Rounding out the original trio of dateable characters in Love and Deepspace is Rafayel, a puckish young painter whose connection to the game’s main plot is seemingly much less involved than those of his romantic rivals. But of course, LaDS is the kind of thriller-inspired otome where nothing is as it seems, and there’s a lot more to Rafayel than he allows to appear on the surface.
Since Rafayel has his own stuff going on and thus a tendency to sit out long swathes of the main story, you might find yourself wanting a refresher on his lore ahead of the upcoming Version 4.0. To that end, we’ve put together this explainer on everything we know about Rafayel’s lore and backstory in Love and Deepspace.
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Who is Rafayel in Love and Deepspace?
Unlike Xavier (the heroine’s co-worker and upstairs neighbour) or Zayne (her childhood friend turned primary care physician), Rafayel’s connection to our protagonist seems much more tenuous at first. They meet by chance at a park not long after the story begins, and part with nothing to suggest that they’ll ever encounter one another again.
However, the heroine quickly becomes aware of Rafayel’s notoriety in the art world thanks to her day job, since wealthy individuals who bought certain of his paintings began experiencing medical incidents hinting at sudden psychological disturbance. Tracking Rafayel to his studio, the heroine eventually determines that a shade of paint he’s been using had been contaminated with an hallucinogenic that also draws in Wanderers.
After the immediate danger is resolved, Rafayel asks the heroine to moonlight as his bodyguard in addition to her regular job as a Deepspace Hunter, explaining that his work as a high-profile artist occasionally necessitates personal protection. Though she’s initially insulted by the suggestion, he eventually convinces her by promising that he can aid her ongoing investigations into the deaths of her family.
As the pair investigate the source of the red coral stone that contaminated Rafayel’s paints, they become stranded together on an island off the coast of Linkon City after their boat capsises. During a Wanderer attack, Rafayel displays an unexpected aptitude for combat even against fearsomely large enemies, and – just as when their boat sank – seems untroubled by the prospect of drowning when cast out to sea. As the protagonist loses consciousness underwater, a mark on Rafayel’s chest glows and compels him to turn back and aid her, and he transforms into a merman to bring her safely back to shore, although she doesn’t see any of this and remains unaware of his true nature in the main story.
Later, Rafayel’s connections among the art world allow him to act as an intermediary between the heroine and Linkon City’s shadier elements, gaining her access to some of his glamorous yet disreputable contacts, and eventually helping lead her to her targets in the criminal underbelly of the N109 Zone… or, just as accurately, leading them to her.
In contrast to the other original love interests, Rafayel is portrayed as being neither particularly reliable nor honest, regularly abandoning his work commitments to pursue pleasant distractions and frequently exaggerating any discomfort or inconvenience he experiences, particularly if he perceives the heroine as ignoring him in favour of her work or other obligations. However, he also contrasts with Xavier and Zayne in that he’s much less serious than either of them, and even though his playfulness can be barbed at times, his attempts at trolling her are usually short-lived enough that the heroine regards his tricks with more wry amusement than actual annoyance.
How to unlock Rafayel in Love and Deepspace
As one of the original trio of love interests in LaDS, you can start romancing Rafayel not long after you start playing. He unlocks after you complete Chapter 2-11 of Under Deepspace, the game’s opening storyline.
However, if you somehow manage to obtain some of Rafayel’s Memories before this point – which is possible if you start playing around with the gacha straight away – then you will have him unlocked as a battle companion even earlier still. Admittedly there aren’t many freeplay battles in the game at that point, but it’s feasible.
Rafayel’s lore and backstory explained (SPOILERS)
Rafayel’s true origins are as the God of the Tides, a monarch-deity from Lemuria, an underwater civilisation that was once highly advanced but has died out by the present day of the main story.
Like most of the other LIs, Rafayel has met the protagonist before in multiple of her other incarnations, including their first meeting when she was a human woman sacrificed to appease the god of the sea. When the time comes to complete the sacrifice and with it his ascension to godhood, Rafayel chooses to reverse part of the ritual in an attempt to share his power with her.
However, while he never reveals his exact method for subverting the rites, it clearly didn’t go as planned: Lemurian civilisation begins to inexorably die out following the ceremony, and the heroine disappears only to return many years later as the Witch of the Abyss, an amnesiac sorceress feared by the Lemurian people. Rafayel finally succeeds in restoring her memories, but discovers that their future reunions are all cursed to end unhappily. However, he is now bound to all of her counterparts thanks to the ceremony, which is likened to a divine marriage rite.
Many years pass, and Lemuria’s population continues to decline, in part because Lemurians are hunted by humans who wish to learn the secret of immortality that lies within their DNA. Rafayel grows to dislike and distrust all humans and even begins to resent the heroine, despite continuing to be drawn to her various incarnations. Along with other survivors he eventually flees a crumbling Lemuria to live on land as clandestine refugees, and begins assuming identities as human artists, including a famous opera singer named Mo. However, due to Lemurians’ obvious impeded ageing placing him in danger of discovery, he is forced to give up his Mo identity and forge others over time, which is how he comes to be a renowned painter in the present day.
Rafayel first met the main storyline’s incarnation of the heroine when she was a child who rescued him after he became stranded on a beach. They promise to meet on the same beach every year, but due to the heroine’s memories resetting every time she nears death, she forgets him before the year is out due to a childhood illness. However, Rafayel continues to monitor her, including taking up a position as an art criticism lecturer at her university while she was a student. Even their chance meeting at the beginning of the story was carefully engineered by him.
Finally, one of Rafayel’s Myths reveals a glimpse into the future for him and another incarnation of the heroine. On a post-apocalyptic Earth where the ocean has dried into a desert, Rafayel – now an assassin know as the Abysswalker – infiltrates the palace where a version of the heroine now lives as a princess, revered but isolated due to her Evol being considered a valuable resource for the remnants of humanity.
Though prepared to assassinate the heroine in order to resurrect Lemuria, Rafayel hesitates after they recover the Tome of the Sea God, which not only shows them how to bring back the ancient civilisation but also restores their memories of their past lives together. When the heroine attempts to complete the sacrifice anyway by restoring the power of the Sea God that they had been unknowingly sharing to Rafayel alone, Rafayel erases her memories and returns her to her palace, but she later recalls enough about what happened to escape to the desert again and go looking for him.