About the original Ion

Miyajima: The real Ion was a child born from peasants in Malkuth. When he was born, they foretold his Score and it said he will become the Fon Master in the future, that is why his parents allowed them to take him away to Daath. While he was doing his Fon Master training, he realized that his lifespan is merely 12 fleeting years, and the fact that after his past over, it will be quite a while before the next Fon Master arrives, this caused him to have a rational yet empty personality. That is when Van took his chance and talked about the 7th Fonstone and the destruction of mankind, and he started sowing the seeds of hatred within Ion. It was the first time that Van’s vengeful idea was seen after he gained the trust of Ion to manipulate him. As a result, Ion started having an idea that, “If the destruction of mankind is still going to go as the score has predicted, then why don’t we use the Replicas to build a new world”. This ideology that “if something is going to be destroyed sooner or later, then what’s wrong with letting it destroyed sooner and let the new take over the old and create a new world”.

Miyajima: As for the encounter with Arietta, it happened when Ion was around 5-6. He knew that there’s a girl who can communicate with monsters from Van, and Van started to let Ion meet with this girl. Ion realized that Arietta who has been living in the wild lives more like a human in reality than those pretentious people around him; so he got Arietta to become his Guardian and trained her along with Van. Though other people are giving her weird looks, Ion didn’t change his gentle attitude towards her, and he even allowed her monsters to roam freely in and out of Daath. Because of the kindness she received from Van and Ion, she sworn an oath that she will remain loyal to them. To Ion that has an impending death waiting for him, I think Arietta’s existence is not only a good evidence of the force of life but also a comfort.

About the Replica Ion

Miyajima: The Ion that we see during the game was born in the year that the original died, which is ND2015. Not only did the original Ion help Van with his scheme, he also brought forth the idea of a puppet Fon Master. So that they could rear the Replica Ion into a person with mild and gentle personality and place him on top of those reformers to stop the fierce disputes within the Lorelei; as well, the Replica is made so that the one who is actually in charge of Lorelei will become Van. It’s just that they must lie to others in the Lorelei about this whole fiasco, so they bribed Mohs and made a contract with him verbally that the power to control Lorelei will be given to him. When that was done, they swapped everyone who used to serve the original Ion (Arietta included) to cover up when Replica Ion replaced the original.

Miyajima: By the way, Jade has never met the original Ion. Though those reformers that Jade had contact with lost their ground when the Replica Ion replaced the original, they did managed to introduce Jade to the Replica Ion. Jade did feel that there was a difference between the Ion that he heard and the Ion that he actually came into contact with, but it wasn’t until after meeting Luke that the uncertainty he has turned into a firm belief [that Ion has been replaced].

Ion’s tears and the wrong beliefs

Miyajima: The tears that Ion has for Sync when he jumped into the core was a result of his unconscious emotions. Growing up as a puppet Fon Master with many rules, it was the first time that he sees another existence that is also a Replica of the original Ion. After seeing Sync bantering about himself as a garbage and fell into the core, Ion realized for the first time that he kept on asking himself unconsciously about his own existence, and he also found his answer.

Miyajima: Since the Replica Ion knows that he is a replacement for the original Ion, this also means that when he dies, he will be replaced; therefore, he would rather sacrifice himself than to see himself being useless. This is because Replica Ion always thinks he was born to replace the original Ion, and such is the meaning of his birth. But after he looked at Sync, he realized they share something in common. That is, to be able to live like “himself”, but he suppressed this idea, because that would be ferocious. At the end, he did manage to find out that he lied to himself all along for being original Ion’s replacement. That’s why he said, “I held the wrong beliefs all along.”

