What's your favorite _____________ in a Square-Enix game?

[dlppictures]

Favorite Character:

Why? First of all, he is funny, "Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men! For Gilgamesh...it is morphing time!"
He appears in multiple games, perhaps even the exact same Gilgamesh, as hinted in FFIV:The after years and FFVIII.
You can steal Genji Equipment from him, in several battles, and even drops the "Legendary holy sword?" In FFV, in wich he is a major character, as Ex-Deaths right hand man.
Plus...
YouTube - Final Fantasy V Music - Clash on the Big Bridge
With a theme like that, how could I ever not love him?

[Du Soleil.]

My favourite guy I'd like to chill with.

Barrett.

I don't think I even have to explain myself but for the sake of thread rules, here goes. Alright, so since I played FF7 a few years back (and still haven't completed it, mind you), Barrett has always stuck out to me. I mean, he's just the kind of guy you'd like to chill out with when times are harsh, and know that he'd make you cough your guts up laughing, but also feel great about yourself. I know he's got a serious side, but that doesn't completely rule his life. Sure, I like Cloud, but he's way too traumatic. Sure, I like Aerith but she's way too caring and gentle. Sure, I like Vincent and Sephiroth and Kadaj and all that but I mean, they all have some form of trauma behind them, and the only two who appear to me to be somewhat fun are Cid and Barrett, and even then Cid's stressy. With Barrett you know he's a great friend and you know you're gonna enjoy yourself, but... I don't know, I feel like I'm not making sense. I just like Barrett. A lot.

One more thing. Barrett reminds me of myself.

[scubasteve]

i kind of wanted to save this one for another time, but whatever.

favorite character:
ramza beoulve (final fantasy tactics)


“Names don't matter. What's important is how you live your life.”

ramza beoulve is everything i strive to be times four.

a lot of my pals in the real world give me shit for having a heterosexual crush on ramza. but aside from being a dashing young fella (i mean damn look at that package), ramza is one of the best interpretations of a true hero in rpg history. nowadays, you get all these punk ass kids who are out trying to save the world because it's "their destiny", or because they want to save some damsel that they're enamored with. not ramza though. he is not swayed by silly girls (unless you count his sister), nor is he doing shit because he feels like he has to fulfill some half-baked "destiny" of his. ramza fights because it is the right thing to do. as long as there are injustices in the world, he will continue to fight (well, he can't really now because he's DEAD, but you get my point). this is what separates him from all the other dregs in final fantasy. he's not some greedy jerk like tidus who's whining about how this is his story or some shit. he's not some confused teenager who is blindly fighting for some girl like squall. he's not this mentally unstable soldier who's trying to find himself like cloud or terra. and even though i love zidane, ramza does not fight in order to impress some princess. falsely branded as a heretic by the church (which, in medieval times, is one of the worst names you can bear), ramza even [arguably] dies in the end, knowing that his deeds won't be noticed by the public. it is not until several generations later when the truth of his good deeds come to light. he is ramza fucking beoulve, and, with an unfaltering sense of justice, he fights for the greater good.

another thing that puts ramza three tiers above everybody else in final fantasy is that he takes one of the most basic classes in feudalism and molds it into quite a force to be reckoned with. a lot of people don't know this, but ramza's best class is a squire. his stats are boosted, and he functions basically as a knight that doesn't suck. not to mention, as a squire, he can boost all of his stats just by screaming really loud, something a lot of anime characters think they can do but it doesn't really work out. he can also use meteor.. as a fucking squire! yeah, that's right. he does what sephiroth spends all of final fantasy vii trying to accomplish just by letting himself survive a meteor. so not only does he trump every other job in final fantasy with the most basic one of all, he also one-ups arguably the most popular villain in rpg history. ramza is not someone to tread waters with, folks.

i could go on, but i would like to save much of this article for another time, another place. ergo, just like i started things, i'll end things with a quote:

“If you need someone else to fulfill your dreams, it loses its value, wouldn't you agree?”

[Raeneth]

Favorite Character: Kuraudo Sutoraifu

(クラウド・ストライフ)
or
Why Cloud Strife is not an emo /wrist faggot and if you think he is then clearly your reading comprehension is nonexistent.

Perhaps it's because Final Fantasy VII was my first exposure to the series, (I've never been a nintendofag, sorry bros. Genesis represent) but I've liked Cloud since the first time I laid eyes on the spiky haired guy. The first thing people love about him is that he carries one of the most recognizable weapons on the planet for people who have heard of vidya gaems - the Buster Sword

Yes, this sword is fapworthy, but that's not why he's a good character in general. From the start of the game you get the idea that this guy is just a bad ass. He was an ex-member of one of the most powerful militaries in the world and had the balls to quit it and join an anti-Shinra movement called AVALANCHE. He's cocky, arrogant, but still a nice enough guy deep down. Pretty much a cliché hero if you think about it. Then the shit hits the fan.

