The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => Discussion => Topic started by: Cmdr_King on June 26, 2020, 11:47:47 AM
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So until the last, gosh, 3-4 years, it's been sliiiim pickings for jRPGs with good enough plot to even warrant talking about the characters as a writing exercise. But now we have cool games like Tales of Berseria and Fire Emblem Three Houses and probably some other things I'd think of if I hadn't just woken up.
And we'll get to those, but I was thinking the last few days: y'know, there's a lot of characters I couldn't explain why I liked back in the day, or feel like I was deliberately downplaying how well they worked because I felt like praising them was going against the grain of nerd culture. So I wanted to actually rate a lot more older games, ones we've surely talked about before, the big names, while mixing in some newer stuff because hey why not.
There won't be any rigid updates for this (I mean, who knows if this will even generate responses y'know?) or perhaps not even updates at all, but hey, it's something to do.
List of Games Covered on the Off Chance That Happens
Final Fantasy Tactics
NieR Automata
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
And lets go ahead and start with the only proper way to kick off a large project for the DL.
Final Fantasy Tactics
Ramza Beoulve
Agrias Oaks
Mustadio Bunansa
Rafa Galthana
Malak Galthana
Cidolfas Orlandu
Meliadoul Tingel
Alma Beoulve
Olan Durai
Ovelia Atkascha
Beowulf Cadmus
Reis Duelar
Delita Hyral
Algus Sadalfas
Gaff Gaffgarion
Weigraf Folles
Gelkanis Barinten
Dycedarg Beoulve
There's a lot of supporting characters to talk about with this one of course (the princes, the other knights templar, the various possessed people, the lucavi) and if you have anything insightful to say about them, feel free to add on! But this feels like the cast that people probably remember well.
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Ramza Beoulve- One way to look at FFT is as class struggle, landed elites vs the common folk, and that probably informs Ramza's arc most strongly as he has a foot in each world. He consciously rejects his common roots in order to fit in with his role in chapter 1, runs away and falsifies his name to deny his noble heritage going into chapter 2, but the role history has for him draws from both: connected enough to discover the Lucavi plot, anonymous enough to disappear and be beneath notice to the larger game of thrones. In that way he's more of a necessary plot device than a character sometimes, what he is mattering more than who? But he does have some good interaction with other characters and his realization of "no, I HAVE to do something" does kinda work. 7/10? Ramza's probably the hardest to rate in that way really.
Agrias Oaks- I'm always down for this specific character archetype but also... well, FFT PC cast problems on top of being a pretty unambitious example of the archetype. 5/10
Mustadio Bunansa- A less stage play inspired version of FFT would probably have Mustadio as the commoner best friend that pulls Ramza back out of his shell after Delita's disappearance/betrayal, but we have a more plot-focused game that most so that feels intended but not truly present. What's there is... fine? 4/10
Rafa Galthana- Rafa is... probably given more big pathos scenes than any character who isn't Delita or Ovelia? Honestly the biggest thing going against her is the fact she's so entangled with Malak, who is a complete shit for 95% of his screen time, but unto itself... her whole deal comes across a lot better than most of the cast honestly. 6/10
Malak Galthana- Bleh. "Hi I'm a Big Manly Man Honest Please Don't Check My ID and that means I totally believe everything my parent figure tells me even though it's obviously fucking evil and my sister is BEGGING me to stop and sever" 2/10
Cidolfas Orlandu- Checking back in for class commentary, Orlandu is the noble who actually got down in the trenches and worked side by side with the commoners and wants to make things better but oh yeah, the system is rigged and cannot be changed from within. I mean honestly he has that trait because he's supposed to be the "cool" one and heck like his everything else we could probably even attribute this to unreliable narrator but hey. He works for what he is. 5/10
Meliadoul Tingel- Step on me uh I mean I feel like Meliadoul only really joins because they felt obligated to have at least one of the Knights Templar turn against them, because EVERYONE being possessed by a demon makes the conspiracy a little too powerful. So she has like two scenes because FFT PC so... yeah. 3/10
Alma Beoulve- Alma in C1 feels like a template/preview of Ramza's ultimate character development, because she has a much keener understanding of her dual nature... probably because she's a woman if we're being honest? It's a real shame they don't build on this and she becomes such a plot device because I think that first sentence IS intentional things they thought of in the game. 4/10
Olan Durai- Come to think of it, perhaps it is unfair to attribute Orlandu being so damn awesome to Olan just making shit up. Kid has some absolute balls actually publishing his account of the war while Delita was alive and ruling, he musta learned that somewhere. He has really limited screentime and doesn't make a strong impression as a character, but the things we have to infer about him because of the framing device are pretty impressive, so split the difference. 5/10
Ovelia Atkascha- God, you can argue in some ways that Ovelia is the main character of a big chunk of the plot. We get more insight to her thoughts and feelings about the events going on around her and things done in her name than even Ramza or Delita a lot of the time, although in the latter's case more because he deliberately plays things close to the vest. I don't want to overpraise this because she isn't so much an active agent as someone who's forced to cope, but getting such a sense of how she copes and seeing that slowly eroded over the game is still much more detailed character work than FFT usually deals with. 6/10
Beowulf Cadmus- 3/10
Reis Duelar- 3/10. When I put them in there I was thinking "the Beowulf sidequest is more plot scenes that some of the mandatory characters get really, may as well toss them in" and that's true but also I don't really... have any thoughts about it. Weird.
Delita Hyral- Welp, the big one. FFT as framed is basically "we want to reveal the truth of King Delita and his rise to power, and the hidden battle for the fate of the world he used to win out over the church", so even as it's nominally Ramza's story he's still the most important figure. So where Ramza is both noble and commoner, and has to use elements of both worlds to succeed, Delita is basically a commoner who behaves like a noble, and the crucial difference is just he has nothing to lose. He starts with nothing, has no titles, lands, duties, or qualms, and thus he can play the same manipulation games as the nobility but they have nothing they can use against him to bring him in line, until he suddenly holds all the cards and they can't act anyway. It's an interesting inversion of a typical rags to riches story in this sort of class system: the problem was never the nobility themselves, even with people like Algus in the world, but the actual actions, the exploitation, the lack of empathy, seeing people as tools and livestock.
That Delita has so many great lines and interactions on top of that... yeah, Delita's an all-time great. Not my own personal favorite, but yeah. 9/10
Algus Sadalfas- Algus basically exist to show how Ramza's life ends up if he doesn't knock off his "I'm a Big Name Noble" act from C1, and to act as counterpoint to the Death Corps in setting up the simple version of the class divide. He's crazy effective in the role honestly. 6/10
Gaff Gaffgarion- Seriously FFT is so much better at villains. Gaffy's dry snark at all of the Actually Vile Villains is a lot of fun, his philosophy is simple but the way it's played off Ramza is well timed and very visible, but without overstaying it's welcome. Nothing amazing mind, but well done. 6/10
Weigraf Folles- well someone had to do a descent into madness in our not!Shakespeare game. Honestly Weigraf feels a little bit rote in retrospect? I think he does more to set up Ramza's arc than be a character in his own right I guess. 5/10
Milluda Folles- So basically I love Milluda? She feels like the only one in the Death Corps who's a true believer, and it just kinda works. And I think more than Teta FFT does a good job of showing how much a casualty of the system she is, in part by showing how cornered she was and how much of that was her trying to do the right thing. 6/10
Gelkanis Barinten- Felt wrong to know I was probably gonna talk up Rafa and not note how much of a scumbag Barinten is. It's kinda funny how he manages to be a complete outsider to The Plot while also being worse than all but one player in the actual war. 5/10
Dycedarg Beoulve- Look, how do we NOT talk about the biggest scumbag in Ivalice. Okay so actually I don't have anything insightful to say about him but I mean, jeez. 6/10
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Just doing a few for now - will fill this in slowly
Ramza Beoulve - Ramza's great. I have him somewhere near the top of RPG characters and one of the best protags IMO. The thing that makes Ramza so good to me is that he is able to fit into a ton of literary concepts. The obvious one is that he and Delita are foils and mirror images of each other (starting from when Ramza is a noble to Delita's a commoner, to the end where Delita is revered and remembered in history whereas Ramza is ostracized and forgotten). In fact, at every point in the story, Delita and Ramza are on opposite ends of the status and alignment spectrum, which makes both characters much more effective. Then there is the concept of class struggle (as CK noted) which he directly partakes in. That he's also the bastard child to Dycedarg and Zalbag (who are both rotten, one more so than the other), along with the symmetry in his life as Wiegraf means there are strong thematic connections almost everywhere with Ramza. He does take a backseat in the main plot at some point (since even though Ramza is main, it's really Delita's show) but the fact that he's strongly connected in someway to all the major villains means he's never out of the picture. It just makes you realize how strong the writing is around it's central characters and Ramza's definitely one of the benefactors. 9/10.
Agrias Oaks - It's hard to find definitive roles/narratives for FFT PCs because they become invisible once they join. And the earlier this happens, the harder it is to really say much. But one thing Agrias does have is that she has Gafgarion to bounce off of. Weird in some ways, but also not surprising. At the time when she's guesting, Ramza is having his crisis of faith moment. He's turned away his name and joined a mercenary group. Agrias represents the ties he still has to the noble houses, culminating in Zirekile where Ramza finally decides he's done trying to run away from Ivalice's structural problems. Past that, there's not much else. WotL adds a couple of extra scenes here but the just show more of Agrias' fealty to her knighthood and Ovelia. Stuff we already see in C2. I guess the bonus scene with Musty is cool - shows that higher and lower class individuals can in-fact get along outside of Ramza/Delita (there are a couple more of these but it's rare) and it's sort of cute. 5/10
Mustadio Bunansa - In some ways, I think Musty already represents the commoner that becomes Ramza's best friend after Delita goes Malcolm X? Problem here is that he's a FFT PC. So past his initial introduction, he's not doing much other than Holy Stones side quest plot. He's not offensive in anyway but other than being the narrative that eventually leads to space goat demons, Musty doesn't add much to the political aspects of FFT's plot (and its greater thematics). 3/10
Rafa Galthana - She's okay. Her main problem is that her character arc doesn't really tie into the main plot. That being said, what is there works. Someone who is just caught up in the power struggles admist dealing with their own issues and is constantly trying to survive. The biggest thing the wonder twins contribute is to demonstrate that the holy stones respond to the will of the person commanding them. But the execution ends up pretty sloppy (see Malak) and it could have been quite a bit better or even through Mustadio with a little re-imagining. 4/10.
