Tales of Hearts/Characters
Shing Meteoryte
Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara
"If an adult has to hurt someone, even to save the world... I'll just be a kid!"
A young boy who wants to either save the world, become a grown-up or help Kohak, depending on his mood. He has a very powerful sense of empathy which allows him to connect with just about anyone, both literally (via Soma Link) and metaphorically; one of his signature lines is "Your feelings are the same as mine, right?". Despite this, he does have bouts of cluelessness, like being oblivious towards Beryl's flirting.
He uses the Soma Asteria, a sword and buckler combo, and his favoured element is Light. He mainly uses sword techniques, and is one of two party members to have no spells.
Tropes associated with Shing:
- Adults Are Useless (Or so he thinks, because 'they can't save the world because they cannot bring a smile of one girl!'. Unfortunately, he spews it in front of Chalcedny...)
- Anvilicious: Tends to be the one giving the rousing speeches that spell out exactly what theme the game is trying to convey at that moment. (It usually boils down to, "Friendship is awesome!".)
- Awesome McCoolname: His surname is a few letters from Meteorite.
- Butt Monkey
- Enemy Within: Creed.
- The Hero
- Heroic BSOD (Shing didn't take it well when he found out that Creed Graphite was sealed inside his body since birth and that succumbing to his desire for revenge caused Creed to materialize into the world.)
- Holy Hand Grenade (His main element)
- Idiot Hero (Hisui and Beryl concur)
- Leeroy Jenkins (He has a lot of this moment)
Hisui: There they are. We need a plan.
Shing: Here's the plan: Charge 'em with all we've got!
- Kid Hero
- The Messiah
- The Power of Friendship
- Unstoppable Rage: Shing has a tendency to lapse into this if provoked. The act of doing so weakens the seal on Creed.
Kohak/Amber Hearts
Voiced by: Marina Inoue
"'She' told me so..."
A girl on the run from a mysterious and powerful sorceress. Her Spirtune- the core of her Spiria- is shattered early in the game, reducing her to an emotionless doll. The first act of the game revolves around the party's quest to restore her to normal by travelling the world and finding the missing pieces of her Spirtune. She is kind and energetic, but a little clumsy with people.
Her Soma, Elrond, is composed of an anklet and a fire-spewing baton. Her element likewise is fire. She fights using martial arts, combining baton strikes with kickboxing. She also possesses several elemental and lesser healing spells.
Tropes associated with Kohak:
- Action Girl (See Took a Level in Badass below.)
- Beware the Nice Ones (You seriously do not want to piss sweet little Kohak off, or else you're going to get a lot of kicking)
- Cherry Blossoms (Her Limit Break)
- She's also named after a cherry tree, the Kohakuzakura.
- The Chick (A rare Badass version)
- Cooldown Hug (She administers this when Shing loses it)
- Damsel in Distress (Several times)
- Dub Name Change (Both the translation patch and Tales of Graces f call her "Amber". Amber is the literal translation of "Kohak" and keeps the Theme Naming of Hearts intact.)
- Emotionless Girl (For about... 30 minutes. Then she starts gaining them one by one...)
- Male Gaze (For some reason, especially in VS, the camera/cut-in loves showing off her back. And her ass.)
- Kick Chick
- Megaton
PunchKick: In particular her Arte Kaishinkyaku. Looks like a normal push kick, but it has a gigantic knockback event) - Name's the Same (You shouldn't think of Tsukihime when referring to her and her brother)
- Playing with Fire
- Sexy Backless Outfit
- Shout-Out ("This is my... Satsugeki Bukouken!")
- Spell My Name with an "S" (The official romanisation of her name is "Kohak", but that doesn't stop some people from calling her "Kohaku".)
- Took a Level in Badass (While at first she seems meek, once she got her Courage Spirune back, she starts kicking ass and officially joins the party. Courage Spirune really should be renamed as Badass Spirune...)
Hisui/Jadeite Hearts
Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze
"Yeah, I'm scared all right, but not of you. I'm scared that my sister and all these monkeys with me are gonna get hurt."
The Hot-Blooded older brother of Kohak. He's fiercely protective of his sister because they lost their mother at a young age. Late in the game, he strikes up a relationship with Richea Spodune. His favored element is wind.
He receives a double-bowgun Soma called Gale Arc from Innes. He is the primary healer of the party, combining healing techs with powerful projectile attacks.
Tropes associated with Hisui:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: He refuses to believe the existence of "fairy tale creatures" like the Zerom until he Soma Links for the first time and sees them with his own eyes. He also doesn't believe that his sister has a voice in her head telling her things.
- Blow You Away (his primary element)
- Dub Name Change (Same like Kohak, he's called Jadeite in the translation patch)
- Goggles Do Nothing (averted: he puts his googles on during combat, which makes perfect sense considering all those wind techs he's throwing around.)
