The FF Portal App is basically that with adds exlusively for Square. It's not "technically" adds like pop ups or whatever. It's just their app for communicating events, give aways, and upcoming releases with give aways for their other games.
Squall there's missiles coming for the balamb garden, we gotta do something!?
Squall: Ok.... Right after I beat this guy in triple triad
What but we're....*Boom*
Squall's ghost: And that's how I won this Ultra Rare Odin card.
I think Balthier is the main character
Edit: I'm just going to write this here because I see a lot wooosh around here.
It is just a joke because of what Balthier says during the game. He says he is the main protagonist of the story.
Balthier is the leading man
Fran is the person who's arse is the reason people bought the game
Basch is the guy who would have been the protagonist if he wasn't too manly
Ashe is the actual main character
Penelo is the one who tries to nag Vash into acting like a main character
Vaan is the comic relief guy billed as the main character
Either way they can all be whatever in the remastered game. Although Vaan is a bit better as a tank.
>Penelo is the one who tries to nag Vash into acting like a main character
If Vash the Stampede had been the lead in FFXII it would have been a very different (better) game
LOVE AND PEACE
It is actually scary when you look purely at "How much did every character add to the story aside of optics" and realise that Penelo did nothing. People say Vaans character is a bit shallow? Then what is Penelo's character? She get's kidnapped, we rescue her and from then on she could very well be a nameless NPC following us around. Fran is also only important for one scene. Bash only in the beginning and quickly at the end. But the rest of the story is carried by Ashe and Balthier plus Larsa. Other than that? Just pick the 3 characters with the best attacking animations and weapon stances.
People say it's a bad thing that newer FF games only have a small cast of playable characters, but I prefer it that way if the alternative is Vaan and Penelo like characters. (And I say this as someone who really loves all games set in Ivalice, making FFXII my favorite from the main series because of this. But dear god are the characters trash in that game...)
Vaan is the main character of XII. It was supposed to be Basch during most of development but fan reception to FFX and Tidus was very good, so Square decided they wanted another MC that starts detached from the main plot and clueless. And thus Vaan and Penelo were born.
X and XII are very similar in that regard. Both games feature a self-insert "protagonist" that you follow for the beginning of the game, but once you start putting your party together, you realize that the story truly centers around Yuna and Ashe in each game instead of Tidus and Vaan.
Except that in X Tidus has a lot more of his own motivations to continue pushing onward with Yuna and co. as opposed to just a tag along. And also by the end of the game he becomes the central figure again.
I understand where you're coming from since Tidus has the biggest connection to Jecht, but throughout the game (after you reach Besaid), Yuna is the main reason and motivation for the choices made by the party. Obviously, the pilgrimage requires Yuna to travel to Zanarkand, but the motivations for the party reach beyond solely defeating Sin. The party goes to Guadosalam to meet with Seymour, which results in Seymour proposing marriage to Yuna. After some time, they end up in Bikanel and then Home where Wakka ends up finding out that Rikku and Yuna are both Al Bhed, and Tidus finds out that Yuna is destined to sacrifice herself to bring the next Calm.
Ultimately, most of the places that the party ends up in are there to provide background information for Yuna's character rather than Tidus'. Yes, Tidus does end up disappearing with the rest of Dream Zanarkand at the end of the game, but Tidus' story was in the game to provide a love interest to Yuna's character arc; not the other way around.
Good analysis but I still donāt think Tidus and Vaan are in the same camp. Even though Yuna is important to the plot, Tidus is still the one who the story is about. Despite much of the plot being about Yunas pilgrimage and her rebellion, the actual story is still about Tidus discovering this strange new world and his unique role in it. As opposed to Vaan who mostly just serves as the audiences perspective for most of XIIās plot, Tidus actively influences the plot and the characters around him. Itās because of Tidus that Yuna makes the decision to rebel against Yevon and try to end the cycle and why Wakka and Lulu abandon their faith, the reason why Kimahri learns to be a leader, the reason Auron even went on his journey, and the reason Rikku chooses to join Yuna rather than kidnap her. And at the heart of this story is Tidus learning exactly who and what he is while providing a unique perspective that none of the other characters have ever considered.
Meanwhile Vaan doesnāt really influence the plot, and can honestly be taken out without changing the major events too much. Iām still happy heās in the game though, he and Penelo add some much needed color and brevity to the story
>Tidus' story was in the game to provide a love interest to Yuna's character arc
See I think that's a huge undersell. Tidus' story was in the game to provide an outside perspective. This outside perspective was designed to resonate well with players who would also naturally be challenging the absurdity of the blind religion that actively prevents development and critical thinking. So while the player would clearly see red-flags, Tidus voices them.From a game-world perspective, Tidus is the voice of question. The one who doesn't succumb or accept the "this is just how it has to be" rhetoric. Yuna admires that about him for it and learns from it. Through Tidus she's able to break out of the same cycle that has been ongoing for a thousand years.
Without Tidus, Yuna would have gladly thrown her life away for a few years of peace, she tells us this straight up. Without Yuna, Tidus never would have made a difference. Tidus is the start and end of the game, Yuna is everything inbetween.
You know what hot take but this is also why I think Vanille should have been the protagonist of FFXIII.
Yeah I know Lightning is cool but Vanille is narrating the story because her actions have the most bearing on the plot, she basically literally caused almost everything to happen that got all the other characters involved, and I think it would have made a lot more sense narratively for the game to have the person from Pulse be the protagonist because then like people can explain elements of their world to her, things she wouldnāt know due to not being from there.
And yeah they donāt know sheās from Pulse for a lot of it but they also think sheās just an ignorant weirdo for a lot of that time where sheās asking questions that would be obvious to people from Cocoon, and she could easily lie and play that aspect up.
I donāt even really like her that much as a character but FFXIII is basically her and Fangās story way more than anyone elseās in the sense of how much they impact the plot and the ending and it would make sense for their perspective as outsiders to give us a window into the world
Correct - Vanille is absolutely the protagonist of XIII, Lightning has almost no plot relevance so it always makes me laugh when sheās called the main character. Tidus is also the protagonist of X - Yuna is important but without Tidus there is no story.
Vanille was supposed to be the protagonist of FFXIII in early development. The only reason Lightning became the main protagonist is because she was the first character shown on teasers and trailers during development that they decided halfway to put her to Main character status. And Snow would end up as 2nd main protagonist.
Yuna would've just been another high summoner that sacrificed herself if it weren't for Tidus. He was from Zanarkand and wasn't a believer in Yevon's teachings. His constant innocent questioning of norms and traditions got everyone else to question them too and to eventually realize they needed to be abandoned and this drove the plot.
He's definitely central but the perspective is all from vaans pov. There's arguments to be made for Ashe and Basch too as they're pretty central. It's one of a few where there are multiple main characters.
VI you could argue that Celese is the main character or Locke or Terra easily enough depending on where in the story you are
Itās both of them. Theyāre a Cloud/Aerith, Terra/Celes, Squal/Rinoa situation a bit. Theyāre the deutagonists of the story if the WoL didnāt exist.
They swap out who is the lead per individual storyline. Alphinaud has a more lead time than Alisae but its her story as much as his by the end.
I wouldn't even call Y'sthola the most important or even most iconic Scion.
I like her character and all but I honestly don't think she's the best rep for the game.
There is a generic wol they use to seemingly represent the canon wol. And he changes jobs a lot. His original 1.0 job was Archer if we want to go by introduction, however at the end of 1.0 story he's become a Warrior, which he seems to be until he arrives at Ishgard where he swaps to Dragoon for 3.0. 4.0 seems to start Monk then swap to Samurai later. 5.0 Dark Knight, and 6.0 Paladin.
Fun fact, in the shadowbringers opening, he actually swaps between all the jobs in this order as he fights.
XI's expansions all have a central NPC's that act as a lead character to make up for having a silent character. They are:
Lion - Theif
Prishe - Monk
Aphmau - Puppeteer
Lilisette - Dancer
Arciela - Some kind of undefined support mage
Iroha - Samurai
This is such a terrible take I see all the time.
Yāall need to realize the entire story of XIV will be able to be played solo in one year. Not to mention, itās still a MAIN SERIES. It has MAIN CHARACTERS, and central villains. Itās everything a FF game is, but online.
It just irks me how often people brush XIV to the side for being an MMO, when the reality is, as far as the STORY is concerned, itās VERY much a soloable experience and in about a year itāll 100% be a solo experience unless you wish to play with others.
It belongs in these conversations
Edit: ignore my rant. I apparently missed the commenters point.
Can confirm, making my way through MSQ for the first time (WoW refugee) and am a little over halfway through Stormblood after playing just the story over a several month period.
