party's defenses.
You Can't Go Home Again: In his ending, his wish is twisted to completely reset Margmel, erasing his home in the process, rather than merely restore it. When the wish is undone, Margmel is still doomed, necessitating a permanent departure regardless.

T260G

A robot that was found by two kids in the town of Junk. It lost its original purpose and wants to find out what that purpose was.

Heart Drive: T260G's "core" apparently functions as one of these, enabling it to swap body types at will. Presumably, it's the same for other Mecs, too.
Living Ship: Its original original body, before crash-landing in Junk.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: T260G cannot remember its original mission, and the majority of its quest is relearning it.
Samus Is a Girl: Sort of. As a mec, T260G is genderless, but it's original body was a ship, and ships are considered female, so...
- Spaceship Girl
Robo Speak: "Affirmative"s, "negative"s, various calculations and repeated instances of Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness make up T260G's dialogue.
Robot Names: Of the "string of letters and numbers" variety. "T260" is actually its original model number, with a "G" tagged onto the end to designate its Mec body as a product of Taco's work.
Robot Soldier: T260G discovers its mission is to destroy the RB3, a giant ship capable of destroying and overrunning all regions.
Ungrateful Bastard: Played for laughs in the beginning of its chapter. After Taco revives the core with a robot body, T260G tries to test out the new form, then began repeating its criticisms of its functions.
T260G : Attack: deplorable. Defense: deplorable. Movement: deplorable. (repeating over and over)
Wolverine Claws: On its default body.
Worth Living For: After completing its mission, T260G shuts down, as it feels it has no reason to function now that its primary directive has been fulfilled. Gen angrily reminds T260G that it has another mission: to return back to Rosemary and Thyme. T260G reboots and heads back to Junk to reunite with the two kids.

"Fuse"

An IRPO agent and would-be 8th Protagonist of the game, which was cut in the original version. While not exactly the nicest person, Fuse remains steadfast in his pursuit of justice. He was friends with Emilia's boyfriend, Ren. In his anger over the death of his friend, he throws Emilia into Despair. He also investigates Cindy Campbell of Manhattan, suspecting a connection with BlackX. He runs into Red and assists him with his own investigation. He also investigates Mondo of the Trinity, warning Lute that Mondo wasn't just 'the nice man that gave him a lift out of Yorkland'.

Casanova Wannabe: Fuse likes to act more chivalrous towards ladies, but he fails to score any of them. Even Ren states that he's going to stay a bachelor for life if he delayed his marriage with Emilia just to wait for Fuse to get laid.
Code Name: "Crazy Fuse", which sometimes reflect his more impulsive nature. His real name is 'Roster'.

Demoted to Extra: Was originally going to be one of the main protagonists, but his quest had to be cut due to disk space. Averted in the Remastered where he's now the eighth playable character.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In Asellus's Case File, once the evidence is piled up, he just straight-out says he's going to arrest Orlouge for abducting women and making them his Princesses, treating the Charm Lord as if he was just another low-life criminal. And DOES.
Good is Not Nice: He may be a Jerkass, but he's dedicated in his job as an IRPO agent and put many dangerous people in his hit list, pursuing them relentlessly.
Jerkass: Knocks Red unconscious for talking out of turn, gets Emilia thrown in Despair with little evidence because he doesn't like her, insults Lute a bit... he's not a particularly pleasant individual.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In his story, however, his well-meaning is often shown. He invites Red to go intern with IRPO for all he's done despite not having Alkaiser powers. And the reason why he tossed Emilia to Despair was because he thought Despair would be a safer place rather than risk her getting out in the open and assassinated by Joker.
Laser-Guided Karma: While he kinda got away with tossing Emilia to jail in her scenario, not so much in his scenario following hers, provided that you don't pursue her in Trinity Base: Before her marriage ceremony and after he helped out Emilia defeat Diva, he got beaten up badly by her as revenge for her unfair tossing to Despair (presumably with DSC) and realizing that Joker was let loose because Fuse handed Ren the mask in the first place, thus everything started from Fuse. When Ren takes the whole IRPO crews to his wedding portrait, Fuse is there and it shows that his face is still bruised from the beating.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fuse's chapter in Emelia's scenario reveals he single-handedly responsible for everything: He put his wedding gift inside a evidence bag because he was too lazy to get proper wrappping paper. This led him to get it mixed up with another evidence bag that contained the Joker mask. Which he then gave to Ren. The intended gift? A decorative plate. Engraved with his dumb face.
Pet the Dog:
- If he's recruited by Red before initiating the Shield Card quest, then he will not ask Red to get the flower at Mosperiburg and gives the Shield Card for free. Of course, the drawback on this is that Red can't get the treasures guarded by the dragons and recruit Suzaku.
- In his scenario about Blue's case, he goes ahead to convince Time Lord and Kylin to come with them without having to defend their Gifts, so they and Kylin's paradise inhabitants didn't have to die when Rouge or especially Blue would've come knocking. He also makes sure the IRPO backs Blue/Rouge up by providing an escape route so they can escape Hell once Hell's Lord is taken down.
- In his scenario on Emilia's case, he could go out of his way to find and protect Emilia in the Trinity Base instead of arresting Yaruto and call it a day. Doing that spares him from Emilia's wrath in the ending.
Promoted to Playable: In the Remastered version, Fuse is now the eighth playable character.
Secret Character: In the Remastered version, he can't be selected as a main protagonist until one of the original seven stories has been cleared.
Secret-Keeper: In his scenario on Red's case, Fuse figures out that Red is Alkaiser but promises to keep this a secret to everyone.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Throws Emilia into Despair without a trial, because he's the boss at IRPO and can do whatever he wants and he was pissed off that his buddy Ren died. Subverted, however. While others chew him out for this, Fuse thought that throwing Emilia into Despair is the best way to protect her for the time being, Joker cannot breach the security of Despair after all.
Speaks Fluent Animal: Fuse can somehow communicate with Cotton if he’s in the party when rescuing it from the Bio Research Lab.
Supporting Protagonist: To quote the Launch Gameplay trailer for the Remastered version, the majority of Fuse's story has the player "explore what might have happened if he was with one of the other heroes on their journey", with said other heroes having more instigative roles.
Took a Level in Idealism: In the original game and supplemental material Fuse is a dirty cop who is only nominally on the side of justice. Come the Remaster his seedier actions are given exculpatory context, and he aggressively pursues the villains of the other protagonists.

Recruitable Humans

Annie

One of the members of Gradius. Annie is a practical swordswoman who's only in the organization to provide for her family. She became one of Emilia's best friends in her scenario, provides information about Shuzer of BlackX in Red's scenario, escorts Riki to obtain the Hermit Ring in his scenario or escorts anyone seeking the Freedom Rune to the prison Despair.

Boob-Based Gag: When she escorts Red to Shuzer's base, he accidentally bumps on her up front when crossing a bridge in which Annie yells to stop touching her body like a pervert. Red's thoughts? 'Impressive...', implying that he accidentally touched Annie's boobs.
Cool Big Sis: She has two little siblings, a troublemaking boy and a girl who got adopted into a rich family at Yorkland, Essence confirms that this is the same girl that was possessed by one of the Rings in Riki's scenario. The Remastered alludes the identity of the troublemaking little brother: a member of BlackX who's considering quitting because if Annie ever finds out she will make him sorry.
I Like Swords: Her style focuses on swordplay.
Lovely Angels: Annie is one of the two constant female underlings of Roufas in Gradius; the sword-fighting chick to complement Liza, the martial-arts chick.
Knowledge Broker: She sells Red the location of Shuzer's base and knows her way around Despair, among other things.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Forms this pair with Liza: Annie is more impulsive and frequents Despair about 6 times due to taking brash actions against rude customers.
Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Annie's Spark Talent list is weird. Despite her constant usage of swords, she basically had no talent to spark a majority of sword skills. However, she DOES have talents for the high-end sword skills (such as RosarioImpale or LifeSprinkler), so she's more likely to quickly spark those high level sword skills than many other 'low/mid-tier skills'.
Stripperiffic: Annie walks around with basically a crop top that reveals her shoulders and the upper part of her generous boobs, her midriff, and THEN wears short pants. And her long boots still reveal her thighs enough that it's an A-grade Zettai Ryouiki.

Captain Hamilton

Captain of the ship Victoria and a member of anti-Trinity group. She reveals to Lute that Mondo was actually a bad guy and killed his father to boot, and led the attack to Mondo's base.

Amazon Brigade: Her entire crew is female, all orphans who've had their families killed by Trinity.
Cool Ship/Cool Boat: She's Captain of the Victoria, an region ship that looks like a pirate ship, complete with large glowing sails.