Malak Galthana - Er...Malak is bad. Put another way, if Malak wasn't in the story, you wouldn't notice anything. And that's including the bits that include Rafa. Then when he is on screen, he garners absolutely no favors since he pretty much ignores Rafa's claims, tries to kill her and his redemption is basically taking the bullet once Barinten exposes himself by accident. The game doesn't do a good job here of selling Rafalak's backstories with Barinten to create any sort of sympathy or understanding for him, and even if it was there, he still wouldn't be great. That it isn't even there kinda shows how terrible he is. Probably the worst character of cast. 2/10
Cidolfas Orlandu - The couple of scenes he's in, he's cool. The one sane guy in the enemy's camp and goes to show that not everyone is swept up by the corruption that's in the system. They could have done more with him since he actually has a connection with Balbaines and made him out more to be a mentor figure to Ramza, but SRPG troubles. Orlandu ends up more of a set piece in the grand scheme of things that shows how far gone everyone is in this power grab since as Reiska notes, his "death" signified when the church has "won". 4/10
Meliadoul Tingel - In the grand scheme of things, Melia doesn't add much to the plot. Sure, showing that we have the sane guy in the villain camp is pretty important (as to show that not everyone is the demonz) but really, Izlude already does that. Melia's turn doesn't really do much and she really feels like she exists to say, "Hey remember Izlude? He wasn't a throwaway". But given how little of the game left they have to work with by the time she joins, this is almost inevitable. It's not even like she's Athos and has a bunch of lore to work with. Her battle as an opponent is a little better since it shows Ramza being hunted for reasons other than money, but really. 2/10
Alma Beoulve - Alma's...kind of bad. She starts off pretty good as being Ramza's one true confidant (with them having the same mothers and all) and of course, is the only other party that knows about Zeakden. But then Chapter 3 happens and Izlude and Wiegraf kidnap her and she becomes a plot device forever. Terrible disservice to the character. One part of me really wishes they just stuck to the political narrative because most of the "Your Alma is another castle moments" are because of Space goat demons. But Final Fantasy gotta final fantasy, so hey. 3/10
Olan Durai - Olan's cool but as touched upon, his coolness is more from the ending then the during the game. Having the gall to write a document that basically criticizes the church in the medieval times is already pretty blasphemous, but the fact that it also does to so to the ruling monarch at the time is just absolutely nuts. Note that despite doing this, he obviously made sure in someway that his remaining relatives/sires were all safe since the story is told from the perspective of one of his descendants. Otherwise, the few scenes you get with him are neat. I especially like the scene where he tells Delita to fuck off when Delita proposes that he works with him, foreshadowing and alluding to the creation of the Durai papers. Truly a case of where the pen is mightier than the sword. 6/10
Ovelia Atkascha - Unlike Alma, Ovelia is like the plot device that actually does stuff? Like sure, most of the time, it is just her sitting in the garden of Zeltannia or whatever, but the context and narrative that gets us there is very neat. As already mentioned, the lack of agency isn't a good start, but FFT just sells this so well. She's trying what she can to get out of her situation but at the end of the day, she's powerless to stop what is happening. WotL adds to this narrative with two bonus battles where Delita fights off assassins - both are trivial due to Delita's presence. This is of course, quite meaningful not just in the romantic subplot with Delita. It also shows her being a similar situation as his at the start of the game (where she's basically just a pawn being used by other parties). All this cultivating to the last scene of the game being a gut puncher that it's earned and wraps up the entire cycle. 7/10
Beowulf Cadmus - Not sure what Beowulf and Reis are doing here. They add pretty much nothing to the story. I guess there is the fact that Beowulf and Ramza are both heretics and it shows that the church's power and corruption extends beyond just protecting it's own power. However, other than adding more about the church being evil, neither he or Reis do much for me. Part of it I think is because there's romantic context for Beowulf and Reis and there's no parallel to that in the main story with Ramza. Certainly, his trials don't reflect Delita either, so the entire thing feels out of place and there aren't enough scene (even in WotL) to really sell them as adding to the story. DNR/10
Reis Duelar - See above. DNR/10
Delita Hyral - You can pretty much write an entire book about Delita and the game more or less does. Again, while the game is told from Ramza's perspective, the overarching plot of FFT is about Delita's rise to power. It is done amazingly as the lay out the grind work about who Delita is, what his background is and ultimately why he comes the way he does and his ultimate motives. Delita doesn't start off as power hungry for the sake of being power hungry, but rather he sees this as the only way to change a system that he robbed him of his remaining family. What's really cool is that he's always on the opposite side of where Ramza is the wheel of fortune. When Ramza is a mercenary, Delita is a knight. When Ramza is a heretic, Delita becomes a commander. Finally when Delita becomes King, Ramza is presumably dead or exiled from the living realm. All the while the scales of their morality also reflect their change. As Ramza becomes more virtuous, Delita becomes more corrupt. The parallel between the two is fascinating as hell to me because it is not very often you see it being mirrored so well. Then of course you get the ending, which adds a whole another level to this. Despite his power and riches, Delita winds up symbolically with nothing. The only person who he loves or at least still trusts, stabs him with fear of being used and manipulated. As Delita stumbles back, he's confused by what happened, asking Ramza what he got, not realizing he had created this mess in the wake of his own actions. Even though FFT doesn't really do existentialism, this scene sells the idea that having nothing can be more important than all the riches in the world. 10/10
Algus Sadalfas - In some ways, Algus is Seifer'd claused. As a character, he's a complete asshole. However, in terms of the plot. his role is absolutely necessary as he is the catalyst that sets off Delita and molds what future Delita eventually becomes. His viewpoints are awful, but he's also the only one who is telling the truth like it is. Between laying down the truth of Dycedarg's motives as well as the difference between Ramza and Delita due to their rank and social class, Algus doesn't mince to us what is actually happening, not just in the plot, but also the setting of Ivalice. His role is actually extremely important as Reiska alluded because he's the only person there in C1 that can do this without weakening the narrative: he's of the same rank as Ramza and Delita (a squire) and of the same age, but more informed, showing us how naive Ramza and young Delita have been to the reality of Ivalice's corrupt system. 7.5/10
Gaff Gaffgarion - Gaffy has a small role but it's pretty good for what it is. Someone mentioned that Agrias and Gaff are basically the angel and the devil of Ramza after his turn, and I certainly agree on this (see earlier comments re: Agrias). The cool part here is that you see a certain amount of camaraderie between him and Ramza as he tries numerous times to convince Ramza that "this is the way the world is". Also, bringing Agrias to Execution Site adds like a couple of extra lines of dialogue that really sells Agrias and Gafgarion basically being Ramza's conscience battling itself. You can literally replace their names with "Good Ramza" and "Bad Ramza" and the dialogue would still make sense. 6/10
Weigraf Folles
Gelkanis Barinten
Dycedarg Beoulve
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I might fill in some extras later if I remember enough to care. e: oh hey I remembered enough to care
Ramza Beoulve - Ramza is someone who I'd probably think better of if overall class struggle was what FFT focused more on as opposed to the aims of a corrupt and self-serving theocratic institution, since that's where all the compelling writing is for the most part, and even then he's really more of a reactive figure without any real aims of his own so even in the context of FFT class struggle plot I can't really like him that much. 5/10.
Agrias Oaks - The archetype is nice and all but this is FFT and let's admit it, she mostly rides on style. 4/10.
Mustadio Bunansa - Meh, not only does he have FFT PC syndrome he's also the introduction to the less compelling part of FFT's plot. 3/10.
Rafa Galthana - Disconnected as all hell, but honestly in the bubble she's given she actually works so yeah. e: still they didn't need to go there so honestly she shouldn't be higher than Ramza anyways. 5/10.
Malak Galthana - This fucking guy on the other hand not so much, although there's at least -something- there to hate without turning him into pure narrative device. 2/10.
Cidolfas Orlandu - Another character who I'd probably think better of if FFT's narrative was more focused on overall class struggle, though at least since he joins just in time for full lucavi hijack we probably weren't losing anything to FFT PC syndrome. 5/10.
Meliadoul Tingel - I'm not sure if I had any respect for her to begin with and I certainly don't now. 1/10.
Alma Beoulve - Yeah there's really not a whole lot of there there. 2/10.
Olan Durai - Like Mustadio he's mostly tied to church plot, however the way that he's tied to it is far more interesting but talking about that involves having to step outside the story that's presented. Past that he mostly just works inoffensively enough with the role he's given. 5/10.
Ovelia Atkascha - Honestly some of this may be Delita rub-off but considering everything overall? Yeah, 7/10.
Beowulf Cadmus - Nah.
Reis Duelar - Nah.
Delita Hyral - If anything my estimation of Delita has only risen over time, which considering he was pretty much always top, well. The desperation, the scheming, the backstabbing, the ambition, the lack of empathy, everything that fuels his rise and shows how ultimately brittle he is, the man is pretty close to peak tragedy of class struggle. 9.5/10.
Algus Sadalfas - Exists to be a punchable face attached to a narrative device, which is not a category of villain I've respected to begin with. You do need someone to fill the role he does (which is why I'm not actually giving him a 0 or 1) but his buffoonish Peak Orange Man Voter strawman personality does overshadow some of the tragedy by way of, say, letting Zalbag (who by the way, could be given this role as he quite frankly deserves it and have nothing of value be lost for it) get more or less off scot free despite being obviously complicit which I personally found distateful years ago and even more so now. 2/10.
Gaff Gaffgarion - Nothin' personal, kid. So kind of like how you needed someone like Algus in C1 to show off the problems of failing to check privilege, you need someone like Gafgarion, someone who is more or less completely devoid of any sort of guiding ambition or principle beyond get paid in C2 to show the problems attendant with that. However not only is he not a fucking strawman like Algus is but he also bothers to interact with the scumbags so he's significantly better in execution. 6/10.
Miluda Folles - Hello it's FFT as class struggle plot and in hindsight the other reason I don't really respect Algus on execution since she's what actually gets Ramza and Delita to actually start thinking about things. Too bad that all got overlooked to fuel Weigraf's decent into wanky animu rivalry. 6/10.
Weigraf Folles - The descent into madness is a thing... but honestly FFT isn't the sort of game that even remotely calls for a wanky animu rival. 4/10.
Gelkanis Barinten - Well, he's... memorably nasty, at any rate. The way that he goes about it veers into territory that honestly probably didn't need to be ventured into and for all his nastiness he still ultimately only amounts to a punchable face attached to a narrative device and is a pretty irrelevent one at that so it's not like he was in danger of really having anything on Algus. 1/10.
Dycedarg Beoulve - Delita may be the best villain, but Dycedarg is probably the most -fun- one. Just... everything about how he goes about playing the game of thrones and goes beyond mere obsession with appearance and status like the lesser nobility and is only in it for himself and damned if he doesn't do it with as much style as the game's presentation can muster. 7/10.
Zalbag Beoulve - Fuck this guy. 1/10.
