Red XIII appreciation thread

[G13]

http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/7/70/Red_XIII_HowlFF7.png

Discuss why Red XIII is such a pimp.

I would definitely enjoy the newer installments more if there were some random, silly character added that turned out to be the best damn character in the game. Everything is too serious nowadays. I mean, sure, we had a frocobo steal the show in XIII, but he didn't have any lines. Where was his story arc? What motivated him!? Kimahri was an awful excuse for a Red XIII rehash. Like seriously, man, your tail isn't even on fire. And what did we have in XII? Fran? She's not silly, she just made me look at rabbits in a new and disturbingly strange light.

Everything now is about the struggles of humanity. Not humanity as in "all of us together", but about real people. It's all too believable! I don't want believable! I want a talking beast and I want it now goddammit! Bring back the silliness (though I could do without a thieving whore ninja-bitch, a retarded stuffed robot, and a depressed vampire (and while we're on the subject of silly, what happened to the gravity defying mega-boobs?)).

As if this weren't enough, it seems even his own compilation is against him! If there's ever a scene with him in it, he gets about 3 seconds of face time, and no lines. Cait Sith gets more lines than him! Mothersmurfing Hojo, the smurfing dead guy, gets more lines than him!

Instead of Dirge of Cerberus they should have made Howling Moon, a game completely about his origins. He's a talking animal who was kidnapped and experimented on solely because he is the last of his kind. He can live for hundreds of years. His tail is on fire. Oh yeah, and he's vital to the main story, unlike optional character Vincent over here.

Honestly, he's the only reason I played VII in the first place. A friend of mine and I went to a used game store and he told me to pick up FFVII. "It's amazing" he said. I only listened because I was promised the red guy with the fire-tail on the back was a playable character.

[Rantz]

It's one of the things I love about FFIX :D I hope one of the playable characters in Final Fantasy XV is a bear or a penguin. Or a... bearguin.

[Loony BoB]

Red XIII was a permanent fixture in my team. I loved his story, and I think the key moment in his story (when he howls) is probably the saddest moment in video game history. Beautiful.

There absolutely 100% need to be more non-humanoid characters in the Final Fantasy series. Humans and may-as-well-be-humans are boring, boring, boring. If you're insisting characters be humanoid, don't make them "human with bunny ears" or "human with leather skin" - go the full throttle and mess about with their size and shape. Look at the Shumi Tribe and even fairies for great examples of future characters. Our characters don't need to always be of similar size and shape, SE. Get creative! :D Ideally, throw away the idea that a character must be humanoid and look at Red XIII for a shining example of what can make a great character.

[champagne supernova]

Red XIII is awesome. So calm, so stoic, so able to balance on his 2 legs and look like a sailor, so full of witty dialogue - Tifa: "It talked!?" Red XIII: "I'll talk as much as you want later, Miss." - who couldn't love him.

In all seriousness, Red was definitely one of my favourite characters. VII actually had a fairly awesome cast. The bad-ass in Barrett, the swearing, smoking, cool guy in Cid, the all-round awesomeness of Red. And Tifa, who is just epic in many ways.

I don't think Vincent having a greater role in the compilation is a bad thing, but the lack of Red is. Apparently it's got something to do with the difficulty of rendering his fire tail.

[MJN SEIFER]

I would have loved there to be some form of spin-off game for him.

Also, I like how he was handled in the game - I'm sure when most people were introduced to the character they were no doubt expecting him to be a simple talking animal character who was just "there", instead he ended up being quite a key character to the storyline, and also one with a very serious backstory. In fact one magazine I used to have (lost it years ago, can't even remember which on it was) contained an early look at FFVII while it was still in development, and it talked about the characters and what was known about them at the time from the test version they were given - it stated that there was no obvious way Red XIII seemed to fit in to the storyline, and they assumed he probably didn't.

[Mercen-X]

"Red XIII is awesome."

"The Moomba is VIII's answer to having no Red XIII."

"The Ronso is X's answer to having no Red XIII."

"The Cerberus is XII's answer to having no Red XIII."

"Red XIII is in Ehrgeiz, beeches!"

"They had a Red XIII-ish character in Shadow Hearts II."

More FFs should have four-legged creatures as party members... useful four-legged creatures. Even Rinoa's Angelo would have been acceptable... if he talked.

[Dr. Acula]

Red XIII needs to be in every Final Fantasy game from now on. Just sayin'.

[G13]

^ I can dig it.


Apparently it's got something to do with the difficulty of rendering his fire tail.

What a terrible excuse. This makes me angry. :cuch:

[Loony BoB]

Square-Enix: Capable of making multiple CGI movies including thousands of strands of hair on a single characters head.

"Wait, fire? His tail has fire at the end of it? Oh man. I'm not sure we can do that... I mean, CGI has come up with flaming balrogs, fire-breathing dragons, fire spells and, uh, fire... but a fire-tail? That's extreme."

[G13]

Seriously, man! What kind of bull honkey is that!?

