Dragon Quest VIII/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A list of characters in Dragon Quest VIII.

Main Characters

The Hero

A member of Trodain's palace guard, and the sole person who survived Trodain's curse unscathed. He has a pet mouse named Munchie.

Munchie

The Hero's pet mouse who lives in a pouch at the hero's side. While not seen often, he can provide some amazing support in battle thanks to the many cheese that can be fed to him.

Yangus

Originally a bandit from the town of Pickham, since trying to reform after the Hero saved his life.

Jessica Albert

A magician from Alexandria who joins up with the party after Dhoulmagus kills her older brother Alistair. Hot-tempered and sharp-tongued, but a capable spellcaster with plenty of potential.

  • Action Girl: The only female combatant in the PS2 version, and the person most likely to take charge against an opponent.
  • An Ice Person: Can learn how to cast ice spells.
  • Ass Kicks You: Her Hip Drop attack.
  • Black Mage: Though she can get a group healing ability at the end of her Sex Appeal skill tree, she mostly sticks to offensive spells and abilities that increase the party's power.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: When she is possessed by Rhapthorne's scepter.
  • Bunny Girl: A Dragon Quest staple, when she has the Bunny Suit, Fishnet Stockings and Bunny Ears equipped.
  • Chainmail Bikini: Many of her alternate outfits qualify, the Magic Bikini in particular. Funnily enough you can get the bikini right before you get to the snow-covered region of the game.
  • Choice of Two Weapons: Five weapons in her case:
  • Curtains Match the Window: She has vivid red hair and red eyes.
  • Dead Little Sister: Her dead older brother.
  • Deadpan Snarker: To a LOT of people, but mostly to Angelo, who is not above snarking back.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: As her "sex appeal" stat rises, enemies have a random chance of losing a turn by gazing in admiration, and also allows her to learn abilities which can produce the same effect.
  • Fiery Redhead: Literally. Her default spells involve fire.
  • Girlish Pigtails
  • Hot Witch: It's even exploited by King Clavius, trying to motivate his son.
  • Impossibly Low Neckline: Her standard outfit.
  • Jiggle Physics: When she casts magic.
  • Lady of Black Magic: Despite her reputation for hot-headedness, Jessica is actually quite mature and level-headed when not actively grieving her brother's death, or dealing with her Proper Lady mother.
  • Leotard of Power: The Divine Bustier.
  • Magic Dance: Upon reaching the highest level of Sex Appeal, she can do a special dance while holding slime-shaped maracas. It seems nonsensical at first, but does heal about 100 HP to each member and costs no MP.
  • Magic Knight: A female example, if you chose to equip her with daggers and then swords.
  • Male Gaze: Used hilariously when the King of Argonia tries to persuade Prince Charmles to marry Medea.
  • Marshmallow Hell: Weaponized.
  • Ms. Fanservice
  • Of Corsets Sexy: Dangerous Bustier and Divine Bustier.
  • Playboy Bunny: One of her outfits, which is a Dragon Quest staple, of course.
  • Playing with Fire: She's best known for using fire magic.
  • Rebellious Princess: Although in Jessica's case, her idea of rebelling is going off to avenge her dead brother rather than be a proper lady.
  • She Fu: Jessica's Fisticuffs techniques are very elegant and acrobatic.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Well, besides Medea, but she's the only female party member in the Playstation version. In the 3DS remake, Red is a party member as well.
  • Sphere of Destruction: The Magic Burst spell.
  • Squishy Wizard: She can wipe out whole enemies with her spells and can dish out decent damage, but she's not very resistant to damage herself.
  • Stripperific: Most of her special outfits.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: The Bang-family class of spells.
  • Tsundere: Looks like she'll be a full blown tsun-tsun when you first meet, but it's mostly because you've caught her at a really bad time... her default tends to be dere-dere. Unless Angelo is involved.
  • The Unchosen One: Variation; it turns out her bloodline is one of the living seals on Rhapthorne, which is why her brother was killed.
  • The Unfavorite: Has a very poor relationship with her mother, to the point that she's disowned upon deciding to join the heroes.
  • Wings Do Nothing: Part of her Divine Bustier outfit.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: The above mentioned Divine Bustier.

Angelo

A Templar from Maella Abbey, who joins the party under orders to hunt down Dhoulmagus after the jester kills the head abbot.

King Trode

The titular "Cursed King" of Trodain, transformed into a green-skinned, troll-like creature by Dhoulmagus. Set out on the titular journey in hopes of tracking the jester down, regaining the scepter, and restoring his kingdom and his true form.

