168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy and mage-class characters have been a popular pairing since the very first game, when three out of the player's six options for building their quartet of realm-saving heroes included White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage. As the years have passed, other iconic mage jobs have emerged, first and foremost the powerful (and often plot-centric) Summoner.
In other words, there are a lot of mages in Final Fantasy. Dozens of key characters, and plenty more who exist along the sidelines. Too many are enjoyable, be they good, evil, or any of the myriad shades between. At a certain point, choosing ten favorites is a bit like choosing children. But every parent does that, or so they say, so it's up to TheGamer to fulfill its role and do the same.
10 ඣ Eddꦦa Pureheart
Edda Pureheart is the first of three representatives from Final Fantasy 14 on this list, and if you've never played the popular MMO, we apologize in advance — its characters truly are that good. But unlike the other two, Edda isn't a major figure in the world of Hydaelyn. Her bit part, however, blows us away.
Imagine, if you will, that the writing in early Final Fantasy 14 does a less-than-subtle job showcasing to players during the first few full-fledged dungeons of the game that these dreary missions are not for the faint of heart. One group of fellow adventurers perishes completely, for example, whilst another involves an older man who realizes his body can't pass muster anymore and wisely resigns.
Then there's Edda's team. Her alleged failure at keeping the party healed leads to the death of her lover, at which point the other two survivors place the blame squarely at Edda's feet and depart. Dear, sweet Edda, whose cheery nature is replaced with sorrow, decides to... carry her lover's head around in a bag. This says a lot about her emotional state.
Cleverly, Final Fantasy 14 then centers its Palace of the Dead optional dungeon upon Edda's descent into madness. Her companions fare poorly in the wake of her mental malaise, and the end result is a harrowing, unexpectedly horrifying ordeal. Edda, we feel for you. But from afar.
9 Terra Branford 🍨
Ask someone their favorite Final Fantasy, and there's a not-inconsiderable chance they'll tell you it's Final Fantasy 6. Thereafter, they may well regale you with the woes of FF6's underrated status, which is increasingly funny to us in a world that seems to have long since accepted it as one of the greats.
Terra Branford, one of the game's central heroines, is just one of many reasons for that reverence. But she's surely a fine reason to cite. We're avoiding too many spoilers in this article, so we'll leave the mystery of her origin carefully omitted just in case, but suffice to say, it's an intriguing backstory. When we meet her in the opening moments of the game, Terra is wearing an item that forces her complete servitude to the villainous Gestahlian Empire; her magical prowess, after all, is unparalleled.
It's Terra's journey of self-discovery, what it means to be a human (and perhaps something more) after a life lived as a tool in the imperial kit, that has endeared a legion of fans to the lass for generations. Some may find her rather heavy-handed inquiries on the true meaning of love a touch on-the-nose, and that's fair, but the beauty of her quest is all in the details.
8 Rydia
Final Fantasy 4 has something of a 1990s Saturday cartoon vibe going on. That's not a bad thing. There were some surprisingly complex cartoons back then, after all, and the quirk is one of FF4's strengths. In the early goings, everyone on hero Cecil's side loses to the villains in one shape or form, or else suffers a sad surprise from elsewhere that puts them out of commission (and off to who-knows-where) until further notice.
Only Rydia, of the summoners' secret village of Mist, changes nearly so much in the interim before the scattered characters' reunions with Cecil. Formerly a child, she returns as a young woman who has experienced far more through her training than linear time would suggest. She's magical, after all, and she quickly proves it with an impressive array of summoned beasts and a noble selflessness to save the world from Golbez and his minions.
7 💃 Edea Kramer ဣ
For a good chunk of Final Fantasy 8's story, Edea Kramer is the antagonist to beat, the woman who pulls the strings that fracture nations. Though she is not the ruler of the Galbadian Empire, Edea essentially commands it from the shadows, and her successes put her on (quite literal) parade.
Players learn quickly enough that we'll go ahead and give it away: Edea is the crestfallen wife of Cid Kramer, who serves as headmaster of the heroes' mercenary trade school, Balamb Garden. What caused her fall from grace, and why she commits some fairly dark acts, is one of FF8's core queries for a fair stretch of the plot.
That's all well and good, but why do we love her so? There's an air of regality to Edea that is singiularly unnerving within the Final Fantasy series. From her pale-painted face and piercing yellow eyes to her.overly graceful motions and the devastating casting of a certain icy spear, Edea is a chilling figure and a solemn reminder of why Final Fantasy 8's inhabitants have such a rich fear of sorceresses. In short, she's got some serious stage presence.
6 🐽Quina Quen
Quina Quen's got stage presence as well, but of an altogether separate sort. Final Fantasy 9 injects a great deal of whimsy into its melancholy narrative, cracking the most jokes in the series along the way. But behind most of that tomfoolery is something deeper, more meaningful, and frequently emotionally tumultuous.
Not Quina, though. No, this lovable goof represents the simpler side of life on Gaia, and it's hard not to salute them for it. They're a traveling chef from a marshy wilderness, the protégé of a hilariously strict master who has instilled in them a serious desire to see the world and sample its every cuisine.
That's it. That's their goal. Let FF9's title screen idle for long enough, and quotes will accompany each of the party members' CG artwork; Quina's is a simple affirmation that they do what they want. Long before 'I do what I want' transformed into odd slang, Quina was representing the mentality full stop, the curious Epicurus of a Renaissance-esque fantasy mishmash, the long-tongued creature featuring foodstuffs galore.
By the way, Quina's a Blue Mage. It learns enemies' abilities by eating them. So, there's that.
