Cherche

Cherche (Zelcher in the non-English European versions) is a playable character in Fire Emblem Awakening.

Quick Answers

What is the significance of Cherche's burn scar in Fire Emblem Awakening?

In Fire Emblem Awakening, Cherche's burn scar symbolizes her initial encounter with the dragon Minerva. The scar was a result of Minerva's fire when Cherche captured her in a weakened state. This event marked the start of their bond and the trust that subsequently grew between them.

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How did Cherche come to tame a wyvern in Fire Emblem Awakening?

In Fire Emblem Awakening, Cherche tamed a wyvern by establishing trust through persistence and patience. The wyvern, initially hostile, would snarl and unseat her during her riding attempts. Over time, Cherche's perseverance paid off, and she earned the wyvern's trust. There's an implication that Cherche rescued the wyvern, Minerva, from a perilous encounter with a wyvern-hunting party.

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What is the meaning of the name 'Cherche' in French and does it have any relevance to her character?

The name 'Cherche' is derived from the French verb 'chercher', meaning 'to look'. This might be a subtle nod to the French phrase 'Cherchez la femme', implying a woman as the root of a man's issues, possibly hinting at her dynamic with her master.

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What role does Cherche play in the House Virion?

Cherche is a loyal retainer in House Virion, rulers of the Rosanne region in Valm. Her duties, initially as a knight, expanded to servant tasks due to Virion's preference. Even after Virion's downfall, Cherche chose to stay loyal. She is recognized for her domestic abilities, like cooking and sewing, and her strength, evident in her taming of her wyvern, Minerva.

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How does Cherche's background as a cleric influence her character in Fire Emblem Awakening?

Cherche's cleric training in Fire Emblem Awakening is evident in her healer reclass options. However, she stands out with the highest strength and defense modifiers among the first-generation females and ranks high overall. This suggests her cleric background has endowed her with an unusual combination of strength and healing capabilities.

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Profile

Hailing from Rosanne in Valm, Cherche became a vassal to House Virion. Originally trained to be a Cleric, when she was nine years old, Cherche encountered a vicious female wyvern in Wyvern Valley. Though the wyvern was sick, Cherche fiercely battled and tamed the dragon only sustaining a burn scar on her shoulder (a bald spot in the Japanese version). She would name this wyvern Minerva out of respect to the legendary Princess Minerva from the Hero-King's army.

Before the events of Awakening, the Conqueror Walhart began invading the territories of Valm to unite it under a single banner. Rosanne was among the numerous regions to fall quickly and forced Virion to flee to Ylisse in hopes of gathering allies to dispose Walhart. Cherche stayed behind to protect Rosanne as best as she could while awaiting her master's return. Shortly after the end of the Ylisse-Plegia war, Virion returned to Rosanne.

Virion would return to Ylisse two years after the war to deliver dire news to Chrom that Walhart had completed his conquest of Valm and has now set his signs on all of Ylisse. Cherche accompanied Virion this time and, irritated of his lack of urgency in delivering the news, briskly gives the information for him. Cherche reveals that the first vestiges of the Valm empire has made landfall at Port Ferox so Chrom and his forces immediately head there to intercept the first wave. At the port, Cherche offers to formally join the fray as a part of the Shepherds.

In the future, should she be paired with a member of the Shepherds, Cherche will be the mother of Gerome. If she marries Robin, she can be the mother of Morgan.

Paralogue

In Paralogue 11, Cherche receives word that poachers have entered the Wyvern Valley. Asking Chrom and the others for assistance, they head to the valley where, at the nearby village, Cherche encounters a young, masked Wyvern Rider who refuses to join the fray. Though Cherche admonishes him, her resolve to fend off the poaches spur the young man into the immediate battle. In the aftermath, Cherche approaches the young man once more, wanting compare Minerva to his mount. Upon close inspection, Cherche realizes that the two wyverns are the same. The man confirms this and reveals his identity to her by showing a ring, one that resembles the same one she is wearing. Realizing that this is her future son, she is shocked to learn that he only accompanied his fellow children into the past to release Minerva to the wild as she was the last wyvern in the ruined future. Despite joining the army, he brusquely refuses to associate with the current Cherche as he states that he had already lost his mother once and does not want to risk the pain of losing her again.

