Part 37: Character chat (spoilers)!
Character chat!There are spoilers here, so use that table of contents up there if you want to avoid them.
Papas
Father
Papas is a badass. He's wandering the world, his young son in tow. What is he looking for? Who knows!
In combat, Papas is way more powerful than anything at this level. He's not directly controllable, but so what? He one-hit-kills everything, throws heal around like it ain't no thing, and sometimes gets to act twice a round. Like a boss.
Papas gave his life to save his son and the young prince Henry, when the evil priest Gema threatened to not only kill the boys but send their souls to hell for eternity if Papas didn't let himself die. With his last breath, he told Simon what his six-year-long quest has been all this time: Simon's mother is still alive!
Simon
This is little Simon. He really likes purple. While other heroes his age are learning to wield enchanted swords of destiny, Simon is pretty much content to swing this neat stick his dad found for him. While he's not much of a fighter now, it's a dangerous world, and Papas's son will have to grow up fast.
Heartbreakingly fast, in fact. After Papas's death, Simon was taken into slavery, and forced to work for ten years building a temple for the Order of Light. He finally made his escape, and is now a young man with little to call his own but his freedom.
At first, Simon had nothing but his quest to find his mother, but slowly Simon's life has been filled with more and more. He became reunited with his childhood friend, Bianca, and that friendship blossomed into romance and marriage. He found his way to his ancestral home, and learned that he was the rightful heir to the throne of Granvania. And on the eve of his coronation, his children, Erdrick and Lola, were born! Will Simon set aside his quest for his new family?
Misfortune struck Simon again; the chancellor of Granvania betrayed his family to the monsters! Although the children were safely hidden away, Bianca was kidnapped while she was recovering and too weak to defend herself. Simon managed to track down her kidnapper and kill him, but the horse-demon's last act before dying was to turn Simon and Bianca to stone! Simon spent eight long years as a statue, before his children finally found him and restored him to life.
Spells
Heal As useful as it sounds
Antidote As useless as it sounds
Gale Wind damage to a group of enemies
Upper Boost one character's defense. You know what else makes you take less damage? Killing the enemy faster.
Healmore There's something refreshing about how DQ's spells just say exactly what they do without trying to sound mysterious.
Identify Gamefaqs: the spell
Outside Instantly leave a dungeon. Fuck backtracking.
Tornado A better version of Gale
Healall From nearly dead to fully healthy in just one casting!
Vivify Restores a character to life, but only 50% of the time.
Bianca
Bianca is Simon's childhood friend. They have adventures together! Also, no attempt is made to explain why she can throw fireballs. Presumably, this is a standard skillset for a girl that grows up working in a fantasy world inn.
When grownup Simon returned to Alcapa, he discovered that Bianca and her family had moved away long ago. He doesn't learn her fate until much later. While on a quest to gather the Water Ring so that he can marry Flora, he discovers that Bianca has been living in a nameless mountain village, taking care of her father after the death of her mother.
Bianca insists on adventuring with Simon again, but for some reason she doesn't seem 100% behind this quest to get him hitched up. But it all worked out for the best, because Simon realized that he truly loved her as well, and now they are married!
After the birth of their two children, Bianca was tragically stolen away by monsters! After the demon Jahmi turned her and Simon to stone, the two were separated. Bianca's whereabouts are currently unknown.
Spells
Blaze Fire! FIRE!
Surround Reduces enemy's chance to hit with physical attacks
Decrease Reduces enemy's defense.
Firebal Blaze that hits a group.
Sleep Puts an enemy group to sleep. The AI loves to use this spell. I don't.
Bikill The murder maker. This doubles the attack power of one ally.
Firebane A bigger Firebal
Stepguard Protects your tender footsies from damaging map tiles
Bounce Reflect magic back at the enemy.
Blazemore There's a certain theme to Bianca's attack spells.
Erdrick
Simon's son
Although he grew up without his parents, Erdrick was raised on stories of their heroism, and even at the age of eight he is ready to follow in their footsteps. Amazingly, he is able to wield the legendary Zenithian gear. What can it mean?
Spells
StopSpell Prevents a group of enemies from casting spells.
Lola
Simon's daughter
Lola is Erdrick's twin sister, and every bit his equal. She lets him wear the Zenithian gear because she'd rather hit things with sticks like her daddy.
Spells
Surround Makes the enemies randomly miss when they attack.
Puckle
Puckle is the cat that Bianca and Simon rescued from some bullies by beating up on evil ghosts and putting a haunted mansion to rest. Of course he's cute and fuzzy now, but Simon's the one that has to feed a growing demon panther, and fix the gouges in the walls when Puckle sharpens his claws. Bianca isn't doing squat to raise him, but she did give him a shiny ribbon, so guess who he's going to love more?
When Simon was enslaved, Puckle was left behind. He somehow managed to drag Papas' sword to a whole different continent, and keep it safe in a cave.
Eventually, Simon was hired to deal with a monster disturbing the crops of a village called Kabochi. Of course, the 'monster' was really Puckle, all grown up! When Puckle smelled Bianca's ribbon, which Simon has kept all these years, he happily rejoined his friend.
Skills
Charge Up Give up this turn to boost attack power next turn.
Sancho
Servant
This guy's been loyally serving the royal family of Granvania since Papas' time, and maybe even longer, and the dude still doesn't look a day over 40. It must be all the time he spends praying with nuns.
Spells
Increase Boosts defense like Upper, but for the whole party.
Sleep zzzz
Henry
Prince of Reinhart
As a boy, Henry was a spoiled brat, made bitter before his time by the death of his mother and the scorn of his stepmother. His stepmother hired some thugs to kidnap him and make room for her own son to become heir. When Papas and Simon went to rescue him, the attempt ended in failure: Papas died and the boys were enslaved.
The example that Papas set, along with ten years of hard labor, has made Henry grow into a goodhearted man. He was the one that stepped in to safe the slave girl Maria, the event that set off his escape with Simon from the temple. Now he has even less to his name than Simon, but he will stand with his friend as they set out into the world again.
Upon returning to Reinhart, he and Simon freed the kingdom from the monster pretending to be the Empress. Although his brother begged him to become king, Henry decided that maybe a dude that spent his life in the slave pits instead of getting proper government training would be better off in a behind the scenes sort of role. Honestly, a slave becoming a king? That's just silly. Point being, he's out of the party.
Spells
Blaze
Surround
Some other spells but who cares, he's retired.
Pippin
Soldier of Granvania
Professional benchwarmer. Unless you're playing the remake, fuck Pippin.
Spells
Hahaha, no.