Phantasy Star IV/Characters

Chaz Ashley
Chaz is a 16 year old apprentice hunter serving under Alys in the town of Aiedo on Motavia. The mission to investigate the goings on at the Academy of Motavia is his first. While he begins the story as Alys' sidekick he eventually becomes the main protagonist of the story. While good-hearted and generally idealistic, he has quite a temper.


 * Can't Drop the Hero: The only character who remains in the party from the beginning of the game to the end.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: He's the only character in the game who can use them, actually.
 * Kid Hero
 * Kleptomaniac Hero: Averted; if you attempt to make him search drawers/cabinets in peoples' homes, he'll remark that it's not very nice to look through peoples' belongings without their permission.
 * Magic Knight: Eventually gets both the most powerful physical attacks and the most powerful offensive magic in the game.
 * Red Oni: To Rune's Blue.
 * Refusal of the Call: On Rykros, he initially ; he reconsiders when he thinks of the people of Algo he'd be fighting to save.

Alys Brangwin
A veteran hunter, Alys is Chaz' mentor and surrogate parent. She's the main character of the early part of the game, but this changes after. Brash and supremely confident, Alys is not above threatening people for money and/or information if it makes her job easier.


 * Action Girl
 * Badass
 * Berserk Button: Don't talk about her measurements while she's in earshot.
 * Crutch Character: Initially, she's far more powerful than anyone else on your team, but she gains levels, stat increases, and abilities far more slowly than everyone else does, so they quickly catch up.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally.
 * Decoy Protagonist: You'd be forgiven for thinking she's the main character, given that her name and appearance are so similar to those of the heroine of the first game in the series. She's not, though.
 * Hot Amazon: Lampshaded repeatedly; every NPC you meet seems to comment on either A.)how beautiful Alys is, or B.)how great a warrior she is.
 * Miser Advisor
 * The Obi-Wan
 * Only in It For The Money: Early on, she continues along with the mission objectives only so long as Hahn keeps paying.
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang: Her Weapon of Choice
 * Red Baron: Alys "The Eight-Stroke Warrior" (or, more accurately translated, "Rip-Their-Guts-Out Lyla").
 * Only in It For The Money: Early on, she continues along with the mission objectives only so long as Hahn keeps paying.
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang: Her Weapon of Choice
 * Red Baron: Alys "The Eight-Stroke Warrior" (or, more accurately translated, "Rip-Their-Guts-Out Lyla").
 * Red Baron: Alys "The Eight-Stroke Warrior" (or, more accurately translated, "Rip-Their-Guts-Out Lyla").

Hahn Mahlay
A young scholar at the Motavian Academy, Hahn is the one who hires Alys and Chaz to look into the monster infestation in the Academy basement. When it turns out there's more to the situation than meets the eye, he tags along with Alys and Chaz to try to get to the bottom of the mystery.


 * The Blacksmith: It's his family's business;.
 * Butt Monkey: During the first part of the game.
 * Knife Nut: It's the only weapon he can equip.
 * My Girl Back Home: He has a fiancee in the village of Krup, his impending wedding to whom he mentions frequently. Subverted, however in that he doesn't die.
 * The Smart Guy: He is a scholar, after all.
 * Squishy Wizard: He has mediocre HP and isn't very good at physical combat, but his techniques and skills pack a wallop.

Rune Walsh
An old friend of Alys', Rune is a snarky, blue-haired wizard who possesses a gift rarely seen in Algo these days - the ability to perform true magic. Initially, he only accompanies the party briefly, but after  he joins up for good.


 * Blue Oni: To Chaz' Red.
 * Expy: Of Lutz from Phantasy Star. Justified in that.
 * Jerkass: During his first stint in the party, he's quite rude and condescending to Chaz.
 * Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Inverted; during his first stint in the party, Rune is of a much higher level than your other party members, and can pretty much nuke any enemies you encounter on his own. When he later rejoins, he's still powerful, but not noticeably moreso than the other characters.
 * Simple Staff: His Weapon of Choice; his physical attacks are so weak, however, that many players choose to forego them entirely in favor of having him dual wield shields instead.
 * Squishy Wizard: The squishiest in the game.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Gryz
A native Motavian warrior, Gryz joins the party after they journey to the Motavian village of Tonoe in search of a magical antidote, and tags along afterward in hopes of avenging Zio's attempted genocide against the Motavian people. He hits hard, but is rather slow and has no magical abilities.


