☄ application
This is edited version from the original app, and it probably will continue to be edited a lot in the future.
[nick / name]: Reina
[personal LJ name]: nyantan
[other characters currently played]: n/a
[e-mail]: luminomancy [at] gmail.com
[AIM / messenger]: rozeluxe
[series]: Tales of Innocence
[character]: Ruca Milda
[character history / background]:
Ruca Milda is a regular young boy and a son of a merchant family living in the Imperial Capital of Regnum. What stands out about him, however, is the fact that he often dreams of a general named Asras who rules a part of Heaven called Census, and wants to obtain the “Power of Creation” (which is what Souseiryoku basically translates to), a power that can combine Heaven and Earth...or destroy both. Of course, Ruca does not know about the latter part at first, only seeing Asras as a strong, charismatic warrior; the opposite of himself.
His ordinary life changes with the appearance of a girl named Iria Animi. While trying to protect her from being taken away by suspicious people from the Church of Alca, he unlocks Asras' power within himself and is able to defeat said people easily. Next thing he knows, he's on the run from the city along with Iria, since there's a warrant out for the capture of people with people who exhibit powers like Ruca and Iria. And did I mention Iria has Inanna's power? Inanna being Asras' lover in the past life? ...Yeah, you can see where I'm going with this.
Unfortunately, they're caught before they can reach the next town. But this turns out to be good in the end, as this is where Ruca meets Spada Belforma, who just so happens to be the reincarnation of the Swordian talking sword Holy Sword Durandal, Asras' blade. Ruca also meets a girl named Chitose Cxarma. He doesn't know this, but she's the reincarnation of Sakuya, who had unrequited love for Asras. (Of course this means that she and Iria do not get along at all.) Anyway, Chitose joins up with Alcam and Ruca, Iria, and Spada escape from being forever used as weapons of war. They do this with the unintentional help of a hitman named Ricardo Soldato, who burned down their camp and shot down a few soldiers. Oh, and he turns out to be the reincarnation of Hypnos, a Latio general that Asras killed. Thankfully he doesn't really hold any ill will against Ruca, letting them escape while he deals with this crazy spear guy named Hasta.
Now free, they decide to head over to Naohs to see a holy woman who is said to have very strong healing powers. But when they go there (and find out hilariously that Spada is in fact a filthy rich noble), it turns out that the woman they were looking for has been taken away. So they go out and successfully rescue her from being used as a power source for some freaky robot! There they finally learn her name, Ange Serena, and that she was Orifiel, the male strategist to Asras, in her past life. ...Who saw that coming?
And then Ricardo shows up, saying that he's Ange's bodyguard since someone paid him to be, but Ange fixes the contract so he'll travel with them. New party member get! And after some shenanigans regarding mushrooms, a boy named Sian and his two dogs, and awakening more memories and/or powers from their past lives, Hermana Larmo, who happens to be Asras's faithful dragon steed (and surrogate mother), Vritra, in her past life, joins the group.
...And now time for some speedy recounting! Anyway, Ange figures out that what Alca is really after is the Power of Creation. Which is bad, because it can spell destruction in the wrong hands. The party decides to stop this, but before that, they need to gather more information. To do this, they first stop at Naohs to check the library, where after (some) research, they figure out a few locations they should investigate. And so they set sail for the Eastern Country of Ashihara! Blahblah, insert info gathering, Ruca asking Iria out and failing, and a temporary reunion with Chitose in which Ruca finds out she's Sakuya, one of Asras's subordinates and that Mathias is apparently the ruler of Census, Maou (literally means demon king)...except Iria sees them talking and gets pissed, whoops.
After some fun with boars and tombs and more information about the relationship between Earth and Heaven, they start to leave the tomb after some conversation about Mathias, or rather Maou, being the one to ruin heaven...only to be stopped by Chitose, who wants to take Ruca to Alca and calls Iria -or rather Inanna- a traitor before leaving, shaking the group up. Awkwaaard. But anyway, they end up taking another boat to the Western Country of Garam.
At Garam, there's something called the Kelm Volcano, which is apparently a place of worship for the god of smithery, Vulcan. And it turns out that crazy Hasta is in there! Since they want to go into the volcano and see what they can remember from their past lives, they enter the volcano with the secondary goal of defeating Hasta. To keep this short, they find Hasta, find out for sure he was Gaebolg, Durandal's “brother”, in his past life and fight him. But right before they finish him off, Hasta tricks Ruca into coming close enough so he can critically stab him. Naturally, the group goes OH CRAP (especially Iria, who sounds close to tears even if she will never admit it, and Spada, who's particularly pissed at himself because he feels like he could have stopped Ruca before it happened) and ends up letting Hasta go in favor of getting Ruca medical attention. But there's a good side to this: Ruca's dream while he's recovering makes him realize that Asras was planning to use the Power of Creation to create a new world and that aww, he really has good friends (okay Spada, you can stop hugging him now ;w;)!
Anyway, they didn't find any clues here, so once Ruca wakes up, they take a boat to the Southern Country of Galpos. There, they end up going after Sian (the reincarnation of the guardian of the Power of Creation, Cerberus), one of those loyal to Mathias, since he's eating all the precious ripe fruits of the people of Galpos and hurting their harvest greatly. They learn more about Sian from this weird old man, and try to unsuccessfully get Sian to leave Mathias and Alca to join them. Since they have nothing else to do here, they set sail for Regnum..
