Rank Characters based on In Game Use: Reboot!

[Meeplelard]

Just wanna note about Zidane's success rates on Steal:

With Bandit, he will never fail the "success vs. fail" check based on level.  Mind you, FF9 has other ways you can "fail" and Bandit mostly just rules out one possibility.

The "Common" steal has 100% chance of success, but also lowest priority.  In that the game checks all the rarer steals first, and you get the Common if all other 3 fail.  So Zidane's first attempt is practically 100% from what I recall, regardless.

The 2nd slot is also pretty good odds; not insured, but doesn't take too long; I think its roughly 50%?  yeah, still reasonable, and if you get the "Uncommon" slot on your first attempt (happens frequently, but not a given), then the 2nd steal WILL succeed as it'll just be the Common at worst.

The 3rd slot is where things get tricky, as this is where Fail rates start becoming noteworthy to the point of "Is the reward worth it?".  The 4th Slot is "Forget about it, unless you have Master Thief", really (Master Thief raises the odds of the 3rd and 4th slot items notably.)  Note the game has a flat success/fail rate based on what slot you're aiming for, so regardless of what you're using, it'll never be above that rate (Master Thief raises those odds of success.)  Again, Bandit just rules out the Level Check or whatever, minimizing the # of checks needed for success, since one is already a given.
Its kind of like FF6's "Steal from a rare Slot with no Common" scenario, except with multiple slots in the mix.

Now, granted, the GOOD stuff you get from bosses is usually that 3rd Slot; rarely, its the 4th slot and that's when the game is just mocking you relentlessly.

I would like to note this too, since its tangentially related:

I'm seeing *A LOT* of Freya hype here based off Dragon Crest.  The ONLY way she gets Dragon Crest, I believe, on Disc 3 is through Steal against Ark, and its *NOT* a common steal, via that Holy Lance.  If you fail to get this, Freya can't get Holy Lance until Bran Bal.

Freya's Best weapon after Holy Lance on Disc 3, unless you do a lot of Chocoboing, is rather pathetic.  Her Ultimate is also barely above Zidane's Orihalcon too, a weapon he can nab via stealing on Disc 3 (and IIRC, the boss has defensive style fighting poses giving you "free" opportunities to steal, since he's not taking enough damage to merit attacking.  Contrast to Ark whose a genuine threat the entire fight.)

Basically...I can't buy Dragon Crest as a reason to hype Freya; its gotten for the latter half of Disc 3 only *AND* worth noting its not as easy to build as people are making it out to be.   It takes 100 Dragons for 9999.  Sounds cool and easy right?  Means it must be easy to build!
Not until you remember that half way is only 1/4th the damage.  As in, after 50 Dragons, its only 2500, and you shouldn't have problems doing that much damage Mid-Disc 3.  And 50 Dragons REQUIRES Grinding; if you've ever tried Dragon Crest in game without actually hunting Dragons, you'd know that the move is absolutely pathetic.

Should also note that people hyping Freya as being a better physicaller than Zidane need to actually reference weapons; you'll note that Freya's only real win is during the Holy Lance phase (see above), and KIND of when she gets Partisan (25 vs. 24 on Zidane's The Ogre), and even then, Zidane's stat edge probably offsets it (I think this is still a point where Zidane's Spirit > His Strength, so the Spirit based Thief Weapons are actually beneficial to him here.)  I guess if you really like Chocoboing, Dragon Hair can be gotten really early (as early as you have access to the Airship), though if that were the case, that pretty much solidifies you having Ultima Weapon for Zidane, and then he's kind of crushing Freya A LOT in the Final Dungeon.

