Yuna is good
Disagree. She's pretty much the pinnacle of incompetent female characters. People argue she's strong, but her entire strength comes from her willingness to sacrifice herself to defeat Sin. As an actual character, she's 100% reliant on everyone else, doesn't ever make a decision by herself over the course of the game, and ends up being hyped as a strong character based on one action that, in the general scheme of things, is more likely to just be an out-of-character plot device.
Tidus ... grows up and matures over the course of the game, he really develops/grows up/etc a lot so he isn't bad per say.
Majorly disagree. Tidus doesn't grow up, and he doesn't develop. His entire personality remains the same, the only thing that changes is his understanding of the world he's in. (That said, this is one of the things I'm going to seriously reconsider and think on on this playthrough (which has been kinda delayed lately, argh.)
(Kimahri also > Quina)
Also disagree! (Or, more, they're not really comparable since they're very different characters. The relevant comparison to Quina would be, say, Wakka, since they're clearly designed as comic relief and not a whole lot else. (And yes, Wakka is clearly better than Quina, on merit of actually having relevance in plot.))
Steiner is ok but he doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things
Disagree majorly. Steiner's possibly the most developed character in the plot with the exception of Vivi. Steiner and Beatrix's love story is pulled off amazingly, and Steiner's development from blind loyalty to actually following his own thoughts on things while fulfilling his duty is gradual and really well carried out. (Also trusting Tantalus as a part of this, but that's less relevant.) But yeah, Steiner is far and away one of the most developed characters in FFIX.
Eiko is also ok and perhaps the fourth most plot/story relevant /important of the core cast after Vivi, Zidane and Garnet but that might just be CT bias talking 
Agree on the last part of that.
Firstly, Steiner as I said above. Secondly, Eiko doesn't really develop much at all, for all that she has some plot relevance. There is some development, sure, but not a huge amount, and nowhere near as much as Steiner or Freya, IMO. (As it goes, I think Freya/Amarant actually have a fair amount of development - they're weaker than half the cast, but I'd say they're better than Eiko/Quina. I'll go into Amarant's development later in the post.)
I might not particularly like Squall and Rinoa much as many don't but I can acknowledge that they are still the most fleshed out/developed of FFVIII's core cast for whatever that's worth. They are constantly in the limelight, hogging the screentime, they practically always exist and make sure we never forget about it. People actually -care- about them, sure the caring for the most part might be in a negative way of the has people frothing at the mouth in rage variety but the fact that they are able to effect people to such an extent emotionally means that in terms of strong/remarkable characters whom people are actually able to remember probably means they are successful and the best/strongest of FFVIII's core cast in that sense.
Different argument entirely, but yeah, the issue I have with Squall and Rinoa is that their love story isn't really a love story. Squall doesn't gradually grow to like Rinoa, he just completely ignores her until she falls unconscious, at which point he obsesses over her. It.. literally doesn't make sense, and is just bad writing. (The characters I actually like in FF8 are Irvine and Selphie, who are the cocky/hyper characters done well.
At the very least FFX definitely deserves to be above X-2 I think (unless it's a personal choice of battle system >>> all/something like that there~ )
Mostly is, yeah. I can't stand much of FFX's character development anywhere ever, and X-2 at least pulls off half of it relatively well. (General viewpoint on X-2 is that anything in the present is bad, anything in the past is decent.) But yeah, I really love the FFX-2 battle system, and I'm really not a fan of FFX's for the reasons in my original post.
For FF8, what characters do you like? Most of the PCs barely have screentime in the way FF8 is written, and the two characters with all the screentime is Squall and Rinoa. Do you think Irvine is a good character? Why?
I like Irvine and Selphie, and I think the plot had potential, if it had avoided some really dumb moments. Irvine and Selphie strike me as a relationship done right (which is funny, given FF8's main characterisation.) (Idly, I'd compare Lulu/Wakka to Selphie/Irvine, except the latter actually makes sense in terms of character/plot, whereas Lulu/Wakka really really doesn't. Which is funny, since that's something I liked on my first playthrough, but a replay shows it's actually pretty weak.)
FF9 has characters like Eiko and Amarant, who fit into the same complaints you have about Lulu and Kimahri. Eiko is a child who doesn't act anything like a child! And I'm not even sure why Amarant exists in the story other than to be Zidane's shounen rival or something. I also feel like Freya is roughly on terms with Lulu in terms of characterization; someone with a smidgen of plot but not too much depth (also is a grrrl or something). I'm going to put forward the argument that those three characters roughly cancel out Lulu/Kim (I don't really agree with this, I think Amarant is horrible instead of boring, but we'll just say this, also sorry CT for Eiko hate! Oh and Quina is just thrown in the trash.)
Main thing with FFIX is that every character begins as a cliche and ends up being an actual character. Amarant does just start off as the typical rival who is worse in every way and is.. basically a generic Lone Wolf. Ends up actually giving a damn about people, thanks to the scene in Ipsen's Castle. (I'm not really defending Amarant here, there's definitely not a whole lot to go on, but there's still something, which I think is as much character development as Lulu and Kimahri get between them.)
Do you think Vivi is better than Auron? Zidane or Tidus? Garnet or Yuna? Steiner or Wakka?
Vivi. Zidane. Neither. Steiner.
Vivi is possibly my favourite character in any game, except for maybe Kefka. He's got some amazing character development, he's a really likeable character (even people who don't FFIX generally like Vivi, and I can't ever remember hearing of someone who doesn't), and he's generally just one of the most complex and well-written characters in any game. Auron, on the other hand.. he's an interesting enough character, but I don't think there's any development there - it's implied that all of his development came from backstory, but we don't see anywhere near enough of that to make an impact.
Zidane vs. Tidus is solely down to development and likability. Zidane has his moments, but I find he's generally just a cocky, laid-back character, and I always like that type. Tidus is bratty and annoying and I can't think of a moment in FFX where he was speaking and I didn't mind. >.> As for development, Tidus grows to understand a world, as far as I can see it. Zidane actually grows to understand himself instead.
Garnet and Yuna are just the same characters in different circumstances, I think, and I can see how some people would like them, but as I said earlier, I prefer character development over just acceptance of a difficult circumstance. It's one thing to say "This character is strong" and another to say "This character is doing what they feel they have to do." I respect the first one in writing, but not the latter.
Steiner and Wakka are kinda different, kinda similar? But yeah, on the whole, again, I just think Steiner develops more. That said, Wakka is one of the better ones in the FFX cast, and this isn't quite as clear cut as the first two choices here.
I'll reply to the rest later but I'm not really up for discussion today, heh.