But not long after, Ricardo betrays them and lets them be captured at Regnum's port, giving Gardle, one of the people affiliated with Mathias and the reincarnation of his brother, Thanatos, in his past life, as his reason for doing this. But yes, OBLIGATORY PARTY MEMBER BETRAYAL TIME IS A GO! They get taken to the Hometown of the Grigoris, who have the power to seal away their heavenly artes.
While there, the party minus Ricardo end up talking about their dreams for the future over dinner! Which is cute and all until it turns out the food is drugged with sleeping pills. But Ricardo decides not to let them be lab rats, and gets them onto a ship to escape. The party ends up reconciling with Ricardo, and they set sail for what was supposed to be their next destination, the merchant city Mamut.
--Except, they can't really escape that easily after all. Gardle shows up, and after a show of just how crazy he is, a boss battle happens! ...Except the one who kills Gardle ends up being a giant robot, Gigante-Z. With lasers. No, really. Another boss battle get! After this, there aren't any more battles until they reach Mamut.
Since their ultimate destination this time is Tenos, they pass through Remlace Marsh, being unable to use the train since Tenos and Regnum have a bad relationship now due to the war. Turns out that Remlace Marsh is actually RACOON MARSH a.k.a zombie infested hellhole. >: And then they run into a huuuge zombie! After the battle though, they figure out the zombie is basically all the souls that couldn't make it to the cycle between Earth and Heaven, making them undead. Thankfully, Ange is able to put them to rest. This triggers more of Ange's memories of her past life as Orifiel, and his relationship to the god of the sky (who is actually male, really), Himmel.
After traversing the marsh, they head towards the Northern Battlefield. And who else would they meet there but the insanely crazy guy, Hasta? They fight him again, but he manages to get away, being the sneaky guy he is. But more importantly, Ricardo tells Ange more about Albert, a rich officer of the Tenos army who contracted him to find and bring Ange to him in the first place. Once that is said, they arrive to Tenos, but since Albert isn't there, they head towards ruins called Divine Garden.
In Divine Garden, Ange gets more flashbacks about her past life as Orifiel, and his talks with Himmel. The entire party also gets flashbacks of Maou saying that he has inherited the Power of Creation from Cerberus, and with another person, he will use it to merge Heaven and Earth into one. This makes the gears in Hermana's head turn, and she, with the help of Ruca, tells the group the Power of Creation is most likely still at Sky Castle, a place that did not fall apart with the destruction of Heaven. Problem is, none of them know how to get to a flying castle. But they have no time to think about that, because enemies have arrived! Except, they're Albert's soldiers, and the man himself is there!
Albert introduces himself, and soon enough, to the party's horror, Ange leaves the group to go with Albert after he tells her his past life was Himmel. Of course, the party will have none of this and chase after them to get Ange back. To do this, they head towards Tenos, or more specifically, Tenos Munitions Factory.
Eventually they catch up to Ange and Albert, upon which they find out something important: to use the Power of Creation, a sacrifice of a loved one must be made. And Albert wants to use that power to kill everyone but the reincarnations of the people of Latios. The party puts two and two together and figure out that Albert is planning to kill Ange at Sky Castle to pull his plan off. However, Ange's memories of Orifiel make her want to go along with the plan regardless, so the party ends up fighting both Ange and Albert. After the battle though, Ange and Albert come to some sort of resolution that doesn't involve him killing her, so all's well that ends well! ...Too bad Mathias heard that the Power of Creation (or Genesis) is in Sky Castle! Thankfully Albert isn't crazy anymore, and lends them the airship to chase after Mathias.
They safely land on Sky Castle, which Hermana says is actually Asras's palace, and that he lived there with Inanna. And the Power of Creation is there. Of course, Ruca can't help but wonder about the connection between his dream of Asras when he was injured by Hasta and this castle...
Soon enough, the party happens upon the statues, or rather corpses, of Asras, Inanna, and Durandal. Upon closer inspection, Asras and Inanna have both been pierced with the broken pieces of Durandal. When they see this, Mathias and Chitose make their appearance, telling them that yes, this is the reason Heaven fell and that it's all Inanna's fault. As further proof, Mathias finally explains who she actually is. She takes off her helmet, revealing a face and voice exactly like Inanna's. According to her, this is because she never wanted to forget the appearance of the person who betrayed her, one half of Maou Asras' soul. And to drive the point home, they get a flashback of Inanna stabbing Asras with Duranda (she loved him, but she could not allow them to coexist with humans), and in anger at the betrayal, Asras breaks part of Durandal that is pierced through him and stabs her with it. And so both of them died.
Mathias tells Ruca that while she's Asras' anger, Ruca himself is Asras' delusion, still holding onto ideals. This revelation ends up shaking Ruca enough to leave the group and follow Mathias and Chitose.
Ruca, Mathias, Chitose, and Sian gather nearby. Mathias having obtained the Genesis, decides to finally use it to destroy the world. This angers Sian, who thought that Mathias would use it to build the ideal paradise. Sian ends up attacking Mathias, but he isn't strong enough to beat her. But Mathias can't use the Genesis herself, and neither can the others. Except Ruca. Ruca can use Iria's life. Of course, he refuses to do this. Iria and Spada betrayed him the past, and Ricardo and Ange had left once too. But to him, that doesn't matter anymore, because he was betrayed by his own past self. Since he's the cause of Heaven's fall, the source of everyone's misfortune, it's fine with him -for the best even- if he's the only one who disappears. And so Ruca unleashes his power, causing the castle to start to collapse. Mathias and Chitose teleport away, while the rest of the party evacuate using the airship.
