The best next-gen Final Fantasy Characters

I, much like everyone else, have an opinion on which Final Fantasy characters are best. However, my experiences are limited to when the series made the switch to Playstation, and pretty much everything after that. So, I am going to make a list of my top 5 favorite Playable Final Fantasy characters and why they are my favorite to date. (You'll notice that Cloud, Squall, Zell, Tidus, and Vaan are not even close to being on this list.)

5) Vivi Orunitia - Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy IX is probably my second least favorite Final Fantasy, but it had the huge redeeming quality of being whimsical and magical, which was very unlike the previous two installments. He was cute, and didn't really seem to have a mouth, but he could pack a punch. He was my desktop wallpaper for a good 2 years, too.

4) Vincent Valentine - Final Fantasy VII

Dude was a freakin' Vampire. I mean, come on, that's awesome enough. But when you add in the point that he was a VERY difficult to obtain secret character, and the only one who could handle guns, AND his limit break involved shapeshifting...well, he was really cool. Even though you could only get him late in the game, it was totally worth it.

3) Rikku - Final Fantasy X

She was the first character you got to play as besides Tidus, and she was awesome. When you got her Godhand and fully unlocked it, she was next to unbeatable. I liked the idea of a female thief, and she was a female thief princess who was much less annoying than Yuffie. Also, she acted very much more her real age than any of the other characters in that story.

2) Auron - Final Fantasy X

Dude was a ghost and totally awesome. In fact, I don't think there has been a parallel to how awesome Auron really was. He wore sunglasses (and is the only one besides the Turks in VII to do so), and had a huge sword, so double pluses!

1) Balthier - Final Fantasy XII

He is Auron mixed with James Bond. I'm not even 10 hours into the game and I think he's the best character in the Final Fantasy universe ever. He is the ONLY suave player character in the entire universe of Next-Gen FF games. He's a space pirate, and he is just all around AWESOME. Seriously. He makes learning tutorials fun. And if that's not high praise, I don't know what is.