[Ultradude]

Final Fantasy 9:
Zidane Tribal: 7/10 - Steals a few really awesome things, easy to twink for solid consistent damage, and his Trances waste bosses.
Cinna: Abs.
Blank: Abs.
Marcus: Abs.
Vivi Ornitier: 4.5/10 - Has a few points in the game where he stands out, but not all that great otherwise.
Adelbert Steiner: 7.5/10 - Effortlessly crushes things. The crushing thing is all he does though, and he's not around quite enough.
Garnet "Dagger" Til Alexandros: 7/10 - Loses a point, point and a half due to that one certain part. Your healer for the whole game otherwise, and easy to smash things with later on.
Freya Crescent: 3.5/10 - Well she has... White Draw. Reis' Wind isn't bad. Generally just... a total warm body though.
Quina Quen: 5/10 - It'd be closer to an 8 in most other FFs, only losing those points for inconsistency and having to hunt down the right enemies. As it stands... very, very rarely did I use status effects, and buffs never last long enough. Frog Drop is a redeeming factor if you're patient though, and the HP is nice.
Beatrix: DNR
Eiko Carol: 7/10 - The same as Garnet sounds about right - generally not terribly different, aside from Double Holy, doesn't have crappy portion, but not around as often.
Armarant Coral: 5.5/10 - Throws and Chakra are something.

[SnowFire]

I did very little Chocobo Hot & Cold in FF9 and generally beat the snot out of enemies rather than try out some of the fancier skillset options, for reference.  (Z/S/F/E final party.)

Final Fantasy 9:
Zidane Tribal: 5/10.  He was okay and did surprisingly decent damage for a thief type.  And sure, you COULD get amazing stuff from Steal if you're patient, but damn does the implementation of Steal in FF9 fail.  Oh well.
Cinna, Blank, Marcus: DNR.
Vivi Ornitier: 3/10.  Too.  Dang.  Frail.  Bad combo with Focus.
Adelbert Steiner: 7/10.  For all his plot antihype...  the man.  Especially once he gets the "use MP to power up physicals" ability of broken.  Pretty much a spam regular physical for huge damage guy.
Garnet "Dagger" Til Alexandros: 7/10, but I'm not really holding the "Dagger can't concentrate!" part against her.  IIRC you've got split teams where you're forced to use everyone, so the proper comparison is her vs. nothing. 
Freya Crescent: 6/10.  A Steiner clone but with some lag on jump early in the game.  Still quite good.
Quina Quen: 3/10.  Theoretical use I'm sure but I did not bother with Blue Magic in FF9.
Beatrix: DNR.
Eiko Carol: 7/10.  But she's a better 7 than Garnet by endgame.  I felt that Eiko's summons and skillset were definitely better, and became more so as the game went on.  Full-Life is the obvious one, but Phoenix is also great, and Double White is a way more useful trance ability than Eidolon.  It can save your butt vs. Necron with doubled Full-Lifes, or Full-Life and healing, or just plain Holy spam if nothing else needs doing.  She does take awhile to get there, though, as early Disc 3 Eiko isn't quite as impressive, hence the same score as Garnet.  Not that there's anything wrong with Garnet - I'd just use Garnet more as an attack mage who happens to be able to heal by Disc 4 (and poor Vivi warms the bench), while Eiko is your premier healer.
Armarant Coral: 4/10.  Er.  Nothing BAD about Amarant and less annoying to power up than Quina, but not statistically amazing, and generally competes with Zidane.

[Clear Tranquil]

Yeah I'm never quite sure what to do about FFIX. Take chocoboing/twinking into account, leave it out or go halfways. I settled for halfways this time.

I agree with you about Eiko Snowfire, I just feel that she's definitely the better White Mage and choice for bosses especially if you haven't been sidequesting where as pointed out non Holy Double White sees use too. With twinking fully taken into account it's harder to draw the line but again I'd probably give the edge to Eiko for bosses/Ozma due to holy weakness, Phoenix and Marcus abuse for stats (I believe high Spirit also effects the duration of buffs/healing in this game too though I could be wrong there) However Dagger is great for randoms with Atomos and Odin so yeah they're both really good =-) Eiko also has some fun stuff she can do I think midgame with Vivi + Black Magic + Carbuncle + Reflect Null too irrc.

