Leonhart's Final Fantasy Character Rankings

67. Headmaster Cid Kramer (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "SeeD is not just a special force for combat. I want you to see the world... To broaden your horizons. I have high expectations for you, Squall."

I was going to put "I do a wonderful Robin Williams impression, don't I?" for Cid's quote, but I figured I'd better not try to imitate Lopen's style now! I thought Headmaster Cid was a pretty interesting character overall. He's difficult to figure out sometimes, really. He rarely gives Squall a straight answer to any of his questions, especially when they involve the overall purpose of SeeD. He won't give you a straight answer as to why he agreed to accept the Timber Owls' request when they would almost never do it for anyone else, which is something I've always wondered about. I wonder if Seifer had anything to do with it...? Headmaster Cid almost seems sympathetic to Seifer at times, for whatever the reason (and Cid has the Seifer Card, not that it means anything. I just thought it was an interesting person to have to get it from. Usually you end up getting character cards from someone who has a relation to that character, but not always). Cid feels like he's awfully indecisive at times. He's all too willing to turn over leadership to Squall, but that may be due to some foreknowledge as to his destiny that Edea probably told him.

Overall though, Cid's a good man at heart. He started the orphanage with Edea, and he provided the White SeeD Ship in order to protect Ellone from Esthar. He really seems to care about the SeeDs, unlike NORG who just wants to use them to make money. While he's physically weak and seems weak willed at times, there are times when he'll take a stand for something he feels strongly about, such as when he does his legendary rant about NORG in the Balamb Garden basement. He also serves as Edea's "Knight," too, somehow, and she feels secure having him as her knight.

I thought Cid's personal dilemma was one of the great things about his character. SeeD was designed by Edea and Cid to raise up warriors to defeat the threat of the sorceress, but when his wife becomes a threat as a sorceress, he has to decide what to do. Does he abandon SeeD's purpose in order to save his wife and basically let her wreak havoc on the world, or does he honor that original purpose and work to take out the sorceress, whoever it may be. It definitely took a lot of guts on his part to order SeeD to fight against his own wife, knowing that someone he loves will probably die. Of course, things worked out well in the end, but he certainly didn't know that at the time. I respect his ability to follow through with it all.

68. O’aka XIII (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: "O'aka XIII, merchant extraordinaire at your service!"

Every game needs to have its merchant who follows you around from place to place, supposedly befriending you and suggesting that he's offering you goods at a fair price while he's secretly snickering as he rips you off, and in Final Fantasy X, that merchant is O'aka. First of all, I absolutely love the dude's voice. I can never hear him speak enough. He makes a great first impression, ripping Tidus's outfit. "Filthy, filthy! These won't sell or me name's not O'aka! Don't look like you got much money either..." Aw yeah

O'aka's got some great lines, and I always enjoyed it when he showed up, even if I very rarely bought anything from him. There are only a handful of places where it's okay to actually buy from him without getting overcharged to high heaven. I kinda wish that they hadn't made finding out why he actually helps Yuna and company such an easily missable thing. I don't even remember when I figured it out the first time. Apparently, O'aka and Wantz had a sister who was a summoner, but she died on her pilgrimage, and Yuna supposedly looks very much like her, so he helps her out almost out of respect to his sister.

He was kind of a throwaway in FFX-2, and he had a different voice actor to boot, so I was kinda disappointed with his appearance there though. Oh well.

69. AVALANCHE – Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: ''"WOW! You used to be in SOLDIER all right! ...Not everyday ya find one in a group like AVALANCHE." - Biggs'' "……Cloud…… You remembered……my name." - Wedge ''Oh, Cloud!! Your face is pitch-black……" - Jessie''

AVALANCHE is my favorite minor group of NPCs in a Final Fantasy game, but that's probably because they were my first. I really liked these guys. To be honest with you, I was very sad when they all died. Up to that point, I wasn't used to playing games where the good guys died and stayed dead (The closest thing I'd seen to this is Zero, but again, he didn't stay dead). I was convinced all throughout disc 1 that somehow they were going to come back despite all logic to the contrary (of course, when Aerith died, that hope died with it!). Plus, the part of the game where you try to protect the Sector 7 pillar from being destroyed is honestly one of my favorite parts of the game, and these guys are probably part of the reason why. I thought it was both an intense and sad part of the game at the same time, and it basically got me thinking, "Dude, this game is AWESOME!" I was hooked on FFVII after that scene.

Let's just hit on these three briefly. Biggs was probably my least favorite of the group. Not that I didn't like him, but he wasn't really anything special. The one thing that stands out to me about him is getting uppercutted to the CEILING by Barret, which was incredibly awesome. Oh, and he smack talks Barret in his sleep, which is also cool. I liked Wedge because he was a pretty self-conscious dude who didn't seem to think a lot of himself and wanted to reach out to Cloud as a friend more than anything else. Jessie is my favorite of the three though (even though for some reason I thought she was a guy for a long time). She's obviously got the hots for Cloud (and who wouldn't? That sword, that hair, those eyes...). Cloud probably interacts with her more than the other two. She's got some great corny parts of the game, such as getting her leg stuck in the first reactor (and I almost ran out of time the first time I played FFVII because I didn't realize you had to talk to her and get her unstuck), and the whole "Oh Cloud your face is pitch black" line (despite the fact that there's nothing on his face). Great stuff.

But yeah, overall, I like these guys more for that one scene and their deaths more than anything else about them. Long live AVALANCHE!

70. Shinra (Final Fantasy X-2)

Quote: "I'm just a kid."

Another NPC alert! Yes, he's just a kid, but I like Shinra. I like how he's constantly crackin' on Brother. He has a lot of nice one-liners, especially in regard to other Gullwings. He's just a smart aleck, and I can respect that because so am I! While he's a genius, he's still a child and sometimes it shows. He likes to sing the Gullwings theme song from time to time if you talk to him. He gets emotional before Yuna goes to the Farplane at the end of the game and gives her a hug like a little kid would. I think he builds gadgets and stuff because he just has fun playing with his "toys" as he calls them at times. I like how he constantly uses the "I'm just a kid" excuse every time he doesn't know the answer, although he constantly proclaims he knows everything. Obviously, he's not a very deep character, but I think he's fun.

Of course, it's not all fun with Shinra. Having to beat Shinra to win the Sphere Break Tournament and get the Lady Luck Dressphere was certainly not fun. He's responsible for Chapter 4 and all that nonsense with the Commspheres. I'm not as hard on that as some people because SOME parts of that are kinda enjoyable, but a chapter basically devoted to voyeurism and a concert with minimal gameplay? That's Final Fantasy X-2 for you.

71. Regent Cid Fabool (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "Finally... Ribbit! I'm human again! Gwok! Now I can concentrate on building Hilda Garde 3! ......"

The good thing about Cids in Final Fantasy games is that they're almost always likable characters, and FFIX's version of Cid is no exception. He can be pretty funny at times, especially when he's an oglop or a frog. That huge mustache is ridiculous on those two designs as well, which just adds to the silliness. Despite his brilliance in engineering, he's an absent-minded guy at times, but he's a good man at heart. Cid does whatever he can to help Dagger when she comes to him for help, and he's always willing to help any ally of his who needs it.

I liked Cid's backstory of how he ended up as an oglop, how his wife ran away while he was doing his best Tiger Woods impression and stole his ship, etc. It gives him a flaw, a character fault. I'm kinda surprised that FFIX even has that kind of subplot in it because most games in the series don't delve into sexual matters (FFVII's really the only exception to this rule with Don Corneo stuff. Oh wow, I don't have Don Corneo on this list. How did I forget that guy? Oh well). I also like how Hilda decided to turn Cid into an oglop before running off with the airship he named after her (a nice touch of irony). You don't mess with a woman like that! Plus, I think it was good that they showed Cid suffering for the mistakes he made. It was good that they were eventually able to reconcile (but not before threatening to turn him into a hedgehog pie if he ever cheated on her again). Happy endings for all! I thought it was cool how Cid and Hilda adopted Eiko into their family after the game was over, too.

One thing I didn't like about Cid was when you had to flip the hourglass in the Desert Palace in order to save everyone. There are times when I can do it without a problem, but there are other times when I keep getting caught by that stupid hedgehog pie, although I don't think I've ever run out of time. Either way, it's an annoying mini-game, having to repeatedly press a button to even get him to move a fraction of an inch. Desert Palace in general is the worst area of the game, and it definitely doesn't get off to a good start with that.

72. Reeve Tuesti (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: ''"You're busted, Reeve! Too late tryin' to hide it now..." - Barret Wallace''

Okay, so Reeve doesn't really have many quotes to choose from in Final Fantasy VII that aren't him speaking through Cait Sith. I wonder how Barret knew who he was though, considering he was one of the more minor members of Shinra. I guess he was just familiar with them in general and knew what he sounded like from speeches on TV or something. Anyway, I think Reeve's last name is weird, too. I always kinda assumed Reeve was just his last name and not his first name, but whatever. Plus, I dunno why Square completely redesigned the guy after Final Fantasy VII. He just wears a suit and tie in FFVII, but in Dirge of Cerberus, he wears more...oriental wear, I guess you'd say. Just an interesting decision, I thought.

Ramblings aside, Reeve is a cool dude. I thought it was interesting how he was basically the only member of Shinra who really seemed to care about the people of Midgar. He wasn't some power-hungry guy looking to get his way to the top. When Reeve tells Heidegger to call the mainframe and see what's wrong with Sister Ray, Heidegger throws a hissy fit over the fact that Reeve gave him an order. Reeve replies by saying that he doesn't care about the details and just calls it himself. That's a small thing, but I thought it was a cool aspect of his character. He wasn't in it to be rich, famous, or powerful. He just thought he could be a help to the people of Midgar and ultimately to the Planet.

That's not to say that Reeve was totally a good guy. After all, he did kidnap Marlene and Elmyra to ensure Cloud's cooperation. Plus, he knew about President Shinra's plans to destroy Sector 7 to kill AVALANCHE. Although he protested the idea, he quickly gave it up once the president asked him if he wanted out of the company. He knew about a lot of Shinra's wrongdoings, but he just turned a blind eye to them for the most part. I'm not sure why he was willing to do that. Maybe he just didn't want to lose his influence or his ability to help the people of Midgar and thought he could change Shinra from the inside out or something.

I already covered in Cait Sith's writeup how I really liked how Reeve went through a moral and ethical dilemma after seeing Cloud and company's resolve in what they were doing, so I won't repeat all that here. I'll just say that it is a major reason why I like Reeve. Also, the dude's got an awesome voice in Advent Children. It was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. Too bad he didn't have more lines!

Interesting tidbit: Did you know that you can find Reeve's parents at the Honeybee Manor? They're in one of the rooms you can peek into before you choose your room (The other one being something really weird...). They basically talk about how good it was for Reeve to provide for them with the money he made from Shinra and stuff. It's not really that big of a deal. I was just wondering if anyone else had ever discovered this. Plus, you can find a Cait Sith in the room if you look hard enough!

73. Beowulf Kadmus (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "Yes, she's more important to me than life itself. I truly thank you."

Behold the man who turns people into chickens! Seriously, the reason Beowulf is this high is that I love Magic Sword. It's so much fun. It's all the Oracle stuff but with a sword and no wait time! Swords make any job class cooler; this is an indisputable fact. Not to mention, the dude helped make the Deep Dungeon bearable for me by having plenty of abilities that incapacitate enemies without killing them so that I could find the exit for that level (Once again, I'm not good at the game, so keep that in mind!). But seriously, turning people into chickens. Just think about that. Shock and Drain are pretty cool, too, but nothing beats the Chicken!

Beowulf's story is pretty simple and not very in-depth considering he's an optional party member you pick up toward the end of the game. I thought it was pretty interesting to see how similar his character and circumstances are to Ramza in a way. They were both declared to be heretics, and the one they cared about most was taken from them. I thought it was pretty cool how he was able to use the Zodiac Stone to transform Reis back into her human form, too. But really, all of that doesn't matter too much. Essentially, Beowulf is one of the only characters on this list that I will rank highly based on gameplay merits alone. Well, his sprite is awesome, too.

But long live the Chicken.

74. Vormav Tingel (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "I won't let you interfere. Bloody Angel!! I offer...my own life...for your resurrection...!!

First of all, his name is not FOLMARV. Seriously, who in the world came up with that one? That's worse than ARGATH! Overall though, I thought Vormav was a pretty solid main villain. He's a scoundrel in every sense of the word, and he has no qualms about being one. He drops the bombshell to Ovelia that she's not really the princess. Vormav ends up killing his own son in Riovanes without hesitation. He betrays High Priest Funeral once it becomes obvious that he can't do anything to help them collect Zodiac Stones or get the Germonik Scriptures anymore. Worst of all, he resurrects Zalbag as a zombie and forces him to fight Ramza. That, in particular, was just all kinds of dastardly and brilliant at the same time. You just really end up wanting to take Vormav out by the end of the game, which is basically the main thing that I want from my primary villains in a game (For example, Colonel Volgin in MGS3 is far from a well-developed or deep villain, but the game does such a great job of making me want to take the guy out that I like him quite a bit as a villain, and the same holds true for Vormav). I don't really care all that much if my main villains are super deep or if their motivations extend beyond simple world domination. My main concern is: Is there a sense of urgency in that I absolutely need to take this guy out as soon as possible, and has he stirred up such emotions in me that I want to take him out as soon as possible? I think Vormav succeeds in both regards.

Vormav's boss fights weren't particularly difficult, but by the time I fought him, I've already got Orlandu, so that basically nullifies any sense of challenge. I did like how, when you beat him as Hashmallum, he killed himself to provide the last blood needed to resurrect Ajora. I thought that was hardcore awesome. Another thing about Vormav is that he essentially succeeds at his goal, for the most part. He throws Ivalice into chaos and essentially gets the Temple Knights into positions of power, and he does end up resurrecting Ajora, although the latter was very short-lived. He was definitely a competent villain who knew what he was doing, manipulating people as he deemed necessary and then throwing them away when they outlived their usefulness.

Now that I think about it, Vormav is another one of those guys I should probably have higher on this list than I do. I think the one thing I hold against him is that all of this wasn't entirely Vormav's doing. He was basically just being used and manipulated by Lucavi and Hashmallum. You never really get that sense from him in the game though. You never really think that about him when you're playing. I guess because you never saw a change in his personality like you did with Wiegraf or Elmdor. He was already under Lucavi's control by the time you're introduced to him. Anyway, that's just a minor gripe. No big deal. Vormav's cool.

75. Kiros Seagill (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "Yeah, but you cut a pretty pitiful figure up there. I'd say you're about a -3 on the manliness scale."

In retrospect, I probably should have ranked Kiros higher, but for some reason, I felt compelled to group him together with Ward. I do like Kiros quite a bit. He's very witty and clever. He basically serves as the voice of reason for the party (especially once Ward loses his voice, though he never really dispensed advice, mostly just insults!). He's got a great character design, I think, and Blood Pain is another great Limit Break. Seriously, Laguna and company have good character designs and awesome Limit Breaks without exception.

Like Ward, Kiros basically suffers from lack of screen time. Laguna manages to get a decent bit of character development in spite of this, but Kiros and Ward get kind of left behind. It's not really that big of a deal though because he's still a really likable guy, I think. I just wish I got to learn more about who he is, his background, etc. He does help fill in some blanks in the storyline in Winhill when he meets up with Laguna again after a year. Like Ward, you get the idea that, although he gives Laguna a hard time for his silliness, Kiros greatly respects him and enjoys traveling with him. After all, once he recovered from his injuries in Centra, he spent several months trying to find where he was. In fact, he even tells him that life's pretty boring without Laguna around for entertainment.

Getting to meet these guys at Esthar was pretty awesome, too. I kept hoping you would eventually get to meet them after all those times you get to play as them, so I was pretty excited when they finally met. I wish they would have done more than just talk about the plan to defeat Ultimecia though, but I guess it couldn't be helped. It's not like you have time to go on a vacation with them and get to know them or anything!

Oh, and I suppose Kiros gets bonus points for being the guy who essentially drops the bombshell that Laguna is Squall's father (He never outright states it, but it's heavily implied to the point that it'd be silly to deny it. After all, he says "You look very much like your mother," and he says that Ward says "Good thing you don't look like your father." How would Kiros know who Squall's parents were unless they were Laguna and Raine?). I remember telling KP to go back and talk to Laguna and company on the Ragnarok when he played through FFVIII, and his reaction to that revelation was pretty awesome.

P.S. I know we talk about Square needing to make an FFX-0 with Braska, Auron, and Jecht, but we could really use an FFVIII-0 starring Laguna, Kiros, and Ward!

76. Ward Zabac (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "Yeah, just drink some juice like a weenie. And then gawk at the piano lady."

Ward is awesome. He's like the biggest human main party member in a Final Fantasy game, he throws around a huge harpoon for a weapon, and Massive Anchor is an awesome Limit Break. Dude's got a great running animation, too (second only to Cid Highwind). I do like his character design, really. It's simple, but it works. He also constantly busts Laguna's chops and makes fun of him for being a wimp. That was one of the things that I enjoyed about playing as Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. You just had the feeling that these guys were good friends who always enjoyed some good-natured ribbing. They just casually goof around with each other. Deep down, Ward is intensely loyal to Laguna and essentially follows him to the ends of the earth. You have to be good friends to stick with Laguna after some of the stuff they go through and some of the misadventures they have!

I liked the scene when Ward lost his voice. That really showed that he does care about Laguna and Kiros, and that he really did like traveling with them. I thought it was an interesting decision by Square to essentially turn Ward into a silent protagonist for the remainder of the game. I'm not sure why they did that. I thought it was cool how Kiros and Ward were so close that Kiros could basically tell what Ward wanted to say just by his expressions and gestures. While Laguna was the leader, they both seemed closer to each other than they did Laguna. While they did regard Laguna as a friend, no doubt, they respected his leadership (misguided though it may be at times!) and they were swayed by his passion, I think.

By the way, there's one scene where it's possible not to have Ward show up (The scene where Laguna's filming that movie and you end up fighting a Ruby Dragon). It happened to me one time, and I flipped out. "Where in the world is Ward?!" I wondered angrily aloud! One of the things I discovered is that finding Timber Maniacs magazines can actually alter the Laguna dreams somewhat, depending on when you find them. There's a certain Timber Maniacs that causes Ward not to show up in that scene if you find it before you hit that dream sequence. There are also alterations to the script, too, which I have discovered over the course of FFVIII replays (such as when Laguna's in the room with Julia. If you haven't found the Timber Maniacs that has his first article in it, he'll pass out on the bed, but if you have, he'll talk about his desire to be a journalist. Neat touch, I thought. But anyway, that's a rabbit trail for another time!).

I wish Square would have explored more backstory with Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. In some ways, their adventures could be more compelling than the main story's at times. I wish we could have figured out what brought these guys together in the first place and why they travel together. Their adventures were basically like a throwback to old school RPGs, it felt like, just lots of exploring of some weird places, pretty straightforward story. I wish you had gotten to fight a boss as these guys, too (Well, you can technically use the Magic Lamp and fight Diablos as them if you want, but still). They just needed more screen time in general.

