Favourites: Ashe.
Least Favourite: Vayne Solidor and Larsa. Stupid brothers.

You can put more than one.

Fav.--Ashe and Basche
Least Fav.--Vaan and Fran

Fave - Basch
Least Fave - Vaan

Fav: Penelo
Least: Fran

Larsa's pretty far from stoopid~
If that's Lamont. It's been too long since I've played this game.

fav: basch
least: def larsa. lil bastard

I'm only about 60 hours into the game and just got past Salikawood and heading into Archadia, but I'd have to say that my favorite characters are Fran and Balthier. They both have a lot to uncover about them and the exposition for their stories are truly exciting.

Vaan is extremely whiny and Penelo serves absolutely no purpose. Basch is just whatever and Ashe is awesome but playing a very stereotypical role.

What's with the hate on Larsa? He's really awesome.

I'm only about 60 hours into the game and just got past Salikawood and heading into Archadia, but I'd have to say that my favorite characters are Fran and Balthier. They both have a lot to uncover about them and the exposition for their stories are truly exciting.

Vaan is extremely whiny and Penelo serves absolutely no purpose. Basch is just whatever and Ashe is awesome but playing a very stereotypical role.

What's with the hate on Larsa? He's really awesome.

I was 30-40 hours into the game at that point. I can't believe I got that far.
I think Ashe is great along with Basch, I give him hammers, unfortuantely Vaan is gay for me. I'm at Lvl. 30-31, what level are you?

I was 30-40 hours into the game at that point. I can't believe I got that far.
I think Ashe is great along with Basch, I give him hammers, unfortuantely Vaan is gay for me. I'm at Lvl. 30-31, what level are you?

I've been doing a LOT of grinding and a lot of side questing for hunts and loot gathering.

Honestly I'm level 63 right now, but I'm also now 73 hours into the game. :P

Fav: Penelo, Fran, Ashe
Least: Vaan, Larse, *random lizard person*

Faves: Reddas, Vossler, Judge Gabranth

Hate: Everyone else. The plot and characters for this game were ripped off from Star Wars for the first half, and then they excuse all the villains by saying they were mind controlled by funky spirits. Lame.

Fav: Fran
Least : Vaan

Favorite: Basch. I'd go so far as to say he was the only good thing about this game. Balthier was a pretty cool guy as well.
Least: Vaan. Worst FF protagonist ever. People who think Tidus was the worst FF protagonist have never played this game.

Favourite: Difficult, almost every character has something awesome, Balthier is the leading man.

But my favourite goes for the Gran Kilitias Anastasis. "I do not sleep my child, I dream... For illusion and reality are a duality... Two parts of a whole"

Hate: ASHE. ��

I don't think that Vaan is the worst FF protagonist ever, In my opinion no one in FFXII is a protagonist everyone plays their role, the most near to a protagonist in FFXII is Ashe, the worse in my opinion would be the CD 3, 4 Squall, Terra and Zidane.

And FFXII is not an FF in my opinion, but I love it, Matsuno's games are just excellent. By the way I'm new around here so "Hello everybody, I give you all my blessings to your virtues"

Fav is Ashe, cause she has a sweet Ashe. Er, ass.
Least fav is uhh... yeah, the lizards.

I don't think that Vaan is the worst FF protagonist ever, In my opinion no one in FFXII is a protagonist everyone plays their role, the most near to a protagonist in FFXII is Ashe, the worse in my opinion would be the CD 3, 4 Squall, Terra and Zidane.

And FFXII is not an FF in my opinion, but I love it, Matsuno's games are just excellent.

Ah, but neither is Terra a sole protagonist in FFVI...

But I think that's an interesting point in the last sentence. I might have liked this game better as a proper FFT entry instead of passed off as part of the main series. It is not well set up to give a nuclear experience like a 'traditional' FF.

Hot: Basch fon Rosenburg. Who else? Best story in the game.
Not: Pretty much everyone else excluding Balthier and Larsa.

But I think that's an interesting point in the last sentence. I might have liked this game better as a proper FFT entry instead of passed off as part of the main series. It is not well set up to give a nuclear experience like a 'traditional' FF.


