There are people who grow stronger by acknowledging their weakness, you know.
― Ashton Anchors
Ashton Anchors (アシュトン・アンカース, Ashuton Ankāsu?, lit. Ashton Anchors) is one of the main characters from Star Ocean: The Second Story, its enhanced port, Second Evolution, its remake, The Second Story R, and its sequel Blue Sphere.
Ashton is an unlucky swordsman haunted by a double-headed dragon that merged with his body, called Creepy and Weepy (Gyoro and Ururun in The Second Story), in an accident caused by meeting Claude C. Kenny and Rena Lanford.
Entries[]
- Profile
- Birthplace: Planet Expel
- Birthday: September 28th, 346 S.D.
- A youth from the federation who helped stop the Ten Wise Men from destroying the universe in the 360s (S.D.).
- Ashton has twin dragons fused to his back—a misfortune he largely blames on Claude and Rena. By proclaiming he will have the two of them take responsibility for what they have done to him, he has forcibly joined their group.
- Gentle at heart, Ashton is often perceived as weak and unreliable. His symbological fencing abilities—passed down from his ancestors—are, however, first class. He continues his training to this day on Expel.
Story[]
The Second Story[]
My name's Ashton. I look forward for a very, very long relationship.
― Ashton, after the events at Salva Mines
Ashton in the opening of Second Evolution.
Ashton is first seen by the party in the Salva Mines, fighting the two-headed dragon. Since Claude and Rena can't actually help Ashton fight in the small and narrow cave, they decided to cheer him on instead. However, their cheering distracts Ashton, who turns around and tells the two of them to be quiet. At this instant, the weakened dragon attacks Ashton, but instead of hurting him, it fuses onto his back. Ashton is at first confused about where the dragon went and why Claude and Rena look so concerned, until he realizes that the dragon's heads are over his shoulders.
Ashton blames Claude and Rena for his misfortune, and the two take responsibility for his misfortune and vow to help Ashton remove the dragons. Traveling far and wide, they eventually get all the artifacts necessary to perform a ritual that will exorcise the dragons off Ashton's back, but when Ashton realizes that this will kill the pair, he changes his mind, claiming he wants to find a way to remove the two without actually killing them. Rena is glad that Ashton wants to take this route and decides to name the red dragon Creepy and the blue dragon Weepy, since they will be staying with him for some time.
Blue Sphere[]
Ashton in Precis' spaceship.
Two years after the initial storyline, Ashton is still living on Expel. Opera and Ernest crash land on the planet Edifice, where they then send out an S.O.S. to Precis, living on planet Earth. Precis rounds up the gang (minus Claude and Rena, who are busy on an Federation mission), Ashton being one of the first, and proceeds to rescue the two. He accompanies Precis on her mission to rescue Opera and Ernest, as well as to help find a cure to the mysterious illness that Claude C. Kenny contracts.
Creepy and Weepy are still very much attached to Ashton in this game. Ashton is searching for a cure still, in between training by the Linga mountains. When Precis calls upon him to help find their missing friends, he quickly joins with no hesitation, hoping to his happiness for finally seeing Precis again after two years. He never accomplishes this.
Profile[]
Despite being a mercenary, Ashton is an honest, modest, and timid swordsman, being skilled at both sewing and Symbological Fencing, a melding between symbology and swordsmanship. He lives a generally unlucky life, and is a bit of a goof, but always lovable. His personality always places him squarely in the "friend zone" with respect to relationships with women.
Ashton can communicate with the two-headed dragon merged to his body. The two heads communicate via growls and hisses, which Ashton can understand and translate for others (in Anamnesis, he calls this language Dragonese). The dragons can also possess and speak through Ashton whenever they want, although Ashton will remember nothing afterwards. Whenever they do so, as seen in EX and Anamnesis, Ashton's eyes change colors depending on who is possessing him: red eyes for Creepy and blue eyes for Weepy.
He likes good luck charms—especially after being possessed by Creepy/Gyoro and Weepy/Ururun—and girls who are nice and tidy, having pure thoughts. He bears a dislike for lotteries, fortune-telling, and being possessed further, as Ashton is a man of little luck. He also has an odd and unexplained obsession with barrels and jugs.
Ashton's favorite instrument is the Piano, and his favorite food is Hamburger Steak.
Gameplay[]
Ashton is an optional playable character in The Second Story and its enhanced port, Second Evolution. He is a Symbological Swordsman, utilizing twin swords in conjunction with symbology to imbue himself and/or his swords with magical power. Ashton is one of the most powerful, purely physical attacker characters in the game alongside Claude, Dias, and Welch, but he has low Agility and Luck, reflecting his "unlucky life". If Ashton is recruited, it becomes impossible to recruit Opera, and by extension, Ernest.
In Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, Ashton is now a main character and non-optional. Ashton's Killer Moves are still very much the same, and he still equips heavy armor, as well as fighter armor.
Ashton was also a playable character in Star Ocean: Anamnesis, and had four variants: "Ashton", "Blazing Ashton", "Winter Ashton" and "Divine Ashton".
Quotes[]
Gallery[]
Other appearances[]
- Fantasy Earth Zero
- Ashton's clothes from Second Evolution were available during a collaboration, along with those of the rest of the cast.
LoV III card.
Arena card.
- Lord of Vermilion
- Ashton appears as a recruitable character in the arcade card battle game Lord of Vermilion III, alongside Rena, and Ethereal Queen's incarnation from Star Ocean: The Last Hope. He also appears in Lord of Vermilion Arena, amongst several other characters.
Laphicet's "Ashton" mirrage.
- Tales of the Rays
- In the collaboration with Star Ocean: Anamnesis, Laphicet—a character originally from Tales of Berseria—wears an outfit based on Ashton's appearance, called "The Most Unfortunate Swordsman in the Universe Costume", plus other Ashton-based items.
Trivia[]
- As an allusion to his bad luck, gameplay-wise Ashton's LUC stat will not increase by leveling up; he has a fixed 18 LUC. He has the lowest natural stat in the game. The only way to increase his LUC is to equip accessories that increase that stat.
- Ashton is one of three characters who has a "special" ending (the other two are Celine and Opera). To get his special ending, the player has to have chosen Rena as the protagonist and participate in a series of PA's in Harley involving the sickly girl Eleanor.
- In The Second Story, Ashton shares his Japanese voice actor with Noel Chandler.
- Like Leon and Precis, Ashton also has more than one victory animation; one of which is his normal victory pose with his swords, and another where he has the same pose, though with Creepy and Weepy comically chewing on his head.
- Ashton's hometown was to be depicted in the game, in what is the desert west of Krosse, but the developers decided to cut it from the game.[1]
- In The Second Story R, a unique spot called Ruins in the Desert possibly references this cut content with its description: "The remains of a city lost to time where scholars work diligently to unravel the story sleeping within. It is said a master of fighting with twin blades honed his skills here."
- Ashton is referenced in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time:
- During a conversation in Arias before facing Crosell, Maria Traydor mentions Ashton's two-headed dragon on Expel. It is debatable if this is a reference to before Ashton was possessed, or to perhaps him successfully exorcising them from himself.
- Albel Nox's 4P costume has Albel with a tattoo of two dragons on his chest that greatly resemble Gyoro/Creepy and Ururun/Weepy.
- Ashton is likely inspired by Zahhak, an evil figure from persian mythology, and also featured in Zoroastrianism. Like Ashton, Zahhak is cursed with two serpents that grow out of his shoulders, though Zahhak's serpents are far more vicious, constantly attempting to kill Zahhak unless he feeds them human brains.
References[]