Final Fantasy character battle begins on TLS Forum

A Final Fantasy character battle has just got under way on our forum, where the most popular characters from across the series will compete for the honour of being our community’s number one. Who will emerge victorious from the very strong line-up?

Across the first three months of 2012, The Lifestream ran a series of polls, one for every game in the main Final Fantasy series (XI and XIV excluded), to determine the most popular character from each one. The 12 victors, alongside 12 of the best runners-up, have now been drawn into four groups of six, where they will once again compete in polls of their popularity among our members. A live draw on the #TLS IRC channel last night determined the groups, which look like this:

1 – Auron, Cloud, Ingus, Cecil, Squall and Lightning.
2 – Kain, Sazh, Garland, Lulu, Fang and Kefka.
3 – Vivi, Laguna, Firion, Yuna, Zidane and Aerith.
4 – Balthier, Faris, Celes, Tifa, Rikku and Freya.

We need your participation to make this battle as exciting as possible. Who would you like to win in each of those groups? Cast your votes on the forum throughout April in group 1, group 2, group 3 and group 4.

The second part of this article contains a preview of the favourite for each group.

The favourites

Auron (Final Fantasy X)
As well as providing the party with unmatched brute force, Auron gave the first Final Fantasy game to feature voice acting many of its most memorable lines. Those two factors combined to give the legendary guardian an overwhelming victory in the Final Fantasy X poll; his tally of 21 votes was the most in the whole series and nearly double that of his nearest challenger in X, Yuna. It will take some effort to stop Auron from winning the whole tournament.

Vivi (Final Fantasy IX)
Veterans of Final Fantasy IX will know that the shy, unassuming and undeniably cute Vivi is a force to be reckoned with. That turned out to be the case in the IX poll as well as the party’s black mage strolled to victory, picking up the second most votes of any character in the whole series after Auron. I’m sure he will make it out of group 3, and he could go all the way to the final.

Kain (Final Fantasy IV)
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes Kain so popular, because there are so many things to choose from. Perhaps it’s because straddles the line between hero and villain for much of his game, giving him the best of both worlds, or perhaps it’s the way he pushes his own feelings to one side for the sake of Rosa and Cecil. In fact, Kain only narrowly managed to beat Cecil in their poll, as the two adoptive brothers fought it for Final Fantasy IV supremacy. A quarter-final rematch is a distinct possibility.

Balthier (Final Fantasy XII)
Rounding off the group of top seeds is Balthier, the self-proclaimed leading man of Final Fantasy XII. The smooth, suave and sophisticated sky pirate picked up eleven votes, leaving the rest of the game’s cast in the dust; his nearest challenger was Larsa, who could manage only three votes. He is XII’s only representative in the tournament, but will his popularity extend beyond the confines of a game which many Final Fantasy fans were very disappointed with?