An unpopular opinion over an unpopular character essay

[HienTheBirdie]

I had wonder if I wanted to post this essay here because well... my opinion sucks especially when it comes to Phantasy Star 2.
But here's a little essay about what I thought about Hugh and sorting my thoughts for a LONG LONG time particularly after playing Text Adventure.

Link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3orpW73x5Y

The script if you cannot read what I am saying.
A personal history around Phantasy Star 2’s most overlooked character

Summary

1
This video is not made with the intention to treat Hugh as a god or attack the other seven characters in Phantasy Star 2, this is solely my take on Hugh, if nothing I say changes your mind, it’s fine, I’m four years younger than the Genesis game and would have still been younger than most of the characters in that game when the Playstation 2 remake came out and I only played the game in the beginning of June 2025.
I was at a rough part of my life not long before I played the game, I am not suffering myself but there’s a lot of family issues that happened a few months before but I wonder if I was indirectly part of some of the issues, although there were issues that are way out of my factor but this is way too personal for a video like this. Do not ask me to address the full story. The only thing you need to know was that I was coddled.
But it plays a large part for why I sympathize and relate with Hugh.
I will for the most part try to avoid bringing up characters from other video games or characters from other titles in this series but I will bring up some of them because it is relevant to the topic.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make this video around the time I was playing the Genesis run back in mid-September when I was in Dezoris, I had considered not doing this and scrapped it because he just seemed like yet another character in an old video game and there’s so many characters to like better in this series but by the time I was doing my Rudo solo run in mid-October, I made my words and I want to stand up to him ultimately. I don’t think he’s a boring one note character who adds nothing to this game, there is plenty he offers beyond being that early biomonster swatter and being a kindhearted man.

2
I will also try not to talk about superficial traits like his character design which if you see some of my other videos, you will know I love his Playstation 2 redesign or information only found in artbooks when some of the information might or might not be prototype information like the autism situation, everything will still apply whether he has it or not.

3
Be warned that it may sound like I am bashing him more than I am praising him at times but I will assure you that it’s to dig deep into my thoughts, tell you why I think many of these bad assets are legitimate criticism, digging deeper into my decades of let downs with such universal concepts that happened as far as the classics and how the ones that do work, worked out or even how correcting those criticism means you actually killed the entire concept.

4
I was interested in the RPG series because of a friend who had an avatar of a certain blonde woman. I still like her stoic yet warm hearted personality and I think her design is amazing and unique.

5
Actually no, Anna wasn’t the first thing I found out about 2 or the series as a whole.
I used to play a lot of JRPGs on the first two Playstation as a child. If you didn’t see my Hugh solo run for the remake about how I found this series. It wasn’t just the picture of Anna. That picture of her was how I first found out about 2.

I was just a child back in 2005 when I saw the box art of Generation 1 for the Playstation 2, I do remember the cover art for that game but I never bought it since I had a lot of games and this was in Japanese which I couldn’t read at the time.
Sometime around 2009 was when I decided to try one of these series on the PSP, this is the first Portable game, I only remember it as an action game with a futuristic setting as that wasn’t my PSP at the time but it was fun.
I snapped a copy of Universe, Ambitions of the Illuminus not long after, it looked really nice though I had no space to save and can’t connect to the internet(though by then I think Universe’s online mode shut down) I was stuck on the first mission because of the first boss fight, by today I realize it was from the three Vol brothers, mainly the Newman one that could have killed me.
By the early 2020s, I found Zero and tried it, the 3D graphic is very nice for old DS, I was a Hunewearl because I thought she was cute but I was terrible in DS games on emulator so I quit for that point around the second world, I don’t think I have the save anymore-
I hunted down my save and found it, I still have the save which was in the first of September 2020 with a blue haired Hunewearl at level 16 for 7 and a half hours, the latest area I unlocked is the Rioh Snowfield which is the third world with a handgun equipped because my reflex is so terrible, I usually use ranged weapons in action games if I can. I was generally very inexperienced with the series until 2023 and it took until my solo run to learn the rest of their magical termalogy.
When a friend came over in 2020 I was exposed to the gamecube version of the Dreamcast game and played multiplayer, it’s very clunky and I had to use a gun because I couldn’t do the timed hit with a melee weapon though I found it neat and a few years later I played the private version on the PC and had a lot of fun with the female gun using human.
I eventually played the base version of Universe with Ethan Waber and I do like the controls of the Playstation 2 version more although the restriction on guns are a bit annoying, the auto regen does make magic more appealing though.

