The Japanese box art for Champions features many of the game's main characters.
Tropes pertaining to characters in the Fossil Fighters series.
Several characters have unmarked spoilers in their entries, as indicated on their folders. Others have Spoilered Rotten tropes. You Have Been Warned.
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Fossil Fighters
Main Characters
The Hero
The Hero
- The Ace: One of only three fighters on the level of a Master Fighter.
- Anime Hair: His hair is unbelievably exaggerated and spiky.
- Character Customization: To an extent. His colour scheme changes depending on what dinosaur the player selected as their favourite at the start of the game. For instance, selecting Deinonychus gives him the colours seen in his official art.
- Chick Magnet: At the end every girl flirts with him due to his victory over Guhnash, which he ignores for the most part, being an utterly silent protagonist.
- Heroic Mime: He never says a word in-game, although the game's exaggerated motions make it clear what he's thinking anyway. Averted in the manga.
- Invisible Parents: His parents apparently left him on an island by himself without any sort of guardian or adult supervisor,
- Kid Hero: An extremely talented Fossil Fighter who has no problem taking on the toughest opponents, and he's pretty darn young.
- Made of Iron: Survives pressure from the bottom of the ocean, digs in the desert without any sort of fatigue, digs in the Arctic in a sleeveless shirt, and is frozen solid and not even fazed when he thaws.
- Named by the Adaptation: He doesn't have a canon name in the game, but the manga calls him Hunter.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: A few characters say that he's "half the size with twice the talent" of most other Fighters.
- Player Character: In the first game.
- Signature Mon: The Spinax that he starts with, an all-around Air-type vivosaur with the Auto-Counter ability. The manga reinforces this.
Rosie
Rosie Richmond
- Achilles' Heel: Her signature type being Fire means that in most of her battles, you can just take her down with Water-type Vivosaurs. She gets somewhat better in her final battle in Champions where she uses Compso, an Earth-type.
- Bound and Gagged: After being captured by the BB Brigade, she is put into this state until her successful rescue. Humorously, despite her inability to move, her in-game model simply shows tape over her mouth.
- The Cameo: She appears as an opponent in the first three rounds of the Super Caliosteo Cup in Champions.
- Damsel in Distress: Tends to get saddled with this role quite a bit.
- Forced Transformation: She gets hit with Raptin's regression ray near the end of the game, which temporarily devolves her into a triconodonta. She eventually gets better, although she reverts again if she gets too excited.
- Girlish Pigtails: The game's official art exaggerates their size a bit to the point where they're almost as big as her head, but her in-game models have them at a more realistic size.
- Guest-Star Party Member: She follows behind you a few times throughout the story, although she can never be directly controlled.
- Playing with Fire: Her signature type is Fire.
- The Load: Deconstructed. Rosie's very aware that the player has to help her out of various jams throughout the game (getting her Dino Medals stolen, getting kidnapped by the BB Bandits, being rendered fully helpless for a while by Raptin's regression ray, among other minor examples), and she hates it. The situation reaches its head when she eventually asks if the player hates her for it, which you can say yes to.
- Meaningful Name: Her full first name is Rosetta, as in the Rosetta Stone.
- Pink Means Feminine: Her entire outfit is pink. She also uses the vivosaurs Nychus and Maia in the first game, both of which are pink.
- Plucky Girl: Remains pretty cheerful throughout the game, and is always willing to help out the player.
- Signature Mon: Siamo, a fairly powerful Fire-type vivosaur. She uses it in every battle against her across both games, except for the Super Caliosteo Cup's third round in Champions due to restrictions on eligible vivosaurs.
- Verbal Tic: A slight misunderstanding with the Digadig Chieftain ends up giving her the tribe's own tic, where she adds "diga-" to words beginning with D and ends some sentences with the word "digadig." It shows up a few times over the course of the game, although it's gone completely during her appearances in Champions.
Supporting Characters
Bullwort (Unmarked Spoilers)
Captain Bartholomew Bullwort
"No one saw it coming, of course. I've worn the friendly, smiling mask of the police chief for a long, long time."
The police captain of Vivosaur Island - later revealed as the leader behind the BB Bandits.- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After obtaining Frigisaurus, Bullwort becomes more arrogant, treating his subordinates like crap. This leads to the BB Trio helping the protagonists escape prison and tell them how Bullwort obtained Frigi.
- Mole in Charge: Bullwort is both the chief of police and leader of the namesake BB Bandits. He even has a teleporter connecting the BB Base to Police HQ for easy Bandit recovery.
