Barbatos Goetia

Barbatos Goetia
Information
Appearance	Tales of Destiny 2
Age	32
Height	187 cm
Weight	82 kg
Race	Er'ther
Weapon	Battleaxe
Japanese Voice Actor	Norio Wakamoto
Character Designer	Mutsumi Inomata

Barbatos Goetia (バルバトス・ゲーティア, Barubatosu Geetia^?) is one of the primary antagonists in Tales of Destiny 2. Hailing from the era of the Aeth'er Wars from the distant past, Barbatos seeks to rewrite history in his favor so that he will be viewed as a hero surpassing the fame of the Swordian Masters.

History

During the Aeth'er Wars

By the time of the present era, Barbatos had been actively written out of history due to the many atrocities he had committed for his own benefit during the Aeth'er Wars. However, before all records of his role in the war were purged from memory, Barbatos was known as a former member of the Er'ther army. However, he betrayed the cause of his people and defected to the Aetherians so that he could be on the side of those whom he believed would become the victors of the war, with him as one of their heroes. Eventually, Lieutenant Dymlos Timber confronted Barbatos in a duel in the midst of a blizzard as other soldiers clashed elsewhere on the battlefield. Seeing that Dymlos was heavily wounded, Major General Igtenos Minarde interferes in the fight, attempting a surprise attack on Barbatos, who easily blocks the charge. Angered by the interruption of their duel, Barbatos chases after Igtenos, who outsmarts him as Barbatos is led over the side of a cliff, falling so far that it would be impossible to survive. After the encounter, Barbatos was stricken from all records, as if he never existed.

The Resurrected Assassin

After many hundreds of years, Barbatos is resurrected by a "Holy Woman" named Elrane who enlists his help in her quest to alter history. More than eager to prove his existence, Barbatos accepts the proposal and becomes Elrane's personal assassin. His task is to eliminate the current heroes who saved the world from the resurrection of the Aethersphere and the superweapon Belcrant. Barbatos's first destination is Cresta, where two of the heroes, Stahn Aileron and Rutee Katrea, manage an orphanage and care for several young children. In front of the orphanage, Barbatos encounters two young boys, Kyle Dunamis and Loni Dunamis.

Barbatos then asks of Stahn's presence, but Kyle is already suspicious of him and throws a stone at him, which is easily dodged. Barbatos then threatens to kill Kyle, but Loni shoves him out of danger, causing Barbatos to instead grab Loni as a hostage. As he expects, Stahn and Rutee come out and attempt to stop him. Barbatos then threatens to kill Loni if the two do not drop their weapons. They do as he tells them, and as Stahn asks if he wants Gald or Lens, believing him to be a common thug, Barbatos exclaims that he wants their lives. He brutally assaults the defenseless couple, easily murdering Stahn and leaving Rutee badly injured. Barbatos mutters how weak these so-called heroes are in front of him before vanishing.

It takes around ten years for Barbatos to appear again, this time attacking Philia Felice, the High Priestess of Straylize Temple. He is interrupted by the older and more experienced Kyle and Loni, but they are still no match for him. It takes another interruption from a masked fencer named Judas to make him stop doing anything further. Recognizing that he is outnumbered, Barbatos departs from the temple, but he warns Kyle that he will never forget him. Shortly afterward, Barbatos appears again in Heidelberg, his target being King Garr Kelvin of Phandaria.

Using a distraction caused by crashing the airship Draconis into the royal castle, Barbatos breaks into the throne room and severely wounds King Garr. Kyle tries to interrupt the assassination attempt again, but he is still no match for Barbatos. The warrior vanishes once more as the group travels to the future timeline to chase after Elrane. When Kyle enters the parallel world created by Elrane's wish to escape from the party, Barbatos is mentioned as a hero. This is, however, a mere fabrication of reality which combines Elrane's ideal world and Barbatos's wish, thus history is not continuing as intended.

Taking Control of Destiny

Artwork for Tales of Card Evolve.

