Oh Balthier. He is the only character in Final Fantasy XII with any personality (excepting maybe Fran), and boy does he ever have personality. He ran away from his privileged upbringing to run around the world with a half-naked rabbit lady with a giant bounty on his head. If his badboy renegade status didn’t make him sexy enough, he is clever and witty, and is apparently the only character who is capable of having a sense of humour.
Balthier is smooth and sarcastic, yet able to be perceptive and very loyal. Let’s just face the facts, Balthier is the perfect man. Yeah, he’s got daddy issues, and maybe he’s a professional thief, but everybody has their vices. He knows just the right thing to say, and has a solution to every problem.
Also, to use an argument that Riddles likes to use: his game is awesome. Final Fantasy XII is robust and deep. Addictive and involved. Again, not a game known for its cast otherwise, but after all he is the self-professed “leading man” of the adventure, and he has my vote on that sentiment.
Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that there’s no way around it, he’s a beautiful man. Maybe there’s no such thing as “stylish” in the world of Ivalice, but I think the fact that he’s not wearing a crop top vest ala Vaan gives him a pass in that department.
So after all that, what else can be said about the dude? The only mark against him is that we don’t really know what type of badass he is. The license board in FFXII makes classes so generalized that it kind of dilutes fantasies of him glistening from sweat in the heat of battle. He can talk up a storm, but there’s no hard evidence of him putting his blade where his beautiful mouth is.
That’s why our number 1 dude is our number 1 dude. He has everything Balthier does but with that added benefit of unadulterated badassery. But I’ve gone on way too long sexually praising a fictional dude from a video game. Do you think Balthier deserves this spot?
Tags: Balthier, Ffamran mied Bunansa, Final Fantasy XII, The Five Sexiest Dudes in Gaming
“Maybe there’s no such thing as ’stylish’ in the world of Ivalice” — Ouch! I always liked the art design in the Ivalice games.
The character interactions were the highlight of XII, and Balthier was the highlight of the character interactions.
I was talking very specifically about fashion! I also like the art direction.
Nah, Sydney is more cutting edge!