LogFAQs > #979751184

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Main Cast Ranking
10 . Cid Highwind

The way the developers have included Cid in this game is smart, though not completely satisfying.

In the original game, players do not meet Cid until after Nibelheim. The party arrives in Rocket Town, they meet Cid, they fight Palmer, get the Tiny Bronco etc. It's a good series of events that makes sense in the OG. This game coincidentally ends right after Nibelheim, so I completely agree that adding Rocket Town there would've felt like too late in the game.

The workaround is to have Cid be kind of the gang's de facto Frank Lapidus (yes, I wrote about L O S T for a living and so it lives rent free in my brain now). Before he becomes a series regular, he'll just be a cranky old pilot for a little bit. This does make him feel like a "real person," if the alternative is we squeeze him in last minute ala the original game. We assume his development/backstory is being saved for Reunite / Reunify.

Much was made of Cid being "toned down" for this game and, in this respect, the jury is still out. Since Shera isn't here, it's too early to say that Cid's not an abusive asshole anymore. He has a few choice lines towards the group that suggests he isn't exactly mellow.

We can all agree though that his shining moment is falling asleep during Loveless. That's the Cid we know and love, right there!

There is a wildly underexplored connection between Cid and Ifalna too, which is curious but seemingly amounts to nothing except "I saw your Mom at Shinra HQ once." I guess this is here to make Cid feel more endearing but I don't know if it works.

He also has a truly epic line of theory-crafting bait in the ending (post Temple of the Ancients spoilers) "What exactly did Aerith do anyway?" This could be referring to her praying/holy/etc, but it could also be referring to some other timeline/alternate universe stuff too. It's such a weird line of dialogue to throw out at the exact moment when the game is playing with the idea of Aerith being both alive and dead simutaneously. Curious.

All this to say: there's no way he isn't last place. Dude doesn't even sniff a battle, and we just haven't dug beneath the surface yet at all. I've made my peace with Cid and Vincent not being playable, but the latter at least had more to do.