Cherche makes numerous attempts over their Supports to bond with Gerome. Despite Gerome brushing her off and referring to her by name rather than mother, he warms up significantly towards her and the two train together in order to prevent the hellish future he hailed from.

Personality

Cherche is a domestic woman raised on simple values who is good at cooking and sewing. Cordial and poised, she has very subtle expression changes in her character portraits and rarely shows extreme emotions. Despite being just a knight at first, Virion's particular fondness of her led to her duties being combined with those of a servant, with the pressure and suspicion of others forcing her to balance both her attitude and skills in the process. Though disdainful of his behavior, Cherche's extremely loyal to Virion, deciding to stay with him despite his fall from grace. Having an understanding of his torments, being the only person Virion shows his real self, she is not afraid to mock his demeanor when felt needed, something that he admits to actually affect his mood.

Cherche is close to her beloved mount Minerva, a wyvern with a vicious temperament. She admits that she had difficulty training her in her fledgling days, even sustaining a scar from it. However, the two have an inseparable bond, with Cherche able to understand Minerva on a personal level, even having conversations with her and understands her shrieks. She dislikes when others treat Minerva as a mere creature or mount. Because she was able to tame such a brutal wyvern, Cherche is considered the most terrifying person to anger in the army as she often threatens to feed people who annoy or upset her to Minerva, often with an eerie, yet genuine smile. Recently, she has decided to try and find Minerva a mate with little success. However, as Cherche begins to pursue her own relationships and happiness, she often consults with Minerva, making sure that Minerva accepts her partner as well. With time, Minerva grows fond of Cherche's spouse as noted in some of the Future Past conversations between Gerome and his father.

She has a bizarre sense of aesthetics, referring to monsters and bugs as cute. She also manages to not lose sight of Kellam because his armor is 'cute' and later offers to decorate its shoulder plate with spikes so it would be 'cuter'. Her taste is questionable to the point where, in EXPonential Growth, she is pleased by the Entombed's appearance.

Of all of the mother-child supports of Awakening, Cherche has the most distant relationship with her son Gerome as he coldly refuses to interact with his parents due to his belief that the future is doomed and the children's interference will not change it. Cherche earnestly tries to seek him out and build a bond, feeling hurt that he calls her by name rather than mother. By the end of their support, Gerome's outlook becomes more positive and at least begins to speak to her more regularly.

In-Game

Awakening

Base Stats

• Normal
• Hard
• Lunatic

Starting Class
Wyvern Rider
Level	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov
12	30	14+2	1	12	11	8	15	2	7
Skills			Weapon			Starting Items
Strength +2 Tantivy			Axe - C			Steel Axe Hammer

Starting Class
Wyvern Rider
Level	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov
12	31	15+2	1	13	12	9	16	2	7
Skills			Weapon			Starting Items
Strength +2 Tantivy			Axe - C			Steel Axe Hammer

Starting Class
Wyvern Rider
Level	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov
12	33	16+2	1	14	13	10	17	2	7
Skills			Weapon			Starting Items
Strength +2 Tantivy			Axe - C			Steel Axe Hammer

Growth Rates

Max Stat Modifiers

Supports

See also: Cherche/Supports

Romantic Supports

• Robin (Male)
• Frederick
• Virion
• Stahl
• Vaike
• Kellam
• Donnel
• Lon'qu
• Ricken
• Gaius
• Gregor
• Libra
• Henry

Other Supports

• Robin (Female)
• Miriel
• Nowi
• Gerome
• Morgan (Only if Cherche is her mother)

Class Sets

Base Classes	Promoted Classes
Wyvern Rider	Wyvern Lord
	Griffon Rider
Cleric	War Cleric
	Sage
Troubadour	Valkyrie
	War Cleric
Bride (Wedding Bouquet required)	-
	-

Overall

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Base Class

When she arrives, Cherche is essentially a flying, physical tank: her HP grows with each level due to her 100% growth rate, she has a good 55% growth rate in Defense, and she has high Strength and decent Skill and Speed. Upon recruitment, she will likely be a bit behind your other units, though with her Hammer in her recruitment inventory and the abundance of Knights in the early chapters of the Valm arc, she can quickly catch up and land a promotion. However, she must be wary of the Bow Knights and Wind mages found throughout the Valm campaign.

