Just doing a few for now - will fill this in slowly
Ramza Beoulve - Ramza's great. I have him somewhere near the top of RPG characters and one of the best protags IMO. The thing that makes Ramza so good to me is that he is able to fit into a ton of literary concepts. The obvious one is that he and Delita are foils and mirror images of each other (starting from when Ramza is a noble to Delita's a commoner, to the end where Delita is revered and remembered in history whereas Ramza is ostracized and forgotten). In fact, at every point in the story, Delita and Ramza are on opposite ends of the status and alignment spectrum, which makes both characters much more effective. Then there is the concept of class struggle (as CK noted) which he directly partakes in. That he's also the bastard child to Dycedarg and Zalbag (who are both rotten, one more so than the other), along with the symmetry in his life as Wiegraf means there are strong thematic connections almost everywhere with Ramza. He does take a backseat in the main plot at some point (since even though Ramza is main, it's really Delita's show) but the fact that he's strongly connected in someway to all the major villains means he's never out of the picture. It just makes you realize how strong the writing is around it's central characters and Ramza's definitely one of the benefactors. 9/10.
Agrias Oaks - It's hard to find definitive roles/narratives for FFT PCs because they become invisible once they join. And the earlier this happens, the harder it is to really say much. But one thing Agrias does have is that she has Gafgarion to bounce off of. Weird in some ways, but also not surprising. At the time when she's guesting, Ramza is having his crisis of faith moment. He's turned away his name and joined a mercenary group. Agrias represents the ties he still has to the noble houses, culminating in Zirekile where Ramza finally decides he's done trying to run away from Ivalice's structural problems. Past that, there's not much else. WotL adds a couple of extra scenes here but the just show more of Agrias' fealty to her knighthood and Ovelia. Stuff we already see in C2. I guess the bonus scene with Musty is cool - shows that higher and lower class individuals can in-fact get along outside of Ramza/Delita (there are a couple more of these but it's rare) and it's sort of cute. 5/10
Mustadio Bunansa - In some ways, I think Musty already represents the commoner that becomes Ramza's best friend after Delita goes Malcolm X? Problem here is that he's a FFT PC. So past his initial introduction, he's not doing much other than Holy Stones side quest plot. He's not offensive in anyway but other than being the narrative that eventually leads to space goat demons, Musty doesn't add much to the political aspects of FFT's plot (and its greater thematics). 3/10
Rafa Galthana - She's okay. Her main problem is that her character arc doesn't really tie into the main plot. That being said, what is there works. Someone who is just caught up in the power struggles admist dealing with their own issues and is constantly trying to survive. The biggest thing the wonder twins contribute is to demonstrate that the holy stones respond to the will of the person commanding them. But the execution ends up pretty sloppy (see Malak) and it could have been quite a bit better or even through Mustadio with a little re-imagining. 4/10.
Malak Galthana - Er...Malak is bad. Put another way, if Malak wasn't in the story, you wouldn't notice anything. And that's including the bits that include Rafa. Then when he is on screen, he garners absolutely no favors since he pretty much ignores Rafa's claims, tries to kill her and his redemption is basically taking the bullet once Barinten exposes himself by accident. The game doesn't do a good job here of selling Rafalak's backstories with Barinten to create any sort of sympathy or understanding for him, and even if it was there, he still wouldn't be great. That it isn't even there kinda shows how terrible he is. Probably the worst character of cast. 2/10
Cidolfas Orlandu - The couple of scenes he's in, he's cool. The one sane guy in the enemy's camp and goes to show that not everyone is swept up by the corruption that's in the system. They could have done more with him since he actually has a connection with Balbaines and made him out more to be a mentor figure to Ramza, but SRPG troubles. Orlandu ends up more of a set piece in the grand scheme of things that shows how far gone everyone is in this power grab since as Reiska notes, his "death" signified when the church has "won". 4/10
Meliadoul Tingel - In the grand scheme of things, Melia doesn't add much to the plot. Sure, showing that we have the sane guy in the villain camp is pretty important (as to show that not everyone is the demonz) but really, Izlude already does that. Melia's turn doesn't really do much and she really feels like she exists to say, "Hey remember Izlude? He wasn't a throwaway". But given how little of the game left they have to work with by the time she joins, this is almost inevitable. It's not even like she's Athos and has a bunch of lore to work with. Her battle as an opponent is a little better since it shows Ramza being hunted for reasons other than money, but really. 2/10
Alma Beoulve - Alma's...kind of bad. She starts off pretty good as being Ramza's one true confidant (with them having the same mothers and all) and of course, is the only other party that knows about Zeakden. But then Chapter 3 happens and Izlude and Wiegraf kidnap her and she becomes a plot device forever. Terrible disservice to the character. One part of me really wishes they just stuck to the political narrative because most of the "Your Alma is another castle moments" are because of Space goat demons. But Final Fantasy gotta final fantasy, so hey. 3/10
