Final Fantasy XIII - What's Your Opinion On Characters?

[Emaruse]

It's exactly as it's called, I'd like to hear people's opinions on the characters in Final Fantasy XIII, just because I thought it'd be nice to hear some good stories on that. Although, I have to say that out of the entire list, here's my word on my favorite character in that series: Sazh Katzroy.

Maybe it's because he's the comedic relief character, maybe it's because out of the entire cast of Angry McMoodster (Lightning) Crybaby (Hope), Crazy X11 (Vanille) Believe It! (Snow) and the only other character I don't mind (Fang), Sazh had charisma that the others didn't, and it made me happy that someone had that, not to mention his one-liners during combat ("Watch and Learn, Kid!" "Follow the old man's lead!") and having the best Blitz in the game, hell, the whole series, and being the first to learn Haste, I just love Sazh that much, adding on to the fact that he WAS a character, not just having a basic trait (Although being a father is a trait, but please don't start that) also made me really glad about the game, yet ticked off that he only had bit parts in the later games. It just seems to be all about Lightning, which I have no idea why.

That's my two cents. If you want my opinions on the other characters, please, do not hesitate to ask about that, since sadly, I've played all three Final Fantasy XIII Games (Just to watch them die, really) and have quite a bit to say.

Now, let's hear from you guys. What's your thoughts?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Well, they're all better than everyone from Final Fantasy XII, I'll tell you that. The fact that I don't have to struggle to remember their names or what they look like is a huge step above XII. But, I shall give a brief summary on my thoughts, along with my thoughts on them during the other two games.

Lightning: Try...loosening up a bit, okay? I mean, sure Cloud and Squall were always angry, but they opened up as the game went on, to the point where one of Cloud's last lines of dialogue was, "Okay everyone, let's mosey." She was always just so angry in the first game--although punching Snow in the face was a huge boost to her character. Now, in Lightning Returns she is much, much, much better. Has a sense of dry humor and even though she says she's had her emotions taken away, she has emotions. She cares about people, yells at people not out of anger, but out of anger because they're doing dumb things that could get them killed (kind of like a parent scolding a child), and we see that she cares about her sister, instead of just being told she does.

Snow: Ugh. Did not like him in XIII. Like I said, when Lightning punches him, I was excited. Your Naruto characterization of him sums it up, except he had none of the redeeming qualities of Naruto (yes, I actually liked the series). He was mostly absent in XII-2 thank goodness, but like Lightning, he seems to be a much better-written character in 3. The bottomless optimism and "We can do it guys!" has run out and now he's actually believable. A man who has carried so much of a burden for so long that he has been crushed under it and now is just going through the motions of life. Although, to grieve over someone for 500 years the way he has is a bit much I think...

Fang: I liked Fang. I liked her look. I liked her attitude. She was missing from 2 mostly, and I have yet to run into her in 3, but I know I will. Looking forward to it.

Vanille: I'm one of the rare people who liked her in XIII. She brought a sense of lightness and hope. Of course, I always like her character type in the Final Fantasy games (Selphie, Aeris, Rikku) so I'm a bit bias on that point. Plus she had Death, which made a lot of fights super easy for me. Like Fang, she was missing from 2, but it looks like she's fallen into darkness in 3. It appears that she wasn't able to keep her cheerfulness in light of the end of the world and it has become to consume her. At least, that's what I'm guessing based on the glimpses I've seen of her so far.

Hope: Hated Hope in XIII, like everyone else. 2 he grew up into a man and not a whiny little kid, so that was leaps and bounds better. In 3, he's back to being a kid in appearance, but he's still a man mentally. He's taken on the role of in-game adviser. He's not annoying in anyway (so far), but unlike Lightning, I can believe that his emotions have been taken away as he is very mission-focused most of the time.

Sazh: He was amusing in XIII. That fight with the Cactuar was great, and he had a nice little cameo in 2. Unfortunately, just like the other cast members, the end of the world has hit him pretty hard in 3. Gone is the easy-going man who liked to joke around and keep the other smiling when things got too serious. I don't want to spoil what's happened to him, but his life has been 'shattered,' and if you are familiar with Sazh you will understand why and you feel for him. 500 years of that would break any man's spirit.

