Tales of Graces/Characters
Heroes
Asbel Lhant
Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (JP), Bryce Papenbrook (EN), Kate Higgins (EN,child)
The hero of the story, Asbel is the eldest son of the feudal lord of the Lhant territory. Due to an incident during his childhood, he leaves his home and trains to become a knight.
His Accelerate Mode is Spiral Surge,[1] which summons a dark flame that orbits Asbel and damages any enemy it touches.
- Badass: Just watch him perform his third Mystic Arte/Blast Calibur and just say he isn't a Badass.
- Badass Adorable: As a kid, to the point he managed to beat Bryce when he tried to assasinate Richard.
- Badass Boast: "Submit to my will!" During Kyokkorenge.
- No one can stand against my blade! (during one of the post-battle poses)
- Bishonen: Not as much as Richard,but it's still there.
- Butt Monkey: He often can't get the leading of the "We won't lose!" victory pose right with the team, even once succumbing to Corner of Woe.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: If you need help, Asbel will help you. No questions asked, even if it means the end of the world. Everyone, even Lambda calls him out on it. However, it is Asbel's insistence to never give up this ideal that ultimately earned him Lambda's respect.
- Clueless Chick Magnet: Its implied via NPCs/Skits that he had been one during his time at the Knight Academy.
- Dark and Troubled Past: And although it has definitely affected him, he doesn't spend much time angsting about it.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments.
- Defeat Means Friendship: To Lambda.
- Determinator: He won't let Sophie or Richard die. Ever.
- Elemental Powers: Asbel has a much more varied elemental moveset than other Tales heroes, which incorporates water, ice, lightning, wind and fire.
- Expy: Spin kick? Check. Fighting a childhood friend that happens to be a prince ? Check. Takahiro Sakurai? Check.
- The right portrait? Check.
- Tales of Graces f makes it even more obvious, as it will come with Code Geass DLC costumes. Asbel's costume? Suzaku. Just about the only thing missing is Yuri Lowenthal as his English voice actor.
- The right portrait? Check.
- Failure Knight: He saw a childhood friend die and swore to protect as many people as possible after that. Needless to say, it doesn't always work.
- He gets hit by this a lot in the first half of the game.
- Fan Nickname: Various nicknames involving the words "spin-" or "-zaku"? Check.
- Genre Savvy: In a strange, meta-example. He is probably the first protagonist in JRPG history to have ever destroyed the Omnicidal Maniac cliche by asking the piercing question, "What would it accomplish?" When Lambda has no answer beyond mere flailing about and tranquil panic, it's the sign that Asbel has already won.
- The Hero
- Hot-Blooded: As a kid. He mellowed out over time, but he still has some elements of this trope.
- Hot Dad: After he adopts Sophie in the future arc
- Iaijutsu Practitioner
- Idiot Hero: He has his airheaded moments. This Victory Pose for example:
Sophie: Asbel, why do you wear white clothes?
Asbel: These? Um, that's a good question.
A few seconds later...
Asbel: Oh yeah! I remem...
Cheria: So slow!
- Implausible Fencing Powers: His third Blast Caliber, Zankuujin Muujinshou. It has to be seen to be believed.
- Katanas Are Just Better: While technically speaking, Asbel equips generic "swords", his fighting style has some elements of stereotypical Japanese sword-usage.
- Keet: Had elements of this as a kid. Now, not so much.
- Luminescent Blush: Around Cheria. Hoo boy, around Cheria.
- Not just around Cheria. He responds to any embarrassing situation by blushing.
- The Messiah: Finally develops into this by the end of the game.
- Mismatched Eyes
- Oblivious to Love: Although he gets better at spotting Cheria's affections for him as time goes by.
- Onee-Sama: Has elements of Type B, making him something of a male version of the trope.
- Say My Name: "RICHAAAARRRDDD!!!" "SOPHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!!!" "LAAAAMBDAAAAAAA!!!"
- Strong Family Resemblance: The son he has with Cheria is basically Asbel's kid self except with Cheria's hair color.
- It's revealed it's not their son...but rather, their great-great-grandson.
- Shout-Out: Aside from the Suzaku shout outs, Namco took it up a step further when they made Asbel wear Haseo's costume which his seiyuu voiced here.
- Takahiro Sakurai (now also looks like a certain Imperial knight)
- Take a Third Option: How Asbel deals with Lambda without having Sophie sacrifice herself.
- Team Dad: Gets labeled the "Dad" of the team by Pascal. Begins to fit into the role due to character development. Also, as an adult, acts as a father figure to Sophie.
- Took a Level in Badass: Played with. He got his level in Badass by training at the Knight Academy, but everyone around him says that he hasn't changed a bit (much to his chagrin). The game is about Asbel coming to terms with the fact that what makes you Badass is not how much ass you can kick, but what you do. This is what allows him to ultimately subdue Lambda where all other attempts failed: instead of using force to beat Lambda into submission, he allows Lambda to live through him and see that Humans Are Special.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Curry.
