(NOTE: some things have been added to the list and edits were made. Most of numbers have not been adjusted for them but are, probably, close enough.)
This should have been the first topic, but it's-a me, so I'm doing it in a dumb order.
This time we're going to talk about every single playable character (in games that I've played) that comes from Final Fantasy and FF adjacent. I'll be making an emphasis on main characters, their romantic interests, and their best friends. Secondary NPCs and villains will be next, so they won't be overtly spoken of here unless they're intricately linked to the person who's usually on screen.
To many, the playable cast is the most vital part of a memorable game. It's how everyone interacts with one another and their connections to the world, factions, antagonists, and various NPCs. If they're all bland, then who cares? But if they're fun, energetic, and exciting, then everyone who plays the game can see themselves as them. Players like to live vicariously through characters. I even made my friend group run through FFI and III because I wanted to feel a part of these worlds. It's all about immersion. Usually... Some people just want a cast that makes sense, which is just as valid and valuable. Even I don't fancy space aliens fighting in an iron age civil war setting. But what game has the best cast and main character? How important is backstory or growth? Are thieves really the worst people? Let's find out!
Final Fantasy I has four characters that have no personality, backstory, or growth. It was Square's first dive into RPGs, and it was all about the gameplay. There's nothing wrong with that, but it really makes it hard to score them.
Final Fantasy II had a wide assortment of playable characters with ten. Three are with you for the whole game, six come and go, and the last character is here only for the final dungeon rush. Oddly enough, I've always felt that the secondary cast shined more than the main four.
Firion is the default player one. He, and everyone else, are orphans who got kicked out of their home of Fynn by the invading Palamecia army. They survive and join the rebel army for vengeance. FFII characters do have personalities, albeit small ones: Firion is a noble hero, and that's it.
Maria has the same destiny as Firion. Her personality is the archetypal woman, loving and keeping the peace between her loved ones.
Guy speaks beaver because he was raised in the forest and is the same as his two family members. He is considered a giant.
Minwu starts the game as a white mage and the right hand man to Queen Hilda. He spends significant time with the party, and he only leaves to find the ultimate magic spell, Ultima. Because of his "default" job class and role in the rebel army, it's safe to assume he's a man of great power and wisdom.
Josef is a short lived character that makes a lasting mark. He has a family in the snow town of Salamand, which he leaves to guide us to the Goddess' Bell. We have to save his daughter and townsfolk to do this. He's got monk like attributes and teaches the player that punching our enemies is the best weapon in the game, saving us a lot of money down the line. He has a cameo in FFIX.
Gordon becomes the second in command of the Red Rose Rebellion. He starts the game bemoaning his life as a coward. He joins us to overcome his fears for the sake of his country and does just that, totally changing his outlook while with us.
Leila is our pirate Queen and fits the part of it. She's a free thinker and wild hearted woman who knows what she wants. Her ship is our first way to navigate the world, making her one of my favorite characters because I hate walking.
Ricard is the first dragoon and Highwind in the franchise. His homeland was ruined by Palamecia, leaving only the wife and son of his close friend alive. We met him in the belly of Leviathan, and he's with us for the penultimate dungeon. He's dedicated and goes full bore into everything he does.
I've never played Scott, so I'll update this when I do. It'll help out a few other characters, so it should be something I do soon.
Leon is the fourth member of the party of the Fynn group. He gets taken in by Palamecia, and we later discover he's the Black Knight we've been fighting throughout the game. When we finally knock some sense into him, he's mopy and doesn't like us anymore.
Final Fantasy III has the same "problem" as FFI does. The remake gives our four characters some personality, but it's really not much.
Luneth is a noble orphan who jumps headlong into adventure at every opportunity. He always wants to help people and treats everyone with the same respect as anyone else; no one is beneath him. He's a strong defender of whatever he's into.
Arc is the brother of Luneth, and he's easily bullied. He's kind and studious. He doesn't want to fight but does see a need to get stronger, which he does. When he's not wallowing in self pity, he's ready to defend those less fortunate than him.
Refia is the daughter of a blacksmith, but she doesn't want to follow in his work. She's headstrong and always ready to scold her companions for their dumb actions.
Ingus is a noble knight of Sasune who seems to have a thing for Sara. He appears to be the most responsible of the group.
NOTE: The rest of FFIII has been moved to the secondary cast topic. Everything here is just legacy.
Sara is a guest character, but I'm going to count them anyway since I did for deaths. She's a kind Princess who wants to aid her kingdom when everyone is cursed. Sara even wants to join the group on their travels to be with her loyal knight, Ingus. But decides to listen to her aids and stay behind. She can cast cure and aero in battle.
Cid is the arbiter of our story, but he doesn't tell us much until it's needed. He's always a part of the story because of his airship capabilities and origin story.
Desch is the amnesiac lecher who's in love with a young girl in Cannan. We meet him on Dragon's Peak for some reason. He joins us for some time until he throws himself headlong into a dying furnace to save the world. His backstory is learned later on, and we gather that he's the son of an ancient and was here to save the world long ago.
