Tales of Berseria's Rokurou Defies His Archetype by Actually Not Sucking

I find Tales of Berseria to be quite awesome, as I’m sure you’ve all picked up on by now.  It’s excellently written, its characters are unique, have depth, and form great dynamics with one another, it has a refreshing and thoughtful take on an extremely common RPG story trope, the villain’s solid, it’s emotional as hell...it’s just a great title, all around.  But while I most greatly appreciate ToB’s ability to buck and even reverse its genre’s trend toward fixating on positive and negative emotional energy and drawing a line in the sand between them, that’s not the only common RPG narrative practice that ToB turns on its head over its course.  And 1 of these unexpected upsets that I think really deserves some appreciation is Namco’s decision to, unexpectedly, make the character of Rokurou something other than a one-dimensional, colossal fucking tool.

See, Rokurou belongs to a certain character archetype, known to a small degree globally but wildly frequent and inexplicably popular in Japan: the dude whose greatest priority and obsession in life is to fight other people and be the absolute best at doing so.  This style of character almost inevitably comes in 1 of 2 flavors, each of which is iconically characterized by a Dragon Ball Z character:


A: The numbnuts braindead dumbfuck whose mind is so stunted and worthless that he’s completely unable to find any joy, purpose, or distraction in life beyond simply finding harder and harder things to sink his fist into.  His single- and simple-minded prioritizing of this desire constantly endangers those around him, sometimes even as a result of said numbnuts braindead dumbfuck deliberately creating more dangerous situations out of a desire to test himself.  Goku is the most perfect example of this kind of man-infant,* although Leon and Nemona from Pokemon Generations 8 and 9 are worthy contenders for Dumbest Punch-Toddler, too.


B: Far more common, the belligerent, antisocial asswipe whose unwavering obsession with being the best at propelling hands and/or sharp objects into stuff is not the result of a mind so stunted that it’s simply incapable of finding joy in anything else, but rather of something even more pathetic: a raging, out-of-control engorged egotism.  He, too, is perfectly willing to put anyone and anything at risk in the impossible pursuit of a fight whose victory will finally make him secure in his manhood, except that unlike Type A, this jackass has enough brain cells to rub together that he actually is capable of knowing better, which makes him an even worse human being.  Also, he’s always such a complete, uncompromising buttmunch to everyone around him for no goddamn reason.  Vegeta is certainly not the most perfect example of this micro-dicked shithead (that illustrious distinction goes to My Hero Academia’s Bakugo nowadays), but he’s still a solid representation for the majority of DBZ’s course, so he's my go-to example nonetheless.


Worth noting, I suppose, is that this archetype CAN be about things other than combat--there’s nothing preventing a character of Type B from being an antagonistic rival character in an anime about playing children’s card games, for example.  And this archetype CAN, as I noted, be seen in media that doesn’t come out of Japan--you’ve got a decent chance of encountering some Type A nitwit with a mind so devolved that he can’t find anything in the entire scope of the human experience to quite compare with the existential delight of making a round object go from his hand to another place in more than a few movies about sports, for example.  The more strain it puts on that person’s home life, the better!  Especially if the solution to that issue is “Wife and/or Children compromise by just having to deal with being less important to this guy than hand-delivering a ball to a particular side of a painted line, and Guy compromises by not having to compromise.”

Anyway, as you can clearly tell, I don’t have a whole hell of a lot of respect or affection for this type of character, as a general rule.  Frankly, any character who has only a single notable and guiding personality trait is usually neither memorable nor especially likable, and a demonstrable example of the limitations of the writer(s) behind him, but this archetype is especially bad, because it creates individuals who are basically doldrums of character development.  With most 1-dimensional personalities in a cast, well, they don’t really contribute all that much to the whole or experience, but the extent of their failure as a writer’s creation only extends as far as themselves.  Quina Quen from Final Fantasy 9, for example, is a throwaway joke character whose only notable trait is wanting to eat a bunch of stuff.  In as great an RPG as FF9, this kind of dead weight cast member is quite surprising, but Quina’s wanting personality and depth only really lessen itself.  When other characters interact with Quina, the process can still be enjoyable and/or interesting, because Quina is good-natured enough (if not terribly bright) to converse with its companions, and get involved in whatever they’re up to even in occasions where that doesn’t have anything to do with something edible.

The Fighting’s My Life archetype, however, is, as I mentioned, a doldrum of personality and character development.  If it’s not about fighting and killing, he’s not fucking interested when his companions want to talk to him or do something with him.  And since the Type B version is the most prevalent, this usually involves him being a snide, self-absorbed asswipe to the others trying for some inexplicable reason to actually be his friend.  Someone wants to talk to Keita in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 about anything not related to putting his fist through something, and he’s not interested.  Strike up a conversation with Jeritza in Fire Emblem 16, and he’s gonna do everything in his power to direct it toward scheduling a death match between you and him, because Sothis forbid people try to get to know each other on any level without attempted murder being involved  And don’t even get me started on that turd-guzzling fuckwad Albel from Star Ocean 3.  Not only is this character utterly stagnant and going fucking nowhere, but everyone they come in contact with loses all character-growth momentum the moment they open their mouth and invoke the sullen glare.  Hence my use of the term doldrums to describe these characters.