- Trauma Conga Line: What happens in the first two or three hours of the game? Asbel manages to make two new friends (Sophie and prince Richard), and saves the prince's life when Bryce comes to assassinate him, also steps in and saves his escorts' lives. What happens? His dad constantly yells at him. Sophie sacrifices herself to save everyone else, and his dad blames it on HIM. He doesn't get to see Richard again because of his social status (Combined with the Fridge Horror since not a few hours before this event, Richard told him his father was poisoned, not ill). His little brother is sent to live with another family, and then he runs away from home finally.
- He gets hit with this again soon after the seven-year Time Skip.
- The White Prince: His childhood could be considered a deconstruction of this trope.
- The Wise Prince
Sophie
Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (JP) and Cassandra Lee (EN)
Sophie is the main heroine. Having lost her memory, she has an innocent atmosphere about her, but is actually a quite proficient fighter. She has vowed to protect Asbel.
Her Accelerate Mode is EX Boost,[2] which gives her the ability to Flash Step and increases her combat statistics.
- Action Girl
- Attack Animal: She was created to destroy Lambda.
- Back from the Dead
- Badass: Ah, Sophie... so badass, yet so adorable...
- Big Damn Heroes
- The Big Guy
- Combat Medic: Her healing spells are actually faster than Cheria's, although they only target one person at a time.
- Cute Bruiser
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Dead Little Sister: It was her "death" that changed Asbel, Hubert, Cheria, and Richard's lives forever.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rarely, but it shows up. Notably:
Malik: Right into next week!
Sophie: I've traveled back in time from next week. Please stop throwing monsters at us.
- Duel Boss: Optional, if you view a certain skit, between her and Asbel. She does it to make sure she can fight a friend without having the urge to destroy them.
- Emotionless Girl
- Energy Being
- Expy: With the pigtails, mysterious past, naive view of the world, flower motif, and being a Token Mini-Moe, Sophie very closely resembles Primula from SHUFFLE!.
- Extremity Extremist
- Girlish Pigtails: They're also extremely long.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sophie's entire purpose for existing is to pull one of these to destroy Lambda. Asbel does not agree with this and stops her every time.
- Happily Adopted: During the epilouge, Asbel adopts Sophie into the Lhant family as his daughter.
- Identity Amnesia: Twice.
- Kana Hanazawa
- Light'Em Up: Her attacks have a definite "light" theme.
- Lightning Bruiser: Has the highest defense, high attack, and she's fast too!
- Kind of a justified case since she's not entirely human.
- Literal-Minded
- MacGuffin Girl
- Meaningful Name: She's named after a flower. However, she isn't an Innocent Flower Girl.
- Mega Manning: An inverted example in a sense, she adapts pieces of the other party members' movesets into her own.
- Mysterious Waif
- Never Found the Body
- No Social Skills
- Pettanko: Does she even have a chest at all?
- Does any Token Mini-Moe?
- Power Gives You Wings: In one of her A-Artes
- Rapunzel Hair
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old
- Rei Ayanami Expy
- Ridiculously-Human Robots
- Rummage Sale Reject: Her shoes look more like slippers you'd wear around the house than actual shoes.
- She's All Grown Up: In the main ending. She manages to age after all.
- Though it's revealed she kept her eternal lifespan to watch over the world by the Little Queen's request. Her appearance was actually caused by the Little Queen fusing with her.
- Shout-Out: To Street Fighter. Don't believe us? Take a look for yourself.
- As you can imagine, it didn't take the internet long to turn that into a meme.
- Farah Oerstead Had the same pose for some of her skills. Sophie probably took from Farah, who herself took from Street Fighter. To add on to that, Hermana also uses the pose when she uses Shishisenkou\Beast. It seems most if not all Tales fist users will use that pose.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Crab omelettes.
- Waif Fu
Hubert Ozwel
Voiced by: Takahiro Mizushima (JP) and Steve Staley (EN)
Asbel's brother. Although he is younger, he is the more quiet and responsible of the two, which he likes to point out a lot.
His Accelerate Mode is Arrow Squall,[3] which damages enemies in a wide area for a limited period of time.
- Always Someone Better: Played with. When he's first sent away to Lhant, he assumes that his parents loved Asbel more than him. The truth is that Aston wanted to avoid a messy succession war between Asbel and Hubert, having once been in that situation himself.
- An Ice Person: His primary element, although he can also gets some light, dark and earth spells.
- Actually, he has more lightning-based artes than ice ones, a trait he seems to share with his brother.
- Badass: With a weapon like his it's impossible to not view him as one.
- Butt Monkey: In some of the victory poses, especially when Sophie is involved.
- Crazy Awesome: Invoked and parodied, as he deliberately goes out of his way to invoke this, but for extremely nerdy reasons; namely replicating the superheroes he's a fan of.
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Defrosting Ice Kid
- Disguised in Drag: His performance as the evil queen in the play is hilarious but convincing.
- Double Weapon and Guns Akimbo: He uses a double-bladed sword that can turn into a pair of handguns. It also turns into a bow and shoots energy arrows.
- Duel Boss: Twice. The first time, it's a Hopeless Boss Fight. The second time, it's implied he let Asbel win.