6
Other than Anna’s portrait another thing I found about 2 was there is a girl named Nei from a review of an anime called World War Blue which had a parody of her.

7
I did see the Playstation 2 remake of 2 once around the late 2010s when the fan translation is out and saw Nei and the game’s utterly ridiculous dungeon on a friend’s data, just grinding in the first dungeon before I saw the portraits of the other characters on the internet, I only saw Amy’s picture for the remake though.
I saw a sample of 4 as well which is very nice looking, it was early on with the basement.


8
It was during the start of June 2025 did I decide to play this remake for myself, I told myself at the time I want to try the cute doctor, the woman on this friend’s avatar and the notorious Biomonster boy.
It took awhile to get used to the charge attack system but the music is awesome so I didn’t mind the ridiculous dungeons and training every new character from scratch.
Actually… I do like training a character from level one… *koff*

9
If you saw what I said in the beginning you know what happened when Hugh joined the party.
I was already fond of the action series, I still prefer them over the turn-based titles, I do like 4 as well and 1 and 3 are okay though I didn’t like 1’s first person dungeons all that much.
I think my exposure to Hugh also shifted the way I played the action games, earlier on I mainly liked gun using Rangers and was still learning about the series terms before I shifted to Forces and relied on magic with gun as a secondary option.
For the original online game, I still prefer Rangers but for the Sony titles, I definitely like Forces more.

10
I am very late to the game, I was not around until 4 was released in Japan and I was late way waay past the first time I saw Generation 1 let alone Generation 2 which by the time I knew about it, a fan translation exists, by the time I played it, the Heal Ring was discovered.
That might have coloured things heavily, joining in much later than the RPG heyday.

11
I was also late yet early enough I sorta know the shift and being an Asian, I will explain the situation of the 80s and 90s as most of my cousins at the time were teenagers or young adults in the 90s.
I live in a time when everything seems to be relaxed and cozy just like Phantasy Star 4 is despite Motavia turning back into a desert and Palma being destroyed, characters in that game can joke around and make silly anime faces even in spite of serious situations but this wasn’t as true in the mid-80s. Or at least it wasn’t as true in that those portions were seen as globally unappealing.
Back when Phantasy Star 2 came out, there was a rise in crime that was difficult to deduct, people mysteriously died or went missing, no one knew how or why, it’s like Motherbrain isn’t it?
And the main characters seek out to find and stop what was causing disasters around this planet no matter what, whether they survive to the end or sacrifice themselves for the future of everyone past this game.
This is very much the essence of what the late 80s including this game wanted to tell, there’s so many mysterious murders and adduction, men, women, old and young but there are people who want to bring an end to this and dig deep to the source, many in the real world is attempting to do so in this time too and stop these mysterious incidents.
You can call me digging too hard but 2 is always about personal tales and Phantasy Star has always been a compliment to Final Fantasy in how they handle the themes those games used too.
This game isn’t just about the hard truth, it’s escapism despite all the lemons thrown into one’s eyes that you spit at those stings and uncover the source of it all.

12
Phantasy Star has always been about connecting people in some way, that’s why the series transitioned to MMOs.
Even Nei’s death in 2 was a huge deal from spending so much time with her and loving her, hanging out with Rolf for so long as Rolf’s darling little sister. Rolf can be seen as someone for players to inject themselves into as a fantasy or relatability.
And that horrible sting when she dies in the first third of the game, leaving you with the other six characters you hired… unless you wanted to solo with Rolf, better hope you get attached to THEM.
Nei is a look in how to handle character death Final Fantasy 2 utilizes, the latter treats it as inevitable many people you encounter will die no matter how little time you spent with them, they will make sure the protagonist will continue on and their leader survives, Nei also dies in an dramatic battle but you have her for several dungeons so this impact is different but powerful as you have to see Rolf live on and see how he handles the rest of the journal without someone he’s grown attached to with these companions he might not be familiar with.
It’s not about rejecting Final Fantasy but rather it’s how they can handle this concept in their own way.
And I love Nei, she’s my second favourite character, she’s just so cheerful even though her past is so crappy instead of being this helpless little girl that needs to be defended.