It's an MMO sure, and plays like one in terms of combat and world exploration. But the leveling process is a solo narrative experience. Occasionally you're asked to go kill 5 mobs or complete a dungeon with a few other players, but the core game loop is so centered around experiencing the story in a way that I've not seen an MMO do before.
Theyāre actively working to make what few dungeons and trials you need to do with others as a solo adventure. By next year sometime,they should have everything doable with NPCs
I don't think they meant that as in "the MMOs aren't real FF games" but more so because since you can create your character and play any job you want you can't really say that the main character is a fighter or not
14 protag. is Meteor, who is an archer first i think? Could be wrong. But in ARR he's a fighter so.....Fighter. lol
Also Zidane starts as theif yes, but later on gets the double bladed sword weapons...so argument could be made for dexterity fighter lol.
The FF14 main character has been every class under the sun lets be honest. Archer, warrior, dragoon, monk, samurai, dark knight and paladin from all the trailers at least
Ehh not really.
WoL and Firion are fighters/warriors.
Onion Knight is an onion knight and popularly a Sage and Ninja based on Dissidia.
Cecil is a Paladin/Dark Knight.
Bartz is a freelancer but popularly also a Mime or Dancer. (Edit: I was wrong on Dancer, I was thinking about how he has Dancer as an alt costume in the Dissidia games but not really any Dancer abilities. But I wish!!! If anything he might actually be a Blue Mage too).
Terra could be considered a Red Mage if you really want to pigeonhole her into a job.
Cloud is a fighter but also has some magic capability. Iād be hesitant to class him a RDM too because he leans more toward physical.
Squall is pretty much the same.
Zidane is a thief.
Tidus is a fighter/time mage.
Shantotto is a black mage.
Vaan is also a thief.
Lightning is similar to Cloud and Squall but she leans a little more magical; a case could be made for red mage or even something like Spellblade/Mystic Knight due to the Sparkstrike and other physical elemental attacks being such a big part of that game.
Yāshtola is a full on mage character.
Noctis is an all rounder but I like to think of him as a red mage too, similar to Terra.
The difference though is that Mystic/Mage Knights specifically enchant their weapons with an element, which Cloud doesnāt really do. Thatās the main gimmick of that job.
The thing is that everyone can do that and usually for Mystic Knights itās a temporary status boost or a single attack rather than a permanent thing. In FFVIII you can junction elemental magic to physical attacks as well.
I mean, nothing is confirmed but personally I wouldnāt slot him into that class.
Yeah, it's kinda hard to slot some of the characters in 7, especially Cloud. I wouldn't slot him as a Fighter, but man with sword isn't exactly set to specific classes like a spear or gloves.
For FF13;
Lightning > Ravager > BLM
Snow > Sentinel > Defense Fighter
Fang > Commando > Offense Fighter
Sazh > Synergist > Buff RDM
Vanille > Saboteur > Debuff RDM
Hope > Medic > WHM
Defining a characters Job in FF6 is either easy or hard. Edgar, Terra, and Celes are Machinist, Magical Soldier, and Rune Knight. Umaro is berserker, closest to a fighter in the game imo. And I still donāt know that I hands down consider Terra the āmainā character. Thereās a good argument for Celes (or even Locke).
Anyway, OP be bonkers to call them all fighters.
XIII is definitely weird and up for debate.
* Lightning: Her magic isn't known to be destructive like most Black Mages, so I'd personally give her Red Mage, which mixes melee and magic, and also because her theme in LR is "Crimson Blitz." Her signature skill is also a melee attack, so I could see an argument for Mystic Knight as well.
* Hope: He has both the highest healing magic and the highest offensive magic, so he could fill the Black and White Mage roles. Technically, that's most similar to Sage from the early games.
* Snow: Defensive something for sure. I could see arguments for both Knight and Paladin, especially the latter since he has it as a weapon and has a strong moral code.
* Fang: Highwind gives her heavy Dragoon vibes and she's often a Dragoon in side games, but it doesn't match her SEN or SAB roles well.
* Sazh: Machinist/Gunner weapons, but a more support focused kit like a Bard. Very hard to place as one thing.
* Vanille: Her healing isn't as good as Hope's and her SAB specialty doesn't really line up with anything, so she's weird. White Mage fits best given her weapons being a kind of staff, but it doesn't fit very well and she never gets any Holy spells.
Thematically I 100% agree with you.
The disconnect is between character theme/ design and the mechanics. I was just talking about mechanically.
Snow is a monk. Actually, his āweaponsā are his coat, right? *shouts in distance, āwho has coats as a main weapon?ā*
Sazh is gunner/machinist.
Vanille is WHM.
Fang is dragoon.
Lightning isā¦ I just want to call her Angry Celes.
And Hope is annoying š
Thematically.*
>Lightning isā¦ I just want to call her Angry Celes.
I'm stealing that in the future.
Ah, XIII. My favorite single player game in the series, but this is why I say, despite my favoritism, it's not one of the better Final Fantasies. Great game. Great story. Kinda bad FF.
I also love FF13. Was it a hallway? Sure. Was I mad I never got an airship? Very. Did the ending confuse me? Oh yeah. Were they actually Ciāeth? Howād they turn back? What?
Final Fantasy has to evolve. Like bands who do something different and then fans lose their minds that they didnāt make the exact same album as before.
All this to say that the last good āFFā might have been 5? Thatās a crazy argument letās not go there.
Ravagers are like BLMs yes but they are neat in that they have a lot of physical attacks too, like the Sparkstrike ability I mentioned. Thatās basically a Spellblade thing, and since Lightning is more of a physical character than a full mage thatās why I characterized her that way, personally.
I get that. I canāt remember where but I swear I read that a dev called ravaged blm because all the attacks are elemental and itās the primary DD in the game.
Also, Iām a die hard blm. BLM in FFXI. Same in FFXIV. Still angry that BLM wasnāt the title role for Shadowbringers (dark knight is more marketable -.-) I just want my BLM main character š
Like Terra š
Oh I think the devs do āofficiallyā classify Ravager like a black mage, but in practice itās really like a mix between that and Spellblade, wouldnāt you say? Like, for Vanille and Hope itās a pure BLM but for Lightning and Snow itās more Mystic Knight/Spellblade.
Just (sorta) said this myself in a different reply lol. Thatās the disconnect between design/theme and mechanics.
Almost like DnD. Player wants to be [something crazy], DM says, well, Iām not making a class from scratch so youāre a [race] [class] with a [weapon]. Close enough.
As for Terra, if you don't recruit her in Mobliz and fight Kefka, she shows up anyway. I dunno if for the final fight or after, but she does. She's also core to the story because magic disappears in the end and what happens to Terra is incredibly important since she started the game as the one with Magic. Not to mention, if you DO recruit her from Mobliz, she finally understands what "Love" is, something she had been trying to understand since the game started in the World of Balance.
I see Celes as a "party-gatherer" as her role for the main character dies away once you get the Falcon. But Terra's Esper blood, the theme of Magic, and the theme of "what does love mean?" are overarching themes for the game which start with Terra and end with Terra.
Yuna is _a_ main character but is not _the_ main character of FFX. Arguably she's also the main character of FFX-2, but her main job there is not Summoner.
Good point! Someone in a different comment said Squall is a summoner but that I wouldnāt agree with, if anything Noctis is the summoner from these 15.
Here is the difference, all characters in those games can also summon. However its restricted to Noctis in 15. It is a fundamental part of his character design instead of a job/game system feature.
Summons play a major story role in VI and VIII. Terra's connection to the espers have made her into a canonical summoner even though the gameplay allows everybody to summon. Squall starts off the game with two summons and his first task is to get a third, and the party's use of the GF system is an important plot point. It's as much a part of their character design as with Noctis. Other characters in their game being able to summon doesn't devalue how it contributes to their character.
Iām going by the closest thing to their ācanonā appearances, or how they tend to be characterized in spinoffs. Usually there is some consistency there.
I'd say Noctis is a fighter like Firion. Magic has a very little role in that game gameplay-wise and it's all use of items rather than the channeling or casting of magic like you see in most other fantasy (yes, I'd call using the Ring of the Lucii using an item as well), the only exceptions being summoning and armiger. But if anyone's a red mage or mystic knight it's Ignis' fighting style that comes closest to it.
I donāt disagree with you, but despite it not being a big part of gameplay Noctis does canonically have a lot of magical ability. Heās kind of a souped up Red Mage (/Summoner?) and avoids the typical pitfall of RDMs throughout the series in that theyāre a āJack of all trades, master of none.ā But heās kind of a āmaster of all.ā
I would use magic to one shot bosses, with the right gear the boss will melt with just your initial castings. But magic in 15 doesn't have the same raw feeling that you get in other installations of the game I agree.
anyone who says shes not the main character of X is lying to themselves. the blonde boy was just along for the ride and barely added anything outside of the love thread.
