Characters / Tales Of Symphonia Playable Characters

Tales of Symphonia | Main Character Index
Playable Characters | Antagonists | Supporting Cast | Dawn of the New World Characters

The playable characters from the game Tales of Symphonia.

SPOILER ALERT: NOT ALL SPOILERS ARE MARKED.

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Lloyd Irving

Lloyd Irving

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (JP), Scott Menville (EN, Symphonia), Brian Beacock (EN, all other appearances)

"Dwarven Vow #1: Let's all work together for a peaceful world."

A 17-year-old human who was raised by a dwarf, Lloyd leaves his hometown of Iselia to follow his childhood friend Colette on her World Regeneration journey after having been banished from the village, where he's held responsible for the attack they suffered from the Desians. At the beginning of the game, Lloyd is a typical overly idealistic Idiot Hero, but he grows upon discovering the world as it is, making his idealism into a goal to save both worlds and everyone living inside it.

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Tropes associated with Lloyd:

• Abandoned Catchphrase: For the Sylvarant portion of the game, Lloyd has "Give me your name and I'll give you mine" when confronted. He drops it when the group ends up in Tethe'alla; when Raine borrows it when they first meet Zelos, he decides that "it sounds kinda arrogant".
• Accidental Misnaming: After Zelos refers to Lloyd as "his bud" (hunny in the Japanese version), Sebastian starts referring to him as Sir Bud. By Dawn of The New World, the king of Tethe'alla is calling him Bud as well.
• Accidental Pervert: Lloyd received the title "Peeping Tom" when he caught Zelos (who ran when the girls heard noises) spying on the girls in the hot spring scene. Evolves to a sort-of Running Gag in spin-off games: He gets pulled into these situations in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology as well as in Dawn of the New World. Gets Flanderized in some other games where he becomes an actual pervert.
• Adaptational Personality Change: In the OVA, Lloyd's status as an Idiot Hero is downplayed, to the point it arguably becomes an Informed Attribute, with characters mentioning his apparent stupidity (even himself) in-universe, but actual evidence of it being largely absent. One of the biggest examples of this is that in the game, an early plot point showcasing his idiocy revolves around Lloyd forgetting to make Colette a necklace in time for her birthday, but Lloyd gives her a birthday necklace in the OVA within the first couple minutes of the first episode.
  • His Oblivious to Love status was also downplayed in the OVA; he and Colette both act significantly more romantic toward each other. Heck, he even straight-up kisses her on the lips in one scene.
• All-Loving Hero: Not at first, but after Character Development, he tries to save everyone, in both worlds, and even feels sympathy for the villains they're forced to fight. Just after defeating Mithos and shattering his Exsphere, Lloyd laments that "you could have lived with us in our world".
• Ambiguously Human: It's referenced a couple of times, since his father is a dwarf, though Lloyd is quick to point out that he's adopted. His birth father Kratos is an angel, and his Exsphere is a Cruxis Crystal. Consider that he gets angel wings at the end of the game.
• Animal Motifs: Falcons, and birds in general. Rising Falcon is his only arcane arte that isn't a fusion or derivative of his earlier artes, and his Mystic Arte is titled Falcon's Crest. Also, the angel wings he gets in the end are reminiscent of actual bird's wings, unlike those of Colette, Zelos, and the Four Seraphim.
• Always Save the Girl: He always makes it a point to save Colette from trouble. Depending on his "soul mate" choice, this can also be reflected in the final kidnapping segment of the game. He does this with random civilians too, such as Chocolat, Princess Hilda and Kate.
• Asleep in Class: Lloyd does this once, notable in that he falls asleep, standing up, while also holding a bucket full of water in each hand. He's woken up when Raine (his teacher) throws an eraser into his face.
  Raine: How do you manage to sleep standing?
• The Blacksmith: The son of one. He's learnt well, as he can craft, do machinery and pick locks.
• Blade Spam: Sword Rain, and all its derivatives.
• Blow You Away: The only element he can learn naturally in the original game is wind, and for all of one arte: Hurricane Thrust.
• Book Dumb: Lloyd is not as stupid as he's generally made out to be. He doesn't know much in terms of pure information, but he's got a lot of raw intelligence and can generally work out an answer with logic and reason. Lloyd can also be surprisingly clever, such as in the game of Shiritori at the House of Salvation where Lloyd (as the default party member displayed) wins by ending all his words in "L." Two other more relevant examples would be when he tricked Colette into revealing her condition via coffee and when he deduced from Remiel's speech in the Tower of Salvation that the Church of Martel was a front. This continues into the sequel, as shown in a skit where he thinks memorizing the multiplication table is sufficient education.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Tempest is an airborne vertical spin attack. Okay, maybe not boring, but it's definitely one of his less flashy artes - nonetheless, the leap is enough to get him over the heads of most of his opponents, which means that in any fight with Kratos, who generally depends on magic rising from beneath, spamming Tempest is a good way to win.
  • Demon Fang is his most basic arte, but many seasoned players swear by it instead of it's upgraded versions. Reason being is that, along with it being cheap when it comes to TP, it's considered a Game Breaker because, in a game built around multiplayer, it's OTG properties allows him massive solo combo potential.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Using one of the Dwarven Vows to justify his actions.
  • "Who are you to ask for my name?" or "Give me your name and I shall give you mine." Eventually abandons them when Raine uses it on Zelos, realizing how arrogant it sounds.
• Character Tics: Has a tendency to rest his left hand on the pommel of one sword. Only really applies to his original game.
• Chaste Hero: Until the sequel, where he can be in a relationship with any female party member.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Colette, if you choose to go that route. Notably, she's the only one Lloyd explicitly tells he loves if you select her scene in Dawn of the New World.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Thanks to the OVA, we find out that Lloyd is actually quite buff underneath that turtleneck.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: After the sidequest in which the princess is saved, Colette asks if Lloyd "likes girls like the princess". Lloyd proceeds to dig himself in, briefly hop out, and then jump back in to dig again.
• Disappeared Dad: Raised by the dwarf Dirk, whom he grew to call father, but his real father, Kratos, thought he died together with his mother, and never sought him after the incident.
• Does Not Like Spam: He hates tomatoes. Just like his father.
• Dual Wielding: Done out of a belief that having two swords makes him twice as powerful as if he has one. The fact that dual-wielding is an unusual combat style is lampshaded by Kratos at one point; Lloyd's (rather poorly thought-out) response is the trope's page quote. Considering the kind of reflexes one needs to use two swords at once, this probably wouldn't even be possible without his exsphere though the fact exspheres are said to build on what's already there and Lloyd's Ambiguously Human nature due to his mother being an exsphere experiment and his father an angel means he possibly could dual wield without it. By the time the sequel comes around, he's shown to be brutally effective with them.
  • For cutscenes, he starts the game with wooden swords, then iron swords later on, then he gets the Material Blades.
• Dumb Is Good: He's not quite as stupid as he appears to be, but he's Book Dumb and a lot friendlier than Genis, Raine or Kratos.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Without his Exsphere, he's still the strongest in his village. With the Exsphere, he's close to superhuman.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • "Dwarven Vow #7: Justice and love will always win." Lloyd's a Wide-Eyed Idealist, and even he thinks that's corny. It should be noted that Colette is misquoting it, the proper way is "Goodness and love will always win". While he still thinks either way is a bad quote, he really starts to hate the former due to his hatred of the word "Justice".
  • Lloyd gets irritated with Colette's ditziness on occasion, especially early in the game. He also has quite a bit of Anger Born of Worry when Colette accidentally reveals just how much she's been hiding from everyone else about how the angel transformation is hurting her.
• For Great Justice: He hates the concept of justice, and thinks that it's just a shallow excuse for people to do whatever they want.
• Genius Ditz: Is quite skilled and knowledgeable when it comes to using Dwarven technology. He can also do a surprisingly good job unlocking doors or stopping strange devices. However, he's quite simple when it comes to just about everything else.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's initially quite standoffish and confrontational towards Kratos and it's implied it's because Kratos is the cool, badass swordsman that Lloyd wants to be. He warms up to Kratos as they travel together and takes his Heel–Face Turn hard.
• Hachimaki: Is that what that utterly ridiculous neck-tie-thing he's always sporting is?
• Half-Human Hybrid: His mother Anna was a normal human equipped with a special exsphere, while his father is Kratos, a member of the Four Seraphim.
• Happily Adopted: By Dirk, who he has no trouble calling 'dad'.
• Has a Type: He Likes Older Women, and, aside from Colette, all his potential girlfriends are older than him. Even Presea.
• Heroic Bastard: Though never made explicit, it's highly doubtful that his parents Anna (being an Exsphere host body) and Kratos (being a Cruxis angel) were married.
• Heroic BSoD: Suffers one after Colette loses her soul, due to his belief that he should have paid more attention to her suffering and shouldn't have allowed it to happen. He also has a brief one after discovering that Kratos is his father.
  • In the OVA Lloyd actually has an emotional breakdown when he realizes that Colette can no longer speak, as it's the moment where it really hits him what the journey is doing to her.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: He spends much of the first act under the stigma of being "that brat who destroyed Iselia". Happens again in the second act, when the Pope declares him a traitor out to destroy Teth'ella in order to prevent Lloyd from interfering with his own sinister schemes. Then Dawn of the New World reveals that everyone blames him for all the problems that have arisen since the worlds merged.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Genis, though due to the 5 year age gap between them, Lloyd often acts like a Cool Big Bro to him as well. They grew up together, and Lloyd greatly values their friendship.
• Hot-Blooded: Very much so, he's itching to go on an adventure and leave Iselia. He does after he's exiled, having nowhere else to go.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Invoked (perhaps unintentionally) in the ending of the first game; his Angelus wings are longer than the rest of the playable characters side by side, so when he flies after the Great Seed and Colette flies up after him, her Martel wings look tiny.
• Hostage For Macguffin: Lloyd, of all people, is at one point held hostage so Kratos will give Yuan the Eternal Sword.
• Idiot Savant: Although it's clear he isn't able to grasp other studies, he is still quite a skilled artisan, crafting jewelry and, more importantly, key crests for Exspheres, often in less than a day, sometimes against adverse situations, like crafting one already embedded in Presea's body. He even defuses a bomb at one point.
• I Gave My Word: Why he's so dead-set on going back to the Iselia ranch is because he promised to save Chocolat, despite there being more important matters going on at the time.
• Idiot Hero: Lloyd fits the stereotype, especially at first. This mostly changes once Character Development settles in and he becomes more of a Messianic Archetype and a great leader instead. His main problem is an unwillingness to think and plan rather than an inability to learn, and the famous and largely pre-development "Coffee Mind Screw" shows early on that he is capable of great cunning. That said, he's very gullible, and still genuinely often misses the point or fails to understand whats being talked about in certain conversations, coming to outlandish conclusions at times.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's introduced as short-tempered, foolhardy and insensitive sometimes but he's still a good and selfless person and as time passes, his 'jerk' part starts to wear off him and his heart of gold is much improved.
• The Leader: As he undergoes Character Development, he slowly but indisputably becomes the leader of the team.
• Lightning Bruiser: Very quick and has good attack power. In an extended battle though, he'll burn through his Tech Points absurdly fast.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Has this pulled on him, though his father himself wasn't responsible for The Reveal. Lloyd even does the "NO!!" shout.
• Likes Older Women: Raine was his first crush. It's also worth nothing that unless you pair him up with Colette, all of his other potential female love interests are older than him. This even technically includes Presea, who is temporally 28 years old despite her child-like appearance, due to having her growth stunted by the exphere experiment she was part of. He'll still comment on the attractiveness of older women even if Colette is his soulmate. Considering that he was raised without a mother...
• Meaningful Name: Lloyd can mean "holy." An appropriate name for The Hero who is a Wide-Eyed Idealist and the son of an angel and even gains very special wings of his own in the climax.
• Moment Killer: Due to his Oblivious to Love status, just about every scene that he can have with Sheena that could be considered romantic, he kills the vibe of at the end, not realizing how she feels. She is never happy about it. Even Colette drops a few hints about princesses as a way of flirting with Lloyd, and he doesn't notice.
• Nice Guy: Especially after he goes through Character Development, but even from the start Lloyd is always moved to help people in need.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Is easily manipulated by both Zelos and Mithos.
  • His attempts to help Marble end up getting her targeted by Forcystus, though Genis shares some blame for this as well.
• No Infantile Amnesia: He reveals in one skit that he remembers being held by his father and watching stars together. Since then he always made sure to count stars on the night sky. He was about three years old when he lost his parents. It does seem, though, that while he does remember this, he doesn't remember it that clearly — otherwise, he would have recognized his father when they first met.
• Oblivious to Love: As Zelos puts it in one scene, Lloyd is “romantically challenged”; any girl who tries to drop romantic hints to Lloyd may as well be talking to a brick wall. Lloyd has a tendency to not recognize the romantic aspects of nearly any situation where it's just him and another girl together, being either completely ignorant or so focused on something else that the hints the girl gives sail right over his head. Ultimately, how this trope gets used is completely up to the player.
  • In one skit, Colette asks Lloyd if he likes girls like Princess Hilda as a way of flirting with Lloyd. He almost gets the hint, saying Colette is cuter than Hilda, but then completely misses the point of the conversation by complimenting all the girls in the party.
  • Sheena, if the player chooses to pursue her, drops numerous hints that she's attracted to him. The last scene of them together even has her tell him "I want to be with you." Lloyd still doesn't pick up on it, believing that she wants to go Walking the Earth with him after their quest is over.
  • In another skit, Presea asks Lloyd if he has somebody he likes (Though, unlike the aforementioned similar conversation with Colette, she doesn’t appear to be asking as a means of dropping romantic hints to him, but only because Raine telling her Genis likes her made her curious). Lloyd doesn’t understand what she’s talking about.
  Lloyd: I like everyone. You guys are all my friends.
  • Lloyd does get better about this in Dawn of the New World, where scenes with Colette and Sheena are more explicitly romantic from both parties, even hugging Colette or Sheena and whispering to them if the player chooses them as Lloyd's soul mate (He also openly declares his love for the former).
  • It can be argued this was downplayed in the OVA adaptation (See Adaptational Personality Change).
• Paper Fan of Doom: Can wield twin fans as his Joke Weapon.
• Playing with Fire: Has a couple altered artes of the element, and gets listed as a Fire-elemental character in the sequel.
• Power Gives You Wings: During the ending cutscene of the first game, he gets rainbow wings that put those of everyone in Cruxis to shame.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a pretty cutting one to Dorr, then later one to Yggdrasill.
  Lloyd: Where do you get off? Don't even start spewing the word justice! I hate that word! If you wanted to save your wife, you should have resigned your position as Governor-General and search for a cure, or help, or whatever! You're a worthless jerk who couldn't give up his social status, even for his own wife.
• Red Is Heroic: Main character, wearing red. Yup.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Genis, Kratos, and Regal. Empathised with Kratos by obtaining (PS2 version only) extra◊ costumes◊ of legendary rivals Musashi and Kojiro.
• Rogue Protagonist: One of the main plots in Dawn of the New World. Subverted in that his evil actions are actually a disguised Decus, and Lloyd himself is merely more secretive than he used to be, out of necessity.
• Say My Name: After Kratos betrays the party, Lloyd develops a habit of dramatically shouting his name whenever he sees him, almost to the point of it being a Running Gag.
• Scarf of Asskicking: If those twin white ribbons that seemed to be fused to his tunic can be called a scarf.
• Shock and Awe: Not on his own, but many of his Unison Techs are lightning-element.
• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Lloyd is practically the poster boy of this trope, showing all sides of the conflict that there's always a better way to do things, or another option they always had but were too apathetic to notice. Lloyd also staunchly believes that a morally bad option would end up changing nothing, and frequently points this out to the villains when they attempt to justify their terrible behavior.
• Small Steps Hero: No matter how minor the injustice, in spite of more pressing concerns, if there's trouble nearby, Lloyd will step in try to make it right.
  "How can we go on a journey to regenerate the world if we can't even save the people standing right in front of us?"
• Smart Ball: Lloyd will occasionally be handed the intelligence ball that will give him spontaneous moments of insight before he turns back into a moron again. These moments become more common later in the game, such as when after releasing all the seals, he gets the idea to blast the tree with Tethe'alla's summon spirits' energy, and when, shortly thereafter, he remembers that Chocolat was taken to Iselia. Partially justified by the fact that he's an Idiot Savant, and the fact that he's a little more emotionally smart.
• Spam Attack: Lloyd has by far the most of these, though they're something of a mixed bag; spam attacks are one of the best ways to get an enemy spellcaster to "flinch" out of their incantation, but enemies that can go into Overlimit do so based on the number of hits they've taken. Lloyd tends to burn through his TP reserve quickly as a result.
• Standing in the Hall: While not in the hall, he is shown holding buckets of water at the beginning of the game. In fact, the game starts with Lloyd getting an eraser thrown at his head because he fell asleep while doing this. Hilariously enough, he hadn't put the buckets down while he was asleep, either. They were still a good three inches off the ground while he was snoozing.
• Strong Family Resemblance: It could just be the art style, but compare Lloyd's "sad" expression to Kratos'. Yuan and Pronyma also note they can see the resemblance between the two.
• Sword Beam: Demon Fang, his first technique and the one he tends to use in scenes.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Lloyd admits that Raine was his first crush, and he was even a part of her fan club. They can be paired up in both games if the player chooses.
• Tell Me About My Mother: Late in the game, he shares one of these moments with a character who knew his mother in life: his father, Kratos.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: The duel against Kratos in the forest. His friends could intervene, but choose not to in order to let Lloyd and Kratos settle things.
• Took a Level in Badass: Compare the dope who fell asleep in class in the game's opening to the All-Loving Hero who rescues everyone in Welgaia.
• The Unchosen One: Not only is he not the Chosen One, he wasn't permitted to travel with the real Chosen One. Didn't slow him down long.
• Unskilled, but Strong: At the beginning of the game. He's the strongest in the village, but his sword-style is self-taught and amateurish, and relies on the fact that he has an Exsphere. He improves markedly over the course of the adventure.
• Too Many Belts: Two belts, although it's justified in that he carries two swords.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He doesn't realize that he actually does this by trying to get recognized by Kratos, as Kratos is his father.
  "I'm sorry, Dad..."
• You Can't Go Home Again: He gets banished from Iselia after inadvertently causing it to be damaged. It's subverted when they're let back in later by the townspeople, despite the mayor's protests.
• You Killed My Father: Lloyd tries, dealing a serious wound to Kvar for the death of his mother, but Kratos one-ups him for the kill. It later turns out that Kratos had a higher rating on the Scale of Justified Revenge.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Wants to save both worlds instead of one. He gets this as a title.

