Summary
- Shera from Final Fantasy VII is a loving and dedicated character who was unfairly mistreated.
- Vaan from Final Fantasy XII is an underrated commoner with hopes and dreams who deserves more recognition.
- Shinra from Final Fantasy X-2 is a character with untapped potential who could bridge two successful games in the series.
The Final Fantasy series would be nothing without its characters, which, game after game, prove to remain some of the most beloved ensembles in gaming. Still, a few of these characters either fall through the cracks in terms of deserved popularity, or are straight-up condemned to eternal hate for nearly incomprehensible reasons.
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Pretty much all Final Fantasy games feature both excellent and (unintentionally) despicable characters, so this list aims to celebrate those easily forgotten and most underrated characters from the series. It's time to have a look at some of the most unfairly treated characters in the history of the Final Fantasy series.
1 Shera (Final Fantasy VII)
The Most Mistreated Character in the Series?
Final Fantasy 7
- Released
- January 31, 1997
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation (Original), PC, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- One of the most overlooked tragedies in the series
Shera spends most of the game getting eaten away by guilt and being psychologically abused by Cid, who blames her for making a mistake that destroyed his career. It's absolutely bizarre that Cid is such a popular character — especially in a game with so many popular characters already — when he's so openly monstrous to Shera.
Shera dedicates her entire life to Cid in an attempt to make up for what she thinks she did wrong, but the truth is that she wasn't even to blame for the accident in the first place. The game goes down a really iffy path here, as Cid supposedly finds redemption by apologizing to her, but for the wrong reason. He apologizes for realizing she was not the culprit, and not because he was awful the entire time. Shera is one of the most loving and dedicated characters in the series, and she never even gets the apology she deserved.
2 Vaan (Final Fantasy 12)
Not *the* Most Underrated, But Underrated for Sure
Final Fantasy 12
- Released
- October 31, 2006
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
- A worthy sky pirate in the making
Vaan is easily one of the least-liked main characters in the history of the series, and it's hard to understand why. Many complain that he has no stakes in the game and is just along for the ride, but that's not true. He's not royalty, but he's lost as much as anyone else to the war, so it's great to see a commoner's point of view in such a scenario.
Also, he has his own hopes and dreams, which are very similar to those of Luke Skywalker, a character who doesn't really have much more spice than Vaan — and who doesn't catch half as much heat as Vaan does. While it's true that his jacket is silly, Vaan undoubtedly deserves to be there both for the journey and for himself.
3 Shinra FFX-2
The Most Baffling Character (that We'll Never Know Anything About)
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
- Released
- March 18, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- Another character that deserves some serious development
Shinra is a whizz-kid introduced in Final Fantasy: X-2, but that's not an innocent inclusion in the game. After the release of Final Fantasy X, many theorized that the game was a sequel to Final Fantasy VII. Shinra was clearly put there to feed the flames, as he shares the name of the evil megacorp players fight in Final Fantasy VII. Will Shinra eventually become the founder of Shinra Corp, or is this one of those "Cid" scenarios, where unrelated characters just happen to share the same name?
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Shinra never gets the character development that he deserves — not in X-2, at least. In a funny Easter egg present in the Final Fantasy VII remake, players can see a photo of the original members of Shinra, with a man wearing the same mask as Shinra from Final Fantasy: X-2 in the middle. That's some pretty funny teasing for those who know, so now it's time for Square Enix to come up with a game that stars Shinra and bridges the gap between the two most successful games in the series. Come on, that's money waiting to be printed!
4 Laguna (Final Fantasy 8)
The Half-Protagonist
Final Fantasy VIII Remastered
- Released
- September 3, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Dotemu, Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- A top-notch co-protagonist
Many fans were quick to look at Laguna's segments in Final Fantasy VIII as unnecessary breaks from the main plot, but they do an excellent job of showing, not telling, the background of the world of the game. On top of being a great tool for world building, Laguna is also a very interesting counterpart to Squall, an immediately more likable character who, despite not being as brave as the true main character, more than makes up for it with his wits.
It also helps that Laguna has one of the best battle songs in the history of the series. Laguna could totally lead a more fleshed-out prequel to Final Fantasy VIII — or even a sequel where he reconnects with his estranged son — and everyone would gain from it.
5 Ardyn Izunia (Final Fantasy 15)
The Best Part of the Game, By Far
Final Fantasy 15
- Released
- November 9, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- A truly underrated villain
One should never judge a book by its cover, but we're talking about Final Fantasy, where we know fashion is a big deal, and Ardyn is definitely the best-looking character around.
Aside from the obvious, he's also a master manipulator who's been playing everyone since the beginning, but always in a way that's too charming for anyone to hate. Final Fantasy XV leaves players wanting to know more about Ardyn, and there are a few thousand years' worth of his history that players don't learn about in the game, so that's a great idea for a spinoff right there.
6 Seifer Almasy (Final Fantasy 8)
The Good Rogue
Final Fantasy 8
- Released
- February 11, 1999
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- Seifer deserved so much more
Final Fantasy VIII presents Seifer as the detestable counterpart to the hero, the also not-too-likable Squall. He's a cocky but seriously capable rival to the hero, one who avoids tropes that so many characters of his kind easily fall into. Instead of being consumed by hatred towards the main character, or by never acknowledging his counterpart's capabilities, Seifer's actions reveal he has no problem dropping the facade and admitting Squall's abilities and even confiding in him.
Seifer's setup in the first two discs of the game is nothing short of fantastic, but even the game Seifer was created for seems to undervalue him, as he gets very little to do in the final disc. That's a bummer, but it totally opened up the possibility for a sequel starring Seifer where he'd look for redemption — and that would've been awesome.
7 Basch (Final Fantasy 12)
He Deserved to Be the Main Character
- A main character demoted
This is a very easy one. Basch has all the makings of a true protagonist — because he was meant to be the protagonist of the gorgeous Final Fantasy XII. Right at the start of the game, Basch is framed by one side of the conflict in a way that destroys his family and puts the entire continent at great risk, so there's more than enough drama and intrigue here to carry a whole game.
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Sadly, however, Basch was considered too old to helm a game in a series usually led by someone in their teens, so he was relegated to being a secondary character. Strange choice, but at least that resulted in one of the richest and most interesting supporting characters in video game history, so there's that.
8 Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy 8)
The Most Underrated Protagonist (in All of Gaming?)
- Fans are finally starting to understand him
From the get-go, Squall had a mountain to climb. Final Fantasy VIII was the follow-up to perhaps the most beloved (and definitely most successful) entry in the series. SquareSoft knew they had to come in hard. The company's choice of a main character was not a highly likable badass from the start, but an angsty teenager with attachment issues.
Squall had one advantage over every other main character in the main series up until that point, and that was the insight into his mind that the game gave players, likely in the hopes of getting them to understand the character as he grew into the cool hero he is by the time players are rolling credits. Western players didn't understand that upon release, which can be partly blamed on the weak English translation. Fortunately, however, fans of the series have begun to come around to Final Fantasy VIII as a whole, and on Squall as well — meaning he might not stay underrated for all of eternity.
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