The Lancer: To Lute. Would be a straighter example if she didn't join just before the Point of No Return
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: She's exclusive to Lute's scenario/Case File, so if you want to get her, play it.

"Doll"

An IRPO agent disguising as an adventurer looking for her brother. That was just a cover to her true mission: Arrest one of BlackX's Emperors Berva.

Code Name: "Icy Doll." Her real name is actually Taris.
Fair Cop: An extremely attractive, scantily dressed government agent.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Before the Remaster, she was originally exclusive to Red's scenario.
Only Sane Employee: Of IRPO.
Undercover Cop Reveal: Lies to Red at first about why she wants to go to the ruins in Shingrow, just before the fight with Berva, she reveals herself as an IRPO patrol officer.
What the Hell, Hero?: She chews out Fuse for throwing Emilia into Despair without fair trial, since because of that, the IRPO is going to have to deal with a PR nightmare of a successful model getting that treatment.

Fei-On

A monk in training who used to date Mei-ling. His attention to his training caused Mei-ling to break up with him and during a journey to Kyo for training, his ship was swallowed by Tanzer. Ever since then, he's staying at the makeshift village there protecting the people from the sky pirate Nomad who was also swallowed there, in addition of escorting anyone who would like to seek something Tanzer also swallowed: The Vitality Rune.

Bare-Fisted Monk: He's considered one of the best when it comes to bare-handed fighting, barring Liza. Though depicted as a Chinese monk, Fei-On seems fine with wrestling moves.
It's All My Fault: He blames himself for being so absorbed in training that he failed to notice that his girlfriend Mei-ling ended up under the thrall of the Black Ring.
Nice Guy: Fei-On is polite, doesn't have a mean bone in his body and is squarely a defender of the innocents from Tanzer's body system and Nomad's marauding. He doesn't even look too mad when Blue just manipulated him to get the Vitality Rune and ditched him in Tanzer, in his own words, "Everyone's got their own businesses."
Warrior Monk: Even went so far as to shave his head to look the part. He was on his way to Kyo to train before his ship was swallowed by Tanzer.

Gen

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

A swordsman from Wakatu, until the town is reduced to ashes by Trinity. In grief, Gen turned towards alcohol and kept drinking in either the town Junk or Scrap, at least befriending Rose and Thyme and becoming a mentor figure to T260G, assisting it in its quest for identity. Seekers of the Saber Card would seek him in order to travel to Wakatu. If he's recruited by Lute, he'll get excited in assaulting Mondo, as he held him responsible for Wakatu's massacre and wants revenge.

The Alcoholic: A full-blown drunk. Just sits around getting wasted in Scrap and Junk, and both his status screen and victory pose involve him drinking.
Cool Old Guy: Has the personality, and at age 35, he's definitely this to Rose(14) and Thyme(12). To everyone else in-game, he's borderline- none of the protagonists are older than 25 (Lute), and short of Roufas(40) and Capt. Hamilton (48), he's still got 6 years on the next closest character who can join the group.
Drowning My Sorrows: In Fuse's Case File for Lute, it's explicitly stated that his alcoholism is a result of the Wakatu massacre.
Drunken Master: A drunken samurai, and possibly the best sword user in-game.
Implausible Fencing Powers: He cuts through a rope by using an iron pipe as a sword, although he later claims he didn't use the pipe to cut it. Lampshaded by T260, who Divides By Zero trying to figure it out.
The Lancer: To T260G
Last of His Kind: He's the last survivor from Wakatu, a region whose inhabitants were slaughtered by Trinity.
Master Swordsman: Arguably the best swordsman in the game. He starts off with a lot of sword techniques and can learn most of them. Best of all, he's available to everyone (though you'll have to finish all of the Rune magic quests before you can recruit him as Emilia).
Only the Chosen May Wield: In the Sword chamber of Wakatu, Gen, if leveled high enough, will be granted the Comet Blade, much to his shock since the Sword God only presents powerful katanas to the most talented swordsmen.
Token Human: In T260G's scenario, he's the only major character that stayed human to the end while T260G is surrounded with mechs. (Leonard used to be human, but uploaded his brain to a robot)

Liza

A member of the Gradius, a female martial artist who was known to have an affair with Roufas, but broke up because of his dedication to the job, but she still stuck with him because she has a family to feed. She's also Emilia's best friend in her scenario, suggests that Gradius support Red in his crusade against BlackX, and she can also be asked by Blue to escort him to the location of Hide Rune.

Bare-Fisted Monk: She's considered one of the best unarmed combatant in the game, aside of Fei-On.
Hair Flip: Her victory pose include coolly flipping her hair, reflecting her cool-headed personality.
Lovely Angels: Along with Annie, Liza is the more constant female of Roufas's Gradius members, contrasting with Annie with her martial arts skills.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Annie, Liza is a more level-headed, calmer girl that keeps her cool, so she doesn't join that many characters (compared to Annie who'd join anyone who would seek the Freedom Rune).
Working with the Ex: Liza used to be Roufas's lover, but they broke up due to Roufas being more focused at his job. But since working with Gradius pays better for providing her family, Liza continues to work with her ex. If you're playing as Blue, you need Roufas on your team in order to recruit her. (For Red, it's more complicated.)

Mei-Ling

A Chinese lady who used to date Fei-On, but broke up due to some incident (but mostly because Fei-On was too focused on training). She became some sort of caretaker of Riki and helps him in his quest to gather the Nine Rings with her knowledge. Unfortunately for Riki, Mei-ling is actually using him to her own ends to rule the world, as she was possessed by the curse of an evil ring, the Black Ring.

Anime Chinese Girl: She wears something of a Qipao and has a very common Chinese girl name.
Big Bad Friend: In Riki's story, Mei-Ling is one of the most prominent friend and advisor of Riki, but in the end, it's revealed that she's just using him, she's the Big Bad of his story. Naturally, if you made her your main party member throughout the game... you're short of one main, developed member, although Master Ring's strength does not scale with Mei-Ling's.
Demonic Possession: Her quest to find the rings is in large part driven by the Black Ring's influence. It takes full control of her at the very end of Riki's quest.
Easily Forgiven: For manipulating Riki and the others and nearly causing a non-existence to a region, she only got the crap beaten out of her and all is forgiven. Granted, Nusakan's diagnosis decreed that she was being cursed by the Black Ring, but still. At least in Fuse's scenario, Mei-ling gives a good reason to be forgiven: She resolved to help discard the Rings and prevent it from being used for evil again as the atonement.
Foreshadowing: On beating the Owmi Lord to take his ring, he warns Riki and Mei-ling that anyone looking for the ring has to be up to no good. Mei-ling DOES have an extensive knowledge about the rings... Turns out, she is up to no good, being the Big Bad of the story.
Hypocrite: Mei-ling is known to be able to call out Blue for wiping out the inhabitants of Kylin's Paradise. However, she would have had no problems with the same being done to Margmel's inhabitants, and worse, unlike Blue who had an unknowingly noble purpose, Mei-ling had nefarious plans with it, with her only excuse being that the Black Ring made her do it.
Mage Marksman: She starts off with a few light spells and gun techniques
Noblewoman's Laugh: Never actually heard, but her victory animation has her doing the gesture.
The Lancer: To Riki.
Squishy Wizard: Has some of the worst HP growth in the game and is not going to get very far in most physical skills, so it's best to work on her guns and magic instead.
Treacherous Advisor: She's your guide during the whole Riki's quest, but turns out she's up to no good, being the Big Bad all along and using Riki to gather all the rings for her own desires.

Ren

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

An agent of the IRPO, Fuse's junior and also Emilia's fiancee. He used to be rather workaholic which is why he and Emilia argued a lot, but eventually decided to tie the knot with Emilia and get married. However, in the day before his marriage, he came across a mysterious mask of the Joker and had his body possessed, becoming the super villain known as the Joker, making it look like he was murdered by Joker. The only witness, Emilia, ended up being accused as his murderer and jailed for it.

