Lia doesn't become Polylina until the second game. In the first game, she's a mysterious supporter who shows up from time to time to help Yuna -- until the end that is.

Interestingly, Lia is fluent in English. Yuna first meets her near the beginning of the first game. Yuna is at the spaceport in Tokyo going to see her new ship and some brown-haired English-speaking woman comes up and says "Excuse me..." Yuna says "Aah, doushiyoo Eruna!? Eigo ga dekinai mon!" The woman says "Could you please help me?" Yuna says (sound it out) "AI KAN NOTTO SPIIKU-- daah, wakaranai!" Just then Lia walks up and says "What can I do for you?" and helps the woman out. The woman says "Thank you for everything!" Then Lia introduces herself to Yuna (in Japanese). I thought it was kinda neat; I'll have to make an audio file of it at some point.

At any rate, Lia is cool because she has the ability to teleport anywhere in the galaxy. At first she just mysteriously happens to be there when Yuna needs some guidance, but later on Yuna sees her warp in and realizes there's something strange about her. I won't spoil her exact nature offhand because I'm planning on doing a story-like summary of the first game which will be a lot better if I don't spoil the coolest stuff.

Back to my notes from the third game...

It should be noted that Yuna is totally crazy about Polylina; it's hard to tell exactly how serious it is, but she does get caught up in touchy-feelie daydreams, wrapping her arms around herself and saying things like "Aah, Polylina-sama! No, we shouldn't do this here...!" If you've seen ADV's dubbed versions of the Anime OAVs, you'll remember some jokes about stripping nude and stuff; those weren't actually in the original. (For instance, the scene where dubbed Polylina says "Are you ready to take off?" and Yuna says "I'll take it all off!" and Yuuri says "I'll strip down to my underwear!" originally was Yuuri saying the ship looks like a pigeon and Polylina being exhasperated by that.) So, ADV's versions may escalate this relationship more than it's supposed to be. But then again, there are scenes where even the animation shows things like this (such as the scene in the first OAV where Yuna pictures Misaki taking her clothes off) so I wouldn't be too surprised if Yuna is indeed "that way." ^_^ Think about it: if all the characters are girls, then some things are bound to happen... ^O^

Ahem! Anyway, Polylina is often the leader of the group more than Yuna is; Yuna is capable of getting the rest of the group to follow her lead, but she isn't really into leading in the first place. ^^ More often it's Polylina who yells things like "Everyone, be careful! Those plants look dangerous!"

Oh yeah, and Polylina has a robotic "cat" named Milky. Milky is like R2D2 from Star Wars; it possesses enhanced sensory equipment and can interface with Polylina's ship to operate the internal systems. Unlike R2D2, however, Milky can turn into either a whip or a boomerang-like thrown weapon. The thrown weapon is called the "Bakkin Bow" and the whip is called "Bakkin Byuu." I have no idea what that stuff means; maybe it's German?

Ah, how could I forget to mention the fact that Polylina is German? Her real name is Liavelt von Neustein (sp?). Yuna knows her as Lia, but she doesn't know that Lia is Polylina. NOTE: Before I'd played Yuna 1, I had some info right here saying that Yuna might realize Polylina's real identity because in the OAV she was calling her "Lia-chan" even when she was in battle form; what I now realize is that at that point, Lia wasn't in Polylina mode; she was using her normal red and white battlesuit from the first game, when Polylina didn't even exist. So, it's perfectly normal that Yuna recognized her as Lia.

Sound Clip (WAV) (Intro speech) Kayoaki hana ni semaru aku no kage... keredo kono watashi wa chirase wa shinai! Ojousama kamen Poririna! Ai to tomo ni, koko ni sanjou! The shadow of evil approaches a delicate flower... nevertheless I shall scatter it! The masked maiden, Polylina! For love and togetherness, I am here!!