And another reason Red XIII is better than all the rest: he has the most to be depressed about and he takes that shit and kicks it right in the ass. He's an orphan, the last of his kind, he spent most of his life hating and misunderstanding his father, he got taken from the only home he ever knew and had crazy experiments done on him, and the only family he had left dies randomly. Cloud and Vincent are such d-bags compared to this hero.

"I don't know who I am. Am I him or am I me? :("

"My girlfriend's other boyfriend shot me and now I'm a vampire. :("

"Are we at North Crater yet?" *sleeps*

[champagne supernova]

Sorry, wasn't the fire tail, it was the fur.



This is because his fur makes him difficult and costly to animate.

Yeah, surely fur is easier to animate than hair. Although there would be a lot of fur.

[Loony BoB]

I dunno, he always looked kind of short-haired to me. Well, for the most part. And his mane isn't exactly much more work than that of Tifa, surely?

[cloud_doll]

Haha remember when the crew was put in jail right after they rescued Aeris and Red XIII? Then Cloud wonders how everyone is doing and it goes to Red XIII...

Red XIII
"............Grandpa."

Barret
"Grandpa!? Ha, ha, ha...... Grandpa, hmm.... ha, ha, ha......."

(Red XIII sits up.)

Red XIII
"What's so funny?"

Barret
"Nothin'...... ha, ha"

[Loony BoB]

I never got that joke. =|

[MJN SEIFER]

I never got that joke. =|
Not really a joke, hearsay. I think it was Barret reacting to Red XIII suddenly saying "grandpa" for no obvious reason.

[champagne supernova]

Red XIII is all that & more! Not only is his tailtip ablaze and his hair is a costly to produce, he is a talking beast. And, if you remember your FF7 lore, beasts were created by Ancients who were infected by the Jenova virus. Therefore Red XIII is the last Ancient & people must stop crying abot Aeris :)

[Loony BoB]

I never got that joke. =|
Not really a joke, hearsay. I think it was Barret reacting to Red XIII suddenly saying "grandpa" for no obvious reason.
I always had a little hunch it might be to do with how his grandfather is clearly not of the same species, at least physically speaking, thus making it pretty unbelievable that he could be his actual grandpa.

[MJN SEIFER]

I never got that joke. =|
Not really a joke, hearsay. I think it was Barret reacting to Red XIII suddenly saying "grandpa" for no obvious reason.
I always had a little hunch it might be to do with how his grandfather is clearly not of the same species, at least physically speaking, thus making it pretty unbelievable that he could be his actual grandpa.
Yeah, but Barret and the others haven't met Bugen yet, so they wouldn't know.

I don't think he's his ACTUAL grandfather though.

[Rantz]

I was of the impression that Barret's reaction was due to how adult and worldly Red normally acts. They assume he is old and wise, which they make another joke about when they meet Bugenhagen and he reveals that he is the equivalent of a teenager. From Barret's perspective it would be like overhearing Gandalf mumbling about his mummy in his sleep.

[MJN SEIFER]

I was of the impression that Barret's reaction was due to how adult and worldly Red normally acts. They assume he is old and wise, which they make another joke about when they meet Bugenhagen and he reveals that he is the equivalent of a teenager. From Barret's perspective it would be like overhearing Gandalf mumbling about his mummy in his sleep.
That is a distinct possibility.

[Heath]

Red XIII looks like a more badass Crash Bandicoot.

I liked him as a character, though rarely used him in all honesty. I definitely agree with BoB that the Cosmo Canyon bits with him on disc one contains some of the most emotional bits of the game. As for more non-human characters? Absolutely.

[blackmage_nuke]

"Zounds"

It was thrilling insert dialogue like that which made him my favourite character and always in my party. It was a shame his final limit break sucked

[Mercen-X]

"I don't know who I am. Am I him or am I me? :("

"My girlfriend's other boyfriend shot me and now I'm a vampire. :("

"Are we at North Crater yet?" *sleeps*

Let me see. Cloud and Vincent are busying themselves with the dilemma of whether they are actually human...
Red XIII on the other hand isn't human at all. He's more really a dog; a creature which is light-hearted by nature. Basically, this animal is in the party so that the rest of the group can look at him and hopefully learn from his example... which they don't... 'cuz he's a dog.

Red XIII want a biscuit? Here ya go, that's a good boy, that's a good BOY!

[cloud_doll]

I never got that joke. =|

I never got you.

[dambaz]

first time i played through FF7 i got stuck on the materia keeper (crab like boss in nibelheim) with both characters dead and Red 13 on something like 15 health points i remeber useing sled fang and thing died a was over the moon at time:D

[Mercen-X]

I'm iffy about those last-minute victories. In XII it doesn't matter because boss battles offer no exp. But in earlier games, winning a battle with dead characters meant only one or two characters would advance. Depending on who was losing exp and whether I had saved before the battle, I would usually reset my game right then.

Oh! And... Red XIII is awesomed.

[Christmas]

He made a lot of babies. He is not IMPOTENT. :bigsmile: