Yesterday, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII came out in North America. And as per usual, it brought talk about Final Fantasy as a series and the direction it was going in, for better and for worse.

I don't want to talk about that today.

Instead, I want to use the release of what I suspect is roughly the 80th game in series history to celebrate what is often considered peoples' favorite non-musical part of the series: the characters.

Using a similar set of rules as in the Most Wanted feature, post your FIVE favorite characters from ANY Final Fantasy game. This includes main series titles, sequels to main series titles, Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, that mobile phone game released only in Japan, you name it! So long as Final Fantasy is in the title or you can otherwise convince me it's a part of the Final Fantasy series, like the Chocobo games, it counts.

Note that characters that appear between canons do NOT count as individual characters. For example, Cid in Final Fantasy 4 is not the same character as Cid in Final Fantasy 7. That said, this means you can vote for multiple characters with the same name. Just be sure to list which game a character comes from.

Also, if you feel like it, explain why you voted for these characters. That way, when I tally the results, I'll be able to explain things better.

Voting will last until either Saturday evening or until people stop voting, whichever comes second.

Vote away!

where is the poll then?

Example Vote (Not an actual Ballot):

1. Cloud Strife from FF7 (Gets five points)
2. Cecil from FF4 (The iconic redemption tale of the SNES era!)
3. Wakka from FFX (Boom! Happy Fireworks!)
4. Squall from Final Fantasy 8
5. Bahamut from the original game

No polls here! There are literally hundreds of Final Fantasy characters, and the poll only supports ten choices. You have to pick your five favorites and type them.

1. Vincent FFVII
2. Basch FFXII
3. Cloud FFVII
4. Ramza FF Tactics
5. Balthier FFXII

Overall, even with some hate the game gets, I think FFXII has some of the best characters in the series personality wise (except from Vaan an Penelo, but I still do not hate them as most people do, not even close to how much I dislike Vanile from XIII )

My Avatar says it all

edit: sry jumped the gun

1. Auron (FFX)
2. Questis (FFVIII)
3. Vivi (FFIX)
4. Fran (FFXII)
5. Red XIII (FFVII) 

1. Vivi Ornitier (FF9): The single most most endearing and well developed character in the series, IMO, due to his bashful nature and the existential crisis he faces. What a hero.
2. Cyan Garamonde (FF6): Comical and tragic at the same time, he comes awfully close to rivaling Vivi as being Final Fantasy's most well realized character. Also, Quadra Slice was siiiiiiiick.
3. Amarant Coral (FF9): Something about his role as the bad ass loner who is confused by Zidane's altruism but slowly comes to respect him really spoke to me, and it helps that his theme is as cool and menacing as the man himself.
4. Red XIII (FF7): I liek turtles dogs.
5. Gau (FF6): This was a tough one, but Gau just edges out the great anti-hero Kain Highwind for me thanks to how touching I found the storyline regarding his father. His simple heart and forgiving nature earn him his spot on my list.

No. 5: (one point)

No. 4: (two points)

No. 3: (three points)

No. 2: (four points)

No. 1: (five points)

oh kool my bad dude!

1 cloud ff7

2 Auron ffx

3 Zidane ff9

4 shadow ff6 (just like how he comes and goes lol)

5 all cids

1. Vincent 
2. Yuffie 
3. Terra
4. Balthier
5. Fran

Vivi would have been #6 :/