Hump Day Husbandos: Arumat P. Thanatos (Star Ocean: The Last Hope)

With the recent news of the demo dropping for Star Ocean’s newest entry, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, I found myself looking back on the series to recall some of my fondest memories. I quickly remembered my very first exposure to the series and the game that got me into the franchise: Star Ocean: The Last Hope. It’s funny to think how much I cherish it, because the popular consensus seems to be that although this installment has the best battle system the franchise has ever seen, that’s pretty much its only good point.

People argue that its writing, story and characters bring it down, but if you ask me, that’s not entirely the case. It certainly comes with some of the most bizarre scenes with highly questionable voice acting, for sure — no amount of familiarity with anime tropes and conventions will prepare you for what Star Ocean: The Last Hope throws at you.

On the other hand, its overall goofiness made it an extremely pleasant surprise to meet its most serious playable character, who joins the party during the later stages of the game. For the many drawbacks Star Ocean: The Last Hope had, it certainly came with at least one memorable character — and I mean that in a positive way, not in the way that you’ll never forget Lymle!

Who is Arumat P. Thanatos?

Arumat is the final party member you can recruit into your Star Ocean: The Last Hope team, although this comes at a cost. He functions as a replacement for your first recruited team member Faize for plot reasons, and choosing whether or not to boot Faize in favour of Arumat is not a difficult decision to make. The only reasons to keep Faize around are if you like him enough to keep him on the team, or need to do so for achievement hunting. There’s no in-between; Arumat is such a powerhouse of a party member that you’ll always want to control him in battle. But more on that shortly.

Arumat is the last surviving Eldarian soldier from his unit — one that was completely wiped out. You eventually learn that this is not the first time that this has happened to him, either. His loner mentality is understandable considering he deals with the heavy burden of survivor’s guilt due to these tragic events. Alongside this is a fate even crueller: his body is continuously breaking down cells due to countless amounts of modifications made to it in order to power him up for Eldarian military deployment.

Considering his background, it’s easy to see why he is distant with others and dismissive of his own well-being and future. But if you put the time and effort into bonding with him and seeing everything there is to see about him, then he becomes one of the much better characters of Star Ocean: The Last Hope.

Why we love him

So firstly, feel free to call me out and say it’s just because I’m shallow but Arumat’s character design was the first sign that I would be captivated by him right from his introduction. He has one of the coolest character designs within the franchise ever, and I would even go as far to say that his design has yet to be topped.

Even his name is memorable for how it so accurately represents him since Arumat is an anagram of “Trauma” and Thanatos is the name of the God of Death in Greek mythology. It’s all very appropriate considering he even believes that he is the incarnation of Death itself for having come out alive when every single one of his squad mates have perished in the past.

I also can’t help but appreciate how he shies away from attention and wants to stick to the shadow, away from the company and involvement of others, and yet he still manages to have some neatly contained, subtle character growth. It’s extremely fitting for a character like him to have just that subtle level of detail, considering his temperament of keeping to himself. That is, until his change in lifestyle and way of regarding himself that we see in his character-exclusive ending.

He puts distance between himself and the other characters — and you — unless you put in the effort to see that he’s actually a good guy beneath the scowl and edgy attire. He unfairly punishes himself, and goes out of his way to do good for others, even when he tries to deny it. His stoic attitude is quite unlike any of the other party members, resulting in some of the funniest scenes whenever he accompanies another character.

Why you will love him

We’ve talked a lot about him as a character, but the way he plays when you’re in control of him is one of the best things about Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Arumat became a permanent member of my team and the character I controlled in every encounter as soon as I got him on board. This is because he has the highest attack power in the game, along with a large HP pool and a long-reaching scythe as his weapon — great for mowing down multiple enemies at once.

He is an absolute beast of a unit, acting as a heavy damage-dealer with the potential to land some of the strongest finishing combo moves of the entire case, such as the late-game unlock Dragon Roar. It became a hobby of mine to spam this hour upon hour.

His anti-hero appearance does a good job of masking the more surprising sides to him, including his eventual character growth. With such a tragic backstory and his initial refusal to seek treatment to extend his shortened lifespan because he wanted to honour those who had perished in his units, it’s pleasing to see him eventually turn over a new leaf after the time we fight alongside him. For how short-lived it all is, it’s well-executed as one of the game’s better moments of character writing.

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