Balbanes Beoulve - Ok so yeah he only gets one scene and it's where he dies so a lot of this is just what you realize about him in hindsight but even then he stands out to me (but maybe I'm reading too much into this) as the man who understands The Lie but refuses to exploit The System for his own ends. FFT doesn't do or say anything to disprove the idea that while the nobility of Ivalice presents itself as some exclusive club the fact is that it's just a bunch of dicks with land and armies (and thus power) building a pretext to justify their idea of social order, but their idea of social order is flismy as all hell since it relies on 1) nobles having kids (preferably male if the culture is as patriarchal as the cast makes it look) and 2) their kids not dying. So you need have some degree of social mobility and flexibility in order for the system to not collapse, even if the people who believe in The Lie protest (or reasons why Algus is an idiot who doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, continued), which is ultimately why Delita is even able to start getting anywhere by being able to attend a military academy, which in turn is what informs both his and Ramza's views on society, even at the points where they can't really articulate it (although going further requires getting more into the heads of fictional characters than I'm willing to do for something this silly). As for a score? Hell if I know, it's one scene and a lot of it isn't really him. But I really wanted to talk about it because it really stands out for something that doesn't get all that much callback.
Izlude Tingel - Man he wants to be Miluda so hard doesn't he. I can appreciate his angle even if he's obviously a tool, too bad he's a victim of lucavi hijack plot. 3/10.
Vormav Tingel - Nice shades of what could've been at least. Then the plot proceeds to utterly waste him. 3.5/10.
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Ramza Beoulve - 7/10. Ramza is someone I appreciate in the context of the story that they're trying to tell. FFT often takes a bit of a grimdark view of the world; everyone is either a helpless victim or a person clawing for power who has sacrificed his or her moralty to do so (some characters play both roles at different points), which suggests a very cynical worldview. Ramza, as a person trying to do what's right and being largely successful at it, is a breath of fresh air who throws the other actors of the game into relief. At the same time, the game doesn't over-lionize him as some games do with main characters; we don't stop the music to hear about how awesome he is, and his good-hearted nature does stab him in the foot on at least one occasion. He's not the most interesting character in the game, but I think it would lose quite a bit without him.
Agrias Oaks - 5/10. As we start this new series I'll probably struggle a bit with what each number on the scale means to me. Not 5, though, 5's easy. 5 is a character who I like but for very shallow reasons. Hi Agrias. She's sympathetic and her genuine affection for and loyalty to Ovelia is appealing, as is her general competence as a woman in a man's world.
Mustadio Bunansa - 3/10. I agree with some other sentiments that there was an opportunity for Mustadio to be Ramza's commoner friend in Chapter 2 on, but that's not really what they wrote. Mustadio has basically no interactions outside advancing his own brief plot arc, which is boring.
Rafa Galthana - 4/10. Rafa brings a strength which is more endearing than Mustadio, but is another character a bit laser-focused on her own arc (which ends abruptly and without any involvement from her when her brother is shot than her antagonist tossed from a roof), and she doesn't click with me as well as Agrias.
Malak Galthana - 1/10. Uugggh I struggle with Malak. He's reprehensible (sister claims she's raped -> slap her -> only believe her when the MAN admits it, fuck off) and the game kinda doesn't care, like him taking a bullet is supposed to absolve him of his wretched behaviour and the siblings can be reunited as friends after that. Leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. I could give him some points for the fact I think he's written well enough to piss me off and that he could have been really good if the game had acknowledged and dealt with what a shithead he was, but that's not what we got.
Cidolfas Orlandu - 4/10. His scene in chapter 3 is nice enough though kinda generic. And it's his best one. There's nothing really wrong with him but he rarely makes me care.
Meliadoul Tingel - 3/10. Should have been a good character, but the game does nothing with her. Her showing up randomly in Limberry Castle's basement with no explanation is a good sign the writers were giving up at that point though.
Alma Beoulve - 4/10. Another frustrating character. There were roles ready for Alma to play as another player who understands the truth about Delita, not to mention a woman in a very patriarchal culture, and that's even what her dialog starts to be about in chapter 3! Then... y'know, becomes the ball forever. Goddamnit game.
Olan Durai - 5/10. His role as another legit good dude is appreciated, and the endgame twist about him writing about all this despite the personal danger is neat.
Ovelia Atkascha - 6/10. Ovelia is a character who is largely defined by things happening to her, which isn't normally a good start, but the game does legitimately care about her as something besides an object for other characters' actions, as seen by her final two scenes.
Beowulf Cadmus - 2/10. shrug
Reis Duelar - 2/10. shrug
Delita Hyral - 9/10. Delita's story is what we're here for. Pretty much all of chapter 1 serves to set up his motivation of someone who chooses to remake a broken system so that people like his sister won't have to suffer, and in the process of re-making that system, he essentially becomes it, oblivious to the new victims he is creating, including the one person he kinda-maybe loves. He's kinda villainous but also kind of a hero and the game doesn't shy away from the complexities and contradictions inherent in him and it's really cool, especially for the time.
Algus Sadalfas - 7/10. He's a jerk, but one molded by the system he's in. He's really goddamn punchable but that's in part because he's actually right about some things; he understands class better than either Ramza or Delita, who have been sheltered by it. Definitely a love-to-hate antagonist who does his job well.
Gaff Gaffgarion - 6/10. I like that his regard for Ramza is genuine, he really does want to keep his friends from being caught up in the crossfire, callous though he may be. He's kinda turned himself into an agent of the bad system but shrugs because he views the system as immovable. A good ground-level view of how someone who isn't inherently bad might work in that system.
Weigraf Folles - 4/10. I don't think we make quite enough connection with Wiegraf for his fall of selling out his ideals to be as effective as the game wants. Makes him come off as a bit whiny.
Gelkanis Barinten - 3/10. Is scum. I don't have much more to say about him than that, he literally only appears during Riovanes.
Dycedarg Beoulve - 6/10. Solid. Dycedarg is a bad man, but the sad part is he truly believes in his own righteousness, and is confused when his brothers don't actually want to be a part of his plan, which in his mind, was for all of them, to make the Beoulves great. "Because I dirtied my hands, you're here" is great.
Zalbag Beoulve - 2/10. On the other hand the game doesn't know what it wants to do with him. It kinda forgets his role in Teta's death and makes him the generic yet tragically-fated good brother in chapter 4 and that does not go over well. The opposite of Delita in the sense that the game totally ignores the complexities of this character.
Vormav Tingel - 4/10. Political villain Vormav should have been really cool. I love the scene in chapter 2 when he shows up and just radiates command and bad news as he tells Ovelia the truth about her heritage, a rare time when someone manages to outshine Delita in a scene. Unfortunately he's ultimately just possessed by satan, zzz.
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You know, I was just going to say my piece on Algus and just accept that people are going to have a higher opinion of his character work than me (to be perfectly clear my low score reasons are his indirect whitewashing of Zalbag and his utter lack of self-awareness making him clearly less fun than Gafgarion and Dycedarg) but really? Algus largely just parrots the same self-serving justifications RL nobility used to pretend the class system is anything other than human-created bullshit used to justify why those with power have it as well as their treatment of those who don't, I don't think I'd put much stock in his ability to "understand" anything about it, let alone more than Delita and Ramza do even at that point in the story since they at least know the last part is bullshit, especially since he apparently learned nothing about how things actually work from his father's disgrace, if he did he'd realize that "divine right" has fuck-all to do with anything so the only thing he accomplishes by spouting off is making others look more righteous by comparison, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. Hell, the only reason why he can be said to work at all is precisely because he understands about as little as Ramza and Delita do, he just goes about it from the other end of the spectrum. And even when he does manage to be right about something his ravings where he even does manage to be right about something it's not only for the wrong reasons (yes, the nobility do in fact have responsibilities, but it's because of what they have, not who they are) but largely a pretext to project his own malfeasance onto others so it's not he even deserves points for being a broken clock.
Like, if the possibility of Ramza, being in the higher position of privilege that he is in, would get off scot free (and I'm not sure how else you'd explain things otherwise) for being a deserter never crossed Algus's mind then I'm really not sure how you could hold him up as an example of having greater understanding of how society works than a dog.
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The main thing he's right about is that Dycedarg and Zalbag (and presumably, the rest of the nobility) see commoner lives (Teta) as expendable, and that they don't think Ramza and Delita should be playing at being equals. Both of these things surprise and anger both Ramza and Delita, to put it mildly.
I certainly don't agree with much of anything he has to say from a moral perspective, but that's a given.
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I mean on that part we obviously agree, every piece of evidence presented by the game points to that, there's nothing about the what that needs to be discussed. My point is he gets the why wrong by essentially (and somewhat paradoxically despite the fact that he is technically correct, there was definitely no intention of saving Teta but this owes as much to Dycedarg being an outright scumbag who wanted to get rid of any and all witnesses as it does to classism) saying the quiet parts out loud and undermining the system as a result. Preserving people's idea that the system works despite evidence to the contrary is how corrupt and authoritarian systems thrive, it's fear vs love but Algus skipped the part where you're suppoed to avoid making people hate the system and throwing the awful reality in people's face is a good way to make people hate it enough to willingly suffer to be rid of it (hello 2020) so ultimately if we're to believe Algus is supposed to be an advocate of the system as opposed the medieval equivalent of Firstname Bunchofnumbers Twitter Conservatroll who just so happened to be in the right place at the right time he's about as incompetent in defending it as worthwhile as Ramza is in arguing that the system is indeed what he thinks he is because he'd rather own the libs. I suppose you could chalk this up to hubris but even so presenting him as more "aware" would require him legitimately acknowledging that he's essentially as disposible as Teta is and I'm not certain he geniunely does because that would require him to geniunely acknowledge why some commoners are kept to use as props instead of just treating everyone like animals.
Of course if you like him for that, well, I'm obviously not going to argue against my own point because of it, but I don't think the system being set up the way it does makes Algus any less blind than Ramza/Delita because the system fosters that sort of blindness by discouraging examination of it, since Algus is just as unwilling to see virtue in anyone's actions as Ramza is unable to see vice which <extremely young Dimitri voice> leads to them both being right and wrong.
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I'm not going to post numerical rankings right now because I'm not too confident yet in my actual scale; I may edit them in at some later point. Still, I'd like to throw in my commentary.
Ramza Beoulve - Ramza is the likeable character this game needed to be its protagonist, all in all, as an idealistic young noble who is naive to the injustices of Ivalice's society but horrified when he is made conscious of them. FFT undercooks all of its protagonists, and Ramza is no exception there, but I think he suffers the least from this being as he gets the most screen time and opportunity to speak. Still, FFT does not completely succeed in making the story truly about him - while he absolutely has more protagonist chops than, say, Vaan, it still occasionally feels like he's a bit of a secondary character in a story that belongs to Delita; in particular, once the story shifts focus from the class struggle to the machinations of the church, as Random points out, his role gets muddy and he ends up in a more reactive role - largely being jerked around by what the villains are doing to Alma.