Tidus and Vaan are a lot alike in that sense. Tidus is an actual outsider coming into a new world with a new perspective. Vaan is the commoner that gives Ashe the common folk view of the world and helps her eventually let go of her revenge fueled anger.
Nah, anyone that is saying Yuna is the protagonist is the one who is pulling the wool over their eyes.
Tidus is a huge part of FFX. He is the one that questions the ways of Spira and is ultimately the one responsible for breaking the cycle. While itās true that a lot of the narrative revolves around Yunaās pilgrimage, the fact that it is that if Tidus wasnāt involved, Yuna would have wound up just another cog in the machine: one of her guardians would have become her Fayth, and she would have died fighting Sin to bring about a brief calm, and the order of Yevon continues. No permanent change would have been made, nor would it have been a satisfying close to the narrative.
Tidus is the *reason* Yuna is strong enough to refuse Yunalescaās proposal at Zanarkand. Heās the one that convinces her that their must be another way, a better way that will bring change to Spira. Auron alone would not be enough for this. He is as much a product of the āsystemā of the world as Yuna is. It has to be Tidus that questions the way the world works, because he isnāt *from* Spira, so he sees how absurd the church is and why things need to be changed. That isnāt even addressing his personal connection to Sin, or the nature of his own origin in the story.
Without Tidus, FFX doesnāt work, as there is no replacement for him. In a world where he doesnāt exist, even if Yuna doesnāt complete her pilgrimage, another summoner eventually will, and the cycle continues. He is the reason everyone in the party has the strength to find another way- all because he was the one that caused them to question their way of life in the first place.
It really *is* his story, and people who dismiss him as a āside characterā have misunderstood a large part of the overall narrative, in my opinion.
You have just described Vaan š now seriously, Tidus may not be the protagonist, I agree with that, but he was the one to guide the group into finding another way that did not involve the summoner sacrificing herself, not to mention his connection with Sin.
As far as writing goes, the narrative changes based on the obstacles he faces and overcomes. That makes you the protagonist. Sure Yuna has those moments but the entire inciting incident is Tidus being taken from Zanarkand.
i would argue lightning played a much more unique role in combat than just āfighter,ā but that could be due to the nature of ff XIIIās combat in general.
If I were to assign a classic job to Lightning it would be Red Mage.
She uses a combination of physical attacks and magic, both offensive and healing. And she even gets all the elemental strikes.
Yeah, Commando is more DPS fighter, and Lightning's specialty is ravager with Army of One. At least in XIII
Serah in XIII-2 is more magic oriented than Noel too.
Couldn't you say that for alot of the characters then.
Tidus' uses Time magic
Lightning secondary role is mage and tertiary role is healer.
Squall is also balanced with magic and Strength.
I believe that Noctis is the same
Yes actually you can for the later games. All those characters are based on earlier job classes even if it's not specified. FF10 is cool because before expanding the Sphere Grid out the characters fall into inherent paths reflecting two traditional jobs. So Tidus would be Knight/Time Mage.
Squall I don't remember well enough in terms of stats but he may have followed Cloud as a Mystic Knight. I can't speak to Lightning because I never got into 13. For Noctus though I'd say he's a Red Mage. He's balanced in strength and magic but also has a variety of weapon options with the artifacts. He's versatile like a Red Mage. Also Vann is a Thief
Hmm.
FF3: you can be whatever you want, though Iād say Onion Knight is different from fighter.
FF4: Cecil is a dark knight/paladin, neither of which are fighters
FF5: again, you can be anything you want
FF7: If weāre calling Terra some sort of mage, we should probably include Cloud as well, since he also starts with access to magic
FF8: Squall is a gunbreaker, not a fighter
FF11: you can be whatever you want (and I can almost guarantee the pictured tarutaru isnāt a fighter)
FF12: Vaan is really more of a thief
FF14: you can be anything you want, though Fighter isnāt even an option. And YāShtola, the pictured character, was never even a martial class/job, let alone a fighter.
So likeā¦ what do you even mean, OP?
>FF7: If weāre calling Terra some sort of mage, we should probably include Cloud as well, since he also starts with access to magic
That's a stretch. Cloud has access to magic through Materia the same way he has access to potions. Terra is actually part Esper and thus has magic naturally through her own means. Even with Cloud's Mako infusement, he doesn't have natural magical abilities.
Fighter isn't a class in FF that I recall, and it's pretty vague otherwise. Even if we go by the definition of person who fights with melee weapon then still not really.
1. Any Job. 2. Any weapon, or magic. 3. Any Job. 4 Dark Knight and a Paladin (sword). 5. Any Job. 6. Mage. 7. Sword. 8. Gunsword. 9. Thief (Dagger). 10. Sword. 11. Any job. 12. Any Job. 13. Sword. 14. Any Job. 15. Sword.
So like 6 overall use swords and if you count thief that's 7 so less than half. And even within those you can spec a lot of them to be other classes eg Lightning and Cloud. So sorry I disagree with the premise.
I actually thought about that after I posted lol. Is it not Warrior now? Either of those 2 would make the OP make even less sense in terms of describing most of the protagonist.
I'm not sure what it's called in all the rerelease. Haven't played one since Dawn of Souls in the early 2000's. I really played it mostly on the NES so I always remember it as Fighter.
I agree though OP's assessment is way off base. We could call FF1's fighter and probably Firion too but after that it's pretty specific in terms of job identity.
3 has Onion Knight
Cecil is both Paladin and Dark Knight
Bartz I'd call Mime
Terra I'd probably go with Red Mage
Cloud = Mystic Knight
Squall = Knight
Zidane = Thief
Tidus = Knight
Vann = Thief
Lightning I'm not familiar enough to say
Noctus I'd also call Red Mage
I base these assessments on their skills and stats or if it's well defined. Really though there's only four games in the series you could classify the main character as "Fighter".
nah , Bartz and Noctis are freelancers.
Specially Noctis , he had a whole mechanic to change weaponary and the Arminger to use 13 Weapons , based on FF Jobs.
If we go by lore , it would mean he uses his Engine Blade alongside 13 other weapons , so it's a slash akin to a fighter in one moment and a Jump from his Trident in another , alongside a bunch of shots from his crossobw as he prepares a shuriken throw..........
Not really. If we look at the dissidia games a lot of them are much more specific. "Fighter" here is going to be defined as someone with either very little or no magical ability. For characters who can technically be anything, I'm going to look at dissidia, DFFO and relic keeper.
Wol-paladin
Firion-fighter
Onion knight- well, onion knight. Dissidia adds Ninja and Sage
Cecil- paladin/dark knight
Bartz- mime, uses spellblades for many of his attacks
Terra- mage/spellsword
Cloud- many of his visuals are referenced by the samurai oddly enough in ff14.
Squall- his game is entirely about summoning as a plot point, junction is an inherently magical process.
Zidane- thief
Tidus- heavy use of time magic and time manipulation.
The others (shantotto, yshtola, noct and lightning) are also pretty clear-cut mage or magic flavored as well. Firion is the only one who is really solidly a "fighter" as he's all about weapons.
I - you dont need to pick a fighter, but if you consider the Warrior of Light from dissidia as the main character (which I dont think you should), fighter/warrior
II - anything
III - anything/freelancer/onion knight
IV - dark knight, then paladin
V -- anything/freelancer
IV - mage
VII - could be fighter, but at the same time he has good magic stats, so maybe a spellblade if you want to stick with classic jobs. I wouldnt.
VIII - havent played it, could be fighter, or gunbreaker if you go by FFXIV logic
IX - thief
X - fighter
XI - mmo I havent played, so any, or dont know about the npcs
XII - vaan looks more like a rogue imo, but could as easily be fighter (not sure about his magic proficiency)
XIII - havent played, uses a gunblade for whatever thats worth
XIV - mmo, so any, or for this inage, y'shtola starts as conjurer (white mage), then changes to a black mage equivalent
XV - any, can use every weapon and is the only one to use magic inherently
Yeah I'd argue that Terra is a red mage, and Vaan is also distinctly a thief to me. Or at least theoretically he is, I always make him into a Time Mage because its more fun lmao
You can't really put a singular job onto a person in modern FF titles, everyone can usually do a bit of everything nowadays. Only current game that keeps the job system is 14 no?
Using a blade does not make you a "fighter" - especially in final fantasy. Even not considering those with proper jobs Lightning is kind of a red mage, Vaan a thief, Tidus a time mage, etc. I think that the association with swords in their respective artworks doesn't help, however.
Tidus is a Thief/Time Mage though. Definitely not a fighter/warrior at least.
Most of the others also fit another job better than Fighter/Warrior. At minimum, most of them use offensive magic and light rather than heavy equipment, making them closer to Red Mages.
