The JRPGL – Division 1

River City Rollers

GM: Zach Welhouse
Pick #10 in rounds 1 and 3; Pick #7 in rounds 2 and 4

• Eiko Carol (Final Fantasy IX)
  
• Cornet Espoir (Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure)
  
• Nei (Suikoden III)
  
• Mamori Minamoto (Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE)

Gonna keep on dancing
with the rocs and trolls
and keeping it light, keeping it light;
Dancin’ to the rhythm
In our heart and soul
And keeping it light, keeping it light

Cornet is her name and she’s a puppeteer, too! With her singing friends there’s nothing that she can’t do! Fresh out of Marl Kingdom, Cornet Espoir and the rest of the River City Rollers are ready to bring the noise to the JRPGL. While other musical acts may fall back on slick moves and non-threatening sap, the Rollers lay down polyharmonic soundscapes to amaze and delight. Their lyrics are bright and incisive, touching on young love, socioeconomic inequality, and the importance of dancing.

Following a licensing dispute with the River City Chamber of Commerce (“Only the smiles are free”), Cornet took her gig on the road. In addition to her musical talents and weaponized dessert-summoning horn, Cornet’s showings in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and La Pucelle Ragnarok demonstrate her keen tactical mind and experience with crossover situations.

Strengths: Horn, vocals, support, tactics, craft services

Eiko Carol lights up the stage with a trill of her flute and blast of holy radiance. Her lilting melodies keep her friends on her feet and the dead off the dancefloor. When the tour van breaks down and hecklers are on the rise, she puts in a call to the Rollers’ very own instant fan club: Earth, Wind, and Fire.

Strengths: Flute, backup vocals, visual effects, summon magic, white magic

Making music is all about teamwork. It’s also about shrugging off the haters, whether they’re slinging harsh words or hellfire blades. When the River City Rollers need someone to deflect criticism or sing a heartfelt ballad, it’s Mamori Minamoto’s time to shine. In deepest dungeon or pop-up promotion, the Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE idol is always ready to put on a show.

Strengths: Vocals, dance, giant axe, defense, team-ups

Suikoden III’s Nei joined the Rollers thanks to a generous travel grant from Haud Arts Council. As an elf, she lends a mature, worldly spark to the River City sound. Casual listeners credit the band’s success to her more exuberant bandmates, but true fans know Nei’s support bouzouki and backup vocals keep everything running smooth. Her custom blend of shield, water, and jongleur runes have a little something for everybody.

Strengths: Strings, backup vocals, support, healing

Don’t forget to stop by the merch table before you leave.

Alltrades Abbey Apollos

GM: Matt Masem
Pick #14 in rounds 1 and 3; Pick #3 in rounds 2 and 4

• Psaro the Manslayer (Dragon Quest IV)
  
• Serena (Dragon Quest XI)
  
• Kiefer (Dragon Quest VII)
  
• Alena (Dragon Quest IV)

The Alltrades Abbey Apollos is a Dragon Quest group ready to take on any opponent in the JRPG multiverse with mainly heavy physical attacks backed up with some powerful magic attacks and support skills and healing. The Apollos are led by the royal physical powerhouse pair of Dragon Quest VII’s Prince Kiefer, son of Donald, and Dragon Quest IV’s Tsarina Alena. Dragon Quest IV’s antagonist-turned-hero Psaro the Manslayer provides more offensive firepower, and the team is rounded out by Dragon Quest XI’s sage, Serena.

Prince Kiefer is a physical powerhouse that learns skills such as adding elemental damage to his sword attacks and focusing his power to double his attack skill. He’s a bit of a roguish character prone to overindulging in women and wine, but his love of adventure and his need to help those in need make him the perfect prince to propel the Apollos to victory in any situation. Standing equally tall next to Kiefer is Tsarina Alena, master of hand-to-hand combat. Her natural speed augmented with some falcon blade earrings have her dealing critical hits to the enemy at an alarming rate. Her determined personality and need for exploring the world around her make her qualified to lead a group of adventures wherever they need to go.