Agrias Oaks - I basically agree with everyone else here; I like her general archetype, and she bounces off Gafgarion well, but she simply never gets enough screen time and suffers quite a lot from general FFT undercooking. WotL gives her a little more depth with the added scenes with Mustadio showing that she isn't particularly classist.
Mustadio Bunansa - Feels like he's intended to be the Ramza's replacement goldfish in the plot after Delita leaves. He doesn't get nearly enough screen time to sell the role (and, uh, going too far with it might make Ramza look worse, so maybe this is for the better?). I think he could have been executed better by making him and his dad be more important allies to Ramza by making their archaeological expertise more important, even if doing so might have required taking a little mystery out of the Zodiac Stones. As-is, he's pretty much just "guy who drags Ramza into the church plot by accident".
Rafa Galthana - I'm not terribly fond of the game's use of rape-as-drama for her backstory; it feels rather tacked on and unnecessary given that her rapist has plenty of other baggage to clearly indicate him as scum. As Elf says her arc is also half-baked and ends unsatisfyingly, and she's basically a token person of color with no background on her people being given.
Malak Galthana - I said it on Discord and I'll repeat it here: I feel that Malak should not have been a PC. I think that the rooftop scene - and his resurrection therein - is necessary to the greater narrative of the game as a vehicle to establish that the Stones are not intrinsically good or evil and their power is a reflection of the people using them. However, the game does absolutely nothing to sell why he goes along with Ramza after that resurrection - or why Ramza accepts him. In a lot of ways his character arc is basically Kain's, except that he wasn't under mind control and he never displays a hint of regret. "Kain but worse" is pretty damning.
Cidolfas Orlandu - As the plot goes he's honestly kind of just there. His backstory is underdeveloped, he has all of like two cutscenes and he barely contributes to either much. I tend to think that his role in the story is pretty much as a final indicator that the conflict that the game is ostensibly about, the War of the Lions, simply just doesn't matter anymore; the final nail in the coffin for the two dueling regents' relevance as the church rises above both.
Meliadoul Tingel - Meliadoul's whole family is undercooked, and her most of all. Most of her problems are kind of intrinsically linked to the problems with her father; I feel like selling her character would have really required that we see more of Vormav and Izlude and Meliadoul together, like, as far back as chapter 2, rather than her just showing up out of nowhere.
Alma Beoulve - On some levels she's basically Ramza but female and the game could have done a lot with her, but it just doesn't; unfortunately, she's basically relegated to being the ball. Her role is pretty much entirely limited to being either a companion to Ovelia (wherein they both lament their absence of agency in a male-dominated society) or being a hostage to (successfully) manipulate Ramza.
Olan Durai - I think he needed more presence in the main story (like most of FFT's protagonists), but you really have to admire his bravery in actually committing a highly subversive true history to paper.
Ovelia Atkascha - The other ball, who is defined almost entirely by her lack of agency throughout the entire game, to the point where it finally makes her snap in the game's oft-debated final scene. Ironically, for not being a PC she's probably the next least undercooked heroic character in the game after Ramza, because the game clearly cares a lot more about her than any of the men around her do. I feel like we should have gotten more exposition into whether Vormav was actually truthful in claiming that she was a fake princess, but it turns out to be a throwaway detail in one of her last scenes in the game before the end (in the original).
Beowulf Cadmus - Meh.
Reis Duelar - Meh.
Delita Hyral - There's not much I can say here that other posters in the thread haven't said better, other than to add that I think you could make an interesting analysis of gamer misogyny by comparing the FFT fandom's general reaction to Delita and the FE fandom's general reaction to Edelgard; on paper they're kind of similar archetypes. Generally would agree that he's the best written character in FFT.
Algus Sadalfas - I largely agree with Elf's take here, he's the necessary foil to Ramza in chapter 1. The game needs someone to lay bare the inherent depravity of Ivalice's system, and of the available characters he is the best candidate; Delita is an uplifted commoner and thus ineligible, Zalbag and Dycedarg are related to him, Larg is a direct superior to him, and Wiegraf, Miluda and the other Death Corps people are dismissable as misguided enemies. Algus works for the role because he's the only true peer among the named cast in chapter 1 that Ramza has.
Gaff Gaffgarion - Pretty much a punch-clock antagonist who isn't clearly villainous or evil, he's simply just a guy doing his job and that job happens to be against you. In a more modern period piece he'd be the soldier or cop that never questions the orders he's given. Within this role, he's well-executed enough.
Wiegraf Folles - A bit undercooked. Like Elf said, we don't get sufficient time to connect with him to sympathize when he compromises his ideals.
Gelkanis Barinten - The game would be improved by him not being in it, IMO.
Dycedarg Beoulve - If FFT were written in 2020 I'd question if he was based on Donald Trump, because he's very much in the same mold. He very clearly cares about his family's power, and about his family to the extent that they influence that power - I'm not convinced that he cares about them as people so much as that he views them all as reflective on him like a good narcissist.
Zalbag Beoulve - the Eric to Dycedarg's Donald. The game wants you to feel sorry for him by showing him having an epiphany that he was wrong, but he never actually gets the chance to own up to his complicity before he's killed.
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My hands are in quite a bit of pain from my Extraness yesterday so these will be shorter than normal :)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Ramza Beoulve - 7/10. Solid protagonist character, a shining light in a world that is cynical and self-serving.
Agrias Oaks - 5.5/10. Cool and badass but nothing deep. Still, I give her props for that.
Mustadio Bunansa - 3/10. Eh. Never liked his “I won’t tell you anything” shtick. Doesn’t really make the player want to help him, but the narrative says we do?
Rafa Galthana - 4/10. A bit bland but not bad. Gets some stuff
Malak Galthana - 1/10 rape apologist
Cidolfas Orlandu - 3/10. Dull
Meliadoul Tingel - 4/10. A bit underused but I like her in principle - a good guy face in the templar knights, but they don’t do much with her.
Alma Beoulve - 4/10. She gets some good stuff early but becomes the ball.
Olan Durai - 5.5/10. I actually like Olan in the few scenes he’s in; I like how he challenges Delita in that scene together, and he has some good stuff otherwise. Not great but I like him.
Ovelia Atkascha -5.5/10. Decent but underutilized, as usual. Stab a dude.
Beowulf Cadmus - nah
Reis Duelar - nah
Delita Hyral - 10/10. PUT THIS SHIT IN MY VEINS NERDS. My first video game love and still an all-time great. His character work in Chapter 1 is an excellent contrast to Rmaza; while Ramza is so upset about Algus kicking a dude, Delita just lleeaaans back against the wall like he don’t give a fuck. Later he crafts himself into a magnificient bastard until he slowly realizes he’s become everything he hated. Watching his powertripping behavior in Delita’s betrayal is always so eerie because he is acting like the condescending noble that he hates; his relationship with Ovelia is messy and a bit underexplored, but I love the ending, because you learn that she never learned to trust him because he has treated her like his tool and prize, not like his wife, and that is why the ending happens. I could go on but hands.
Algus Sadalfas - 6.5/10. what a douchebag, i love it
Gaff Gaffgarion - 6/10. Surprisingly human and well-done. I really like how he tries to convert Ramza over to his side at the Execution Site, despite his pretending that he only cares about money. And he is obviously aghast at Dycedarg and Draclau despite those claims. I like him.
Weigraf Folles - 3/10. Bleh. Character does not really have a satisfying character arc. Could have been good, is diminished by C3 plot
Gelkanis Barinten - nah
Dycedarg Beoulve - 6.5/10. oozes evil style. love his scene with Rofel and gaffy
(a couple of additions)
Zalbag - 2/10. Fuck this guy; never gets his comeuppance for being a fucking tool and has some weird redemption arc instead now that his daddy is being murdered instead of other people
Rofel - sex machine / 10, please call me
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While I never was around for the FFT heydey I semi-recently (5 years!) was going over the game with a detail-comb for... reasons.
Ramza Beoulve 7.5/10 Good boy who is caught between the ideals of nobility and chivalry imparted into him by his father and the cruel reality. Symbolic throws away his nobility by taking mother's name but realizes he can't turn a blind eye to injustice and retakes his name. I really like how he's trying to save Ovelia to assuage his own guilt. Gets dragged into painfully simplistic demon plot and weirdly comes to terms with just doing justice regardless of names or lineage and saving what's important to him above recognition.
Agrias Oaks 6/10 Cool and all but suffers from FFT recruitment. What's really nice is she is blatantly in charge while she's a guest character.
Mustadio Bunansa 2/10 he exists to be Ramza's new buddy until he's recruited and made irrelevant.
Rafa Galthana 3/10 that sure is a plot
Malak Galthana 1/10 how is he the older one again?
Cidolfas Orlandu 4/10 he's cool and all as an example of the "ideal knight" kind of thing but he's kinda irrelevant...
Meliadoul Tingel 3/10 hey not all templars are evil.
Alma Beoulve 4/10 she uh tries at least. The "wish I was a dude" line is one of those eyebrow raisers because well women are kicking plenty of ass as fighters. Yeah they're not the main plot movers but that's also not what Alma was gripping about. Her being battle ready right after dying and getting stone revived is hilarious though.
Olan Durai 5/10 he has enough neat scenes that I'd put him above dead old dad.
Ovelia Atkascha 8.1/10 8? The hell? See, thing is, on looking back over the game, while Ovelia's lack of agency is a critical plot point (she is just escapes ~sexy lamb shade~) she's always damn near trying to fight. Delita has to KO her, she protects herself at the falls, accepts Mustadio and defies the church after they drop their bombshell. She ultimatly stabs Delita after everything she learned from spying on him and defying him as best she could.
Following on weather she's real or fake. Plotwise it doesn't matter, since just floating the idea is enough to completely shatter her. After the news she's even more powerless then before and latches unto the one person she can remotely rely on because she has even less choice yet still ultimately rejects that.
Also as part of my fine-combing I came to the conclusion that she probably is the real Ovelia. Too much of the dates and age would be insane otherwise. If she was replaced as an infant that meant the old men feared the 13-year-old Rouvellia lol while Ovelia's dad was still perfectly healthy. If they replaced Ovelia when Rouvellia was crowned then Ovelia would have been like 7 which would be strange she's suddenly being called princess despite not being one just yesterday.
Also inadvertently sets off Ramza to get involved in Lucavi plot so true hero of Ivalice?
Anyway that's entirely why I did this. To give her an 8 aw yeah.
Beowulf Cadmus 3/10 typically knightly guy. "Debt of steel" is a good line.
Reis Duelar 0/10 she has no personality. malak awful as he is does. Barely.
Delita Hyral 8/10 meh he's ok i guess.
Algus Sadalfas 7/10 Algus is such a spiteful little twerp that even at his most powerless he still knows he's more powerful than dopey commoners like Delita. It's easy to engender sympathy with him then it fades so fast.
Gaff Gaffgarion 6/10 He has some neat quick plot bristling with character.
