Here we are, dear fellow gamers: my own personal ranking of OT's eight
characters, from my least favourite to my uttermost favourite — because we want
to keep le meilleur pour la fin, don't we? I'll judge them based on
their personalities (if such a word can be used to describe bunches of pixels),
stories and, last but not least, on their class and abilities — because heck,
we're role-playing here after all. Without further ado, let's get down to it!
H'aanit: I fully expected to adore OT's fierce huntress, I really
did; and yet there she stands, at the bottom of my personal ranking. So what
went wrong, pray tell? I wish I could claim that her voice and dialogue get on
my nerve; but alas, her stiff middle english is the least of my concerns. I'm
much more aggravated by her atrocious aiming, which sees her miss half of her
hits as a rule and makes her multi-targeting abilities utterly pointless. So
you're supposed to be a top-tier huntress, and yet you cannot fire a bow
without missing? I wanted Robin Hood and I got Baby's First Archery Lesson —
thanks for nothing, Squeenix. And my, are her Pokemon-ish abilities way too
complicated and unwieldy for my taste: nearly all foes are Legendaries to her,
and the only creatures she can capture with any degree of certainty are
weaklings that are good for little to nothing on the battlefield. Granted, her
passive skills are awesome; but alas, it's not enough to make me dig her battle
prowess.
Primrose: Let's be clear: I don't actually dislike Primrose. In fact,
there are plenty of things I like about her, from the sheer grimness of her own
personal tale to her husky, low-pitched voice. But alas, the RPG player in me
simply cannot be satisfied with her near-uselessness in battle and on the
field. Not only is she painfully weak on both physical and elemental fronts,
making her exclusive mastery of Dark kinda pointless, but she has the nerve of
wielding a mere single weapon, making her virtually useless as far as weapon
coverage go. Her Action Path is bound to come in handy only a measly couple of
times over a full run, and her Talent... Heck, what's her Talent, already? Oh
yeah, summoning NPCs in battle. Like Tressa, basically — only more tedious,
because Prim has to charm those NPCs first. Sure, she has good buffing
abilities; but serial buffing has never been my playing style, and thus I have
little to no use for Primrose in my party setting.
Olberic: I'm usually a sucker for the brave ole Warrior in RPGs, and I
love myself a good story of honour, bravery and knighthood. That should have
made Olberic a surefire hit; but if you read my first
post about OT,
you know already that it's not the case. His voice and signature lines grate on
my ears, his bulky and poorly dressed sprite stings my retinas and, last but
not least, his fighting abilities leave me cold. Sure, he's strong as all heck,
and he boasts a couple of neat and deadly moves; but that is definitely not
enough to make him a true battle asset. Being the only character wielding no
elemental skill at all doesn't do him any favour, and I cannot help but think
that he should have been a bit more powerful on the physical front to
compensate for that absence. He should also have been more notably sturdy to
function properly as the tank he's supposed to be.
Therion: I like and despise the resident thief, all at once and in turn.
I love him to pieces when I trot down the streets, swiftly getting my paws on
NPCs' possessions as I go. I bow to his awesomeness when I'm unleashing his
devastating Divine Skill on the battlefield. I delight in his tale of broken
trust and wandering and his lone wolf quality during the story segments. But oh
gosh, do I want to slap him hard every time he opens his crude mouth — and
never more than when he spits "Come on, I've got better things to
do" or "Where's the nearest tavern" with that cocky accent of
his. And never, ever do I despise him more intensely than when I roam a
dungeon and encounter yet another bloody safe that he alone can break open. I
truly hate how Squeenix tried to make him indispensable by peppering the whole
darn game with those cursed safes, and I now feel a pang of anger every time I
spot a flash of purple around IRL.
Alfyn: We're reaching the upper half of my ranking, and thus the
characters I really want to stick with — and very much do stick with,
actually. Alfyn's Apothecary talents are a mite too random for me, and I've
never managed to craft any remotely useful — let alone outstanding — salve on
the fly; on the other hand, I'm totally sold on his strength and his mastery of
the axe. It certainly doesn't hurt either that he's the only character with
innate status effect healing abilities, and that his Divine Skill gives him
access to the only instance of status effect multi-healing. I'm also quite fond
of his Inquiring talents, which are more pleasantly diplomatic than Cyrus'
Scrutinizing ones and allow me to get my paws on hidden items, discounts, new
gear and other niceties. Cherry on the cake, his shonen-ish personal pursuit of
mastery of his craft really resonates with me, and his mountainous,
pine-studded homeland completely stole my heart.
Ophilia: Aaah, dear Ophilia. How I love your prime and proper demeanour,
your quiet and unassuming badassery, the crystalline snowy lands your hail
from. But as enticing as all this is, it certainly wouldn't be have been enough
to grant you the third spot in my ranking. You gained said third spot because
of how utterly indispensable you are on the battlefield. You're a natural born
Healer, and a stellar one at that. Even the meanest of your healing spells can
put a full party back on their feet, and you saved the day and my arse in
battle more often than I care to count. That would already be more than enough
to make you awesome; but you also reign alone over Light skills and you wield a
Divine Skill tailor-made for boss fights, and that makes you even more
impossibly awesome. You're the holy RPG party member par excellence, and even
your useful-once-in-a-blue-moon Path Action cannot tarnish your light.
Cyrus: I'll be honest: I have a near-tie between the resident scholar
and Tressa. Cyrus didn't impress me much at first, I must say; but it wasn't
long before I learnt to appreciate his talents and became truly infatuated with
him. He can Break foes and wipe the battlefield clean like no other OT character
with his double-hit elemental skills, and his Divine Skill can wreak havoc on
bosses' HP bars — add Ophilia's Divine Skill on top, and you get a true
warhorse and a harbinger of doom for everything standing on the wrong side of
the battlefield. His ridiculously stylish sprite and deliciously snobbish tone
and signature lines make him even more endearing to me; and I'm not even
talking about his cluelessness in romantic matters, his insatiable curiosity and
his ability to get lost in nerdy conversations — all things I can totally and
completely relate to. Cyrus Albright, you're the sh*t.
Tressa: All hail my MC and absolute favourite OT character! Heck,
I've not encountered such an endearing and irresistible riches-obsessed
character since I became a diehard fan of Scrooge McDuck as a kid. Funnily
enough, I expected to somewhat dislike her before playing the game; and oh boy,
how utterly wrong I was. I adore everything about her, from her cheeky
demeanour to her saucy signature quips, from her kickass Action Path to her
dope Talent, from her simple-yet-charming story to her stellar battle prowess.
She's the most delightfully versatile OT character, both on the
battlefield and out of it: strong physical hits, elemental skills,
self-healing, stealing, buffing, filling in the coffers — she can do it all,
and she can do it like a boss. Heck, she's the sole reason my party is
currently swimming in money and able to pimp themselves with the very best gear
available. She literally saved my run, and I definitely wouldn't love OT as
much if she weren't around. Tressa Colzione, you're my spirit animal.
There you have it, dear fellow gamers: my very own personal ranking of the OT
cast. This is a pleasantly diverse crew, and I can safely claim that there
is not a single rotten apple to find here: I like them all to various degree,
and I'm interested in all of their stories — if only remotely. Feel free to
share your own ranking in the comments; and as usual, thanks a lot for stopping
by!
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