Ramza Beoulve's Contest History

Who is Ramza Beoulve?
Rarely have I seen such courage, selflessness, valor, and honor in one character. Ramza Beoulve has an absolute dedication to doing what he knows is right. To him, that is his duty to uphold in life. Even when everything is crumbling around him, he firmly stays the course and does not waver. Ramza goes against the tide of deception that has swept over Ivalice and threatens to drag him under. Virtually nobody wants him to succeed (and many just want him dead), but that does not deter him. Ramza also doesn’t get caught up in the power struggle for control of the nation, although he easily could have. He has no interest in such things. In his eyes, his standing in the nobility is not to be used to take advantage of people or for one’s own personal gain, but rather to help others.

At the beginning of the game, Ramza is a naïve cadet at the Gariland Magic Academy, a training center for Hokuten Knights, which are under the command of Prince Larg. He attends the school with his best friend Delita Hyral, a commoner who was permitted at the request of Ramza’s father Balbanes, who was a famous war hero. Ramza is the only one who seems to accept him as a person. All of the other nobles either look down on him or treat him with an indifferent neglect.

Upon graduation, Ramza embarks on a journey to the Beoulve castle Igros with Delita. Along the way, they encounter a band of thieves surrounding a young man named Algus Sadalfas. They discover that a rogue army called the Death Corps has captured Marquis Elmdor, one of the leaders of Ivalice, and they agree to accompany Algus to Igros Castle to enlist the aid of the Hokuten. Instead, Ramza’s oldest brother Dycedarg assigns them to guard duty while the knights hunt down the Death Corps on their own. Dissatisfied by this, Delita disregards this order and decides to go with Algus to rescue Elmdor on their own, and Ramza feels obligated to go with them.

The three cadets pursue the Death Corps to a desert hideout and manage to take the Marquis out of their hands. Upon returning to Igros Castle, Dycedarg begins to criticize them for leaving, but Prince Larg arrives to congratulate them for what they have done. As a result, Dycedarg reluctantly allows them to lead a raid on a Death Corps hideout, where they meet a disenchanted female soldier named Miluda Folles. She is disgusted by how the commoners are treated like animals by the upper class, and Algus retorts by saying that this is all they are, made to serve the nobles from the moment they were born. Delita is highly disturbed by this and begins to question if this woman is truly their enemy. Ramza also seems to sympathize with Miluda, which absolutely disgusts Algus.

While they were away, some Death Corps soldiers attack Igros Castle, seriously wounding Dycedarg and kidnapping Delita’s sister, Teta. Upon their return, Ramza’s brother assures them that they will find and rescue her. That is not enough to calm Delita down, and he rushes out in a fit of rage. As Ramza tries to stop him, Algus comes out and tells them that he doesn’t believe Dycedarg will save her, and that she doesn’t deserve to be saved. Then he tells Ramza that he’s a noble and that he should not have befriended a commoner. This provokes Delita even further, and Ramza essentially tells Algus to get lost. Before leaving, he tells them that the Death Corps base is at a place called Fort Zeakden. Ramza simply cannot understand what separates him from Delita other than social status and why that means they cannot coexist. He also doesn’t believe Algus’s claim that Dycedarg would not save Teta.

On their way to the fort, the two cross paths with Miluda again, who insists on fighting, despite their pleas to reason with her. They kill her in the battle, and then they move on to a small windmill in the plains. Waiting for them there is the leader of the Death Corps and Miluda’s brother, Wiegraf Folles. Ramza still does not understand the purpose behind their rebellion, thinking that there is no need to fight and that his brothers would be willing to talk things out with them. Wiegraf laughs at the absurdity and claims that Ramza is merely being delusional. He tells him that Dycedarg was the one who ordered Marquis Elmdor’s kidnapping in an attempt to bring the power in Ivalice over to Larg. Ramza absolutely refuses to believe that his brother would do such a thing, but his naïveté would not last much longer.

At Fort Zeakden, a Death Corps soldier named Golagros holds Teta in front of him as a human shield as he tries to keep Ramza’s older brother Zalbag and the Hokuten Knights at bay by threatening to ignite all of the gunpowder inside. Much to Ramza’s and Delita’s surprise, Algus is with them. Zalbag tells him to “do it,” and he shoots Teta with a crossbow. Then he wounds Golagros, who drags himself inside the fort. Zalbag gets called away in pursuit of Wiegraf, and then Delita kills Algus in his anger. After the battle, he stands in front of the fort holding the body of his sister, mourning over her. However, inside the fort, Golagros ignites the gunpowder and it goes up in flames.