Aria is the last Maiden of the Crystal. We escort her to the bottom of the Cave of Tides. She doesn't survive as she throws herself in front of a lackey of Xande to protect us.
Alus is the Prince and heir to Saronia. He's kicked out by an evil advisor to his father but enlists our aid in saving his home from civil war. Sadly, the King was brainwashed but manages to regain his mind just in time to not kill his son. Alus gains the crown the next day and becomes friends with Arc.
Doga is with the party for one quick dungeon, where he acts like a black mage. He guides us to The Circle and tells us about Unei.
Unei is in charge of the realm of sleep and is friends with Doga. Both are old acquaintances to the early main antagonist, Xande. They test our strength to empower the key to the final dungeon and appear at the very end to restore our spirits and weaken the Cloud of Darkness with our friends.
Final Fantasy IV has a wide cast of characters that switch out often. Some characters are around longer than others, and some make a much more lasting impression. Also, I'm not including the After Years in this.
Cecil is our main character for the whole game. His story is filled with sorrow and death, even after his early game transformation. His backstory goes through several twists, as does his future. He has ties to the main villains and the majority of the final party.
Kain has the most heel and face turns in franchise history. He's our friend but carries a deep secret that causes him mental anguish. This causes us physical anguish several times throughout the story.
Rydia is many firsts in the franchise. She's the youngest so far. She's also the first black mage and named summoner. And her reward for this is suffering more than maybe anyone else in the game. Her mother and hometown are destroyed by Cecil. She has to fight her adoptive parents to earn them as summoners after spending ~ten years learning from them in the hyperbolic summon world chamber. She also has character growth when she overcomes her fear and again when she literally grows up.
Tellah is a great sage who's a friend and mentor to most of the party.
Edward is a meme from before memes existed. He has questionable talent in battle, but there's no denying his story is pretty painful. He starts as a coward, still saves the team later on, and ends up making a man out of himself despite never getting over his first love.
Rosa is Cecil's love interest through and through. She's more of a prop than anything in this love triangle and never really stands on her own.
Yang is a monk loyal to his kingdom. He fights fearlessly after seeing all of his comrades killed before him. He's a great tank and DPS.
Palam/Porom are young twins. One's a promising black mage with attitude issues, while the other is a well studied white mage who is as prim and proper as can be. This causes sibling turmoil between the two. They're not around for a while, though, so they never get to shine. Neither on their own nor as a duo.
Cid is the great mind behind the Baron Red Wings, constructing the entire armada with his team. He's a close friend to Cecil, Rosa, and Kain. He becomes friendly towards everyone else with his jovial and workaholic personality.
Edge is the ninja prince of Eblam. He has an odd rival with Rubicant, which always felt forced to me. I never felt like he was an important team member when he only has the single plot thread, which gets cut in the first dungeon he's in.
FuSoYa is a stronger Tellah, minus the personality. He tells us the entire backstory of Cecil, Golbez, and KluYa, letting us see how they're related to the Lunarians. He's here for one dungeon, has a fun KO'ed animation, but doesn't serve much use. But he is there at the end to aid us.
Final Fantasy V only has five characters, with one giving way to his granddaughter after a pivotal moment.
Bartz is an orphan after his sickly mother dies after his father abandoned them. He didn't get cigarettes, but he died, although I don't remember how. He's a happy-go-lucky wander alongside his loyal steed, Boco, going wherever the winds may take them. At least until he meets a woman and amnesiac old man in a meteor. He comes into his own at one point.
Lenna is a princess of Tycoon who starts the game chasing after her father for the first few hours of the story. She's a loving caretaker of her beloved dragon and becomes Queen at the end. She happily takes up defending the world when need be.
Galuf starts as a feeble old man who we later learn is the King in a long last long world. He's been fighting ExDeath for decades, and both get their revenge on each other.
Faris is the lost princess of Tycoon. Since she fell off a ship long ago, she took up the act of pirating and pretended to be a man to fit in and rule. She's a heartfelt person who cares for her men and Syldra, never running from the tasks ahead of her.
Krille is here to fill in for her grandfather and to fully represent the new Warriors of Light. She gains all the skills of Galuf. She's another loving girl who cares for moogles, dragons, and her friends.
Final Fantasy VI has the largest cast of characters in the franchise. I'm going to ignore a good chunk of them because they offer no value to the plot, have similar battle tactics, and two are secret characters.
Terra is a woman with no past. She can use magic innately, something that's been lost for centuries. She's a half breed with no place to call home and is just looking for someone place that needs her.
Locke is a womanizing treasure hunter, not thief. He keeps the corpse of his dead ex girlfriend in a basement.
Edgar is the womanizing King of Fabul. He's a good leader, trying to protect his people from the evil Empire. He's wise for his age and is willing to sacrifice, even leading a band of thieves to steal his treasure just to make sure he can reach his castle.
Sabin is an overpowered monk who wreaks shop. He's agile, strong, tanky, and can suplex a train! He's a true hero in a world where that's actually not that rare...
