He's not the best main character, but he's pretty decent?

I agree with KK that there is something compelling about watching your main character breakdown mentally and emotionally over the course of a disk. The problem I have with Cloud is when he's still in his shell, he comes across as largely arrogant and vaguely unpleasant at first. Then when he begins to have doubts about his sense of self he can come across as somewhat 'whiny', though I'm not sure how much of this is the writing without a voice intonating the intent.

I feel as if my mood on Cloud fluctuates though. Some days I go "eh, he's alright" and other days I find the concept of his character compelling. Like Kanno said the execution is not perfect, but I think what is there is decent material. I'd be interested to see what happens in the remake version.