The cast of Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City. Beware of unmarked spoilers!
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Potential Guild Members
Prince(ss) (プリンス / プリンセス)
Princess 1 voiced by: Akiko Hasegawa (Drama CD, Japanese), Haruno Inoue (Alchemist Code, Japanese)
Princes and Princesses are of Royal Blood in some way, shape or form, and this gives them the power to help keep their party's morale high. They are definitely not to be underestimated; their armor may seem gaudy and ornamental, but they've chosen the path of adventurers and explorers, with all that implies. In the HD remaster as well as Etrian Mystery Dungeon and Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold, they are known as Sovereigns.- Battle Ballgown: The princess dresses are loaded with frills and bits of armor.
- Cool Crown: The princesses get fancy tiaras.
- Ermine Cape Effect: The art makes it look like these characters go dungeon crawling in their fancy clothes. The Mystery Dungeon spinoff confirms it.
- Dub Name Change: The HD Remaster changed their names to Sovereign, to match their localization from The Fafnir Knight onwards.
- Fixed Damage Attack: They have a couple of passive healing skills that restore HP based on the current skill level. These skills are useful early on, but fall off later on as HP pools and damage received increase.
- Flaming Sword: One of the possible buffs, along with ice and lightning versions.
- Guest Fighter: The blonde princess was included as part of a collaboration event in two mobile games, Alchemist Code and Logres of Swords and Sorcery.
- The Hero: Sort of, like the Protector above. Given her prominent position on all the promotional artwork and her assumed position, the blonde-ponytailed Princess is generally regarded as the closest thing to a "main" character the game has. She also gets a number of portraits in EOU2 and is the female option for Sovereign in EMD.
- High-Class Gloves: The princess outfits include fancy, if armored, gloves.
- Jack of All Stats: They have an even split between most of their stats, with their Strength being the worst (but not the lowest of all classes) and Vitality being their best (but not as high as the Hoplites).
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: The princesses smack monsters around without taking off their royal dresses.
- Named by the Adaptation: The female blonde Princess goes by Celia in the Drama CD.
- Ojou Ringlets: On the purple-haired princess.
- Pimped-Out Dress: The Art Evolution is evident just by how detailed the Princesses' dresses are. The Battle Ballgowns worn by the them have loads of embroidery, fur trimming, gold trimming and armor plating, and frilled edging.
- Pretty in Mink: All princess dresses have fur trim on the skirts. And one of the princes has a fur-trimmed cape.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: There is a touch of pink fur on one of the alternate Princess' dress.
- Requisite Royal Regalia: At least it is (mostly) proper armor, except for the younger prince who is barely armored.
- Royal Blood: a Class centered around their Royal Lineage.
- Royal Brat: Implied in the case of the new portrait in HD, as the design leans into a mesugaki archetype.
- Royal Rapier: Sovereigns are one of two classes who can equip rapiers naturally, the other being Buccaneers. Unlike Buccaneers, Sovereigns don't have a weapon mastery/skills for rapiers, as they're a support class and mostly use them for Stat Sticks.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: One interpretation of their background out of many possibilities. They are nobility who actively join adventuring parties in dungeon diving, rallying them in the thick of combat. They learn Order skills that help them keep their teammates focused on the fight.
- Spear Counterpart: "Princess" is the default class and used for the class rep; males are referred to as Princes by afterthought.
- Status Buff: The skills in this class include several of these, starting with attack and defense raising abilities.
- Status-Buff Dispel: Negotiation can dispel an ally's buffs in exchange for healing, while Inspire gets rid of debuffs and restores TP. Ad Nihilo is their straightest example, enabling them to dispel an enemy's buffs.
- Warrior Prince: These princes like to kick butt.
- Whole Costume Reference: The younger Prince's outfit bears a close resemblance to the main character of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King.
- Wingding Eyes: One of the Princes has white stars for pupils; in fact, all of them have white pupils, which stands out compared to all of the other classes, except for the Yggdroids.
Ninja (シノビ, Shinobi)
Shinobi 4 voiced by: Mami Shitara (Drama CD, Japanese)
Ninjas have handled down the ancient arts of the ninja for generations, and have mastered various techniques meant to ensure that all their explorations end successfully. These versatile shinobi can function well in any position, be it right on the front lines or supporting their allies from the back.- Action Bomb: Normally, Nikudan is a Last Ditch Move when a Ninja is killed, but whenever a Ninja creates a clone, said clone inherits all skills, including Nikudan, turning them from meat shield into walking bombs.
- Cast from Hit Points: Kumogakure/Ninpo: Smoke sharply raises the Ninja's evasion when used but takes away half their health as well.
- Cool Mask: Aside from the usual ninja masks, one choice wears a red-painted fox mask pulled to one side. Her Palette Swap's fox mask is even more striking: dark gray with golden markings.
- Doppleganger Attack: Ninja can create a clone of themselves to act independently as a Sixth party member during combat; if for whatever reason you're using less than five characters, they can make more than one clone as well, to have an entire party of clones of one Ninja. Tagen Battou is built around this; it requires a clone to inflict significant damage, and its power exponentially increases for every other clone you have.
- Dub Name Change: They're called Shinobi in the Japanese version.
- Draw Aggro:
- They can use Otori to make monsters target them for three turns.
- Kagerou* spawns an inoperable decoy in an empty slot to draw enemies' attacks.
- Escape Battle Technique: The Ninja's "Tonsou Jutsu" skill works similarly to Flee from the previous games' Protector, but it's no longer a guaranteed escape (merely an increased chance).
- Expy: The youngest female Ninja looks just like one of the Ronin from the first two games.
- Forced Sleep: Fukubari* is a piercing attack that may inflict sleep on three enemies.
- Fragile Speedster: Possesses the highest Agility out of all the classes, but also the lowest HP and Vitality. If they fail to evade an attack they are likely to be knocked out or severely injured.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: All of the Scarves of Asskicking are brightly colored, and a few of the Palette Swaps fall into this. Special mention must be made, however, of the Ronin Expy, who wears a bright pink kimono with floral print and a neon violet scarf. Her Palette Swap, meanwhile, wears a darker purple kimono... but with neon pink flower print and a neon yellow scarf, along with silver-white hair and red eyes.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Sort of — They're the only other class that can wield katanas (the only one until you unlock Shogun), and can do a decent amount of damage with one. However, most of their attack techniques require knives equipped in order to use. In Etrian Mystery Dungeon, their skills are reworked to make katanas their true weapon of choice.
- Long-Range Fighter: Their class-exclusive Keburi no Sue skill allows them to ignore the backrow damage penalty that other physical attackers suffers from - very useful considering how frail a class they are.
- Master of None: The Ninja has a lot of skill variety across a whopping four trees, but don't especially excel at any of the niches they provide. Their knife skills come out fast and are cheap but use a weak weapon type; they have high evasion for dodge-tanking but lack the means to consistently draw in attacks; their luck is great but the ailments they have access to (leg binds, sleep, very weak poison, and both varieties of instant death) are of questionable use especially on bosses. They can overcome this via subclassing to specialize more, but the issues persist nonetheless.
- Me's a Crowd: One of their moves lets them create a shadow clone to fill the usually-vacant sixth slot in the usual five-man party. However, they can use this to fill any empty slot... potentially resulting in a small army of fake ninjas covering for the real one.
- Named by the Adaptation: The brown-haired female Shinobi is given the name Fuuka in the Drama CD.
- Ninja: They dress the part, use various knife/katana techniques, and have other abilities like creating clones of themselves.
- One-Hit Kill: The Izuna* ability has a chance to petrify an enemy it hits. Additionally, the Kubikiri skill gives normal attacks a chance to score an instant kill.
- Status Buff: Senpuku increases their evasion.
- Status Effect-Powered Ability: Suikyou/Ninpo: Mirror is an odd skill that targets an ailing enemy and attempts to spread its ailment to all other enemies. With a staggering 999% infliction rate (guaranteeing infliction on anything that isn't outright immune) when maxed out, it can be very strong against the few bosses that summon minions for assistance.
- Sudden Soundtrack Stop: The music will briefly stop whenever they use Tagen Battou, for added dramatic effect.
- Taking You with Me: Nikudan skill allows a ninja to bomb an enemy who kills them.
Buccaneer (パイレーツ, Pirate)
- Choice of Two Weapons: Their weapon masteries are rapiers (front-row weapons with status-inducing skills and physical chases) and guns (back-row weapons that allow crowd control, multi-hits, and elemental chases). Their strongest skills are locked behind mastering both weapon types.
- Combination Attack: The claim to fame of the Buccaneer class, being able to follow up either the physical attacks of their allies with a saber attack, or an elemental attack with a gunshot.
- Dub Name Change: This class' original name was more obvious... Pirate.
- Eyepatch of Power: One of the males.
- Jack of All Stats: Their stats are rather even throughout, with Agility being their best stat.
- Lightning Bruiser: Once you've unlocked Pincushion, which is a strong attack that scales off their high Agility, the Buccaneer can put out really strong damage numbers while often going first in the turn order. The drawback here is the steep Pincushion TP cost.
- Magikarp Power: Buccaneers start out as serviceable mixed-attack/support characters, but have a noticeable issue: their two ultimate skills, Swashbuckling and Pincusion, require full investment in both their weapon masteries to unlock, when they can only use one at a time (except as a subclass for Shogun). This can make them a bit stagnant until the late-game, but it's ultimately worth it; Swashbuckling gives their normal attacks a chance to hit multiple times for free damage and limit charging, and Pincushion is a powerful multi-hit skill that scales with their Agility.
- Pirates: The class is simply called Pirates in Japan, in fact.
- Quick Draw: One of their gun skills is literally called this. It always activates at the beginning of a turn and does respectable damage for its TP cost.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: While the original portaits all emphasized the class's use of swords, and pointed them straight out toward the screen, the new fifth portait takes this more literally as she is aiming a gun straight at the player instead while her sword is held behind her back.
- Sword and Gun: The Buccaneers use Rapiers and Guns as their weapons of choice. While the player cannot have them equip bothnote , mastering both weapons is key to unlocking their best skills: Swashbuckling, which lets them strike multiple times with every normal attack, and Pincushion, their ultimate Attack technique which can be used with either a sword or gun.
- Token Mini-Moe: One of the possible female PCs.
Hoplite (ファランクス, Phalanx)
Phalanx 2 voiced by: Eiji Miyashita (Drama CD, Japanese)
Hoplites are best known for their iconic armor, which completely encases them and provides unparalleled defense on par with the most famous Protectors. Spears are their main weapons, enabling them to fight up close or from the back line.- Battle Ballgown: The trope's page picture, in fact.
- Cast from Hit Points: The Selflessness skill requires 50% of their current HP to use and reduces physical damage taken by them by a huge amount.
- Dub Name Change: Known as Phalanx in the Japanese version.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Their armor is very shiny at least.
- Named by the Adaptation: The brown-haired male Phalanx is named Barga in the Drama CD.
- No-Sell: They have several skills that can do this.
- Like the Protectors before them, their Anti-element skills reduce damage from a specific element, up to outright negation at max level.
- Their Parry and Magic Parry allows them to randomly negate physical and magical attacks.
