Rolf

Rolf known as Eusis in Japan, is the main protagonist of Phantasy Star II. He is Alis Lansdale's descendant.

Appearance
Rolf has the appearance of a handsome young man with blue hair and blue eyes. He wears a golden headband around his forehead that his hair falls over, a blue shirt and matching pants with silver chest and shoulder armor that has a large red gem like section that covers his lower abdomen.

Occasionally Rolf is depicted wearing a white cape with this outfit.

Younger Rolf wore a white shirt with a black undershirt whilst still retaining his golden headband, as well as black fingerless gloves.

As a child, Rolf wore a green vest top with a black undershirt, shoulder guards and black fingerless gloves. This is the only time he didn't wear his golden headband.

History
Rolf's parents were killed in an accident as he turned ten, forcing him to be raised in an orphanage for a year. Rolf gained a reputation as being a prodigy with the sword, being able to defeat opponents more than double his age and experience. This reputation and praise eventually went to the young boy's head and he felt himself unbeatable.

Rolf spent the year with his fellow orphans Dick, his best friend, and Shelley, his childhood crush. Dick informed Rolf that he'd heard about a swordsmaster who was more skilled than Rolf. Scoffing at the idea, Rolf set out to face this swordsmaster at the local sword gymnasium where he trained regularly with his instructor.

The man revealed himself to be named O'Conner, and gave Rolf a sound thrashing. Ashamed, confused and having lost confidence in himself, Rolf wasn't sure what to do with himself until a Motavian Soothsayer suggested he travel to a distant island to train hard in the way of the blade. Only then would he be a match for O'Conner. Revigorated with a firey passion, Rolf left his old life behind and went to train at this island for eight years.

Upon his return, Rolf revisited the orphanage and the sword gymnasium hoping to visit old friends, but the Director of the orphanage revealed that Shelley had been kidnapped recently and they were planning to send O'Conner to save her. Rolf, eager to prove his training and hoping to see Shelley again offered to go in O'Conner's stead and soon made his way to the tower in Scion she was being held at.

After fighting his way up the tower he came across Shelley, who brainwashed, attacked him and forced him to defend himself in combat. After defeating her he revealed to her his identity, and she allowed him to continue to face her kidnapper, who turned out to be O'Conner.

Having trained eight years to best O'Conner, Rolf fought him and managed to scrape a narrow victory. As he was about to strike the final blow, Shelley stopped him revealing that she and O'Conner were part of the Motavian Government and this was all part of a test to see if Rolf was a suitable candidate to become a Motavian agent. O'Conner explained he had set Rolf off on his journey with the help of Shelley, Dick, the Motavian Soothsayer, Rolf's sword instructor and the orphanage's director all in order to help him reach his full potential and help him overcome his arrogance. Rolf is stunned, but upon being offered the job as a Motavian Agent he accepts.

A little while later Rolf happens upon a young female Numen who is about to be killed by a hunter called Darum. He blocks the killing blow, and proceeds to defeat Darum after declaring he will protect the girl. He takes the unconcious girl back to his home where he nurses her back to health. She reveals herself to be Nei, and is absolutely fascinated that Rolf bares no ill will towards her despite her strange appearance or biomonster biology. Rolf, upon discovering Nei is also an orphan, suggests they live together as a brother and sister creating their own little family. Nei happily accepts, and Rolf goes about his missions whilst Nei stays at home safe from the judgemental humans of Paseo.

Rolf himself kept having vivid dreams of a young woman being attacked by a demon. Despite him being so close to her in his dreams he was never able to reach out and save her and this taunted him.

Awakening from one such dream, Rolf shakes himself off and goes to meet with Commander O'Conner for his latest assignment. O'Conner gives him an assignment to investigate the continuous outbreak of biomonsters, which was said if left unchecked would cause chaos for the machine that controlled all life on planet Mota, Mother Brain, potentially causing a malfunctioning and dooming the planet's inhabitants to die. Rolf returned home to pack his things for this long assignment, but Nei, terrified of being alone again begs to come with Rolf. Although Rolf is heavily against it, fearing for Nei's safety, he eventually agrees.