77. Luzzu and Gatta (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: ''"See? Keep your head down, say "sir" a lot, and you'll do fine." - Luzzu'' "Young Crusaders, gather round! We'll beat Sin into the ground!" – Gatta

I think Luzzu and Gatta are some pretty solid minor NPCs. They're mostly this high on this list for one particular scene (I think we all know which one I'm talking about, but we'll get to that shortly), but they're pretty neat characters. I like Luzzu a lot more than Gatta, honestly, but for the sake of this list, I'm grouping them together. Gatta was okay. He has some funny moments (like his "Young Crusaders!" song I posted for his quote, aw yeah cheesiness), and his "Whooaaaaaa" reaction to you beating THE MIGHTY OCHU OF THE WOOD! Overall, Gatta is basically the inexperienced rookie who just wants a chance to prove himself, even if he has to get out of line to do it (though you get to determine if he gets the chance or not, which I thought was kinda neat). He's kinda disconnected to every character who isn't Luzzu though, and he's tied at the hip to him. He can't really stand well on his own as a character.

Luzzu is actually a pretty solid character that they give some decent development to and establish some good relationships with Wakka and Lulu. By the way, I like Luzzu's voice. He kinda sounds like Jeff Goldblum would if he ever took a serious role and spoke in a normal voice, I think. He provides a good contrast to Gatta. Luzzu is the experienced veteran who keeps his cool and obeys his orders. He always has a keen sense of perspective due to his experience (as seen by his arguing with Gatta about the importance of guarding the command center instead of being on the front lines). He's not in it for the glory of being a Crusader, which I respect about him. He joins the Crusaders because he believes in the cause, and he wants Sin gone.

I love the scene before Operation Mi'ihen when Luzzu reveals that he was the one who persuaded Wakka's brother Chappu to enlist with the Crusaders. Then Wakka punches him right in the face and tells him how Chappu used to say he'd propose to Lulu once the Aurochs won the Crystal Cup. Luzzu coolly replies that Chappu said that "Being with your girl is good, but keeping Sin far from her is better." I also liked it when Wakka asked Lulu if she knew, and she mentioned that he told her before they left Besaid. Then he adds, "She hit me, too," with a chuckle. He doesn't hold any hard feelings against Wakka and Lulu for their reactions. He's an understanding guy.

Now for Operation Mi'ihen itself, I prefer to tell Gatta to go to the front line and fight because I think it ends up being a better story. If Luzzu dies, Gatta's reaction is pretty good. He becomes the guy who didn't realize how awful war is but had to learn the hard way when his best friend was killed. Gatta's death scene and Luzzu's reaction is better. I wish they had played a sort of "Guilt" angle with Tidus for persuading him to sneak into battle, where he ended up getting killed. Luzzu's reaction to Gatta's death at Djose Temple is great though. There's some great emotion and some good voice acting. I really liked it a lot.

78. Bugenhagen (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "Ho ho hooo!"

As I was looking up stuff on Bugenhagen on the Final Fantasy Wiki (because I usually read them for kicks before I do a write-up to see if there's anything I forgot about them that I think is worth mentioning), I learned something devastating: I was always under the impression that Bugenhagen had no legs and that someone designed him some special legless (Huh? This is a word?) green pants, and he also had the mysteriously unexplained ability to float. Well, apparently in Before Crisis, it's revealed that the green is actually a ball that Bugenhagen sits on, and that's what causes him to float. Final Fantasy VII side projects: Ruining my childhood one step at a time.

Seriously, look at this: http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/2/29/BugenhagenAndFuhitoBC.jpg

Now, unless Bugenhagen was experiencing some inexplicable swelling in his butt or he was just fat and started working out after this, this is just lame. I am literally seething with rage as I type this. Okay, not really, but I hate it when things I imagined in childhood turned out to be false. Speaking of childhood notions turning out to be false relating to Bugenhagen, when I first played FFVII, I didn't think he actually died after he gave Red XIII Limited Moon at the beginning of disc 3. Red XIII told Cloud that Bugenhagen just decided to start traveling the world again...and I believed him! I didn't think Nanaki would lie to me! Well, that, and I tend to take things too literally, which has also resulted in other plot confusions for me when playing games (which I won't elaborate on further).

Anyway...What was I saying? Oh right, Bugenhagen, the mysterious legless old dude who mysteriously and inexplicably floats. I liked him. He was kooky and quirky, which is what I want from my old men in video games. The cutscene in the observatory where he explains the Lifestream was pretty neat. He always has some interesting things to say whenever you talk to him. I liked it when he came with you to the Forgotten City to help figure out the truth about Aerith and Holy. And while the Cave of the Gi itself can rot in its own level of death along with materia stealing segments, the plot revelations about Red's father Seto were awesome.

Something pretty interesting about this guy is that Cait Sith tells you that Bugenhagen used to be a Shinra employee (though he never bought weapons or Mako). He's not just some beatnik hippie who's all about nature and technology must be destroyed (and really, no one in Cosmo Canyon is. I thought it was neat how they managed to find a nice blend of nature and technology in one place). Also, he sports some cool shades.

...what in the world did I just write?

79. Agrias Oaks (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: ''"I'm protecting Agrias! Geronimo!" - Ramza Beoulve''

Can't beat vintage FFT quotes like that one! Anyway, Agrias was Beatrix before there was Beatrix (except with less cleavage and she doesn't start the game as your enemy, I guess): Ultra loyal knight to the princess, strong-willed and willing to do whatever it takes to protect her, and chock full of fun techniques to use. She's also the kind of lady that's super sweet if she's your friend, but you better not get on her bad side or it could be very painful for you. For that reason, I like her. There isn't much to her other than that, although she does have some great dialogues with Gafgarion. He's definitely a character foil for Agrias, and so their character traits are really emphasized whenever they talk to each other, especially after he reveals his true intentions.

I liked using Agrias in battle, too (although Orlandu makes her completely obsolete, but then again, he does that to everyone). Lightning Stab and Holy Explosion are awesome awesome awesome. Those moves basically saved my skin at the Golgorand Execution Site. Now before you FFT buffs come in here and tell me the right way to do this fight, keep in mind that I suck at this game. I'm usually underleveled and underdeveloped with my job classes. As a result, a fight like Golgorand results in lots of game overs for me. Agrias and Mustadio basically saved the day for me there. Also, yes, I am one of those people who uses the special NPCs who join your party for the whole game even though I'm sure that's probably not the best way to go about it (So I end up with like Ramza, Mustadio, Agrias, Orlandu, and Meliadoul in my final party against Altima, but I don't care!).

However, one of the things I don't like about Agrias (and FFT NPCs in particular) is the fact that they almost entirely disappear from the storyline once they permanently join your party and become playable. This obviously isn't a fault with Agrias as a character, but it's just a pet peeve of mine. After Golgorand, you'll basically never see or hear from Agrias in a plot-related scene ever again. That kinda disappoints me. I wish that there could have been more interaction between the party members throughout the game, but I guess the fact that you can release Agrias and others from your party once they become permanent members prevents that. Oh well. Agrias is still awesome.

80. Garland (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: ""Even if I were created to serve one purpose alone, I do not regret being born to this world."

Garland's just cool. He may not be a very deep character; he mostly speaks obscure statements that aren't entirely clear what he means, but he's just...cool. For a villain, I thought he did a pretty good job. He uses Kuja's own ambition and self-will to his own advantage as much as possible and for as long as he could to help with the process of assimilation. That was pretty smart of him. He could have just thrown Kuja away, but he decided he could be useful somehow. He was also smart enough to put a limit on Kuja's life because of how powerful that self-will was (By the way, has there been a more epic retaliatory ownage in Final Fantasy history than Garland revealing that Kuja isn't immortal and that he was only meant to live until Zidane grew strong enough? The fact that Garland did it right after Kuja killed him made it all the more epic!).

I wish that Final Fantasy IX had done a better job at developing Terra's backstory and Garland's character. From what I learned, it seemed really interesting, but the game didn't go far enough with it. The game mentions that Garland tried a more forceful method thousands of years before and failed, and he had to wait until Gaia could use Eidolons. The game never expounds on what happened. Garland basically exists to deliver some blockbuster plot revelations (Zidane and Kuja's true natures, especially), which is fine overall, I suppose, but he could have done more.

I did like how Garland served as Zidane's guide through Memoria at the end. It almost created a sense of sympathy for the guy because he opens up to you honestly and tells the truth, almost like a heart-to-heart talk. When he spoke at Pandemonium, it was basically like a big, fancy monologue, but at Memoria, it's more personal, so I think it makes Garland more likable. It almost makes him feel like he wasn't really a bad guy at all (though he was, going through extreme methods such as destroying villages to prevent the use of Eidolons and using Kuja to incite war to speed up the assimilation). He does help to explain a little bit more of the history between Gaia and Terra, which is nice.

Oh, and the boss fight against Garland was pretty lame. He's basically just a magic user who doesn't have anything special or particularly devastating other than Flare, I guess. That was kind of a letdown. He wasn't very hard. Oh well, he made up for it later by his posthumous ownage of Kuja. Well done, Garland. Well done.

81. Cid (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: ""Boy, don't forget those words, 'cause if you do...I'm gonna make you regret it."

Yeehaw, Final Fantasy sure likes to make Cid into a hick! I don't understand why this guy has such a hick accent while Rin has sort of a Middle Eastern accent. They're both Al Bhed. It doesn't make sense! Well, I guess they were probably from different parts of the world because Cid was the one who finally rebuilt home and brought the Al Bhed back together (which was cool). Still, I don't recall anyone else in the game having an accent like that, his kids don't have accents like that, so where is he from exactly? Eh, who cares? Michael McShane is awesome. He can do whatever he wants!

Anyway, with that needless rant out of the way, I'll say that I like Cid in Final Fantasy X a lot. They turned him into a mopey loser who doesn't get along with his children anymore for some reason and who tried to turn Zanarkand into a tourist trap in Final Fantasy X-2, so he loses some points for that. That's really all there is to him in FFX-2, so the rest of this game will focus on his role in FFX.

We first meet Cid in one of the best parts of the game: The Al Bhed Home. I think it's pretty funny how he continually freaks Wakka out at first by bringing them onto a forbidden machina (and dismissing it so nonchalantly) and then laughing off how he doesn't know a darn thing about how it works. I get the idea that Cid is a pretty hardcore dude because he makes Brother blow up Home (and then laughs it off as his son cries about it, saying that the good thing about it is that it can be rebuilt, so I like his optimistic stance on it), and Rikku anticipates him saying that they should sink the airship to destroy the Guado when you find out they snuck on board.

There are two scenes with Cid I really like. The first is when he confronts Tidus about Yuna's destiny as a summoner. That was just an awesome scene overall, because of both Tidus and Cid. I love how he flips Tidus over his shoulder and slams him on the ground, too. Of course, I don't necessarily agree on his close-minded stance toward Yuna's pilgrimage, thinking it's better to force her to quit than to let her choose to go on. I think he changed his mind as he saw her resolve to follow through with it though.

The other scene with Cid I really like is when he comes to Zanarkand in the airship to pick the party up. Yuna walks up to him (Probably the first time they'd ever seen each other in their lives) and simply bows to him without saying a word, as if expressing her thanks. Then when she raises up, she sees Cid with his back to her. I'm guessing she assumes he's upset with her, so she just walks away. Then the camera slowly pans up and you see Cid's face wracked with pain fighting to hold back tears, obviously too prideful to let his niece see him crying. I thought that was one of the times in the game where having visible facial expressions really helped make a scene a lot better.

82. Princess Ovelia Atkascha (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "A Princess must live her life quietly in a monastery away from the capital. I'd often wondered why only I had to live like that. But if my suffering would to keep Ivalice in peace, then I thought I could endure it. What was all the grief and isolation I suffered for?"

I really like Ovelia, mostly because I feel bad for her for all she went through. She's a tragic figure in a way. The only reason she exists is to be a tool for someone to gain power. Both Goltana and Delita use her for that purpose. Then there are others who want to kill her because the fact that she simply exists blocks their way to power. Both Larg and Dycedarg seek to kill her for that reason. It's got nothing to do with who she is, but what she is, and that's the saddest part of all. Actually, the saddest part of all may be that Ovelia's not even a real princess. She was just used as a fake princess for the purposes of power-hungry men. Ovelia has no control over any part of her life. She's basically a slave who was locked away in the Orbonne Monastery until they needed her.

The battle at Zirekile Falls when you have to protect Ovelia from Gafgarion is one of my favorite battles in the game for atmosphere and plot reasons. I thought it was pretty awesome. Ovelia's dialogues with Delita are usually pretty good parts of the game, too. I enjoy them.

I thought the ending with Ovelia was really sad, too. She finally got fed up with being used by Delita, and she pulls out a dagger and stabs him. Then he pulls the dagger out and stabs her with it, killing her. It was just a horrible way for all that to end for her, I think (although I didn't even realize that she had stabbed him for a long time. I thought for a long time she had just punched him in the stomach and then he stabbed her. Not sure why I thought that, probably because I never saw the dagger in her hand).

83t. Al-Cid Margrace (Final Fantasy XII)

Quote: "I would lay down my life at a single word to be sure…but I harbor no maundering delusions of valiant grandeur."

Oh look, it's another random minor NPC! Why do I even like Al-Cid in the first place? To be honest, I'm not even really sure. The dude's just so...suave. I dig the Spanish accent and the totally anachronistic sunglasses. He's involved in some pretty cool moments in the game, such as Mt. Bur-Omisace and right before the final fight begins. He's got some cool lines, too. I usually liked it when this guy was on-screen.

Plus, I liked the fact that Al-Cid actually gave us some perspective from Rozarria. He's literally the only thing you ever see or hear from about those guys. It was good to know that there was someone up near the top on their side who wanted peace and didn't want to get involved in any meaningless wars, even if he was unsuccessful in his attempts to dissuade Rozarria from going. We needed a trip to Rozarria in Final Fantasy XII somewhere. If Al-Cid's family is all like him, just imagine what their family reunions are like.

83t. Vossler Azelas (Final Fantasy XII)

Quote: "Sky Pirates! The future of Dalmasca will not be stolen!"

It's funny. I remember liking Vossler pretty well when I played Final Fantasy XII, but I don't remember much about him. I had to read his segments in the game script to get a good idea of the guy again. Anyway, Vossler served Dalmasca alongside Basch, and he was fooled into believing he was a traitor as well. He's the guy who took care of Ashe in the aftermath and helped cover up her fake suicide. Vossler and Ashe joined the resistance against the empire, and he's protected her ever since.

One of the things I like is the banter between Basch and Vossler. They're coming from two different perspectives, though they want the same thing (The restoration of Dalmasca and to protect Ashe). For that reason, they're still able to respect one another as men in spite of their differences. Even after you beat Vossler, Basch says that he would never think twice of questioning his loyalty to Dalmasca. They have a great respect for one another and they each have a high sense of honor.

It was definitely nice to have Vossler join the party during the trip through the Sandsea. Useful guests score high points with me in Final Fantasy XII, and while Vossler's nowhere near the best guest in the game, he still carries his weight and helps. Speaking of the Sandsea, that area kinda defines for me part of the reason I don't like Final Fantasy XII as much as other installments. That place is too big for its own good (and my own good, for that matter). Over an hour where nothing but random encounters happen? No thanks.

The thing that confused me most about Vossler is I never figured out why I had to fight him in the first place. He spent those two years protecting Ashe and helping the Resistance, and now he decides it's in Dalmasca's best interest to cooperate with the Empire? Not to mention handing over the Dawn Shard to Vayne and Cid doesn't seem like the best course of action in the first place. It just felt like he gave up on everything and decided that compromise was the only way to survive, but it feels...inconsistent with who Vossler seemed to be to me. Even when I played this game the first time, I was still confused about why I had even fought him. He wasn't even a bad guy (although admittedly I kinda like boss fights where there's no hatred between you and the boss, those are kinda cool sometimes). I just don't understand his thinking, I guess. Two years of being a hardcore Resistance member, and seemingly out of nowhere he changes his mind? Maybe he'd been in that camp all along, but the game doesn't make it clear to me.

84. Kimahri Ronso (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: "Pick spot. Shut up. Wait."

That's right! Kimahri over Yuffie! Take that, you silly Yuffie fanboys! Seriously though, I do like Kimahri a lot. Sure, he's not a deep of a character by any means, but I think he gets an unnecessarily bad rap because of it. He's basically got one character trait: Extreme devotion to Yuna, and I think this one trait is executed very well in Kimahri. Yes, he's one-dimensional, but his one dimension is enjoyable to me.

I really do admire Kimahri's dedication to Yuna. He planned to leave Mount Gagazet because of the shame of his broken horn, and somehow before he left, he found Auron near death asking him to protect Braska's daughter and take her to Bevelle. I don't know what made him decide to honor that request, other than perhaps the fact that it was a dying man's wish. Maybe it was the fact that he had nowhere else to go, nothing else to do. Maybe he just needed something or someone to protect to give his life a sense of value because that's what the Ronso are all about. Their lives are devoted to protecting Gagazet, and now that he isn't worthy to protect that anymore, he needs to find something else to protect. I do think it's awesome how Kimahri tells Yuna that taking her to Besaid was a dying man's wish, and she assumes it was Braska rather than Auron.

Ultimately, Yuna becomes Kimahri's mountain (Yes, this sounds cheesy, but this is straight from the FFX Ultimania here, so blame them!). He dedicates his entire life to protecting her, no matter what, even before she decides to become a summoner. I just think his sense of honor and devotion is something that's very admirable. He's willing to go wherever she goes and do whatever he must in order to protect her. Kimahri is even willing to return to Mount Gagazet for her sake, even though he swore he'd never go back. No price is too high for Kimahri to pay to protect Yuna.

My two favorite Kimahri moments in Final Fantasy X: First, at Bevelle, when Seymour is going on a long rant on how he planned to save Spira by destroying it, becoming Sin, blah blah blah, Kimahri interrupts his speech by stabbing him in the chest with his spear! That is ridiculously awesome, and more RPGs should implement things like this. Another subtle awesome Kimahri moment is, during the ending, when Auron is starting to fade away. As he starts to be sent and he walks forward, he stops at Kimahri and taps him on the chest with his fist, almost as if to say, "Thank you" for honoring that request so many years ago. I really liked that. Kimahri is the only person Auron seems to acknowledge in that entire sequence other than Yuna. He doesn't even say anything to Tidus.

However, on the downside, Kimahri almost feels like he has no reason to exist in Final Fantasy X-2 because he's not with Yuna anymore. His character was inseparably linked with Yuna in FFX, and when they decided to have him go on his own in FFX-2, it just...didn't work. Just felt like something was missing with him. He's kinda boring in that game.

