Best All-Around Cast

So I was talking about XII and XIII elsewhere and noting how opposite they are in many ways. The most distinct way for me is why I played the games and what kept me interested. For XII, it was the bad guys. They received very heavy focus and it got me hooked. I lovd Cid and The Judges and they were all as important or interesting as teh heroes. ....in fact moreso. I found XII to have one of teh most boring parties in FF history. Three of them - Vaan, Penelo and Fran - are nothing characters. You could cut them out of the plot very easily and not change the story in any real way.

With XIII though, the focus was almost entirely on the heroes and so I liked them more and was more invested in their journey and actions. Consequently though, I felt verya ntagonist in the game was underused and none of them was particularly memorable for me.

This got me thinking about the topic. A FF that had both a splendid cast of heroes and villains. An FF that, no matter who the story was touching on at the moment you still gave a sh*t.

In that regard, I think Final Fantasy VII is a top contender.

FFVI by a wide margin. One of the strongest strengths of the best game in the series.

I agree with Spuuky. VI's cast was one of the greatest strengths of this great game! There was a great diversity of personalities, backgrounds, and abilities, making each party of the literal hundreds you could create unique in its own way.

Yup FFVI has my vote.

VI and VII both had spectacular casts, If you go just base game, I'll give it to VI, but if you include the entire canon, VII takes it.

X had a strong cast as well, but not on par with VI and VII

I'm gonna say IX. I liked the entire playable cast. And although they all didn't get a conclusion to their own character arc, they at least had one.

Should have a thread on the most bland cast.

I came into this thread quite prepared to praise FFIX though I'm prevaricating now that I've thought a but more about VI.

But I'll stick with IX. While there was an imbalance between screen time and development in the case of some characters (hi Freya), I felt all the cast had sufficient substance to make them strong and interesting characters in their own rights. That applies to the main party as much as villains and other key players (Beatrix and Cid, for instance).

I like FF4's cast best, especially after playing through the After Years and fleshing the characters out more. I like how the characters embody their classes. Kain and Rydia were iconic and pretty much defined Dragoon and Summoner for the future games. The twins were awesome, this coming from someone who usually finds child characters annoying. I like how most of the characters are tragic and flawed, but succeed in spite of their flaws over the course of the game.

When it is about the cast I like the most and the cast that is the most appropiately and strongest connected to the story, then it differs:

Favourite cast:

COFFVII: Villains: JENOVA Project: Sephiroth - generally, Genesis - CC, Doctor Hojo - DoC; ShinRa Electric Power Company

A world concern called "God" that creates Lucifer himself with the name of the twigs of divinity and Lucifer himself turns against them. This sounds very familiar.

Heroes: Cloud, Zack, Aerith, Tifa, Vincent, Angeal, Doctor Lucrecia Crescent, Doctor Gast Faremis, Iphalna, partly others like Reeve but when it comes to the heroes and which impress me the most in the story and which are relevant, then them.

FNC: FFXIII

Villains: Barthandelus/Orphan/Galenth Dysley, Caius Ballad

Heroes: Lightning, Serah, Noel, Snow, Vanille, Fang, Sazh, Hope

All Final Fantasy characters, except hidden characters and sometimes they also are involved in the main story like Vincent have something to do with the story because it is always about something threatening the whole world but in Final Fantasy XIII really the whole team is focussed at and I like the whole cast.

Final Fantasy VIII has a good cast but a story with many paradoxes. Ultimecia is one of the most powerful villains, yet she is not completely defined making her misunderstood by many and the closed circuit of time makes Time Compression impossible, rendering her greatest power, living with her consciousness in multiple times to make them all her present this way, completely useless. It is a power she could never use to finish her job because that would require it to have happened already which is not possible since it already being done would mean it cannot be repeated since it is not required anymore (multiversal it is also not possible since it is about all time). Therefore most of her powers are great and she has very great influence in nature but she could never achieve her goal, also that Time Compression thing and in which terms she exactly "absorbs" since that is also not clear because abosorbing alone makes no sense with her abilities - actually it is not even her but Time itself absorbing since it ceases existences which is the "absorbed by the flow of time, something that is not possible. You would need to be omnipotent to ignore those paradoxes which combined with the circuit prevent things, so the paradox from actually happening and Ultimecia is not (X-Death is also impossible by the way if his nothingness is supposed to touch time which normally should be the case since void stands over time and space). Squall, Rinoa and the others are a very good cast and it is good how they are connected, but they also don't have the closest connection when it comes to the present and future of the story.

Much of the cast of V, IX and X is also very good. And many of VI.