- Everything's Better with Spinning: Several of his artes have plenty of him spinning his double lance.
- Glass Cannon: Has the highest attack power out of all playable characters, but his defense is rather low.
- Guns Akimbo: Hubert's second fighting style.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: You Should Know This Already, but Hubert will kick your ass in Lhant no matter what you do.
- Jerkass: Kicked Asbel's ass out of Lhant (then took it for himself), exiles him then goes to disrespect their mother.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Nevertheless, he cares a lot about Lhant and even disobeys orders in order to protect it.
- Guile Hero: Eventually turns as one with each moment he's in Asbel's group.
- Likes Older Women: Borderline case. There's a bit of Ship Tease between him and Pascal, and she's five years older than him. Amped Up to Eleven in the Future Arc.
- All Love Is Unrequited: When he tries to confess his feelings, Pascal reveals that she's Oblivious to Love and he slumps off in a defeated state.
- Magic Knight: A strange variation of. He uses his guns to "fire" his magic at targets. Yes, it's awesome.
- Megane
- Memetic Badass: Examined in-universe. Hubert is well-known among the Strahtan people and respected by most of its military, and has taken by far the biggest level in badass of the group. He also tries very, very hard to act like the single coolest person on the planet at all times. However, once he becomes playable, it turns out that his badassery is just how he likes to appear to others. Deep down, he's still the same compassionate and easily-spooked child he used to be... and a colossal geek.
- Money Fetish: He even gets several titles for it.
- Nerd: He's a fan of Efinea's equivalent of the Power Rangers and as revealed in a skit, his fighting style was inspired by a comic book he read as a child.
- The Red Mage: Gains a healing and a status-curing spell along with his offensive ones.
- Second Place Is for Losers: After he is adopted by the Oswell family, he refused to accept anything but first place in everything he did, both for his new family, as well as getting back at his former parents for abandoning him.
- Sixth Ranger
- Stoic Spectacles
- Not So Stoic: During his Blast Calibers.
- Takahiro Mizushima
- The Battle Didn't Count: Apparently he loses on purpose during his rematch with Asbel. That might explain why it's so much easier.
- Tsundere
- Took a Level in Badass: He was quite cowardly as a child. The incident with Lambda changed all that, though.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: This as well. Big time.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Rice Omelettes.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid
- The Unfavorite: He believes he is this, since his parents sent him away to Strata when he was just ten.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: During his reintroduction post-time skip. He wants to protect his homeland and boots Asbel out of it to do just that.
Cheria Barnes
Voiced by: Shiho Kawaragi (JP) and Laura Bailey (EN)
The granddaughter of the butler working for the Lhant House. She has a crush on Asbel and is the party's main healer.
Her Accelerate Mode is Temporal Rift,[4] which freezes time for enemies.
- Action Girl: She's one of the most-used characters because of her flexibility in combat. She can fight at range and in melee, she can cast offensive magic, her artes allow her a lot of manoeuvrability, and she can heal. Her Accelerate Mode is one of the best, and can be used to stop enemy Mystic Artes during Eleth Break. For Solo Character Runs, she's top-tier alongside Hubert and Sophie.
- Awesome Yet Practical: All of her Mystic Arte attacks deal Nova damage. As if she wasn't already useful enough, you really won't wanna take her out of the party for the final dungeon (of the regular story any way).
- Her Garden of Innocence Mystic Arte. It hits every enemy (the only player Mystic Arte that does so) for a sizeable amount, heals every ally at the same time, and all for the very reasonable cost of a Lv.2 Mystic Arte.
- Butt Monkey: Has been trolled by everyone in the party (sans Asbel).
- Catch Phrase: She says "Un-believable!" with such high emphasis many times.
- The Chick
- Clingy Jealous Girl
- Combat Medic
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Damsel in Distress: Just once, and only briefly to note. (See Never Live It Down.)
- Feminine Women Can Cook
- Flechette Storm: Her Lv.3 Blast Caliber, with a helping of Time Stands Still.
- Gag Boobs: Apparently. Put her in her bathing suit outfit, and you'll realise that she's barely bigger than Sophie.
- Gainaxing:
- Girly Run
- Healing Hands
- Holy Hand Grenade & Shock and Awe: Her offensive spells manifest as these two elements.
- Ill Girl: Has a congenital heart disease that leaves her with a weak constitution. She gets better due to the incident that also granted her healing powers.
- I Will Wait for You: Deconstructed. Those seven years of waiting have made her bitter and resentful towards Asbel since it took him so long to return. He didn't even write to her. Say what you want about his motives, that's dickish. Oh, and when he does return, he doesn't even notice that she's in love with him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A mixture of this and Defrosting Ice Queen in the beginning.
- Knife Nut: She throws knives which she pulls out of a Hammerspace.
- Only Sane Man: Usually plays one in skits.
- Out of Focus: One of the main complaints levelled towards Cheria is that her character development stops dead after she finally bitches Asbel out for abandoning her, and that the game doesn't dedicate enough time to developing her or her romance with Asbel.
