Due to the game's branching character arcs, not all tropes will be present in any given playthrough.
open/close all folders
Main Characters
Detective Ayami Ito
The player character. A depressed police detective searching for Tanaka, her disappeared partner and mentor.
- Animal Motifs: Cats. Her leisure clothing has a cat face on it, she regains sanity points from all things cat-related (petting them, eating pancakes shaped like them, etc), and she's the only human that Lady Fluffington actually respects.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: After one drink, the UI will be slower and the screen will wobble slightly, implying drunkenness. (Her professionalism level will also take a hit if you do this.)
- The Chosen One: The only path in which humanity survives is the one where Ayami takes up the Mask.
- Driven to Suicide: Implied to be what happens to her during the Lost ending, where the loss of her partner and lover drives her so far off the deep end that she consumes massive amounts of tranquilizers, eventually overdosing on them.
- Hate at First Sight: Ever since she first saw Detective Taira, she just knew he would turn out to be a smug Jerkass.
- It's Personal: In accordance with noir tradition, her investigation into a loved one's disappearance is far more harrowing than any of the impersonal cases before it.
- It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: In-Universe; she believes that the smaller a chicken place is, the better its food is.
- Laughing Mad: She, having gone completely insane, bursts into deranged laughter in the Nothing is Real ending.
- Loss of Identity: In the endings where she goes into the Dark and the True Ending in which she takes up the Mask permanently, many of Ayami's memories and ambitions are eroded.
- Sanity Slippage: Ayami starts off relatively focused and sane, but pulling too many reckless and unprofessional stunts will see her Sanity Meter plummeting like a rock, and that's when all of the Mind Screw sets in. Reaches its logical conclusion at the Insanity ending.
- Shoot the Hostage Taker: She ends up feeling compelled to do this to save Mai from Reina during the standoff in Kamakura, which ends up getting Ayami hospitalized, and her position as detective is compromised. She can also do this when Reina holds Kazuki hostage, though she quickly recovers that time.
- Stalker with a Crush: The Nothing is Real ending suggests that Ayami was never Kazuki's partner. She was a stalker who shot him when he got into a relationship with Reina.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: The Nothing is Real ending suggests that all the events of the game are Ayami's hallucinations, and that she is actually the true killer of Kazuki and Reina.
- Together in Death: In two endings. A heartwarming example occurs in the "Alone Together", where Ayami decides to stay with Kazuki and face whatever's on the other side with him. A tearjerking one occurs in "Becoming", however, where Ayami uses Kazuki's soul as a sacrifice and absorbs him to become the mask-bearer.
- True Sight: Like a handful of other characters, Ayami can instinctively feel the Dark's movements- and the fact that it is dangerous. Obtaining the Mask enables her to see ghosts, although she can't distinguish them from living people.
- Unreliable Narrator: According to the Nothing is Real ending, she is actually an inmate at an insane asylum, Kazuki was never her partner or lover but Reina’s lover, and she was a Stalker with a Crush who killed him.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Yasuhisa tells her that whatever she may do, she eventually has to become the next Mask Bearer and essentially give up her humanity. He does try to console her by saying that he doesn't like it any more than she does, wishing that there were another way, but that's the way things have to go.
Kazuki Tanaka (spoilers)
A detective fascinated by the Dark. He has been missing for days.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Reina specifically chose him for her plan because she wanted to work with someone who didn't judge her.
- Together in Death: In two endings. A heartwarming example occurs in the "Alone Together", where Ayami decides to stay with Kazuki and face whatever's on the other side with him. A tearjerking one occurs in "Becoming", however, where Ayami uses Kazuki's soul as a sacrifice and absorbs him to become the mask-bearer.
- Unwitting Pawn: Reina really did want his help. Unfortunately, Reina defined "help" as 'being guided to the Door', and only someone who wears the Mask or someone who has been tortured can do this. Reina didn't have the Mask.
- Walking Spoiler: It is impossible to discuss him without revealing that he dies early on.
Reina/"Ruby" (spoilers)
A mysterious girl who is behind Tanaka's disappearance and the antagonist of the game.
- Big Bad: She is the one who kidnaps and kills Kazuki Tanaka, and Ayami’s mission becomes finding out the truth about her to stop her from hurting anyone else.
- Break the Cutie: The mind-shattering influences of the Mask combined with the abuse she suffered under her Bad Boss drove her nuts.
