Characters / Identity V: Alice DeRoss

Identity V Main Characters Index
Orpheus | Alice | Survivors (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) | Hunters (Part 1, Part 2) | Non-Playable Characters

Warning! All spoilers below are unmarked.

It's virtually impossible to list tropes for these characters without spoiling everything or creating Self-Fulfilling Spoilers since her whole existence could be considered a spoiler.

Formerly a Cheerful Child, blessed with kind parents and playmates, following the events of a tragedy that resulted in the death of her parents, Alice was placed into foster care. Diagnosed with hysteria and dubbed the "daughter of misfortune", Alice spent years being suspected to physical and emotional abuse. At the age of fourteen, Alice was adopted by a medical professor who planned to use her as an experimental subject for tests and brought overseas, where for years she languished in a hell on earth, with the pleasant memories of her childhood being the only thing preventing Alice from breaking. At the age of twenty one, Alice managed to escape from her prison and return to England, where she would assume a job as a journalist, determined to search for the truth behind the death of her parents and the mysterious disappearance of her former playmate.

While investigating a recent mining disaster, Alice receives a letter from a colleague, informing her that they have managed to obtain an invitation to the infamous Oletus Manor - Alice's former childhood paradise, now linked to a number of missing persons cases. Assuming her colleague's identity, Alice returns to Oletus Manor, intent on unravelling its secrets with her own hands. It is here where she encounters a host of fellow visitors, all with their own secrets and agendas - none more so than rising horror novelist Orpheus.

As an adult, Alice is elegant and intelligent, with a tough and brave personality, is skilled in the art of observation and disguise, while also possessing excellent oratorical talent and analytical ability, allowing her to sharply capture the emotions of others. However, owing to trauma, and being the subject of drug testing at an early age, Alice's sense of fear is significantly weaker than than that of the average person, though she also possesses a far greater endurance than that of an average person.

Alice is the second protagonist of the game, having been added with the release of the Ashes of Memory expansion to replace the Detective.

The Reporter

The second protagonist of the game, and Player Character of the "Ashes from Memory" expansion.

