• Top 10 Final Fantasy Characters

  

  Written by Zeromage 64 Comments
  Last Updated:: January 5, 2009

  As most readers of Old-Wizard know, the Final Fantasy franchise is one of our favorite video game series of all time. Its with that in mind that decided to make a list of our top ten Final Fantasy Characters. Many readers will notice that most of these characters are from our favorite game in the series, Final Fantasy 3. Final Fantasy 3, yes 3, is one of the greatest RPGs ever made. We here at OW refuse to adopt the Japanese numbering order. If anything Japan should have to re-write their numbering to fit the order of release here. You see OW bleeds red white and blue. And as every true American knows we are the greatest country ever. If you don’t think so we’ll invade you and force our culture on you. Japan should truly decide whether the numbering they use is worth it or not. We’ve invaded bigger countries for less. Anyway I digress. Final Fantasy 3 is awesome, it’s one of the first games where the bad guy actually wins (sort of) and it also has an incredibly interesting plot, which is why the majority of the next ten characters come from that game.

  10. Vivi

  Vivi was a throw back to the original black mages form the first Final Fantasy. He was a kind-hearted little magician who was scared of his powers and wanted to know who or what he was. Much of the plot of Final Fantasy 9 is based on this idea, and eventually leads to Vivi learning he was designed to be nothing more than an evil weapon. Much like the Bush administration, his brethren are mindless machines of destruction who followed orders blindly and killed indiscriminately. We here at O-W liked the simple throw back this game offered, and truly loved the character of Vivi. Squaresoft took one of the simplest and oldest character types and added a depth not seen in FF games previous to this one. You couldn’t help but feel bad for Vivi, you wanted to reach through the screen and give the little bugger a hug and tell him everything will be all right. Not only that, but once he was leveled up he was one of the best characters in the game. Vivi may be overlooked, but he was one of the best characters SS introduced into the FF series.

  9. Vincent Valentine

  Vincent Valentine makes his first appearance in FF7. A former Turk with a mysterious past, Vincent’s hidden secrets tie him directly to several of the main antagonists of the game. At one time, though it has now been proven false, it was even rumored he was the father of Sephiroth. Although I’m not as big of a fan of his subsequent appearances, in FF7 he was a great character. His weapon of choice was a handgun and his Limit Breaks would cause him to shapeshift. He was a pretty minor character in the game, with very little of the story actually focused on him. But much like many other minor characters who would become fan favorites, it was inevitable that new games and books were released about him, ruining any mystique that he once had. This is the same thing that George Lucas did to Boba Fett, all because they wanted to make a little extra money. Nevertheless, he is still a great character, and one of my favorites from FF7.

  8. Rydia

  Rydia is a summoner and as a young girl, Kain and Cecil accidentally destroy her hometown, giving her a pretty good reason to hate them at first. She summons Titan to destroy Cecil and Kain but she gets injured shortly after. Cecil offers to help Rydia heal her wounds but she still can’t forgive him for what he has done to her hometown. Over time, she learns to accept Cecil’s company and joins him on his cause, and eventually, she learns the art of summoning. From here, Rydia becomes an essential part of your party. As a Summoner, she naturally has the ability to Summon monsters, however, she can also use Black Magic. She learns every spell, up to and including Meteor at Level 60, but she learns them later than Palom because of her emphasis on Summon Magic. As a child, she can also cast some elementary White Magic; however, she can only cast three spells: Cure, Sight, and Hold. When she returns to the party as an adult, she has forgotten these spells. But the reason we like her is not because of her black or white magic, but her ability to summon big baddies like Shiva, Ifrit, and Bahamut.

  7. Sephiroth

  Ask most fans of the Final Fantasy series who their favorite character from the franchise is, and they will probably tell you that its Sephiroth. While he’s not my personal favorite character, he definitely deserves a spot on our list. After all, how can you not like a lunatic whose main goal is to become a god and control the planet? While he may be delusional and arrogant, its not without reason. A prototype SOLDIER and the strongest one alive, Sephiroth is initially revered for his strength and hailed as a hero. Even after his fall into insanity, he is still a lethal and highly intelligent warrior. But he is also cruel and delights in mentally torturing Cloud. In Advent Children, in one of his iconic lines, he asks Cloud what he cherishes so he may simply take it from him. With lines like that, how could he not make this list?