Cyan is a samurai who has his entire hometown and family poisoned by Kefka. He lives on with survivor's guilt and is always trying to live in their honor.
Celes is an enemy soldier who gets court marshaled and tortured for not agreeing with her superiors. She was a magic infused child, bred to fit her role. She, like Terra, doesn't feel like she has a home or even if she should be alive.
Setzer is a rapist, and I'm not going to waste any more time on him.
Strago is a true blue mage with decades of experience. He's a loving grandfather to his descendent, Relm, and is always around to aid people.
Relm is a dirty mouthed preteen artist whose paintings can be quite painful. Both of her parents are dead or gone, but Shadow's dog seems to like her.
Shadow is a mysterious assassin who'll kill his own mother for a nickel. He has a dog and might be the father of another teammate.
Final Fantasy VII is where a lot of people came into the franchise. But how filled out are they?
Cloud is a man with ties to a childhood, almost, friend. He's got a confusing backstory that does make sense when you figure it out. He's a man with a big sword, big hair, and a big story.
Barrett is an ecoterrorist who has a machine gun for a hand and will do anything to protect his adoptive daughter. He has a team behind him that follows him, so he acts similar to the main character for the early part of the game. His fight for peace against the megacorp spawns years. He's, depending on the source, the first black man in the franchise.
Tifa is the childhood friend of Cloud. She's part monk, part caring bartender. If there's anything you can say negative about her, it's she doesn't have much of a life if you detach her from Cloud.
Aerith: the white mage who suffers more than anyone. The heartwrenching backstory about losing her parents and it doesn't get better. Poor Elymra.
Red XIII, the first beast character in the franchise who never really got to know his father. He is the last of his race, so this made him an experiment by Hojo.
Yuffie is a kleptomaniac materia thief and optional character.
Cait Sith is a stuffed animal who's a front for a member of The Turks. He's here to spy on us, and he uses his gambling ability to kill things. He's expendable.
Vincent is another man with a dark past. A former Turk who became a monster through experimentation. But he now suffers from immortality brought on by demonic beasts. A black mage with a gun. He's another optional character, but he offers us a new insight into the backstory of Sephiroth.
Cid is a part dragoon, part mechanic, part man with a potty mouth. He's an abusive partner to Shera until it turns out she was right all along. Once he goes to space and achieves his dreams, he turns his relationship around.
Final Fantasy VIII has a small cast, but do they have small personalities? They forgot about each other, but can we forget about them?
Squall ...whatever. He's got a rad weapon that makes no sense and is forced to be the main character despite not wanting to be the main character. His love interest is totally forced. ...whatever.
Quistis is the oldest of the group and always tries to play peacemaker. The blue mage uses a whip, which is rare.
Zell has a Mike Tyson face tattoo and a Mike Tyson punching ability. Loves his momma and hotdogs.
Selphie loves trains in her happy-go-lucky world. She's dedicated, almost to a stubborn amount. She always tries to force things to happen. The Garden Festival and Squall and Rinoa, for example. If she's the black mage, she's not very good since so is everyone else.
Rinoa is the daughter of the Galbadian General, which is interesting as she's a freedom fighter trying to muddle everything up. She uses her dog, Angelo, to shoot things.
Irvine is the womanizer every game needs. He sure could have solved a lot of problems had he only spoken up...
Final Fantasy IX
Zidane is an all out hero, even if he doesn't have a noble background. A troubadour who plays the thief. He's always there to help a friend.
Vivi is loved by everyone, even if those who hate FFIX. He's wonderful, lovable, and if anything happens to him, I'll kill everyone in the room and then myself.
Steiner starts as our bumbling knight but turns into a true hero, willing to sacrifice himself for those he, moments ago, was fighting against. He has, maybe, the most growth in any game.
Garnet is a noble princess, maybe too noble. She fights for her people, unlike her mother. She chooses to be kidnapped to fight the unjust leadership of her unhumanly mother. Is she our primary white mage or a summoner? The world may never know.
Freya deserved more. The parties dragoon has no real arc but a lot of sorrow.
Quina lives to eat and eats to live.
Eiko is our true white mage and exists to give Garnet backstory. She's also the third wheel on this love triangle between her, Garnet, and Zidane. She can hold her own with her moogle cohorts.
Amarant is there to be the edge every JRPG needs.
Final Fantasy X
Tidus is a young star athlete thrown into a world he's not familiar with. He's following his father's footsteps, despite not wanting to. Learning who he really is and that fallout of that is some of the deepest in the genre.
Auron is our old (aged 36) wiseman, who guides our two protags through the world.
Wakka is an archer. He's way into his religion and its teachings, even to the point of racism. Fortunately, he comes around at the end.
Lulu has black magics, belts, and boobs. She's another character who I feel deserved more. Her story is short and to the point, with not much going on. It's also optional.
Yuna is the true main protagonist of FFX. She keeps us alive with white magic and deals damage and tanks with her aeons. She's involved in everything and is the focus of the story. I'm not going into FFX-2 here.
Rikku is a plucky thief and foreigner who's trying to save the world in her own way. She's slightly misunderstood, but she ain't wrong. She's a caring ruffian.
Kimarhi is there.
Final Fantasy XII
Vaan shouldn't be here.
Penelo somehow has more plot relevance than the protag just by being the love interest.
Balthier is our leading man. He's cocky, confident, and has his hands in everything; past, present, and future. We all really want to know more about him.
Fran is the sidekick of Balthier. She's kinda there, too.
Ashe is the lost princess of Dalmaska, fighting with an underground resistance against the Empire. She's willing to get her hands dirty and does.
Basch had been thought dead for two years. He still lives, but his stain does too. Despite that, he still fights for his country, immediately joining the resistance when we free him. He's another character who we should know more about.
Final Fantasy XIII
Lightning really loves her sister.
Snow really loves Lightning's sister.
Sash really loves his kid.
Hope really misses his mom, who Snow helped to kill accidentally.
Vanille is the destroyer of Cocoon from centuries past. She hides it by being plucky.
Fang really loves Vanille.
Final Fantasy Tactics has a wide cast. Sadly, almost none of them matter once they join your party. A part of me almost wants to skip this, but I'll add a few of the iconic and well known ones.
Ramza is such a great character. We see him start off a wide eyed rookie trying to be just like his father. And then he becomes the veteran of war, espionage, and shadow battles. He gets involved in religious turmoil and political ins-and-outs but stays true to his values the whole time.
Delita is just as interesting. He starts the same as Ramza, wanting to overcome his peasant upbringing. Through more forceful tactics than Ramza, he does so and upends all of Ivalice. But is it for the better?
Agrias is Princess Ovielia's bodyguard. Her superiors leave her for dead when her usefulness is over. Fortunately, we show up in time to save her.
Mustadio is a sniper who exists to introduce us to the Zodiac Stones. He's also the way to bring in secret characters.
T.G. Cid is notorious for breaking the game. He makes two other characters obsolete while also making everyone look weak. Is he deserving of such a role, though?
Well, that took forever, so let's get to how points will be accumulated. There will be more characters in the rankings, but even I don't have enough time to write up a blurb about every one of them.
Main characters or deuteronomists get a point. (1) If you're actually the main character and not some rando to fill out the ranks, then you get a second. (2)
If you have ties to the main boss, the rest of the cast, or can add to the story, a point is given. (3)
If you're unique in battle, then there's another point. (4)
If you partake in an iconic scene, you have a fifth point. (5)
Love interests get a point because romance is big in this genre. (6)
If you have an interesting personality, you get a point. Flaws and imperfections are more important than bland and boring. (7)
If you grow, you get a point (8)
If you confront the final boss at all, you get a point. (9)
Are you plot relevant from your introduction to the final dungeon? (10)
The results are below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSi3o1ZfzfoO4WjNi18RefUlg9rgi3YeVXW7TsmIbZP085octfwAB11hb_glZG__svs2oHJo2UrKlxT/pubhtml
A few observations:
I should have foreseen this, but I made a three tiered system: Main characters max out at ten, deuteronomists cap at nine, and secondary characters get eight. I did want to emphasize MCs, so this makes sense, and I'm dumb.
Max Points for Main Characters are
Cecil, Zidane, Tidus, Ramza, Fei, and Rena.
Tidus rubs many people the wrong way, but it's never made much sense with his starting point, growth, and value.
Rena has max points, but Claude (nine) does not because she's the only true healer in the game. Claude is replaceable for DPS by anyone else, but Rena is invaluable. Combat matters.
The lowest main character is Vaan, with three points. This is lower than Serge (four), Chrono (seven), DQV's Hero (seven), and DQVI's Hero (four), all silent protagonists. It's also lower than Penelo (four), his love interest.
Max Points for deuteronomists are:
Aerith, Rinoa, Garnet, Yuna, and Delita.
Aerith has the same number of points as her MC, Cloud.
Rinoa has more points than her MC, Squall (seven). As much as I dislike FFVIII, she deserves her spot with her backstory, dog, and relevance to the sorceresses.
By design, FFVI has no main character. Terra and Celes, though, get their nine points.
Vivi broke the mold and got nine points despite not filling in the archtype I expected this to be for.
Eight points go to the following secondary characters:
Refia, Kain, Rydia, Tellah, Faris, Edgar, Sabin, Barrett, Tifa, Eiko, KOS-MOS, and Kid.
Refia got more points than anyone else in her game.
Kid got more points than Serge.
FFIV got three characters, which shows how good the important cast can be.
There are five characters with a score of one.
Aria, Maria (Xenogears), Amos, T'nique, and Albel.
Once again, seeing Aria with a single tally hurts me. However, she's here for such a short time. She has no room to grow, show a personality, or let us know about ties to anything. She's just there for those thirty minutes and is forgotten by everyone but me.
Along similar lines, Jin only got a seven, which I had hoped would be higher.
Maria (Xenogears) is the only playable character here who isn't optional, but she only has one scene of matter. The others are just there as final characters. It could be argued that Albel has a personality worth mentioning, but edgy isn't a positive trait.
