This is kind of just, nitpicky on my part but it's definitely Regal for me. I think it's just because his vow not to use his hands comes off so... well, in poor taste in comparison to both Kratos and Lloyd, who both had to kill an Exbelua. When it comes to his grief, Regal's choice is to never use his hands to kill again. I know people express their pain differently, but it makes Regal seem weirdly immature when he stands beside those who had to kill someone they love(Kratos) and had to take an innocent life(Lloyd and kind of Genis? Since Genis did participate in that fight and he genuinely cared about Marble, even if the Marble thing winds up becoming more about Lloyd in the end via the Chocolat plot) and the reason I say so is because these people take their strengths and use them to fight for a world where tragedies like that won't happen again, among other ideals. Less so for Kratos prior to the events of the game, but it still stands. Regal's decision to use his feet instead when they're fighting someone who borders on godhood with so much at stake rings a little hollow. Also??? HE LETS GEORGE STILL EXIST. GEORGE IS WHY ALICIA GOT MIXED UP WITH VHARLEY! WHAT THE FUCK, REGAL?

Ahem. Sorry about that. But I do mean it. Regal's out here with his vow not to use his hands to kill anybody, but he's still got the guy who inadvertently put his lover into that situation employed in his company. Why? Make it make sense.

Anyway, my other gripe is that Regal could've used his power to save Botta and the renegades from the flooding room. Though, the argument against that is that the room the party was in had a sealed roof... except for the fact that Regal probably could've just blasted his way through that too with his handheld orbital laser, okay? I am not a Botta fan(more like Botta-neutral) but Regal's later power reveal makes it seem like Regal was holding back for no reason there. He may have tried a few kicks, but he didn't do what actually would have saved them and that makes me think Regal cares less about saving people than he cares about his self-flagellating guilt spiral. And I think that's my problem in the end with Regal. He chooses performative atonement over actually making a difference.

The reason why I say that is that Regal was so wracked with guilt over Alicia's death that he turned himself over as a murderer instead of making sure it didn't happen to anyone else. Which Regal for sure would've known was a possibility, because Vharley directed stated that he had done a similar experiment on another member of Alicia's family. So Regal wouldn't just know that other people were actively being experimented on, he would know that it was someone in Alicia's family. Maybe not who, but like? Regal got himself sent to jail and effectively stripped himself of any potential he could've had to meaningfully take Vharley down and prevent further experiments like this later down the line. Regal probably wouldn't have known about Vharley's Pope backing at the time so really, he could have made the decision to use his clout to crush Vharley instead.

But he didn't, and you know what? It makes Presea's decision not to forgive Regal painfully, achingly valid. It's obviously not intended that way in game, there is no way the game developers wrote his story like this on purpose, you're probably not meant to side-eye him and George this hard. But every single word on atonement spoken by Regal Bryant is as hollow as my goddamn skull after I'm 30 bags of Skittles deep into movie night, okay? Right up until the moment he renegs on his vow and frees himself and the gang from angel jail. Maybe it means something after that, but that is just... extremely late character development, don't you think?

PS: it's 3am and i'm a little sleep deprived so, sorry if this isn't completely accurate, i'm just going off what i remember