- The Overwatch skill is a bit unusual, as it prevents all damage to an ally as long as said damage is higher than the Hoplite's HP.
- Palette Swap: Notable in this instance as the two male choices, in their default colors, are only discernible by their hairstyles and expression; the alternate colors make them more distinct.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Possess both Parry and Magic Parry, allowing them to randomly negate physical or magic attacks at them respectively.
- Spikes of Villainy: Subverted; all but one of the selectable characters have some impressive spikes on their armor.
- Stone Wall: They have a major focus on defense. Their Vitality is their highest stat; everything else is average. Most of their skill tree is dedicated to improving their ability to take hits, shield others, recover from damage or status effects, and even nullifying damage. If you subclass into Ninja and put a focus on the evasion tree to learn how to dodge, you get something that's incredibly hard to kill. Unfortunately, because all your skill points are bound up in defense and avoidance, the character is reduced to Cherry Tapping when they do attack.
- Taking the Bullet: Their Bodyguard skill allows them to take all damage directed at an ally for one turn.
Monk (モンク)
- Bare-Fisted Monk: They have several decent offensive skills that require them not to have a weapon equipped. Due to a case of Good Bad Bugs, it is possible to have a weapon equipped and still use these skills.
- Cast from Hit Points: It takes a quarter of a Monk's HP to use Darkness Fist, their crowd-control skill that can also inflict Curse.
- Combat Medic: Possess an even mixture of offensive and healing skills.
- Counter-Attack: Counter and Retaliate respectively cause the Monk to punch any enemy that deals physical/elemental damage to them.
- Expy: The second female Monk is basically Ranma's Female Form from Ranma ½.
- Girlish Pigtails: Sported by the official class rep/first female choice, and combined with long hair — they're very long pigtails.
- Heal Thyself: The skill Ascetic Deeds allows the Monk to recover HP any time they perform an action in battle.
- Martial Medic: The Monks are that game's main healers, and their unique "Form Qi" skill makes their healing abilities that much more effective. On the other hand, the Fist Mastery branch of their skill tree exists for a reason.
- The Medic: Can be built as this if you focus mostly on their healing skills.
- Old Master: One of the visual options.
Gladiator (ウォリアー, Warrior)
- Amazonian Beauty: While the original female portaits had very slender builds, the new HD portrait option is a large muscular woman rivaling the more muscular of the two male portraits in size.
- Ambiguously Brown: Minus the redhead, all of the Gladiator portraits have dark or tanned skin and the redhead has tanned skin in his alternate portrait.
- The Berserker: Especially when they use Berserker Vow, a skill that raises Attack at the cost of HP.
- Cast from Hit Points: Taken to a ridiculous degree with Berserker Vow, which gives a very impressive 90% ATK buff at the cost of 90% of their current HP.
- Chainmail Bikini: All of the portraits have heavily-armored legs, but not much else.
- Choice of Two Weapons: Their weapon masteries are clubs (with skills focusing on single-target damage and status effects) or swords (with skills based around crowd control). Investing in both unlocks Wild Swings, which gives their attacks a chance to inflict splash damage.
- Dub Name Change: Warrior in the Japanese version.
- Expy:
- The dark-skinned pink-haired girl looks almost exactly like the dark-skinned Protector girl from the first two games, just with a different hairstyle.
- The fifth Warrior looks very similar to the heroine from Dragon Quest IV, down to her weaponry, hairstyle and very muscular body.
- Glass Cannon: When Berserker Vow reaches its higher levels, it bestows a great attack boost to the Gladiator at the cost of draining nearly all of their HP.
- Mighty Glacier: Great Strength and Vitality stats, but their Agility is below average.
- One-Handed Zweihänder: The guys wield their huge swords this way, along with a small buckler on their offhand.
- Perma-Stubble: Seen on the male with long, dark hair.
- Powerful, but Inaccurate: The ultimate club skill they learn is Nine Smashes, which can strike up to nine times at best, but has terrible accuracy that gets worse as you level it up, and is not helped by the Gladiator's poor Agility. Bear in mind it hits up to nine times, so at worst you get two attacks, both misses.
- Simple, yet Awesome: Their class skill, Endless Battle, gives them an unconditional bonus to physical damage output. It's one of the better class skills in the game, and it establishes them as reliable frontline bruisers.
- Status Effect-Powered Ability: They can take advantage of both kinds of status effects for more damage: Bind Cut is a sword skill that deals much more damage when hitting an enemy with any binds, while Wolf Howl is a weak defensive debuff that gets heavily amplified on enemies with ailments.
- Stripperiffic: Both girl designs. One's got a Jungle Princess vibe with Skeletons in the Coat Closet, while the other's sporting some Underboobs courtesy of the angle.
Zodiac (ゾディアック)
- Attack Its Weak Point: Singularity amplifies damage done when striking an elemental weakness.
- Counter-Attack: Their Prophecy series of skills work similarly to the Hoplite's Anti-element defenses by blocking an attack with a certain element and retaliating with the same type.
- Curtains Match the Window: Seen on the violet, brown and pink-haired female designs, and to a lesser degree with the blonde, who straddles a dark amber and Red Eyes, Take Warning.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Not as frilly as the Princesses' dresses, but the female Zodiac wear dark, yet elegant clothing, complete with long tights.
- Laser Blade: Seen in the character art, along with star-covered tomes.
- Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Inverted greatly in this game. Zodiacs hit their peak early on once the player maximizes their Singularity passive and Etheric Charge skill, and compounded with the elemental Limits they can crush anything that has a weakness to their elements. In the late-game, however, where elemental weaknesses are few, the preferred damage dealers are all physical because of the numerous buffs and debuffs in the game that affect physical but not elemental damage. Stacking such buffs allows for physical damage dealers to achieve numbers that Zodiacs wish they could reach.
- Guest Fighter: The blonde Zodiac was a playble character for a limited-time in the Japan-only mobile game Logres of Swords and Sorcery.
- Magic Meteor: An expensive spell that requires a lot of TP, Meteor summons a swarm that hits several times.
- Squishy Wizard: Outstanding TEC stat and magical prowess. Poor HP and Vitality.
- Star Power: Zodiacs draw their power from the stars. A few NPC Zodiacs also request your party to escort them to stargazing vantage points so they can improve their abilities.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute - They look like Hexers and function as Alchemists. Two in one! They also have devices on their shoulders which look similar to the Alchemist's gauntlets.
- Winged Humanoid: They wear massive, artificial, crystalline wings on their back. This appears to let them hover in their character art.
- Wings Do Nothing: The Zodiac class features large, artificial, crystalline wings in all of its character portraits. While they appear to allow the Zodiacs to hover in place in said portraits, they don't serve any kind of purpose whatsoever in gameplay.
Arbalist (バリスタ, Ballista)
Ballista 2 voiced by: Akiko Hasegawa (Drama CD, Japanese)
Arbalists have mastered the use of all manner of bows, from the familiar longbow to more physically imposing crossbows that are nearly the same size as them. They're capable of doing heavy damage from either row in battle.- Annoying Arrows: Very much averted; Arbalists have one of the highest natural attack stats in the game. Which makes sense, considering they're siege weapons.
- BFG: A giant crossbow is featured prominently in all the Arbalist portraits.
- Death from Above: The Cloudbuster ability, which shoots a bolt into the sky and causes damage the next turn, similar to the Survivalists' Apollon ability.
- Dub Name Change: The class' original name is Ballista.
- Heal Thyself: By investing in Extend, the Arbalist can recover HP whenever they defeat an enemy.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Their weapons of choice are somewhere between a crossbow and a machine gun.
- Flare Gun: One of the attacks of the Arbalist, which grants the entire party an accuracy bonus.
- Glass Cannon: Arbalists have massive Strength, a passive that tremendously amplifies their damage output, but low Vitality even worse Agility, and low HP to boot. They also have the Front Mortar ability, which does more damage from the front row, but potentially puts them in even more danger.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Three of the portraits wear them on their foreheads.
- Great Bow: The Arbalist class can wield humongous crossbows almost as big as they are. Said weapons can also shoot element-imbued arrows, namely those based on the Fire, Ice, Lightning trio.
- More Dakka: One attack specifically exemplifies this trope, firing several shots blindly at the enemy party.
- Named by the Adaptation: In the Drama CD, the blonde female Ballista is called Arsha.
- Powerful, but Inaccurate: They embody this trope even more than the Gladiators do, thanks to having some of the lowest Agility scores in the roster. They can pick up several skills to improve their accuracy, though.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: The two female Arbalist designs.
- Status Effect-Powered Ability: Snipe and Sharpshooter act as status effect chase skills; the Arbalist preps their crossbow at the start of the turn, then fires at all enemies who have ailments (Snipe) or binds (Sharpshooter) after everyone has acted.
- Too Many Belts: The class is decked out in belts, pouches, and bandoliers all over their bodies.
Wildling (ビーストキング, Beast King)
Beast King 1 voiced by: Akeru Semi (Drama CD, Japanese)
Wildlings, as the name implies, share an affinity with wild creatures and can communicate with them, going so far as to be able to convince these same beasts to fight alongside them during battle. These animals will take the long-empty sixth slot — so long as it's still open, anyway...- The Beastmaster: Their main skill tree gives them access to a wide variety of animal companions.
- Counter-Attack: Call Tiger summons a Sabretooth that attempts to inflict instant death on every enemy when first summoned, then uses a strong physical attack (composed of all three damage types) against anything that attacks it afterwards.
- Dub Name Change: Known as Beast Kings originally. Including the female Wildlings.
- Heavy Sleeper: Call Lion summons a Lion King, which... promptly falls asleep. Curing the sleep manually, or letting it take an attack, will allow it to attack every enemy with almighty damage that can stun and/or paralyze, but it falls back asleep afterwards.
- Magikarp Power: Optimizing the Wildling's skill tree takes a tremendous amount of skill points based on which animals you want to specialize in, and you'll never have enough skill points to max everything out. On top of that, summon skills take a lot of TP and it would be a good while before the Wildling can use those skills with regularity.
- Named by the Adaptation: The older male Wildling is named Marubo in the Drama CD.
- She Is the King: The female Wildlings are still called Beast King in the Japanese version. It is probably a gender neutral title.
- Shout-Out: They all wear the Gold Armlet from Beyond Oasis on their left arms.
- Status Effects: Provided by the Wildling's animal companions: Birds can bind an enemy's head, Moles bind their legs, Snakes go for the arms, Owls can make them fall asleep, and so on...
- Status Effect-Powered Ability: The Lion King beast's damage gets boosted on enemies that have ailments, either its own or those from other beasts.
- Stone Wall: The Venom Ooze summoned with the Call Ooze skill only inflicts the odd, weak Plague ailment on monsters, but has ludicrous physical resistance that gives it a niche as a tank for the party, as long as it stays away from elemental attacks.
- Summon Magic: Technically the beasts they can call on.
- Support Party Member: Aside from two debuffs they've got no offensive skills at all, relying entirely on their beasts to do the fighting.
