THE BEST JRPG PROTAGONISTS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- Don't' give me a game with a stinky main character for a jrpg. I'm about to spend at LEAST 30 hours with this person make them likable, or interesting, heck even mean! Something so the player can feel some sort of way about them. The worst you could feel about a protagonist is NOTHING. You're indifferent, there is nothing to love and nothing to hate. Let's talk about my favorite protagonists of all time~! Let's talk jrpgs such as: Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tales of and more! And why they are the best! Here are the best jrpgs protagonists of all time!
TIMESTAMPS
#5 :39 TWEWY
#4 2:29 Tales of Bersaria
#3 5:02 Best Final Fantasy
#2 6:16 WHY DO THE [BLANK] AND THE [BLANK] KEEP ON FIGHTING?!
#1 GRANDIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...2
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#FINALFANTASY #JRPG #VIDEOGAMES
Solid list. Stocke from Radiant Historia is one of my personal favorites, as he's not a child and is a competent agent and warrior, plus has plenty of lines.
That was a good one
That whole game is a lovely package
Velvet!!!!!!!!, that was my favorite scene. You can tell her hatred ran very deep.
Sora is one of my favourite characters. It's really impressive how well he can fit into the Disney worlds. His friendships are beautiful and it plays into the gameplay and story perfectly. His friends are quite literally his power. One and a half pints might be my favourite JRPG party
I heard Originally it was supposed to be Nintendo
Love the top picks! Would be cool to see a “best side characters or supporting cast” too at some point.
pel out here changing the top 5 game, this list was heat!! i really loved the editing in neku's section specifically, it's super cool to see you constantly prove yourself to be an amazing video editor, and the scripting was so smooth i feel like the video flew by. this video was so good wtf
Absolutely agree with Shulk, he's great.
A personal pic would be Estelle from the Trails in the Sky games, she is amazing, her character development throughout both games is mesmerizing.
great video! seeing how much you changed thanks to the world ends with you was heartwarming!
Zidane is such an interesting character; aside from everything you mentioned here, I love that scene right around beginning of the third disc. You know the one: he's an upbeat goofball all the time, but now he's really hurting because he's trying to be taken seriously, and he knows that's going to be almost impossible because of who he is and how others see him; so rarely do goofball characters address that other side.
For me, the obvious choice is Asellus from SaGa Frontier, whose scenario I am coincidentally playing right now. She gets thrown into some ridiculous circumstances, but the gist of it is that she's torn between two worlds, and has absolutely no place in either one. She spends her time trying to fit into her new life or go back to her old one, but once she figures out that she doesn't belong anywhere, she says screw it and carves out her own little slice of the cosmos. Terra from Final Fantasy 6 and Nina from Breath of Fire 2 resonate strongly with me for similar reasons, so runner-up would probably go to Cecil Harvey. He's also been put through a lot, and has a lot of weight on his own conscience, but instead of moping and whining about it, he puts his feeling aside because there's a job to be done; there's plenty of time to reflect once the world is safe again.
If Estelle Bright and Cecil Harvey aren't on your list, it's automatically incorrect.
This statement, the pfp. You are a gentleman and a scholar good sir. Cannot agree enough
You know your stuff gentleman, maybe Cecil's story of redemtion is the best of the whole franchise.
@@Bacalao. Chaz Ashley also has the best coming of age arc in a JRPG.
And it uses a lot of the same mechanical tricks as FF4 to establish the relative strength of your characters at the time that they join the party.
Chaz and Hahn are completely green.
Alys is a veteran warrior who still has room for growth.
Rune is already a ridiculously powerful magic user.
Gryz is a young warrior with a decent amount of combat experience.
Rika starts off relatively strong but very inexperienced and grows quickly.
And I have no idea why Raja starts 5 levels higher than Wren.
Your video convinced me to pick up grandia 2. I never played it but I loved your other picks :)
OMG PLEASE DO I LOVE GRANDIA 2 SO MUCH. Also be sure to check out my review!