While the Griffon Rider class yields a useful support skill for her in Deliverer, Cherche fares better as a Wyvern Lord due to the class's more dedicated tanking ability, as opposed to the lukewarm balanced stats of the Griffon Rider. She also acquires access to lances, rounding out her weapon triangle coverage nicely, and can pick up the extremely useful Swordbreaker as protection against Wyrmslayers. Despite the class' weaknesses to bows and magic, as well as a Speed stat that can sometimes get her doubled by speedy promoted enemy units, Wyvern Lord Cherche is a very solid unit through the remainder of the game's story chapters as long as her tankiness and mobility are properly utilized.

Reclassing

While Cherche's growths and initial stats suit her Wyvern Rider and Wyvern Lord class very well, both her reclassing options, the Cleric and Troubadour lines, are very magically oriented, and unfortunately yield few potent offensive skills for her to take back to her Wyvern Lord class; and unfortunately, due to her low magic growths, getting her through the magical classes will be a bit of a struggle. However, her class pools do yield her a very solid support movepool, making her an excellent escort for her husband and an effective rear line member of a pair-up. From the Troubadour class she can grab Demoiselle, a situational ability that is nonetheless useful if many of your frontline units are males; but perhaps more useful for her is the Valkyrie's Dual Support+ ability, which starts her with a Level 9 Dual Support bonus when paired with her husband. Dual Support+ is also her best skill to pass along to her son, as it's otherwise female-exclusive in addition to being a solid ability in general. One useful skill for Cherche if she wishes to return to the Wyvern line eventually is the Troubadour's Resistance +2, which helps patch that weakness as best as she can.

From the Cleric family, not much is of use to her, though Miracle is a solid skill for her when tanking, especially in conjunction with the War Cleric's Renewal. The War Cleric is also perhaps her best option for combining her offensive capabilities with her support potential, as she can also make use of Healtouch in this class. The Sage class offers nothing to Cherche unless she wants to try being magically-offensive, a role played far better by many other units, or unless she wants to be a Rally unit by combining her collective class' Rally Magic, Rally Resistance, and Rally Luck skills—though this role is also played better by other units like Lissa, who has access to the Pegasus line's rally skills.

When deciding on the best role for Cherche in a postgame setting, frontline tanking as a Wyvern Lord is an option given her access to Renewal, though it's also done better by other units like Frederick, who has access to Luna for offense and Aegis for defense. Limited as her skill pool is, Cherche's greatest use may be in providing a support role from the back of a pair-up as a Wyvern Lord, using Deliverer to escort her partner and skills like Strength+2 (the only means of boosting her offense that she has), Demoiselle, and Dual Support+ to further assist her partner. Though it means losing her beloved Minerva's mobility, she can also function well as a War Cleric (or better yet, a Bride if you have access to it, as the Bride's Bond skill is yet another passive support ability that works well from the back of a pair-up) in the same role by using Healtouch to heal allies when she's not attacking. While Cherche's main use is as a flying tank in the story missions, she can still be effective as a support unit so long as she's in a class that makes use of her high strength.

Fire Emblem Heroes

• Original
• Wyvern Ninja

Wyvern Friend

Wyvern-riding fighter in Virion's noble house. Thinks her wyvern Minerva is adorable. Appears in Fire Emblem Awakening.

Base Stats

Rarity:

✯✯✯

		Title
		Wyvern Friend
		Group
		Flying
Level	HP	Atk	Spd	Def	Res
1 40	18/19/20 39/42/45	8/9/10 31/34/37	4/5/6 19/22/25	6/7/8 25/28/31	1/2/3 10/13/16
Skills			Weapon
Steel Axe			Axe

✯✯✯✯

		Title
		Wyvern Friend
		Group
		Flying
Level	HP	Atk	Spd	Def	Res
1 40	18/19/20 40/43/46	9/10/11 33/36/39	4/5/6 20/23/26	7/8/9 27/30/33	1/2/3 11/14/17
Skills			Weapon
Hammer Pivot			Axe

