Red's Stack

[Mongoman]

Oooh, if we're talking about characters from FFVIII, I think that Squall is among the only good ones.

But he is a very good character, and there is quite a lot to him - its not all just moaning and musing.

I can agree with you about Zell, Selphie, Laguna etc. being one sided though.

[Ephemeral]

I'm glad that you stand up for your opinions red, and if that's what you think then I won't argue with you.
But the characters in X were terrible.
Aside from Yuna and Tidus, who we could have done without completely, the other characters were really just:

Moody, happy, stroppy, hippy and silent.
Auron, Rikku, Lulu, Wakka and Kimhari.

When you can peg their personalities into a single aspect that easily, then they are not good characters.
They may change over the course of the game, but not enough to warrant me taking those labels off of them.

[Mongoman]

I think that Auron is a fantastic character.

The air of mystery that surrounds him throughout the game is great, and you can tell that there really is some depth to him.

[Ephemeral]

Er no. He's a moody git who just happens to be dead.

[Mongoman]

I think the fact that he turns out to be dead is a fantastic twist.

It's completely unpredictable, and it adds a bit of depth to the story and to his character.

I think he's a much better character than much of the casts from other games.

[Earnest]

I rate Auron, Wakka and Yuna as Top 40 characters.

What Epheremal says is true, their personalities are a little 2D. Each character has like a role, to satisfy accross the audience. You might also notice that when they party stands together, they all have completely different colours costumes. They're meant to contrast I think.

Auron - He's pretty good at what he does. He's very much a leader and he quickly earnt my respect from the start. His strength over the other characters is clearly evident, not just talked about as a legend. If I could fault one thing, its that we never really see if he cares about Yuna more than a guardian. We saw that he loved Braska, but we don't know if there's anything like that for Yuna.

Wakka - It's not so much his transformation, which really isn't THAT spectacular as he's manhunted by his own church and naturally is going to lose faith. I just liked his bigger-brother attitude that was consistent with Yuna, Tidus and Rikku. He would be an awesome brother I think. His relationship with Lulu is pretty cool as well. I also simply like his appearance. His hair is mad.

Yuna - Her voice acting isn't very good, though she has her moments. I thought when she said 'You're hiding something!' When Seymour states that Tidus's father is Sin, but Tidus refuses to explain, was very well said. If nothing else, then her very selfless personality. She's ruined in FFX-2 however.

Seymour and Rikku are okay, but the rest are pretty forgettable.

[Mongoman]

Square have a habbit of ruining characters in sequels - Cloud in Advent Children and Yuna in X-2.

Such a shame.

[Ephemeral]

I figured out Auron was dead in the first ten minutes of the game. It really wasn't surprising.
However I didn't guess that Tidus was a dream until he was actually told he was. Now that surprised me.

You're right about Cloud in AC. They made him very strange. Not that he wasn't a little odd in FFVII, but they went too far with it.
And the translation into english was terrible. What the hell is "dilly dally shilly shally"? I get that in the japanese one she's says "Drifting drifting" which would be hard to dub, but come on.

[Lotus]

(04-04-2009 10:08 PM)Earnest Wrote:  Saying that FFVIII characters had less than FFI characters might seem ridiculous, but its fair. Giving the period of the NES, characters were rarely expected to have personality. PSX titles demanded it, and Squall and the rest really didn't.

If you're talking about how good characters should be in relation to their systems and the time they were created, your point is valid. But it's a matter of opinion. I just happen to think differently than Red.

However it's not fair to say that FFVIII's characters had less than FFI's. Because the point still stands, regardless of their systems, that FFVIII's characters were better than FFI's.

[Red XIII]

Lotus, that's obviously true. The point is we are holding modern games to much higher standards, and that VIII far from made the cut. Whereas at the time of FFI, there weren't many games (RPGs) that had in-depth character bios and backstories to explore. And FF wasn't a popular series at the release of the first game. When FFVIII came out, people were expecting FFVII to be topped. Whether that's fair to judge it based on VII or not, that's what people did and always will continue to do. Needless to say, its cast did not deliver (putting aside everything else).