Totally agree on this, it would have been much better in that way, by just chaging the title things would have been very different, of course it wouldn't have selled the way it did.

Ashe because she's not the typical damsel in distress she's strong as a person.
I hated Fran i like her as a character but her voice is something to be desired. It's like she was stripped of all emotion I know she's supposed to be all dark mage or whatever like Lulu but did they both have to be so typically dark emo gothic look? That's the thing I didn't like just because she's wearing all black and is in boots she talks as if she has no emotions. But as a character I like her she's also strong.

Fav - Gabranth and Bashe - i loved the whole 2 brothers who made different choices with the ultimate goal in mind, both swore loyalty to different kingdoms with leaders to protect, leading them to different paths.

Least Fav - Vaan, Penelo - it was so clear that they were written in at a late stage, as once the Gabranth/Bashe, Ashe/Gods and Balthier/Cid stories kick off, they are compltly ignored except for a few cookie cutter scenes that didnt need them anyway. game would have been so miuch better if it had cut them compltly, started off purely as Bashe and then to Ashe and her rebels attacking the castle.

Faves: Fran and Balthier

Least Faves: Vayne

Favorite: Basche, Penelo

Least Favorite: Dr. Cid

Favorites: Balthier, Basch, Ashe, Vayne, Al-Cid, Dr. Cid

Least favorites: Ba'Gamnan

Favourite - Fran, i think her 'mysterious' story makes her really cool

Least - Penelo, i hate when she says "here we go" , "i got it", "no turning back" during her quickenings.

I just arrived at the Stilshrine of Miriam, but halted so I could do some leveling. At this point I really don't care for Vaan and Penelo. Besides Vaan's brother Reks serving with Basch, Vaan nor Penelo doesn't seem to have any real impact on the story at this point.

No, they don't from the moment you've arrive to bujherba. Isn't that great? Penelo doesn't annoy me at all, in fact, I like her personality but Vaan...

Favourite: Fran
Least favourite: Probably Penelo

I loves Balthier! He can dodge things while asleep o-o. Fran is on the same level as Balthier in the favorite meter. I also love Larsa, especially when he made fun of Vaan. Then comes Ashe, cause she puts everything in perspective and then ends up as my best mage. After her comes Penelo, cause she was the first to finish her liscence board and she also cheers me up.

I hates Vayne. He's weird and... yeah, he just makes you hate him. Then Vaan is a wimp, normally the first to die in my battles and the last to flee (the idiot). He gets the least concurrences and then he sucks with a Save the Queen. Basch kills him in just about one hit. But my least favorite character of all is the Wild Malboro. He was just plain annoying.

By the way, Vaan and Penelo actually WERE added at the end. At first, the main character was Basch, but they thought it the game would be a bust that way and switched it at the last minute. Poor Basch, lost his spotlight. :(

And Fran and Lulu were supposed to seem without emotion: they had "endured" so much in their lives that they had to lose their emotion to survive (at least, this is how I think of it).

And (just to add a little more to this long first post because I am happy just being here) FFXII came after the guy who co-made Square Soft and made the first FF left (Hironobu Sushimi [i think thats how its spelled]). He left because they decided to butcher his FFX story by making FFX-2. I still don't like that game.

Has anyone ever fully explored the Great Crystal? I attempted it, and almost got whipped. Fran was the one who got me out of there. (This is why I have so much respect for Fran; she's on the same level as Balthier for me.) I'm going on hour 220, and my peeps are at lvl 76-78 boys being the lowest because the girls canwhip much more monster ass than them.

