Does XIII have the worst cast of all FF's?

[reinward]

snow and hope are the only mildly interesting characters (and thats not saying much).

i think this cast may even be worse than...VIII's :eek:

[Mo-Nercy]

No, I don't think so. I think FFX-2 was much worse (though I guess you can argue it was less of a serious attempt by SE to have a proper full-fleshed out cast and story). Yuna and Rikku lost a lot of the complexity that their characters had from X in X-2 and though Paine's story is pretty good IMO, I didn't really get it all down properly until the second or third playthrough. By comparison, characters like Sazh, Snow and Hope are pretty good.

Having said that, X-2 was still a lot of fun for me. Ditto XIII. I'm not really bothered by a lack of character development in the games I play, probably because I don't really play any other RPGs except FFs, so maybe I'm not the best person to cast judgement.

[reinward]

its cool. the only rpgs i play are FFs too lol

[Ezme]

I think the characters are great, they have a tonne of potential, they're just not developed enough. You can feel that they rushed, but I like the balance.

[Shin Gouken]

I only liked Sazh, but even he irritating long before the end.

But to be perfectly honest, with the exception of the chars from FFXII and Auron from FFX, FF characters in general have failed to impress me since FFVI.

[Loony BoB]

I think it's one of the best, actually. I didn't like the main characters in FFX at all, and XII's characters were okay but not amazing. I really enjoyed the characters in XIII - they were written out well, fully fleshed, good design (quirky without going to extremes) and most importantly, they had so much story and so many dimensions to them (for the most part). I particularly enjoyed Sazh and Vanille. Great characters with realistic personalities.

[Shin Gouken]

I think it's one of the best, actually. I didn't like the main characters in FFX at all, and XII's characters were okay but not amazing. I really enjoyed the characters in XIII - they were written out well, fully fleshed, good design (quirky without going to extremes) and most importantly, they had so much story and so many dimensions to them (for the most part). I particularly enjoyed Sazh and Vanille. Great characters with realistic personalities.

I just had a good chuckle

[Loony BoB]

Okay. Sweet sounding girl who comes across as overly happy but is actually hiding all sorts of things. I've met a few of those. When I say unrealistic, I mean more like... royal princesses and strong knights. These kind of personalities don't really exist to my knowledge.

When I said design extremes, I'm talking pants with different sized leggings (hi Tidus), etc. Keeping in mind her design is around 600 years old, I don't think it's insane at all.

[Shiny]

I disagree. I think Final Fantasy XII had the worst cast both in personality, weapons, and character design. Pretty much all the main characters were bleach blonde -- how boring.

[Levian]

I think they are more fleshed out and lifelike than many previous FF characters.

[Dignified Pauper]

I think these characters are some of the best to come from a game.

[Ezme]

I disagree. I think Final Fantasy XII had the worst cast both in personality, weapons, and character design. Pretty much all the main characters were bleach blonde -- how boring.

Ummm serah and lighting have pink hair....

[Loony BoB]

She was talking about XII, not XIII.

[Ezme]

Oooppps soz! Really should find my glasses! that "I" is really easy to miss when you're squinting!

[Shin Gouken]

Okay. Sweet sounding girl who comes across as overly happy but is actually hiding all sorts of things. I've met a few of those. When I say unrealistic, I mean more like... royal princesses and strong knights. These kind of personalities don't really exist to my knowledge.

When I said design extremes, I'm talking pants with different sized leggings (hi Tidus), etc. Keeping in mind her design is around 600 years old, I don't think it's insane at all.

OK, i concede about the good designs - the characters dressed somewhat better than probabley any FF. Though Ashe in a short skirt > Lightening in a short skirt, and i miss frans hooker outfit :greenie:

But Vanille having a realistic personality i just can't agree with. How many people do you know who bounce along oohing and aaahing at everything? Anyone over the age of 10 doing this would certainly be considered a little strange in reality

[champagne supernova]

Okay. Sweet sounding girl who comes across as overly happy but is actually hiding all sorts of things. I've met a few of those. When I say unrealistic, I mean more like... royal princesses and strong knights. These kind of personalities don't really exist to my knowledge.