- Freudian Excuse: Her mother became a member in the Kamenkai, a cult led by a mad guru, and from the flashbacks, it's clear that Reina was not happy at all at what was going on, since she, a little girl, didn't understand what the cult would soon do. And when all the members in the cult (except for three who had escaped) killed themselves, she ended up bearing the Mask, tying her to the Dark. Then she later was adopted by Higashi, the president of the Omega agency, and he made her a pop idol. Unfortunately, not only did Higashi greatly mistreat her and see her only in terms of how much success she would bring him, but he also made her get involved with abusive (mentally and sexually) men, and she eventually chose suicide as the way out. But because of her attachment to the Dark, she ended up being revived and had to find another way to find peace.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being greatly abused by Higashi and killing herself, she comes back to life, gets her chance for revenge, and kills him brutally.
- Dying Smirk: Reina goes out with a manic smile when Ayami is forced to shoot her.
- Evil Redhead: She has red hair and is the Big Bad, though Downplayed because she is a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
- Go Out with a Smile: In the Only a Child ending, she disappears with a genuine smile, having found her mom again.
- Idol Singer: Was a One-Hit Wonder named Ruby.
- Slasher Smile: Generally shows one whenever she appears.
- Walking Spoiler: Her tragic backstory makes her this.
Shinjuku
Miho
A hostess working at the Butterfly Club.
- Deadpan Snarker: She loves to make snide remarks towards Ayami.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's not very friendly toward Ayami at first, given that she's a cop, but she does offer her her condolences after hearing that her partner, Tanaka, died, and if Ayami says that she'd care if something terrible happened to her, she becomes friendlier and even tells Ayami her name.
Daizo
A bartender and aspiring chef.
- Driven to Suicide: In his bad ending, Ayami discourages him from continuing his bar at one point. If she goes to Shinjuku around the end and visits him, he has killed himself with poison, not having been encouraged to have a positive attitude about his current life situation. He writes a suicide note about how much he tried, only to end up a failure.
- Sibling Team: In his good ending, Daizo decides to shut down his bar and go work with his older brother instead.
Kobayashi
A warehouse worker.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Even among the Shinjuku denizens, he's pretty unimportant since he's only at the warehouse when the plot demands it. That said, the one time when he shines is when he recognizes the stage in a photo to be in Akihabara, which gives Ayami a new lead.
Goto
A salaryman who is a regular at the Butterfly Club.
- Blackmail: Ayami can use the photo of him in bondage to get him to give up his bondage rope.
- Fat Bastard: He is an unattractive and unfriendly middle-aged man who only acts kindly to young girls so that he may take them to the nearby sewer. His predatory activities are eventually put to a stop by Ayami, who can either warn him that what he does is against the law, threaten him, or outright kill him.
- More Hateable Minor Villain: He is a fat, ugly, and perverted businessman with a hobby of pressuring teen girls into sexually servicing him in the sewer. When Detective Ayami Ito first encounters him, he hits on her; later he is discovered to have antagonized Akane to the point of making her cry. When Ayami returns to make him stop, he is seen with yet another girl whom is pleading with Ayami to save her. Ayami can choose to blackmail, threaten, or even kill him; taking the last option leads to the ending where Ayami is arrested.
- Salaryman: An unsympathetic depiction of one, given that he is an ugly Fat Bastard.
Eiichi Higashi (spoilers)
The president of the Omega agency, though all control over Omega is now in Kasumi Mifune's hands.
- Abusive Parents: He and his wife adopted Reina, but he emotionally abused Reina whenever she showed unwillingness to do what he wanted her to do.
- Asshole Victim: He was incredibly corrupt and abusive toward the girls who worked for him, and he got away with it only because he knew how to maintain appearances in the public eye. As such, he receives no sympathy when he is found murdered and gruesomely mutilated by one of his own victims.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: His agency picked up girls from the streets, and he sold their services to interested clients who sexually exploited them.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He was the one who directly turned Reina into the Big Bad evil spirit, and his abuse of her is part of what made her go insane.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He was killed by the girl whom he adopted, abused, and exploited.
- More Hateable Minor Villain: He was the Human Trafficker who abused Reina and directly turned her into an evil spirit. As the head of the talent agency Omega, he would recruit girls to be his idols while pimping and sexually abusing them behind doors, with Reina, his adopted daughter, as his latest victim. He would put her through horrible abuse until she finally snapped and killed herself, then came for him as a spirit. Everyone who mentions Higashi describes him as a monster, and even Ayami feels that he fully deserved his fate.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: In the sense that he is unrelated to the plot of the Mask and the Dark. His only role within the plot is to make the Big Bad Reina even more sympathetic.