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• Action Survivor: A seemingly ordinary journalist, with her only unusual characteristic being her difficulties in noticing risks, but also acts as the muscle for Orpheus during their match against the Bloody Queen, surviving without any actual harm.
• Ambiguously Related:
  • The fact that one of the letters in her apartment is a addressed to a "Eury Lamb" raises the possibility that the medical professor who adopted and experimented on her was in fact Villhelm Lamb, who had done business with Jose's father - Joaquin Baden - concerning a specified area in the Mediterranean Sea, where it is hinted the ferns used to create the manor's drugs originate from.
  • It's left ambiguous whether Alice and Orpheus are supposed to be adopted brother and sister or whether Orpheus is just supposed to be her childhood friend, with both options having plenty of evidence in canon. On the one hand, Alice claims to be the only child in the family DeRoss and describes Orpheus as a playmate, rather than a brother, on the other, in Guard 26's deductions, Burke mentions that Orpheus had "real" parents and includes Orpheus among the family members disappeared during the tragedy, implying that at some point Orpheus was at least considered a part of the DeRoss family, even if the adoption was never formalized.
• Ambiguous Situation: Episode II of Ashes of Memory ends with Alice receiving a seemingly mocking letter with the words "Lamb" written on it. Is the anonymous writer simply comparing her to one - and previewing what fate awaits her - or, given the possibility that she may have been renamed "Eury Lamb" after being adopted by a medical professor, is this meant to imply that the lord of the manor, or whoever wrote the letter, is aware of her true identity.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Even before the release of the "Little Girl" Survivor, Alice has frequently been associated with nightingales, said to symbolise creativity, the muse, nature's purity, virtue, and goodness.
  • Melly associates her with moths as she sees her efforts to find the truth of the Manor as being similar to watching a moth heading towards fire. A moth, sitting by a campfire, can also be seen being caught by a raven (an animal Orpheus shares a motif with).
  Entomologist Second Letter: Moths are phototropic, and when they dive into danger, they seem to be unaware that they are facing death.
  • On the mammalian side she is associated with sheep. Little Girl's S-tier is based on sheep, and she receives a mocking letter from an anonymous writer comparing her to one - though the Ambiguous Situation regarding the letter addressed to "Eury Lamb" in Alice's apartment complicates the latter example.
• Animal Testing: Much like Orpheus did during Time of Reunion, Alice tests the effects of the drugs she finds in the medicine cabinet in the manor's cellar by feeding them to a rat that was scurrying about.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: She manages to figure out where Mary Kreiburg's beloved horse, Cyanus, is buried by analysing the layout of the racecourse and its physical environment, and recalling key details provided to her by both Orpheus - about Mary Kreiburg herself - and Melly Plinius - about pH levels in soil.
• Color Motif: Alice is heavily associated with the color blue; she wears a blue shirt, a cerulean bow braids her hair, and the pendant she wears has a blue crystal encrusted inside of it. The color blue commonly represents heroism, freedom, and hope - this symbolises Alice's role as the Big Good and her desire to past the nightmares of her past head on and find peace.
• Conspicuous Gloves: When in public, she wears gloves on her person at all time. It is hinted that this may be linked to her OCD and cleanliness. The investigators sent to spy on her take notice of this, and note that they have never seen her take them off.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Alice once lived a happy life, with loving parents and a beloved playmate. Everything changed when bandits raided the manor and killed her parents, leading to her being sent to an orphanage, separated from her closest friend. At the orphanage, she was frequently harassed and abused by the other orphans and members of the orphanage's staff. After turning fourteen, Alice was adopted by a medical professor, who brought her overseas and used her as an unwilling test subject. It was not until her early twenties that Alice was able to escape and make moves to properly rebuild her life.
• The Determinator: A strength and weakness, Alice is impulsive and never backs down from an investigation, no matter how complicated or dangerous it is. This puts her in danger of death, several times as she explores the manor. This is explained in her backstory, where it is said that because of her traumas, Alice is less likely to feel fear than the average person
• Dork in a Sweater: She wears a white sweater and is, at the very least, more endearing and light-hearted than a number of the other Survivors, as well as the previous protagonist of the game, Orpheus.
• Foreshadowing: A picture of her younger self with Dennis DeRoss and his wife can be glimpsed in the photo on the newspaper that drops out of the book that Orpheus is going through, and later picks up to investigate, only to precede to presumably hallucinate, in the final cutscene of Time of Reunion, serving as an early hint that Orpheus's belief that he was the child of the DeRoss couple is false.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: All of her identities have blonde hair, and she is the game's cheerful and well-intentioned protagonist. Alice is selfless, kind, and patient with others' quirks, yet quite determined, almost to the point of being a problem.