- Plucky Girl
- Shiho Kawaragi
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man
- Team Mom: Pascal even lampshades it in a scene.
- Took a Level in Badass: Whether you like her or not, the fact that she goes from being an Ill Girl to a Tsundere with knives and lightning magic after being Touched by Vorlons is pretty damn awesome.
- Touched by Vorlons: How her powers manifested.
- Fridge Brilliance: She only gained her healing spells after Sophie placed part of herself inside Asbel, Hubert and herself. Now, what is Sophie's only kind of magic? Healing.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Grilled Chicken.
- Tsundere: Type B, although she's a little heavier on the tsun than most of them during the beginning.
- Trauma Conga Line: consider what she goes through in the Prologue. Her best friend, Asbel, constantly leaves her behind because she's sick. Even if he does so because he doesn't want to hurt her, she still feels left out. After finally getting to be friends with four other people, a monster attacks all five of them and Sophie sacrifices herself to save them all. She can't see Richard again because he's a prince, Hubert is sent away to live with another family, leaving her with only Asbel...who leaves her for seven years after he runs away from home. This leaves her the only member of their five-man band left home.
- Victorious Childhood Friend
- White Magician Girl: A slight variation. Her weapons of choice are knives, but her physical attacks are rather weak. She can use light-elemental magic and has plenty of area-of-effect healing spells.
- Zettai Ryouiki
Pascal
Voiced by: Kana Ueda (JP) and Kate Higgins (EN)
Pascal is a genius researcher and technician with quite a few screws loose. She is loud-mouthed, cheerful, and serves as the heart and soul of the group.
Her Accelerate Mode is Runic Shield,[5] which dramatically decreases the amount of damage taken by all allies within the area of effect and prevents stagger.
- Action Girl
- Adult Child
- Always Someone Better: She's better at technology than her sister Fourier, much to the latter's chagrin.
- Ambiguous Disorder: Of the "Ambiguously Autistic" variety. She's a genius with somewhat child-like social skills, often failing to read the mood of a situation. She often becomes obsessed with things and will pursue her new obsession to the detriment of everything else. Not to mention she's just plain bad at noticing subtleties like Hubert's crush on her. The latter is eventually Played for Laughs in the updated rerelease.
- Boom Stick: Her Weapon of Choice, which also doubles as a not-so-Simple Staff.
- Buffy-Speak: She uses this whenever it comes to working machines.
- Cat Smile: Is prone on doing this from time to time.
- Cloudcuckoolander
- Crazy Awesome: Deconstructed in-universe. Pascal is one of the few characters that could probably be universally agreed upon to be Crazy Awesome, but it's because she is that her relationship with her sister Fourier is strained. Basically, Fourier is so envious of Pascal's incredible intelligence and skills that she'll rant at Pascal with the slightest provocation and is so frustrated that her sister beats her in more or less every area of research, sans biology, that their reunion is just a hair's breadth away from Pascal getting strangled. It's also this jealousy that leads Fourier to continue with dangerous experiments that could, quite literally, wipe out the entire country she lives in with a massive explosion. Both characters start to undergo some Character Development once this comes out in the open.
- Distaff Counterpart: Crazily enough, Pascal and Fourier are the total opposite of Hubert and Asbel's relationship where the younger sibling ends up succeeding their older sibling. The only difference is that Asbel held himself better than Fourier did.
- Ditzy Genius
- Hates Baths: Its not like she hates to bathe, its more that she gets so into her research that she keeps forgetting to take one.
- Drop the Hammer: She carries a big frickin' hammer around for her work with machines. On top of that, one of her weapons is called "Giant Hammer."
- Elemental Powers: Specifically she gets wind, water and fire. She also gains a light spell that lets her heal allies.
- Gender Blender Name: Named after Blaise Pascal
- Genki Girl
- Hollywood Tone Deaf: Oh dear God... When she sings, she's so happy that she doesn't care if her songs have no rhythm or tune.
- I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Her method of 'fixing' Duplemar, a massive eleth crystal that essentially powers all life on the continent and could potentially explode is drilling it a bit and smacking it with a hammer.
Pascal: I was just winging it, but it looks like it mighta worked.
- Kana Ueda
- Meaningful Name: Pascal is named after Blaise Pascal, a real life famous mathematician. Fitting given her smart guy status. Her sister, Fourier, is named after Joseph Fourier, another famous mathematician.
- Memetic Molester: Asbel has this reaction to her in-universe when they first meet. Insisting on "touching" Sophie really does not help. Certain fans have also attributed this characteristic to her.
- Multicolored Hair
- No Sense of Personal Space: She got uncomfortably close to Sophie in her introductory cutscene.
- Oblivious to Love: She's totally oblivious to Hubert's crush on her to the point that he flat-out tells her and she's still clueless.
- Older Than They Look: She is 22 years old... seriously? (This is a combination of how she acts as well as how she was designed - your guess is as good as anyone's.)
- She also acts much younger than she looks.