- Hot-Blooded
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold (he makes no excuses of berating everyone, especially Shing, but he also lets out some soft sides. Especially on Richea)
- Knight Templar Big Brother (he really is overprotective on Kohak, repeatedly beating Shing and on one instance threatening to kill him)
- The Lancer
- Name's the Same (see Kohak above)
- Rain of Arrows, The Archer
- Tsundere
Beryl Benito
Voiced by: Saeko Chiba
"My painting isn't about "adventures" or "heroes" any more. It's about "things you can't fight". Shing, you're perfect for it!"
A young girl whose ambition is to become the Imperial Painter. She's eighteen years old, but looks and acts a lot younger, frequently slurring long words and using her immaturity to get her own way.
Her Soma, Thiers, is a giant hat and paintbrush set. She mainly casts earth and water-elemental spells, and also wields supportive magic.
Tropes associated with Beryl:
- Bokukko
- Clingy Jealous Girl ("WHY IS EVERYONE ALWAYS PINNED ON KOHAK!?" She got better.)
- Cute Witch (Even if she isn't a witch, she certainly projects this image)
- Dishing Out Dirt
- Improbable Weapon User (Her weapon is a paintbrush.)
- Older Than They Look (She's actually 18.)
- Pettanko
- The Smart Girl
- Token Mini-Moe
- Tsundere
Innes Lorenz
Voiced by: Shizuka Ito
"An adult is someone who does what's necessary, even if it hurts."
Innes is a woman who singlehandedly runs the traveling Soma shop "Every Day is a Peaceful Day". She has superhuman strength and several contacts as shifty as she is. She is (mostly) composed and graceful, and often ends her sentences with "I wonder?" ("~kashira?").
Her Soma, Folseus, is a pair of greaves and a huge axe-like blade. Her element is water, but she has few techniques that utilize it, choosing to instead specialise in techs that enhance her abilities and deliver powerful blows to the enemy.
She's secretly an operative for the Macus Empire's Special Ops Soma Unit, trying to get her hands on Kohak's Spirune for the sake of her Captain, Isaac Silver, with whom she is in love.
Tropes associated with Innes:
- Action Girl
- The Big Girl
- Boobs of Steel
- Cool Big Sis
- Gratuitous French (ALL her moves)
- Making a Splash
- Mighty Glacier
- The Mole
- Promotion to Parent (After Silver's death, she looks after his daughter)
- Verbal Tic (I wonder?)
- White-Haired Pretty Girl
Kunzite
Voiced by: Hozumi Gouda
"Now requesting... negative. Please, I ask of you... everyone, in order to protect Master Richea, please lend me your power!"
ID Code IS206-mark-11 Jack-type Mechanoid, and Guardian Knight to Richea Spodune. He insists that his only motivation is to serve his master, but many times he shows a hot-blooded or kind side of his personality, especially when dealing with Richea or Kohak. As he gradually realizes his own nature, he gains titles to match, starting from "Cold-blooded Mechanoid" and ending with "Like Human".
His Soma, Vex, incorporates katars on his arms and extra blade arms mounted on his back. He fights similarly to Judas from Tales of Destiny 2 and Leon from Tales of Destiny Remake. He also uses offensive dark and wind type magic and can cast debilitating spells.
Tropes associated to Kunzite:
- Become a Real Boy (His final reaction)
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the game he chooses to enter a permanent state of hibernation so that the dying Richea can live on in his Spiria.
- Knight Templar (At first, which caused him to fight the party after temporarily joining them. Then he got better.)
- Never Tell Me the Odds: Spoken before the final battle.
- Power Level (can scan'em)
- Ridiculously Human Robot (First playable one in the Tales (series). However, he turns out to be the least human compared to the rest of mechanoids)
- Spock Speak
- The Sixth Ranger (can also double up as The Smart Guy due to his sensors)
- Tin Man (His first reactions)
Chalcedny Arcome
Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya
"If you would bear the weight of the world on your shoulders, I will hold you up."
Captain of the Valeia Church Crystal Knights 13th Unit, also called the Chalcedny Squad. He begins as a Crystal Knight who wants to capture Kohak's Spiria under the orders of his father, one of the people who fought Creed seventeen years before the game began.
After meeting Shing he rebels against his father, begins a Heel Face Turn, and becomes The Rival and the Sixth Ranger. He gains the courage to confess his love to the Empress Paraiba Marin de Rai, becoming her Knight and giving her the confidence to take control of the two factions driving her country to civil war. At Bamal Volcano, his loyal squad goes down fighting three of Incarose's bodies at once to buy Chalcedny enough time to complete the Soma Evolve ritual needed to reach Gardenia. Though the ritual is a success, Chalcedny over-strains his Spiria and becomes incapacitated for the rest of the game.
His Soma, Wahrheit, is a breastplate that produces large wings as well as a BFS. It was formerly used by Iola Hearts, the mother of Hisui and Kohak. It becomes converted by the Soma Evolve ritual into the Aerial Soma Lianheit, a small plane used by Shing's party and controlled by Richea.
Tropes associated with Chalcedny (and his squad):
- The Ace
- Global Airship
- Heroic Sacrifice: He doesn't die, but his body is incapacitated.
- Power Gives You Wings
- The Rival
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair (His subordinates: Peridot's hair is hot pink. Byrock's is bright teal.)
The Old Party
A group of Soma Users who fought Creed Graphite (in the body of Paraiba Zirconia de Reis) seventeen years before the game began.
The party is composed of Zex Meteoryte wielding Asteria, Dona Meteoryte wielding Elrond, Iola Hearts wielding Wahrheit (and acting as host to Richea Spodune), and Labrado Arcome and Tekta Paraiba both wielding unknown Soma.
Creed was fought to a standstill and nearly drained of power when Guardian Knight Incarose interrupted the sealing Arte. Creed, knowing Zirconia's body was becoming unusable, attempted to possess the unborn Shing Meteoryte in Dona's womb, but Dona used her own life as power to seal Creed inside Shing's Spiria. Zex was instructed to raise the baby with a strong Spiria, and not to allow the child's anger to peak, which would allow Creed to break the seal.
Richea Spodune
Voiced by: Kaori Shimizu
A mysterious girl residing within Kohak's Spiria. She matches the description of the girl in the nursery rhyme, "The Sleeping Princess of the Forest of Thorns".
Richea is one of the last surviving members of the ancient Quartz race, and has been jumping from body to body with each passing generation to continue her battle against Creed Graphite and his campaign to revive Gardenia. Because she's been body-hopping for so long, she's become something of a legend and her visage is worshipped as a goddess.
Having possessed Iola Hearts, she now possesses the body of her daughter, Kohak. When Kohak's Spirtune is shattered, her essence is shattered as well, which is why Creed's faction is determined not to let them be reunited.
- The Atoner
- Grand Theft Me
- I Did What I Had to Do: A dangerous amount of this. She admits responsibility for shattering Kohak's Spirtune to protect herself from Creed, and claims she would easily kill Kohak or anyone else if it meant foiling Creed's plans. Fortunately, she mellows out after a while.
- Mystical Waif
- Playing Against Type (The one who voices her? The woman behind gruff, serious female like Signum or Lamia Loveless)
- Rapunzel Hair
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old
- Stripperiffic
- You Gotta Have Blue Hair
Creed Graphite
Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki
One of the last survivors of the Quartz race, Creed is at the centre of events in Tales of Hearts. Two thousand years ago, Creed created Gardenia: a device that would end the wars raging across the world by calcifying any Spiria that held a desire to fight. Unfortunately, it worked too well and calcified everyone on the planet save for his lover Flora, and her sister Richea. Flora pulled a Heroic Sacrifice and became a Barrier Maiden to stop Gardenia, but Creed, distraught by her loss, attempted to force her back out at the cost of reviving Gardenia. Richea moved to stop him, and the ensuing battle separated their minds from their bodies. Since then, Creed and Richea have battled throughout the generations by jumping from body to body.
At the beginning of the game, Creed is sealed within Shing's Spiria. The seal is broken by Incarose tapping into Shing's anger, and Creed fully possesses Shing until he returns to his real body. He then attempts once more to unseal Gardenia and save Flora.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: He attempts to use Gardenia to revive the civilisation he accidentally destroyed. The party tries to tell him that it doesn't work like that. He tries anyway. Gardenia devours Flora. Cue complete mental breakdown.
- Gone Horribly Right: Gardenia.
- Grand Theft Me
- Love Makes You Evil
- Necromantic
- Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can
- Sissy Villain: He glitters.
- Villainous Breakdown: After Gardenia devours Flora.
Incarose
Voiced by: Junko Minagawa
A mysterious sorceress who is chasing after Kohak Hearts. She murders Zex Meteoryte, shatters Kohak's Spiria and does everything in her power to piss off Shing and stop the party from reuniting the Spiria pieces. She is a mechanical being similar to Kunzite, and was created to serve Creed. She is classified as a "Queen-Type" mechanoid, and is an experimental model with seven bodies linked to a single Spiria.
Her final body is upgraded into Incarose-ILL with the bodies of Chlorseraph & Clinoseraph, but is still defeated by the party.
Chlorseraph & Clinoseraph
Voiced by: Kouji Yusa and Kenjiro Tsuda
Two robotic brothers that serve Creed's faction. They are classed as "Ace-Type" mechanoids, the strongest fighting type. They can also resonate their artificial Spiria in order to boost their abilities, in a manner similar to the party. Chlorseraph is the one at the front with the twin blades; Clinoseraph is the one at the back with the stronger armour.
They were once guardians to Flora Spodune. They are eventually defeated by the party, and their bodies are used to upgrade Incarose's last body into Incarose-ILL.
- Axe Crazy: Both, but Clinoseraph is this in a more quiet way.
- Creepy Twins
- Foe Yay: Clorseraph is very fixated on Kunzite.
- In-Series Nickname: Roa and Rino.
- Moral Event Horizon: Clinoseraph traps Lithia in his Spirmaze and makes her watch the day of the Calcification of Quartia over and over.
- Ridiculously-Human Robots
Corundum
Voiced by: Tomoko Kaneda
A Robot Girl who serves as the Villainous Harlequin of Creed's faction. As a Joker-Type mechanoid, she's designed more for practical use and data-gathering rather than battle. She's obsessed with gathering information, and is driven more by curiosity than anything else.