Weigraf Folles 7/10 is right but ultimatly succumbs to power to provide a more simple mirror to Delita and Ramza. Bonus point for showing Ramza's connected to the same stone I guess?
Gelkanis Barinten 1/10
Dycedarg Beoulve 7/10 Dycedarg is great because he is always perfectly clearly saying exactly what everyone wants and needs to hear to forward his own goals of ultimate power. Only when he does have ultimate power does he let his guise drop and revel in the fact that he doesn't believe in law, order or justice just domination and control.
Zalbaag: 3/10 Hey good brother why did you shoot Teta and the game never follows up on it.
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Doing selected characters for now
Agrias: She's one of the few PCs which has some dialogue after joining. Her exchange with Ramza and Gafgarion at Golgarand does flesh out her personality more. Having extra chatter if you bring certain characters into select battles would have been a way for FFT to do more with the already recruited characters but it doesn't do this much at all. A lost opportunity. Her being a female warrior in a male dominated world isn't really brought up other than the jab at scarring her face at the intro battle. It's fine, don't need to finger point at every example of progressiveness going 'see, see."
5/10
Malak: Malak is legendary for his ineptness as a PC to the point that it will overshadow his role in the story. Which isn't really that much. Most of his appearances have him acting as a lackey carrying out Barinten's orders. His appearances could have been replaced by a generic and it wouldn't have affected much if Square or whoever wasn't insistent on having their twins with mirroring skillsets and Brave/Faith values. As for being revived with the Holy Stone to show they're not entirely evil, he could have been held hostage (to give Rafa a reason to return to Riovanes) or even killed offscreen and such a scene could still fill its role.
So disappointing. I feel his role could be salvaged if he demonstratied inner conflict within him; his gratitude towards Barinten clashing with his loyalty to his sister and only surviving family. FFT doesn't do that though and it seems he barely cares about her perspective at all. Sure, the setting mirrors a time where nobility would lock away family members who would lower their social status but Malak doesn't have that background to be playing Game of Thrones.
He does get one scene after being saved giving Ramza a lead on who snatched Alma. Um, only someone in the inner circle would know who to finger? Seems like he could be replaced in the scene too.
0/10 I dinged him a point because his dead ass on the roof really does prevent you from adding a 5th party member in an already frustrating battle.
Elmdor: It's like someone wanted a Sephiroth lookalike then crossed him with Symphony of the Night Dracula but without any of the traits that make them interesting. In Chapter 1, he only exists for his kidnappers to convert him to ransom money. And then he only appears in one scene before becoming a Lucavi possessed vessel. A scene that took conscious effort to recall (conference at the start of Chapter 3) and he doesn't really participate besides giving a status report. Game could just as easily left him dead but Sephiroth lookalike. He's most memorable because stealing his Genji gear is such a trophy than any story role. If you don't care about stealing it, he goes down fast to swordskills and strong magic.
1/10 I'm only giving him a pity point because of the sex appeal of his demonic assassins.
Companion piece - Thinking about FFT characters got my brain going towards Tales of Symphonia's lead and his foil. Only doing those two at the moment because they're the ones I get a strong FFT vibe from.
Lloyd: "There must be no more sacrifices like Teta." Oops, wrong lead. His color scheme is very similar to Chapter 1 Delita but his idealism is much closer to Ramza's. He can be dense and hotheaded but when he learns about what the state of his world is, he's determined to find a solution that doesn't require using sacrifice. To his credit, he doesn't settle for a halfway compromise if a full solution is still viable. His observation is quite sharp and he asks questions about systems that people have been conditioned to take for granted. Also, he's capable of realizing his mistakes and changing himself to correct them. Even though he comes off as generic sword-wielder at a glance, I can picture people willingly following his ideals. Contrast with someone like Ike, who (from a more cynical view) is adored and followed because he's meant to be a perfect stand-in of the author.
Also, Lloyd accepts people as people independent of titles. Colette is Colette. Genis' and Raine's race is a non-issue for him. He's seeks to understand Regal instead of condemning him because of a crimminal past.
7/10
Yggdrasil: It's tricky to talk about this guy without story spoilers but I think I'll manage without giving away any big ones. Just as stubbornly determined to achieve his goals but in sharp contrast to Lloyd, he's willing to sacrifice whoever and whatever to reach it. He doesn't care who gets hurt or suffers (more like he stopped caring). The twisted state of the world is his doing and it's been going on for a very long time. When the game reveals why he does this, I do feel for his loss (which is a loss shared by another FFT character), though of course it doesn't in any way excuse what he's done. There's another cost to be had from the path he pursues and while he stubbornly ignores it, Lloyd's party does realize the price he's paid in a scene close to the end. As for which FFT character he physically resembles, take a wild guess.
6/10 I don't know other Tales games enough to say if he's generic relative to them and it's hard to take the disco suit seriously but in a vaccuum, he works well enough.
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Incidentally, I forgot to mention Miluda in my post, and I feel like she comes off - moreso than any other Death Corps member we see in the game - as someone whose heart is truly in the right place, but whose rage at society's classism tragically prevents her from becoming an ally to Ramza.
Simply put, she has protagonist chops, but she's in the wrong story.
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Whoops, meant to update once a week!
Well... let's do something new, since I didn't go through the next Old Game I had in mind.
NieR: Automata
2B
9S
A2
Pod 042
Pod 153
6O
21O
Commander White
Anemone
Jackass
Adam
Eve
Pascal
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Got some more FFT thoughts
Mustadio: There's at least one fanfic which takes the idea of Mustadio becoming a close friend of Ramza, class differences be damned, and runs with it. In the game? Before there was a Al Behd and Yevon, there was Glabados and the mechanists and tinkerers of Goug. Which gets dropped for the next "ooh, shiny" the game wants to shove in. The scene where Worker 8 activates is one where Ramza and Mustadio interact after his recruitment. It does show them bantering rather casually. More character development would have been nice but too bad. Agrias' Birthday doesn't influence my rating here as I see it as fanservice. The other type; heads out of the gutter.
4/10
Reis: Um, she's pretty. And her and Beowulf as a couple provides a contrast with the other politically minded couples of the game. Which is just Delita and Ovelia. Yeah, she's not very significant to the narrative. The War of the Lions addition doesn't really do her any favors either, as she ends up in a damsel in distress role. Also the oldest of the female special characters if that means anything. Though if you go through the game fast (calendar-wise) she may not even crack 30.
1/10 She can Dragon Tame Balk 2's hydra pets, which is fun but isn't included in the rating here.
Ovelia: I don't care much for her as a character on a personal level. Despite that, I do give the game credit for not reducing her into a human shaped plot device. She may be merely a game piece to the factions involved in Ivalice's power struggle but the narrative treats her as a person and shows that she has her own thoughts and emotions.
6/10 Letting my personal bias drop her rating a point
Laguna, Kiros, and Ward - to be filled in at a later time
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So I've never fully played Automata myself, so these will be a little more quick and dirty.
NieR: Automata
2B- What if robots but secretly feelings has always been my jam. 2B's like an all time best at this, and the game's willingness to have her do silly things and slow burn all of her facets using them is great. 9/10
9S- Edgy goth son 9S... it's hard to feel definitively about him because his arc isn't just him responding to the world in a believable way, but feels a lot more like an inner demon coming to life and... it's bad, y'know? It has so much incel all over it sometimes. But so much of it is hoping he pulls back, even knowing he never does... 8/10 feels right?
A2- She's kinda all backstory and it's there but... yeah, she kinda comes across worse for jumping in as a replacement I think. 6/10
Pod 042-
Pod 153- I'm finding the pods hard to rate separately. I do like the strange zone they occupy between tool, partner, and even pet, and the way they stealth in just how sentient they were was a cool reveal. 6/10 I think? Tricky but seems right.
6O- The best, trust no one saying otherwise. 9/10
21O- Hmm. I get what they're going for but this sort of character doesn't speak to me. 4/10
Commander White- 3/10
Anemone- Neither of your CO type characters really worked for me. They definitely have history but it never come across well in the game proper. Maybe if you actually saw the stage play. 3/10
Jackass- Also the best. Trust no one. 9/10
Adam- 4/10
Eve- 5/10. Adam kinda exists to fill a plot role as "pretentious enemy to inform the characters of the sort of game their in" while Eve feels a genuinely endearing in his doofusness? Neither is a deep character but I felt way worse for poor Eve.
Pascal- 8/10? Sure, 8/10. No one can hate Pascal!
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NieR: Automata
2B - 8/10
9S - 8/10
A2 - 6/10
Pod 042 - 5/10
Pod 153 - 6/10
Jackass - 6/10
Adam - 5/10
Eve - 5/10
Pascal - 6/10
I feel pretty ambivalent about most of N:A’s cast, despite liking the game a lot. I think both 2B and 9S are really solid characters, although a little short of great. The rest I don’t have strong feelings on, although I do really like A2’s theme music.
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NieR: Automata
2B - 9/10. Slow burn sounds about right. A lot of her characterization is baked very deeply and left for the audience to find or not find, as they choose. Part of that is that in the end, she really wasn't all that important. Which makes her all the more important.
9S - 10/10. The best that I've seen this type of character be done, and a type that is underutilized and important to understand in modern times. Having just gotten off a couple of weeks of dealing with a 9S of my own... yeah.
A2 - 6.5/10. Here, I'll agree that way too much of her development is too off-camera, and messily combined with posthumous 2B development and being used as a linchpin for Pascal, 9S and everyone else's stories. Still good though.
Pod 042 - 3/10. Eh.
Pod 153 - 3/10. Eh. As much as the game wants us to cheer for them at the end, the pods don't really do anything beyond being audience standins. I can't differentiate them. I could go 5/10 meh whatever but the scale I'm using at this moment is "how well are they done compared to how well they could have been" and I think there could have been a fair bit more with the pods.
6O - 9/10. Only real annoyance is how easy it is to miss a lot of her lines. Plot demands aside though, I think 6O and 21O fulfill a lot of the characterization stuff that people transfer to the pods. Very believable and shoulders almost all of the bunker cast's development.
21O - 7/10. Works more as a foil to 6O than her own character; I didn't quite buy the family thing and felt there could have been some more tie-in there on a couple of sidequests. However, some of that is due to those themes not resonating with me personally.
Commander White - 7/10. Hits the historical figure general type square on, in that you get very different pictures of her from analyzing her direct interactions, indirect description from people close to her, and birds-eye view of position in the grand scheme of things. Feels like more could have been done though.
Anemone - 5/10. This is a character that definitely should have done more onscreen.
Jackass - 10/10. Anything more would've diminished her.
Adam - 8/10. For all that I still wish the brothers had more, Adam does get his monologue on, to such a degree that the speedrun tech to skip it is called "Mansplaining Skip." He knows what he wants and he goes for it in style.
Eve - 6/10. Eve... poor Eve. Exists to fill a single note. It's a very good note once you realize what it is, but still... borders on not believable.