At the conclusion of the Temple of the Ancients, you begin to see a new side of Cloud emerge, one that is suddenly terrified that he might not be in complete control of himself. He isn't sure if he can keep his composure around Sephiroth, especially after hurting someone that he really cared for in Aerith. When she leaves, he takes it on himself to find her and save her before Sephiroth gets to her. He can't.

He blames himself, but he pushes on. He doesn't bunker down in the Forgotten City and cry about it. He flat out says to the team that he's going after Sephiroth himself and aims to settle the score. He says he should quit. He says he should be a bitch and cry about it, but he basically says fuck that, I'm going to set things right. One could argue he's still channeling Zack, but this isn't the case. This is who Cloud really is.

Sephiroth puts Cloud through hell and back and he ends up with what we'll eventually find out to be his second case of severe mako poisoning. Except this time it's a bit more extreme than the first. A long story short finds that Cloud, with the help of the JENOVA cells in his body, took a lot of what made Zack Zack and turned it into himself. He was living a lie, and it was pretty believable. As he said, he was the master of his own illusionary world.

The thing is that I was a young teenager the first time I played this game, and so the idea of someone not knowing exactly who they are rings pretty close to home there. I found Cloud and his plight rather easy to relate to and believable. I could understand how he could be confused about living a lie this whole time and wanting so desperately to be something that he flat out wasn't. Even after he knows what happened to him, he doesn't give up. From that point on in the game, he's Cloud. Not Zack.

Cloud has motion sickness
Cloud says stupid shit like "Let's mosey."
Cloud is not heroic or braver than he needs to be.
He's not the ultimate hero, he's just a guy with the ability and drive to make the world a better place.

Also, he's not still finding himself. He found out who he was when Tifa helped him in the Lifestream. That's right. He changed from being a Zack fake to being himself in the span of a few game play minutes. He's not still struggling with it. He came to terms with it. He's moving forward. He just takes things as they come and deals with them however he can.

He defeated Sephiroth when he was just a no-name grunt in Nibelheim. He wasn't super powered Cloud or a 1st rank SOLDIER. He's one of those characters that has the ever present "fighting spirit". He's just a regular guy. He's not perfect. He has flaws and they're well known. What's more important is that his flaws aren't patched up and called character development - they still exist at the end of the story and carry over into Advent Children. In fact, only by Dirge of Cerberus do we see Cloud getting back to what he was at the end of Final Fantasy VII - a leader. He doesn't lead by giving out orders, he leads by example. He's the first one to walk into danger and would ask his friends merely to follow him in.

Something about that every day courage and inner strength that Cloud shows draws me to his character more than any other throughout all of the final fantasy games I've played. Common misconceptions about him are a bit hard to understand. Square I feel also does a questionable job of portraying how Cloud was in Final Fantasy VII. Advent Children shows a rather deep thinking Cloud. One I feel is looking back on his life, seeing as his was most likely nearing an end since he had the incurable disease of GeoStigma. He'd be returning to the life stream where he'd meet Aerith and Zack once more - two people he loved whose deaths he most likely felt responsible for. How could he face them again? What if they couldn't forgive him? These things I'm sure would make anyone feel and act a little bit distant.

Dissidia, as you can see from other characters in it, takes the character's personality from different parts of the games and sends it out there. The Cloud you see in Dissidia is Cloud at the start of Final Fantasy VII. Cold exterior, but he has feelings that he doesn't outwardly show.

Cloud isn't emo or depressed, he's just a rather deep character, and he had all of his development within one game. The expansions to Final Fantasy VII didn't complete or change his character development. By Advent Children his character was already fully developed. Just because Cloud can be a bit introspective at times doesn't mean that he's always thinking about /wrist.

Is Cloud overpowered/favored by Square? Favored? Most likely. Final Fantasy VII was a jumping on point for a lot of now faithful gamers, and many people know who Cloud is more than Squall, Zidane, Tidus, Cecil, or any other protagonist of a Square game. That's because I feel the ideas behind Cloud are very easy to relate to for a lot of people. He's not overpowered because he was injected with JENOVA cells which allowed him to mimic Zack's physical capabilities when he mimicked his memories and personality. So technically he was as strong as Zack was when Tifa found him in Midgar, and he's only been getting stronger since then. Few other characters can say that about their power. So everything about Cloud sort of makes sense when you think about who and what he really is.