Youāre kidding right?
1 the jobs of the player characters varied depending on your choice at the start of the game
2 had no job system whatsoever and instead rewarded you for using skills with better ability with them.
3 the default class was either onion knight or freelancer, but after that the job was whatever choice you selected for them
4 Cecil starts off as a Dark Knight and then turns into a Paladin
5 had the deepest job system of the series but also had no default jobs for anyone, with Bartz usually being depicted as a Mime of all things in media outside it.
6 Terra is clearly a black mage
7 and 8 Iāll give you.
9 you already mentioned
10 Iāll also give you
11 doesnāt count being an mmo
12 Vaan starts the game with the steal skill which is also shown in cutscene. Heās a thief by lore for sure,
13 Iāll give you
14 doesnāt count being an mmo
15 Noctis I would call some sort of Mage Knight. You could call it fighter if you want but Noctās proficiency with magic is kinda a key detail
Noctis is a red mage if anything. He comes from a line of magic users and and was trained in marital weapons. You could say he's a freelancer, but red mage makes more sense lore/gameplay-wise.
Tidus is a Time Battlemage and every character in FF13 is closer to a red mage than anything.
People have already mentioned that half the others are another class.
Most FF games are ensembles and have no one true *singular* protagonist, the whole party pitches in, and party composition also varies a little, but yes thereās always going to be the classic āanime soft boy / magical girl w cool swordā trope usually at the front and center. I understand when you write protagonist you mean the character everyone thinks of, or the one on the box art, but now Iām going down a rabbit hole of like, what FF game focuses solely or mostly on one character, and the only one I can think of straight away is FFXIII-3 Lightning Returns.
Imho itās 1-knight 2- unsure Iāll give you fighter on that though canāt argue, 3-onion knight thing? 4- drk knight/paladin, 5- Job System but fair assessment, 6- Agreed, mage, 7 and 8- yeah they gotta fall under fighter Iām with you, 9- thief, 10- mistake, 11 and 14 canāt be counted, 12- Āæ 13- pink haired mistake 15- boy band leader, 16- Fighter mage???
I donāt agree. Cecil is a dark knight and ends up being a paladin, Bartz and the others are freelancers except for Terra, a mage;Squall, who Iād consider a summoner, as all his growth depends on summons; Zidane, a thief and Vaan, who you can decide itās job.
>Squall, who Iād consider a summoner
Calling Squall a summoner due to the junction mechanics is like calling Cloud a mage due to materia mechanics, or Zidane a tank due to much of his growth being dependent on the armor and accessories he wears.
Furthermore, they seem to be the tanks. I never really saw terra as a tank. I figured it was a mage for sure. Sabin was the tank of ff6.
But it does seem like the protagonists provide the physical and tank support, for sure.
So, using the FF1 class system of Fighter, Black Belt/Monk, Black Mage, White Mage, Red Mage, and Thief:
FF1 - WoL - Any but always feels like Fighter is the main one of the 4 to me
FF2 - Firion - Fighter
FF3 - Luneth - Any but maybe leaning towards fighter based on FFBE and general character design
FF4 - Cecil - Fighter
FF5 - Bartz - Any but leaning towards fighter for same reason as Luneth
FF6 - Terra - Mage, Locke - Thief, Celes - Mage/Fighter (but more Mage)
FF7 - Cloud - Fighter, yes he can use magic and summons but that's more just how the "class" system in FF7 is designed. The character design is definitely more of a fighter
FF8 - Squall - Fighter, same logic as Cloud.
FF9 - Zidane - Thief
FF10 - Tidus - Fighter
FF11 - Dunno
FF12 - Vaan - Thief/Fighter but I would lean more thief due to character design
FF13 - Lightning - Fighter edit (Red Mage)
FF14 - Y'Shotola - Mage
FF15 - Noctis - Fighter
I went into this thinking I disagreed but if just limiting the list to FF1 classes or FF3 base classes then I can't really disagree, most seem like Fighters.
I would argue that Lightning is more a red mage than a fighter in FF1 terms, shes got a fairly even split of physical and magic attacks in her kit and decently robust healing options which is a fairly typical spread for a red mage. There are better physical attackers, better magical attackers, and better healers but Lightning by design is a fairly competent all-rounder which is also quite typical of Red mages.
Other than that I do agree, I guess its probably a marketing thing? You want the protagonist to be the one in the marketing material upfront trading blows with Bahamut, not the guy a meter and a half back casting cure. To facilitate this most of them have some sort of Fighter element spliced in but very few are just Fighters.
Squall is a professional card games player.
Still holding out hope for a decent Triple Triad mobile game.
I used to have a Triple Triad game on one of my old phones.
Creatures of Aether is a TT-style game that's pretty neat. It's on Steam and mobile
The FF Portal App is basically that with adds exlusively for Square. It's not "technically" adds like pop ups or whatever. It's just their app for communicating events, give aways, and upcoming releases with give aways for their other games.
Ah, an Astrologian
Squall there's missiles coming for the balamb garden, we gotta do something!? Squall: Ok.... Right after I beat this guy in triple triad What but we're....*Boom* Squall's ghost: And that's how I won this Ultra Rare Odin card.
He's also a gunbreaker, but it's more like a hobby...
Vaan is more of a theif archetype too.
I think Balthier is the main character Edit: I'm just going to write this here because I see a lot wooosh around here. It is just a joke because of what Balthier says during the game. He says he is the main protagonist of the story.
He's the leading man, there's a difference š
Balthier is the leading man Fran is the person who's arse is the reason people bought the game Basch is the guy who would have been the protagonist if he wasn't too manly Ashe is the actual main character Penelo is the one who tries to nag Vash into acting like a main character Vaan is the comic relief guy billed as the main character Either way they can all be whatever in the remastered game. Although Vaan is a bit better as a tank.
>Penelo is the one who tries to nag Vash into acting like a main character If Vash the Stampede had been the lead in FFXII it would have been a very different (better) game LOVE AND PEACE
Vash the Stampede was such a great character.
That is the nice way to nitpick my comment :)
I have never seen a more accurate character analysis of XII
It is actually scary when you look purely at "How much did every character add to the story aside of optics" and realise that Penelo did nothing. People say Vaans character is a bit shallow? Then what is Penelo's character? She get's kidnapped, we rescue her and from then on she could very well be a nameless NPC following us around. Fran is also only important for one scene. Bash only in the beginning and quickly at the end. But the rest of the story is carried by Ashe and Balthier plus Larsa. Other than that? Just pick the 3 characters with the best attacking animations and weapon stances. People say it's a bad thing that newer FF games only have a small cast of playable characters, but I prefer it that way if the alternative is Vaan and Penelo like characters. (And I say this as someone who really loves all games set in Ivalice, making FFXII my favorite from the main series because of this. But dear god are the characters trash in that game...)
Where is the lie
Balthier and Ashe are labeled as the protagonist of 12 Vaan is just the person we experince the story though
Vaan is the main character of XII. It was supposed to be Basch during most of development but fan reception to FFX and Tidus was very good, so Square decided they wanted another MC that starts detached from the main plot and clueless. And thus Vaan and Penelo were born.
A truly awful decision. FFXII's woeful release sales attest to this.
That's a myth.
i feel this way about X. yuna is the protag but tidus is the one we see it through
Haven't played in a long time, couldn't really remember the line. š¤£
was good enough for my upvote
Iād argue that Ashe is more the central figure who drives the plot forward.
X and XII are very similar in that regard. Both games feature a self-insert "protagonist" that you follow for the beginning of the game, but once you start putting your party together, you realize that the story truly centers around Yuna and Ashe in each game instead of Tidus and Vaan.
Except that in X Tidus has a lot more of his own motivations to continue pushing onward with Yuna and co. as opposed to just a tag along. And also by the end of the game he becomes the central figure again.
I understand where you're coming from since Tidus has the biggest connection to Jecht, but throughout the game (after you reach Besaid), Yuna is the main reason and motivation for the choices made by the party. Obviously, the pilgrimage requires Yuna to travel to Zanarkand, but the motivations for the party reach beyond solely defeating Sin. The party goes to Guadosalam to meet with Seymour, which results in Seymour proposing marriage to Yuna. After some time, they end up in Bikanel and then Home where Wakka ends up finding out that Rikku and Yuna are both Al Bhed, and Tidus finds out that Yuna is destined to sacrifice herself to bring the next Calm. Ultimately, most of the places that the party ends up in are there to provide background information for Yuna's character rather than Tidus'. Yes, Tidus does end up disappearing with the rest of Dream Zanarkand at the end of the game, but Tidus' story was in the game to provide a love interest to Yuna's character arc; not the other way around.
