Cress Albane

**Cress Albane** (クレス・アルベイン, *Kuresu Arubein*; literally meaning "Cless Alvein"), is both a fictional character and lead protagonist from the *Tales of Phantasia* of the *Tales of* series. He is a 17-year-old swordsman from the small village of Toltus. He is the son of Miguel Albane, a famous swordsman and master of the local sword fighting school. As such, he has practiced sword fighting since he was a young child.

"*.*"

—Cress Albane.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: Johnny Bosch (English), Takeshi Kusao (Japanese), Not Known (French), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Appearance

Cress is an adolescent male standing at 5 foot 7 with a lean yet athletic physique. He has blond hair, gray eyes and a red headband around his forehead. His attire consists of a black bodysuit cropped somewhat at the biceps with a cropped breastplate covering his chest and leather around his waist, which allows him to carry his sword and partially surrounds his right leg. At his arms are black fabric and white metal wrist guards extending to his elbow. He wears finger-less leather gloves. At the back of his armor, a red cloak is attached at the shoulder guards. Finally, his footwear consists of silver sabatons. He is considered to be a handsome youth in the story as Mint, Arche and Ami have all developed a crush on him.

* Hair Color: Blond
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Gray
* Age: 17
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: 5'7" / 170 cm
* Weight: 130 lbs. / 59 kg

## Personality

Cress is a kind and caring person with a great sense of justice and a strong desire to do good. In the face of the enemy, especially Dhaos, who murdered his family as well as the villagers of his hometown, he is instead ruthless and unforgiving, driven by vengeance. Cress enjoys saying puns. He does not say many in the original game, but he picks up the habit in some escort titles such as *Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3* and *Tales of the Heroes: Twin Brave*. He intends to amuse his fellow party members by saying them but always receives contrary effects. He is a very loyal friend and is willing to risk his life for them.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Cress' Group
	+ Mint Adenade
	+ Chester Burklight
	+ Claus F. Lester
	+ Arche Klein
	+ Suzu Fujibayashi
	+ Rondoline E. Effenberg
* Trinicus D. Morrison
* Brambert Milene
* Arsia
* Edward D. Morrison
* Winona Pickford

## Powers and Abilities

### Fighting Style

Cress, being the traditional swordsman, uses swords and other blades in battle using the **Albane School of Sword Fighting** (アルベイン流剣術, *Alvein-ryuu Kenjutsu*). As the first swordsman in the series, many of his artes are considered the archetypal swordsman artes for the series. His attack strength is, unlike the rest of the characters in the game, separated into thrust and slash stats, with his various artes depending on one or both. Many of his artes are designed to either halt or push enemies away, as for most of the game it is Cress protecting three mages from most enemies.

Cress has such artes as Sword Rain, which subjects an enemy to a flurry of stabs, and Beast, which knocks enemies back with a lion's head. Cress also has several artes to boost his own abilities to either defeat enemies quicker, in the case of Coil which boosts his attack power, or allow him to fight longer, such as the health-restoring Inspiration. Also, unlike the rest of the characters in the storyline, his artes are in fact separated into two, and then later on added to only three, distinct classes: the **Deadly Skills** (必殺技, *Hissatsuwaza*) and the **Secret Skills** (奥義, *Ougi*).

Deadly skills are learned through levels, while secret skills must, for the most part, be learned from books which have to be bought or found throughout the world. His secret skills build on his deadly skills, combining two of them into a stronger attack. Cress also introduces an even higher tier of the physical artes: the **Hidden Secret Skill** (秘奥義, *Hi Ougi*), which would later be termed the mystic arte. His Dark Blade is the first mystic arte in the series. Cress, through the agency of obtaining the Eternal Sword and its components, also uses various artes termed "*space-time attacks*" (時空剣技, *Jikuu Kengi*), which are mostly unique to him.

Another unique trait of his swordsmanship is the way his primary sword is designed; the hand guard has a tonfa-like grip sticking out perpendicular of the two other ends, allowing Cress to grip and wield the blade in a unique manner as displayed in the animation.