Oh, and there's an interlude where the fat thorn in everyone's side, Oswald, says he'll become God and has Hasta kill the Privy Council, but who cares about that? More importantly, Ruca is now being emo about the whole betrayal thing, and even his vision of Majin Asras said that yes, they betrayed him...but Ruca has something that he doesn't have: his bonds with people. Not Asras's bonds, but his own personal bonds. This makes Ruca realize that he does have people waiting for him.
And then he wakes up! Looks like Sian rescued him, and they landed near Sania Village, which coincidentally is Iria's hometown. Sian tells him that his friends are probably there. When they get there, Iria was waiting and well, after some awkwardness, they have a cute making up scene. Inanna betrayed Asras, but Iria didn't betray Ruca. And Ruca is Ruca, and he didn't do anything wrong. With this, they go meet up with everyone at Iria's house.
There, they decide to move and figure out what to do next. A few days ago, armies were being sent to attack the main headquarters of the Alca, the Tower of Dawn. Obviously, they want the Genesis, and since they can't let either side have it, the party decides on going to the Tower of Dawn and confronting Mathias.
As they leave the village, Hermana tells them that Heaven never really fell; it just ended up merging with Earth. With this line of thought, they realize that Asras' wish of merging Heaven and Earth and Inanna's wish of rejection such a merge both came through since they activated both wishes at once. Iria gets depressed at this, but Ruca returns her own words to her, saying that Iria is Iria, and she shouldn't blame herself for Inanna's actions. And so the party gets on the airship with the Tower as their destination.
At the top of the Tower, they are greeted by Hasta again, but this time the party kills him. And then Oswald comes after them with a mecha (which is powered by Gardle, angering Ricardo), but they destroy that too. Then they finally reach Mathias, who's trying to get Chitose to be a sacrifice. After showing everyone how crazy she is, she transforms and the boss battle begins! Expectedly, they end up killing Mathias, and after seeing this, Chitose kills herself too.
Anyway! Ruca and the person he has the strongest friendship with at this point use the Genesis to return the world to its original state. With this, their journey ends, and peace starts slowly returning to the world. The party ends up going to Regnum and splitting up there so they can follow their own paths, with a promise to one day meet up with each other again (well, Ruca, Hermana, and Spada live in the same city, but still!).
So finally Ruca heads to his house, and after greeting two friends who are actually friends now, finally gets to say “I'm back!” to his parents. And that's the main story of Tales of Innocence!
[character abilities]:
Oddly enough, Ruca actually can use that big sword of his pretty well and has a variety of sword skills at his disposal. He's able to use them together to chain large combos, something that is especially apparently when he maxes out his Tension (Gauge) while fighting. He can also use some mid-range fire spells, such as Fireball, Eruption and Explode, along with a couple of support spells when needed. And he has access to heavenly artes, which most of his skills seem to fall under, since he cannot use them when his artes are sealed. A list of his artes can be found here.
Something to note is that he has a noticeable lack of stamina at the beginning of the game. Sports were definitely not his forte. However, the events of the game have built up his stamina, but it's still very hard to see him being able to consistently outrun active people if he isn’t tapping into Asras’ power. Also, having such a big sword for a weapon means that his recovery time isn't particularly good, which often allows for more agile attackers to get in a quick hit or two before he can retaliate. And if his heavenly artes are sealed, he’s pretty much disabled from fighting.
He'll have his sword with him, but he's not about to attack anything that doesn't try to attack him with intent to injure. He's no blood knight, and he definitely does not want to become one.
Also, in contrast to his lack of street-smarts, Ruca is quite book-smart - he tends to have scores within the top five on tests, and recalls one time where he got a score less than 80, a 78, a test he ended up burying out of shame. He occasionally gives basic information about various things he has read in books throughout the game, usually to Iria or Spada. He also tends to understand explanations very quickly and is even able to explain what he just learned in his own words, an ability he got from studying hard to take his father's place as a skilled merchant (although he would rather become a doctor later on).
[character personality]:
At first glance, Ruca is a rather timid and cowardly young boy who looks more at home with a book in his hand than the large sword strapped to his back. And well, he is. Ruca is more an honor student than warrior, as evidenced by his somewhat passive personality and tendency to say “I'm not scared...” or some variant to himself at the start of battles. But when Ruca makes up his mind to really do something, he really will do it, whether it's protecting Iria from the Church of Alca or simply finishing a job he took at the guild. He's generally quite polite with people, but for the most part, he'll be speaking casually when appropriate.
His thought process is a bit odd considering that he thinks a lot more than he speaks (or perhaps because of it), such as the time he thought about nicknames to give Iria, though he ended up being too shy, embarrassed, and/or scared to spit it out. He also tends to keep a running commentary on the situation in his mind. And because of his introvert personality and tendency to become teary-eyed, people usually end up teasing or bullying him in some manner.
Ruca had a lot of emotional problems throughout the game and it shows. He couldn't bring himself to say what he really wanted to say most of the time unless the situation seriously called for it. Because of all the bullying he's gone through (ironically started when he first tried to be more like Asras when he was younger; he ended up doing something horrible enough during school that his teachers had to talk to his parents), he has quite the timid personality and isolates himself from others. People bullying or teasing him tend to bring tears to his eyes.
Something to note is that he has a tendency to stay in the background, so to say. This is in great contrast to his one of his reactions to awakening Asras's power (Hahaha! I can even do this!). His personality becomes rather arrogant at first when it came to dealing with having Asras's power, but is quickly brought down to size by Iria. Because really, what's the point of having such power if you're going to be a jerk about it? Even so, he tries hard to be more like Asras, always noting that he is not as cool and confident as he was even though he was him in his past life.