Cloud still is a bit of loner, but he always has been ever since he was a child. Growing up without a father can probably do that to you, especially in a small country town. He's always been able to get by on his own, and his first real friend outside of Tifa (who wasn't really his friend until after she found out that he was leaving for Midgar) was Zack.

In Crisis Core you can see Cloud mature into the guy we know in the second half of Final Fantasy VII. He starts off being quiet and a bit shy, but once Zack lightens the mood and lets him open himself up, you can see how much of a good guy he really is. He really never gets upset or sad, and definitely not to the point that most people feel he is all the time.

A lot of Cloud's character art depicts him looking down or off to the side, but this is because he's a deep thinker, not because he's upset. He's had a lot of shit happen to him in his past, and he tries to push it aside and be himself and do good going forward, accepting the things that he cannot change. When he's faced with a challenge though, you can see all of that emotional baggage get lifted and he does what he has to do.

So now you read a post that psycho analyzed Cloud very briefly. He has a lot of misconceptions attached to him, but that makes him all the more appealing to me. People just don't understand WHY he's such a well developed and deep character. People don't understand what makes the guy tick because it's not just spelled out for you like so many other characters are. That's why I feel that Cloud Strife is a wonderful character.

Plus, he cross dressed and his hair looks like a chocobo. What more can you ask for in a main character?

[thylings]

Favorite Character in FF: Rufus Shinra



Why? It's pretty simple for me.

Many think I'm crazy. One of the lesser-liked characters. Usually forgotten as the powerful leader and villain he once was because of a certain mama's boy. Although his power was short-lived, I think he did an awesome job.

Many misjudge his character, first of all. He is a cold asshole in FFVII, that much is obvious. But, I see shades of grey, and a character that had no other choice but witness the corrupt nature of his father's company firsthand and take it in stride. . . at least as a young child. There is a whole untouched side of him that I just know is there, and it should remain for fans to speculate.

I've always been a huge Rufus fan. He was my favorite from the beginning. I cried over his 'death' (when I didn't know he would be resurrected.), more so than Aerith's. I'm not kidding. I admire his character even more-so in BC, and then AC, even in DoC where he doesn't even make an appearance, but is just briefly mentioned. I think he is a human character with nearly fatal flaws that really deserves more respect.

It has been stated, and proven, that Rufus realizes the mistakes his company has made. Which is why it is not just hinted, but pretty much proven, that he is the main benefactor for the WRO. Many don't take Cloud's first encounter with Rufus in AC too seriously, but I do. Shinra owes the Planet a lot, and as I stated before, Rufus knows that.

Oh, and plus, Rufus is cool, charming, and a smooth-talker. He without a doubt had the best lines in AC. I would even go as far as saying he had the best lines in FFVII. He knows how to make himself look powerful, and succeeds.

Now, as President, there are a lot of trials and tribulations for Shinra ahead. I mean, after his company creating Sephiroth, almost killing the Planet, and giving people a lot of sh*t, he has a lot of work to do to get Shinra out of the water. I doubt he will ever succeed in getting complete redemption, but he will get all that is needed.

::::Up for editing. I wrote this at 3 AM.::::

[Becoming X]

This is my favourite scene from any Final Fantasy game. I can't really explain so much why I love this scene so much, its quite difficult to explain so bear with me.

Final Fantasy IX was the first game I ever played in the series hence why it holds such a close place to my heart for introducing me to it and this scene is kind of the scene that made me go all :o when I first saw it, I was like 10 at the time and when this scene appeared it kind of turned on a light that said "You need to keep on playing this game man" I can actually remember this fmv perfectly along with music.

Even minus the whole sentimentality of it, it was a great scene. Vivi, being this small timid character ever since we met him is suddenly going apeshit at this Black Waltz who seemingly is much like Vivi himself whom had just blown up a whole cargo of Black Mages who had just prior to this scene defended Vivi to the end. The bit with Zidane going to help Vivi as he falls over was great, made better by the music score at the time.

This scene and how it builds up is just great..thats all I can really say.

Did I really just write that much about a scene from Final fantasy?

[Forge_Dragonis]

Favorite Boss: Gilgamesh

One look at my sig and you can clearly see what my favorite game of the series is, but I have to vote for the sword-wielding collector extraordinaire.



Why? He's certainly unique and offers opposition as well as help, whether he meant to or not. Also his battle theme makes the rest of the boss musics slump into a corner with their tail between their legs.