- Posthumous Character: Dead before Ayami even arrives at Shinjuku in the beginning.
- Walking Spoiler: Not his evil nature, as this is made clear early on, but the fact that one of his victims was Reina, the Big Bad, make it difficult to talk about his role in the plot.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Not him but his wife; was she involved in Higashi's abuse and corruption, and has Reina killed her as well?
- Would Hurt a Child: He certainly would verbally and emotionally abuse Reina, but the end of the first flashback strongly implies that he would also physically hurt her as well.
Kamakura
Magira
A station attendant at Kamakura.
- Afraid of Blood: He panics whenever he sees blood or anything that looks like it. Later on, when he blocks the way to Asakusa, instead of knocking him out, Ayami can use a bird's dead body to make him faint.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Whenever he acts dramatically, his glasses shine. He also has this look when he's intent on stopping Mai, since Mai's grandmother has ordered him to stop her from leaving Kamakura.
Mai Kawana
A young shrine maiden who lives with her grandmother.
- Hostage Situation: Becomes Reina's hostage when she tries to look for the Mask in Kamakura.
- Miko: She's only done good luck rituals and small blessings.
Old Kawana Woman
Mai's grandmother.
- My Greatest Failure: She feels guilty that she saved only Mai and Takashi from the Kamenkai and essentially left Emiko, her daughter, to die.
- No Name Given: She's only ever referred to as Mai's grandmother or "Old Kawana Woman".
- Struggling Single Mother: After her husband left her, and she lost her job, she could barely support Emiko, which is why she was keen to join the Kamenkai.
Police HQ
Saki Ishibashi
A hardworking and gossipy police officer who acts as the police station's receptionist.
- A Friend in Need: Because she's a good friend of Ayami's, she's willing to cover up her theft of the mask (if she spots it with the surveillance cameras). If Ayami kills Goto, around the end, Saki warns Ayami that the police are waiting for her at Kamakura, even though giving her such a warning may compromise her job. Saki even tells her that she believes she didn't kill him.
- Old Maid: One of the first conversations that can be held with Officer Saki can have her reference fears of becoming unmarriageable due to age as a reason for her attraction to new officer Bando; she wants to find a man to wed since she'll soon turn 25.
Yukimura
The police superintendent and the head of the Tokyo police.
- Da Chief: He cares about Ayami, but he transfers her out of her department anyway because of the circumstances surrounding her latest case.
- He Knows About Timed Hits: In the very beginning, he tells Ayami to check up on her SPIN stats by pressing the ESC key.
Detective Akira Taira
A detective whom Ayami doesn't particularly like. He is promoted to Ayami's position and now uses her office.
- Hostage Situation: Right after he mocks her and refuses to do her a favor, Ayami can take him hostage to force Saki to give her the information that she seeks. Taira points out how stupid and reckless she is for storming a police station and taking him hostage.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's rather arrogant and brash, and he rubs it in Ayami's face that he's been promoted to her position, while she's been transferred out. But way later on, she asks him to do her a favor, and if she politely offers him a bottle of very dear sake, he becomes more understanding and thoughtful of her and agrees to do her favor.
- More Hateable Minor Villain: He is The Rival to Ayami and a haughty Jerkass. Constantly deriding Ayami at every opportunity and treating her as incompetent simply for being a woman, Taira is introduced mocking Ayami for failing her mission, an event which had traumatized her due to the death of her Love Interest. When she gets demoted as a result, he takes her spot, and repeatedly antagonizes her whenever he finds her, treating her like a criminal. In the Arrested ending, he gleefully arrests Ayami for killing Goto, gloating the whole time, while ignoring her protests that Goto deserved to die for victimizing innocent girls.
Bando
A police officer who has been transferred from Osaka lately.
- No Sense of Direction: Apparently gets lost half the time.
- Official Couple: If Ayami completes the side-quest with him and Saki, he gets together with her.
Mori
A police officer guarding the evidence room.
- Broken Pedestal: Aside from Ayami possibly assaulting Mori to get the Mask, if she kills Goto, he delves into the case and finds out that she's the culprit, and when he and Taira catch her at Kamakura, he expresses his disappointment at her misdeeds since he respected her greatly.
Akihabara
Moeka and Akane
Two high school girls who hang out in the arcade. Akane also happens to be a worker at a JK cafe.