Anyway, he's decidedly lacking in the street-smart department. He's pretty naive, having had lived in a wealthy section of the imperial capital for most of his life. Not only that, he can be pretty dense and a little too trusting sometimes, as seen during an event in Kelm Volcano (seriously Ruca, stepping closer to a stab-happy crazy when he asks you to isn’t a good idea). He's also a bad liar.
As time passes in the game, he's slowly becoming more confident of himself in a good way, and is not as withdrawn as he used to be, having become a little more outgoing due to the influence of his travel-mates and friends. He’s even picked up some of his friends’ tendencies to tease others, though he’s generally kinder about it than they are. And he's become more of a straight man to the others, though he often keeps his “darker” thoughts in his head.
Also, he's a nerd who finds school and tests fun. Seriously. To the point where he can mostly remember anything that he's heard once. And please never let him tell jokes. They're all pretty bad and sometimes black.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]:
I'll be taking Ruca from before just before the final battle at the Tower of Dawn.
[journal post]:
A journal, huh… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take some time to use it. Writing down stuff and sorting them out sounds like a good idea right now. Maybe I’ll even remember something important if I write enough? Ah, but I can’t write for too long. I still need to look for everyone else. So I’ll just keep this brief.
First of all, I woke up in this really weird place after I regained consciousness. But I don't remember losing consciousness at all? I mean, the last thing I remember was climbing the tower stairs. Hmm, maybe I tripped and fell?
...Uu, I hope that's not the case! That'd be really embarrassing! And everyone was right there, too... Ahh, what am I saying? I can't dwell on that! I have more important things to think about! Okay, Ruca, think...
Right, I should probably go ask around and learn more about this place. Then I can figure out where exactly how far it is from the Tower. All right, I'll do that now! It's bad enough this happened, but I don't want them to worry anymore now. And we don't have much time left... Ah no, I have to do this, and fast!
Everyone... I'm sorry, but please wait for me a little while longer!
[third person / log sample]:
“Owowow!” Ruca winced, immediately moving his hands away from his head. Fighting back some tears, he decided that suddenly tripping on stuff could really hurt, especially when he was carrying a broadsword on his back. The pain could attest to that. And because of the pain, he knew the unfamiliar streets and oddly large buildings he saw before him couldn’t just be a mere dream, although he wasn’t exactly sure where he was and how he got here in the first place. For a moment he wondered if he got captured or something somehow, but that didn’t make sense. For one, there shouldn’t have been anyone else around anymore with the defeat of those two, Hasta and Oswald… And on that thought, was this even the Tower of Dawn? It certainly looked more like a city than a tower.
“Iria? Spada? Ange? Ricardo? Herm?” he said tentatively. He waited for a minute, straining his ears for the sound of someone yelling at him for getting lost -anything, really- but he heard nothing but the wind blowing by lightly. His shoulders drooped a bit, and he let out a long, exhausted sigh. Of course, that wouldn’t have worked unless they were already nearby. But that didn't mean he couldn't feel a bit melancholy at the revelation. For a while, he let himself sit there, trying to get himself to calm down so he can think better. And then slowly, he finally got up from his sitting position on the floor. He remembered someone saying it was best to wait in one place if anyone were to get lost, and wait for someone they know to find them.
“Especially for dorky Ruca, who's pretty hopeless when it comes to this sort of thing!” ...Is what Iria would definitely say to tease him, true or not. But in this case, it felt like he had no choice but to keep on moving. He was sure at least Ricardo would agree with him here. At the very least, he should go to a more populated area and ask around for information about his whereabouts and how far he was from the Tower.
...The Tower. The final stop in their journey, and the symbol of all their troubles. The place where Mathias would definitely fall, by their hands. Or perhaps not. There's always the small chance that she could miraculously change her mind. But he doubted it; she was far too furious with the world to do such a thing. After that shock of his at Sky Castle, he had thought a lot about Mathias and whether or not they are similar in the end -after all, they are two halves of the same soul- but just like that dream of his, he came to the conclusion that they are in fact very different. Ruca had his bonds with his friends, which Mathias never had. It was why Mathias could not activate the Genesis, even though Chitose, or rather Chitose who could not separate herself from her memories as Sakuya, loved Asras so much.
He felt sorry for those two. Sure, he felt anger towards Mathias for all those horrible things she had done in order to find the Genesis, but recently, it was overridden by his sadness that things had to turn out this way. Perhaps things would be different if she had been befriended by someone kind who would scold her whenever she did something wrong and would just be there whenever she needed to talk, just like how Ruca had the party to tease him and help him out. But while Mathias was (almost) a lost cause, they at least befriended Sian and could possibly save Chitose.
Now he had the chance to help everyone, even if the majority of the world would never know his or the rest of the party's names. But that didn't matter to him. All he wanted was to put the memory of those reincarnated from Heaven to rest and let the land be peaceful again. With that peace, everyone would be free too pursue their own dreams, free from the influences of their past lives. And then one day, he and his friends could take Albert up on his offer of a tour on his airship and see for themselves just how much the world changed.
“All right, I can do this!” the young boy said to himself, trying to get his spirits up. Everything would definitely be fine. And once he got past this setback and dealt with Mathias, he was definitely going to go back to Regnum and finally say “I’m home” to his parents before apologizing for making them worry about him so much. Then he'll continue his schooling and become a doctor. Or take over the family business. But by now, the affirmative opinions of his friends have made the idea of studying to become a doctor more and more charming in his mind, so he'd much prefer the former if given the choice... His parents shouldn't mind too much if he went down that path, right? Well, he'd just have to find out for himself, and that meant getting himself out of this situation.