Go Fran and Balthier!! Sky Pirates rock! Is done. :)

Favorite: Basch, Balthier, Fran
Least Fav: Penelo

Just like to say this is my first post (yay)

Fav: Balthier
Not: Penelo and Ashe

Fav :Ashe
All the way down even below crap: Penelo

Fave: Larsa =) He's cute and has infinite hi and x potions. What more could I want?
Least Fav: Vaan - the only time he's been out of my reserve party is during my ECC challenge (and the start obviously)

Dang, FFXII has an awesome cast; choosing a favorite is hard! I really like the level of maturity in FFXII's story and characters, it's something I myself would create if it were up to me, because they all reflect a bit of my own personality. I'm not terribly far into the game yet, but so far Vaan is one of my favorite protagonists; he's not whiny, he's not annoying, he simply has strong values and follows them wherever he may go. Penelo is the same way, and is among my favorite female leads in a FF game next to probably Celes, Terra, Rosa, Garnet, and Yuna. Balthier and Fran are just awesome in every way. Basch is pretty cool, although it seems that his time imprisoned made him a little iffy, but that's understandable. As for Ashe, it's been too long for me seeing much of her, but from what I recall, she's pretty cool as well.

So, I suppose if I had to rank them, this would be my list:

Favorite:
Vaan
Penelo
Balthier
Fran
Basch
Ashe
Least favorite

Overall, after starting back up on FFXII, I can honestly say it's got one of my favorite casts of characters in the series!

Favorite:
Vaan
Penelo
Balthier
Fran
Basch
Ashe
Least favorite



Reverse that order, and then flip Basch/Ashe and flip Balthier/Fran and you have my list.
:D

Favorite: Balthier...well he's the hero in the game...right?
Less: Vaan...never had a more annoying "main" character before

Favorite: Balthier...well he's the hero in the game...right?
Less: Vaan...never had a more annoying "main" character before

Well, at least he's more tolerable than Tidus (coming from a huge fan of FFX). But I agree that Balthier is a far better and more deserving character for the lead role.

Basch is the hero to me.

Fav: Fran (aaah...)

Less: Any male character... je je je... including Balthier.

Fav: Basch
Least: Fran (stupid voice is stupid)

I thought Fran's voice acting was awesome, and she's my favourite. Then penelo, balthier, ashe, vaan, and basch. I cant imagine basch as a main character. Ugh.

I dont feel like any of them are truly main characters. Some would say vaan but I think the group all holds equal, and vaan was chosen as a viewpoint character.

(First post make it count samurai)
Favorite:Fran Ashe Basch
Fran was nigh emotionless but she is generally older than all of them and has seen a lot
I like Ashe cause she wasn't a damsel in distress and Basch was just cooler than Vaan. But then again so was everybody.

Least Favorite: Vaan Penelo
There was basically nothing special I like about Vaan. Sure he wanted to be a sky pirate and get out of the slums but the way he did it was nothing special. Penelo was just there.

we have something in common! I posted my first post on this thread as well!

Penelo was just there.

I agree... She just fiilled space and made the party count an even 6.

IF she was narrating the story, then (in my eyes) she would have been 10 times better. She would have been the ultimate wallflower (someone who just observes what goes on) of the series; which would have been different than the other narrators. I don't think that the final fantasy games have ever had a true wallflower..... and seeing as how Penelo has NO other purpose, she could definitely fill that niche.

I agree... She just fiilled space and made the party count an even 6.

IF she was narrating the story, then (in my eyes) she would have been 10 times better. She would have been the ultimate wallflower (someone who just observes what goes on) of the series; which would have been different than the other narrators. I don't think that the final fantasy games have ever had a true wallflower..... and seeing as how Penelo has NO other purpose, she could definitely fill that niche.

First off, why are you calling it a niche?

Second, she isn't being a wallflower narrator because this is already Vaan's role.

Fave character???? Montblanc?? Playable: Basch.

I like most of the characters, so this a hard question, in the best possible way.

In fact, I'll just cheat and put them in groups...

Permanent Party Members:
Fave: Ashe, Basch.
Least Fave: Fran.

Ashe is my favourite FF heroine, by far. She's tough enough that she doesn't feel like just a love interest character, but not so tough that you can't like her (as Lightning sometimes suffers from, being too stand-offish). And Basch is just great - ever suffering, but comes back for more. Love it.

I say Fran mainly because of her poor voice acting, but she also doesn't get much to do. Penelo doesn't get much screen time either, but I really liked her (I loved giving her a Greatsword and seeing her dragging it along!)


