Name: Billy Lee Black
Sex: Male
Age: 16
Birthplace: Mass Island Sea area (Aquvy)
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Specialty: Handguns
Gear: Renmazuo
Seiyuu: Ueda Yuuji
If anyone happens to know who did Billy's voice in the American release, I'd like to find out (although I have the sneaking suspicion that it was probably Random Localization Staff Guy).

Story

Born in the year 9983 (the game takes place in the year 9999) to Jesiah and Racquel Black, Billy grew up quietly in a house in Aquvy. He learned to use a gun when he was 9, which was the same year his sister, Primera, was born. Not long after that, Billy's father disappeared, without any contact between him and his family for about 4 years. During that time, Racquel was attacked and killed by Wels. (Billy was 12 and Primera 3.) Primera then stopped speaking and Billy devoted himself to the Ethos and his mentor, Bishop Stone. Two years later, Jessie returned to find that his house was an orphanage, his wife was dead, his daughter mute, and his son an Etone. Billy refused to believe that Jessie was the father from his memory, but Primera willingly accepted him, which bothered Billy since he was the one who basically had to raise his sister for most of her life.

Battle

Billy's weapons of choice are, of course, guns, although he believes that they are merely tools for killing (probably related to the experiences from his childhood). The types of guns are as follows:

Triangle - Handgun
These guns are the weakest of the three, but since you can get more shots in using them, it pretty much evens out damage-wise. The only problem you might encounter with these is if you do not get the B&JM686 gun before the end of disc 1. If that happens, you're stuck with a really weak triangle button attack until the very end of the game, when it doesn't matter anyway. (This happened to me the first time through; it sucked. Lots.)

Square - Ether gun
Billy's Ether guns can use two types of elemental ammo at one time. They can be either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how you use them. Some enemies, of course, absorb Ether, so Billy's square button attack can heal them. However, I personally think that doesn't happen often enough to really affect Billy's ability to aid the party. He initially comes equipped with fire and wind Ether bullets, and you can purchase water and earth bullets later on. Ether bullets have unlimited use, so you only need one of each type.

X - Shotgun
Billy's shotgun is by far his most powerful single attack. The gun can't be upgraded, but the bullets can, and generally the most powerful type at the time can just be bought from either Maison or Shopkeep Johnny in the Anima dungeons.

Billy's Ether abilities are centered around healing and protection. If you liked Citan's Sazanami, that's nothing compared to this stuff. Billy's healing Ether can pretty much bring any party member up to full HP, unless they're extremely low. Even then, it comes pretty darn close. He also has a spell that heals the entire party (for enormous amounts of HP recovery as well) without having to use any other spell first. *coughrenkicough* Actually, if you think about it, his Ether is basically an improvement on Citan's, plus some. He has a spell that removes ALL effects, instead of one for physical and one for mental, and he comes with it as soon as he joins the party. Billy also gains spells that block against elemental attacks, and he is one of only two characters with a spell that removes a character from KO. (The other is Chu-chu... *cough*) Not to mention his insanely cool "Haste"-like spell. Billy also has high Ether and Ether defense attributes, and the best accuracy out of the whole party. I have NEVER seen him miss, unless the monster is just one of those bastards whom you can't hit with normal attacks... but that doesn't really count. Anyway!

Of course, there are some disadvantages. Billy's speed is only average, being higher than Bart, Rico, Chu-chu and Maria but lower than Fei, Citan, Emeralda and Elly. He also has low HP and defense attributes. Then again, he has the insane mega cool healing Ether... so the last two don't matter quite as much. His slowness can be a pain when you need healing pretty badly, and unfortunately there's no way to permanently raise agility. There are equippable items that do so, but generally I'm too busy boosting his HP, defense, or Ether ability to have room for them. They can come in handy, though. Or you could just wait until the end of the game and get some Speed Shoes. =)

« info