Most unlikable Final Fantasy main character?

[Hisshiss]

I dislike Titus more at face value, but he does have actual character development and depth, and the love story with him and Yuna is quite touching. So with that being the case, Vaan from 12. Ironically I actually prefer him over Tidus at face value (Very slightly), but dislike him more as a whole because he never evolves or does anything interesting the entire game, hes just one nonstop overhyped anime cliche.

Which is a shame, cus the remaining five party members in that game were pretty cool, save for maybe Penello. Basch is the coolest dude from any JRPG anywhere ever, save for his infinitely more badass brother.


Edit: Wait a minute what am I saying? Terra. UGH.

 

[Siege_TF]

Seymour. Kefka and Golbez had style, and Seph was a little sympathetic, but when Seymour did his hace-heel-turn he turned hard. I suppose the fact that I wanted to throttle him myself made his a good antagonist, but that doesn't change the fact that I hate him more than any five cutscenes from FFX-2, and that's a lot of hatred.

 

[alphamalet]

Look, I'm honestly not trying to be a smart-ass or sarcastic when I ask this question, and I hope your replies will be conducted as such (and I'm sure I will get a lot of them). Honestly, what is so bad about Hope? The fact that he gets emotional because his Mom dies and he gets branded for death within the first two hours of the game? The fact that he balmes Snow for putting his mother in a spot where she gets killed? It's twisted logic, but I would say a realistic reaction given the circumstances. He goes through a lot of character growth, and his relationship with the rest of the party changes considerably throughout the course of the game. How is he more whinny than Terra, Vivi, Celes, Cloud, Dagger, or a lot of other people's favorite Final Fantasy characters? For those commenting about him, did you finish the game? If you didn't, I understand, but I'd be curious to know.

I have played just about all of the Final Fantasy games for the first time over the past year and a half. I went into each game with no expectations at all. I honestly believe the writing of Final Fantasy has been at a pretty consistent level since the SNES days (with FFXII and FFX-2 being the exceptions). I think the MAJOR difference is that all of the classic Final Fantasy games had no voice acting. If they did, then some of the iffy dialog in the classic FF games would have been far more recognizable. Bad dialog in text is way more tolerable than bad dialog spoken. I seriously wonder how Final Fantasy XIII's story would have been received if it hadn't been voice acted. I think it would have been received very differently.

 

[Therumancer]

To be honest I'm going to have to say "Vaan" I didn't much care for XIII either, but honestly I didn't care for Vaan much at all, he seemed poorly conceived, and despite being your controllable protaganist didn't seem to ever really come to the forefront as a hero. What's more in a game known for it's outlandish costumes, his has got to be the worst. The guy dresses like he's the star of a low budget gay-porn version of Aladdin.

I guess I could say Final Fantasy XIII is my least favorite game, but XII had my least favorite controllable protaganist (I won't get into a debate as to whether he's the hero or not). Vaan is basically Tidus without the character development, and who somehow manages to have an even worse wardrobe.

To be fair Squall isn't one of my favorites, but I think people don't give him enough credit. He didn't develop much as a character, but rather the game worked things in reverse where as time went on you kind of began to understand why he was that way. Half of the thing was that he acted like an emo jerk, who didn't care about anything, but at the same time he always wound up doing the right thing without much prompting, and pulled off some amazingly heroic crap at times.

That said, Cloud still takes my favorite Final Fantasy protaganist, though I feel some of the prequel stuff kind of ruined him. While a stereotype now, he was a bit more original when his game came out, AND I must say some of his moments... like the way he threw Sepiroth into the Jenova reactor, were pure awesome at the time. I also thought it was an interestingly told tale, where you find out he was lying about having been part of Soldier, but then he predictably gets it together after his emo-trip, and it becomes even more awesome when you realize that he's been throwing down with all of this stuff and these super villains all on his own without ever having been what he claimed to be originally. He's pretty much taking Sepiroth and company on natural talent. Corny, but kind of awesome at the same time, and it also explains why he is more or less surprising people and coming out of a virual nowhere in some of these scenes. Or at least I thought it was cool, especially at the time.

 

[McMarbles]

Squall. Whiny little emo git...

 

[Lunatic High]

As far as main characters go its a photo finish between Squall (FF8) and Lightning (god what a dumb name) Squall only wins because I remember a particlar scene in Balamb Garden where he's curled in a ball on his bed readmiting to himself what how he doesn't "know anything" or whatever sure he develops a little more later on but jesus, and I just never particularly cared for Lighting there was like a wall there or something.

 

[Lunatic High]

I really really really hated Vanille.

kookiness up the ass baby

 

[Gennadios]

Squall passed up so many chances to get laid in FF8 that my soul bled a little.

Tidus is still the whiniest ***** I've ever been forced to follow as a player, however.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

All of them?

...except that one big black dude. He looks pretty cool. Sort of like a cross between Ronnie Colman, Mr. T, and Shaft.