Colette Brunel

Colette Brunel

Voiced by: Nana Mizuki (JP), Heather Hogan-Watson (EN)

"Even if I lose my body, my heart will still be free."

Lloyd's 16-year-old childhood friend who was raised with the knowledge that she was The Chosen One, and, that when the time came, she'd go on "a journey to regenerate the world." Constantly self-sacrificing and generous to a fault, she ends up making enemies into friends due to sheer niceness, and never looses her positive demeanor, even as the story itself puts her through the ringer.

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Tropes associated with Colette:

• A-Cup Angst: She's not too happy if she gets called an Ironing Board by the coliseum announcer.
• Aesop Amnesia: Colette never seems to learn her lesson about admitting her problems to the party, even after her tenure of losing her humanity to be an angel. It's only when everyone else scolds her and she nearly turns into an Exsphere herself that she finally seems to get it.
• All-Loving Hero: She's the Chosen One. It's practically a requirement. She's a big animal lover, and she's unfailingly polite to everyone she meets. After meeting Sheena, who explicitly tried to assassinate Colette, Colette still wonders if they can someday become friends. Deconstructed in that she feels like she has to act this way as the Chosen One, never allowing herself to appear as anything else. She's still a nice girl, she's just not so unfailingly perfect as the position might require.
• And I Must Scream: Happens to her as a result of losing her heart and soul to the Cruxis Crystal. Also a very literal example, as she loses her ability to speak as well. She gets better.
• Apocalypse Maiden: From the Tethe'allan perspective. Finding this out is what inspires the party to buck the system in order to save both worlds.
• Apologises a Lot: She even says she's sorry for saying she's sorry. If we're going by sheer amount, Lloyd and Regal take the cake, though Colette apologizes mostly when she doesn't have to.
• Badass Adorable: Though she doesn't really become badass until after the first seal, when she unlocks her angel powers.
• Barrier Maiden: Her role as the Chosen of Mana is to protect the world from being overrun by Desians. In reality though, it's much more complicated than that.
• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Sheena's Veronica ,because she is the sweet and humble childhodfriend.
• Birds of a Feather: Despite their wildly different personalities and upbringings, Colette and Zelos quickly get along with each other due to their shared status as Chosen. A skit has Zelos be one of the only people Colette confides in that her usual positive demeanor is mostly her putting on a strong front.
• Body Horror: She has an adverse reaction to her Cruxis Crystal, which causes her body to begin crystallizing a grotesque green plating.
• Born Lucky: Zigzagged. On the one hand, her clumsiness almost always causes good things to happen. On the other hand, she is doomed to a very unfortunate fate as the Chosen.
• Break the Cutie: Subverted. The Desians and angels failed to break Colette, even after she lost her soul and nearly lost her body. They came awfully close, though.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Lloyd, if the player chooses to go that route. Regardless, her feelings for him are very clear.
• The Chosen One: Deconstructed. The constant mounting pressure from all of Sylvarant, combined with the none-too-small amounts of Body Horror and cutie-breaking she goes through, show just what would happen to someone that has the whole world's future riding on their success. She's a Stepford Smiler of the first order, impossibly polite because she feels like she has to be, and keeps quiet about her own problems because she doesn't think she has the right to complain or that they're even worthy of discussing.
• Church Militant: She's essentially a battle priestess, raised to be the Church of Martel's secret weapon. She doesn't really have the attitude though, since she tends to focus on the church's teachings about love and mercy.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She starts to get this way when Lloyd starts paying attention to other girls, asking him if he likes girls "like the princess" when Lloyd comments on how pretty Princess Hilda is, and gets insecure when he proceeds to compliment on all the other female members of the party. He never picks up on this behavior, of course.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: She's a bit too Literal-Minded when it comes to using metaphors and woefully naïve besides.
• Cute Bruiser: She can put up quite a fight, especially once she gains her angel wings. She ends up being one of the best damage dealers in the party once she gains all her skills.
• Cute Clumsy Girl:
  • It's called a "divine clumsiness" at one point because of her tendency to trip over the exact thing the party was searching for. She even trips after she gets wings! She also has a tendency to leave Colette-shaped holes in whatever she crashes into/through, such as in Triet, specifically noted to be the shape of the Chosen of Regeneration.
  • "Item Thief! Ugh!" has her stumble over her target, to be followed by "Yay, I got something!" when she successfully steals something.
• The Cutie: Really sweet and really adorable. In the OVA, Zelos can't stop fawning over her because of how adorable she is, and in Tales-of crossover games, Tear Grants has a Cuteness Proximity reaction to meeting her.
• Damsel in Distress: Colette is kidnapped twice during the course of the game. Well, three times if she's the Victorious Childhood Friend. Played straight nearly 24/7 in the anime, in which the other characters don't let her fight for most of it. Much of the plot is also driven trying to cure Colette's various sicknesses, ones she usually refuses to tell the party about. Colette isn't seen in battle until near the very end (although once she does, it's pretty glorious).
• Dangerous 16th Birthday: Her dangerous journey to save the world starts the day after her 16th birthday.
• Decoy Protagonist: It may be Colette's Journey of Regeneration in the early portion of the game, but ultimately the game is about Lloyd, not her.
• Definitely Just a Cold: For a large part of the game. It... isn't.
• Developers' Desired Date: While any of the party is able to gain 'soulmate' status with Lloyd through player choices, Colette is the easiest character to rack up Relationship Values with and narratively has the most importance to Lloyd in the main plot, having many cutscenes with Lloyd by default regardless of options.
• The Ditz: She's quite Literal-Minded, misses metaphors, and is generally not too quick on the draw. Take a look at this dialogue, which occurs if Lloyd ends a battle poisoned:

  Lloyd - Colette, need cure for poison...
  Colette - I'm FINE. I'm not poisoned.
  Lloyd - No, I mean, ME...

• Does Not Like Spam: In fact, it becomes a plot point when she starts eating bell peppers despite disliking them. It's a sign that she's beginning to lose her humanity, and sense of taste.
• Dual Wielding: Wields a pair of chakrams.
• Effortless Amazonian Lift: Picks up Regal, of all people, and comments that he's lighter than she thought. It's said to be part of her transformation into an angel that she gets Super-Strength.

  Raine: "Men are so useless these days."

• Eye Color Change: Colette's blue eyes turn red when she loses her soul; they return to blue later down the road. In the anime adaptation, her eyes turn green when she is possessed by Martel.
• Extreme Doormat: Despite it being her Journey of Regeneration, she hands a lot of the decisions over to Lloyd during it, such as him picking the teams in Kvar's ranch. Genis even lampshades that she isn't very "Chosen-like."
• Fatal Flaw: Pride, or a rather warped form of it. She intentionally hides things from her allies that would have been really useful for them to know as soon as they happened, but she keeps putting things off for the sake of not wanting them to worry. This always blows up in her face, typically at the worst possible time when the heroes really need to focus on something else. At one point this costs Colette her soul, and very nearly costs her use of her whole body at another. It's only after the party scold Colette until they're all blue in the face that she finally gets it. She also has a tendency to always assume that things are happening because of her, since she's the Chosen.
• Forgot I Could Fly: A chronic offender of this trope - a lot of the puzzles in the game could have been solved in about five minutes if Colette had just used her wings.
• Friend to All Living Things: Especially dogs. In fact, there's a Collection Sidequest for her meeting every dog in the game.
• Genki Girl: She's high-energy, that's for sure, to the point where even Lloyd can't keep up. Turns out, she's a Stepford Smiler.
• Girly Run: If you make her your overworld avatar.
• Glass Cannon: Out of all the playable characters, she can deal and receive some of the highest damage values in the game, but she has low HP and defences.
• Gold and White Are Divine: The benevolent chosen of Sylvarant, wears a white tunic and has long flowing blonde hair.
• Go Out with a Smile: She smiles and thanks Lloyd for being there for her as she's about to lose her soul.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sweet, young, innocent and kind with beautiful flowing golden hair.
• Half-Human Hybrid: As the Chosen, she's supposed to be half-angel. Remiel reveals himself as her father after she receives the Oracle. He's lying. Colette's human father was really her real father and she's mostly human, although her bloodline has been carefully selected for by Cruxis.
• Heroic Safe Mode: Has a minor one after she regains her soul.
• He's Not My Boyfriend: During one skit in the sequel, Colette is trying (and failing) to stop herself from thinking about Lloyd too much, given the circumstances. Marta quickly asks if they are more than friends, causing her to get flustered, deny it, and run off. Emil questions how Colette could possibly like Lloyd, causing Marta to get angry at him.
• Holy Hand Grenade: Learns "Angel" class Light spells as she unlocks seals.
• I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy: Her justification for not telling Lloyd or any other party member several of the terrible things she's going through as part of her Journey of Regeneration. It's deconstructed, however, since the more she delays telling anyone her problems, the worse they get.
• Image Song: Courtesy of her Japanese voice actor Nana Mizuki who also has prolific career as a singer, Colette was given two songs for the Symphonia OVA. First is Uchi e Kaerou, a song in the vein of a children's lullaby which she sings to Lloyd in the 3rd episode of the OVA and serves as the episode's ending theme, and then Omoi no Yukue which was relegated to just being a track on the soundtrack CD, but is absolutely gorgeous and represents Colette's character very well.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Good luck getting her to turn to the dark side. She'll even be upset if Lloyd argues against Sheena joining the party, when Sheena had been trying to kill Colette literally every other time they'd met.
• The Ingenue: She's a sweet and sheltered girl who's naive about how the world truly works.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Among her most striking features are her clear blue eyes.
• Innocently Insensitive: It's not as apparent at some examples, but there are times when she comes out with this, such as seeing the Tethe'alla bridge being covered in exsphere and remarks that it's "kind of gross-looking". Zelos, of all people, calls her out on this, remarking that it's hardly an appropriate comment considering where exspheres come from. When the party run into him talking to Presea, she also calls Rodyle "creepy", before she knows he's a Desian.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: The reason given why she initially tries to stop Lloyd from coming along on her journey. It doesn't work.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: She nearly dies several times, and the constant pressure to succeed weighs heavy on her mind.
• Kick the Dog: When Remiel adds insult to injury at the Tower of Salvation. She also performs a literal dog-kicking moment after losing her soul.
• The Klutz: She's comically clumsy at even basic tasks. It's even one of her titles!
• Literal-Minded: Due to her innocence, it's a Running Gag for her to take expressions literally:
  Tenebrae: Am I really that much of a stick in the mud?
  Colette: I honestly don't see any mud on you. But, what's wrong with mud anyway? Everyone gets a little dirty now and again.
  Marta: I don't think he meant that sort of mud.
  Colette: Well then, what sort of mud did he mean?
  Emil: No, listen. There was never any mud to begin with.
  Colette: Oh, so it was more of a muck? Or maybe a slime?
• The Load: Because she is The Chosen One and therefore a Living MacGuffin, the party are always being pursued by Desians and related forces trying to use her. This, in addition to Colette's refusal to confide in anyone any of her problems mean that the party ends up having to drop what they're doing to help her once they realize that she's suffering. Kratos even lampshades this after Rodyle kidnaps Colette by commenting that he'll soon realize he can't use her as she is now because her Cruxis Crystal is corrupting her body. Later on, when the party find out about Colette's sickness, Cruxis don't have to do anything but sit back and let the group run themselves ragged gathering the ingredients to heal Colette, before they kidnap her again.
• Love Freak: Especially showcased in the skit when she states that she'll have to ask an assassin trying to kill her about why she's doing it 'when they become friends'. Which they eventually do.
• Luck-Based Mission: Judgement is a vertical Beam Spam of light beams. With sufficient fortune, Colette can wipe out four enemies consecutively and steal the rest of the party's kills. Otherwise, you'll be lucky to land one hit.
  • Her Limit Break attack Holy Judgment is literally an accident, where when casting Holy Song or Judgment she has a random chance of messing up the incantation and ends up combining the two into one powerful Holy Hand Grenade.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Subverted when it turns out Remiel was lying.
• Magikarp Power: Starts off as a low-level Jack of All Stats, becomes very powerful once she starts gaining her Angel powers.
• Messianic Archetype: At first invoked by others on her behalf, as she is meant to be this as the Chosen One, but eventually played straight under her own free will.
• Modest Royalty: Colette is basically this being the Chosen, someone from a lineage assigned to save the world and therefore worshipped by everyone around her. But due to the circumstance of Sylvarant being in decline, Colette came from very humble means, growing up in a small village and otherwise living the same type of life as everyone else. This contrasts strongly with Zelos, the Chosen of the flourishing world, where the Chosen is part of the aristocracy and has immense political power.
• Nice Girl: Consistently kind-hearted and sympathetic to everyone. Everyone.
• Not Quite Back to Normal: The Key Crest returns Colette's sleep, hunger, sense of touch, and voice, but she still keeps her magic, enhanced senses, and strength.
• One Note Chef: Almost every recipe, when made by her, will involve fruit in some form. This is actually lampshaded in one particular skit in Dawn of the New World.
• Plucky Girl: Never, ever gives up, no matter the setbacks.
• The Pollyanna: She always tries to look on the positive side and help people, even people who arguably don't deserve it, such as Governor-General Dorr.
• Poor Communication Kills: A lot of problems stem from Colette's refusal to admit something is wrong, such as her illness which is spreading through her body via a corrupted key crest.
• Purity Personified: Deconstructed. She's just about the sweetest and most selfless human being imaginable, not to mention she is a Messianic Archetype in every sense of the word... and she knows it. So she deliberately plays up her cheery personality and tries to look happy at every turn because nobody will suspect a thing if she does. It works far too well. When Lloyd figures out what she's been hiding from him, he goes into the biggest Heroic BSoD of his life. Oh and, one last thing... she owes her existence to Mithos selectively breeding her and using the Church of Martel to condition her into being the perfect Soul Jar for his sister.
• Raised as a Host: Her true purpose as a Chosen is to be Martel's new body, and her family has been specifically bred to allow her to be this.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: After losing her soul. They turn back to their normal color after this wears off.
• Rings of Death: Wields chakrams as her weapons.
• Shock and Awe: Her Para Ball, Torrential Para Ball, and Grand Chariot are all lightning-based, making it her second most-used element.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: Often, her confusion will promptly confuse either Lloyd (in ToS) or Emil (in DotNW) as well, who don't suffer from it quite as much in skits without her.
• Silk Hiding Steel: A girl so sweet and eager to please, yet capable of redirecting her very specific quest into detours by making them sound like they're part of the quest. She's also physically the strongest of the group until Presea and Regal join.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The exact reason she adores Lloyd so much.
• Spam Attack: Not as many as Lloyd, but still more than any other party member. In fact, the two of them have a Compound Unison Attack, Stardust Rain, which can deal in the neighborhood of sixty hits on larger enemies.
• Spectacular Spinning: Her "Ring Whirlwind" attack has her spin in place. She also throws spinning chakrams and discs for her weapons.
• Stepford Smiler: Her absolute refusal to address any of her problems causes them to keep getting worse. She even confides to Zelos, her fellow Chosen and also a Stepford Smiler in his own right, that she feels much of her upbeat positive attitude is just talk.
• Super-Senses: Gradually gains these as she evolves into an angel. She gets enhanced vision and hearing, though she does note a few sounds are now really loud to her.
• Super-Strength: A part of her becoming an angel involves getting enhanced strength. At one point, she lifts a full-grown man over her head with one hand.
• The Glomp: She does this to Lloyd at the beginning of the OVA’s second episode.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Sheena's tomboy.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Fruit, of any kind. She somehow puts fruit in basically every recipe she cooks, even in places they don't really belong (though unlike Raine and her habit of cooking with lemons, Colette doesn't turn into a Lethal Chef because of it).
• Un-Confession: In her scene at the Altamira Suite, Colette almost outright confesses to Lloyd, but chickens out at the last second.
  Colette: The best! So many wonderful people. I love them all. And Sylvarant and Tethe'alla too.
  Lloyd: Yeah.
  Colette: But most of all, I love—
  Lloyd: Hmm?
  Colette: (Blushing) N-nothing! It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just, um, I’ll head back to my room now.
• Useless Useful Spell: Her Sacrifice arte. It heals/resurrects the whole party and deals a good chunk of light-element damage to all enemies. However, it costs 150 TP, making it the most expensive arte in the game, and costs Colette her life.
• Video Game Stealing: Her "Item Thief" ability, which allows her to steal items from her enemies by falling on them!
• Virgin Power: It's how she could approach the unicorn.
• Waif-Fu: Manages to throw Zelos when meeting him the first time, and can pick up Regal, a tall, muscular convict, with one arm. This is because she mutates into an angel.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: To Remiel. Exploited by him. He's not her father but playing along would provide extra encouragement.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After the party stop the Mana Tree, much of Sylvarant has been damaged by its rampage. If you go to some of the cities, such as Asgard, people will get angry with Colette for allowing this to happen. In the Aifread/Lyla sidequest, he calmly points out that Colette chose to abandon Sylvarant in its time of need and ran away to Tethe'alla. Colette herself has no rebuttal for them.
• You Can Always Tell a Liar:
  Lloyd: Stop lying to me! You always do that fake giggle when you lie.