The first task is to examine the Biolabs, but who should be guarding it but Darum, the hunter who previously attempted to take Nei's life. Not wishing to endanger Nei, Rolf takes a quick detour to the sleepy town of Arima to try and gather intel on the biomonsters only to discover it's been destroyed by bandits.

Here they discover that Darum used to be a good person, but the very same bandits that destroyed Arima, took his daughter Teim from him, and held her hostage for a very high ransom. Unable to pay it, Darum became desperate taking all manner of mercenary jobs and even killing innocents in order to get enough money together to save his daughter.

Rolf and Nei decide to infiltrate the bandits hideout and save Teim. Along the way they pick up Rudo, the very same soldier who had given Nei the silver bullet pendant that led to her obtaining her legendary weapon six months prior. The trio sneak into the base, taking out bandits and manage to climb Nido Tower where Teim is being held. Rescuing her, Nei and her party disguised Teim in order to prevent vengeful attacks from civilians who had their loved ones killed by Darum.

Returning Teim to Darum in disguise, Rolf watches on as Darum demands money from her to pass. Teim saddened by what her father has become refuses, and in a fit of rage Darum strikes her down with his blade. Her disguise slips off as she dies. Darum, heartbroken and angry at himself, blows himself up with a grenade to join his daughter in death. Rolf watches on as the man who caused Nei so much suffering now takes his own life in a tragic turn of events. Upon investigating the biolab, Rolf and the party retrieve the data recorder and head over to Oputa where Amy joins the party, followed eventually by Hugh, Anna, Kain and Shir who all join up with Rolf on his mission for their own reasons.

The groups quest eventually leads them to Climatrol, the central system responsible for climate control. If Climatrol ceases to be, the planet Mota will return to being an inhabitable dry desert plain once more. Inside they come across every type of dangerous biomonster imaginable and dangerous traps set that slow their progress but eventually come face to face with Neifirst, who reveals that she and Nei had once been one and their very souls were interconnected. If Nei or Neifirst should die, the other one would perish too.

Rolf, unsure of what to do is unable to prevent Nei from going forth to battle Neifirst, declaring she won't let good humans like Rolf die just because some bad humans mistreated her and Neifirst. Nei tragically is killed in the ensuing battle, either through her own actions (killing Neifirst and thus sealing her fate) or fatally wounded by Neifirst causing Rolf and the others to take over the battle. Either way she dies in Rolf's arms.

After the battle Rolf takes Nei's body to the clone labs in hope of reviving her, but due to the destruction of Climatrol during the battle and Neifirst's own involvement in tampering, the non-human parts of Nei's body cannot be revived, thus she can never be brought back. Rolf, distraught, buries Nei's body in the plains above Paseo and has to force himself to continue on his quest to avoid more tragic deaths like Nei's.

Unfortunately the destruction of Climatrol also causes Mother Brain to label Rolf a criminal, as it causes a massive outpour of water to be wasted. Rolf, hearing himself on the black list offers to open four dams to prevent a catastrophic flood that would doom the inhabitants of Mota. Upon completing this task however, Rolf and the remaining party members are captured by Army Eye, a group of security robots and sentenced to death in the satellite prison known as Gaira.

Through a series of fortunate events, they are rescued by Tyler, a space pirate who causes Gaira to crash into the planet Palm. Tyler is glad to see they're alright, although he has heard of Rolf's status as an outlaw of Mother Brain's. As a fellow outlaw he offers Rolf some information about a man on planet Dezo who can apparently do things Mother Brain cannot.

Rolf and his party journey forth to Dezo, borrowing a shuttle from a relieved but confused O'Conner who wishes Rolf good luck on his mission one last time. When arriving on Dezo they discover abandoned Musk Cats and Biomonsters everywhere, apparently a gas leaked caused the people of the planet to abandon their pets, and in anger several had mutated into monstrous forms.