 

[Justyn Stahll]

Cloud gets a honorable mention for being a emo ass, but he is only topped by two others, Tidus is...ugh...Tidus, his voice actor makes me want to rip my ears off and he is a little let's just say aloof most of the time, but the guy who takes the cake for the most annoying character ever in a Final Fantasy game Vaan. He...he served no purpose other than to annoy, a Balthier was about 2000% cooler than him and was a FREAKING SKY PIRATE! Vaan didn't deserve to be in that game, or even close to it.

/Rage

 

[MarlonBlazed]

Titus at least grows as a character and he's generally got a positive attitude. Because of his growth he actually has a pretty high spot on my Final Fantasy Main Characters rating scale.

Seems there is no love for Tidus here. I like you think he's a great character for the same reasons you stated but I also like Wakka so I guess my opinion doesn't matter.

OT: The whole cast of FF 7. I'm sorry I'm not like you whoever is reading this raging but that game didn't do anything for me and I played it multiple times.

 

[Ryotknife]

vanille, definitely vanille.

Tidus at least somewhat redeems himself at the very end. Plus you get to beat the snot out of him in X-2 (or close enough for me). I will put him at number 3

Squall held the title of worse FF protagonist for a long time, but at least there is a single ray of hope as Kingdom hearts Squall/Leon is actually somewhat likable.

I actually liked hope as he grows significantly as a character. Yea he starts as an annoying whinny kid (to be fair for good reasons) and then progresses into a angsty teenager, but at the end he is quite likeable if a bit socially awkward. Plus Hope in 13-2 was really good.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

So can somebody explain to me why Cloud has a reputation for being emo? Actually, no, I know the answer. The answer is Advent Motherf***ing Children, which rewrote FF7 to the degree and in much the same manner as the Star Wars prequels. If you actually go back and play 7 (or do what I did and watch a Let's Play), you see that Cloud is a brooding dick for about an hour before Tifa tells him to stop being a dick and he says okay. A bit later he goes insane, lapses into a coma, and gets his id dissected, but he actually spends the majority of the game as a pretty normal guy.

I liked Squall, but I know why a lot of people don't. For most people it's probably not because he was an asshole, but because he wasn't enough of an asshole. He's at his most hostile at the beginning of the game, spends probably the majority of the game as just kind of brooding and indecisive, then he becomes boring a regular guy by the end (in light of the fact that he has finished developing as a character before the end of the game doesn't line up with that enormous ending montage cutscene, but that's at least two other cans of worms). Some people just don't want a nasty main character because they can't relate, but probably Squall's early behavior is a(n unintentional) promise by the game's creators of greater drama in the future, because Squall originally appeared to be an extremely self-destructive character. Alternatively, you may dislike Cloud because FF8 sucked.

My opinion on the characters of FFXIII hinge primarily upon whether or not XIII-2 is a subject of discussion. For me, the presence of XIII-2 causes XIII to seem good by comparison. Suddenly I see Lightning's tormented soul in a whole new light, and Vanille becomes a deeply flawed, conflicted character. I still don't like Hope, though. Funny how that works. And no matter what Sazh remains Chocobo Emperor Rasputin's mighty Battle Throne ('frone?).

tl;dr My least favorite Final Fantasy main character is Ceodore. Wait, what?

 

[Burst6]

Look, I'm honestly not trying to be a smart-ass or sarcastic when I ask this question, and I hope your replies will be conducted as such (and I'm sure I will get a lot of them). Honestly, what is so bad about Hope? The fact that he gets emotional because his Mom dies and he gets branded for death within the first two hours of the game? The fact that he blames Snow for putting his mother in a spot where she gets killed? It's twisted logic, but I would say a realistic reaction given the circumstances. He goes through a lot of character growth, and his relationship with the rest of the party changes considerably throughout the course of the game. How is he more whinny than Terra, Vivi, Celes, Cloud, Dagger, or a lot of other people's favorite Final Fantasy characters? For those commenting about him, did you finish the game? If you didn't, I understand, but I'd be curious to know.

I played XIII like a month after its release and forgot about most of it so i'm trying my best to remember hope, but here's what i get out of it. I may be talking out of my ass so forgive me if i am.

I was about to write a long post trying to explain why hope is worse than the others, but i just had an epiphany. I'm still playing through 9 but from what i can gather Vivi and Dagger start out as pretty strong characters. You get to like them and when tragedy strikes you feel sorry for them and want to help them. From what i can remember we didn't get to know hope at all before tragedy struck for him so all we knew was the whiny little boy. We didn't have enough of a connection to him to feel his pain. He may have reacted realistically, but there's a major difference between this happening in real life and in fiction. In real life we automatically sympathize because we're talking to a person, in fiction they have to develop him enough so we see him as a person instead of a 3d model in a game. He's a random child that comes into your group and his whining is distracting you from the whole "save the world" thing. Not a lot of people like that.

I think another thing that compounds it is when he does develop a better character, he doesn't really do anything to make his new personality memorable. Maybe i just have a bad memory but all i can remember about hope is whine.

