Rank the Herorines ( including spins off, FFTs etc )

Princess Sarah Final Fantasy I
Maria Final Fantasy II
Sara Altney Final Fantasy III
Rydia of Mist Final Fantasy IV
Rosa Final Fantasy IV
Lenna Charlotte Tycoon Final Fantasy V
Faris Scherwiz Final Fantasy V
Celes Chere Final Fantasy VI
Aerith Gainsborough Final Fantasy VII
Tifa Lockhart Final Fantasy VII
Rinoa Heartilly Final Fantasy VIII
Princess Garnet till Alexandros/ Dagger/ Sarah Final Fantasy IX
Yuna Final Fantasy X
Ashe Final Fantasy XII
Serah Farron Final Fantasy XIII
Agrias Oaks Final Fantasy T
Princess Ovelia Final Fantasy T
Ritz Malheur Final Fantasy TA
Adelle Final Fantasy TA 2
Kaeli/ Karen Mystic Quest
Lunafreya Final Fantasy XV
Anybody else that I missed, feel free to include !

Again, if you don't know a character, just skip 'em !

Here's mine, from best to worst:

Celes Chere
Tifa Lockhart
Aerith Gainsborough
Rydia of Mist
Yuna
Faris Scherwiz
Lunafreya Nox Fleuret
Serah Farron
Ashelia N'nargin Dalmasca
Garnet Til Alexandros
Rinoa Heartilly
Rosa Joanna Farrell
Lenna Charlotte Tycoon
Maria
Princess Sarah

Wouldn't Phoebe be the heroin from Mystic Quest?

1. Faris
2. Ashe
3. Agrias
4. Rosa
5. Celes
6. Rydia
7. Aerith
8. Ritz
9. Garnet
10. Yuna
11. Tifa
12. Ovelia
13. Maria

The rest:
Princess Sarah Final Fantasy I
Sara Altney Final Fantasy III
Lenna Charlotte Tycoon Final Fantasy V
Rinoa Heartilly Final Fantasy VIII
Serah Farron Final Fantasy XIII
Kaeli/ Karen Mystic Quest
Lunafreya Final Fantasy XV

From least favorite to most favorite.

Adelle (FFTA2) - She's a great party member, especially when you start unlocking some of her special skills, her personality on the other hand is insufferable which is a real pain considering Luso and most of the core cast are also just as insufferable.

Yuna - I hate Yuna, mainly because she's a very bland character whose most notable traits beyond being a bland female protagonist is her knack of getting herself into trouble because she's also incredibly nosy. She suffers a bit of Miyaka syndrome, which is to say she's a figure who needs to be protected in the plot; but they swallowed the idiot ball and so half the conflict of the game is started by them causing it in a way not to be a bother to other. Yet the plot tries to tell you this is a good thing. The fact I felt she got worst in X-2 sort of sealed the deal for me on her. She's still ranked towards the bottom of female characters within the series for me.

Tifa Lockhart - Once upon a time ago, I actually liked her. I have a serious soft spot for childhood friend romances, but after a few more playthroughs I realized that Tifa never lives up to anything the game tries to tell you she is. The manual describes her as optimistic and cheerful, but that only lasts after her intro, she's honestly one of the more pessimistic cast mates who only flies under the radar because Vincent, post Lifestream Cloud, Barret, and Red XIII create a black hole of negativity that makes it hard to notice. She's the cool monk fighter, and while that translates great for gameplay, she's honestly more of a damsel in distress than most of the female cast. Her main role is to egg on the "Who is Cloud" story, but it really doesn't make much sense in hindsight, and honestly, once I entertained the idea of how much better VII's central plot and themes would work if you dropped her from the plot or relegated her to a minor NPC who leaves the party after Midgar, the more the whole story clicked better for me. So she irritates me because in addition to just not being a type of character I like, I realized I'd like the rest of the plot better if she didn't exist because she's kind of the patchwork eyesore of the story for me.

Serah Farron - I've never played XIII-2 so I missed the majority of her actual character development, instead I'm stuck with XIII where she's mostly a wholesome plot device that is portrayed as so sweet to entice me to care when it mostly just activates my gag reflex.

Kaeli/Karen (Mystic Quest) - I always struggle to remember anything from Mystic Quest, so I don't even remember anything about this character but at least I don't remember her being annoying.

