I feel like I would enjoy this game more if Vivi was the main character....

[sleepassist]

I couldn't finish 9 when it originally came out, I didn't mind the kinda lighter tone when compared to 7 or 8 but something just did not click with me. So I've been trying to replay this and it's going okay. Though, I think I realized probably the biggest thing I can't really get into is...Zidane. He just doesn't feel like a main character. Maybe this will change - I'm near the end of Disc 2. Though I just feel like SE should've had the focus on Vivi. His relationship with the Black Mages and the prejudice he experiences when coming into new towns is far more interesting than anything I've seen with the thief so far.

Zidane is just meh.

[NBOX21]

Oh, believe me, when you reach the end of disc 3 (I won't spoil it) Zidane changes a lot, you really find out more about him and you'll understand why he's the main character by then. That's not to say that Zidane has nothing interesting early on either, just that he becomes a lot more interesting as a character near the end.

[solomon_pale]

Yeah, not only does Zidane have his own character arc, but the major themes of the game center around who Zidane is and how he changes the other characters in the party -- really excellent writing.

[CrescentMouse]

Originally posted by sleepassist:

I couldn't finish 9 when it originally came out, I didn't mind the kinda lighter tone when compared to 7 or 8 but something just did not click with me. So I've been trying to replay this and it's going okay. Though, I think I realized probably the biggest thing I can't really get into is...Zidane. He just doesn't feel like a main character. Maybe this will change - I'm near the end of Disc 2. Though I just feel like SE should've had the focus on Vivi. His relationship with the Black Mages and the prejudice he experiences when coming into new towns is far more interesting than anything I've seen with the thief so far.

Zidane is just meh.

And of course. Vivi does become pretty huge in the store. I think of the recruitable characters are pretty big parts except like, Quina, and Amarok. But they all have their own arcs. And play big parts, especially Zidane and Vivi

[Emerald Lance]

In-universe, Zidane prefers helping other people with their problems rather than deal with his own. Because reasons. "You don't need a reason to help someone" and all that. It isn't apparent at first, but Zidane gets some interesting character study moments in the later parts of the game. Similar to Cloud and his Zack-related identity crisis or Squall and his fear of dependance (both giving and receiving). It takes a little time, but Zidane becomes interesting as the plot progresses.

[Mathias T.S | Wrathspawn]

But what if instead of Vivi as main character we could get a FFXVI inspired by the style of IX
with main characters like a new black mage, knight and a thief. I've just recently made fan art for my take on a FFXVI main character based on an idea of a mix between Zidane and Squall meaning brown haired with a scar and a tail and thin.

https://www.deviantart.com/mathiasts/art/Danton-Tribute-to-FFXVI-main-character-fan-art-847102028

[CrescentMouse]

Originally posted by Mathias T.S | Wrathspawn:

But what if instead of Vivi as main character we could get a FFXVI inspired by the style of IX
with main characters like a new black mage, knight and a thief. I've just recently made fan art for my take on a FFXVI main character based on an idea of a mix between Zidane and Squall meaning brown haired with a scar and a tail and thin.

https://www.deviantart.com/mathiasts/art/Danton-Tribute-to-FFXVI-main-character-fan-art-847102028

That would be pretty cool. I'd be fine with a blackmage or whitemage as the main character. But what I truly want is another Final Fantasy Tactics

[hawley.kevin]

i refuse to play the end game..... so sad

[Xengre]

What the first two posts covered basically answered Zidane's part. Zidane has a lot throughout the game but is never an excessive focus. He gets some on/off focus throughout the story but character attention is a lot more balanced than in other JRPGs for the cast including side characters, at a bit of an expense to Zidane at times, or at least the approach as he gets it but it isn't THE focus.

Vivi gets a lot and will get more attention going forward. He, and the black mages (and another group, which tie into Zidane's big arc later on and the black mages in a really cool way) and Vivi's ending as well as his side stuff to his prior father-like figure... are all excellent. Vivi is a really good character, and also really strong making him even more popular (the strongest in fact as the best healer in the game via shadow dmg Doomsday absorb, and able to do 9999 to anything from end of Disc 1 onwards due to broken reflect even killing end game Grand Dragons before end of disc 1 for uber exp/ap/money).

Some of the other cast are solid but several are really underutilized. Quina and Amarant go no where. Freya is quite interesting until she falls off the face of the Earth and is never again utilized, ever (why??? tho it seems obvious there are chunks of missing content on the western and parts of the north eastern continent and entire relationship arcs such as with Freya's lover that it may just be cut content).

You may see and appreciate Zidane in a different perspective if you ever replay the game after finishing it, but he might not seem appealing in your case until his big arc near the end. FFXII, be warned, is even worse in this regard and officially has no main character, and the character you primarily start as and potentially play is among the least important of the cast.

[CrescentMouse]

I came back to say that while Zidane is a pretty good main character in this, I would have loved if Freya was, or perhaps a side game where Freya is. It's just quite lame how such an interesting character is just done so quickly.