Quote Originally Posted by Antidrall
No no no. I love final fantasy. that's why I hate final fantasies 7 through 13. I can understand not wanting to build up your character in a perfect spitting image of you, but at least make the main character relatable in some way. Here's an example:

In Final Fantasy Tactics (the last good final fantasy game, haven't played 9 yet, I'll make the final judgement soon) the main character Ramza was raised in a noble house, fighting only to protect his family name. but when Delita's sister Teta was ordered to be shot by Ramza's brother Zalbag, he learns that a name has no meaning if injustice must be done to uphold it. That's freaking character. someone who can easily be identified, and you can understand why he becomes such a freaking selfless hero. He fights only for justice, defending the weak, and only if it's a last resort.
Sorry bro, but I certainly can't relate to being a noble or giving a shit about any family name. Nor has my reality ever been shattered by the realization that my family name and honor isn't something worth fighting for, because I already thought that. I can't relate myself personally to that in any way shape or form, and after that he becomes the stereotypical perfect hero archetype, which I also can't relate with. Yet I still found tactics quite enjoyable, because he was a character that fit in with his story. The story was good, I didn't need to slap my face onto any of its characters, because the game already had its own characters. Your only grievance here seems to be that you personally could not relate with later FF heroes. That's not a flaw in the game.

In FFX, Tidus is only thrown in for absolutely no reason. you could have literally removed him from the opening scene and all references to Jecht having a son, and you'd have a half decent game right there. But He tags along in the group like the low leveled guy in WoW in a raid on stormwind. He doesn't need to be there! He's totally inconsequential to the narrative! he contributes nothing to the plot, and provides an even LESS convincing romance than FF7!
What game were you playing? Without Tidus and any relation to Jecht, you'd have a cardboard cutout villain who nobody cares about until the end when it's finally time to fight him for no reason other than that he's the villain. Auron would not have had a promise to keep to Jecht and wouldn't have remained in Spira as an unsent. Without Auron and Tidus, you'd have a party who goes on believing Yevon's lies, calling the Final Aeon, acomplishing absolutely nothing just like the countless summoners before them. You'd have Yuna never growing a spine. The entire Blitzball torunament bit may as well have been removed, since Wakka and co wouuld've gone in just like every other year and lsot in the first round. Yuna would've likely been captured by the Al Bhed, if not at the game, then at the Moonflow. Rikku never would've joined the party, as she would've been busy celebrating the successful capture of another summoner. Nobody would ever have explained anything throughout the game, since just about every time they did it was for Tidus' sake. I'd go on, but I'm affraid I'd hit the character limit. So I'll jump to the abridged version. Without Tidus, you'd be left with a party of 4 bland forgettable characters with little to no depth or development, or any significant interaction with the story, following a story with no discernable beginning middle or end, and a plot holier than the Pope's hat leading up to the unsatisfying end of doing exactly what everyone expected from the beginning of the game, going out and fighting the equally bland and forgetable enemy for no particular reason outside of the fact that he's the enemy. Changing nothing, and at very best maybe finally seeing some plot with an extremely cliche end of Wakka and Lulu getting together. In other words, an average WRPG. The entire point of most of X's story was seeing things from Tidus' perspective. He seemed randomly thrown in for a very good reason. He was. Sin picked his scrawny ass up, and dropped him in bizarro world where he didn't belong. The plot focused on him finding his place in this world. He's quite relatable if you have any imagination that goes beyond the most basic of hero sterotypes. He was a guy who always lived in the shadow of his father, living an unsatisfying life as nothing more than 'Jecht's son' who then found himself out of place and alone, left to find his place in life. That's actually quite easy to relate to.

And I must agree, getting a bit off topic, so I'll attempt to stop steering it further away now.