Rokurou Rangetsu

**Rokurou Rangetsu** (ロクロウ・ランゲツ, *Rokurou Rangetsu*), is both a fictional character and protagonist from the *Tales of Berseria* of the *Tales of* series created by Yoshiharu Gotanda. He is free and happy-go-lucky young samurai, who is actually a Daemon. Being one of those affected by the daemonblight disease that transforms them into monsters, but similar to Velvet who managed to still maintain his sense of reason and his human form as he still continues to walk his own path.

He is the first of Velvet's companions to joins Velvet in escaping Titania and continues on her journey to repay his debt to her for helping him find his sword, as a master swordsman. Referring to it as "This sword is my life." And that his family always pays what is owed. He aims to defeat his stronger older brother, Shigure, in the ways of the sword.

"*This blade is my life. I owe you a great debt, one I vow to repay.*"

—Rokurou Rangetsu.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Benjamin Diskin (English), Daisuke Kishio (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Isralian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Biography

Once a samurai of the renowned Rangetsu clan, Rokurou is now a daemon who retained his sense of reason, and accompanies Velvet in her journey in order to repay a debt to her. Despite carrying a longsword he claims to be his life on his back, he wields dual blades in battle.

### Appearance

Rokurou takes the appearance of a samurai, with traditional clothing and armor. Despite his human-like appearance, his true nature as a daemon appears on the right side of his face, which is dyed black with red markings surrounding a red eye.

Rokurou has mid-length, spiky and black hair which covers the right portion of his face (specifically to cover his right eye). His hair is tied into a low-ponytail and each strand of hair flicks out. The right side of his face is covered with markings that had appeared after the Scarlet Moon and continues lower down on his body.

His attire consists of black legwarmers, pale-lilac samurai pants and woven robes. Another layer of a dark purple robe is worn over and tied around his waist. The purple layer of clothing has orange as its inverted color. He wears a chest-plate guard and presumably something of the similar sort for his arms, which is finished off by a thick, plated shoulder-guard. He has a strap attached to his torso which he hangs his sword on the back of. Rokurou also wears traditional sandal footwear for that of samurais; with straps and socks.

* Hair Color: Black
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Brown
* Age: 22
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: 180 cm
* Weight: Not Known

## Personality

Rokurou himself is a kind and cheerful, taking care of the people around him. In this, he is a good match for the headstrong and reckless Velvet Crowe, as well as the initially blank and will-less Laphicet. He is also caring despite having his mercenary-type ways, being the one of those who treats Laphicet like a younger brother, something he also tries encourages Velvet to do more, which shows his nurturing side. He also considers himself a man-of-duty.

He is jovial, supportive, and protective individual of the other members of the party, serving as a parental figure to Laphicet and Kamoana and a drinking buddy to Eizen, while passionately fighting alongside Velvet and keeping Eleanor Hume from being sucked into the Earthpulse. He frequently teases Magilou much like a brother would.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Magilou's Menagerie
	+ Velvet Crowe
	+ Laphicet
	+ Eizen
	+ Magilou
	+ Eleanor Hume
* Dyle
* Benwick
* Tabatha Baskerville
* Kurogane
* Grimoirh
* Kamoana
* Percival Yil Mid Asgard

### Family

* Shigure Rangetsu (older brother; deceased)

### Neutral

* Van Aifread
* Zaveid
* Medissa

### Enemies

* Abby
	+ Artorius Collbrande
	+ Oscar Dragonia
	+ Teresa Linares
	+ Melchior Mayvin

## Abilities and Powers

### Abilities

* **Master Swordsman**: Rokurou is one of the most skilled swordsmen alive, third only to Shigure and Artorius. The Rangetsu Style Rokurou uses is extremely difficult to use. He is highly mobile, and most of his attacks include movement frames. He primarily uses his dual short swords, and as such his style is focused on feints, evasion, and counters; if played properly, Rokurou won't get hit. Ever. He's so skilled at countering and parrying that he can stop Shigure's Mystic Arte in its tracks.

* **Forms**: Rokurou's Hidden Artes channel elemental powers into his blades. These take the forms of firaballs, lightning, mines, spouts of magma, and other such attacks.

* **Dual Short Swords**: Rokurou primarily uses a pair of shorts words (and anyone who misspells "dual" as "duel" will have their vote negated) for combat. His main pair were made from the head of the demonic swordsmith, Kurogane.

* **Kurogane Stormquell**: Kurogane's ultimate creation, forged from his own body to surpass the sword Stormhowl. Rokurou tends not to use it in combat, preferring his dual blades, but he does use it for surprise attacks, countering Shigure's Mystic Arte, and in his own Mystic Arte.

* **Superhuman Physicality**: As a War Demon, Rokurou's physical abilities have been heightened to superhuman levels. This includes his speed, strength, and reflexes. He's still below Shigure, but that's only because Shigure is literally the strongest human in the entire Berseria/Zesteria universe.