  6. Shadow

  Shadow, much like my favorite characters in the movies, is a paid assassin and mercenary. He would join your party and then leave it as he pleased throughout the game. Also, did I mention that he’s a ninja? This fact alone qualifies him to be on this list. He is also accompanied by his faithful dog, Interceptor. I’m not sure how many other ninjas have dogs who follow them around, but I don’t imagine the number is very high. Anyway, Shadow’s special skill, Throw, allows him to throw any weapon in the inventory, such as swords, spears, shuriken, and skeans/edges/scrolls (which affect multiple foes). This attack ignores physical defense and often hits for high damage. In addition, Shadow possesses a secret status effect that causes his dog, Interceptor, to randomly negate damage from a physical attack aimed at Shadow. Because of his usefulness, and the fact that he is a ninja, Shadow is clearly one of the best FF characters of all time and well deserving of his spot on this list.

  5. Mog

  The moogles are an interesting race of creatures. A mixture of a number of cute animals with bat wings, who love to dance. Whose dances, furthermore, bring destruction based on the places where they have danced previously. Mog was a great character, and it was very exciting to find him again after the destruction of the world. He was cute and cuddly, and when he danced he crushed your enemies under his feet. Unlike most cute cuddly things, Mog was intelligent so you didn’t have to take him outside at varying intervals and I imagine he could also feed himself, though he may have curled up by you feet under certain circumstances (this, of course, is just speculation). It also concerned me whether or not Mog had an accent of any kind and what that might sound like.

  4. Cecil

  Cecil is an epic character, as his transition from an evil Knight to a heroic Paladin causes Cecil to be one of the most developed characters in FF2, and one of the most interesting characters in the Final Fantasy series as a whole, because his changes are realistic and actually make sense. From commander of the evil Red Wings to a celebrated hero, Cecil undergoes very significant changes in FF2. As a Dark Knight, Cecil’s stats are heavily weighted physically, and he has barely any Magic Defense. He can only equip special swords, shields, and armor designed specifically for Dark Knights. His weapons are ineffective against Zombies, Ghouls, Revenants, and Skullnants. His most powerful Dark Sword, the Deathbringer, can inflict instant death on his opponents. As a Dark Knight, Cecil also possesses the Darkness ability, which damages all opponents, but he takes a small amount of damage whenever he uses this attack. Once Cecil becomes a Paladin, he can use the Cover ability, which allows him to intercept physical attacks against the ally Cover is targeting. Cecil automatically uses this ability to protect any ally whose HP is low, making him not only one of the most interesting FF characters, but one of the most useful as well.

  3. Locke

  I’ve often wondered what my character class would be in real life. Typically I’ve always been a bit partial to rogues. I always thought that I’d be a ranger personally, but they have that slightly good aspect to them. I’d never make it as a ranger, so I’ve always played a rogue in roleplaying games. Which is why I like Locke so much. He is a Thief, but he prefers to be called a “Treasure Hunter.” A running gag is that people call Locke a thief and insists that he’s a treasure hunter. Being a Thief, Locke has high speed, evasion, and physical stats, but low magic stats. His equipment draw includes most daggers and swords, as well as several boomerangs. He can use all shields except the Gold Shield, lightweight vests and hats, and most heavy armor. If customized properly, Locke can be the strongest member of your party and can kill superbosses in a matter of seconds. Its for these reasons that he makes it on our top 10 final fantasy characters of all time list.

  2. Kain

  Cain was the brother of Abel in the Bible’s book of Genesis. He became the first murderer by killing his brother out of jealousy stemming from the fact that God chose Abel’s gift over that of Cain. Kain’s name, thus, is a reference to the events that happened between him and his adoptive brother, Cecil. Kain is a Dragoon Knight in training who one day dreams of becoming a true Dragoon Knight just like his father was and he remains one of Cecil’s most true and loyal friends. However, Kain is the source of FF2’s biggest plot twists, as he is constantly under the control of Golbez, who is the leader of the Red Wings after Cecil’s dismissal by King Baron. He betrays Cecil and his friends several times throughout the game. Another interesting fact about Kain is that he secretly shares Cecil’s love for Rosa and the three have great love triangle. But still, Kain is a good friend and a useful member of Cecil’s party during the course of FF2. Like Cecil, Kain hopes to restore peace to the world. Kain’s special battle command is the “Jump” command. It is quite effective for the most part and while it takes a few turns, Kain’s Jump is quite powerful and can be at least 2X more powerful than his regular attack in most cases.

