12 Final Fantasy characters who make us hate Final Fantasy

The most notable thing about Final Fantasy XIII-2 is that the characters are less irritatingly extreme. No sullen mopey emo types. And no hyperactive upbeat idiots sapping your fun by having it all themselves. Even the fan service cameos have been toned down and made excellent.

So... what's with the Moogle, Square? Let's briefly celebrate 25 years of annoying, awful or just downright crap characters in the Final Fantasy universe. Beware spoilers.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Hmmm. I think it's missing hope, Selphie, and Zell. I didn't really like a lot of the characters from 8 actually.

[Pozzle]

I agree with Zell, but I thought Selphie was the best-written female character in the game. She was hyper, but in a realistic teen way. She didn't need constant saving like Rinoa, but she didn't competely disappear into the background of the story like poor Quistis did.

And as for Rinoa...Dammit girl! Stop getting into stupid situations where I need to stop mid-way through my missions to rescue you!!

[MrWiggle]

I kind of thought Rinoa getting into those situations contributed to Squalls character development. It's what actually made him care for her and others in the end because he stopped at nothing to actually go out and save her...again and again. Plus it showed her that he actually had feelings which probably made her keep trying with him to get him to open up

Anyway I can't believe some of these on the list, especialy Squall, it just seems everyone is riding the "Squall is an emo" train when really they've missed out on the great character development that spreads out during the game and changes Squall into an brave heroic leader at the end instead of the "emo", lonley jerk we see at the beginging....it makes me think people havent even finished the game if there going to judge Squalls character from the start and not the person he turns into. I mean it actually explains to you throughout the game and during flashbacks why Squall is the way he is and yet people just seem to ignore it so they can hate on FF8 a little more because it wasn't like FF7

[Snookies12]

The shit!? Zell was the greatest thing about FF8! Jeez, people don't know quality characters when they see them.

Haha, also without Zell there never would have been Seifer's famous "Chickenwuss" line.

[tplarkin7]

I liked Vanille far more than Hope.

[CryofSilence]

I liked a lot of the characters on that list. I really disagree with most of this list, though some do belong there. Gau, Kefka, Aerith, and Squall, for example, were great characters. Vanille had potential to be a great character, but her voice actor completely botched it.

[Ranma1]

Author lists:

(1)Gau: i disagree, his back story (being abandoned by his father and living with animals/monsters and learning their attack moves is awesome !!)

(2)Kefa: i disagree, awesome villane

(3)Cait Sith, Aerith: I disagree, decent characters

(4)Squall: good character, i think his cool

(5)Vann, and Vanille: agree. Vaan made me think FF12 was going to reveal he is homosexual at some point.

They forgot to mention: Snow, Hope and Serah from FF13-2 (looks like a teen)

[killerhog]

You're really into this discussion lol, you should of used the edit button to impute to your original comment and your other bubbles to reply to others

[Ranma1]

On a side note. I think shadow from FF6 was an unde rated FF character...you know that ninja guy

*spoiler* *spoiler* spoiler* *spoiler* *spoiler* spoiler*
Did you know that Shadow's daughter is is Relm (another playable character).

But he never tells her that throughout the game and she never ever finds out ! how bad ass is that !!!

[Ranma1]

Personally, i think FF13 has the worst unlike able characters out of all FF's..

Its no surprise, especially since its the most shitty FF (according to metacritic, discluding MMO FF's)

Anyone else agree, i mean i only liked Sazh, because his black and has an afro

[waltyftm]

Out of all the Final fantasy games i have played, there's only Wakka i really hated, never understood how a fine woman like Lulu got together with him.

[Megaman_nerd]

me neither. They don't even make a good couple, they look bad together. ;(

[tarbis]

Indeed, Lulu deserved better.

[tiffac008]

Wakka and Lulu is the Marko Jaric and Adriana Lima of video game characters.

You want to hate and respect the guy at the same time while you go like what the heck girl!? Forever. lol!

[PickAShoe]

You Jelly

[waltyftm]

Just a little.

[Kur0]

Wakka was a cool guy who would do anything for his friends and even had character development to get over his racism of the Al-Bhed. He even became good friends with Rikku. He was an awesome character and one who had an interesting accent to boot.

[killerhog]

Wakka is the best he's Bender Rodriquez !!!!

[D3mons0ul]

"I'm giving up days of my life pretending to be this rude douche."

You're playing JRPGs wrong. You were never supposed to insert yourself into any of the roles. The characters and story are all pre-determined for a reason.

Hmm official Xbox magazine...you're probably more familiar with WRPGs.