Anime Hair: Has spiky blond hair, akin to a more known Square protagonist in their greater magnum opus.
Ascended Extra: Ren's role at first was Emilia's dead boyfriend and eventually the body host of Joker, though this is only revealed in the end as well as Fuse's partner. The Remastered version, which includes Fuse's scenario, gives Ren more spotlight by making him Promoted to Playable if Fuse follows any story but Emilia's.
Dead Partner: He was Fuse's best friend, which riled Fuse about his death and caused him to lash out unfairly against Emilia.
Good Cop/Bad Cop: Fuse considered Ren the good cop to his own bad cop. Ren is generally more lighthearted and not that abrasive compared to Fuse.
Fighting from the Inside: In Emilia's good ending path, Ren resisted Joker's influence enough to tell Emilia on how to undo the Grand Theft Me put on him. She takes his advice well.
Promoted to Playable: He's playable as his own self, not Joker, in the Remastered version, though only during Fuse's scenario.
Sacrificial Lamb: He's only around on the earlier parts of the game, but then he bit the dust. Averted in the Remastered version, especially Fuse's scenario: Just as long as it's not Emilia's case, Ren is alive, well and can join Fuse's party and sometimes participate in the IRPO activities together. Even in Emilia's case, both endings of her case with Fuse always end with Ren surviving.
Schrödinger's Gun: The nature of Ren being Joker and how it came to be depends on which ending is taken, which happens in the middle of the game instead of being set on the beginning:
- In the Good Ending path, Fuse's evidence bag that he wanted to give for Ren as his marriage present contained an evidence of one of his cases, the Joker Mask. Ren gets his body hijacked and the Joker is let loose.
- In the Bad Ending path, Ren is a disillusioned Fallen Hero that saw the IRPO being ineffective in actually keeping criminals behind the bar despite their efforts (and another criminal would take their place if they didn't escape), and so concocted a deliberate plan which involves faking his death by using a body clone with perfectly matched DNA, attempting to use the Joker persona in being a Well-Intentioned Extremist to make a truly peaceful world. In Emilia's scenario, he's shot dead as Emilia renounces her love for him, but in Fuse's scenario, Fuse manages to snap him out of his mentality with a beating and Emilia still manages to carry her love for him regardless.
The Reveal: It's later revealed that Ren has been possessed by The Joker. Fuse's scenario adds more reveal on this: the Joker mask was slipped on Fuse's present for him to celebrate his marriage, meaning that Fuse accidentally triggered all those possession shenanigans on poor Ren.

Roufas

The leader of the Gradius society. Roufas used to be friends with Fuse, training for Mind Magic together until they went separate ways with Roufas founding an organization to handle dirty jobs the IRPO couldn't handle. In his spare time, he's hanging out at Mu's Tomb seeking brave men who'd want to claim the Victory Rune. He's the one who hired Emilia in her scenario in order to track down the Cube.

Cool Shades: Never takes 'em off. Not even while cooking. Not even at a wedding.
My Nayme Is: "Roufas" rather than "Rufus". The "Essence of SaGa" states that his name is really meant to be Roufas, rather than being some type of translation error, and in turn the Remaster keeps it that way.
Only Sane Man: In the last legs of Emilia's scenario, Roufas is the only one who objects Emilia dressing up in her wedding dress because it will leave the group exposed with danger, but his idea got ignored because they're done with him being The Unfettered. Sure enough, it gave an opening for Joker to launch Diva at them.
The Unfettered: Roufas is very focused on his job as the leader of Gradius that he really does not have time for romance, causing Liza to break up with him. He also absolutely has no problems in tricking Emilia to be shipped into Trinity's harem as long as it gets the job done.

Rouge

Blue's twin brother and actually a more friendly guy who will join anyone (except his brother) in their quest, as long as they themselves can gather Magic Gifts (so he can't join T260G or Riki). According to Essence, he's the canonical winner in the fated duel.

Cain and Abel: The Abel to Blue's Cain, as Rouge is the more social and friendly brother.
Colorful Theme Twin Naming
The Exile: Not allowed to return to the Magic Kingdom until he kills Blue. Due to a lack of Gameplay and Story Segregation, he'll actually leave the group if you try to bring him.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Although he wasn't a complete fool, in Fuse's scenario, if Rouge is the victor of the duel, then he refuses to lead Magic Kingdom, on the grounds that he feels like he's not yet ready to take responsibility, so he'd wander the realms for awhile but will return when he is.
Hero Antagonist: He's not the most pleasant fellow, but he's far more humane whereas Blue is selfish and petty. This is emphasized in gameplay: you can obtain Rouge as a party member on all of the quests bar T260G and Riki, while Blue cannot be recruited on any others. In fact, he dismisses Red on his quest solely because his name is similar to Rouge's. The fact that you can't recruit both in the same party can also be explained due to Rouge actually being Blue's Literal Split Personality.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rudeness runs in the family as in Essence, Rouge got kicked out of Kylin's Paradise because he's rude (despite getting the Gift in a non-lethal way). However, he's a lot friendlier than Blue and makes efforts to befriend and help others. He just tones down the rudeness better than his bro.
Red Is Heroic: His name is 'red' in French, and yes, he's a much more heroic person from get go than his asshole brother.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: In Fuse's scenario, he has the ability to recruit Blue, but if he does, then Rouge simply vanishes from his usual recruitment place as long as Blue is in the party.
Polar Opposite Twins: Rouge and Blue's only point of commanality is their rudeness, other than that Rouge is relatively more kindhearted while Blue is a full-on Jerkass.
The Power of Friendship: In Essence, he's able to muster the strength to get out of Hell, because he knew there were people who cared about him outside.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If you ever has Rouge in your party and decided to travel to Magic Kingdom, Rouge will politely leave your party because he's not allowed to return there until he finishes his mission to get all Magic gifts (which will never happen, because he can only do that in Blue's scenario and the situation is more complex). Thankfully, he can still be found in either Devin or Luminous with all his stats, skills and equipments intact if you have finished your business in Magic Kingdom.
Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Downplayed: if he wins against Blue, he gains all of Blue's magic... but not any non-Magic skills Blue might have learned along the way. So if Blue has somehow learned Life Sprinkler... tough luck, Rouge has to learn again from scratch about it, unless you're in a New Game+ in the Remastered version and in a previous scenario, has recruited Rouge and made him learn non-Magic skills.
Walking the Earth: In Fuse’s story, after escaping Hell, Rouge declines staying to rebuild the Magic Kingdom as he believes he’s not ready to lead it, instead it’s to go on a journey to broaden his horizons before returning home.

Recruitable Mystics

Dr. Nusakan

A back-alley doctor found in Koorong, running a hellishly scary clinic that scares everyone that comes across him. He's still dedicated to the job and morbid research, though, moreso than the immense power as a Mystic that rivals a Mystic Lord.

Almighty Janitor: Essence states that he's as powerful as a Mystic Lord, but doesn't give a damn about the Mystic hierarchy. He'd rather continue his morbid research.
Back-Alley Doctor: Runs a small clinic in the backstreets of Koorong.
Creepy Good: His clinic will scare the bejeebus of anyone that comes to him, which is why he can't be recruited by many. But, he will put his life on the line on a patient in need as seen in Riki's scenario, and also suspects Mei-Ling being possessed by the Black Ring. He's also gracious enough to offer himself as an escort to the Hide Rune for Blue. Essentially, if you get past his creepy outlook, Nusakan is a good doctor.
Dark Is Not Evil: A very very scary doctor, but also a man dedicated to his job as a doctor and also represents the 'neutral' option for Asellus's case in Remastered, encouraging her to just be herself and decide what to do with her mystic heritage on her own.
Deadly Doctor: A doctor who's also a powerful Mystic and not stuck with the crappy Mystic Mail, not to mention his Stuck Items allow him to freely heal anyone, making Nusakan one of the top most powerful Mystic gameplay-wise.
Disc-One Nuke: Has access to Greater Arcana before completing the Arcane Quest. Including the Death tarot.
Expy: Looks somewhat similar to Final Fantasy VII's Dr. Hojo.
Minored in Ass-Kicking: He's one of the most powerful Mystics around, but he's mostly interested in research rather than battle.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Subverted. Despite being creepy as hell and running a scary clinic and most likely not having taken an oath of doctorate, Nusakan is dedicated to his job in saving lives if someone contacts him.
Nightmare Fetishist: Why else does he put up a skull that collapses and eerily laughing on the collapse right in the waiting room of his own clinic? No wonder not everyone can recruit him because they're too scared of him and likely wouldn't be able to see beneath the surface.
Scary Shiny Glasses: Fits well with his creepy doctor aesthetics.
Stuck Items: Instead of the typical MysticMail, he instead has the MysticWear, which allows him to cast MagicHeal for healing purposes and allows him to wear more powerful armors.
Strapped to an Operating Table: He's standing next to an operating table with straps, making whoever sees him think he's going to subject the trope on them, causing them to run away. However, Nusakan actually wouldn't do that if they approach him for other reasons.

Ildon

Rastaban's lover, who is requested to serve as Asellus's bodyguard for ulterior motives.