These experiences bring Ramza to a realization that not all nobles are dedicated to protecting and serving the people as he had previously thought, not even his own brothers. What Wiegraf and Algus had said was true. They were merely using their status for their own personal gain. Reality proved to be very harsh, and it shattered his naïve personality. Disenchanted by the nobility, Ramza changes his last name to distance himself from it and becomes a mercenary for hire under the command of Gaff Gafgarion.

One year later, Ivalice is mired deep in a power struggle between Prince Larg with his Hokuten Knights and Prince Goltana with his Nanten Knights. Ramza is hired by the royal family to help protect Princess Ovelia from being captured by the Nanten along with her personal guardian, Agrias Oaks. During a battle with them, a familiar face kidnaps the princess and escapes with her. Ramza is shocked. A friend he thought to be long dead has suddenly reappeared. He has to make sure it’s really him and find out what he’s doing.

Ramza, Agrias, and Gafgarion finally catch up to Ovelia at Zirekile Falls, where they find Delita surrounded by the Hokuten Knights. They demand that he hand her over, but he refuses because he knows they’ll kill her. They adamantly deny their claims, and upon seeing Gafgarion arrive, they order him to kill all of the witnesses. Seeing as it’s a part of his contract, he agrees. He tries to get Ramza to join him, but he refuses to see another innocent girl sacrificed like Teta was. Then he asks Delita what he intends to do with the princess and if he’s party to the plot of his brothers. He replies that he only seeks to free Ovelia from those who wish to exploit her. After fighting off the Hokuten and Gafgarion, Delita allows the princess to remain with Ramza and Agrias for the time being. However, they realize that they do not have many options available to them, as they’ve now made an enemy of the Hokuten. Agrias suggest that they go to Lionel and see Cardinal Draclau, a man who has been neutral in the war between Larg and Goltana. It would be their only safe refuge.

Along the way, the group encounters a young man on the run, and they rescue him from his pursuers. He tells them that his name is Mustadio, and that his father was kidnapped by the Bart Company for reasons that he is unwilling to divulge. Upon learning that they are on their way to see the Cardinal, he begs to go along and Ovelia obliges. At this time, Dycedarg orders Gafgarion to get the princess, no matter what the cost, even if it means killing Ramza should he get in the way.

When the group arrives at Lionel Castle, they explain their situation to Draclau, and he allows them to stay there. He tells them that he will send word to the Glabados Church in the holy city of Murond so that Larg’s scheme would be exposed and Ovelia would be protected from danger. Then the Cardinal asks Mustadio why the Bart Company is after him, and he is still reluctant to give details. At this time, Draclau pulls out a shining red stone and says that it is one of the fabled Zodiac stones, which saved the land from a great evil, according to legend. Mustadio reveals that he found a similar stone, and that the Bart Company was after it for its extraordinary power, so they are holding his father hostage in a city called Goug until he hands it over. Ramza pledges to go with Mustadio to rescue him while Agrias and Ovelia remain at Lionel.

Once they arrive in the city, Mustadio goes off on his own to talk with the Bart Company and tells Ramza to wait for him. After a while, he begins to worry about what happened to him. Then the leader of the Bart Company, a man by the name of Bart Rudvich, shows up with Mustadio and tells Ramza to hand over the Zodiac stone. Mustadio tells him where he hid it, and Ramza gives it to them. Rudvich laughs and says that the Cardinal will be pleased with this, which shocks the two men. After rescuing his father, Mustadio reveals that the stone Rudvich was given was a fake. Ramza then realizes that Agrias and Ovelia could be in serious danger in Lionel, and they rush back to help them.

Along the way, Ramza meets up with Delita again, who tells him to keep himself away from the princess and the Zodiac stones. He says that he can’t save her, no matter what, but he can. Ramza doesn’t quite understand what he means by this and asks him what he’s trying to do. Delita replies that all of Ivalice is caught up in the same flow, and he is simply going against it. These words would stay with Ramza for a long time.