• Harmful to Minors: Both her Background Trailer and her drug-induced recollection of her past memories imply that she witnessed her parents being murdered by bandits that had invaded the manor when she was around six to seven years old.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The name of her colleague who received an invitation to Oletus Manor, whose identity Alice assumes in order to travel to the manor and investigate it herself.
• Image Song: Her character theme song "Someday We'll Meet Again", detailing her determination to overcome the nightmares of her past and reunite with her childhood friend.
• Interdisciplinary Sleuth: Alice is officially a journalist/reporter who works to uncover the truth behind a number of mysteries and cold cases.
• Intrepid Reporter: Alice is a reporter who dives head first into all of her cases and seems to be partially aware of mysteries surrounding all playable maps even before she even joins the Manor.
• It's All My Fault: A variant; what glimpses we get of her diary during Time of Reunion reveal that she believes that everything that had happened at the manor started because of her.
• I Will Find You: One of her key goals is to find out what happened to her childhood friend. The brief glimpses we get of her diary during Time of Reunion implies that, even after discovering the person her old friend had become, she was still determined to bring him back.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: Alice is the adult version of Little Girl, although she contradicts much of the information we've learned about Memory.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: She is the light feminine girl, to Melly's dark feminine girl. Alice is idealistic, positive and determined, while Melly has a dark aura, a calm demeanor and a slightly intimidating manner. Alice's color palette is also noticeably lighter than Melly's.
• Like Father, Like Daughter: She appears to have inherited her father's interest in Greek Mythology.
• Light Is Good: She has a light color palette and is the Big Good of the game. Her debut S-tier skin, "Eternity" inverts this trope, remaining benevolent but with a dark color palette.
• Meaningful Name: The name "Alice" means "noble" or exalted" symbolising her status as the daughter of a nobleman and noblewoman.
• My Name Is ???: A variant; the name of her colleague, which Alice uses as her own while in the manor, is left unsaid voice-acting wise.
• Mysterious Past: The people sent to investigate her encountered many obstacles while digging into her past. At one point, all they knew was that she had returned from overseas as an adult and later became an independent investigate journalist.
• Mythical Motifs: While from Orpheus's point of view, she plays the role of Eurydice, from Alice's point of view, she is arguably the Orpheus to his Eurydice.
• Neat Freak: It is noted that, when she is alone, she has a serious sense of cleanliness and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Her date of birth, and certain parts of her backstory, imply her to be based on Nelly Bly (the pen name of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman) a pioneer in the world of journalism, the author of ''Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, and responsible for writing an expose on a mental institution she had infiltrated.
• Orphan's Ordeal: After her parents were murdered, she was taken away from her home and sent to an orphanage - with her relatives seemingly being more interested in selling off her parents' possessions - where she was frequently tormented and harassed by both the other orphans and the adults there. She was eventually adopted, taken overseas, and experimented on for many years by a medical professor.
• Properly Paranoid: She is noted to be extremely cautious, making sure to adjust small household objects in her apartment into unique examples that are easily bumped into whenever she has to leave home. One of the people sent to investigate her almost gets exposed thanks to this, causing the plan to sneak into her apartment to be temporarily abandoned.
• Same Character, But Different:: The Ashes of Memory expansion would reveal Little Girl to be Detective Orpheus's mental substitute for Alice, making her both the Identity Switch for the Journalist and the playable version of the, previously unnamed, daughter of the DeRoss couple mentioned frequently in deductions and letters that focused on the lives of the residents of the manor prior to the tragic event that led to the death of Alice's parents, and Alice herself being placed in a mental asylum.
• Significant Birth Date: She shares a birthday with Nellie Bly, a pioneer in journalism who Alice is implied to be at least partially inspired by.
• Sweet Tooth: As a person investigating her notes, she frequently orders desserts from the bakery every week. While she is noted to have a wide range of favourites, she makes frequent requests for truffle cakes.
• Tarot Motifs: Alice's chosen tarot card for the official "Arcana Series" merchandise - representing both Journalist and Little Girl - is The World.
• Took a Level in Badass: She goes from an innocent and defenseless little girl (at least from Orpheus's point of view) to an intrepid journalist who can survive in chases against both Bloody Queen and Fool's Gold.
• Tragic Keepsake: The doll resembles Orpheus' childish persona, which is the last detail she can carry from her childhood.
• Trauma Button: The sound of metal scraping. Orpheus decoding a cipher machine during Episode II of Ashes of Memory appears to trigger a traumatic memory of Alice's.
• Uncertain Doom: Her whereabouts following the "Final Game" are currently unknown. As shown by the final cutscene of Time of Reunion, her diary was seemingly left abandoned next to the unconscious Orpheus, who is furthermore the only person that the police released details about finding or being involved in the fire.
• Unwitting Test Subject: To the medical professor who adopted her and took her overseas. Years later, after returning to her childhood home, she appears to find herself once again playing this role to the new lord of the manor.

