What's your favorite character and why?

Tifa Crystal

Rookie Adventurer
AKA
Freya
I've searched for a similar discussion in the forum and I haven't found it. Sorry if I've made a mistake. So, the title is clear, I'm curious to know and share opinions with you about these characters.
 

Stiggie

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Stiggie
Favorite in FFVII: Tifa.
I think she's a particularly engaging character. I like that while she wanted a hero, she instead learned to fight herself.
I like that she's the kindest member of the party, and yet is part of a terrorist organization.
I like the moral conflict there and how she in particular engages with it.
I like how she puts up a façade of strength, and tries to be a source of comfort and strength for others when really she's the one who is alone and in pain.
I like that in a world with magic, soldiers, giant swords, and machinegun arms she's just a regular girl.
I like that in the end it wasn't the ancient magical savior character who had the power to heal Cloud, but "just a girl".
I like all the inner turmoil she's going through where she's reunited with the boy she likes, the last link to her past, and that she then has to stand by, seemingly powerless and afraid as he seems not to be who he seems, it makes me cheer when she's finally reunited with Cloud.
And I like her because I feel she's underappreciated and always overshadowed by Aerith.

In the FFVII universe in general: Zack
I like how he wanted to be a hero, but that when he finally became one it happened against his will.
I like how, unlike Cloud and friends, Zack had to walk his road alone.
I like how he lost everything one by one and kept going.
I liked his character growth.
I liked his personality, especially towards Honor.
I like how he lived his life, right until the end.
 

Odysseus

Ninja Potato
AKA
Ody
I find Cloud to be a relatable character, as someone who also has a lot of social issues and self worth issues. Seeing him work through those things and grow as a person has always been an inspiration for me. I also love Barret, just because he's so funny and caring. I always thought he and Cloud made for a great duo.
 

cold_spirit

he/him
AKA
Alex T
Vincent was my favorite character when I first played FFVII. I was too edgy as a kid to have an obvious pick like Cloud, plus Vincent leaned into that edginess. Don't get me wrong, I still love the character. I've said it before, I'm gonna get emotional when he's revealed in a future remake part lol.

After that phase, Cloud became my favorite character proper. He's the most developed and his insecurities are especially relatable to me. I’d argue he's the best written FF character to date. The original game's brilliant foreshadowing and reveal of Cloud’s past has yet to be topped.

With Remake, Aerith has become my new favorite. Uhhh yes I've seen the sentiment that she's become "too OP" with the new mysteries, but I feel like an oft-overlooked aspect of Remake is how the game also expands her character on a personal level. Remake takes the time to show us how Aerith is involved with the Sector 5 community and gives us our first look at her childhood in the Shinra Building. Her character has grown on both ends of the spectrum, which for me has made her more personable and intriguing.
 

kathy202

Pro Adventurer
For me it's a close tie between Aerith and Reno. And Aerith became even more special with the remake. Quite the opposite of what Stiggie said about Tifa, I sometimes feel like Aerith is the one who gets overshadowed, though that's just a matter if opinion.

As for the specifics, I like how Aerith doesn't fit into that "strong female character" type that's increasingly popular these days. Nothing against that type, but Aerith not being like that is part of what makes her stand out to me. She's neither particularly strong, nor a damsel in distress.

In the remake especially, her relationship with the people around her makes it seem like she's just an ordinary girl, more so than say Jessie or Tifa (or Cloud and Barret too). No lofty dreams of taking down mega corporations despite knowing better than anyone just how awful they've been to her. She's a local florist who tries things and gives up whenever. One could call her unmotivated, yet when it matters most, she steps into the role she needs to play. Despite her fears of the unknown and having to step away from the perceived safety of the steel sky, she moves forward. She is someone who knows how to move on when she must regardless of what has happened before, or what grudges one might bear if they were in her shoes. To me, that's a real heroine worthy of leading the party, and she does so in her own unique way.