✯✯✯✯✯

		Title
		Wyvern Friend
		Group
		Flying
Level	HP	Atk	Spd	Def	Res
1 40	19/20/21 43/46/49	9/10/11 35/38/41	5/6/7 22/25/29	7/8/9 29/32/35	2/3/4 12/16/19
Skills			Weapon
Hammer+ Pivot			Axe

Skills

Type	Name	Prerequisite	Default	Unlocked
	Iron Axe	-	-	-
	Steel Axe	-		-
	Hammer	Steel Axe
	Hammer+	Hammer
	Cherche's Axe	Hammer+	-
	Pivot	-
A	Attack +1	-		-
	Attack +2	Attack +1
	Attack +3	Attack +2
C	Fortify Def 1	-
	Fortify Def 2	Fortify Def 1
	Fortify Def 3	Fortify Def 2

Overall

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Base Set

Cherche is one of the first flying Axe units in Heroes and is one of the easiest to acquire due to being a 3-4 Star unit since the very beginning. This allows Cherche to be an easily acquired unit and makes her a valuable unit overall, especially when considering her potential in her specific unit role. Against the other summoning 3-4 star options Camilla and Beruka, Cherche is a hyper offensive unit, toting a monstrous Atk and good physical bulk. She does trade this off for incredibly low Spd and equally low magical bulk. With her Spd foregone, she was commonly utilized with an inherited Brave Axe as she could easily unleash significant damage against blues and most greens through a double axe attack. Nowadays, she has since remained in that role, but now without needing to inherit the weapon effect she is best suited to use.

Cherche's initial weapon was a Hammer, allowing her to deal bonus damage to Armor units, utterly decimating units like Effie and sometimes Hector. She later gained her own personal axe, Cherche's Axe, which is essentially a boosted Brave Axe, bringing her neutral Atk to 49 and allowing her to deal immense damage, but still taking a -5 Spd penalty. It can be refined to add a Panic Ploy effect, turning enemy buffs into penalties if their HP is lower than hers. She has a decent HP stat to apply the effect on a wide range of foes, but not so much that she affects some key tanky threats in the meta.

Her remaining base kit is rather underwhelming, serving short term boosts that ultimately needs replacing. Pivot allows her to position herself on the opposite adjacent tile of an ally she utilizes the skill on, which does grant mobility, but as a flier, she has among the best mobility in the game. Attack +3 is a flat Atk stat boost that serves little purpose in the long run. Fortify Defense is a serviceable stat boost for ally Def if they start the turn next to her, which makes it the only skill that can be worked into her end build, if not replaced with other options depending on team composition.

Counters

Cherche is at her peak of performance in the Player's turn, leaving her enemy phase sorely lacking. Her low magical bulk and Spd are her biggest weakness as she can be easily destroyed by most green mages such as Nino and Soren while she stands no chance against Red Mages like Celica, Lilina, and Sanaki. Red units with physical bulk can take some blows and dish it back, especially the likes of Zelgius and Zephiel. As a flier, she is weak to Bow units, such as Brave Lyn, Halloween Jakob, and Bridal Cordelia. Merric has the advantage of exploiting her low Res and Spd while targeting her flying weakness thanks to his tome Excalibur

Skill Inheritance

The focus on Player Turn offense means that Cherche prefers skills that will maximize this role. Death Blow is immediately her first priority as it grants +6 Atk (+8 if Death Blow 4 can be acquired) when she initiates, leading to a minimum 55 Atk on initiation on a guaranteed immediate follow-up weapon. Hit and Run allows her to retreat after a battle that she initiated, bringing her further away from enemies so an ally can pull her completely out if she lies just outside of the fringe. Chill Defense is also a solid Skill B choice as further weakening enemy Def means that she or ally can dish out further physical damage.

Cherche's remaining skill set is comprised of standard skills including Reposition for supportive ally placement manipulation, Glimmer to take advantage of flier buffs or buffs in general to increase her damage output or Draconic Aura for the flat Atk increase to her already sky high Atk. Her Skill C is flexible, but her best options include Flier skills to support flying allies or one of the Attack Wave skills to self-buff herself with another +6 Atk on Odd or Even numbered turns depending on which skill is inherited.