Cheered by these thoughts, he started to walk faster, forgetting any fatigue he had before.
[nick / name]: Reina
[personal LJ name]: nyantan
[other characters currently played]: n/a
[e-mail]: luminomancy [at] gmail.com
[AIM / messenger]: rozeluxe
[series]: Tales of Innocence
[character]: Ruca Milda
[character history / background]:
Ruca Milda is a regular young boy and a son of a merchant family living in the Imperial Capital of Regnum. What stands out about him, however, is the fact that he often dreams of a general named Asras who rules a part of Heaven called Census, and wants to obtain the “Power of Creation” (which is what Souseiryoku basically translates to), a power that can combine Heaven and Earth...or destroy both. Of course, Ruca does not know about the latter part at first, only seeing Asras as a strong, charismatic warrior; the opposite of himself.
His ordinary life changes with the appearance of a girl named Iria Animi. While trying to protect her from being taken away by suspicious people from the Church of Alca, he unlocks Asras' power within himself and is able to defeat said people easily. Next thing he knows, he's on the run from the city along with Iria, since there's a warrant out for the capture of people with people who exhibit powers like Ruca and Iria. And did I mention Iria has Inanna's power? Inanna being Asras' lover in the past life? ...Yeah, you can see where I'm going with this.
Unfortunately, they're caught before they can reach the next town. But this turns out to be good in the end, as this is where Ruca meets Spada Belforma, who just so happens to be the reincarnation of the Swordian talking sword Holy Sword Durandal, Asras' blade. Ruca also meets a girl named Chitose Cxarma. He doesn't know this, but she's the reincarnation of Sakuya, who had unrequited love for Asras. (Of course this means that she and Iria do not get along at all.) Anyway, Chitose joins up with Alcam and Ruca, Iria, and Spada escape from being forever used as weapons of war. They do this with the unintentional help of a hitman named Ricardo Soldato, who burned down their camp and shot down a few soldiers. Oh, and he turns out to be the reincarnation of Hypnos, a Latio general that Asras killed. Thankfully he doesn't really hold any ill will against Ruca, letting them escape while he deals with this crazy spear guy named Hasta.
Now free, they decide to head over to Naohs to see a holy woman who is said to have very strong healing powers. But when they go there (and find out hilariously that Spada is in fact a filthy rich noble), it turns out that the woman they were looking for has been taken away. So they go out and successfully rescue her from being used as a power source for some freaky robot! There they finally learn her name, Ange Serena, and that she was Orifiel, the male strategist to Asras, in her past life. ...Who saw that coming?
And then Ricardo shows up, saying that he's Ange's bodyguard since someone paid him to be, but Ange fixes the contract so he'll travel with them. New party member get! And after some shenanigans regarding mushrooms, a boy named Sian and his two dogs, and awakening more memories and/or powers from their past lives, Hermana Larmo, who happens to be Asras's faithful dragon steed (and surrogate mother), Vritra, in her past life, joins the group.
...And now time for some speedy recounting! Anyway, Ange figures out that what Alca is really after is the Power of Creation. Which is bad, because it can spell destruction in the wrong hands. The party decides to stop this, but before that, they need to gather more information. To do this, they first stop at Naohs to check the library, where after (some) research, they figure out a few locations they should investigate. And so they set sail for the Eastern Country of Ashihara! Blahblah, insert info gathering, Ruca asking Iria out and failing, and a temporary reunion with Chitose in which Ruca finds out she's Sakuya, one of Asras's subordinates and that Mathias is apparently the ruler of Census, Maou (literally means demon king)...except Iria sees them talking and gets pissed, whoops.
After some fun with boars and tombs and more information about the relationship between Earth and Heaven, they start to leave the tomb after some conversation about Mathias, or rather Maou, being the one to ruin heaven...only to be stopped by Chitose, who wants to take Ruca to Alca and calls Iria -or rather Inanna- a traitor before leaving, shaking the group up. Awkwaaard. But anyway, they end up taking another boat to the Western Country of Garam.
At Garam, there's something called the Kelm Volcano, which is apparently a place of worship for the god of smithery, Vulcan. And it turns out that crazy Hasta is in there! Since they want to go into the volcano and see what they can remember from their past lives, they enter the volcano with the secondary goal of defeating Hasta. To keep this short, they find Hasta, find out for sure he was Gaebolg, Durandal's “brother”, in his past life and fight him. But right before they finish him off, Hasta tricks Ruca into coming close enough so he can critically stab him. Naturally, the group goes OH CRAP (especially Iria, who sounds close to tears even if she will never admit it, and Spada, who's particularly pissed at himself because he feels like he could have stopped Ruca before it happened) and ends up letting Hasta go in favor of getting Ruca medical attention. But there's a good side to this: Ruca's dream while he's recovering makes him realize that Asras was planning to use the Power of Creation to create a new world and that aww, he really has good friends (okay Spada, you can stop hugging him now ;w;)!
Anyway, they didn't find any clues here, so once Ruca wakes up, they take a boat to the Southern Country of Galpos. There, they end up going after Sian (the reincarnation of the guardian of the Power of Creation, Cerberus), one of those loyal to Mathias, since he's eating all the precious ripe fruits of the people of Galpos and hurting their harvest greatly. They learn more about Sian from this weird old man, and try to unsuccessfully get Sian to leave Mathias and Alca to join them. Since they have nothing else to do here, they set sail for Regnum..
But not long after, Ricardo betrays them and lets them be captured at Regnum's port, giving Gardle, one of the people affiliated with Mathias and the reincarnation of his brother, Thanatos, in his past life, as his reason for doing this. But yes, OBLIGATORY PARTY MEMBER BETRAYAL TIME IS A GO! They get taken to the Hometown of the Grigoris, who have the power to seal away their heavenly artes.