 

[Ryotknife]

Lightning: You know what? I actually liked her. She had more depth than Cloud or Squall. Sure, she started off as Angry Mcbroodster the Third, Duchess of the Kingdom of Brood, but she opened up as the game progressed. She is still snarky all the way through, but we see some cracks in that armor of hers. The part where she opens up to Hope about her past to try to get him to give up his revenge, the part where she basically admitted she has been a b#$%^, when she apologized to Snow for not believing and being there for Snow and Serah, the part where she was crying on Pulse, the part where she was trying to give Hope a pep talk and was actually nice on Pulse.

Fang: wasted potential. I liked the design, but she had no impact on the game to me. She was boring. Even Repede, the dog from Tales of Vesperia, was a better character than Fang and Repede doesn't even talk!

Vanille: one of my least....actually no she is my LEAST favorite FF character of all time. The only part of the game where I liked her was when she went all suicidal, which says something.

Hope: I actually liked Hope. he is a kid going through a incredibly crappy situation. He is not mature enough to handle it starting off, which is believable. He starts off as a crybaby (understandable), turns into an angsty teenager, and at the end of the game matures into a person who is all "butterflies and rainbows! Life is beautiful!" Expecting every kid to handle these situations like Clementine from the Walking Dead is a bit unrealistic.

Sahz: My favorite character from 13. He is the FF7 Cid of the group, only with significantly less swearing. He feels....normal (sans the chocobo in the hair thing). He handles the situation in mature, believable way. While he is a cynic and jaded, he also feels a moral responsibility to this group of "kids." He doesn't have the ideals of Lightning or Snow and seems to be somewhat grounded in reality, although that doesn't stop him from doing what is right even though he holds no illusions as to his chances at succeeding.

Snow:....im not sure how I feel about him. On the one hand, he is an idiot, but kind of a loveable idiot. There is a certain...romanticism of his one track "This is what a hero does" mind. I suppose he reminds me of children with starry eyed aspirations of grandeur. Kinda like children pretending they are great heroes. That blind idealism and optimism we have when we are young. Innocent and pure, but also stupid and reckless.

 

[BrotherRool]

I like Lightning a lot, people give her a hard time for being so aggressive and grim, but the game recognises that as a fault and through the game she really learns to let people in more and not be afraid to be hurt. By the end of the game Lightning is someone who you would absolutely depend on if the situation ever got tough.

Sazh of course is amazing and has the best storylines of them all. He's compassionate and quiet but he really is the person to bring out the best in people.

And then I like Hope too. I loved his stories with both Snow and Lightning and I real admire that streak of upstandingness that runs through him, even if he has to throw off his childhood first. It's strange, but the person Hope becomes in FFXIII-2 really fits who he is.

Snow is okay. His brashness was hardest for me to get passed and I struggle to like him even when he begins to have his edges softened. His arc with Hope was great though and that's the side of him that I admire the most. Sure he speaks in film titles and will run headlong into anything, but he also feels absolute responsibility for people and Hope brought about a moment where he through away his outer mask and was just himself for a moment.

Vanille is... bearable. Just. She's best with Sazh, her other moments are really forgettable. I liked the different accent-from a different world thing. Her optimism is nice but her delivery less so

Fang is entirely forgettable. Doesn't even make it to Kimahri levels (what is it with SE and the halberd characters?). She's a Vaan or Penello but even less so.

 

[Elfgore]

I have a simple description I use for every character. Please note I am only halfway through 13, the point that Snow, Lightning, and Hope get back together.