In battle, Kimahri's probably the worst member of the party. Ronso Rages are pretty lame and not very effective for the most part, particularly against bosses, which is when you want Overdrives to be effective. He also has a hard time developing into anything great because he's stuck in the middle of the Sphere Grid and you have to choose where to send him. He basically becomes a jack of all trades, but master of none sort of character. He doesn't do anything the best because he's basically following in another character's path who does it better than he does. I still use him every battle though because I like to level up all my characters evenly in FFX.

Oh, and Kimahri should never smile again.

85. Yuffie Kisaragi (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: ''"Listen, Yuffie. I don't care about the history of Wutai or your feelings. You've got our materia and I want it back... now. If you give it back now, we'll drop the whole thing." - Cloud Strife'' (Truer words have never been spoken)

Controversial pick alert? First of all, let's get one thing straight: Yuffie's lucky to be THIS high. I used to hate her guts. I've changed my mind over the years a little as I've replayed FFVII more, and I liked her in Kingdom Hearts pretty well, too. I guess we should get the good stuff out of the way first so I can rant at the end. Yuffie's not too bad, really. She has some pretty funny lines, particularly when she's motion sick on the airship. I liked it when she tried to get Cloud to sign that contract to hand over all their materia after the battle with Sephiroth (especially how she suggested that they pick on Red XIII afterward to blow off some steam after he refused to sign). Probably the best Yuffie moment in the game right there. Yuffie is involved in one of my favorite parts of Final Fantasy VII (When Sapphire Weapon attacks Junon early in disc 2), even if it's just in a small way, so I'll give her some credit for that.

I'm not a big fan of Yuffie in battle though. I don't use her much. I like her shurikens and the fact that they're always long-range weapons. She also has the lamest Level 4 Limit Break of the bunch. There's no reason to use it over Doom of the Living because you can't break the damage limit, and I'm not sure it'd matter if you could. Doom of the Living can be a good Limit Break if you actually level her up, which I usually don't.

Yuffie's character designs in general are kinda...yucky. I do like her Advent Children redesign though. I think that one looks pretty nifty. Her FFVII design feels like they just closed their eyes and randomly picked things for her to wear. Her Kingdom Hearts I design was a little better, but not much. I just don't like the color schemes for most of her stuff. Her Dirge of Cerberus outfit is an abomination, too. What the heck is that thing?

Okay, now it's rant time. You probably know where I'm about to go with this, but I absolutely hated Yuffie the first time I played Final Fantasy VII because of Wutai. I remember her suggesting that we head west to Wutai when the Tiny Bronco got shot down, so I figured that was what I was supposed to do, and off I went. Of course, I get off on the land there, and about ten steps later, I get into a random battle, and ALL MY MATERIA IS GONE! What in the world is this?! That stupid girl stole it! Keep in mind that FFVII was only the second RPG I'd ever played (the first was Mario RPG), so I wasn't very good at it. My party was at a low level because I ran from almost every random battle (Seriously, didn't realize the need to level up with random battles for most of the game!), so trying to get to Wutai without materia was tough. Not to mention, I got confused even trying to get to Wutai in the first place because there are several branch paths on the way there that lead to dead ends.

Finally, I get to Wutai, and now I'm trying to find Yuffie. One of the things I realize right away is...I CAN'T SHOP! What is this?! I also find a treasure chest with a materia in it, and then she drops in out of nowhere and steals it! Arghhhhhh! This is so horribly frustrating! After a tedious sequence of events trying to hunt her down, it seems like I've finally got her, and then she traps my party with that stupid steel cage (and then proceeds to make a horrible pun about it to make things even worse!). Then she has to go and get kidnapped by Don Corneo, and so I actually have to take the time to rescue her! If she didn't have my materia, I'd have just left her there!

Not to mention, I hated that fight with Rapps at the top of the Dachao Statue. Somehow, I finally beat him by using Barret's Mindblow to keep him from destroying me with Aero3. What a relief. Then I finally get my materia back, but Yuffie puts it all in the wrong place! What the heck? Even when she's giving me back my stuff, she finds a way to frustrate me! So now I've got to spend several minutes rearranging my materia so it's in the right place! What in the world is wrong with this girl? I will say that I like two things about Yuffie in Wutai though. I enjoyed it when she ripped into her father for being a pansy and letting Shinra walk all over Wutai, and I enjoyed going through the Pagoda. Both of those were pretty awesome.

And here's another thing that I dislike about Yuffie that I don't see anyone else mention: I hate recruiting Yuffie into my party. Who in the world thought that recruiting a party member by trying to find her in a random battle was a good idea? I remember one time I was playing, I actually managed to find her within like the first five battles, but then I picked one of the wrong choices in the scene afterwards, so I had to do it again! And I literally spent an hour or more trying to find her again! I was about ready to give up before I finally found her. I think Cloud had Meteorain by the time I was finished (I recruit her in the forests on the way to Junon, as soon as I can). Good grief, that was terrible.

And yes, Yuffie was totally worthy of a two-post rant on how much she frustrates me. I don't understand how you Yuffie fanboys like her so much. Like I said, I like her more than I used to, but I couldn't conceive of considering her one of my favorite characters from the game!

86. High Summoner Braska (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: "Auron, I am honored that you care for me so. But I have come to kill grief itself. I will defeat Sin, and lift the veil of sorrow covering Spira."

Well, let's go ahead and get another summoner out of the way! I think Braska's a pretty neat character, though we obviously don't see much of him. His backstory is pretty neat. He married Cid's sister, and he was basically banished from Yevon for marrying an Al Bhed and having a half-breed daughter. His wife was killed by Sin, and as a result, he decided to become a summoner. Then he took on Auron and Jecht as his guardians, two other people who were Yevon rejects, Auron for refusing the daughter of the priest and Jecht for being some wacko who claimed to be from Zanarkand. It's a nice irony that Yuna herself repeated ten years later, and I thought it was interesting how Yevon basically went revisionist history on Braska after he defeated Sin. Basically, I think he did get a good bit of characterization from his backstory.

I like Braska's calm demeanor. The guy never loses his cool, even right down to the very end when it's time to make Jecht his Final Aeon and fight Sin. He never regrets what he does, and he firmly believes that he could finally be the one to break the cycle for good. He's got that same unwavering resolve that Yuna does. While he was an adherent of Yevon, he wasn't a completely blind follower, as evidenced by the fact that he married an Al Bhed and even paid visits to their Home. Plus, he went on the pilgrimage even though he had been rejected by them. He wanted a world where everyone could live together in peace and nothing would divide them more than anything else. That was his main reason for going.

And Square needs to get on making FFX-0 right away!

87. Isaaru, Maroda, and Pacce (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: ''"Since I was a child, I've always looked up to Lord Braska. I wished I would someday become a high summoner like he was." - Isaaru'' ''"Hey, I'm not looking forward to my brother dying when this is all over. If only there was some way of doing it without anyone dying." - Maroda'' ''"Hey, uhm... what's "sacrificed"? The Al Bhed said summoners were being "sacrificed"... that summoners shouldn't have to do a pilgrimage..." - Pacce''

I like these guys. They were pretty cool in Final Fantasy X. I thought it was interesting to see a different group of summoners and how they reacted to the pilgrimage (other than Dona and Barthello, who were awful and boring, respectively). They seemed like a nice, tight-knit group of brothers. Quinton Flynn did a good job with Isaaru's voice. I enjoyed the Aeon showdown with him in Via Purifico. He wasn't a bad guy at all, just deceived by Yevon more or less. They completely butchered the guy in FFX-2 with the whole "Hey look, I'm a cheesy tour guide of Zanarkand!" thing. They completely butchered Zanarkand in general in that game. They just turned it into a joke, which was a shame because of how great that area was in FFX, but that's a story for another time.

Maroda was probably the most boring guy out of the group, but I liked this guy's voice, too. Probably because he reminds me of Darien's voice from Sailor Moon (Not that I watched that or anything...Uhhh...). Anyway, moving on, there wasn't much to this guy in either game. I mostly like the guy because, once again, Maroda offers a different perspective on the pilgrimage, this time from a guardian. I like talking to the guy on the airship after finding out the truth about the summoner's pilgrimage.

Heh, and what can I say? I like Pacce, even in Final Fantasy X-2. I think the Kinderguardians are great. They just come out of nowhere and do something crazy, and then they run off. Yeah, it's just outright ridiculous for the most part, but hey, that's FFX-2 for ya! You just have to take it for what it is. He also gives you the Cat's Bell, which is ridiculously awesome and got me through Via Infinito.

On their own, these guys aren't much, but I like them as a group of brothers. I thought it was interesting how they kind of drifted apart in Final Fantasy X-2 after being so close during Final Fantasy X. It just goes along with one of FFX-2's themes about how things like politics and war end up dividing even the closest of relationships at times. I thought it was pretty sad in a way. I do like how they end up coming back together to protect Bevelle after YUNA SAVES THE WORLD WITH A CHARITY CONCERT (The second greatest "How I saved the world" tale next to Rocky IV: How Rocky Won the Cold War).

Anyway, to make a lame write-up short: KINDERGUARDIANS, MOVE OUT!

88. Rin (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: "Thank you. Your patronage is very much appreciated."

First of all, Rin has a great voice. I like listening to this guy talk. Hard to believe it's the same guy who does the voice of Spongebob Squarepants! Anyway, I like Rin because he's not your typical Al Bhed. He's not all anti-Yevon like most of them are, though he does love Home and the Al Bhed culture. He has the goggles like most of them do, but he doesn't wear them over his eyes. He's not ashamed to be an Al Bhed, but he's not a Yevon hater either. He seems to want a world where Yevon and the Al Bhed can coexist, and he does a good job of that in his own right with his successful shops along the Pilgrimage paths.

Rin is usually very calm and collected. Even when the airship is being attacked by monsters and Guado, he remains so calm that even Wakka makes a comment about it. "I am calm about most things." I also love it when you're about to fight Evrae and Rin comes to offer you some last minute supplies. Afterward, Wakka's like, "We gotta pay?!" And Rin says, "I have faith in your victory." That was awesome. He's always a businessman at heart, this guy. He also helped care for Auron after he was attacked by Yunalesca and had climbed all the way down Gagazet. I'm guessing that Auron actually died under Rin's care. It wasn't much, but I thought it was a pretty neat backstory and it gave some foreshadowing as to Auron's true nature.

I thought it was interesting how they kind of gave Rin a darker side in Final Fantasy X-2. If you take the time to solve the mystery of the machina going haywire on the Mi'ihen Highroad, you can actually pinpoint Rin as the culprit of the whole thing. He basically says that he doesn't care about the consequences, but he plans to cover up what happened so that machina can continue to gain acceptance in Spira. I think he recruited Shinra at the end to help him with harnessing Farplane energy and stuff, too. The whole thing seems out of character for Rin based on FFX, but at the same time, it seemed kinda neat to put that sort of twist on his character.

89. NORG (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "'BLUE'-YELLOW-RED. LOTS-OF-MAGIC-WHEN-RED! AS-LONG-AS-COLOR-STAYS, I-WILL-ATTACK-SeeD-WITH-MAGIC! Bujurururu..."

NORG-WILL-NOT-GO-DOWN-SO-EASILY! Seriously, could you imagine what NORG would sound like if they remade Final Fantasy VIII with voice acting? How could that dude be anything other than a deep voice like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, only about ten times louder? I imagine you need earplugs if you ever have a meeting with him. Overall, I do think that NORG is kinda interesting, even if it does seem like they just threw him in there for about 15 minutes, you beat him, and he disappears, despite the fact that he's supposed to be pretty important overall. He could have used some backstory, like what made him turn out so differently from all the other Shumi. Could've been interesting.

I do like the scene where you confront NORG in the basement though. Headmaster Cid starts going crazy with his old man tantrum, and then NORG unloads a whole bunch of plot revelations on you. He explains that the party got tricked by Martine into carrying out his orders to assassinate the sorceress, and so now NORG plans to offer your heads on a silver platter to Edea so that she won't destroy Balamb Garden and cause him to lose all his money. Then they argue over who the Garden really belongs to. The background music ("Heresy") is pretty fitting for this part of the game, too. It helps build the intensity of the scene.

But in the midst of all of this, NORG throws a complete curveball plot twist that came entirely out of nowhere. When Squall says that the Garden doesn't just belong to NORG, he asks if it belongs to Cid and Edea, that pathetic married couple. No buildup, no foreshadowing, no hinting, no nothing. He just throws it out there as if it's no big deal! Lamest introduction of a plot twist ever, especially one as important as that one was. NORG apparently likes blurting important things as if they're no big deal, such as revealing how his pod works before the boss fight against him begins. A non-tutorial boss telling you exactly how to defeat him? What's up with that, NORG!

Overall, I do like NORG for what he is, but he could've been a lot more if they'd taken the time to do some more with him. Instead, he shows up for about 15 minutes, and then he's gone. Well, you can draw Bio from his cocoon after he dies, but that's about it.

90. Marquis Mesdoram Elmdor (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "Are you abandoning her? I thought you came here to save her, knowing there'd be danger."

This guy is just...cool, I guess. He's a pretty minor character overall, but I like him. He's got one of the best sprites in the game, and he's got an awesome nickname: Silver Ogre. How cool is that? Plus, he's a Samurai (Ark Knight technically, but it's essentially the same thing as a Samurai). He's got some pretty good boss fights (Even if the fight on the Roof of Riovanes Castle is one of the most annoying things I've ever done in a game), particularly at Limberry Castle. If you're patient enough to get it all, he's also the only source of Genji equipment in Final Fantasy Tactics, if I'm not mistaken.

Elmdor appearing on the roof of Riovanes Castle and revealing himself to be one of the Templar Knights was one of the bigger out-of-nowhere "What the?" moments in the game. Here I was thinking he was just some noble I had to rescue at the beginning of the game and I'd never see him again. I had no idea the guy would become a villain (Plus, I think one of the updates in the game said he was supposedly killed in battle, which made it even weirder when he showed up). Anyway, Elmdor is a pretty cool villain.

91. Cait Sith (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "...Something bothers me. I think it's your way of life. You don't get paid. You don't get praised. Yet, you still risk your lives and continue on your journey."

And it's our first main party member from Final Fantasy VII! Now I don't hate Cait Sith like a lot of people do. There's a certain aspect to him I like, but he's definitely my least favorite of the FFVII crew. I'm not really sure how I feel about the guy's design. Sure, it's ludicrous, but at the same time, there's something almost charming about a cat with a megaphone riding on top of a stuffed moogle. Go figure. I don't particularly care to use the guy in battle either, although I do like his Limit Breaks. He does give you the Manipulate materia though, which is invaluable for getting some of the best Enemy Skills, so that's nice.

As a character...Well, Cait Sith has one of the most farfetched and ridiculous reasons to join your party out of just about any game (I know it was basically just a setup by Reeve so he could sneak his way into your party, but still, you don't realize that when you first meet the thing). "That's a weird fortune! Well, time to go find out what it means! *walks inside Cloud's body*" Well then. He has some pretty weird moments like that, such as when he's about to get the Black Materia from the Temple of the Ancients. "There may be many stuffed bodies laying around, but there's just one me!" Five minutes later..."Hey, I'm Cait Sith #2! How y'all doin'?" Well then.

I personally like the scene when you find out that Cait Sith is a traitor and a spy. I like how he says that he's not entirely their enemy and how being with them has really got him thinking about his life. I dunno, I like it when characters go through moral dilemmas and start wondering if the way they've been living their life has been the right way. Of course, he's not entirely remorseful (After all, he still lets Shinra beat you to the Temple of the Ancients), but he does slowly change. I like how he basically does a complete turnaround: He starts off spying on you for Shinra, but by the time you get to disc 2, he's spying on Shinra for you. The part when he nails Scarlet with sleeping gas in Junon is pretty awesome, too. Plus, I love that whole sequence in Junon when Sapphire Weapon attacks.

I also like how Cait Sith eventually calls Barret out for what he did with the No. 1 Reactor. Barret probably hated him more than anyone and never really accepted him because he was a Shinra spy, but at that point, he realized that what he had done wasn't much better than what Shinra does. It seems like he finally accepts him as a member of the party even though he's part of Shinra. Heck, Marlene is even holding the Cait Sith doll at the end of Advent Children.

I think Reeve must be fond of having strange accents on Cait Sith. It seems like the first one talks normally enough, but the second one talks with what I presume is some sort of Southern drawl, for whatever the reason. Then the one in Advent Children speaks with a Scottish accent. Reeve needs to make up his mind! I think the dude's pretty funny in Advent Children, too. The voice is just great. I wonder what happened to the big stuffed moogle though. Maybe it was just too difficult for computer animation? Plus, what in the world would the thing even do? It seems ridiculous enough to have a stuffed moogle beat the crap out of stuff in Final Fantasy VII. How could you make that work in Advent Children without having to suspend your disbelief at how this moogle can hurt Bahamut Sin or something? Well, whatever.

92. Baku (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "You got a big heart, unlike that knucklehead, Steiner. No wonder the women are runnin' the show here. Gwahahaha!"

Hey look, it's another Tantalus dude, and this time, it's the leader! I originally had Baku a good bit higher than this, but then I felt weird about having him so high over a lot of characters, so I bumped him down. Regardless, I still think he's a pretty cool character, one of the funnier guys in Final Fantasy IX. Baku is usually doing one of two things: Sneezing or laughing for no reason. He's the guy who basically sets in motion one of the more entertaining parts of the game: The love letter chain misunderstanding, first by Eiko somehow bouncing off of his stomach and over the railing, getting snagged by her angel wings, and second, by accidentally losing the letter instead of delivering it to Zidane. I also love how he constantly gets Doctor Tot's name wrong while he's talking to Marcus about him. Aw yeah, Doctor Toot.

Overall, Baku seems like a pretty tough guy. He attacks your party at the very beginning wearing a mask (and they seem worn out after the battle while he seems perfectly fine). He tells Zidane that he has to fight him in order to leave Tantalus to save Dagger. Zidane tells Dagger that Baku beat the crap out of him when he came back from searching for the homeland he dreamed about with the blue light. He punishes Cinna for falling out of line and disobeying orders on one occasion. He refuses to let Zidane rejoin Tantalus at the beginning of disc 3 when he's moping over Dagger.

However, it seems like Baku really cares about Tantalus, and the reason he's so hard on them is because he needs to be in order to get things done, not just because he wants to be. Despite having an outward appearance of incompetence, Baku finds a way to rally Tantalus together to get things done. He kept everything organized during the play so they could kidnap Garnet. He gets things organized after the airship crashes in Evil Forest and gets everyone out safely (except for Blank). He organizes Tantalus to find Dagger when she goes missing at one point in the game.

So while Baku appears to be a tough guy, he really does seem to care about his people. Zidane realized that Baku held back during their fight (even though he sucker-punched him good after the fight). After Zidane leaves, Baku sends a letter to him about using abilities. Even after he beats the crap out of him for leaving and coming back, Baku laughs it off, and it makes Zidane feel like Tantalus is his family. He even thinks of Baku as a father figure of sorts.

Gwahahahahah!

ACHOO!

