LogFAQs > #975429618

10- Kloe

Klaudia is also someone that could be described as a One Game Wonder at this point, too. Because as I have already explained, she already wasn't amazing in SC. How about 3rd? Well, she just sucks here.

The school door is probably the worst one in the game. Though it's not just her fault (also of a certain red-haired troll). But Kloe herself doesn't help it. The point here is that Kloe is feeling guilty about missing the orphanage because, she was a coward at that point? Or I think she hates herself for being an introvert? Honestly I'm still confused, and it felt to me like cheap teenage angst, the kind you desperately want to bury and forget about when you grow up.

I guess a price of showing flashbacks way after you develop characters is the risk of showing worse versions than the audience is used to, but there are good ways to pull that off (just look at the Estelle/Josh door for it).

Ok, what else? She gets nothing in Phantasma. There is also the door with Joshua at the party, which I actually love, though it's more focused on Josh. But Kloe has a great scene in it, where she confesses her love to Josh and catches him completely unprepared. It's amazing how such a great person Kloe has become, compared to how bad she was before.

You know, I'm not gonna knock her for the school door that much. So while she is losing 3 positions, it's to Kevin, Ries and Richard, who all have very good reasons to climb. Kloe is still a sweetheart and one of the reasons FC is great and I love her. Unfortunately I don't see her being very prominent in the series from now on, since she is practically a chief of state now, and the series will now focus on other states.

9- Richard

Alan's story is a tale of two halves. The first is The Tragedy of Richard, which happens in FC, and I've gone over in his last write up. It's a tale of how a decent man, blinded by a cause, and by his low self-esteem, turns into a tyrant. That half alone already makes him a great character. The second half is The Redemption of Richard, and it happens off-screen during SC. We only get to see Richard after he returns, having been given a second chance by the queen, and ready to make the world a better place. There is not much instrospection on that, just Richard saying over and over that he doesn't deserve forgiveness. This continues into Phantasma, where, although I enjoyed playing as Richard, his presence wasn't really necessary. Because again, the redemption already happened, and we just see him being thankful at people for trusting him.

But there is his star door. Where he is allowed to make a speech where he finally reveals how The Redemption of Richard played out. And I love it.

I've gone over how military, at least in my country, tends to be self-centered and believe the world can only function with military logic. Richard's tragedy involved that, thinking that he had to militarize his country and sacrifice its wealth to prepare for war. So his redemption is about contemplating ways the world, and himself, can function otherwise. He then realizes there are so many ways to view things, so many angles, that his worldview was small and puny. In a way, Richard was born again.

So he starts over, and creates the country's first civilian intelligence company, which is useful not just for Liberl's geopolitical position, but is also for its citizens, in ways that look trivial, but matter. This is the series reminding us that not everything is the large scale plot to save the world, there is also the micro worldbuilding, the side quests, the common people's lives. There are the big political questions, but there is also the individual lives, the local matters to solve. Richard grew as a person by finding something that was present in the trilogy's roots. Which is the value of just being a good neighbor, someone who helps their friends and family. It's like the series has gone full circle, starting with Estelle and Josh doing small sidequests for the community, and ending 3 games later with the villain of the first game learning the value in that.

And to top it all, he is still not sure if he made the best call. Which is very realistic, because we never are in real life.

I'm just amazed at how good of a character writing this guy has, and he's just not higher because it's sadly confined to a single door.

8- Ries

This was the pleasant surprise of the game.

Ries is first introduced as the stoic counterpart to Kevin's jokester self. He's laidback, but she takes no bullshit. Unless there is food involved, where she almost becomes as silly as Estelle. I liked the characterization already. Plus she is a nun who fights with a steampunk drone greatsword, really, how cool is that?

Where she really shines is when Kevin falls, though. Because at the other side of the stoicness, the game reveals very emotional, and raw, person. Someone who cries, who says what she means, who loves and suffers for other people. She is honest in her stoicness, but also in her emotion. She is also almost as good at reading people as Kevin is, but she usually defeats Kevin in their interactions because she is also at peace with herself, something Kevin absolutely is not.

While Kevin buried all his feelings inside and suffered in silence, Ries likely cried when Rufina died. And grieved. And eventually moved on, and went to become a better version of herself. So when she meets Kevin again, she is in a good position to help him, having already helped herself. I absolutely love the scene where Kevin finally reveals he killed her sister, and she never, not even once, blames him for it, instead being angry at him for suffering alone. It's so easy for stories like this to add an entire arc where Ries would be mad, but this game doesn't fall to that trap.

And then she just supports him, over and over, until the end. She jumps into hell so he doesn't have to go there. She asks to help him shoot her sister the second time, so he doesn't have to do it alone again. Ries is what every person in the Earth should have. A support net, someone who helps you just because they love you, whether it's romantic or not. A family.

Ries has one minor issue, in that she doesn't really get any character development. She exists to be part of Kevin's arc. Which personally I don't mind, since I don't believe every character necessarily needs to change in a story, but some people got that and they are even better for it. Ries, like I said before, is someone who is just at peace with herself, and she works better because of that.

High Tier

8- Ries
9- Richard
10- Kloe
11- Nial
12- Anelace
13- Tita
14- Zin

Mid Tier

15- Scherazard
16- Dorothy
17- Campanella
18- Gilbert
19- Cassius
20- Dunan
21- Mogran
22- Aina
23- Kilika
24- Amalthea
25- Loewe
26- Julia
27- Maybelle
28- The Ravens
29- Osborne

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

Unranked
(previous rankings)

(God Tier)

(1) Estelle
(2) Olivier

(Very High Tier)

(3) Renne
(4) Agate
(5) Joshua
(6) Weissmann
(8) Kevin