Deadpan Snarker: He's wry and aloof, which makes his commentary across Asellus's route very snarky.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Initially, he shows Asellus very little respect, and considers teaching her something of a burden. He mellows out through Character Development and later comforts her after Dark Labyrinth.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: He's exclusive to Asellus' scenario (and Fuse's Case File focusing on Asellus).
Reassignment Backfire: Rastaban assigns him to help Asellus. In the human route, he'll help Asellus kill Rastaban.
Took a Level in Kindness: In all of the epilogues to Asellus's route he becomes noticeably nicer. Even when he's badmouthing Asellus in the Full Mystic ending it's not unwarranted.
Oranyan: To Rastaban. He's well aware that Rastaban's completely off his rocker, and doesn't mind snarking bitterly at him whenever they get a scene together, but he does love him.

Word of Gay: All There in the Manual, he and Rastaban are together.

Mesarthim

A low-ranking Water Mystic, which translates into being a Mermaid and also giving her rather low self esteem towards upper class Mystics, viewing herself as their slave. Mesarthim was captured in a fishing net and confined in the mansion of Owmi where the young lord fell in love with her, bringing conflict in her because while she's glad that he's a good human, by nature she's incompatible with the smell of humans. Asellus freed her, and she's forever indebted to her, willingly rejoining any party that has Asellus in it, or at least a normal upper class Mystic that doesn't scare her (Dr. Nusakan or Time Lord)

Almighty Janitor: Is a low-class mystic and believes herself to be weak and pretty worthless. However, she's actually an extremely powerful companion if she works past that, especially if she develops her Mystic Weapons.
Apologizes a Lot: For perceived disrespect to upper class Mystics.
Cast from Hit Points: Her [LifeRain] ability sacrifices her LP to heal the party's HP.
Extreme Doormat: Considers herself below any other Mystic she can name.
Happiness in Slavery: She's quite eager to be Asellus's slave when Asellus comes back to her. She’ll also happily serve Time Lord and Nusakan if in the party. Averted with the Lord of the Manor; she's not happy at all when he confines her to his house, but admits that as a person, he's a good man.
Humans Are Smelly: She can't stand the smell of humans, which is one thing that causes her to resist the Lord of the Manor.
I Owe You My Life: If Asellus goes back to Owmi for her after the Dark Labyrinth, Mesarthim invokes this trope, insisting that she be Asellus's slave. Incidentally, she also feels this way about the Lord of the Manor, but can't stand the constant smell of humans or her confinement in his shower.
Making a Splash: She's permanently equipped with the MellowRing, which allows her to cast LifeRain, but if Mesarthim acquires all Mystic weapons, the item will allow her to use a devastating water attack: Maelstorm. The one that either the Devil Squid or Kraken would throw at you.
Our Mermaids Are Different: They're water mystics.
Stuck Items: Like Nusakan, Mesarthim isn't stuck with MysticMail. She's stuck with just an accessory that protects her from water attack and allows her feats as listed on the trope above.
What Happened to the Mouse?: While Mesarthim accompanies Asellus during the Full Human and Half Mystic Endings, her fate remained ambiguous in the Full Mystic Ending: We don't know if Asellus killed her or spared her because she was not of noble mystics that resided in Facinaturu.

Rei

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

The first of Orlogue's princesses, who lost affection for him and reincarnated herself to escape his castle.

Better to Die than Be Killed: She threw herself into the fires of Kurenai, so she wouldn't have to live as one of Orlouge's mistresses.
Boomerang Bigot: In Asellus's game, the first thing she says is "I smell the foul stench of a Mystic," referring to White Rose, despite she herself being one.
Can't Catch Up: Subverted. As a general rule, with very few exceptions^notemost notably Zozma, the characters you get all start out at around the same level of power, no matter when you get them. It is impossible to get Rei at any point except very late in the game. By the time you can get her, you'll be leagues ahead of her... if not for the fact that she's a Mystic, who only needed a few monsters to absorb (in particular Suzaku) to quickly catch up with the rest stat-wise (although she still needs time for other developments like WP/JP and other spells if you want her to cast anything other than Mirage Spells).
Half-Human Hybrid: Averted. Rei is pure Mystic, despite being physically human due to Reincarnation, and she's incapable of human-like physical development or techniques.
Miko: Acts as one at the shrine in Devin.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: She's exclusive to Asellus's scenario, and in it, you have to choose between Rei and Kylin + Space Magic. You cannot have both. In Fuse's scenario in the Remaster, she joins automatically during Asellus's Case File, which means they can be in the same party if Kylin's recruited before that point.
My Hero, Zero: "Rei" means "Zero" in Japanese, and she's the only character able to use Mirage magic.
- Given that no other princess of Facinaturu is provided an actual name rather than a flowery symbolic title, and her status as Orlouge's first princess, it's likely she was intended to be Princess Zero (in a similar sense to "patient zero") and the translators just didn't pick up on the significance.
Permanently Missable Content: If you don't visit her room with Asellus and White Rose, and then again with just White Rose, at the beginning of Asellus's scenario, she won't even join you.
Past-Life Memories: Rei has full knowledge of her life as a Mystic.
Pride: Essence says that her portrait during the battle with Orlouge symbolizes "Pride that bows to none."
Reincarnation: Committed suicide to be reborn into human flesh, by using the "cycle of birth".
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In the Remaster, she reveals to Fuse that Orlogue was racing to prevent her reincarnation when he hit Asellus with his carriage.
Wise Beyond Their Years: Despite knowing about Time and Space magic, having mastered Mirage magic and her reaction to Asellus and White Rose, she's only 12. Justified, since she's been re-incarnated.

"Silence"

Formerly a Mystic living in Facinaturu. An encounter with Fuse, however, made him interested with the outer world and then he joined IRPO. He's mute, thus his code name is 'Silence'.

Appropriated Appellation: "Silence" started as a taunt, as he is unable to speak.
Casting a Shadow: In the remaster, Silence automatically comes with the gift for Shadow magic. Ironically in the original version he was locked out of it and had to settle for attaining the gift for Light magic.
Code Name: As an IRPO agent, it makes sense.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He tried to invoke this by attempting to absorb the dimensional beast Tanzer, but failed miserably.
Foil: To Fuse. Fuse is a Casanova Wannabe and by the man's own admission, "quite talkative". Silence is an actual mute and is apparently quite popular with the ladies. Little wonder why Fuse seems to dislike him so much.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: As part of his Impractically Fancy Outfit, moth wings appear out of his back when he casts magic.
Impractically Fancy Outfit: Somewhat justified since most mystics dress rather fancily. Fuse hates his dress style and even gave him a nickname because of that (see trope below).
In-Series Nickname: Fuse calls him "Narcissistic Cosplay Jerk."
Meaningful Name: As his name implies, Silence is a mute.
The Silent Bob: In The Essence of SaGa Frontier.
The Voiceless: It's rumored that he lost his voice when trying to absorb Tanzer, although Word of God says he's a natural mute. Under the right circumstances, he'll speak in Red's game near the end, but it's in a scene where the second and third members of the group ask Red-as-Alkaiser about where Red is, so it's likely just an oversight or glitch.

"Time Lord"

The only Mystic with the gift of Time Magic. He resides in his own space, sealing his power to prevent misuse. The player can re-activate his realm if they want his help or learning Time Magic... or claim his gift by killing him, if the player is Blue.

Authority Equals Asskicking: Subverted. He's actually a low class Mystic, but the ability to control time makes him very powerful and dangerous regardless.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": No one knows what his true name is- "Time Lord" is just a title he's taken for himself.
Power Perversion Potential: Invoked in Essence when he uses Time Leap to allow Fuse to feel up Doll. Unfortunately, since the person is outside of time, they can't be affected by anything, and feel as hard as stone. Unfortunately for Fuse, Time Leap's effect doesn't last very long.
Stance System: If the staff is hovering in front of him during his boss fight, he's going to cast a spell that turn. If he's holding it like a baseball bat, he's going to attack physically. Knowing this and bringing Psychic Prison makes things a bit easier for Blue.
Time Master: He's the only one with the Time Magic gift and will happily teach you some lesser Time Magic if you don't want him in your party. But to get the gift for yourself, like Blue, you'll have to kill him and claim the gift... as long as you can endure his barrage of time manipulation magic.

White Rose

The kindest arch princess of Facinaturu and sworn to be loyal with the Charm Lord Orlouge. White Rose is assigned with the task of being Asellus's caretaker and protects her from harm, but this displeases Orlouge, who wants her back to his side instead of going with Asellus. She eventually sacrifices herself by becoming Asellus's unwitting sacrifice so she can escape the Dark Labyrinth, feeling guilty for betraying Orlouge. Asellus definitely freed her after defeating Orlouge, but what happens to her afterwards depends on the path Asellus chose.