  • Adipose Rex: Mostly due to the fact that he's also very short.
  • Baleful Polymorph
  • Break the Haughty: A downplayed example. He never really gets very humble despite his experiences, but he at least goes from demanding things to politely asking.
  • Character Development: His time as a monster renders him much more humble as the game goes on. He still thinks very highly of himself and his station, but he no longer looks down upon commoners or his party members. He also becomes less controlling of his precious daughter Medea, eventually letting her make her own marriage decisions.
    • While initially eager to drink from the Mystical Spring and regain his original form, he eventually decides to refrain and leave its use specifically for Medea's benefit alone. He also orders the hero to take Medea to the spring often to make sure she can benefit from it.
  • Dirty Old Man: Just look at his comments after equipping Jessica with any of her Battle Bikini. Also, if you equip a piece of the Bunny Girl outfit on Jessica, he practically screams at you to finish getting the rest.
    • Notably averted concerning his OWN daughter, and he also eliminates any HINT of acting like this in her presence.
  • Freak-Out: He does not deal well with stressors like being treated like the monster he appears to be or Medea getting horsenapped.
  • Hidden Depths: Starts off seeming shallow, spoiled and bossy, but reveals other sides of himself over time.
  • I Gave My Word: Struggles with this regarding Medea's Arranged Marriage.
  • Item Crafting: He's the one who runs the alchemy pot.
  • Papa Wolf: Is VERY protective of his daughter.
  • Promoted to Playable: Partially. He can be controlled in at least one later town instead of the party hero, though he remains in a non-combat role.
  • Stealth Hi Bye: Why is he a ninja? He's insanely good at popping up out of nowhere, startling the heck out of Yangus and the rest.
  • Team Dad: The oldest of the group, which is why Yangus consistently refers to him as "grandad." He listens to Angelo's backstory as a paternal figure, and comforts the hero during his minor Heroic BSOD in the second new ending in the 3DS version.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Frequently argues with Yangus, yet comes to respect him enough that the bandit can even learn a team-up move with him.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: His daughter certainly didn't get her looks from him, human or not.

Princess Medea

The princess of Trodain, transformed into a horse by Dhoulmagus. She uses this form to its best advantage by pulling the party's wagon.


Antagonists

Dhoulmagus

A vengeful magician who dressed like a jester. He stole the magical scepter in Castle Trodain and unleashed the curse upon the kingdom.

  • Big Bad Wannabe: Stole the scepter in hopes of becoming insanely powerful, only to wind up a pawn of Rhapthorne.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Just like anyone who holds Rhapthorne's staff.
  • Catch Phrase: "Such a pity. Such a pity..."
    • Its really more like Rhapthorne's Catch Phrase, considering that he says it at least once per vessel.
      • Once per vessel? Try thrice per scene. And that's when he's NOT feeling talkative.
  • Disc One Final Boss: Defeating him is the party's goal for the first half of the game. While they succeed, it turns out things are a little more complicated than that.
  • Evil Sorcerer: He didn't have much magic until he picked up the staff, then he really got rolling.
  • Lean and Mean: He's also uncannily tall.
  • Monster Clown
  • One-Winged Angel
  • Taken for Granite: After you kill him, he turns into a stone statue... and then into dust.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: His motivation to steal the scepter. He wanted to get back at the people who used to mock him.

Rhapthorne

An ancient Lord of Darkness who was battled and sealed away eons ago.

  • Beard of Evil: His final form sports a goatee.
  • Big Bad: Though not immediately apparent, he's the ancient evil, and is the cause of all of the misery in the main characters' lives.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Rhapthorne actually manages to kill his targets right in front of heroes without making it look like the Cutscene Incompetence on the heroes' part. While killing the Abbot Francisco, he throws the staff towards the king Trode, fully aware that the good abbot will jump in and take the hit to protect the king. Later with Marta, he holds her son hostage, forcing the party to distance themselves away from her, and then puts all his minions in-between so the party cannot reach her in time even if she manages to save her son.
  • Dark Is Evil: Not only is it evil, but it makes anyone who so much as glances it evil.
  • Evil Is Hammy
  • Large and In Charge: So it seems judging from the pictures in the Dark Ruins. Subverted by his first form, and played straight by his Ultimate form.
  • Made of Evil: He requires ancient sages and a godbird of light to even challenge his corrupt form.
  • Man Behind the Man: He's the reason Dhoulmagus, Jessica and Sir Leopold all went insane with power. Marcello resists him for a time, but even he ends up succumbing.
  • One-Winged Angel: After manifesting into his true form, he eventually grows to the size of an entire castle.
    • He also gradually imposes this on anyone who holds his cursed Scepter.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can


Supporting Characters

Alistair Albert

Jessica's older brother, who was an accomplished swordsman. Killed by Dhoulmagus before the hero could catch up with the foul jester. His death comes as a serious blow to the town of Alexandria.