- Police Are Useless: By using the police position to mask his role as leader of the BB Bandits, Bullwort is engaging in corruption. Had he been an honest cop, the other Bandit members would likely be under control.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: As with other BB Bandit members, he dons a purple outfit with green accents.
- Signature Mon: After being exposed as corrupt, Bullwort manages to steal Frigisaurus, one of the island's Olympus Mons. Said mon is so powerful that it can only be canceled out by its counterpart, Ignosaurus.
Dr. Diggins
Dr. Diggins
- Ambiguously Brown: The only dark-skinned character in the game.
- Call-Back: In chapter 4, Nick Nack gets the player and Rosie to collect a sandal fossil for him, since he already has another one and he wants one for both his left and right foot. Much later in the game, Dr. Diggins gets sent back in time and eventually returns without the sandals he was wearing. No prizes for guessing what happened to them.
- Genius Ditz: While a profound inventor and capable of surviving the distant past unassisted, he is also notably scattered.
- Genius Sweet Tooth: He has a serious weakness for dino cakes, a snack sold on the island. You and Rosie exploit this to get access to a new dig site.
- Mr. Exposition: In the early game, he acts as this to the player to explain mechanics like digging, cleaning, and battling.
- Only One Name: Diggins. His first name is never made known.
- Signature Mon: Stego, a mostly defensive Air-type vivosaur. Despite being fought only once throughout the game, the stegosaurus is mentioned to be his favourite dinosaur, which pushes it into this category.
- Teleporters and Transporters: With the help of Dynal, he makes one of these in order to send you to the final fight with Guhnash.
- Time Machine: He makes one in the aftergame, which allows you to go back and fight the final boss again.
- Trapped in the Past: He eventually gets trapped in the distant past (when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, naturally) due to Dinaurian technology, and has to come back the long way. Luckily, he manages to find an ancient Dinaurian ship and use its stone sleep device to remain in stasis until the player and Duna find and wake him.
Duna (Unmarked Spoilers)
Duna Nichs
Human form on the right, Dinaurian form on the left
A mysterious girl who's met a few times early on and is eventually revealed to be one of the Dinaurians.- The Cameo: Appears as part of a DLC sidequest in Champions. Sadly, with the Wi-Fi services shut down for the Nintendo DS, this can no longer be accessed through legitimate means.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Like Rosie, she follows you around at a few points, but she can never be directly controlled.
- Glamour Failure: She initially appears as a human girl, albeit with some rather strange clothes. However, the heat in Mt. Lavaflow causes her holographic technology to malfunction and reveal her true Dinaurian form.
- Heel–Face Turn: She was originally a high-ranking Dinaurian who was fully committed to Project: Mother Planet, but the kindness of the protagonist caused her to question the cause and she eventually pulled one of these.
- Humanoid Aliens: Like the other Dinaurians.
- "Open!" Says Me: Uses a ray gun to blast open the door to a room to free the player and Rosie, after the BB Bandits locked them in.
- Making a Splash: Her battle form is Water-type.
- Meaningful Background Event: While the player is performing the hip-shaker dance in order to get a fossil bug shell, Duna can be seen in her human disguise in the background.
- Punny Name: Her full name is Duna Nichs, which is likely a pun on Deinonychus.
- Signature Mon: Herself, a support-oriented Water-type vivosaur that specializes in confusion.
- Support Party Member: Her battle form is clearly meant for this in gameplay, with extremely powerful support effects and a confusion skill with a 100% chance to inflict the effect.
- Trademark Favorite Food: According to the Fossilary, it's omelettes. Given that her battle form resembles a raptor, this could be a reference to the fact that raptors were believed to have stolen and eaten eggs.
Mr. Richmond
Mr. Richmond
- Only One Name: He's only known as Mr. Richmond. Even Dr. Diggins doesn't reveal his first name.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He's willing to lend an ear to the player and Rosie whenever something strange is going on (which is a lot).
Antagonists
BB Bandit Trio
Rex, Snivels, and Vivian
left to right: Snivels, Vivian, and Rex
A trio of minor recurring villains and high ranking members of the BB Bandits.- Civilized Animal: Rex is officially a dog, who likes bones, digging, and has a good sense of smell. However, he is still human-esque, being a bipedal, competent fossil fighter, with human-level intellect.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: As the BB Bandit's leader becomes more haughty, they begin treating their subordinates like crap. This leads to the BB Trio helping the protagonists escape prison and tell them how Frigisaurus was obtained. Rex goes a step further, helping to retrieve Ignosaurus from Mount Lavaflow.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: As with other BB Bandit members, the trio don purple outfits with green accents.