"Memory" - "Little Girl"

Little Girl

Don't look back

Perhaps even "Orpheus" doesn't know her at all, the memory trapped in a nightmare.

Voiced by: Du Qingqing (Chinese), Yui Horie (Japanese)

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• Ambiguous Situation: The in-game character relationship system suggests that Orpheus is her father, something that Orpheus is shown to believe in Time of Reunion. However, the fact that she refers to him as "Orphy" and was shown together with him when they were both kids, along with the fact that the suitcase Orpheus investigates in the flashback only contains clothes fit for a 20-year-old woman, hint that she may actually be the daughter of Dennis DeRoss and his wife. Ashes of Memory would eventually reveal that "Memory" is in fact Alice, with the child present in Orpheus's recollections of the past being a product of Orpheus's mind through a combination of drugs, fractured memories, and, potentially, the presence of his split personality.
• Aura Vision: Her ability allows her to locate any survivor on the map with the intention of teleporting.
• The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest of the Survivors. Also, the only one who (technically) isn't an adult.
• Cheerful Child: She is partially a distorted version of Orpheus' fond childhood memories with Alice, so naturally, she is quite cheerful, as she represents Alice before her life was ruined.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She made a number of casual appearances in promotional material (e.g. the "Mobius" animation, the 2019 main story trailer, and a number of portraits and graffiti) before being properly introduced during the Time of Reunion expansion.
• Evil Counterpart: Inverted. She appears to be to all intents and purposes a benevolent version of Yidhra's [Dream Witch] servants. She can leach on survivors, appear suddenly, and her very existence is shrouded in mystery. There is also the detail that despite their appearance, they are not truly children.
• Head Swap: She has an A-tier skin that transforms her into Kohane Tsuyuri another that turns her into Rachel Gardner and one that turns her into Six.
• Mythical Motifs: She essentially plays the role of Eurydice to Orpheus's... well, Orpheus, in Time of Reunion.
• No Name Given: Is only known as Little Girl or Memory. At least, until Ashes of Memory.
• Perpetual Smiler: Her default expression is a cheerful smile, which she maintains even when she's talking about horrible things that happened on the game maps.
• Significant Birth Date: Word of God confirms that her "birthday" (September 13), that takes place on a different day from the birthday of her older self, the Journalist (May 5), is in fact the day that "Memory" was born in Orpheus's mind following an unspecified event that is said to have changed Orpheus's life. It is also, perhaps coincidentally, the day that a fire occurred in the orphanage that Florian Brand was placed in.
• Sweet Tooth: Her Favourite Food is Truffle Cake, so it's likely a given.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: During the "Time of Reunion Act 2: About "Her" event, in the "her" gamemode, she would always chat with players a little before the match starts. While her normal responses were weird, her responses when specific words were typed into the chat could be incredibly disturbing.
  When typing "Lakeside Village": "The child who survived became famous for selling his story. However, are those stories really the experiences of one child?"
  When typing "Arms Factory": "It was rumored that the tragedy originated from a failed investment, while others said it was insurance fraud. Perhaps the mastermind behind all these didn't expect that even death failed to put an end to everything. Or perhaps that person didn't want it all to end."
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Is said to dislike "dark places" and "bird sounds".

Alice DeRoss - The Journalist

Alice DeRoss' Playable persona

Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese)

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• Aura Vision: With her camera she can see the auras of all the pallets on the map in order to send the "illusion".
• Camera Fiend: She almost always has her camera in hand and in official non-canon materials she is mentioned as photographing her fellow survivors when they do something wrong.
• Head Swap: She has an S-tier skin that transforms her into Kaede Akamatsu and an A-Tier that turns her into Xiao Yu.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Her essence is themed around the four horsemen, with her being death, Joseph being war, Nightmare being pestilence and Leo being hunger.
• Magical Camera: Her camera allows her to summon a copy of her childhood friend when taking a photo, whether to knock over a pallet or to rescue a survivor stuck in a rocket chair.
• Mythical Motifs: Her debut S-tier skin, Eternity, is themed around Pandora, as well as the death knight of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Both stories involve a forbidden seal being opened and releasing evil into the world, although they also emphasize that in the end good things await the world (hope in Pandora's case, a pious heart in the Knight’s case).
• Puppet Fighter: Like Leo and Tracy, her item allows her to summon an "illusion" to rescue allies or knock over pallets. Said illusion represents her childhood friend - a young Orpheus.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: Lorewise, Alice has difficulty interacting with machines, as their noise triggers her trauma. In gameplay, Alice has a debuff when interacting with cypher machines.
• Vague Age: She has no canonical age, but we know about the fact that she is younger than Orpheus and is +21 years old. Orpheus' age being a complicated Ambiguous Situation doesn't help.