 * An Axe to Grind
 * The Big Guy: Certainly he is physically; he lacks the lively personality most examples of this character type have however.
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Revenge: His motivation for going after Zio.

Rika
Rika is a Numan, a genetically engineered being created in an underground laboratory by the computer Seed. Though she's only a year old, she looks like a young adult woman. She possesses an optimistic, friendly personality, and all the curiosity you'd expect of an intelligent being that's never seen the outside world.


 * Action Girl
 * Artificial Human
 * The Chick
 * Combat Medic: She's possesses some of the best healing magic of any of the characters, and can also kick plenty of butt in physical combat.
 * Cute Monster Girl: Like all numans, she possesses some traits indicating her monstrous heritage, in her case her ears.
 * Expy: Of Nei from Phantasy Star II. Originally, she was actually supposed to be Nei, but this was changed in development.
 * I Choose to Stay:
 * Lightning Bruiser: The fastest of all the characters, she hits quite hard to boot.
 * She's Got Legs
 * Skilled but Naive: Despite being among the most powerful characters you can get in your party, she's not very worldly, as you might expect of someone who's spent the only year of her life in an underground laboratory.
 * Wolverine Claws: Dual wielded, of course.
 * Zettai Ryouiki: Perhaps one of the great-grandmothers of this trope: she wears a black leotard (and heavy-class armor), but she wears thigh-high boots that are pretty standard from the front, but from the back, they just barely reach the hemline of her cape.

Demi

 * Action Girl
 * Distressed Damsel: When you first encounter her, she's being held captive in Zio's tower.
 * The Gunslinger: Like Wren, she uses guns in combat.
 * Older Than They Look: She's 324 years old; justified since she's a robot.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot: She's rather modest, an odd personality trait for a robot to have.
 * Robot Girl

Wren

 * Ace Pilot: Pilots the Landale spaceship.
 * Expy: Of Wren from Phantasy Star III; they even look similar.
 * The Gunslinger
 * Spock Speak: Being an older model maintenance droid who rarely interacts with humanoids, he tends to talk like this.
 * The Spock: Unsurprisingly given that he's an android, he remains level-headed in even the most stressful situations.
 * Tin Man

Raja

 * Cool Old Guy
 * Deadpan Snarker: Par excellence.
 * Dirty Old Man: Despite being a priest by profession.
 * Good Shepherd
 * The Medic
 * Squishy Wizard

Kyra Tierney

 * Cool Big Sis: Views herself as this toward Chaz.
 * Damsel in Distress: You need to rescue her from a forest of carnivorous trees before you can get her in your party.
 * Ineffectual Loner: Inverted; she doesn't run off to  because she doesn't want to work with others, but because she can't stand to see her friends suffer.
 * Magic Knight
 * Precision-Guided Boomerang
 * Tomboy

Seth

 * Adventurer Archaeologist
 * Guest Star Party Member: Only accompanies the party for one dungeon.

Zio

 * Evil Sorcerer
 * Path of Inspiration: His cult is basically this.

Dark Force

 * Legacy Character


 * Eldritch Abomination: Oh, yes.
 * Enemy to All Living Things: Even being in the same vicinity as it is enough to kill off all life.
 * Retcon: In previous games in the series, Dark Force was portrayed as the ultimate evil in the Algo solar system.
 * Retcon: In previous games in the series, Dark Force was portrayed as the ultimate evil in the Algo solar system.
 * Retcon: In previous games in the series, Dark Force was portrayed as the ultimate evil in the Algo solar system.
 * Retcon: In previous games in the series, Dark Force was portrayed as the ultimate evil in the Algo solar system.