93. Marcus (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "I never asked you to come along. Quit complaining."

Despite being a mixture of pirate, thief, and goblin, I like Marcus pretty well. Tantalus as a whole is a pretty cool group, I think. There's really one main segment involving Marcus, and that's the beginning of disc 2 when he joins Steiner and Dagger for a little while. He joins you in a situation of mutual interest. You're both headed to Treno, Dagger to see Dr. Tot and Marcus to get the Supersoft to save Blank. He's got some good one-liners, and he plays off of Steiner's extreme reactions pretty well. He doesn't seem to be bothered by him, such as when Steiner gets outraged when Marcus tells him that they're going to steal the Supersoft. He simply says, "Well, how else did you think we were going to get it?"

Overall, Marcus seems like a loyal guy. He doesn't turn his back on a friend. He never gives up on finding a way to save Blank from the petrification in Evil Forest, and he eventually is able to save him. He even goes back to Alexandria with Blank to help out Zidane and Dagger. He could have just as easily run back to Tantalus and forgotten about it, but even though Zidane wasn't a member of their troupe anymore, he still honored the friendship they had and came to help him. He even stays behind to help Steiner, Beatrix, and Freya, and he and Blank help to care for them after they were exhausted from all the fighting they did. He just seems like a good guy overall, and I like him.

Marcus isn't too bad of an actor either! He must be pretty good to get the lead role in "I Want to Be Your Canary!"

94. Marlene Wallace (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: “HOW YOU S'POSED T' 'LOOK'AFTER YO' FAMILY IF YOU CAN'T EVEN 'LOOK'AFTER YO'SELF?”

Best line in the movie right there and totally made the purchase of Advent Children Complete worth it! Honestly, I know this is a ranking of characters in the games and stuff, but Marlene is this high because of the movie. I think she's a really good character in it, one of the better ones, really, but we'll get to that in a minute. Let's cover Marlene in Final Fantasy VII itself first.

When we first meet Marlene, it's at Tifa's Seventh Heaven in Midgar. She's revealed to be Barret's daughter, and she won't even talk to Cloud when you first meet her, even if you give her the flower you bought from Aerith. Marlene's got some funny lines and some funny moments. If you talk to Marlene right after Barret knocks Biggs nearly through the roof, she'll say, "Papa, you're so great!" I can't blame her for thinking that either! That was one of the greatest uppercuts I've ever seen! Another strange thing is, when you leave for Reactor 5 in the morning, if you go back to the bar, Marlene will be behind the counter playing with the drinks! What the...Where's the supervision for this kid?!

One of my favorite Marlene moments is when you find her at Aerith's house. She goes up to Cloud and tells him that Aerith was asking all kinds of questions about him. She'll say that she bets Aerith likes him, and you have the option of saying you hope so or you're not sure about it. If you say you hope so, she promises not to tell Tifa (Perceptive little kid, she is!), or if you say you're not sure, she calls you stupid! Aw yeah.

Although, really, in FFVII, Marlene serves as little more than a plot device. Aerith lets Tseng take her back to Shinra Headquarters in exchange for her safety. Cait Sith holds her hostage in exchange for Cloud and company's cooperation. Heck, after you talk to her at Aerith's house, you don't see her again until the ending when she looks out of the window and sees Meteor. I thought it was interesting that Marlene somehow seemed to perceive Aerith's presence when Lifestream started to move (and she notices it again in the movie when she causes the rain that heals Geostigma. Why don't they explore this aspect a little more?)The only other time she has a line is when Cait Sith reveals he's holding her hostage, and he lets her speak (somehow) to prove that he has her.

I really like the relationship between Barret and Marlene. I think she brings out the best in Barret's character, so I was kinda sad that it was never explored further in Advent Children. He only mentions her twice the entire movie (of course, he's barely in it), and she only mentions him in that awesome line. You only see them together at the very, very end. He's still out traveling all over the place instead of being with her. I was kinda hoping that had changed a bit, but oh well. Not enough FF games explore that sort of parent/child relationship (although it looks like FFXIII will do that, and whaddya know, it's with another black guy!), so I enjoyed that.

In Advent Children, Marlene is awesome. She's a very caring girl, and she seems like she's had to grow up quickly with all of the kids who've gotten Geostigma, especially Denzel, whom she helps care for. All she wants is for Cloud to come back and be with them again. She doesn't put up with his crap either. She won't let him make excuses, and she gets onto him when he does. She seems to have a mixture of Tifa's and Aerith's personalities (and she wears her hair like Aerith now). Also, the part where she throws Materia at Loz's head was awesome.

Hey look, it's a child character done well. That's a rarity.

95. Dyne (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "These hands are a little too stained to carry Marlene anymore…”

For a guy who only appears in two scenes (one of which is a flashback at Corel), I like Dyne a lot. I think his story's pretty sad. He was the only guy who didn't want the Mako Reactor in Corel, and he let Barret talk him out of it. I can only imagine what was running through his mind when he came back that day to see the village in flames. I'm sure he was wishing he hadn't given in to everyone else and had held his ground. There may have been a sense of regret and guilt. Then he lost his left arm, and the thought of losing his family over time turned his sorrow, his guilt, and his regret into bitterness and anger. Like Barret, he replaced his arm with a gun, and he began to hate life.

I enjoyed Barret's confrontation with Dyne in the Corel Prison. The dialogue was good. He talks about how he could hear his wife begging him not to hate Barret's rotten guts, and that was the only thing that kept him from hunting him down (and this is something I'll touch on more when I get to Barret, but why does Barret get ALL the blame for what happened to Corel anyway? He wasn't the only person for the reactor). Dyne tells Barret he's got nothing left (I thought it was a nice touch in this scene, in the background of the picture I posted you can see two crosses, which act as grave markers for his wife and Marlene, whom he assumed was dead).

Then Barret tells Dyne that Marlene's alive and he's been taking care of her. That prompts him to want to start a fight with Barret, saying that he's going to kill Marlene so that she can go be with her mother. That's just crazy stuff and tells a lot about how far he's fallen. I enjoyed the boss fight, too. As I mentioned in an earlier write-up, I'm a big fan of one-on-one confrontation boss fights, and this is no exception. It can actually be a decently challenging fight because he's got some pretty hard-hitting moves like Molotov Cocktail, so you constantly have to heal, but basically as long as you keep healed up, you can let Dyne built your Limit meter and take him out with Limit Breaks.

After the fight, Barret invites Dyne to come with him to see Marlene, but he refuses, saying that his hands are too stained to carry his daughter anymore. Plus, she wouldn't even remember him now. He gives Barret his silver pendant, and then he willingly falls off of the cliff to his death. I thought that was pretty sad and emotionally touching. I really like that scene. Barret's reaction, saying that his hands aren't any cleaner than Dyne's, was very good as well.

96. Maester Yo Mika (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: "No matter how many summoners give their lives, Sin cannot be truly defeated. The rebirth cannot be stopped. Yet the courage of those who fight gives the people hope. There is nothing futile in the life and death of a summoner."

This guy is sorta in the same vein as President Shinra, being the one in charge of the most powerful organization in the world. However, Mika gets a different treatment as he's not openly evil from the get-go. Even though I could tell that Seymour was going to be the bad guy from the start and that Kinoc was corrupt as well, I still thought that maybe Mika was still a good guy, kinda like how Kelk Ronso was. He was a good guy, just unaware of what Yevon and Seymour were really up to, I thought. Of course, since the guy was the big cheese, I should've known better, but still. It must have been the kind, grandpa-like voice! I do like his voice acting. He had a cool voice.

But then, when you're standing on trial for treason, the crap hits the fan. Mika reveals that he's unsent, and he reveals that there is no true way to defeat Sin. He says that there is no way to stop the rebirth. He talks about how the summoner's pilgrimage gives the people hope. Sounds an awful lot like Yunalesca. I wonder if he ever met her...? I don't know why he would have, but still, I wonder. Mika basically shatters what remains of Yuna and company's faith in Yevon with his revelations.

It's hard to even consider Mika a bad guy, really, but I guess he is. He's definitely not like Seymour in wanting to destroy Spira or anything like that. His goals aren't like that. He seems more like he just wants to keep things as they are and appease Yu Yevon. He says something to that effect when he says, "Yevon is embodied by eternal, unchanging continuity." Mika even changes his stance on Yuna being a heretic once he realizes she's obtained the final summoning because he wants her to defeat Sin and give Spira hope. Mika actually does seem to care about Spira. That's why he willingly sends himself once he learns the party defeated Yunalesca. Overall, I think he's a pretty neat character. He's not your typical pure evil villain, which is nice.

97. President Shinra (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "These days, all it takes for your dreams to come true is money and power."

President Shinra is a pretty awesome dude. He makes a good villain for the first part of the game when you're in Midgar. He's got some great lines and he's a hateable guy. You really want to take the guy out because he's such a jerk. All he wants is more money and more power, and he doesn't care who he has to destroy to get it. He seems fully aware of the effects that Mako Reactors have on the Planet, and he just doesn't care as long as he gets what he wants. President Shinra barely seems to acknowledge your existence and he doesn't view AVALANCHE as much of a threat, he seems. It feels like he thinks of himself (and Shinra in general) as invincible, so he just does whatever he feels like doing. Plus, the dude just sits in his office listening to Handel as he watches the plate fall on Sector 7. That's hardcore.

But then President Shinra gets killed by Sephiroth, and he basically just gets forgotten. He gets shown up by Sephiroth, of course, and then by his own son, Rufus. He's a quality villain for the first part of the game when you're just in Midgar the whole time, but it doesn't seem like he could've cut it for the whole game. There just isn't a whole lot to him, really. He could've gotten a lot higher on this list if he'd just been around a little longer, and if he didn't get completely overshadowed by other villains. I like what we see of the guy. He just needed more.

98. Selphie Tilmitt (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "It doesn't matter! We have to stop the missiles! That's all there is to it, right!? If there's a door, we go in! If there's anything we can break, we break! And in the end, we blow this place to smithereens!"

The first FFVIII main character to make the list. Where do I even start with Selphie? Hopefully, this won't take up too much space, but here goes! She's easily my least favorite of the group, but in all honesty, she's not that bad. The main problem with Selphie (other than that stupid train song she's sings!) is that she's probably the least developed character in FFVIII (which, in a game where not many characters get a lot of development, is pretty bad), and you don't really see many aspects of her personality. She's almost always the unwavering, happy-go-lucky optimist with basically only one exception (When you visit Trabia Garden and see all the devastation from the missile launch, which could almost be seen as adding a subtle nuance to her character, how she always tries her best to be cheerful on the outside to encourage everyone around her even when she's hurting on the inside). Selphie is essentially a one-dimensional character, though I do find that one dimension of her character enjoyable most of the time. I don't really think of her as annoying (except, once again, when she sings that stupid train song!), though maybe I'm in the minority on that.

My favorite Selphie moment is when she takes charge and infiltrates the Galbadian Missile Base in order to stop the launch on Balamb Garden. She's so gung-ho and over-the-top the whole time, and I love it! The other two party members even comment on it. The quote I posted of hers basically sums that mentality up. She wasn't just looking to stop the launch. No, sir, that's not good enough. They're trying to blow up Trabia Garden, so now they're gonna get blown up, too! Aw yeah. That was an awesome part of the game. She's generally gung-ho and over-the-top most of the time (Jumping off of a cliff to chase Seifer, going crazy with the Ragnarok breaking into Lunatic Pandora), but she went crazy here! I also enjoyed the concert at Fisherman's Horizon. That was a cool part of the game.

Another thing I enjoy is how, when Selphie says completely ridiculous things, the party just tends to ignore her and act like she didn't say anything. She says that President Deling is going to broadcast a message of love and peace? Silence. During the orphanage scene, Selphie proclaims that she lied about never junctioning a GF before. Silence. Later, she says that everyone should keep a diary so they don't forget any more stuff. Silence. I guess that goes back to the idea that she really doesn't contribute much or have much to contribute to the overall plot. She's just there most of the time, but I don't mind. Final Fantasy VIII's characters shine when they're together and interact as friends. Character interaction is top notch here, I think. They actually seem like they like each other and they're real friends. They don't develop a lot individually, but you see them grow as friends, which is something I liked a lot about FFVIII. Selphie's a good friend, too, so she fits in.

Selphie also has a...strange sense of humor, and she's often not afraid to speak her mind. I love it when she tells Rinoa that the model train car for the president was one of the ugliest things she's ever seen in her life, so the Forest Owls must really hate him. You also have the option of making fun of Zell in the Dollet exam, and Selphie plays along with the Chicken-Wuss joke. In the D-District Prison, she suggests skinning the Moomba alive and wearing his skin as a disguise. She also tells people "Up yours!" on more than one occasion.

Another great thing about Selphie: She's a Laguna fangirl. You can't go wrong there. Whenever you find Timber Maniacs magazines, she'll post them on her blog (As far as I know, she's the first and only blogger in Final Fantasy history) in the Garden Square. She even goes so far as to call him "Sir Laguna." I think she's got a bit of a crush on the guy! But he is super cool, so I can't blame her!

Speaking of fangirls and crushes, I'm thinking someone on the FFVIII team was a Selphie fanboy. The game gives Squall more opportunities to be nice to Selphie than any other character. That seems strange to me, but it's true. When Selphie runs into you in the hallway at the beginning of the game, you're given the option to ask if she's okay. When she asks for a tour, you're giving the option to be nice or to blow her off. You're given TWO opportunities to join the Garden Festival Committee, including once at the SeeD party (where you don't get an opportunity to be nice to Zell, I might add!). You get an opportunity to joke with Selphie about Zell being a Chicken-Wuss. You're given the option to cheer up Selphie in FH when it seems like there won't be a Garden Festival, and you're given the option to cheer up Selphie at Trabia Garden. There's even an Amano art of Squall and Selphie together.

And here's the kicker: If you go into Zell's room with Selphie in your party, she'll start bouncing on his bed, and he'll start to get mad at her and say she shouldn't act like that in someone else's room. Selphie plays it off like it's fine and says he shouldn't be so upset about it. At this point, you're given the choice either to agree with Zell or agree with Selphie. If you want to agree with Zell, that's fine, but Selphie lowers your SeeD rank as a result! What?! Since when did she get so much authority with SeeD? Seriously, who's responsible for all this stuff? I bet whoever it was is a fan of Squall/Selphie, and when he couldn't have it, he gave Squall secret choices to satisfy his inner fanboy or something. I bet he reads bad Squall/Selphie fanfiction, too.

99. Zone and Watts (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "Our resistance, 'The 'Forest 'Owls', will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence! Exciting, huh?"

These guys are basically a friendly version of Biggs and Wedge in Final Fantasy VIII. They're a couple of good comic relief characters who aren't really that important or relevant overall, but I end up liking them anyway. They play off of each other well and have some pretty good lines. You first meet these guys in Timber as part of your first SeeD mission. You're supposed to help the Forest Owls achieve liberation for Timber from Galbadian control. Watts is the guy who meets you at the train station to test you to make sure you're the right people, but it's much funnier to give him the wrong password. Eventually, Galbadia destroys the Forest Owls' hideout, and they're forced to flee Timber. Somehow, they end up getting taken in by the White SeeD Ship, where you eventually meet them again. There isn't much to see with them here.

In general, Zone is the so-called leader of the Forest Owls (though Rinoa usually ends up taking command and forming the strategies). He likes naughty magazines (as Rinoa is very quick to let you know, for some reason, but hey, the info comes in handy because you can get the Shiva Card from him by giving him one) and dislikes troublesome situations. In fact, his stomach often causes him great pain at the thought of trouble, accompanied by a very awkward sound effect. Zone is also fond of leaving Watts behind on the train, leaving him to chase after it to catch up. Aw yeah. He also makes Squall promise that nothing will happen to Rinoa, and he starts yelling at him on the White SeeD Ship once he finds out she's fallen into a coma.

Watts is the information-gatherer who calls everyone "Sir," and for that reason, I tend to think of him as being voiced by Anthony Daniels (the voice of C-3PO). Information gathering in his specialty, in fact, as he's quick to let you know. The dude needs a haircut something fierce. Basically, in this slapstick duo, he's the Costello to Zone's Abbott. He's the butt of all the jokes, always getting left behind, and so on. He's very passive in general. He's also fond of long swims across the ocean to escape from Galbadian attacks.

100. Biggs and Wedge (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: ''"S-So we meet again! Now we'll teach you the lesson we should have taught you earlier! I know it might seem cowardly to fight unarmed prisoners... ...But I hope you appreciate our position. Hey, it's a dog eat do..." - Biggs'' "Uh, they're fully armed, sir..." - Wedge

I imagine I'm gonna get a bunch of "I totally forgot about these guys until you mentioned them!" responses to this, but here we go! I think Biggs and Wedge are pretty good for what they are: Throwaway joke villains who barely pose any threat, but have some good lines. You first meet this duo during the SeeD Exam in Dollet on top of the Communication Tower. They're barely any tougher than your average Galbadian soldier grunts, so the fights aren't that great other than the quotes, such as Biggs trying to sic Wedge on you, and then trying to sneak away when he realizes Wedge isn't coming. It was also great when Wedge eventually does show up and Biggs tells him he isn't getting paid this month, and he says he should've stayed home! I think Galbadian soldiers are just as bad off as Detective Gumshoe when it comes to pay rate!

You don't see Biggs and Wedge again until disc 2 when you're in D-District Prison. A great moment was when the two of them come in, see Zell and Selphie, and then all four of them scream upon recognizing each other. This fight isn't any different than the first one, other than the fact that you can cast Confuse on them with amusing results. They're run off a line or two upon getting attacked by their comrade, and Biggs will even attack Wedge in retaliation! I suppose the annoying thing about these guys is that, after you beat them the first time, Biggs sends X-ATM092 (who I totally forgot to put on this list, whoops!) after you, and after you beat them the second time, he activates the security alarm. They cause more trouble for you that way than just fighting them.

You meet Biggs and Wedge one last time at the end of disc 3 in Lunatic Pandora. It looks like there's going to be one more boss fight, but Biggs's frustration has reached the breaking point. Wedge jokingly suggests they quit, and Biggs takes him up on it. The two of them just walk right past you without so much as a word, and that's the end of that. They're the first Biggs and Wedge to actually survive the events of the game, too! They're also the first Biggs and Wedge to be enemies (Well, I guess technically Biggs and Wedge in FFVI would be bad guys since they're in the Empire, but you fight with them, not against them). That's something to be proud of, boys.

101. Olan Durai (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "Destiny lies in my hands! Stop movement! Galaxy Stop!"

Olan's one of those guys I like, but I don't like a whole lot. There isn't a whole lot to like about him because he's not a frequently seen character. In fact, you don't see him at all until chapter 3. He's obviously very important to the overall plot because he wrote the Durai Report which told the true account of the Lion War. I thought it was cool that he was willing to write it, likely fully aware of the repercussions he would suffer from the Church of Glabados as a result. That took some courage. And, I guess, without this guy (in a not-really-but-bear-with-me-here kind of way), we don't have the Final Fantasy Tactics story. It would be lost to history.