Oh and really? FF1 and 2? You're gonna complain that those games weren't narrative enough? Back then...no games were. In fact, FF1 was probably the most narrative of them all AT THE TIME.

Just a couple gripes.

At least you didn't put Cloud or Sephiroth on the list just to be different and prove you're out for hits. Props for that.

[Darkfocus]

haha no. plenty of CRPG's had good narrative consoles were just way behind(they pretty much always are).

[ClimateKaren]

Name some. Name one. Seriously, can you? I'm betting you can't. They were all D&D with a keyboard until FF and Dragon Warrior came along. Those games established RPGs firmly as a genre known for (comparatively) in-depth characters and stories.

And save the superior PC garbage for an article about something modern, where it might make some sense. PCs deserve and earn their respect when it's due, but this is not one of those occasions. Unless you seriously believe that King's Quest and Commander fucking Keen were the driving force behind the explosion of the video game industry in the late 80's and early 90's, as opposed to Zelda, Mario, and Metroid.

[Pozzle]

"Hats off to FF8 - they made the protagonist so stubbornly unlikeable that you were rooting for evil to win. Hot tip to Square: having a lead character who responds to everything with an ellipsis isn't building a character."

That's what made me like Squall, tbh. Here's something to do next time anyone plays FFVIII: Completely ignore Squall's inner dialogue. It makes his random outbursts and off-tangent conversations so much more hilarious because they seem to come out of nowhere. It also makes his friends shocked and surprised reactions so much funnier.

I don't really understand the reasoning for hating Aerith though...the author hates her because she died? Huh?

[Kalowest]

Lmao, I think Squall Leonhart is badass in Kingdom Hearts.

[RedDead]

I like KH for what it is, but it shits on FF characters. Turns them into this disney crap.

People hate squall because he was a whiney douche for half of the game, later on you can see why he is the way he is. But still, I couldn't forget what he was like earlier in the game. Good characters anyhow, great development.

[Snookies12]

@RedDeadDestroyer - How does Kingdom Hearts make FF characters Disney crap? They seem to overall be themselves, aside from Cid who needs at least one or two cuss words in his lines based on his character.

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

Who can hate Squall? Vanille is absoLUTEly the worst.

[Hicken]

People hate Squall because they think they know what emo is, and they think he is one, so they think they hate him. Squall is still one of the deepest characters in the franchise, and easily one of my favorites.

I like Vanille. But then, I've always had a thing for the energetic girl in the group- started with Selphie and reached a pinnacle with Rikku. And I like that Vanille isn't just happy-go-lucky, but seems to be trying to hide all her insecurities- of which there are some very important ones- behind a smile and positive attitude.

Looking at some of the characters on the list, and the reasoning behind them, I get the feeling it's more about generating hits than about giving their honest opinion about characters they did or didn't like.

Which is a shame, because it could have potentially been a good article.

[PickAShoe]

My right hand disagree.

[coryok]

i disagree with this quite a bit, squall is one of my favorites and a lot of the others arent really bad either.

and no hope? god damn, i think he was the only character that i wanted to throw off a cliff so far

[Chrono]

Another proof that Final Fantasy does not belong to the Xbox. Why the hell is the official magazine criticizing our beloved FF characters? Just leave them alone.

[Kalowest]

I like 5,6,7,9,10,11,and 12.

[dredgewalker]

Whoever disagreed with you is not a Final Fantasy fan.

[Rai]

Hope
Vanille
Snow

[Anderson8]

the only 3 characters i've ever hated in an FF game

[CaitSith]

I stopped reading at Cait Sith.

ME FTW.

[NeXXXuS]

LOL ily

[Inception]

For me is Snow because he constantly screaming "SERAHHHHHH!!!" for every f*kin minutes. I never seen an FF characters like Snow who always screaming and screamin loudly with corny dialogues "I WILL SAVE SERAH AND THE WORLD!" -_-

[N311V]

I'm in your boat. Snow irritates me that much that I have trouble playing FFXIII.

[wicko]

YOUR HERO HAS ARRIVED

*barrfff*

[C L O U D]

Squall is certified

No one can hate

[TheMutator]

i hate every character from X-2 , XII and XIII and coming soon XIII-2

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Have you played 13-2? If not you can't really judge the characters can you?

[Lord_Sloth]

Weren't most of them in XIII anyway? I haven't been keeping up with it really. I know they have the new guy with dual swords and Moggle but...

[Lord_Sloth]

Your reasoning for Aeris fails because the characters not in your party leveled up even if they weren't in the main party.

[Biggest]

Um. . . Are you sure about that? If they are not in the active party they get half. If they are knocked out or not in the group at the time they get nothing at all.

[Lord_Sloth]

Half experience is still experience.

