My vote goes for Laguna Loire, FFVIII's alternate main character. Love that guy, leg cramps and all.

Cecil.

Zidane is my favorite. I'm surprised he's actually winning the poll though. Good on you Giantbomb.

I don't think FF6 had a direct lead. Terra was the protagonist for like the first quarter of the game, then she stopped being the focus IIRC.

@encephalon: This. Or Balthier. Don't care if he wasn't the main lead, he was awesome.

Leg cramps, or "leg cramps"? :P

But yeah, Laguna's battle theme kicks ass.

I didn't carefully think it over and picked Cecil. Because my pos coworker insists that Cloud is a better character and that is nonsense.

Come on, Vaan isn't the main in FF12. I pick Ashe.

But since she isn't in the poll options, It's Lightning followed by Zidane. But honestly, FF leads are all pretty crap.

For comparison, I call 10 my favorite FF game, followed by 7... But definitely not because of the lead characters.

Cloud wasn't a straight faced serious guy, he was an incompetent dork who wanted to be someone he couldn't live up to. Unfortunately, his character arc is ignored in all subsequent movies/games and they instead go back to portraying him as king of the emo. A shame, because if you just play the main game, he's definitely one of the best lead characters.

But because of how mishandled and milked he's been since then, I'd go with Cecil or Terra.

@animasta said:

Perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly, but wasn't Basch originally intended to be the main character, before someone decided they needed a younger lead because of "blah blah blah target demographics" and shoehorned Vaan into the role?

Voted for ZIdane. The thief with a heart of gold is hardly an original character concept but I think it was played well. I thought his relationships with characters like Garnet and Vivi were really good.

Tidus.
When the penny finally drops for him in regards to what's going to happen to Yuna when her pilgrimage is over, he becomes a totally different character than the "Ah come on, let's have some fun, woo"-guy that he is for most of the game

I haven't beaten many Final Fantasies, but I've played pretty much all of them. I quite liked Zidane and Cloud as far as JRPG protagonists go. While not included Ramza was an interesting and well-developed character. Zach Fair from Crisis Core also gets points for being a JRPG protagonist that is not creepily upbeat, headstrong, stoic, androgynous, or trying super hard to look cool. Ultimately, however, my vote goes to Terra. Less-so because of her, but more because FF6 is such an ensemble game I considered Celes, Edgar, and Locke just as much protagonists as her.

Worst character ever award goes to Vaan by a landslide, though. I tried very hard to get into FF12, but I kept getting stopped by...him.

I think Zidane was probably the best written but that's more a product of the time that game came out. My problem with him is that he's yet another Sun Wukong parable and I feel like I've seen better renditions of that tall tale. In the end I went with Cecil because I think his character arc was far more interesting at the time. He was straight up the black knight to his kingdom who was charged with slaughtering anyone by the command of the king. Then he proceeds to go through a redemptive arc where he becomes a completely different character class. Good stuff. He really is one of the reasons that it's one of my favorite FF games of all time.

I only really played 6 and 13 so out of the two I liked Lightning because she was close to something resembling a real human being in the Final Fantasy universe.

I never really much cared for the leads. I didn't hate Squall though. On another note I think Seifers character was wasted potential. So much depth could have been put into him, but wasen't. Also I think originally they wanted more focus on the love triangle in that game, but that never really came to fruition. I feel like I'm going off topic now. My vote is Squall, simply for the character development.

maybe I should point out, I've only played 4 FF games. lol that limits me a little.

@believer258 said:

@hailinel said:

As much as I love Terra, her role as the game's lead isn't as prominent with the large cast and the extended periods of time she's not with the party. I'd say that at this point, my favorite Final Fantasy lead is Lightning. A great character and a perfect point of balance in the party.

I haven't actually played FFXIII or its spinoff, but I almost never see people complain about Lightning and, from what I've seen of the games, she seems like an all right character who happens to be surrounded by insufferable idiots. As opposed to the other way around, where an insufferable idiot is surrounded by all right characters, e.g. FFXII.

She's a female version of Cloud.

Zack Fair was fantastic in Crisis Core, though I chose Terra.

Cecil is the only right answer.

Tie between Cloud and Zidane for me. Both are great for different reasons.

Zidane of course.

I'm going Zidane cos FFIX is my favourite in the series and he's just a stand-up dude. Unlike Cloud, Squall and (although I love VI to bits too) Terra, he only has two sequences of moping in which the party members tell him to shut the fuck up and so he does. No contrived inner darkness for him and he's the fucking Angel of Death.

It was close between him, Terra and Lightning though. Sad to see no love for Firion though, I really didn't like FFII but I played a lot of Firion when I played Dissidia and he seemed like a cool enough guy.

Anyone who voted for Tidus is a bad person, though.

Since I only played VI....well Terra

and dubs

I picked Cecil since Locke wasn't an option.