As for Reno, teenage crush aside, I must be one of the few who find him relatable. Maybe I'm just a dick IRL.
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
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The picture says it all. :monster:

Others have already explained why Cloud is appealing and I don't have much to add. He goes from a cocky jerkass to a vegetable to a badass yet awkward hero with a heart. His journey is relatable, enjoyable and memorable.

Sephiroth is one of my all time favorite FF villains, and it's easy to see why. Strength incarnate. Cunning, cruel, sadistic, charismatic, cool and his vendetta against Cloud is, well. It's legendary. He makes such an impression and has a genre defining style that just never dies.

Gongaga_Meme_Banner.jpg

And a very honorable mention goes to Zack. What sets him aside as special to me is his sincerity, determination and resilience. He's not just some dumb sunnyside hero with a stupid smile, he grows beyond his naivety and chooses to stay optimistic and upbeat even when confronted with some of the cruelest twists of fate imaginable. He smiles in the face of suffering, and he really does his best to live and die like a hero. I respect he put his money where his mouth was. He wanted to be a hero from the bottom of his heart, and not for fame. But because he wanted to help people and his friends. His childish and impossible to realize dream and personality is just too heartwarming :monster:
 

Stiggie

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Stiggie
For me it's a close tie between Aerith and Reno. And Aerith became even more special with the remake. Quite the opposite of what Stiggie said about Tifa, I sometimes feel like Aerith is the one who gets overshadowed, though that's just a matter if opinion.

As for the specifics, I like how Aerith doesn't fit into that "strong female character" type that's increasingly popular these days. Nothing against that type, but Aerith not being like that is part of what makes her stand out to me. She's neither particularly strong, nor a damsel in distress.

In the remake especially, her relationship with the people around her makes it seem like she's just an ordinary girl, more so than say Jessie or Tifa (or Cloud and Barret too). No lofty dreams of taking down mega corporations despite knowing better than anyone just how awful they've been to her. She's a local florist who tries things and gives up whenever. One could call her unmotivated, yet when it matters most, she steps into the role she needs to play. Despite her fears of the unknown and having to step away from the perceived safety of the steel sky, she moves forward. She is someone who knows how to move on when she must regardless of what has happened before, or what grudges one might bear if they were in her shoes. To me, that's a real heroine worthy of leading the party, and she does so in her own unique way.

As for Reno, teenage crush aside, I must be one of the few who find him relatable. Maybe I'm just a dick IRL.

Yeah, that is opposite of me, I did see Aerith like that in the OG, because she felt like just one of the party, having to come to grips with a big power/responsibility she never asked for. But then both in the fandom, and in subsequent entries, her character just seemed to be deified, to where she, and particularly her death, seemed to overshadow everything else. Barret and Tifa knew Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge for much longer than Aerith, but you wouldn't know it from the way Aeriths is treated as a special person whose death was just uniquely tragic.

Then in remake she just feels like some angelic gandalf figure to me, there to lead the party, and the world, towards salvation by speaking riddles, imparting knowledge, and creating wormholes,. From the moment you find out she's an ancient it feels like everything stops and now revolves around her and her quest to stop Sephiroth. That's something that in the OG, is mostly Clouds motivation, with Aerith being the one who comes along, to Remake, where Aerith is basically talking about how Sephiroth must be stopped and whether they'll come with her.

Everything about it just rubs me the wrong way, and the idea that they make her into that, but then still also try to eat their cake too by making her "Well I'm just a girl uwu" just makes it more irritating to me. My favorite Aerith by far is the one in crisis core.

I remember a comment here on the lifestream that perfectly summed up my problems with how Aerith is written in the remake, but I can't find it, drats.
It was about how Aerith is a bit too self-inserty perfect.
She's the magical ancient being who will save the world, but she's also just a girl.
She's a slum dweller but she also lives in the most idyllic disney environment around.
She's not a "good girl", cause she swears, but only in non-character fault way that just makes her more adorable
She has a tragic past, but that doesn't dampen her spirits!
She was experimented on, but is still just innocent and trusting.
She's leaves a lifelong impact on everyone she met for a week.
Although she's dead, her powers allow her to still live on in a way.

