Well there are so many good ones but here's my long time favs -

Rydia - In the later parts of the game, her powers are incredible. Also, the way she deals with her mother's death and trusting Cecil is respectable.

Rubicante - There was something so cool about how he was nonchalant and evil. I love how he healed you before fights and after the last battle with him (in some versions of the game) he just says, "Farewell, valiants." Damn... so cool!

Of course, I haven't really thought about this that much so I'm not likely to write an essay as to why Kain is the baddest badass in gaming history and his psych eval or something - but anyway, who are your favorite characters/villains and why?

-Philosoma

Don't think I could pick a favorite, but Yang was pretty awesome. It's probably pointless to avoid spoilers, but the thing he winds up doing, I was dumbfounded by that the first time I played it. Pretty amazing what some of the other characters did in the game as well. FFIV seemed so much more serious and mature than other games back then because of those incredible twists.

Fav villian... probably Golbez, simply because he's incredibly evil and the fact that he keeps transforming. Fighting him is epic. Other than him... Bahamut maybe, just coz. He's a huge freakin dragon afterall.

Favorite character for me is Edge, who doesn't like ninjas but as for villain, I have yet to decide.

Honestly, my favorite character is Edward... I don't know why, really. I like Bard's, I guess. Plus, he's a lot better in the DS version than he was previously. That made me feel better about liking him.

Maybe my liking Edward is what caused me to play a Bard for so long in FFXI. Haha.

The DS version is my first time playing FFIV and so far my favorite would have to be Cecil. I havent met everyone yet though so it might change.

Tough call.