Meet Some of the Heroes

Wyvern Friend Cherche
	House Virion are the traditional rulers of Rosanne, a region in the continent of Valm—and the head of this noble house is served by Cherche, a wyvern-riding Hero!
	Cherche is a kind, considerate, and devoted retainer. When her homeland was invaded and House Virion fell, she chose to continue serving her liege.
	Her wyvern, Minerva, may look a little scary, but she's an irreplaceable partner to Cherche. In fact, Cherche treats Minerva like a best friend and thinks she's just adorable!
	Cherche gives her all for her liege, and astride her trusty wyvern partner, she clears the battlefield of any foes who would stand in his way. She's the kind of retainer that others aspire to be!
Closely Associated Characters
Virion	Rightful ruler of Rosanne in Valm who has a tendency for wit and puffery. Cherche's liege.

Shaded by Wings

Wyvern-riding fighter in Virion's noble house. Hastens to join the ninja festival with her beloved mount, Minerva. Appears in Fire Emblem Awakening.

Base Stats

Rarity: ✯✯✯✯✯

		Title
		Shaded by Wings
		Group
		Flying
Level	HP	Atk	Spd	Def	Res
1 40	18/19/20 40/43/46	13/14/15 41/44/48	2/3/4 17/20/23	10/11/12 40/44/47	5/6/7 29/32/35
Skills			Weapon
Wyvern Ono Glowing Ember			Axe

Skills

Type	Name	Prerequisite	Default	Unlocked
	Iron Axe	-	-	-
	Steel Axe	-	-	-
	Silver Axe	-	-	-
	Wyvern Ono	-		-
	Glowing Ember	-	-	-
	Ignis	-	-	-
B	A/D Near Trace 1	-		-
	A/D Near Trace 2	A/D Near Trace 1		-
	A/D Near Trace 3	A/D Near Trace 2		-
C	Atk Def Rein 1	-		-
	Atk Def Rein 2	Atk Def Rein 1		-
	Atk Def Rein 3	Atk Def Rein 2		-
	Atk Def Hold	Atk Def Rein 3

Overall

Subjective: The following part of this article is based upon the editor's personal experiences and opinions, and therefore may not be applicable for all readers.

Base Set

Counters

Skill Inheritance

Meet Some of the Heroes

Shaded by Wings Cherche
	Cherche is a wyvern rider from Valm, and for this appearance, she's joining us at Askr's ninja festival together with her wyvern companion, Minerva!
	That ninja outfit she's wearing is a perfect fit for her, and she's nailed the look by accessorizing it with a ninja sword and a pair of kunai daggers!
	And here's her weapon of choice, a massive shuriken! Well, technically, it's an axe shaped like a giant shuriken. I wonder if she'll just throw it anyway when she attacks...
	As a servant of Virion's noble house, Cherche is utterly dedicated to her lord, just as a ninja would be. I can just imagine her and Minerva pulling off some daring ninja feats on their missions!
Closely Associated Characters
Virion	Rightful ruler of Rosanne in Valm who has a tendency for wit and puffery. Cherche's liege.
Gerome	Cherche's son. Unaccustomed to interpersonal interactions. His wyvern Minerva belonged to his late mother.

Quotes

Awakening

Cherche/Awakening Quotes

Heroes

Cherche/Heroes Quotes

Possible Endings

Cherche - Wyvern Friend

Cherche and her beloved Minerva returned to Rosanne and struggled to reclaim the country Virion had managed to lose. Rider and wyvern were never seen apart.

Cherche and Robin

Many wrote of Robin's legendary exploits, but accounts of his origins and character varied. Scholars, poets, and bards agreed on one thing alone—he loved his wife, Cherche, above all else.

Cherche and Frederick

As Ylisse's new knight captain, Frederick took charge of keeping the peace and training new recruits with his wife, Cherche. Students quickly learned to fear the couple's famously disarming smiles.

Cherche and Virion

Virion returned home to Rosanne, where he was labeled a traitor and coward, or else ignored entirely. But Cherche's smarts and kindness eventually brought her husband back into good standing.