- Plot Device: Considering that Pascal is the only character with no connection to the Childhood prologue, her role is basically as a Plot Device to either explain plot-relevant things or provide convenient solutions to problems. Need the party to learn about ancient ruins? Pascal knows about them. Need to find a way to infiltrate a fortress? Pascal knows a path. Need to fix the Criath? Pascal can do that. Need the Global Airship? Pascal knows where to find it. And so forth.
- The Red Mage: A minor version, as she has a healing spell, but it also doubles as an attack spell.
- Robot Buddy: Her "Dream Fandom" spell lets her summon a robotic Sophie replica titled "Mecha Sophie" that combines Macross Missile Massacre with Frickin' Laser Beams.
- And in Tales of Graces f, her "Dream Strike" Blast Caliber summons Mecha Asbel!
- Say It with Hearts: There are several that surround her during her introduction cutscene.
- Scarf of Asskicking
- Science-Related Memetic Disorder
- The Smart Guy: Not that you would ever think it to look at her.
- Squishy Wizard: An odd case; she can take more than a couple hits, usually having the best physical defense in the game. Likely because she has to get really close to her enemies in order to cast her spells, and plenty of her artes are ranged.
- Summon Magic: She uses Summon Magic as her Blast Calibers and for some of her artes.
- Techno Babble: Played with.
Pascal: Its a cinch! You just tappy tappy on this thingamabob here, and then ka-chunk on the little dongle.
Asbel: I have no idea what you're trying to say.
- Tomboyish Name: You'd usually think that the name 'Pascal' is for boys.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Bananas.
- Walking the Earth: What she's been doing before joining the party.
- You Didn't Ask: Her reasoning for not telling the party that she's actually an Amarcian. Actually a bit of Fridge Brilliance since in every event where they talked about the Amarcians, she's always refering to the Ancient Amarcians, her ancestors and the ones whom the party had actually been refering to.
Malik Caesars
Voiced by: Hiroki Tochi (JP) and Jamieson Price (EN)
Asbel's instructor from the knight's school. Asbel looks up to him as his mentor and role model. He's the second offensive mage of the group.
His Accelerate Mode is Harsh Lesson,[6] a 35-hit melee attack that grants him immunity to physical damage while being performed.
- Badass Back: A man speaks with his back after all... a back that can fire a hugeass beam, that is.
- Badass Beard
- Blatant Lies: 90% of what he tells Sophie as "facts" about the world. Mainly just to see the party's reaction when she repeats said facts.
- Chick Magnet: It's a given even in-universe.
- Cool Old Guy: He is 40, believe it or not.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Duel Boss: Optional, if you view a certain skit, between him and Asbel. Malik does it to see if Asbel is truly prepared to back up his talk about "protecting everyone." And indeed, if you lose, he gives Asbel a rather harsh "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Everything's Better with Spinning: His boomerang-weapon thingy. He even surfs on it for some moves!
- Expy: This troper's first reaction to seeing Malik was "Man, he looks like Van. It's gotta be the goatee."
- His Accel Mode is a series of kicks that seem vaguely familiar...
- Four-Star Badass: Well, what do you expect from a gruff old knight?
- Hiroki Tochi: His Japanese voice. And with Jamieson Price for English voice, he's got both voices of Ovan.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Sophie called him out for his last usage of Eternal Serenade, he's quick to retort that the one he won't use again is "Eternal Serenyade"
- Kamehame Hadoken: "MALIK BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAM!"
- Said beam comes out of his back.
- The Lancer: Tends to be the experienced and pragmatic voice to Asbel's idealism.
- Magic Knight: In that he is a mage who can defend himself with weapons rather than a weapon-fighter with magic.
- Name's the Same: "I told you, I'm not Malik Blishtar!"
- Older Than They Look
- Playing with Fire: Most of his Blast Calibers incorporate this.
- Precision-Guided Boomerang: He uses a boomerang sword in battle.
- Rated "M" for Manly: Pretty much his defining character trait.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Literally.
- He has also gotten a very... special DLC costume.
- Shipper on Deck: For Asbel/Cheria and Hubert/Pascal. Richard joins him in this for maximum hilarity.
- Squishy Wizard: An odd case. He has high HP, but his defense is low.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works
- Trademark Favorite Food: Sea bream porridge.
- Troll: Among many things, he has a habit of telling the most blatant lies to Sophie with a straight face.
- Up to Eleven: Shinten Rekkuu Zankou Senpuu Messai Shinbatsu Kassatsugeki!
- This is a double subversion. Said Mystic Arte was previously owned by Loni Dunamis. Unlike Loni, however, Malik's version has NO failure chance and better graphics made the arte look very flashy.
- Welcome Back, Traitor: Although Hubert and Lambda don't forgive him quite as easily.
Richard
Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa (JP), David Vincent (EN), Wendee Lee (EN, child)
Richard is the Prince of Windol. He is peace-loving and gentle, though also somewhat aloof. As a child, he befriends Asbel and Sophie.
His Accelerate Mode is Arcane Vigor,[7] which doubles his casting speed.
- The Atoner: In the f scenario, Richard feels he owes a debt to the world for the things he did while possessed by Lambda
- Ambiguously Gay: Just look at his hand gestures.
