Most unlikable Final Fantasy main character?

[Tiamattt]

Quite frankly I'm not even sure if Vaan should qualify for this topic considering how little he impacts the actual storyline. He pretty much disappears once the entire cast is assembled and I probably would've forgotten about his existence if the game didn't force me to move him from place to place.

Hope is in sorta the same boat as he becomes completely irrelevant not that far into the story, if anything that just made him more annoying since he had that "why are you still here?" feeling to him added to his crappy voice. So it's a little hard for me to put him in a "main character" discussion.

Cloud/Squall start off as very unlikeable since they were both antisocial jerks that treats everyone else like total trash, at first anyway. They do grow as characters as the story progresses and become more likable, it's just you have to put up with their crap for a while and it's very understandable if someone's unwilling to do that.

Tidus was a little too whiny for my tastes but I think he wouldn't have gotten as much hate as he does if he was created before voices in games were standard, or didn't have such a crappy voice actor.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

You know what? I'll say my opinions on the FF protagonists. Because I can.

Starting with IV...

Cecil: Good character with an interesting moral dilemna from the outset.

Bartz: Charming, likeable, kind of dumb but in a good way.

VI entire cast: Easily the best group of characters in the entire series.

Cloud: He's ok. Interesting enough character, kind of dragged through the mud by people who haven't actually played the games.

Squall: see above.

Vivi: Zidane's ok, don't get me wrong, but Vivi is FFIX. And he's awesome.

Tidus: i honestly don't mind him that much. Annoying voice, but he's not that bad a character. (X is honestly my favorite game in the series, so make of that what you will.)

Vaan: Eeeeeew. NOT the Leading Man.

Lightning: Cloud with boobs? Umm... sure, I guess.


Ceodore: Haven't played After Years, but he can't be that bad.
Sora: Why is EVERY other character more interesting than you, in your games?!
Zack: The guy Cloud spend most of VII wishing he was. Nuff said.

 

[Frostbyte666]

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.

Thank you it always bugged me how people say Cloud was an emo in that game, when I think he's 1 of the furthest people from it.

Warning this paragraph below is a bit of a rant, skip it if your not interested.

The only point when Cloud could possibly be called emo would be the northern crater and his journey of self discovery during his 3rd mako bath, where it would be completely justified, yet he gets over that very quickly. Also the thing is he has very good reasons to have all these various mood swings and differing personalities, guys got issues. Should we list these issues?
Was the town pariah and got blamed for Tifa's injuries when he wasn't at fault (probably fueled his desire to become strong and become a SOLDIER.)
Failed to get into SOLDIER (ok that could be a bit emo-ish but it seems he was more ashamed on that score than being emo about it.)
Watched his hometown burn to the ground with all residents killed including his mother.
Knowing it is his childhood hero that caused all this destruction.
Saw his best friend and childhood friend with critical injuries resulting in a homicidal rage which he used to overpower and defeat his childhood hero.
Was experimented on for 4 years.
Only has snippets of 1 year due to mako poisoning
Watched his best friend die. (Probably causing a complete mental breakdown)
Had his mind breakdown and rebuilt with a heavy influence from Zack's memories and Jenova's mind rape.
Has voices in his head at various points throughout the early game. (his childhood self and Sephiroth)
Finds out the events he recalls is a lie and switches sides for a bit (probably suffering PTSD)
Gets 2 more mako baths and finally finds out the truth of his past, also recalling various memories. Reverting to his original personality which seems quite focused on stopping meteor being the team leader and having that heavily implied scene between himself and Tifa when all the other party members go to see their families.
Any other issues I've missed or misinterpreted, I have only played the original game and none of the expansions to the series.

Now on topic
I've only played FF 1-3 and 7 - 10, from those my most hated character is a toss up between Tidus and Squall, Tidus because of the annoyance factor and Squall because he is a whiny emo for no good reason. He can't justify it with the orphan thing because all the playable characters (excluding Rinoa) were orphans from the same orphanage except they all forgot bar 1 and none of them are emo, though Seifer is a dick. the only possible reason for him to be an emo would be if he realised he has been raised as a child soldier to kill for the highest bidder but none of the characters seem to have a problem with this.

 

[ezaviel]

Geez, it's honestly hard for me to pick between Squall and Tidus. Both characters annoy me so much it is actually a struggle for me to play the games.

If Tidus becomes less annoying as you go, maybe I will actually bother to finish that game. I just got sick of listening to the guy and stopped playing to go play better, less annoying games.

