Of come on, that was one time. Every character has one strecth like that and you must admit that was a pretty crazy thing to overcome.

@ g-value

In the same way Yuri is. Zidane, out right, is a thief. You begin the game in an attempt to kidnap the princess, regardless of motives, is bad.

Um, Tidus not mentioned on the first 2 pages? It's one of my favorite FFs despite that, but there's gotta be some selective memory going on here if he's not at the top of the list, way above Vaan. Also, I thought they really forged ahead on a whole new kind of whiney-ness with Luke from Tales of the Abyss. Personally, I don't care if they change their tune thirty hours into the game, even that feels contrived by now. I want characters that are totally different from the start, like Yuri from Vesperia or Welkin from Valkyria.

Ah, Zidane learning about his origins. I found that part of the game deeply depressing once I realized they were falling back on Final Fantasy VII when they could have done something much cooler at the end. God that game had a disappointing ending. To have a good ending they needed to do something aside from parade Kuja around in skimpy evening wear, but what they did was basically look at how one or two other games from the series had ended and went with what worked in the past. That's just not a good approach for writing an ending...

Tidus' "whining" was part of his character arc,

I learned this 5 minutes into the game when his voice-over voice was about 5 octaves lower then his in-game voice. As the game goes on he gradually becomes calmer and less high-pitched when he's emotional.

As for Vaan, while he definitely needed a new hairstyle and shirt, I don't remember him whining a whole lot. (aside from yelling at Basch when the latter was in a cage)

Cloud/Squall/Vaan weren't whiners at all. Here, let me show you:
What did Cloud whine about? 2 seconds after Aeris' death he basically went on to never mention it again. Whining requires you to have a personality. I think you guys are thinking about AC Cloud. Or KH's Cloud. Tetsuya Nomura directed those. Y'know how he loves them whiners.
Squall would say "whatever" 99% of the time. That's not whining. It's annoying, but not whining.
Vaan.... what did Vaan do anyway? He was just... there.
Tidus on the other hand could not shut up. I hate him the most. Maybe it was his VA. I don't know. Remember his final scene? "I hate you, daddy". Ugh... and you guys should remember he is the only FF lead who actualy cries.


But none of those people compare to the whine master: Sora. Remember when he reunited with Riku? He didn't cry when he found Kairi again, but with Riku he suddenly bursts into tears? Yeah, I think there's a message there.

Stats87 --

Whether or not you put it quotes, "whining" is still whining, I believe. The question was who is the whiniest, not who fit into their character arc the best.

I agree that Tidus, with the help of Yuna, becomes a pretty compelling main character by the end of the game, something pretty remarkable.

That doesn't mean I can't still recall the pitch of his nasal reveries on fatherhood.

I cant wait for Forevercloud3000 reaction.

Poisoned pokemon.

tidus was that biggest whinest girl ever it was hard to tell if he was a lad

Crono from Chrono Trigger.  100% of his dialog is him whining about a couple other characters.