Conflicting Loyalties: She doesn't realize following Asellus was a betrayal of Orlouge until Ciato's shadow spells it out for her, and it weighs on her mind from then on.
Crutch Character: In Asellus's scenario, she begins as the powerful aide to help Asellus when the latter is horribly weak, but as a full Mystic, her development options were limited. She later gets stuck inside the Dark Labyrinth and leaves forever, discouraging players to be overly dependent on her. Averted in Emilia's scenario, where she's just another recruitable Mystic that joins mid-game.
Heroic Sacrifice: In the Dark Labyrinth, in order to for anyone to leave, someone has to stay behind. White Rose decides that she deserves it as punishment for disobeying Orlouge, and stays so that Asellus and co. may leave.
Love Martyr: In Asellus's Full Mystic ending, she and the rest of Orlouge's harem are left to "sleep" in their coffins forever so Asellus can start a new one.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: As Asellus's main traveling partner, she's the Girly Girl for Asellus, the prim and proper Mystic princess, complete with Pimped-Out Dress and using a curtsy bow as her victory pose.

Zozma

An exiled Mystic from Facinature for being 'different'. He's one of the few beings who has the Evil Magic (but not its Gift), and generally very proud of himself and his immense power, but he's decent-hearted for his allies.

Aborted Arc: According to the plot notes for Asellus's scenario, Orlouge intended for Zozma to be his heir before the latter rebelled, making Zozma an ongoing source of fascination for a mystic lord that almost always gets what he wants. None of this made it into the game, and Zozma's exile from Fascinaturu is implied to merely be the consequence of his brusque mannerisms.
Blasé Boast: Zozma claims that he visits Fascinaturu despite his exile because Orlouge is the only mystic there more powerful than him. In game, Zozma arguably has the best starting stats of all recruitable mystics.
Convenient Replacement Character: He joins Asellus after White Rose is lost to the Dark Labyrinth and fulfills a similar role as a reliable, powerful Mystic.
Dark Is Not Evil: Sure, he can use evil magic and looks like Akuma, but he's on Asellus's side and helps her cope with the loss of White Rose.
Walking Shirtless Scene: ...with star-shaped nipple pasties.

Recruitable Mecs

BJ&K

The Cygnus' onboard nurse.

The Medic: For Humans.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Originally only appears at all (and thus only recruitable) in Red's story. In the Remaster, Fuse can find him standing next to Red during any of his Case Files.
Robot Buddy: As a Mec exclusive to Red's scenario, he's always seen together with Red in case Red is recruitable in Fuse scenario, because he had to keep up being the Secret-Keeper (see below).
Secret-Keeper: He recognizes Red as Alkaiser pretty early on, but keeps it secret on pain of being disassembled.

Engineer Car

A Mec built to repair and upgrade other Mecs. Desperate for something to do other than sit around the work floor, it can be recruited by any character just by visiting Nakajima Labs in Shrike and asking it to join.

Combat Medic: For being a largely support-role Mec, whoever created him also had a mind to arm him with a Vulcan gun and sharpshooting programs, the former being integrated so you can't unequip it. Yes, it ends up being comically outclassed compared to the other Mecs' firepower, but still.
The Medic: For Mecs.

Leonard/Leonard B. Edison

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

Leonard's body prior to his Brain Uploading

Trinity's chief science officer.

Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: Idea 4; He may or may not have an atomic battery or miniature reactor inside him as a power source if the tabard his mech version wears is any indication.
Brain Uploading: Predicts his own death and backs up his memory for just such an occasion.
Crazy-Prepared: Leonard copied his memory into a mech and programmed it to activate his consciousness should anything happen to him. It did.
The Medic: In his new body he has the ability to repair as well as restore a Mech's WP... infinitely
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Originally exclusive to T260G's scenario, though the Remaster allows Fuse to recruit him if he's investigating either T260G or Lute's Case Files.
The Smart Guy: He's the one who's the most in the know about Trinity and their facilities, which is why he gladly helps T260G in navigating them.
Unexpected Successor: Eventually ends up becoming President of the new government after Trinity is exposed and driven out of power.

Pzkw V

A Mec arms dealer that idolizes Leonard.

Arms Dealer: Found in the backstreets of Koorong, selling guns smuggled from Trinity. Notably, he sells the very powerful Hyper Cannons.
Gratuitous German: His name is an abbreviation for Panzerkampfwagon V.^noteArmored Combat Vehicle Mk. V
More Dakka: Has the most integrated equipment of any Mec body, and three of them are heavy weapons.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Only accessible as a party member in scenarios where you can recruit Leonard (just T260G in the original release, and Fuse's Case Files for T260G and Lute in the Remaster).

Rabbit

A Mec found in the garden of Kyo. It is trying to find the secret drug base of Metal Black hidden somewhere in town. It's also a property of IRPO, which had their sights on Metal Black.

Appropriated Appellation: A tiny Mec with protruding ears and round body? No wonder he's called Rabbit.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: It was excusive to Red's scenario in the original version of the game.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: It may be the tiniest amongst all Mecs, but in the world of SaGa, that also means that it also holds tremendous power and houses many powerful programs. It also has a built-in Laser Cannon in it.
Robot Buddy: He's the token robot for the IRPO, appearing a lot of times in Fuse's scenario with his IRPO pals.

ZEKE^noteType-ZERO

A robotic mouse created by Nakajima Robotics that escaped and ended up trapped in Sei's Tomb.

Department of Redundancy Department: The Accelerator item/skill can only buff his own Quickness. Since he starts off with the highest Quickness stat in the game before equipment, and not many monsters will be able to match it, Accelerator becomes useless right out of the gate, but unfortunately, you can't unequip it.
Fragile Speedster: Starts off with the highest Quickness stat at 70. It doesn't take much to max it out to 99, but ultimately lacks any of the durability the other Mec bodies possess.

Mutually Exclusive Party Members: It's exclusive to T260G's scenario, and Fuse's Case File for T260G.

Recruitable Monsters

Cotton

The only monster who is a member of IRPO's Region Patrol. While Cotton was on an assignment looking into the activities of a gang of thieves, scientists in Shrike kidnapped him and imprisoned him in the Bio Research Lab.

Strapped to an Operating Table: Found in the Bio Research Lab, trapped in some sort of chamber being experimented on.
The Unintelligible: He speaks in "kyu"s and "myu"s, although Doll and Fuse seem to understand him. More so because Cotton is an IRPO agent.

Kylin

A creature that has attained the gift of Space Magic, and has used it to create a sanctuary for children.

Friend to All Children: So much that he created a magical paradise just for them.
Papa Wolf: He seems quite jolly until Blue announces he's going to kill him and take his gift of Space Magic.
Mutually Exclusive Party Members: In Asellus's scenario, you can have either Kylin and Space magic, or Rei. You cannot have both.
Permanently Missable Content: If you don't recruit Kylin before going to the Dark Labyrinth in Asellus's scenario and have activated the triggers needed to recruit Rei at the start of her story, then you will never be able to recruit Kylin even if you reject Rei's offer.
Reality Warper: Due to having the Gift for Space Magic, he was able to create a magical region.

Red Turnip

A thief that became trapped within Orlogue's Dark Labyrinth after trying to steal from his castle.

Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Exclusive to Asellus's party (or Fuse's Case File on Asellus in the Remaster) due to the area he appears in only accessible during that route.
Sucksessor: Discussed when he joins Asellus's party, as White Rose had to stay behind in the Labyrinth for everyone else to go free.

King Sei

A former king who ruled the region that includes Shrike. Recently awakened from his tomb, he is a kind soul who continuously watches over Shrike and wants to protect it from those who would do it harm.

Cool Sword: He wields the powerful Kusanagi sword, which has a special technique. If you defeat him, he'll offer to either give you the sword or join your party. While Sei himself, being a monster, can't actually equip the sword per se, he does come equipped with the Kusanagi's special technique.
Defeat Means Friendship: If you defeat him after robbing his grave, he offers to join the party.
Dem Bones: He was a former king that's become an undead skeleton by the time the party encounters him.
Pet the Dog: If you're playing Riki and wake him up, Riki will explain his story and Sei'll be moved enough to join without a fight.
Grave Robbing: He does not take kindly to being awoken by people raiding his tomb.

Slime

A fragment of a larger Slime that guarded the Rune within Tanzer.

Lethal Joke Character: He just suddenly joins the party in the Rune quest and starts as an incredibly basic enemy, yet he can still be as powerful as any Monster party member. This carries over into Essence where he's critical in the victories against BossX and Mondo in rather unorthodox ways.

Suzaku

A beast that guards the mountain Fuse requests a flower from as part of the Arcane Quest.