While there, the party minus Ricardo end up talking about their dreams for the future over dinner! Which is cute and all until it turns out the food is drugged with sleeping pills. But Ricardo decides not to let them be lab rats, and gets them onto a ship to escape. The party ends up reconciling with Ricardo, and they set sail for what was supposed to be their next destination, the merchant city Mamut.
--Except, they can't really escape that easily after all. Gardle shows up, and after a show of just how crazy he is, a boss battle happens! ...Except the one who kills Gardle ends up being a giant robot, Gigante-Z. With lasers. No, really. Another boss battle get! After this, there aren't any more battles until they reach Mamut.
Since their ultimate destination this time is Tenos, they pass through Remlace Marsh, being unable to use the train since Tenos and Regnum have a bad relationship now due to the war. Turns out that Remlace Marsh is actually RACOON MARSH a.k.a zombie infested hellhole. >: And then they run into a huuuge zombie! After the battle though, they figure out the zombie is basically all the souls that couldn't make it to the cycle between Earth and Heaven, making them undead. Thankfully, Ange is able to put them to rest. This triggers more of Ange's memories of her past life as Orifiel, and his relationship to the god of the sky (who is actually male, really), Himmel.
After traversing the marsh, they head towards the Northern Battlefield. And who else would they meet there but the insanely crazy guy, Hasta? They fight him again, but he manages to get away, being the sneaky guy he is. But more importantly, Ricardo tells Ange more about Albert, a rich officer of the Tenos army who contracted him to find and bring Ange to him in the first place. Once that is said, they arrive to Tenos, but since Albert isn't there, they head towards ruins called Divine Garden.
In Divine Garden, Ange gets more flashbacks about her past life as Orifiel, and his talks with Himmel. The entire party also gets flashbacks of Maou saying that he has inherited the Power of Creation from Cerberus, and with another person, he will use it to merge Heaven and Earth into one. This makes the gears in Hermana's head turn, and she, with the help of Ruca, tells the group the Power of Creation is most likely still at Sky Castle, a place that did not fall apart with the destruction of Heaven. Problem is, none of them know how to get to a flying castle. But they have no time to think about that, because enemies have arrived! Except, they're Albert's soldiers, and the man himself is there!
Albert introduces himself, and soon enough, to the party's horror, Ange leaves the group to go with Albert after he tells her his past life was Himmel. Of course, the party will have none of this and chase after them to get Ange back. To do this, they head towards Tenos, or more specifically, Tenos Munitions Factory.
Eventually they catch up to Ange and Albert, upon which they find out something important: to use the Power of Creation, a sacrifice of a loved one must be made. And Albert wants to use that power to kill everyone but the reincarnations of the people of Latios. The party puts two and two together and figure out that Albert is planning to kill Ange at Sky Castle to pull his plan off. However, Ange's memories of Orifiel make her want to go along with the plan regardless, so the party ends up fighting both Ange and Albert. After the battle though, Ange and Albert come to some sort of resolution that doesn't involve him killing her, so all's well that ends well! ...Too bad Mathias heard that the Power of Creation (or Genesis) is in Sky Castle! Thankfully Albert isn't crazy anymore, and lends them the airship to chase after Mathias.
They safely land on Sky Castle, which Hermana says is actually Asras's palace, and that he lived there with Inanna. And the Power of Creation is there. Of course, Ruca can't help but wonder about the connection between his dream of Asras when he was injured by Hasta and this castle...
Soon enough, the party happens upon the statues, or rather corpses, of Asras, Inanna, and Durandal. Upon closer inspection, Asras and Inanna have both been pierced with the broken pieces of Durandal. When they see this, Mathias and Chitose make their appearance, telling them that yes, this is the reason Heaven fell and that it's all Inanna's fault. As further proof, Mathias finally explains who she actually is. She takes off her helmet, revealing a face and voice exactly like Inanna's. According to her, this is because she never wanted to forget the appearance of the person who betrayed her, one half of Maou Asras' soul. And to drive the point home, they get a flashback of Inanna stabbing Asras with Duranda (she loved him, but she could not allow them to coexist with humans), and in anger at the betrayal, Asras breaks part of Durandal that is pierced through him and stabs her with it. And so both of them died.
Mathias tells Ruca that while she's Asras' anger, Ruca himself is Asras' delusion, still holding onto ideals. This revelation ends up shaking Ruca enough to leave the group and follow Mathias and Chitose.
Ruca, Mathias, Chitose, and Sian gather nearby. Mathias having obtained the Genesis, decides to finally use it to destroy the world. This angers Sian, who thought that Mathias would use it to build the ideal paradise. Sian ends up attacking Mathias, but he isn't strong enough to beat her. But Mathias can't use the Genesis herself, and neither can the others. Except Ruca. Ruca can use Iria's life. Of course, he refuses to do this. Iria and Spada betrayed him the past, and Ricardo and Ange had left once too. But to him, that doesn't matter anymore, because he was betrayed by his own past self. Since he's the cause of Heaven's fall, the source of everyone's misfortune, it's fine with him -for the best even- if he's the only one who disappears. And so Ruca unleashes his power, causing the castle to start to collapse. Mathias and Chitose teleport away, while the rest of the party evacuate using the airship.
Oh, and there's an interlude where the fat thorn in everyone's side, Oswald, says he'll become God and has Hasta kill the Privy Council, but who cares about that? More importantly, Ruca is now being emo about the whole betrayal thing, and even his vision of Majin Asras said that yes, they betrayed him...but Ruca has something that he doesn't have: his bonds with people. Not Asras's bonds, but his own personal bonds. This makes Ruca realize that he does have people waiting for him.
