That’s a tough one. Three favorites off the top of my head would be Cecil from 4, Steiner from 9, and zidane also from 9 (when he’s not being overdramatic).

Kefka the menace and Beatrix from FF9.

Kefka was bent on destroying stuff, but Beatrix, she does a 180.

Sabin FF6. He’s the only one who can suplex a train.

sazh ff13

Bartz and Faris FFV

Cait Sith, Aerith FVII

Zach Fair Crisis Core

Squall, Rinoa, Zell, Quistis, Seifer, Laguna FFVIII

Vivi, Steiner FFIX

Tidus, Yuna, Auron, Wakka, Rikku, Lulu, Jecht FFX

Balthier FFXII

Vanille, Sazh, Snow FFXIII

Caius FFXIII-2

Ignis FFXV

Cid, Dion, Clive FFXVI

Ritz from FFTA. Always loved her character, a protagonist gone rogue to pursue what they believe in, even against their own friends. Then, when confronted directly, backs down and recognizes our own determination to end the isekai. Really excellent character arc and growth throughout the game. Loved that she also breaks the rules of the game itself by being a human with viera job classes.

The Red Mage from FF1. My first team was four Red Mage.

I know this is the ultimate cliche answer, but it’s gotta be Sephiroth for me. The original FVII just caught me at that perfect time.

Spoilers ahead…

When you play through FFVII (the original, that is–I haven’t played the remakes yet), you only just hear about Sephiroth at first. Then you see some of the carnage that he’s caused: the President of Shinra dead at his desk and the super difficult snake boss piked on a giant stake.

In one of the flashbacks, he’s doing freaking research. That sounds boring and bland, but it was a level of depth to a villain that most people (or at least I) had never seen before. In another flashback, Cloud as a new recruit is with Sephiroth, and the difference in power is incredible. Sephiroth makes child’s play of this enormous dragon.

The final battle(s) is fantastic, and his theme song–hinted at throughout the game by Uematsu’s classic score–is iconic. Phallic imagery aside, the Masamune blade is simple but super cool. And he freaking kills Aerith?! Can he do that?! A friend of mine stopped playing the game for weeks after he got to that part.

A lot of these things are super common in games now, and I know there are several games before FFVII that had characters with this amount of depth (FFVI comes to mind), but Sephiroth is just the coolest, man!!

So many amazing characters throughout the series.

Some examples I’d say:

Stetzer, Edgar & Sabin, even edgelord Shadow has a fantastic backstory. VI had such a large cast with such unique stories all round, I only wish a few were fleshed out a little more, Locke felt a little bland in comparison, but that could simply be translation not giving him as much of a personality, or maybe I’ve played it too many times.

Vivi in IX will always have a really touching story, the whole concept of trying to understand the world and his own existence from a very naive perspective. The fact that they still managed to portray that with wisdom and grace within that naive framework was just pure poetry, imo, and very much a staple of Japanese cultural fable/storytelling.

My retro favorites are Rikku (especially in FFX-2) and Celes from FF6. Rikku’s the type to light up a room, and it turns out I have a thing for quirky, techie girls from persecuted minority groups which would later come up with Tali’zorah in Mass Effect. Of course, Rikku’s more daughter goals than girlfriend goals now that I’m older. Awkward.

With Celes, there have been better, deeper portrayals of depression in RPGs since, but back in the 90’s I really appreciated seeing a character that isn’t boundlessly confident and has trauma to work through. Love her story.

I also really liked Aranea from FF15. Still feeling robbed that we never got her DLC.

Take a wild guess…

Lot of final fantasy characters I like but an underrated one I always liked was Kuja from FFIX

Knew he was predestined to die and still chose to fight against his creators to defeat them.

Gau is kind of a fun character to play if you get good with his rages

Exdeath for sure. His WWE entrance music plays and he walks on screen and wrecks the place. He is so maniacal and I love it.

nanaki

always and forever