- Taken Up to Eleven with his Tales of Graces f costume. It could only be more fruity if it was florescent pink.
- Badass: Watch any of his anime cutscenes. The proof is in the pudding.
- Back from the Dead: He is killed by a random Mook quite early on. Fortunately for Richard, Lambda's power kicks in and revives him. Unfortunately for Richard, this allows Lambda to get a foothold in his psyche.
- Berserk Button: When someone betrays his trust. Thanks to Lambda's influence, his interpretation of a "betrayal" becomes incredibly loose.
- Blow You Away: Until the rerelease, which focuses him more on Playing with Fire, most of his physical artes had a wind theme.
- Bishounen
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Despite being an otherwise levelheaded person, he also moonlights as the Masque of Barona.
- Daisuke Namikawa
- Dark Is Not Evil: Though it isn't particularly good either...
- We can now add Playing with Fire, Shock and Awe and Holy Hand Grenade to that list now that he's gained more artes in the rerelease.
- Deal with the Devil: He made a deal with Lambda as a child, allowing it to reside within his body. Richard survives the lethal dose of poison given to him by Celric, and Lambda survives the lethal wounds inflicted by Sophie.
- Demonic Possession
- Despair Event Horizon: The infamous "TOMODACHI HUARGGGGGGGG" scene, where Richard believes that he has been abandoned to die by his friends. This, coupled with Lambda's possession, completes his Face Heel Turn.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Lambda's influence causes him to violently lash out at everything and everyone who slights him. It gets worse when Asbel tries to bring him back to his senses, as Richard interprets that as an act of betrayal from his first true friend.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: So damn much...
- Expy: Rassis 'Ras' Fomalhaut Nobody noticed this?
- Fragile Speedster
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: When he's posessed by Lambda.
- Guest Star Party Member: He has less titles and skills than the rest of the cast, and gets his Lv.1 Blast Caliber much earlier.
- Hellish Pupils: After his first mutation, he has black eyeballs with glowing red irises.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: He asks Asbel to kill him when he temporarily regains control of his body, though Asbel refuses.
- If I Can't Have You: Pretty much the reaction the party gets from Richard when he misinterprets Asbel's good intentions of saving him as an act of betrayal. And now we'd better hightail it the hell out of here before he kills us.
- Incurable Cough of Death: He suffers from a weak constitution and doubles over in pain every so often. This is because as a child he was given a lethal dose of poison by Cedric. The only reason he's not dead is because he made a deal with Lambda to keep them both alive.
- Lonely Rich Kid
- Magic Knight
- Mismatched Eyes: One red eye, one yellow eye. The red one is caused by Lambda's possession, and returns to normal after Lambda leaves his body.
- More Than Mind Control: He calls himself Lambda's "servant" even in one scene when he's not under his control. Says it all, really.
- Nice Hat: During the prologue.
- Not So Different: His similarities to Lambda are what eventually allows Lambda to take control of his body.
- Recurring Boss
- Royal Rapier: He's a prince who becomes king later on after killing his uncle and uses rapiers in battle.
- Sixth Ranger: Come f, he'll become a permanent ally once Lambda is released from him.
- Shipper on Deck: Along with Malik, he is this for Asbel/Cheria, and also teases Hubert about Pascal.
- Something About a Rose: His Blast Calibers.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders
- And then there's his "Lambda Form", where he loses all his clothes, gets weird spikey wings, has black markings all over his body and has crystals inserted into different parts of his body. Hey, it's bound to be Fetish Fuel for somebody.
- Super-Powered Evil Side: Lambda acts like this at first. Then It Got Worse.
- Technical Pacifist
- Took a Level in Badass: Between his childhood and adulthood, like everybody else. Lampshaded by Cedric just before the fight with him. Turns out that's because Lambda's in control.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Natto, much to everyone else's dismay.
Antagonists
Lambda
Voiced by: Keith Silverstein (EN)
A mysterious being whose presence influences many events in the story. Lambda is an immortal Energy Being who resides within Richard for the majority of the game. As he does not have a physical body, he possesses other people and grants them access to his limitless power, effectively making them immortal. However, Lambda can also whisper into the mind of his host, sewing seeds of mistrust and eventually taking them over completely.
- Cute Shotaro Boy
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Eldritch Abomination
- Hive Mind: Can control any monster infected with Nova energy.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters
- Omnicidal Maniac
- Peek-a-Bangs
- Red Eyes, Take Warning
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
Spoiler Tropes:
- Berserk Button: When someone treats him as inhuman. This happened a lot when he was forced to take the form of a monster, which is one of the reasons why he's so screwed up now.
- Big Bad
- Break the Cutie: His Backstory.
- Demonic Possession: He possesses Richard, though it's a bit more complicated.
- Despair Event Horizon: Apparently crossed this when Cornell died.
- Energy Being
- Final Boss: Becomes a Climax Boss in Tales of Graces F
- Heel Face Turn: In the Lineage and Legacies plotline in Tales of Graces f.