Olan's one of the few guys in the Final Fantasy Tactics world who isn't out to manipulate people and events to his own ends, which is a refreshing change of pace in a game where it seems like everyone is triple-crossing everyone else. He tells Ramza that he considers him an ally and a friend, even though he'd been branded a heretic (though Olan seemed to realize that was a bogus claim) and was a Beoulve. I liked how he didn't let things like that get in the way of making a friendship, like that loser Algus. He obviously learned a lot from his stepfather Orlandu. That's another thing that's cool about Olan: He's related to Orlandu. He gets some cool points by proxy.

I really like the scene where Olan confronts Delita about his ways (the one where Ovelia pretends to go to her room but secretly eavesdrops). I like how he's one of the few people who won't put up with Delita's crap and won't let himself be used by him, even if it meant death. I also wonder at the end if he really saw Ramza and Alma or not. It seems unlikely that he did. They should be dead just like the rest, but who knows? Maybe, somehow, they survived. If Olan didn't see them, what did he see and/or why did he see it?

Oh, and Galaxy Stop is such an awesome move. Too bad you only get to see it in one battle and no one else in your party can learn it (excepting hacks and stuff, which I don't use).

102. Amarant Coral (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "Picking fights with strangers in a place like this... I used to know someone like that. He was a loser... He refused to find beneficial ways to use his power. Instead, he'd seek out people to fight..."

Some of Amano's best work right there. Anyway, Final Fantasy IX was pretty hit or miss when it came to main party members. This is already the third one from the game, and we still haven't mentioned a single one from a couple of the other games. There isn't very much to Amarant as a character, and you don't acquire him in your party until late in the 2nd disc. Once FFIX hits disc 3, the less important party members get forgotten, and that includes Amarant. He doesn't really get a chance to develop as a character because he doesn't really get any attention. Well, he does get Ipsen's Castle, I guess, which kind of seems to change him, but he doesn't really show it outwardly (though he does actually start doing a victory pose after battle after you rescue him in Ipsen's Castle). Amarant's journeys with Zidane and company do seem to change him. After all, he goes to the "Hey, we saved the world!" class reunion one year later during the ending, and he even applauds when Zidane and Dagger get back together on stage. I just wish he would bother to show it. I know he's supposed to be the brooding, introspective, mysterious guy, but even those characters in other Final Fantasy games show us a little.

Amarant's backstory and reason for wanting to get "even" with Zidane are lame though. He doesn't really seem like the type to be a security guard for anyone, although I guess he just did it so he could pick fights with thugs. But basically he wants revenge because Zidane punked him and played him like a fiddle? I dunno, normally getting framed for a crime you didn't commit can be a decent motive, but Amarant doesn't even really seem to care about that aspect of it. It's just like he got embarrassed and wanted to get Zidane back. He's basically like that kid in school who got punked on an awesome prank, and now he's trying to get back at the ones who set him up for it. His motive just seems...immature, I guess. Well, part of his reason for joining the party is that Zidane intrigues him, and he wants to understand him better. He basically ends up treating Zidane like he's an idiot at every opportunity though, even at the end, so who knows if it worked.

I did like the boss fight against Amarant in FFIX. I tend to like one-on-one showdowns in RPGs, so this one was pretty good to me. The whole jumping around from place to place was just kinda...weird though. I didn't really get the point. Just wait for him to say "Here I come" and stop, and then attack him. It's not like you have to figure out some trick. He just makes it obvious. I do like that Amarant has some sort of a sense of honor as well, such as not tolerating Lani holding Eiko hostage.

I never really use Amarant in battle though, other than when you first get him and Oeilvert. He seems like a good character. Flair's a pretty good ability, and Elan is one of the better Trances, but I tend to use the characters I like most as my main party. Amarant doesn't fit the bill, so he doesn't get used much. He just joins the party too late, I guess.

I thought it was interesting how Amarant seemed to develop some sort of mutual respect with Freya. She's the one he opens up to about his past, and he seems to open up to her at the Fire Shrine (where my quote of his comes from). The game doesn't really explore it beyond those two scenes, but I thought it had potential (just like so many other things in FFIX). Oh, and words cannot express how disappointed I am that they didn't keep his name as "Salamander" in the English translation.

103. Zorn and Thorn (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: ''"They fell for it again!" - Zorn'' "Really stupid, they are!" - Thorn

At times, these guys are annoying. At times, I find them somewhat amusing. I think I find them more annoying than amusing though. I think the whole "Repeating what the other one says in different order" is an...interesting gimmick, but it sure can be annoying sometimes. I think it's pretty funny when they keep arguing with each other at the Desert Palace and Kuja tells them to shut up. It was also pretty awesome when Zidane owned them on the airship on the way to Oeilvert. Eiko owning them by summoning Madeen at Gulug Volcano is probably her high point as a character. They're decent comic relief villains overall, I guess, but not that great. They're not really intimidating enough to be a serious threat, but they show up and cause enough trouble to be a nuisance. The series has better villains that fit the role though.

The first boss fight against them is pretty easy. You just have to keep hitting the one who has the magic, and they don't do anything to you. I think you're still fighting the time limit to rescue Dagger at that time, but unless you're really bad at the game, it shouldn't be an issue. Nice reference to Palom and Porom's Twin magic there though. The second boss fight (where they merge into Meltigemini) is annoying, thanks to their stupid Virus status they put on you that prevents you from gaining EXP or AP. They're not really any more of a threat, just an annoyance as usual.

But in spite of all of those things, "Jesters of the Moon" is an awesome theme. It's awesome enough to get them ranked 103rd despite not having much else I like about them. FFIX's got a great soundtrack.

104. Paine (Final Fantasy X-2)

Quote: "I’ll say this once, okay? I consider you friends, and I trust you. I even respect you. All right? I would think that’d be enough."

Hmmm...I'm not really sure what to think about Paine. She wasn't really that great of an addition to the FFX world, but at the same time, you add a third character into the game who's like Rikku, then who knows if Yuna ever does anything but have pajama parties and music concerts? She helps keep the tone of the game from getting too silly at times, which is nice in a way and definitely needed. As a character, she's not all that interesting. She's not much more than your typical "mysterious character with a hidden past." Paine just kind of serves as a reality check and a "Hey, let's get back to business." She does have a bit of a silly side that comes out on very rare occasions, but nowhere near the extent of Yuna or Rikku. Her voice actor kinda bothers me, too, because it seems like she's just monotone the whole time. Maybe that's what they were going for, but it's still not good. Also, I'm not sure why Square thought a girl with short gray hair was attractive. Maybe they were trying to appeal subtly to the MILF demographic or something.

Paine's background story with the Crimson Squad was decent. Not great, but decent. She doesn't really do much other than record everything and then get shot by Nooj. It takes a long time before she ever bothers to talk about it, and trying to solve what happened in the Den of Woe is basically her reason for joining the Gullwings. She seems to open up little by little as you figure out the truth of what happened, but she still doesn't open up too much.

Personally, I tend to think Paine represents the player's feelings toward playing Final Fantasy X-2: Often annoyed at the game's silly antics, and yet at the same time, secretly enjoying it somewhat and being afraid to admit it. She does have some great battle quotes, too.

Yuna: "Give me a Y!"

Rikku: "Give me an R!"

Paine: "...Give me a break."

Aw yeah, Paine.

105. Elena (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "No, I can handle him! There's no way he can avoid my punch."

I used to think Elena was more annoying than anything else, and in some ways, she's still annoying, but I like her more than I used to. She provides some great unintentional humor, such as coming up and talking to Cloud casually about how Reno and Rude are so stupid for always talking about who they like, and then realizing who she's talking to. Whoops! She has a tendency just to run off at the mouth before she realizes what she's saying. She's more like Tseng than she's like Reno and Rude, which makes sense since she likes Tseng, I guess. She takes being a Turk very seriously. The difference between Elena and her other two Turk buddies is most clearly seen in Wutai, where she runs off in frustration at Reno and Rude's reluctance to work on their vacation. Like I said before, she's pretty careless sometimes, so she ends up getting kidnapped by Corneo. One thing that kinda struck me about that: Rude seems to be genuinely concerned for Elena (more than Reno does), almost to the point where it almost seems like he has feelings for her (though he claims to like Tifa).

Another neat thing I like about Elena is that she fights with her hands. She doesn't use a weapon, she just beats the crap out of you with her fists. That's pretty hardcore. She and Tifa are like the only characters in the series who don't use weapons. She's a pretty tough girl, as evidenced by the fact that she's able to KO Cloud with a single punch to the gut (like what happened to me the first time I played because I didn't know how to dodge). Despite her faults, Reno and Rude actually seem to respect Elena as a Turk over time. Reno even says she was a great Turk if you refuse to fight them in Midgar.

But the main reason that Elena ends up this high is that amazing scene at Icicle Inn. Sidestepping her punch and watching her momentum somehow send her rolling through the snow and make a right turn down the snowboarding course is incredible. Like I said, I didn't get to see that the first time I played, but when I saw that scene the second time through, I enjoyed it greatly. Plus, she's pretty cute in a way, which always helps.

106. The Chocobo Knights – Lucil, Elma, and Clasko (Final Fantasy X) Quote: ''"Where there's a will, there's a way." - Captain Lucil''

These guys don't stand out enough on their own to deserve individual write-ups, but as a unit, they're pretty cool. Let's deal with them in the order I like them, from least to most. I don't really like Elma that much. She's got an annoying voice, and she's always mean to Clasko. She's probably the least important of the three, as she really doesn't do much of anything, even compared to the other two. Elma basically just follows Lucil around wherever she goes, so I can commend her loyalty to the captain. She's always highly respectful of Yuna in both games as well. She's just kinda annoying though.

Clasko's just that pathetic and yet somehow lovable loser that you can't help feeling sorry for and you find yourself liking for no apparent reason whatsoever. Honestly, I think his VA does a good job of conveying and reinforcing that image. He just sounds nerdy. He's the comic relief of the trio, always getting left behind, bossed around, given no time to rest, and so on. Eventually, Clasko decides to become a Chocobo Breeder after the party encourages him to do so (twice, apparently, since he becomes one in FFX and then rejoins the Chocobo Knights, and then you convince him to become a Chocobo Breeder again. The guy seems pretty indecisive). You can actually help him breed chocobos in FFX-2, as he takes the cave where the Monster Arena was in FFX (which ought to tell you everything you need to know about the differences between the two games. In one, you fight optional super monsters, and in the other, you...breed chocobos. Great). I don't remember much about the chocobo breeding, whether it was easy, hard, frustrating, or whatever. Anyway, long story short, Clasko's a loser, but I like him anyway.

Now Lucil is awesome, very underrated character that you never hear anything about. She's a natural leader, always rising up near the top wherever she goes. She rose to the top of the Chocobo Knights in the Crusaders, and then she rose up to second-in-command of the Youth League. She's a fearless warrior, charging straight in after Sin during Operation Mi'ihen (and somehow survived without so much as a scratch, which is incredible in and of itself). She's an unwavering optimist, even after the Chocobo Knights were devastated by Sin. Lucil's a good person at heart, who fights so that others don't have to. She's got some pretty awesome quotes, too. She even seems to make such a solid impression on Tidus that he takes the time to wonder how she's doing at one point in his narration.

107. Tseng (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "That's right. You'll have the hard time disarming that one. It'll blow the second some stupid jerk touches it."

Although Tseng is the leader of the Turks, and as a general rule, the Turks are awesome, Tseng is pretty boring to me, for the most part. He isn't seen a lot in the game, not nearly as much as the other Turks, mostly because he's incapacitated at the end of disc 1 in the Temple of the Ancients, leading to the famous translation gaffe that led many people to think Tseng actually died and resulting in cries of outrage at Square retconning his death in Advent Children. This is probably the thing that Tseng is most well known for, actually. He doesn't do TOO much of note in Final Fantasy VII, which is strange considering he's the leader of the Turks. Unfortunately, you never get to have a boss fight with Tseng, which probably would have helped his ranking here.

Tseng had been in charge of the investigation to find Aerith after she and Ifalna escaped from the Shinra laboratories, and while he had opportunities when he could have taken her by force, he didn't. When Elmyra is talking to the party about how she found Aerith, she tells you about the time Tseng came and tried to persuade the two of them to cooperate with Shinra to help them find the Promised Land. He could have very easily just kidnapped her and taken her back to Shinra, but he didn't. Tseng seemed to want Aerith to want to help Shinra willingly rather than forcing her to cooperate. This may stem from the feelings that he has for her, which Reno alludes to if you eavesdrop on their gossiping in Gongaga (although that seems kinda creepy. He was already a member of the Turks when Aerith was like 10 years old, so he's like 10-15 years older than her. Well, he never pursues it, so I guess it's okay, at least not as bad as Brother anyway). Tseng eventually does persuade Aerith to go to Shinra in exchange for Marlene's safety, so he's not an entirely noble guy all the same. Plus, he does slap her in the face in the helicopter when you talk to her on the Sector 7 plate (though I can imagine Tseng going all fanboy and thinking, "I'll never wash this hand again!" afterwards).

I've never played Crisis Core, but I have watched the cutscenes on YouTube. Tseng has a decent sized role in that game, interacting in several scenes with Zack. I thought it was a pretty good instance of dramatic irony how Zack asks Tseng to look after Aerith before he goes to Nibelheim, unaware of the fact that he had been secretly monitoring her for years. He does seem to have several moments where he seems like a nice guy, such as trying to rescue Zack and Cloud before the Shinra soldiers find them so he can deliver Aerith's 88 letters from the last 5 years to him. Maybe I'd like Tseng more than I do if I'd actually played Crisis Core (since he has a decent role in it), but just from what I know of him from FFVII, he's nothing special, which is pretty disappointing for a Turk.

108. Quina Quen (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "Aiya! What big stone! Why you all watch stone? Is stone edible? Or is for barbeque? No answer...Maybe I lick it?"

Oh Amano, you never cease to amaze. Anyway, Quina...is a very interesting character, to say the least. First of all, let's settle the gender issue. I've always personally thought of Quina as female for whatever the reason (and sounding like Miss Piggy, but that's probably just me). The game is purposefully ambiguous about it, so if you tend to think of Quina as male, no big deal, but I'm gonna use female personal pronounces to refer to Quina from this point on because I don't want to do the stupid "s/he" thing they do in the game.

Anyway, I tend to think of Quina as more funny than annoying. She has some pretty awesome lines, the one I posted at the top being my favorite. She doesn't really get on my nerves most of the time. At the same time, I don't ever really use her in battle though because I'm not really that big of a fan of her either. Some of her Blue Magic is good, but having to use Eat to acquire it is kinda irritating (After how annoying Morph was in FFVII, who thought bringing this concept back was a good idea?), so I don't end up acquiring a lot of those spells. I never ended up catching 99 frogs to get her best fork either, which is probably the only sidequest in Final Fantasy IX I never completed). Plus, her Trance is basically a complete and total waste, by far the worst in the game and probably the worst for any game in the series with a "Limit Break" type move.

Quina doesn't really have much of a role in the game. Although you can recruit her on the way to Burmecia (and I always do because the extra party member is helpful), you're not required to get her into your party until you're headed for Fossil Roo. Most of the time, Quina's role in the game ends up being her getting in trouble with vendors because she doesn't understand the necessity of Gil for purchasing foodstuffs. Her two storyline highlights are her getting stuck with Zidane going to the Earth Shrine (Fun Fact: One time when I was fighting the Earth Guardian, Quina got her Trance, so I decided to use Cook just for the heck of it. Much to my amazement, it actually worked and she learned a Blue Magic! Are there any other bosses you can eat?) and being there in the "You're Not Alone!" scene, where she is crucial in helping Zidane get back to normal by offering to cook him a succulent frog.

Oh, and there was the time when Quina and Vivi got married in Conde Petie, which I'm still not sure if I should consider that amusing or disturbing. It's definitely the most delightfully awkward scene in the game. Quina seems happy with the end result though, so that's all that matters.

109. Sorceress Ultimecia (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "Time... It will not wait...No matter...how hard you hold on. It escapes you...And..."

Ahh, Final Fantasy VIII's main villain, the sorceress from the future, Ultimecia. Really, I don't think she's as bad as everyone say. It is kinda lame that you don't find out that she's really the mastermind behind everything until the beginning of disc 3, but she has been the one you've been fighting against all along, even though you don't realize it. However, even when I play FFVIII now, it's hard to make the connection that she's possessing Edea during disc 1 and 2 because you're always told it's Edea and not Ultimecia (kinda like the whole Liquid Ocelot thing in MGS4 in a way).

We don't really know much about Ultimecia. We don't know how far in the future she lives, but I think we can assume it's beyond the lifetime of the main party, at least. She is unbelievably cruel (as we can see in how she just casually murders President Deling during the parade and then the speech she makes afterwards) and manipulative (as we see with Seifer). One thing we can say for sure is that Ultimecia has a really, really extravagant sense of style. We can see this in the way she dresses when she's possessing Edea and how she dresses when you fight her at the end, in the parade in Deling City, and in her castle. She definitely believes in living in style. One of the things FFVIII did very well was just how well designed and how beautiful some of the things related to the sorceresses in this game are. I can also relate to her because she also apparently dislikes wearing shoes and socks (check out the picture I posted of her. She's barefooted. I don't know why her feet are black though. Ewwww). She would also fit in very well in the Mortal Kombat universe due to her apparent hatred of the letter "C."

We also don't know much of anything about the Time Compression Ultimecia wants to enact, other than it takes an extremely powerful sorceress to use it and apparently only she can survive in such a state. Now why does she want to achieve Time Compression? Again, the game never says (and Odine totally glosses over it, but I already covered that in his write-up), but there's one theory that I can think of that makes sense to me. In the game, Ultimecia seems to have some understanding of her ultimate fate (She says "So you're the legendary SeeD destined to face me?" to Squall right before you fight Edea at the end of disc 2), so my guess would be that she thinks of Time Compression as her way out to avoid getting killed. It makes sense to me because one of the big themes of the game is destiny/fate. The game also seems to demonstrate that destiny is inevitable and unalterable (Ellone couldn't change Laguna's past, no matter how hard she tried, and even though most of the main party had forgotten each other because of GFs, they still ended up together), so in the end, Ultimecia fails at her attempt for Time Compression.

Anyway, enough about that. Let's get to the real reason Ultimecia is this high: She's probably the best final boss fight in the series. It's in five different phases, each accompanied by a different epic battle theme (culminating in the best of them all, "The Extreme"). The first phase isn't any different from your fights with Edea, but then you get to fight Griever, which was pretty awesome. Then she junctions herself to Griever. I remember dying at this part several times when I first fought her, and I was so relieved when I finally beat it...only to discover there was another part. Looking back on it though, what an epic final battle, worthy of a great game. I also like her final speech as you end the fight, especially how she never finishes it.

110. Buddy (Final Fantasy X-2)

Quote: "The Gullwings are on the job. We’ll even give you our special bargain price."