It's all a bit too much imo, especially since now main question people are asking about the remake is whether the entire story has been re-written to allow for Aerith to live. FFVII isn't about Aeriths death, and remake shouldn't be about re-writting the universe to get her back.

Really, threads like:
"Maybe Tifa will die and Aerith can save Cloud in the lifestream!". Suggestions like that have just really started to sour Aeriths character for me, which is unfortunate since I used to like her.
 
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Eerie

Fire and Blood
I think it's not good to look at it this way. Clearly, the devs have made a big effort so that all the complaints about *especially* Aerith and Tifa could only die down. They want us to get attached to them, to like them and enjoy fully the story instead of fighting about them. They have expanded on their characters to make us see why they're so endearable. Tifa has taken the brunt of the criticism in Japan for being part of a terrorist organisation - and even though we brushed upon her feelings about this in the OG, here they made them more visible to show us that Tifa is a "good person" and that we shouldn't take her being part of a terrorist organisation as a black thing. For Aerith, I will say this forever, but she clearly is less flirty. Also, BTW, I don't know if it sounds like this in English, but in French she doesn't swear and she sounds very childish both in her words choice and her tone (something that I heard is similar to the Japanese version). Not childish in a bad way, more like "she sounds like a 10 years old kid talking".

Personally, my favourite has always been Tifa. Simply because she was similar to me (partly Asian with brown/dark hair, more shy), so I related to her more. Well she kicked arses way more than I did though :D It's recently that I reckon that there are even more similarities between us, even though she has way more patience than me. Tifa is a good role model to (and for) me.

I've also learned to love Cloud more, with what the devs have been doing with him post-OG. Well, I've come to understand him more, and admire Nojima for what he did with him. Going full rooted in reality is not something easy to do for a FF character.

Remake made me love Aerith, although she's still not my favourite, she's a good 3rd place. I think the next parts are going to be difficult because I also loved Vincent, so we're going to have a hard battle for that spot ^^'

I also do love Barret and Nanaki, mmh. Just not as much. My favourite villain is Rude, he makes me laugh very much.
 

kathy202

Pro Adventurer
Wow, Stiggie, we have the same sentiment but for a different character! To me, Tifa's the one who's too perfect. The strong independent woman who's mature enough to keep the party grounded, and the one that all the boys like, but no, she's just a normal girl. And don't even get me started on fandom porn... Nothing against people into it, just really not to my taste and makes me cringe when Twitter insists on forcing it in my face.

On a more objective level, I get what you're saying about Aerith, though I just don't share the sentiment. Probably what it is, is that both of them are too perfect. Normal but special, vs special but normal. Likely because square enix is making them as lovable to as many people as possible while being opposites of each other. And it's quite likely that if we strongly like one, the opposing traits of the other might rub us the wrong way.

And yeah, I can't get behind that whole "Tifa should die instead of Aerith" thing. I feel like that ruins both characters, and Cloud too. But we'll just have to see where square enix ends up taking this.

On a different note, I think my other favorite deserves some words too. There's a very large teenage crush factor at play, so I'll try to keep it short. Reno, the bad person who has a very tiny shred of good. Doesn't try to pretend that he's better than who he is, doesn't even try to be better. Yet in the rare cases when he does, he does so naturally and instinctively. This character feels very unpretentious to me. Also, I'll admit when he mocked Cloud about the whole bodyguard thing, my head was going "oh thank you, finally someone is saying it". It's not Cloud's fault that Aerith dumped that role on him like that, but I can see how it's a total eyeroll from Reno's perspective.
 

Chocobo Eater

Pro Adventurer
From the main party, Aerith.

Otherwise, Reno. Rude. Elena.

Honorable mentions go to Cid, Rufus, and Zack.