Technically I think Quina's supposed to be the best character in the game though but she/he/it is FAQ bait for that? I dunno~

[Meeplelard]

Final Fantasy 9:
Zidane Tribal: 5.5/10.  I find it insulting that people are calling Steiner and Freya these PHYSICAL DAMAGE GODDESSES when Zidane is at many points better than Steiner, and as I showed, beats Freya at just about EVERY point in the game sans the small stretch with Holy Lance.  No, "If you're behind on Synthing, she's better!" is not an argument, as everything Zidane gets that's synth related is storebought.  Its not even a close match for a good deal of the game too.  Granted, being FF9, he's replace-able endgame cause everyone functions similarly.
Cinna: DNR.  Around too short to care.
Blank: DNR. Ditto!
Marcus: 4/10.  Warm Body who exists so Steiner isn't your only damage dealer with Dagger.  He's fine for that.
Vivi Ornitier: 5/10.  There's stretches of the game where he dominates...and then stretches where he does similar damage to fighters but costs more MP, and has less HP, thereby worse by definition. 
Adelbert Steiner: 5.5/10.  His durability hype is a bit baffling cause outside of Tin ARmor which is late, the defensive differences in FF9 aren't big, and he's often underleveled due to not existing for the 2nd half of Disc 1 and most of Disc 2, so his HP isn't as high as it should be.  He does good damage though. I will note that most of his skillset is shit.  Charge! requires a team of near dead characters, and you need multiple Fighters for it to be worth something, Iai Strike never hits, Dark Side is usually weaker than MP Attack Physicals (MP Attack is 1.5x damage, Darkside is 1.4x, IIRC), Minus Strike will practically never be in a scenario where it beats his Physical.  Not sure I can hype his late gotten stuff since it requires his high end weapons which means he's chugging out that level of damage with his physical anyway.  Climhazzard being MT COULD have been good, but like FF3DS, most things late game are of the  "Solo but Durable" style randoms.
Garnet "Dagger" Til Alexandros: 7/10.  First off, lacking Full-life is a minor flaw; Concentrate + Life = 70% Resurrection, which is more than enough and it costs 1/3rd the MP as Full-life.  Clearly better on Randoms due to variety of weaknesses she can hit (just about everything in the Final Dungeon is weak to Lightning *OR* Ice, meaning Shiva/Ramuh are hitting shit load of weaknesses for a modest MP cost), functions just as well on bosses, and better HP than Eiko, she's the better healer as a result.
Freya Crescent: 5/10.  Worse than Zidane at everything for most of the game barring HP when she gets HP+10% (otherwise, he beats her), tries to make up for it with stuff like White Draw and Reis' Wind, but the latter doesn't last long enough, and MP issues in FF9 aren't as prevalent and White Draw's nature is random so its not something to rely on.  Dragon Hair being gotten early is cool, except it'll last you for literally 2 dungeons before other characters get better stuff (Read: Ultima Weapon on Zidane); yes, its around for 3, but one of them is Ipsen's Castle, a dungeon where strong weapons are completely USELESS (Zidane beats Freya here anyway, as his weapons are weaker.)  Dragon Crest is laughable hype cause it requires a good amount of grinding for an ability that'll barely outdamage what many other characters can do with little grinding, and its gotten late anyway.   Not to mention Freya's got a good deal of availability issues against her (being absent for almost all of Disc 2 comes to mind)
Quina Quen: 3/10.  Most of his/her skills are gimmicky and only see real use in LLGs.  White Wind isn't quite enough healing, Limit Glove never really kicks in ever, Frog Drop requires actual time wasting to see use, stuff like Earthshake isn't quite strong enough...and on top of all that, s/he's a pain in the ass to use.
Beatrix: DNR.  She kicks ass sure, but she's around for one moment that's too brief, and the other is tailored specifically so she kicks ass to help Steiner catch up in levels some, so yeah, no.
Eiko Carol: 6.5/10.  Worse HP, slower, and less skills learned than Dagger hold her back.  Her support spells are useless mind.  Phoenix is cool, but not reliable, Reflect is quite possibly the most useless ability in the game; on enemies it SHOULD help against, they usually have AI set to just mock it outright (Kuja gets FLAT OUT BETTER if you cast Reflect)  Oh, the Vivi Trick is kind of useless; yes, doubling Vivi's damage is good...except that it requires a turn to set up, that could have been used to do damage outright, which makes the set up kind of meaningless.  Oh yeah, buffs don't nearly last long enough in this game, so using her as a buff character kind of sucks.  THAT SAID...she's still good at what she does.
Armarant Coral: 5/10.  Aura's cool for Auto-life, good damage on bosses, Chakra's not halfbad back up healing but otherwise he's a late joining PC with no real special factors.