Guests/Friendly NPCs etc:
Fave: Al-Cid, Larssa Solidor.
Least Fave: Old Dalan, Migello.

They really messed up the opening, with so many poor NPCs (Vayne being so awful doesn't help matters either). Migello, Dalan, Kytes etc are woeful characters with equally terrible voice acting.

Their various tedious side quests, contribute to a deathly slow opening section that Vaan unjustly gets most of the blame for, from fans. I actually quite like Vaan, but he's only really important in this first section - and it sucks.

Al-Cid is ace and you should have been able to have him as at least a guest character. Larrsa is a suprisingly great character, too.


Baddies.
Fave: Judge Ghis, Judge Drace, Ba'Gamnan, Judge Gabranth, Doctor Cid, the Occuria (hell, all the baddies, except Vayne!).
Least Fave: Vayne Solidor!

I thought the bad guys of FF12 were excellent, one of the strongest of any of the games. The tragedy however, is that the most important villain - Vayne Solidor - was absolutely terrible!

His voice acting was just appalling, but you have to say that the director deserves at least some of the blame for continuing to go with this guy.

It should have obvious from the start that it wasn't working out (it was obvious to everyone else who played it!), so they really should have got someone else in.

It's sad that the game's villains get dismissed because of this, though. I loved all the rest of the villains, with my only complaint being that they don't get enough to do.

What's the problem with Vayne?

Let's be clear that I have no problem with the idea of the character - just the execution. And my ire towards him is fueled mostly by the thought of what could have been.

As to specfics though, his voice acting is just atrocious, for a start. His speech in Rabanastre is cringe inducingly wooden, and so is his dialogue to the party at the end.

And he's not used well in the game, in general, considering he is the main villain. The party meet him twice ever (Vaan sort of meets him 3 times, if you count the running along by the parade car bit). And they only speak to him right at the end.

He has good schemes and I have to admit that at several crucial stages when we need to be sold as to whether he genuinely believes in what he's doing, the actor does manage to pull it off (the murder of Emperor Gramis, his lamentations at his failure to be the Dynast King the world needs etc).

But he fluffs others big time (the opening speech being a particularly damaging example, as first impressions count, as we all know). Plus, his lack of on-screen villainy in front of the party, means they don't have the same connection to him that they do to other villains.

People like Doctor Cid (who is in the game very little, but makes up for it with with first bombastic and later touchingly sad appearances), Ba'Gamnan (who just screams 'I am complete and utter scum and I love it - ya-harr!'), and of course Gabranth.

Even Ghis builds up some rapport with the party, simply because he keeps showing up to rain on their parade. And crucially, he always makes sure to get in some quality gloating right in their faces as he does so.

Vayne is much more low key and (as the plot demands) hard to read and fathom. Which is great, but because the character has so much promise, it makes the indifferent execution so hard to forgive.

I loved the early scenes where he looks at Vaan, frowning as if he remembers him from somewhere (Vaan and Reks are twins, and Vayne has Reks killed to fulfill his plans).

So I read this scenes that Vayne hadn't consciously made the connection, instead feeling a slight tug of guilt that he can't explain when he looks at Vaan.

But then... nothing! They don't meet again until the end and even then, they barely speak (if they do at all). Because by that time, Ashe has completely taken over from Vaan as the main character.

The final fight also seems to ignore the fact that they've been bigging Vayne up as the greatest swordman in the Empire. He's faced with a deadly confrontation against superior odds... and uses his fists, and some magic?

That'd be okay, if he at least threw his sword away or something, to show his contempt for their fighting skills. And no, the floating magic swords don't count!

I wanted to like Vayne - I really did, and believe me, I tried. But you see him so little, and he does so little on screen. That, combined with the dreadfully wooden acting, made him a huge disappointment.