- Taking the Bullet: The Sacrifice and Sacrifice II skills make it possible for a summoned animal to step in and take a physical or magical attack in place of an ally. Their Nature Pact passive gives them a chance to have their beast take their place when they receive lethal damage.
- Token Mini-Moe: Only one of the character designs actually looks like an adult.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Males go shirtless.
Farmer (ファーマー)
Farmer 4 voiced by: Ai Matayoshi (Drama CD, Japanese)
Farmers are easily the weakest of the lot, having little to offer combat-wise. Where they excel is finding and utilizing the vast resources that the world provides; many have thus set out to find their fortunes, despite the vast dangers of the sea.- Alice Allusion: One of the female farmers is a blonde girl and dresses up like Alice.
- Auto-Revive: Persistence* is a passive skill that may revive them from defeat at the end of the turn. It only works once during battle.
- Boring, but Practical: Although they have pitiful combat skills, they are quite important for exploration; they can, among other things, gather resources, slap a dead party member back into life at low TP cost, provide EXP boosts, and transport the party back to town without the need for Ariadne Threads.
- Encounter Repellant: Safe Stroll* is a search skill that eliminates enemy encounters for a limited number of steps, which helps Farmers get to harvest points without worry of random encounters.
- Farm Boy: They have the appearance down.
- Determinator: They have the Persistence ability, which lets them come back from the dead.
- Forced Sleep: Can put all enemies to sleep by using Lullaby* ... And also to themselves.
- Gardening-Variety Weapon: An unusual case: Farmers get an assortment of exclusive weaponry only they can equip which are mostly Improvised Weapons like pitchforks and hoes, as well as using strange seeds and rotten eggs to put Status Effects on enemies.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: The game has this as a gameplay mechanic — specifically, the Farmer class's Slap Awake ability revives one dead party member at a low TP cost. It can only be used outside of battle.
- Gratuitous Animal Sidekick: The male Farmers carry around a sheep.
- Lethal Joke Character: Despite not being much to write home about in most of their stats, Farmers have the highest Luck Stat of any class in the game, meaning that their status effect attacks almost always work if the enemy isn't immune to them (and they usually aren't).
- Named by the Adaptation: The Alice-lookalike Farmer is called Melly in the Drama CD. Judging by the cover, she also subclasses as a Princess.
- Never Mess with Granny: The new fifth Farmer is a very old lady carrying a shovel as her weapon.
- Random Drop Booster: The passive skill Waste Not* increases item drop rate at the end of battle. Raising it to level 5 increases the rate by 5%. Considering the effect stacks up, if you have 5 party members with this skill learned, the item drop rate will increase up to 25%.
- Status Effect-Powered Ability:
- Rotten Egg* is the offense equivalent to the Gladiator's Wolf Howl, being a weak attack debuff that gets amplified by a lot if the debuffed enemy has an ailment. It lasts four turns.
- Sympathy Pain* only works if the Farmer is suffering from a status ailment, and it cures the Farmer and attempts to inflict that ailment on a target, with a nigh-guaranteed success rate once maxed out. The Farmer has to be able to use the skill, though, so it can't transfer sleep, panic, or petrification, and may have trouble transferring paralysis.
- Teleportation: To Market* takes the party back to town quickly. It is just like using Ariadne Threads.
Shogun (ショーグン)
- Ax-Crazy: This is one impression given by the passive Kaishaku* skill, which can activate and randomly finish off anyone whose health drops too low... including their allies. Another, Bloody Lance* , which increases the Shogun's strength after killing an ally or enemy, states upon activation that "*character's name*'s eyes are becoming bloodshot".
- Combination Attack: They don't make an art of it like Buccaneers, but their Warrior Might skill sacrifices defense to follow up on allied attacks.
- Cool Mask: The new fifth Shogun wears an oni mask that conceals their face. Which makes it difficult to tell their gender. The alternate version of the portrait has the mask broken, exposing a single golden eye and some red hair.
- Counter-Attack: Ambush Stance, which counters attacks to the specified row.
- Cute Little Fangs: The female mentioned under Genki Girl has one.
- Dual Wielding: Second Sword* , the unique ability of the Shogun, lets them equip two weapons at once, and attack twice in one turn. They can somehow still equip a shield.
- Expy: One of the female shoguns looks just like the ponytailed Ronin, and the elder male looks like the monocled War Magus.
- Escape Battle Technique: The Shogun's "Retreat" skill simply takes you out of the battle.
- Frontline General: They are described as generals who dictate the tactics of the party, but also formidable warriors in their own right.
- Glass Cannon: Due to their class skill, one of their armor slots is converted to a second weapon slot, meaning they have less general protection. Coupled with the fact that they're restricted to the lightest armor, and some of their skills further reduce defense, keeping them alive in the front row becomes quite trying.
- Genki Girl: The first girl goes from looking serious to grinning widely with her palette swap. It's a bit of a Mood Whiplash, especially since it's the only one that actually changes a character's expression.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The palette swap of the elder shogun gives him glowing red eyes.
- Laser Blade: The alternate version of the 5th portrait has a glowing pink laser katana, similar to Kujura's second weapon.
- Last Chance Hit Point: The Endure skill gives them a chance to survive a normally-fatal hit with one HP, once per battle.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Shoguns interact with subclassing uniquely because their class skill, Second Sword, lets them use two weapons at once. This makes a main-class Shogun the only class that can take viably take weapon skills from two different weapon types, since they don't need to change equipment for it. This became an innate feature of subclassing in its later appearances.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Due to the branching storyline, you can't unlock Shogun on the same playthrough as Yggdroid (though it is possible to get around this with a New Game Plus).
- Pistol-Whipping: A sword variation with Hilt Strike, which can stun the target.
- The Power of the Sun: Shoguns have one attack that gains power if used during the day, as well as a counterpart that gains power during the night.
- Spam Attack:
- 5-Ring Sword* is a katana skill that deals multiple consecutive attacks on all enemies randomly (2-5 times at level 10). Equipping two weapons doubles the maximum number of attacks (2-10 at level 10).
- Myoujou/Morning Star* and Magatoki/Twilight Hour * work the same as 5-Ring Sword, except these require less TP consumption, do not require Dual Wielding for full potential, and the maximum damage output is a bit lower. However, the former's power increases during the day, and the latter during the night.
- Situational Sword: A lot of their skills have unusual behaviors or downsides that make them tricky to use without building the party around them.
Yggdroid (アンドロ, Andro)
- Attack Drone: One of the Yggdroid's skill trees lets it summon attack drones based off the three elements in this game; they will automatically perform a Combination Attack with anyone else in the party who uses an Elemental attack that is the same element as theirs. They can also be ordered to self destruct.
- Awesome, but Impractical: They have the highest HP and STR in the game, but all their skills are highly situational. They can be viable if a team is specifically built around them, however. Not to mention their TP stays at a fixed 60 no matter what level they are (unless you use stat boosting items). Their Shoot skill destroys all active bots and inflict heavy damage - with one bot of each element present it has a massive 3960% damage modifier! It does require you to have at least three empty party slots, as well as spend a couple turns summoning the bots.
- Badass Cape: The fifth portrait wears one.
- Counter-Attack: EM Barrier passively gives a chance for Yggdroids to counter attacks with a volt-based shock that deals low damage but can inflict Paralysis.
- Desperation Attack: HP Cannon, an attack that can only be used if the Yggdroid is completely bound, does an arbitrary amount of damage based on how much HP the Yggdroid has lost multiplied by a certain percentage, up to 255%. When you remember how much of a Game-Breaker the Hexer's similar Revenge ability was, and then factor in that Yggdroids have the highest natural HP in the game, you begin to understand how dangerous that is. The developers understood as well, which is why Yggdroids have to be completely bound in order for them to even use the attack, but allowed Yggdroids to force their parts to bind themselves with the Core Dump ability to speed the process along, changing the prep time from three turns to one.
- Dub Name Change: Andro in the Japanese version.
- The Faceless: The "male" choices have no faces.
- Fem Bot: The "female" Yggdroids have very human faces and chests compared to their "male" counterparts. One of them (and its palette swap) wears glasses, despite being a robot and probably not needing them. This is because the "female" Yggdroids were designed to be non-combat ones.
◊ Making them seem more human would make it harder for any explorers trying to find the Deep City to fight them. Especially if they look female. - Hollywood Cyborg: Averted; EO3 allows players to take most of the classes as a subclass, but Yggdroids are excluded, avoiding the need for wondering how a human can perform Rocket Punches.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Yggdroids play unlike any other class in the series, with odd skills involving self-binding and summoned minions, a bizarre stat spread with static TP, and no innate weapon skills or weapon proficiency. They're so unusual that they can't be used as a subclass at all; this makes Yggdroids essentially a "chassis" class, where the Yggdroid provides its stats and unique skills while the subclass provides the majority of the build but loses its class skill.
- Mighty Glacier: Impressive Strength, Vitality, and HP reserves, but second-lowest Agility of all classes.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Due to the branching storyline, you can't unlock Yggdroid on the same playthrough as Shogun (though it is possible to get around this with a New Game Plus).
- No-Sell: Yggdroids cannot be bound except by their own skills. Back it up with their Virus Scanner passive and they become almost impossible to disable! However, Yggdroid self-inflicted binds cannot be cured except by their own skills as well.
- Pulling Themselves Together: Necessary to use the ability to pull back the limbs after performing Rocket Punches.
- Robot Wizard: Via sub-classing, you can do this, though it's not recommended.
- Rocket Punch: And Rocket Headbutt, and Rocket Jump. The Yggdroid loses their limbs and head after doing the attack (represented in-game by their limb being bound), meaning that if you use all three of these attacks, they are just a torso on the ground.
- SkeleBot 9000: Unlike most androids and robot girls in fiction, the female Yggdroids have a very distinct robot skeleton appearance with only a plate over the belly hiding their otherwise clearly visible spine.
- Top-Heavy Guy: The new fifth portait in HD has an utterly massive torso and arms, but very small legs, almost to the point of looking like a small variant model of the Gatekeeper as opposed to the relatively human proportions of the original designs.
Citizens of Armoroad
Inn Boy (宿屋の少年)
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Amusingly enough, part of the Viewer Gender Confusion seems to stem from him having the same hairstyle as one of the female Hoplites, who suffered from her own confusion effect before the male designs were revealed. He even complains about this in-game once or twice, mentioning that he looks a lot like his sister and that he's often mistaken for a girl when they go out to do stuff. Well, maybe if you'd cut your hair a bit and wear a shirt that doesn't look like you're wearing a bra, dude...
- Hero-Worshipper: Towards your Guild members.
- Intergenerational Friendship: He forms a friendship of sort with the Harbormaster eventually over their shared passion for fishing.
Edie Napier (ネイピア商会店主)
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She does have some warmth under her greed though. She gives advice to the player before they face the story final boss, and she invites the player for tea sometimes. She also actually cares about her sister to the point that she wants to make her sister a coat in case the Deep City is too cold.
- Ultimately, she indirectly reveals upon reaching the 100% ending that she does care a lot about the player and their guild. She just doesn't want things to change, and that includes her excessively greedy behaviour.