Eventually after asking around for the location of the man Tyler mentioned, Rolf and the party find their way to Esper Mansion, where Rolf is greeted by people introducing themselves as followers of Lutz, a powerful wizard who once travelled with Rolf's ancestor a thousand years ago. They explain that Lutz forsaw the destruction coming to Algo via Mother Brain and has been preparing for this moment by putting himself into a comatose state every ten years in the hopes someone like Alis would rise up to challenge the evil that permeates society.

Lutz himself appears and greets Rolf, revealing that he is the one who is responsible for saving Rolf's life at the age of ten when his parents passed away in a tragic space accident, and using his esper abilities describes Rolf's reoccurring nightmare. He reveals that it was those nightmares that allowed him to mark Rolf as Alis' true descendant, and sets about a challenge to him and his team; to gather all the legendary Nei weapons that are spread out in dungeons across the planet of Dezo. Lutz explains that when these legendary items are gathered, only then will Rolf and his party be able to defeat the dark presence corrupting Algo would be able to be defeated.

Rolf accepts and he and his party begin to explore the dungeons overcoming the trials, monsters and traps within.

Upon retrieving all of the weapons, Lutz reveals to Rolf the tale of Alis and how she courageously defeated Lassic. After she managed this, the people of Algo knew true peace, willing to help each other out and work together for the greater good. Until Mother Brain appeared and began making life easier and more convenient for them, offering them easy lives where it would take care of all the daily tasks allowing the people to become lazy, and selfish confusing what they wanted with what they needed and began to criticize Alis for what she'd done by defeating Lassic.

Lutz is convinced that Mother Brain is a Devil's Trap that will lead Algo to disaster. He has no idea who created it or why, but realises that Mother Brain is a threat that must be dealt with swiftly before anymore damage can be done.

Lutz bestows to Rolf the Neisword, a blade that has the power to purify any and all evil that may attempt to corrupt the group. Rolf takes up the blade and tells Lutz he and his friends are ready to defeat Mother Brain. Lutz gives Rolf his blessing as he casts a spell to allow the group to teleport straight to the Satellite Noah, where Mother Brain resides.

Fighting their way through the biomonsters, Rolf and the rest of his party suddenly hear a terrifying voice as a dark energy begins to engulf them and forces them to unwillingly attack one another. Fortunately the Neisword Rolf holds shines brightly, purifying the group and allowing them to overcome the Dark Force, letting them continue on to face off with Mother Brain.

Mother Brain laughs at their efforts of heroics. It suggests that they would never harm it, as if they should decide to play the part of a hero, any slight malfunction would lead to nothing but death and destruction to the innocent people that have grown too accustomed to their easy lives to live independently. Rolf and the group focus their determination knowing Lutz is counting on them, and bravely step forward for the final showdown.

Through all the odds, Rolf and the party manage to overcome Mother Brain causing it to malfunction and shut down, losing it's tyrannical grip on Algo and saving the system. Rolf breaths a sigh of relief, and raises the Neisword to signal Lutz to bring them home when suddenly they recieve a panicked message from Lutz that they are not alone on the ship, and he is unable to bring them back due to their interference.

Rolf and the party, curious, walk past Mother Brain's chambers to discover a hall full of people. More humans than they'd ever seen in a single location before. Rolf approaches the man who appears to be in charge and demands to know who they are. The man responds by telling them that the group will die anyway so they may as well know the truth.

He explains he and these people are from a planet known as Earth, and after draining their planet of it's resources they decided to flee the dying planet looking for a new world to call their own. They came across Algo, and jealous of the inhabitants happiness, they decided to build the Mother Brain to cause the planets in the system as theirs did.

Rolf and his comrades find themselves surrounded by Earthmen, and bravely make their final stand to stop these evil men before they manage to destroy Algo entirely...

Trivia

 * The western box art for Phantasy Star II showcases a vastly different look(and age) to Rolf.
 * Rolf appears in the mobile game Sega Heroes as one of the four playable Phantasy Star characters alongside his descendant Alis Lansdale, her enemy Lassic and one of the heroes of Phantasy Star IV, Wren.
 * Rolf is the only playable hero character in Sega Heroes who has not crossed paths directly with Lassic.
 * The fate of Rolf and the rest of his party members is left on an amibiguous cliffhanger.