 

[go-10]

most hated companion: Hope from FF XIII
most hated character: Hope from FF XIII-2
most hated protagonist: Vaan from FF XII

 

[Charli]

Im surprised there is not much mention of FFX-2!!

God those girls annoyed me so much! That was a real low point for square!! How did Yuna end up that annoying!?

THAT THING NEVER HAPPENED. GOT IT.

I time traveled and erased it from the timeline. Any memory you have of it is simply odd dreams of a parallel world.

(God I wish)

Main entries though I think, no one counts that as a thing.

Except that FFX-2 had the high mark of combat in the entire series. Start to finish. ATB Combat has never been more fun. The characters not named Paine were awful, the story was awful, the music was good, and the game was generally not nearly as good as the rest of the series (to that point), but it was a fine game. Better than XII, VIII, and ESPECIALLY XIII IMO.

OT: Vaan. He literally had no reason to exist. Replace him with a sperm whale or a bowl of petunias and the plot would not have changed a bit.

Who said anything about the combat, I thought this was a personality contest.

If I was going by combat styles then yes X-2 keeps it's place. But as a story? As a depiction of when women get lead roles in games. I think it's a deplorable piece of poo that needs scraping off the pavement and then vaporized. Paine was not enough to salvage anything and even then I think she could have been better.

And speaking for THIS topic. It needs forgetting, I count main series, and as a whole Yuna was one of the least bad characters in X. In X-2. I don't even.

 

[Xian_Frost]

I would have to say everybody in Final Fantasy XIII except Sazh. I liked Sazh.

Everyone in X-2 counts also. I don't know where the company thought that up. The first game had a nice tied up ending (for a Final Fantasy game) and closed on a good note. That game did not need a sequel.

 

[burningdragoon]

Worst leading protagonist: Tidus, for pretty much all same reasons anyone doesn't like him. (Vaan is not a leading protagonist because FFXII doesn't have one and he's more of a nothing character than actively bad)

Worst member of the main cast: Hope. Not that any character from FFXIII was good, but Hope is the worst FF character of them all.

Worst character including guest characters: Um... still Hope. Though Bannon from FFVI is pretty bad simply because if he gets knocked out it's game over. That's more of a gameplay annoyance not a character problem.

 

[SpaceBat]

I see we have different ideas about Snow to me he just seemed extremely weak

and annoying throughout the game his constant Im gonna be a hero crap gets old really quickly if youre gonna be a hero just do it for gods sake stop talking about it but he dosent he starts the game saying im gonna be a hero and thats all he ever says throughout the game right up till it conclusion just like a broken record seriously dood get over yourself,

theres a reason he gets abused throughout the game by Lightning and its because hes so unlikeable in every way

I wasnt particularly fond of Lightning either but at least she got on with stuff without spouting recycled garbage every other line and ocasionally you saw a different side to her. Sazh was awesome though.

I'm not sure where you got the weak idea from, as he appears to be one of the stronger characters in the group. As I said before, his constant "Gonna be a hero and save everyone" attitude/statement is to prevent himself from breaking down and falling into depression like the rest of the group. He does what he thinks he has to do in order to make his statement come true and he breaks down when he is confronted with a rather factual sounding statement that it's absolutely impossible. Another thing is that his character does develop quite a bit, just not in the traditional sense (more in our eyes as we find out underlying reasons for his actions, rather than the character himself).

And you're talking as if he doesn't do anything. Heroism isn't how many enemies you kill. He took the pain of a lot of different characters on his own shoulders for their sake and acted kind and protective of them, even though he was not to blame in any of these things. He saves multiple characters and groups of people multiple times throughout the game. He is (according to lightning herself) the reason why the rest of the team was able to move forward, because his optimism and his attitude had a positive effect on their unconscious mind. He has nearly always acted selflessly throughout the entire game and always did what he thought was in the best interest of others. If that's not heroism, then heroism can go fuck itself.

First of all, you know that isn't the actual reason why Lightning punched him. She blames him for what happened to Serah and THAT"s y his optimistic attitude towards everything rubs her the wrong way. That's why she punched him. In reality though, there was nothing anyone could have done about Serah becoming a l'cie, but Snow stood by her, supported her and tried to help her the entire way through, whereas Lightning shunned her own sister. She is a lot more guilty for what happened to Serah than Snow is, but unlike Snow, Lightning rather enjoys shoving the blame and acting condescending. That's the reason why she hates Snow in general, because she's unable to accept what happened and her own fault/role in all of it.