- Kill'Em All / Omnicidal Maniac: His original goal was to exact revenge on humanity; seeing them as an Exclusively Evil race of monsters. Ultimately deconstructed as Asbel points out how completely and utterly pointless the genocide of all living beings would be. This complete obliteration of this goal, along with a strange respect for Asbel, is what causes Lambda to take him up on his offer of showing him that humans can be special.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old
- Talking the Monster to Death: This is how Asbel finally manages to get through to Lambda and stop his reign of destruction.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: This is exactly what caused his Start of Darkness. Lambda's only wish is to be treated as a person and not just an energy source. Being forced to take the form of an Eldritch Abomination didn't help matters, and eventually Lambda decides to turn this philosophy back on the humans.
Emeraude
Voiced by: Tara Platt (EN)
A young researcher who the party find sleeping in a pod on the planet of Fodra. Emeraude is highly knowledgeable about Lambda, Sophie and most of the backstory.
- Dark Action Girl
- Eyes of Gold
- Guest Star Party Member
- Human Popsicle
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Refers to Sophie and other Humanoids as "It".
- Most Common Superpower
- Ms Exposition
- Mysterious Waif
- The Stoic: Not the most emotional of party members while she travels with you.
- You Gotta Have Green Hair
Spoiler Tropes:
- A God Am I: After she absorbs Lambda.
- Artificial Human: She is actually a Humanoid with the memories of Emeraude.
- Bullet Hell: One of her attacks simulates this.
- Evil All Along
- Evil Is Not a Toy: She tries to absorb Lambda to save Fodora (and, as a totally unrelated side-bonus, become a god). This pisses off Lambda something fierce, since she forgets that he's not just a power source, but a sentient being (and this misconception was exactly what led to Lambda's Start of Darkness in the first place), and Lambda destroys her from within.
- Evil Genius Cripple: Emeraude. She used to sit in a wheelchair until she got herself a new body.
- For Science!
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Her body explodes. If this game were rated M, there would be blood and body parts scattered all over the place.
- Love Makes You Evil: She had a crush on Corell which he did not reciprocate because he felt it would be unprofessional. She mistakenly believed it was due to Lambda taking up all of his attention, and decided to Murder the Hypotenuse.
- Moral Event Horizon: In-universe, Lambda regards hers as the moment when she tried to use his power and become a goddess with it. While she'd done quite a few horrible things to him up until then, that was the final straw; leading him to blow her up from the inside-out.
- Noblewoman's Laugh
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Due to the above.
- Straw Man Has a Point: Tries to pull this on the party in-universe, reasoning that if Cornell hadn't gotten too close to Lambda and let her destroy him when she had the chance, a whole lot of grief could have been avoided. It's subverted, however, when the party sees Lambda's memories and how the only reason Lambda started killing people in the first place was because Emeraude and the directors were treating him like crap.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Restoring Fodora is an admirable goal and all, but she crosses some serious moral boundaries to do it.
Cedric
Richard's power-hungry uncle. He murders Richard's father- the king of Windol- to usurp the throne for himself, then sends his soldiers to assassinate the young prince so that he cannot inherit the throne.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: His Cedric 2.0 ver-ver-ver-ver-version is pretty flawed-ed-ed-ed-ed-ed-ed-ed and random.
- Always Second Best: The reason why he murders his brother for the throne.
- BFS
- Cain and Abel
- Card-Carrying Villain
- Disc One Final Boss
- The Evil Prince
- Evil Uncle
- Hellish Pupils: Just look at the closeup after he loses!
- It's All About Me: "The throne of Windol is mine!" "The only one worthy of the throne is me!" "The kingdom is rightfully mine!" ... So, yeah.
- Moderate Ham: He chews the scenery a couple of times, but doesn't really go overboard. Shame.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Celric's first assassination attempt involved the use of a strong poison. This would have succeeded if not for Richard's Deal with the Devil.
- Obviously Evil; It really couldn't be any more obvious if he huffed kittens before fighting you.
- Pay Evil Unto Evil: Sure, killing him was another sign of Lambda taking further control, but there's no doubt the asshole after all he's done deserved what was coming to him.
- Playing with Fire & Shock and Awe: Par for the course in this game, really.
Kurt Bessel
A high-ranking soldier in the militaristic state of Fendel. He has a history with Malik and opposes the party during their search for Fendel's Valkines Cryas.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: With Malik.
- Dual-Wielding
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Improbable Weapon User: Dual-wielding shotgun spears.
- La Résistance: Started in this, but then became an Internal Reformist.
- Multicolored Hair
- Well-Intentioned Extremist
Graces f Characters
Little Queen
A mysterious woman who appears in the "Lineage & Legacies" scenario of Tales of Graces f. She has a strong connection to Sophie, as if looking like a grown-up version of her didn't give it away. She is actually a manifestation of Fodra itself, born from the eleth of its core.
- Assimilation Plot: Essentially what she wants to do with Sophie, and perhaps Ephinea as well.
- Big Bad: Of the Future Arc.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Played with. While the vast number of Little Queens does relegate them to Mook status- especially when compared to the Fodra Queen- their boss fights are still dangerous because each Little Queen can use the powerful Purification Mystic Arte, meaning you can get hit with up to four Mystic Artes in rapid succession during an Eleth Break.
