Ranking Final Fantasy Main Characters (MMOs and Tactics Included)

FF6 - Celes FF13-2 - Noel FFX - Tidus FF8 - Squall FF7 - Cloud

Great videos! I’m watching them all

Squall is the best protagonist in FF8, he's a total bad ass. He starts off flawed but ends up growing up. I'd say Cloud is the second best. I don't really feel there are bad FF characters, but FF13 and FF12 are terrible games. Lightning was the only reason I finished the game. 12 was bad enough I didn't even care to finish it.

I might be biased, since FFXV was my introduction to the series, but Noctis is just my favorite, and I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks he's underrated.

Giving Squall his due. I love it.

Where would Clive fit into this ranking now?

The My Chemical Romance music for Squall's segment cracked me up

#1 Cloud- Skilled, Competent, Badass, Stoic. He's the Ace. He's a guy that commands the attention on screen despite having an all-time great cast around him. He's the closest thing FF has to an MC like Solid Snake. #2 Zidane- an improved version of Locke from FFVI, who should have been the real MC of that game. Zidane always picks everyone up around him even while secretly dealing with his own issues. #3 Cecil- Cecil is a great character, who you admire even as a dark knight. His writing is a little cartoony, but by 1991 standards, that's fine. No other character was the moral center of his game the way Cecil was. #4 Squall- He's the closest any FF MC comes to feeling like a real person, and has the most character growth of any FF MC over the course of his game. His arc, from an "emo" curmudgeon to someone genuinely heroic, has a lot of similarities to Snape's arc in Harry Potter. I also just liked that Squall has a sharp intellect and has no time for bullshit... I found that refreshing. He had plenty of cool factor from his limit break and use of R1 button, too. #5 Locke - There really isn't a true MC in VI (Celes makes a better argument than Terra, IMO). That said, Locke has the most leadership qualities. He's not the MC, but if he were, I'd have him ranked at this spot. #6 Tidus- A little too annoying for me, but FFX is undoubtedly his story. Always down to earth even though he could have big-timed the rest of the cast. Sacrifices himself without a second thought. #7 Ramza- Both as a fighter and character, Ramza is fairly generic in a game full of amazing and dynamic characters. I emotionally connected with his character, but it would feel wrong to rank him higher than this. #8 Vahn- I like Vahn, but he's kind of a watered down Zidane, and the game doesn't really feel like his story (which if you know the backstory of how XII was made, makes complete sense). #9 Bartz- FFV is a strange game where all the supporting characters get pretty well fleshed out arcs, but the MC is mostly just a random dude who's best friend is a Chocobo. But, I like it that way. It is consistent with the "adventurer" theme of the game. #10 Firion. I've beaten this game, but I don't really remember a lot about this character. *Haven't yet played 13, 15, 16.

Cecil is absolutely the most charismatic main character of any Final Fantasy game, on top of that he's the only true leader of these parties in these games, nobody else has more leader traits than Cecil does which is why I love the guy, FFIV in general though is still one of the best Final Fantasy games and I know people are expecting an FFIX remake but to be honest an FFIV remake would make more sense, so long as it doesn't have the story problems that FFVIIR does because while I love the game the FFVIIR story is just a mess and I always shut my brain off whenever nonsense happens, to me it's an ultimate fanservice game which isn't a bad thing, I just think the story unfortunately gets sacrificed to please fans.

If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other rankings in the series: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXjn34wFCMP-6Kl56Fn2Ig3…

I think Squall is the most misunderstood MC in FF. His personality was very realistic for a child with such intelligence and talent who grew up in isolation. It made him an introvert with a superiority complex. Basically, he's Matt Damon from Good Will Hunting (1997)- he knows he smarter than everyone else and that naturally leads him to anti-social behavior. Though, Squall has a far better development arc, I think Snape works pretty well as a comparison. From curmudgeon to hero. I think these features were spotlighted further by a supporting cast full of idiots, and a mostly nonsensical story that too often forced Squall to be the "straight man" to keep things from going off the rails. Everyone trying to anoint him the leader early in the game was really more of a reaction to how unqualified most of the rest of the cast would be in a leadership role. Over the course of the game, Squall is socialized and actually develops into a real leader. He also improves the people around him and by the end, the characters that seemed like airheads and idiots are far more competent. Also, I know he dresses like a guy in an emo band, but I didn't really view him as being emo, just a guy that had some legit issues to work out. Other main characters go through journeys of character growth (Cloud, Cecil), but neither of them felt as grounded and believable as Squall. I could also never hate him because I agreed with every thought he had, even if they weren't the nicest thoughts. Squall would probably never be someone elected president. But him being the leader of a fighting force, by the end of that game, it made sense. I think he's a great character.

Bro, ur break downs of the Ff series is incredibly good. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Chrono trigger or other square soft era jrpgs.

Love your list.

If they remake ff8 I would love to see squall voiced by Zach Aguilar

Great video. Looking forward to the stuff you have coming up, but I'm surprised you didn't do "ranking every Final Fantasy by Cids". Sure, FF1 would get the default last place, even with a retconned Cid, but the rest would be a fun bunch to rank.

Really liked the list! And i enjoyed your break down of a lot of the characters strengths and weaknesses. I agree that Terra is the protagonists of 6 being the first olayable characters, in the logo and central to the act one plot. That being said she spends about 8% of my total play time in my party lol i have never heard anyone say lightning isn't the main character for ff13 other than when i was joking with a friend of mine because is spent so long grinding post game with fang, snow and vanille that i was like "lightning hasn't been relevant for the last fifty hours lol" absolutely great character though and by the end of lightning returns she is probably top five for me

Yuna>>> YES DAMMIT YUNA I SAID IT! (Although i do love Cecil Noct and Clive) but great list now that i finally finished XVI im gonna check out the rest of your videos

I wonder if the 14 WoL would at least beat out FF3 by the time you reach endwalker. The more and more you get into the game the more it gives your main character caracterization at times msking clear choices that aren't yours to make. At times having long 1 on 1 interactions with big villains were they make such choices. Regardless though. Good list.

I have FF14 as the best MC on account of it's me! 😀 But honestly my top 3 would be the same as yours, just maybe in a different order depending on the day. So far I am really liking Clive though.

9:43 honestly, Terra is my favorite protag in the series lol. The character I connected to the most, because I went through a time where I was really depressed and I was a unapproachable person in society. I also didn’t know how to love, loving was a concept I had just forgotten, I felt like I didn’t love anyone and nobody loved me. Ff6 was the game that really helped me get through my depression, and helped me relearn concepts I had forgotten, and just overall pushed me to help myself and get better. So yeah Terra’s my favorite protag lol