Anyone else annoyed by Final Fantasy characters?

[prism]

I loved Final Fantasy 3 (or 6, whatever the heck you wanna call it), as it was an awesome game and the character style reminded me of the NES games of my youth, and I've played through it 3 times in the last 4 or 5 years. However, I tried playing FF7 for the first time about a year ago, and I can't get past the fact that the main character is Cloud. I know they're older graphics and whatnot, but he's still designed like a scrawny twit with ubzor hair gelz.

Plus, after reading great reviews for FF10, I went out and bought that, but I have the same problem with Tidus. Do hardcore RPG fans really like playing as pre-teen transsexuals with spiky blond hair? Maybe I'm taking the main character's appearance too seriously, but if it's someone I'm supposed to be at all emotionally invested in, I have to take them at least slightly seriously.

I recently purchased FF12 and I'm liking it so far, since the supporting characters have a more mature look to them, but I'm not a big fan of the main kid yet (I forget his name at the moment).

I know I'm gonna get flamed up the whazoo for dissing Cloud, but I felt the need to bare my soul to the anandtech populace....

 

[TecHNooB]

I was playing FF7 when dbz was still popular. To me, cloud had super saiyajin hair. And that was freakin awesome

 

[CKDragon]

The main character's appearance never really affects my ability to play a game, but to each his own. I can't say it has no effect at all, because I'm the kind of person that thought it was funny to make Frank West wear short shorts and other stupid stuff for the majority of one of my Dead Rising campaigns.

 

[Skacer]

FF6 and FF9 had some cool characters. FF9 was the FF that tried to recreate a lot of the original looks in a 3d game w/ Vivi and the like. Cloud has always looked retarded, but Tifa always made up for it (...). I skipped FF8 because it was ridiculous, FF10 was equally ridiculous but had tons of gameplay.

 

[Aikouka]

Oh man, if you love those, I suggest you check out FFX-2 :laugh:.

Character designs don't bother me for the most part, although Tidus was a bit too punkish. But I mean, if you complain about hair, what about Banon in FFVI? He had a pretty crazy hairdo!

 

[tw1164]

Why was FF8 ridiculous?

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: tw1164
Why was FF8 ridiculous?

I have a vague memory of FF8 that I loved the first two discs. Then on disc three you got launched into space and everything was crazy after that. FF8 happened to be the last one I played, but only because I didn't own a PS2 until recently. Time to catch up.

 

[VashHT]

If 2 and 3 were 3d they would look the same I imagine, as someone else pointed out the hair is similar to anime hair....otherwise known as japanese animation. I can't really knock a japanese game for designing its characters similarly to anime, I mean it makes sense for the art forms to cross over. Personally I don't mind it at all, and prefer it to some ridiculous over the top big tough guys that end up in american games. ALthough I'd agree that the main guy from FF10 looks ridiculous(mainly cause of his clothes), I like how cloud looks, and wouldn't really want it to change.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: VashHT
If 2 and 3 were 3d they would look the same I imagine, as someone else pointed out the hair is similar to anime hair....otherwise known as japanese animation. I can't really knock a japanese game for designing its characters similarly to anime, I mean it makes sense for the art forms to cross over. Personally I don't mind it at all, and prefer it to some ridiculous over the top big tough guys that end up in american games. ALthough I'd agree that the main guy from FF10 looks ridiculous(mainly cause of his clothes), I like how cloud looks, and wouldn't really want it to change.

The only FF6 character I recall with crazy hair was Banon, the leader of The Returners... I always called him Flower Guy. You can also look at the artist drawings and see that the hairstyles are fairly normal.

 

[thermoelectro]

Cloud was a little too brooding but I liked him more for some reason once I found out he's not the badass that he was built up to be in the beginning of the story. After that point, I felt like I had a more vested interest in completing his story.

While i enjoyed FFX, i absolutely hated Tidus. The voiceover combined with his whiny "I hate my father" crap really detracted from the experience. I understood why they went that direction but they could've toned it down. Auron was badass though. Wandering samurai style is always badass

 

[Ricochet]

It bothered me as well, but it's not limited to Final Fantasy. This has become the archetype for console role-playing games. The main character is a young teenage male with a mysterious past. Typically, he'll hide his insecurities with a tough front.

Being that most videogames are from Japan, the costume are heavily influenced by wardrobes worn by young males in Japan. The effeminate appearance you see in these games are not far off from the metro style popular to young Japanese men. After FF6, that has been the norm for the main characters of the series.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I can stand the anime teens in FF, but Blue Dragon's fighting kiddlies was past my limit.

I'm playing Xenosaga 1 now, and it would be better without MOMO (little girl) and chaos (feminine guy). It's still fun though.

 

[Modeps]

You seem to like RPGs enough, but If you can't play FF7 due to your dislike of Cloud's modeling, then I think you should really do some reflection on what you feel makes a good RPG. FF7 is probably the single best Final Fantasy created in terms of everything that is in it, and arguably the best RPG ever created.

 

[EvilComputer92]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I can stand the anime teens in FF, but Blue Dragon's fighting kiddlies was past my limit.

I'm playing Xenosaga 1 now, and it would be better without MOMO (little girl) and chaos (feminine guy). It's still fun though.

I can't stand either. There is something wrong about 13 year olds killing everything in sight.

 

[foghorn67]

Junior RPG's FTL.

 

[Yreka]

go go gagget teen angst !!