Pascal - 9.5/10. Does pretty much everything this character should do. Only thing that really feels lacking is history.
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NieR: Automata
2B: 8/10. Solidly executed and reasonably compelling, but short of great, yep. I wanted the third part of the game to stick the landing on her character work and there were opportunities to do so especially with A2 having her memories but it didn't really happen, so it goes.
9S: 8/10. That descent into madness is pretty chilling and effective.
A2: 5/10. The anger and "ain't got time for this shit" fits the tone of the game at that point, though her role in the first two thirds of the game is underutilized.
Pod 042: 4/10. I dunno I pretty much agree with Ran. Slightly higher because they do get some decent humour out of 'em at points.
Pod 153: 4/10.
6O: 6/10. I don't find her super-compelling but she does feel like a fully fleshed out person and it's nice to have a bunker perspective from someone who isn't stone cold and/or a headcase.
21O: 4/10. Didn't make much impact.
Commander White: 5/10. So y'know she has this problem where she drops out of the game right before we really start digging under the mask?
Anemone: 4/10. What others said.
Jackass: 6/10. Definitely very enjoyable but not a top-tier comic character for me like she is for some others.
Adam: 5/10. Deliciously crazy man. Ultimately not as much going on as I'd like though, more fun than he is thought-provoking.
Eve: 5/10. The emotional crazy to Adam's "rational" crazy. Same score works. I don't think of either as super-awesome characters but they're much better than the part 3 villain.
Pascal: 6/10. Solid and endearing. I thought his last bit was a bit tooo transparent in its attempt to make you feel bad though, which keeps him from a higher score.
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So this was another game that immediately jumped to mind to do, but it was a large cast game I needed some time to gnaw on. I had the day off so I'm gonna work on it now but by all means, don't feel compelled to NOT talk about Automata or FFT just because more games have gone up!
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Eirika
Ephraim
Seth
Tana
Innes
Joshua
L'Arachel
Myrrh
Valter
Caellach
Lyon
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Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
unlike FFT I doubt I'm ever going to care enough to do backfilling, should've thrown up three houses instead/10.
Eirika - I don't hate the Eliwood mold but there's just not really much to talk about outside the bit on her route where she gets handed the Idiot Ball for dumb and bad reasons which I didn't think was a good look then and certainly don't now (like okay maybe if there was actually a reason to believe Formy hadn't fully taken over and there was anything going on there other than trickery or hell even if Eirika actually acknowledging what she was doing was risky as hell and she got burned for doing something similar a dozen chapters ago but no apparently we can't have that can we), although I guess it's comparatively inoffensive compared to some examples *cough*celica*cough*. Not particularly interested in grading that sort of thing on a curve though. 3.5/10.
Ephraim - Boring invincible Marty Stu. 0/10.
Seth - Existed. Did things. Can barely remember anything other than that. 3/10.
Tana - Barely existed and doesn't really do anything. 2/10.
Innes - Barely existed, doesn't really do anything except have a wanky animu rivalry with Ephraim and tell Eirika to stay behind him, the idiot who can't counter in melee because ???. 1/10.
Joshua - Existed more than Tana did and has a hat. 2.5/10.
L'Arachel - Not really a particular favorite of mine but Sailor Rausten is pretty alright. 5.5/10.
Myrrh - Literally exists to mark off a checkbox. e: actually fuck it, she deserves a 0/10 too.
Valter - A corpse who doesn't know that he's dead. 0/10.
Caellach - I like that he's just shamelessly open about being out for himself, fuck this sacred stone nonsense, he just wants to be on top. Not much to him other than generic scumminess so he's not a shining example of the type and he doesn't really have a whole lot of stage presence but this still beats most major antagonists in the series. 3.5/10.
Lyon - I dunno, he's tragic and yet maybe don't treat the sealed evil in a can like a toy? Does kind of make it hard for me to feel that much for him. Still beats most major antagonists in the series of course. 4/10.
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Personally, I have a bit more trouble with these type topics because I've had more issues separating the plot characters are in vs. the character themselves. Everyone agrees that there can be great characters sailing around in a mediocre plot that essentially exists to give them something to do, but it gets more complicated with maybe-decent characters in a stupid plot vs. bad characters sailing around in the exact plot that was intended. Where to draw the line? Always gonna be a bit subjective.
* Eirika, Ephraim, Lyon
Pretty good. If you like FE8, it's probably at least partially due to liking the dynamic between these three, which is well-flashed out in all three ways (although the Ephraim - Eirika relationship is a bit zzz, they love and trust each other, that's nice and heartwarming but nothing special). Lyon has a bit of an inferiority complex but not an especially bad one pre-demon-possession; he's embarrassed that weaker and beaten by both Eph & Eirika. But he's not without his merits; I think Eirika considers Lyon the most compassionate and thoughtful of the three, and Ephraim admires Lyon from a jock - nerd friendship kind of way of being more studious. This plays well into the setup for (sigh) demon possession: that someone like Lyon will do it from compassion and via knowledge, which fits his character perfectly. It's thematically consistent and interesting, and his different-kind-of-rivalry plays out well in the endgame regardless of route choice.
* Myrrh
Bad. I think she's aged the worst of the cast. People used to meme on Eirika for being gullible by handing the Sacred Stone over to Lyon in her route before we grew up a little and were reminded that great characters can make great mistakes, and whatever, it's a plot coupon, so no big deal. Yet Myrrh is nothing but plot points like this. I think Dark Holy Elf complained that Ninian / Nils are "the ball" in FE7, but at the very least, that game establishes why they should care about Our Heroes, and why Our Heroes eventually care about them, even if it's the kind of friendship of "well you keep saving us from assassins and finding our lost stuff while we use our magic danger detector to help you". Myrrh is a similar role but... totally phoned in. Why does she care / follow around Ephraim so much? Something that happened off-screen I guess? There's nothing like the attempt to give Eliwood - Ninian at least the barest hint of personal chemistry. And worse, I think it's "intentional" in that rather than merely needing Myrrh to go missing to set up the next battle, Myrrh is supposed to be some flighty draconic messenger of redemption or some such. Ugh. One of those Japanese "I totally respect and love the following person for some gussied up reason!" characters.
Honorable mention write-ins that I have something to say about:
* Garcia & Ross: I'd just like to say I rather like the parent / child dynamic where the parent's retired from (dangerous occupation X) but the child wants to live up to the legend. It's a very common tale elsewhere but it's less common in more recent Fire Emblems that flatten out the cast such that everyone is available and marriageable. This tale also works better in a Fire Emblem with perma-death, where Garcia's concern about Ross getting himself killed by skeletons is backed up by that as a real gameplay possibility. (Yeah, stuff like Niime / Hugh and Seteth / Flayn exist, but they don't really go the same direction.)
* Marisa: One of her quirks, that is honored in FE Heroes actually, is that her left hand is more deadly than her right or something (her crit animation shows her holding her sword in her left hand, her normal attack she has it in her right). Okay that's funny but WHY DON'T YOU JUST USE YOUR LEFT HAND ALL THE TIME THEN?! I'll show myself out.
* Selena: Remains one of my least-favorite versions of the "honorable enemy general" archetype. Not a major hit on the overall story since she doesn't really matter, but... she knows that Emperor Vigarde is a corrupted shell. Myrrh convinces her that he's been replaced by a demon or some such. And... she still fights you?! WTF, yo. That's the tragedy of somebody being stupid, not the tragedy of holding firm to loyalty. They could have very easily written in some excuse like "her family lives in the Imperial capital under close watch and if she betrayed the Empire by policy they'd all be executed" and she'd rather die herself than let others perish. Tactics Ogre had some crazy version of this where someone manning a castle engages in intentionally awful tactics to get himself killed for honor or some such but ensure he loses. Whether it's the character or the plot at fault, ugh, it'd be an easy fix.
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Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
unlike FFT I doubt I'm ever going to care enough to do backfilling, should've thrown up three houses instead/10.
Welllll y’know 3H would be a much more ambitious post! Haven’t decided if I want to break it up or what.
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Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Eirika- 6/10. Hello character I was thinking about. I really like that FE8 is willing to let Eirika be flawed and make bad decisions actually informed by her character rather than just "uh, I dunno, she's a hotblooded dumbass" like most shonen hero types. Or writer fellatio like her brother.
Ephraim- 3/10. zzzzzz
Seth- 5/10. I really like Seth's Eirika support honestly, which kinda bumps Seth up to a decent example of his archetype for me by itself. Which is good because it's not coming from anywhere else.
Tana- 4/10.
Innes- 3/10
Joshua- 4/10
L'Arachel- 6/10. It's too bad FE isn't more willing to just lean into magical girl/hero of justice nonsense, it make sense to exist there.
Myrrh- 3/10. Rawr
Valter- mmm. 2/10. Y'know what, Valter is pretty one note even as "rapey enemy general" goes.
Caellach- 5/10. Honestly yeah, he does alright.
Lyon- 7/10 I mean, main reason to play FE8 is to see the contrast between Eirika Lyon and Ephraim Lyon and see how they gel as a single character and admittedly this is also GBA fire emblem so that's not AMAZING but it's nice.
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Eirika- 6/10. I like Eirika more than most of the FE protags, but not that much.
Ephraim- 4/10. Gets a point for being sexy in Heroes.
Seth- 4/10. Seth's alright. Also sexy.
Tana- 4/10. pretty goddamn generic but she gets a point for cute
Innes- 5/10. I LOVE YOU TSUN-TSUN
Joshua- 4/10 hat
L'Arachel- 6/10 DEFENDER OF JUSTICE!
Myrrh- 1/10. I AM A LOLI PLEASE LOVE MEEEE
Valter- 5/10. I am into this stupid archetype
Caellach- 5/10. Dat Joshua boss convo
Lyon- 8/10. OG LOVER BOY but doesn't seem like he pops out as much in 2020? still, <3
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CmdrKing: Actually fuck it, rate phoenix wright games
Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
Phoenix Wright
Athena Cykes
Apollo Justice
Trucy Wright
The Judge
Simon Blackquill
So we could rate the whole series at once but that'd be... overwhelming, and of course breaking it up gives people more openings to talk about particular favorite Case Characters.
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Pretty awesome:
Simon Blackquill
Athena Cykes
Athena's a great character and ties into the main plotline with Simon & Aura and all, she has a great debut! I particularly like that she is, on the sly, a character type that's been done a billion times in games but normally far more obtusely - the robot / child assassin / alien / clone / whatever that Doesn't Understand Emotions but has to learn about them. The canny thing is that this is all in Athena's backstory, and modern Athena seems normal and well-adjusted, just via personal research and a computer assistant to get there (rather than some bland-yet-perfect teenage hero inspiring her with flattery), and she's turned a weakness into a strength. It skips the really blatant scenes of "what is this strange feeling in my chest, is this sadness" melodrama. I'm knocking her down from a particularly high rank largely because her own personal case, Case 3, is the weakest one in the game, and one that inexplicably refuses to respect her. It's fine if she's the "rookie" who gets gulled by easy tricks, but while the narrative acts like she just made a Huge Blunder Haha Caught Again, it's invariably over stupid nonsensical shit she has no control over nor was particularly related to her, which is weird.