- But Thou Must!: Even if Ayami tries to use force to get them to tell her information about the Collector, unlike the other characters in Akihabara that Ayami gets information from, Moeka and Akane will simply insist that she help them with their problem.
- Precious Photo: Akane had a photo of her father, who died when she was only seven. The Collector had her give it up in exchange for an incriminating photo of a customer that kept harassing her.
Aiko and Mina
Two girls who work at a cat maid cafe.
- Animal-Eared Headband: Part of the get-up, of course.
- Comical Overreacting: Mina loses a rare kitty plush of hers, and both the maids treat this like a life-threatening crisis.
- Expy: Of Faris Nyannyan, the redhaired maid-catgirl-waitress who also peppers her dialogue with cat-related puns.
- Pungeon Master: Aiko puts many cat puns and cat-related wordplay in her sentences.
- Say It with Hearts: The maids somehow speak with hearts, stars, and other sets of symbols meant to be emoticons.
Sachiko Akiyama
The owner of a cat cafe.
- Butt-Monkey: No doubt that she gets the short end of the stick in the story. First, one of her neighbors poisons her cat food with laxatives because of the noise the cats make. Next, Kasumi forces Ayami to get Sachiko to sign a contract. Whether or not she be made to sign it, she has to deal with the yakuza later, and so her business is at risk of being shut down. And in the Cat Ending, Kasumi apparently shuts it down since the Cat God says that Kasumi has been given all her cats, though in the other endings, it's never said what happens to Sachiko in the end.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: She's a bit eccentric, but she certainly cares deeply about her cats and even thinks that Kasumi has a hint of kindness in her since she loves kittens.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: When confronted about her yakuza debt, Sachiko and her cats give Ayami an endearing look begging her for compassion.
Cody and Sion
Two tourists visiting Akihabara. Cody is an aspiring writer and a web developer, and Sion is an artist and a graphic designer working with Cody to make sketches of Tokyo for his book.
- Self-Parody: Cody's writing an urban horror book with a theme of "neon noir in the seemingly clean streets of Tokyo", which is a reference to the game and its setting.
Atsushi
The owner of a shop that sells manga and weekly magazines.
- Hypocrisy Nod: He feels that Akihabara has lost a bit of its authenticity and has become more of a giant advertisement, but he acknowledges that his business profits from it and doesn't complain about it, since he's far less talented than his father and his grandfather.
The Collector (spoilers)
Proprietor of The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday. He also goes by "Crow", but he's generally referred to as the Collector.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's called the Collector, but that's only a name that his clients call him by. When asked about this by Ayami, he says he has no need to go by a name.
- God in Human Form: It's strongly implied that he's actually a kami, since it explains how he already knows much about his clients and how he can change form.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He is the one who told Reina that getting the Mask could bring her to her mother, setting off the conflict, and he is indicated to be an evil far more powerful than her (being a kami), yet he never directly antagonizes Ayami.
- I Have Many Names: Apparently, he's been given many names over the years, but for now, he is called the "Collector".
- Intrigued by Humanity: He devotes his time to understanding mankind, apparently having done so for a long time.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can change his form and can even take the form of a woman, since his personae all have to do with his clients' needs. He assumes the form of an old man when Ayami meets him and whenever he talks with Yasuhisa.
Kabukicho
Kasumi Mifune
The head of a yakuza family.
- Blackmail: Not above using it to make Ayami do what she wants, since it wouldn't look good if word got out that she's interacted with the yakuza.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: She secretly is fond of cats and adopts Tomo, who follows Ayami after she decides not to make Sachiko sign the contract.
- The Don: She leads a Yakuza family.
Denjiro, Yuji, and Ryu
Three officers stationed at Kabukicho.
- Dirty Cop: Kind of. They're willing to overlook a few crimes done by the Mifune family, but they don't have much choice if they don't want to anger the yakuza and thus disrupt the peace.
Takeuchi, Ando, and Kubo
Three men digging at the sidewalk in front of a building. Takeuchi is the suited man for whom the other two work, and he claims that they're only doing scheduled maintenance requested by the building's owner.
- Disposing of a Body: It's implied that Takeuchi's been ordered by Kasumi to hide a dead body in the sidewalk.
Asakusa
Haruto
A man running a takoyaki stand. He also happens to be Daizo's older brother.
- Sibling Team: Wants to have Daizo help him with his takoyaki stand, since it's much better than managing an unsuccessful bar. In Daizo's good ending, the two end up working together.
Takashi Kawana
Mai's older brother and a skilled kendo instructor who trains police officers as well.
- Big Brother Instinct: He tries to protect Mai by not telling her anything about the Mask and their family history, since the Kawanas' history with the Kamenkai would stigmatize the family if word got out, and he doesn't want Mai to be hurt by such knowledge.
Gary, Tony, and Robert
Three men of foreign roots. Gary is a professor at a Japanese university; Tony works at a software company; and Robert is a regular man who lives in the suburbs.
- Mean Boss: Gary apparently has one and wishes that his university held interdepartmental kendo matches so that he might let out his anger on his boss.
The Historian Yasuhisa (spoilers)
A historian who gives Ayami information on Ruby.
- Big Good: He is a kami and a benevolent force who watches Ayami and guides her throughout her journey.
- God in Human Form: He admits that he is one when Ayami meets him again, but he doesn't deem "kami" to be an appropriate word for him anymore, given that he's spent so much time around mortal men that his mindset has changed.
- Mr. Exposition: He explains the mass suicide which created the Mask as well as what happened to the Mask Bearer.
- Walking Spoiler: His true nature as a kami makes him this.
Aokigahara
Tokimassa/Shinji Umezawa (spoilers)
A mad guru who revived the Kamenkai, an ancient cult, since he was supposedly disillusioned with modern society. His true name is Shinji Umezawa.
- The Ghost: Despite his great presence in a few characters' backstory, he never physically appears, not even in flashbacks. We do read a letter he wrote, at least.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He made Reina into the Mask Bearer and traumatized her by killing her family, and his emotional abuse of her turned her into a twisted individual.
- Misanthrope Supreme: He creates his cult because he grew to hate humans and their society, and his letter states that he hopes they all get consumed by the Dark.
- More Hateable Minor Villain: He was the deranged leader of the second Kamenkai cult. Despising humanity and modern society, he turned down-on-their-luck people into his followers, fleeing with them to Aokigahara. He world emotionally abuse a young Reina and eventually make her into the Mask Bearer by killing everyone in a mass Murder-Suicide, including her mom, traumatizing her.
- Posthumous Character: He, along with the remaining Kamenkai members, died in 1996.
- Suicide Pact: As part of the ritual, he and the rest of the Kamenkai killed themselves, and their deaths are used as sacrifices for the Mask.
- Walking Spoiler: His role in making Reina into the Big Bad makes him this.
Hisako
Reina's mother and a member of the modern Kamenkai.
- Mysterious Past: It's not known why she became a Kamenkai member, and details of her earlier life are unknown, though since Reina's father is never shown, it may be that like Mai's grandmother, she separated from her husband or lost him somehow, and she joined the Kamenkai since Tokimassa promised her a way out of poverty.
- Posthumous Character: She along with the other Kamenkai members died way long ago.
Emiko Kawana
Mai's mother and a member of the modern Kamenkai.
- Offing the Offspring: That was the plan that she had for Mai and Takashi as part of the ceremony, but Emiko's mother later took them away from the cult's compound. Even after they were gone, Emiko still missed them, but another cult member convinced her to forget about them.
- Posthumous Character: She along with the other Kamenkai members died way long ago.
Others
Yumi
A lady who is Ayami's downstairs neighbor.
- Nice Girl: She's an incredibly considerate neighbor, often visiting Ayami and giving her food. The Insanity Ending paints her friendly interactions in a different light; it shows her as a nurse doing her usual check-up on Ayami, who's shown to be an inmate in a mental asylum.
- Verbal Tic: Likes to address Ayami as "neighbor". When she's shown to be a nurse in the Insanity Ending, she notably doesn't show this. She has this only when she's shown as Ayami's neighbor.
Chikako Shichijo
The first Mask Bearer, a girl who lived in ancient Japan.
- Driven to Madness: As part of being the Mask Bearer, she gradually forgot her own memories and became distant from mankind. She was also bombarded with constant whispers from her dead brethren and the kami, and so it was only a matter of time before she became consumed by hate and sorrow.
- Driven to Suicide: She eventually grew tired of herself, and so she entered the Door with the Mask, whereby she was destroyed.
- The Ghost: Never encountered in the story; her only appearance is in a snapshot during Yasuhisa's tale of the original Kamenkai, and even then, only her silhouette is shown.
- Posthumous Character: Dead long before the game begins.
