Square's role-playing video game Final Fantasy VI, which was released as Final Fantasy III in North America, features fourteen permanent player characters, the largest number of any game in the main Final Fantasy series, as well as several characters who are briefly controlled by the player.

Concept and design Pixel artist and graphic designer Kazuko Shibuya conceived the initial designs of some of the cast, including protagonist Terra Branford. Monster designer and graphic director Tetsuya Nomura created the original designs and many story episodes for Shadow and Setzer Gabbiani, he also did the illustrations of the cast based on the characters sprites as well as the chibi artworks in the manual. Field graphic designer Kaori Tanaka created the original designs of Edgar Roni Figaro and Sabin Rene Figaro.Reflections With Soraya Saga Part 1 // Siliconera . Siliconera.com (4 June 2010). Retrieved 2011-01-16. Yoshitaka Amano once again returned for the promotional artwork, he also conceived the final designs of Shadow and Setzer. A character named Angela was developed, but was ultimately cut from the game. She was to be like a "big sister" to Cyan and wield a whip, allowing the story to explore Cyan's vulnerability and private side.

Co-director Kitase wanted to create many characters that could stand up to be main characters and ensure the story did not revolve around one character, so each character could have something to bring to the table.Final Fantasy: Kitase's Inside Story from . 1UP.com. Retrieved 16 January 2011. According to Yoshinori Kitase, one of the game's two directors, one of the themes of production was "everyone is the main character". Kitase also believes that this approach with the game's characters is one of its lasting appeals. Despite having a large cast of playable characters, the game is well known for its subtle revealing of character relationships and backstories over the course of the story. Cut scenes of character interaction also feature simulated "camera movement", with a similar emotional effect found in movies. During the game's development, the whole team contributed to the stories of the game's characters, which were then adjusted for consistency with the story by Kitase. Instead of just being "ciphers for fighting, players would have more choice in what the characters would do, and how that would alter the narrative and invest the player more deeply in the story". To make the characters more distinct, their fighting styles and abilities were made different. Balancing so many characters was a challenge, and as a result Celes and Kefka became bigger characters than initially planned.

Main playable characters Terra Branford

Terra Branford, known as in Japanese media, is the first introduced character, a mentally-enslaved Imperial super-soldier gifted with devastating magic. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series, greatly influenced the character's creation. Originally, Terra was to disappear along with the other Espers at the end of the game, but the developers decided it would be a "waste" to have her discover her humanity only to be erased, so she instead lost her powers.

Locke Cole

is a thief who prefers to identify as a "treasure hunter".Arvis: Took you long enough! Busy with all that robbing and plundering, I presume? [...] Locke: I prefer the term "treasure hunting"! Arvis: Ha! Semantic nonsense! Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 Like Terra, Hironobu Sakaguchi was also a major contributor to the character's creation.

He bears a personal vendetta against the Empire for assaulting his hometown, which killed his amnesiac love interest Rachel.Father: Get out of my house! It's your fault Rachel lost her memory! Locke: Wait! Just let me talk to her...! Rachel: Please, just go away! I don't know who you are, but my parents get upset whenever you come here! Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 Her last word is Locke's name.Locke: A year went by... When I finally returned, I found out that Rachel had been killed in an Imperial attack. Her memory had returned just before she died. The last thing she said was...my name. I never should have left her side. I... I failed her... Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 Driven by the conviction that failing Rachel led to her death, Locke seeks to protect Terra and Celes as he fights with the Returners against the Empire;Celes: Why are you helping me? Locke: You remind me a lot of someone... What's it matter, anyway? I'm helping you because I want to! Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 Locke seeks a means of resurrecting Rachel as a way to right his greatest wrong. This takes him to the depths of the Phoenix Cave to acquire the "rebirth" power of the esper Phoenix. In the end, Rachel urges him to move on to find someone new to protect, giving Celes her blessing to watch over him before departing for the afterlife.Locke: You're all safe! Behold... The legendary treasure that can undo death itself... Player character: Is that... magicite? Locke: It is. Legend has it that the Phoenix turned itself to stone ages ago. Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 He is also featured in the rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy as a subcharacter representing Final Fantasy VI. Locke also appears in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, where he is voiced by Yūki Ono in Japanese and Jonathan von Mering in English.

IGN praised Locke as being the connection between Terra and Celes, helping tie the plot together, and having a unique ability to steal from his enemies.

Celes Chere

is a former general of the Empire, who was genetically and artificially enhanced into a Magitek Knight following a magic infusion.Celes: I was raised to be an Imperial Magitek knight. When I was still very young, I was artificially infused with magic. Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 Co-director Yoshinori Kitase revealed that he put much effort into creating Celes, and that she is his favorite character in the game.