I played the english version & the voice acting on Vayne was well to me.
I've never heared about that he was a great swordman.
I like him as a villain, because is one of the most human villain that I've ever saw, many villains throughout the history of JRPG's had god complexes or were just total nutcases or just they were just a big monster, Vayne at least served a purpose with Cid together.
Besides I always saw him as a political figure more than a fighter.
I don't know, I've never had any problem with Vayne, he's actually one of my fauvorites.

The only voice that bothered me a little was Vaan's specially at the scene where the Ifrit attacks the rebels on Rabanastre's palace.

For Favorites - Fran and Balthier, like a Han Solo and Chewbacca thing, but much better cause his chewie is a Viera.

For Least Favorites - Vayne, Larsa, basically anyone imperial because the need of the voice actors to have British accents is far beyond necessary

First off, why are you calling it a niche?

Second, she isn't being a wallflower narrator because this is already Vaan's role.

Well a niche is a function that an organism has in the environment. This might be my biology classes messing up my vocabulary again =P . I should have said that it would have given her a role in the story. Here's a link to support this:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/niche


I know that she isn't being a wallflower narrator; my post was a hypothetical suggestion. I never said that she was a wallflower narrator, I just said that she could have been a really good one. And for the record, Vaan doesn't narrate shit after Raithwall's tomb =P .

You'll have to ask someone else for the exact references, but I distinctly remember that they talk of Vayne's unsurpassed swordsmanship.

I know I'm not imagining this, so anyone who's played recently and remembers when it is, help a guy out, eh? (I'd happily play the game again, but I've lent my copy to a mate).

We will have to agree to disagree about Vayne's voice acting. To my ear, he sounds horribly stilted and wooden (he does get a lot more of the awkward 'olde english' lines to grapple with though, in his defence).

And yes, great idea for a villain in principle. But then, like I said, I really liked the villains in FF12. Even the ships with the names of summons, seemed to really have their own character about them.

Even when I know I will bash the end baddies easily because of my max level team, it still sends a chill down my spine when the words 'Sky Fortress Bahamut' come up...

And I've got to stick up for Vaan. He's not nearly as bad as people say he is. It isn't the character's fault that he practically gets written out, nor is his fault that he was a substitute for Basch as main character (would don't get me wrong, would have been my preference).

The only problem I have with Vaan in terms of his actual character, is that it was pretty soppy of them, to have him picking flowers for his brother, wasn't it?

The whole thing with Vaan's wish for revenge against Basch is a good idea (hell, they used it again straight away with Hope and Snow!), but whether justly or unjustly, the soppy way they go about it, has failed to get people behind it (with most people accusing Vaan of being a whining bitch etc).

So some early misteps get people set against him, and he never gets the chance to redeem himself, as his story development effectively ends, when he and Basch come to terms in Rabanastre.

As for Penelo, I really liked her. She wasn't annoyingly hyperactive, and seemed level headed and capable. But she gets absolutely nothing to do.

But consider that unless they are the main heroine in a Final Fantasy game, female characters regularly get nothing to do. (Final Fantasy 13 is a bit different, because FFX-2 tells us the writer likes writing for strong female characters).

But beyond a handful of scenes, what do characters like Yuffie, Quistis, Selphie, Freya, Lulu etc actually do? You could fit all their significant scenes onto the back of a small postage stamp with a very big pen.

Same with Fran. She goes beserk on the Leviathan, visits her home village... and what else?

Fav; bash vaan balthier
Least fav; penelo ashe fran

You'll have to ask someone else for the exact references, but I distinctly remember that they talk of Vayne's unsurpassed swordsmanship.

I know I'm not imagining this, so anyone who's played recently and remembers when it is, help a guy out, eh? (I'd happily play the game again, but I've lent my copy to a mate).


I have played the game recently and I can't recall when that is mentioned. Then again I got trapped doing a decent amount of side quests (for my review) so I forgot a LOT of the story by then.... If anything I think that Basch, Gabranth, or Larsa would have mentioned it.



We will have to agree to disagree about Vayne's voice acting. To my ear, he sounds horribly stilted and wooden (he does get a lot more of the awkward 'olde english' lines to grapple with though, in his defence).