Phantasy Star 4:
Chaz Ashley: 7/10.  Solid throughout the game, with a weak start and a strong finish...yeah, this works.
Alys Bragwin: 6/10.  Starts off overpowered, but felt like that tapers off late, and even the MT Physical didn't do much.  Buffs are cool, but Rika gets them halfway into Alys' time and uses them about as well anyway.
Hahn Mahlay: 3/10.  Extra Healing Battery!  Also good for the Tri-blaster combo!  Yeah, that's about all he's good for.
Rune Walsh: 5/10.  Good cannon and good tank early on when dual shields = lul damage.  Thing is, lots of characters have offense, and other things like healing, something Rune kind of lacks.
Gryz: 3/10.  INSTANT DEATH AND MT DAMAGE! ...wait...
Rika: 9/10.  MVP?  Yeah, definitely.  2 Buffs that you'll pretty much always use on bosses, your best healer whenever Raja isn't around, and good offense that doesn't even conflict with said healing, albeit, the offense is a bit lower than I'd like, but its adequate enough that it works.  Oh yeah, she's fast too! 
Demi: 4/10.  Never really saw a point; she's Proto-Wren at first, then she rejoins, and...eh, Medica feels like it should be better than it is, lack of magic durability makes her an actual liability against PD, inability to be hit by Nasar offsets the Repair Kit argument, and she feels kind of worthless for randoms on the way there, due to lacking any form of decent RESERVE damage.
Wren: 7/10.  Ok, that's more like it!  Tanks like crazy, free MT damage is cool, kills mechs with Spark, tanks really well, keeps self alive when others cannot, is a tank, passable offense for bosses...did I mention he's also a tank?
Raja: 6/10.  UNLIMITED HEALING!!!  This is awesome, but availability + Potential durability woes and being slow making him worthless for random encounters hold him back some.
Kyra Tierny: 6.5/10.  Almost as much healing as Raja, with actual speed and better durability!  She's got more than enough in terms of battery power and brings along other things to round herself out, contrast to Raja whose more just "Overkill" in reserves with little else.  Yes, Raja does more damage on Profound Darkness and better damage on randoms in the final dungeon, but Kyra can actually get turns on randoms so I'm not totally sold on Raja being better here.
Seth: DNR.  Around for too brief a stint to rank.

[OblivionKnight]

Doesn't state we need to provide reasons, so just ask if you want them added.  2 weeks behind yay.


Zidane Tribal: 6.9/10
Cinna: 0.1/10
Blank: 1.7/10
Marcus: 4.3/10
Vivi Ornitier: 5.1/10
Adelbert Steiner: 6.9/10
Garnet "Dagger" Til Alexandros: 7.4/10
Freya Crescent: 6.9/10
Quina Quen: 8.5/10
Beatrix: 10/10
Eiko Carol: 6.1/10
Armarant Coral: 6.9/10


Chaz Ashley: 6.8/10
Alys Bragwin: 7.0/10
Hahn Mahlay: 4.8/10
Rune Walsh: 8/10
Gryz: 2.9/10
Rika: 8.7/10
Demi: 4.9/10
Wren: 8/10
Raja: 8.3/10
Kyra Tierny: 6.4/10
Seth: 7.5/10

[DjinnAndTonic]

Final Fantasy 9:
Zidane Tribal: 6.5/10
Cinna: 1/10
Blank: 2/10
Marcus: 2/10
Vivi Ornitier: 6/10
Adelbert Steiner: 5.5/10
Garnet "Dagger" Til Alexandros: 8/10
Freya Crescent: 6/10
Quina Quen: 5/10
Beatrix: 7/10
Eiko Carol: 7.5/10
Armarant Coral: 5.5/10

Phantasy Star 4:
Chaz Ashley: 6/10
Alys Bragwin: 5/10
Hahn Mahlay: 5/10
Rune Walsh: 6/10
Gryz: 4/10
Rika: 8/10
Demi: 7.5/10
Wren: 7.5/10
Raja: 7/10
Kyra Tierny: 6.5/10
Seth: 3/10

[Dhyerwolf]

Final Fantasy 9:

All rankings within half a point of mine for fairly similar reasons! Guess that's not completely shocking, but FF 9 seems like it's getting a fairly wide variance for characters.

