#8 - Guy Cecil (Abyss) Well, everybody's different, but I think that clinging to life is what really makes people want to change the world. It's not wrong or right, it's just... faith.
We should all be so lucky to have a friend like Guy. Someone who knows the absolute worst side of us and has every reason to hate us and somehow stays by our side to become our most loyal and trusted companion anyway.
Guys just a good dude. Hes the first to recognize Lukes inherent goodness (really, hes the first person in Lukes life that seems to give a damn about him at all) and the first to go back for him after Akzeriuth, acknowledging that he was always friends with the replica and not the original. While thats admirable enough on its own, the subtext there is that hes seemingly the only person, not just in the party but the game as a whole, to understand immediately that Luke and Asch are two different people.
Even with nothing else, thatd be enough to land Guy a pretty high placement on the ranking, but because hes an Abyss character, hes got plenty of depth to him, too. For starters, Team Destiny shouldve taken some notes from him on how to do the I couldve ended up just like the villain thing right. Really, the majority of his development is dedicated to showing just how close he was. A noble joins the house of his most hated enemy as a servant, fully prepared to hang around as long as it took to enact his revenge, only to fall ass-backwards into a genuine friendship with the one hed sworn to kill. And its hinted from the beginning that he has a dark edge to him. When Luke asks him how many people hes killed, his response to say Who knows? and rather flippantly speculate that the number is probably lower than that of the soldier he struck down moments before. And theres plenty of other examples to show that deep down, hes really a very violent and angry person. As it turns out, though, for all his suffering, Guy just doesnt have the disposition for vengeance. Hes simply too nice. But that doesnt mean hes able to completely let go of the past, and that makes for a couple of memorable moments as the game goes on, like his taking advantage of the summit of world leaders to threaten all of their lives until he gets a straight answer about what really happened with Hod. Its another good example of the Abyss brand of development where party members dont lose entire aspects of their character forever after one big moving on scene. Thats not to say he doesnt get scenes like that, though, and for the most part theyre pulled off pretty well. I particularly like the one where he admits to being partly responsible for what eventually went down at Akzeriuth, given that he knew Van was up to no good and never said anything and that he had an unintentional hand in raising Luke to become the easily manipulated pawn that he did.
Once he breaks off his ties with Van, he eventually settles into a nice little role in the party dynamic where he more or less functions as a calming influence. He very rarely loses his cool and often comes off as the most introspective cast member, which makes sense given how much his worldview once shifted. Because of those qualities, I always felt like Guy was the most trustworthy of the Abyss cast. That is to say, if he expressed a particular point of view about something, I was inclined to believe it was true over any conflicting thoughts, because I could be sure hed spent a good bit of time thinking about it. Plus, Abyss strikes a good balance with his whole Fon Machine obsession. Its equal parts a humorous quirk and a legitimate help to the party in their adventure. (Johnny Yong Bosch is a big part of all of this, by the way. His always-great voice acting goes a long way toward making Guy feel as genuine as he does.)
I also think the gynophobia is handled in a pretty clever way. Its played entirely for laughs for the majority of the game, so you feel completely free as a player to make fun of him alongside the party. Then, when the cause is revealed, you feel every bit as bad about treating it as a joke as they do. Its an effective little tactic to help you bond with the character. Simple, but effective. More importantly, it contributes in a big way to the Tower of Rem scene which, as I think I mentioned in Tears write-up, is my favorite moment in all of Tales. And Guys really the star of that scene. When Tear loses her composure, its Guy that leaps in to physically restrain her. Its one of only two times in the game (three if you count sidequests) that hes able to touch a woman without freaking out, and he does it all while being arguably the most pissed off of anybody that Lukes doing what hes doing.
Finally, all things considered, hes probably in the top 3 or 5 of my favorite Tales character to play as in battle. I love his fighting style and I love his lineup of artes, namely Brilliant Overlord and the best version of the best recurring Tales arte in Tiger Blade.
Ill leave off the same place Abyss did: Tataroo Valley, two years after the events of the game, where hes the only one who still seems to believe deep down that Luke would be coming back someday. Why? Just because he said so. He knew his friend wouldnt go back on his word.
TL;DR: A perfect example of how to pull off a best friend character that doesnt feel like hes only there to be the best friend. He ends up being the best friend in the series anyway.