13
I already heard about this before the first preview and recognize a similar deal in Final Fantasy 7 but even so I was willing to be invested in the other six characters even if Nei is very lovable, who knows, it could surprise me, it could be the woman I was curious about, it could be Nei herself, it could even be Kain, the character I was least interested in as I’m not big on boisterous looking characters, he could show a surprising side and impress me.

14
So, it might be surprising my connection was to the Biomonster specialist, even ignoring that I had intended to play as him, he’s one of the lower tier characters for so many easy to understand reasons and not just for gameplay.
At a glance he’s not very memorable, he’s just another party member and a palette swap of one of the least memorable design, even as a character in Text Adventure, he’s a bit weird and it ends with him getting a slap for his own accident.
Yet somehow, I was attached to him for various reasons.
He just stands out to me for some reason, part of it was yeah hearing about how much he sucks playing as…

15
I expected a Dexter Laboratory type nerd who was grumpy or smug, arrogant and inexperienced outside of his studies because of his overly frownie portrait and nerdy occupation but in reality, he was far from that, the closest person who fits this is the musician in the third town.
Anna was everything I want from her yet this isn’t about her…
This isn’t about the woman who died and impacted many.
This is about the infamous biologist and one of the many non-plot relevant companions.


16
This game has eight characters in a party of four with six of them being able to be swapped in and out in a time long before Final Fantasy allowed it.

17
The other two are Rolf, who has to be in your party for the entire game and Nei who is forced in the party for the first third of the game before the plot kills her off, freeing another space for the other six.


18
Though the playstation 2 remake has this really convoluted sidequest that lets you keep her on a newgame plus if you had a clear data of the first game’s remake on your first run hush hush.
I still rather let her die for most run though, sorry cute kitty cat…

19
The other six characters you get in order are Rudo, Amy, Hugh, Anna, Kain and Shir.

20
In general, the other seven are either very beloved or generally liked.

21
With the few dislikes being mild annoyance like Kain and Shir.
It’s understandable why they are all liked even if all you play is the Genesis version and only see a basic summary.

22
Rolf is the main character so you have to see him at all times.

23
Nei is a loving sister who wants to help her big brother and ultimately died to stop the biomonster infestation.

24
Rudo is a stoic reliable older man dealing with the loss of his family.

25
Amy is a dedicated doctor who will risk her life for everyone who suffered.

26
Anna is a stoic and courageous woman with a strong sense of justice.

27
Kain is down in the dump and doing all he can to survive his rough life.

28
Shir may seem like an uncaring woman who does whatever she wants without any care for anyone but she does it because she desires freedom.

29
But Hugh is the exception.
He has always been a very controversial character both for his gameplay but also his personality, he has attracted many angry letters about his naivete in Japan according to the staff back in the days.
It’s easy to see why.


30
Many fans would get invested in Rudo and Amy since you do get them before the party limit hits. And these two also makes a very well-balanced team of having a heavy hitter, two generalists with good stats and a dedicated healer.
And as I said about them they have a cool reliable working adult vibe, it might sound silly to bring that up but I will explain what I mean later on.

31
It’s very hard to consider who to let go for awhile and even if you knew about Nei, you get him when there’s competition.


32
Anna and Kain are much more viable and have less aggravating personalities than he does. I could tell you why Hugh can be seen as aggravating now but I will explain why after this intro.