Buddy has the distinction of being the only black Al Bhed in the world (Well, Shinra could be, I guess, since we never see his skin color). In addition to that, he's the de facto leader of the Gullwings. Although Brother may be considered the leader, Buddy's really the guy in charge. He's calm and level-headed, thinking things through and many times making the right decision. He claims he was on the airship in Final Fantasy X when Yuna and co. were fighting Sin (though she says she didn't remember seeing him back then), but I remember looking for him the last time I played FFX and never saw him. Maybe he was just dressed differently and Square really did reuse the character model.

Anyway, we don't know much about Buddy himself, other than that he and Brother were the original founders of the Gullwings. The story of how the two of them found the airship and why they named the group Gullwings is awesome, and if you've never seen the scene in the game, you should! In fact, here's the dialogue from the script:

''Buddy: Better keep your distance. Wouldn’t wanna lose a finger or something.'' (looking at the engines) Mm! That’s my baby.

Yuna: It’s like you’re talking to a person!

Buddy: Of course! After all, this ship is one of the Gullwings too, y’know.

Yuna: She’s been around longer than me, huh?

Buddy: Me and her met for the first time right after you brought us this Calm of yours. I’d caught word that an old airship was at the bottom of the sea way up in the north. Me and Brother made our way through a sea of ice. A fog moved in, so thick we couldn’t tell west from east. On top of that we were freezing our blitzballs off. Yep, I thought we were done for. Then it appeared above us: a single gull, flying along out of nowhere. As if it had come to save us, right? We didn’t have a lot of options, so me and Brother chased after that gull with everything we had left. And by some stroke of luck, we found this ship nestled within the ice.

Buddy: Along with our winged rescuer.

Yuna: Oh! So that’s why we’re the Gullwings!

Buddy: And that’s not all.

Yuna: Yeah?

Buddy: Actually, never mind.

Yuna: Buddy! Please?

Buddy: We were lucky to find the airship, but we were still on thin ice, so to speak. See, we had nothing to eat. We were nearly dead from hunger. Yep, I really thought we were done for. Then, it appeared above us, out of nowhere: a single gull. As if it had come to save us, right? With the very last of our strength, we bagged that bird, and then we, uh…

Yuna: Buddy?

Buddy: What?

Yuna: Thanks, I think I’ve heard enough.

Buddy: That bad? That bad, hmm?

Aw yeah, Buddy. Not to mention, Buddy knocks the crap out of Brother on more than one occasion, and that's never a bad thing.

111. Prince Estrada Larg (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "Your brother's actions turned the tide for us..."

I dunno why, but I kinda like Larg. While he's no less of a manipulator and schemer than Goltana, he's not an unlikable jerk. He seems to have a likable personality (not to mention a decent fashion sense, aw yeah medieval mullet!). I suppose that's because he comes in and scolds Dycedarg for being too hard on Ramza. He seems to be a level-headed and understanding guy. He realized that, even though Ramza did disobey orders, he still helped them out, and he didn't disobey because he's just being rebellious and spiteful. He just wanted to be of use to the Hokuten and his brother.

Larg seems to be smarter, more calculating, and more patient than Goltana is. He also made the smart choice of siding with Orinas as king because he'll get to rule longer as regent with an infant king! I felt bad for Larg, too, when he got backstabbed by Dycedarg in the end, but he made sure to get in his parting shot before dying, letting Zalbag know that his older brother killed their father, setting some more awesome stuff in motion. At least he didn't go down quietly.

112. Balbanes Beoulve (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "Become a fine knight...Ramza..."

Ah, it's another FFT NPC who barely appears in the game making an appearance on this list! It's a shame Balbanes doesn't appear more often because it's obvious that he's a pretty awesome dude. He might be the greatest warrior Ivalice has ever known and helped bring the Fifty Years' War to an end. We can also see where Ramza gets his sense of honor and integrity, as well as his notions of what the nobility should be and should do. You never hear Balbanes' deathbed speeches to Dycedarg, Zalbag, and Alma (if he gave them one), but you can tell he is proud of Ramza and believes in him. He seems to see something in him that he doesn't see in his other sons. It's a shame that Balbanes went out the way that he did. I wonder if he ever realized what Dycedarg did to him.

Most importantly, you can't tell me that a Final Fantasy Tactics prequel set during the Fifty Years' War starring Balbanes, where he starts as a lowly squire and eventually grows into a Heavenly Knight and a fighter even more broken than Orlandu, wouldn't be completely awesome! Get on it, Square!

113. Vaan (Final Fantasy XII)

Quote: "One of these days I’ll fly an airship of my own. I’ll be a sky pirate, free to go where I will."

Hey, it's the guy everyone's been waiting to see! I'm surprised I didn't hear any complaints about how Vaan survived the first topic! Anyway, where to begin with this guy? First of all, I'm convinced that Vaan's design was a public apology to Tidus fans. It's almost like they were saying, "We're sorry that we made Tidus look eerily similar to Meg Ryan, so we're going to make this next guy much more effeminate to take attention away from his design and he won't be the most made-fun of main character in the series!" Apology accepted, Square. Seriously, there's no other explanation for this guy having painted-on abs.

Now that we got the most obvious flaw out of the way, let's look at Vaan's character, or perhaps the lack thereof. This guy is supposed to be the main character, but his main conflict is resolved within the first five hours of the game (like I said, I started replaying FFXII, and after finishing Nalbina Dungeon and getting back to Rabanastre, I had put almost exactly 5 hours into the game). In spite of that, Vaan persists in being the main character and sticking with the party. I guess his motivation is that he admires Balthier and wants to be a sky pirate like him so he keeps following around, but there's not much more to it than that.

There are only two notable plot points Vaan is involved in from this point on: Being the only person other than Ashe who can see the illusion of Rasler and confronting Gabranth in Pharos, where he finally drops his desire for revenge for Reks. The first doesn't really add anything to his character and was probably just something the Occuria did to insure Ashe that she was actually seeing Rasler and wasn't going insane. The latter provides a little bit of character development, as he realizes that personal vengeance doesn't really solve anything. There isn't much more than that, other than proving he's a sexist pig because he inconsiderately asks Fran how old she is!

Going back to Reks for a second, it's amazing to me how quickly Vaan believes Basch's story and lets it go. Honestly, doesn't the whole "It wasn't me, it was my twin brother who looks just like me!" excuse feel a little contrived and a little too convenient? I mean, I know that IS what really happened, but I wouldn't be as quick to believe it as he is. There isn't any instance in the short time Vaan knows Basch before he trusts him where he proves what he says is true. He just kinda...believes him at face value. It's a little naive, I think. If it were simply Vaan forgiving Basch and letting go of his bitterness, that'd be one thing and it'd be admirable, but that's not the case. Obviously, as we see in Pharos, he didn't get over it until that point.

Finally, I was overall pretty disappointed in Vaan's VA's performance. Final Fantasy XII's voice work and localization is leaps and bounds better than Final Fantasy X's, but Vaan isn't one of the reasons why. His performance just feels boring and lifeless at times. It's almost like even the actor himself doesn't find Vaan interesting enough to try hard to do him justice. Vaan's voice acting is decent at times whenever the character is being emotional, such as when he starts yelling at Basch in his prison cell (which, by the way, is completely idiotic and almost got them caught), but when he's just delivering ordinary lines (such as "I better at least show this to Penelo, so she knows I got something" just to take an example from what I remember last night), he gives an uninspired performance.

As for why he's this high? HEY BUCKET HEAD! and DON'T BELIEVE ONDORE'S LIES! are awesome lines and are easily the peak of his character.

Everyone happy now?

114. Biran Ronso and Yenke Ronso (Final Fantasy X)

Quotes: ''"Leave Kimahri, Yenke. Kimahri is small Ronso. Kimahri so small can't see Yenke and Biran's faces." - Biran Ronso'' "Hornless! Hornless!" - Yenke Ronso

I put these two together because they're always together in the game (I can't think of an instance in the game where you meet one of them without the other), and they're not interesting enough to deserve solo write-ups (Well, at least Yenke isn't). Anyway, these guys basically exist in the game to antagonize and make fun of Kimahri for having a broken horn and being short (for a Ronso, at least). I think they normally do a good job of being comic relief "villains," if they can be called such, though they're nowhere near the best at that role in the series. You know, thinking about it, I just realized that these guys ARE the comic relief/joke villains in FFX. Nobody else qualifies. I don't know how I didn't catch that until now.

Anyway, as I was saying, Biran and Yenke are pretty humorous, I think. Not great, but not bad either. I think the ridiculous Ronso dialect helps in that regard. They also have some decent digs on Kimahri, such as the one I posted from Biran. Yeah, they're lame and cheesy, but...Well, I don't know how to finish that sentence. It was also awesome when Kimahri nailed a sweet uppercut on Yenke in the sports cafe at Luca. Aw yeah.

On a more serious note, what we know about Biran is that he's considered to be the most powerful warrior in the Ronso tribe, which is obviously quite an accomplishment. When they were younger, he and Kimahri would fight each other frequently. Although Kimahri never won, he would never admit defeat to Biran either. Eventually, Biran got so angry with his stubbornness that he broke Kimahri's horn, which is considered the ultimate shame for a Ronso, which was why he ended up leaving Gagazet. It would make sense to me for Kimahri and Biran to be brothers, but since the game never says it, they probably aren't. I think it would work though. We don't know much of anything about Yenke. He basically just tags along with Biran and uses one word insults. He doesn't seem too bright. He's like that stupid kid in school that nobody would really like on his own but he hangs around with the popular kid so he can try to be popular, too.

I enjoyed the two-on-one fight Kimahri had with Biran and Yenke on Mt. Gagazet. It wasn't hard by any means, but "Defenders of the Mountain" plays during the fight, and you can get a ton of Ronso Rages you missed from these guys by repeatedly using Lancet on them. I like how their attitude toward him changes once he beats them. They finally acknowledge his strength, and they accept him back as one of their own. It's almost like they were playing the role of the sports coach who swears at and insults his players in an attempt to motivate them to prove him wrong. I doubt that was their actual intention, but it worked out that way.

115. Teta Hyral (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "Teta saved me...Teta saved me back then..."' - Delita Hyral

Why is an unimportant character with only a handful of lines who's offed within the first quarter of the game above 35 other Final Fantasy characters? For starters, Teta is at the heart of one of my favorite parts of Final Fantasy Tactics: Fort Zeakden. Algus killing Teta under orders of Zalbag, fighting Algus, Golagros lighting the gunpowder and blowing up the fort (and seemingly Delita as well), and Ramza running away from everything--the Hokuten, his nobility, and his name--and becoming a mercenary. This is a great part of the game, and Teta's death is what really sparks all of it. It's a sad moment as well because she was just the victim of a misunderstanding, the Death Corps mistaking her for a Beoulve when she was just a commoner. Plus, her kidnapping also sets off a nice string of events, including the first meeting with Wiegraf and Delita punching Algus in the face.

In addition to all that, Teta is also at the center of one of the most intriguing mysteries of the game (at least to me): How did Delita survive that explosion? He claims that Teta saved him that day. How is that possible? Was she really dead when Delita was holding her standing on that bridge? How did she save him? In my mind when I was a teenager, I always imagined that, somehow, Teta managed to shove him out of the way just far enough out of the blast, but I don't know if that's a realistic scenario. Did she shield him somehow? Did she use some sort of magic spell? Delita never says anything more than that Teta saved him. It's a situation that's all questions and no answers.

Teta may not be anything special in terms of character, but as a plot device, she works well and creates (at least for me) some pretty interesting situations.

116. Brother (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: "Who is the leader? I am! I give the orders around here!!"

Oh, Brother. Where do you even start with this guy? Well, let's start with the game where he's passable and likable. In Final Fantasy X, Brother plays a bit role. He's Rikku's older brother (Hence the name "Brother," which probably isn't his real name, but he's never called anything else), which means he's Cid's son and Yuna's cousin (...which we'll get into later). If I'm not mistaken, his only dialogue in English in FFX is when he says to Tidus, "Rikku...you...guard!" Everything else is in Al Bhed (and it was much better that way. Everything went downhill once he started learning English). He pilots the airship, and he seems to be rather proficient with machina, though not much else (except blitzball, I guess). Brother either likes to act like he's in charge, or Cid actually has given the guy a position of authority. I'm not sure which, although seeing that he basically acts the same way in FFX-2 at times, I'm guessing it's the first option. Other than blitzball, Brother has two high points in the first game, one of which is never seen in the game, only heard about. The first is his hilarious attempt at sign language at the beginning of the game trying to communicate with Tidus (complete with strange grunts) and the other is accidentally blasting Rikku with a lightning spell when they were younger.

But in Final Fantasy X, blitzball is where it's at with Brother. In the early levels, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better player than Brother. He has great stats in several categories, and he's ridiculously fast. He can break the opponent, steal the ball, and score in rapid fire succession several times in any given game. If you want to start picking up blitzball from scratch in FFX, recruit Brother, put him as a midfielder, and laugh your way to blowout victories against every team except probably the Al Bhed Psyches. Of course, the fact that Brother is so good at blitzball early on means he's an EXP hog, so he can prevent other guys on your team from leveling up, but that comes with the territory.

Now let's deal with Brother in Final Fantasy X-2. No other returning character suffers such a drastic drop in quality and likability in this game than him, which is quite an accomplishment since he didn't have much character in the first game anyway. Honestly, he's one of the few characters from FFX whose ranking suffers horribly as a result of his role in FFX-2, if not the only one. He's that bad. Of course, the most egregious offense is his constant attempts to hit on Yuna, who is his cousin. I'm not sure which is creepier: The fact that Brother is hitting on his cousin, or that Yuna doesn't really seem to mind. For some reason, she thinks it's cute that Brother is trying to learn English so she can talk to him more. Of course, it's possible that Yuna's just dense. Regardless, this is one of the most annoying aspects of the game, made even more irritating by the fact that it's a recurring theme, and quite frankly, it's just weird and gross.

In FFX-2, Brother's just stupid. Once again, he tries to boss people around like he's in charge (though the other Gullwings tend to ignore him or just hit him, the latter of which is far more preferable), and he can just be incredibly and nonsensically anal about stupid things, such as correcting Rikku for saying "Disasteriffic" while Yuna's HANGING OFF OF A CLIFF ON MOUNT GAGAZET! But then again, this is coming from a guy who occasionally corrects grammar on an internet message board, so maybe I shouldn't be talking.

117. Marquis Halim Ondore IV (Final Fantasy XII)

Quote: "You may yet be a Princess, but without proof of your identity, you are powerless."

Apparently, you shouldn't believe this guy's lies or something. That's the main thing I remember about him. Honestly though, I have a hard time figuring this guy out. I guess that's to be expected since the guy's a double agent and all, but it's still confusing to me. I need to play Final Fantasy XII again and iron out some of these details, I guess. Anyway, Ondore claims to be secretly working for the Resistance and all, but Basch doesn't like him at all (He says that the only reason he continues to live is to silence Ondore, after all) and Ashe doesn't seem like she has much respect for him at times. Obviously, publicly announcing Basch's execution and Ashe's suicide play a part in that, but still, it wasn't a very smart thing for him to do. I guess the Empire basically forced him to or something, and he had to do it since he was supposedly a loyal follower. The only problem with playing both sides is that usually both sides end up disliking you, and that's what happens here with the Marquis. I can't figure out if he's supposed to be friend or foe, but he feels like more foe than friend despite the fact that the game somewhat tries to present him as friend.

Plus, Vayne seems to be playing Ondore like a fiddle all throughout Final Fantasy XII, but the Marquis doesn't realize it. I already mentioned getting him to announce Basch's execution and Ashe's suicide. That was part of it (As a serious aside: Why does Basch seem to want the Marquis dead anyway? Surely he has some idea that the public announcement was just a ruse on the part of the Empire. See, this is where Ondore confuses me). Vayne also seems to lure the Resistance into instigate war with Archadia, which just seemed like a horribly stupid move on Ondore's part. I mean, he didn't honestly think he could stand up to Sky Fortress Bahamut and the Nethicite, right?

So basically Ondore tries to play both sides unsuccessfully (He needs to take some lessons from Revolver Ocelot, seriously) and seems completely unaware that Vayne is manipulating him into doing what he wants him to do. He just doesn't seem like a very...smart man.

118. Penelo (Final Fantasy XII)

Quote: "And, Vaan—try to stay out of trouble, for me? I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here, if something happened to you."

Oh no, it's another FFXII character that's not Vaan! That's right, the worst playable character in Final Fantasy XII is not Vaan; it's Penelo! I don't know why people in this topic seem to spew so much venom toward Vaan but not at Penelo. Vaan feels disconnected and irrelevant to the plot? Not anywhere near as much Penelo does. The only connection she has to this game's plot at all is that she and Vaan were friends before the events of the game started. Seriously, unless I missed something, that's it. Her character doesn't really develop at all. I don't remember her ever doing anything meaningful to advance the plot either (Well, she did get kidnapped by Ba'Gamnan and forced Balthier to come for her, but you could've thrown any random girl into that situation and got the exact same result. It's got nothing to do with Penelo's character and really isn't all that relevant to the overall major plot line anyway. Speaking of which, I just realized that I totally forgot to include Ba'Gamnan on my list. Crud). Note that I say this without knowing anything about Revenant Wings at all, which I know Penelo is one of the main characters in. Perhaps she obtains some relevance or develops some character in that game I'm not aware of (And here's another game where I ask: If I can get this game cheap, is it worth a purchase?). I mean, when the most important thing Penelo does in the entire game is narrating the ending, you know she doesn't have much going for her.

Plus, Penelo's a nag, and nobody likes a nag. That's really the main thing she does. She worries about Vaan and she nags him when she feels like he's getting out of line. Does she have ANY worthwhile interaction with any other character in the game? The only other time in the game I can remember is when Balthier hands her the handkerchief as he, Fran, and Vaan are getting hauled off to prison (for the first of what seemed like 50 times). Like I said, maybe I'm being too hard on Penelo and I missed something, but I seriously don't remember a single important thing she did or if her character developed at all. The main thing she's got going for her is that she's somewhat cute, but she's not even the cutest girl in your own party (The cutest girl is Ashe, not Fran, by the way; I ain't no furry), so that doesn't mean much.

So yeah.

119. Lucrecia Crescent (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "I wanted to disappear... I couldn't be with anyone... I wanted to die... But the Jenova inside me wouldn't let me die..."

Admittedly, my knowledge of Lucrecia's character isn't as complete as it should be because I haven't played Dirge of Cerberus. I have watched the cutscenes and stuff online, but I don't remember the stuff as well as I would have if I had actually played it (By the way, should I bother to get it if I can get it cheap? Is it worth a playthrough?). She isn't seen much in Final Fantasy VII. All we really know about Lucrecia from the events of that game is that she gave birth to Sephiroth and injected Jenova cells into her womb while she was pregnant, and that she fell for Hojo instead of Vincent. Those two things alone would be enough to qualify her as a stupid woman. I don't know what in the world she's doing performing prenatal experiments on her baby, and I definitely don't know what in the world she's doing falling for Hojo. She had to know the guy was certifiably insane. I dunno, she seemed to care about advancing science too much, even at the risk of damage to herself. Of course, both of those things backfired on her completely. I'm sure her intentions were good (though I don't know how she could've thought Hojo had good intentions), but good intentions aren't good enough.

