Tales of Eternia Characters: All Playable Party

Tales of Eternia Remastered has six playable characters: Reid Hershel, Farah Oersted, Keele Zeibel, Meredy, Chat and Max. Reid, Farah and Keele start with you in Rasheans, Meredy joins early in the Inferia arc, and Chat and Max are recruited much later in Celestia. Two names cause most of the confusion: Max is called Fog in the Japanese version, and Rassius "Ras" Luine is not a seventh party member, despite fighting alongside the group on and off.

• Weapon and armour types are locked per character, so a party change is a gear decision too.
• Keele and Meredy are the only two Craymel casters, and each of them carries one Craymel Cage.

The Six Playable Characters at a Glance

Ages and hometowns come from the original character profiles (Tales of Eternia on Wikipedia). The remaster reprints no stat sheet and names only Reid, Farah and Meredy in its own copy, so the equipment columns are original-release data.

Official source: Tales of Eternia Remastered (Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Reid Hershel: The Hunter With the Whole Armoury

Reid is an 18-year-old hunter from a small village who grew up alongside Farah and Keele, and the game hands him to you first. He is laid-back to the point of laziness and carries a mysterious power called Fibril that nobody else in the party has; his name comes from the astronomer William Herschel.

Mechanically he is the safe answer to almost everything: the only character who equips swords, spears, axes, halberds, daggers and L-swords, and the only one in plate armour with a shield, so most good weapon drops belong to him. His arte progression runs on hidden Slash and Thrust counters rather than a menu, and his combo route is a normal string, then a Special Skill, then a Sacred Skill. The per-character tables sit on the artes and combos page.

Farah Oersted: The Fastest Melee Chain

Farah is 17, a farmhand and martial artist from the same village, and the party's second front-liner. She fights bare-handed with knuckles, and speed is her whole argument: the original combo table gives her the longest route in the game, running from a normal string into a Forward, Rising, Air and finally Power Skill.

That speed costs her: she cannot wear plate or carry a shield, and her cloaks, bracelets, ribbons and mittens are geared for evasion rather than raw numbers. She also anchors the combination artes that pair a front-liner with a mage, so benching her costs a whole branch of team attacks. The best party setup guide covers what each pairing buys.

Keele Zeibel and Meredy: The Two Craymel Casters

Keele is a 17-year-old student of magic from Inferia with an appetite for knowledge and no physical durability. Meredy is a 16-year-old Craymel Mage from Celestia who speaks Melnics, a language the Inferians cannot understand, and is never seen without her pet Quickie. Neither can chain combos, and neither learns anything from combat: their spell list comes entirely from the Craymel Cage.

The cage is what actually changes a run. Each mage holds one Craymel Cage, and a spell exists only once the two Greater Craymels that generate it sit in different cages and are fringed together. With more Craymels than cages, no setup unlocks every spell, and the split decides whether Keele or Meredy is your healer. Casting and interruption are covered in the battle system guide.

Chat: The Twelve-Year-Old Pirate Captain

Chat is 12, a Celestian, and the descendant of a famous pirate whose ship, the Van Eltia, she styles herself the captain of. She is highly intelligent for her age but lived in isolation until she met Reid and his friends, and she fights with a handbag full of tools, which is why her weapon class is simply bags.

Two things set her apart: she cannot combo at all, and she learns nothing from levelling. Her skills come from seeing specific events in specific places, so a Chat who has been in the party for hours can still be missing moves. That event list sits on the sidequests and missables page.

Max: The Gunner Called Fog in Japan

Max is 38, a Celestian, and the leader of the resistance group Shikeska. He is written as loud and boisterous, and he wields high-powered energy cannons that fire capsules of different elements. He is the only gun user, which means he never competes with Reid for swords, spears or axes, so gearing him costs you nothing elsewhere.

His skills, like Chat's, come from world events rather than experience points, and he cannot chain them unless a specific accessory is equipped, so a Max who looks broken is usually missing that piece. And remember the naming trap: Fog is his Japanese name, so a table listing Fog and Max separately has counted him twice.

How and When Each Character Joins

Bandai Namco has published no recruitment order for the remaster, and the original walkthroughs mark the chapters differently, so treat a precise "he joins in chapter 7" claim with caution. The order of the arcs is consistent.

Max is the one genuine gap: no source we could check names the exact scene that makes him permanent, only where his story content sits. It matters less than it sounds, since both late recruits are event-taught and their level is never the bottleneck. The beginner guide covers early Inferia; the leveling guide covers catching a late arrival up.

Rassius "Ras" Luine Is Not a Seventh Party Member

Search long enough and you will find Rassius listed beside the six above, usually on the strength of his screen time rather than his party slot. He is a mysterious 25-year-old swordsman masquerading as a merchant, calm on the surface and highly determined under it, who periodically aids Reid and his friends.

He is not one of the six playable characters: he has no entry in the original weapon, armour or skill tables, and the original release's boss tables put him on the other side of the field at one point. A guide implying a seven-character party is counting a recurring guest.

Remaster Notes That Touch the Cast

The roster is unchanged, but the systems around it are not. The original version's character name change function is not implemented, so you cannot rename anyone, and Quick Recovery heals every party member's HP and status ailments at once. The official change list has the rest (Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe).

The one thing to unlearn is multiplayer: the PlayStation release let up to four players share the battle screen, while this one carries Single-player only, so the three characters you are not controlling are always AI. The original vs remastered comparison covers that in full.

Official source: Tales of Eternia Remastered on Steam

FAQ

How many playable characters are in Tales of Eternia Remastered? Six: Reid, Farah, Keele, Meredy, Chat and Max. Four take the field at once. Rassius "Ras" Luine is a recurring guest, not a seventh member.

Who is Fog in Tales of Eternia? Fog is Max's Japanese name. Japanese guides and many fan translations use it; the English release uses Max. There is no separate character called Fog.

Can you rename characters in Tales of Eternia Remastered? No. The original version's character name change function is explicitly not implemented, so the cast keeps its default names.

Which characters can use Craymel Artes? Only Keele and Meredy. Each holds one Craymel Cage, so which spells either can cast depends on how you split the Greater Craymels, not on their levels.

Related Guides

• Tales of Eternia Best Party Setup - which four of the six to field.
• Tales of Eternia Artes List and Combo Guide - the tables behind these roles.
• Tales of Eternia Battle System Guide - casting, guarding and your AI allies.
• Tales of Eternia Original vs Remastered - including the lost four-player battles.