As they approach Lionel, Ramza and Mustadio find Agrias on the run. They rescue her from the castle knights, and she reveals that the Cardinal plans to have Ovelia executed at Golgorand. However, they don’t realize that they’re walking right into a trap. Gafgarion is waiting for them there, and they find themselves surrounded by several soldiers. He tells Ramza to give up and Dycedarg would forgive him for what he has done. He vehemently refuses and says that he will not be involved with any more wrongdoing. His guilt over Teta still haunts him, but Gafgarion tells him to forget about it because he has a duty as a Beoulve. He tries to convince him that his brothers are trying to change Ivalice for the better, even if it technically means committing wrongdoings. Ramza replies that there is no justice in using and deceiving people, and he can’t overlook somebody getting killed in the name of “justice.”

After successfully fending off Gafgarion and his soldiers, Ramza, Agrias, and Mustadio press forward to Lionel. They confront Draclau, who tells them that Ovelia departed for Zeltennia, dominion of Prince Goltana, saying that she had chosen his help over theirs so she could accede to the throne. Then he extends an offer to Ramza to join them and change the world. He says that he doesn’t want to change the world. He just couldn’t allow people to suffer and die because of some elitist’s ideas. Then Draclau used the Zodiac stone to transform into a powerful demon, and Ramza is forced to defeat him. Then he takes the stone with him.

After all of this, Ramza begins to wonder if he can do anything about the impending war that’s sweeping over Ivalice. He decides to go to his brother Zalbag and let him know that this fight for the crown is just a part of another party’s plot. Ramza asks his brother why the Beoulves were fighting to protect royalty for their own self-interest rather than protecting the people like they should be. He tries to explain about Dycedarg’s plot to kidnap Ovelia, but Zalbag denies it and tells him to leave.

As Ramza prepares to depart, he meets up with his little sister Alma. He tells her that Delita is alive and that Dycedarg plotted Ovelia’s kidnapping. As they talk, a priest by the name of Zalmo Rusnada approaches them and tells Ramza that he has been suspected of heresy and murder in killing the Cardinal and stealing the Zodiac stone. He denies the charges, but Zalmo will have none of it. He tries to take him by force, but he is eventually forced to retreat. After the battle, Alma tells Ramza that she believes she has seen a Zodiac stone in the Orbonne Monastery and asks to go along. He does not want to take her, but he has no choice as he cannot enter the monastery on his own now that he has been branded a heretic by the church. He makes her promise that she will only go as far as Orbonne, and then she has to return, but things are never quite that simple for Ramza.

The two arrive at the monastery, only to discover that somebody else has already beaten them there. A monk reveals to them that the High Priest of the Glabados Church was searching for the holy Zodiac stones to gain power and to win over the trust of the people. Ramza is intent to stop them after seeing what happened with Draclau. He gives the two stones he has to Alma and tells her to hide in a safe place so nobody finds her.

As Ramza goes looking for the stone, he encounters a Temple Knight named Izlude, who asks him why he’s different from his brothers. He replies that the Beoulve name is only to be used for divine justice. Izlude tells him that the Glabados Church wants a world where everybody is equal, too. Ramza tells him that it isn’t true because the Cardinal used the evil power in the stone to transform into a demon. Izlude doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about, claiming that the Zodiac stones are holy, not evil.

After that confrontation, Ramza finds himself face-to-face with an old enemy. It turns out that Wiegraf has joined the Temple Knights. When asked why he had forsaken his ideals to join the church, he answers that he simply did not have the power to realize them. Ramza said he respected how he had stirred up the old noble ideals with the Death Corps, but now they have no value since he’s eating out of somebody else’s hand now. After they fight in battle, Wiegraf is fatally wounded and crawls to the outside of the monastery, where Izlude has taken Alma hostage. He tells him to leave with the girl and not to worry about him.

As Wiegraf lies at the brink of death, the Zodiac stone he holds suddenly rises and promises to give him power if he will pledge his life to it. He desperately agrees, and the stone transforms him into a demon, much like it had done to Draclau. He vanishes into thin air, and Ramza is left empty-handed. He now realizes that the legend of the Zodiac stones that the church has propagated for years was a blatant lie. There is no good in them, only evil.

