First of all,I just count the characters and their development in the original game as the definitive ones.At the latest,when the newest book from Nojima came,the Compilation died for me.
No one liking Cid as much as I do? : ( I loved his choleric manners and his chaotic or unfitting behaviour in some important scenes like sleeping when everyone´s talking about searching Sephiroth and I thought smoking a cigarette after each fight I fought with him must´ve burned his lungs away sooner or later in the game,could have been funny if they would´ve included this as an optional way for killing a character
And I liked his character development,when he realizes that he should have respected Shera a little more because she saved his life for example or reacting calmly at Aerith´s death instead of exploding in anger what I´ve thought he would do,it shows that even if he behaves sometimes in a rude way he still cares about other people.PLUS,he´s the captain of the beautiful Highwind and got a great theme song!Nuff said! ; )
2.Cloud: I guess,everything is said.He just loses to Cid because Cid´s more lively and I love that just a little bit more than the cold,mysterious acting of our spiky hero.Otherways,he´s a really tragic character nearly losing everything what he´s got in his small life by the hands of Sephiroth but coming back and evolving at the end of a journey to a hero who can win the fight against his puppet master and get the salvation from all his pain and anger by defeating Sephiroth with a final stroke and leaving his dark past behind.
3.Barret
Agreeing with Flintlock in mostly all of his points but I thought Cid was funnier,sorry
4.Sephiroth
That black caped man with a god complex?Hmm,I liked the presentation of his manners throughout the game and all his acts with the Jenova body controlled by him.I thought the picture of the dead Midgar Zolom was just brilliant and made me think that sh*t might get REALLY serious because I just couldn´t defeat that bastard of a Zolom so easily and I thought at my first run through the game that he was so damn hard and after I´ve seen what Sephiroth has done to that beast he definately became the big badass for me even if not already at Jenovas escape and the slauthering of the Shinra employees with all the blood and the great atmospheric sound fitting perfectly to the scene.And I´m not as tired of OWA as many others might be because I still wanna hear the Reunion Tracks version in a better sound quality,for me it´s the best version with the best instrumenation and the choice of the choir.
5.Aerith
I liked how they made a huge contrast between Cloud´s two main love interests (excluding Yuffie and Barret ;P ) but I´d rather stick to the more lively,encouraging Aerith just like I choose Cid over Cloud.
6.Hojo
Don´t know if even he actually might be the real main antagonist of FFVII?I mean,he created Sephiroth and (speculation from my side) manipulated him on a way so that he thought Jenova was his mother which leads to Nibelheim incident,he´s just an employee of Shinra because he wants to make inhuman experiments for his hunger for science,he behaves like the classic mad scientist but he always knows that his acts might bring some bad consequences for everyone,for example he willingly kills the intelligent Professor Gast instead of working together with him to find out more about the Cetra and all that stuff,he also abuses Iphalna for his own experiments which is possibly one indicator for her death at the train station.All he cares is about is to prove that his scientific theories might be right but otherways,the whole world around him can be destroyed as long as his researches were it worth.I liked it,that not even his own family is anything he really cares about,they´re just other test objects and don´t have any meaning to him.
7.Bugenhagen
I liked the few scenes with him,they should´ve included him more in the game with all his knowledge and his passionate words with which he wakes up the young team and leads them to think about what all their lifes are worth living for.And I thought his final scene was more interesting than Seto´s because we didn´t really get to know Seto´s character that much in my opinion.Yes he was the great,heroic warrior but there´s not much else we learn about him.Bugenhagen stays also very mysterious until his death but at least some few dialogues show that he´s a funny and wise grandpa everyone´s wanna have
.Please correct me,if I´m wrong about that Seto thing...
8.Reeve/Cait Sith..not ^^
I always thought it was interesting to have such a multilayered character in the party who stays in the conflict between Shinra and the team.It´s a nice touch to think about all the things Shinra makes right and possibly have lead a young Reeve to join it.Nowadays,Shinra doesn´t really make anything good anymore but who knows?Maybe,in the past they had better qualities which made them attractive for new young workers to join them.I want to have a Shinra prequel game not focussing on some new stupid Compilation of FF VII characters that somehow got also in the Nibelheim incident but on Shinra in general and where the monopoly corporation had its roots.
9.Don Corneo
Totally loved his character theme,perfectly bizarre to fit a really bizarre character.And the rap song about him ´´Don of the Slums Interlude´´ is so great.I think a character like Don Corneo would never appear on a modern game due to the content he comes with.But I think the over sexualised manners of him are funny and gave the game at this point a completely other tone with much intimate stuff and more adult-themed content.In a remake I want more characters in the Honeybee Manors with intentions why they´re there for example because they just can´t stand all the boredom at their homes and just want to enjoy their lives..oh I have many ideas : ) And of course,more premature Don Corneo scenes ^^
10.Everyone´s at Costa Del Sol
A meteor crashing the planet,destroying all of its lifeforms on it?Eh,as long as the beach is still there and the sun shines and waves rock us to sleep,everything´s cool.I think this idealistic way of life should work as a criticism for every selfish human on this planet and a lot cynism for anyone of the party generation who just thinks about wasting his life instead of doing something for a better society or helping to make the earth a better place for the nature around us.
)
Just one "other" vote left to clear up now, and one more in XII.