## Synopsis

### *Tales of Phantasia*

#### Present Timeline

Cress is a 17-year-old swordsman from the small village of Toltus. He is the son of Miguel Albane, a famous swordsman and master of the local sword fighting school. As such, he has practiced sword fighting since he was a young child. While hunting in the South Forest with his friend Chester Burklight, Cress has a vision of a woman pleading that the tree not be defiled. Hearing the village's alarm go off, he returns to Toltus, only to find it destroyed. First he finds the corpse of his father, Miguel Albane, then he returns home just in time to find his dying mother, Maria Albane. After being told that his village was attacked for his family's pendant, Cress finds Chester mourning his sister, Ami Burklight, and decides to head to his uncle's home in Euclid. He parts ways with Chester after promising to find their vengeance together, though Cress internally decides that as long as he is apart from Chester, the other would be safer.

Seeking refuge at his uncle Olson and aunt Joanne's house, he is awoken in the middle of the night by soldiers under the command of Mars Uldole, the one who attacked Toltus for his pendant. He is taken away, having been given up by his uncle in order to protect Euclid. Imprisoned and stripped of his equipment, a woman offers him an earring, which allows him to blow a hole in the wall of his cell, only to find that the only woman there is a corpse. Cress then meets a young woman named Mint Adenade, whose mother was supposed to be the cell with the corpse. Lying about her mother's state, the two escape from the dungeon through the Aqueducts, only for Cress to be felled in the end by a slime. Half-conscious, Cress dreams of his parents as Mint helps him escape.

Cress awakens at Trinicus D. Morrison's house, with both Mint and Chester. Chester tells him that Morrison helped him bury the people of Toltus, while the latter says that he knew his and Mint's parents. When asked about his pendant, of which Mint also had a similar one, Cress tells Morrison that it was taken, and Morrison leaves for the Catacombs. Frustrated by the lack of answers, Cress, along with Mint and Chester, takes up an oath of vengeance and follows Morrison to the Catacombs, where they arrive just in time to discover the purpose of the pendants. The pendants were used by his, Mint's, and Morrison's ancestors to seal away the Ancient King Dhaos. Mars uses them to free Dhaos, who kills him for his impudence. Morrison uses divine power to send Cress and Mint to the past to find a way to defeat Dhaos, while Chester takes an enemy blast meant for them.

#### Past Timeline

Cress and Mint find themselves on an empty hill. They discover Chester's broken bow, much to Cress's concern, and also find that they are 100 years in the past, where a power called magic flourishes. From the chief of Belladem Village, they discover that only magic can defeat Dhaos and decide to head to Euclid in order to find Claus F. Lester, the only human of non-elvish blood that possesses the ability to harness magic. That night, Cress and Mint rest at Belladem, and in one of the few cases of how dense Cress can be, it takes him a bit of time to realize why they can not share a bed. During the night, Mint checks on Cress and then drapes a blanket over him. At Euclid, they meet up with Claus, who takes them to Lone Valley to make a pact with Sylph. Upon doing so, they are told by Sylph to visit the Great Tree Yggdrasill. There, they are told by Martel that the tree is dying. Determined to stop the tree's death, which would cause magic to fade, the party decides to find Luna, the strongest Spirit Claus knows of. On the way to Alvanista, the party encounters and befriends Arche Klein, who allows Rhea Scarlet to avenge her killed family and destroyed hometown of Hamel.

On the boat to Alvanista, the rest of the party is incapacitated by a night of overeating, so Cress has to deal with Meia, who is under Dhaos's control, by himself. They arrive in Alvanista in time to save the prince from Dhaos's control, though they are thrown in prison afterward. Upon explaining the situation to the king with the aid of Lundgrom, Alvanista's Court Magic User, the party receives a pass to the Morlia Mineshaft, where they can find Luna's pact ring, and Cress receives the "Gungnir", though its power lies in a dormant state. The party then traverses the world, making pacts with Undine, Efreet, and Gnome. With the help of the four Spirits Claus made a pact with, they encounter and befriend Maxwell, gaining access to the treasure room, only to find that the pact rings are broken. Traversing to the Elf Colony in Ymir Forest, they learn about the Elves and their isolationist stance, as well as getting the rings fixed. Upon returning to Midgards, the party makes a pact with Luna.