- Signature Mon: Snivels consistently uses Carchar, while Rex favors Nodo. Vivian averts this, never using the same Vivosaurs between appearances.
- Sinister Schnoz: Snivels is a villain and easily has the largest nose out of all human characters.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Rex only speaks Doglish. However, Vivian and Snivels understand him just fine.
Dynal (Unmarked Spoilers)
King Dynal
"My brothers and sisters, we have finally found a suitable planet on which to carry our great plan."
King of the Dinaurians, an alien race looking to reinstate themselves on planet Earth.- Heel–Face Turn: After learning about the generally good nature of humans, he orders the shutdown of Project Mother Earth - sparing humans and their planet, and offers to help evacuate the planet when it's clearly endangered by Gunhash.
- Quad Damage: Dynal can buff himself or an ally to have greatly increased damage output.
- Universal Poison: In addition to dealing heavy damage, Imperial Wrath has a very strong Damage Over Time effect.
- Status Effects: In battle form, Dynal has an attack hat prevents the effected Vivosaur from changing their formation.
Guhnash (Unmarked Spoilers)
Guhnash and its brains - Guhlith, Guhvorn, and Guhweep
left to right: Guhweep, Guhvorn, and Guhlith
An enormous cosmic entity that devours planets. Has three brains.- Bizarre Alien Biology: Guhnash has a giant spherical head, trilobyte-esque tail, and three brains, each with a face, personality, and combat ability.
- Final Boss: The last battle in the game pits the Player Character against Guhnash's three brains to kill it before it can reach Earth.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While Guhnash is never a direct threat to humanity until the endgame, had the being never devoured the Dinaurians' home planet, the entire arc would have been avoided.
- Planet Eater: In the game's backstory, Guhnash devoured the Dinaurians' home planet, kickstarting Project Mother Earth. This is later echoed, when the Hero fights Guhnash's brains to prevent the End of the World as We Know It.
Raptin (Unmarked Spoilers)
Raptin
- Blow You Away: Raptin battles as an air-type Vivosaur who can shoot wind from his mouth.
- The Dragon: Raptin works closely with King Dynal and is the last major opponent fought before the Dynal battle.
- Heel–Face Turn: After convincing from the idol comps and other Dinaurians that humans are not a mistake and are worth saving, he fights to correct the impending Doomsday and seeks to live among humans after the game.
- Social Darwinist: Raptin is a main proponent in the plan to restore his species, but will not hesitate to kill off humans when he believes they are the result of the project failing.
- Universal Poison: Raptin can deal Damage Over Time with a 100% effective poison attack.
Champions
Main Characters
The Hero
The Hero
Despite both appearing in the picture, only one will ever show up in gameplay.
The protagonist of the Fossil Fighters: Champions. Default name is Dino for boys and Dina for girls.- Anime Hair: The male's hair is just as spiky as the first game, and exclusively comes in blue.
- Goggles Do Nothing: The male wears oversized goggles on top of his head, never using them once.
- Heroic Mime: The hero only ever speaks when spoken to, and even then, only through very limited dialogue trees with no real impact on the game.
- Kid Hero: A pre-adolescent who takes on crime between rounds of the Caliosteo Cup, eventually getting appointed to the Caliosteo Patrol for their reliability.
- Made of Iron: As with the first game, the protagonist faces extreme heat and cold with no special equipment or signs of wear. In the finale, This gets extended to being launched onto a hovering island from a cannon without injury.
- Player Character
- Zipperiffic: Both male and female hero have an impractically large zipper.
Todd
Todd
- Elemental Motifs: Todd specializes in air types. He is very adventurous but also a fleeting coward.
- Graceful Loser: Despite losing in the first round, Todd takes it in stride and continues to root for the hero from the sidelines.
- Grew a Spine: After Zongazonga, impersonating Wildwest, frames the hero as a member of the Bare Bones Brigade, Todd stands out in front - holding off the crowd so the player can take care of business.
- Lovable Coward: Todd is friendly and morally good, but has a habit of faking digestive problems whenever danger appears.
- Signature Mon: Todd uses his Stego (later evolved into Barbaros) in every appearance.
Pauleen
Pauleen
With and without mask
A masked fighter from the Digadig tribe and competitor in the Caliosteo Cup tournament.- Ambiguously Bi: Pauleen may or may not have a crush on the player character, male or female, and briefly holds hands with them, but this could feasibly be platonic.
- Anime Hair: While her general hairstyle isn't too far out there, the bubble gum pink, yellow accents, and sheer volume would be incredibly difficult to recreate in real life.
- Elemental Motifs: Pauleen specializes in fire types. With her mask, she is very hot-headed, but proves warm-hearted when given the opportunity.
