Rank the FF13 Characters!
This is the ninth and last of my series of threads and polls, asking all of you for your personal rankings of the characters from each FF game in the numbered games. You can base them on personality, usefulness in gameplay, relevance to the story, general enjoyment of each character, or even frivolous things such as their character themes. Whatever you want to base them on. Also included is a poll on which you can vote for your absolute favorite from each game.
This is my ninth and final one . . . for the main playable characters, at least. I've saved the best for last, because it's for FF13! And this is probably my all-time favorite cast. This game had some of the best characterization I've seen in the FF series. It's probably between this and FF10 for which had better characterization, but all six characters were very impressively written and developed. Even if two of them had their story arcs end before they even left Cocoon. Hell, probably three of their story arcs did. Still, only my top two was hard to determine. The bottom four were all very easy. Rankings are, in sort of a new twist, based on a mix personality, character arc, and battle usefulness.
Characters are listed in the poll in the order they were revealed to the public prior to the game's release.
So here are my rankings:
1. Hope: I honestly don't see why you people bitch and moan about him so much. Especially you, plotholeman. I tend to favor the "energetic young boy" characters (such as Gau, Zell, and Vivi before him), and Hope is no exception, largely due to the fact that he was such a new take on the archetype -- he was energetic in a negative way rather than a positive one for a good chunk of the game. Instead of being happy and peppy, he's sad and sullen for quite a while, and I thought it was an interesting change of pace. But on to the personality issues. I found myself strongly relating to Hope because I have tended to react to the loss of loved ones I was very, very close to in very similar ways. Yes, including getting kill-y. I couldn't think straight for a long time, and it'd take something really big to snap me back to reality. Same for Hope when Nora died. Does he have flaws that I wish had been changed? Well, yes. I don't like that he took all the way until chapter seven to finally just spit it out and confront Snow. I don't like how the mere mention of his name made him upset. And I don't like that he was so negative about his dad, who turned out to be a nice guy. But I liked watching his arc of going from the sheltered kid with no clue of the world around him to suddenly being right in the middle of its harshness and cruelty. And hey, he saved my ass in battle multiple times. A good Medic and Synergist was just what I needed (especially since Vanille was so mediocre at the former one). So yes. Hope is my number-one character. Has been, always will be, for all time. Who are you to judge me?!
2. Lightning: One and two were very close, but I chose the protagonist for the second spot instead of the first. Why? She's mainly up here more for her character arc. I found it compelling to watch her go from this soldier who just tended to fall in line and do whatever she was ordered slowly come to realize how that was just how the fal'Cie wanted it to be for all of Cocoon's humans. And then finally realizing that something must be done to change that. I also liked seeing her come to accept Snow and his relationship with Serah. In addition, while it was more subtly showcased, I enjoyed her rise from soldier who follows orders to the role she herself probably never expected: being the leader of the other l'Cie. A role she took on and did really well. Personality-wise, I liked her stone-cold demeanor, too, and it was interesting to have a rare brooding female character, for once, after all of the male ones we'd had in the past. Also, in battle, she was easily the most balanced character, as she had all three of the "must" roles (Commando, Ravager, and Medic). Helped me a bunch. I honestly don't get why plotholeman told me once that he didn't like her. She's tops. I mean, she's the bees' knees for me!
3. Vanille: All right, yes! Okay?! Her shouts and screams that sounded almost like orgasms annoyed the piss out of me, all right?! Ahem. But that was the only thing. Well . . . one other thing. While I always enjoy the "perky young girl" characters, I couldn't get past her silence being one of the reasons the other main characters ended up in the mess they did. At least long enough to put her in first or in second. But other than that, I found Vanille an enjoyable character. It was actually interesting to see her sunny disposition was really a front to hide the sadness and regret she was secretly feeling. She was probably the first character of her archetype in the entire series to have an actual story to her rather than being the party's cute mascot and/or motivator. For a PYG character, she was actually pretty deep. Unfortunately, her healing was too inferior to Hope's, so I didn't use her unless I absolutely had to.
4. Fang: What can I say? I quote loved the cocky ol' gal. She was a hoot to watch, from her hardiness and tendency to be a thrill-seeker and a risk-taker to being a protective . . . best friend? (No, I'm still gonna assume lover.) She could be snarky one minute and deep and stern the next. Her willingness to sacrifice herself just to keep Vanille safe was very honorable and made me fall absolutely in love with her. I liked seeing both sides of her so well-defined. And I appreciated that she was probably the only one of the six characters whose relationships to the other five were so uniquely sketched out. (She and Lightning had one of mutual respect for one another, she and Snow were, for the most part, like-minded and got along because of that, she and Vanille had their centuries-long relationship, Hope saw her as well as Lighting as sort of mentor figures, and she and Sazh played off each other well for the humor aspect.) Also, in battle, she was a beast. When in doubt, I used her quite often.
5. Sazh: Bottom two were very close, but Sazh won it. When I first saw him in the cast reveal, I really hoped he wouldn't be like Barret -- a walking black stereotype. But thankfully, while he had some moments of such, he actually ended up being a well-defined, well-drawn-out character. He was hilarious, but we could also see how deep he was through his personal quest so save Dajh. Also, he finally had me for good in that scene in which he was very tempted to kill Vanille, but ultimately couldn't bring himself to do it. Plus, I liked his relationship with the chocobo chick. Probably one of my favorite moments was him ordering her (yeah, it turns out, it was a girl) to attack the guard on the Palamecia. Clever, and a lot of laughs. And before that, who can forget obstructing his view on purpose when he tried to ogle Vanille's ass in the Vile Peaks? Laughs all around! My one huge beef with him? Aside from being a good Synergist when I needed a backup one behind Hope, he was almost completely useless in battle. Still, a more entertaining than . . .
6. Snow: Not to say I dislike him, of course. All six characters I like, for sure. Snow was just the one character whom I felt was kind of a retread of past hero-type characters. All of the other five seemed original in their own right, and then, here comes the one generic one. Still, I admired several things about him: his nobility when it came to Serah, how he could almost immediately make anyone like him right away (except, as we saw, Lightning and Hope), and I liked how he was one of the few optimists amidst the pessimists after their branding. What did I not not like, though? Thinking they were supposed to save Cocoon when they'd just been branded by a Pulse fal'Cie. Taking stupid, impulsive actions that, while well-intentioned, were reckless and dangerous. Saying everything he said to fuel Hope's anger and grief with absolute obliviousness to the whole thing. His obvious tunnel vision toward several things. Not learning from his first throwback from Barthandelus on the Palamecia and proceeding to get thrown back two more times (in Oerba and in Orphan's Cradle). At least Lightning learned from her failed attack on Cid, dude. Still, I did like Snow aside from all of that. I was just the least interested in him. And even less interested in him after we got to Pulse, because I rarely found a time when he'd be useful. But I did put him in my battle team whenever I needed a good Sentinel. But other than that . . . meh. Some good Lightning/Hope/Fang, Lightning/Hope/Sazh, Lightning/Vanille/Hope, Fang/Hope/Sazh, and Lightning/Vanille/Sazh parties were all I needed. Notice who's absent from all of these sets. Yeah. That's right. I reiterate: not very useful.
But these are just my rankings. How about everyone else's?
My next poll and thread won't be about playable characters. But it'll be about something. You'll see when it comes out.