The worst Cid is the Thunder God, making him undeserving of the Excalibur.
Penelo is the lowest love interest.
The lowest character who SHOULD be the main character is Bash and Balthier, each with five. Both are two points higher than Vaan.
Final Fantasy VIII is tied for second highest average character score with 6.8. I thought the characters were awful, but I guess there's enough there to make for a decent cast. NOTE: I originally had it with the most points, eight, I messed up the formula on Google Sheets. It has been corrected.
Selphie and Irvine are the worst, with six. While Rinoa gets her max of nine.
The lowest is Dragon Quest VI and Star Ocean 3. Each has only three points.
Muriel has five, the best, with her brother, Amos, only getting one. Meanwhile, Fate has seven, and Albel has one.
The average across all games is 5.3.
I have a newfound respect for Final Fantasy VIII, and I kinda want to play it again now. I can't because my disk three is scratched, but who knows? I have no idea how it got that high, but I think this is fair. XII, though, is slightly lower than I had figured. The lack of uniqueness in battle really hit hard here, along with the game lacking any iconic scene. Most of what's happening in XII is going on around our main cast. Mt. Bur Omicaise takes place without us being able to do anything. There is no eureka moment for a character when they finally grow. No one even grows!
In XII's defense, no game with a job system got many unique tallies. I love the system, but the ability to mix and match at will takes out that factor. It's still fun, and this shouldn't be used as a knock against it, but I like D&D class systems, and my biases are showing here. I just don't enjoy everyone being the same. I wonder if there's a way to make it work?
But I did try to make it work. Limit Breaks were considered a unique tactic, but very few games have one. And when they do, they're sometimes too similar. What's the difference between Cloud and Yuffie, for example? This is also the reason why Cloud didn't get max points.
And that was playable characters! What's your favorite? What's your worst? Do these rankings change your opinion of anyone? I really like a lot of the low ranking games, so it's clear the scores aren't everything, which just makes sense. People want to see themselves in the game, and they'll look up to certain characters more than others. But, we've got more places to go to! Sometimes people see themselves in bit players. So who's got the best of the side characters that don't battle?
I have no clue when I'll get to that since I'm getting back into games tomorrow. RPGMaker November incoming!
Sara is a guest character, but I'm going to count them anyway since I did for deaths. She's a kind Princess who wants to aid her kingdom when everyone is cursed. Sara even wants to join the group on their travels to be with her loyal knight, Ingus. But decides to listen to her aids and stay behind. She can cast cure and aero in battle.
Cid is the arbiter of our story, but he doesn't tell us much until it's needed. He's always a part of the story because of his airship capabilities and origin story.
Desch is the amnesiac lecher who's in love with a young girl in Cannan. We meet him on Dragon's Peak for some reason. He joins us for some time until he throws himself headlong into a dying furnace to save the world. His backstory is learned later on, and we gather that he's the son of an ancient and was here to save the world long ago.
Aria is the last Maiden of the Crystal. We escort her to the bottom of the Cave of Tides. She doesn't survive as she throws herself in front of a lackey of Xande to protect us.
Alus is the Prince and heir to Saronia. He's kicked out by an evil advisor to his father but enlists our aid in saving his home from civil war. Sadly, the King was brainwashed but manages to regain his mind just in time to not kill his son. Alus gains the crown the next day and becomes friends with Arc.
Doga is with the party for one quick dungeon, where he acts like a black mage. He guides us to The Circle and tells us about Unei.
Unei is in charge of the realm of sleep and is friends with Doga. Both are old acquaintances to the early main antagonist, Xande. They test our strength to empower the key to the final dungeon and appear at the very end to restore our spirits and weaken the Cloud of Darkness with our friends.
Final Fantasy IV has a wide cast of characters that switch out often. Some characters are around longer than others, and some make a much more lasting impression. Also, I'm not including the After Years in this.
Cecil is our main character for the whole game. His story is filled with sorrow and death, even after his early game transformation. His backstory goes through several twists, as does his future. He has ties to the main villains and the majority of the final party.
Kain has the most heel and face turns in franchise history. He's our friend but carries a deep secret that causes him mental anguish. This causes us physical anguish several times throughout the story.
Rydia is many firsts in the franchise. She's the youngest so far. She's also the first black mage and named summoner. And her reward for this is suffering more than maybe anyone else in the game. Her mother and hometown are destroyed by Cecil. She has to fight her adoptive parents to earn them as summoners after spending ~ten years learning from them in the hyperbolic summon world chamber. She also has character growth when she overcomes her fear and again when she literally grows up.
Tellah is a great sage who's a friend and mentor to most of the party.
Edward is a meme from before memes existed. He has questionable talent in battle, but there's no denying his story is pretty painful. He starts as a coward, still saves the team later on, and ends up making a man out of himself despite never getting over his first love.
Rosa is Cecil's love interest through and through. She's more of a prop than anything in this love triangle and never really stands on her own.
Yang is a monk loyal to his kingdom. He fights fearlessly after seeing all of his comrades killed before him. He's a great tank and DPS.
