Reks

Name: Reks
Japanese name: レックス
Age: 18
Race: Hume
Seiyuu: Hideki Tasaka
Voice Actor: Yuri Lowenthal

Reks appears only in the first area of the game, which serves as the tutorial. Reks joined the Dalmascan army for the sake of his younger brother Vaan; their parents had died earlier of a plague. He wanted to protect his homeland and his brother even though the war was by that point nearly lost.

Unfortunately for Reks, the mission he’s sent on is a trap. During the opening, he stays back to take care of a few Imperial soldiers, and when he catches up with the rest of the group, he finds that they’ve all been slain by the captain of the Dalmascan guard, Basch. What’s worse, Basch has slain their own king. Reks tries to ask Basch why, but Basch stabs him. Reks barely stays conscious long enough to see Basch taken away by the Archadians. Reks lives long enough to tell his tale, but passes away not long after.

Opinion

Reks, we hardly knew ye.

As far as openings go, I’ve always loved FFXII’s — I certainly had no idea my first playthrough that that wasn’t actually Basch, but when you play it again you can hear the difference in their voices. I do feel a little bad for Reks because wow, kid, did your life suck. Parents dead, run off to join a war and then bam, you think you’ve gone and been betrayed by your own captain. Sucks to be you.

Something I did notice in replaying the game is that the NPCs around Rabanastre seemed to know Reks pretty well — quite a few of them know him by name and talk to Vaan about him as you’re running around Rabanastre. NPC dialogue in Rabanastre changes throughout the game, and most of these occur fairly early on, but it is an interesting point of immersion. Try chatting up the NPCs the next time you play and you might be surprised what they have to say. (You can find a few screencaps of this in the misc gallery.)

All in all, though, I don’t have much to say about Reks; he’s barely in the game. Sorry, kid.