Waifu Wednesday: Lucil Filarete

Death end re;Quest’s cast, like many other Compile Heart ensembles, is designed in such a way that pretty much everyone will find someone who appeals to them.

If you’re the type who likes the kind of girl who speaks in a wispy, seemingly emotionless, far-off voice, then you’ll probably get along with Lucil Filarete. If you like petite elf girls with honkin’ great boobies, you’ll probably also get along with Lucil Filarete.

In short, she’s a very appealing character for many, many reasons!

death-end-request_20190309225811-3269160

The party first encounters Lucil upon arriving in the ancestral home of the elves in World’s Odyssey, the MMO that protagonist Shina Ninomiya has found herself trapped inside. Lucil, it seems, has lost a valuable stone, and feels unable to return to her people without it; we get the immediate impression that she’s not exactly a confident person, but over time it becomes painfully apparent that her issues run considerably deeper than just being a bit shy.

Lucil, we discover, is a half-elf, a race that is often used allegorically in fantasy stories to explore the kind of racial discrimination that people of mixed heritage in the real world have to deal with. And indeed, World’s Odyssey follows the trope pretty much to the letter — Lucil doesn’t feel welcome in her own village, only has one true friend and seems to continually attract misfortune that prevents her from being able to relax and enjoy her life.

Worse, she’s stuck in a magical chair that appears to have some sort of self-awareness. At least it’s not malicious; Kimata, as we discover the chair is called, most definitely seems to have Lucil’s best interests in mind at all times, even if being constantly confined to a seated position isn’t the most convenient way to go about one’s existence.

death-end-request_20190312214629-9535796

It would have been easy for Death end re;Quest to go the heavy-handed route here and use Lucil and Kimata’s relationship as a means of drawing attention to the plight of people with disabilities, probably producing some rather incongruous-feeling scenes in the process. Instead, it takes a more subtle approach; Kimata is presented as just part of the complete Lucil package right from the moment we meet her, and this isn’t questioned or challenged at any point, just accepted. We learn a little about the circumstances that left Lucil confined to her chair later in the narrative — and they’re not what you expect! — but in the meantime, the other party members are more than happy to accept her as she is.

This is, of course, a very positive message to send. Lucil is a marginalised character in numerous ways due to her lack of status in elven society as well as her unique circumstances, and so she is understandably keen to latch on to this group of young women who embody the ideals of acceptance and empathy.

She has plenty of her own lessons to learn along the way, too; having become accustomed to getting her own way due to her forced life of solitude, she finds it difficult to accept when the party makes a decision that she disagrees with — particularly as the reasons for her disagreement are extremely emotionally charged, to say the least. But over time, she comes to understand the concept of the greater good, and how this group of girls are working together to try and ensure a better future for everyone remaining in the seemingly ruined world of World’s Odyssey.

death-end-request_20190320220719-1808705

Lucil is an appealing character because she is relatable, particularly for anyone who has found themselves in a situation where they felt out of their depth or even outright marginalised. Her character also touches on matters of mental health such as depression, but to talk too much about that side of things would constitute a more significant spoiler — so we’ll have to explore that further when we look at the narrative of the game as a whole!

Her design is attractive, too. Eschewing the usual stick-thin waif-like depictions of elves, Lucil maintains a decidedly youthful, even childish-looking face — albeit one that rarely cracks a smile — but combines this with a distinctly mature and curvaceous body. Being bound to Kimata, she obviously doesn’t really get many opportunities to show this off to its fullest, but her outfit is designed to allow her a certain degree of “flaunting”.

Her body language is totally at odds with any idea of sexualisation, however. She sits in her chair in a distinctly dejected-looking manner, and upon finishing battle she has a tendency to sneak a catnap on its arm. You get the impression, without her saying anything, that she’s just a bit tired of life and wants to find a way to make her existence a bit more enjoyable if at all possible — a road that begins with her joining Shina’s party.

lucil_1-4360585

As with the other characters, her Glitch mode incarnation strips her near-naked and displays a marked contrast in her personality. Her sleepy world-weariness gives way to haughty yet understated confidence; her posture improves, she sits cross-legged rather than with her legs dangling limply, her voice gets a bit of a scary “edge” to it, and she shows herself to be more than happy to demonstrate her formidable magical powers to anyone who gets in her way.

Oh yes, she’s very much a mage in mechanical terms, too, making her stand out among the rest of Death end re;Quest’s cast, most of whom feel very much like “hybrids” who combine elements of fighters, magic-users and healers. Lucil, meanwhile, attacks from afar and covers a large area with her magical blasts; she is mostly helpless against foes who require physical attacks to make a dent in their HP, however, since her only physical attack is very weak and is primarily only used so she can restore her own SP for further spellcasting.

Glass cannon she may be — she even has about a quarter of the maximum HP of the other party members — but she’s a very helpful member of the team through the majority of the game, so you better take her seriously! You wouldn’t want to find yourself on the wrong end of a Phoenix Ray now, would you?


More about Death end re;Quest

The MoeGamer Compendium, Volume 1 is now available! Grab a copy today for a beautiful physical edition of the Cover Game features originally published in 2016.

Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this article. I’ve been writing about games in one form or another since the days of the old Atari computers, with work published in Page 6/New Atari User, PC Zone, the UK Official Nintendo Magazine, GamePro, IGN, USgamer, Glixel and more over the years, and I love what I do.

If you’d like to support the site and my work on it, please consider becoming a Patron — click here or on the button below to find out more about how to do so. From just $1 a month, you can get access to daily personal blog updates and exclusive members’ wallpapers featuring the MoeGamer mascots.

If you want to show one-off support, you can also buy me a coffee using Ko-Fi. Click here or on the button below to find out more.

kofi4-7235598 becomeapatronbanner-6736456

4 thoughts on “Waifu Wednesday: Lucil Filarete”

Share your thoughts. Be nice!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.