A lot of Final Fantasy characters seem to have sad stories behind them that drive them to do what they do in the game. A few I remember are Bartz's memories of his mother's sudden death (FF5) or Zidane's bittersweet story about his childhood in Lindblum (FF9).
The two that really got me (and still do), are both in Final Fantasy 6, being Locke and Shadow's stories. Locke's sadness over having lost his former lover and fiancee, his keeping her in suspended animation in Kohlingen, and later searching for the Phoenix to bring her back to life was touching,
Spoiler.
as was her brief conversation with him upon being temporarily brought back to life.
Shadow's life story was sad, too. His sketchy memories revealed in his dreams while visiting inns were creepy as well as enlightening.
Spoiler.
The most shocking part was realizing that Relm was his daughter.
His sacrifice at the end of the game was quite sad, in my opinion.
That's all I can think of, for now. Do any of you have any character stories that touched you?
I sympathize a lot with characters like Vincent. I mean, the dude has had it rough in like, every possible way.
Spoiler.
The love of his life leaves him because she's seduced by the idea of being a legend of science.
She later DIES and he goes on blaming himself for 30 years.
He must have undergone horrible torture at the hands of Hojo.
He feels that it's his fault Sephiroth was created and tried to destroy the world.
I feel so bad for the guy. I mean, that sucks.
Lulu (FFX) kind of gets forgotten, but she's got a complex story as well.
Spoiler.
Her fiancee was killed by Sin, and she has to live with his brother (and Wakka/Tidus both serve as constant reminders of Chappu).
Her first summoner died because Lulu failed as a guardian; there's a whole lot of guilt there.
I'm putting Balthier here, which might surprise some people, but I think it's valid.
Spoiler.
He became "Balthier" because he was under the impression his father went INSANE. On the beach, when Balthier tells Ashe his story, it opens up a completely different facet, a new side of Balthier that I know I certainly didn't see coming. And you learn then that he feels it's his responsibility to go and help Ashe to amend his father's actions.
And then there's Kain. Now, a lot of his personality you don't necessarily learn from backstories, but his character is still tragic (and immensely complex).
Spoiler.
The dude is SO in love with Rosa, and she chooses Cecil. Ouch.
He suffers from a MAJOR inferiority-complex; Cecil is the golden child, everyone deems him the heir, and Cecil has Rosa. Poor Kain is ALWAYS second best. Not to mention the fact that it's CECIL who starts off as a poor orphan; Kain supposedly has it made, being a noble and the son of a famous dragoon, and that's all stripped away from him because of Cecil showing up.
Seriously, poor Kain, it's not only blatantly obvious how much he's in love with Rosa, the guy never says anything, and just lets it fester (making him an easy target for control; it's not something that's his fault though, since he doesn't say anything because Cecil and Rosa are his friends and he doesn't want to HURT them; that makes the sting that much worse).
And Cecil and Rosa are always lovey-dovey, making Kain easily the most uncomfortable person on the screen...100% of the time.
And then, he doesn't go to their wedding because he feels he has to 'atone' for what he's done. He's so guilt-ridden it's like, heartbreaking.
The poor guy just needs a break.
I find my favorite characters are always the ones that feel guilty in one way or another.
Adelle had it bad. (FFTA2 spoilers incooooooming!)
Spoiler.
She's born with incredible powers, which makes her survive a horrible plague. Her family is not so fortunate. So, she goes off as a loner for several years.
It gets kinda worse.
Spoiler.
Later, she leaves the clan temporarily, because she wants to just be alone with her powers. She's then mind-controlled by main baddie, but then gets senses knocked back into her.
Much later, you then unlock her Heritor class by beating Lennart, another "Gifted". The old mage guy says he met Lennart many years ago, when he(mage guy) was young. Lennart looks TWENTY or something. So, basically, Adelle is going to outlive everyone because of her powers. Kinda tough.
Also, I'm betting the plague that killed her parents was the one that killed Vaan's parents. Vaan looks much older, in a way.
Yeah yeah, not exactly all background info, but her future looks a little bad too...
EDIT: Though, if it's something I have to buy, I'm not sure I'm going to end up reading it. The search hasn't shown any documents thus far. So there, Chunky.
Teraa, Cyan, and Gau of FFVI didn't exactly have it easy either.
Spoiler.
Gau lost his mother durring chilebirth, then had his father flip out and dump him on the Velt of all places the kid's lucky he survived at all. Then when he meets his father some 14 years later he finds out not only is is father crazy but the guy thought he was a demon. Granted the blow is softened a bit when his father inderectly says that he's proud of him, still not exactly a nice life.
Next we have Cyan a man who inspite of his best efforts fail to protect his homeland. This lead to there being all of TWO survivers of the doma poisning. Throw in the added fun of seing his king along with his Wife and child die, then the whole Phantom train bit lead to a man who was so wracked with guilt that he began to imperanate a dead man to give a form of comfurt to himself and the deadman's girlffriend. Lets not forget that the first time he tries to sleep in Doma Castel his home he's attacked by soul eating demons in his sleep. Yeah not exactly the best couple of years in his life.
Finaly we come to Terra who had it real rough, not only did she lose bother her parnets at a young age, but she was also brought up as a living weapon by Gesthal's empire for the sole function of serving his mad dreams. Throw in the use of the slave crown witch not onely tore away free will and indepenant though but also destoryed her memories of the better part of her life. After the insodent in the Narshe mines we find her being dragged around a Locke who had his own issues and even projected some of those onto Terra. next we have the leader of the Returners who seemed to view Terra mearly as a way to win the war more than anything else. Add on Terra's own insecurities about wheather or not she has the ability to feel love. Lets not forget that we she tried to settle down durring the year between halves of the game and how even that was eventually taken away from her, and we can see that she was never really allowed to live her life the way she wanted to untill after the game ends.
- You stupid dog!
(Please use spoilers, thank you! ~ZG)
Quotes to live by.
\"A man\'s fate is a man\'s fate and life is but an illusion\" Shogun
\"I think therfore I am dangerus.\" Unknown
\"Knowlegde without wisdome is a ticking timebomb.\" Myself
The saddest for me probably has to go to Guy Cecil.
Spoiler.
He's Luke's one friend for many years, despite the fact that his father was responsible for the slaying of Guy's family, as well as indirectly causing Guy's phobia of women. Also, the part where Guy suddenly tries to attack Luke due to Sync's technique is pretty sad to see due to the fact that Sync could only do so if the person he controlled had murderous feelings in the past for that person. Not to mention all the planning with Van until Guy snaps out of the whole vengeance deal.
Damn woman-fearing womanizer.
EDIT: I didn't realize this was limited to FF. ****.
~ZG)