Simon is basically the perfect non-Edgeworth villain for a PW game. He's got multiple cool gimmicks (psychologist, bird, samurai weeb), he has a ridiculous melodramatic backstory wherein he's a prisoner, he has a heart of gold, and (given that he's played for sympathy not for evil) he seems to actually care about his witnesses committing mass perjury. He's a great foil, and works well enough as a plot device for Case 5 too.
Decent:
Phoenix Wright
Apollo Justice
Dual Destinies mostly got Phoenix right given what they had to work with from AJ: still a bit of a cocky screw-up, but also the badass experienced lawyer with a megatama.
Apollo has a weird rivalry with Phoenix where he blames him for getting blow'd up for reasons, but for the most part, DD also gets Apollo right, giving him case 2 letting his own gimmicks stand on their own.
Barely exists:
Trucy Wright
The Judge
Trucy's an amusing side character but she totally doesn't matter in Dual Destinies, which is fine by me considering the wacky state they left her plot in at the end of Apollo Justice (she's Apollo's sister, but her mother kept it a secret because ???). Just some side flavor.
The Judge hardly counts as a character, he's more of a plot device. To the extent he is a character, he straddles an awkward line of being "sympathetic" but also the enabler of whatever prosecutor shenanigans are afoot which doesn't really work, but also doesn't matter too much. Probably best not to think too hard about him, as frankly the only way to "explain" the Judge is to say that he's senile, and that's maybe a little too dark for a mostly light-hearted game.
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Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
Phoenix Wright - 7/10. He's decent in this game but he never retains the full glory of Original Trilogy Phoenix, but this is the closest he gets to it.
Athena Cykes - 8/10. My lovely little pumpkin. She needed more screentime and a little less time holding the idiot ball, but otherwise great.
Apollo Justice - 8.5/10. Apollo Justice has ended up being one of my series favorite characters, which is especially from SoJ but from his first two appearances as well.
Trucy Wright - 5/10. Not nearly as good as in AJ, sadly. Just not around enough.
The Judge - 5/10. I feel like the Judge needs to be retired as a gimmick, tbh.
Simon Blackquill - 9/10. Excellent character through and through. He is meticulous, ethical, and has no time for anyone else's bullshit. I thought he was gonna be lame based on his mechanic, but his plot turned out to be really interesting.
Aura Blackquill - 7.5/10. One of the series’ best mixed humor/serious characters for her role in both case 4 and case 5.
Bobby Fulbright - 8.5/10. Excellently written character for both humor and serious stuff, and ultimately goes in the book as one of my very favorite characters of his archetype in the series.
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Barinten: Well he's certainly a vile character. Thing is, we already have Algus filling the role of ambitious, snobby, social climber and Argath gives a more effective performance. And for the "parental figure concealing the fact he killed foster child's parent(s) because of something petty" role, his spiritual successor Stone from Xenogears is a higher class of villain.
Also during his scene with Vormav, when he realizes that Vormav is more than he appears, he runs for it like a cowardly rat. Sensible choice logically but I like him even less because of that. And why is he hanging around the castle for Rafa to find and confront him? And he still tries to terrorize her like that bully on the low end of the totem pole who bullies the smallest kids and senior citizens? There goes any respect I had for him for running like hell. A rational wimpy coward would try to get far, far away from the demon in the castle. Like on another continent. Not hang around the castle to pick on someone smaller than him.
I did post this just to pick on him running away like a cowardly rat. Even Izlude put up a fight, even if it proved futile. You know what, 0/10. Not because of him being irredeemable but he really feels unnecessary and I'm wishing for scene skip whenver he's on screen.
FF8 dream party:
Laguna: Now here's someone where I question what a 10/10 character would be for me. He's a goofball with more heart than sense and it still works. His bonding with Ellone is cute, more endearing than any scenes between the main cast even. Though people may remember him more for talking a big game (and one other spoilerly detail that I'll try to avoid despite anyone reading this probably already knowing), he must have some kind of work ethic to be so widely published in Timber Maniacs. Even though he talks big, he does put his ideals into action when it comes to the people important to him.
His role in the in-universe 'The Sorceress' Knight" also inspires Seifer's gunblade stance. Neat bit of world-building.
9/10 I'm still hesitant to give him a perfect 10 rating and can't quite articulate why. Let's ding him a point for being in the same game as Squall and Rinoa; sure that's good enough.
Kiros: Kiros is Laguna's level-headed friend who snarks at him when he does or says something stupid. Despite this, he really does care about him and looks out for him. That's all there is to Kiros and he doesn't need to be anything more. And it's nice to have a black character whose skin color is never made into an issue or a stereotype.
9/10 Wasn't sure if 8 or 9 was a more suitable rating for him so coinflipped.
Ward: Ward is cool. Similar to Kiros, his bulk isn't made into an issue and he doesn't act like a dumb muscle stereotype. He's actually quite articulate while he can still talk. Then he loses his voice to plot whims and the game does almost nothing with that detail except oh hey, one less character to come up with dialogue for. He remains a steadfast companion and still capable, if mostly plot-irrelevant.
7/10 Still better than most of the main cast at a glance
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Haha I am easily distracted. Let's do something that sorta lit a fire through the DL while everyone was locked down for weird reasons.
Atelier Ayesha: Alchemist of Dusk
Ayesha Altugle
Nio Altugle
Keithgriff Hazeldine
Regina Kurtis
Willbell Voll-Ersleid
Linca
Marion Quinn
Juris Gruden
As always feel free to add more, Ayesha has some solid side characters!
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In no particular order though I'll lean towards those characters with more succinct thoughts first.
Ayesha Altugle: Ayesha reaches and exceeds my nebulous threshold for a 10/10 character. It's going to take several paragraphs to articulate my thoughts about her which I won't get to just yet. My default state is to restrain myself from gushing about her so there's going to be some mental reprogramming to get words down. I did want to note that one's enjoyment of the game will likely depend on how much one enjoys her as a character. Between the character focus of Atelier in general, the encyclopedia entries written from her perspective, and even the text boxes when gathering (she enjoys playing with dirt), the game provides a full picture of what kind of person she is. Her lack of gravitas resonates with me, perhaps because I share that lack of interest in personal glory. Yes, she can be airheaded but what do you expect from someone whose only human interaction in the past 3 years before the game starts was Ernie and Regina. Of course she's not going to be experienced in the ways of people and journeying.
Ayesha's devotion to her sister is very touching. How many here would choose to trust the vague words the words of a rude stranger if it was your loved one who had gone missing, presumed dead? There's a lot of material on their bond but I want to move on to other characters for now.
Nio Altugle: My thoughts about Nio are much more straightforward. I like how the game paces revealing what kind of person she is. At first, she's just someone to be rescued. The first view of the sisters' relationship comes in a flashback. When they finally get to converse, it feels like a momentous occasion; all right progress. The game continues to show more parts of her personality as it progresses. Their reunion scene feels more impactful because of building her personal profile beforehand.
In the postgame, she gets her own subplot about wanting to grow up to be a bigger help. Being a kid frustrates her. In a neat bit of gameplay integration, her battle stats are closer to what a fragile 10 year old would have. Cast-worst offense, low speed because she's not really combat trained at all. Defense is surprisingly decent. Cuteness must run in the Altugle family because she charms the friends Ayesha made on her journey. Oh, and her observing "Wilbell has the pouty-pouts." just cracks me up.
Probably forgetting something but I do believe the game handles her well. She's the more outgoing sister, it turns out. It can feel like the game leans too hard on the "adorable little sister' role at times so 9/10 for this topic.
Tanya: Another easy character for me to discuss; she feels the most tacked on. She's there to direct Ayesha to a key plot item, play the country mouse role, be another of Ayesha's female admireres, and that's about it. Not the only one-note side character but the others have more interactions with other characters to bounce off of and show more sides of their personalities. She just disappears from the plot after locating the plot item unless the player goes out of their way to visit her. Her dream of visiting the city is cute enough but feels predictable.
5/10 Not a bad character but feels like the weakest cast member with little presence even when she's on the stage.
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Atelier Ayesha: Alchemist of Dusk
Ayesha Altugle - 8/10. Standard enjoyable, friendly JRPG protag without too much going on but is likeable and cute.
Nio Altugle - 6/10. Actually better than I was expecting because she has some conflict about her friends and sister moving on with their lives while she was stuck in statis. Well done plot point, but overall not tooo deep.
Keithgriff Hazeldine - 3/10. Really captures the punchable man feel. Not sure if intentional. His unnecessary secretiveness makes everything harder and seem to serve as some kind of game to him. I hate these types of characters.
Regina Kurtis - 4/10. Cute but not much going on.
Willbell Voll-Ersleid - 4/10. Cute but not much going.
Linca - 5.5/10. very cute and funny, and i love how she is learning to be human
Marion Quinn 7/10. I like that she's this down to earth diplomat who struggles with being a workaholic. Relatable at times.
Juris Gruden - 3/10. Barely has a character arc and it is very generic.
Ernie - 5/10. The only man who isn't trash. Finger wiggle ftw
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Ayesha Altugle: 8/10. Ayesha is extremely likable and her personal journey is fun to watch. I think she lacks something that makes her truly compelling, but maxes out that likability.
Nio Altugle: 8/10. Hits the likability (ghooossst) and follows up with a tiny bit of relatable frustration after she gains her freedom. So glad she wasn't just a plot coupon.
Keithgriff Hazeldine: 5/10. He is certainly memorable and frustrating. But that seems to be what they were going cor, and he slowly becomes more likable.
Regina Kurtis: 6/10
Willbell Voll-Ersleid
Linca: 6/10 : likable enough for her archetype.
Marion Quinn: 7/10 frustrated competent female bureaucrat is an interesting archetype.
Juris Gruden: 4/10. Didn't do anything to make himself memorable to me. His sister....
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Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
Phoenix Wright - 7/10. Dual Destinies does a good job of balancing the Phoenix we left at the end of Trials and Tribulations with the one we rejoined at the start of Apollo's game, but unfortunately that means he doesn't really have much to learn or advance during this story and that keeps him just... kinda there, enjoyable.
Athena Cykes - 8/10. The most disappointing part of Spirit of Justice is how poorly Athena is utilized. One good case! Jeez. Anyway Athena is adorable and you can see her grow and learn how to better think on her feet through the game and that's great. I think the way they present her backstory is definitely more successful than prior protagonists, the traumatic aspect of it really comes out much better.
