This one was a bit difficult, but here is my list.

1. Basch - Basch is a badass, your first introduction of him is watching him kick the crap out of soldiers left and right and he even pulls off a Quickening to take out an early practivce boss. What I really love about him is his dedication and determination. The man is hell bent on restoring Dalmasca and Lady Ashe to the throne, despite the fact she hates him and treats him like tit for half the game. I mean that is dedication. I felt the evil twin plot line was handled very well, though I did wish the game could have elaborated on their falling out better. Still, Basch is a man who really gets screwed big time in the game and he never lets that get him down, he doesn't whine about it, he just takes and goes on with his quiet stoicism, which just makes him feel stronger than other FF characters.

2. Lady Ashe - Lady Ashe is the first asskicking leading lady in the entire franchise, yeah some people tried (Faris) but none of them got the spot light like Ashe does. Ashe is not meek, she doesn't wait around for the leading man to make decisions for her and she's the one who is really pushing the party along, and who can blame her? She's the second most screwed over character in the cast? Her story is sympathetic and her anger is somewhat justified. What I truly loved about her, is that she's the first main character I've ever seen in any RPG who is willing to use the super powerful McGuffin that everyone is after to get what she wants. Cecil, Terra, Cloud, hell even Squall and Lightning would most likely take the heroic "we must protect this from evil" speil rather than actually not pretend to be high minded individuals and take out the bad guys. Its this struggle for revenge and thinking what is best for her people that makes Ashe the driving force of the plot and such an endearing character.

3. Balthier - He's fun, gets the best lines, has a cool backstory, and is a very sly reference to FFV. What is there not to love? He even kind of breaks the fourth wall alot (something we haven't really seen since FFVI) with his whole "Leading Man" nonsense. It's no wonder the staff began rewriting the script to give him a bigger role. I also like how his story with Cid ends at the Pharos, it felt a bit more real than the usual sobbing and "let me tell you how I really feel real fast because we have time to do tit like that even though the world is going to end". It just felt like the way those two would have chosen to part and feel it speaks volumes of their characters.

4. Fran - Baltheir's dry humor sidekick. Fran has a pretty touching backstory that I only wish had been expanded on a little, I don't even want a full explanantion, just a wordless flashback that gives hint as to why she would leave in exile for her freedom over being part of her Viera heritiage. Fran allows the player to see another cultures point of view of the games modern society and it was pretty nicely done. She's also a real badass and smartass in cutscenes which makes her fun to watch and I love her voice.

5. Vaan - Despite being towards the bottom, I don't have any problems with Vaan, I understand he exists as the player avatar and I appreciate that over the botched writing of Tidus in FFX who fulfilled a similar role. While him getting so much screentime is a bit annoying since it detracts from the better characters, I can appreciate the writiers knowing fans might not like him and filled the game with several "STFU Vaan!" moments. Seriously, the cast treats him like the naive boy that he is and I can respect that. He also had a nice more subtle character growth over other main characters who usually do a 180 in their thought process by the end of the game. Vaan, is definetly a better person by the end, but he still retains a lot of his early self, including his bad traits and I felt that made him feel more real than other characters.

6. Penelo - I feel bad for Penelo because she gets more grief than she deserves, she's actually a fun "big sister" character that hasn't been seen in the series since FFIV for crying out loud. Like Porom, she's the more reserved part of the Vaan/Penelo duo but also, it's apparent she's just as interested in escaping her home and having adventures, she's just the practical one of their team. Her role in the plot is to serve as an allegory about long seated hatred between two social groups can usually be overcome through children who are not tainted by the venomous bias of their parents. Vaan represents that bias whereas Penelo doesn't hold any real animosity for the Archadians and her time spent with Prince Larsa shows her that these people are not the unforgivable evil that Her and Vaan have seen and heard the grownups speak of. She's really central to one of the more subtle but more important themes of FFXII and I feel that makes her a pretty damn good character, she just sadly suffers from the same issues as Rosa and Lenna, she's pretty bland compared to the nutjobs in her party. She still has the most memorable character theme though.