Least Fanciful Characters

Just what it says on the tin. Obviously most characters from the NES generation are over-the-top fantasy. Locke from VI is probably the least fantasy-oriented. And then there's IX.

VII, VIII, XIII, and XV pretty much have entirely modernized characters. I'm not sure where to put XII and Type-0.

Out of X and X-2... I don't know, the main characters are islanders in a revitalized PA world. To me, Paine is the only non-fanciful character.

As to that, what is your preference? Should Squenix keep on with their trend of post-modernized, futuristic, omnipunk setting? Or do you want the dragons and griffins to be fought by actual armor-clad dragoons and knights? And kings clad in purple and blue with red capes...

Don't mind as longs as the characters are good. I wouldn't usually go for medieval but Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, Freya etc are all good characters.

Any character that uses modern technology i.e guns. Wakka too I guess, I mean how many fantasy characters do you know that use balls as weapons?

The VIII and XV casts all look like people you could meet on the street. Some characters from VII and XIII as well but not quite as bad as those particular games.

I don't really get what you mean by "fanciful" or how that word is even remotely related to traditional fantasy settings vs "modern" settings.

Red XIII is a "modernized" character but Cid from FFIV isn't? I just really have no idea what distinction you are after exactly.

I ultimately like the modern looking Final Fantasies the best in terms of looks and the overall feel, but the thing is, those games have always been pretty good at mixing things, to me. The cast of Final Fantasy VIII look the most realistic out of the games I've played, and the second would probably be Final Fantasy X, yet both of them manage to mix in some fantasy elements (with the latter even allowing one of your characters to be an obvious non-human or even humanoid character). Final Fantasy VII has hints of this too, but the overall look of the game may make it seem more fantasy, but I've seen promotional material say that it's a storyline where science and magic collide, so that in itself gives the impression that it's supposed to be, in places, a modernised game, with a fantasy element.

So basically, I like it when the game is a modern looking world, but with imagination to it. The characters can look like they are grounded in reality to some extent, but there can still be fantasy stuff around them, and even they could have a fantasy element to them. The cast of FFVIII all look human, but they still have a "fantasy" element to them in a sense, as they are capable of supernatural skills, that aren't explained (some of their limit breaks) and at least two of them use a weapon that doesn't exist. The same goes with Wakka in Final Fantasy X, as previously mentioned, using a ball as a weapon isn't really part of any other fantasy scenario, but the creator used their imagination to do something the series hadn't done before, so it's "fantasy" in a way.

Pretty much everyone in the party in Final Fantasy XV outside of Noctis. They were all just sort of bland for the series.

More armor and more dragoons. Less Guns and motorbikes.