When Kyle's group travels back in time to the period of the Aeth'er Wars, Barbatos is also present during that era, having joined Elrane in traveling to the past as she tries to acquire more Lens for her miracles. Barbatos makes his appearance within Dycroft, interrupting the Swordian Masters as they attempt to escape from the aeropolis after rescuing two prisoners of war, Atwight Eks and Laville Clemente. This occurs shortly after the battle in which Barbatos had originally fallen to his death, and Dymlos is shocked to see that Barbatos is alive, not realizing that Barbatos truly did die but had been revived. Barbatos is pleased to see Dymlos again, and he easily grabs Dymlos, who still had not recovered from their previous duel. Atwight interrupts Barbatos, pleading for Dymlos to be released. When she realizes that Barbatos is ignoring him, she furiously charges into the man, in spite of her own injuries. Barbatos quickly retaliates, striking Atwight to the ground unconscious, causing Dymlos to scream out in horror. Noticing this, Barbatos decides to take Atwight as his hostage, leaving with her and daring Dymlos to come to the Spiral Cave if he values Atwight's life.

Within the cave, Barbatos acts in a leisurely manner in front of his captive, drinking alcohol while conversing with Atwight to pass the time. Atwight asks him why he enjoys making Dymlos suffer, causing Barbatos to throw his bottle to the ground before ranting about becoming a hero, insisting that he would become known throughout history as one. Atwight expresses her disagreement, comparing him to her beloved Dymlos, describing what it takes to become a true hero. Although he is stunned by her words, the moment is interrupted when Kyle and his group comes to Atwight's aid, while Dymlos remains absent. Kyle proceeds to verbally assault Barbatos, forcing him out of his drunken and reflective stupor as he activates a force of dark energy which traps the group within its walls. Barbatos starts to gloat about his perceived victory, since the party is unable to escape, but he is assaulted by fire-elemental magic energy from behind, causing the barrier to break as Dymlos arrives with the newly imprinted Swordian Dymlos in his possession.

As all of the combatants prepare for battle, an image of Elrane appears before Barbatos, demanding that he stops wasting time by trying to reassert her power over him. She casts a spell to control Barbatos, but he resists the spell with all of his willpower, no matter how painful it is for him, and the spell fades just like it had when Judas had to endure the same thing from Elrane when he was revived. Barbatos proceeds to threaten her, declaring that he will go to Dycroft on his own terms, not as her slave. He then turns to Judas, calling him by the name Leon Magnus, telling him that he wasted the second chance of life Elrane had given him. Unlike Judas, Barbatos says he will do everything that can be done to make things happen the way he way he desires, challenging Kyle to face him at Dycroft before vanishing once more.

During the final assault on Dycroft by the Er'ther forces, Barbatos once again appears in front of Kyle and declares that his desire at that point is to defeat Kyle. He battles against his group but is defeated. He declares that the world is meaningless and that he wishes to change destiny in his favor, and the party realizes that he would even go to the extent of murdering Stahn and Rutee before Kyle's birth just to prevent him from existing. They give chase as Barbatos vanishes into the future, during the time of Stahn's own final assault on Dycroft in order to face Kronos. Barbatos proceeds to attack Stahn's group, catching them by surprise and nearly bringing them to defeat. But to his own surprise, Kyle's group appears again, combining his might with that of his father to drive Barbatos away.

After the defeat of Kronos and the instability that was created within the Eye of Atamoni due to the battle, Stahn and his fellow Swordian Masters pierce the Eye with their Swordians before hastily departing from Dycroft. Barbatos reappears one last time, challenging Kyle's group again in order to defeat him once and for all, but instead he is defeated again. Still proud of his strength, Barbatos claims that he was defeated by himself, not Kyle. Using his last ounce of strength, he plunges himself into the Eye of Atamoni, killing himself while destabilizing the Eye even further, prompting Judas to reunite Swordian Chaltier with the other Swordians to destroy the Eye, using the energy of the destruction to return to the future timeline for their final confrontation with Elrane. After Kyle succeeds in defeating Elrane and the goddess Fortuna, history is repaired, and all of Elrane's actions, including Barbatos's revival and feats, are annulled as if they never happened at all, again writing him out of history.

Appearance and Personality

Status image in Tales of VS.

Barbatos is a ruthless warrior who would do anything to get what he wanted. He personifies many of the evil traits shown by humans, such as betrayal, deceit, and brutality, showing that he will resort to underhanded tactics to accomplish his goals. But in the end, he is someone who wants to be remembered in history as a heroic figure, although his means of trying to achieve that goal show his incapacity of understanding what it means to be a hero. He is bound by an extreme level of pride and superiority, and he holds great resentment for those who could stand against him in battle, most notably Dymlos and Kyle. He also has a habit of adding a lot of flair to his actions, especially the quotes for his spells always being accompanied by a form of adjective and/or adverb.

Fighting Style

Cut-in image for Tales of Destiny 2.

Barbatos fights with a huge axe that can extend its own handle, which augments his physical strength. He also has some magical spells at his disposal and can as well fight unarmed on a few occasions. In addition to his raw power, his most notable trait is that whenever a character casts a spell, uses an item, or even tries to guard his attacks, Barbatos will automatically counter the action by casting a spell instantly or half of the spellcasting time via being triggered out of anger. During his chanting time for these counters, he will be invulnerable. He also possesses a dangerous move called Genocide Braver, where he fires a huge powerful blast in a line toward his foe. A spirit version of Barbatos can be fought in the Aqua Labyrinth, alongside spirit versions of Sabnock and Dantalion.

Thus, it is because of Barbatos's tactical countering and instant-reaction to the player's actions, defeating him often requires tactical manipulation between the party via having the front-line divert his various counter-patterns while other damage-dealers damage him gradually from a safe distance as head-on tactics and/or standard-player-level tools can easily lead to defeat.

In the PlayStation 2 remake of Tales of Destiny, Barbatos loses the use of his spells, but he gains a variety of other powerful abilities, such as an invulnerability to being staggered for up to 20 strikes every time he escapes a combo. He also gains the move Cheap Eliminate, exclusive to the Simple difficulty, with which he can instantly kill the entire party, preventing this easiest difficulty option from being used if the player hopes to defeat Barbatos. In homage to his automatic counters in Tales of Destiny 2, Barbatos gains the Blast Caliber Item nazo Tsukatten ja nee!, which always activates whenever items are used, without any limitation on its frequency or other typical limiting factors such as Over Limit mode. But his most powerful attack is World Destroyer, a powerful strike upon the ground which, after a lengthy charging period, completely ruptures the entire battlefield and instantly kills all of his enemies. This revised fighting style mixed alongside his old fighting style carries on with all of Barbatos's appearances in other later games.

Other Appearances

Tales of Destiny (PS2)

Cut-in image for Tales of Destiny (PS2).

Barbatos is featured in the remake of Tales of Destiny in two different roles. First, he can be encountered randomly after twenty minutes have passed while all battle party members are set to fight in Auto mode, with the purpose of punishing players who attempt to auto-level their characters. If Barbatos is encountered in this way, he cannot be defeated by any means, and his remaining health will be reduced to ???? upon depleting his health below 1. His other role is that of the final boss of the post-game dungeon, residing on the tenth floor of the Arcana Ruins. In this environment, he can be defeated, although victory on Simple difficulty is not intended to be possible due to his Cheap Eliminate. If the party defeats Barbatos here, the final boss fights of both "Stahn Side" and "Leon Side" become more difficult, with the respective enemies of both sides gaining higher stats and more arte options.

Tales of Vesperia

Killer of Heroes as he appears in Tales of Vesperia.

Cut-in image for Tales of Vesperia.

In Tales of Vesperia, Barbatos makes an appearance as a cameo boss in Nordopolica's 200-Man Melee coliseum battle, along with three other Tales antagonists: the Time Traveller, the Sorrowful Queen of Darkness, and the Traitor to Heaven. In this game, he is called Killer of Heroes (英雄を殺めし者^?), and is given five original artes, as well as the returning Evil Charge. One of his original artes, Ares Fist, would appear in four other crossover games. His mystic arte is No Items Ever!, which is activated when an item is used. In the PlayStation 3 port of the game, Barbatos can fight alongside other three antagonists in the final rank of the Team Battle in the coliseum as a 4-on-4 battle during the 5th match. He also makes another appearance as one of the summons in Patty Fleur's mystic arte Summon Friends. When summoned, he uses his World Destroyer to inflict high damage to both enemies and allies alike, and this subsequently forbids item use for the next 90 seconds.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2

Cut-in image for Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2.

Barbatos appears in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 as a major boss enemy in the storyline. In this game, he attempts to fight the Protagonist, Tear Grants, and Leon at the Mescal Mountains to prevent awakening Niata. After clearing the game, Barbatos is also the boss who must be defeated to obtain the second "Radiant" set for each class. He stands in the same place where the Radiant of the original set was located, and Kratos is the client for the quests.

