The author complains about vanille's voice but the funny thing is, accent aside she sounds the same in Japanese.

I always felt that Genesis and Squall looked alike. Then again there was a rumor that squall was based of Gackt and genesis was played by the same guy and modeled from him. Check out Gackt's video "Vanilla" he can do Cloud as well

>Cloud just remained a whiny “woe is me” downer for the entire gameDid you... actually play the game? He wasn't whiny for the ENTIRE game. In fact, he was whiny for about a few minutes at most, and that's after he found out about his past. After that, he returned to normal.In the movie, he was a whiny faggot throughout.

I think if you look through all of the Final Fantasy games Nomura's designs are getting progressively more repititive. I'm like you- I'm a nitpicker and an aspiring character designer/game artist/comic writer/not sure yet, and I've been a follower of Nomura's work and the FF franchise since I was a little kidlet. I think he stopped being original when they released FFX-2 (coughcharlie'sangelscough), and not only the visual designs but the dynamics and archetypes too (as seems to be happening with a lot of Japanese video games and manga). If you notice, the characters go like this: main male=good natured and immature/angsty bastard, main female = ALWAYS sweet and tender, (though Lightning seems to be a bit of a black sheep where this is concerned), then they have the quiet but nice older sister type (eg Lulu, Quistis), another male who nearly always tries to contrast the main male's personality, then a mean/older male and a happy, hyperactive girl like Yuffie or Rikku. To add to that, occasionally they add a weird hybrid human/animal in there like Fran or Cait Sith just to make it a bit more interesting.The thing is, since Squaresoft joined up with Enix (or Disney as its known in the West) they've just been clinging to the popularity of FF7 and repeating the character designs of earlier games. I'll list just a few...Ashe and Yuna
Vaan and Zidane/Tidus
Fran and Freya
Penelo and Rikku
Wakka and Barratt
Hope and Denzel
Balthier and Seifer
Garnet and RinoaI could go on for ages, but I think I've made my point.

There are definitely certain looks and also style of costumes that Nomura seems to prefer. Also, it's not just Final Fantasy. But, RPGs in general have many characters that fit certain archetypes.Btw, did anyone notice some nods to MGS4 in FFXIII?Anyways, I LOVE FFXIII! Superb!I love Fang, Lightning and Vanille! :)

FF9- Weren't Freya and Amarant both pretty moody??So far (I haven't played past stage 1 of disc 2) I disagree with Wakka/Sazh only because Sazh looks like a generic old black guy. The hair is really old-school fro. I kinda think that Wakka and GADOT look almost EXACTLY the same. And it's kinda creepy the, similarities between Rinoa and Fang.And ever since the character roster was shown, my husband and I have called Vanille Panelphie (a mixture of the names of Panello from Kingdom Hearts and Selphie from 8).Haha, thanks for putting what we've all been thinking into words, Yuki. You know the only character type that is missing from this FFXIII roster? The humanoid. i.e. Kimahri, Freya, Fran... :o! They forgot one! :)~Meg

I disagree with Snow-Irvine. Irvine was very much a playa/ladies' man, while Snow's very into saving Serah. I kind of saw him closer to Zell from the same game, especially considering their fighting skills. Even in appearance, they're fairly similar.But gaaaaaaaaaaawd, Yuki!! I'm not gonna be able to play anymore without yelling "DARN YOU CLOUD!" whenever Lightning does something stupid... and you've ruined Vanille!! I can't stand Yuna, and you're right! Right down to the annoying voice. -pout-

So as a person who's beaten final fantasy 13, and gotten very far in the other games listed here. I really disagree with most of these comparisons. I mean, yes, some of them look like each other, but they're personalities are way off.

The only one that I completely agree with is Lightning and Cloud, but this is fully expected. Nomura even admitted Lightning was based off of Cloud, and throwing Serah in there is pushing it. She may be Lights sister, but she's not really like Light at all, they even look different, with Light's sharper and meaner features compared to Serah's soft and kind ones. That being said, comparing her to Cloud is just ridiculous.

Snow is far more like Zell. Actually, I don't even know how you came up with Irvine here. they're nothing a like at all.

And Tidus and Hope? Really? Are you actually trying to tell me you think the angsty, depressing, whiny hope is similar to the optimistic, ever cheerful, fun-loving Tidus? This is the worst comparison between two males that you have listed up there. Father issues are hardly good enough a reason for such opposite characters to be considered a like. Vaan and Tidus I can understand, but not Hope.

The worst Female comparison you made is Rinoa and Fang. This one honestly threw me for a loop. I don't think it's possible for you to have picked a worse character for Fang. Fang is Rebellious, tough, completely goal oriented, angry, and wont take shit from anyone. In the game, the player does not need to rescue Fang, Fang does all the Rescuing of the player. She's up in those baddies faces. Rinoa is nothing like that at all, She spends 80 percent of the game getting captured, doubting herself, whining, and flirting with squall. She can't seem to do anything right. I mean, seriously, how did you think this one up at all?

I can see similarities between Vanille and Slephie, but Yuna doesn't belong there at all. Maybe if you used Rikku, I could understand more, but not Yuna.

Sazh is too serious and fatherly for someone like Wakka, and Jihl was too evil to be compared to Quistis.

Cid hardly had enough screen time to be compared to anyone, and he doesn't even resemble Squall in looks.

I'm not even going to go there with Yaag and Sephiroth....there just....are not words......

si ubiera un tio como sepirot o cloud es que bamos jajajaja

edit: is that ANOTHER character called Cid? ffs....

I think if you look through all of the Final Fantasy games Nomura's designs are getting progressively more repititive. I'm like you- I'm a nitpicker and an aspiring character designer/game artist/comic writer/not sure yet, and I've been a follower of Nomura's work and the FF franchise since I was a little kidlet. I think he stopped being original when they released FFX-2 (coughcharlie'sangelscough), and not only the visual designs but the dynamics and archetypes too (as seems to be happening with a lot of Japanese video games and manga). If you notice, the characters go like this: main male=good natured and immature/angsty bastard, main female = ALWAYS sweet and tender, (though Lightning seems to be a bit of a black sheep where this is concerned), then they have the quiet but nice older sister type (eg Lulu, Quistis), another male who nearly always tries to contrast the main male's personality, then a mean/older male and a happy, hyperactive girl like Yuffie or Rikku. To add to that, occasionally they add a weird hybrid human/animal in there like Fran or Cait Sith just to make it a bit more interesting.

The thing is, since Squaresoft joined up with Enix (or Disney as its known in the West) they've just been clinging to the popularity of FF7 and repeating the character designs of earlier games. I'll list just a few...

Ashe and Yuna
Vaan and Zidane/Tidus
Fran and Freya
Penelo and Rikku
Wakka and Barratt
Hope and Denzel
Balthier and Seifer
Garnet and Rinoa

I could go on for ages, but I think I've made my point.

There are definitely certain looks and also style of costumes that Nomura seems to prefer. Also, it's not just Final Fantasy. But, RPGs in general have many characters that fit certain archetypes.

Btw, did anyone notice some nods to MGS4 in FFXIII?

Anyways, I LOVE FFXIII! Superb!

I love Fang, Lightning and Vanille! :)

FF9 Albert Stiener Captain of the knights of Pluto was very very moody lmao

Going by personality alone, some of these make sense. I'm still of the opinion that Vanille=Selphie/Rikku/Yuffie, but that's the way these games, or at least the FF series, seem to work. Certain characters fit each kind of role, and those roles are ALWAYS present in each game. The main character isn't always the same kind of role, though. Leave one out of a title and you risk alienating someone. They just try to run the gamut.

Fang == Lulu.

i kinda agree. some of them may have similarities in looks but none have same personalities. some are brave while other are cowards, some are dark etc etc. but i see what you mean i felt the simialities with Rhinoa and the new chick

Vanille to me seems more like a Rikku, but I gotta say, i disagree with everyone on her voice. I mean, besides the whole japanese style moans and groans she constantly does during battles and such i love vanille entirely. In fact, she may be my favorite character so far in xiii.

I love this article! I didn't actually make some of these connections but it's cool to see how you did.

These are just the comparisons that I make and what I see when I play the game. I definitely want to hear what everyone else sees because I am curious.

IDK about sazh/wakka. Wakka is more local style brah, easy going shaka whereas sazh is FAR more serious. I totally would like to see Sazh as a pirate though.

FF9- Weren't Freya and Amarant both pretty moody??

So far (I haven't played past stage 1 of disc 2) I disagree with Wakka/Sazh only because Sazh looks like a generic old black guy. The hair is really old-school fro. I kinda think that Wakka and GADOT look almost EXACTLY the same. And it's kinda creepy the, similarities between Rinoa and Fang.

And ever since the character roster was shown, my husband and I have called Vanille Panelphie (a mixture of the names of Panello from Kingdom Hearts and Selphie from 8).

Haha, thanks for putting what we've all been thinking into words, Yuki. You know the only character type that is missing from this FFXIII roster? The humanoid. i.e. Kimahri, Freya, Fran... :o! They forgot one! :)

~Meg

Yanno this actually makes me even more interested to play the game because I want to see how true these are xD

I suppose Zell might be closer to Snow, but I just see Irvine. I think its the bandanna throwing me towards Irvine. Otherwise Snow & Zell both share the power punch attacks. Thanks Sam for pointing that out. Now I'm going to be thinking of both of them instead of just the one when I get back into the game. =P

this has just made me want to play it even more,spesh with all the ff8 char refs!!!hurry up the weekend!!!! :D

I disagree with Snow-Irvine. Irvine was very much a playa/ladies' man, while Snow's very into saving Serah. I kind of saw him closer to Zell from the same game, especially considering their fighting skills. Even in appearance, they're fairly similar.

But gaaaaaaaaaaawd, Yuki!! I'm not gonna be able to play anymore without yelling "DARN YOU CLOUD!" whenever Lightning does something stupid... and you've ruined Vanille!! I can't stand Yuna, and you're right! Right down to the annoying voice. -pout-