Palam/Porom are young twins. One's a promising black mage with attitude issues, while the other is a well studied white mage who is as prim and proper as can be. This causes sibling turmoil between the two. They're not around for a while, though, so they never get to shine. Neither on their own nor as a duo.
Cid is the great mind behind the Baron Red Wings, constructing the entire armada with his team. He's a close friend to Cecil, Rosa, and Kain. He becomes friendly towards everyone else with his jovial and workaholic personality.
Edge is the ninja prince of Eblam. He has an odd rival with Rubicant, which always felt forced to me. I never felt like he was an important team member when he only has the single plot thread, which gets cut in the first dungeon he's in.
FuSoYa is a stronger Tellah, minus the personality. He tells us the entire backstory of Cecil, Golbez, and KluYa, letting us see how they're related to the Lunarians. He's here for one dungeon, has a fun KO'ed animation, but doesn't serve much use. But he is there at the end to aid us.
Final Fantasy V only has five characters, with one giving way to his granddaughter after a pivotal moment.
Bartz is an orphan after his sickly mother dies after his father abandoned them. He didn't get cigarettes, but he died, although I don't remember how. He's a happy-go-lucky wander alongside his loyal steed, Boco, going wherever the winds may take them. At least until he meets a woman and amnesiac old man in a meteor. He comes into his own at one point.
Lenna is a princess of Tycoon who starts the game chasing after her father for the first few hours of the story. She's a loving caretaker of her beloved dragon and becomes Queen at the end. She happily takes up defending the world when need be.
Galuf starts as a feeble old man who we later learn is the King in a long last long world. He's been fighting ExDeath for decades, and both get their revenge on each other.
Faris is the lost princess of Tycoon. Since she fell off a ship long ago, she took up the act of pirating and pretended to be a man to fit in and rule. She's a heartfelt person who cares for her men and Syldra, never running from the tasks ahead of her.
Krille is here to fill in for her grandfather and to fully represent the new Warriors of Light. She gains all the skills of Galuf. She's another loving girl who cares for moogles, dragons, and her friends.
Final Fantasy VI has the largest cast of characters in the franchise. I'm going to ignore a good chunk of them because they offer no value to the plot, have similar battle tactics, and two are secret characters.
Terra is a woman with no past. She can use magic innately, something that's been lost for centuries. She's a half breed with no place to call home and is just looking for someone place that needs her.
Locke is a womanizing treasure hunter, not thief. He keeps the corpse of his dead ex girlfriend in a basement.
Edgar is the womanizing King of Fabul. He's a good leader, trying to protect his people from the evil Empire. He's wise for his age and is willing to sacrifice, even leading a band of thieves to steal his treasure just to make sure he can reach his castle.
Sabin is an overpowered monk who wreaks shop. He's agile, strong, tanky, and can suplex a train! He's a true hero in a world where that's actually not that rare...
Cyan is a samurai who has his entire hometown and family poisoned by Kefka. He lives on with survivor's guilt and is always trying to live in their honor.
Celes is an enemy soldier who gets court marshaled and tortured for not agreeing with her superiors. She was a magic infused child, bred to fit her role. She, like Terra, doesn't feel like she has a home or even if she should be alive.
Setzer is a rapist, and I'm not going to waste any more time on him.
Strago is a true blue mage with decades of experience. He's a loving grandfather to his descendent, Relm, and is always around to aid people.
Relm is a dirty mouthed preteen artist whose paintings can be quite painful. Both of her parents are dead or gone, but Shadow's dog seems to like her.
Shadow is a mysterious assassin who'll kill his own mother for a nickel. He has a dog and might be the father of another teammate.
Final Fantasy VII is where a lot of people came into the franchise. But how filled out are they?
Cloud is a man with ties to a childhood, almost, friend. He's got a confusing backstory that does make sense when you figure it out. He's a man with a big sword, big hair, and a big story.
Barrett is an ecoterrorist who has a machine gun for a hand and will do anything to protect his adoptive daughter. He has a team behind him that follows him, so he acts similar to the main character for the early part of the game. His fight for peace against the megacorp spawns years. He's, depending on the source, the first black man in the franchise.
Tifa is the childhood friend of Cloud. She's part monk, part caring bartender. If there's anything you can say negative about her, it's she doesn't have much of a life if you detach her from Cloud.
Aerith: the white mage who suffers more than anyone. The heartwrenching backstory about losing her parents and it doesn't get better. Poor Elymra.
Red XIII, the first beast character in the franchise who never really got to know his father. He is the last of his race, so this made him an experiment by Hojo.
Yuffie is a kleptomaniac materia thief and optional character.
Cait Sith is a stuffed animal who's a front for a member of The Turks. He's here to spy on us, and he uses his gambling ability to kill things. He's expendable.
Vincent is another man with a dark past. A former Turk who became a monster through experimentation. But he now suffers from immortality brought on by demonic beasts. A black mage with a gun. He's another optional character, but he offers us a new insight into the backstory of Sephiroth.
Cid is a part dragoon, part mechanic, part man with a potty mouth. He's an abusive partner to Shera until it turns out she was right all along. Once he goes to space and achieves his dreams, he turns his relationship around.