From what I understand of Dirge of Cerberus (I may be wrong in some areas, so if I am, correct me), Lucrecia actually knew Vincent's father, and they worked together until he was killed. The reason she never got together with Vincent is because she felt guilty about what happened to his father. Also, she was apparently the one who implanted Chaos into Vincent in an attempt to save him after Hojo killed him and experimented on him. I'm not entirely sure if this is a good thing or not, but it seems to have been the only way to save him.

In spite of all that happened, Vincent doesn't seem to bear any ill will against Lucrecia. In fact, he still seems to have some feelings of affection for her. He doesn't blame her for the stuff that happened with Sephiroth and Jenova. He blames Hojo instead. I guess he thinks she was manipulated and used, which she probably was, but there's no way she was entirely ignorant. She had to be aware at least somewhat of the risks involved, and she did it all anyway. It also feels like Lucrecia toyed with Vincent's emotions somewhat, but I dunno if she really did.

Another thing, her name isn't pronounced at all like I thought it was, and I think it sounds weird. I always thought it was pronounced "Loo-CREE-shuh," but in Dirge of Cerberus, it's pronounced "Loo-CRET-chee-uh" or something like that. Just seems weird.

120. Lenne (Final Fantasy X-2)

Quote: "This moment’s enough. I don’t need anything else. Just knowing how you feel is enough."

Say what you want about FFX-2's storyline (and people who say no one bought this for the story are wrong! I did! The trailers made it look like it had a good story, which it kinda does. It just has WAY too much fluff), but I really enjoyed the Lenne/Shuyin plotline. You don't see Lenne much as a character, but there are a few times she makes her presence known. Usually, whenever you see Yuna wearing the Songstress Dressphere outside of battle, you can expect Lenne's influence to be felt somewhere. The fact that Yuna wore the Songstress Dressphere to sleep caused her to have that dream where she and Tidus were shot to death by Bevelle soldiers, which was basically a reenactment of what really happened to Shuyin and Lenne. And of course, whenever Shuyin's around, he somehow senses Lenne in the Dressphere and mistakes Yuna for her. It results in Yuna's concert in the Thunder Plains where she sings "1000 Words," which I like a lot.

But what happened between Shuyin and Lenne was tragic, I thought. The war against Bevelle was basically a hopeless cause, and Lenne was going to become a casualty since she would be on the front line as a summoner. Shuyin overreacted and went renegade in his attempt to save her, which she didn't want. He didn't seem to understand how she really felt or what she really wanted, which led to even more heartache. For her, just knowing that he truly did love her was good enough. It didn't matter to her if she lived or died as long as she knew that.

I just wish Lenne didn't have the same voice actress as Belgemine. Not a big fan of raspy voices in women, and it just seems like Lenne should have a beautiful voice. Cree Summer's just doesn't cut it. Ah well.

121. Doctor Odine (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "You vant to go outside!? You vant to fisticuffs!?"

And now for a character certain not to elicit much reaction, it's Doctor Odine! First of all, man, what's up with that collar (if that's what it is)? Anyway, I kinda like Odine. He's pretty humorous, though I think the ridiculous accent helps somewhat (I always imagine him having Wily's German accent from the Mega Man cartoons). Challenging Laguna to fisticuffs and somehow turning the word into a verb is pretty incredible stuff. Odine's basically your typical eccentric genius. There's no denying the guy's brilliance. He was the one who invented a way for humans to use Guardian Forces and para-magic. He invented the Odine Bangle as a way to suppress the powers of the sorceress, and he invented the machine that froze Adel. He did a lot of research on Lunatic Pandora. He invented the Junction Machine Ellone that Ultimecia uses in the future to control Edea and Rinoa. He seems to have a good understanding of Time Compression. He probably invented the camouflaged walls of Esthar and probably had a hand in their space program, though that's never stated in the game.

Overall, Odine seems to be morally indifferent. He doesn't seem to care who he works for as long as he still gets to work in science. He didn't seem to have much of a problem working for Adel or messing with Ellone as per her request. He doesn't seem to mind that Ultimecia is basically using his invention to achieve Time Compression. Actually, he seems rather proud of that fact. He doesn't seem to care who uses his stuff or why they use it, just that they use it at all.

The thing that ticks me off about Odine though is that he completely glosses over one of the biggest plot points in the game. When you're discussing the plan to defeat Ultimecia, and he discusses her desire for Time Compression. He rhetorically asks why Ultimecia would want to compress time, and he basically says, "There may be many reasons, but it doesn't matter." What do you MEAN it doesn't matter, Doc?! Time Compression is one of the biggest plot points and probably the most confusing and misunderstood aspect of the game, and we don't even get an explanation?! We skip over a chance to give Ultimecia a motivation at all?! I mean, I know in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter why she wants to achieve it as long as we stop her, but come on, Square. That's just lazy writing!

122. Vayne Carudas Solidor (Final Fantasy XII)

Quote: "It is a war of necessity. Your Lady Ashe herself is bent on it. She desires it above all else. She will not rest until her revenge is full-wrought."

Yes, that's right! The worst character in Final Fantasy XII is not the avatar main character, but rather the generic and uninteresting main villain! I've had discussions about this guy in other FFXII topics (particularly with RevolverSaro), and maybe I'm being unfair toward him or my memory of him is faulty, but I just think he's probably the worst main villain of the PS generation Final Fantasy games. He just...doesn't interest me at all. Even when I'm fighting this guy at the end of the game, I really have no feelings of enmity toward him. The battles against Cid and Gabranth in Pharos had more of a last boss feel than fighting Vayne did because I actually cared about them (Plus, it might have been because Pharos felt like a final dungeon and Sky Fortress Bahamut was just two screens and boss fights). I just don't care about Vayne, and for a main villain, that's a no-no. He inspires little more than apathy from me, and again, for a main villain, that's an awful quality. If he weren't the main villain of Final Fantasy XII, I might not hold it against him so much, but he is, so he's held to a higher standard than the other villains in the game.

When we're first introduced to Vayne, he's been appointed the consul of Rabanastre, and we discover that he's the king's son. From his opening speech to his conversations with Miguelo trying to get him to call him "Vayne" instead of by a royal title, he just felt...fake. I mean, I know he was faking it, but I was just annoyed with the guy more than anything else. But after that, he mostly disappears from the scene for a long time. You hear a lot about him, but you rarely see him. I think that's another lacking quality in Vayne: A main villain is supposed to have a presence that is felt, a sense of ominous imminence, the feeling that somehow...he's close by. Final Fantasy VII perfected this with Sephiroth in disc 1. Heck, Gabranth and Cid do a better job of this in FFXII than Vayne does. He never really feels like the main threat for most of the game, he never feels like the guy you're after and the guy you absolutely have to beat.

Another thing that bothers me about Vayne is that he really feels like little more than a warmonger. He just fights because he likes to kill people and wreak havoc. If he were some insane madman like Kefka, that'd be one thing, but it's obvious he's not. He's Machiavellian, I suppose. He feels it's necessary, and so he has no problem with it. It just feels like this should work, but it doesn't. It just ends up feeling cliche. You find out Vayne killed his older brothers, and then he kills his father in order to become Emperor, and it's like...So what? I just don't find myself caring. I think it's because you don't have any idea what Vayne's trying to accomplish, what his motives are. You don't know what his actions mean. Does he just want to be king or what?

But then at the end of the game, when they "reveal" that Vayne was just working along with Cid to try to free history from the grips of the Occuria, it just felt so...forced, like it came in out of left field and was thrown in at the last minute. I can't find any foreshadowing of this in the game anywhere until it's revealed, which is very close to the end of the game. I guess it goes back to what I was saying at the beginning of the write-up. It just feels so fake. I don't find myself caring because it doesn't seem to fit all together. Maybe if I were to play the game again, I'd appreciate him more and see more than I do now, but as it stands, bleh.

123. Mikoto (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "Kuja... What you did was wrong... But you gave us all one thing... Hope... We were all created for the wrong reason, but you alone defied our fate. We do not want to forget this. We want your memory to live on forever...to remind us that we were not created for the wrong reason--that our life has meaning."

I think Mikoto is a pretty interesting character. She's the sources of some pretty important revelations. She's the one who tells Zidane about the Genomes, about Garland, about Terra's purpose to assimilate Gaia, and Zidane's role as the Angel of Death. She is much more like the Genomes than she is like Zidane and Kuja despite the fact that she has been created with the same role as them. She doesn't have much of a personality, showing practically no emotion and doesn't do much more than state facts while you're in Terra. When you're in the Black Mage Village, she doesn't do much more than ask questions because of the differences between Gaia and Terra. The only exception to this is Mikoto's speech at the end of the game, in which it doesn't seem like she is speaking with much emotion, but she seems different, like she's gradually changing and becoming more human. Up to this point, she's just been a cynical realist, but now it seems like she's changing. And as I was looking through the script trying to find a good Mikoto quote, and I found a conversation in Black Mage Village that I had never seen in the game that probably inspired her quote at the end of the game.

Mikoto: "This is where you bury the dead...? What's the point of this? It isn't like the dead would appreciate it."

Black Mage No. 288: "...You're right, but I don't think we build cemeteries for the dead. Sure, it may seem pointless to you, but... How can I describe it? It's so that we can think like this: 'We'll never forget you. We'll remember you every time we stand at your grave. And we won't let the fear of death, which each of us knows, stop us from living our lives...Because my friends will remember me when I'm here.'"

And as I read that, I saw Mikoto's quote in a different light. So now this topic has served to enlighten me about something I didn't know from a game I've been playing for 9 years now. Awesome. She seems like an interesting character (but now even more so than before), but she doesn't get much screen time, so it's hard to rank her high. Too bad you never get to use her in battle or anything because she's probably pretty powerful, considering she was designed for the same role as Zidane.

124. Palmer (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "Hey-hey! Tea! Can I have some too? With lotsa sugar and honey and... oh yeah, don't forget the lard!"

Maybe I'll take some flack for this low ranking, but...I'm not a big fan of Palmer. I mean, he's got two funny lines (The lard quote and "Rate hike! Rate hike! Tra la la!") and getting hit by the truck. That's really all he's got. Palmer is about as irrelevant as the space program that he's the head of in Final Fantasy VII. Actually, he's less relevant than that because eventually the rocket DOES get into space. Palmer really only makes three appearances: Rocket Town, the Shinra business meeting, and right after President Shinra is killed and he tells you Sephiroth was there. He's not really anything more than just a joke character, and as such, he doesn't get a high ranking from me. It's only worth so much in the grand scheme of things. I guess it's worth saying that he's one of the few Shinra people who survived the events of FFVII, but meh.

And I can never really decide if I like the boss fight with Palmer or not. The ending is obviously epic, but the fight itself...It's just eccentric. I know it's really a joke fight because you shouldn't lose to him for any reason whatsoever, but I hate fighting bosses with a good evasion stat because missed attacks annoy me. I know you can just own him with magic and all, but still. The Mako Gun is pretty neat, I guess. It reminds me of the guns in FFT that shoot spells (or I guess I should say the guns in FFT remind me of the Mako Gun because I played FFVII first), which is cool. All that strange posturing Palmer does though...I dunno. Hmmm...

125. Cinna (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "No! No one touches my hammer but me!"

Oh Cinna, you crazy guy you. In the overall scheme of the game, he's pretty useless, but I think he's a funny character. He has a lot of funny moments, particularly when it comes to his hammer and South Gate Bundt Cake. The dude is also ugly, which Zidane makes a joke about early in the game, prompting the awesome "I wash up every morning, you know!" quote. He also has a strange fetish for dolls, particularly ones that look like Princess Garnet. For whatever the reason, Vivi calls Cinna his uncle one time, which also riles him up with great results. He's particularly possessive of his hammer, for whatever the reason. He refuses to let anyone borrow it for any reason, but if you collect all the Stellazzio coins, you get Cinna's hammer somehow, which for whatever the reason gives you a bonus scene in the ending! You can also give it to Hades in Memoria to open a Synthesis shop, which totally isn't worth it! Now we can see why he holds onto that hammer!

But the main reason Cinna is up this high is because he's involved in a particularly awesome ATE which is probably missed out by a good number of people because it requires some odd conditions to see. Unfortunately, I can't find any videos of it, and it's not in the FFIX script on this site. Basically, what happens is that he gets stuck at South Gate eating Bundt Cake and continually missing his train when Baku shows up and finds him. Suffice it to say, Baku delivers the pain and much hilarity ensues. It's a great moment. So Cinna ranks this high for his comedic value. Oh, and his strength in battle is jokeworthy as well.

126. Cardinal Alphons Draclau (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "it's that dude who was old and bald, and he turned into some other boss that wasn't very difficult" - Lopen

Whoo, four FFT characters in a row! I find it hard to improve upon Lopen's write-up of the guy, but I'll give it a shot! I suppose the cool thing with Draclau is that he's the character who basically starts to reveal that everything in Ivalice is not exactly what it seems. There's corruption in the nobility, and there's corruption in the Church of Glabados as well. Draclau is basically the guy who reveals the latter to you. At first, he seems like a nice guy with whom Ovelia can take refuge from Goltana and Larg.

Whoops, my mistake. In reality, Draclau is in cahoots with Bart Rudvich, and he uses him to try to get the Taurus stone from Mustadio. Then after he fails, he allies himself with Gafgarion, which is strange to me because Gafgarion is working for Dycedarg, who's working for Larg (kinda), but yet Draclau's also working with the Temple Knights, including Delita, who then takes Ovelia from the castle to Goltana. Whatever. Too much double- and triple-crossing to keep up with for me.

Of course, Ramza realizes the truth, and you have to go fight the guy. Draclau reveals the true nature of the Zodiac Stones, and he transforms into Queklain. I don't remember much about this fight other than the fact that he uses a bunch of status effects on you. As stated before, one of my basic guidelines of RPG boss battles is: Bosses that use primarily status effects to defeat you suck. Queklain is no exception.

And I guess Draclau also sets a new aspect and phase of the story into motion by his death, that of Ramza being labeled a heretic and an enemy of the church. He really sets the main plotline of the game into motion, which is worth something, I guess.

127. Miluda Folles (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "It's not your fault. But I'll keep blaming you until there's a change! As long as you're a Beoulve, you're my enemy!"

Miluda kinda annoys me for the same reasons Algus does, but only from the opposite end of the spectrum, obviously. She's completely unreasonable concerning nobility and can't believe that any of them could possibly be good, even as Ramza tries to talk her out of fighting and spare her life. I mean, I understand where her distrust comes from, but she even admits that the only reason Ramza is her enemy is because of his name. She actually does see that there's something different about him, but she still refuses to make peace with him.

Miluda doesn't seem to think that there can ever be peace between them or the lines can ever be broken, so the only solution is to rebel against the nobility and extinguish it. I personally think that's rather foolish, and she took it too far. Really, she didn't have to die, but she basically insisted on it. Ramza didn't want to do kill her, but she basically gave him no choice. On the bright side, her death basically sparked the storyline between Ramza and Wiegraf, so that's a good thing.

128. Malak Galthana (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "Somebody called me...I don't know. I've never heard that voice...The voice said, 'Return to the ones with the right mind..."


 * still listening to "Requiem," aw yeah*

Rafa and Malak pretty much go hand in hand. It's hard to separate the two of them since their stories are so intertwined with one another. A lot of what I've said about Rafa in the previous write-up applies here, especially in terms of battle usefulness, so I'll spare you the repeat info. Overall, Malak is more unlikable than his sister because he stubbornly refuses to believe Rafa and chooses to believe Barinten instead. I don't know why he'd take the word of the Duke over his sister. Maybe out of gratitude for saving them? Rafa seems to think that Malak knows the real truth, and if he's aware but in denial, then that's pretty low of him.

But while Rafa's low point is the roof of Riovanes Castle, it's Malak's high point. He redeems himself here. He overhears Barinten basically bragging about all he did to Rafa, and he confronts him. Then, as the Duke's getting ready to shoot Rafa, Malak gets in the way and gets shot instead. That was a pretty noble sacrifice and proves that he really did love his sister, in spite of their fighting. I've already explained why I love his resurrection scene, but I do love the quote he gives afterward that I posted at the beginning of the write-up. Pretty neat, I think.

So I guess while Malak acts like a jerk on the surface, deep down, he's still a good guy who loves his sister. And thanks for inspiring "Requiem," dude!

129. Rafa Galthana (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: "You know what he did! What he did to me! I KNOW you know!"

Rafa, of all of the storyline NPCs who eventually join your party, is one of the least important and least interesting overall. She has an interesting backstory somewhat, although mostly for its ambiguity. Did Barinten rape her or not? To me, it seems pretty obvious he did, and I heard the new translation in the PSP port makes it pretty clear. But really, there's not much more to it than that. She has a rivalry of sorts with her brother Malak as she tries to convince him of the Duke's evil ways to no avail.

However, Rafa is involved in one of my favorite scenes in the game: Malak's resurrection. One of the biggest reasons I love this scene is because "Requiem" plays here, and it's my favorite track in the game (in fact, I'm gonna listen to it while I write this). Another reason for it is because we learn the dual nature of the Zodiac Stones from Rafa. Up to this point, it seems like the Zodiac Stones are just purely evil and used by Lucavi to get his evil influence into the world. But with Rafa, we learn that the stones have the power to do good as well. The power of the stone really depends more on the one who's using it. It's just a cool scene.

Once you recruit Rafa into your party, there's really no reason to use her more than anyone else. The Heaven skill is pretty unreliable unless you somehow get a bunch of enemies grouped together into one area, which doesn't happen often. I admit that I'm not a great FFT player, so maybe there's some better way to use her skill, but I've never seen much use in it.

But the reason I put Rafa this low on the list is this: The battle on the roof of Riovanes Castle. I absolutely hate this battle, and she's the reason why. You have no idea how many times I've lost that battle because of this stupid girl. I don't know if any single part in any game has caused me more game overs than this one. She doesn't make it easy for me to protect her when she goes right into the middle of the assassins and Elmdor and hits them for piddly damage. Then, of course, because Celia and Lede are usually faster than most of my guys, they take out Rafa without much trouble before I can beat them. I hate this fight. I am thankful that someone taught me the trick of removing all equipment on one guy so the assassins target him instead of Rafa. It's made my life so much easier, but I still fought this battle with much frustration a hundred times before that.

So curse you, Rafa. Curse youuuuuuuuuuu!

130. Necron (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "You stand before the final dimension, and I am the darkness of eternity..."

