I love how no one can read directions.

Group A.

This is pretty tough cause its between Shadow and Cid. I'll give it to Shadow cause he was anything but a conventional character. He began the whole trope of "mysterious badass" but more importantly is that he was an interesting character who would abandoned you when you needed him most, and the player had to do some interesting things to get his full backstory. Not to mention he's probably one of the most loved optional characters seeing as he can actually be killed in the story. I'll let other bore you with his actual characterization but personally he's just the most unique cause of the way he works in the game mechanically. In terms of story, I feel Cid and Shadow are about even for me so I had to go by something else to determine this.