5 Y'shtola Rhul
It's an understandable assumption from non-players that Final Fantasy 14 has no set party. It's an MMO, after all, and it actively encourages folks to team up and make their own parties as such. All well and true, but the organization known as the Scions gradually becomes more and more like the protagonist's squad until they're outright available as replacements via the game's Trust System (a term borrowed from a similar mechanic in Final Fantasy 11). At this point, Scions like Y'shtola have been party member choices for solo players for two expansions and counting.
Not that she would need to be a party member to qualify for this list, but we point it out anyway to help instill upon folks who aren't interested in FF14 just how "real Final Fantasy" it feels despite any massively multiplayer trappings. But we digress; what makes Y'shtola so rad? It's all in her calculated coolness, her cunning intuition, and frankly, her outstanding literary genius.
Here is a woman who will read anything, learning more from it than most ever could, and eventually applying that knowledge in the most desperate of moments. She'll do so with a smirk, a wave of her wand, and a spell that will have as much narrative oomph as in-universe power. A particular string of events have made Y'sh, as she's endearingly called, all the more interesting — like a queen among mages, a scholar with the strength to rend realms, but always with the sense that she's a living, breathing person with flaws and foibles all her own.
4 💫 Emet-Selch
There's not much that can be said about Emet-Selch without diving head-first into massive spoilers. He's a notable antagonist in Final Fantasy 14 who does not appear until the Stormblood expansion's post-launch patches, but boy, oh boy, does the mad lad make his presence known from the first.
Emet-Selch is like a more refined, more ambitious, and somehow even more nihilistic Kefka Palazzo; his antics aren't so clownish, but his hand waves possess a flair for entertainment, his goals are about as vast and pointed as anyone's ever could be, and his willingness to end lives to further them is probably unparalleled within Final Fantasy canon.
Again, it's hard to talk about this guy. Final Fantasy 14 fans will simply know. The rest of you, please take our word for it. If Emet-Selch had headlined a single-player installment instead, we're confident he would be the talk of the town in every corner of the JRPG social sphere. As it stands, he's probably content to keep a somewhat lower profile, idolized as a terrific antagonist by a specific subset of us.
3 💎 Aerith Gainsborough ♔
If Emet-Selch's face isn't instantly recognizable to millions upon millions of role-playing game aficionados, Aerith Gainsborough's is surely the inverse. Known throughout the web as 'that gal who gets hurt in that one game', and among JRPG-centric folks in more specified terms, Aerith is a bright light in a dark place, not bubbly so much as inquisitive, not spunky so much as determined, but often characterized in the former terms courtesy of the mask she wears in public to, well, mask her inner turmoil.
Aerith's had a tough life, having lost her mother at a very young age and felt decidedly different ever since. Final Fantasy 7's long-reaching and nefarious mega-corporation, Shinra, wants her for their own power-hungry ends, as she is the last of a race of ancients known as the Cetra and thus holds a closer tie to the planet's will. Depending on which FF7 you're playing, be it the original or Remake, you'll get a different vibe on how much Aerith knows about herself and the shape of things to come, but in either case, she's captivating.
We kind of like Remake's take on her a bit more, to be honest, even if her story beats can be strangely convoluted at times. Here, Aerith is more fully-realized as the kind of person who is sure to cast that aforementioned light on any occasion. She'll party hard, but make it home in time to tend the flowerbed. She'll pray, and then she'll smack a thug on the head with a chair. She's great.
2 Yuna
Final Fantasy 10 takes the melancholy of its immediate predecessor and cranks it to 11. It isn't quite so whimsical as FF9, either, even with some (at times awkward) humor strewn throughout. It's a fairly serious game, and an important chapter. It's also one of the more popular entries around.
Reasons for this are numerous, but chief among them is surely deuteragonist Yuna. The young summoner, with her stoic manner and completely selfless nature, struck a chord with fans from the get-go. The secrets behind the fate she sets off on a Pilgrimage to embrace tears the perception of Tidus, the tale's other hero, in twain. Love him or hate him for his antics and outbursts, it's hard not to feel for him in full when Tidus grasps the severity of Spira's plight and Yuna's duty.
Yuna is thus the cornerstone of Final Fantasy 10's story, the woman who tugs our heartstrings so. Her huge change into a pop star in the direct sequel, the relatively jovial Final Fantasy 10-2, is something of an acquired taste; we feel confident in proclaiming that fewer people adore that outing as the original, but we'd be remiss not to make note that it still has its diehards. Maybe you prefer that Yuna, and we can't deny it demonstrates how much freer Yuna has become in spirit and action.
1 Vivi Ornitier 𓄧
The first thing Final Fantasy fans will notice about FF9's Vivi Ornitier is that he resembles the mysteriously-clad Black Mages of the series' earliest entries. As FF9 is something of a love letter to the games that started it all, this tracks; but what the narrative does with this fact — by making Vivi one of a plethora of sentient doll-like automatons designed for the purpose of warfare, but leaving him isolated from his brethren and enchantingly innocent for it — is the perfect example of what this installment does best. It harmonizes rigid conformations with almost Miyazaki-like playfulness.
That's Vivi in a nutshell, really. His journey through Final Fantasy 9 is the favorite of many fans. The series often centers on the concept of discovering one's true self amid an epic backdrop, and that's a classical literary trope if ever there were one. Literally and figuratively bright-eyed, wielding mighty spells that scare him as much as his enemies, Vivi is adorable and nigh-impossible not to cheer on. He's our pick for the best mage in Final Fantasy.