Secret Character: Requires defeating an Optional Boss while trying to receive the Shield Card. Said Optional Boss only manifests if you examine Suzaku's frozen body.
Taken for Granite: Frozen solid in the mountains of Mosperiburg.

Thunder

Lute's "Little Bro" from his hometown of Yorkland.

Big Little Brother: Thunder's easily twice Lute's size but still calls him "Big Bro."
Crutch Character: Can be one for new players. Thunder's easy-to-acquire Trisaur form makes low leveled encounters trivial and early boss fights much easier, but its use peters out to the point where he won't be carrying his weight by mid to end game.
Disc-One Nuke: He can turn into a powerful Trisaur easily, which makes his Ground Hit cause 1000 points of damage to any enemy in range.

And All The Rest

Berva

One of the Four Emperors of BlackX who established a base in Shingrow. A modified Beast.

The Brute: The main muscleman of BlackX Four Emperors, decimating any fools that trespass his area with brute strength.
The Cameo: Berva will still appear as the Masked Giant in Emilia's version of Shingrow tournament^note. However, since Emilia is unconcerned with BlackX, Berva's true identity and goals remain unknown to her, he was just another one-time opponent for her.
Counter-Attack: Berva’s specialty, the Berva Counter, will cancel out all melee attacks before countering with a heavy blow.
Malevolent Masked Man: Enters the Masked Martial Arts Tournament wearing a domino mask.

Ciato

A Mystic that's pledged loyalty to Orlogue.

Blue Blood: Both figuratively (as Orlogue's right-hand man, he has significant status among the Mystics of Facinataru) and literally (a Mystic's blood is blue).
The Dragon: To Orlouge.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: He is driven to near-panic by the possibility that Asellus will become powerful enough to kill him, and does his best to murder her before that happens. He doesn't quite get that not only is Asellus immensely powerful, but Heroic Neutral, and while she never seeks him out to kill him, she will most certainly "make him disappear" when he attacks her.
Unexplained Recovery: Despite it being a plot point that she had extinguished him completely the first time, Ciato's ghost has enough left in the tank to make an appearance to attack Asellus in the final dungeon.

Cindy Campbell

President of Campbell Trading Company. Her true identity is Arachne, one of the Four Emperors of BlackX.

Corrupt Corporate Executive: In addition to being a Company President, she is a member of BlackX.
Cyborg: She's a cybernetically enhanced Mystic.

From Nobody to Nightmare: A Low Mystic that became part of BlackX. She actually resents the Mystic Lords and other High Mystics.
Spider People: Her true form.

Dr. Klein

A genius scientist who joined BlackX. A school friend of Dr. Okonogi (Red’s Father).

Eyepatch of Power: His left eye is covered by one.
Laser-Guided Karma: In Fuse's story on Red's case, Dr. Klein is allowed to continue his research as the reward for sparing Red's mother and sister. The drawback is that he's only allowed to do it while being imprisoned in Despair under the watchful eye of IRPO, so he can't even try to misuse the research again.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: Orders Metal Black III to kill Alkaiser before the latter has a chance to rest.

Pet the Dog: Fuse's story reveals that Dr. Klein was the reason why Red's mother and sister were spared unlike the father. Because of this, he got a positive Laser-Guided Karma later down the road.
Rival Turned Evil: To Dr. Okonogi. They went to college together, but Klein "became obsessed with strange and dangerous experiments for a secret organization [...] and was eventually expelled." Okonogi still considers him a friend, wishing only to stop Klein before he commits any more crimes.

Furdo

A minor Mystic that resides in Magic Kingdom, secluding himself in a lab full of statues and desiring to discover a way to topple higher-level Mystics.

Ascended Extra: Downplayed. In the original version, his workshop is just kinda there for extra exploration, when originally, he was meant to have extra scenarios concerning Asellus and affecting her ending choice. The Remastered version restores the Asellus content, but he still has little effects to the ending choice.
Dark Is Evil: He's an evil Mystic when there are just as many Dark Is Not Evil Mystic examples, and his vileness is meant to show just how depraved Mystics can be, even compared to fellow low-rank Mystics like Mesarthim or Time Lord, favoring Asellus's Human Ending.
Duel Boss: If fought in Asellus's route, he has to be fought alone.
Optional Boss: He can be fought with anyone (except Blue), but with little consequences or boons (and the drawback is that if you recruited Blue/Rouge, then you have to dump him because he doesn't want to go back to his home at Magic Kingdom). Even if he has extra scenes in Asellus's story, he's not mandatory.
Taken for Granite: All of his subjects were petrified and experimented, with only some faerie touch can temporarily revert them on Furdo's will. He also has the Petrification Breath technique, which somehow didn't work on Asellus and flips him off.
The Starscream: He's a minor Mystic, but has desires to take over the higher leveled Mystics.

Gina

An innocent girl living in Facinaturu as a seamstress assistant. She befriends Asellus and becomes one of her human companions and the link to her humanity, even if she doesn't directly join Asellus in her adventures.

Bittersweet Ending: Things don't end happily for Gina no matter how Asellus's story concludes. If Asellus remains a Half-Mystic, they do get together, but Gina grows old while Asellus remains young, and the latter's inability to fit in anywhere means she can never remain with her for very long regardless. If Asellus becomes human, then she goes on to have a family of her own, and while they remain close, Gina outlives her. And if Asellus becomes a Full Mystic, she makes Gina her first princess, but she becomes a ruthless tyrant and Gina is now effectively her slave for eternity.
Distressed Damsel: During the climax of Asellus' story, she gets kidnapped by Rastaban, and Asellus either rescues her during the mission or offscreen after defeating Orlouge (with the timing affecting Asellus' fate).
Morality Pet: She's usually this for Asellus, since she's one of the few humans in Facinaturu that Asellus befriended, had no ill-wills about and unless the Full Mystic ending is taken, Asellus risks her life to save her and in the Half-Mystic ending, Asellus makes it her habit to visit her once in a year to remind her of her humanity. Deconstructed in the Full-Mystic ending, however... Since Asellus decided to discard her humanity and become an Evil Overlord, she enslaves her and Gina is still completely submissive as a living Love Martyr, evolving from her previous role in a twisted manner.
Nostalgic Narrator: Narrates Asellus's game in this fashion.
Super-Empowering: In the Full Mystic ending, she becomes Asellus's first princess.

Hawk

The Captain of region ship Cygnus. He took Red under his wing after the death of his father, and treated him like a son as well as training him as the engineer of Cygnus. He's also the public identity of the hero Alkarl, the hero that saved Red's life.

Badass in Distress: The Cygnus hijacking event saw him being taken as a hostage to put Red into custody as well. The reason why he's not kicking their asses is because it'll give out his identity as Alkarl to public, and that's against the rules of a superhero.
Big Damn Hero: As Alkarl, appears just before Shuzer deals the final blow at the beginning of Red's game.

Parental Substitute: After Red's family is killed, he takes over as father and employer.
Stealth Mentor: It becomes a bit suspicious in hindsight that Red keeps being called back to work right when he's approaching a breakthrough with BlackX. Considering he actually knows all about Red's grudge (among other things) it's likely he was timing it to give Red leads while preventing him from getting in over his head.

Ian

Lute's father, and the leader of an anti-Trinity movement.

La Résistance: He was the leader of one, viewing Trinity's management as corrupt.
Posthumous Character: Lute was told that he fell while saving the life of his friend Mondo...with the truth being that Mondo killed him in order to join Trinity.

Joker

A malevolent masked super villain who's looking for the artifact known as Cube. He murdered Ren and leaving Emilia to take the blame for the murder, putting him on her target as well as Gradius'. He's actually Ren, either his twisted alter-ego or a mask containing an evil spirit that hijacked his body. This section deals with the latter.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He loses his megalomania the moment Fuse decides his fate, and begs to not be thrown into Kurenai's flames. Fuse is having none of it.
For the Evulz: He really doesn't have a lot of motives in what he does, he's just power hungry because he can.
Grand Theft Me: He hijacks Ren's body the moment he came in contact with him.
Malevolent Masked Man: He's a masked super villain and aiming for something destructive.
Mysterious Past: His origin is shrouded in mystery. Fuse noted that he'll be tossing him in the pyre at Facinaturu (Kurenai), but it's unclear if he was a Mystic from Facinaturu.

Lion Princess

Full-body shot unavailable due to official art showing off too much of her chest.

One of Orlouge's many princesses, and the one geared mostly for fighting. White Rose considers her as a big sister. Her loyalty to Orlouge is unquestionable.

Action Girl: Even before being turned into a mystic. Her portrait during the Orlouge fight symbolizes "Fear that dominates everyone"
Anti-Villain: She's not evil, just loyal to Orlouge.