Marcello

Angelo's older half-brother, who trains as a Templar at Maella Abbey. Despite being a studious monk and soldier, he harbors an old grudge against Angelo, and at times struggles with getting others to recognize his deeds because of his low-born roots.

  • Ambition Is Evil: Ultimately becomes corrupted because of his ambition.
  • Backstory: Tied into Angelo's history: their father was a rich philanderer. After Marcello was born, he made various promises to his mother that he'd leave his wife and make him his heir... until his wife became pregnant with Angelo, at which point he abandoned them. Marcello ended up at the Abbey after his mother passed on, and fought his way up the ranks despite others looking down upon him for being a commoner born out of wedlock.
  • Bastard Bastard: He's the illegitimate child. Heck, he could possibly be the Trope Namer.
  • Break the Haughty: Suffers quite the fall from grace.
  • Cruel Mercy: Angelo saves his life after he gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to a stadium full of civilians, then gets publicly possessed by Rhapthorne and breaks the seal. Needless to say, his career's pretty much unsalvageable at this point.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Freudian Excuse: He's a condescending prick to Angelo because he screwed things up just by being born. Also has issues with being looked down upon due to his common blood.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Happens late in the game, when he chooses to make his big acceptance speech where Rhapthorne's body was sealed while holding the scepter, then spends so long with his Evil Gloating that the heroes are able to confront him there, breaking his concentration. Then he blames everything on the good guys. Again.
  • Jerkass: Not a pleasant person, even when he was still technically on the side of the good guys.
    • Jerkass Has a Point: His entire speech in Neos does make sense as you've seen multiple times during the game when people get power just because they were born to the right family at the right time, and how they tend to use said power poorly or selfishly.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
  • Kick the Dog: "So... you intend to destroy this life I've made, just like my old life, do you?"
  • Knight Templar
  • Motive Rant: Combined with New Era/"The Reason You Suck" Speech when accepting his new position as head of the church.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Attempts this after the heroes' defeating him also weakens him enough that Rhapthorne manages to possess him and free his body. Of course, he completely ignores his own obvious role in causing the whole mess...
  • Pet the Dog: An important part of his and Angelo's Backstory. When Angelo first came to the Abbey, Marcello was the first person he met, and greeted him with kindness. And then told him that he would be seen as family. Even when it turned into full out Kick the Dog, Angelo never forgot that one moment of kindness.
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky
  • Ungrateful Bastard: After Angelo saves his life, he attempts to go all Nice Job Breaking It, Hero on the heroes despite how he's more to blame for how bad things got.

Abbot Francisco

The head of Maella Abbey, Abbot Francisco is compassionate, caring, understanding, and the ideal representative of everything a Saintly Church should be. One of the few members of the Abbey who hasn't dabbled in corruption... and, unfortunately, one of Dhoulmagus's victims.

Red

An old associate of Yangus. They have quite the history together...

  • Action Girl: Not quite, she stated that she'll simply avoid the monsters in the Pirate Hideout by simple stealth. When she's faced by Captain Crow's ghost, she's easily defeated. Played straight in the 3DS game where she can actually be an effective party member despite that particular incident.
  • Epic Flail: "Borrows" one to Yangus for the final battle if you visit her.
  • Knife Nut: Her only visible weapon is a small dagger.
    • Fridge Brilliance: She's a thief, and traditionally, thieves used to carry a dagger as a weapon of last resort and as a tool to help pry open windows and treasure chests. Most thieves in medieval times knew they'd never last in a proper fight, so a dagger was also handy for backstabbing and running, another thievery trademark.
  • Pirate Girl: You even race her to some pirate's treasure in a later mission.
  • The Rival: See above.
  • Tsundere: Common interpretation of her treatment of Yangus, with him being Oblivious to Love.
  • Ugly Guy Hot Gal: Her relationship with Yangus.

Morrie

An eccentric fellow who runs a Monster Arena known as the MONSTROUS PIT, along with his assistants Marrie, Merrie, Mirrie and Murrie. Prone to Accidental Innuendo and Hot Bloodedness.

  • Casanova
  • Hot-Blooded: Morrie's so damn hot and bothered about his Monstrous Pit that his personal space will occasionally explode into flame. These flames actually form the basis of one of his special attacks in the 3DS remake.
  • Large Ham: You need to be able to handle the Passione and the Gusto if you intend to deal with Morrie, yes, you do.
  • Luck-Based Mission: You can pick what sort of monsters to send into the Arena, but you can't control them directly. However, the monsters have a tendency to get stronger when you level up to make the arena easier, so it's not entirely luck-based
  • Poirot Speak
  • Promoted to Playable: In the remake, it's possibly to recruit him as a party member.
  • Tenchi Solution
  • Uncle Pennybags: He's actually one of the richest men in the world.