Never thought of it like that, FFIX is totally Aladdin

Terra is not the lead of FF VI. There is no real lead for the first part of the game (although I would argue it's Locke) and Celes is the lead for the second.

Where the hell is Ramza? I am disappoint, son.

Gotta go with Zidane. 9's my favorite FF and I really enjoy all of the characters in it. They got a lot right with that game.

Just so you know, Square did a big live stream throughout E3 and during one of the interviews with Tetsuya Nomura he was asked about if he had anything to say about Noctis since he has had quite a solid following since his reveal years ago. His response was that he knows people think he is "cool" but he isn't, he described him as actually being "silly". (They currently haven't uploaded the Livestream yet, but eventually it will be on this Youtube channel, SquareEnixPresents). So yeah, expect him to not necessarily be a happy-go-lucky character but he definitely isn't "straight faced". I think that moment in the reveal trailer this year when you see a young Noctis laugh at his father not liking the food was meant to represent his silly side (and in theory, it will be there in some way as an adult).

-Edit- I guess I'll just add my opinion on the poll here:

I know some people hated him, but I still really like Tidus. I really like the mix of Tidus's childish side that wants everyone else to figure it out for him; and the side of him that knows they are all following the wrong thing, and they'll only stop following the same vicious-cycle if he forces them to see how insane they are acting.

Still, my favourite lead character in a final fantasy game is Zack from Crisis Core. He has my favourite story arc of any character ever.

@asurastrike said:

@believer258 said:

@hailinel said:

As much as I love Terra, her role as the game's lead isn't as prominent with the large cast and the extended periods of time she's not with the party. I'd say that at this point, my favorite Final Fantasy lead is Lightning. A great character and a perfect point of balance in the party.

I haven't actually played FFXIII or its spinoff, but I almost never see people complain about Lightning and, from what I've seen of the games, she seems like an all right character who happens to be surrounded by insufferable idiots. As opposed to the other way around, where an insufferable idiot is surrounded by all right characters, e.g. FFXII.

She's a female version of Cloud.

She's really not. Even sharing some of the sensibilities (mostly her too cool for school personality), her role in the story is way different than Cloud's was. and by the end she has mostly gotten rid of it.

Fuck, I mean if you want to get into 13-2 she's so far removed from her origins as cloud as a girl it's crazy. Lightning returns? jeez.

Thinking about it, I don't think I like any of the lead characters. The closest would maybe be Terra, but, I don't know that I've ever felt like FF6 actually has *a* main character because of the cast of characters for that game and how it all plays out.

Maybe they've just never developed a character that genuinely speaks to me as a lead character.

Wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am-za Beoulve

Cecil or Terra, but I picked Terra because, while not the most interesting or powerful character, she manages to wrangle that whole crazy group together.

As far as characters and story go I rank the FF games somewhere a little below the Ninja Gaiden games, with the NG characters and story being a little more believable and complex.

After going through multiple FF titles and experiencing countless hours of JRPG craziness, I have to say that Lightning is my favorite lead.

Cecil: I've played through his story half-a-dozen times and I still cringe at how...pretty he becomes once that transformation happens. Pretty awesome, but Kain is more my type.

Cloud: He's cool and everything, but years of standing in the spotlight and ridiculous amounts of fan-hype have turned him into some sort of brooding, androgynous chucklefuck. No bueno.

Squall: Blargh. I'd take Laguna any day of the week.

Zidane: Much like Cloud, he's a cool dude, but I found myself liking the other members of the cast more than him.

Tidus: I was always the type to spoil my main character in RPGS/SPRGS/etc, but even at the tender age of eight, I knew something was off with his wardrobe and the way he carried himself. Auron all the way, yo.

Vaan: HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA.

Lightning: I was caught up in the whole, "Lightning is Cloud with a skirt" hype, but as the hours stacked up and my crystarium turned into the prettiest thing in that whole game, I found myself caring about her story and the way things played out. The fact that Hope was practically glued to her hip throughout the entire game didn't hurt, either. I really hope that Square doesn't fuck up Lightning Returns. The people need some confidence heading into FFXV.

Serah: If scantily-clad girls with pink hair and the mannerisms of Japanese schoolgirls aren't your thing, just switch to Noel, 'kay? He's a chill dude with poofy pants and a role that pales in comparison to Serah's, but he's not useless by any stretch of the imagination (some of those alternate endings are pretty nooooice). Serah can only get worse better in Lightning Returns.

Ramza Beoulve easily! I don't care an awful lot for any of the main numbered FF protagonists.

I wish more people would realize this. Aerith's character has been twisted around in a similar way as well.

Agreed. Despite being an awkward, crampy buffoon he seems to be the only one with the competence to get anything done in FF8 World. Bonus for having the majority of his angsty backstory implied or narrated instead of playing through it like Squall.