First of all, seriously, what the heck is that, Amano? Second of all, what a ripoff of a last boss fight. The guy's a cheap ripoff of Zeromus's random endgame appearance combined with X-Death (Yes, that's right, X-Death) and his desire to return everything to nothingness (and also using a move called Grand Cross). I'm sure you've all heard the complaints about Necron several times before, but having a completely random last boss at the end of the game is just lame. At least you heard about Ultimecia a full disc before you fought her! His motivations, where he came from, and stuff like that are left almost entirely unexplained. There's not even any foreshadowing in the game about Necron, as far as I can tell. From what we can surmise, Kuja's actions (possibly the destruction of the Crystal) summoned him to this world to turn it into a zero state. I dunno. Some people, such as Semi, hail Necron as the true hero of Final Fantasy IX because he wants to destroy all traces of the game's existence, but he was foiled by the evil villains that are the game's cast. I'm not a proponent of that theory myself, but hey, it takes all kinds!

One thing that could've made Necron cooler is if they had stuck with the name he had in the Japanese version: Darkness of Eternity. That just sounds cool. In the quote I posted, he introduces himself as such. As it is, his name is derived from the Greek word for "dead," which isn't as cool. Apparently, Necron is a fan either of Star Wars or just Yoda because he totally rips off his famous quote from Episode I. Shameless plagiarism there. Also, apparently you can never truly defeat the guy. Necron claims he will always exist as long as there is life and death. That's kinda creepy.

On top of it all, Necron is probably my least favorite final boss battle in the Final Fantasy series. Bosses that primarily try to defeat you with status anomalies suck (although after playing Shadow Hearts 1's final boss, Necron doesn't seem so bad. My word). Really, he isn't that hard, and I can honestly say that I've only ever lost this battle one time. I still hate fighting it because it always takes longer than it should. Not to mention, the epic feel of a last boss in a Final Fantasy game just isn't here, and it may partially be due to the mediocre music. Necron just feels like an addendum thrown in at the end of the game. Trance Kuja felt more like the last boss than this guy.

Overall, yeah, Necron's pretty lame because he comes out of nowhere to destroy all existence for no reason. He's completely detached from the game's plot, and he disappears right after he appears. This might all be forgivable if he weren't the last boss of the game, but he is.

131. Eiko Carol (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "Zidane! Oh, it was horrible! He called me a liar and a loudmouth and a brat!!!"

Yes, that's right, Eiko Carol is the worst permanent party member in the Playstation Final Fantasy games. Why? Well, the quote I posted sums a lot of it up. She is basically just a spoiled brat. She has the same problem that Leblanc has: An unrequited obsession, in Eiko's case, Zidane. Thankfully, by the end of the game, she tones that down considerably, but this is the first impression she makes. The entire time you're in Madain Sari, she's trying to figure out how to drive Zidane apart from Dagger so she can have him. I mean, I know it's not unusual for little girls to have crushes on grown men, but it shouldn't be a primary trait for a video game character! However, there is one thing on the bright side of this: Eiko's love letter, which sparks a giant chain reaction of awesome dramatic irony. I love that part of the game, but really, not much of the reason has to do with her. She just starts the chain by making Dr. Tot write a love letter for Zidane, which she promptly loses.

The game tries to make Eiko's bluntness into a cute or charming characteristic (Dr. Tot just laughs it off when she tells him why she thinks he's a nerd, for example), but it's just annoying because she's just being mean more than anything. She's really mean to Vivi sometimes, I think, and that's just not cool. I dunno, sometimes it just feels like she thinks she can do or say whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Like I said before, she's just a spoiled brat.

I'm not a big fan of Eiko in battle. She's basically just another Dagger (though I realize that there are some differences between the two). Anything she does, I already have Dagger there to do. Yeah, I know she has some spells and Eidolons that Dagger doesn't have access to, but still, it's not a difference maker, I think. Double White is kind of a lame Trance, too, though I guess it can come in handy every now and then. Plus, I'm not a big fan of physically weak magic users anyway, so that doesn't help.

Meh, these write-ups aren't turning out as well as I would like. I'm having a hard time coming up with the right words and crystallizing my thoughts.

132. Sorceress Adel (Final Fantasy VIII)

Quote: "You thought I would fall for that trick?"

To this day, I'm still not totally convinced Adel is actually a woman. I mean, seriously, look at...it. I dunno. To me, Adel is another one of those characters, like Yu Yevon in FFX, whose backstory strikes absolute fear into your heart at the possibility of fighting her, but when you actually get to fight her, it's somewhat lacking. I know the game gives the excuse that Adel hasn't fully awakened and hasn't fully regained her powers due to her long imprisonment, but still, kinda disappointing. It's not nearly as disappointing as Yu Yevon because Adel actually offers a challenge, although it's not quite as epic as it could be. That fight gave me a good bit of trouble the first time I played FFVIII. I remember accidentally killing Rinoa because I didn't realize you could hit her with a GF. Whoops.

Anyway, like I said, Adel has a pretty interesting backstory. She used to be the ruler of Esthar, and she's basically portrayed as pure evil in every way. She may even be more evil than Ultimecia herself, but just not as powerful. Or maybe she was, we don't know. Anyway, Adel kidnaps Ellone to become her successor, and Laguna goes in to rescue her. He successfully rescues her, and then uses her to lure Adel into a trap. Of course, the sorceress' downfall was her vast underestimation of Laguna's sheer cunning. I mean, who wouldn't fall for a plan as brilliant as this:

Laguna: "Hey, look over there!"

Adel: "Huh? Where?"


 * Laguna shoves her into the beam and she's frozen*

Pure brilliance. Not to mention, how strong does Laguna have to be to be able to shove Adel like that? Just think about it. The woman's like 20 feet tall and built like a bodybuilder! Anyway, they send her into space, and you eventually find out she's the reason for the worldwide signal interference (Fun Fact: When you go to Timber and you're standing in front of the giant TV screen, you can actually read messages of Adel's thoughts on the TV screen that she's transporting through the signal interference. She says three things: "IAMALIVE," "IWILLNEVERLETYOUFORGETABOUTME," and "BRINGMEBACKTHERE"). Then you find out Ultimecia's trying to free her so she can possess her and enact Time Compression. Then that's when the crap hits the fan.

Eventually, you have to chase her to Lunatic Pandora, but Seifer kidnaps Rinoa and basically feeds her to Adel. That FMV where she breaks free and snatches Rinoa is pretty stinkin' awesome and kinda scary. In all honesty, she could have made a better final boss than Ultimecia. She's a lot more intimidating than she is, that's for sure, and it would've avoided all those timeloops and stuff. But then again, the FFVIII ending wouldn't have happened the way it did, and that wouldn't have been cool.

I've actually said a lot of good things about Adel, so why is she ranked so low? Basically for the same reasons I ranked Yu Yevon so low: Awesome backstory that fails to deliver when you actually fight her. She delivers moreso than Yu Yevon does, so she gets ranked higher. Plus, she's rarely seen and she rarely speaks. She has a lot of wasted potential here.

133. Prince Druksmald Goltana (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: ''"Nobody wants you to be king!" - Delita Hyral''

This guy is a royal jerk, quite literally. Delita's quote sums this guy up. Who in the world would want this guy to be king? He's completely unreasonable and pigheaded. He essentially stabs Orlandu in the back, the guy who had been his greatest warrior and really, his most loyal and caring follower (not to mention your greatest warrior, basically. Imprisoning and almost executing this guy in the middle of the war is a pretty stupid move. He seemed to be a pretty dumb tactician overall anyway. Trying to advance your troops through a flood?). Orlandu was willing to say what was unpopular because he cared about Ivalice and he wanted Goltana to do right, and this is how you repay him? Accusing him of treason and being completely unwilling to listen to his defense? Hadn't he at least earned the right to defend himself after all his loyal service? Just the way Goltana treated Orlandu left a bad taste in my mouth and is enough to warrant him such a low place on this list.

The way Delita took out Goltana was pure ownage. One of Delita's finest moments in the game, honestly. "That's not a good idea." *draws sword and stabs in one swift motion* Aw yeah, sweet action. I know Delita was basically playing the guy like a fiddle and had no loyalties to the guy, but I dunno why guys like Orlandu and Olan stayed with this guy. I mean, Larg isn't much better, I guess, but still. Maybe they just believed in Ovelia or something.

134. Nooj (Final Fantasy X-2)

Quote: "Death will be my apology."

Oh wow, as I was looking up info on Nooj, I just realized that his VA later became Sephiroth's VA. I don't know why I didn't realize this sooner. In any case, as a character, Nooj is pretty boring. They call him the "Deathseeker" because he was just looking for a place to die on the battlefield. Sounds like Fortune from MGS2 to me, although without as much melodrama. Regardless, it's still pretty cliche. I don't know why in the world this guy's the leader of the Youth League considering he's an old fart. Maybe he's having a mid-life crisis or something.

I dunno. Maybe I'm being too hard on the guy because of his association with Leblanc (although that is a horrible thing). He's not really a bad character, per se, but he might be the most boring character in the series. I dunno if he wasn't supposed to speak with emotion or something, but he doesn't. He's just bleh. The strange thing is that the game tries to make it seem like Nooj is a funny guy, but I don't get it. There's nothing special about his character. The whole betraying everyone and all seemed like an interesting angle until you found out it was just Shuyin possessing him. It was pretty awesome when Yuna owned him with the "I don't like your plan. It sucks" line though.

135. Ruby (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "This cowgirl's wilder than a buckin' bronco!"

Why in the world did I rank Ruby this high again? For those of you who are in the dark about who Ruby is (because you sure can't figure it out from Amano art!), she's part of the Tantalus Troupe, and she plays the lead role of Cornelia in "I Want to Be Your Canary" in the beginning (or at least she was supposed to) and the ending of the game. She doesn't play much of a role though, so why rank her above other more important characters? I dunno, maybe I was charmed by her Southern accent or something. I do enjoy her awesome lines that Square gave her as a result, such as the one I posted. She can be pretty funny because of that. Plus, she's kinda cute.

Well, I guess Ruby's cool because she allows you to complete the Mognet Central sidequest by giving you the Superslick! She also seems to have some sort of crush on Zidane, but she never really voices it. She's also a good actress!

Ah, who am I kidding? Switch her place with Eiko, and let's move on!

136. Leblanc (Final Fantasy X-2)

Quote: "What can I say? One look at Noojie-Woojie’s dashing visage on that sphere and I was—oh!—charmed. How can I say no to such a kyootzie-wootzie face?"

Ugh. Just ugh. Leblanc is just so sickening. That quote of hers I posted pretty much sums it up. She's a super-obsessed stalker fanatic, and for Nooj of all people. Whenever she shows up, I know I'm going to be cringing soon because of some cheesy, syrupy line about Nooj or something. He's all she talks about. Have you ever known a girl in real life who just talks and talks and talks and talks about this one guy incessantly and never shuts up about him as if they were a couple, even though it's obvious he doesn't feel the same way about her? Well, that's Leblanc. It's just annoying, and I wish she would shut up.

I wish Square hadn't made Leblanc a semi-important character in FFX-2. It's been a while since I've played the game, but I think she probably shows up at least once in every chapter. Of course, the worst thing about her in the game is the massage mini-game. I hope whoever came up with that idea got fired or shot, either one, if not both. It might be one thing if Leblanc was either hot or had a sexy voice, but neither applies to her. As such, it's a dreadful experience. There are times when I don't mind the blatant fanservice in FFX-2, but that one certainly isn't one of those times.

137. Yu Yevon (Final Fantasy X)

Quote: "Fool. There is no other way. Even if there was... Even if you did destroy Sin... Yu Yevon the immortal would only create Sin anew." - Yunalesca

Somebody remind me why I'm fighting a giant tick at the end of the game. That was just so horribly anti-climactic. There's all this buildup about Yu Yevon. He's supposed to be by far the greatest summoner there ever was. He's so powerful that he's able to use thousands of faith at once in order to maintain the Dream Zanarkand. He's so powerful that he can break the bond between the summoner and the Final Aeon, killing the summoner and taking the Aeon for himself. He's so powerful that he commands Sin, the practically invincible creature that has terrorized Spira for a thousand years.

And then you find out Yu Yevon is a giant tick. I understand the symbolism and all that, but seriously, what the heck? I thought fighting Yu Yevon could be awesome with all the buildup, but he can't even kill you. Even without Auto-Life, he couldn't kill you. It's strange how Final Fantasy X goes full circle with its bosses. The first boss you fight only uses gravity spells and can't kill you, and the last "boss" you fight only uses gravity spells and can't kill you. I'm just not sure what Square was thinking with this one. Just a major letdown, but it's forgivable because nearly everything else about the end of the game in Final Fantasy X is absolutely incredible. Fighting Yu Yevon is basically an afterthought. A highly disappointing and anticlimactic one, but an afterthought nonetheless.

This is a tangent, but I don't like it when people call Yu Yevon the last boss of Final Fantasy X (Yes, I'm aware I did it myself in this write-up, but I used the term loosely and facetiously). The final boss of FFX is Braska's Final Aeon. Calling Yu Yevon the last boss of FFX is like calling Cloud's "Press O to win" Omnislash at the end of FFVII the final boss.

138. Heidegger (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "Reeve, you should flush those personal problems in the morning!"

Following "Kya ha ha" is "Gya ha ha." Heidegger is better than Scarlet, but not by much. Unlike his Shinra counterpart, he actually has some golden moments. First of all, I love the quote of his that I posted at the beginning. I dunno why, but I do. I also love his tendency to beat up people after Rufus rips his face, such as throwing people into the ocean at Costa Del Sol. That's great stuff. It's awesome that he tends to be the butt of everyone's jokes in Shinra, especially when Rufus makes fun of his "stupid horse laugh."

But I'm not sure how someone like Heidegger is actually one of the bosses of the Turks. The dude's pretty much incompetent, but for some reason, he doesn't seem to realize it. In fact, he thinks he's quite capable and he's actually worth something. He seems to think he's too good to take orders from Reeve, and then it goes to his head that somehow he's in charge now. He doesn't seem to like Rufus too much, but Heidegger sure seems to suck up to President Shinra. I also think it's quite strange that Heidegger makes fun of the mayor by saying he "just sits in this building all day feeding his face." I mean, it doesn't seem like you've been layin' off the Choco Puffs yourself there, Heidegger (Seriously, that's got to be the name of a cereal in the Final Fantasy world!).

I dunno, I don't hate Heidegger or anything, not quite like I do the three that are below him. He's good for a laugh or two, but he's pretty much worthless.

139. Scarlet (Final Fantasy 'VII')

Quote: "Something stinks..."

Another one of those broads I can't stand, Scarlet is just stuck up beyond belief (Kinda strange that she accuses Tifa of being "stuck up to the end" in Junon). Her attitude is just awful. She just thinks she's all that, some sorta Prima Donna. She doesn't really have any great moments other than the quote I posted and Tifa getting to slap the crap out of her. Admittedly, that's a highly satisfying moment in FFVII, but that's because Scarlet is so horrible. Actually, one of Cait Sith's great moments in FFVII is blasting her with sleeping gas. Scarlet getting repeatedly owned in Junon at the beginning of disc 2 is great stuff.

Scarlet is also a shameless plagiarist! She claims to rename the Mako cannon "Sister Ray," even though you can actually see that it already had that name in Junon! Okay, that's kind of a lame point, but whatever. Another lame point: Why in the world does she just shoot Dyne and Barret through the hand? I mean, they're both just there helpless. Why not just shoot Barret in the head or something? She acts like she's such a great shot, too, but the only reason she's even able to hit them is because the two of them can't move! Gimme a break, man!

Scarlet also thinks that the Proud Clod is something special, but THAT thing was supposed to beat Weapon? Psh, not a chance. I bet she gave it that stupid name, too. Her laugh is stupid, too, even worse than Heidegger's. I'm not sure why he takes all the flack from Rufus for that! Well, she got what was coming to her in the end.

Hmmm...Not a great write-up, but whatever. Scarlet doesn't deserve one!

140. Queen Brahne (Final Fantasy IX)

Quote: "Bwahahaha! Kuja! So you finally decided to show your girly face here! You're all that stands between me and total domination!"

I refuse to post a picture of Brahne on principle to avoid offending your senses and mine. If she's not in the top ten ugliest video game women of all-time, I don't want ever want to see the ones that beat her. Yuck, she's just utterly disgusting. I can barely stand the sight of her. Plus, her personality is nearly as disgusting as her appearance. There's really nothing likable about her. She makes a horrible first impression by nearly forgetting Steiner's name! Seriously, how do you forget about the Captain of THE KNIGHTS OF PLUTO?!

Overall, Brahne just your typical power-hungry tyrant. She doesn't care about anyone or anything but world domination. She's even willing to throw her daughter aside just to get the Eidolons. She's really perceived as the main threat until the very end of the second disc when Kuja shows her what's up. Speaking of which, seeing Bahamut totally own her was awesome. She got what was coming to her. I just wish Square hadn't tried to do a lame deathbed repentance thing with her to try to make you pity her, trying to make it seem like she was just being controlled by Kuja and her greed. That didn't really do anything for me. Brahne isn't a sympathy figure by any stretch of the imagination. She's just disgusting in every sense of the word.

141. Algus Sadalfas (Final Fantasy Tactics)

Quote: ''Heh! Commoners are all alike. You'll never be nobles! Delita, you don't belong here! Understand, rascal!?''

Man, I hate this guy. Is he the worst character in Final Fantasy history from an objective standpoint? No, in fact, it's because Square does such a good job with this guy that makes me hate his guts. They made him the most hate-able character in the series. Algus stands in such extreme contrast to Ramza that it's hard not to hate the guy if you like Ramza (which I do). The two of them couldn't be more different. The only thing they have in common is that they're both nobles. However, while Ramza thinks of nobility as more of a privilege and a responsibility, Algus thinks of it as his birthright and disdains anyone who's a commoner, possibly a result of his own bitterness toward his fallen family name and status. He doesn't think the line can ever be crossed, nor should it be.

At first, Algus really isn't that bad, but as the first chapter progresses, his true feelings and intentions slowly reveal themselves. Admittedly, his dialogue with Miluda at the thieves' fort is pretty awesome, but it basically sums up who he is. He was a total jerk to Delita after Teta had been kidnapped and just mocked him. I just couldn't stand his attitude there (although him calling Delita a rascal gives me a good chuckle, for whatever the reason). Honestly, I think the breaking point for me hating Algus as much as I do is Fort Zeakden. He shot and killed Teta without a second thought (though Zalbag ordered it without a second thought, but that's neither here nor there). The battle that ensues is great, and on my first playthrough, I don't know how many times I lost. The dialoguing between Algus, Ramza, and Delita is good stuff here as well. Killing him and putting him down was extremely satisfying, I must say.

So really, it's almost an honor for Algus to be considered my most hated character in Final Fantasy fandom because he's hate-able for all the right reasons. He's not particularly deep or anything. He just has one unlikeable attribute carried to the extreme (his intolerance), and it produces the desired effect. Algus was meant to be hated, and I'm not going to disappoint in that department!

P.S. No, I won't be using the PSP remake's name changes because I've never played it and because the name ARGATH is rather silly.