Apollo Justice - 7/10. I feel like Apollo's shaken faith is a bit sudden all things considered? But it's a good and necessary character beat for him, and I think he plays off the idea of different ideas of justice in a different way from Edgeworth in the second game which is cool.
Trucy Wright- 6/10. We demand more Trucy screentime. Infinite amounts!
The Judge- 4/10
Simon Blackquill- 8/10. I've said before I think, but Simon is probably my favorite prosecutor as a prosecutor in the series. He always feels like he's one step ahead of you not because he did anything untoward but because he's thinking about the problem from an angle you wouldn't initially think of, and he embodies the adversarial truth-seeking that the system is supposed to have better than any others.
Aura Blackquill- 7/10. Oh my god I forgot about Athena's lesbian other-mom! She's antagonistic in a way that undermines her I think, but on the other hand I do love her audacity.
Bobby Fulbright- I find Bobby/[blahblahblah] hard to rate, but like... for context here the reveal that he's the killer in the last cast and his act as the Phantom is so impactful unto itself I actually FORGOT that he spent most of the game as the replacement Gumshoe!. I honestly find him hard to talk about without a later appearance that hasn't happened yet? Like... was it 100% act? 90% 85%? It sounds like a minor thing but.
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More Atelier Ayesha:
Regina - One of Ayesha's few friends from before the start of the game and the main outside contact besides Ernie. She's a woman succeeding in a man's field which is generally a plus to see. She plays Ayesha's companion in the early going, aiding our cute, blond, naive', apothecary get her footing in the world outside her workshop. In-universe, she's probably the one who made Ayesha's outfit, though the game does nothing to confirm or deny this. Takes part in some hilarious scenes. Her personal quest on not wanting to be a prospector forever I feel the localization handled it well given what they were working with. There's some uncomfortable subtext for those with enough familiarity with Japanese expectations for women if you're looking for it.
8/10 Solid and fun but doesn't seem to have that special spark that I find in a 10/10 character.
Juris - Not a whole lot to his character and his personal quest is one of the most generic in the playbook. He's in some hilarious scenes (such as the bug-eating one and when Regina and Ayesha use him as a dress-up doll) and his interactions with other characters save him from the pile of dullness. To his credit, his attire does look suitable for hunting and battling which puts him above all the shirtless, muscle men out there in gaming.
6/10 Rating inflation in full effect if you want to call it that. Tanya represents the low end of the scale and no one will be lower (though there may be some that equal it if I get around to typing them up).
Ayesha Altugle: Part 2 of who knows?
Part of what makes Ayesha so compelling to me is that she barely appears like a main character at all. Even other female leads. She's not skilled with firearms and possessing nerve even in the face of the supernatural and/or freaky alien beings. She doesn't kick ass with martial arts skills (and anyone trying to kick anything wearing those platform shoes of hers would likely fall over). She's not gifted by gods to stand toe to toe with magical beings nor learned in arcane magics that put her on par with those same magical beings despite not having any natural talent with it.
No, we have someone unmistakeably female with a girly-girl figure, in a frilly girly-girl outfit, who thinks girly-girl thoughts. She's not using her innocent appearance to manipulate people around her, she's not some non-human being and what we see is a projected human appearance, nor does she have a more action-oriented secret identity. The game sets her up as a lonely girl who makes medicine and doesn't have any special main character talents. She gets flustered whenever someone compliments her looks (and with how pretty she is, that happens often), is easily scared by ghosts and the supernatural, and gets pushed around easily. Apologizes almost as much as Vayne Aurellius. On a superficial surface level, it seems like someone like her would be a disaster as a main character. Regina, Wilbell, Linca, and Keithgriff (not Juris because he's dull without support characters) possess more of those intangible main character traits.
And yet, she's just so endearing and likeable. It's a combination of things. Cuteness helps. But there's also that she does gain confidence as her journey progresses. And her quiet determination and a willingness to face the unknown even with how easily she gets spooked. (her distinct scared pose gets used a lot) There's also her kind and tender heart; I think she's incapable of holding a grudge. Her idealism is tempered with a willingness to acknowledge other points of view. There's also her earnest enthusiasm and desire to do her best. And that she grows without losing her innate personality. Somehow that's more satisfying to me than someone who finds success after completely changing the person they are.
This is a good stopping point until I come up with more.
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Atelier Ayesha: Alchemist of Dusk
Ayesha Altugle- 7/10? Ayesha's modesty is very interesting to me, because it's endearing but also sometimes makes her seem gullible to the other characters around her. But she has tons of that quiet determination vibe going on which is incredibly perfect for the story at hand.
Nio Altugle- 6/10. Due to some quirks of how I ended up playing the game I got very little of Actually In the Party Nio. But even just on the strength of that, Nio's pretty alright.
Keithgriff Hazeldine- 3/10. I htink the main thing I like about Keithgriff is his attack animations. Which doesn't count here! Buuuuut he does move the plot.
Regina Kurtis- 4/10. Cute and gay.
Willbell Voll-Ersleid- 5/10. Cute and smart assed and probably gay.
Linca- 5/10. I don't think her story arc concludes as interestingly as it should have, but I do appreciate stuffing a robot girl into this setting somehow.
Marion Quinn- 6/10. I think Ciato has it.
Juris Gruden- 4/10. Inoffensive mostly.
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Moving on to some Atelier Ayesha characters that make appearances in the sequels...
Wilbell: In a sentence, not as charismatic as Marisa Kirisame.
To me, Wilbell comes off as that kid who tries to act like an adult, acting all experienced and knowledgeable while denying the kid inside them. While in some ways, she does possess actual experience (such as an early scene during which she returns Ayesha's dropped wallet), underneath she still seems a kid on an emotional level. True to that personality type, she tends to boast, loves recognition and attention, gets pouty whenever she thinks someone's treating her like a child, and is scared of the dark and doesn't want to admit it.
Wilbell does share a number of traits with Marisa, more than I thought before I started typing this up. Sure, there's the visual similarity of looking like kids playing dress-up in cute witch outfits. Both tend to be selfishly motivated, they lean towards the extrovert side of the spectrum, and supposedly work hard off-screen. This is about where the similarities end. Marisa is estranged from her family. Wilbell admires hers and seeks their approval. Wilbell's work ethic is in doubt; even Ayesha picks up on never seeing her work hard. Marisa delivers results even if her work ethic isn't shown. Marisa was born an ordinary human with no innate magical talent. Wilbell comes from a family for whom magical talent is innate (and thus she tends to slack since she didn't have to struggle for her magical abilities). Though since her magic is a gift from god (or whatever passes for one in their world) Wilbell tends to be lazy about training, which displeases her teacher.
Wilbell does have a heart and a softer side. Most of it only shows during her ending quest so one will see more of her bratty and scheming side (which is what comes to mind more readily for me). Still a fun character but not someone I'd want around in real life. 8/10 Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing her being nice to anyone other than Ayesha. Unless it's someone Ayesha introduced her to. EDIT: Oh, Wilbell does pick up on Fred's crush and doesn't give it away. Could be stretching the border of nice but eh, it counts for me. I'm biased towards cute witch designs so rating inflation is in effect here.
Linca: Reminds me of a feminized Squall due to the way she holds her sword and her hair color. When she's first introduced, she also shows about as much emotion as early game Squall.
Pragmatic Linca is an entertaining character. She'd get along well with Juris, both are similarly not picky about where their nourishment comes from. It's established quickly she doesn't care for her feminine appearance and would prefer something more practical for combat. Given free reign, she'd probably look much like a genderbent Squall, complete with short haircut and durable attire.
Her character arc is somewhat generic by jRPG standards but is handled with the charm the game possess so comes off better than it would in Final Fantasy or some other big name work. Even though her visual design and personality remind me of Squall, her character arc has more in common with Steiner. Both start out content to follow orders and fight and grow to consciously choose something to stand for.
8/10 I boosted her rating a bit because during a conversation with her, the player learns what Ayesha values in friendship.
Keithgriff: Keith got the game's allotment of conventional badass traits. He's got the longcoat (black of course), the grouchy and cynical attitude, the mustache, the cigarettes, and so on. On a surface level, he's the most like a main character and would be right at home in something gritty like Monster Hunter. Heck, if we were to show someone the opening scene and the person didn't know the game's title and what it was about, they might even assume he's the main character.
But this is an Atelier game where cute and girly-girl are the norm and in this environment, he's a freak.
I found him compelling as a character. Perhaps it's because I'm more like him than I care to admit. If Ayesha represents the kind of person I'd like to become, Keithgriff represents the kind of person I am at the present. I'm not as inclined towards gratuitous insults as he is and I don't act as some self-proclaimed judge, jury, and executioner who decides who is worthy of using alchemy. I do tend to gravitate towards a gruff manner, especially online. I don't feel obligated to answer every question people ask of me, especially if they're asking me something that they could discover by putting in a bit of effort themselves (or I feel they're being pushy or whiny about it). I also share the inclination to play off my helpful moments as self-interest.
There is a scene in the game where the player can learn he was at one time just as eager and idealistic as Ayesha. Surprise. My fan theory is that young Kieth looked like a cross between Ernie and Ernest from Star Ocean 2 (without the 3rd eye of course). A neat touch is that as his Friendship increases, he becomes less grumpy when you talk to him to recruit him (or not).
Hmm, 7/10 Compelling isn't synonomous with liking the character on a personal level. I do respect that he gives Ayesha just enough info for her to reach the next step with her own efforts. Success does feel more rewarding if one worked for it. If it wasn't for the put-downs and insults to Ayesha, I could find him respectable, maybe even likeable. But she's so likeable and endearing it just doesn't make sense to be mean to her the way he does.
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Merchants of Dusk
Erine: Ernie feels like that main merchant character of the game. He plays a role of protective mother hen to Ayesha, most noticeably when Ranum is trying to get too romantic (read: creepy) with Ayesha. His sidequests reveal a lot about him and his values. Also amusing is his insecurity about his level of masculinity. Ayesha comments on him being like a mother and he gets all uncomfortable; it's entertaining. Really, it's OK; there's nothing wrong to fix. Fun quirk though.
In the Arland games, there are scenes where Primary Merchant Character gets drunk and gropes the Lead Character. Ernie is too classy for that nonsense and doesn't engage in any of that. Plus, it would be really creepy to do to someone who he considers family in all but blood.
8/10 Well rounded, multi-faceted side character
Marietta: More responsible than Harry and snarks at him constantly. Likes to tease Ayesha and get her flustered (and sometimes others). Completely oblivious to Fred's attraction to her. There's not that much else to Marietta. Oh, she's attracted to Keithgriff. Which isn't that unbelievable as he seems to only be insulting towards Ayesha so Marietta wouldn't have seen that side of him.
7/10 Game does well creating a fun character from a small number of traits.
While Fred, Odelia, Kyle, Nanaca, and Ranum could fall under the merchant category since you can buy stuff from them, I don't feel like writing about them right now.