Hope was awesome! A big thing in a game for me is character development, and a character's interactions with the rest of the group. Hope showed the most of both of these out of everyone throughout the game. As stated by many already, he was the most realistic, which allows someone to feel a connection to a character. Battlewise, at first I was like "Oh no, are you serious, a fucking boomerang?" But that didn't matter once I progressed further and saw he really shined in the magic area. After making him my party leader for a while (during my experimental phase of finding who I liked best where in the party), I found that I personally had an easier time getting through battles and taking care of the party.
As for the other party members:
Lightning, the party's badass!
Snow- the cliche hero (although I dont have a huge problem with him like alot of people do, I like Snow, but you'll find him in alot of games)
Vanille- Well battlewise, the typical healer mage you find in every rpg. In the story, although she has her serious moments, I find her to fill as a sort of comic relief alot. I have a disliking for her.
Sazh- One of my two least used characters, I dont like his fighting style or his summon, so I wont have any of that. I almost want to call him a comic relief although he does have a very serious story and I dont find him as bad as Vanille.
Fang- Bless her heart, my least used character of all. Came in a little late in the story, considering you get everyone else at the beginning, and she wasn't very interesting. I have never used her if I wasn't forced to except once to look at her eidolon (which disappointed me, one of the worst Bahamuts yet. My favorite so far was FFX's). I know from looking at her crystarium shes is physically my strongest, but I simply cant force myself to care.