* **Mystic Artes**: Rokurou, like the rest of the group, has several "mystic artes" that he can use to capstone his combos. Form 0: Sunder, Rangetsu Heron, and Form 9: Final Judgement all strike one enemy. He shares a Dual Mystic Arte with Eizen, Last Laugh, which strikes one enemy. See "Mystic Artes" tab for more detail.

### Combat Skills

#### Fighting Style

His battle class is that of a **Dual Wielder**. This means that he holds two blades to fight with, a reference to his samurai lineage. Primarily his techniques consist of martial artes and slash techniques, the earth being his main attribute towards fighting. His Switch Blast is **Eluding Strike** and his mystic artes are **Form Zero: Sunder, Rangetsu Heron and Form Nine: Final Judgment.**

Rokurou fights using two blades, neither of which is the sword across his back. His martial artes consist of slashing twin blades, while his hidden artes are seal-based elemental attacks that follow a numerical system. When Rokurou has enough Soul on his Soul Gauge, he can use his Break Soul which are **Retribution** (因果応報 →カウンター技, *Inga Ouhou Kauntā-waza*; lit. Factor Result Retribution → Counter-Technique) and Vengeful Stance, which has him enter a counterattack stance that goes off if struck, similar to Chloe Valens from *Tales of Legendia*. His mystic artes are Form 0: Sunder, Rangetsu Heron, and Form 9: Final Judgment. He also shares a dual mystic arte with Eizen known as Last Laugh.

It is due to his arte setup in gameplay that Rokurou can be a very difficult character to use when faced off against any enemies resistant to non-elemental damage, as well as with large groups of enemies, giving him trouble due to his lack of decent area-of-effects. His hidden artes are also fairly difficult to use, as some of them require proper placement, as well as having a non-standard Break Soul to make use of in the form of a counter or reversal. However, if fully mastered, Rokurou can easily extend combos in various ways on any single target, via either intuitive use of his artes or timing his Break Soul during an incoming armored-counterattack during his assault in order to keep up his own offense.

## History

### Past

Rokurou is a part of the Rangetsu family from outside of the continent, signified by his unusual appearance and attire. He is the sixth child, thus the name "Rokurou". Originally the youngest of six siblings, he learned the arts of both the great-sword and the dual short swords.

When he was younger, he often got into fights with his older brother, Shigure Rangetsu. Rokurou mentioned that as a child, his parents very strict in teaching him the ways of the *Rangetsu Style*, a secret form of martial artes passed down exclusively by the Rangetsu family. He also noted that his mother was very caring and that his family in general used to get along with each other.

Three years prior to the events of the main game, he grew jealous of his brother Shigure, so he spread rumors that Shigure was going to lead a coup, in order to have a just cause for to try and fight and killing him himself. Rokurou is on the hunt to kill his brother Shigure, just to because he is strong.

Shigure won handily, and Rokurou's hatred during the events of the Scarlet Night turned him into a Yaksha - a War Demon - and he was sentenced to five hundred years in prison. Despite of becoming one of the few who became a daemon, he managed to retain his bodily appearance and both his sense of self and reason. Taking his changed appearance in stride, Rokurou moves ever forward, advancing his family's sword style.

## Synopsis

### *Tales of Berseria*

#### Escape from Titania

He meets Velvet when the latter instigates a prison riot. She fights him briefly, and upon the mention of his broken sword's location he thanks her and runs off to find it. He rejoins her as she captures a boat, and joins her in her escape. He then helps her out in combat, to repay the debts he owes for her sharing the location of the sword and for enabling his escape from prison.

#### During the Journey

Rokurou gets multiple showdowns with his elder brother, clashing with Shigure and being soundly defeated on several occasions, wielding daggers made out of the head of the demonic swordsmith Kurogane. With his newly forged sword Stormquell, he successfully kills his brother and finally gains victory when he used a great sword made from the rest of Kurogane's body in a feint, effectively wielding three blades in combat against Shigure's one.

#### Ending

After the party defeats Artorius, Rokurou chooses not to be purified, and with his brother's sword Stormhowl, he takes his game to the next level as he continues to search for worthy opponents to battle by dual-wielding great swords in addition to his short swords, hunting demons for sport.

## Etymology

*Rokurou* (ロクロウ) written *Rokurou* (六郎) means "Sixth Son". This has also been explained by him in-game, that it is equivalent to the "sixth sibling".

## External links

* Rokurou Rangetsu *Tales of Berseria (Official Website)*
* Rokurou Rangetsu *Tales of Wiki*
* Rokurou Rangetsu *Aselia, the Tales Wiki*

## Notes & Trivia

* In one of the game's skits, Rokurou reveals that he is a Yaksha, which is a war daemon.
* According to a special Japanese skit that comes with a pre-ordered copy of *Tales of Berseria*, Rokurou's favorite past *Tales* series character is Lloyd Irving from *Tales of Symphonia*. Being a fellow dual-wielder, Rokurou finds Lloyd's claim of two swords being twice the power of one sword to be an inspiring philosophy.