Final Fantasy VIII has a small cast, but do they have small personalities? They forgot about each other, but can we forget about them?
Squall ...whatever. He's got a rad weapon that makes no sense and is forced to be the main character despite not wanting to be the main character. His love interest is totally forced. ...whatever.
Quistis is the oldest of the group and always tries to play peacemaker. The blue mage uses a whip, which is rare.
Zell has a Mike Tyson face tattoo and a Mike Tyson punching ability. Loves his momma and hotdogs.
Selphie loves trains in her happy-go-lucky world. She's dedicated, almost to a stubborn amount. She always tries to force things to happen. The Garden Festival and Squall and Rinoa, for example. If she's the black mage, she's not very good since so is everyone else.
Rinoa is the daughter of the Galbadian General, which is interesting as she's a freedom fighter trying to muddle everything up. She uses her dog, Angelo, to shoot things.
Irvine is the womanizer every game needs. He sure could have solved a lot of problems had he only spoken up...
Final Fantasy IX
Zidane is an all out hero, even if he doesn't have a noble background. A troubadour who plays the thief. He's always there to help a friend.
Vivi is loved by everyone, even if those who hate FFIX. He's wonderful, lovable, and if anything happens to him, I'll kill everyone in the room and then myself.
Steiner starts as our bumbling knight but turns into a true hero, willing to sacrifice himself for those he, moments ago, was fighting against. He has, maybe, the most growth in any game.
Garnet is a noble princess, maybe too noble. She fights for her people, unlike her mother. She chooses to be kidnapped to fight the unjust leadership of her unhumanly mother. Is she our primary white mage or a summoner? The world may never know.
Freya deserved more. The parties dragoon has no real arc but a lot of sorrow.
Quina lives to eat and eats to live.
Eiko is our true white mage and exists to give Garnet backstory. She's also the third wheel on this love triangle between her, Garnet, and Zidane. She can hold her own with her moogle cohorts.
Amarant is there to be the edge every JRPG needs.
Final Fantasy X
Tidus is a young star athlete thrown into a world he's not familiar with. He's following his father's footsteps, despite not wanting to. Learning who he really is and that fallout of that is some of the deepest in the genre.
Auron is our old (aged 36) wiseman, who guides our two protags through the world.
Wakka is an archer. He's way into his religion and its teachings, even to the point of racism. Fortunately, he comes around at the end.
Lulu has black magics, belts, and boobs. She's another character who I feel deserved more. Her story is short and to the point, with not much going on. It's also optional.
Yuna is the true main protagonist of FFX. She keeps us alive with white magic and deals damage and tanks with her aeons. She's involved in everything and is the focus of the story. I'm not going into FFX-2 here.
Rikku is a plucky thief and foreigner who's trying to save the world in her own way. She's slightly misunderstood, but she ain't wrong. She's a caring ruffian.
Kimarhi is there.
Final Fantasy XII
Vaan shouldn't be here.
Penelo somehow has more plot relevance than the protag just by being the love interest.
Balthier is our leading man. He's cocky, confident, and has his hands in everything; past, present, and future. We all really want to know more about him.
Fran is the sidekick of Balthier. She's kinda there, too.
Ashe is the lost princess of Dalmaska, fighting with an underground resistance against the Empire. She's willing to get her hands dirty and does.
Basch had been thought dead for two years. He still lives, but his stain does too. Despite that, he still fights for his country, immediately joining the resistance when we free him. He's another character who we should know more about.
Final Fantasy XIII
Lightning really loves her sister.
Snow really loves Lightning's sister.
Sash really loves his kid.
Hope really misses his mom, who Snow helped to kill accidentally.
Vanille is the destroyer of Cocoon from centuries past. She hides it by being plucky.
Fang really loves Vanille.
Final Fantasy Tactics has a wide cast. Sadly, almost none of them matter once they join your party. A part of me almost wants to skip this, but I'll add a few of the iconic and well known ones.
Ramza is such a great character. We see him start off a wide eyed rookie trying to be just like his father. And then he becomes the veteran of war, espionage, and shadow battles. He gets involved in religious turmoil and political ins-and-outs but stays true to his values the whole time.
Delita is just as interesting. He starts the same as Ramza, wanting to overcome his peasant upbringing. Through more forceful tactics than Ramza, he does so and upends all of Ivalice. But is it for the better?
Agrias is Princess Ovielia's bodyguard. Her superiors leave her for dead when her usefulness is over. Fortunately, we show up in time to save her.
Mustadio is a sniper who exists to introduce us to the Zodiac Stones. He's also the way to bring in secret characters.
T.G. Cid is notorious for breaking the game. He makes two other characters obsolete while also making everyone look weak. Is he deserving of such a role, though?
Well, that took forever, so let's get to how points will be accumulated. There will be more characters in the rankings, but even I don't have enough time to write up a blurb about every one of them.