Cherche and Stahl

Stahl continued his service as an Ylissean knight and led crucial missions across the realm. He eventually grew fat on his wife Cherche's tremendous cooking, and the two had a long and happy life.

Cherche and Vaike

Vaike returned to the streets that raised him and was welcomed as a hero and brother to all. Still, the children were fonder of Cherche, who spent her time feeding and clothing orphans everywhere.

Cherche and Kellam

Cherche and her beloved Minerva returned to Rosanne and struggled to reclaim the country Virion had managed to lose. Her husband's name has been lost to history.

Cherche and Lon'qu

Lon'qu returned to Regna Ferox and served as Basilio's right-hand man. Cherche knit many wool caps to shield her husband from the bitter Feroxi winters and, of course, a cap for her dear wyvern, Minerva.

Cherche and Ricken

While continuing to study magic, Ricken realized how childish some of his actions had been. But Cherche's caring and patience saw him through to the end.

Cherche and Gaius

Gaius never lost his sweet tooth, though he ultimately returned to less savory enterprises. When her work in Rosanne was done, Cherche would return home and cook for her husband, much to his delight.

Cherche and Gregor

After the war, Gregor briefly sank into a life of excess, but at his wife Cherche's request, he found work in Valm. After a successful stint there, offers flooded in from around the world.

Cherche and Libra

Many an unfortunate child found joy in the small orphanage Libra and his wife built after the war. Cherche was a natural mother to the children, who were also quite fond of her wyvern, Minerva.

Cherche and Henry

Henry settled down with Cherche and turned out to be a surprisingly good father. Their newborn son was said to be quiet but also fond of wyverns, like his mother.

Cherche and Donnel

Donnel returned to his tiny village and built a happy life with his mother and his wife, Cherche. The latter's easy laugh and many skills quickly earned the love and respect of her new family.

Non-Canon Appearances

Smash Bros. Series

Cherche does not directly appear in the Super Smash Bros. Series. However, one of Lucina's Palette Swaps is based around Cherche's color scheme.

Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher)

Cherche is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards:

B01-084R

B01-085N

B08-028SR

B08-029N

B22-069HN

B22-070N

P08-005PR

Choose Your Legends Placement History

Round	Placement	Character Version	Votes

CYL1	64	Awakening	4,498
CYL2	123 ↓59	Awakening	2,108 ↓2,390
CYL3	42 ↑81	Awakening	5,473 ↑3,365
CYL4	164 ↓122	Awakening	946 ↓4,527
CYL5	134 ↑30	Awakening	709 ↓237
CYL6	101 ↑33	Awakening	976 ↑267
CYL7	153 ↓52	Awakening	397 ↓579

CYL8

172 ↓19

Awakening

376 ↓21

Etymology

Serge is a masculine name of French origin. It is also a Latin word meaning "servant". The latter probably represents her status as one of Virion's former vassals.

Cherche is a variation of the French verb "chercher", which means "to look". In this case, Cherche translates into "looking" or into "look", as an imperative. "Cherchez la femme," or "look for the woman" is a phrase in classic French novels that points to a woman being the source of trouble in any man's life, a clever joke on her relationship with her master.

Trivia

• Cherche's dragon mount was named after Minerva, as revealed if Cherche fights Minerva in Lost Bloodlines 2.
• The sounds that Cherche's wyvern mount, Minerva, makes in some of her supports, were also reused as Kana's dragon sounds in the western release of Fire Emblem Fates.
• Cherche shares her English voice actress, Amanda C. Miller, with Sully.
  • Cherche also shares her Japanese voice actress, Akutsu Kana, with Tharja and Rhajat.
• Cherche's official artwork from both Awakening and Heroes, as well as her Cipher TCG appearances, depict her wielding the Helswath.
• Cherche's birthday is the same day that Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance was first released in North America.
• Due to the fact that she was originally trained to be a Cleric, both of her reclass options are healers. Ironically, among the first generation, she has the highest strength and defense modifiers of any female and one of the highest overall.
• According to Awakening's project manager Masahiro Higuchi, Cherche was the first character that Yusuke Kozaki designed for the game.
• Cherche's portrait has the least amount of facial expressions in the game, with only four.

Gallery

See main article: Cherche/Gallery.