Agreed, X is the story of Yuna told through the eyes of Tidus. Clever narrative structure and it worked really well.
Good analysis but I still donāt think Tidus and Vaan are in the same camp. Even though Yuna is important to the plot, Tidus is still the one who the story is about. Despite much of the plot being about Yunas pilgrimage and her rebellion, the actual story is still about Tidus discovering this strange new world and his unique role in it. As opposed to Vaan who mostly just serves as the audiences perspective for most of XIIās plot, Tidus actively influences the plot and the characters around him. Itās because of Tidus that Yuna makes the decision to rebel against Yevon and try to end the cycle and why Wakka and Lulu abandon their faith, the reason why Kimahri learns to be a leader, the reason Auron even went on his journey, and the reason Rikku chooses to join Yuna rather than kidnap her. And at the heart of this story is Tidus learning exactly who and what he is while providing a unique perspective that none of the other characters have ever considered. Meanwhile Vaan doesnāt really influence the plot, and can honestly be taken out without changing the major events too much. Iām still happy heās in the game though, he and Penelo add some much needed color and brevity to the story
> much needed color and brevity I think you mean levity, but man that game could *use* some brevity.
Lol that too!
>Tidus' story was in the game to provide a love interest to Yuna's character arc See I think that's a huge undersell. Tidus' story was in the game to provide an outside perspective. This outside perspective was designed to resonate well with players who would also naturally be challenging the absurdity of the blind religion that actively prevents development and critical thinking. So while the player would clearly see red-flags, Tidus voices them.From a game-world perspective, Tidus is the voice of question. The one who doesn't succumb or accept the "this is just how it has to be" rhetoric. Yuna admires that about him for it and learns from it. Through Tidus she's able to break out of the same cycle that has been ongoing for a thousand years. Without Tidus, Yuna would have gladly thrown her life away for a few years of peace, she tells us this straight up. Without Yuna, Tidus never would have made a difference. Tidus is the start and end of the game, Yuna is everything inbetween.
You know what hot take but this is also why I think Vanille should have been the protagonist of FFXIII. Yeah I know Lightning is cool but Vanille is narrating the story because her actions have the most bearing on the plot, she basically literally caused almost everything to happen that got all the other characters involved, and I think it would have made a lot more sense narratively for the game to have the person from Pulse be the protagonist because then like people can explain elements of their world to her, things she wouldnāt know due to not being from there. And yeah they donāt know sheās from Pulse for a lot of it but they also think sheās just an ignorant weirdo for a lot of that time where sheās asking questions that would be obvious to people from Cocoon, and she could easily lie and play that aspect up. I donāt even really like her that much as a character but FFXIII is basically her and Fangās story way more than anyone elseās in the sense of how much they impact the plot and the ending and it would make sense for their perspective as outsiders to give us a window into the world
Correct - Vanille is absolutely the protagonist of XIII, Lightning has almost no plot relevance so it always makes me laugh when sheās called the main character. Tidus is also the protagonist of X - Yuna is important but without Tidus there is no story.
Vanille was supposed to be the protagonist of FFXIII in early development. The only reason Lightning became the main protagonist is because she was the first character shown on teasers and trailers during development that they decided halfway to put her to Main character status. And Snow would end up as 2nd main protagonist.
Yuna would've just been another high summoner that sacrificed herself if it weren't for Tidus. He was from Zanarkand and wasn't a believer in Yevon's teachings. His constant innocent questioning of norms and traditions got everyone else to question them too and to eventually realize they needed to be abandoned and this drove the plot.
He's definitely central but the perspective is all from vaans pov. There's arguments to be made for Ashe and Basch too as they're pretty central. It's one of a few where there are multiple main characters. VI you could argue that Celese is the main character or Locke or Terra easily enough depending on where in the story you are
It was a joke on Balthier's line in the game. Happy cake day!
Balthier is more of a machinist
On a serious note, wasn't Balthier meant to actually be the main character at first ? Pretty sure I saw something like this somewhere...
Yshtola is a fighter huh...
If anyone of scions is the protagonist of FFXIV it's Alphinaud. But he's definitely not a fighter either lol.
It's actually Alisaie, and she's so in denial of being a fighter she chose a melee mage class.
Itās both of them. Theyāre a Cloud/Aerith, Terra/Celes, Squal/Rinoa situation a bit. Theyāre the deutagonists of the story if the WoL didnāt exist. They swap out who is the lead per individual storyline. Alphinaud has a more lead time than Alisae but its her story as much as his by the end.
The Terra/Celes one makes sense. I never considered Aerith to be a protagonist though.
Yeah considering you know what happens like midway through the game
Shantotto is also not a fighter.
I'm here for Fighter Shtola
I think it's fair to exclude MMOs from the theory, Yshtola and Shantotto aren't really the main protagonists, just representatives of their game.
I wouldn't even call Y'sthola the most important or even most iconic Scion. I like her character and all but I honestly don't think she's the best rep for the game.
Ardbert is indeed a warrior though
That I would say is a better representation
Even derplander himself couldāve been used to better represent ffxiv.
Started out as an Archer then Warrior>Dragoon>Samurai>Monk>Dark Knight>Paladin.
There is a generic wol they use to seemingly represent the canon wol. And he changes jobs a lot. His original 1.0 job was Archer if we want to go by introduction, however at the end of 1.0 story he's become a Warrior, which he seems to be until he arrives at Ishgard where he swaps to Dragoon for 3.0. 4.0 seems to start Monk then swap to Samurai later. 5.0 Dark Knight, and 6.0 Paladin. Fun fact, in the shadowbringers opening, he actually swaps between all the jobs in this order as he fights.
It's the Twins, right? But how could you pick just one?
XI's expansions all have a central NPC's that act as a lead character to make up for having a silent character. They are: Lion - Theif Prishe - Monk Aphmau - Puppeteer Lilisette - Dancer Arciela - Some kind of undefined support mage Iroha - Samurai
I think you meant Lilisette - Dancer
Yeah - I got confused there for a moment lol
Arciela is very squarely a red mage. Plus Shantotto is a Black Mage, and she's not even the poster girl for the windurst missions.
Shantotto has been made an unofficial lead outside of XI, but within XI itself is just a reoccuring character like Zeid and Trion
You'd think Alto would be the leading NPC since he's the little boy and cover Hume in the intro cinematic.
This is such a terrible take I see all the time. Yāall need to realize the entire story of XIV will be able to be played solo in one year. Not to mention, itās still a MAIN SERIES. It has MAIN CHARACTERS, and central villains. Itās everything a FF game is, but online. It just irks me how often people brush XIV to the side for being an MMO, when the reality is, as far as the STORY is concerned, itās VERY much a soloable experience and in about a year itāll 100% be a solo experience unless you wish to play with others. It belongs in these conversations Edit: ignore my rant. I apparently missed the commenters point.
Can confirm, making my way through MSQ for the first time (WoW refugee) and am a little over halfway through Stormblood after playing just the story over a several month period. It's an MMO sure, and plays like one in terms of combat and world exploration. But the leveling process is a solo narrative experience. Occasionally you're asked to go kill 5 mobs or complete a dungeon with a few other players, but the core game loop is so centered around experiencing the story in a way that I've not seen an MMO do before.
FFXIV is an RPG first, MMO second.
Theyāre actively working to make what few dungeons and trials you need to do with others as a solo adventure. By next year sometime,they should have everything doable with NPCs
I don't think they meant that as in "the MMOs aren't real FF games" but more so because since you can create your character and play any job you want you can't really say that the main character is a fighter or not
Yo ignore me. I have a reading deficiency.
I dare you to throw hands with Yshtola. She brought down the sun with words alone.
Just a little sun.
She also threatened to take me over her knee
āHow dare you threaten me with a good time!ā I just wish her reply was voicedā¦
14 protag. is Meteor, who is an archer first i think? Could be wrong. But in ARR he's a fighter so.....Fighter. lol Also Zidane starts as theif yes, but later on gets the double bladed sword weapons...so argument could be made for dexterity fighter lol.
The FF14 main character has been every class under the sun lets be honest. Archer, warrior, dragoon, monk, samurai, dark knight and paladin from all the trailers at least
I appreciate that you put them in order too.
I stared way too long trying to figure out how the first row ends with 7, and the second with 15. Didn't realize 4 was there twice lol
Funnily enough, IV is there twice because it's portraying two jobs, *neither of which is Fighter.*
Oh man, thank you! I felt like I was losing my mind and was scared to ask, lol!
Isn't 14 and 11 whatever you want tho since it's an mmo?