- Money Fetish: Cheerfully upfront about her Greed. Played with on her floor 25 dialogue, where she lampshades that she can worry about things other than her bank books.
- Named by the Adaptation: She was unnamed in the Japanese version. She didn't get a name until Nexus.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: With her sister, a fellow merchant who runs the Napier's Firm in the Deep City; while Edie is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold with a penchant for coin, her sister is a genuinely nice woman who couldn't care much about profit. This actually causes Edie to call her "shallow" and short-sighted.
Missy (酒場の女主人)
- I Have This Friend: If you've reached the final floor and speak to her, her final lines of dialogue involve a "quest" from "a cute girl who runs a bar in Armoroad" asking your guild to write her letters. But because she wants to "keep her identity secret", Missy would receive the letters "to deliver them to her." It's evident she wants your guild to write to her after they've left Armoroad.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: "Innocent girl with a not-so-innocent body" indeed.
- Named by the Adaptation: Only known as the Tavern's Barmaid in Japan.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Commonly scorns and insults Non-Action Guy Scott for not doing his own research, and finds it highly amusing how many problems the player guild solves by killing things.
- To Absent Friends: Late in the game, she reveals that she views this as part of her job. She regularly sends people to their deaths, given the nature of the labyrinth, and as such makes it a point to not allow them to be forgotten. The few times it comes up, she also complains about how she's bringing the mood down and that everyone's going to need to drink.
- You No Take Candle: Speaks in occasionally broken English, with no real explanation given why. It's surprisingly cute.
Bar Patrons
The Butterfly Bistro has many Regulars, such as the traveling troubadour Wolfram, the savvy trader Toma, and the monster biologist Scott.- Alpha Bitch: Dezerte, a 'gaudy swordswoman' who claims to be princess of another land and tends to spend all her time complaining.
- Beergasm: Toma has this over any sort of drink, including free glasses of water.
- Fatal Attractor: An 'unlucky woman' who bemoans losing her various husbands to the dangers of the Labyrinth.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Some of them will help you in some Sea Quests, like Toma and Dezerte.
- Humans Are Bastards: Scott often tells the guild about the behavior of certain monsters, then compares their actions to how humans act. Generally, he makes this comparison unfavorable for the humans.
- Mr. Exposition: Wolfram when relating Armoroad's history and background in his tales. Lampshaded by his apologizing for speaking too long whenever the player stops talking to him.
- Randomly Drops: Toma specializes in these, and will gladly share his secrets in exchange for a few drinks.
Guildmaster (冒険者ギルド長)
- Flaming Sword: He apparently has one. He'd lend it to you to deal with the Deep Ones, but it's being repaired at the moment.
- Long-Lost Relative: Possibly of Shilleka. He has the same dark skin tone and dresses in similar colors, and the artbook features a small image of Shilleka staring at him curiously.
- Retired Badass: Makes some comments that imply he used to be one before becoming the current Guildmaster. Of course, you only ever get his word for it.
- The Unfought: He occasionally talks about sparring with the party, but never does that for a variety of reasons.
Harbormaster (港の管理官)
- Pirate: Makes comments implying he used to be at odds with Armoroad's marine guard, and remains quick to disparage them whenever the opportunity arises.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Forms one with the son of the innkeeper over the course of the game.
- Seadog Beard: Has quite an impressive one to go with his 'Pirate Captain' look.
Flowdia (元老院議官フローディア)
- Determinator: According to the artbook's commentary her willpower is the only thing keeping her alive at over a hundred years of age.
- Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: As if to show off her level of authority, she wears a ring on each of her fingers, earrings, a tiara, necklaces, and who knows what else we don't see.
- I Was Quite a Looker: She was a dancer in her youth, and claims to have been very beautiful. A sketch◊ in the official art book backs her up on this (and apparently the years made her nose longer).
- Secret-Keeper: Implied. She seems to know that Princess Gutrune has been alive for a hundred years, idly mentioning the promise made between her and her brother Seyfried, though whether she's aware Gutrune is a Deep One is unclear.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In the Deep City Route, she's nowhere to be seen after commanding Kujura to stop your party. After the final battle, a sentry says that her health has worsened a lot and refuses to see any visitors.
Kujura (クジュラ)
Click to see him in battle
Armoroad Enforcer Kujura is a Shogun in service of Armoroad, especially Princess Gutrune.
- All There in the Manual: The artbook states his age is 22, which is not adressed in-game.
- Bystander Syndrome: As demonstrated in his boss fight, Kujura has enough manpower to challenge a group of well-experienced explorers by himself. And despite secretly following the party around throughout the whole labyrinth, he never does offer them help to slay the many monsters and F.O.Es they stumble upon, not even the Abyssal God. The only time Kujura stepped in to back the party up was to take on Olympia while they dealt with Kirin.
- Charged Attack: Uses Charge* to double the physical damage dealt on the next turn.
- City Guards: Personally bars your path a few times in order to force your Guild to visit the Senatus or make important decisions.
- The Comically Serious: Averted, unlike in the previous two games where the human bosses wore a funny facial expression on closer inspection. His in-battle picture has a very menacing Death Glare.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the human bosses from the previous two games.
- Like Ren & Tusukur, Kujura is encountered throughout the game a lot of times as the party advances through the labyrinth. Rather than helping them around though, all Kujura ever does is be a jerk and outright halt the party's progress and force them to report to the Senatus.
- The reason Artelinde and Der Freischutz antagonized the party was because they wanted to protect Scylla, fully aware that she had become a monster, while also feeling conflicted about having to kill her themselves. Once they are done for, they request the party to put Scylla down and avenge her. Here (in the Deep City route), Kujura tries to hinder the party for the sake of Gutrune, except his Undying Loyalty towards her blinds him from noticing she is turning into a Deep One (or maybe he already knows and just does not care). His attempt to protect her costs him his life.
- Both Ren/Tusukur and Artelinde/Der Freischutz end up surviving their battle with your guild. Kujura is Killed Off for Real, much to the chagrin of Gutrune.
- Meta-wise, Kujura engages in battle alone, rather than being part of a Dual Boss fight (the Deep Princess is fought right after defeating him). He also does not sport a Comically Serious face in battle, preventing the whole seriousness of the situation from falling into Mood Whiplash territory.
- Death Glare: He's got quite the intimidating stare in battle. Due to the low resolution in the DS version, his pupil is not visible, and it ends up looking like a Glowing Eye of Doom.
- Dual Wielding: Being a Shogun, he wields two swords in battle: Youtou Nihiru and Rubylight.
- Evil Weapon: His personal katana, Youtou Nihiru, is a cursed demon sword that can corrupt minds. Which may explain why he seems so messed up, and how he fails to recognize Gutrune has become evil. You can craft this weapon by using the Curse Shard he drops after defeat.
- Exclusive Enemy Equipment: The Rubylight, previously was a craftable weapon in the second game, is exclusive to Kujura in this game.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Has very sharp-cornered, thin eyes with tiny pupils. It turns into a Death Glare during his fight.
- Katanas Are Just Better: His weapon of choice.
- Laser Blade: The Rubylight, which was also used by the Sky Metal Knights in the previous game. The artbook mentions that it was made from hihi'irokane, a mythical Japanese metal said to shine as bright as flames.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: In the Deep City route. He doesn't care at all if Gutrune has been corrupted by the Deep Ones, nor does he care that her very existence is putting the world in grave danger. He has sworn to protect his Princess no matter what, and that is exactly what he's going to do.
- The Paralyzer: War Spirit* reduces every character's offense power, and has a low chance of inflicting them Paralysis, or Confuse.
- Secret A.I. Moves: None of his moves can be learnt by a playable Shogun. The only skill Kujura seems to share with them is Second Sword, which is made evident when you see him wielding two weapons.
- Spam Attack: His most powerful skill Ouka no Mai* slashes at random targets 3-6 times in a row. It is a stronger version of the Shoguns' 5-Ring Sword.
- Stalker without a Crush: This is his whole shtick whenever he's not guarding the princess. Kujura is constantly following the party around, without them ever noticing him, from the first labyrinth until the last one. He will sometimes show up out of nowhere to halt their progress, or threaten them in the Deep City route. Later on, Gutrune mentions he is still watching the party over in the Cyclopean Haunt (and apparently choosing not to step in to help them in the fight with the Abyssal God).
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Nowhere to be seen in the confrontation between the princess and the abyssal king during the Eldest Path, the latter who's very gung-ho about killing her. So much for Gutrune's personal retainer.
Gutrune (グートルーネ姫)
Click to see her transforming
Click to see the Porcelain Forest Princess
Princess Gutrune is the leader of Armoroad, although she is often sick and has to leave the day-to-day operation to her advisor Flowdia. Known as the Porcelain Princess due to her beauty.
- The Ageless: After consuming Deep One flesh for so long, Gutrune has ceased to age and looks like a young woman despite now being over a hundred years old.
- All for Nothing: In the Porcelain Wish ending. Her efforts to reunite with Seyfried are ultimately for naught when Flowdia sends her away for her own safety and the player guild is forced to kill him. She even questions what she's supposed to live for now that he's gone. The Abyssal Desire ending is not much better as she dies after transforming into a Deep One in full.
- Cassandra Truth: She claims Seyfried has lost his memory because of Yggdrasil. Seyfried denies this, stating his memories are fine, but does not recognize her whatsoever even though she is his sister.
- An Ice Person: Thin Ice* deals ice elemental damage to all party members. Particularly dangerous if she previously lowered their Ice resistance with Dubious Mist* . She tends to spam this skill more often as her health goes down.
- Cain and Abel: With her brother Seyfried, though which one are Cain and Abel respectively is up to player interpretation outside the Golden Ending.
- Delicate and Sickly: She rarely appears in public because of her illness. It's to hide the fact that she hasn't aged in over a hundred years.
- Dub Name Change: Her monster form is known as Porcelain Forest Princess* in Japan.
- Heal Thyself: Can heal herself for a whopping 5000 HP by using Ocean Drop* . It also removes binds on her.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: If you take a closer look at her arms, you can tell there is something wrong with them (which is a clear sign she is slowly turning into a Deep One). Her full picture from the artbook reveals her arms are way longer than they should be.
- I Will Find You: She's been searching for her long lost brother for the last hundred years, even going so far as to eat Deep One flesh to prolong her life. Depending on which route you're on, Gutrune and Seyfried's reunion is either one of hostility because of conflicting goals or heartfelt and very much long overdue.
- One-Winged Angel: She transforms into the monstrous Deep Princess as the final boss of the Deep City route.
- Princesses Rule: Though the Senatus (particularly Flowdia) is seen holding all the real power, and Gutrune herself as little more than a figurehead, due in no small part to her constant illness. It's actually subverted in that her "illness" is a ruse to hide the fact that every "Princess Gutrune" that has ever ruled over Armoroad is actually been her for the last hundred years or so, making Flowdia and the Senatus the figureheads instead.
- Shock and Awe: Thunder Wrath* deals heavy volt elemental damage to one party member. This skill's name is also an example of Inconsistent Dub, because it skips the "God" part, while the Making a Splash equivalent of this skill used by the Cruel Roamer is properly translated to Sea God's Anger.