And honestly, the Type A version’s no better in any real regard, when it does surface--Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3’s Akihiko isn’t a hostile butthead like the Type Bs, but his ability to engage with others in any way on a subject unrelated to fighting and bulking up is, generously put, limited, and his single-minded focus can and does derail the interactions of characters whose personalities require more than a single sentence to adequately describe.

I may not be happy about Quina Quen contributing basically nothing to the story and cast of Final Fantasy 9, but at least it has the courtesy not to slow down everyone around it, and at least it’s decent enough not to be a complete fucking tool the whole time.

But getting back to Rokurou, that’s what’s amazing about the guy: he’s a combat-obsessed character, a guy who’s dedicated his life to his own strength and the thrill of fighting, with as much devotion as Keita, Jeritza, Albel, Akihiko, or any other character of this type...but he’s also actually intelligent, and what’s more, not a complete fucking asshole.

HOLY SHIT IT’S ACTUALLY FUCKING POSSIBLE.

Is everything of any weight or significance about Rokurou limited entirely to his obsession with battle?  Oh, absolutely.  Rokurou’s history and his story over the course of Tales of Berseria is devoted in its entirety to his burning desire to be the greatest warrior, which in this case means defeating his brother (who IS the greatest warrior) in combat, he became a demon specifically because of his lust for violence, and we see multiple instances in ToB where it’s made clear that he derives a hedonistic thrill from a good fight.  One can hardly try to make the argument that Rokurou has any less the fixation of combat than other examples of his archetype; I’d even say that his character arc of this game has enough substance to make his obsession stronger than many of his peers’.

But Rokurou actually has a personality.  Not only is he not a braindead punch-toddler constantly asking “Is my fist there yet?” (the "there" in question being someone’s face...okay, look, not every joke is a winner, alright?), he’s also not a sulky, vainglorious jerk to everyone around him.  Rokurou is, in fact, actually pretty damn personable.  When his teammates engage him in conversation--which is quite often; Tales of Berseria has a ton of those skits I like so much--he talks to them, answers them, pays attention to the topics they’re intent on discussing even if that topic isn’t a list of things that can and can’t be stabbed.  He’s willing to engage in, hell, even initiate lighthearted banter, speculation about the group’s current and ultimate objectives, and theorizing on deeper matters and personal philosophies.  Rokurou isn’t just a tired, color-by-numbers archetype, he’s a character.

And it’s honestly only to the game’s and his own benefit.  Not only is it a good thing to have a character with nuance and depth, not to mention one whose role also enhances the overall dynamics of the cast’s interaction and chemistry, but making Rokurou a sincere, actual person instead of a combat automaton actually betters his ability to fulfill his role, too.  Because when the times come that Rokurou’s bloodlust and obsession with proving his combat greatness are seen, the contrast of the generally affable and decent guy he is under most circumstances to the driven, dangerous demon he becomes makes a far more powerful impression on the audience of his obsession with strength and skill at fighting.  You see a character who just outright cannot show the slightest enthusiasm for anything besides fighting get all pumped up about a chance to prove his mettle in a battle, and it’s like, okay, sure, whatever, big deal, he’s just doing the only thing he ever goddamn talks about doing.  You see Rokurou get so aggressive that he’s a moment away from attacking even his comrades if they get in the way of his battle, and it makes a jarring impression on you, because you’re not used to seeing Rokurou like this, and you’re reminded violently that regardless of his generally outgoing demeanor, this guy is a demon of violence.  Because there’s something substantial to contrast it against, the obsession with the thrill of fighting is, with Rokurou, far more a memorable and genuine trait than it is for his idiot RPG peers who have nothing but that to offer.

Also, credit to the game as a whole for having the sense and decency to show that there are actual costs to a mindset like this (Rokurou’s obsession has led to exile, and to his losing his humanity).  More than that, for once an RPG actually identifies this as a negative emotion and mindset, which is a real breath of fresh, logical air.  Every other time you encounter this character archetype, the game seems to regard this selfish, antisocial, dead-end obsession with fighting and physical strength as a good thing, even a life philosophy to be encouraged!  And sure, Tales of Berseria is all about acknowledging and validating the worth, or at least the importance, of the negative aspects of the human spirit...but just the fact that it can even identify this infantile/egomaniacal violent psychosis as a trait not to be unquestioningly lauded and idealized is incredible in a JRPG!

So yeah, great kudos to Tales of Berseria’s writers for how they handled the cliched Fighting-Obsessed Guy character.  I respect the fact that they didn’t pretend it’s a positive or respectable mentality, and I greatly appreciate the fact that they didn’t just lazily make that the 1 and only thing going on with Rokurou, the way every other game’s writers do.  Well done, Namco.












* Even children are capable of diversifying themselves as thinking, self-aware creatures past a single interest, so “manchild” just didn’t feel accurate enough.