I once played all the (then available) Final Fantasies back to back in numerical order. I'd completely missed the PS1 era so they were all brand new to me, and I cannot tell you how much of a breath of fresh air Zidane was as a protagonist after 7 and 8. I appreciate Cloud and Squall's journeys don't get me wrong, but it felt so nice to have a main character that didn't have an initial level of sourpuss to get over. While he had his own journey and foibles, his role of supporting the other characters on their own path of self-discovery is fun and gratifying. Zidane's a big reason why 9 remains my favorite FF from that era of the franchise.
Solid picks, fully agree with all of them! My own top 5 would be:
5. *Vyse* (Skies of Arcadia Legends)
4. *Velvet Crowe* (Tales of Berseria)
3. *Kalas* (Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean)
2. *Stocke* (Radiant Historia)
1. *Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd* (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Totally agree with you. Ryudo is definetely up there with one of the greats.
If this were my list I personally put him at 2 with Ichiban Kasuga being the top pick. It was just so refreshing to feel represented as someone who grew up to have a passion for video games take center stage in one of if not the best Yakuza game ever
So happy I found your channel love the topics you discuss and the way you discuss them. I've been streaming TotA to some friends recently and they asked what rpgs have my fav characters in terms of how they're written. Grandia 1 and 2 smoke every game in that regard for me, criminally underplayed games by modern rpg fans.
Yeah I guess it depends on the silent Protag, I think Dragon Age Origins and Persona 3 do it well where you still have the character be silent
but their canon choices still serve ti help the other characters in the cast grow while still showing that even if only alittle this character has emotions
that sine through quietly.
Amazing list! So happy to hear your love for TWENY and Grandia 2!!!!
Great vid as always. Also I almost snorted out my drink when the 5 came up and you made that noise XD
Thank you for watching hehe.
Fei Wong from _XenoGears._
Talk about a tormented protagonist... this man's (partially) repressed traumas transcend history itself. And his love story with Elly is one of the best ever written in the genre.
Also, love the fact that Ryudo is #1, me and my buddies were quoting his lines years after we played the game. Good times...
Glad to see Sora on the list. I'd also throw in Vyse from Skies of Arcadia, Yuri from Tales of Vesperia, Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia, and Lucina from Fire Emblem Awakening
I want to play skies of arcadia so bad because IVE ONLY heard great things about that game.
@@PelvicGaming you haven't played it?! Oh you gotta, it's such a great charming rpg. I played it recently and it really holds up. I think if you like Grandia you'll like Skies
Loved seeing Ryudo on top. Great character. Glad it’s available on modern systems.
Sora is what I like to call an Effortlessly Well-Written Character. In my opinion, character writing and dynamics are some of what Kingdom Hearts does best, taking simple characters and giving them a lot of depth, and Sora is no exception that, but at the same time, with a character who's so naturally likeable like Sora, it almost doesn't matter how well written they are, and I think no moment better exemplifies this than the ending of Dream Drop Distance. Without going into spoilers, I think, in universe, it's so stupid and unfair that Sora doesn't get the same reward as Riku, but the way he reacts makes me not care about it anymore. It's representation of his character and somehow takes that should be frustrating and makes extremely wholesome.
Craziest part is he's not even my favourite character (Ventus Sweep/Xion Sweep).
Great list, my nomination for this list would be brother Nier from Nier Replicant and the Japanese version of the original as one of the greatest protagonists the genre has ever had.
Great picks. Neku is one of my favourites possibly my favourite. I also saw a bit of myself with him being distant & then opening up more as time goes on. Some of my other favourites include Yuri from Tales of Vesperia, Ike from Fire Emblem Path of Radiance & Vyse from Skies of Arcadia.
I love any shout out to Ys Origins, I remain grateful that you introduced me to the game.
I'm glad you liked it! Honestly I'd like to talk about the game more.
I'm also not a fan of silent protagonists, but I weirdly felt very connected to Persona 3's protagonist (and the female counterpart too in Portable). Probably because of how they have the ability to impact others and seeing that payoff return beautifully.