[Meeplelard]

Final Fantasy 9:
Zidane Tribal: 5.86
Cinna: N/A
Blank: N/A
Marcus: 3.16
Vivi Ornitier: 4.64
Adelbert Steiner: 6.63
Garnet "Dagger" Til Alexandros: 6.92
Freya Crescent: 5.47
Quina Quen: 5.08
Beatrix: N/A
Eiko Carol: 6.48
Armarant Coral: 4.88

Phantasy Star 4:
Chaz Ashley: 6.07
Alys Bragwin: 6.48
Hahn Mahlay: 3.94
Rune Walsh: 7.09
Gryz: 3.17
Rika: 8.52
Demi: 6.08
Wren: 7.91
Raja: 6.80
Kyra Tierny: 5.95
Seth: 4.90

Best Rating of this Session: Rika w/ 8.52
Worst Rating of this Session: Marcus w/ 3.16
Beatrix, Cinna and Blank all got DNR'd and thus booted! Worth noting that Seth VERY BARELY avoided being DNR'd.  If he got one more DNR, or one of the raters changed to "Abstain", he would have been punted!

Top 10 Ratings:
1. Yuna (FFX) 9.80
2. Yuri Volte Hyuga (SH1) 9.53
3. Hyuga "Citan Uzuki" Ricdeau (XG) 9.46
4. Cecilia Lynn Adlehyde (WA1) 9.20
5. Haar (FE10) 9.17
6. Reyson (FE10) 9.11
7. Lenneth Valkyrie (VP(:L)) 9.02
8. Ephraim (FE8) 9.01
9. Elincia (FE10) 8.85
10. Tibarn (FE10) 8.83

Top 10 Failures:
1. Karla (FE7) 0.77
2. Chu-chu (XG) 0.85
3. Maria Balthasar (XG) 1.00
4. Douglas (FE6) 1.10
5. Astrid (FE10) 1.20
6. Lyre (FE10) 1.28
7. Yunno (FE6) 1.35
8. Garret (FE6) 1.36
9. Mogu (BoF) 1.50
10. Noel Chandler (SO2) 1.55

And now we start another large cast!  This one we'll be getting through much faster than FE, and its much smaller cause its ONE GAME rather than 5, so it shouldn't be that overwhelming!

...that said...

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv:
Yangus:
Jessica:
Angelo:
Charmles:

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge:
Pip:
Doc:
Starky:
Riddel:
Steena:

NOTE: "Lynx" is to be considered equivalent to Serge here; while I know there are differences (and he's technically Black) the nature of the character is basically just one character who undergoes a (temporary) gameplay shift  rather than a genuine character change, so yeah.  We are NOT rating Lynx separately from Serge, IOWs.

[Random Consonant]

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: He's alright.  Nothing too special until the Mastermune, but alright.  6.5/10
Pip: No.  1/10
Doc: eh CC filler. 3/10
Starky: Abstain, never used.
Riddel: Game best magic or something.  3/10
Steena: eh CC filler.  3/10

[Luther Lansfeld]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 8/10. Quite good.
Yangus: 4/10. He has his good points but really falls off as the game goes on.
Jessica: 8.5/10. Offensive powerhouse.
Angelo: 6/10. He... is pretty bad at points but Multiheal rocks.
Charmles: DNR. *smacks Meeple*

[DjinnAndTonic]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 8 - Always useful, has some good builds. Never breaks the game easily, but there's twinking potential with Call Team.
Yangus: 5 - Good early on, but tapers off quickly. Still, has his uses.
Jessica: 8.5 - Kinda broken, but not quite a 9.
Angelo: 6.5 - Would be a 7, but there are times when he feels like a liability.
Charmles: Abstain?