Ion and Luke’s encounter

Miyajima: To Ion, not only is Luke his first fellow Replica [other than Sync], but he is also the first person that can let Ion to face him with attitudes that he didn’t even notice himself. Of course, Luke is just a very rude wealthy kid, but I believe this is something new to Ion. Though not too soon Ion got kidnapped by the Oracles and realized Luke is a Replica, he could deeply understand that there isn’t any Replica who wouldn’t fret about their own existence when their original still exists. Therefore he kept it as a secret from Luke. Maybe Ion is the only person who could truly understand Luke from the beginning. This can be said the same for Ion. The fact that he sees Luke try his best to live resonated with the “I want to be acknowledged” desire within Ion. I think the way that Luke leads his life is also a hope for Ion. Because Ion and Luke crossed paths, that is why Ion cried as Sync tossed himself into the core.

The point that sparked the Replica Scheme

Miyajima: The key that caused Van to carry out his Replica scheme was to find out Hod will be destroyed on the 7th Fonstone found in the underground of Hod. Although there are times that Van did want to overwrite the Score written on the 7th Fonstone, that wasn't the major thing that caused him to commit something like this. Yet, knowing that in reality, the people and the land of Hod were about to be abandoned, and the fact that people in Yulia City don't care about the future of this planet. For that [the fact that people of Yulia City don't give a damn], he was convinced that people are poisoned by the Score and they can no longer be saved. As one of the descendants of the Fende family, he knows better than anyone how the Score will fulfill itself. Because of that, he theorized and concluded that as long as the originals are still living on this world, the Score will be fulfilled. He planned to commit suicide with the 6 generals of Oracle after the plan succeeds. Which is why he tried to get Tear and Guy, these two important people, on his side to share the precious moments with him. He truly believes that with his own hands, he can let them die a painless death. To a certain extent, it’s a special feeling that Van has for them. It’s just as Tear left the Yulia City as his enemy, and Guy became Luke’s comrade... This is really painful to Van because he neither wants to kill them sooner than he had planned, nor to see them die a painful death. From this point of view, I guess I could understand why he took such an extreme approach to this matter.

Miyajima: However, if one were to say that Van loses all the humane in being a human, that isn’t true. Not only did he protect Tear with his life in Yulia City, but also planted the selenia flowers for his sister who likes cute things. Before he came into contact with the technique of Fomicry, he spent a lot of time thinking about Tear’s future [in a good way].

About Miyajima Takumi

Yoshidzumi: Miyajima and I, we’re both sadistic. (Laughs) We tried our best to make the story so that players will go “What? How could this be?” She [Miyajima] has the ability to write characters that can attract the players, and this can be seen from Symphonia. This is why I ask Miyajima to handle the plot of Abyss.

Yoshidzumi: On the other hand, we won’t put in scenes where the players will only cry or be shocked. We tried to interpret the dialogues on a scene to scene, character to character basis. That’s why I asked her to make it natural. In the Zaleho volcano scene where Ion dies, we also paid special attention to what Ion will do and how others will react.

About the two opposing forces in Abyss

Yoshidzumi: During the creation of the new era, Yulia foretold all the Score and she warned people to prevent the destruction of mankind. But after her death, this Score became a disastrous Closed Score. And no one knows when the Order of Lorelei started to become a religious group that will only follow the teachings and scores of Yulia. Even to Mohs himself, he doesn’t even know what will be the future that awaits him. At first, the two opposing forces brought forth by this title was whether if one should follow the Score or not; but as the story progressed and the Planet Score was revealed, the axis gradually shifted to how to stop the Score from fulfilling itself. Even though there is a conversation between Lorelei at the end of the game, but in reality, the future that Yulia foretold was changed by Luke’s existence.

The real answer to the ending

Yoshidzumi: After the victory from the last battle, Tear whispered “I love you” to Luke. We made this scene because we want to bring out the feelings that Tear has towards Luke, but at the end, it became a story of love between two people. For that reason, we even consider to have “Luke” being hugged by Tear at Tattaroo Valley... etc. On the other hand, because that didn’t work out too well with the explaination we have for the ending, we abandoned it. Though this is how it’s said, it was the same in Symphonia, where it ends before we explain it. As for the real answer, it is up to the players to decide, what they have hoped and what they have wished that will happen after the ending, is the answer to the ending.