Bard

The Bard (or the Poet or Minstrel) is a reoccuring character in the Romancing SaGa trilogy. His importance differs from game to game, but besides that he remains the trilogy's flagship character, even being in the cover of Minstrel Song.

(This heading contains spoilers)
In Romancing SaGa, the Bard is directly involved in the story of the game, giving the characters clues and being in almost every pub in Mardias. In Barbara's playthrough, he gives her the Amethyst fatestone as a reward for her excelent dancing capabilities. At a certain battle rank, he will act as a human jukebox, allowing the player to play a random song from the game. Every single song is available.

At a higher battle rank, he will tell you about Saruin's imminent revival, for which one of the options will allow him to talk about the Trials of Elore in detail, describing Saruin's resistance to regular manmade weapons and the location of the Sun Altar in the Steppes of Galessa.

After beating numerous powerful monsters and gaining the weapons of the Gods, the player reaches the top and finds the Minstrel himself. It is revealed that the Minstrel was Elore all along, helping the heroes in the fight against Saruin.

In Minstrel Song, ontop of the previously mentioned details, the Bard is also a recruitable character, although he will leave your party when you enter an area that he normally occupies.

Romancing SaGa 2
In Romancing SaGa 2, the Bard is seen re-telling the story of the game's events and the Empire's history to a bunch of people in the Pub at Avalon, which is used to transition into the actual story's context. The bard during his travels throughout the game's world leaves instruments in various locations which are needed to speak to the Irises at Mt. Chikapa.

Romancing SaGa 3
In Romancing SaGa 3, the Bard (or Poet in the Manasword translation) is a recruitable character. He is equipped with a Bat Hammer and the default Punch is replaced with Songs, the first of which is "Everybody's Song", which increases  defense, speed, vitality, and magic depending on the Poet's Kung Fu level + 1 point. Later on he learns "Bard's Song", which casts the silent ailment on enemies. Despite his starting weapon being a Bat Hammer, his sparking type is a sword.

Trivia

 * The Bard was originally supposed to be playable in the original Romancing SaGa, and hacking the game shows an unfinished build of the character, using the battle sprites of Dowd.