Olan Durai - Olan's cool but as touched upon, his coolness is more from the ending then the during the game. Having the gall to write a document that basically criticizes the church in the medieval times is already pretty blasphemous, but the fact that it also does to so to the ruling monarch at the time is just absolutely nuts. Note that despite doing this, he obviously made sure in someway that his remaining relatives/sires were all safe since the story is told from the perspective of one of his descendants. Otherwise, the few scenes you get with him are neat. I especially like the scene where he tells Delita to fuck off when Delita proposes that he works with him, foreshadowing and alluding to the creation of the Durai papers. Truly a case of where the pen is mightier than the sword. 6/10
Ovelia Atkascha - Unlike Alma, Ovelia is like the plot device that actually does stuff? Like sure, most of the time, it is just her sitting in the garden of Zeltannia or whatever, but the context and narrative that gets us there is very neat. As already mentioned, the lack of agency isn't a good start, but FFT just sells this so well. She's trying what she can to get out of her situation but at the end of the day, she's powerless to stop what is happening. WotL adds to this narrative with two bonus battles where Delita fights off assassins - both are trivial due to Delita's presence. This is of course, quite meaningful not just in the romantic subplot with Delita. It also shows her being a similar situation as his at the start of the game (where she's basically just a pawn being used by other parties). All this cultivating to the last scene of the game being a gut puncher that it's earned and wraps up the entire cycle. 7/10
Beowulf Cadmus - Not sure what Beowulf and Reis are doing here. They add pretty much nothing to the story. I guess there is the fact that Beowulf and Ramza are both heretics and it shows that the church's power and corruption extends beyond just protecting it's own power. However, other than adding more about the church being evil, neither he or Reis do much for me. Part of it I think is because there's romantic context for Beowulf and Reis and there's no parallel to that in the main story with Ramza. Certainly, his trials don't reflect Delita either, so the entire thing feels out of place and there aren't enough scene (even in WotL) to really sell them as adding to the story. DNR/10
Reis Duelar - See above. DNR/10
Delita Hyral - You can pretty much write an entire book about Delita and the game more or less does. Again, while the game is told from Ramza's perspective, the overarching plot of FFT is about Delita's rise to power. It is done amazingly as the lay out the grind work about who Delita is, what his background is and ultimately why he comes the way he does and his ultimate motives. Delita doesn't start off as power hungry for the sake of being power hungry, but rather he sees this as the only way to change a system that he robbed him of his remaining family. What's really cool is that he's always on the opposite side of where Ramza is the wheel of fortune. When Ramza is a mercenary, Delita is a knight. When Ramza is a heretic, Delita becomes a commander. Finally when Delita becomes King, Ramza is presumably dead or exiled from the living realm. All the while the scales of their morality also reflect their change. As Ramza becomes more virtuous, Delita becomes more corrupt. The parallel between the two is fascinating as hell to me because it is not very often you see it being mirrored so well. Then of course you get the ending, which adds a whole another level to this. Despite his power and riches, Delita winds up symbolically with nothing. The only person who he loves or at least still trusts, stabs him with fear of being used and manipulated. As Delita stumbles back, he's confused by what happened, asking Ramza what he got, not realizing he had created this mess in the wake of his own actions. Even though FFT doesn't really do existentialism, this scene sells the idea that having nothing can be more important than all the riches in the world. 10/10
Algus Sadalfas - In some ways, Algus is Seifer'd claused. As a character, he's a complete asshole. However, in terms of the plot. his role is absolutely necessary as he is the catalyst that sets off Delita and molds what future Delita eventually becomes. His viewpoints are awful, but he's also the only one who is telling the truth like it is. Between laying down the truth of Dycedarg's motives as well as the difference between Ramza and Delita due to their rank and social class, Algus doesn't mince to us what is actually happening, not just in the plot, but also the setting of Ivalice. His role is actually extremely important as Reiska alluded because he's the only person there in C1 that can do this without weakening the narrative: he's of the same rank as Ramza and Delita (a squire) and of the same age, but more informed, showing us how naive Ramza and young Delita have been to the reality of Ivalice's corrupt system. 7.5/10
Gaff Gaffgarion - Gaffy has a small role but it's pretty good for what it is. Someone mentioned that Agrias and Gaff are basically the angel and the devil of Ramza after his turn, and I certainly agree on this (see earlier comments re: Agrias). The cool part here is that you see a certain amount of camaraderie between him and Ramza as he tries numerous times to convince Ramza that "this is the way the world is". Also, bringing Agrias to Execution Site adds like a couple of extra lines of dialogue that really sells Agrias and Gafgarion basically being Ramza's conscience battling itself. You can literally replace their names with "Good Ramza" and "Bad Ramza" and the dialogue would still make sense. 6/10
Weigraf Folles
Gelkanis Barinten
Dycedarg Beoulve
