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The Protagonists
The Hero
- Crippling Overspecialisation: The hero is only good at one thing: hitting enemies with the biggest weapon he can get his hands on (although he can use items, including spells bound to equipment like the Flame Sword's inbuilt Blaze 3). All of his stat growth is abysmal except for his Attack and HP, and he gets no spells, so he's very slow and while he has more HP to lose than Milo and Pyra, he usually loses more of it than them when hit.
- Glass Cannon: He borders on this; while he may have the highest HP total in the game by quite a lot, he also has by far the worst Defense and IQ (magic resistance) growth of the party members, meaning he usually takes more damage than the other two when struck. He's also incapable of using the Defend command since as the party leader it's replaced by the Flee command (God knows why it didn't replace the Magic command instead, since he can't use that anyway). Furthermore, enemies seem to be more inclined to strike him than Milo or Pyra (possibly because he's at the front of the party), so he'll need more healing than either of them.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: His name is completely up to the player. Some guides refer to him as Marak, while in game code refers to him as Hiro, though it's not known if either of these are his Canon Names.
- Humans Are Average: Inverted; despite being the sole human in his group, he suffers the most from Crippling Overspecialisation, being able to hit hard and nothing else.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: He can equip any item in the game, but swords are his best weapons in the late game.
- Magically Inept Fighter: To the point the game flat-out says he can't use magic if you pick the magic command with him.
- Mighty Glacier: The hero is not only the strongest and toughest member of the party, he's also by far the slowest, and will always strike after Pyra and Milo, and usually after the monsters as well.
- Punny Name: In-game code before the player gets to name him refers to him as 'Hiro'. Naturally, he's The Hero of the game.
- Self-Made Orphan: Does this by accident thanks to Dark Sol, who brainwashed his father into being the Dark Knight.
Milo
- Epic Flail: One of his unique weapon types exclusive to him, which allows him to strike multiple times with a single attack.
- Face of a Thug: Implied. He certainly does have a thuggish look, and carries heavy weaponry unfitting for his class. When the Hero visits the Good-Guy Bar for the first time, the innskeeper warns him to stay away from Milo and Pyra. However, unlike Pyra, Milo never does anything malicious, indicating his only faults are scratching himself and being associated with Pyra.
- Jack of All Stats: Compared to the hero and Pyra, he doesn't particularly excel in physical attacking or magic attacking specifically, but is a decent middle ground between the two who can fill both roles if needed.
- Red Mage: Can handle healing, Non-Elemental attacking spells and deal some decent damage physically.
Pyra
- Black Mage: Specializes in elemental attacking spells and debuffs. She does get a healing spell, but it caps at two levels instead of Milo's four.
- Fiery Redhead: Her hair color is red and she has the temper to match. Considering what we see of her mother, it seems to run in the family.
- Fragile Speedster: Easily the fastest character in the party, she will almost always go first in combat. The "fragile" part is actually quite Downplayed; see the next trope.
- Squishy Wizard: Actually Subverted; she may have the lowest HP total in the party by a considerable amount, but she also has quite good natural Defense growth and very good IQ, meaning her small pool of HP goes much further than you'd expect. She's somewhat handicapped in the early game due to not being able to use any of the starter shields the armour shop sells, but if you get the expensive-but-powerful Wood Shield which appears as a special offer (which she can equip) she'll be just as tough as the hero and Milo.
- Weapon Specialization: Her best weapons in the game consist of whips, which can strike entire rows of monsters without having to use precious MP.
The Antagonists
Mephisto/Dark Sol
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: While he disguised himself as Melvyl, he was a pupil of the wizard Xern.
- Big Bad: Of Shining in the Darkness.
- Dub Name Change: He's called Mephisto in the original Japanese, but the English dub changes his name to Dark Sol.
- Final Boss: In Shining in the Darkness.
- Faux Affably Evil: He acts polite with the king and the others in the castle when he first arrives, and even gives the king a deadline to give away his kingdom instead of killing everyone on the spot. But he's still a dark sorcerer who threatened to conquer King Drake's kingdom, kidnapped his daughter and killed his own former mentor.
- Leitmotif: Confrontation with Monsters
for his normal form, and Fateful Battle for his true form. - One-Winged Angel: When he is defeated, he turns into a monstrous form.
The Dark Knight/Mortred
- The Ace: Mortred is said to be the best swordfighter in the kingdom.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: He is Mortred, who's controlled by Mephisto.
- The Dragon: To Mephisto.
- Leitmotif: Fateful Battle.
- Redemption Equals Death: Mortred dies after the party defeats him and frees him from his brainwashing
