Who was the superior protagonist?

Who is the better MC?

  • Cloud

    Votes: 5 100.0%
  • Zack

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    5

Example

Ex-Soldier
Joined
Feb 26, 2017
Messages
76
Gil
0
Aerith
Vincent
Tifa Lockhart
Cloud Strife
Pretty self explanatory topic. Not including Vincent for obvious reasons. I can understand why many people love Zack more than Cloud, but I personally think the latter was better developed and had a more interesting backstory and characterization. While Zack was designed to be the archetypal hero, Cloud Was designed as a deconstruction of one. Anyway, what do you guys think?
 
I agree completely. Cloud is much more nuanced and grows a lot more. He's more human, despite his flaws being rather... crazy...

Zack could've been fine, and I wouldn't say he's awful. But the terrible plot and characters around him in Crisis Core really drag him down. CC was honestly more about other people than it was Zack, meaning he didn't get much of a chance to shine. And none of those other characters around him were exactly great, so there wasn't much for him to grow naturally from.
 
I agree completely. Cloud is much more nuanced and grows a lot more. He's more human, despite his flaws being rather... crazy...

Zack could've been fine, and I wouldn't say he's awful. But the terrible plot and characters around him in Crisis Core really drag him down. CC was honestly more about other people than it was Zack, meaning he didn't get much of a chance to shine. And none of those other characters around him were exactly great, so there wasn't much for him to grow naturally from.

Yeah I can understand the need for introducing new characters in the story to keep things fresh, but CC went way overboard with Genesis, Angeal etc. And we still know next to nothing about Zack's backstory or why he wanted to join SOLDIER besides wanting to be a "hero", compare that to Cloud whose backstory and motivations were integral to the plot. I honestly barely learned anything new about him from CC than his brief appearances in the original FF7.
 
Yeah, I think Zack's purpose is much better served as a side character. His 'good guy' attitude is the core influence that kept Cloud -who otherwise is supposed to be a parallel to Sephiroth, since both are superhuman experiments who were then abandoned like trash- from learning to loath humanity and lust for more power. He's great as a balancing force for Cloud, but is otherwise your typical J-RPG hero trope.
 
Cloud just feels more real and relatable, while Zack just feels like something you'll see in an anime. Something like Naruto or One Piece.

Cloud was created to break those tropes, and while they are not bad tropes as a whole, it's just more refreshing and original.
 
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I totally agree with those of you who wrote that Zack feels like a typical anime protagonist. Which isn't bad actually, but he feels empty compared to Cloud. I really loved the way the game showed us how broken he really is. I felt I can connect/relate to him by understanding his past. He had much more depth than one could imagine after seeing him.
 
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