Lunafreya - I don't hate her as much as I find her incredibly disappointing and lackluster. She honestly doesn't have any noticeable character trait I can't attribute to another character doing better, and again, she's mostly a plot device as far as the story is concerned. She did get a cool moment with Leviathan though.

Princess Sarah - Going by her original appearance, there isn't much to say about her other than that she's a plot device. I did like how they revamped her in World of FF though where she's a caring and adventurous figure that thinks she's better at stealth than she really is.

Sara Altney - Mostly a one-note character, it was amusing how the DS version upped her crush aspect a bit more.

Maria - Maria gets a bit of a shaft since she isn't characterized much in FFII beyond the novelizations. Still I appreciate the fact she's one of the rare female characters in the series that doesn't get pigeon-holed into a damsel in distress or pure mage as you can build her any way you want to. She's not bad, but I do prefer Hilda actually since she's a bit more of a spit-fire like the film princess she's based on...

Princess Garnet - In a lot of ways, Garnet isn't too different from Yuna. Generally a loving figure, really bad habit of running straight into danger and dragging everyone with them because "it's the right thing to do" and describing a lot of her character traits makes it seem like a been there done that sort of deal. I think she only ranks a bit higher because she has more of a personality than Yuna and the game doesn't try to coddle her like Yuna. This is best shown through her relationship with the rest of the party. Yuna's Guardians baby her, because their relationship is more familial o she's the "cute kid sister we have to protect" whereas Garnet falls more into the "well she means well, if she just wasn't so damn stubborn and willing to listen to people..." so I find her a bit more human in that way because the party itself isn't afraid to call her out on her self-indulgence nature.

Rinoa Heartily - I feel the biggest issue I have with Rinoa is really just the fact she takes the "damsel in distress" aspect to 11. Granted, that's kind of the point since curmudgeon Squall is being forced into a shining knight role by her; but once you ignore that side of her, she's actually a pretty fun character and I like the fact she can verbally spar with Squall's snarkiness on equal footing. I just don't rank her higher because it's obvious she exists to be Squall's foil and it's difficult to see a person beyond that. She's kind of Square's more successful attempt at making a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

Lenna Tycoon - I'm a broken record when it comes to Lenna, I feel she's an interesting character who simply gets overshadowed too much by Krile and her sister Faris. She has a pretty good background story but she's easily the most wallflower of the five main characters, rarely joking around like Bartz, Krile, and Galuf, nor serving as a straight laced character like Faris and Galuf. So she has a bad habit of falling into the background more than the other characters. Her story moments are great, and she certainly lives up to her self-sacrificing nature, but these moments are too few and spread too thin for my taste.

Ritz Malheur - I've always been a bit split with Ritz, on the one hand she was my favorite of the core cast because I liked her no-nonsense attitude and her general badassery. On the other hand, I also feel she has the lamest Freudian excuse among the cast to want to stay in Ivalice. Certainly the most relatable of the cast, but her past trauma feels kind of shallow compared to Doned and the others. I still enjoy her core character, but she lost some points for me when her backstory was explored a bit more. With that said, she's always on my team when I finally recruit her in the post game.

Rosa Farrell - I've always had a soft spot for Rosa because she's always kind of looked down upon by FF fans despite a lot of it being unjustified. She gets kidnapped once and her recruitment involves saving her from an illness, but talking to other FF fans make it sound like she spends the whole game as a damsel in distress when the reality is that she's in your party the longest amount of time out of the final party not named Cecil. Not to mention she gets sick because she traveled alone across a nightmarish desert to personally look for Cecil and she has some pretty strong moments in the game like calling Cecil and the other boys out for trying to send them away at the end, or helping Rydia overcome her fear of fire. Not to mention she's one of only two bad ass white mages in the series that doesn't have summoner as a second job to compensate for them. So yeah, I feel Rosa is a much better character than people give her credit for.

