Eugene
- "Dying is scary... but living is difficult. W...why do I need to live? .... This is probably why I keep getting nightmares."
The protagonist, a young boy who suffers from self-esteem issues and struggles to talk to anyone or do anything. His life is turned upside-down when he accidentally finds himself in the realm of ghosts, working for the Underworld Office.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Either by choosing to murder Jack or by allowing Charlie to murder him, Eugene may transform into a dark monster.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Whenever he does well, he just promises to "try harder" next time. Getting out of this mindset is key to some of the good endings.
- Nerd Glasses: Wears huge glasses as part of his design, which paired with his tiny body makes him look like a typical nerd.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: As a ghost, his hair turns pink. He’s still as nice as he usually is, though depending on the player’s choice this aspect may vary.
- Shrinking Violet: At the beginning of the game he barely even speaks, has no friends, and consequently no social skills. Depending on your choices, he can slowly come out of his shell or retreat even further into it.
- Token Evil Teammate: He can become one if he becomes a monster by killing Jack, but is just redeemable enough that Boss recruits him again rather than capturing him in his fan. He continues to work with the office, but now he's the darkest ghost there and must repent for all his existence.
Boss
An ancient ghost who has gone black from the misdeeds he must pay back. As his title suggests, he is the leader of the underworld office, forcing Eugene to work for him in order to pay off a debt.
- Big Damn Heroes: Regardless of the route, he will arrive at the end of the final chapter to save Eugene from Jack, Charlie, or Eugene himself.
- Combat Hand Fan: The black handheld fan he carries around also serves as a weapon to attack monsters or to smack River when she aggravates him.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Boss is black with his past misdeeds, but as a result he is the calmest, most objective, and most focused of all of the ghosts to prevent from accruing any more bad karma on himself. He encourages Eugene to handle his problems in real life instead of as a ghost, and although he denies it he obviously cares the most about the boy's safety.
- It's All My Fault: If Eugene kills Jack and turns into a monster, Boss takes responsibility for it as being "his sin".
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He is only known as "Boss" since he is, of course, the boss of the Underworld Office.
- Not So Stoic: He is shown to be crying when having to end Eugene as he turns into a monster.
River
- "Whether it's good or bad, don't worry about it. I can do anything as long as it's fun."
A ghost employed at the Underworld Office trying to pay back her misdeeds. Unfortunately, due to her brash nature, she often stacks up more misdeeds than she pays back.
- Driven to Suicide: Implied. Her special picture has her holding her shoes, and she's deathly afraid of entering the train station.
- It Amused Me: The motivation for her to break ghost’s rules on a daily basis. She wants to have fun first and foremost, and would even willingly risk gaining more misdeeds just to fight bad people she sees randomly in the streets.
- Office Lady: Judging by her attire, before death, she used to be an office worker.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Eugene is disheartened by her apology letter because she doesn't call him a "newbie" in it, underscoring how serious she is.
- In Charlie's chapter, River is shown crying, and doesn't talk back when Boss tells her to be quiet—showing how frightened she had been of the subway and how worried she was for Eugene's safety.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Her preferred method of helping people is to beat up bad guys. Unfortunately, this is worse for her karma.
- Revenge Before Reason: She will often attack criminals and gangsters that she encounters while on patrol, even though doing so will only net her bad karma since ghosts aren't supposed to interfere with mortals.
Joan
- "Tsk. Kids these days are not fast enough. Back in my days, you know..."
A ghost employed at the underworld office, an elderly woman who often talks about what things were like "back in her day".
- Big Damn Heroes: She arrives at the last moment to save Eugene in Charlie's chapter.
- Never Mess with Granny: Her cane can turn into a gun at will. When she was alive, she was also a war veteran and a sergeant, so messing with her just by looking at her short, elderly stature is a bad idea.
- Perpetual Frowner: She almost never smiles, and the happiest expression she can make is pretty much just her relaxing her facial muscles.
- When I Was Your Age...: Constantly references back to how things were "in her day". An interesting variant when it's revealed that she fought in a war in life, and a lot of her "in my day" isms refer back to that.
Hayden
- "You know, if Hayden wants to see mommy and daddy later, Hayden needs to be a good kid. That's why I do things the way Boss tells me to do. Being a good kid is too much work though, hmmph!"
A young child ghost employed at the underworld office. Although small, Hayden is significantly more mature than appearances would suggest, and he can talk to cats.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover
- Third-Person Person: He always talks in third person and refers to himself by name.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Is a lot more level-headed and knowledgeable than Eugene despite his obviously young age, though to be fair it's not clear how long Hayden has been around as a ghost.
Sean
The son of a florist who worked himself to death, he's harshly critical of himself and continues to work hard as a ghost, building up good karma so he can help his living mother.
- Big Damn Heroes: Using all of his good karma, he's able to stop Jack from breaking into Linda's store so Eugene and Luke can escape during one of the routes.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite the massive amount of good karma he's able to accrue he's never satisfied with anything that he does, telling himself that he needs to work harder and blaming himself whenever something goes wrong.
- Workaholic: He was constantly pushing himself at his job and this was his cause of death.
Charlie
A sadistic ghost tormenting the passengers of the subway. She enters people's dreams and tries to frighten them to death with nightmares.
- Ambiguous Gender: Her monstrous appearance gives no indication to her gender, and while she is most consistently referred to as a "her" she's also referred to as "it" and "he" at different points.
- And I Must Scream: Depending on the route, she can get trapped in Joan's personal nightmare, a war zone in which the only person she will be able to talk to is a "blind bullet".
- Axe-Crazy: She acts this way on the subway, trying to frighten the mortals riding it to death as she rants with glee and rage intermittently; once she catches sight of Eugene, she immediately starts threatening to tear him to pieces. She also becomes unstable and indiscriminately murderous if Eugene allows her to get affected by Susan's grudge.
Susan
A ghost whose mortal self shows up in an earlier chapter; once deceased, her role in the story dramatically increases over the last two chapters of the game.
- Mama Bear: Eugene can correctly guess that the reason she wants to get revenge on Jack so badly is so that she can protect their children from him.
- Revenge: She's giving Jack nightmares because she wants to get revenge on him for having murdered her. In some routes, Boss will unleash her from his fan upon Jack and she is able to have some sort of revenge on him.
- Was Once a Man: She appears as a horrible monster, but it's soon revealed she was once an ordinary woman who loved her children.
Luke
Another boy in Eugene's class, who is a bit rough around the edges. He's lately been suffering from nightmares about his cat and hasn't been getting sleep because of it.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Becomes determined to befriend Eugene after the latter saves him from his nightmares. Although according to Kitty, he'd wanted to get to know Eugene for a long time and only got up the nerve to try after meeting him in his dream.
- It's All My Fault: He blames himself for his cat's death, since he didn't notice that Kitty was sick until it was too late, and he was out when the cat died.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: Though Eugene initially saw him as a bully, seeing how much Luke loved his late cat is what leads him to realize that he's not so bad.
Linda
A flower seller who works in a shop on the way to Eugene's school. Although friendly, she's grieving for her son and keeps having dreams where he refuses to show his face to her.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She outlived her son, Sean, a fact that grieves her terribly, but she nonetheless tries to pull through and get better.
Finley and Tatum
Two small children who often play in the park where Eugene sits every day. Although friendly, their young age makes it hard for them to understand the complex situations happening around them.
- Death of a Child: It's possible for them to die if you make the wrong choices.
- Innocent Inaccurate: They frame their home situation in terms of a fairytale, i.e. a dragon keeping a princess locked up. This is referring to how their father has locked their mother in a room days ago and won't let her out, as he has in fact murdered her.
Jack
An unpleasant drunk who terrorizes the neighborhood; Eugene notices that he, as well, seems to be suffering from nightmares...
- The Alcoholic: He's a known alcoholic in the neighborhood, and his house is littered with bottles.
- Domestic Abuse: It's revealed that the reason he has nightmares is because he murdered his wife, either intentionally or on accident, and now she haunts him for revenge.
- Would Hurt a Child: It's possible for him to kill Eugene depending on the choices you make, and the climax of the game has Eugene having to prevent him from murdering his own children so they won't tell anyone what he did.
