Most Underrated FF Characters

[Pumpkin]

Who do you think are the most underrated characters in the series?

I think Penelo, Quina, and Gau

[Ayen]

I don't pay enough attention to what the majority of people think, to tell.

[metagloria]

Amarant. He's my second-favorite, but everyone seems to think he's lame.

[Wolf Kanno]

Amarant. He's my second-favorite, but everyone seems to think he's lame.

He just arrives incredibly late into the plot and also suffers from an abysmal M.Def stat that makes him go down as fast as Edge from FFIV in the situation. He's good once he gets going but there just wasn't enough time to really develop him as a character and he spends the first few hours in your party mostly playing catch up with learning abilities. Eiko only gets a pass because Garnet is a surprisingly cruddy character for that game and Eiko picks up a lot of her slack.

Here's my list:

FFI: I will never understand why Monks are not more popular, they deal better damage than Fighters, second best tank, and one of the most user friendly classes.

FFII: Gordon - Yes his stats are low for that point in the game, and he's a bit whiny but give him a spear and Shield and he quickly becomes a real beast of a fighter.

FFIII: Original - Black Mage is a surprisingly powerful class now that it doesn't suffer from the Int. bug from FFI and easily outclasses the Red Mage in damage dealing.
DS: Scholar - Despite being reworked a bit, this class is pretty fun in the new version.

FFIV: Tellah - is a surprisingly well rounded mage, yes some of his stats get lower (the ones that were terrible to begin with) and his MP is low for story purposes but he actually has Osmose and his spell power is pretty good. He's a life saver in the Lodestone Cavern.

FFV - Lenna - Basically loses most of her thunder once Krile joins the team and she has a hard time escaping the background character status. It is not helped that even NPC characters tend to be more quirky and memorable than her but honestly I like her a bit more than Krile.
Job Class: Berserker, Chemist, and Trainer - The first one everyone dislikes cause he's uncontrollable even though he's basically a melee class meaning he hits things so having control shouldn't really matter, the second is overly complicated and requires a guide to make them useful, and the last also requires knowing a lot about the games various baddies you face.

FFVI: Strago, Relm, Umaro, and Gogo or basically any character that becomes recruitable after Setzer. All of them have the issue of being late comers so like Amarant you spend most of your time working on making them decent. Strago has a Blue Mage issue which automatically means no one wants to deal with him, everyone gets stuck on Relm's Sketch command despite her magic skills and ability to use Control are what makes her really shine (see Trainer above) Umaro is a Berserker so read above, and Gogo is an actually balanced Mime unlike his overpowered FFV version or tedious FFT variant. Still, most people are not interested in using a second tier version of a more colorful character and there is no way to make him better outside of equipment.

FFVII: Cait Sith and Aerith - One gets nailed for being a goofy character in their "super serious mind blowing revolutionary cyberpunk dystopia sci-fi fantasy revolution!" despite the fact he's more relevant to the plot than some of the characters. The other character dies, has a mage build instead of a vague Red Mage build like everyone else, and all her Limit Breaks are defensive when all anyone really wants to do is press X to watch the character pull off an over-the-top boss killing one-man-army super attack... Mostly it's because she's only around for one disc.

FFVIII: Selphie and Quistis - Slots is a crappy Limit Break even if she does get a game breaker skill. The "everyone is the same" stats doesn't help her when other characters have more exploitable Limit Breaks. Quistis is a blue Mage and even though she gets some useful skills, most of it can be done easier with the Junction system and she only has one Limit Break that can break the damage limit and it's still crappy compared to the BS that is Squall, Rinoa, Zell, and Irvine.

FFIX: I already said it was Amarant. I might also say Dagger but honestly the game kind of goes out of its way to keep her bottom tier.

FFX: Kimarhi - See Gogo entry above in FFVI in terms of "no one needs a crappy second tier version of a more memorable character"

FFXII: Vaan, Penelo, and Fran, mostly gets nailed for story reasons but the game actually does justify their existence. Despite all of this Fran is the only one who is gameplay-wise bottom tier but the stat difference is actually negligible so it's barely an argument.

FFXIII: I can't honestly justify anyone in this game because the hate they get is well deserved.

FFTactics: Mustadio, Meladiou, Monsters - The first is actually a wonderful character in terms of controlling the flow of battle, his Snipe has far better accuracy than magic and Seal Evil is the best way to deal with the undead. He makes a great Chemist. He may not have the powerful game-breaking builds of other party members but he's incredibly useful when built to his strength. Meladiou mostly gets ire cause she arrives long after Cid does (who can use all of her skills) and until the PSP port, her Sword Skills were useless against monsters or enemies without armor making her not nearly as good, nowadays she's pretty badass. Monsters are actually pretty fun to use if you take the time to build them up properly.

FFTactics Advance/A2: No Muo - I swear, combined with their almost near absence from FFXII, I'm seriously beginning to think the Ivalice team has something against this race. In the TA series, they have incredible Magic power and a great selection of classes, only to be given the stats of the Arithmetician/Calculator Job from FFT, meaning they can't take a hit and are absolutely painfully slow meaning the speedier Viera with their nice selection of Mage jobs and broken skills will always be the superior mage race. You can use leveling to make them better but it's pretty time consuming and I often find not the most efficient way of building a powerful army. They are good just high maintenance in a game where there are more user friendly options. The Bangaa kind of also fall into this camp but at least their Speed classes are actually good.