Main characters or deuteronomists get a point. (1) If you're actually the main character and not some rando to fill out the ranks, then you get a second. (2)
If you have ties to the main boss, the rest of the cast, or can add to the story, a point is given. (3)
If you're unique in battle, then there's another point. (4)
If you partake in an iconic scene, you have a fifth point. (5)
Love interests get a point because romance is big in this genre. (6)
If you have an interesting personality, you get a point. Flaws and imperfections are more important than bland and boring. (7)
If you grow, you get a point (8)
If you confront the final boss at all, you get a point. (9)
Are you plot relevant from your introduction to the final dungeon? (10)
The results are below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSi3o1ZfzfoO4WjNi18RefUlg9rgi3YeVXW7TsmIbZP085octfwAB11hb_glZG__svs2oHJo2UrKlxT/pubhtml
A few observations:
I should have foreseen this, but I made a three tiered system: Main characters max out at ten, deuteronomists cap at nine, and secondary characters get eight. I did want to emphasize MCs, so this makes sense, and I'm dumb.
Max Points for Main Characters are
Cecil, Zidane, Tidus, Ramza, Fei, and Rena.
Tidus rubs many people the wrong way, but it's never made much sense with his starting point, growth, and value.
Rena has max points, but Claude (nine) does not because she's the only true healer in the game. Claude is replaceable for DPS by anyone else, but Rena is invaluable. Combat matters.
The lowest main character is Vaan, with three points. This is lower than Serge (four), Chrono (seven), DQV's Hero (seven), and DQVI's Hero (four), all silent protagonists. It's also lower than Penelo (four), his love interest.
Max Points for deuteronomists are:
Aerith, Rinoa, Garnet, Yuna, and Delita.
Aerith has the same number of points as her MC, Cloud.
Rinoa has more points than her MC, Squall (seven). As much as I dislike FFVIII, she deserves her spot with her backstory, dog, and relevance to the sorceresses.
By design, FFVI has no main character. Terra and Celes, though, get their nine points.
Vivi broke the mold and got nine points despite not filling in the archtype I expected this to be for.
Eight points go to the following secondary characters:
Refia, Kain, Rydia, Tellah, Faris, Edgar, Sabin, Barrett, Tifa, Eiko, KOS-MOS, and Kid.
Refia got more points than anyone else in her game.
Kid got more points than Serge.
FFIV got three characters, which shows how good the important cast can be.
There are five characters with a score of one.
Aria, Maria (Xenogears), Amos, T'nique, and Albel.
Once again, seeing Aria with a single tally hurts me. However, she's here for such a short time. She has no room to grow, show a personality, or let us know about ties to anything. She's just there for those thirty minutes and is forgotten by everyone but me.
Along similar lines, Jin only got a seven, which I had hoped would be higher.
Maria (Xenogears) is the only playable character here who isn't optional, but she only has one scene of matter. The others are just there as final characters. It could be argued that Albel has a personality worth mentioning, but edgy isn't a positive trait.
The worst Cid is the Thunder God, making him undeserving of the Excalibur.
Penelo is the lowest love interest.
The lowest character who SHOULD be the main character is Bash and Balthier, each with five. Both are two points higher than Vaan.
Final Fantasy VIII is tied for second highest average character score with 6.8. I thought the characters were awful, but I guess there's enough there to make for a decent cast. NOTE: I originally had it with the most points, eight, I messed up the formula on Google Sheets. It has been corrected.
Selphie and Irvine are the worst, with six. While Rinoa gets her max of nine.
The lowest is Dragon Quest VI and Star Ocean 3. Each has only three points.
Muriel has five, the best, with her brother, Amos, only getting one. Meanwhile, Fate has seven, and Albel has one.
The average across all games is 5.3.
I have a newfound respect for Final Fantasy VIII, and I kinda want to play it again now. I can't because my disk three is scratched, but who knows? I have no idea how it got that high, but I think this is fair. XII, though, is slightly lower than I had figured. The lack of uniqueness in battle really hit hard here, along with the game lacking any iconic scene. Most of what's happening in XII is going on around our main cast. Mt. Bur Omicaise takes place without us being able to do anything. There is no eureka moment for a character when they finally grow. No one even grows!
In XII's defense, no game with a job system got many unique tallies. I love the system, but the ability to mix and match at will takes out that factor. It's still fun, and this shouldn't be used as a knock against it, but I like D&D class systems, and my biases are showing here. I just don't enjoy everyone being the same. I wonder if there's a way to make it work?
But I did try to make it work. Limit Breaks were considered a unique tactic, but very few games have one. And when they do, they're sometimes too similar. What's the difference between Cloud and Yuffie, for example? This is also the reason why Cloud didn't get max points.
And that was playable characters! What's your favorite? What's your worst? Do these rankings change your opinion of anyone? I really like a lot of the low ranking games, so it's clear the scores aren't everything, which just makes sense. People want to see themselves in the game, and they'll look up to certain characters more than others. But, we've got more places to go to! Sometimes people see themselves in bit players. So who's got the best of the side characters that don't battle?
I have no clue when I'll get to that since I'm getting back into games tomorrow. RPGMaker November incoming!
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