When I said design extremes, I'm talking pants with different sized leggings (hi Tidus), etc. Keeping in mind her design is around 600 years old, I don't think it's insane at all.

OK, i concede about the good designs - the characters dressed somewhat better than probabley any FF. Though Ashe in a short skirt > Lightening in a short skirt, and i miss frans hooker outfit :greenie:

But Vanille having a realistic personality i just can't agree with. How many people do you know who bounce along oohing and aaahing at everything? Anyone over the age of 10 doing this would certainly be considered a little strange in reality

Vanille isn't exactly an adult. And regardless, people do treat Vanille like she's a bit odd. The entire chapter where it's just her & Sazh has Sazh looking at her like a crazy person more than once. And there is even one scene in the game where Vanille does something and the cast says: "What now?"

And as Loony BoB has said, there are plenty of people who hide their issues by putting on this overly happy face. Yes, Vanille's oohs and aahs can get a bit irritating and are over-done, but the character as a whole is something quite unusual for a FF (normally, it's just the Rikku, Selphie, Yuffie mould).

[Shin Gouken]

Okay. Sweet sounding girl who comes across as overly happy but is actually hiding all sorts of things. I've met a few of those. When I say unrealistic, I mean more like... royal princesses and strong knights. These kind of personalities don't really exist to my knowledge.

When I said design extremes, I'm talking pants with different sized leggings (hi Tidus), etc. Keeping in mind her design is around 600 years old, I don't think it's insane at all.

OK, i concede about the good designs - the characters dressed somewhat better than probabley any FF. Though Ashe in a short skirt > Lightening in a short skirt, and i miss frans hooker outfit :greenie:

But Vanille having a realistic personality i just can't agree with. How many people do you know who bounce along oohing and aaahing at everything? Anyone over the age of 10 doing this would certainly be considered a little strange in reality

Vanille isn't exactly an adult. And regardless, people do treat Vanille like she's a bit odd. The entire chapter where it's just her & Sazh has Sazh looking at her like a crazy person more than once. And there is even one scene in the game where Vanille does something and the cast says: "What now?"

And as Loony BoB has said, there are plenty of people who hide their issues by putting on this overly happy face. Yes, Vanille's oohs and aahs can get a bit irritating and are over-done, but the character as a whole is something quite unusual for a FF (normally, it's just the Rikku, Selphie, Yuffie mould).

she's 19, here in the UK, that's an adult. Vanille definitley has more going on that selphie/rikku etc but it's still amazing that SE gave a reason for her super annoying hyper wierd crap and suddenly everyone feels her behaviour is justified and willingly accept it.

So she might be more developed than Rikku and selphie but to me she's still the annoying one. Lightening is still the cold-heated merc like cloud, Hope is still the whiney Tidus - regardless of how much more went into the characters, regardless of improved character depth and whatnot, SE proved they only do certain generic personalities

[Rozaheku]

I admit I was kind off like are you kidding me when I discovered what his personality was like. But he redeems himself after chapter 7 when he loses his whining powers. All other characters are great all way through, the only character I thought was really terrible was Nora. I shivered when I had to hear her moms are though line. Twice.

Vanille isn't all that bad, I think most hate is because of her voice actress. She has a way more pleasant voice in the Japanese version.

[champagne supernova]

Lightning shows signs of remorse about her sister as well as devotion to both duty and family, something Cloud eventually ends up being. The whole purpose of Lightning doing what she does is because of the love of her sister.

And Vanille is the narrator of the game. There is a clear juxtaposition in the immature oohing and aahing she does in-game to the sad, lonely narration that she provides. This would suggest something new to the character.

Hope starts off whiney and useless, but develops immensely throughout the game. His story-arc is one of the longest and most realistic of all the characters (accounting for this being a fantasy game and it mirroring a whole lot of coming of age stories).

Sazh - generic? Who exactly is he similar to? And Snow? And Fang? I made a thread about this. There seems to be a combination of characters in them, but not 1 unique character from any Final Fantasy.

[Shin Gouken]

Lightning shows signs of remorse about her sister as well as devotion to both duty and family, something Cloud eventually ends up being. The whole purpose of Lightning doing what she does is because of the love of her sister.