Tales of VS.

Artwork for Tales of Link.

Barbatos appears alongside Dhaos as one of the two major antagonists in Tales of VS. He appears most prominently during the storylines of Kyle, Leon, and Stahn, taking a role similar to that in his original appearance. His fighting style makes use of large-range charged attacks, including his Genocide Braver and World Destroyer, which are some of the attacks with the largest range in the game. He also retains No Items Ever!, which, unlike all other mystic artes in the game, cannot be manually activated; instead, it is triggered automatically when an opponent picks up an item while Barbatos is in Over Limit mode. Even after he uses it, his Over Limit gauge stays where it was before the mystic arte activated, continuing to drain from that point. He can use his mystic arte more than once, or not at all, depending on the activity of item appearance. He is generally one of the last characters to be unlocked by a player, only being available after completing the game's final story mode.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3

Cut-in image for Tales of the Rays.

Barbatos also appears in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3, during a scene where Harold Berselius fails to use a machine to find Vel Trop. Instead, it opens a portal through which the Destiny 2 protagonists fall onto the deck of Van Eltia. The Protagonist meets with the rest of the characters from Tales of Destiny 2 who are now members of Ad Libitum, as the screen fades to black to show that Barbatos is at the core of the Brownie Mines.

Later, during a scene with Kyle and Sheena Fujibayashi, Kyle discovers Barbatos at the lowest part of the Brownie Mines. Kyle is angry over the death of his parents from his timeline, the future Stahn and Rutee, and he challenges Barbatos to a fight, alongside the Protagonist and Sheena. After the battle, Barbatos is interested in fighting again when they cross paths once more, making his disappearance by jumping into a chasm, ending his role within the game until after the conclusion of the main story. After clearing the game and finishing Kanonno Earhart's second quest for the Sorcerer's Ring, a side event features Kyle, Reala, and Judas discussing Barbatos's return. They confront him on the Ring Spot Area of Sacred Mountain of Absol. This is the last fight against Barbatos, after which Barbatos accepts defeat and stabs himself with his axe, causing him to disappear from existence.

Tales of the Rays

In Tales of the Rays, Barbatos appears as a nexus recruited by Marcus Grimm into the Salvation Front. However, in Fairy's Requiem, he defects when Mercuria ends up possessed by the soul of her late mirrite, Morrigan, and unleashes an army of dead mirrites. Seeking to kill her, Barbatos fights Ix Nieves, Mileena Weiss, and Mercuria's brother Nazar in a three-way battle. The brute's assault distracts Morrigan long enough for Kor Meteor and the rest of his friends to restore Mercuria's spiria and drive out the mirrite.

Tales of Crestoria

In Tales of Crestoria, Barbatos stole an ancestral treasure called a "Lens," and was confronted by the town guard captain Stahn Aileron. Stahn could see the overwhelming rage burning within Barbatos as the two fought. Barbatos cut Stahn down, but not before one of Stahn's strikes chipped a piece off the lens. Unaware of the fragment, Barbatos took the lens and left Stahn for dead. Unbeknownst to Barbatos, Stahn was holding the missing fragment of the lens, which manifested Stahn's negative thoughts into a being called "True Stahn," and caused the real Stahn's soul to be transferred into his own sword.

Trivia

Summon Friends symbol in Tales of Vesperia.

• Barbatos's name derives from demonology and can be found in the Lesser Key of Solomon, an anonymous grimoire compiled in the mid-seventeenth century. His first name is taken from the demon Duke Barbatos, while his surname originates from one of the book's names, Ars Goetia.
• Bartbatos's axe takes two different appearances throughout the story.
  • The first one, when he first appears, is used in Vesperia, as his default weapon in the Rays, and Crestoria.
  • The second one, later dubbed Diabolic Fang in the Rays, is used in Narikiri Dungeon 3, the PS2 and Director's Cut edition of Destiny, VS., Radiant Mythology 3.
• Barbatos's outfit appears as a legacy costume for Rowen J. Ilbert in Tales of Xillia and Tales of Xillia 2.
• In Tales of Berseria, one of the areas that can be explored using the Expedition feature is called the "Barbatos Archipelago".