Why do final fantasy characters have blood types?

[Harlemura]

Yeah, Japanese culture thing.
And I didn't find that out two seconds ago from this thread. Totally knew it beforehand.

I know all the Street Fighter characters have blood types too, according to the wiki. They all seem to have measurements too, which I don't see much use for other than if someone wanted to make clothes for the cast.
Which, thinking about it, someone out there probably does...

 

[TheRocketeer]

It's not just Final Fantasy; a lot of Japanese games specify their characters' blood types. The Japanese, for a little while, believed that your blood type determined your personality. This was basically a hoax to try and set up the most common Japanese blood type as the 'best' blood type.

I don't think anyone puts any stock in that theory anymore, since it was so quickly shot down by the scientific community. But it's still an easy shorthand for Japanese players, who would know the personality it indicates even if they don't believe in any correlation in real life.

Think of it as sort of like if Western developers started indicating every character's astrological sign. Of course, that would deny them the use of the ever-popular 'unknown' type, which isn't as impressive since they just don't know their birthday. Or maybe they could say the mysterious characters' sign is Ophiucus?

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

It's Japanese superstition in the same vein as believing that people born under certain stars are a good indicator for their personality.

 

[pspman45]

It does nothing more than please the fanboys (or fangirls)
think nothing of it

 

[Verdilian]

According to what I have seen in the thread and my own opinions, the reason is to flesh out the characters more and is also part of that Japanese superstition of blood-types being windows of personality. But for the most part, it has no useful value. I wonder if a game can make the blood type distinctions important to the plot or, at least more important.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

It's a Japanese thing. To them, knowing your blood type is like knowing your birthday here (in the U.S.) or some other random fact about about yourself. In Japan, if you don't know your blood type, you'll get weird looks and probably a few chuckles. "Silly Americans." It's not weird, it's just different.

 

[brinvixen]

As I understand, there's a philosophy in Japanese culture where they believe certain blood types have a degree of relationship compatibility. Like the Chinese calendar animals being compatible with others.

So I think it appeals to that thing where they can look at their favorite character and say "They're cute and fun, and they have X blood type"

lol, well I looked up some character's blood types to see if there is a connection.

Squall: AB
Rinoa: N/A

I guess it makes sense though...

... because Rinoa has no personality? (I would have to agree).