Most unlikable Final Fantasy main character?

[IamSofaKingRaw]

InB4PeopleSayVaanEvernThoughHeIsn'tTheProtagonist

Oh damn it. Too late

 

[spartandude]

I really really really hated Vanille.

dear god i dont think a character has actually ever annoyed me as much as her, heck id rather be trapped in a room with the Adoring Fan from Oblivion

 

[Nerexor]

Tidus. So much so that I couldn't even be bothered to finish the game. Squall at least had some growth, and there is no doubt in my mind that if he and tidus ever threw down, Squall would kick Tidus' bleach blonde butt back to blitzball... [sub]something that starts with b, need something that starts with b...[/sub] burg? I also tend to forgive FF8 more than most simply because I love the soundtrack to that game so much.

I never got far into 12 to be anything more than mildly irritated by Vaan. I gave up on that game due to the shitty combat, whereas in 10 it was definitely the shitty characters that drove me away.

 

[penguindude42]

To everyone saying Tidus or Vaan, hear this:

Squall and Cloud, because their games sucked.

 

[Savo]

Vanille from FFXIII. She was supposed to be the perky energetic part of your group but just ended up feeling horribly forced and obnoxious. I felt nothing when

Spoiler

she and Fang got frozen at the end

As far as Hope goes, I really don't understand all the hate for him. If you were 14 years old, and you watch your mother die and then got branded for death yourself, how would you react? He went from the character who was too afraid to speak up to the person he (wrongly in a fit of emotion) deemed responsible for his mother's death, to being the optimist toward the end of the game who gave the group motivational speeches. There was an incredible amount of character growth in him, and all the character of Final Fantasy XIII, and I think the game deserves more credit than it gets.

Agreed. I am by far in the minority here, but I found him to be the most interesting character in FFXIII (didn't care much for the rest of the cast). He had the whole whiny brat thing going on early on, but his character arc throughout the game made up for it. Plus, unlike many, I don't get annoyed when characters act emo, I just chuckle at it.

 

[JasonEllis66]

Squall, the guy just whines the entire game. I think FF8 would be a lot better with a different main character.

 

[loc978]

Every "batshit insane teenage girl" archetype character from VII-X (I never finished X and never picked up another FF game. I know better now. The series died in the 32-bit era). So... Yuffie, Selphie, I guess IX gets a pass because Eiko was a young child and actually grew up a little, and Rikku.

I really hate that archetype.

If it must be a protagonist, I'll go with Firion, because he was a pain in the ass to keep leveled properly. Just a result of unlikable game mechanics, but man... when you level fighting, magic suffers; when you level magic, fighting suffers... and the guy is a jack of all trades. ALL OF MY HATE

 

[lord.jeff]

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.

I think the reason Cloud get that rep is because his regular over obsession with Sephiroth and his past that takes up a lot of his personality and after Sephiroth gets mentioned it's almost all he talks about for a while and all this happens before you get those details about his past, so it comes off as obsessing for no reason early in the game.

Main character Lightening, the whole cold bad girl act got old fast, it looks like she grows a bit during the game but I haven't made it that far. Of any character I'm going with Tifa, she never seemed to grow beyond a pawing love interest for Cloud.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Main Character: Vaan. It's not so much that he's unlikeable, but that he has no personality at all, and no impact to the story at all. Take him out of the game, and what changes story-wise?

Party Member: Cait Sith, Cait Sith, fucking Cait Sith. He was improved in the movies by getting a Scottish accent, but in FFVII, he was an annoying character, who was actively working against your party, and unlike other annoying characters, had no use in combat to back him up, other than possibly a high-HP shield, something that anyone could do with an HP-plus materia.

 

[tacotrainwreck]

The one with the blonde hair. I can't stand him.

 

[Joseph McConnell]

Any character from FFIX. They all stunk.

 

[waj9876]

If we're going personality wise, the Hero of Light from the original Final Fantasy obviously wins. As they didn't HAVE a personality.

All in all, to me, the one I just really don't like? Paine. She was pointless. They could have just had Lulu or someone else join in if they really needed to have a third party member. Wouldn't have even needed to change any of her outfits. That's right, I actually liked FFX-2. (I was a hormonal kid just going through puberty when I played it, and it's about running around collecting sexy outfits for the main characters to wear. Do the math.) And even after that I still have a soft spot for it.

 

[HardkorSB]

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.

He's more like a product than a character.
Back in the late 90's and early 00's, many protagonists were brooding and black leather wearing bad asses with low self-esteem and/or anger issues (usually both). For example:
- Neo
- Blade
- Wolverine
It was a popular image so Square decided to go with that.
They wanted to one up Cloud and he had a big ass sword so they gave Squall a big ass sword... that was also a gun!!!

This is how the rest of it probably went:

"You know what's also bad ass? Scars, so let's give him a scar, on the face too, so everyone can always see how bad ass he is. But it should be placed in a way that will still make him look hot so not on the cheeks.
Also, let's give him a cool looking medallion so that people will buy it and give us more money.
People liked the romance stuff in the last game so let's one up that too - let's give him a romance and a totally non homo-erotic man crush (nudge nudge wink wink) that is all over manga and anime these days.

They will love him."

 

[littlewisp]

discussion

discussion

You know why I hate Snow? Because he reads as fake. I can understand the stages of grief, I can understand being angry about something you cannot help. I cannot understand pretending everything is okay and by the power of your own rainbow hued will things will magically get better. I despise that kind of attitude in real life, because that is the type of attitude that people plaster over abuse (seen my sister do it many a time when she tries to make a bad relationship work). Seeing it on a warped character is more irritating than I can stand. Yes, I am being very biased. I don't care. When Lightning punched Snow I was cheering. Easily the highlight of the game.