I have to be honest, Vayne sounded too much like Seymour from FFX for me. And I have severe issues with the use of the Elizabethan english in FFXII but I'll be addressing that later...



But beyond a handful of scenes, what do characters like Yuffie, Quistis, Selphie, Freya, Lulu etc actually do? You could fit all their significant scenes onto the back of a small postage stamp with a very big pen.

Same with Fran. She goes beserk on the Leviathan, visits her home village... and what else?

I'm going to come to the defense of Quistis, Lulu, and Fran; they all played ''the wise elder'' stereotype of the group. Those three characters moved their stories forward by providing the group information on where to go next. Quistis tells Squall on the first disc that they should go to the nearest Garden, Lulu keeps the group focused on the pilgrimage at all times, and Fran tells the group where to find the Stillshrine of Miriam. Also those three characters keep the player informed of the lore of their game.

That is hardly a very exciting thing for them to do though, is it? And I would take serious issue that they dictate party policy to that degree either.

Lulu may have that aura of 'She knows what she's talking about', but she doesn't do anything with it. She's a calming, 'let's get on with it' influence, but roles like this place the character very much in the 'B' list, supporting character camp.

I don't dislike those characters incidentally. I particularly like Quistis, but after the first section of the game (which is very slow and many tend to rush through), she fades into the background completely.

They even have to make her the CC King, to give her something to do, later on!

I'm just saying that characters like this, serve the plot when they should be asking the plot to serve them a bit more. Freya, Lulu, Quistis, Fran etc should not have to settle for being translation nodes/magic power sensors/ area history fonts' etc.

They're main characters and they should be treated as such.


As for the Vayne thing... Gahh! I know they say he's the greatest (or one of the greatest) swordsmen in the Empire. It's going to really bug me now, until I play through again and find the reference!

Vayne is a celebrated soldier. He has the complete respect of the Imperial army (and one look at Judge Bergan will tell you the kind of people he respects - hard people!)

But anyway, Vayne is coming from a history of warfare. He makes a great diplomat and politician, but he has been a soldier.

The whole thing is largely a cosmetic thing, anyway. I have no problem with martial artist baddies.

But compared to how ace the Judges looked (if you're overlevelled against Bergan, his Shield + Augment means that all attacking him gets you is a storm of 'Block' and 'Counter' messages!), Vayne lacked 'Big Boss' presence in the actual fights.

Anyway, I've picked my list and so my work here is done.

Favorites: Penelo, Larsa, and Al-Cid.
Least Favorites: Ashe and all of the judges.

You didn't like *any* of the Judges?

Fair enough, but they do cover quite a wide range of characters. What put you off them that badly?

Lest favorite would be the the main protagonist and Bach would be my favorite

Fav Yet undecided, about 40hours in to the game.
Worst Vaan and penelo.

to be continued.....

My favorite is Penelo and my least favorite is Basch.

My favorite character is Shido and Reho. I do not really have a least favourite character. Unless you count Cain.

Favorites: Larsa, Penelo, Balthier, Gabranth... I can't choose just one. I really liked the characters in this game.
Least Favorites: Ashe, Vossler

Favorite: Balthier
Least Favorite: Penelo

Favourites: Balthier, Fran, Al-Cid
Least favourites: Vaan and Penelo.

Favourites: Vaan, Gabranth and Ashe
Least Favourite: Fran

Favorite Balthier and Ashe (they would have made a great couple)
Least Favorite Basch

Favorite: Migelo
Least Favorite: Ba'Gamnan

Favorite: I really wanna say Fran, because those long legs and that ass! :swoon: But, I think as an overall character, I gotta say Balthier is my favorite.

Least favorite: Penelo with Vaan very closely following behind. I won't go into Vaan, since everyone knows his lameness already. Penelo...ugly outfit. Boring personality. Ugly hair style. Annoying.

Fav - Balthier
Least fav - Gerun

I like balthier, fran and larsa(who I might think about cosplaying). I don't care for panelo and vossler too much though. I don't know if its just me but doesn't panelo remind you have banjo kazooie o_O

Fav: Fran and Balthier

Least: Larsa and Penelo