She's still a cold to the bone ex-soldier fighting for someone she lost. Despite minor details, Lightening still = Cloud


And Vanille is the narrator of the game. There is a clear juxtaposition in the immature oohing and aahing she does in-game to the sad, lonely narration that she provides. This would suggest something new to the character.

Wow, that was never done in FFX... oh wait, yeah it was :p


Hope starts off whiney and useless, but develops immensely throughout the game. His story-arc is one of the longest and most realistic of all the characters (accounting for this being a fantasy game and it mirroring a whole lot of coming of age stories).

Again, minor details and added depth, but still he's just as whiney as Tidus. I get people like him because he does grow up eventually, but he will ALWAYS be known as the whiney one despite this and despite how much people will stand up for him.


Sazh - generic? Who exactly is he similar to? And Snow? And Fang? I made a thread about this. There seems to be a combination of characters in them, but not 1 unique character from any Final Fantasy.

Yep, Sazh is the best of the bunch and only has small similarities with previous FF characters. But i didn't even pick up on those until mentioned in your thread so Sazh is alright in my book. Snow is your basic "I'm gunna save the world or rescue the girl" hero. There's really little special about him. I have no comments with fang, not really sure why, maybe i wouldn't have even noticed if she was there half the time, she could have been anyone.... oh god please don't give me an essay of how great her character is lol, i'm happy not caring :p

[Elpizo]

but he will ALWAYS be known as the whiney one despite this and despite how much people will stand up for him.

Very true. He'll be remembered like that not because it's true, but because he was condemned to this before people even played the game. It's an automatic, ridiculous and pathetic reflex: people see kid character, immediatly think annoying or emo. Even if the game proves them wrong, they will still lie away and say the kid is emo and annoying and whiney because it's a tradition to say that, not because it's true or not.

*shrugs*

[Madame Adequate]

Nope, they're the best part of the game imo. Except Snow, that filth.

[Rodney]

No, not at all the worst, and I'm insulted that anyone would EVER ask that. This was actually my favorite cast in a long time. Since probably 10. Everyone had some sort of story, everyone played a part in the overall main arc, everyone (save for maybe Snow) had good designs to them, and I felt attached to all of them (again, save for maybe Snow).

[Wolf Kanno]

No, there are still casts I hate more but I do feel that it takes forever for most of them to come into the fold and even then they all fail to keep their momentum until the end of the game. Still, I feel that was more of the writing of the plot than the characters themselves. If I was going to be critical (and god knows I always am) my issue with the cast is that I have seen most of them done before and frankly much better in other games.

[Chloe.]

I really like all the main characters in XIII, I definitely think they're some of the best in the series.

[finaloblivion]

i have to agree - i really enjoyed the cast in this game. the way they interact with each other and their developments throughout the game were very enjoyable. two thumbs up! and whoever said XII had one of the worst casts...i'll have to agree on that as well.

[Rad Bromance]

FFXIII had a wonderful cast. XII had the worst in my opinion, not because they were annoying, but because I didn't freaking know them at all or care about them. I don't blame the characters, but the way the story is told basically just has the characters there to move the story further which has very, very little to do with the people you're playing as. A lot of people liked this, mind you. I didn't (even though I did like FFXII as a whole).

I really liked FFXIII's cast. Lightning was a wonderful protagonist, possibly my favorite FF heroine ever. The only characters I didn't particularly fancy were Hope and Vanille early on, but by the end of the game I was even liking them. Yay for character development. :D

[Loony BoB]

Anyone who thinks that a 19/20 year old can't get easily excited about little things and say things like "Oooooh, I want to squeeze them until they pop!" and clap their hands like a little kid clearly has not met my girlfriend when she's in a happy mood.

