5 Cutest FFXIV Characters

I finally got to Shadowbringers and November 23, 2021 will be here before I know it, so no time for an intro here’s a bunch of pixels that congeal into a pleasing whole.

DISCLAIMER: These are not my favorite FFXIV characters, these are the cutest FFXIV characters, so before you ask why Y’shtola or Alisaie or *insert other fan favorite character* isn’t here, it’s either because they’re more cool than cute or my opinion is different from yours.

As usual, these are in no particular order. Oh, and there are going to be spoilers up to and including very early Shadowbringers stuff so if you care about that sort of thing, I warned you.

1. AYMERIC

Aymeric is mainly cute because of his extremely huge and obvious crush on your character, but the bit that makes him cute enough to not only get on, but inspire this entire list, is that bit at the end of Stormblood where you get your ass kicked in Ala Mhigo and wake up in Ishgard, even though the only place farther they could have taken you to recuperate is Doma, and he comes running when he hears you’re awake but then tries to play it cool.

He then gives one of those extremely sincere-sounding speeches about how you need to take care of yourself and your friends are with you and yadda yadda yadda but I already had An Emotion when Cid said it earlier so I’m more interested in Aymeric being an adorably awkward virgin idiot.

cid isn’t on this list but this bit gets a shout out for briefly eliciting a response from my cold dead heart

2. TATARU

Speaking of my cold, dead heart, it wasn’t until the postgame stuff for Stormblood that I started to actually have an impression of most of these characters other than that they exist. There are exceptions of course (I’ve always loved Y’shtola because who doesn’t, and always hated Gaius because he never shuts the fuck up), but for the most part I didn’t really have much of an impression of most of the cast stronger than “it’s funny how he looks like Leon Residentevil”. This has worked against the game on at least one occasion: I took an extended break after finishing the main story of A Realm Reborn and by the time Haurchefant reappeared I had completely forgotten about him, so when he died in Heavensward my only real response was “oh no not that guy,” and there have been many occasions when a character will call me their friend and I’ll be “lol what since when.”

Not Tataru, though! Tataru is my friend. She makes me cool clothes, and we went on an adventure together, and she’s always nice and cheerful, and she’s already the most powerful character in the whole game so the Twelve had to nerf her by giving her no combat ability, and I just love her so.

remind me to kick ~~g’raha~~ the crystal exarch’s ass for making her cry

3&4: RAUBAHN & NANAMO

i don’t have any screenshots specifically of them so here’s one with them standing next to each other

Raubahn and Nanamo are great on their own, but it’s their relationship with each other that lands them on this list, so I can’t rightly separate them. The quest chain about about them in the Stormblood postgame in particular was one of the highlights in a group of quests that were pretty much all highlight, and made me wish all the stronger that Raubahn had been given Lyse’s role in the main story quest for it, but that’s a rant I already went into on Discord and will translate to an essay if and when someone on Patreon asks me to.

this is my only other screenshot with both of them in it. i have failed you all

5. GIGI

He’s a Manderville Man, but Hildibrand didn’t mention him once during the Stormblood Hildibrand quests and he’s been with me since the end of the Heavensward ones so he’s my son now.

Yes, I know he’s basically just Vivi from Final Fantasy IX. I haven’t played that and don’t care. Gigi is my son and I love him.