Hating on Aeris because she died and "wasted experience" in an RPG that's not terribly difficult to begin with is a stupid reason to label her as a character that makes you "hate FF".

[Biggest]

I wasn't disagreeing with the Aeris thing. The entire list is stupid to be honest. Final Fantasy is hated by people that hate Final Fantasy. It has nothing to do with a few characters.

[tarbis]

but but but... I like Vanille. T_T
Hope should be in that list.

[Anti-Fanboyer]

Vanille and Hope are my top two.

Every time those two open their mouths, shit makes me wanna punch something.

[kanetheking]

i did not mind hope he's mom died and he was with a bunch of ppl that he did not even know,i did not like lighting (most bland person in ff13) and vanille sucked to.

[Eamon]

What? Kefka? Cait Sith? Aerith? Eiko?

This list is full of fail.

[iWishTifaWasReal]

Although i don't agree on this Article.

In FFXIII-2, Moggle is the annoying one now.

idk every time i see him i just want to punch his face. He is not cute. He acts all cute in all the trailers ive seen.

[ElliePage]

Every character in FF13 & FF13-2.

[CRASHBASHUK]

Vanille? shes not anoying shes a great med a casts a great death spell she does help to get the job done faster
i tihnk hope should be there hes the weakest in the game

[gigreen]

Everyone from FFVII.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

Everyone in FF13 except Sazh.

[TopDudeMan]

Quina from FF9 should be top of this list

[mll09]

Squall is my favourite video game character ever. I don't know what it is, I just like him. I've never understood why there seems to be an undercurrent of hatred for him, I've always liked him.

In fact, I like all the characters from FF8. Except maybe Rinoa, I don't mind her but sometimes I just want to punch her in the face for some of the stuff she says/does.

I don't like Vanille and Hope. Vanille because she orgasms at every opporunity and Hope because his speeches make me want to skip the cutscene. Cut the crap and let me continute the story GODDAMMIT

[tigertron]

Hope and Cloud.

Hope was a whiny bitch and Cloud was a miserable emo who had zero personality whatsoever. I really can't understand the love for Cloud.

I guess Vanille annoyed me abit too.

[Vynzent]

Buddy, Cloud single-handedly took down the most powerfull being in the universe... no not Frieza.

Cloud isn't really emo, you know, his mind was f*cked up badly from Mako poisoning. That's like being a cocaine addict x100 so of course he's damn miserable! On top of that, his love was killed before his eyes.

Now how do you NOT expect him to be miserable? He has good reason to be.

[bart2278]

I feel like most of the cut scenes in 13 are a waste of time and cheesy. I don't like Snow, Zell, and Final Fantasy 12's characters. I'm playing 6 right now...so can't contribute there. I don't agree with this list.

[bart2278]

I want a dark protagonist that doesn't have some sort of inner conflict. I just want a quiet confident badass....SE has gone the complete opposite way.

[Eu]

"I hate _________ just because....." Thats this article....besides the full fail BS all around it, it seens they are just complaining because said games were NEVER on a MS console (besides XIII and XIII-2...). Its like they want to hate just because, without even going in dept about the chars...yes some of them are freaking anoying, but some of the worst arent even on the list...and AERIS? SQUALL? Some of the best chars and the main plot development devices in their respective games? Take them out and VII and VIII arent the same thing...

It may be simply their opinions, but it sure doesnt make it any more sense, unless they just wanna hate the FF francise all together....

[OmniSlashPT]

It's funny because of 8 of those characters don't appear in Xbox consoles lol How about complaining about Halo, Gears or Fable characters?
Btw, saying the first FF's didn't have appealing characters is like saying pong doesn't have realistic physics for a sports game. They're damn 2D 80's games, what were you expecting? Was Super Mario appealing? This article is just pure biased bs.

This guy might find a good character, a steroid brainless soldier that shoots everything that stands in his way. To get to the next checkpoint.

[Kthalas]

I loved to hate Kefka. In my opinion he was the first bad guy I ever wanted to hunt down and eviserate. Pure unadulterated evil. Poisoned a full Castle/Town. Killed his Emperor. Managed to actually ruin the world.

I didn't care for Cloud or Sephiroth. Never really have. But then Final Fantasy IX and VI are my favorite Final Fantasy titles. By the time I played FF VII, I'd already played FF VI 4 or 5 times. I wanted to kill Sephiroth just to get rid of him.

There were a few characters that I didn't care for overall, but I understood them and their place in the game. Even though I didn't care for Sephiroth or Cloud, understood them.

The story to VII was good, just didn't care for the 2 biggest characters. But that's just my opinion.