The Brute: To Orlouge
Defeat Means Friendship: Implied. In the Human and Half-Mystic endings, she's seen on a scrapbook card with Asellus, which would in turn imply that Asellus spared her life after defeating her. She's not part of the group who visits Gina, however. Obviously averted in the Full Mystic ending, where Asellus kills all of Orlouge's princesses to start her own harem.
Impossibly-Low Neckline: Her armor does cover the most sensitive part of her chest, but most of it is still quite exposed.
Red Baron: She's also known as "The Golden Mane"
Take Up My Sword: Defeating Lion Princess the second time will have her drop her sword, the Golden Lion.
What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unclear what happened to her after her second defeat by Asellus. In the Human and Half-mystic endings, she shows up on a scrapbook card with no context, although it's implied by the Full-Mystic ending that she and Orlouge's other princesses are killed.

Metal Black^noteShortened to MBlack in battle

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

One of the Four Emperors of BlackX who has a base in Kyo. A Mec with the “soul of a warrior”.

Evil Knockoff: Metal Black III is modeled after Alkaiser, and has his own version of Alkaiser's Al-Phoenix, called Dark Phoenix. In fact, MBlackIII's Japanese name is Metal Alkaiser.
Pick Your Human Half: Obviously a Mec, but is quite the philosopher.
Recurring Boss: He's fought three times during Red's scenario.
Shout-Out: He looks like a mec-Samurai and originally fought in Kyo, and while he lacks an Eyepatch of Power, his crescent moon helmet is a reminiscent of the Japanese warlord Date Masamune.
Taking You with Me: When he’s defeated aboard the Black Ray, Metal Black attempts to kill the heroes by blowing up the ship before it could arrive at the BlackX base.
Worthy Opponent: Enough that he allows Alkaiser to rest up and outright refuses to attack while he's still weak from fighting the Black X emperors.

Mondo

Trinity's special intelligence officer, who ends up getting promoted to its commander after its leadership is caught trafficking humans.

Affably Evil: At first, he seems like a genuinely nice guy- In Emilia's quest, he gives her the Angel Broach, and in Lute's game, he gives him a ride out of Yorkland...but in the latter, he's also the head of Trinity, killed Lute's father Ian, and plans to rule the world with a Humongous Mecha.
Became Their Own Antithesis: Mondo was originally part of Ian's anti-Trinity resistance, fighting against corruption. He ended up murdering his friend in a bid to become an Internal Reformist, orchestrated the war against Wakatu to get a more influential position, and ends up trying to conquer the Regions for personal power thinly disguised as maintaining order.
Galactic Conqueror: Plans to use his Spriggan to conquer the Regions.
Humongous Mecha: The Spriggan.
Internal Reformist: It was Ian's belief that the only way to deal with Trinity's corruption was from the inside, which Mondo took to heart when he betrayed Ian and was rewarded with a position in Trinity. Unfortunately, he ended up corrupted by power.
Rival Turned Evil: He was Lute's Dad's best friend...then he killed him.
The Man Behind the Man: Between events in game and happenings in ''Essence'', he's in some way involved in at least five out of the seven stories.
Wave-Motion Gun: The Spriggan's "Buster Launcher", which does about 1,000 damage to the first person it hits, and 10-100 to everyone else.

Nasheera

The head scientist of the Bio Research Lab, researching for eternal life. For that, she 'accepts volunteers' from humans while capturing low-ranking mystics, experimenting them and turning them into dangerous monsters.

Ascended Extra: Originally, like Furdo, her extra scenes would have been there and directly affecting Asellus's ending. However, it was cut and only restored in the Remastered version, while also lowering the influence on Asellus's ending.
Deal with the Devil: The volunteer humans didn't realize that the deals she made with them also meant 'selling their souls to her'.
Evil Counterpart: To Asellus. She's a human transformed by evil science into a human-monster hybrid, similar to Asellus' status as a half-mystic. Unlike Asellus, she's evil even as a human being, and her actions cause Asellus to question whether her own humanity is a good thing.
For Science!: Research for eternal life isn't exactly for her benefits, she just want to make a breakthrough because that's what scientists do, and she doesn't give a damn about right and wrong.
Humans Are Bastards: She's a despicable human being that makes Asellus question whether her human side was fully good and making her favor the Mystic Ending.
Living Forever Is Awesome: One of her main goals is to try to find a way so humans can live forever.
Mad Scientist: Very very mad...
Optional Boss: She's optional to fight, even though she has extra scenes with Asellus.
Weredragon: If she engages in combat, she turns into the powerful Earth Dragon.

Nomad

A notorious bandit that was swallowed by Tanzer. Although she claims to protect other survivors, her gang is running a racket and throws people into Tanzer's guts if they're no longer profitable. She was once hired by BlackX via Cindy Campbell to silence Cygnus for knowing too much about her activities, but was shot down by their main flagship Black Ray once they failed.

The Dragon: While she is the leader of her sky pirates, she has her own Dragon, being the Platyhooks (A big Platoonpus with pirate hat and a gun).
Karma Houdini: She usually would never have to pay for her sky-pirating. Not even Red, a superhero who got his ship hijacked by her, had a scenario of delivering justice to her. Even in Riki's story, where she almost got swallowed by Tanzer, she survived and her only punishment was temporarily losing her Thief Ring, as Riki returned it to her once he realized that the Rings are bad news.
Karma Houdini Warranty: On the other hand, in Fuse's Case File on Riki, Fuse wastes no time to arrest Nomad and her gang, and by the time they exited Tanzer, he's on his way to haul her to jail, most likely Despair.
Self-Disposing Villain: In Riki's story, she ends up getting trapped in Tanzer's heart while trying to flee, though she ultimately survives.
Sky Pirate: She leads a pirate group that terrorizes the skies, until suddenly Tanzer swallowed them.

Dr. Okonogi

A genius scientist, and the father of Retsu Okonogi, AKA Red.

Mercy Kill: When Red is able to track down Shuzer, the BlackX Emperor reveals that he's implanted Dr. Okonogi's brain inside his own body, and asks if Red can kill his own father. Essence elaborates on this, stating that Shuzer did this solely so Dr. Okonogi could feel all of the pain that he felt, which means that Red performed this when he did indeed land a killing blow.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He appears in the opening of Red's story before Shuzer attacks their hometown and kills him, instigating Red's mission to take down BlackX.

Orlouge

Charm Lord, Merciless King, Protector of Rose, Ruler of Darkness, Pursuer of Beauty, Supreme Judge, Ruler of Facinaturu, Lord of the Castle, Mystic Lord. Orlouge rules the Mystics and Facinaturu with an iron fisted tyranny and keeps a harem of princesses for his pleasure. While chasing for an escaped princess, his carriage smashed onto Asellus, a human girl, and out of curiosity, he tranfused his blood onto her, turning her into a half-Mystic. He intends to keep his rule forever, though shows zero interest in invasion for humans.

Bad Boss/Villainous Demotivator: After Asellus's escape, Ciato questions the wisdom of not punishing Ildon... and gets hurled around the room for his trouble. Cut material includes him giving explicit permission to the Bio Research Lab to abduct and experiment on lower class mystics.
Orlouge: Don't ever question me again.
Ciato: Yes, lord...
Bait the Dog: His first (or second) action ingame is reviving Asellus after accidentally killing her in what amounts to a traffic accident. In cut content he was reportedly horrified, but he probably only cared because she was female. He soon proves to be a detestable being.
Blue Blood: Both in the figurative sense (the Prince of Facinataru and lord over Mystics) and the literal sense (a Mystic's blood is blue).
Charm Person: He has a power over women which few can resist, and only his heir is immune to.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Orlouge understands power and lust just fine. He doesn't understand that someone as powerful as Asellus might not want to be like him, conquering the universe and taking as many women as she can get her hands on.
I Have Many Titles: Charm Lord, Merciless King, Protector of Rose, Ruler of Darkness, Pursuer of Beauty, Supreme Judge, Ruler of Facinaturu, Lord of the Castle, Mystic Lord Orlouge. Phew.
My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Despite his domineering presence and immense power to threaten the Realms, he never lifted his fingers to be a conqueror of realms because the laws of Mystics are different than the laws of Humans or other beings. In Fuse's scenario, it's only after Fuse found a loophole to arrest him that Orlouge decided that if that's the case, then he can also break his rules and become a conqueror. Naturally, that was also thwarted by Fuse and he ends up in Despair with his Mystic power sealed.
Stalker with a Crush: For lack of a better trope, this is how he acts toward White Rose. As she puts it, he never lets go of things he has acquired, ever. He doesn't really act this way toward Asellus, who he barely cares about except as she's taken White Rose.

