We all promised the crystal we'd go on our journey. And...I don't want to be a smith just yet.
Refia is one of the four Warriors of Light. She is the apprentice and adopted daughter of a Kazus blacksmith who wants to figure out her own path in life. She happens to run away from home right before the Djinn's curse hits the town of Kazus. Luneth and Arc meet her in Cid's airship where she directs them to Castle Sasune to find a Mythril Ring and joins them to save Kazus.
Refia stands out compared to the boys by virtue of being a wholly new character created for Final Fantasy III; There is nobody waiting in Cid's airship in the Famicom game and Takka is mentioned to have no family.
An unused interaction between Arc and Aria reveals that Refia is the same age as her. Thus, Refia is 15 years old. World of Final Fantasy corroborates this, as the "Who's Who" compendium lists that as her age.
Refia is a healthy balance of serious and jovial. She can crack wise and joke about (especially at Luneth or Desch's expense in response to their antics), but she also has more of a focus compared to Luneth, and to a lesser extent Arc. Even when not joking about, Refia usually keeps a positive attitude. That said, Refia's more no-nonsense moments tends to lead to her acting frustrated when those she's with brush her off or continue to clown around. This particular trait results in Desch and especially Luneth being the target of her anger, although Arc also tends to get it during the moments where he's on a similar wavelength as Luneth.
Refia is empathic and supports others when they need it. The final game demonstrates it primarily through Desch's girlfriend, Salina, who is suffering from heartbreak due to his disappearance. Refia chews Desch out for abandoning her when the party first meets him, which partially sets the tone for their interactions. The unused text demonstrates it even further, with her showing the most concern for Mrs. Cid's illness and convincing Ingus to meet with Sara before the party leaves.
Despite all this, Refia shows surprising issues with herself. Refia's overall conflict in the game is her relationship with Smithing; She has no interest in it and her father's insistence leads her to continuously run away from home...including on the day the Djinn gets unsealed, allowing Refia to dodge the curse. Additionally, Refia seems to have, well, not quite self-image issues. Refia seems to have an issue with being teased, to the point where, when a bard compares her to a goddess in unused text for Duster, Refia's immediate response is to believe that he's teasing her. On a more joking note, Refia has a hatred of Toads, which leaves her disgusted and dejected when the party has to turn into them.
Still, compared to the boys, Refia got off comparatively well, with several scenes showing her personality and character traits. The only thing she really loses is the fact that her ire is aimed mostly towards Luneth, and even that is still hinted at in places.
Compared to the boys, Refia's associations are more varied, whether that be due to her slightly higher number of appearances or habit of being portrayed more diversely.
White Mage is Refia's "iconic" job: It's what she's portrayed as most often and what she appears to be in the CGI opening of the remake.
White Mage has a habit of being assigned to the female of the group and Refia is no exception to the rule. Still, her sympathy towards others combined with her lack of tolerance for foolishness gives her a motherly image, making it clear why she uses this job.
In addition to the CG opening, Refia uses this job in her default form in Brave Exvius (with her Freelancer outfit taking on traits of the White Mage, most notably the hood). The Memory of Heroes novelization follows suit, with Refia remaining as a White Mage until the Devout becomes available. The Refia in World of Final Fantasy is also a White Mage, although her description states that this is because the original Refia was one when Enna Kros took notice of her.
Final Fantasy Record Keeper played around with the associations of the remake characters. While Luneth remained a Warrior, Arc, Refia and Ingus were all given different jobs. In Refia's case, the game leaned more heavily into her tomboyish traits and made her into a monk. Nicely complimenting this was the game associating each of the four with one of the elements due to FFRK's element-heavy gameplay: Monks are heavily associated with fire and Refia's blacksmith upbringing (as rebellious towards it as she was) gives her further strong theming.
The Onion Knight job is not directly associated with any character in the 3D Remake and usually the Onion Knight character is used to represent the job in spinoffs. However, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius features an "Onion Knight Refia"; Like Luneth, it is a different job from her usual portrayal (including her original unit).
This subplot is a minor one, but still of interest. During one of the cut skits, Sara would have shown the mythril ring to party, prompting Refia to quietly mention that Taka initially made the ring for her. However, when Sara asks her directly, Refia refutes it and Luneth changes the topic back to the Djinn.
Later, something similar happens: Sara asks Refia if the ring is hers by right and Refia once again, tries to argue that she wouldn't have enough gil to purchase a ring like that. However, she reacts when Sara throws the ring into the spring and when Sara explains how the ring will protect them, Refia begrudgingly says that that's probably what it would have wanted.
Takka the blacksmith is a minor character in the original Final Fantasy III who grew a bit more prominent in the remake, where he is Refia's adopted father. While Refia does love him, there is a rift between the two; Takka wants Refia to be his apprentice in smithing, but Refia has no interest in it. Refia's character description hints that it gets to the point where she runs away from home every so often. Still, they otherwise care for each other, with Takka noting that even if he wasn't affected by the Djinn's curse, he couldn't work until he knew Refia was safe and blaming himself for chasing her off. Meanwhile, Refia acknowledges that she's thankful to Takka for raising her. In fact, Refia seems to try to avoid confrontation with Takka: While Kazus is affected by the Djinn's curse, Refia refuses to enter the town because she doesn't want to see her father, even leaving the party until they try to leave. After helping Takka make the Mythril Ram, she sneaks away due to her concerns that her father won't let her leave, although Takka takes it in stride.
While Takka does not appear during the ending (as the party goes directly to Ur after Canaan), Refia decides to train to be a smith as a way of thanking Takka for raising her.
Luneth's first interaction with Refia ends with him making a crack about her slacking off of work. This pretty much sets the tone for their relationship going forward: Luneth taunting or teasting Refia and the latter getting some shots in as well. In the final game, this is limited to a few specific moments (such as when Ingus joins the party and Refia jokes that his sword is worth more than the other boys, to Luneth's offense), but in the unused text, it's much more evident, to the point of Refia expressing shock when Luneth shows signs of character development after the Castle Hein incidents. It's never treated as a point of drama or tension, however.
Desch is the guest that Refia bonds with the most, to the point that Doga specifically mentions her when speaking to Desch.
Initially, Refia did not think highly of Desch. An unused scene demonstrates that she has a low opinion of him due to abandoning his girlfriend (prior to learning why he had to leave) and when the party first meets him, she tries to chew him out over his behavior. Much like Luneth, Refia chastises Desch during his more irresponsible moments, although in the unused text she shows that not above playfully teasing or tricking him as well. As Desch regains his memory and grows more serious, she in-turn becomes more and more concerned for him. Thus, she's the one who hopes that Desch is safe after he warps the party out of the Tower of Owen.