Does Lightning disgust me for her inability to move forwards? Yes. But it is a weakness that is a magnified version of how people usually act (in the beginning at least, if she acts that way throughout the whole game which I'm guessing is a yes then by the end I'd be majorly sick of her too). It takes a further step towards normalcy than the blanketing lala-land that Snow goes through. My mom does that, and it freaking pisses me off. Not being able to admit that something is wrong, and seriously taking steps and making plans to make it better is not a strength, it's yet another glaring weakness.

At least I can glean entertainment from angry characters, because so often it's so over the top as to be unrealistic. But trying to paint a veneer of hero over the top of a whining, cringing, deluded man who is incapable of making good decisions or putting his foot down in any meaningful manner? Yeah, that's just going to make me stop playing the game. And that's exactly what I did.

So yes, you'd be right in guessing Snow was my least favorite FF character. Vanille was so unbearable that she went through terrible and back around into hilarious. Sazh. . .that spot where he almost shoots Vanille (that's what happened right? it was awhile ago), was probably the best emotional connection I had to any of the characters in the bit I played.

captcha: hug me . . . I'm not upset over it, captcha, but if you insist.

 

[AnEndHasAStart]

FFXIII and X
Lightning, she was just unnaturally violent and hostile to Snow. She punched him like three times for falling in love with her sister then sticking with her after she's branded for death, when she didn't even believe her. Aside from that Tidus is a definite with his awkward gesturing and ear grating voice.

 

[SpaceBat]

I cannot understand pretending everything is okay and by the power of your own rainbow hued will things will magically get better.

Yes, that is quite stupid. It is not something I remember snow ever doing however. He never pretended that everything was okay. In fact, he repeats the dreaded situation they're in quite often. He wasn't delusional in the sense that he perceived the situation in an incorrect manner at all, he was only arguably delusional in believing that most things, particularly Serah's state, can be fixed with enough effort from the party. I do agree that he was overly optimistic, but I simply disagree that it's any worse than being overly pessimistic. It simply doesn't bother me as much as it bothers you.

Don't get me wrong. I agree that creating a warped, overly positive image of reality in such a way is irresponsible and often annoying, but this is not exactly the case with Snow as you're saying (at least not in severity). They all suffer from what you've just said, only in a different matter.

in the beginning at least, if she acts that way throughout the whole game which I'm guessing is a yes then by the end I'd be majorly sick of her too

She's basically the same character for quite a huge section of the game and shows very little to no change during this time. She does slowly become a better character much later on, but her initial attitude was condescending and ridiculous to an insane degree and the entire process of her "character development" is painfully predictable for anyone who has ever seen, read or played anything ever.

Not being able to admit that something is wrong, and seriously taking steps and making plans to make it better is not a strength, it's yet another glaring weakness.

But trying to paint a veneer of hero over the top of a whining, cringing, deluded man who is incapable of making good decisions or putting his foot down in any meaningful manner?

He does admit it, as soon as convincing evidence shows up that what he's trying to accomplish is impossible (later in the game). There was never a single decisive shred of evidence that what he was trying to do was impossible up until that point, which is why he kept believing in it. I've never seen snow act as if everything is completely fine as it is, I've only seen snow keep his chin up and try to find a way to fix current issues. Yes, he fails miserably, but that's a different subject. He is the one that says that they can still make things better if they plan and take action. It is lightning that refused this line of thought (When Snow says that Serah can still be saved if they take action, Lightning violently refuses). Yes, he isn't a bright character, but he isn't indecisive nor passive. In fact, I'd say he's a bit too active and rash.

I haven't really seen him whining or cringing often either, as that was mostly done by Lightning and Hope. And while you are right about not being able to make good decisions, the same could be said about practically every other character in the game. And he was the only character that put his foot down from the very start. Whereas the rest were completely insecure about everything that had just happened and about what the future held in store for them, he was the one that tried to move forward.

Don't get me wrong now, I'm not trying to defend Snow. Most of FF13's cast is horrible, including Snow, and I appreciate you writing out your own interpretation of his actions and behavior. I simply see him in a somewhat different light and disagree. Hell, I don't even completely disagree with your opinion of Snow, but I simply hate Lightning (see previous posts), Vanille and Hope so much more.

Lightning basically is Snow for half of the game, only with gleeful optimism swapped for extreme pessimism and respectful and selfless swapped for condescending and egocentric. You may find it an improvement because you find it funny (its realism is debatable), whereas I found it aggravating.

Your complaints of Snow actually fit perfectly with Vanille, which is practically all that needs to be said. Unfortunately, I didn't make the jump from unbearable character to hilarious. It went from unbearable to "I need to press the mute button whenever she talks if I want to get through this game"

That spot where he almost shoots Vanille (that's what happened right? it was awhile ago), was probably the best emotional connection I had to any of the characters in the bit I played.

Same here, except that this best emotional connection was an incredibly weak one. The only reason I find Sazh (and his actions) to stand out is because the rest of them are just so horrible. He is not a well-written character however.

tl;dr
He does stupid things and he sometimes loses touch with reality. But the only reason I can tolerate Snow more than most other FF13 characters aside from Sazh is because of the fact that while everyone else suffers from the same problem, he does not just give up on trying to fix things. He never thought that everything was all right, he only said that things can be made better if they at least try and he actually does things that he believes should be done in order to achieve said goal.