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 7 - Always available, always useful. Never misses out on power-ups, good Element Grid, and his techs are generally solid. Also, obvious choice for a Saints summoner, and Saints was always my fallback strategy for anything difficult in lategame CC. Has a unique weapon, so he's not edging out other PC options either. Also has double techs for people that liked to abuse those early on.
Pip: 2 - Point for innate color flexibility, but his stats are so bad and he glitches up if you're not careful.
Doc: 2 - Didn't really use him, and why would you when you have Serge for your white-innate when he's around? Redundant and his techs don't bring anything to the table.
Starky: 4 - Not entirely redundant since Serge is a Black-innate when you get him! That aside, he doesn't bring much to the table and his weapon-type overlaps with Norris', causing you to generally pick one or the other.
Riddel: 4 - A better option than Starky in my opinion, though the durability is frightening. Her element grid could have been bigger since she's so obviously designed to be a mage. Good techs for her purposes though.
Steena: 4 - Best stats for another White-innate, but she's such a late-joiner and Serge's return to being a white-innate makes her kinda redundant.

[jsh357]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 8/10
Solid overall, has lots of neat tricks and all of his builds are generally useful.  He's a Dragon Quest hero.

Yangus: 6/10
Weakest link, although he carries you through the beginning of the game pretty handily.  I like having him as the lead character so he soaks up a bit more damage, and he's ok at that.  Executioner is great for grinding.

Jessica: 8/10
Late-game damage cannon.  Durability hurts her some early on, but it's never too huge of an issue.  Getting the best whip is a whore and a half.

Angelo: 7/10
Slightly more useful than Yangus since he has great healing/support magic.  Bows are fun, and Sarcastic Snigger makes the pirate boss pretty painless.  He gets some other shut-down spells too.  Good character, reminds me of Billy Black in Xenogears.


Charmles: 1/10
Lawl

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 10/10
Not sure what game you guys are playing, but Serge godstomps the entire game for me, and you're forced to use him so it's very noticeable.  Mastermune is icing on the cake.  I could be thrown off by the fact that CC is so darn easy, but yeah.  Kills things dead.

Pip: 3/10
Too gimmicky to bother with, but you can use pretty much anyone anyway.

Doc: Never used him

Starky: 7/10
He's good, but overshadowed by Serge later on.  Automatic access to the Plasma Gun or whatever makes him very powerful for a short stretch of the game. 

Riddel: Only used her against Dario, can't remember why

Steena: Who dat

[Rozalia]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 9/10 - Don't know why people always downplay Call team. You can have team golom around half way through the game and Mazan demolishes everything, including bosses for a long time.
Yangus: 6/10 - He hits stuff and thats all he does. Helm breaker is a good skill but beyond that meh.
Jessica: 9/10 - Twin dragon whip is one hell of an awesome attack that lasts the whole game. Her magic felt somewhat unneeded for most of the game due to it.
Angelo: 9/10 - Healing and revival, especially MT healing are godsends. His damage isn't too bad either.
Charmles: 1/10 - Hey he doesn't take a slot so that 1 damage he does is an extra 1 damage you wouldn't have done without him. That 1 damage might be the boost you need to kill the lizard.

[Taishyr]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 8.5/10. Boomerangs, various options, good healing, Call Team. Yeah, solid.
Yangus: 4/10. He was a liability even early for me. Just... not good.
Jessica: 8.5/10. Fast mage with physical damage? Sign me up.
Angelo: 6/10. Durability issues, slow start.
Charmles: 0/10. No, sorry, not giving him even the dignity of a 1.

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 8/10. Feels like one of the few cast standouts? Granted, the cast's generic, so.
Pip: 1/10 - GLITCHY FUN TIMES WOO no
Doc: 2/10 - WOO DOC
Starky: 5/10 - Averagish alien.
Riddel: 5/10 - Mage that fails to impress so much. On the other hand her crappy durability does get missed by the bosses, I forgot that.
Steena: 2.5/10 - Availability bites.

[superaielman]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv:- 9/10. Can get Omniheal stupidly early and has Call Team.
Yangus: 4/10. Generally bad, but he at least has a solid beginning.
Jessica: 8/10. TDL is nice.
Angelo: 4.5/10. Sucks until late, sadly. Buffs aren't nearly as powerful as they were in older games, which is definitely a point against him.
Charmles: DNR. Is not a PC.