Ramza eventually discovers that Alma is being held at Riovanes Castle, and he goes to find her. Inside, he once again encounters Wiegraf. Ramza defeats him in a one-on-one duel, and then he uses the Zodiac stone to transform into the demon. In an epic battle, he manages to finish Wiegraf once and for all. As he searches the castle for Alma, he realizes that she is not there. She had been taken by the leader of the Temple Knights, a man by the name of Vormav. The Virgo stone had reacted to her, meaning that she was apparently Ajora, the savior of the Glabados Church, reincarnated, and he had seized her.

Determined to end the war between Larg and Goltana, and to put an end to the church’s plot, Ramza seeks for the remaining Zodiac stones. He goes to the city of Zeltennia to ask Delita what the church is up to. He reveals that the church is trying to incite the people to revolt against the royal family by drawing out the war. They also planned to murder the leaders on each side, and then the church would step in to resolve the situation and take over. Ramza is still focused on stopping the war, even though Delita tells him it won’t happen.

However, Ramza’s intervention manages to bring the war to a stalemate. During this time, Dycedarg murders Prince Larg, who reveals before his death that he had also killed his own father to inherit the Beoulve estate. Delita also takes advantage of the opportunity and slays Prince Goltana.

Later, one of Vormav’s men comes to Igros Castle and gives one of the Zodiac stones to Dycedarg. He also subtly implies that he’s aware of what he did to his father. Zalbag happens to be eavesdropping on their conversation, and he is outraged by what he discovers. Once Ramza is aware that Dycedarg has received a Zodiac stone, he returns home. He gets there to find that Zalbag is confronting his brother for murdering their father. In the battle, he kills Dycedarg, but the Zodiac stone revives him as a demon. Then he kills Zalbag, and Ramza has no choice but to fight his oldest brother. Afterwards, he realizes that names aren’t important. It’s how a person lives his life that matters.

Then Ramza travels to the holy city of Murond to find Alma. He gets there to find that Vormav has betrayed the High Priest because he has lost all of the Zodiac stones. Ramza confronts him, but Vormav resurrects Zalbag using the power of the stones and forces him to fight him.

After all of this, Ramza chases down Vormav, who has Alma lying unconscious before him. He uses his Zodiac stone to transform into a demon, and Ramza defeats him. Seeing that Ajora has not resurrected yet, Vormav sacrifices himself to provide enough blood to bring him back to life. Then Alma’s body separates from his, and they become two separate entities. In the final battle, Ramza defeats the Bloody Angel, who then explodes and supposedly kills him and Alma.

However, there is no funeral held for Ramza. As a heretic, he becomes a forgotten page of history, thanks to the church covering up all that he did with lies. He was a shining light in the midst of a corrupt nation, and he brought it back into peace. He lost everything that was dear to him. Everyone turned their back on him, even his best friend and his brothers, whom he had to kill with his own hand. His good name was tarnished by the church. He prevented the world from plunging into darkness, and yet he’s left with nothing.

That is what impressed me the most about Ramza. He KNEW that he was not going to be receiving any praise, any reward, or any credit for doing any of this, and he did it anyway. His entire world collapsed around him. When most would have quit, he didn’t because he knew he couldn’t. I’m sorry that this was such a long write-up, but I didn’t know any other way to do this one justice.

''“There’s no ‘justice’ in using and deceiving people! I can’t ignore people dying for ‘justice’!”'' - Ramza

(Writeup courtesy of Leonhart)

Ramza Beoulve's Contest History
Win-Loss Record: 0-1

Summer 2003 Contest - South Division - 14 Seed
 * Southern Round 1 --- Lost to (3) Kirby, 42482 [42.34%] - 57862 [57.66%]
 * Extrapolated Strength --- 38th Place [22.31%]

You're probably asking yourself why a character who has only appeared in one match (and will likely never again see another) has such an overboard page.

Actually scratch that. The only people wondering this are those who don't know me very well.

Anyway, Ramza is one of several old contest characters who appeared in one match, lost, and has yet to be heard of again. That said, hindsight would indicate that Ramza's performance against Kirby in 2003 was fairly impressive. Be it Ramza riding the wave of 2003 being Square's year or what, Kirby isn't exactly a low character on the Nintendo pecking order. He's only one or two steps away from Noble Nine strength, though in fairness this 2003 match happened before the massive Nintendo coup of GameFAQs. If Ramza ever faced Kirby again, he'd be lucky to break 35% on him.

The question of course is whether or not Ramza will ever again get the opportunity.