Super-delayed reply from the past:
Anyway... as far as FFXII goes, I can't be the only one who wanted Cid to win. The PCs were just hatchetmen for some stupid ghosts what wanted to pull our strings anyway. Cid was trying to right the course of human history. His flaw was that his goals were too damn big.
Yeah, agree, though I think the game did try and let you achieve that? Though it's more nebulous than it should be, it's strongly implied that Ashe's actions on Pharos did screw over whatever the Occuria were planning... hopefully. At the very least the leaders of both nations are resolute on ignoring the Occuria now, rather than running around and being their lackeys.
Anyway...
Final Fantasy Tactics:
Miluda 7/10 - Fits her role in the plot very well, but it's a small one. Nothing wrong with her, just not handing out 8s and above for well-done bit parts.
Wiegraf 8/10 - See AAA, it's a nice warning you may not be on the right side when a "White Knight" is fighting you in Chapter 1. Defeating his rebellion drives him to desperation and dark pacts. I buy it.
Golagros DNR. Miluda is well-done minor, Golgaros exists for too little time.
Algus 9/10 - WTF at low Algus scores. "Animals have no god!" Man, FFT accidentally did have a few great lines in the mush the translators produced. Completely despicable piece of trash and great at it.
Gafgarion 7/10 - Experienced mercenary working for both sides, sure. I like his trickery in his second and especially third battles - the duel with Ramza. He babbles too much about his amoral non-philosophy but whatever it's FFT.
Delita 9/10 - Sure, willing to call him a villain even if he isn't really an antagonist. He does murder some people with much less cause than Ramza. A fine schemer with a basically decent intention behind it. Kinda wish he didn't, along with the rest of the political plot, hit the back burner to some degree in Chapter 4 after you get Orlandu.
Bart DNR - Draclau food.
Cardinal Draclau 5/10 - Generic badguy. Presence points for the transform followed by creepy music, at least.
Zalmo 5/10 - Exists.
Izlude 6/10 - Noble deceived badguy, but dies before he can really have character development. (Which is fine. This needs to happen to some people.)
Barinten 7/10 - The "kill the village of assassins plot and raise their kids" plot has been done a bunch of times before, and doesn't make tons of sense and is kinda lame, but it kinda worked because Barinten struck me as more pathetic. Nice that he's one of the badguys everyone hates and gets a properly horrible fate.
Celia & Lede - 6/10? Entirely presence votes as far as "holy shit they're killing people left and right."
Elmdor 5/10 - Going from saving him to killing him was nice. Hard to say but doesn't seem like much of a villain before he got possessed.
Dycedarg 8/10: Good villain. Ruthless political schemer and all, murders his dad, gets Zalbag to go along with most of his plans, prepares to take power. It would have worked too if it hadn't been for his damn brother, and getting possessed. The fact that he was tricked into it is too bad, I agree, he's cool enough on his own.
High Priest Funeral DNR - Not possessed part of the church getting killed by possessed part of church. Fills his role.
Vormav 7/10? - Slightly biased since I agree with Cranbud, the supernatural plot was in many ways lamer than the political plot and Vormav is the chief of the Zodiac Brave Evil Brigade. On the other hand him murdering everyone in Riovanes gives him presence points, and he feels like a decent threat.
Kletian DNR - Henchman.
Rofel DNR - Henchman.
Balk 4/10 - Weird that Balk of all people got to have a do-over in Hell. He's fundamentally Delita but whinier.
Altima 3/10 - Lumping this in with St. Ajora. I far far preferred what it seemed like the plot was from the Germonik scriptures in Chapter 3 - that Germonik was the "real hero" and Ajora was the person who got all the credit. There'd be a nice parallel between Ramza & Delita, then. But no... Ajora wasn't an opportunist who got executed, but the Devil (or at least possessed by the Devil). And now the Devil's back for revenge and to do EVIL RARGH. (How'd they manage to execute him anyway?!) Yawn. What a letdown for a plot with as many good villains as FFT.
I've issues with FFT's plot - especially in Chapter 3 and 4 - but the characters are overall pretty good.
Not finished FFTA2, so not ranking it.