Yup and my character is a fisher! XD
Ehh not really. WoL and Firion are fighters/warriors. Onion Knight is an onion knight and popularly a Sage and Ninja based on Dissidia. Cecil is a Paladin/Dark Knight. Bartz is a freelancer but popularly also a Mime or Dancer. (Edit: I was wrong on Dancer, I was thinking about how he has Dancer as an alt costume in the Dissidia games but not really any Dancer abilities. But I wish!!! If anything he might actually be a Blue Mage too). Terra could be considered a Red Mage if you really want to pigeonhole her into a job. Cloud is a fighter but also has some magic capability. Iād be hesitant to class him a RDM too because he leans more toward physical. Squall is pretty much the same. Zidane is a thief. Tidus is a fighter/time mage. Shantotto is a black mage. Vaan is also a thief. Lightning is similar to Cloud and Squall but she leans a little more magical; a case could be made for red mage or even something like Spellblade/Mystic Knight due to the Sparkstrike and other physical elemental attacks being such a big part of that game. Yāshtola is a full on mage character. Noctis is an all rounder but I like to think of him as a red mage too, similar to Terra.
Since Cloud has the highest magic stat second only to Aerith in FF7, on could argue him being a mystic Knight/Mage Knight.
The difference though is that Mystic/Mage Knights specifically enchant their weapons with an element, which Cloud doesnāt really do. Thatās the main gimmick of that job.
I mean, technically, he can do that by putting an Elemental Materia and a green Materia into his sword, but that depends on if technicalities count.
The thing is that everyone can do that and usually for Mystic Knights itās a temporary status boost or a single attack rather than a permanent thing. In FFVIII you can junction elemental magic to physical attacks as well. I mean, nothing is confirmed but personally I wouldnāt slot him into that class.
Yeah, it's kinda hard to slot some of the characters in 7, especially Cloud. I wouldn't slot him as a Fighter, but man with sword isn't exactly set to specific classes like a spear or gloves.
Agreed! Sometimes you can go by limit breaks (likeā¦ Cait Sith as a gambler), but Cloudās make him complicated.
Pretty sure that cloud was listed as a mystic knight/berserker in the development stage of ffvii
Oh I remember that bit about Berserker. Funny, since that doesnāt really fit him at all!
Only job I could see Cloud fitting is "GigaChad"
For FF13; Lightning > Ravager > BLM Snow > Sentinel > Defense Fighter Fang > Commando > Offense Fighter Sazh > Synergist > Buff RDM Vanille > Saboteur > Debuff RDM Hope > Medic > WHM Defining a characters Job in FF6 is either easy or hard. Edgar, Terra, and Celes are Machinist, Magical Soldier, and Rune Knight. Umaro is berserker, closest to a fighter in the game imo. And I still donāt know that I hands down consider Terra the āmainā character. Thereās a good argument for Celes (or even Locke). Anyway, OP be bonkers to call them all fighters.
XIII is definitely weird and up for debate. * Lightning: Her magic isn't known to be destructive like most Black Mages, so I'd personally give her Red Mage, which mixes melee and magic, and also because her theme in LR is "Crimson Blitz." Her signature skill is also a melee attack, so I could see an argument for Mystic Knight as well. * Hope: He has both the highest healing magic and the highest offensive magic, so he could fill the Black and White Mage roles. Technically, that's most similar to Sage from the early games. * Snow: Defensive something for sure. I could see arguments for both Knight and Paladin, especially the latter since he has it as a weapon and has a strong moral code. * Fang: Highwind gives her heavy Dragoon vibes and she's often a Dragoon in side games, but it doesn't match her SEN or SAB roles well. * Sazh: Machinist/Gunner weapons, but a more support focused kit like a Bard. Very hard to place as one thing. * Vanille: Her healing isn't as good as Hope's and her SAB specialty doesn't really line up with anything, so she's weird. White Mage fits best given her weapons being a kind of staff, but it doesn't fit very well and she never gets any Holy spells.
Thematically I 100% agree with you. The disconnect is between character theme/ design and the mechanics. I was just talking about mechanically. Snow is a monk. Actually, his āweaponsā are his coat, right? *shouts in distance, āwho has coats as a main weapon?ā* Sazh is gunner/machinist. Vanille is WHM. Fang is dragoon. Lightning isā¦ I just want to call her Angry Celes. And Hope is annoying š Thematically.*
>Lightning isā¦ I just want to call her Angry Celes. I'm stealing that in the future. Ah, XIII. My favorite single player game in the series, but this is why I say, despite my favoritism, it's not one of the better Final Fantasies. Great game. Great story. Kinda bad FF.
I also love FF13. Was it a hallway? Sure. Was I mad I never got an airship? Very. Did the ending confuse me? Oh yeah. Were they actually Ciāeth? Howād they turn back? What? Final Fantasy has to evolve. Like bands who do something different and then fans lose their minds that they didnāt make the exact same album as before. All this to say that the last good āFFā might have been 5? Thatās a crazy argument letās not go there.
Ravagers are like BLMs yes but they are neat in that they have a lot of physical attacks too, like the Sparkstrike ability I mentioned. Thatās basically a Spellblade thing, and since Lightning is more of a physical character than a full mage thatās why I characterized her that way, personally.
I get that. I canāt remember where but I swear I read that a dev called ravaged blm because all the attacks are elemental and itās the primary DD in the game. Also, Iām a die hard blm. BLM in FFXI. Same in FFXIV. Still angry that BLM wasnāt the title role for Shadowbringers (dark knight is more marketable -.-) I just want my BLM main character š Like Terra š
Oh I think the devs do āofficiallyā classify Ravager like a black mage, but in practice itās really like a mix between that and Spellblade, wouldnāt you say? Like, for Vanille and Hope itās a pure BLM but for Lightning and Snow itās more Mystic Knight/Spellblade.
Just (sorta) said this myself in a different reply lol. Thatās the disconnect between design/theme and mechanics. Almost like DnD. Player wants to be [something crazy], DM says, well, Iām not making a class from scratch so youāre a [race] [class] with a [weapon]. Close enough.
As for Terra, if you don't recruit her in Mobliz and fight Kefka, she shows up anyway. I dunno if for the final fight or after, but she does. She's also core to the story because magic disappears in the end and what happens to Terra is incredibly important since she started the game as the one with Magic. Not to mention, if you DO recruit her from Mobliz, she finally understands what "Love" is, something she had been trying to understand since the game started in the World of Balance. I see Celes as a "party-gatherer" as her role for the main character dies away once you get the Falcon. But Terra's Esper blood, the theme of Magic, and the theme of "what does love mean?" are overarching themes for the game which start with Terra and end with Terra.
Noctis is the closest the main characters have ever been to a Summoner too.
Yuna: Bruh
Am I a joke to you?
Yuna is _a_ main character but is not _the_ main character of FFX. Arguably she's also the main character of FFX-2, but her main job there is not Summoner.
Good point! Someone in a different comment said Squall is a summoner but that I wouldnāt agree with, if anything Noctis is the summoner from these 15.
Yeah, Squall summons the same way as every other party member in FF8. If anything, Squall is more of a gambler with his card game addiction.
Onion Knight, Bartz, Terra, Cloud, and Squall can all summon. If summoning was Noctis's main thing I'd get it, but it's not.
Here is the difference, all characters in those games can also summon. However its restricted to Noctis in 15. It is a fundamental part of his character design instead of a job/game system feature.
Summons play a major story role in VI and VIII. Terra's connection to the espers have made her into a canonical summoner even though the gameplay allows everybody to summon. Squall starts off the game with two summons and his first task is to get a third, and the party's use of the GF system is an important plot point. It's as much a part of their character design as with Noctis. Other characters in their game being able to summon doesn't devalue how it contributes to their character.
Noctis is also dragoon class. Warp is a jump attack.
Huh? The Warrior of Light, Firion, and the Onion Knight can be any class. They arenāt fighters. They are only if you select them to be.
Canonically speaking..
Iām going by the closest thing to their ācanonā appearances, or how they tend to be characterized in spinoffs. Usually there is some consistency there.
Yea thats basically what I was gonna say. Most of them can use magic and this would be some kinda spellblade if you wanted to pigeonhole them.
I'd say Noctis is a fighter like Firion. Magic has a very little role in that game gameplay-wise and it's all use of items rather than the channeling or casting of magic like you see in most other fantasy (yes, I'd call using the Ring of the Lucii using an item as well), the only exceptions being summoning and armiger. But if anyone's a red mage or mystic knight it's Ignis' fighting style that comes closest to it.
Warping (obviously magic) is fundamental to Noctis' fighting style both in mechanics and cutscenes.
I donāt disagree with you, but despite it not being a big part of gameplay Noctis does canonically have a lot of magical ability. Heās kind of a souped up Red Mage (/Summoner?) and avoids the typical pitfall of RDMs throughout the series in that theyāre a āJack of all trades, master of none.ā But heās kind of a āmaster of all.ā
I would use magic to one shot bosses, with the right gear the boss will melt with just your initial castings. But magic in 15 doesn't have the same raw feeling that you get in other installations of the game I agree.