EDIT: And now that I think about it, I can think of a few others I know that are like that, too, including people from this forum. Hell, on occasion, even I can be like that - where's the fun in being serious all the time? But, for what it's worth, when Danielle does those weird things I do look at her like she's lost the plot. Or I just laugh. xD

[Ezme]

I'm a 22 year old girl and I have been known to run around like a manic, stop and say "ooo shiny" :p

Then again vanilles constant need to squeek, grunt and oooo at every movement is annoying. I don't do that lol

[Brennan]

Okay. Sweet sounding girl who comes across as overly happy but is actually hiding all sorts of things. I've met a few of those. When I say unrealistic, I mean more like... royal princesses and strong knights. These kind of personalities don't really exist to my knowledge.

When I said design extremes, I'm talking pants with different sized leggings (hi Tidus), etc. Keeping in mind her design is around 600 years old, I don't think it's insane at all.

OK, i concede about the good designs - the characters dressed somewhat better than probabley any FF. Though Ashe in a short skirt > Lightening in a short skirt, and i miss frans hooker outfit :greenie:

But Vanille having a realistic personality i just can't agree with. How many people do you know who bounce along oohing and aaahing at everything? Anyone over the age of 10 doing this would certainly be considered a little strange in reality

Being A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. makes the oohs and aaah happen a lot.
Trust me, I know how it is when a butterfly catches your attention, or anything shiny for that matter.
I seriously doubt Vanille's ADD, but other people probably would just shrug it off as being ADD.
And the part about anyone over the age of 10 oohing and aahing, meet my 14 year old cousin, you will be fricken AMAZED at what catches her attention and she oohs/aahs over.

[Skyblade]

she's 19, here in the UK, that's an adult. Vanille definitley has more going on that selphie/rikku etc but it's still amazing that SE gave a reason for her super annoying hyper weird crap and suddenly everyone feels her behaviour is justified and willingly accept it.

So she might be more developed than Rikku and selphie but to me she's still the annoying one. Lightening is still the cold-heated merc like cloud, Hope is still the whiney Tidus - regardless of how much more went into the characters, regardless of improved character depth and whatnot, SE proved they only do certain generic personalities

Wait, wait, wait. You are complaining that people accept a given reason as justification for behaviour. Where exactly is the problem?

[Ultima Shadow]

This was actually my favorite cast in a long time. Since probably 10.
Well... since XI is an online game, XII is the only game in the main series that comes inbetween X and XIII. In other words, saying that FFXIII had the best cast since FFX, is pretty much the same as simply saying "FFXIII had a better cast than FFXII".

Couldn't help pointing that out. :greenie:

[Shin Gouken]

she's 19, here in the UK, that's an adult. Vanille definitley has more going on that selphie/rikku etc but it's still amazing that SE gave a reason for her super annoying hyper weird crap and suddenly everyone feels her behaviour is justified and willingly accept it.

So she might be more developed than Rikku and selphie but to me she's still the annoying one. Lightening is still the cold-heated merc like cloud, Hope is still the whiney Tidus - regardless of how much more went into the characters, regardless of improved character depth and whatnot, SE proved they only do certain generic personalities

Wait, wait, wait. You are complaining that people accept a given reason as justification for behaviour. Where exactly is the problem?

If Rikku or Yuffie were given solid reasons as to why they behave so strangeley, that wouldn't make me find them any less annoying. If i created a backstory to give barny the dinosaur a deep and logical reason as to why he bahaves the way he does, will grown men and women start to enjoy his crap too?

[Madame Adequate]

If you find Rikku annoying then you're just wrong on all matters by default tbqh

[Shin Gouken]

If you find Rikku annoying then you're just wrong on all matters by default tbqh

Great arguement that ;)

Rikku wasn't really bad in FFX. X-2 however is another story...

[Slothy]

They might not be the worst cast of all FF's, but they're certainly pushing it. They're all pretty standard genre archetypes and they all at some point or another made decisions that made little sense just to move the story along the way the writer wanted. None of them were very interesting, and most were downright annoying. I honestly will never play the game again in part because having to listen to anymore of Vanille, Snow, Hope, or even lightning would drive me insane.

Sazh wasn't too bad though. He was actually kind of relateable whenever he was actually responding the way a normal person would to everything that happened.