Genis Sage

Genius/Genis Sage

Voiced by: Ai Orikasa (JP), Colleen O'Shaughnessey (EN, Symphonia), Tara Sands (EN, Dawn of the New World)

Lloyd's other childhood friend, Genis is a young elven boy who was raised by his sister.

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Tropes associated with Genis:

• Adorably Precocious Child: Twelve years old, and studies advanced mathematics and crushes the entrance exam to a prestigious university.
• Always Someone Better: Genis is horrified to learn that Zelos is actually very intelligent and better at academics than him. Except it turns out Zelos is only a genius at math, otherwise he got through his classes with top marks though getting all the girls he hit on to take notes for him, give him answers during tests, answer for him at role call, etc. But he is still better at math than Genis.
• Anime Hair: Like his big sister.
  • It's implied that this is a rather elvish trait, as he and Raine are able to pass themselves for half the game as pureblood elves.
• The Baby of the Bunch: He gets this treatment a lot, particularly early in the game, with Lloyd treating him much like a little brother. His attempts to seem more mature around Presea tend to fail hilariously.
• Badass Adorable: He can conjure up huge storms of fire and lightning, and he's not even a teenager yet!
• Black Mage: He doesn't learn a single healing spell. It puts him at odds with Raine, who is a White Mage.
• Blow You Away: From weak spells like Wind Blade to the powerful Cyclone.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Raine usually stops him from getting too bratty.
• Captain Obvious: Does this a little too often, for being such an intelligent character...
• Contemplate Our Navels: A late game skit has him muse out loud about his species-inherent longevity of 1000+ years, wondering how that translates to his short-lived human friends when he finally starts to look old (meaning that all of them have long since passed away). The others then point out that they will live on as long as he remembers them.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He tends to get pretty angry whenever another boy talks to Presea.
• Deadpan Snarker: He can only put up with Lloyd's stupidity for so long.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Learns several earth-elemental spells.
• Does Not Like Spam: He's not a big fan of carrots. According to one of his titles, he's not a big fan of gels either.
• Dogged Nice Guy: To Presea, not that she notices or reciprocates his feelings.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: He's easy to mistake for a prepubescent girl at first, especially since you can't tell he's a boy by his voice.
• Fantastic Racism: Develops this after a while. By then, the only human he seems to like is Lloyd.
• Fauxshadow: His growing cynicism, his Fantastic Racism towards humans, and the revelation that Mithos is a Big Bad Friend to him all hint Genis will betray you. He stays loyal to the end.
• Gibberish of Love: Genis is not capable of saying a proper line to Presea.
• Half-Human Hybrid: He's a half-elf. This causes no end of trouble as he tries to keep it a secret.
• Headbutting Heroes: First with Zelos, calling Zelos an ass after Zelos' Establishing Character Moment. He's also guilty of this with Regal, mostly due to Regal's mysterious connection with Presea. He mellow out towards them both over time, although he doesn't develop the same Odd Friendship that Raine and Sheena do.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lloyd, who he grew up with and considers his best friend. Even after events of the game cause his faith to waver, he still ultimately trusts Lloyd more than just about anyone else.
• An Ice Person: Ice is one of many elements he wields, but he's notably the only party member to wield ice apart from Sheena's Ice summon spirit. In the sequel, he's given an Ice attribute.
• It's All My Fault: He leaves Iselia when Lloyd is exiled, since he brought Lloyd to the ranch and introduced him to Marble, which kickstarted the entire attack on Iselia.
• Improbable Weapon User: He uses a kendama, a Japanese toy that resembles a hammer with a ball on a string on it. He can whack people with the little ball, but he mostly uses it to focus when casting magic. A skit in the the second game reveals why: When he, Lloyd and Colette were all children, he was playing with one, when the string broke. This led to Lloyd getting hit with the ball. Colette joked that he "found a weapon" in response to the situation.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: For a while, Lloyd was his only friend, because most kids his age are intimidated by his intelligence.
• The Lancer: To Lloyd. Genis is usually the one who has to figure out how to make Lloyd's insane schemes work.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a bit of a wise-ass, and he has a pretty open contempt for humans. He's still a good kid underneath it all.
• Light 'em Up: Prism Sword, the ultimate spell on the Strike path.
• Little Miss Snarker: Little Mr. Snarker: The youngest party member has the most acid tongue.
• Love at First Sight: Falls for Presea the minute the party first encounters her.
• Loving a Shadow: He gets a crush on Presea from the moment he sees her because she's "cute", but he's unaware that she's really twenty-eight years old and is pretty much an Empty Shell until her key crest is fixed.
• Making a Splash: Yep, gets water too.
• Meaningful Name: In the original Japanese,Genius.
• The Napoleon: Although he's still young for an elf, Genis is very self-conscious about his height. In Dawn of the New World, when he returns, he is happy to say that he grew a sixteenth of an inch.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Genis trying to help Marble ultimately ended with not only her death, but resulted in Lloyd getting kicked out of Iselia and several people died. Genis leaves Iselia as well because he's just as guilty as Lloyd and he knows it.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Subverted. Genis tries to subtly guilt Mithos out of betraying the group by constantly re-stating how happy he is that he found another half-elf to be his friend. Mithos even lampshades it, "You shouldn't have trusted me? Good guess, Genis! Because I didn't trust you, either!"
• Parental Abandonment: Though unlike Raine, he doesn't remember them at all.
• Playing with Fire: His default spell is Fireball, and it's the one he's using all the time in cutscences.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: His outfit is primarily blue while Presea is pink-haired.
• Practically Different Generations: He's 12 and Raine is 23. The age gap may be less signifcant due to their being half-elves, but it still defines their sibling relationship.
• Puppy Love: He has a crush on Presea, but Presea's 28, she only looks about the same age as him.
• Shipper on Deck: He is clearly aware of how Colette feels about Lloyd, but mostly exploits this to tease the latter (On one occasion, Colette goes for a walk, saying she needs some alone time when Lloyd offers to come along, and Genis jokingly says that Lloyd got rejected. In one group victory quote, Colette says that Lloyd looked cool, and Genis responds by questioning Colette’s taste). However, there is one skit where Genis does seem to genuinely be trying to drop hints to Lloyd (Albeit through his usual manner of trolling). After Colette loses her soul, Genis suggests Lloyd tell her he loves her to get her back to normal. It doesn’t work.
  Genis: Maybe you should try telling her you love her.
  Lloyd: What? Why?
  Genis: Oh, you’re so dense. Stop asking questions and just try it.
• Shock and Awe: His Mystic Arte is Indignation Judgment, a massive thunderbolt.
• Shorter Means Smarter: The shortest member of the party, and roughly on par with Raine for intelligence.
• The Smart Guy: Though not as booksmart as Raine, he's certainly got his wits about him.
• Squishy Wizard: A purely offensive mage and only a prepubescent boy, he can't take many hits.
• Supreme Chef: He'd have to be good at cooking; he'd never survive eating Raine's meals!
• Teen Genius: In Japan, he is even named Genius.
• Token Mini-Moe: He's the youngest playable character in the game.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Averted, though he's tempted to play it straight as he struggles with Mithos.
• You Can't Go Home Again: As his house burns, he laments that he thought Iselia was a place where he and Raine could settle down. He's not actually from Sylvarant to begin with, but was forced to flee through the Otherworldly Gate.

Raine Sage

Refill/Raine Sage

Voiced by: Yumi Touma (JP), Kari Wahlgren (EN, Symphonia), Tara Platt (EN, all other appearances)

Genis' older sister who took care of him. Raine is Iselia's schoolteacher, and she leaves to accompany Colette on her journey before Lloyd and Genis do. She starts off as very cynical, but over the course of the game, she trusts Lloyd more and more to achieve his idealistic world.

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Tropes associated with Raine:

• Adventurer Archaeologist: Averted; although she gets incredibly excited about ancient ruins, she usually insists on their preservation.
• Agent Scully: A minor example, but she is very skeptical when Sheena first explains she is from Tethe'alla, even though Sheena possesses the lost summoning arts. Admittedly, it is possible to see that scene before the pact with Undine (and the only other summon she has at that time, Corrine, isn't exactly a Mystic Arte).
• Angst Coma: In the anime. Kind of handwaved as being from illness, but the timing was very convenient at a properly angsty moment.
• Artificial Stupidity: She has a very poor idea of who deserves priority for her single-target buffs, often casting Sharpness/Keenness (which boost physical attack power) on herself and Genis (who are almost exclusively casters) before someone useful like Lloyd or Presea (who are exclusively physical fighters).
• Badass Bookworm: In a White Mage sort of way.
• Berserk Button: People trying to do harm to ruins will regret it very soon... She is also not pleased when she catches Lloyd and Genis skipping school at the Martel Temple.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Loves technology and ancient artifacts a little too much at times...and is still by far the greatest scholar in Sylvarant.
• Character Filibuster: Casually belittling historical events is practically begging for lecture. During one scene, she starts a long-winded lecture about an ancient site. After a few sentences, the game lets you wander around while she continues. Her lecture doesn't stop until you stumble upon some guys trying to blow the site up, even if you reach the end of it... because Colette asks her to repeat it.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: During the party's first night at Triet, Raine pulls out a pile of old ruin pieces, all of which either were mentioned earlier or get mentioned later:
  • A jeweled sword from the Martel Temple, where her ruin mania was first implied;
  • A holy vase from the Balacruf Masoleum, which Zelos knocks over just as the party is thinking that maybe she'll calm down;
  • A priest's crown from the Asgard ruins, sold to Koton to get the last Devil's Arm;
• Combat Medic: She's very poor in physical combat, but her Photon and Ray spells (especially Ray) have very good offensive capabilities.
• Combat Pragmatist: Not a physical fighter, but Raine certainly has the right mindset. To increase her Relationship Values, you must make pragmatic choices, such as saying that Sheena's an enemy, or the journey of regeneration takes precedence over freeing the prisoners at the Palmacosta ranch.
• Cool Big Sis: To Genis and, as a Team Mom, kinda to the rest of the party too.
• Deadpan Snarker: Easily one of the snarkiest.
  Raine: Men are so useless these days.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She starts as one of the most cynical party members, but Lloyd's idealism rubs off on her.
• The Dreaded: No one wants to get on her bad side, and those who don't know her learn the hard way. Lloyd and Genis fear her the most, giving Genis butt slaps and giving Lloyd a kick on the ribs that sends him flying to the wall.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": A downplayed example, but Lloyd and Colette still call her "Professor" long after she stops being their teacher.
• For Science!: Played for Laughs a lot of the time, but she gets very excited over Ruins. In Tethe'alla, she's similarly enthusiastic about its technology and Summon Spirits. She even jokingly mentions wanting to do tests on Corrine, and later to Lloyd's horror, suggests dissecting Noishe when she finds out that Noishe is not a dog, but a primitive, mythical, constantly evolving organism called a 'Protozoan'.
• Freudian Excuse
  • Her fascination on old ruins and civilizations? One skit after the reunion scene in Exire theorizes that she was trying to find the Otherworldly Gate, and by extension, her parents.
  • Her fear of water is also connected to this, as once when escaping the Imperial Research Lab, she fell off the boat she was on with her parents and almost drowned.
• Half-Human Hybrid: She's a half-elf. She claims to be an elf to avoid the racist implications.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She's the only one in the party who's literate with magitechnology, which has supposedly been unused in Sylvarant, besides by the Desians, since the Great Offscreen War.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Frequently does this for the other characters, as she is probably the most rational member of the group, outside of Kratos and Regal.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Raine gets less overt fanservice moments than Sheena, but she has a lot of admirers. She had fanclub in Iselia made up mostly of her students, which causes this to overlap with Sexy Mentor. She later gains a fanclub in Asgard, too, which might have something to do with the outfit she was wearing when she released the Wind Spirit.
• Heroic BSoD: Has a minor one in Palmacosta after you defeat Kilia and Dorr dies. She can be heard asking herself, "My healing arts cannot save a single life?"
• Icy Blue Eyes: Reflecting her clear-headed, pragmatic personality.
• Irony: The Medic of the group is also the most violent.
• The Leader: Directs the team initially. She eventually hands the reins over to Lloyd once he steps up.
• Lethal Chef: Because she always experiments by adding bizarre ingredients; lampshaded in-game when she earns the "Passable Chef?" title for maxing out her cooking skill. Part of her problem is that she tries to invent new ways to cook or different dishes, but she also has some odd obsession with adding lemons to dishes where they don't belong. Genis mentions that it's because of his cooking that they're even alive.
• Light 'em Up: Her three attack spells: Photon, Ray, and Holy Lance.
• Love Informant: During a conversation with Lloyd, Presea mentions that Raine told her about Genis’s feelings for her.
• Kick Chick: Not in battle, but in several cutscenes she kicks people who piss her off (Lloyd being the first person). In Asgard she kicks Harley in the stomach three times in the same scene!
• Married to the Job: Raine continues to give Lloyd, Colette, and Genis lessons and homework over the course of the journey, despite all the traveling and misadventures they're getting into.
• The Medic: Kratos, Zelos, and Regal all also have healing abilities, but Raine is The Medic of the lot. Subverts the pacifism aspect of the trope, being one of the more cold and pragmatic members of the party. Notably, the teens have to do some arm-twisting before she is willing to heal an apparent enemy (Sheena).
• Missing Mom: You can find her in a sidequest. Raine does not take it well.
• Mr. Exposition: Fittingly for a teacher, Raine is the character who provides most of the early information about how the Symphonia world works.
• Nature Adores a Virgin: Potentially. In the quest where the heroes must choose a pure maiden to make contact with a submerged unicorn, she says she can't do it herself and either Sheena or Colette must do so. When pressed on the issue, she merely replies "I'm an adult," leading Lloyd and Genis to stare at each other in utter confusion with comically blank looks on their faces. Though it could just be because of her dislike of water, rather than the obvious implication.
• Not So Above It All:
  • She is mostly calm and collected, but the group sees her less mature side when she comes across the Triet ruins for the first time. She reacts poorly when it turns out to get to the Water Seal, you have to get there by riding a washtub.
  • She's easily the smartest member of the party, but she still falls for traps at times, such as commenting after Kratos's betrayal that she knew something was odd about him but never voiced her suspicions, and she is also blindsided by Mithos and Zelos's plans as well.
• Odd Friendship: With Sheena. At first, the two come off as Headbutting Heroes, but they eventually become a lot closer and supportive, such as Sheena rushing to help save Raine and Genis in Tethe'alla, and when Raine attempts to calm Sheena down in the temple of lightning.
• Parental Abandonment: Her father is dead and her mother lives, but has since forgotten that she's older than an infant after abandoning her to protect her from the Imperial Research Academy.
• Personality Powers: As mentioned above, she's a notable aversion, as she is a healer and uses light-based magic, but is something of a Sugar-and-Ice Personality with a pragmatic, occasionally severe approach to things, such as she and Regal agreeing that sacrifices must be made for Lloyd to defeat Yggdrasill, even though they know Lloyd himself would never agree to it. She also is happy to dish out a Dope Slap to Lloyd or Genis whenever they behave immaturely, which ironically makes her one of the most violent members of the group.
• Practically Different Generations: She's 23 and Genis is 12. The age gap may be less significant due to their being half-elves, but it still defines their sibling relationship.
• Promotion to Parent: After she and Genis lost their parents, she took it upon herself to raise him. Genis was only a newborn, so she's the only 'parent' he's ever known. Considering that the siblings are 11 years apart, Raine has been parenting him since she was still a child herself.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Her mother, Virginia, for abandoning her and Genis, if you encounter her in the completely-optional floating city of Exire. It doesn't take, owing to Virginia being mentally ill, and Raine runs out in tears.
• Schoolmarm: She's the sole teacher at what looks to be Iselia's only schoolhouse.
• Secret-Keeper: She's the only one of the party (except Kratos) who knew that becoming an Angel meant that Colette would die. She kept quiet about it on Colette's request, but also because the world had to be regenerated.
• Self-Made Man: A skit reveals that despite being a schoolteacher for a small town, Raine never formally attended school herself. She got to her position through sheer willpower to study on her own and take the necessary testing for her qualifications.
• Sensei-chan: Played with in that unlike most examples of this trope, Raine for the most part behaves like how you'd expect a proper teacher would towards her students (except maybe when she gets violent...). Most of the characters call her "Professor", even those she didn't personally teach. Her mature personality makes it easy to forget that she's only 6 years older than Lloyd, an age gap almost the same as the one he has with Genis, and therefore technically she could also be considered one of his childhood friends.
• The Smart Girl: Extremely well-read and a quick, logical thinker.
• Stern Teacher: She is noted for being cool, strict, and practical, and even smacking her students around when they're being particularly stupid. Which makes it a very sweet moment when, late in the game, she admits that she's so hard on Lloyd in particular because she knows he's strong enough to handle it, and wants to see him grow up strong.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Mostly cold and detached, you can sometimes see her earnest love poking through. Especially if Lloyd romances her.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Defied. Zelos certainly fantasises that this is the case but, while she has a fan-club of young students, Raine doesn't go for the younger man... unless you max out her relationship value with Lloyd.
• Team Mom: She's the most likely to get on people's cases for messing around too much. She and Regal are also the ones who have the private conversation about how Lloyd must succeed, even if it requires some Heroic Sacrifices along the way. One of her titles is "Sisterly Love", where Genis trips in the Triet Ruins and has Raine both scolding and fussing over him. Lloyd mentions he can't tell if she's angry or relieved, and the title description calls Raine both a mother and a sister to Genis. This makes sense, since she literally raised Genis herself from a baby and he admits he doesn't remember his parents.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Apparently lemons, for some reason. If one pays attention to the ingredients she uses when she cooks, she inexplicably puts lemons in many recipes, even ones where they probably don't belong. This seems to tie in with why she's the party's resident Lethal Chef.
• Virgin Power: Played With. When approaching the Unicorn, the group suggest using Raine, but she refuses and alludes to the idea she isn't a virgin anymore. However, its also implied that her real reason was because the Unicorn was in the water, so she made it up to get out of doing it.
• White Mage: She's the best healer in the game, bar none. No one else even comes close, to the point that she's practically required to be in the party late-game to keep you alive.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She really doesn't do very well around water. Ironically, the sequel made this her elemental affinity.

Kratos Aurion

Kratos Aurion

Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki (JP), Cam Clarke (EN)

A stoic mercenary who just happens to be passing through the vicinity to save the Chosen's life and be offered the job of protecting her during her journey. Kratos speaks little, smiles less, and gets angry once every blue moon; this, combined with his superb swordsmanship, makes him the epitome of badass according to Genis, but a perpetual thorn in Lloyd's side, who tries his best to earn the older man's respect.

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Tropes associated with Kratos:

• Aloof Big Brother: Plays this role against Lloyd during the Journey of Regeneration, despite not being his brother. Lloyd himself seems to Lampshade this during one of their training sessions. Though, Lloyd says Kratos is a little old to be his brother. Little did he know...
• The Atoner: Between Mercy Killing his wife, causing Mithos to go completely insane over his grief about Martel, and keeping the whole scheme going, he has a lot to atone for.
• Badass Armfold: Does this in cutscenes quite often.
• Berserk Button: The Desians' tendency to refer to humans as "inferior beings" really pisses him off. As it turns out, this is because his wife was an escapee from a Desian Human Ranch, and was killed when they tried to get her back. He's also oddly protective of Lloyd, and doesn't take kindly to him being hurt. He is his son so in retrospect not that surprising.
• Bishie Sparkle: In the OVA bonuses, sometimes, when he appears accompánied by sparkles and roses in the background.
• Blow You Away: Learns Wind Blade.
• Bodyguard Crush: The Tales of Fandom 2 DVD reveals that he has feelings for a princess whom he protected before he met Lloyd. Four-thousand years before.
• But Now I Must Go: Much to Lloyd's chagrin, he leaves with the rest of the angels at the end of the game.
• Character Narrator: But just at the beginning of the game. After the opening cutscene, there's no more.
• Combat Medic: He has basic healing spells, which are quite useful before Raine joins your party.
• The Comically Serious: His overly serious attitude is played for laughs at time, mostly seen in skits and optional scenes.
• Crutch Character: Kratos has the highest starting stats and base stat growth in the game and is a Magic Knight Jack of All Trades capable of just about everything. However, he lacks deep specialization and, when they get titles that boost their stat growth, the rest of the party will bypass him in their own specialties. He also isn't usable past the Journey of Regeneration unless you reject seeing everyone else at Flanoir.
• Deadpan Snarker: More heavy on the deadpan than the snark, but he has his moments.
• Death Seeker: "Looks like I've failed to die once more."
• Demoted to Extra: He's the only playable party member to not come back in the sequel, outside of an easy to miss cameo, most of which can't be seen on the first playthrough.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Learns a couple of earth spells.
• Double Meaning: He does this a lot, which makes sense given how much he actually does know. For example, in Triet, Lloyd catches Kratos outside with Noishe. Despite Kratos claiming not to like animals, Lloyd remarks Noishe seems very comfortable with him. Kratos replies, "I once had a pet, long ago." That's because Noishe was his pet.
• Duel Boss: Against Lloyd, the two of them battle in the elves' forest.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Kratos was originally just a normal human, meaning he lacked the ability to use magic. Being given a Cruxis Crystal allowed him to gain the power to use magic, but even with that he primarily fights without it.
• Enigmatic Minion: Despite betraying the party and revealing himself to be one of Yggdrasill's seraphim, Kratos frequently provides crucial advice to Lloyd. It eventually turns out that Kratos is working against Cruxis. He's simply sick of everything Mithos is doing to revive Martel, and plans to have Mithos stopped for good.
• Evil Costume Switch: After The Reveal. You can have him put it back on with the proper title.
• Expy: If you compare this game to Final Fantasy X, he's an obvious one of Auron being the aloof mercenary with a Dark and Troubled Past. He could also be one of Jecht given that he works for the Big Bad but as a Spanner in the Works, is somewhat abusive to his son, and is The Ace that Lloyd wants to be like and surpass. He's arguably nicer than Jecht was, at any rate, and that all his seemingly abusive moments with his son were just to toughen him up like Jecht.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Returns briefly a while after his Heel–Face Turn. Notably, it's the only time he and Zelos can be in the party together.
• Guile Hero: His plan to let a human wield the Eternal Sword relies on him repeatedly betraying the party and playing both sides so that he can finally die. It's never really clear what side he's on until the end, and although it is his sword skills that are commented on the most, his plotting does a lot more to drive the story forward.
• Guilt Complex: Parodied in this fan comic.
• Hair Color Dissonance: His hair goes from being burgundy (like his in-game model) in the first four OVAs to redder and redder. It's completely bright red in the last episode. His hair is also often brown instead of red in fanart.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Kratos' second fight. You're not required to win; and good luck trying to do that on your first playthrough.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Starts as a face, turns heel, turns semi-face, then back to heel, then full face again.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Though it's not immediately obvious he knows well he's a Fallen Hero, is wracked with guilt over having to Mercy Kill his lover, and feels he is undeserving of being Lloyd's father. It's to the point he's a Death Seeker due to how poorly he thinks of himself.
• I Let You Win: Is supposedly holding back in the first two fights with him. Of course, you might not actually win the fairly difficult battles. That said, the fact the party isn't dead despite everything does suggest Lloyd is right that he holds back.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He wants the world to be saved as much as anyone in Colette's close-knit group of friends. Doesn't mean he has to be nice about it.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When the party arrive at the Tower of Salvation and are shocked that it's the same as the one in Sylvarant, Kratos appears and tells them that this should have been obvious and tells them they've pretty much done Cruxis a favour by bringing Colette straight to them.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: He gets a good attack on Magnius in Palmacosta, which is enough to force him to retreat. Also when he kills Kvar, until it's revealed that he's avenging his wife. Has another one of these with Remiel. After the party defeats him, he implores Kratos for aid, who very calmly lets Remiel die.
  Remiel: Lord Kratos, have pity on me. Please... lend me your aid!
  Kratos: Have you forgotten, Remiel? I used to be of the inferior race, a human. Does the ultimate being seek help from that which he despises most?
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Is actually Yuan that reveals this, Kratos did figure it out in Iselia, but never told Lloyd because he knew wouldn't be too pleased finding his biological father was alive and was never with him most of his life, though in all fairness Kratos didn't know Lloyd was alive till he found him in Iselia.
• Magic Knight: Kratos has the ability to use magic and also is good with a sword. He leans more towards the knight side of it though, as while he has the same rough arte list as Zelos, Kratos' overall stats focus more on the strength side of things.
• Mayfly–December Romance: He's an angel who lived for thousands of years, yet fell in love and married a human woman with a normal lifespan.
• Memento MacGuffin: Has a locket which contains a picture of him with his wife and child. If the player views a certain scene, he gives it to Lloyd and the locket just happens to protect him from an arrow.
• The Mole: For Cruxis. The party learns way too late to stop him from turning.
• Mysterious Parent: He's Lloyd's dad, and his true motives are an enigma.
• Not So Stoic: Becomes uncharacteristically angry upon meeting Kvar. And for a very good reason.
• Only in It for the Money: The reason he's joins you for the Journey of Regeneration. Raine has a skit with him where she suspects ulterior motives, and Kratos only restates this point over and over. She's actually right.
• Open-Ended Boss Battle: His first battle is played up as hopeless, but it's "merely" very difficult. With skillful play, the benefits of a New Game Plus, and/or use of an All-Divide, you can win, though Lloyd immediately points out that he was obviously holding back.
• Optional Party Member: He'll rejoin the party permanently only if Lloyd chooses to reject everyone else in Flanoir.
• Overrated and Underleveled: He's consistently treated as much much stronger than the rest of the party when in cutscenes, but in gameplay-terms he only starts out 2-3 levels higher than Lloyd, Genis and Colette. His boss form, meanwhile, represents how it is when he's not holding back.
• Papa Wolf: Subverted at the beginning of the game where, despite himself knowing the fact that Lloyd is his son, he acts like a total jerkass towards him and only warms up over time, yet he still doesn't help when Lloyd looks like he's going to be killed by Yggdrasill. Fortunately, later in the game, he throws himself in front of Lloyd to shield him from a deadly attack, does a full Heel–Face Turn for his sake, and is revealed he'd done a lot of backstage planning to help the heroes achieve their goal. He actually may have cared the whole time, as, when used by AI and put on free command, he is the one who spams Lloyd with First Aid more than anyone else.
  • In a OVA, he delivers quite a smack down to Sheena after she threatened to kill a defeated Lloyd.
  • It's implied that as Yggdrasill was his student, he's also still something of a Papa Wolf to him as well. He's basically choosing between two "sons" and in the end he picks Lloyd at the cost of Mithos dying.
• Perpetual Frowner: And when he does smile, it's usually a bitter thing.
• Pet the Dog: In spite of his gruff personality, he still mentors Lloyd when he tags along on the Journey of Regeneration. Also, he was hired to protect Colette, but he agrees to healing Sheena when the party encounters her in a devastated Luin, despite the fact she's a hired assassin and from Tethe'alla, which the party isn't supposed to know exists.
• Playing with Fire: Knows Fireball from the moment he joins, and can also learn Eruption and Hell Pyre.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis! / Punctuated Slashing: "Feel the pain! Of those 'inferior beings!' As you burn in Hell!"
• The Quiet One: Only says as much as he needs to.
• Really 700 Years Old: Just like Mithos and the rest.
• Recurring Boss: Though most encounters with him are Hopeless Boss Fights.
• Running Gag: Kratos is often late to important events, parodied a bit in OVA's bonuses. In fact, his very first scene is him arriving just in time to stop the game's first boss attacking Lloyd.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: His "Tales Series" bonus costume is Ludger Will Kresnik's suit and tie, to compensate for the fact that it's impossible for him to participate in the Meltokio party. Given his lack of storyline titles, he'll probably be wearing this for most Sylvarant if you've got Tales data.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Exhibits tendencies of this trope from the very beginning. As you get further out in the game, the party learns that he has a very, very long and rocky history to explain it.
• Shock and Awe: Learns Lightning and Thunder Blade, and has a few sword techniques and Compound Unisons of this element.
• Sour Supporter: He spends most of the Journey of Regeneration in a perpetually annoyed state, not helped by half the party being essentially random schoolchildren. During the Journey he also has a skit with Lloyd where he calls the whole Journey of Regeneration a colossal waste of time, which if Lloyd calls him out on it leads him to explain that even if Colette does succeed the world will inevitably decay again and another Chosen has to go on another Journey, so what sort of rotten system is Cruxis running in the first place? It's the first of many hints that he's not entirely happy with the path Mithos took.
• Staking the Loved One: When he and his wife Anna where cornered by Kvar, she had her Exsphere removed and turned into a monster and almost killed the infant Lloyd. Kratos was forced to Mercy Kill her while she had a moment of lucidity.
• Stealth Mentor: To Lloyd. He constantly berates Lloyd's lack of actual skill, but his advice does genuinely stick all the same.
• The Stoic: He's a cold and unemotional man most of the time. He starts to lose the facade later in the game.
• Stoic Spectacles: Unusual example in that he does not regularly wear glasses, nor is there any hint of him having vision problems, but he fits this trope to a tee the few times he's shown with them.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: He stopped aging about 4000 years ago when he was 28, but his youthful appearance is still discussed in one conversation.
• Too Many Belts: Especially in his judgment costume. So much so it became a fandom in-joke that he has a belt fetish.
• Try Not to Die: "Don't die, Lloyd." Then, in the ending, "Don't die before I do, Lloyd, my son."
• Walking Spoiler: As we're sure you can tell, there's a lot about him that gets revealed throughout the story.