Rastaban

A Mystic that resides in Chateau Aguille, who merely tolerates Orlogue instead of serving him.

Affably Evil: Though he's not a very nice person, he's one of the few Mystics in Chateau Aguille who treats Asellus with any kind of respect.
The Chessmaster: Turns out, he's behind a plot to help Asellus overthrow Orlouge. Depending on how Mystical she is, he either gives her some Pluto Armor or fights to absorb her mystical power and be strong enough to fight Orlouge himself.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He and Ildon are lovers. He's far more evil than Ildon, but Ildon is still grief-stricken by his death in the Human path.
The Starscream: One of the few mystics of Chateau Aguille not loyal to Orlouge, plotting his downfall either by way of Asellus or overthrowing him on his own.
We Can Rule Together: He's using Asellus to eliminate Orlouge. He becomes her chief minion in the Full Mystic ending, and they work together in the Half-Mystic ending but she doesn't take the throne. In the Human ending, she calls him out for using her for his own ambition, and they fight.
Wild Card: He's not firmly aligned with anyone or vice versa.
Word of Gay: With Ildon.

Rosemary & Thyme

Rose in front, Thyme behind her

The pair of children that recovered T260G from the scrapyard.

Distressed Dude: Thyme gets kidnapped by the Cabalerro family after T260G participates in their arena and interferes with their match rigging.
In-Series Nickname: "Rose", rather than Rosemary.
Kid With The Remote Control: To T260G, Thyme more than Rosemary.
Theme Naming: They're both named after herbs.

Shuzer

One of the Four Emperors of BlackX, who has a base in Koorong. A cyborg assassin.

Cyborg: Shuzer is part-robot, with detachable arms and other enhancements.
I Have Your Wife: During the battle at his base in Koorong, just before Alkaiser deals the final blow, he claims to have Dr. Okonogi's brain and asks Red/Alkaiser if he could kill his own father. Essence reveals that he just put Okonogi's brain next to his and purposely does that so Okonogi feels every pain he feels, and lets Red know that as he beat him up. Shuzer is just that much of a Sadist. Of course, he said that when his HP is low, so that's asking Red to kill him with righteous revenge in the very next blow.
Rocket Punch: He shoots his hands off when he uses the move "Claw Bit". Once every turn they fly back around and attack a character.
Swiss-Army Appendage: While his hands are detached, the rest of his arms can function as a rail gun, machine gun, or flamethrower.
Wolverine Claws: His hands' appearance.

Taco

An octopod engineer living in Junk. He manages to create a body for T260 after Thyme finds its core in the wreckage of a crashed ship.

Gadgeteer Genius: He was able to construct a fully functional and completely unique body for T 260 G with nothing but scraps. though that doesn't stop them from complaining about it being suboptimal. Even Leonard manages to be impressed with his craftwork.
Punny Name: "Tako" is Japanese for "octopus".

Tanzer

A gigantic beast that swallows ships whole.

Eldritch Abomination: A giant, flying monster that can travel between regions by itself and devours ships. It doesn't even have a form you can make out from the outside; the most you'll ever see is its mouth, which just looks like a hole opening up in the mist.
Womb Level: You only ever deal with Tanzer from the inside.

Virgil ^noteRing Lord/Fireworks Lord

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

An imposing Mystic that will assist those that suitably entertain him.

A Glass of Chianti: Sits on his throne occasionally taking sips of wine even when fighting.
Berserk Button: Under no circumstances say you do not know who he is; doing so will result in you being teleported to a random dungeon filled with monsters.^note Holding an audience with Virgil for no discernible reason will tick him off, but if you admit to at least knowing about him, he'll let you off if only because your audacity kind of amused him.
Cool Chair: A golden bat and angel winged throne set atop a massive dragon!
Dark Is Not Evil: He's an imposing Mystic, with the background outside his throne room being set on fire, also wearing dark clothes and sitting on an imposing beastly black throne. And he's not that harmful and can be very civil, providing a set of new clothes for Asellus and White Rose if they got out of Facinaturu via Kurenai, and makes note that Orlouge needs to be stopped. In case of Riki, he downplays this: he'll still give Riki a fair challenge to test his worthiness of getting his Ring, but will move for killing him for real if Riki proves to be unamusing or not doing well for his challenge (AKA, boring him)
Hopeless Boss Fight: Fighting Virgil isn't a fight as much as it is simply entertaining him^note Trying to deplete his HP is pointless because he has infinite HP, and taking too long to entertain him makes him bored and he decides to start killing everyone. In the original you could not run from battles; the Remastered version allows you to. Either way you are forced to restart the fight should you take too long.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: In Essence, he's also referred to as "Fireworks Lord". The artist based his face on her favorite Visual Kei band vocalist- Atsushi Sakurai. Sakurai's band is named "BUCK-TICK," which is pronounced "bakuchiku," which translates to "Firecracker."
Slouch of Villainy: He never breaks out of the lazy way he reclines on his throne, even during his fight. It only makes him look even more intimidating.

Warden

The man in charge of the prison known as Despair. He occasionally offers inmates a challenge to earn their freedom, but in the past, only a single person has ever succeeded.

The Dreaded: In Riki's story, it turns out Despair was built solely to contain him.
Villain of Another Story: He's never antagonistic; in fact, he proves to be downright friendly and helpful in any scenario he gets involved with. But he apparently committed crimes so terrible, that not only was an entire prison erected just to contain him, but his sentence is for a million years!

Yaruto

A Trinity commander that's involved with illegal human trafficking.

Bad Boss: In the Remastered version, if you allow the guards from Trinity to escort Asellus out of Fascinaturu, it's revealed that any soldiers who disobey/fail him are boiled alive.
Fat Bastard: Is quite portly, and is his small amount of screentime shows him as one of the most despicable people in the entire setting.
Hate Sink: Involved in trafficking of both humans and Mystics, boils alive dissident employees, and is overall an unpleasant individual. Thankfully, depending on the scenario, he can be either arrested by Fuse or eaten alive by Zozma.

Organizations

Bio Research Lab

Ascended Extra: Originally, they only served as an inconsequential Peninsula of Power Leveling, but in the Remastered version, they will play a vital part in Asellus's quest, something that was cut in the original version. Most of them are under the Nasheera (their leader) section.
Blessed with Suck: Not all of the researchers enjoy their new state.

I just wanted to know the truth!

It’s all over for me! Put me out of my misery!

I wanna go home... I want my mommy...

Body Horror: The researchers transformed themselves into monsters.
Evilutionary Biologist: Their "bio research" is not the healthy kind; more the "experimenting on monsters and becoming them" kind.
For Science!: Their purpose.

Our mission is to observe nature and discover her mysteries.

Jump Scare: The first time talking with one of the scientists, before suddenly mutating into a monster accompanied by either a scream or an evil laugh just before attacking.
Living Forever Is Awesome: Quite a few of the scientists remark on having a "disease-free, immortal body", either by offering you one or having one themselves. They don't even seem particularly bothered by the Body Horror that comes with it.
Playing with Syringes: They experiment on monsters and themselves.
Professor Guinea Pig: The majority of the test subjects? The researchers themselves- those that aren't are kept in a basement dungeon.

Black X^noteBlack Cross

Expy: For Shocker, considering Red/Alkaiser is based on Kamen Rider. For the Black Cross Army too, given the name and the fact the real leader of the organization is revealed to be a giant Mechanical Abomination
Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Of the "all one color" variety. They're color coded by which "Black X Emperor" they serve.

Slave Mooks: Berva's mooks in Shingrow are would-be tomb robbers who've been captured and forced to join.

The Caballero Family

Starter Villain: The first antagonists in T260 and Riki's plotlines.
The Mafia: Runs a protection racket in Junk, a factory in Scrap.

Gradius

Oddly Small Organization: Roufus, Annie, Liza, Emilia, and a few NPCs are the only ones confirmed to be members. They do recruit when they see an opportunity.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: They live on the wrong side of the law, and Roufus in particular is rather amoral. But they're fighting various organizations which are much worse. They are never an enemy to the protagonists.

IRPO^note Inter-Regional Patrol Organization

Noble Top Enforcer: They're a subset of Trinity, but they do seem to care about their role as enforcers of justice.
Oddly Small Organization: The only patrol officers are Fuse, Ren, Doll, Silence, Cotton and Rabbit. In Essence Suzaku, Engineer Car, and ZEKE are deputized as well. Fuse also deputizes Red in one instance.
Space Police: Although whether the regions are planets or just places is... kind of ill-defined.

Trinity

One Nation Under Copyright: The closest thing to a legitimate government that exists in the setting, though they are corrupt and evil on the whole.

Characters / SaGa Frontier

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