[Loony BoB]

To anyone making noises about Vanille making noises, it should be noted that most of the characters also make noises - just not as annoying. ;)

[Roogle]

I felt like the cast was designed much better than some of the previous Final Fantasy games. I had problems with some of the design information, like, for example, why does Hope wield a boomerang in combat and where does it come from in the first time you play as him? There is nothing mentioned about it. Later on, he expresses interests in using one of Lightning's weapon and is shown wielding her combat knife, and I think that would have made a better weapon for him than boomerangs in a world like this.

[Lexy]

Yes, XIII had the worst cast of all time.

Lightning is supposed to be some cool Cloud like character, but she is just a boring whiny girl who seemingly has no moral core. The scene in the food-making place in PalumPolum where Hope makes her have that dumb epiphany is so laughable, I mean, Lightning just comes across as a complete moron. I guess Cloud wasn't really as cool as people remember him, and I think Lightning is a thousand times less cool. Her voice acting doesn't help, it's obvious that the actor was given no context and didn't understand how the lines were to be delivered. Also her character design is so terrible. What kind of warrior would want a belt right under her boobs and a mini skirt, and her gun sword carrying case flapping against the back of her legs while she is running??! (I am against mini skirts in any ps2 and after FF, it just looks silly.)

All Hope does is whine and be an idiot in the first half of the game, then after that all he does is constantly have some weird moment where he says some infantile dialogue about not giving up, as the rest of the group looks on. He is just way too annoying and unrealistically dumb to be interesting. I just don't understand what type of person he is trying to be. If someone did to me what Hope thinks Snow did to him, what sort of person would act the way Hope does?!?!

The only character I find mildly realistic or interesting is Sazh, just because I sympathize with him and his story. I still can't get over what an idiot they portray him as in the first hour or so of the game, though.

Fang is fine, she's cool and all but not amazingly compelling. Vanille is Satan. I guess it is a slightly good point that she acts all cheery and stuff but actually feels like crap on the inside, but she is just too annoying for me to care about her in any way other than wanting her to fall off a cliff. Her voice acting is needless to say the most perplexingly dumb thing I have ever heard.

Snow is the stupidest character in any FF game. He honestly acts like a dumb 11 year old. His character just baffles me. I think he was the result of a lost bet, that is the only way I can keep my mind from exploding.

I would not want any harm to befall the cast of say, FFXII, cos I love those guys and want them to have great lives. But every time there is a fake death scare in FFXIII I'm just like, "Oh, cool, I hope they are really dead!". I wouldn't want Sazh to die though, but he is the only one.

[Sorry for the over-long post but GOD that felt good]

[YTDN]

I actually liked the cast a lot, although maybe because, having just had FFXII, a game where we spend a lot of time on the cast seemed like fresh air.

Lightning I thought was most boring, just because she seemed like an unholy hybrid of Cloud and Ashe. But, I didn't hate her, which was a start.

Fang I liked. She was a great example of a 'selfish' character- she was perfectly willing to carry out her destiny as a L'cie, even if it caused others to get hurt, as long as the people she cared about were safe.

Snow annoyed me a little, I admit, but I grew to like him when we start to see his doubtful side, such as his reaction to Serah getting crystallized or Hope trying to kill him. It's like he's trying so hard to believe his own hype, because he knows that if he stops he'll just break.

Hope I could, uh, 'sympathise' with. He's just a kid, and it's normal to have mental breakdowns over little things, never mind finding out your destiny is to either kill people or turn into a monster. Plus, I like revenge filled characters who actually act on it.

Vanille was annoying, but like Snow, I grew to like her when I realised that she was putting on a face. Also, I think being crystallized for several hundred years might have messed up her brain a bit.

[Suikojowy]

I know I whine about this game too much but to me it does. In my opinion it's tied with XII. However XII had human NPC's with actual relevance to the story while XIII at least made the characters interact with eachother on a regular basis even if what they said was the same old "We're L'Cie, we must complete our focus to protect cocoon and take down the Fal'Cie" stuff over and over.

Each to their own I guess. I know a lot of people think this is the best cast but to me all the playable characters just seemed pretty bland and I couldn't connect with any of them. The villain(s - if you count all the fal'cie) never had much of a presence to me and the few people outside the main party with lines didn't do much or were killed off before doing anything at all.