And then he wakes up! Looks like Sian rescued him, and they landed near Sania Village, which coincidentally is Iria's hometown. Sian tells him that his friends are probably there. When they get there, Iria was waiting and well, after some awkwardness, they have a cute making up scene. Inanna betrayed Asras, but Iria didn't betray Ruca. And Ruca is Ruca, and he didn't do anything wrong. With this, they go meet up with everyone at Iria's house.
There, they decide to move and figure out what to do next. A few days ago, armies were being sent to attack the main headquarters of the Alca, the Tower of Dawn. Obviously, they want the Genesis, and since they can't let either side have it, the party decides on going to the Tower of Dawn and confronting Mathias.
As they leave the village, Hermana tells them that Heaven never really fell; it just ended up merging with Earth. With this line of thought, they realize that Asras' wish of merging Heaven and Earth and Inanna's wish of rejection such a merge both came through since they activated both wishes at once. Iria gets depressed at this, but Ruca returns her own words to her, saying that Iria is Iria, and she shouldn't blame herself for Inanna's actions. And so the party gets on the airship with the Tower as their destination.
At the top of the Tower, they are greeted by Hasta again, but this time the party kills him. And then Oswald comes after them with a mecha (which is powered by Gardle, angering Ricardo), but they destroy that too. Then they finally reach Mathias, who's trying to get Chitose to be a sacrifice. After showing everyone how crazy she is, she transforms and the boss battle begins! Expectedly, they end up killing Mathias, and after seeing this, Chitose kills herself too.
Anyway! Ruca and the person he has the strongest friendship with at this point use the Genesis to return the world to its original state. With this, their journey ends, and peace starts slowly returning to the world. The party ends up going to Regnum and splitting up there so they can follow their own paths, with a promise to one day meet up with each other again (well, Ruca, Hermana, and Spada live in the same city, but still!).
So finally Ruca heads to his house, and after greeting two friends who are actually friends now, finally gets to say “I'm back!” to his parents. And that's the main story of Tales of Innocence!
[character abilities]:
Oddly enough, Ruca actually can use that big sword of his pretty well and has a variety of sword skills at his disposal. He's able to use them together to chain large combos, something that is especially apparently when he maxes out his Tension (Gauge) while fighting. He can also use some mid-range fire spells, such as Fireball, Eruption and Explode, along with a couple of support spells when needed. And he has access to heavenly artes, which most of his skills seem to fall under, since he cannot use them when his artes are sealed. A list of his artes can be found here.
Something to note is that he has a noticeable lack of stamina at the beginning of the game. Sports were definitely not his forte. However, the events of the game have built up his stamina, but it's still very hard to see him being able to consistently outrun active people if he isn’t tapping into Asras’ power. Also, having such a big sword for a weapon means that his recovery time isn't particularly good, which often allows for more agile attackers to get in a quick hit or two before he can retaliate. And if his heavenly artes are sealed, he’s pretty much disabled from fighting.
He'll have his sword with him, but he's not about to attack anything that doesn't try to attack him with intent to injure. He's no blood knight, and he definitely does not want to become one.
Also, in contrast to his lack of street-smarts, Ruca is quite book-smart - he tends to have scores within the top five on tests, and recalls one time where he got a score less than 80, a 78, a test he ended up burying out of shame. He occasionally gives basic information about various things he has read in books throughout the game, usually to Iria or Spada. He also tends to understand explanations very quickly and is even able to explain what he just learned in his own words, an ability he got from studying hard to take his father's place as a skilled merchant (although he would rather become a doctor later on).
[character personality]:
At first glance, Ruca is a rather timid and cowardly young boy who looks more at home with a book in his hand than the large sword strapped to his back. And well, he is. Ruca is more an honor student than warrior, as evidenced by his somewhat passive personality and tendency to say “I'm not scared...” or some variant to himself at the start of battles. But when Ruca makes up his mind to really do something, he really will do it, whether it's protecting Iria from the Church of Alca or simply finishing a job he took at the guild. He's generally quite polite with people, but for the most part, he'll be speaking casually when appropriate.
His thought process is a bit odd considering that he thinks a lot more than he speaks (or perhaps because of it), such as the time he thought about nicknames to give Iria, though he ended up being too shy, embarrassed, and/or scared to spit it out. He also tends to keep a running commentary on the situation in his mind. And because of his introvert personality and tendency to become teary-eyed, people usually end up teasing or bullying him in some manner.
Ruca had a lot of emotional problems throughout the game and it shows. He couldn't bring himself to say what he really wanted to say most of the time unless the situation seriously called for it. Because of all the bullying he's gone through (ironically started when he first tried to be more like Asras when he was younger; he ended up doing something horrible enough during school that his teachers had to talk to his parents), he has quite the timid personality and isolates himself from others. People bullying or teasing him tend to bring tears to his eyes.
Something to note is that he has a tendency to stay in the background, so to say. This is in great contrast to his one of his reactions to awakening Asras's power (Hahaha! I can even do this!). His personality becomes rather arrogant at first when it came to dealing with having Asras's power, but is quickly brought down to size by Iria. Because really, what's the point of having such power if you're going to be a jerk about it? Even so, he tries hard to be more like Asras, always noting that he is not as cool and confident as he was even though he was him in his past life.