Edgar and Sabin Figaro

is the young king of Figaro. Edgar was originally supposed to be a womanizer, but this was considered to be cliche and evolved into him having lost his mother as an infant. He later fell in love with an older woman who was killed in a "political rivalry", and she remained his version of an ideal woman.

Years before the game's events, neither he nor his twin brother, Sabin, bore desire for the crown. Edgar determined the succession with the flip of a double-sided coin to grant his brother's deeper wish for a free life, relegating himself to the burden of rule.Sabin: Let's leave this place! Let's forget this crazy kingdom, and live our lives how we want to! You said you didn't want to be a king, right? Edgar: A life of freedom, huh...? Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007Edgar: Sabin... Let's settle this with the toss of a coin. Dad gave me this one. If it's heads, you win. Tails, I win. The winner chooses whichever path he wants...no regrets, not hard feelings. Okay? Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 Edgar later reveals the facts of this rigged gamble to Sabin. As Figaro's monarch, Edgar publicly maintains a strong alliance with the Gestahlian Empire, but secretly provides support and aid to the Returners, a rebel group seeking the liberation of conquered city-states. He fancies himself a ladies' man, earning a reputation as a die-hard womanizer.Locke: Terra... Wait for me... I won't be gone long. ...And watch out for a certain lecherous young king who shall remain nameless. The guy moves in like a hawk! Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 While attempting to arrange a meeting between Terra and the Returners' leadership, the Empire's court mage, Kefka, makes a surprise inspection of Figaro, seeking Terra. With Kefka's subsequent torching of Figaro, the alliance between the two nations is broken. Edgar helps Terra make contact with the Returners, reuniting with Sabin along the way, and later helps the party reach the western portion of the northern continent after the Narshe assault by means of Figaro Castle's submerging capability. During the World of Ruin, he appears disguised as a mercenary thief-for-hire named Gerad, an anagram of Edgar, to get back into the sunken wreck of his castle.Gerad: Look, I'm kind of busy here. I have to get ready. We're leaving for Figaro on the ferry soon. Celes: Don't play dumb with me! Edgar? ...You didn't lose your memory, did you? Gerad: Listen... It grieves me to have to disappoint such a beautiful lady, but I've been Gerad since the day I was born! Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 Thereafter he returns to the player's control.

IGN described Edgar as flirtatious but heroic, providing comic relief but a strong leader in fighting for the rebels. Edgar also appears in World of Final Fantasy, where he is voiced by Shin-ichiro Miki in Japanese and Ray Chase in English.

Sabin Rene Figaro, whose name is in the Japanese version, is Edgar's younger twin brother. Soraya Saga, the co-creator of Xenogears, also helped shape Sabin's character.

Disgusted by the cold arbitration of his royal succession, Sabin leaves his heritage behind after winning a rigged coin toss to determine whether he or Edgar would not inherit Figaro's throne. He initially trains under the world-famous martial arts master Duncan Harcourt along with his son, Vargas. Over time, Vargas grows increasingly jealous of Sabin's martial prowess, seemingly slaying Duncan in a wrathful fit and fleeing to the mountains, with Sabin in pursuit.Sabin: Why, Vargas? Why did you kill Master Duncan? How could you kill your own father!? Vargas: The fool snubbed me, his only son! He chose you as his successor! Square Enix, Final Fantasy VI Advance (in English), 5 February 2007 It is during these events that the Returners, accompanied by Sabin's brother Edgar, encounter him. After Vargas' defeat, Sabin is prompted to join the cause against the Empire, and after a period of separation where he meets Shadow, Cyan, and Gau following the Imperial siege of Doma, he participates in the defense of Narshe.

After the world's devastation, Sabin is the first ally Celes is led to encounter, found supporting the crumbling wreck of a mansion in Tzen after an attack by Kefka's 'Light of Judgment'. In this event, Celes has to rescue a child still inside the mansion and escape in six minutes. If time runs out, Sabin will lose his grip, causing a Game Over. However, according to an interview with the developers, originally, letting time run out in this event would cause Sabin's death, and returning to the town later with Edgar in the party and sleeping there would trigger a night-time cutscene where he digs among the rubble to find his twin brother's body, but they changed it because the World of Ruin was already dark. He later finds Duncan alive and well in the World of Ruin, somewhere east of Narshe, having survived Vargas' attack. From him, Sabin learns his final martial technique, the Phantom Rush.

Cyan Garamonde

Cyan Garamonde, whose name is in the Japanese version, is a retainer to the king of Doma, a nation at war with the Empire. He feels immense shame and guilt for failing to protect the people of Doma, particularly the king and his wife and son, and later on for failing to stop Kefka from destroying the world.

Shadow