Lightning: Total *****. The way she acted at her birthday party made me despise her. She acted like a total brat.
Hope: Whiny is the only word that comes to mind.
Fang: Haven't played as her yet, but she seems likable.
Snow: Thinks with his dick over his brain sometimes and would fit right in with Fairy Tail or Naruto as a character.
Vanille: Right now she is just a weird Australian chick, I hear she gets more interesting later in the game and has an awesome back story or something.
Sahz: Comedic relief and the only character I enjoy and for parents, very easy to identify with.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Well, they're all better than everyone from Final Fantasy XII, I'll tell you that. The fact that I don't have to struggle to remember their names or what they look like is a huge step above XII

Agreed XII had some of the worst characters in any FF game ever right up with 2 and 3 (and I suppose 1 if you count those as characters).

My quick thoughts:-

Lightning - didnt really like her she just seems to lack character and is pretty monotone I actually dislike her a lot more in XIII-2 though she really grates on my nerves in that game but in XIII she was passable.

Snow - hated this guy in XIII in XIII-2 hes a bit better but I wanted to strangle the twat in XIII.

Hope - second most hated character after Snow in XIII but in XIII-2 I just disliked him rather than hated.

Sazh - Great guy liked this character quite a lot but I think he shined more due to the company he was in.

Vanille - I didnt mind her she helped lighten things up a bit cant say I liked her but I could stand her more than most of the cast.

Fang - After Sazh she was my favourite character but again I think she stood out more due to the fact she had little opposition.

Overall XIII has a weak cast just not as weak as the ones I mentioned at the top. On another note I hope Lightning dosent return again.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Ok, I don't remember much at all of FFXIII, but let's do this.

Lightning: Lighten up, girl, or is your face permanently stuck in that scowl?
Hope: CRAWLING IN MY SKIN! THESE WOUNDS, THEY WILL NOT HEAL!
Snow: Shonen Jump called. They want their royalties. Also, SERAH!
Fang: Who? All I remember is that she is the chick with the black hair.
Vanille: The odd one out with the really weird weapon. Annoying voice.
Sahz: Acted like a human being, most of the time.

 

[Gizmo1990]

I hate all of them with a fire that burns stronger than that of a thousand suns but I will only talk about the two I hated the most.

Hope: I have never before wanted a child to die in anything, no matter how much they get on my nerves but Hope. I wanted to rip his arms off and then beat him to death with them.

Snow: How to put into words what I think about Snow. Snow is a douche. He is a super douche. He is the biggest douche who ever did douche. He is king douche doucherson, king of doucheland and lord of all douchdom. If you took all the douche's in the world and combined them to create an ultimate super douche, Snow would still be a bigger douche. The only reason he is not the God of douche's is because of the existence of Sasuke Uchiha.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Lighting:Ex Military hard ass who has regrets for how she treated her sister. Not a bad character and I like how over time she lighten's up and is less of a hard ass showing some form of growth. Albeit it wasn't much of a growth less like a cancerious growth like...

Snow:He is the Naruto of the group, happy go lucky and head first. Honestly I kind of hate how he doesn't learn that his thoughtless actions can have poor results for those around him. I was honestly hoping that it would go some where learning his mistakes through...

Hope:A whiny and emo kid who acts meek during the story, yet fights with the rest of them no problem. He spends most of the time angry about his mother and you think it would be resolved but in XIII-2 he still was hung up on it. I feel his mother's death defined his character but didn't grow from it unlike...

Sazh: My favorite because he is level headed, sure he was angry father who lost his child and wanted to kill the person responsible for it. Yet he couldn't, he know killing someone for revenge (and a child no less) is not the right thing to do/wouldn't bring his son back/isn't what his son would want. And I can respect his mature mind set much like...

Fang:She is pretty much Lighting but starts off light hearted, honestly much can't be said since her character is protect her friend who is...

Vanille:Ok I get that she hides her true feelings behind a smile but it feels like it lacks any real pay off.

 

[Xathos]

Have only played XIII and XIII-2, but I generally like all the characters.

Lightning is a sort of a ***** yeah, but I liked that about her. She's not afraid to let someone know how stupid she thinks they are, or that they shouldn't be annoying angsty people. But its that same attitude that sort of caused Serah to get captured (in her eyes anyway), and she feels guilty. I love her relationship with Hope, and while not some super Ace soldier or anything (From what I understand, she's not actually part of the military of PSICOM or anything), kicks some nice ass.