The party returns to Midgards where Reisen shows them the Magitech Lab. Arche begins to question Dhaos's motives, suggesting that there may be a greater reason behind his actions, but Cress, in a break from his normally kind demeanor, harshly shuts her down to the point where Mint reprimands him. After returning to Migards once more after attempting to figure out the reason as to why Dhaos chose to destroy only Hamel, they discover that Dhaos has sent a minion to declare war on the world. To save a child, Edward D. Morrison disappears with Dhaos's minion using time travel, causing Cress to lament that Morrisons have now saved him twice. Cress and his party then lead an offensive on Dhaos's army at Valhalla Plains, succeeding in taking out his commander. They return to Midgards, only to find that Dhaos has launched an aerial assault. While Midgards then fires the Mana Cannon, Cress trades the "Gungnir" for 's **Pegasus** (ペガサス, *Pegasasu*), allowing him and Arche to do battle in the skies. Once the force is repelled, the party strikes for Dhaos, who they manage to defeat in a long battle only for him to disappear into time.

#### Reunion

The party, after providing Yggdrasill with more life in order to preserve its existence in the future, return to the present through the power of the ancient civilization Thor. There, they return to the Catacombs with Morrison and Chester still battling Dhaos, managing to defeat him this time. With his body lost amid the ruins, the party believes they can rest, only for Harrison to come from the future to call for aid, because Dhaos is wrecking havoc there. The party, with Chester in tow, head for the future.

#### Future Timeline

In the future, the party rests in the town of Miguel, the future Toltus. Cress stumbles upon Chester practicing in the middle of the night, who confesses that he feels outstripped by Cress. Cress in turn offers Chester encouragement, and the two discuss the dreams of their destroyed hometown. At the Miguel School of Swordfighting, Cress can take the challenge to fight five of their best swordsman. If he wins, he is named Acting Master of a style he probably taught the teachers of the very school. While resting in the inn again, Cress remembers his parents talking about the pendant which would eventually lead him to his current standing, while also discussing the decision to teach Cress how to fight. He also remembers his father developing the Dark Blade arte and learns how to perform it as well, in effect becoming the successor to his father's school of sword fighting.

The party travels to Euclid where they find they need the Techbirds in order to reach Alvanista through the air and need the Spirit Volt's help. On the way to Volt's Cave, they meet a ninja, later revealed to Suzu Fujibayashi, in several encounters where the party forces Cress to help her. Upon obtaining Volt's power and subsequently obtaining the Techbirds, they proceed to Alvanista. If the party heads to the Ninja Village in Treantwood, they meet Suzu again, who invites them into the village. Cress falls victim to various traps but eventually meets with Ranzo Fujibayashi, the chief, who tells them the role of ninja and ask them to find Suzu's parents, Dozo and Okiya. Cress eventually meets them at the end of Euclid's tournament, and though he defeats the pair, they commit suicide in order to atone for their sins. Cress tries to comfort Suzu, who teleports away in order to steel her heart. Upon returning to the Ninja Village, Suzu joins them on their quest.

At Alvanista, the party is tasked with finding the Three Weapons which defeated the three ancient civilizations of Thor, Fenrir, and Odin. Upon claiming the Fire sword, Flamberge, and Ice sword, Vorpal Sword, from the Odin and Fenrir civilizations, the guardians draw out Cress's latent abilities to teach him the space-time attacks. Returning to Treantwood, the party subdues Origin, who creates the Eternal Sword from the two swords and the power of the "Diamond" pact ring. The sword speaks to Cress, granting him with more space-time attacks. The party traverses to Arlee. Surrounded by snow, Cress and Mint have a talk. Mint shows Cress a unicorn earring that was her mother's, and Cress is reminded of the woman who saved him from his cell. Cress apologizes for not telling her about her mother's death, but Mint instead thanks Cress because she is not sure she could have gone on with that knowledge.

Afterward, using the Eternal Sword, they break the time barrier that surround Dhaos's castle. Meeting him one final time, the group defeats him once and for all. In the end, however, Cress realizes that there was perhaps some noble intentions behind Dhaos's actions, which blunts some of his previous rage. Cress says good bye to Claus, Arche, and Suzu and returns to the present with Mint and Chester. The three then resolve to rebuild Toltus, but first head out to meet with Arche.

### *Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon*

Cress plays an important role in this game as one of the Heroes of Eternity who have chosen to guide central protagonists Mell and Dio on their quest. Several years have passed since the battle with Dhaos, and Cress has built a new town where Toltus once stood. He spends most of his time traveling around with Mint as she goes from town to town, healing the sick and injured. He also helps Chester run his orphanage whenever he is around.