Sheena Fujibayashi

Sheena Fujibayashi

Voiced by: Akemi Okamura (JP), Jennifer Hale (EN, Symphonia), Megan Hollingshead (EN, Dawn of the New World)

Sheena starts as a sympathetic antagonist; her first attempt to kill Colette fails due to her own clumsiness, and subsequent meetings highlight her niceness and sincerity as a person. It comes as no surprise when she joins the party after discovering what's going on in Sylvarant human farms. Later, she reveals she comes from the ninja village of Mizuho, from the parallel world of Tethe'alla; in spite of her attachment to her world and her village, she consistently picks the 'right' choice over blindly following her orders, even when she knows she will be punished for it. Her powers as a Summoner are essential to the second half of the game.

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Tropes associated with Sheena:

• Action Girl: A tough, athletic, fast-hitting ninja who leaps into battle and kicks ass.
• Adaptational Personality Change: The OVA portrayed her as a serious, enigmatic figure throughout the Sylvarant arc of the story. Compare that to the game, where she's a comically inept antagonist, and far more forthcoming with information to the rest of the cast. Her more comedic aspects surface once Zelos joins the party, however.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Sheena's relationship with Zelos in the OVA is less overtly strained than in the game. The game gives the impression that the two of them had a falling out in the past and are barely on speaking terms when Zelos first joins the party, while in the OVA they still seem to be solid friends, although Sheena beats him up when he annoys her regardless. At the very least, she's more comfortable in his presence and is more inclined to communicate with him normally, compared to her more conflicted reactions to him in the game.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Since she is not a Mizuho native by birth, but the adopted daughter of the Chief, she never quite felt like she belonged in the village. The incident with Volt made this so much worse.
• Asian Airhead: Downplayed, but it's there. If she takes the test at the Palmacosta Academy, she only gets 190 points out of a possible of 400, which is 20 points lower than Colette's score. She also takes Genis seriously when he jokingly claims to use fire magic to cook, and her clumsiness is very much Played for Laughs. She makes up for it by being a badass.
• Badass Boast: At the Temple of Lightning:

  Sheena: For the sake of everyone who risked their lives to protect me, Volt - I demand your power!"

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Zelos, in a way that's almost entirely one-sided on his part, although small moments show that her relationship with and perception of him is complicated. He flirts with her to an obnoxious degree which she clearly can't stand, but she takes to heart his more serious moments of concern, and deep down she does at least consider him a friend.
• Berserk Button: When Volt kills Corrine, she SNAPS. She gets angry at sexist remarks, as well.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Colette's Betty, because she is a mysterious asassin from another world. After that gets settled, the issue doesn't come up much.
• Big Damn Heroes: At Kvar's ranch, when she saves everyone from being captured. She's also the one who busts the party out of the Imperial Research Academy.
• Blow You Away: Only in the sequel, where wind becomes her primary element.
• Book Dumb: She's not stupid, and has plenty of common sense, but her academic knowledge leaves a lot to be desired. She has the second-lowest score on the Palmacosta Academy entrance exam. This is partially because Mizuho doesn't have a formal school, and also because she's from an entirely different world (which explains why Presea also gets a relatively low score on the exam).
• Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a sizable chest, earning the attention of guys and the envy of girls. She even gets a Title about it when she bathes in the hot springs and all the girls comment on her figure.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She has romantic feelings for Lloyd, but can never muster the courage to confess it, especially in her ending.
• Casting a Shadow: The only party member capable of dark attacks, either directly by summoning Shadow or by applying the dark attribute to others.
• Character Development: Compare her first pact with Undine to later and she has much more confidence in her abilities and herself.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Not as much as Colette, or, rather, she's not so much clumsy as it is there's a running gag of trap doors opening under her.
• Daddy's Girl: Well, adoptive Grandfather, but she's very close to the Chief of Mizuho and refers to him as 'Grandpa'.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mostly towards Zelos, though you can usually count on Sheena to have some sassy remark up her sleeves.
• Death Dealer: She uses cards as her weapons. She also uses them to curse her opponents with debuffs.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Apparently, Mizuho tradition dictates that a proven liar must swallow a thousand needles. Pick Sheena's ending, and she threatens to invoke it on Lloyd if he doesn't let her come along on his Exsphere hunt. Subverted as she was just kidding.
• Dual Boss: Fights alongside a guardian when you face her as a boss. Also justifies her Redemption Demotion: She ran out of guardian seals right before she joins the party!
• Fragile Speedster: She's quick and agile and can dish a lot of damage, but has low health and defense. She's also not the fastest character in the game, that'd be Lloyd.
• Foil:
  • To Colette, in some ways. Both are idealistic women doing questionable things (to themselves or others) to save their world. They're both kind of clumsy. And, not coincidentally, they're the most popular female love interests.
  • She's also this to Lloyd himself directly, being someone who refuses to make sacrifices for the "good of the world" and were adopted and raised by people who are considered 'outsiders', Lloyd by a dwarf and Sheena by the village of Mizuho. Her character is essentially built to be the Lloyd to Zelos's Colette, being a long-time, opposite-gender friend of the 'Chosen One' who is well-meaning, book-dumb (Sheena actually gets the lowest test score next to Lloyd at the Palmacosta Academy) and who the respective Chosen has an emotional attachment towards. However, her relationship with Zelos is fraught with tension compared to Lloyd's very close relationship to Colette.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Taking the Hard Path and getting Sheena early on will result in extra scenes, dialogue, and more foreshadowing.
• Glass Cannon: Hits hard, but her defence is lacking.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Her summoning skills get the party out of bad situations several times, most notably when they jump off the Grand Tethe'alla bridge.
• Happily Adopted: By the chief of Mizuho, who loves her as his own.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Lampshaded mercilessly by Zelos. Sheena herself tends to get uncomfortable or defensive when people hit on her, which makes sense since she was treated like an outsider growing up, much like Lloyd was in Iselia.
• Heel–Face Turn: She starts off trying to kill Colette the first few times they meet. She comes around after learning what the Journey of World Regeneration is really like, and that there might be a way to Save Both Worlds.
• Hero Antagonist: For the Journey of Regeneration, since she's trying to save her world from a dark age and assault by the Desians, and it's quite clear she's having second thoughts upon seeing how bad draining mana is for Sylvarant.
• Heroic BSoD: Has one in the Temple of Lightning when Corrine dies. She does managed to snap out of it when Lloyd gives her a Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! speech, but several Z-skits imply she's pretty emotionally shattered for a small while after.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Tries to do this at the Otherwordly Gate, offering to let Kuchinawa kill her in exchange for letting everyone else go. Lloyd, Zelos and Colette are not exactly happy with this, but luckily, they manage to escape to Sylvarant before Sheena can go through with it. Happens again in Welgaia, when she falls through a trap intended for Lloyd. Like everyone else, she catches up before the final battle.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Granted, she never self-identifies as one, but her clan has a few much more practical, traditional ninja within it, so she really stands out. Even if that wasn't the case, she still wears a glaring purple outfit with a vibrant pink sash.
• Hitman with a Heart: She was sent to Sylvarant to kill Colette, after all, but she just can't go through with it.
• I Am Not Pretty: Despite being very attractive, Sheena doesn't think highly of her looks at all, which may have something to do with how she was ostracised in Mizuho after the Volt incident.
• Informed Equipment: In cutscenes her preferred summon (besides Corrine) is Undine, though this is partly because Undine is the only Summon Spirit Sheena is required to get early in the game, whereas the player can opt to get Sylph and Efreet much later on so Undine might well be the only one Sheena can summon until the Tethe'alla portion of the game starts. Even so she does seem to get along witn Undine the best out of all of the summon spirits; it probably helps that Undine is the polar opposite of Volt, the Spirit that put Sheena off her summoning abilities in the first place.
• Minion with an F in Evil: During the Journey of Regeneration. Although she's trying to kill Colette, her villain cred is severely dented by her taking time off from Chosen-killing shenanigans to go on a Side Quest to heal an injured man and play hide-and-seek with the children of Luin. For double irony points you have to help her with the former, though it does prove to be plot-related as Pietro knows how to sneak into Kvar's human ranch. You can also find her in one of the Houses of Martel, where she is praying for the protection of Tethe'alla.
• Ms. Fanservice: In contrast to the rest of the female party members, she's visibly quite curvy, with a low-neckline on her kimono that completely exposes her bra and well-endowed chest. And that's not getting into her alternate costumes.
• My Greatest Failure: Her failure to make a pact with Volt, who killed a quarter of Mizuho's population and put her surrogate father in a coma. Not to mention, Sheena was only seven years old when this happened.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Her swimsuit has a plunging neckline that reaches her stomach.
• Ninja: And from the game's local Wutai to boot.
• Oblivious to Love: While it's partly because he intentionally keeps it this way, Sheena has absolutely no idea that Zelos genuinely has feelings for her that go beyond his trademark flirting.
• Odd Friendship: With Raine. They are rather antagonistic with each other at first, but by the time the Tethe'alla half of the plot begins they're actually good friends.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Sheena is actually a pseudonym that was given to her by the village, as revealed in a skit. They have a law stating that only the village chief, as well as one's parents and\or spouse, are to know a Mizuho ninja's true birth name.
• Paper Talisman: Her cards are inscribed with mystical seals to give them power and let her fight by swinging them around.
• Parental Abandonment: Her biological parents abandoned her in the Gonorrchia forest, aka: The Forest of Death. This is why she views the chief as her adoptive father.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Regal in Dawn of the New World. The two are rarely seen apart.
• Poor Communication Kills: The reason she failed to make a pact with Volt, besides her inexperience, was that she couldn't understand Volt's language. Averted when Lloyd asks her why she's so hell-bent on preventing the World Regeneration, Sheena replies, "This world will be saved!" allowing Raine and Kratos to figure out Sheena's real identity.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Played with. She's not opposed to looking good - just looking like "one of Zelos' cheap floozies."
• Ridiculously Long Lived Family Name: She has the same surname as Suzu Fujibayashi from Phantasia, suggesting that the name survived unchanged for all the eras between those games.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: For Lloyd, in a similar manner to Colette. It's entirely possible to hook her up with Lloyd.
• Shadow Archetype: To Lloyd. Sheena (at least initially) represents a much darker side of Lloyd's idealism, unable to make any meaningful choice between saving her world and letting Sylvarant suffer and attempting to save her world through assassination and the sacrifice of another. She also, like Lloyd, was adopted and raised within a culture different from most of the world - but unlike Lloyd who had a well-adjusted childhood under Dirk, Sheena lost her adoptive father figure at the age of 7 due to events that she blames herself for. Her relationship with Zelos is also a mirror of Lloyd's and Colette's in the reverse direction: Lloyd and Colette's relationship is built on longstanding trust and honesty, while Sheena and Zelos have trouble communicating properly and their relationship is volatile as a result, even though they do actually care about each other.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Exactly once, during her pact with Gnome, after the Summon Spirit gets fed up with her 'stuffy language'.
  "For the sake of creating a place in which the two worlds must no longer sacrifice one another... gimme your power."
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Colette and Raine comment on Sheena's figure in the Hot Springs Episode, much to her embarrassment.
• Summon Magic: When she's in Overlimit mode, she can summon any entity she's made a pact with in-story for a powerful attack in place of a Mystic Arte.
• Survivor Guilt: Massive amounts of it, thanks to the Volt Incident, especially as the attack killed Orochi and Kuchinawa's parents, and her adopted father is in a coma because he threw himself in front of Sheena to protect her.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: In her (optional) fight with Kuchinawa.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Sheena is faced with this trope when she arrives in Sylvarant - protecting Tethe'alla means she has to kill the Chosen, but when she sees the state Sylvarant is in and the heroic antics of the group, she ultimately begins working with her former enemies.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Colette's Girly Girl.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: She has a tomboyish personality, which is emphasized by her spiky bun.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Despite her tomboyish personality, she actually likes cooking, although she makes some odd (but not completely wrong) decisions: like adding pineapple to curry. She also is mentioned to like flowers, as seen in Zelos' mansion. She's actually the third-best cook in the group (to Genis and Regal) and the best girl at it.
• Tsundere: Type A towards Zelos, B with everyone else. Lloyd gets off easier but he has a habit of misinterpreting her advances. Plus she gets flustered when people compliment her.
• Tragic Keepsake: Corrine's Bell, which she gives to Kuchinawa as insurance that she will show up to their agreed fight in Mizuho.
• The Unchosen One: Much like Lloyd, Sheena is outside of The Chosen One system, but is essential to undoing it all.
• Uneven Hybrid: Sheena is not a half-elf, but she explains in her Flanoir scene that she most likely has elven blood somewhere in her ancestry due to the fact that she can use summon magic.
• Unexpected Virgin: When attempting to approach the unicorn, the party initially plans to send only Colette. Sheena points out that she qualifies too, indignant at the assumption that she doesn't.
• Unknown Rival: She's initially oblivious to the fact that Kuchinawa is out to get her.
• Vague Age: Her profile states she's nineteen, though her actual age is slightly in question due to the fact she was abandoned as a baby and adopted by Mizuho, and therefore doesn't know exactly when she was born.
• Virgin Power: Like Colette, it's implied that this is how she could approach the unicorn. She's rather insulted when Kratos and Raine assume she isn't "qualified".
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Despite the fact she claims she "can't stand" Zelos, she cares more for him than she lets on, and when it comes down to it, they play off each other well. The description for Zelos' title "Idiot Chosen" says it all.
  "A title given by a friend during the journey. It's not a name given out of spite."
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Implied to be this for the Chief of Mizuho. It's why she agreed to go to Meltokio and Sybak to learn summoning arts and why she worked with the Renegades to get to Sylvarant.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Her Character Catchphrase; she says it every time her guard breaks or her attacks fail during combat and every time she triggers a trap door.