- Really 700 Years Old: Just over 100 actually. She's managed to live that long by consuming Deep One flesh.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Played with. She has red eyes, but she's a non-combatant who would rather order adventurers to investigate the labyrinth, kill monsters, fulfill missions, etc, many of which are justified since A) she's a royal, and B) she's suffering from an unknown illness. The reason it's played with is because she's also a Deep One, and her sickly persona is just an act to hide this from everyone else. In the Armoroad route, she's your ally, but in the Deep City route, she's your biggest enemy and can kick your ass if you aren't prepared.
- Transhuman Treachery: She ate Deep One flesh in order to live long enough to see her brother again. It changed her; in the Deep City route, it culminates in her monstrous transformation after the player kills Kujura.
- Was Once a Man: She looks human, but you don't learn until much later in the game that she's actually a Deep One, having turned into one after eating their flesh for so long.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ultimately decides that it's best to take the fight to the Deep Ones, believing that they need to die as soon as possible, despite the knowledge that Seyfried has been keeping the Deep Ones away from humanity because they can feed on human emotion and may grow too strong to defeat. Seyfried sees this confidence as recklessness.
Citizens of the Deep City
Abyssal King Seyfried (ザイフリート王)
Click to see him outraged
Click to see the Automaton King
- Artificial Human: His consciousness was transferred into one by Yggdrasil.
- Cain and Abel: With his sister Gutrune, though exactly which one are Cain and Abel respectively is up to player interpretation outside the Golden Ending route.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: After meeting with the player guild for the first time, Seyfried contemplates killing them as their strength makes them a potential threat to the Deep City, if not run the risk of unleashing the Deep Ones. On the other hand, it's precisely because of their strength that he decides to hold off on killing them, and instead enlists their help and reveal the purpose of the Deep City to them.
- Combination Attack: He and Olympia have a devastating electric attack, Uzurai* , that they will use together every six turns.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the Overlord, but only in the Armoroad route. Although both men were originally human, the Overlord was born thousands of years ago and willingly turned himself into an immortal machine to help continue his research into eternal life, performing countless inhumane experiments in the process. When confronted by High Lagaard's player guild, he's dismissive of them entirely until they prove stronger than expected. Seyfried was born in the current era and had his consciousness transferred into a mechanical body by an outside party, and uses the circumstances of his new body to help protect the world from the Deep Ones, which can and will threaten the world if unleashed. While he does consider killing the player guild, he's otherwise amicable and willing to enlist their help so long as they do nothing to threaten the Deep City.
- Dual Boss: He's fought alongside Olympia in the Armoroad ending.
- Fantastic Racism: Despises the Deep Ones, if not fear them as they feed off negative emotions. Everything he does is to ensure they never make it to the surface. It's also this hatred for them that leads to his conflict with his sister Gutrune, who's become a Deep One herself after consuming their flesh for so long.
- Get Out!: Shouts this when he and the player guild have a final confrontation in the Porcelain Forest in the Armoroad route. When they refuse, he and Olympia battle them.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Gutrune claims Yggdrasil wiped his memories and has no memories of his past beyond his ties to Armoroad. Seyfried, however, claims his memories are intact, but fails to recognize Gutrune. He also does not recognize Flowdia when they meet in the Armoroad route, and when she tells him she was friends with him and his sister, Seyfried states he does not know her, nor does he have a sister. He only remembers who Gutrune is when he crumbles into dust after his defeat.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Outside the Eldest Path route, he doesn't realize Gutrune is in fact his sister, and instead thinks it's a Deep One trying to trick him. While this is partly justified since they last met a hundred years ago, he is also unaware that Gutrune became a Deep One by eating their flesh to prolong her own life so she could reunite with him.
- Long-Lost Relative: He is Princess Gutrune's brother, whose consciousness has been uploaded to a robotic body by Yggdrasil. The Golden Ending sees him reunited with Gutrune at long last.
- No Body Left Behind: In the Porcelain Wish ending, his body crumbles into white dust upon his death.
- Non-Elemental: Liberation* inflicts TEC-dependent non-elemental damage to a unit, and nullifies buffs. The damage output increases the more buffs the target has. It sort of works like the Princes/Princesses' Ad Nihilo.
- The Paralyzer: Grasp Arm* causes strike damage to a single target, and is very likely to cause paralyze.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: If you accept his mission "Defend the Gatekeeper" which locks you into the Deep City route, you're eventually forced to fight the Gatekeeper anyway when the robot turns on your party. When you turn in the mission, Seyfried tells your party not to cry over spilled milk and focus their efforts on pursuing Kujura into the Abyssal Shrine. He also mentions that the Yggdrasil will rebuild the Gatekeeper over time.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His mission of protecting humanity from the Deep Ones leads to him killing explorers who get too close to the Deep City. His reason is that the Deep Ones are empowered by emotion, including fear; if the general populace comes into contact with them, the ensuing widespread panic can make the Deep Ones too strong to defeat. His crusade against the Deep Ones also drives him to try and kill his sister, who's become a Deep One herself to live long enough to try and reunite with her long lost brother; he's lost his memories since becoming a cyborg and no longer recognizes her.
Olympia (オランピア)
Click to see her without cloak
Click to see her in battle
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When you initially meet her in the first stratum, she presents herself as nothing but helpful, with NPC dialogue found after entering the second stratum noting how she helps out newbie adventurers. Then she shows her true colors in the second stratum when she lures you into an ambush to be killed by a swarm of monsters. Subsequent encounters make it very clear she despises humans.
- Angie's dialogue in the Twinkling Tavern elaborates that Olympia used to bring injured explorers to the Deep City, heal their wounds, and then send them home after wiping their memories of having visited this place. Somewhere down the line, her directive has changed to killing explorers who get too close to the City.
- Combination Attack: She and the Automaton King have a devastating electric attack, Uzurai, that they will use together every six turns.
- Deadly Gaze: On top of her glowing red eye making a Death Glare in her battle portrait, her Cruel Stare* causes pierce damage to a random target, and may stun them.
- Dual Boss: She and Seyfried are fought together as the final bosses of the Armoroad route.
- Emotionless Girl: Downplayed. Her character portrait is permanently set to that of a deadpan expression, and while she does emote, it's noted to be subdued. The strongest and most poignant emotion she displays is her opinion of humans.
- Fan Disservice: You might make the mistake of thinking that what you see in the gap of her cloak is her naked skin. When you see her without the cloak, it's made abundantly clear that her body is battered and beaten to hell and back. Unlike her fellow Yggdroids, she doesn't have a stomach plate, exposing her metal spine.
- Humans Are Bastards: In contrast to Seyfried, Olympia doesn't have a high opinion of humanity and even tells you as much when she sets Kirin upon you. In the Deep City and Golden Ending route, she's significantly softer to the player guild and deems them You Are a Credit to Your Race. Your actions in the Armoroad route, however, only help solidify her hate.
- Karma Houdini: This is the person who was responsible for the deaths of countless adventurers in order to keep the Deep City hidden. In addition, she tried to kill your own party on at least two separate occasions. In both the Deep City and Golden Ending routes, she gets away scot-free with absolutely no ill consequences whatsoever. The Armoroad route, however, has her warranty expire; she and Seyfried are defeated in their boss battle, and while she survives to the post-game, her memory is wiped following the reboot and everything that she and Seyfried have worked towards are undone.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: After her defeat in the Armoroad route, she gets rebuilt and is your point of contact in the Deep City palace. However, her memory banks have been wiped, and she retains no memory of her clashes with your guild.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Her left eye glows red in battle.
- Replacement Goldfish: Seyfried specifically modeled Olympia's appearance after his sister Gutrune.
- SkeleBot 9000: As with other female Yggdroids she has a very skeletal design, though unlike the playable ones she doesn't even have the stomach plate to try and hide it.
- Secret A.I. Moves: Like Kujura, Olympia's skillset can't be learned by playable Yggdroids at all.
- Shout-Out: Her headphones/earmuffs have Pyro Jack prints.
- Status Buff: Can boost one target's defense by using Fortress* . When the effect wears off, the target recovers between 1320 and 1325 HP. She will use it on whoever has lower health.
- Taking You with Me: If Seyfried is killed before her, she will use a self-destruct attack called Cruelty* , denying you her item drop. The latter does not happen in the HD Remaster, but you still won't get EXP from her.
- This Cannot Be!: Upon returning to her after surviving her attempt to kill you via ambush, Olympia is gobsmacked by the player guild's survival. Once she gets over her shock, she's infuriated and realizes how big a threat the player guild is.
- Tranquil Fury: After you survive the Sea Wanderer ambush she led you to, she seems calm on the outside, but it quickly becomes apparent she is pissed, demanding that you cease your search for the Deep City or she'll kill you herself. She then snaps a tree in two with one hand as a warning that she's serious.
Inn Girl (宿屋の少女)
- The Cameo: It's Angie again! This time she's wearing something closer to her outfit from Under The Knife 2.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Her dialogue if you speak with her at first opportunity is significantly different in the english DS release. The original script has her mention that Olympia would bring wounded explorers to the Twinkling Tavern, tend to their wounds, and then send them back to Armoroad with their memories of the Deep City erased. In the english DS script, she instead introduces herself. The HD remaster reverts this dialogue to a straightforward translation of the Japanese script.
Edie's Sister (ネイピア支店店主)
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Not a money fetishist like her sister, who in turn accuses her of being shallow and simple-minded.
Other Characters
Quest Companions
Clients can hire members of your party to accompany them on various Sea Quests. Some of these clients include familiar faces from the Butterfly Bistro, as well as interested parties from the various ports of call you visit and beyond...- The Ace: Victoria's guild will almost always top off the chart in some side quest competitions if you don't.
- Anger Born of Worry: The second Tower of Victory Sea Quest comes from Aura, who's asking your guild to help her drag her friend Nerona back from her latest misadventure. Once you defeat the King Penguin, Nerona goes for a high-five only for Aura to punch her for her recklessness, which Nerona laughs off.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!:
- A Sea Quest at Sheba pairs you up with Laura, who's a Hoplite. However, she's got an ancient grudge against the boss and will ceaselessly attack it without bothering to defend your party.
- The Cygnal sisters will relentlessly charge and fire their elemental attacks at the Golem, not paying heed to its Counter-Attack.
- Badass Bookworm: Bongaro is a historian from Armoroad, but he used to be a monk. A Sea Quest in the Giant's Ruins pairs your party with him, where he'll demonstrate his martial prowess.
- Friendly Pirate: Zaby, the captain of the Crossjanke, aspires to rule the seven seas one day, but is open to accepting your guild's help in the meantime.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: Once you've defeated the elemental dragons and earned the right to face off against the Elder Dragon, word of your deeds spreads quickly across Armoroad and previous quest companions will turn up to lend their assistance.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Depending on which Sea Quest you're doing, you will always be accompanied by one, two, or three NPCs.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: None of them have Character Portraits. It is rather convenient that the game does not allow you to take a look at their stats, where normally you can see the character's picture... And that you cannot choose their commands, where the character's image is shown too.