Honorary Mentions: Any character that is the Blue Mage or Berserker classes.

[Ayen]

If it weren't for Aerith's limit breaks my party would be dead.

[Skyblade]

Frimelda Lotice. A secret character in a game most people didn't play, and a lot of those who played it didn't necessarily enjoy or play long enough to reach her. Yet she is one of the most awesome characters in the series.

Blue Mages. Frelling awesome in any incarnation.

[maybee]

IV- Spoony Bard [ Edward ] Everybody hates him or despises him, for being a coward, but you can't help being afraid. Not everybody is a strong and tough warrior or anything. Edward does grow stronger mentally and physically throughout the game, well DS version anyways. Also Edward in After Years is just smurfing badass.

VI- Gau-Mother died in childbirth, causing the Father to extremely snap and become very mentally unwell- basically become insane, and believed that his son was a demon-child and dumped him in the woods. Gau grows up with the monsters and animals and basically struggles around other normal human beings, but he still tries. Also when Gau meets his Father again, and his Father doesn't welcome him back with open arms, Gau is still happy, because he knows that he has family that's at least.... there.

VIII- Selphie- She's fun, energetic, cheerful, child- like and just very warm- hearted and supportive towards everybody she's around. She's a good friend and team-mate and like, she almost has a side to her that's a bit... I don't know how to explain it ? Wild ?

IX- Princess Garnet/ Dagger- I always see praise towards Celes, Terra, Tifa, Aerith, Rinoa and Yuna- sometimes Ashe, but never Dagger ? It's disappointing because she's a mentally strong girl, she goes through so much bulltrout and she does become depressed over it, but that's a natural human reaction to being traumatized after a huge tragedy- though she overcomes it, and becomes a beautiful strong young woman.

[Fatal Rose]

FF II: Leon, Gordon, Ricard Highwind, Josef, Scott, minwu
FFIV: Edward: he's interesting, well designed, unique fighting style, and bards rule
FFVI: General Leo deserves more love.
FFIX: Amarant, Steiner, Blank, Marcus
FFX: Tidus, Kimarhi

[Colonel Angus]

I'll skip a few games due to not having played them in a while.

FFI- The Monk is highly underrated. After Lv. 15 he's the best fighter you'll have. The only thing the Warrior/Knight has on him is Defense, but it's worth it for his multi-hit attacks. Those slime monsters that only lose 1 hp when hit w/ a sword? Taken out by a 10 hit Monk attack for 10 hp.

FFIV- Rosa, who mixed the Ranger class w/ the White Mage class. Her bow & arrows kept her out of the front lines & gave her an adequate attack when healing wasn't necessary. Even though other characters could use the Bows, she was the only one w/ Aim.

FFV- Lenna/Reina. Pretty much what Canoe said. Plus, she's still statistically the top natural magic user. As for Job Class, it's a toss between Geomancer & Bard. !Gaia on someone w/ high magic is great & Geos w/ a secondary magic ability kick butt. Bards are very important against the undead, as their requiem song can wipe out a whole group of monsters instantly. Giving the !Song ability to a mage makes the song even stronger.

FFVI- Setzer & Mog. Both are great tanks. Setzer probably has the coolest weapons in the game. Mog can be made into an excellent Dragoon w/ the Boots. But both really shine where they can take a beating, leaving your others to focus on attacks.

FFVIII- Selphie is the proto-Rikku. Highly energetic, youthful, high spirited. Plus, she has nunchucks as long as her torso.

FFX- Kimahri Ronso best all-around character. You set Kimahri on any path you like. Kimahri best blue mage in series; only use lancet to learn spells. Kimahri default Jump very powerful. Kimahri make great 2nd thief.

FFX-2- Paine doesn't get enough love. She's a powerful warrior & brings a different persona to the trio than late bloomer Yunie & jacked-up Rikku. I guess you could say she's the Lulu of this game, but she doesn't fall into the den mother role that Lulu did. Her connection w/ everything going on was pretty interesting, too. She also has the coolest mascot costume.

FFXII- Penelo get's the "useless" label almost as much as Vaa-aa-aan. But she plays an important role (especially early on) as his conscience. As a warrior, she's really good. The fastest character & the 2nd best magic user, I like to give her the Rosa role of Arrows & Magic. Her speed makes her good w/ Daggers & Ninja swords, but I prefer to keep her away from the fiends.

FFT- Mustadio BUNANSA is, as Canoe mentioned, highly underrated. Other than the Seal Evil sniper attack, his Arm & Leg attacks are very valuable. Plus he has the 2nd best name in the game (after T.G. Cid, of course).

[Yellow_Magic]

Gonna have to jump on the Selphie bandwagon - in addition to her cheerful personality, she had a ridiculous amount of resilience to carry on despite what happened to her old Garden.

[Pumpkin]

I didn't realize Selphie was underrated, but if she is then I agree

Also agree with Kimahri

And Red XIII

[Ayen]

I refuse to acknowledge people who refuse to acknowledge Selphie's brilliance.

[Wolf Kanno]

I didn't realize Selphie was underrated, but if she is then I agree

Also agree with Kimahri

And Red XIII

Selphie is largely underrated from a gameplay standpoint. In terms of being a cool character I think Quistis is the most underrated.

[metagloria]

Selphie <3 <3 <3

[Ayen]

I enjoyed Quistis a lot more when I replayed the game last January than I did when I was a kid. I must have hated teachers or something, I don't know.