Then this is where we completely disagree. The constant re-use of a phrase with a character that tries his very best to be a completely selfless, optimistic, kind, caring and supporting is a lot less annoying to me than a shut-in, condescending, pessimistic person who refuses to acknowledge her own faults and instead shoves her mistakes and her responsibility unto others, but gets things done.

The only reason why Sazh is more awesome than the rest of the cast is because there's nothing about him. There's really not a lot about his character, so there's nothing to dislike. He's just your average nice guy, whereas the other characters (Lightning, Hope, Fang, Vanille and yes, even snow) are shit.

 

[Alhazred]

Really, by the standards of characterisation set by western RPGs,...

Lol. Stopped reading right there, buddy.

Really? You think JRPGs have better characters than WRPGs? Well, you're entitled to your opinion...

For, me JRPGs are always about the setting. WRPGs might have great characters, but we always get the same old fantasy setting. FF6 gave us a steampunk setting turned-post apocalypse, FF7 had a cyberpunk feel to it, and Midgar is THE most interesting city to feature in an RPG.

 

[Zenn3k]

Honestly, haven't liked a single one of them since FF9, which had Vivi, who was awesome. Everyone from 8, 10, 12, and 13 are incredibly annoying. Well, maybe not Sazh, he was okay.

 

[Rad Party God]

I guess, pretty much anyone from FF8 and onwards (except FF9).

I didn't have much trouble with Tidus, I actually liked him, maybe because I was young and stupid by the time I got around playing FFX, but he wasn't that annoying.

Wakka and Rikku on the other hand... It's sort of bittersweet, because Wakka made good damage as a party member, but as a character, I hated him and Rikku... I simply hated her, both as a character and as a party member.

 

[DanteLives]

Non-protagonist: Paine. A female version of Squall, but much more cold and emo.

Protagonist: Vaan. When you mix Tidus with Justin Bieber you get a recipe for disaster.

 

[Flight]

I'd say Vaan. He was completely pointless and was a bit too similar to Tidus. Also, it kind of feels like Square put him there because they didn't want to shaveick Ashe as the main character for whatever reason - when, honestly, she should have been.

 

[Cedric Rolle III]

Sqaull from FF 8

 

[chstens]

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.

Squall on the other hand is composed almost entirely of negative elements... he's a jerk, he's a whiner, he's apathetic, he treats the other characters like garbage, he has no sense of humor and his character design is way to J-Pop for most peoples liking. Also he barely grows throughout the course of the game and doesn't get nearly so punchy and ending as Tidus.

Still though, he's not my most "hated" Final Fantasy main character... that dubious honor goes to Vaan of FF12... his voice is grating as hell, he serves no purpose in the plot, has no character development and has horrible character design. Worst of all the REST of the cast is so damn good... what is this little putz doing there? At least FFX had Wakka to make Tidus look slightly less ridiculous.

Except for the fact that he isn't the main character.

 

[kyogen]

Least liked protagonist: Cecil, FF IV
--IV is a good game, but I hate the protagonist. I understand how his character arc is supposed to work, but it never works for me at all. It's too fast and too shallow. I'd have preferred Kain as the protagonist.

Least liked party member: Hope, FF XIII
--I don't mind grumpy, whiny, traumatized Hope at the beginning of FF XIII. What I hate about his character is how he becomes the mouthpiece for poorly-worded cliches about friendship and perseverance in the late game. That's not really a problem with his character at all; it's a problem with how his character's dialogue is written.

 

[drmigit2]

I believe everything that needs to be said about Tidus is said here.

Thank you.

 

[Dragoon]

Vaan just all round sucked, what was he even doing in that game to start with? He's all like "I wanna be a Sky Pirate but I'm a poor street urchin weh" and just kinda starts stalking the other characters. Plus his voice is annoying, his clothes are crap and he looks like a girl.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Zidane. I know that FF 9 is the Holy-fucking-Grail of post SNES pre PS2 FF games for some people and I couldn't begin to tell you why. But that's getting off topic.

Yeah Zidane's not a whiny tool like Squall and Tidus but deplorable as they may be at least they had personalities.
Zidane was....fuck if I know he was a genetically altered monkey man from another dimension?

He was so damn dull I honestly don't remember much about his story arc.

Honestly, haven't liked a single one of them since FF9, which had Vivi, who was awesome...

I'll grant you that.
Vivi was pretty awesome and pretty much the only reason I have any fond memories of that game.