Reid Hershel

Reid Hershel, known as Rid Hershel (リッド・ハーシェル) in Japan, is the main protagonist of Tales of Eternia.

History
Reid is a teenage hunter born and raised in the village of Rasheans. Reid is a laid back person with only one purpose in life, to continue to eat and live in peace. He possesses remarkable sword skills, honed and mastered through hunting and self-training. Reid possesses a large amount of fibril, which allows him to master the Divine Aurora late in the game to counter the Dark Aurora threatening Eternia.

At first, Reid is a lazy bum who just wants to eat and keep things the way they are. He stubbornly refuses to be dragged across the world for something that's not his business, although Farah Oersted, his childhood friend, makes sure he does. However, after seeing the world around him and going through the Trials of Seyfert, he learns that there is more to life than just relaxing and that some things need to change. He also gets a better understanding of his friends.

Fighting Style
Reid's main strength is his vast array of powerful close-combat abilities that utilize his high physical power, imbuing various elements into some of his attacks. His fighting style is self-taught and wild, encouraging the use of wide swings and rapid thrusts and designed to rely largely on speed and offense. He can wield a large variety of weapons, such as axes to enhance his slashing damage capabilities, spears to focus on piercing attacks, and swords to balance both methods of attack equally. Reid cannot use magic, but he has the special ability to use fibril, a power granted through Seyfert to achieve the ability to perform various Divine Skills.

Tales of the Abyss
Reid appears in the Baticul Coliseum in Tales of the Abyss, along with Mint Adenade, Philia Felice and Nanaly Fletch, to fight against the party as part of its Exhibition Match. He is the primary melee character of the group, whose role is to distract the player's party from attacking his allies, so that the spellcasters can activate their magic without being interrupted. Interestingly, all of his artes retain the translated names that were used in the localization of Tales of Eternia, despite some errors in connecting these older arte names with the correct attack.

His most potent attack is his Divine Skill, Aurora Wall, which not only damages the player's party in a small area of effect, it also revives all knocked-out members of his entire party. In the North American version of the game, he also gains the ability to extend his Rising Phoenix into the Divine Skill Burning Phoenix as he could in Tales of Eternia, though it no longer requires him to stagger his opponents first.

Tales of Hearts
Reid appears as a Support Arte in Tales of Hearts, where he performs his signature Aurora Wall when used.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
Reid appears in Radiant Mythology as a playable character, classed as a Swordsman with the "Hunter" title. He's a member of Ad Libitum, and his reason for joining, according to Kratos Aurion, is said to be because of food alone. He would go broke if he ate at the inn all the time, and he couldn't hunt for meat because he wasn't allowed to exit the village. Seeing that he was excellent with the sword because he's such a good hunter, he got Kratos' seal of approval, and an Ad Libitum member was then made. His appetite for food is almost comical and used as a running gag in skits.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2
Reid appears in the second installment of Radiant Mythology as a playable character. He lives on the Van Eltia with his two childhood friends Keele and Farah. He is one of the first nine characters available to join the player's party. As in the original Radiant Mythology the sword Reid chooses to use throughout the entire game is the Last Fencer.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3
Reid appears in the third installment as a playable character. Various arte animations have been modified for Reid's use to show the style that he uses in Tales of Eternia, resulting in uniquely animated versions of Majinken Souga and Shinkuuretsuzan. As in the original Radiant Mythology, the sword Reid chooses to use throughout the entire game is the Last Fencer.