My translation called him Butz, which mightve added some funny to him. In general I dont think FFV is meant to be enjoyed by the casual fan but for someone who has a history with it already. So the game play is appreciated as well as the decent battles, enemy skills, job classes and quests within.

Best character wasnt even playable.. Gilgamesh.. Galuf was alright too but not nearly the level of Gilgamesh's random encounters..

He definitely had a personality. It may not have been as strong as many of the other characters, but he definitely had a personality. He improved with Advance, and the little avatar definitely helped.

Not so sure revisions of the game count as personality, its just an "oops, we lacked character development, here is a lil 3D for you new players to get roped in" tactic.

Depends how you define experience in such revisions. I prefer the originals, not much respect for graphical and character adjustments like 10+ years later. Doesn't add to it per say, just outlines a marketing ploy.

I think he is the second stupidest (next to Guy) final fantasy character ever. No I don’t mean the concept behind him, I mean that he seems to be really slow and gullible and probably has an extremely low I.Q.

I must disagree with the ordinary guy stereotype. We find out that his father kills "bad guys" for a living, and after Bartz's mother dies (which he is quite upset over) he travels with his father, whom I assume is still killing "bad guys". Its more of a, oh sure, I'll come along, I do this sort of stuff a lot anyway.

Bartz does have a personality bu the main problem is imo that his character ain't developed much compared to some of the other characters like Galuf and Faris.

But then again all the characters suffered from decent development due to the bad story. Yeah, I am saying that FFV has a bad story in my view.

I think Bartz was supposed to be more like Dragon Quest type- hero where hero is silent and the player is actually the hero. Bartz was only character to be named, just like in FFVIII you could name Squall and Rinoa but no others. They were lovers so obviously you and your loved one were Squall and Rinoa.

FFX probably had Tidus naming option just because previous titles had naming option too. Glad they dropped it in FFXII. It was stupid in FFX when Tidus was not mentioned.

Bartz did have a personality, it just lacked true development. He was a decent character as it went on, but he was only a proxy to the player. Most RPGs had you assume the lead character's role (excluding most FFs), and this was an attempt at that. He had a little personality and history, but he was merely a proxy for the most part.

I think you guys are confusing "personality" and "development." Bartz very clearly has a personality; he's a simple boy with a relatively strong sense of justice, a fear of heights, and a less-than-impressive IQ. Every character has a personality, in fact. Even Silent Protagonists have them: notice how they often communicate through gestures and facial expressions. Those gestures are what hint at their respective personalities, though it is true that they're often made as a proxy for the player. In any case, Bartz does, indeed, react to and interact with various situations, which means that he has a personality, however shallow it may be.

What Bartz (and the other FFV characters, for that matter) lacks is development. The main characters in this game fail to develop at all. Any would-be development they may have is quickly forgotten about and treated as if it never happened in the first place. My theory is that this was Square's intention, though. Think about it. This game's plot is nothing more than your basic sword-and-sorcery storyline, complete with simple characters and an even more single-minded villain ("I be EXDEATH! I'll destroy the world cuz its FUN! LAWLAWL!"). Perhaps Square was just trying to pay homage to that type of story? It does have a certain charm to it, after all.