Final Fantasy VII and XIII are my favourite and when it comes to the most appropriate cast I say it is for the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII. Final Fantasy VII has a fantastic cast but too many characters have a minor role when it comes to the story. They are only really involved because ShinRa ruins all lives and because they fight Sephiroth to protect their precious, the main focus is at Cloud and Sephiroth, Aerith, Tifa, et cetera, however.

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Originally Posted by Elskidor

Should have a thread on the most bland cast.

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That be pointless. FFVIII is the only answer.

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

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Originally Posted by Elskidor

Should have a thread on the most bland cast.

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That be pointless. FFVIII is the only answer.

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I would call FF VIII's the most infuriating cast, not the most bland.

That would go to X, except Auron who was awesome, and Tidus who needed to shut the smurf up.

Oof. VI, IX, XII. I know that they are my top three, but I have no idea how I would rank them. Hell, it'd probably change depending on the time of day. They're all an excellent blend of varied, well-written and typically well-developed characters.

I'd probably give XII the win if based purely on character interactions. How everybody treated everybody in that game was completely believeable and natural, and easily my favourite aspect of the game (along with all the other parts). And the benefit of the PS2 was that more stuff could be seen to happen, so we could observe each character reacting to things naturally in the background whilst also watching the main event unfold in the foreground. Jolly good show!

IX would probably win it based on my love for the characters. They're just excellent and I love them.

VI would probably win it based on just being so well done. An utterly massive undertaking, especially given the time, and it was extremely well-executed.

FFVI probably has the best cast and arguably the most memorable villain in the franchise. I think that, VII, VIII, IX and X all had great casts.

I can't give XII best all around, cause the only two Characters were great, Ashe and Basche, Balthier was pretty cool, and the rest are dull and uninteresting.

Now if the whole cast kept up with Ashe and Basche that would be a different story.

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

I can't give XII best all around, cause the only two Characters were great, Ashe and Basche, Balthier was pretty cool, and the rest are dull and uninteresting.

Now if the whole cast kept up with Ashe and Basche that would be a different story.

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That is how I feel. I love the game and the three select few cast members that matter, but half the cast served little to no purpose. I enjoyed some of the other characters in the game that were not main cast though. Fran did more than Penelo or Vann, but even she was very overshadowed and not fleshed out entirely.

The most bland goes to FF1 :)

My vote if for FFT. I know a lot of people are going to disagree because most characters aren't in general fleshed out with a whole lot of back story, but that isn't the most important thing to me. Everyone in FFT 'fit' with the world really well. You didn't have all sorts of random throw in characters, everyone's design, personality and actions all fit very well with the narrative and world design. There wasn't a whole lot of 'why would they do that?', 'why are they all of a sudden on of the strongest heroes in the world?', or 'why do they stand out so much from every other person in the world?'.

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

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Originally Posted by Elskidor

Should have a thread on the most bland cast.

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That be pointless. FFVIII is the only answer.

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I would call FF VIII's the most infuriating cast, not the most bland.

That would go to X, except Auron who was awesome, and Tidus who needed to shut the smurf up.

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X showcased each party member's personality and history better than pretty much every other installment in the series.

You might not have liked them but none of them lacked depth or were bland compared to VIII where none of the cast develops save for Squall and Rinoa.

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

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Originally Posted by Elskidor

Should have a thread on the most bland cast.

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That be pointless. FFVIII is the only answer.

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I would call FF VIII's the most infuriating cast, not the most bland.

That would go to X, except Auron who was awesome, and Tidus who needed to shut the smurf up.

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X showcased each party member's personality and history better than pretty much every other installment in the series.

You might not have liked them but none of them lacked depth or were bland compared to VIII where none of the cast develops save for Squall and Rinoa.

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Have to agree with you here. With the possible exception of Khimari, there was a wide variety of well fleshed out characters.

I am a bit surprised, I know many people like Final Fantasy X, me either but I have heard and read many things about certain characters being more irritating for people. Or is it that you find them well written but irritating as well?

Villains, FFVII, no contest for me. Shinra + Sephiroth was just epic on every scale. Kefka comes second, but pure 100% villainy doesn't really work too great for me. VII was much more interesting in that regard.

For heroes... eh. It's tricky. VI had a solid cast but some were thrown in with no real personality given, and the large cast left them with little focus on each individual. VII had much more fleshed our characters, and XIII fleshed out it's characters far more than any RPG I've played before it, yet to me had a small cast and some characters were just not that great for me... hmm. Probably VII or XIII, but I just can't figure out which.

As for overall cast, VII for me because of the villians being that great and the rest of the cast being given decent airtime and at least one stage of development each.