- Impossible Task: Kirikaze has been sent to try and complete these so her master can marry the princess Kaguya. This is a Shout-Out to the Japanese folklore of Princess Kaguya, whose beauty attracts many hopeful suitors whom she sends to nigh-impossible quests if they ever hope to marry her. Naturally, she'll fail to find the artifacts, but will still thank the guild for their assistance.
- Ineffectual Loner: A Sea Quest set at the Dark Forest has your guild escort Cortana, a Gladiator who's intending on defeating the monsters there all by himself. While he can keep himself out of trouble, he's definitely not able to do this quest alone. He gets humbled after you beat the boss.
- Item Caddy: You'll occasionally be paired with Farmers on your quests (Toma being the most frequent one) and to offset their laughable combat ability, they come with a larger stock of healing items which they'll use on your party.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Benjamin, one of Princess Victoria's devoted guards.
- Little Stowaway: Ace, Visir and Mau Mau tried this to jumpstart their adventure. Didn't work the way they planned; mainly, they got caught, and your first mission with them is helping them complete a public service to avoid getting thrown in jail.
- Master of One Magic:
- Castor is a Zodiac who sticks to his fire specialty. However, he shows up in boss fights which don't have a fire weakness for him to exploit.
- The Cygnal sisters each specialize in one of the elemental types, but they're insistent that their element is the worst of the three and so are fighting the Golem to determine who's right.
- Retired Badass: Agatha is a former sellsword who's settled down with her husband Giles; Drake is an ex-pirate who takes up his blade to defend Ayutthaya.
- Rite of Passage: Princess Victoria of the Gauss Guild is out to defeat various beasts in order to prove her right to eventually rule her northern kingdom.
- Sibling Rivalry: A trio of Zodiac sisters, each of whom focuses on one element out of the Fire, Ice, Lightning trio, hires you to solve an ongoing dispute about which element is the worst — with each arguing theirs is the worst.
- Sibling Team: A couple of Sea Quests has you fight alongside Castor and Pollux, a pair of stargazers consisting of a Zodiac (Castor) and a Monk (Pollux).
- Sickening Sweethearts: One of the Giant's Island quests involves you escorting Dezerte and her newest boyfriend Knuckle to the place. They constantly flirt on the (offscreen) trip to the destination, as the narration makes clear.Narration: The sight of ancient ruins is a welcome reprieve from the sweet nothings shared between the clients.
- Took a Level in Badass: When they re-appear in the Damavand Sea Quests, the Rookies Three have become competent full-time adventurers and demonstrate their teamwork in the boss fight.
- You No Take Candle: Bergman's requests are written like this.
Hypatia (カナエ, Kanae)
- Dub Name Change: Her name in Japan is Kanae, which sounds more consistent with the explicitly Japanese Theme Naming of her guild.
- Ironic Name: "Hypatia" is the name of an astronomer from Egypt, renowned as a great teacher and wise conselour... Kanae's similarities end in the astronomer part.
- Sole Survivor: Prior to the events of the game, she accompanied her father and his team into the Second Stratrum and witnessed their brutal deaths, barely escaping the same fate. And should you tell Agata the ancient fish's nest location, she will be this once again, and she will disappear from the story afterward.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: She gets really nervous within the second stratum though she's not able to explain why. It's eventually revealed to be due to witnessing her father's death there.
Agata (アガタ)
Ninja Agata is Hypatia's brash and overconfident partner. In his eagerness to uncover the labyrinth's secrets, he tries bulldozing his way through, leaving his guild behind.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: Wears a bright orange vest and flaming purple scarf. Then there's his habit of running off half-cocked...
- Leeroy Jenkins: Traveling through the Yggdrasil Labyrinth can be difficult enough with a full party of five; Agata, meanwhile, likes to go charging in and leave the rest of his guild behind, heedless of the FOEs and other dangers. Depending on how you handle him, this has grave consequences for either him or his partner Hypatia (potentially both if you Take a Third Option and disregard helping them altogether).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Along the way, you get the choice to tell Agata about the ancient fish's nest that Olympia lured you into to try and kill you after Hypatia begs you not to. Do so, and you will send him to his death!
- Pointless Bandaid: Right on his nose. However, given the X-shaped scar on his forehead, it might not be so pointless after all.
- Sole Survivor: Should you decide not to tell Agata of the ancient fish's nest location, he will see through your deception and go anyway. It ends with Hypatia rescuing him at the cost of her life, but not before confessing her suppressed memories to him. He then disappears from the story afterward.
Lindworm (リンドヴルム)
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: This guy tried to kill the Storm Emperor on his own. For his troubles, he got heavily injured and was forced to stay in Armoroad's inn to recover, and leave the party to do the job in his stead.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: When the party visits him after having killed the Storm Emperor, Lindworm claims he was just about to leave and attempt to kill the dragon a second time. When the party tells him they already did that, he's surprised, but thanks the party for letting him return to his kingdom alive.
- Sole Survivor: Of the Forest Folk race from the first game, who were all wiped out by the player guild per Chieftain Visil's orders. It's subverted in the Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl and Nexus, where the Forest Folk are rendered Spared by the Adaptation and a fellow Forst Folk appears in the newly discovered Yggdrasil dungeon respectively, though in the later case, it's played with in that Makiri and his people are of a different "tribe" than Lindworm, since they live in a different Yggdrasil tree.
Hiiragi & Furube (ヒイラギ / フルベ)
A cowardly and naive pair consisting of a Ronin and Hexer, looking for a treasure in the Molten Caves, which actually turns out to be Great Dragon's exact location.
- All for Nothing: After felling the Great Dragon, the party explains to them that the map they were following (which was drawn by Furube's astrologer father) didn't mark some hidden treasure, but the Great Dragon's resting place. Furube realizes their whole trip was pointless, and takes her leave while dragging the very confused Hiiragi.
- All There in the Manual: The artbook states Hiiragi admires a certain legendary duo from Etria. It is most likely talking about Ren and Tlachtga.
- Dub Name Change: Furube is called "Agamede" in the localization. Where did that come from is anybody's guess.
- Contrasting Replacement Character: To Ren and Tlachtga from the first game and its Untold remake. Both groups consist of a Ronin and a Hexer, and are encountered a few times thoughout the labyrinth. The former duo are experienced City Guards, who occasionally help the player guild around until they try to kill them for delving too deep. These 2 girls however, are a pair of incompetent explorers who will not lay a finger on a single monster, and were foolish enough to confuse the location of the Great Dragon with a treasure spot. Both groups also make it out alive in the end, the former because they get spared by the player guild following their defeat, and the latter because they were lucky your guild was around to clear the path to the "treasure", avoiding the need to deal with the Great Dragon by themselves.
- Jerkass: Furube is quite a jerk towards your party and especially Hiiragi. She never once bothers to speak to you, and she is constantly dragging her partner around the dangerous caves, when it's quite clear Hiiragi does not want to be there. And when you save their asses from the Great Dragon, she does not express gratitude for it.
- Non-Action Guy: They are quite the far cry from their playable counterparts from the first two games, since they actively elude fighting the dungeon's monsters. They don't even help you during the Great Dragon fight, preferring to stand aside until you slain it.
- Pointless Band-Aid: Hiiragi wears one on her forehead. Considering her cowardice, it contrasts with the Bushidous' Dueling Scars, which they proudly display.
- Shout-Out: There's a Mokoi sitting on Furube's head.
- Shrinking Violet: Hiiragi is incredibly timid and can barely speak, not to mention she can't fight and cowers in fear on the Great Dragon's presence. While the Ronin themselves don't have a defined personality, they are implied to be no-nonsense fighters who are not afraid of dying on the battlefield. Hiiragi doesn't have any of these traits going for her.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Furube doesn't thank the party for killing the Great Dragon and clearing the path to the "treasure". Neither does Hiiragi, but that at least can be chalked up to her extreme shyness.
Wealh (ウェアルフ)
A Protector hailing from High Lagaard, she appears during the party's first encounter with the Blizzard King and attempts to challenge it alone.
- All There in the Manual: Little is revealed about her backstory in-game. The Official Guide shows that she's the sibling of Flausgul/Hrothgar from the second game.
- But Thou Must!: Outside the Blizzard King's room, Wealh suggests that the party let her fight it first to prove her strength as a dragonslayer. If they refuse, she sends them on a Snipe Hunt in Armoroad so she can fight it without interference.
- Contrasting Replacement Character: To Hrothgar from Heroes of High Lagaard and its Untold remake, who coincidentally is mentioned to be her brother in the Official Guide. Hrothgar, alongside Wolfgar, is one of the last surviving members of the Beowulf guild and later joins his guildmates in the afterlife when he pursues vengeance against Chimaera and dies in the original game and in Classic Mode in spite of his warnings of caution to the player guild. Wealh, on the other hand, is peppy and confidant who wants to challenge a powerful monster as a test of her skills. This leads to her death as she refuses to accept help from the player guild.
- Eyes Always Shut: In her Character Portrait at least.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Her focus on proving her strength by defeating a dragon ends up in her getting killed.
The Eldest One (真祖, True Ancestor)
Click to see his adult form
Click to see the Progenitor
The leader of the Deep Ones. At some point prior to the game, he was imprisoned in the Third Stratum of Yggdrasil by Abyssal King Seyfried, with the goal of the Deep City being to prevent his kind from making it to the surface.
- The Atoner: After learning what became of Gutrune after their last meeting a hundred years ago, he immediately works to make amends once he's freed from his imprisonment. He succeeds with your help.
- Charged Attack: Whenever the Progenitor is running low on HP, he will use Accumulate to double the power of his next attack, whether its physical or elemental. At really low levels he starts charging all of his attacks.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Downplayed; he's an important character lore-wise as the Monster Progenitor of the Deep Ones, but he's only met once throughout the Armoroad and Deep City routes. In the Eldest Path route, however, he's the one who sets you on the path of the Golden Ending.
- Creepy Child: His initial form looks like a child, but his appearance in general serves to only creep the player guild out, not helped by the fact that their first meeting involves him siccing Deep Ones upon you. His initial interactions with you also highlight and establish how alien the Deep Ones are.
- The Dragon: To the Abyssal God, who is the true progenitor of the Deep Ones. After the Eldest One becomes The Atoner, however, he rebels against his god and aids the player guild in ousting it.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Although the Abyssal God turns out to be the original creator of the Deep Ones, and in turn is responsible for the game's conflict, the Eldest One is actually the one who does most of the grunt work.
- Dub Name Change: His name in Japan is True Ancestor.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Progenitor's main form of attack are his elemental spells.
- Frozen Eye deals very heavy ice damage to the whole party, and lowers their attack power. This is the weakest of the three.
- Spine Blaze deals very heavy fire damage to the party, and has high chances of binding their whole bodies, likely preventing use of their skills.
- Death Thunder, which strikes your party with very heavy thunder damage, is by far his most dangerous skill. Not only it is far stronger than the other two, it is also very likely to petrify the surviving characters, resulting in an instant game over.
- Heel–Face Turn: Upon learning that Gutrune, who he met a hundred years ago, has become a Deep One by consuming their flesh, the Eldest One is horrified and pulls this, amending his mistake by recreating the Porcelain Wish, which will restore Gutrune and even Seyfried's humanity.