Wow, Stiggie, we have the same sentiment but for a different character! To me, Tifa's the one who's too perfect. The strong independent woman who's mature enough to keep the party grounded, and the one that all the boys like, but no, she's just a normal girl. And don't even get me started on fandom porn... Nothing against people into it, just really not to my taste and makes me cringe when Twitter insists on forcing it in my face.

Yeah... that stuff makes me cringe. Tifa's great but I think a lot of people like her for the wrong reasons.
 

Rydeen

In-KWEH-dible
Re: Tifa, is anyone else a little annoyed that she is the only female character with a serious disposition? Everyone else is turbo bubbly. Which is a fine characterization but it’s unbalanced imho with personality representation.
 

Roundhouse

Pro Adventurer
Main characters, in terms of party members, are: Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, Cid, Vincent, Yuffie, Cait Sith, Nanaki. So right there part of the problem is already apparent...only 3 female characters, and one is optional. If we include significant non-party members, we also get mainly guys, like Bugenhagen, Hojo, Sephiroth, Rufus. A shame there isn't more of a balance there. That being said, in terms of side characters, we do have Shera and Elmyra, both serious and likeable. Scarlet is cartoonish, but not bubbly, I suppose.

I see your point though, it does seem unbalanced as a whole, not just in personality but in terms of actual female characters.
 
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Rankles

Pro Adventurer
Would probably have to be boring and say Cloud. Red XII and Sephiroth would complete the top 3. I’ll also give a shout out to Scarlet, to be a bit more “out there”, mainly because I have a soft spot for evil bitches... :headbang:
 
D

Deleted member 13557

Guest
Strong implications of domestic abuse aside, I really like Cid. Tifa and Barret are cool too.

I have a strange relationship with Cloud and Aerith. AC / DoC Cloud is painful (I guess that goes for nearly all OG characters who appear in them as well), and I'm not really a fan of FF7R Aerith. The more I think about it, the more I find Aerith's character in OG to just be... fine. Charming, but fine. Main thing you remember about her is her getting shish kebabbed.

Rude and Reno in FF7R were highlights, and are probably the best part of AC outside of the final battle.

Oh, and Sephiroth. But that kinda goes without saying :awesome:
 
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Kyo Cobran

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Jim Kyo
There are so many great characters in the series: Cloud, Aerith, Reno, Rufus, Tifa, Vincent, Zack...it's not an easy choice, and it shifts over the years but Iately I have to say I really like Barret.

His story is really compelling. He goes from this coal miner who naively trusts Shinra to going on a warpath against Shinra for redemption and vengence. And yet throughout all the tragedy he experiences, he still emerges as a charismatic leader, a devoted father and loyal friend. To me, he's a poster child of human resilience.
 

Kyo Cobran

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Jim Kyo
For me it's a close tie between Aerith and Reno. And Aerith became even more special with the remake. Quite the opposite of what Stiggie said about Tifa, I sometimes feel like Aerith is the one who gets overshadowed, though that's just a matter if opinion.

As for the specifics, I like how Aerith doesn't fit into that "strong female character" type that's increasingly popular these days. Nothing against that type, but Aerith not being like that is part of what makes her stand out to me. She's neither particularly strong, nor a damsel in distress.

In the remake especially, her relationship with the people around her makes it seem like she's just an ordinary girl, more so than say Jessie or Tifa (or Cloud and Barret too). No lofty dreams of taking down mega corporations despite knowing better than anyone just how awful they've been to her. She's a local florist who tries things and gives up whenever. One could call her unmotivated, yet when it matters most, she steps into the role she needs to play. Despite her fears of the unknown and having to step away from the perceived safety of the steel sky, she moves forward. She is someone who knows how to move on when she must regardless of what has happened before, or what grudges one might bear if they were in her shoes. To me, that's a real heroine worthy of leading the party, and she does so in her own unique way.

As for Reno, teenage crush aside, I must be one of the few who find him relatable. Maybe I'm just a dick IRL.