  1. Kekfa

  Kefka may be the most evil villain in any of the Final Fantasy games. He is a raving madman who actually delights in murdering mass amounts of people. If you really think about it, no game previous to this one shows an entire city of people drinking poisoned water and dying. Not only that, we have to watch as one of the heroes of the game watches his wife and child die, then later in the game he has to go back to said city and face his demons. Which, if you’re not paying attention, was watching his wife and child die of poisoning. In most video games, the heroes work hard to stop the villain from destroying the world. Kefka actually destroys the world. Granted in the end you kill him, but for what, what’s left? The world is shattered, most people are dead, crazy mutant monsters are running around everywhere, and most people belong to a cult worshiping the very guy who destroyed the world. Is this really a victory? Doesn’t Kefka sort of win? Granted he dies in the end, but he accomplishes all of his schemes. At one point this lunatic pushes the emperor off a floating continent, which we can only assume leads to a rather terrifying death. Imagine the fear while falling, for what is probably several minutes, knowing that you are going to smash into the ground or water and die. Squaresoft out-did themselves with Kefka, if this game was made with today’s graphics the entire game would be terrifying, don’t let the 16-bit graphics fool you. Finally, I can’t help but make the comparison the Joker in the Dark Knight. If this game were to ever become a movie, Heath Ledger would have been the only man to play Kefka.

64 Comments

1. #1 Shawn says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 3:24 am

   you ppl saying the list sucks just cus it doesnt match ur opinion r idiots… but my fave is zack in crisis core, only game ever to get me choked up…
2. #2 Mac says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 12:49 pm

   great list ;D
3. #3 Tim says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 4:56 am

   I like how old school you are. None of this new-fangled crap! You keep this list centered on the real beauty of the series!

   Awesome
4. #4 Mac lol says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 11:40 am

   great list, im glad that cloud and sephi wasn’t on the list.
5. #5 avi says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 1:42 pm

   sephiroth was #7, read a list before commenting BTW I think sephiroth should b 1st, but hey this isn’t my list. I am glad Cloud didn’t make it.
6. #6 avi says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 1:52 pm

   jeweled, i dont hate ff7, i just dont like cloud. maybe he should be on the list, he is alright but he is not my number 1.
7. #7 avi says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 2:13 pm

   but ya kefka is awesome 2, i see why she is your faavourite.
8. #8 CK says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 4:13 pm

   Great list, need some representation from FFT however… Ramza and Delita both could be in the top 10.

   While maybe not in the top 10, I also liked

   Edge- he watched his parents die after being turned into monsters by Lugae

   Golbez

   Bahamut

   Celes

   General Leo

   Gilgamesh (was awesome on FF12)

   Matoya from FF1- what a bee-yotch! “Thanks for getting my eye back, now get the heck out of here before I kill you!”

   I also love Liviathan and Asura from FF4
9. #9 JH says:
   March 17th, 2010 at 6:14 am

   I AM HAPPY SEE MY FAV ON THIS LIST WHO IS CECIL!!!! AND KAIN ASWELL I AM SURPRISED TO SEE THAT CLOUD OR ZACK DIDNT MAKE IT ON THE LIST
10. #10 MW says:
    March 17th, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    this does suck, were the hell is Auron?
11. #11 Pie Guy says:
    March 17th, 2010 at 12:50 am

    Cecil is the greatest Final Fantasy character ever. I am touched that you guys would include him. I love you guys.
12. #12 macil22 says:
    March 17th, 2010 at 3:16 am

    The list isn’t bad. I would have put Kain at #1 though haha. Vivi would be off. Shadow and Vincent are both cool but they aren’t top 10 either.

    One of my favorite characters is Rubicant from FF4. He doesn’t play enough of a major role to warrant being in a top 10 list though.

    I’d replace Shadow with Celes, and Vincent with Terra. 10th spot is tough though, I think maybe I’d replace Vivi with Balthier from ff12. I know I will get crap for that one lol but I thought he was a great character.
13. #13 FLOJ says:
    March 17th, 2010 at 4:33 am

    This is the best article I’ve ever read. I never played final fantasy on the snes. I started playing rpgs at final fantasy 7.