- Monster Progenitor: The residents of the Deep City refer to him as the king of the Deep Ones and their creator, which is backed by the Eldest One summoning Deep Ones when the player guild meets him for the first time. The Eldest One denies this and claims he is more of a "prince" than a king at the moment, though his wording implies he is not the Deep Ones' true ruler. True to his words, you learn later in the game that the Eldest One is subservient to the Abyssal God, who is a much bigger fish than he is.
- One-Winged Angel: Turns into a really hideous monster called Progenitor* for his boss fight.
- Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: He is referred to with male pronouns, but his form is androgynous and the codex (paraphrasing his own Badass Boast from before the battle) describes him as "the almighty Father and Mother of the Deep Ones", implying that he is a hermaphrodite.
- Status-Buff Dispel: Liberate removes the Progenitor's debuffs/binds and recovers HP. Doesn't use it very often, unless he's got multiple debuffs on him.
- True Final Boss: Defeating him is required for the Golden Ending.
Labyrinth Guardians
Narmer (魔魚ナルメル, Demon Fish Narmer)
A humongous catfish and the boss of the first stratum. Unlike most enemies you'll encounter, he isn't too motivated to actually fight your party.
- Adaptational Name Change: Gets renamed to Wicked Silurus when he returns as a boss in Nexus. And this isn't another typical Dub Name Change, that is how he is called in the Japanese version. Which hints they are not the same monster.
- Adaptational Villainy: Implied to be the case in Nexus, where his description says he intentionally ambushes explorers.
- Anti-Villain: Really, Narmer is never implied to actively seek to hurt anybody. You are only tasked to kill him as part of a worthiness test given by the Senatus, not because he's a dangerous threat. He doesn't even want to fight the party back, and only does so when he is cornered. It is kill or be killed for Narmer. The game never acknowledges this, other than reffering to him as a coward for his behaviour.
- An Ice Person: Mud Throw deals medium Ice damage to the party's front row, and is very likely to inflict Blind to the target.
- The Catfish: A giant hostile catfish. According to Kujura, his name means "raging catfish" in some ancient language.
- Charge Attack: Uses Dive to hide into the mud, further preparing himself to use Earthquake in the next turns.
- Cowardly Boss: Unlike other stratum bosses it will actively try to flee from your party, forcing you to corner it first. When his HP reaches 50%, he'll flee again and you have to chase him while avoiding the newly-spawned F.O.E.s in his swamp. He won't do this once you fight him again though.
- Flying Seafood Special: Like all aquatic enemies in the game his sprite depicts him in mid-air. Subverted in that he'll try to hide in a mud pool during his fight, forcing you to rout him out before he pulls his devastating Earthquake attack.
- Legacy Boss Battle: While The Drowned City didn't get a 3D remake, Narmer gets a chance to appear in 3D in Nexus as Wicked Silurus, once again residing in the Waterfall Wood.
- Lone Wolf Boss: The only major boss who doesn't have a connection with any of the three main factions. He's just a monster minding his own business.
- Meaningful Name: Narmer might not seem to be the most intimidating name, but it is a reference to an ancient Egyptian pharaoh whose name includes the symbol for a catfish when written in hieroglyphs.
- Shockwave Stomp: If Narmer is left submerged in the mud for too long, he will unleash his Earthquake skill, which Deals heavy damage to the whole party.
Ketos (海王ケトス, Ocean Master Ketos)
A giant white whale found at the end of the Undersea Grotto. It serves as the guardian of the Deep City.
- An Ice Person: Freeze Ripple deals moderate ice damage to the party's front row, and may bind their legs.
- Anti-Villain: He only fights the party since that is his duty as the guardian of the Deep City.
- Forced Sleep: On low health, he will unleash Great Melody in an attempt to put your party to sleep.
- Graceful Loser: After being defeated, Ketos shows respect toward the party, calling them "great ones". Before losing consciousness, he allows them passage into the Deep City so they can learn about its secrets.
- It Can Think: Ketos is one of the very few monsters in the franchise who is capable of human speech (but just via telepathy).
- Legacy Boss Battle: The second of two bosses from the third game to appear in Nexus, guarding that game's version of the Undersea Grotto.
- Meaningful Name: Derived from the ancient Greek Cetus, refering to a mythological sea monster.
- Monster Whale: A whale of enormous size.
- The Paralyzer: Grand Berry deals heavy bash damage to a single target and may inflict Paralysis too.
- Powerful, but Inaccurate: His Ocean Rave attack is very powerful but also inaccurate. To fix this, most of his other attacks can inflict ailments or binds that disable your ability to dodge.
- Status Buff: Spout increases his speed and evasiveness. Ketos will use it at the start of the fight and every 5 turns, until his HP bar is depleted to red. In Nexus, he will use Ancient Roll, which raises his accuracy and decreases the party's evasion (but only when his health drops to 75% and 25%).
Gatekeeper (ゲートキーパー)
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Has shades of this in the Deep City route. While you get sent by Seyfried to protect it from any Armoroad excursions, Kujara somehow manages to sneak by it unseen. The Gatekeeper then mistakenly assumes your guild members are intruders and you end up fighting the very thing you were supposed to protect.
- Cognizant Limbs: Its head and body separate at several points during the fight, each with their own attacks and weaknesses. Which item drops you get depend on whether you defeat the Gatekeeper when it is intact or split up.
- Critical Existence Failure: If you defeat one of his parts when he is split up the other will suffer this and promptly explode one turn later. Can double as a Taking You with Me if said explosion manages to take out your entire party.
- Detachment Combat: The boss of the Molten Caves, the Gatekeeper, has the ability to separate its body parts so each of them can attack independently. When the parts regroup, they can shoot a potentially lethal laser attack, so the party has to strive to destroy at least one of the parts (though doing that will trigger a very dangerous Self-Destruct Mechanism to another part).
- Easily Detachable Robot Parts: During battle, it is capable of detaching its head and its upper body, making it so they can attack separately.
- Mechanical Monster: The Gatekeeper is a black robot that serves as the boss of the Molten Caves, and aims to protect the entrance to the Abyssal Shrine at all costs (it was originally built by the Abyssal King to prevent outsiders from going further). Its attack repertoire is also very varied, including laser beams and missiles, and its individual parts can be separated to attack more efficiently.
Kirin (キリン)
- Counter-Attack: Imperial Pride counters physical attacks, followed by binding the attacker's head, arms and legs.
- Kirin: It's the legendary beast himself.
- Route Boss: You can only encounter it when siding with Armoroad, as Olympia summons it to delay you while she enters the Porcelain Forest.
- Shock and Awe: His Divine Wrath attack, which does more damage if the target has any binds on them. He has plenty of ways to inflict said binds as well.
- Tail Slap: Tail Swing hits the entire party for strike/bash damage.
Shin (シン)
- Achilles' Heel: Every single one of her attacks uses the head, so a head bind renders her helpless. It's also required for her conditional drop.
- Ambiguously Brown: The artbook depicts Shin with pale white skin, while in the game her skin is blue.
- Censor Steam: Done in the form of mist. In the artbook, her chest is covered by her long hair instead.
- An Ice Person: Takes the form of a naked, blue-skinned woman who can inflict severe ice-elemental damage by using Cold Stare.
- Route Boss: You can only fight her when siding with the Deep City, as Kujura summons her to prevent you from entering the Porcelain Forest.
- Spam Attack: Demon Kiss deals a large number of hits to random targets. It also heals her for the total damage dealt.
- Status Buff: Mist Robe gives her a defense buff.
The Abyssal God (昏き海淵の禍神, The Vengeful God in the Dark Ocean Abyss)
Click to see his offensive stance
The "ultimate evil" sealed within the depths of the Labyrinth.
- A.I. Roulette: The Abyssal God randomizes its attack pattern after losing only 1/4th of its hitpoints. Since all of its moves are lethal, both common tactics for beating it involve simply shredding it in a single turn using one of the game's two most broken moves.
- Arch-Enemy: To Yggdrasil.
- Boss Vulnerability: Of the "Wait Them Out" type. The Abyssal God's true form starts highly resistant to all forms of damage on top of having many deadly counterattacks should the player try to dent it. It eventually switches to a more aggressive form that drops its defenses but lets it access many deadly attacks. It switches forms every 6 turns, but as the fight progresses it may randomly choose one of its counter skills that shift to the defensive form prematurely.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the Overlord from the second game, and a minor case with Ur-Child.
- Both it and the Overlord are seen as gods by the games' resident humanoid races. Except the Overlord merely posed as one to manipulate the bird folk to do his biding, and was actually a human who uploaded his mind to a mechanical, immortal body. On the other hand, the Abyssal God is a real god because he created the Deep Ones, and his spawns rightfully worship him for it.
- The Overlord was villain with Blue-and-Orange Morality who committed the attrocities he did in a effort to grant mankind immortality (or giving them the means to defeat the Yggdrasil Cores in The Fafnir Knight), so at the end of the day the Overlord had what he thought was their best interest at heart. The Abyssal God however is undisputably evil, and seeks to destroy everything for no reason other than because it can.
- Ur-Child and the Abyssal God are the mightiest super bosses sealed away in the 6th labyrinth of their respective games, and have a certain relationship with the Final Boss. Ur-Child is the most powerful creation of the Overlord, while the Abyssal God is actually The Man Behind the Man for the Eldest One.
- Counter-Attack: In Defense Mode, it can counter physical attacks with an almighty attack by using Nameless Wall, and does the same for elemental attacks using Mist Curtain. Spurting Fumes triggers when it's struck by any attack and spreads random deadly status ailments across the party.
- Dub Name Change: It is called The Vengeful God in the Dark Ocean Abyss in the Japanese version, which is also the name of the 6th Stratum.
- Eldritch Abomination: A writhing mass of tentacles, eyes, and maws sleeping deep beneath the earth that possesses unknowable power, and overruns entire worlds with its spawn? The thing is right out of Lovecraft.
- Extra Eyes: To say there are gazillions of eyes all over his body and tentacles would be putting it mildly.
- Fake Difficulty: The Abyssal God switches between a "defensive" mode and an "aggressive" mode. The former is highly resistant to damage and unleashes counterattacks when struck, while the latter deals more damage proactively but loses the crazy resistances. It spends 6 turns in one phase following a fixed attack pattern before it switches to the other, but when it drops to below 75% HP it starts acting more erratically, even prematurely switching forms for a counter when you least expect it. It even begins reading your inputs, knowing the perfect counter to throw up. It also sics a Morton's Fork in the fight, too — if you avoid attacking it to not risk a counterattack, it will heal itself by almost a fifth of its max HP; if you try to outsmart it by provoking a counterattack with a very weak hit, it can instead choose to spray ailments all over your party in response! There's a reason why most players refuse to give it a fair fight and just opt to burst it down with one of the strongest attacks in the game.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: During it's first phase, it will use 3 elemental attacks (Magma Ocean, Ice Tempest and Proton Thunder) on the party for massive damage.
- God Is Evil: Not only is the Abyssal God an incredibly powerful being, he also gave life to many invasive races with the intent of conquering planets. Said species he creates also worship this alien as their god.