I like your take on Aerith. Spot on!

Also, I like Reno too. He's the bad guy with a heart of gold. The scene in Advent Children where he tries to rescue to the kids kinda seals it for me. If you haven't read TKAA, you should, it really expands on his character.

I feel like we all have a little Reno in us. So many of us work shitty jobs that's we're stuck in -- cogs in a heartless corporate machine, but occasionally, we kinda figure out our own way of being a decent person once in awhile.
 

Stiggie

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Stiggie
There are so many great characters in the series: Cloud, Aerith, Reno, Rufus, Tifa, Vincent, Zack...it's not an easy choice, and it shifts over the years but Iately I have to say I really like Barret.

His story is really compelling. He goes from this coal miner who naively trusts Shinra to going on a warpath against Shinra for redemption and vengence. And yet throughout all the tragedy he experiences, he still emerges as a charismatic leader, a devoted father and loyal friend. To me, he's a poster child of human resilience.
Yeah, Barret is really strong in the remake, he's so engaging because of the clear moral greyness there, we see he's a good father, and passionate about a good cause, but he is also clearly a violent fanatic whose methods are highly immoral. To me that, in general, is the strength of FFVII's cast.
It's mainly not made up out of heroes, but highly flawed individuals.

Cloud, Tifa, and Barret are all part of a terrorist organization, literally responsible for the deaths of many. On top of that Cloud was a member of the, for lack of a better word "evil army", and behaves like a douche in general.
Cid worked with shinra, smokes, curses, and is emotionally abusive towards Shera.
Caith Sith is one of the executive members of Shinra, and while not on board with their crimes, still partly culpable for them, he also betrays the party.
Yuffie is a thief who actively tries to steal from the party.
Vincent is a vampire and a former Turk, we know their deal.
Only Nanaki gets out relatively clean, but he's a catdog, and therefore, a good boy, and Aerith, my problems with which I addressed earlier.
 

KindOfBlue

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Blue
To me, Tifa's the one who's too perfect. The strong independent woman who's mature enough to keep the party grounded, and the one that all the boys like, but no, she's just a normal girl. And don't even get me started on fandom porn... Nothing against people into it, just really not to my taste and makes me cringe when Twitter insists on forcing it in my face.
I think a lot of Tifa’s perfect girl image comes from horny fanboys and shippers projecting their desires (which is by far not unique to her but she definitely gets more sexualized for obvious reasons) but the source material itself takes great care to treat Tifa as an actual character who has flaws and insecurities and makes mistakes which is typically not the case with genki girl types like Aerith. (and other girls mind you, as @Ryvius points out)

As a whole, I’d say Tifa’s my favorite female character and Aerith is after that because Aerith has the unfortunate fate of being reduced to a plot device whenever they go into her Cetra background and powers especially when there’s nothing else to do with her after you-know-what happens. And yet, I find all the Cetra stuff far more interesting than when she plays the role of the quirky cutesy girl who exists to push the awkward male protagonist to just “see life differently maaaaan” (shits out flowers and rainbows and hearts and sunshine). https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManicPixieDreamGirl

I guess Aerith and Tifa are both victims of being female characters who fulfill different types of fantasies for lonely neckbeards to self-insert into, though with Tifa it’s more physical and Aerith is more emotional. Thankfully, Tifa’s not even sexualized in the source material much and she actually does have a personality that feels real and layered, though sadly Aerith might as well be Jesus Christ with how perfectly humble she is. Although I will say Aerith has the advantage of having a more interesting and unique backstory that’s not so heavily tied to the male protagonist and character development that’s more independent of him (as little of it she actually gets outside of her just...talking about it). But personality and character development are the biggest factors of whether or not I like a character no matter how interesting or cool their design, backstory, or powers are so I gotta give it to Tifa, though Aerith’s great even when she’s a bit too “manic pixie dream girl” for my liking in FF7R.