Prince Charmles

Crown Prince of Argonia, and THE Prince Charmless. His father is determined to make the best possible heir out of him, but it's hard when he's reluctant to perform the initiation... or anything else that requires he, uh, work.

  • Arranged Marriage: With Medea.
  • Blond Guys Are Evil
  • Break the Haughty: The ending. And it is AWESOME. Interestingly, this is shown more explicitly in the "lesser" ending, but still happens in the Golden Ending.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Fails to understand why the rite of passage is so important, expecting to just lie and cheat his way through it.
  • Dirty Coward: He forces the party to fight the Argon Lizards for him. In Gameplay and Story Integration, he also flees every battle against the Argon Lizard.
  • Entitled Bastard: A textbook example as he treats everyone who isn't his father as though they exist simply for him to trod all over.
  • Expy: Follows in the footsteps of Prince Harry and Prince Holse; unlike either one, however, he learns nothing from his trials and expects to coast through life on the backs of other people.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: By buying a heart instead of using one of those the Hero and the others obtained for him during the hunt, he unintentionally proves to his father that he isn't even remotely ready to take the throne. Not only does he get very publicly called out on this in the end, but he ends up losing the right to rule and the right to marry Medea to his long-lost cousin, who already went through the trial and harvested a beautiful heart/
  • In-Series Nickname: Prince Charmless. The first one to call him that in required dialogue is King Trode himself.
  • It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": It's supposed to be "Charmulls", but he prefers "Sharm-LAY".
  • Jerkass: He isn't satisfied with the Argon Hearts the party give him until they claim one from the Great Argon Lizard. Even then he decides to simply buy a fake Argon Heart from a local merchant simply because of how much larger it is.
  • Kick the Dog: His desire to obtain the largest gem possible during his initiation, regardless of the cost. The way he abuses Medea as a horse is also a perfect example, as after he pulls that crap, it's rather amazing he makes it back from the initiation in one piece.
  • Prince Charmless: Trope Namer. While his father calls him Charmulls, and he insists on being called Sharm-LAY, everyone calls him Charmless, to his face no less.
  • Rite of Passage: The Argonian Rite of Succession to determine if he's worthy of taking the throne. He isn't.
  • Royal Brat: Much to the protagonists' disdain.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money: After all the hard work of his initiation, he up and BUYS a Argon Heart, effectively blowing off all the hard work you did obtaining one for him. This eventually bites him HARD later on.
  • Speech Impediment: He sounds like Elmer Fudd.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's totally afraid of lizards of all kind, that's why he's so reluctant to face the initiation, which consist in taking down a large Argon Lizard.

King Clavius

Unlike his son, the current ruler of Argonia is a reasonable, thoughtful man just trying to do the best he can.

  • Calling the Old Man Out: Inverted awesomely during the ending, when Charmles tries to get Daddy to fix his problems again and Daddy puts his foot down.
  • Covert Pervert: The way he gets Charmles to agree to attempt the initiation.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: He's not perfect, but he is a well-respected ruler and will put his foot down when he has to, especially after realizing that Charmles is too immature to take the throne or a wife.
  • Unexpected Successor: His brother was supposed to become king instead of him, but disappeared from Argonia, leaving him to take the throne.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Starts to call out the Hero and his party when he thinks they tried to fake Charmles' rite by buying an Argon Heart, but corrects himself and apologizes profusely after learning the truth of the matter.

Ishmahri

The keeper of the Moonshadow Land, he possess a magical harp. The party meets Ishmahri twice. First in Ascantha, were they lead him to King Pavan to soothe his broken heart. Ishmahri creates past images of the late Queen Sasha by playing a melody on his harp. The second time involves him using his powers to restore an old ship to sea worthy condition.

Cash and Carrie Golding

The adopted twins of the late Mr. Golding, who established a fantastic casino and left them quibbling about which of them gets to run it now that he's passed on. To settle the score, they have to run a little test... one they both need help with.

Empyrea/Letis/Ramia/Lamia

Empyrea is referred to as the Godbird. She has the power to travel between worlds. The demon Gemon held her egg hostage at the top of Godbird's Eyrie. The hero's try to recover it for her, but Gemon sacrificed himself to destroy the egg. Empyrea's child, who died before birth, appeared as a spirit before the heroes and the pair decide to aid them in their quest.

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