The Best Fathers In Final Fantasy Franchise, Ranked

There are quite a few good and bad moms within the Final Fantasy franchise. Good or bad, they remain iconic in the eyes of fans. For example, Aerith’s mom Elmyra in Final Fantasy 7 does her best to raise Aerith despite The Turks knocking down her door to check up on her every chance they get.

While not biological, Elmyra is a good mom and she even helps with Marlene. Jenova is technically another good example from Final Fantasy 7 although she’s a more evil mom to Sephiroth. What about the dads of Final Fantasy? Are there any and are they good?

7 Joe

A Good Father Despite Opening A Portal For His Children

• First Aired: October 2, 2001
• Studio: Gonzo
• Episodes: 25

In the grand pantheon of Final Fantasy characters and spinoffs, this anime is one of the more forgotten. It’s an isekai wherein two young kids, Ai and Yu, get transported from Japan into a magical world filled with Final Fantasy staples including Chocobos, Moogles, and Summons. Their parents were famous researchers who activated the portal between both worlds aka Joe and Mary.

While Joe inadvertently caused his kids harm, it opened up their eyes for a new adventure as well. He’s not winning Father of the Year, but he’s also not a terrible dad next to others in the franchise. Before the whole portal incident, it seemed like Ai and Yu loved their parents.

6 King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII

A Loving Father Who Entrusts His Kingdom To Noctis

King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII, or just King Regis, is Noctis’ father from Final Fantasy 15. He entrusts the throne to Noctis at the start of the game but sends him and his three friends to restore balance to the kingdom which leads to a road trip. The main story of Final Fantasy 15 doesn’t provide players with much backstory but little flashbacks help showcase the love between father and son.

Also, the prequel spinoff, A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy 15, helps fill in the gaps as players get to be a younger version of King Regis. A bunch of younger versions of other characters get in the game as well like Cid, the mechanic. It’s a 2D retro-themed brawler on the level of something like Streets of Rage but with swords.

5 Laguna

An Absent Father Who Still Fought For A Better World For His Son

Final Fantasy 8 is one of the more divisive entries in the series. One of the weirder things about it was that players could fall asleep as the main character, Squall, and then wake up as a new hero, Laguna. It took a long time to figure out what was going on but the basic premise was that Squall was seeing his father’s past exploits.

It was more magic than psychic energy that linked father and son which was a big late-game reveal. While Laguna was never there for Squall thus leading to his son becoming an angsty teen, Laguna at least set the world up to be a safer place for Squall in the future. It didn’t work perfectly but things rarely do.

4 Cecil

A Former Hero Who Grew Up To Be A Great Father

Mainline games in this series rarely get direct sequels but Final Fantasy 4 was one of the chosen few. It took a long time between the initial release date of 1991 on the SNES to the episodic releases of Final Fantasy 4: The After Years on Japanese phones in 2008. Taking place years after the original, the past hero, Cecil, and his wife, Rosa, are now ruling in peace.

Their son, Ceodore, became the new hero although older characters went along for the ride as well. Unlike previous entries, players could clearly see a deep relationship between father, mother, and son. It was not an intense adventure which presumably gave Square Enix more room to grow their characters.

3 Sazh

A Father Set On Returning To His Son Before His Time Runs Out

Sazh is from Final Fantasy 13 and is one of the few black heroes in this series. He gets cursed along with Lightning at the beginning of the game thus leading to the two fighting against the empire. In this universe, magic is bad and those afflicted only have so long to live not to mention magic is forbidden by the government.

Lightning wants to use her power to get her sister, Serah, back but all Sazh wants to do is get back to his young son Dajh. He’s not in any danger, thankfully, but the idea of dying from this curse and leaving Dajh alone is a point of contention for Sazh. Everything he does is for his kid which is noble if not a little annoying by how much Sazh brings him up.

2 Cid

A Boisterous Father Who Puts Everything On The Line For Others

There have been many Cid characters in the series and Cid from Final Fantasy 10 ranks up there as one of the best. He’s an Al Bhed engineer in command of an airship along with a group of rebels trying to stop religion from taking over the world. He is Rikku’s dad and the uncle to Yuna.

It’s not often that a father in these games gets to show their love and support for both a daughter and niece, so Cid is a rare exception. From crashing a bad wedding to rescuing the party from jail, Cid does a lot for the kids. His boisterous attitude was infectious as Cid always looked like he was having a blast in the game

1 Barret

Completely Devoted To His Adoptive Daughter Marlene

Barret is the end-all-be-all of good fathers in this series. Marlene isn’t even his real daughter in Final Fantasy 7 as he adopts her from his close friend Dyne who presumably died years ago. This did not stop Barret from loving her any less in the original game though.

The events in the game eventually led up to an awkward confrontation between the two on the contrary which the remake will presumably heighten. The fun thing about Barret is that he comes across as a huge hulking terrorist but deep down he just wants to stay home with Marlene and give her whisker kisses. Will the newest addition to the remake show more of their relationship? Hopefully, this is the answer fans want because their relationship in the original was so sweet.