Time has caused Cress to ruminate on his own actions. He tells Mell and Dio about the war with Dhaos, about his own actions. He admits that while the loss of Yggdrasill would have been rea;;y bad, it would be much more dire for Derris-Kharlan. While he does not regret what he has done, he does acknowledge that there is a bit of ambiguity about his actions and that, from the standpoint of Derris-Kharlan's residents, he and his party may have very well been the "evil ones" preventing their ability to live. Cress ends by giving them the "mirror with no reflection" which allows them to enter the Tower of the Devil to meet the Spirit Gremlin's Lair. Afterward, toward the end, as Mint recovers from overexerting herself, Cress tells her that she can rely on him, that he will become her strength. He tells her that she is his most precious person, and proceeds to not understand why Mint blushes after this.

### *Tales of the World: Summoner's Lineage*

In order to defeat the Demon King Xex, Claus's descendant, Fulein K. Lester, and his partner Macaron bring forth Claus and his allies into the future for help. After summoning Claus, he suggests that the call Cress to the future with a possession of his. The problem is that Miguel has already been destroyed, with Velga Montor and Volga Montor as the only survivors. The party heads to Miguel's outskirts, and after a fierce battle against Kerse, they obtain Cress's signature bandanna, which they use to call him forth. Cress suggests going after Chester next and directs them to the Elven Village, where his Elven Bow may still be.

After summoning Mint using her Unicorn Horn, Arche and Chester tease them about their relationship and proceed to push them together, literally. Bumping into each other, both blush and act angry, though they seem pleased to see each other. At the Underground Mausoleum after defeating the vampire Lysis's servants, a zombie named Dead still remains and Mint convinces the party to hear him out. Throughout Dead's speech, Cress is impatient and threatens to destroy Dead if he acts out of line, causing Arche to tease him about being jealous.

## External links

* Cress Albane *Tales of Wiki*
* Cress Albane *Aselia*

## Notes & Trivia

* Cress's name is romanized as **Cless Alvein** during the ending credits to the Japanese-only *Tales of Phantasia* on the Super Famicom, as well as in the instruction manuals for the Japanese versions of the game. Due to this, fans tend to use the name *Cless* when referring to him, especially in the unofficial DeJap fan translation of the game. However, in his cameo appearance in the US version of *Tales of Eternia*, his name was localized as *Cress*. This has carried through into Nintendo's official translation of *Tales of Phantasia* on the Game Boy Advance and *Tales of Phantasia: The Animation* by Geneon. It should be noted that Japanese people pronounce the "r" and "l" sounds the same way, so neither one of Cress's name translations is incorrect. In terms of the version that involves the "r", cress is the name of a garden herb, which is a motif shared with Mint Adenade.
* Cress's puns in later appearances most likely stem from the Japanese dialogue "**I will definitely defeat Dhaos!**" (僕は絶対にダオスを倒す！, "*Boku wa zettai ni Daosu wo taosu!*"), where Dhaos's name when romanized in Japanese and "taosu" sound very identical. Two of the PSX translations translate this through English-worded puns ("I will douse Dhaos!" in particular), which seems to be a bit of a meme associated with Cress from that point on.
* Both Cress and Stahn Aileron are the only known main protagonists who wear a headband. In the *Tales of Fandom Gaiden* bonus DVD, Cress insists that a "true hero" wears a headband and wields a sword, validating Zelos Wilder's claim that he is the lead hero of *Tales of Symphonia* instead of Lloyd Irving. Other lead protagonists argue with Cress and Stahn about this statement, leading to other comments that "true heroes" are merely "country bumpkins", or that they must have the ability to use Demon Fang to be known as heroes, which infuriates Kyle Dunamis since he was the only main character at that time who could not use the arte.
* Flynn Scifo can dress as Cress in the PlayStation 3 release of *Tales of Vesperia*, using the title "**Kind Swordsmanship Successor**" (優しき剣術の継承者, "*Yasashiki Kenjutsu no Keishousha*"), which also grants him access to Cress's Jigenzan arte.
* Although Cress does not appear in *Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology*, if the Protagonist talks to Chester as a Swordsman, Chester mentions that while they look good, they do not compare to another swordsman he knows, referencing Cress.