Now that I think about it - most main characters are inherently lame. It’s the *supporting* characters that make or break it. I could care less about Link or Squall or Sephiroth. It’s the people I meet on my travels.

This had no point. I just wanted to say I hate FFVII. :p

Rikku = most annoying character ever. Also most useless (not counting machina)

Alnora - you could “care less about link”….my god…. What is wrong with you?

Different characters are always going to appeal differently to people, since everyone has different experiences, different personalities etc. That’s part of the reason developers always try and create ‘faceless’ heroes, so that we can put ourselves into them more easily. Cloud was so vunerable, and more than slightly crazy. I really felt his whole ‘posing as a superhero’ thing, and that angst of ‘never being good enough’. How many times do you get to play a loser that pretends to be a hero?

I’m not going to try and sell you on FF7 though (!) You are more entitled to hate it.

Demosthenes: Ahh, yeah. I feel your pain - there’s a lot of games with awesome ideas that have been ruined by the devs not understanding that many of us can barely afford a third-hand TV, let alone a plasma HD. I play GTA IV around my brothers (I don’t own an XBox) and he has a pretty decent television.

One of my friends says you can either love FF8 or FF7, not both. You can like one and love the other, but not love. It’s true of our friends, and I think it’s more attachment to whichever characters/plot you got into first. I loved FF7 at the time, and still love it with nostalgic value, but I do agree with Monique that it’s ridiculously overrated, particularly with regard to Sephiroth. How is that whiny mama’s boy ALWAYS considered the greatest villian of all time? He never does a single thing of his own volition! He catches the evil space flu and SHE handles it all. God. I much prefer Kefka from FF6, maybe because I prefer my sociopaths in technicolor, or maybe because 6 was the first Final Fantasy that really got me into the plot. (I didn’t play 4 until much, much later: love that one, too.)

Also I loved Relm and Setzer terribly, and was half-sad and half-delighted that the latter chose to beat kids up with a padded stick in a world that may or may not be real in Kingdom Hearts, instead of hanging out with the pirates. I maintain he lost a bet with Cid, and also possibly Jack Sparrow, and ALSO possibly had a handle of whiskey in him at the time. It is the only rational explanation. It was, however, totally in character for him to not actually want to put forth any effort into ACTUALLY using the beatstick and just bribing his way out of it. Oh, Setzer. YOU SO CRAZY, NEVER CHANGE.

I didn’t find Tidus or Rikku as annoying as some did. In fact, it was the first FF game where I didn’t HATE any of the characters. I can see where Tidus came off as annoying though. I hated Treasure Planet because of the same kind of character - GOD, we GET IT, Jim, DADDY DIDN’T LOVE YOU ENOUGH, shut UP about it already, SANTA MARIA. I’m not sure why I didn’t feel that way about Tidus, who was basically the same thing. WE GET IT. JECHT DIDN’T LOVE YOU ENOUGH. SHUT UP. Maybe because I was too busy wondering if Auron’s arm was cold. It was cold, wasn’t it? Auron, seriously. Put your sleeve on. Put your… don’t look at me that way, I know you’ve been mostly dead all day just… okay, fine, but when you catch a cold don’t come crying to Yuna.

I will love Link forever and ever. I loved him even when he was a little blob of pixels on the original Nintendo and spent most of his time deciphering badly-translated old men. Right off the bat, I loved the idea that some random kid was walking through Hyrule and got suckered into saving it from evil by the princess’ freaked out nursemaid. Who then later on “became hysterical” when the same kid got the triforce on the back of his hand. Boy has nerves of steel. I like to picture him kicking ass while thinking, in the voice of Dante from Clerks, that he was not even supposed to BE in this country today. Love him! Love his silly hat, love his tendency to forget pants (although OOT-era started wearing leiderhosen, which was an altogether sensible move rivalled only by TP era finally having the sense to put on some mail under there), love that he is physically incapable of saying no to anyone who wants help, even crazy ladies who are allergic to chickens, and yet have chosen to raise them. Oh, Link. Never change.

The characters were also a huge part of the appeal of FFT for me (and also the plot, yay political intrigue). The times I yelled, “STAY GOOD, DELITA!” at my screen while playing that: too many to count. Rafa and Malak were deeply useless in actual battle, but the interaction between them and their adopted father was awesome (in a plot way, not in a he was a good person way). Screamed at the screen: “Oh honey, NO.” Meliadoul, trying to figure out if her father is a monster or a man, and if the former is true, did it consume the latter, or was it that way always? Mustadio and his own father: excellent counterpoint to the other father/son relationships in the game, which were messed up. Mustadio and Besrodio: not messed up. LOVE IT! LOVE! Agrias: LOOOOOOOVE. Love so much, kicked Orlandu out of the party, gave her all his stuff. LOVE!

As I’ve mentioned before, I have to like the characters to get through the game. If I don’t, I can’t, but like the author, I will totally suffer through unplayable games if I love the characters. Xenogears: Hated Fei, Hated Elly. One of the most highly lauded plots of all PS1 RPGS. Couldn’t finish it. SHUT UP FEI. Xenosaga: same. SHUT UP, Shion. God. I don’t care how traumatized you are by storms, when RIKKU takes it with more grace than you, YOU SUCK. Falling to the floor whining for storms to stop is not acceptable past the age of twelve, and CERTAINLY NOT IN SOMEONE WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE A BRILLIANT SCIENTIST. So embarrassed to look at you, plz go away. Meanwhile, I strongarmed my way through every single scenario of the poorly finished, badly translated, unfortunately released right after FF7 Saga Frontier, purely to find every NPC anywhere anytime who said anything about or to Asellus. It’s a sickness. I know this. I just don’t care.