- Evil Mask: Pauleen's mask instills the bearer with confidence - and evil. This mostly comes in the form of general arrogance.
- Horns of Villainy: Pauleen isn't evil by any stretch, but her mask, featuring six horns around its perimeter certainly qualifies.
- Implied Love Interest: Pauleen gets close to the player character, at one point holding hands, but there's never enough evidence for a definitive answer.
- Shrinking Violet: Despite her bold first impression, Pauleen is incredibly shy without her mask, hiding from others to avoid conversation. Her primary character development comes from reaching out of her shell without the need for the mask.
- Signature Mon: Pauleen always uses Amargo, or its evolved form, Omias, in every battle.
Rupert
Rupert
- Elemental Motifs: Rupert specializes in water types. He is calm and full of Hidden Depths.
- Mystical White Hair: While not supernatural, Rupert is an elite fighter and very closed off to outsiders.
- Signature Mon: Outside his day one encounter with Todd, Rupert has always had some variant of Mapo in his lineup.
Supporting Characters
Joe Wildwest (Unmarked Spoilers)
Joe Wildwest
- Adventurer Archaeologist: The conflict of this game starts when Wildwestwest investigates the ruins in Jungle Labyrinth.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had Wildwest not gone exploring alone before the events of the story, the whole conflict could have been avoided, or at least mitigated.
Antagonists
BB Brigade Commanders
Cole, Lester, and Lola
left to right: Lester, Cole, Lola
Three high ranking members of the BB Brigade and direct reports to Don Boneyard.- Delinquent Hair: Lester is a metalhead with a lime green mohawk. He also sides with a Card-Carrying Villain.
- Embarrassing Hobby: The three commanders of the Barebones Brigade are a hipster, a hippie, and a metalhead. The game especially has fun taking potshots at Cole, the hipster, and Todd remarks that it's no wonder everyone was so terrified of him. However, getting this reaction from others is precisely why they aligned with Boneyard - at least he showed them kindness at all.
- Never Recycle Your Schemes: After Cole and Lester's plans to stop the cup were foiled, both suggest suspiciously similar plans before getting shot down, as Lola decides to shut down the islands' electricty.
Don Boneyard (Unmarked Spoilers)
Don Boneyard (AKA Joe Wildwest)
- Card-Carrying Villain: Subverted. While Boneyard initially appears as a straightforward, albeit cartoonish villain to the tournament, the game shows that he’s actually trying to stop Villain with Good Publicity Zongazonga, posing as Wildwest.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: After the Trio’s schemes fail to stop the Calliosteo Cup, Boneyard launches his own plan, compromising the islands’ structural integrity, causing them to slowly sink. As it turns out, Don was Good All Along, only causing the catastrophe as a last resort, and even then, giving advance warning so everyone could escape.
- Skull for a Head: Don’s head is a skull, as it’s actually Joe’s skull, swapped out by Zongazonga.
Zongazonga (Unmarked Spoilers)
- Big Bad: After being freed from his tomb, Zongazonga makes a plan of running the Calliosteo Islands under false pretenses, possessing new bodies as he demands, including the Hero's. Being his vessel is considered a fate worse than death and his rule in the ancient times was considered so terrible as to incite a rebellion. In game, he insists on continuing the tournament despite obvious danger to the contestants. Stopping at nothing to regain his rule, he uses mind manipulation and possession to turn the party against each other, before summoning his castle and setting to finish off the Hero once and for all.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In a desperate maneuver, Zongazonga attempts to cast a spell against the player. This fails to work, due to their strong bond with their vivosaurs, which Zongazonga does not comprehend.
- Infinity +1 Element: Zongazonga, alongside the other zombiesaurs, are a part of the legendary type. Functionally, this works identically to neutral type, where Zongazonga just happens to be really strong.
- Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: In this case, a zombie dinosaur with dark powers.
- Olympus Mons: A legendary Vivosaur with powers including possession and raising the dead. Has a long history of tyrannical rule.
- Purple Is the New Black: This obviously evil character emits a purple aura, and in its vivosaur form, has dark purple skin.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: In order to keep Zongazonga out of power, citizens from the height of his rule knocked out its skull and sealed it in a tomb deep within Jungle Labyrinth. After Joe unleashes it, though, Zongazonga takes control of Joe’s body with the goal of reasserting dominance.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Joe is greatly popular among the Calliosteo Cup attendees. When Zongazonga has possession of Joe’s body, hardly anyone notices anything off. (Zongazonga itself, however, was unpopular enough to be sealed away indefinitely.)