Also love seeing Neku, Shulk, Zidane, and Sora mentioned! I'm gonna check out Grandia 2 and Tales of Berseria, you got me very intrigued!👀
Zidane is my genome
You mentioned tales but we didn’t get you to mention luke! He has an incredible arc…The starts from being a piece of trash to something new arc.
Greatest intro to Neku ever. I knew exactly who you were revealing with that!
She got me at the end lol i just knew Cloud was number 1 when she said "A job is a job"
Love all of yours picks, but can I would I put Ashley Riot from Vagrant Story somewhere. That's just my opinion, stay yourself Pelvic, you're doing amazing as usual.
A couple of others have said it, but you have to check out Trails in the Sky. If you loved Ryuudo's sass (love Grandia 2, played it on my Dreamcast as a kid), you'll love Estelle Bright.
Kaim Argonar from Lost Odyssey.
To this day one of the only JRPG "angsty" protags that has a legit reason to be off-putting and still have his team put up with him.
The character arc, the side characters, the story, the music, the writing for the 1000 years of dreams by Kiyoshi Shigematso.
The games characters and writing legit brought me to tears.
Chrono Trigger will always be my #1 greatest JRPG of all time, but It was a photo finish between it and Lost Odyssey.
I see you sneaking "Hide, Hideaway" in there at the beginning. ;)
Nice list and saw the FFIX entry coming from a mile away. Haha,
Yay, finally some Zidane love
I am pleasantly surprised by your picks. Especially the number one and two slot. You get so used to the same final Fantasy style picks on these lists you took me by surprise. Great stuff and couldn't agree with you more with Shulk, Ryudo though, I think he is very different by the end of the game. At the start he's all like, "I know you already hate me so I hate you first." by the end of the game he is spouting about righteousness and stopping evil. I missed his attitude but Grandia 2 is one of the very best RPG's that no one ever talks about. Pelvic Gaming you did good on this one.
Aww shucks! Thank you! I mean Final Fantasy has some great protagonists dont get me wrong! But there are so many other jrpgs that have great leads! Ryudo especially is a travesty because I don't think many people played Grandia! 1 or 2!
@@PelvicGaming I was lucky enough to play it first on Dreamcast and the battle system alone had me hooked. If only the games hard mode was actually harder.
Have you ever found time to play skies of Arcadia? I think you would very much enjoy that and Panzer Dragoon Saga based on your picks.
Hell yeah with Ryudo at #1! Love your hair in this vid.
Rocking the hair!
Really liked Yuri Lowell. Loved his no nonesense attitude towards villians. He aint the type to let you get away.
Great list. Personally, while I haven't given it a whole lot of thought, I think my top 5 would all be from tactical rpg games. Kyrie from Fell Seal, Denam from Tactics Ogre, Serenoa from Triangle Strategy, Edelgard, and finally probably Mordred from King Arthur: Knight's Tale. That may just be significant bias for srpg's over everything else on my part though.
Yes, I agree Cloud is the best.
i adore neku and shulk is my favorite protagonist of all time. great list! thanks for the video.
You have great taste! Thanks for watching!
Bersaria is most underrated tales of by a mile.
Some favorite jrpg protags:
KH1 Sora
Luke Fon Fabre (Tales of the Abyss)
Yuri Lowell (Tales of Vesperia)
FF10 Tidus
Kite (.HACK quadrilogy)
OMG IN THE HONORABLE MENTIONSNI ORIGINAL HAD THOSE TWO TALES OF PROTAGS. I love them both!
I think silent protagonists can work sometimes, but yeah, all things equal, I almost always would prefer a more fleshed out character, too. Also, I love your goofy presentation of each number, always helps keep your list videos fun since I never know how you're going to choose to say the next one.
There are only 3 times i was okay with a silent protagonist.
1. Tales of Xillia 2
2. Drakengard
3. ...and this one indie game that starts with the letter T that I can't remember...I keep wanting to say terminator but that's not it.. . .
Edit: TRANSISTOR!!
@@PelvicGamingThe one time a silent protagonist has worked for me is The Hero of Winds from The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass because unlike other Links this one proactive in the plot. The story didn't just happen to him. Also his expressions helped. That Link actually had emotions. Also he's the only hero who is not predestined and not a reincarnation of the sprit of courage. Just a regular kid who became a hero on his own merit.
Love me some Yuri Lowell from Vesperia, he was very refreshing.
Ah, good. Velvet Crowe made the cut. I can rest easy. :D
I wouldn't dream of letting you down, Mr. Matt.
@@PelvicGaming 😁
Man, I was so excited to play Grandia after beating 1 on the Switch Collection, but the sound effects for 2 are so much louder than the voice and music that I couldn’t get through more than an hour or two. It’s the first time I’ve found a game to be unplayable for this reason. If I had the PC version there would probably be mods to help but I think I’m SoL. Anyone know anything that might help?
Love it! Great list! 100% agree that silent protagonists kinda suck!
They gotta go!
"How to Be Pelvic's Most Eligible Bachelor"
You’ve GOTTA play the trails series
Soon....
It makes me so sad that every classic rpg seems to be getting a reboot or spiritual successor except Grandia 😢
I mean to be fair, Grandia is pretty perfect.
I really appreciate your cometary
Thank you for watching!!
@@PelvicGaming You’re welcome lady of pelvic I really do appreciate your video.
Velvet Crowe (Tales of Berseria) and Lightning/Claire (FF13) are probably my favorite protagonists in jrpg !
Very good list. My vote is for Clive. He has everything: complexity, a superb design, warmth and kindness, grittiness, badassery in combat, and intelligence. Letting the player play as a lead in his 30s was a good decision.
From Wild Arms 3, right?
@@GrandAngel8000Clive Rosfield. I have no plans to play Wild Arms 3.
A new pelvic list and on a fun topic. Me personally off the top of my head i got Neku Sakuraba, Velvet Crowe, and Vyse.
oh hey great minds think alike lol
I think my top 5 would be:
1. Ichiban Kasuga
2. Kaim Argonar
3. Fei Fong Wong
4. Shulk
5. Stocke
Zidane from FF9 is my favorite protagonist, especially after the more silent edgy protagonist like Squall & Cloud. He's funny, charismatic, cunning and not shy of expressing his attraction to women.
Also love the space buns ❤
Ichiban and Sora are my favorites.
Yes 😌 #5 the boi, continues to be a beacon of light even many many years later, due to the impact of his change
Great list :)
Damn, can't watch the top pick. I have to pick it up and continue first. The first game of the series is so charming and nostalgic to me. My cousin visited our place like twice in my childhood and the second time, he bought it. He played some of it on my PSX(acronym at the time, before the actual Japanese-only PS2 console existed) with like a 10" tv. Fell in love with the game, and only played it years afterward, in adulthood myself. I guess I have to get a grip and play the second one now!
Oh you simply must! It's a great game, and 100% worth your time!
I will! Btw, it was fun hearing Cam Clarke(Leonardo and others from the og TMNT cartoon, Liquid Snake from Metal Gear Solid etc.) voice acting in it. @@PelvicGaming
Yay another video woo hoo! 🎊🎉
There is only one best silent protagonist and that would be "Link" from Legend of Zelda, but I think by design, its meant to be that way since its a first person perspective of exploring a world in an action rpg.
You already know I’m with you on FF9 being the best FF (that I’ve played) and that Zidane is THAT GUY!
The FF16 music 😍
0:13 amen, I want my protagonists to speak and have a personality. Even if I’m choosing outcomes for them. I’m playing Dragon Quest 11 for the first time right now, and I haaaaaate that the Hero feels like such a blank slate. Then again I haven’t played a silent protagonist RPG in a while so maybe I’m just rusty. But I never dug it. Even when it comes to naming a character, like Persona, I check to see if the character has an official name.
Velvet is maybe my favorite character ever
She is an excellent character!
I think squall from ff8 a great character
I agree that I hate silent protagonists. The best one thought was Lea from CrossCode due to having detailed emotions via facial expressions.
But what about cloud? He stole somebody's identity and pretended to be a hero (i think) and than became a hero. Thats confusing but pretty good, right?
Actually my favorite vid game character is Relm because her Grandpa's a wizard and her dads a ninja with a cool dog. And shes the most OP ff character ever made as long as shes got her fake mustache and memento.
Zidane 💗
The entire point of a role playing game is to play a role, which means the player making the decisions for that role. The JRPG protagonists who make all the choices in the player's stead are fundamentally antithetical to role playing games, but then again JRPGs have very little to do with role playing anyway. They're more visual novels with stats and battles attached.
At least the silent protagonists attempt including the player, though poorly.
So many protagonist so many heroes, working with the friends to fight against evil. If only we as humans will band together to fingt against evil, but we had rather turn a blind eye so long it doesn't concern us cus that's how dead hearted most of humanity have become in this day and age. We can easily turn a blind eye to the systematic suffering of 2 million humans than has been going on for almost 70 years. Shame on humanity that's why jrpg heroes will only ever be fantasies.
YASSS GRANDIA II FOR THE WIN!!!!!
Nr1: Final Fantasy 1 Fighter.
eh fights bad guys and doesn't afraid of anything!!
Yes! I love Shulk.
Yes
But… but… Sabin suplexed a train
Idk what it is, but you get finer in every video
Velvet ❤
You have great taste
You should really play yakuza, you will like Ichiban a lot
TWEWY worked sooooooooo good on mobile, theb they just stopped updating it.😔
I don't like the silent protagonist either
I'm still laughing at reviewers who absolutely hated Neku's character when TWEWY first came out. Like, really... did they not even bother playing past the first week of the game?? (Let alone the first few days?)
Really? I didn't know that was a thing. I loved Neku frame one!
Great list, but Estelle Bright
I haven't experienced her greatness yet! One day though...one day...
...
- JRPG protagonist
You put cloud on your pic but not talk about him and he fit your profile of good protagonist is a crime
Take me to internet jail.
I like your scarcasm
You made me wanna play ff9 even though I disliked every one I've tried outside of 14.
Chrono is the best hands down
SHULK
Gm pretty lady.
Silent protagonist are better off being dead
Hmm no Ichiban Kasuga…
I only got halfway through Xenoblade because I thought the characters were really underwhelming, Shulk in particular. I don't understand the appeal of a character who's just defined by being "the good guy". Doing the right thing isn't a personality trait and sadly I really don't know what else there is to him. No real quirks or flawscome to mind. He really does nothing for me.
Have you ever had to stand up to a friend? Like *really* check them. It's easy to stand up against an enemy, but a friend???
I think you're downplaying "doing the right thing".
But also kindness is a personality trait. He may not be outwardly goofy or gimmicky. Underwhelming perhaps compared to those around him, ya know fair enough but I think when shit really hits the fan he's a great protagonist by virtue of his actions. Edit: idk how far you got but Shulk had every reason to say fuck the truth these bitches should die but he didn’t. And he crossed swords with his homie because of it.
@@PelvicGaming I haven't gotten to that cutscene where he faces Dunban but seeing it here comforted me in having quit the game because it doesn't reframe my impression of Shulk at all. Water is wet, the sky is blue, the hero is kind and will stand up for what's right. It seems to be a virtue all the other character on the list share or come to share. It's 'a bit like having white bread in a list of beast meals, yaknow ?
I'm not saying you shouldn't like him, I wanted to like him too. But I just don't.
Fair enough you didn't vibe with him. I'm not here to change minds. I think being kind and doing the right thing is part the course for most protags true, but how they go about it, the build up, the believable conviction, is what makes them shine.
I cant downplay Shulk's character.
❤❤❤Wow! I love your hair! ❤❤❤ We would make spectacular videos together and our babies would come out beautiful! I understand why you need a lot of friends though...😅 Nice video!! Have you ever done a video on Child of Light and Grandia 2 for Dreamcast?
This list is magnificent. The taste on display here 🤌
Thank you so much ;w;
Damn this hair, you could also be a JRPG character.
Got the same hair as Lily from SF6.
My dream