Final Fantasy: Who Is The Best Character From Each Game?

Final Fantasy XIII never really delivered on its pre-release hype, even with the subsequent additions of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns to its lore. The overall story of the trilogy is a complicated mess, and its disjointedness means that the solid selection of great story and character moments that it offers are often forgotten.

Lightning is a poor lead, functioning in essence as a gender-swapped Squall without the redeeming character arc that turned him into a battle-born leader. Yes, she ends up conquering a God, but her relationship with her sister Serah is barely explored first time around, despite the whole purpose of the game being her and Snow's mutual desire to rescue her.

On the surface, Serah appears to be nothing more than a teenage stereotype and macguffin. Making her the main character of the far superior XIII-2 in the absence of her sister, however, saw her develop into a much more believable and human figure than her sibling.

The fact that three games were required to messily tell a story that could've been condensed into one epitomises Square-Enix's fractured focus when it comes to storytelling in recent years. Serah's carefree lightheartedness makes her time travelling escapades with Noel and conflicts with Caius enjoyable, however, which can't be said of the slogs that Lightning's journeys frequently felt like in her two games.