Snow is probably my least favorite character. Act first, think later type characters I tend to cringe about, especially since he is constantly seeing himself as the hero and yelling Serah's name all the time. But he has this certain..."charm" I guess you can call it? He's not amazing or anything, (and I LOVED it when Lightning would punch the crap out of him), but I suppose I just accepted his dimwittedness as part of his character.

Fang is a super cool chick. A bit too quick to do whatever she wants if she thinks it'll benefit Vanille despite the consequences, but she was fine.

Hope is my favorite character, and an unpopular opinion I'm sure. He's the youngest of the cast at 14, gets swept up in events beyond his control, all because he was taking a trip with his mom. He wines a bit, but at least he tries to make up for it, and I never felt like he was being "emo". He was just...a teenager, and I found all his complaints to be valid considering the circumstances. He gets even better in the sequel!

Vanille was interesting because her being bubbly and happy wasn't just her being that way to be annoying. There was a specific reason she was like that, and her ties to the overall main plot are very interesting. She annoyed me, but at some point when she was with Sazh I just accepted who she was just like with Snow. She ranks higher than snow though.

Sazh was the family dad who tried to keep things grounded for everybody. His backstory tied in with Vanille, and he's always the voice of reason. Pretty good.

Noel has a pretty harsh backstory, and he doesn't like Snow so that gives him some nice points. His connections with Yuel and Caius are nice too. Overall though, I just found him to be OK. Nothing too special, although I felt like I should have cared more about his backstory.

Serah is the same as Noel. I feel sorry for what she goes through, but I don't really care too deeply about her. I think I actually liked her more in XIII than XIII-2.

Its a pretty good Main cast with some good voice acting. My only problem with the games are the supporting cast. Jhil, Cid, Rosch, and pretty much anybody else who wasn't the main villain all fell to the wayside. Like, they felt like they could do some interesting things with them, but they barely get any screen time or come off as such a threat before you never hear from them again. Such a shame.

 

[00slash00]

I agree with the first commenter who said the characters in 12 sucked. They were very poorly developed and too many of them just kinda felt like they had no reason to be there. As awesome a character as Balthier was, you can't carry a game with just snappy one liners.

I loved the 13 series and felt really attached to the cast of the first game, but found the focus on Lightning for the overall story to be somewhat odd. She always seemed to be the least interesting character in the game.

As annoying as Hope was, he did have some depth. He's a child who sees his mother die. Rather than deal with his sadness and mourn her death, he searches for someone to blame and makes a plan for revenge as a way to keep from facing his pain. Snow desperately wants to be a hero but just doesn't know how and hides his insecurities behind a wall of optimism and over confidence. Then you have Lightning. She used to be in the military...now she isn't

Also, I always heard people talk about how weird and crazy Vanille is...I never really saw it. I mean, every Final Fantasy seems to have the level headed badass female (Tifa, Lulu, Beatrix) and the wacky light hearted woman (Yuffie, Riku, Eiko). Vanille never seemed to stand out as abnormally weird or crazy for the Final Fantasy series

 

[NerAnima]

Might as well throw my opinion into the pot. Please bear in mind that I'm just going off of the first, I haven't played XIII-2 or Lightning Returns, I'm just looking at the characters in the first; right, let's get crackin!

I don't know what to think about Lightning; she sort of reminds me of Cloud, but I don't feel as connected to her as I probably should have. Maybe because she never bloody smiles; even with Cloud, who had no mouth or nose, seemed to have more of a personality in the beginning (although maybe that was just because he was forced to become a cross-dresser for a day), and while she slowly warms up, this heart of ice is already in the oven, and it's still not melting fast enough!

Hope, well, I had no Hope for him, if I'm honest. I can understand why he is the way he is, but whenever I see him I just want to smack him. I don't know what it is....

Vanille was an interesting character, and I liked how she did have her moments. Sure, she was odd, and a little quirky, but it's not like the Final Fantasy series hasn't had that before. I liked her almost as much as I did Sazh, although the voice actor for her did grate on me at times.