Zelos Wilder

Zelos Wilder

Voiced by: Masaya Onosaka (JP), Shiloh Strong (EN, Symphonia), Christopher Corey Smith (EN, Dawn of the New World)

"Whatever will be will be."

Tethe'alla's 22-year-old Chosen One, Zelos has all the appearance of Handsome Lech, provides much of the comic relief in the second part of the game, and is generally the party's Butt-Monkey. Among the aristocracy of Tethe'alla, he's extremely popular and a regular The Casanova, and retains the common prejudice against Half Elves. However, he also proves his practical nature by discarding said prejudice, based upon his own experience with the party; in the moments when he is serious, he regularly shows himself to be the most cynical member of the party, and one of the most observant, especially towards Sheena, whom it's implied he may have feelings for. Confirmed in the Interquel novel.

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Tropes associated with Zelos:

• Adaptational Personality Change
  • Zelos's portrayal in the Symphonia manga scales back considerably on his perverted playboy traits in favor of making his suspicious nature and bitterness towards the world far more apparent.
  • In the OVA, it's his pessimism and jerkass tendencies that take more of a backseat. He's more willing to be emotionally honest, compared to his game counterpart who makes an insensitive joke or dismissive remark at every turn and very rarely shows his genuine side to the party.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Zelos's relationship with Sheena in the OVA series is less overtly strained than in the game. The game gives the impression that the two of them had a falling out in the past and are barely on speaking terms when Zelos first joins the party, while in the OVA they still seem to be solid friends who are comfortable in each other's company, even if they bicker and banter constantly.
• Anti-Hero: Zelos is crass, selfish, and obnoxious, and mostly seems to go along with the party only because their goals are convenient for him. Although, if the player does right by him, he starts to wholeheartedly desire to fight for a better world.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Zelos acts very detached from his younger sister Seles much of the time, but he becomes extremely protective when the party encounters her at the colosseum, eventually flat out telling to her face that she's important to him.
• Becoming the Mask: If you don't talk to Kratos in Flanoir, he actually becomes a true friend to the group, instead of just pretending to be one.
• Beneath the Mask: Underneath the shallow, womanizing loudmouth hides as viciously cunning, observant, cynical and serious person. If you choose him during the formal outfits side quest, he even admits that not being serious all the time is exhausting.
• Berserk Button:
  • He really hates when a child has to bear the burden of their parent's actions. In particular, how Kratos acts towards Lloyd and how Lloyd has to fix the problems involving merging the worlds that Kratos is partially responsible for.
  • His easygoing attitude totally vanishes when Sheena offers to let Kuchinawa kill her in exchange for letting Lloyd and the others go. Zelos is notably pissed off and actually drags Sheena through the Otherwordly Gate before she goes through with it.
  • He hates when people act like they're a tragic figure entitled to a private pity party. He outright calls Mithos on trying to play the part after everything horrible he's done and to Richter in Dummied Out content.
  • In the sequel, bad-mouthing Lloyd is a one-way ticket to his bad side. As is kidnapping his sister Seles.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Sheena. It's almost completely one-sided on his part, though: while Sheena does definitely like him more than she lets on, her true feelings about him remain ambiguous. They have known each other for awhile, and Zelos maintains an attachment to her. He flirts with and annoys her far more than any other girl, but at the same time is highly observant of her and worries for her well-being.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • He truly does care for Seles, even if he tries hiding it. Just watch the skit where he thinks she's following them and he insists she go home because she could get hurt. It's hinted he has a bit of this toward Colette as well, as he's prone to being more considerate of her. In the interquel novel, he pats Colette on the head and gives her encouragement when she has a moment of self-doubt.
  • He's quite doting to Presea as well, calling her "my cute little Presea" and being one of the only party members who doesn't attempt to insist she get along with Regal after discovering he killed Alicia and seems saddened when she expresses disapproval in him.
• Big Damn Heroes: He's the one who rescues the party from the various traps in Welgaia. If he lives, that is.
• Birds of a Feather: Despite their wildly different personalities and upbringings, Colette and Zelos quickly get along with each other due to their shared status as Chosen. Zelos himself declares that 'Chosen have to stick together!', and a skit with Colette is one of the earliest points in the game that Zelos shows that he doesn't actually think as highly of himself as he pretends he does.
• Blatant Lies: In the OVA, he says to Lloyd, with a pretty satisfied smile on his face, "Oh, stop it. Being thanked by someone like you doesn't give me a bit of joy."
• Blow You Away: Zelos can wield Wind, Fire, Earth, and Lighting, but notably the only move apart from one of his Limit Breaks that's completely unique to his moveset compared to Kratos is Severing Wind.
• Blue Blood: In Tethe'alla, the Chosen is deemed second in power only to the royal family, and as a result Zelos is part of the nobility class, contrasting sharply with Colette's humble life in a small village. Zelos posits that if Sylvarant began prospering, Colette's family would also quickly rise in riches and political power.
• Brutal Honesty: Zelos doesn't get why people hide their feelings or otherwise attempt to make light of a bad situation. As such, he's frequently labeled as insensitive for bringing up hard truths that someone would rather not face, even if it would be in their best interests to confront them as soon as possible. This is incredibly ironic since Zelos himself masks most of his problems from the party by deliberately acting like a foolhardy playboy, but then again, it's also eventually clear that he hates himself.
• Butt-Monkey: Played for Laughs... until it's played for drama. The Dark and Troubled Past from Zelos and the self-loathing that comes with it get shown rather succinctly, but it paints a very clear picture that Zelos takes all of the abuse that he does because he feels like he deserves it on some level.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Clearly feels that Lloyd should do this, regarding his father Kratos. Not surprising, considering his own situation with his parents.
• The Casanova: His Personal ability allows him to flirt with female NPCs for free items. He even gets this as a title for flirting with all of the NPCs in the game.
• Chick Magnet: Even Princess Hilda of Tethe'alla seems to have a big crush on Zelos.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He might endlessly mock and toy with Sheena, but he does have her best interests at heart. This is best seen after Corrine dies saving Sheena from Volt in an optional skit. He's his usual joking self, which the rest of the party calls him a jerk for. Zelos says to himself that everyone walking on eggshells around Sheena is just going to make her feel worse. Another skit much later has him tell Sheena that he would personally help the people of Mizuho if they were forced from their land.
• The Chosen One: Deconstructed, just like with Colette, from only a slightly different direction. Zelos has the same pressures that she does, and is just as broken as she is. But while they both have a martyr complex, Colette is self-sacrificing to a fault, while Zelos is inherently flippant and flighty because he feels like nothing else he does outside of being the Chosen One will ever matter.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Plays Lloyd's group, Yggdrasill, and the Renegades against each other for his own benefit. Ultimately, he sides with Lloyd. Unless you treat him like dirt throughout the entire game or pick Kratos in Flanoir.
• Church Militant: Subverted. For someone supposed to be on a Mission from God, he is notoriously bad at doing anything even remotely religious. As a matter of fact, he doesn't seem to like the Pope much. Then again, the Pope is kind of a Jerkass.
• Cultural Posturing: As Sylvarant has fallen behind Tethe'alla on a technological and cultural level due to its loss of mana, Zelos regularly talks about how barbaric it is, often to the annoyance of Lloyd. Of course, beneath the teasing, he really, really hates the fact that Tethe'alla's prosperity comes from Sylvarant's decline.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was born into a loveless marriage and spent much of his youth wondering why his mother never seemed happy. While he was still a child, he witnessed his mother get murdered before his eyes by his father's mistress before she, with her dying breaths, proceeded to tell him that she wished he had never been born. Then, he was forced to watch helplessly as his then-5-year-old half-sister (one of the only people he truly cares about) Seles was locked up in an Abbey with no hope of being released, as punishment for the crime her mother committed. And that was just the start of a spiral of events that lead to Zelos having a serious amount of self-loathing underneath his smiling exterior.
• Death Seeker: Despite his high-and-mighty behavior, skits and sidequests reveal that he thinks very little of himself and believes that he shouldn't exist. Whether or not this mindset of his changes depends on the player's choices, and if it doesn't he will betray the party for the thinly-veiled purpose of putting himself out of his misery. With the right choices though, he will grow to believe in living again.
• Dirty Old Man: Not yet but he probably will be in a few decades, as a few lines of dialogue indicate that he intends to go on being a pervert for the rest of his life.
• Double Agent: Goes Serial Escalation and becomes a triple agent for Cruxis, the Renegades, and Lloyd's party, eventually settling on either the first or last depending on the player's actions.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Many of the Event Flags that increase his affection with Lloyd involve helping out pretty girls, and he only agrees to help save Colette, Presea, Raine, and Genis because he can't stand watching a pretty girl in trouble.
• Early-Bird Cameo: In the OVA, Zelos appears in the 2nd episode of the Sylvarant arc in one of Sheena's flashbacks, despite the fact in the game, the player never sees him until the party arrives in Tethe'alla.
• Et Tu, Brute?: At the final dungeon, complete with the hero's exclamations of disbelief.
• Evil All Along: Somewhere during the course of the journey, however, he eventually has a change of heart, so when he finally gets to betraying the group, it's actually an act to help them, rather than what it would have been if he never decided to take Lloyd's side over Mithos'. It's unknown at what specific time during the journey he made his decision to stay with Lloyd, but a good guess is after the scene in Flanoir. If you talk to anyone except Kratos (which makes Zelos' Face–Heel Turn a fake one), Lloyd tells Zelos that he trusts him before they leave. If you talk to Kratos (which makes his Face–Heel Turn real), Lloyd instead asks Zelos if he can really trust him.
• Fake Defector: In the storyline that doesn't kill him. He still betrays the party, but it's just a ruse to swipe a means for Lloyd to wield the Eternal Sword.
• Fantastic Racism: Reconstructed. Zelos is fully aware that he's at least passively racist against half-elves thanks to his upbringing and because a half-elf murdered his mother, but that doesn't stop him from hitting on Raine or joining Lloyd and the others to try and rescue her and Genis. He even pragmatically explains that he does realize that such attitudes are unfounded, and that half-elves are no different from anyone else even after only traveling with the party for a short time. It even results in a major Pet the Dog moment from Zelos during a sidequest when he lets Kate stay at his mansion (in his own room, no less), despite her status as not only a half-elf but the Pope's daughter.
• Foil
  • To Lloyd and/or Colette. If you stripped him of his womanizer aspects, he's actually a lot like Lloyd with a heavy dose of cynicism. He is also a contrasting take on the damage to self-worth that the Chosen system can cause compared to Colette's experience.
  • Less noted, but arguably Mithos is another one that he shares a lot of contrasting traits. He's also willing to do anything for his sister regardless of what she really wants, has cynicism for thinking a destroyed world would be better, holds prejudices spurned by traumatic pasts, will manipulate and use people to get his way, is much more cutthroat than most of the party when dealing with enemies and holds onto grudges for longer too. However he's more willing to grow and change than Mithos, causing their different endings at least if he lives.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Most of the party find him rather annoying due to his womanizing tendencies and flippant attitude, but nevertheless they think of him as one of their own. Although Zelos's perception of how much the party actually cares for him plays a hand in whether he chooses to ultimately side with them or not.
• The Gadfly: He almost constantly tries to get a rise out of the other characters through flirting, teasing, or cracking jokes, and likes to tell tall-tales to the more gullible members of the party.
• Genius Ditz: While he often acts like a moron and blatantly admits that his Valedictorian status upon graduating school was partly because he cheated, if you make the party take the test at Palmacosta academy, Zelos actually proves to be the smartest character after Raine (who is a genius), Genis (who is ALSO a genius), and Kratos (who has been alive for 4000 years).
• The Glomp: Does this to Lloyd often, much to his chagrin. Also does this to Colette in the OVA twice.
• Good with Numbers: Whilst he cheated his way to the top of the class in most subjects (though as Genius Ditz points out he is smarter than he appears) he actually genuinely aced his mathematics exams and is called on by Raine to tutor Genius and Lloyd in the subject.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Subverted. Zelos can use magic, but as he explains, it isn't because he's an Elf or Half-Elf, but because when he was younger he received a blood transfusion from an Elf, causing him to gain magical powers as a result. In actuality, he was made to consume a very rare mineral known as aionis, just like Kratos did 4000 years ago, which gave him the ability to cast magic.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: The only time Zelos reveals that he actually has wings in-game is when he betrays the party and prepares to fight them to death. Should the player take the routes that allow him to survive, Zelos will still prove to have wings, but only when his Mystic Artes get unlocked and utilized as he won't have them out in-battle the way Colette does. His wings are the color of fire, fitting for his wild, volatile personality.
• Handsome Lech: Gorgeous, and also a pervy philanderer. It's all an act, though. Well, mostly.
• Headbutting Heroes: With Genis, referring to him mostly as "Brat".
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Done oddly; he constantly shifts allegiances but does so subtly enough that a first-time player probably won't notice. By the time his deception comes to light, he's settled on a side.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lloyd, assuming you raise his affection levels to max. More evident in the sequel.
• Hidden Depths: There's quite a bit Beneath the Mask. He outwardly shows a perverted flirty side, but he's actually extremely intelligent, especially with regards to people and their personalities. He also has a remarkable insight into Tethe'alla's social structure and the accompanying problems, and knows far more about the nature of the Church of Martel than he lets on. And that's not even getting into his seriously Dark and Troubled Past.
• Holy Hand Grenade: After he reveals that he was a member of Cruxis, Zelos gains access to the Angel spell Judgment, and both of his mystic artes are also related to Angel skills.
• Idiot Hair: It was there from the beginning, but Zelos's unique hair wasn't consistently drawn between official materials until the OVA's came out, after which it became much more obvious that there's a thick strand that stands out from the rest of his hair. It's especially noticeable during his childhood years when he didn't wear a headband.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: When asked which side he wants to fight for, his answer is "the one that's likely to win." Though he also admits immediately after that, if push came to shove, he'd want to help both worlds. Lampshaded during his scene in Flanoir:
  Zelos: Man, I can't believe I'm joining the weaker side... This isn't like me at all.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Zelos acts extremely pompous and overconfident most of the time, but it masks the fact he has a severe lack of self-worth. Lloyd is one of the biggest target of Zelos' teasing, but Zelos greatly envies Lloyd's idealism and willpower. One skit also has Zelos privately admit to Colette that he doesn't think that he's as amazing as she is.
• Ironic Echo: Lloyd often starts battles by saying, "Let's go all out!" If Zelos truly betrays the party on the Kratos route, he'll mock Lloyd by saying, "Might as well go all out, right?" before fighting the remainder of the party to his death.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Even though Zelos isn't an active Chosen destined to go on the fatal Journey of Regeneration the way Colette is, you can argue Zelos was dealt a harsher deal in life. While she gets a lot of physical trauma in her journey, Zelos by far gets the most emotional baggage which stems back to his childhood. He was basically shunned and abandoned by his parents, and forced to live among a high-class society that constantly threatened to take advantage of him. Colette at the very least had a solidly supportive group of friends and family.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He seems to act this way towards Sheena in a conflicted manner, as he is clearly irritated by her crush on Lloyd but at the same time repeatedly attempts to nudge her towards him. He is also this way towards his sister in a familial way, because a good portion of motivation for his actions stem from his desire to give her a better life. Unfortunately, in both cases he does so without showing any of his intentions and deliberately behaves abhorrently towards them, which only serves to push them both away from him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He might let people hate him, but his Pet the Dog moments shows he's actually thought about the consequences of his actions. He might have his moments of Brutal Honesty, but it's to make people confront their issues instead of hiding behind them. He also prevents Sheena from doing what she wants a few times, but that's because she'd be making a Senseless Sacrifice if she did.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Zelos tends to point out the blunt truth the rest of the party shy away from, even if he means well by trying to get them to face facts.
