Cress Albane

Cless Alvaine, appearing in all original Japanese media and certain fan translations under the name of Cless Alvein, is the main character in Tales of Phantasia, the first game in the Tales series. This makes him the very first main character in the series.

Cless is a seventeen year-old swordsman from the small village of Toltus. He is the son of Miguel Albane, a famous swordsman and master of the local sword fighting school. As such, he has practiced sword fighting since he was a young child.

Cless is a kind and caring character, but is ruthless and unforgiving in the face of the enemy, especially Dhaos. He is considered as the traditional hero of the Tales, with his use of the sword, commitment to justice, and occasionally dense personality.

Personality
Cless is a kind and caring character, but is ruthless and unforgiving in the face of the enemy, especially Dhaos, who murdered his family as well as the villagers of Toltus. There are times however, when this guy can be pretty dense, like most Tales heroes.

Fighting Style
Cless, being the traditional swordsman, uses swords and other sharp objects in battle. Being the first swordsman in the series, many of his artes are carried on to the next, becoming recurring and traditional in the series.

Tales of Phantasia
Cless is a seventeen year-old swordsman from the small village of Toltus. He is the son of Miguel Albane, a famous swordsman and master of the local sword fighting school. As such, he has practiced sword fighting since he was a young child.

After the destruction of his hometown, Toltus and murder of his family, Cress sets off to find those responsible and bring them to justice with his best friend, Chester Burklight. He was then caught by the attackers of Toltus because he had with him one of the pendants that kept Dhaos sealed. This leads him to meet Mint Adenade, and the two of them discovered that their parents took part in sealing away Dhaos, an evil warlord. Upon his confrontation with Dhaos, Trinicus D. Morrison sent him and Mint one hundred years into the past, where they hoped to find the power to defeat Dhaos in the present.

Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon
Cress plays quite an important role in this game as one of the Heroes of Eternity that guide central protagonists Mel and Dio on their quest. Several years have passed since the battle with Dhaos and Cress has built a new town where Toltus once stood. He spends most of his time traveling around with Mint as she goes from town to town, healing the sick and injured. He also helps Chester run his orphanage whenever he is around.

Tales of Destiny
Cless appears in Tales of Destiny alongside Arche Klein in the town of Armeida, where the two of them administer a quiz about previous Namco games, in which the winning prize is Stahn's Throw Sword arte. In the later versions, he was replaced by Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia.

Tales of Eternia
Cless, with name last name romanized as Albain in this game, appears in Tales of Eternia as one of the cameos in the coliseum battle, next to Arche. Cress wields the Eternal Sword, and gives it to Reid after he is defeated.

Tales of the Abyss
Cless appears as one of the costumes for Anise's doll, Tokunaga, which is gained by equipping the "Time Traveling Hero" accessory to Anise.

Little Big Planet
Although Cless Alvaine himself doesn't appear in Little Big Planet, his hair (Ryu DLC) and his outfit (Motorstorm DLC) appears as a costume for the player's sackboy.

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
Though he does not appear in the game, if the Protagonist talks to Chester Barklight as a Swordsman, Chester will mention that, while the player looks good, the Protagonist does not compare another swordsman he knows, one of the greatest swordsmen. He is possibly referring to Cress when he says this.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Cress does not appear in this game. However, his trademark headband, called Fencer Bandana. is an equipable item for Emil Castagnier. Its description is as follows:


 * "The bandana belonging to the Eternal Swordsman from the story called Legends of Fantasy."

Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2
Cless will make his first appearance in the Radiant Mythology series with most of the Phantasia characters. He appears as a playable character, although his exact role has not been revealed.

Tales of VS.
Cless appears as a playable character in the Escort Title Tales of VS. During the story he ventures Mint and Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia. During Lloyd Irving's story mode he serves as the first and final boss. During the story Dhaos makes dopplegangers of him and Kratos to fight Lloyd and Colette.

Trivia

 * Cress Albane's name appears (in English) as Cless Alvein during the ending credits to the Japan-only Tales of Phantasia on the SNES, as well as in the instruction manuals for the Japanese versions of the game. Because of this, fans tend to use the name 'Cless' when referring to the character, especially in the unofficial DeJap translation of the game. However, in his cameo appearance in the US version of Tales of Eternia, his name was localized as Cress. This has carried through into Nintendo's official translation of Tales of Phantasia on the Game Boy Advance and the Tales of Phantasia OVA by Geneon. It should be noted that the Japanese pronounce 'R' and 'L' sounds in the same way, so neither one of Cress' name translations are wrong.