Unnnghhh, I waaanted a XBox 360 and my stupid parents got me a game cube instead. Life sucks soo bad, its soooooo unfair aaaaaaaarrrrrgggghhh

*Mana bar filling up*

 

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: Skacer
FF6 and FF9 had some cool characters. FF9 was the FF that tried to recreate a lot of the original looks in a 3d game w/ Vivi and the like. Cloud has always looked retarded, but Tifa always made up for it (...). I skipped FF8 because it was ridiculous, FF10 was equally ridiculous but had tons of gameplay.

i don't know if it was the best but my fondest memories ever were of Final fantasy 9.
i think a lot of it is based on my much i liked the characters.

 

[prism]

Originally posted by: Modeps
You seem to like RPGs enough, but If you can't play FF7 due to your dislike of Cloud's modeling, then I think you should really do some reflection on what you feel makes a good RPG. FF7 is probably the single best Final Fantasy created in terms of everything that is in it, and arguably the best RPG ever created.[/q]

I argue that Baldur's Gate (the original on the PC) is the best rpg ever created!

 

[DaveSimmons]

I argue that Planescape: Torment, Fallout 1-2, KOTOR 1-2 and Baldur's Gate 1-2 all share the honor of the best Windows RPGs

I haven't played enough console RPGs yet to have an opinion.

 

[jandrews]

Clouds hair and sword are both pretty sweet IMO..then again I have pretty bed head messy spikey blonde hair and am fairly thin so there may be a reason for this hmm

 

[NamelessMC]

Cloud and Sephiroth weren't that bad. In FF8, Square adopted the "what's cool to high school kids" approach with all the leather, chains, girls in dresses wearing boots, kind of stuff. It seemed to me like they watched Hackers over the weekend when they came up with that idea.

What a lot of you have to understand is Sakaguchi, the master mind behind all things Final Fantasy related, left Square after FF7 which explains a lot of design changes and Square suddenly trying "new ideas" with FF games. Up to 7, things were consistent. Take turn combat, compelling story, great music, some minigames and extra characters. Then in 8 they were like, "LOL HAY LETS MAYK A CHARG SISTUM".

The whole girly looking boys thing never sat well with me, but I thought FF7, 8 and 9 were done fine. In 10 though, it was starting to get out of hand. Then in 12 they said "lol let's not only beat a dead horse, let's make it into a zombie dead horse and beat it too". Vaan looked like his parents picked up his clothes at the bargain bin of a 7 year old Paris Hilton wannabe store. Penelo looked like the RPG jail-bait remix. Balthier wore pants that were fitted for Fran. The manliest looking character literally picked up his clothes from a garbage in the game after they broke him out of jail.

FF7 if it gets remade will officially adopt the "Boys look prettier than girls" new style Square Enix has, and it's gonna piss me right off since I'm a huge FF6 and 7 fan.

 

[Dumac]

I didn't mind cloud, and his past was almost interesting. However, I hated the design of Tidus (I'm skipping 8 and 9 since I didn't play them) and Vaan. They looked ridiculous. Also, I thought the voice acting of X was much better than of XII, at least for the main characters.

Each game the main characters seemed to get more feminine, and finally in XIII the main character is just confirmed to be a girl with slightly manly features.

Originally posted by: Prism

Originally posted by: Modeps
You seem to like RPGs enough, but If you can't play FF7 due to your dislike of Cloud's modeling, then I think you should really do some reflection on what you feel makes a good RPG. FF7 is probably the single best Final Fantasy created in terms of everything that is in it, and arguably the best RPG ever created.

I argue that Baldur's Gate (the original on the PC) is the best rpg ever created!

I think he meant JRPG, as WRPGs are a whole other genre.

Originally posted by: NamelessMC
Cloud and Sephiroth weren't that bad. In FF8, Square adopted the "what's cool to high school kids" approach with all the leather, chains, girls in dresses wearing boots, kind of stuff.

It's called the belts and zipper syndrome. Every game they just add more damn belts and zippers.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I can stand the anime teens in FF, but Blue Dragon's fighting kiddlies was past my limit.

I'm playing Xenosaga 1 now, and it would be better without MOMO (little girl) and chaos (feminine guy). It's still fun though.

Chaos may be feminine, but he rocks.

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I argue that Planescape: Torment, Fallout 1-2, KOTOR 1-2 and Baldur's Gate 1-2 all share the honor of the best Windows RPGs

I haven't played enough console RPGs yet to have an opinion.

I love your list, except that off the top of my head I'd probably add Oblivion and take away KOTOR 2. KOTOR 2 was a huge disappointment for me. I remember there were some serious bugs towards the end which made it feel like a beta and the ending just seemed anticlimactic.

Also, KOTOR I and II were on the Xbox first, so I wouldn't consider them Windows RPGs. Non-JRPGs, absolutely.

 

[Modeps]

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
I argue that Planescape: Torment, Fallout 1-2, KOTOR 1-2 and Baldur's Gate 1-2 all share the honor of the best Windows RPGs

I haven't played enough console RPGs yet to have an opinion.

I love your list, except that off the top of my head I'd probably add Oblivion and take away KOTOR 2. KOTOR 2 was a huge disappointment for me. I remember there were some serious bugs towards the end which made it feel like a beta and the ending just seemed anticlimactic.

Also, KOTOR I and II were on the Xbox first, so I wouldn't consider them Windows RPGs. Non-JRPGs, absolutely.

Original Fallout and Planescape Torment were two great CRPGs.