[VySaika]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 9/10. Yeah, Guv does just about everything and does it well. And that's before Call Team. Considering giving him a 10 but balking at it for reasons I can't quite put into words.
Yangus: 4/10. Definately the LVP of the cast, though he's got his uses. Considering how DQ8 boss hp can get, having someone who just chips in with some extra slugging power every round, even if it's not quite what the others can pull off, is useful.
Jessica: 8/10. Durability woes and a lack of healing keep her from being Guv's equal in my eyes. Still quite good.
Angelo: 7/10. Was the lategame MVP for me, because I'm paranoid about wasting resources in long dungeons, and at that point he'd regen 10mp per shot with Seraph Shot, which is enough to power Multiheal, which was enough to keep my team chugging along at near full health always. Takes forever to get good, though, so he doesn't get the same score as Jess who's good for a much longer period.
Charmles: DNR/10.

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 8/10. Highest I can give any CC character, really. If his 7th level tech was worth anything, he might make a nine, but as is, he falls just short. Still splatters everything, especially after getting the mastermune. Serge is a beast.
Pip: 4/10. Points for having potential to be interesting. Loss of points for being a pain in the ass to see that potential. Evens out to a below average PC.
Doc: 4/10. Eh, CC scrub.
Starky: 4/10. Eh, CC scrub.
Riddel: 6/10. The mage potential is there, and I'll give her credit for it.
Steena: 5/10. Feels better then Doc and Starky, so a 5 it is.

[SnowFire]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King
Guv: 7/10.  Boomerangs, Omniheal, transit magic, good ST damage later on, eventually Gigagash?  Not really broken but certainly very solid.
Yangus: 3/10.  Has HP and damage early, but eventually that just becomes HP.  Definitely LVP, but hey, actions are valuable, he can still beat the Timbrel of Tension every round in the aftergame.
Jessica: 8/10.  Definite MVP.  Best damage, can use MT magic, even has some healing and Kazing late.  Accelerate (& sometimes Insulate) is mandatory in a lot of battles as usual.
Angelo: 6/10.  Ah if only he had more skill points.  Still, even though he's not great by DQ series standards, he doesn't have to compete against them, and he's still pretty darn necessary in-game.  You take what healers you can get, especially since Guv's Omniheal is kinda MP intensive and Jess's Caduceus is ST.  Has random utility use too.
Charmles: DNR

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 8/10 sure beats stuff up but is one of the best characters at doing so.
Scrubs: 3/10 didn't seem too interesting or memorable and didn't mess with them much, exception of course being Riddel for the damn Dario battle where she dies constantly.

[OblivionKnight]

Guv: 9/10
Yangus: 5.9/10
Jessica: 9.3/10
Angelo: 8.7/10
Charmles: 0.1/10

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 9/10
Pip: 4.4/10
Doc: 5.1/10
Starky: 6/10
Riddel: 6.8/10
Steena: 5.1/10

[Dark Holy Elf]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 8/10. Versatile. Wants a bit more speed though.
Yangus: 3.5/10. Pretty good early but it doesn't last, takes over the titles of worst damage and worst speed quickly enough.
Jessica: 8.5/10. Fast/has all types of offence/you need Accel.
Angelo: 6.5/10. Only really good for a short stretch midgame where he has Multiheal and Omniheal is either not yet gotten/too expensive. But he's damn good then.
Charmles: DNR

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 7.5/10. He's terrific after Mastermune, but merely decent before then. Still, good enough for CC MVP hype. CC is a cookie-cutter game that does not deserve scores above 7.5, however.
Pip: 3/10. I want to give him a 1 but he has potential.
Doc: 2/10. Stats really failed to impress.
Starky: 3.5/10. Same here, but they're better at least.
Riddel: 6/10. Game-best mage, and that does mean something. Almost no bosses after she joins hit pdef so I never had any problems with her on-paper durability (mdur is fine).
Steena: 6/10. Pretty much a Serge clone without the Mastermune. This is quite workable, and there's nothing wrong at all with doubling up on elements due to how it affects the field.

EDIT: Actually, extending that rant a bit, mostly to Djinn. You say that white PCs are better when Lynx is around, I say this is totally false, due to how the CC field works. Having both Lynx and a white PC means both are crippling each other's special attacks. Additionally, most of the best bosses you face when you have Lynx (Garai, Miguel, Sky Dragon) are white, so using a white PC is helping out the boss unless you just have them toss non-white healing spells around.