Oh, and favorite male character is Cloud, which is surprising to me considering how much I dislike edgelord male characters as much as I dislike manic pixie dream girl characters but Cloud’s got a lot more depth than that even when fan works (and Square Enix) focus more on his edginess which annoys me just as much as when fans focus more on Tifa’s sexiness or Aerith’s perfectness than them as characters.
 
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kathy202

Pro Adventurer
I suspect my issues with Tifa is less about horny fanboys than with my ingrained notions of what a strong female should be. No, I don't like horny Tifa artwork, but that's more Twitter needing to improve its algorithm stop shoving such content in my face. I think it's hard to blame the fanboys for being the way they are given the way she looks. Yeah, I know that sounds a lot like a "don't police the woman for what she's wearing", but in this case, I'm pretty sure her design was intentionally done this way, even if not in the remake, definitely in the OG.

But to the creators' credit, they really toned down that sex appeal nonsense by a ton in the remake and I'm not sure how much more they could have changed without changing the character. I enjoyed her chapter, walking around seeing how much she has rebuilt her life from total devastation in 5 years. I guess the part that I have trouble relating to is the part that many fans like her for, her insecurities. Someone this strong usually deals with their insecurities in a different way. Or maybe that's just what I was taught being in a rather weird all-girls middle school (the weirdness seems like a common sentiment from other students in other schools in town?). So yeah, something about her just feels unreal to me? Idk...

As for Reno, yeah TKAA really does bring out the good side in him and it's probably when I actually paid attention to him as a character (as opposed to "oh pretty boy! <3"). Though as much as I like good Reno, I like mean Reno in the remake more. Love how he goes full on "screw this shit" and takes whatever frustrations and grudge out on Cloud the moment the chance presents itself. Not the best way to deal with it, but sometimes when you perceive a lack of a choice, it's just what happens.
 

Éiru

Rookie Adventurer
Okay short answer, Rufus and Tifa are my favourite characters overall. However, it’s actually more of a splitting hairs type of experience for me as I overall really loved all the characters in the game.

But to the creators' credit, they really toned down that sex appeal nonsense by a ton in the remake and I'm not sure how much more they could have changed without changing the character. I enjoyed her chapter, walking around seeing how much she has rebuilt her life from total devastation in 5 years. I guess the part that I have trouble relating to is the part that many fans like her for, her insecurities. Someone this strong usually deals with their insecurities in a different way. Or maybe that's just what I was taught being in a rather weird all-girls middle school (the weirdness seems like a common sentiment from other students in other schools in town?). So yeah, something about her just feels unreal to me? Idk...

Hi Kathy, I have enjoyed reading your posts and I find this an interesting take on her character as I would not see her strength and her insecurities as being mutually exclusive, or particularly unusual, for my part.

I would love to know more about what you’re thinking though, as to what aspects of her character don’t meld or feel natural.
 

Stiggie

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Stiggie
Yeah, I have a problem with the idea that there is anything wrong with being sexy, or human sexuality in general, so Tifa could run around in a bikini for all I care and it wouldn't make me appreciate her any less (as long as the design worked). I love how her character, back in 1997, but even today, just breaks the mold on what a strong female character can be. A female monk was a fresh change from all the white mages, and instead of making her this tomboyish imitation of masculinity they kept her feminine traits and combined that idea with a soft character. I wish more characters these days would learn from that, showing that women can be strong by being feminine, rather than trying to show that women can be strong by showing that they can "be just as manly as men", which I've always found a inherently sexist notion.

that’s not so heavily tied to the male protagonist and character development that’s more independent of him
This is also something I don't get, I don't see how it's bad to have a shared plot, that's one of my favorite parts about her character, and one of the things I like least about some other characters (like amarant in FFIX), I like seeing how stories are entwined, and I don't see how anyone would see this as a negative, I never hear anyone complain about how Clouds backstory is so intimately tied to Tifa, so why complain the other way around?
Something is messed up in our culture when we think being connected to people is a bad thing.
 
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