  • After the Temple of Lightning incident, Sheena is incredibly depressed thanks to Volt killing Corrine, especially since this is the second time this has happened when Sheena tried to form a pact with Volt. When Zelos seemingly ignores Sheena's grief, the rest of the party call him out on his insensitive behavior. Zelos then counters that Sheena is never going to feel better if everybody insists on walking on eggshells around her. Lloyd eventually comes to agree with Zelos, although he does say that Zelos could have worded that better.
  • When the party is cornered at the Otherworld Gate, Sheena tries to pull a Heroic Sacrifice under the assumption that she's the only one the party's enemy wants dead. Zelos drags Sheena away from it and forces her to flee. When Sheena calls him out on it, Zelos replies that it would have been a Senseless Sacrifice, since it wouldn't have stopped Kuchinawa, the Pope and the armies of Tethe'alla, all of whom were gunning for the party's heads from pursuing them. Sheena ultimately admits he's right, but still is rather sour to Zelos for a time. (Doesn't help Zelos suggested Sheena give him a kiss for saving her - Presea called him out on it.)
  • Zelos even does this in the sequel. He calls Marta out on her Clingy Jealous Girl behavior, and how it's doing nothing but driving Emil away from her and making an already bad situation even worse. Zelos even says that it's okay to for Marta to pursue Emil romantically if that's what she wants to do, but she needs to learn there's a time and a place for it. After this, Marta does tone down a bit, suggesting that she listened to Zelos.
  • During an optional sidequest, the party encounter a little boy in Sybak who has lost his mother. Every building you try to enter turn him away because he is filthy and poor. When the boy complains and says Zelos should do more about how the poor are treated, Zelos tells the boy he shouldn't expect someone to just come along and fix his life for him and tells the boy that since his mother is trying to find work, he should also help out and being a child isn't an excuse to do nothing but complain. While kind of a jerk thing to say, especially coming from a guy raised in luxury like Zelos, he isn't wrong and it's true that many people in both Sylvarant and Tethe'alla choose to hang their hopes on the Chosen One instead of being proactive. The kid even says as much to Zelos.
• Killed Off for Real: If you choose to fight him, his Face–Heel Turn is real, and he dies after a boss battle with him.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Oh, most definitely. He plays it up for all its worth, as multiple women comment on how attractive Zelos is.
• Loving Bully: Zelos antagonizes Sheena more than basically anyone else in the party, even running into Dude, Not Funny! territory at times, but simultaneously there are plenty hints that he harbors feelings for her and secretly looks out for her well-being.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: He even gets a special title for flirting with every female NPC in the game.
• Lovable Traitor: Double Subverted; he betrays the party with a smile on his face, but abruptly stops being lovable. However, in the canonical path, he turns out to be a Fake Defector, and the party welcomes him back with open arms.
• Magic Knight: Just like Kratos, though he can be a bit more magical than knightly with the right build.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's surprisingly devious.
• Meaningful Name: in mythology, the individuals known as Zelos, Kratos, and Nike (the latter of whom Colette derives her name from), are siblings.
• Meaningful Echo: Happens in the Tower of Salvation, Zelos repeats his "I side with the strongest" phrase in a way that supposed to make you think he's serious. However, it's actually a Double Subversion. In context, it seems like he's telling the party he sold them out to Cruxis a long time ago. However, right before he said it, he tells Lloyd "remember what I said in Flanoir?" What he said in Flanoir was not "I side with the strongest" but "put your faith in me," which was a subtle hint that he's really a Fake Defector. That line is very conspicuously omitted in the paths when he defects for real.
• Messianic Archetype: Subverted. As the Chosen of his land, this is what he's intended to be. He... doesn't particularly follow it through, however.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In the path where he dies, it's implied that he decides to betray the party for real because he felt that he could never completely earn their trust. The skit that plays afterwards shows that the party is extremely guilty about this.
• Mommy Issues: Well, you'd have them too if your mother was killed in an attack meant for you and were then told "you should never have been born." This may be why Zelos just can't help himself from helping a girl in trouble.
• Mr. Exposition: Zelos is the primary character through which the player learns things about Tethe'allan society, particularly in the realm of politics and the way the Church of Martel works compared to Sylvarant.
• Mr. Vice Guy: His vice is pretty obvious: it's Lust. He's a shameless flirt, refers to women as "hunnies", and even gets a passive trait where he can get free items from women by talking to them when he's in the party lead.
• Multiple Endings: When people say the game has several endings, they're not referring to the ships. Any route where Zelos survives is canon, and any route where he dies is not.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Has this attitude towards Lloyd and Genis in the beginning. Lloyd earns his respect and grows out of it. Genis... not quite so much.
• The Nicknamer: According to him, Genis is "Brat", Raine is "My intellectual hunny", Colette is "Little Angel Beauty", Sheena is alternately "my voluptuous hunny" or "Violent Demonic Banshee", Presea is "Rosebud", Regal is "Old Man" or "Pops", and Lloyd is "Hey You" and later "Bud". Originally, he referred to Lloyd as "Hunny" in the Japanese version.
• Not in the Face!: One of the lines he blurts out when hit in combat.
• Odd Couple: In the Tales meta-verse, Zelos co-hosts the officially created Tales character talk-show with Jade. They play off each other surprisingly well.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Zelos is highly intelligent, skilled at manipulation, and has severe self-loathing stemming from some severe Parental Abandonment, not to mention being a triple agent who's playing the party, Cruxis, and the Renegades against each other to ensure he's got a shot of joining whoever's the victors. He hides all of this under a facade of being a happy-go-lucky Handsome Lech who seems to have made it his life's mission to hit on every female in existence and antagonize Sheena.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Zelos drops his Handsome Lech attitude and gets genuinely pissed, you know the situation is serious.
  • Sheena's attempted Heroic Sacrifice at the Otherwordly Gate gets Zelos to literally drag her into the portal, as Zelos seems to show genuine anger at Sheena for even thinking about it.
    Zelos: You've gotta be kidding me! Enough of this, Sheena!
  • If any member of the party younger than him falls in battle, Zelos will sometimes respond with an outraged, "How could you do that?!"
  • In Dawn of the New World, he drops the playboy act around Marta to give her some advice about how to pursue Emil. He calls Marta out on her Clingy Jealous Girl behavior, and how it's doing nothing but driving Emil away from her. Zelos even says that it's okay to for Marta to pursue Emil romantically, but there's a time and a place for it, and it's not when their lives are on the line. After this, Marta does tone down her overt infatuation with Emil, suggesting that she listened to Zelos.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Apparently, just wearing a mask prevents the girls from recognizing him.
• Parental Abandonment: Holy crap. Even in a game that loves to kill off mothers like it's going out of style, Zelos is the worst of the lot. His mother's final words to him being "you should have never been born" really don't help.
• Pet the Dog: Zelos may be prejudiced against half-elves due to his upbringing, but he sympathizes with them, even letting Kate stay at his manor. He also sympathizes with Genis and Raine for the crap they get for being half elves, since they didn't ask to be born.
  • One skit has Zelos honestly admit that he thinks Colette is amazing for the things she's endured and that he can't compare to her, and when she protests the notion he insists that she really is.
  • He teases Sheena, but he truly does care about her, and when he does it in one skit after Corrine's death, the party call him out on this and leave. Zelos then says Sheena will never snap out of her depression if everyone is walking on eggshells around her.
  • One sidequest for Zelos has the group stumble on a street kid in Sybak who has lost his mother. Every building you try to enter refuses to let him in because he's dirty. When the mother shows up and apologises to the party, Zelos gives her a job as a maid in his manor. He brushes this off when Lloyd points out it was a nice thing to do, saying it was just because she was pretty, but he was under no obligation to help and did it anyway.
• The Pornomancer: A PG version. No matter who he flirts with, where, or when, they will instantly love him enough to give him money. It can't even be explained by his excuse that women only like him because he's the Chosen, since this skill works in Sylvarant as well as Heimdall just after chewing him out for it.
• Power of Trust: Lloyd telling Zelos he trusts him makes the difference between Zelos being a Fake Defector who helps the party escape the Tower of Salvation's death traps and obtains the final item they need for the Eternal Ring, or truly defecting in the hopes of dying and escaping his destiny. Leads to Undying Loyalty in the second game; Zelos has absolute faith in Lloyd's innocence when the latter is accused of leading the Blood Purge in Palmacosta. Compare that to the other party members who, at best, are searching for Lloyd to find out the truth (Colette); or, at worst, suspect Lloyd may have pulled a Face–Heel Turn and become a Well-Intentioned Extremist like Yggdrasill (Raine). Turns out Zelos was right all along, and will even unmask the doppelganger responsible if the player fails to do so.
• Raised as a Host: Same deal as Colette, with the added stress that his parents only got together because Cruxis told them to and didn't even like each other.
• Real Men Wear Pink: His default outfit is predominantly pink, black and white, plus gold and purple trim.
• Route Boss: If Lloyd goes outside with Kratos at the Flanoir scene, Zelos serves as a boss battle after betraying the party, hoping to die at your hands.
• Sad Clown: He doesn't seem to take anything seriously and is constantly cracking jokes, even in totally inappropriate situations. As it turns it, it's because he thinks that he's worthless and his life has no meaning out of being the Chosen One, and refuses to tip anyone off that he feels that way. Peeks Beneath the Mask with him are reserved only for a few scenes if Lloyd's affection rating with him is high enough.
• Secret-Keeper: Briefly. Zelos is the first to recognize that Regal is actually Lezareno's disgraced former President, but he keeps that under wraps until the party finds out naturally.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He's not above using his status as the Chosen to get what he wants, though it's usually in the party's best interest, such as managing to get a Key Crest from a stingy vendor in Sybak.
• Separated by a Common Language: In the dub, he tends to use the odd American slang term here and there (such as referring to Ozette as "out in the boondocks"). While colloquialisms are most definitely in-character for him, Commonwealth English speakers did have to look the odd thing up.
• Shadow Archetype: To Colette. The title of Chosen means that neither of the two value their lives as much as they should, and they both become Stepford Smilers as a result. While Collette has a huge martyr complex that makes her accept unnecessary suffering for the sake of others, Zelos tries his best to avoid his responsibilities as the Chosen and squeeze as much superficial pleasure from life as possible. His relationship with Sheena is also the polar opposite of Colette's with Lloyd, since where Colette and Lloyd are extremely close, Zelos mostly sabotages his relationship with Sheena by alienating her with his flirtatious jerk behavior, even though they still care about each other.
• Shipper on Deck: While it's implied he has feelings for Sheena, he also repeatedly is shown trying to nudge her towards Lloyd. For instance, he encourages Lloyd to go talk to her when the Vice-Chief Tiga tells her she has to make a pact with Volt, telling him, "she seems to have a thing for you". In an optional event, he again tries to coerce Lloyd to cheer up Sheena, and gets exasperated when it doesn't work out. The trope is played with though, in that Zelos actually not very happy about Sheena's apparent crush, and seems to mostly be doing it because deep down, he thinks Sheena deserves to be with someone better than himself.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: He's definitely got the coarsest language in the group, even in his battle quotes. Not quite as intense as most examples; the most vulgar he gets is calling Kratos an S.O.B.
• Smarmy Host: Zelos's Japanese voice actor Masaya Onosaka, and by extension, Zelos himself, has basically become the unofficial MC and spokesperson for the entire Tales franchise, hosting a variety of Tales talkshows and events while largely staying in-character.
• Something about a Rose: If he is in his formal wear costume, there is a chance that in battle his weapon will be a bouquet of roses.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the sequel, he's alive even if you choose the options that retroactively indicate that Lloyd went outside with Kratos in the Flanoir scene, which normally leads to Zelos's death. This is at least partly because his survival is established well before that choice comes up in the first place.
• Stepford Smiler: Underneath that cheerful exposure, Zelos has some incredibly deep emotional scars and self-loathing. It stems from his Dark and Troubled Past, and how his intense self-loathing makes Zelos believe that his life doesn't have any value outside of being the Chosen One.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: If Zelos betrays the party for real, Zelos suddenly reveals that he, like Colette and Kratos, is an angel and knows the spell Judgment. If he's a Fake Defector this will still prove to be the case if you unlock the skills for him.
• Suicide by Cop: His betrayal (if he goes through with it) and subsequent death at the hands of the rest of the party can be seen as this. He even asks the party to destroy his Cruxis Crystal before he dies.
• Superhuman Transfusion: Zelos was given transfusions of Elven blood by the laboratories of Sybak so he could use magic. Subverted. He actually was made to ingest aonis powder.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: His equipment and combat techniques all match those of Kratos, though Zelos is quicker and favors showier swordsmanship with lots of poses and pirouettes.
• Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: His dislike of half-elves stems from a very traumatic event in his childhood involving a half-elf. Even so he knows such attitudes are wrong and he directly opposes the laws that discriminate against half-elves, and is far kinder to Genis and Raine that his prejudice would suggest.
• Tsundere: Towards his sister. He's reluctant to show that he cares about Seles, often being very flippant and dismissive towards her, even though deep down she's one of the most important people in his life. Tragic irony is that she herself is Tsundere towards him.
  • He's also visibly uncomfortable whenever someone shows him genuine gratitude, with his most common reaction being to crack a joke to kill the mood or at least change the subject as quickly as possible.
• Undying Loyalty: In Dawn of the New World, Zelos has this towards Lloyd; no matter what happens, Zelos knows Lloyd didn't do anything that he's been accused of, and gets defensive with anyone who suggests otherwise. While some previous party members think Lloyd may have genuinely lost his mind (like Raine), or don't think Lloyd's responsible but want to be sure (like Collette), Zelos is the only one who never waivers in his support of Lloyd's innocence. Turns out Zelos was right to think so; Lloyd was set up to take the fall.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: If the manga is any indication, where the side story detailing his childhood portrays Zelos as a wide-eyed boy who adored his little sister and wished to make his mother smile. It makes it all the more tragic that he turned into a cynical jerk who habitually pushes away anyone he cares for.
• Verbal Tic: He likes to refer to women he meets as his "hunnies".
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Sheena, who he genuinely cares about despite him also taking every chance he can get to annoy her. See also the entry for this trope under her. In the OVA he actually describes the relationship between him and Sheena to be 'undesirable but inseparable'
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: It's not explicitly mentioned and he handles himself well in Flanoir, but a skit conversation Zelos has with Regal reveals that whenever it snows in Meltokio, Zelos will suddenly decide to go "on a pilgrimage". This is because it was snowing the night his mother was murdered in front of him, so he likely can't stand being around it, at least in Meltokio.
• You Are What You Hate:
  • Zelos behaves like an insensitive jerk a lot of the time. If you pay attention to the things he says to himself, it's clear that he's largely aware of it and it just reinforces his hidden belief that he's a worthless person.
  • He often denounces Kratos' traitorous actions, which implies he views his own actions as contemptible. In the manga this is outright confirmed, when after complaining about how much Kratos pisses him off for using a bunch of kids for his own gain, Zelos depressingly concedes that he himself is no better.
• You Can't Fight Fate: The entire reason behind his actions is to compromise with it.
• You Lose at Zero Trust: Zelos is notably the only character for whom the game's Relationship Values markedly changes the fate of in the game, and if the player fails to cultivate any level of camaraderie with Zelos, or by spending time with Kratos in Flanoir, which automatically makes Zelos's relationship values plummet it will lock him into pulling a Suicide by Cop.
• You Need to Get Laid: Zelos appears to have this attitude toward Lloyd, trying to get him to hit on girls with him during the beach sidequest, teaching him seduction techniques in the Altamira Suite scene (Unless you read into that scene too much), and being a Shipper on Deck for him and Sheena.