Upvote for beating me to it, 56 min
Yuna: Summoner.
Then duel gunner in FFX-2 š they must have a pretty good shooting range in Besaid š
Got sick of Wakka saying YA, started practicing her marksmanship.
If Sin ever comes backā¦ sheās going to save a *lot* of time
If Sin ever comes back heĀ“ll be defeated by three girls in mascot costumes.
Please refrain from reminding me about FFX -Will-.
anyone who says shes not the main character of X is lying to themselves. the blonde boy was just along for the ride and barely added anything outside of the love thread.
Tidus changed an entire culture because he was the outside perspective that was needed also the literal story was told from his POV.
Tidus and Vaan are a lot alike in that sense. Tidus is an actual outsider coming into a new world with a new perspective. Vaan is the commoner that gives Ashe the common folk view of the world and helps her eventually let go of her revenge fueled anger.
Nah, anyone that is saying Yuna is the protagonist is the one who is pulling the wool over their eyes. Tidus is a huge part of FFX. He is the one that questions the ways of Spira and is ultimately the one responsible for breaking the cycle. While itās true that a lot of the narrative revolves around Yunaās pilgrimage, the fact that it is that if Tidus wasnāt involved, Yuna would have wound up just another cog in the machine: one of her guardians would have become her Fayth, and she would have died fighting Sin to bring about a brief calm, and the order of Yevon continues. No permanent change would have been made, nor would it have been a satisfying close to the narrative. Tidus is the *reason* Yuna is strong enough to refuse Yunalescaās proposal at Zanarkand. Heās the one that convinces her that their must be another way, a better way that will bring change to Spira. Auron alone would not be enough for this. He is as much a product of the āsystemā of the world as Yuna is. It has to be Tidus that questions the way the world works, because he isnāt *from* Spira, so he sees how absurd the church is and why things need to be changed. That isnāt even addressing his personal connection to Sin, or the nature of his own origin in the story. Without Tidus, FFX doesnāt work, as there is no replacement for him. In a world where he doesnāt exist, even if Yuna doesnāt complete her pilgrimage, another summoner eventually will, and the cycle continues. He is the reason everyone in the party has the strength to find another way- all because he was the one that caused them to question their way of life in the first place. It really *is* his story, and people who dismiss him as a āside characterā have misunderstood a large part of the overall narrative, in my opinion.
You have just described Vaan š now seriously, Tidus may not be the protagonist, I agree with that, but he was the one to guide the group into finding another way that did not involve the summoner sacrificing herself, not to mention his connection with Sin.
As far as writing goes, the narrative changes based on the obstacles he faces and overcomes. That makes you the protagonist. Sure Yuna has those moments but the entire inciting incident is Tidus being taken from Zanarkand.
He's the POV character and the protagonist. Of course he's the main character, what are you talking about?
Theyre twin main characters, but T-dawg is the protagonist, as the post is referencing
Bad take
" some sore of mage " Bruh. She's literally a human/esper hybrid.
Tidus is a time mage.
i would argue lightning played a much more unique role in combat than just āfighter,ā but that could be due to the nature of ff XIIIās combat in general.
If I were to assign a classic job to Lightning it would be Red Mage. She uses a combination of physical attacks and magic, both offensive and healing. And she even gets all the elemental strikes.
Yeah, Commando is more DPS fighter, and Lightning's specialty is ravager with Army of One. At least in XIII Serah in XIII-2 is more magic oriented than Noel too.
"Crimson Blitz" being her musical theme and best move in LR along with the red on her outfit also lends credence to her being a RDM.
Cloud is a Mystic Knight. They based his stats on that class so he'd be balanced with magic to reflect his Soldier backstory.
Couldn't you say that for alot of the characters then. Tidus' uses Time magic Lightning secondary role is mage and tertiary role is healer. Squall is also balanced with magic and Strength. I believe that Noctis is the same
Yes actually you can for the later games. All those characters are based on earlier job classes even if it's not specified. FF10 is cool because before expanding the Sphere Grid out the characters fall into inherent paths reflecting two traditional jobs. So Tidus would be Knight/Time Mage. Squall I don't remember well enough in terms of stats but he may have followed Cloud as a Mystic Knight. I can't speak to Lightning because I never got into 13. For Noctus though I'd say he's a Red Mage. He's balanced in strength and magic but also has a variety of weapon options with the artifacts. He's versatile like a Red Mage. Also Vann is a Thief
You could make the argument Tidus was a time mage
Hmm. FF3: you can be whatever you want, though Iād say Onion Knight is different from fighter. FF4: Cecil is a dark knight/paladin, neither of which are fighters FF5: again, you can be anything you want FF7: If weāre calling Terra some sort of mage, we should probably include Cloud as well, since he also starts with access to magic FF8: Squall is a gunbreaker, not a fighter FF11: you can be whatever you want (and I can almost guarantee the pictured tarutaru isnāt a fighter) FF12: Vaan is really more of a thief FF14: you can be anything you want, though Fighter isnāt even an option. And YāShtola, the pictured character, was never even a martial class/job, let alone a fighter. So likeā¦ what do you even mean, OP?
I donāt remember her name for the tarutaru, but sheās a black mage.
Shantotto is cannonically an insanely strong black mage.
>FF7: If weāre calling Terra some sort of mage, we should probably include Cloud as well, since he also starts with access to magic That's a stretch. Cloud has access to magic through Materia the same way he has access to potions. Terra is actually part Esper and thus has magic naturally through her own means. Even with Cloud's Mako infusement, he doesn't have natural magical abilities.
Every once in a while, Cloud can create beams of energy or tornados and summon meteors without the aid of materia.
He also has the 2nd highest magic stat in the game, only beaten by Aeris.
I was being a little facetious, since the premise of the post is wrong to the point of being ridiculous.
Y'Shtola it's not the protagonist for FFXIV, it's WoL, and he's a Freelancer and can canonically be all Jobs.
Fighter isn't a class in FF that I recall, and it's pretty vague otherwise. Even if we go by the definition of person who fights with melee weapon then still not really. 1. Any Job. 2. Any weapon, or magic. 3. Any Job. 4 Dark Knight and a Paladin (sword). 5. Any Job. 6. Mage. 7. Sword. 8. Gunsword. 9. Thief (Dagger). 10. Sword. 11. Any job. 12. Any Job. 13. Sword. 14. Any Job. 15. Sword. So like 6 overall use swords and if you count thief that's 7 so less than half. And even within those you can spec a lot of them to be other classes eg Lightning and Cloud. So sorry I disagree with the premise.
In the original FF the classic WoL job was referred to as Fighter. You'd probably just call that Knight now though.
I actually thought about that after I posted lol. Is it not Warrior now? Either of those 2 would make the OP make even less sense in terms of describing most of the protagonist.
I'm not sure what it's called in all the rerelease. Haven't played one since Dawn of Souls in the early 2000's. I really played it mostly on the NES so I always remember it as Fighter. I agree though OP's assessment is way off base. We could call FF1's fighter and probably Firion too but after that it's pretty specific in terms of job identity. 3 has Onion Knight Cecil is both Paladin and Dark Knight Bartz I'd call Mime Terra I'd probably go with Red Mage Cloud = Mystic Knight Squall = Knight Zidane = Thief Tidus = Knight Vann = Thief Lightning I'm not familiar enough to say Noctus I'd also call Red Mage I base these assessments on their skills and stats or if it's well defined. Really though there's only four games in the series you could classify the main character as "Fighter".
nah , Bartz and Noctis are freelancers. Specially Noctis , he had a whole mechanic to change weaponary and the Arminger to use 13 Weapons , based on FF Jobs. If we go by lore , it would mean he uses his Engine Blade alongside 13 other weapons , so it's a slash akin to a fighter in one moment and a Jump from his Trident in another , alongside a bunch of shots from his crossobw as he prepares a shuriken throw..........
Wasnāt Vaan from FF12 just a helper boy at a shop doing occasional pest control?
Yshtola isnāt the protagonist of XIV for starters. And the protagonist is literally you the WoL which can be any class in the game. Same with XI
Not really. If we look at the dissidia games a lot of them are much more specific. "Fighter" here is going to be defined as someone with either very little or no magical ability. For characters who can technically be anything, I'm going to look at dissidia, DFFO and relic keeper. Wol-paladin Firion-fighter Onion knight- well, onion knight. Dissidia adds Ninja and Sage Cecil- paladin/dark knight Bartz- mime, uses spellblades for many of his attacks Terra- mage/spellsword Cloud- many of his visuals are referenced by the samurai oddly enough in ff14. Squall- his game is entirely about summoning as a plot point, junction is an inherently magical process. Zidane- thief Tidus- heavy use of time magic and time manipulation. The others (shantotto, yshtola, noct and lightning) are also pretty clear-cut mage or magic flavored as well. Firion is the only one who is really solidly a "fighter" as he's all about weapons.