Princess Ovelia - I was initially going to rank her a bit lower until I really thought about it. Ovelia is honestly an interesting character because on the one hand, she falls into a lot of stereotypical trappings of female characters. Her role in the story is more plot device, she's mostly a damsel in distress, but what I find interesting about Ovelia is how self-aware she is to all of this. Like she knows that her very existence is causing all the conflict. The biggest twist for her is being informed that she really is a plot device because the true Ovelia was already dead, meaning even if those who are using her were to succeed, she would still be disposable to them because she's not even real royalty. Yet I appreciate the fact she understands this and ultimately tries to find a way to to show her individuality. Her final moment in Tactics could be seen as a pointless death, but it can also be seen as her trying to overcome the position she has been forced to play all her life and to exert a sense of identity beyond plot device. When I began to see it like that, she's a surprisingly well written and subversive heroine.

Rydia of Mist - If I am going to be honest, I actually find Rydia to be a little overrated, that hasn't stopped me from ranking her really high on this list, but I do feel she gets more lip service from fans than she really deserves at time. I get it though, she's one of the few characters in IV that actually goes through a real character arc, and her tearjerker backstory makes her incredibly endearing, but I've always felt Rydia was more interesting as a child than as an adult and once she grows up, she's less interesting because she's pretty much resolved all her emotional issues off screen and returns as a more well-adjusted character. She's still a highlight and many of the games best side content is attached to making her stronger, I just kind of hate how her and Kain tend to overshadow the rest of the cast among fans.

Agrias Oaks - I feel that Agrias is a victim of one of the biggest story flaws in FFTactics, she's a great character who is ultimately sidelined once she officially joins the party. Awesome character throughout chapter 2, but never says a word again afterwards except for a few new story elements added in the PSP version. She was so popular among fans, the Ivalice team created an expy of her for the Tactics Ogre remaster. Still I love what we do see here of a knight trying to fulfill her duty and being thrown into conflict by the politics of the setting. You really have to feel bad for her since it never gets a proper resolutions.

Aerith Gainsborough - I have always liked Aerith. I may have gotten Tifa my first playthrough of VII, but Aerith honestly won me over more than Tifa did. I love the fact she's actually the real spunky tomboy despite being the "girly" mage character whereas Tifa was the reverse. I do have issues with how much SE has sort of given her this weird Madonna/Messiah characterization in the media she's appeared in since VII. Mainly because she always struck me as the most down to earth member of the team. The other always waxed on about their ideals and philosophies but Aerith just felt like she was there for the ride and when she began to learn more about her people, she was honestly a bit more afraid of it than embracing it, so it was always weird how she's treated almost religiously from the fans and creators afterwards. She also has one of the best character themes in the game.

Faris Scherwiz - I love Faris, and I've always enjoyed how she played the straight-lace member of the comical team she found herself in. It was also nice to have a female character who was unapologetically not big on female tropes. It really makes her stand out among the cast and even the rest of the female leads. I do wish we could have gotten more moments of her coming to terms about her past, but she still comes out as an enjoyable character and snazzy dresser.

Celes Chere - I was debating whether Faris or Celes would rank in second place here, but Celes wins out just because I feel she a more well rounded figure than Faris or Aerith are. Unlike a lot of characters on this list, I feel players get to see the full spectrum of Celes and see her at her highest and her lowest. While I do feel it's a shame she starts off as this confident and take charge figure who eventually falls into the typical "girl needs a man" dribble, I also feel the game does a slightly better job of making it more reasonable how we got there. Her suicide attempt is still one of the most powerful moments in the series for me, and honestly she's tied to many of the best scenes in VI. The fact she's a great party member also helps. Props for her character theme as well.

Ashe - My only objection of her being here is that she really should be in the other thread because while Vaan is the POV character, Ashe is easily XII's main character since everything in the plot largely revolves around her journey. Like Celes and Ritz, I appreciate the fact that Ashe is not always shown in the best light. She's angry, pig-headed, and very brash. Even her character theme sound more like a villain theme. Yet she also has moments of showing a more vulnerable side of herself that proves that a lot of her upfront persona is both both a reaction to her misfortune and possibly even an act to make her appear more fearless than she really is. I also love that she goes against the grade of most female characters who are often praised for following their feelings but also easily forgiven for how irrational that can make them. As though somehow woman are incapable of feeling and thinking at the same time. Instead Ashe faces a dilemma of following her heart for revenge or thinking things through and following her duty to her people. What does she end up doing? Realizing through empathy that her thirst for revenge is just going to make more people like herself and then rationalizing all that to uphold her duty to her people. She's honestly the template I wished future FF heroines were based on.