 

[StBishop]

Main character then Vaan for simply having no purpose and personality he makes vanilla look exciting (no not Vanille) also his voice kind of annoys me. If you want the next few worst just keep going with FFXII characters excluding Balthier and Basche the only ones with any personality at all.

Other than those Snow and Hope from XIII were terrible especially Snow he goes through no development at all Hope changes a bit at least. The only reason Snow is above most of the cast for XII was because despite me hating him he does have a personality (a bloody annoying one) and his dress sense (is stupid) makes him stand out a bit, unlike those boring boring people in XII I mean how do you make a bunny girl boring as hell and completely unlikeable im not sure but XII managed it. Ok gonna stop ragging on XII now I just really hated the characters in it.

Including others who join the party? Hope.

Only the main protagonist? Umm, Vincent Valentine from Dirge of Cerberus.

Vincent in that game was so bad it was funny except cutscene Vincent he was amazing why couldnt we have him instead of the other retard they got to portray him in the game sections. Ill let him off though that game made me laugh thanks to the terrible characters in it or at least how the characters were used in it.

?

I couldn't agree less.

I fucking loved playing the game, but the cut-scenes were so incredibly bad, so horrifically bad, that I had to play it as a joke. It became a "So bad it's hilarious" game, and while playing I called up a bunch of mates who brought beer over and we laughed at how fucking horrible it was while drinking.

Then we had a party.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Including main protagonists and people who can join your party. I'd have to say Tidus. Whiny little namby pamby.

I liked how he came to terms with his daddy issues in a way. I hated the voice acting a bit more than the character himself though (I liked the character is what I mean)

---

The only character I liked in Final Fantasy XIII was Sahz and another character who I merely tolerated was Snow. My absolutely most hated characters (because I can't keep it to one) are Hope and Vanille who are like Palom and Porom if the one had severe depression and was on drugs the entire time and the other had suffered severe blunt-force trauma to the head.

Outside of FF13...I think Irvine from 8 was kind of a waste and, Cait Sith was a fucking cop-out especially when compared to Mog from FF6 who is a freaking boss.

 

[Baralak]

Look, I'm honestly not trying to be a smart-ass or sarcastic when I ask this question, and I hope your replies will be conducted as such (and I'm sure I will get a lot of them). Honestly, what is so bad about Hope? The fact that he gets emotional because his Mom dies and he gets branded for death within the first two hours of the game? The fact that he blames Snow for putting his mother in a spot where she gets killed? It's twisted logic, but I would say a realistic reaction given the circumstances. He goes through a lot of character growth, and his relationship with the rest of the party changes considerably throughout the course of the game. How is he more whinny than Terra, Vivi, Celes, Cloud, Dagger, or a lot of other people's favorite Final Fantasy characters? For those commenting about him, did you finish the game? If you didn't, I understand, but I'd be curious to know.

I played XIII like a month after its release and forgot about most of it so i'm trying my best to remember hope, but here's what i get out of it. I may be talking out of my ass so forgive me if i am.

I was about to write a long post trying to explain why hope is worse than the others, but i just had an epiphany. I'm still playing through 9 but from what i can gather Vivi and Dagger start out as pretty strong characters. You get to like them and when tragedy strikes you feel sorry for them and want to help them. From what i can remember we didn't get to know hope at all before tragedy struck for him so all we knew was the whiny little boy. We didn't have enough of a connection to him to feel his pain. He may have reacted realistically, but there's a major difference between this happening in real life and in fiction. In real life we automatically sympathize because we're talking to a person, in fiction they have to develop him enough so we see him as a person instead of a 3d model in a game. He's a random child that comes into your group and his whining is distracting you from the whole "save the world" thing. Not a lot of people like that.

I think another thing that compounds it is when he does develop a better character, he doesn't really do anything to make his new personality memorable. Maybe i just have a bad memory but all i can remember about hope is whine.

I just remember Hope pissing me off because he never did anything. "Wah, wah, Mom died! Life sucks!" "Snow did it, and I have a knife! But I won't do anything, I'll just stand around moping like a little emo boy! I hate Snow and I want to stab him! I should! It's for Mom! but I won't, I'll just stand her, and spend 20 minutes looking at a knife."

 

[dimensional]

*snip*
I couldn't agree less.

I fucking loved playing the game, but the cut-scenes were so incredibly bad, so horrifically bad, that I had to play it as a joke. It became a "So bad it's hilarious" game, and while playing I called up a bunch of mates who brought beer over and we laughed at how fucking horrible it was while drinking.

Then we had a party.

Thats what I meant maybe I didnt word it properly in the cutscenes Vincent could do all this stupid cool shit and in the actual game could do naff all (usually this dosent bother me but he did it all the time throughout the game) and it is a so bad its funny as hell kind of game, I was reading a joke guide while playing and it kept pointing out all the stupid crap in this game that made no sense like giving me an A rank in an objective even though I completely failed it. That said it was playable which surprised me as I was expecting technically atrocious gameplay but it was just laughably bad instead. I also like how they gave Cait Sith his own crappy stealth section yeah lets take probably the least liked character and put him in one of the least liked shoehorned sections in games that sounds like a good idea.