- Dark Action Girl
- Flower Motifs: Becomes more obvious when she transforms into the Fodra Queen.
- Gaia's Vengeance: This trope personified.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Her primary motivation.
- I Am Legion: Right before the Little Queens merge into the final boss.
- Kamehame Hadoken: She can fire beams out of her hands. In one dungeon, they even chase you through the floor!
- Magic Knight
- Me's a Crowd: There are hundreds of Little Queens, and they're all manifestations of the Fodra Queen.
- Mook Chivalry: In the battle where you fight ten Little Queens in a row, only four of them- a number equal to the number of party members you have- attack you at once.
- Mysterious Waif
- One-Winged Angel: Becomes the Fodra Queen when all of the Little Queens assimilate into one.
- Pettanko
- Power Floats
- Rummage Sale Reject: The gloves really don't match with the rest of her outfit.
- You Gotta Have Purple Hair
Supporting Characters
Fourier
Pascal's big sister, and by far the more responsible and mature of the two. Like Pascal she is a genius technician, but her field of study also includes biology and bio-engineering.
- Always Someone Better: She secretly resents Pascal for copying everything she does but effortlessly doing it better.
- Big Damn Heroes: After a long absence, she comes to her sister's aid with a ton of chimeras to fend off Richard's monsters before they depart out of Ephinea.
- Bonus Boss: She's the eight member of the Terma Ten.
- Insufferable Genius: Acts very conceited as a cover for her insecurities.
- Multicolored Hair
- Summon Magic: Like her sister's summons, Fourier has Undine assist her in her Mystic Arte, shooting her foes with a big water beam.
- Tsundere
Poisson
An Amarcian girl who is in training to become their next leader. She is extremely knowledgeable and dutiful, but also a stickler for the rules.
- Bonus Boss: Only in f.
- Drop the Hammer
- Little Miss Badass
- Multicolored Hair
- Obstructive Bureaucrat
- Tagalong Kid: She is always happy to help Pascal and Fourier that she goes everywhere she's needed.
- Token Mini-Moe
- Wise Beyond Their Years
Frederic Barnes
The loyal butler to the Lhant family and grandfather to Cheria.
- Assist Character: Aston Lhant joins Frederic in his "Butler Bomber" Mystic Arte. Yes, we do know Aston's dead.
- Battle Butler: As forced by Solomus in the Zhonecage to form up the Terma Ten.
- Badass Grandpa
- Bonus Boss: As part of the Terma Ten.
- Calling Your Attacks: Super Horizontal Thrust!
- Dirty Old Man: It doesn't show until you find out that the lapcomp Fourier lent to him has over 600 PICTURES of chicks in their underwear (possibly also containing porn), one of them being Judith in a bikini.
- Improbable Weapon User: He uses a cane in battle along with made-up artes that have no names.
- Killed Off for Real: The party has no way to avoid this, killing him by their hands.
- Then the whole thing gets subverted. Being around high amounts of eleth apparently revives you.
Kerri Lhant
Asbel and Hubert's mother. She lives in Lhant Manor, and has a good relationship with her children.
- Break the Cutie: Her reaction to Asbel and Hubert's in-fighting.
- After returning and owning Asbel's ass, Hubert telling her she's a stranger to him. She gets better much later, though.
- I Want Grandkids: She urges Asbel to get engaged at the age of twenty.
- The Ojou: In her younger days.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Where Hubert got his blue hair from.
Aston Lhant
Asbel and Hubert's father, who commanded great respect as the lord of the Lhant territory. His death prompts Asbel to return home from the Knight Academy.
- Deal with the Devil: Turns down one with Cedric.
- Irony: He sends Hubert away to be adopted by the Oswells to avoid a dispute over the lordship of Lhant between Asbel and Hubert. Not only does Aston's death cause a dispute to happen anyway, but Hubert's vendetta against Aston for "abandoning him" fuels the conflict in the first place. Oops.
- Posthumous Character
Raymond Oswell
Hubert's cousin-in-law and second-in-command of the Strahta Army stationed in Lhant. He resents the fact that Hubert- an adopted member of the family- is seemingly given preferential treatment over himself.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Gets more heartbroken once Cheria hooks up with Asbel for good. Bailey shares the pain.
- A Match Made in Stockholm: Inverted. He develops one for Cheria.
- It evolves into Stalker with a Crush in the Future arc where he donates a lot of money to Cheria's relief organization and even visits it as an "inspector" of sorts. What a great guy indeed, Asbel!
- Heel Face Turn
- Smug Snake: He grows out of this later.
- Standard Female Grab Area: He knows this technique and uses it on Cheria, who could have probably kicked his ass into next week (if not for all the soldiers around them at the time).
- Those Two Guys: With Bailey.
Solomus
An entity in command of the Zhonecage which is the ring surrounding Ephinea. He plans to eradicate the world due to Lambda's influence corrupting it, thinking destroying the world is a way to save it.
- Bonus Boss: He's the tenth member of the Terma Ten.
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
- Back to Tales of Graces