With a title like “The Manslayer,” one wouldn’t expect Psaro to simply stand in the background casting buffs to increase attack power and fling his dark magic at the enemy. No, he’s a physical powerhouse in his own right and can call upon the power of evolution to change into a monstrous five-eyed, laser-beam-shooting beast when the need arises as well as having access to single and multi-character healing spells. He’s the complete package! That can almost be said of sage-like Serena. Due to story reasons, the Serena of Dragon Quest XI Act 2 not only has a full range of debuff and healing spells at her disposal, but a wide range of powerful elemental and light light-based spells as well. There are very few types of situations she’s not prepared to take on and support her party members with her deep pool of magic and her calm demeanor keeping her focused on what’s most important at all times.

Heliodor HEYAAAAS

GM: Sam Wachter
Pick #2 in rounds 1 and 3; Pick #15 in rounds 2 and 4

• Sylvando (Dragon Quest XI)
• Prompto Argentum (Final Fantasy XV)
• Goro Majima (Yakuza)
• Zaveid (Tales of Zestiria)

We are the Heliodor HEYAAAAS and we are here to sing you a song, and charm your pants off. Whether its showing you our soulful side or be taken home to mom, the boys of the HEYAAAAS want you to know girl, that we are so very, very into you.

Roll call!

Sylvando — The Entertainer and Talented One!
Zaveid — The Shirtless One!
Prompto — The Sweet One Who Moms 100% Approve of!
Majima — The… Crazy One? Since when do boy bands have the crazy one? Eh, whatever, let’s roll with it.

The Heliodor HEYAAAAS will be the heartthrobs to beat during this JRPGL.

Toad Town Townies

GM: Zack Webster
Pick #3 in rounds 1 and 3; Pick #14 in rounds 2 and 4

• Bowser (Super Mario RPG)
  
• The Demi-fiend (Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne)
  
• Minwu (Final Fantasy II)
  
• Aya Brea (Parasite Eve)

The Toad Town Townies are called as such because they are led by King Bowser, presumably after a hostile takeover of Mushroom Kingdom since walking mushrooms with no arms and turtles easily dispatched by jumping on their backs make for a poor team composition. Bowser himself is a powerhouse, able to simultaneously deal and sustain punishment while doing what is absolutely necessary for victory: throwing allies in harm’s way. Any Chess Master knows it’s all about sacrificing the right pieces at the right time and what better way than throwing more competent people at the problem until it is solved? For starters, that competent person could be more invulnerable than yourself. Enter the Demi-fiend, a near god-like figure that can not only persuade mythological forces to his side, but can ingest special Magatama that grant him special powers. One of these Magatama, Masakados, makes him immune to all types of damage except for Almighty. Only the literal power of gods can touch him. Combine this with a wide berth of abilities gained through other Magatama and you have the perfect first wave to throw into battle.

Now, let’s say for some reason your Demi-fiend is hurt. A white mage could patch that right up. But how many white mages are willing to die in the line of duty and can actually back it up? Enter Minwu, the oft-forgotten mage of Final Fantasy II who both has sacrificed for his friends and obtained the powerful Ultima spell in the afterlife on top of his extensive healing magic. Plus, getting hit by your allies in Final Fantasy II is almost essential for health and defense increases, so Bowser’s desire to throw his buddies only serves to make Minwu more resilient.

But Bowser only has two arms and can only throw at most two people at once. This is why the third should be able to shoot at some enemies before her turn is up and who better than the NYPD’s Aya Brea, a cop with access to the nonsensical powers of Mitochondria. Besides being an ace shot, Aya is entirely self-reliant with her Parasite Energy abilities which include healing, haste, and augmenting her own bullets with additional power. Finally, when her turn is up to join the fray, her Liberate ability transforms her into an all-destructive force. Don’t worry about why these people will allow themselves to be thrown by an oversized turtle and just accept that it will work out. Probably. At least Bowser’s got persistence on his side.