[Vynzent]

"The story to VII was good, just didn't care for the 2 biggest characters"

Wait... what? How do you like the story but don't care for the whole reason of its existence? Well whatever, you admitted the story is good :3

[Kthalas]

"Wait... what? How do you like the story but don't care for the whole reason of its existence? Well whatever, you admitted the story is good :3 "

There was more to the story than just Cloud and Sephiroth. Shinra, the genetic manipulation, the draining of the planet's life force faster than it can be replenished, the corporate greed that cares little for those around them as evidenced by the destruction of the plating for the one Sector that killed those in the slums.

I didn't like Cloud. Something about him just rubbed me the wrong way. Sephiroth felt more like a whiny brat throwing a tantrum. Yeah I'm sure it sucks to find out you were a genetic experiment, but instead of trying to wipe out all life on the planet, he could've done something good with his abilities.

Like I said, story was good (not as good as FF VI's or IX's in my opinion). No one says I have to like all the characters. That's the good thing about most Japanese developed RPGs. There a bit of freedom there. You have many characters to learn about. With the solo character style in most Western RPGs, you don't have that. It's more about story than the character you control.

[Hyperbomb69]

For me it has to be Sahz or however you spell it. Not because hes black, but because he is a westernized version of a Final Fantasy character, it feels like square created him to "Appeal" to us westerners, what they dont realize is that we love the androgynous look of their characters, we might bitch about Tidus and Cloud or whatever but if they were to look like Richard Pryor like Sahz does Id rather just play some WRGP and skip the JRPG genre altogeter.

[Scribe81]

HAHA, what a funny article. I was just at Gamestop thinking if I should finally pick up FFXIII, but still can't bring myself to pay anything more than $5 for it.

Last FF I completed was X-2, and that was horrible, I just wanted my money's worth since I'd paid top dollar for it. But it was that Vaan guy that finally destroyed all hope for me in a FF game. I played the first hour and half of FFXII, turned it off and returned it for something else and haven't looked back.

Did play Crisis Core, and that was a great FF except for the freaking Activate Combat Mode and heavy metal rock during battle.

I actually liked Wakka and his small island surfer-dude mentality, the same with Squall, since he does wind up caring about stuff.

Just watching the trailer for FFXIII told me everything I needed to know regarding the characters in the game, and from everything I've read since the release, it's very clear what you see is what you get from those characters: annoying as hell.

And yes, I actuallly agree with the Aerith commment because i'd used her in my group and then poof, adios and had to power level another character up to respectable levels. Yes, I was very sad that she died, and didn't have the bitter taste in my mouth the second time I played FFVII since I didn't even use her in a single group once I was able to switch her out.

I pretty much hated every character except Vivi in FFIX, and yes, I did have a, "you freaking beeeeyaaaccch," moment when Yuffie jacked my materia, but I grew to like to her character.

Hated the villian in 8, I mean was there really one, I can't even remember, there was just some big ass boss at the end, also hated the effeminate villian from FFX. I mean, I understand it's a style they're trying to create, but come on, just make the guy gay! Why flirt around the bush, same with the Vaan guy. Just make'em gay, because they are. Kind of like the guy in Enchanted Arms. He's flaming, and at first it was annoying, but then I accepted it and found it funny that they'd had the guts to make him flaming.

Could care less about FFXIII-2, which really sucks because there's this giant hole in my gaming catalog over the past several yrs without any good jRPG's to play, but I've simply gotten sick of the characters, as well as the little cutey-pie creatures they always pop out. I was totally loving Valkyria Chronicles when out of nowhere a little flying pig pops out and I was like, there it is, knew it was going to enter the game sooner or later.

Finally got a 360, so hopefully Lost Odyssey offers up some good JRPG gaming.

[BiggsnWedge]

I hate all the ones in FF13 except Sazch

[Vynzent]

I hate them all, along with "Sazch."

Worst characters created, all whitewashed "pretty- people." That's crap I don't want to see in games.

Now FF7 had guys that looked like... guys. Ever seen Barret? Nothing whitewashed about him.

And Tifa will kick Lightning's a$$ any day, along with all her FF13 friends.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

This list was pretty terrible, there were MUCH worse characters in the FF universe than kefka, hell kefka is one of the better ones!

[gamer7804]

I loved the Vanille character, one of my favorites in the series. On the surface she seems like a 1 deminsional character, but there was alot of thought put into her character as you learn more about her progressing through the game.

[jag_stilvecchio]

The entire cast of FFXIII.

Agree with many of the others about Kefka - a truly evil character. Plus FF6 is my favorite game in the series.

[Der_Kommandant]

Motherfreaking Hope!!!!!