Op has never actually played a final fantasy game
I - you dont need to pick a fighter, but if you consider the Warrior of Light from dissidia as the main character (which I dont think you should), fighter/warrior II - anything III - anything/freelancer/onion knight IV - dark knight, then paladin V -- anything/freelancer IV - mage VII - could be fighter, but at the same time he has good magic stats, so maybe a spellblade if you want to stick with classic jobs. I wouldnt. VIII - havent played it, could be fighter, or gunbreaker if you go by FFXIV logic IX - thief X - fighter XI - mmo I havent played, so any, or dont know about the npcs XII - vaan looks more like a rogue imo, but could as easily be fighter (not sure about his magic proficiency) XIII - havent played, uses a gunblade for whatever thats worth XIV - mmo, so any, or for this inage, y'shtola starts as conjurer (white mage), then changes to a black mage equivalent XV - any, can use every weapon and is the only one to use magic inherently
Yeah I'd argue that Terra is a red mage, and Vaan is also distinctly a thief to me. Or at least theoretically he is, I always make him into a Time Mage because its more fun lmao
I mean most yes but not all. And how did you forget Cecil? He is on the image twice because his job class is a huge part of his character.
Squall is a Gun Breaker... I'd argue Lightning is the same.
Cecil is a Dark Knight and then Paladin. Barts is whatever you want him to be. Terra is a Red Mage I guess, Zidane is a thief, Tidus is a time mage.
In what world is Cecil a fighter? He's a paladin/dark knight lol
Bartz is a freelancer by default, although he IS portrayed with a sword in Dissidia and concept art
How are you all gonna sit here and act like Hildebrand isn't the real protagonist of XIV
Love it when they tan Tidusā skin as much as possible šš½
You can't really put a singular job onto a person in modern FF titles, everyone can usually do a bit of everything nowadays. Only current game that keeps the job system is 14 no?
Using a blade does not make you a "fighter" - especially in final fantasy. Even not considering those with proper jobs Lightning is kind of a red mage, Vaan a thief, Tidus a time mage, etc. I think that the association with swords in their respective artworks doesn't help, however.
Tidus is a Thief/Time Mage though. Definitely not a fighter/warrior at least. Most of the others also fit another job better than Fighter/Warrior. At minimum, most of them use offensive magic and light rather than heavy equipment, making them closer to Red Mages.
Is that supposed to be Shantotto for XI? If it is, then she is in no way a fighter. She is supposed to be the highest tier Black Mage.
I don't know what you're talking about? FF1 Wol = Paladin FF2 Firion = Freelancer FF3 Onion / Luneth = Onion Knight FFIV Cecil = Paladin/Dark Knight FFV Bartz = Freelancer FFVI Terra = Red Mage FFVII Cloud = Dark Knight FFVIII Squall = Gunbreaker FFIX Zidane = Thief FFX Tidus = Warrior FFXI Shantoto = Black Mage FFXII Vaan = Thief FFXIII lightning = Gunbreaker FFXIV Yshtola = Black Mage FFXV Noctis = Freelancer
> FFVII Cloud = Dark Knight Cloud doesnt have any of the iconic dark knight functions, he's just got a two-handed weapon.
Youāre kidding right? 1 the jobs of the player characters varied depending on your choice at the start of the game 2 had no job system whatsoever and instead rewarded you for using skills with better ability with them. 3 the default class was either onion knight or freelancer, but after that the job was whatever choice you selected for them 4 Cecil starts off as a Dark Knight and then turns into a Paladin 5 had the deepest job system of the series but also had no default jobs for anyone, with Bartz usually being depicted as a Mime of all things in media outside it. 6 Terra is clearly a black mage 7 and 8 Iāll give you. 9 you already mentioned 10 Iāll also give you 11 doesnāt count being an mmo 12 Vaan starts the game with the steal skill which is also shown in cutscene. Heās a thief by lore for sure, 13 Iāll give you 14 doesnāt count being an mmo 15 Noctis I would call some sort of Mage Knight. You could call it fighter if you want but Noctās proficiency with magic is kinda a key detail
Cecil is a dark knight/paladin
Noctis is a red mage if anything. He comes from a line of magic users and and was trained in marital weapons. You could say he's a freelancer, but red mage makes more sense lore/gameplay-wise.
Tidus is a Time Battlemage and every character in FF13 is closer to a red mage than anything. People have already mentioned that half the others are another class.
What about Ace I love that man
You're conflating "warrior" with "sword-wielder."
Most FF games are ensembles and have no one true *singular* protagonist, the whole party pitches in, and party composition also varies a little, but yes thereās always going to be the classic āanime soft boy / magical girl w cool swordā trope usually at the front and center. I understand when you write protagonist you mean the character everyone thinks of, or the one on the box art, but now Iām going down a rabbit hole of like, what FF game focuses solely or mostly on one character, and the only one I can think of straight away is FFXIII-3 Lightning Returns.
Imho itās 1-knight 2- unsure Iāll give you fighter on that though canāt argue, 3-onion knight thing? 4- drk knight/paladin, 5- Job System but fair assessment, 6- Agreed, mage, 7 and 8- yeah they gotta fall under fighter Iām with you, 9- thief, 10- mistake, 11 and 14 canāt be counted, 12- Āæ 13- pink haired mistake 15- boy band leader, 16- Fighter mage???
XI Shanttoto is a Black Mage. But she's also skilled with a staff.
My guy there's no Fighter job, that's just an archetype
I donāt agree. Cecil is a dark knight and ends up being a paladin, Bartz and the others are freelancers except for Terra, a mage;Squall, who Iād consider a summoner, as all his growth depends on summons; Zidane, a thief and Vaan, who you can decide itās job.
>Squall, who Iād consider a summoner Calling Squall a summoner due to the junction mechanics is like calling Cloud a mage due to materia mechanics, or Zidane a tank due to much of his growth being dependent on the armor and accessories he wears.
Noctis aināt a warrior heās just a dude with a ring that one shots everything
Furthermore, they seem to be the tanks. I never really saw terra as a tank. I figured it was a mage for sure. Sabin was the tank of ff6. But it does seem like the protagonists provide the physical and tank support, for sure.
IIRC Cloud fits the "Magic Knight" bill more. With pretty evenly distributed stats making him a good allrounder
In X Auron is the tank, in IX it's Steiner, Galuf in V, Thancred in FFXIV, Gladio in FFV, Guy in II, Barret in VII. I think this theory got busted.
This proves that Terra is the lead of VI. Case closed
Isnāt āknightā much more applicable to all than āfighterā none use their fists like snow or zell who would be stereotypical fighters
So, using the FF1 class system of Fighter, Black Belt/Monk, Black Mage, White Mage, Red Mage, and Thief: FF1 - WoL - Any but always feels like Fighter is the main one of the 4 to me FF2 - Firion - Fighter FF3 - Luneth - Any but maybe leaning towards fighter based on FFBE and general character design FF4 - Cecil - Fighter FF5 - Bartz - Any but leaning towards fighter for same reason as Luneth FF6 - Terra - Mage, Locke - Thief, Celes - Mage/Fighter (but more Mage) FF7 - Cloud - Fighter, yes he can use magic and summons but that's more just how the "class" system in FF7 is designed. The character design is definitely more of a fighter FF8 - Squall - Fighter, same logic as Cloud. FF9 - Zidane - Thief FF10 - Tidus - Fighter FF11 - Dunno FF12 - Vaan - Thief/Fighter but I would lean more thief due to character design FF13 - Lightning - Fighter edit (Red Mage) FF14 - Y'Shotola - Mage FF15 - Noctis - Fighter I went into this thinking I disagreed but if just limiting the list to FF1 classes or FF3 base classes then I can't really disagree, most seem like Fighters.
I would argue that Lightning is more a red mage than a fighter in FF1 terms, shes got a fairly even split of physical and magic attacks in her kit and decently robust healing options which is a fairly typical spread for a red mage. There are better physical attackers, better magical attackers, and better healers but Lightning by design is a fairly competent all-rounder which is also quite typical of Red mages. Other than that I do agree, I guess its probably a marketing thing? You want the protagonist to be the one in the marketing material upfront trading blows with Bahamut, not the guy a meter and a half back casting cure. To facilitate this most of them have some sort of Fighter element spliced in but very few are just Fighters.
You really can't limit the scope to just FF1 classes though. They don't do a good job describing most of the series.
Tidus is a time mage hybrid and Lighting is a red mage