Fang....Fang...I got nothing, I barely remember her, if I had to choose someone that is my least favourite character, it would probably be her, if only because she leaves no impression on me what-so-ever! Even with Lightning, I remember that she got two sequels for reasons I'll never understand, that at least leaves an impression. With Fang, there's just....nothing. Maybe I just didn't get something, but if there was more to her, I missed it.

Snow was alright, not great, but alright. Like others have said, he's like Naruto, and while I like Naruto, I don't exactly like Snow. Maybe because he's too damn brash, at least Naruto learned from his mistakes.

Sazh is my favourite character, and everyone else here has already listed multiple reasons as to why, and much more coherently than I ever could. So I'll just ask this; does he get a decent part in the later games? Just out of curiosity.

 

[NerAnima]

Ok, I don't remember much at all of FFXIII, but let's do this.

Lightning: Lighten up, girl, or is your face permanently stuck in that scowl?
Hope: CRAWLING IN MY SKIN! THESE WOUNDS, THEY WILL NOT HEAL!
Snow: Shonen Jump called. They want their royalties. Also, SERAH!
Fang: Who? All I remember is that she is the chick with the black hair.
Vanille: The odd one out with the really weird weapon. Annoying voice.
Sahz: Acted like a human being, most of the time.

I'm simply writing this to inform you that I now lay all blame upon you for the endless half-hearted yells of Jeff Goldblum that now are ringing in my head. You are pure evil, and may Sahz have mercy on your soul.

 

[XDSkyFreak]

OK ... I used to be a gigantic FF nerd, but the games lost me a long time ago (so much so I only played X, X-2, XII and XIII on a friends console because I didn't feel the need to own one for games I started hating). So take this with a grain of salt.

Lightning: Give Squall his balls back, he was more believable. Also Terra called, she wants her role back.
Hope: Oh hey the annoying kid from X and XII is back. Don't care, moving on.
Snow: ... ummm yeah ... can we drop the Goku character allready? It was fun then, but now it's just annoying
Fang: You know ... I miss Kain. At least he was a dragoon with somewhat of a personality and impact on the story. Also give FF7 Cid his balls and attitude back.
Vanille: Japan I know you love little girls but here is a spoiler for you: The world finds that shit weird and disturbing! Stop clonning Yufie/Selphie/Rikku in every game you old pervert!
Sazh: This guy needs to star in his own game. IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLLY SQENIX YOU HAD ONE AWESOME CHARACTER AND TURNED HIM INTO COMIC RELIEF? FFXIII-3 Should have been Sazh Returns, not Lighting Returns. Then I might have bought it.

Now side characters ... were there any? Oh right:

Serah: A love pillow that talks? Interesting? She is an object not a person.
Dajh: Again he is mostly a motivation for Sazh, but at least he was more likable than Serah

Villains:

The same bunch of villains square has been using ever since FF6 and 7 given a beauty and rejuvination treatment. Too bad they lost their Kefka, General Leo and Jenova to the boring bisho emo-tards.

 

[Catfood220]

The only character I liked was Vanille, she was a shining beam of light in a cast of miserable sods who wouldn't know how to smile if someone sliced their mouths into a permanent grin.

I suppose Sazh was alright, but I would of liked the rest of them to of fallen into a big blender at the end of the game.

 

[shrekfan246]

Take my words with a hill of salt because I could only endure twelve hours of the game before I had to stop (and I love VII-X and XII), but I thought they were dreadful. Though it's not really the fault of the characters themselves, but rather how the story was told.

Previous Final Fantasy games split the party up every now and then to give more "personalized" arcs for specific characters, but never for two-thirds of the game, randomly switching between two or three groups of the party members with seemingly no rhyme or reason because the plot demanded it. And then one of those groups just happened to contain the two most bland, boring, poorly-written characters in the entire game? Ugh.

Lightning was Female!Cloud. Or Female!Squall. Take your pick, she switched between the two of them frequently enough. The fact that her one defining characteristic outside of "badass" became "motherly" should say enough.

Hope was just awful. I understand exactly why because nobody, especially a teenager, just gets over watching their parent fall to their death in front of them. But this is where the writing for the character failed, because it made his entire character about his angst over his mother's death and his irrational hatred for Snow. And once he gets over that, what character is there left for him to have? They never built up any other personality for him.

Snow had a less messy personal arc, but I'll admit I still didn't like him because he was basically a "dudebro" stereotype if he had a hero complex. Again a fault of the writing, when his only personality trait appeared to be "cocky".

Vanille was... eugh. All right, I liked her plotline. I did. But the voice acting completely soured me on her in-game character. And the fact that for the first twelve hours of the game she was only a manic pixie dream girl really didn't help.

I can't even comment on Fang, because twelve hours into the game I'd only seen her twice.

And Sazh I liked. Sazh actually seemed like a person. He had hopes, dreams, emotions, motivations, things beyond "My pain pushes me to fight". But no, he had to take a backseat to Lightning and Hope...

EDIT: And even with all that said, I'll fully concede that I would've been able to get past the initial impressions of the characters if the story had actually been told and paced well and had the game not been constantly ripping control away from the player during key moments, afraid that the player would ruin its "cool" moments for the characters to show off all of their flashy moves.

EDIT II - The Editing: And just to drive the point even further home, nobody is talking about the villain. Who even was the villain of XIII? I played twelve hours and I can't even recall if the name of a central villain was ever brought up, aside from the generic l'Cie or fal'Cie. Nobody talks about VI without bringing up Kefka, VII without Sephiroth (or Jenova, occasionally), IX had Kuja, X had Seymour and Sin, even VIII still had enough to talk about with Ultimecia or even Seifer. XII stumbled a bit with making Vayne a proper central villain, but it still at least had the Judges to prop up the legs of that seat.

 

[Palademon]

Unlike a lot of others, I didn't dislike them. They just didn't do much with them.
One of Lightning's most interesting features, actually using her rank's abilities to use mana electricity, exists for all of five minutes in the beginning.

I actually really like the themes of the game, but they just kept handling the characters awkwardly. And now at this point they're like "Yeah, y'know Lightning is a badass now", when she really isn't. They just kinda assumed I should feel that way because of the time passed.

I don't even care about them being miserable. I will fight to the death in telling you why Hope is totally justified at whining.
They just didn't do anything with it.

 

[BrotherRool]

EDIT: And even with all that said, I'll fully concede that I would've been able to get past the initial impressions of the characters if the story had actually been told and paced well and had the game not been constantly ripping control away from the player during key moments, afraid that the player would ruin its "cool" moments for the characters to show off all of their flashy moves.

EDIT II - The Editing: And just to drive the point even further home, nobody is talking about the villain. Who even was the villain of XIII? I played twelve hours and I can't even recall if the name of a central villain was ever brought up, aside from the generic l'Cie or fal'Cie. Nobody talks about VI without bringing up Kefka, VII without Sephiroth (or Jenova, occasionally), IX had Kuja, X had Seymour and Sin, even VIII still had enough to talk about with Ultimecia or even Seifer. XII stumbled a bit with making Vayne a proper central villain, but it still at least had the Judges to prop up the legs of that seat.

Whilst I do like the personal stories for each character (although I admit that they have literally the worst pacing I've ever experienced in a game), you are so right about the villain. The whole plot outside of the character arcs in XIII was an incredible mess. Everyone wandered around for hours not knowing anything and then they kind of stumbled into an ending without knowing anything. I can't remember the name of a single one of the villains (except Cid? Except I'm kind of confused about who Cid was and if he was a villain. I think there was a dude who an officer for the Air Force who might have been a secret l'Cie and he was on their side for a bit before trying to kill them because they were destroying the world? And then he turned into crystal maybe?)

...I think all that confusion sums up just how bad the story was. And I think XII had the second worst story* of the series and as you pointed out they didn't really have a great villain either.

*It had one of the best ideas for a story, but the execution was awful. In some ways that's the same as XIII because I really dug the idea of Cocoon and the idea of l'Cie's, they just never did anything with it in an intelligible way.


[Captcha: Come along, pond. Doctor Who quotes FTW!]

 

[EeveeElectro]

It's been ages since I played FFXIII and I haven't played any spin-offs.

Lightning just seemed like low effort, copy of Cloud or Squall. The moody and angry main character has been exhausted by now, so playing as basically a pink haired female Cloud with more angst made me roll my eyes. However, she was bad-ass and I liked her Eidolon(???), but I wish they gave her more personality.
I neither liked or disliked Snow. He seemed generic as they come, who also needed a bit more personality. He seemed sweet and caring and determined to save Serah but even that is seem a bit too often in characters.
From what I saw from Serah, she was quite annoying and over emotional.
Vanille was just generic, air headed young girl but again with no outstanding traits. Also the voices and noises she made, aaack!
Hope was a whiney shit, that may be what they were aiming for due to his young age though. He just seemed to slow everyone down.
I liked Fang because it seemed they put actual effort into her character. She was tough enough to kick arse while remaining positive and quite fun.
Sazh was probably my favourite character, he was awesome and funny but showed his caring side with his son and other characters. The chocobo in his hair was a great touch too.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

Main characters in the order you see them

Lightning - Well she's better than Cloud and Squall who where boring, whiny and pathetic beyond all reason. Also feel like she's quite funny especially in Lightning Returns. Also the "lack of emotion" thing is kinda explained in Lightning Returns - long story short she cut her emotions off when her parents died.

Sazh - I really like Sazh, he's a cool, funny character who actually gets really deep in 1 anyway. He's stupidly forgettable in 2 and Lightning Returns.

Snow - Idiot who learns to not be such a idiot, he's caring and kind. Feels guilty for his actions and changes the way he acts, thinks more and qute frankly becomes an amazing character, his development through all 3 games is by far the best out of all the characters.

Hope - I actually understand Hope and the way he reacts to his mum's death in the first game, really enjoyed his character in 1 and 2. Lightning Returns, mentioning him is kinda spoilerific but I hate the guy who natters on at you constantly during the game.

Vanille - She's ok, actually kind of tragic in a funny way. She's not quite as perky as she lets on and I didn't mind her voice and loved some of her scenes with Sazh. In Lightning Returns she's actually really toned down but guess after a thousand year sleep you would be too.

Serah - In 1 she has very little personality to speak of but she's likable enough. In 2 I think she's really funny and cool.

Fang - Yeah, I liked Fang at first but felt she disappeared into a kind of meaningless character, adds more depth to Vanille though so its no all bad. In Lightning Returns she's awesome though, best she's been.

Noel - One of my favourite characters of the series, a ultimately tragic character that manages to show a wealth of emotions and actually come across as a human being. Excellent character, though in Lightning Returns he's really ignored, his one quest is ok but not as interesting as it could be.


Villain wise?

Jihl/Yahg were dull, uninteresting characters.
I really liked Cid Raines and his buddy Rygdea, they were awesome guys.
Space Pope - yeah he was pretty shit.
Caius - amazingly tragic villain, just like Noel, is one of my favourite characters in the series...think of him as Sephiroth 2.0

Side characters?

N.O.R.A. - I liked these guys (Snow's goofy friends), would have enjoyed some more of these guys, kind of a shame they aren't around in Lightning Returns.
Dajh - meh forgettable as all hell, really just a plot point for Sazh.
Hope's parents - they seem like cool guys.
Bhakti - THE BEST CHARACTER EVER!!! (especially after his quest in Lightning Returns)
Yeuls - I like Yeul as a concept, as a character/s it's really tough to say because they all differ so much
Alyssa - She's bad and annoying, wouldn't want to see her ever again.
Chocolina - OH GOD MY EARS but I think her story was done incredibly well actually (SPOILER: the only part of Sazh's story to be done well after number 1)
Lumina - Yeah, this was one well done, cool story character, not gonna spoil!