- The Man Behind the Man: It is the original creator of the Deep Ones, which means it is ultimately responsible for the Eldest One's crimes and the corruption of Gutrune and Seyfried.
- Outside-Genre Foe: It is an alien creature that traveled the cosmos conquering planets, eventually landing on Earth to escape its greatest enemy, Yggdrasil.
- Planet Eater: Well, more like, planet infester. It's an alien that travels around space, invading planets by planting invasive species on them so they can destroy every other life form around until said species becomes the predominant one.
- Puzzle Boss: You can face this thing head-on when you first enter the final floor, but doing so is ill-advised as it will take Scratch Damage from your attacks and will wipe the floor with your team. Instead, you're supposed to go about the rest of the floor and destroy the tentacle FOEs, which will weaken its defenses and reduce the amount of HP it starts the fight with. The number of tentacles it has up also dictates the order of the elemental attacks it throws out. ...And then you find out that that was just the first phase.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: It's the ultimate evil sealed beneath Yggdrasil, and King Seyfried has spent the last century trying to keep it sealed away.
- Status-Buff Dispel: Can remove all debuffs by using Abyssal Offering, and recovers 11,475 to 11,480 HP in the process.
- Super Boss: The strongest one in this game, and one of the most challenging foes in the whole franchise.
- Tentacled Terror: Most of his whole body is just tentacles with eyes (some with claws), which are present all over the Cyclopean Haunt.
- Time-Limit Boss: If you spend more than 20 turns on its first phase, it will go berserk and use its elemental attacks at random, making it impossible to predict. If you reach turn 40 in its second phase, it will also go berserk, staying in its offensive mode and unleashing powered-up versions of its attacks. There's a reason why the defensive form likes to drag out the fight.
- Trick Boss: When you first confront it, it's definitely strong and backed up by a Healing Factor, but it's a bit predictable. When it goes down, though, the game text reads "The boundary to another dimension is becoming undone..." The music changes, the camera pans upwards, and the real fight begins.
- Turns Red: He starts as a massive, screen-hogging Eldritch Abomination, which only turns out to be his bottom half. And midway in the fight against his top part, he suddenly flares up with a roar, changes shape, and starts the next phase of the fight with plenty of beatings which can easily one-shot your entire party if you're unlucky.
Other Bosses
Anemone (イソギンチャク, Sea Anemone)
- Dub Name Change: Well, more like, dub name shortened. The localization removes the "sea" word from his name.
- Life Drain: Tentacle Suck* heals Anemone for twice the damage it deals, which is especially troublesome because it hits the whole party and deals extra damage to characters with binds.
- One-Hit Kill: Tentacle Reap* deals slash damage to the party randomly. This is a weak attack on its own, but it has a chance of inflicting instant death.
- The Paralyzer: Its battle strategy is to lock down the entire party with random binds and paralysis, then drain them of their life or inflict instant death while they're helpless.
- Status Effect-Powered Ability: Tentacle Suck is its main attack, and its power increases exponentially when striking anyone affected by binds.
Kraken (クラーケン)
- An Ice Person: Tidal Wave* deals very heavy, ice elemental damage to the entire party.
- Achilles' Heel: All of the Kraken's attacks use its legs; just one leg bind leaves it completely helpless until it wears off. The game knows this, as killing the boss while its legs are bound produces a conditional drop that's worth less than the one gained from killing it normally.
- Heal Thyself: Once the Kraken falls to 30% HP or lower, he will use Restoration* to heal 15000 HP (which is half of his full health). It has a cooldown of sorts, as it only casts this skill again after it's used Death Tentacle * again.
- Kraken and Leviathan: One of the two mythological sea creatures present as superboss fights, though Kraken is a labyrinth boss while Leviathan is a Oceanic Quest boss.
Oceanic Quest bosses
Meregho Saeno (サエーナ鳥, Saena Bird)
- Dub Name Change: A name change that makes his connection with the Persian deity Simurgh a bit more obvious.
- Feathered Fiend: A multi-winged hostile bird with a shadowy head, named after one of the earliest names for the simurgh.
- Improbable Power Discrepancy: Meregho Saeno is based on a mythological bird old enough to have seen the destruction of the world three times; in Etrian Odyssey III, it looks imposing but is somehow weaker than a mutant fish.
- Shock and Awe: He can use Thunder Feather* , which deals high volt damage to a single row.
- Warm-Up Boss: Meregho Saeno is scaled to be the first boss of the game, being set for parties at around level 7 and having no advanced tactics besides a row-hitting move and the ability to inflict Panic.
Cruel Roamer (波浪の襲撃者)
- Degraded Boss: A few later monsters, like the Sea Wanderer FOE in the Undersea Grotto and the Big Snakehead enemy in the Abyssal Shrine, are head-and-color-swaps of Cruel Roamer, though they use different attacks.
- Flunky Boss: Can summon pairs of either Sea Lobsters or Red Puffers to assist it. Red Puffers use a strong ice attack that can poison, while Sea Lobsters are weaker but can cooperate with Cruel Roamer to unleash Sea God's Anger* , a powerful party-wide attack.
- The Pawns Go First: Two waves of Sea Lobsters and Red Puffers are fought before Cruel Roamer attacks.
Hammerhead (ハンマーヘッド)
- Carrying the Weakness: The Inferno Script, unlocked after beating any of Ayutthaya Port's quests, grants the Hellfire Limit skill, a powerful multi-hitting fire attack, which is perfect for simultaneously hitting Hammerhead's weakness and bypassing its defense buff.
- Charged Attack: Can cast Charge to boost the damage of its next attack, like many FOEs.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Hammerhead is not very complex; it simply buffs its defense with Evil Placoid and proceeds to spam its attacks while taking reduced damage.
- Threatening Shark: As its name implies, it's a massive and grotesque version of a hammerhead shark.
Ghost Ship (幽霊船)
- Damage-Increasing Debuff: Oil Cannon* covers the entire party in oil that reduces their fire resistance in addition to dealing low damage, which it'll then capitalize on with Heated Shot.
- Ghost Ship: It's in the name: a ghost ship with tattered sails and a glowing teal emblem. Somehow, the party can fight such a massive target at sea with their weapons like any normal enemy.
- Playing with Fire: Heated Shot* is a party-wide fire attack that also lowers their fire resistance. It has bit better accuracy than its other attacks.
- Powerful, but Inaccurate: The Ghost Ship's two strongest moves, Barracuda and Thunder Cannon, deal extreme damage but have poor accuracy. It typically precedes these moves with Arrest Mine, which inflicts an evasion debuff and can bind legs to guarantee them hitting.
- Shock and Awe: Thunder Cannon* is a very powerful single-target volt attack, but its accuracy is so low that it rarely hits.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Ghost Ship is substantially more complex than the three Oceanic Quest bosses before it, due to its combination of evasion buffs, resistance/evasion debuffs, and party-hitting attacks with good damage, and can prove to be a major wall if faced before subclassing is unlocked.
Ruin Caller (破滅を呼ぶ凶竜, Ruin Calling Evil Dragon)
Flame Head (炎海の竜頭, Dragon Head Of The Flaming Sea)
Frost Head (氷河の竜頭, Dragon Head Of The Glacier)
Thunder Head (雷雲の竜頭, Dragon Head Of The Thundercloud)
A three-headed beast sealed underneath Trade City Damavand.
- A.I. Breaker: Ruin Caller won't recognize that one of its heads is dead if it dies from self-damage due to ailments like Panic, and will not revive it.
- Combination Attack: Leave all three heads active for too many turns in a row, and they'll use Ultimate Ruin, a typeless attack guaranteed to wipe the whole party at the levels the boss is scaled for.
- Dub Name Change: His Japanese name got simplified for the localization, skipping the "Evil Dragon" part. Same for his separate heads.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Each head corresponds to one elements, and purely uses attacks of that type.
- Hydra Problem: Downplayed, as its heads merely regenerate quickly after death instead of multiplying. The solution to the problem is killing all three heads in one turn, which stuns the body for long enough that a strong team can end the fight before it gets back up.
- Resistant to Magic: The Ruin Caller's body takes 1% damage from elemental attacks, which makes getting its conditional drop (killing with a non-physical attack) a tall order without using Limits.
- Multiple Head Case: A three-headed dragon, like the Blizzard King. Except each of his heads is a separate target.
- Off with His Head!: Whenever you destroy one of his heads, you get to see the severed neck.
- Shout-Out: On top of being a purely evil dragon, his design is a clear reference to Ghidora.
King Penguin (大王ペンギン, Great King Penguin)
- Counter-Attack: This is its only attack, even; it sets up Withstand, waits a few turns, and strikes back with a portion of the damage it took in the interim.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: It's got a massive amount of health and immunity to nearly every ailment, but it's weak to all forms of damage. It can use it to its advantage with either its Withstand skill, or by inflicting Curse on the party to threaten them with Curse backlash damage.
- Dub Name Change: Simplified from Great King Penguin to just King Penguin.
- Flunky Boss: Calls groups of lesser Penguins to assist it. These also don't attack, but heal King Penguin a lot each turn until they're dealt with.
- Harmless Villain: Can't directly attack at all and spends most of its turns being distracted. The only way the party can get hurt is from being countered by Withstand or taking Curse backlash damage.
- Time-Limit Boss: Its conditional drop is locked behind killing it within 5 turns.
Leviathan (レヴィアタン)
- Kraken and Leviathan: One of the two oceanic mythological creatures; the other being a boss tied to a postgame quest line.
- Playing with Fire: Fumes* deals heavy fire damage to the party's front row.
- Status Effect-Powered Ability: Its Overeat skill has a Life Drain component and it deals five times as much damage when it hits anyone afflicted by plague. Naturally, the Leviathan's strategy involves spreading plague all over your party and then targeting anyone affected by it.
Elder Dragon (エルダードラゴン)
- The Cameo: He appeared as an event boss in Logres of Swords and Sorcery as part of a collaboration event.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: He starts the battle fully bound and he has an astounding vulnerability to binds, which is normally unheard of for a boss. Turns out that most of his attacks are perfectly serviceable while it's bound, with the head bind being the one thing keeping him from causing a Total Party Kill. You will still need an arm bind to be able to survive the Elder Dragon's regular attacks, and he takes extra damage if affected by a leg bind.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It is implied that he is the one who gave Furube's father instructions to draw the map leading to the Great Dragon's lair. The Elder Dragon probably did not take into account that a pair of foolish adventurers would mistake it for a treasure map.
- Signature Move: Supernova. This attack deals massive almighty damage to the party, essentially causing a Total Party Kill even on Picnic difficulty. He will try to cast it the first turn and demonstrate that it needs its head bound to do so, and will attempt this move every fourth turn. The fight revolves around keeping a head bind on it to prevent this move from executing.
- Superboss: The ultimate boss of the sea quests. Reaching its island requires extensive sea map exploration to be able to chart a course, and it won't give you the time of day unless you've reached the postgame and defeated the three Elemental Dragons. The drops you get from defeating it are used to make some of the strongest weapons in the game.
- The Unseen: In IV, he is implied to be the mysterious figure that issues the request to slay the Fallen One.