Anyway, he's decidedly lacking in the street-smart department. He's pretty naive, having had lived in a wealthy section of the imperial capital for most of his life. Not only that, he can be pretty dense and a little too trusting sometimes, as seen during an event in Kelm Volcano (seriously Ruca, stepping closer to a stab-happy crazy when he asks you to isn’t a good idea). He's also a bad liar.
As time passes in the game, he's slowly becoming more confident of himself in a good way, and is not as withdrawn as he used to be, having become a little more outgoing due to the influence of his travel-mates and friends. He’s even picked up some of his friends’ tendencies to tease others, though he’s generally kinder about it than they are. And he's become more of a straight man to the others, though he often keeps his “darker” thoughts in his head.
Also, he's a nerd who finds school and tests fun. Seriously. To the point where he can mostly remember anything that he's heard once. And please never let him tell jokes. They're all pretty bad and sometimes black.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]:
I'll be taking Ruca from before just before the final battle at the Tower of Dawn.
[journal post]:
A journal, huh… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take some time to use it. Writing down stuff and sorting them out sounds like a good idea right now. Maybe I’ll even remember something important if I write enough? Ah, but I can’t write for too long. I still need to look for everyone else. So I’ll just keep this brief.
First of all, I woke up in this really weird place after I regained consciousness. But I don't remember losing consciousness at all? I mean, the last thing I remember was climbing the tower stairs. Hmm, maybe I tripped and fell?
...Uu, I hope that's not the case! That'd be really embarrassing! And everyone was right there, too... Ahh, what am I saying? I can't dwell on that! I have more important things to think about! Okay, Ruca, think...
Right, I should probably go ask around and learn more about this place. Then I can figure out where exactly how far it is from the Tower. All right, I'll do that now! It's bad enough this happened, but I don't want them to worry anymore now. And we don't have much time left... Ah no, I have to do this, and fast!
Everyone... I'm sorry, but please wait for me a little while longer!
[third person / log sample]:
“Owowow!” Ruca winced, immediately moving his hands away from his head. Fighting back some tears, he decided that suddenly tripping on stuff could really hurt, especially when he was carrying a broadsword on his back. The pain could attest to that. And because of the pain, he knew the unfamiliar streets and oddly large buildings he saw before him couldn’t just be a mere dream, although he wasn’t exactly sure where he was and how he got here in the first place. For a moment he wondered if he got captured or something somehow, but that didn’t make sense. For one, there shouldn’t have been anyone else around anymore with the defeat of those two, Hasta and Oswald… And on that thought, was this even the Tower of Dawn? It certainly looked more like a city than a tower.
“Iria? Spada? Ange? Ricardo? Herm?” he said tentatively. He waited for a minute, straining his ears for the sound of someone yelling at him for getting lost -anything, really- but he heard nothing but the wind blowing by lightly. His shoulders drooped a bit, and he let out a long, exhausted sigh. Of course, that wouldn’t have worked unless they were already nearby. But that didn't mean he couldn't feel a bit melancholy at the revelation. For a while, he let himself sit there, trying to get himself to calm down so he can think better. And then slowly, he finally got up from his sitting position on the floor. He remembered someone saying it was best to wait in one place if anyone were to get lost, and wait for someone they know to find them.
“Especially for dorky Ruca, who's pretty hopeless when it comes to this sort of thing!” ...Is what Iria would definitely say to tease him, true or not. But in this case, it felt like he had no choice but to keep on moving. He was sure at least Ricardo would agree with him here. At the very least, he should go to a more populated area and ask around for information about his whereabouts and how far he was from the Tower.
...The Tower. The final stop in their journey, and the symbol of all their troubles. The place where Mathias would definitely fall, by their hands. Or perhaps not. There's always the small chance that she could miraculously change her mind. But he doubted it; she was far too furious with the world to do such a thing. After that shock of his at Sky Castle, he had thought a lot about Mathias and whether or not they are similar in the end -after all, they are two halves of the same soul- but just like that dream of his, he came to the conclusion that they are in fact very different. Ruca had his bonds with his friends, which Mathias never had. It was why Mathias could not activate the Genesis, even though Chitose, or rather Chitose who could not separate herself from her memories as Sakuya, loved Asras so much.
He felt sorry for those two. Sure, he felt anger towards Mathias for all those horrible things she had done in order to find the Genesis, but recently, it was overridden by his sadness that things had to turn out this way. Perhaps things would be different if she had been befriended by someone kind who would scold her whenever she did something wrong and would just be there whenever she needed to talk, just like how Ruca had the party to tease him and help him out. But while Mathias was (almost) a lost cause, they at least befriended Sian and could possibly save Chitose.
Now he had the chance to help everyone, even if the majority of the world would never know his or the rest of the party's names. But that didn't matter to him. All he wanted was to put the memory of those reincarnated from Heaven to rest and let the land be peaceful again. With that peace, everyone would be free too pursue their own dreams, free from the influences of their past lives. And then one day, he and his friends could take Albert up on his offer of a tour on his airship and see for themselves just how much the world changed.
“All right, I can do this!” the young boy said to himself, trying to get his spirits up. Everything would definitely be fine. And once he got past this setback and dealt with Mathias, he was definitely going to go back to Regnum and finally say “I’m home” to his parents before apologizing for making them worry about him so much. Then he'll continue his schooling and become a doctor. Or take over the family business. But by now, the affirmative opinions of his friends have made the idea of studying to become a doctor more and more charming in his mind, so he'd much prefer the former if given the choice... His parents shouldn't mind too much if he went down that path, right? Well, he'd just have to find out for himself, and that meant getting himself out of this situation.
Cheered by these thoughts, he started to walk faster, forgetting any fatigue he had before.