[alanna82]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 8
Yangus: 6
Jessica: 8
Angelo: 8
Charmles: LOL (DNR)

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 10 Yeah, best character in the game. Except Harle, but she doesnt count.
Pip: 5- glitchy, but he can get massive amounts of slots with a glitch!
Doc: 3- Meh, at least his final tech is nice
Starky: 7- Best not Serge white
Riddel: 7- Game best magic stat
Steena: 5- average
 

[DjinnAndTonic]

EDIT: Actually, extending that rant a bit, mostly to Djinn. You say that white PCs are better when Lynx is around, I say this is totally false, due to how the CC field works. Having both Lynx and a white PC means both are crippling each other's special attacks. Additionally, most of the best bosses you face when you have Lynx (Garai, Miguel, Sky Dragon) are white, so using a white PC is helping out the boss unless you just have them toss non-white healing spells around.

I used White-innates against them because they tended to use MT White damage that KO'd Lynx and sometimes KO'd whoever else I had. White-innates were the only ones who tended to survive, thus making them useful. Starky and Steena get my hype for having decent physical stats, so they get some damage in before firing off some healing/revival.

Also, Randoms exist and it always felt like a good idea not to double up on innate colors so you could hit more weaknesses. Though I can see how having 3 White-innates dominating the field could work too. Just seemed like a bad strategy since you'd inevitably run into a troublesome White- or Black-innate group of randoms.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Randoms may as well not exist in CC. >_>

[Cmdr_King]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 7/10.  I like Zap as a relatively neutral crowd control, and Omniheal is great, but costly, and he never really feels dominant.
Yangus: 4/10.  Just doesn't bring much to the party aside from HP.  But hey, survivability is something, so not actively bad.
Jessica: 7/10.  MP for days.  I raised her as a mage (a mistake) so didn't see how whips really do, but still solid.  Rando-charm is awesome in a handful of fights too (lookin' at you, Captain Crow!)
Angelo: 6/10.  Multiheal is much more practical than Omniheal, but there's a point where it's just not enough which is sadly not THAT long after you get it.
Charmles: Bad Meeple.  No cookie.

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 8/10.  Solid early, dominant late.  Yeah, feels right.
Pip: 2/10.
Doc: 2/10.
Starky: 4/10.  He joins at a point where you really DON'T have a bunch of better characters.  Early Lynx is suck.
Riddel: 5/10.  I question the viability of a pure mage in CC, due to how building up elements works.  Still, it's a niche, that's something.
Steena: 4/10.  I remember not really being impressed with her offensive stats, and having to get two techs via sidequest is annoying.

[Meeplelard]

Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King:
Guv: 8/10.  Textbook example of a well rounded main.
Yangus: 4/10. Textbook example of "Exists purely to fill that 4th slot as a warm body"
Jessica: 8/10.  Textbook example of an effective offensive specialist!
Angelo: 6/10.  ...crap, not really a textbook example of anything! Just a decent healer, who does a bunch of secondary roles, and not much else.
Charmles: DNR.  I confess; I added him on purely to hopefully invoke humor cause people were whining about using CC this round.

Chrono Cross White Innates:
Serge: 8/10.  CC is not a game where I can give someone realistically higher than an 8, I feel, due to its nature.  That said, Serge is probably MVP, being solid throughout the game, and downright awesome post-Mastermune section (which can be gotten fairly early), and never having any sort of noteworthy weaknesses.
Pip: 3/10.  Gimmicky, but not worth it, and clearly rather weak initially.
Doc: 4/10.  Not bad, but nothing special; this is Chrono Cross, so that's worse than it sounds given the cast to party size ratio though.
Starky: 4/10.  See Doc.  I'd give him points for that early Plasma Gun, which is a damn good weapon for the time, except Norris can use it too, and Norris is overall better, so yeah.
Riddel: 6/10.  Strongest Mage has to count for something.  Didn't she also have an Element Restoration ability, which makes her have more ammo on big spells compared to other Mages?
Steena: 5/10.  Serge like build, but gotten late, so...eh.