Presea Combatir

Presea Combatir

Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (JP), Tara Strong (EN, Symphonia), Janice Kawaye (EN, DotNW)

A 12-year-old Tethe'allan lumberjack, Presea seems entirely devoid of emotions when the party meets her. It's quickly discovered that her emotionlessness results from the experiments to turn exphere's into cruxis crystals that were conducted on her; the party makes it their goal to cure her, since they reason that the process can't be too different from the one they are already searching for to cure Colette.

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Tropes associated with Presea:

• All of the Other Reindeer: Like Sheena, she is ostracized in her village. In Presea's case because she is "creepy", hangs out with Mad Scientist Rodyle, and most importantly, hasn't aged in 16 years.
• Anime Hair: Giant pink pigtails, to be precise.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: In the game, Presea became an exsphere experiment because she needed the extra strength it would provide so she could continue her family's lumberjack work by herself and take care of her sickly father. However, the exsphere's side effect of deadening a person's consciousness eventually caused her to endlessly loop in a daily routine and fail to notice her father had passed away in his bed years ago, which she only realizes after the party fixes her exsphere. In the OVA, her agreement to become an exsphere experiment was instead part of a deal she made to get money to pay for her already-passed-on father's funeral.
• Adaptational Badass: In the game, Presea is a Mighty Glacier who generally walks right through attacks to get to her enemies. In the OVA, she's upgraded to a Lightning Bruiser who dodges Beam Spam in midair like a friggin' Gundam.
• And I Must Scream: Borderline, since she wasn't consciously aware of everything that went on. When you finally bring her out of her zombie state, she finally does... very loudly.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Her two Mystic Artes are notoriously difficult to execute, but her Crimson Devastation takes the cake. The move's power is unrivaled by anything else in the game; it's able to take off more than half of the health of some of the Superbosses all by itself. The requirements to activate it though are as follows:
  Presea must have received her Key Crest in the storyline
  Beast used 200+ times
  Over Limit mode must be active
  All party members except Presea must be knocked out
  HP must be in red (below 16% of Max)
  Perform the "Might Charge" EX-Skill, which requires the holding down of a button for several seconds
  Use Beast when not in a combo
• Badass Adorable: The most diminutive party member is one of the toughest. Canonically, she's physically stronger than both Lloyd and Genis combined.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: When she confronts Rodyle, her mood can basically be summed up as "Unstoppable Rage". Similarly, she threatens the Pope by holding her axe over his face.
• The Big Guy: She's roughly the same size as 12-year-old Genis, and yet due to the unique exsphere process she underwent she's physically the strongest party member. Except possibly Colette.
• Big Sister Instinct: She states she won't forgive her sister's killer and part of her character arc is finding the man who killed her. Presea becomes quite conflicted when it turns out to be Regal.
• Comically Serious: Especially in Dawn of the New World.
• Creepy Child: She has her moments, especially when threatening the Pope, killing Vharley and at one point she almost gets into a fight with Regal during Mithos' attempts to corrupt the party in Welgaia. (Lloyd snaps her out of it.)
• Cute Bruiser: She's a twelve-year-old girl—um, sort of—with pink hair who wields a lumberjack axe.
• Dishing Out Dirt: About half of the attacks she learns are earth-elemental. It's also the only element she naturally learns.
• Emotionless Girl: Has a monotone voice and complete lack of emotions when you first meet her. Which makes her entrance in the sequel even funnier. She gets better after she's given a proper Key Crest for her exphere.
• Empty Shell: What she's pretty much being turned into due to the experiments. Once her exsphere is fixed, this starts to fade. It's even a title Presea can acquire during the Nebilim sidequest, as she was picked to be the next host specifically for this reason.
• Girlish Pigtails: They actually become important in a sidequest where she has to dress up as Klonoa. They serve as her "ears."
• Glacier Waif: Has the highest Strength and Attack in the game, but only a two-hit basic combo and slow feet, effectively cementing her status as the party's Mighty Glacier.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: In Welgaia, Presea is by far the most susceptible to the illusions designed to break the party, revealing quite a lot of resentment at Regal for the Mercy Kill of Alicia. This is even foreshadowed at Alicia's grave when Presea says she will "try not to think of Regal as her enemy", but it's clear she hasn't forgiven him at that point.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The tiny girl of her association with Regal.
• Idiot Ball: In a late-game dungeon, the party one-by-one falls victim to several traps that eventually leaves Lloyd the last one left. Presea's trap involves her getting snared by vines when she opens the door to the exit. However, Presea still has an arm free and could have used the knife she always has on her belt to free herself. This is never brought up during that cutscene, nor any other time.
• Informed Attribute: Her resemblance with Alicia - they really don't have that much in common besides pink hair.
• Innocently Insensitive: It gets a bit better over the course of the game, but one scene in the Temple of Lightning has Lloyd asking how to deactivate the traps. Sheena says some of the others from Mizuho did it for her since she was only a kid. When Lloyd asks if they can go ask them, Presea responds, "They are dead." Ouch.
  • She also had a moment where she seems to belittle Genis by talking to him like an adult to a child and he surprisingly gets really offended and chides her for it. She quickly feels bad about it and seems to regret her words, as part of her struggle in dealing with the ordeal of adjusting to her growing awareness of her reality. While she is technically much older than him in terms of how long she has been alive, her mental growth may well be as stunted as her physical growth and she just wants to think she is much older.
• Is This What Anger Feels Like?: Happens after she starts relearning her emotions. She even says, "This unsettling irritation...is this anger?"
• Lack of Empathy: Even after returning to consciousness, Presea's emotions are very stunted. She notes in certain situations that she doesn't feel sorry for people when she knows she probably ought to, and finds this very troubling.
• Lethal Chef: Never pointed out in any skit or cutscene, but her stats for cooking are on nearly on par with Raine's, who is a Lethal Chef in-universe. Given that she probably didn't require food while she was being used as an experiment for the Angelus Project, this makes sense.
• Little Miss Badass: Though the "little miss" part is not by choice.
• Mighty Glacier: Physically the strongest character in the game, and is also the slowest, but is still built like a 12-year-old girl.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Her voice clip for blocking an attack is a firm "NO."
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Until Lloyd and co came along, anyway. Presea reflects on this during a sidequest where she bumps into a little boy she used to babysit, who is all grown up and does not recognise Presea.
• Odd Friendship: Develops one with Corrine. She even gets a title out of it in a Z-skit. You can imagine how well that turned out after Volt zaps Corrine to death.
• Oblivious to Love: While in her Emotionless Girl state, a lot of Genis, rather poor, attempts at flirting sail past her head. When she does recover her emotions, it's implied that she's intentionally acting as such due to the sheer age difference in maturity; Presea being 28 and Genis 12.
• Older Than She Looks: Actually 28-years old but looks 12 due to the experiments performed on her. Once she's cured, her mind seems to swap between 12 years old and 28 years old, depending on the scene.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: She's the pink girl to Genis and Regal's blue boys.
• The Resenter: To Regal, as revealed in her Welgaia scene. She eventually gets over it.
• Robo Speak: She says phrases like "No damage detected" when you first meet her.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: To Alicia.
• Spock Speak: Her after-battle quotes are things like "we won" and "don't bother us."
• The Stoic: Prior to her getting a proper key crest, she barely says anything or shows any emotions at all due to her experimental exphere limiting her consciousness. Even her in-battle portrait never changes. While she regains awareness after obtaining a key crest though, she's still incredibly flat emotionally.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She grows quite sugary to the rest of the party, though she's still icy towards strangers.
• Super-Strength: As a result of Cruxis Crystal Experimentaion.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Vharley and Rodyle. She gets her revenge on them both.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Implied if you have her in your party when you fight Rodyle, as her quote once he's dead is a melancholy, "I cannot get my time back..."
• Waif-Fu: Naturally boasts this as a Glacier Waif.
• Weapons of Their Trade: Fittingly for a lumberjack, Presea uses axes as big as she is.
• When She Smiles: A particular point is made out of this after Colette is rescued from Rodyle.
• You Can't Go Home Again: After Ozette is destroyed, although ironically, Presea's house is the only building still intact.

Regal Bryant

Regal Bryant

Voiced by: Akio Ōtsuka (JP), Crispin Freeman (EN, Symphonia), Dave Wittenberg (EN, Dawn of the New World)

A mysterious convict who is first sent after the party but defects to join them once he catches sight of Presea, Regal is extremely discreet about his past and refuses to take off his shackles — they are the symbol of the sin he committed and which he has to atone for.

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Tropes associated with Regal:

• The Ace: He's a skilled fighter, an Honest Corporate Executive, and a Supreme Chef all in one, and a Nice Guy.
• Adaptational Badass: In the OVAs, he's one of the most competent combatants once he joins.
• Armed Legs: His weapon of choice are bracers for his legs. He's more than capable of fighting with his hands, but refuses to.
• The Atoner: Almost an Exaggerated Trope. Once you get to the flashbacks, you find out that Alicia, in her few lucid moments post-transformation, begged him to kill her. While the obvious emotional trauma of having to kill your girlfriend should not be discounted, boyfriend-assisted suicide is a slightly different case than murder. Possibly deconstructed, in that his personal flaw that he must come to terms with in Welgaia is being weighed down by his feelings of guilt.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Well, bare-footed, but same idea.
• Big Brother Mentor: Lampshaded when Lloyd and Regal state their bond is like that of siblings, with Regal in particular having come to view Lloyd as a younger brother. Regal is also one to Emil and Marta in the sequel, though it's a mix of big brother and father figure for Emil. With Emil, Regal believes in and encourages him to see his good qualities and gives him support and with Marta he gives advice when she asks for it.
• Blow You Away: Learns a few wind-based techs.
• Blue Oni: To Lloyd's red.
• Chained by Fashion: He's always wearing handcuffs as a symbol of what he's done. Even in the sequel, where his hands aren't chained together anymore, he still keeps the cuffs themselves on his wrists.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: It is revealed that Regal's skill with hand- and arm-based martial arts is ridiculously high—when he used his hands actively, he was at least as powerful as everyone else in the party, without an Exsphere. Even now, after having kept his arms bound by shackles for a decade, an Exsphere gives him the physical strength to perform a Hadoken-esque attack, breaking through the bars that otherwise kept everyone else in the party well and truly trapped—magic users included.
• Chef of Iron: He's the best natural cook in the game, and the easiest to master all the recipes with.
• The Comically Serious: Much humor is made at his stoic expense in the skits.
• Cooking Duel: In a side quest, to unlock a secret outfit.
• Combat Medic: A primarily melee fighter with some healing capabilities.
• Cool Old Guy: The oldest party member who isn't Really 700 Years Old.
• Difficult, but Awesome: He's considered by many to be the second best character in the game. He's also one of the more unwieldy (having controls reminiscent of a fighting game in this non-fighting game).
• Easily Forgiven:
  • The party accept him into the group quite quickly. Only Genis and Sheena seem to have reservations about allowing a convicted criminal into the group, and Sheena admits she also started off as the enemy.
  • Regal has this attitude towards his butler, George, who was the one who split himself and Alicia up in the first place, allowing her to fall into Vharley's hands.
  • Averted with Presea. She says she'll try not to hate Regal, but it's made clear in Welgaia that she still bears a grudge for killing Alicia. Lloyd eventually talks her out of this mindset.
• Exact Words: He will never fight with his hands again. Hadoken-ing prison cells and giant boulders doesn't count as fighting.
• Extremity Extremist: He only fights with his feet because These Hands Have Killed.
• Genius Bruiser: He's the CEO of his own company. You don't get to be the boss by being stupid. He's also rather well-versed in Tethe'alla's history, which pairs him up quite nicely with Raine.
• Heartbroken Badass: His role in Alicia's death hit him really hard.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The huge guy of his association with Presea.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: Or rather, I do not specialize in foot-based martial arts.
• Kamehamehadoken: Used only in a cutscene (rightfully so! It looks like it would be a real Game-Breaker). The in-universe explanation is that he used to specialize in fighting with his hands and they grew so powerful that, once augmented with an Exsphere, he could unleash their physical hitting-things power as a beam, but after that, his Freudian Excuse happened and he vowed never to use his hands for violence again. He makes an exception for the one scene where he uses it because he's not hurting anybody, unless it turns out those jail cells were sentient. Gotta hand it to the guy, at least he keeps his word.
• May–December Romance: Subverted. The game was very, very vague on the age difference between himself and Alicia; leading most fans to conclude this, especially as Alicia is very young-looking with a chubby face. The animated adaptation clarified that Regal was 25 and Alicia was around 19 when their relationship occurred. However, the fact Alicia still has a character design that looks barely older than Presea herself (who still looks as she did when she was barely into her teens) and a voice that's fairly childlike, compared to Regal who is played by the deep-voiced, ultra-manly Akio Ōtsuka just leads back to giving the impression of this trope.
• Nice Guy: Even when the party regards him with outright suspicion and hostility initially, he's nothing but polite and friendly and is a good person overall. Except to Zelos, that is.
• Out of Focus: Regal is the only party member (except for Zelos) the player can go the entire game without using and who has no Unison attacks until the PS2 version, makes nothing more then a few token lines after visiting the rooftop grave. Interestingly, he is fully aware of this, and has himself stated that he sticks around just to support Lloyd. Dawn Of The New World seems to try and make up for this by making him the Guest-Star Party Member that sticks with Emil and Marta the longest.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: In regards to hair colors, with Presea.
• Power Limiter: Regal wears those handcuffs as "a symbol of his crime" and as "a constant reminder of his sins", but they also function as this (see Kamehamehadoken above). One fan theory is that he rescued himself from the endless waves of angels in the Tower of Salvation by removing his shackles off-screen and tearing up the their shit with his bare hands.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Can tear enemies apart using nothing but his FEET and is the team's best chef. Oh, and he wears a belly shirt.
• Secret-Keeper: In the game, a skit between Regal and Zelos shows that Regal at least knows the basics about how Zelos's mother died and that Zelos has an aversion to snow because of it. In the OVA Regal deduces that Raine and Genis are half-elves before any of the rest of the party find out, and he keeps it under wraps.
• Ship Tease: With Raine in the sequel. It's Played for Laughs, since the "love letter" she gives him is actually just her theory about Emil's true identity. It doesn't stop Marta from shipping them anyway.
• Supreme Chef / Team Chef: Along with Genis. Unlike Genis, who learned to cook out of necessity, Regal just does it as a hobby.
• Sympathetic Murder Backstory: Anyone would be feeling a bit down after having to deliver a Mercy Kill to their lover and then convicted for it because the actual responsible party was able to bribe their way out of it.
• Team Dad: After Kratos leaves the group. He's definitely this for Emil and Marta in the sequel, which Emil even comments on.
• Technical Pacifist: Downplayed: he refuses to kill using his hands, so he uses his feet instead. He still doesn't like killing, even when his opponents are just monsters, and always prays for the souls of any creature he kills.
• These Hands Have Killed: Specifically, he was forced to use them to kill Alicia and swore he would never fight using his hands again.
• Unequal Pairing: With Alicia, his servant, which may be why George had them separated.
• Use Your Head: In the 5th OVA bonus, Regal decides not to fight with his legs anymore - instead using his head - because he blames himself for the death of Corrine. He promptly and randomly skull bashes Zelos.
• Willfully Weak: He's much weaker with his feet than he is with his hands. Keep in mind that "much weaker" still means that he's able to fight on even footing with Lloyd and the others; if he were to actually fight with his hands, he would be literally unstoppable. He refuses to fight with his hands, though.
• With My Hands Tied: Regal's fighting style is based around using his feet only, since he killed his lover with his hands and therefore vowed never to kill with his hands again.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Said word for word to block a group of angels from descending on the party.

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