33
And just before you lose Nei, you get Shir, Shir has a decently strong character for what’s given and has a unique burglary mechanic…

34
Even if you dare to use him, his kit is very alienating, he only has tier 1 biomonster attacking abilities while Kain has a full set of them, skipping to instant death which has a hit rate of 75% which can feel risky if it misses therefore feel he has no payoff training him, terrible stats beyond even Amy and Kain by being very inaccurate when accuracy are the series mages strong point to counter tanky heavy gun users with nothing better than either of them.
This is something I think is easy to overlook why does Kain, someone who is also somewhat limited earlier on is MUCH more acceptable, even when he can’t use his robotic speciality he is still acceptable to use because he uses heavy guns which does flat solid output which only Rudo can also use, Hugh is only acceptable at best in his OWN SPECIALTY and OUTRIGHT WORTHLESS IN IT at worst early on, can’t help you much when most of your party members also struggles aided by how he already doesn’t really help you even in the training stage/is actually worse than someone WEAK AT IT.
You can say otherwise or use the ‘oh but if you like him enough just use him’ but I will still point out why criticism for him has very legitimate merit and has historically prevent using THAT from roadblocking many other characters from beyond using just grinding to patch this issue... They CAN’T actually just grind or even bring them in the party 24/7 to rapidly level up due to factors like their abilities they have or lack thereof or requiring items that has to be hunted in a later location when everyone else doesn’t need this item to get it, no amount of level will help them because what they want is PLOT PROGRESSION BASED, Hugh doesn’t requires the plot to use Savolt but this is his best use out of it and that demands an insanely prolonged period of being passable at best.
If you are gonna mention Generation 2… that version of him has flaws too… mainly that Sulfur is a limit break and a lot of his other flaws like poor durability and weak Biomonster abilities are much much worse when you can still have others just kill them faster or not actually charge to paralyze. He may have that niche you can take advantage of as Sulfur is universal but there is still a lot of risk like risking the chance he flat out dies on you or wipe out the other party members from dragging a battle out.
You can still use him and not soft lock the game but he has a lot of penalties you cannot avoid that can risk any potential he has or even feel you get less than nothing for doing so much training. It feels like a failed role playing project where you put progression way waaaay too late when everyone else is trained up and whatever utility this person can use is at a point you are ready to fight the final boss after hours and hours dealing with the other bosses and dungeons.

35
That’s not getting into the robot arc of the second third of the game where half of his abilities can’t be used or Dezoris when his body armour option is getting shut down.
But at the same time my defense will be much later on how he does work in a way in this concept.

36
I could talk about his gameplay more which is what’s more known about him but I’m going to mainly talk about his character which is also polarizing.


37
While it will apply to both versions from here on out, I will be using his Playstation 2 design since this is the version I played first and that version showcases a little more personality to the cast. It may be controversial to use the Generation 2 design but I like Hugh’s design enough to use this as my main choice AND it is my first fuel into siding with him.

38
I don’t know if he was universally reviled or polarizing with very vocal haters. He didn’t appear in the choose your own adventure book but that book was released a month after the game’s release so it’s hard to actually gauge interest in such a short time span, for all I know he was actually a later implementation after that book had most of its content written which is why he’s so out of place in the game, it did have a very different design for Amy on the cover, the artist could have took the fanservice for old fashioned people for sexy.


39
On the other hand, it might be that all EIGHT characters including him WERE planned after they scrapped the idea of Lutz as the lead to have an everyday man save the world, he was merely the last one finalized but not before most of that book was already written. (Or they thought he was Hiram, the Maruera Gum maker.)

40
Actually, while I will bring up a similar topic a bit later on, I wonder if Hugh is a contrast to Lutz, they don’t interact in the final product but…
They are both magically focused characters and Hugh can equip the Amber Mantle, which are similar to Lutz’ gears but uses small bladed weapons and fire arms instead of rods with less focus on magic and being much more amateurish to Lutz’ expertise in general.
The experienced mage who has been around for a long-time and focuses on one subject vs a newbie who is clumsy, starting out and branching to a wide variety of topic, they are like Kain and Rudo in some way aren’t they?
Although in said info, Hugh is older than Kain by a few months(though still younger than the other humans)… makes me wonder if his portrait in the original game was made with that in mind, he’s still described as naïve though.
Granted Rolf and Hugh also has a form of contrast even as is but that’s what I will explain later.

41
Because to give him some defense, the team behind this game always stood down to a lot of their decisions for him both gameplay and personality. THEY did not think he was a lost cause.
Although it’s more of a teasing him way.
Either way he’s just so jarring tonally even with or without using that book as context (and that book is very consistently tonally serious). And most wouldn’t know, I don’t really know if this is true. I’m just saying if it was, it does explain why he feels so jarring and unnecessary.

42
But he might just be polarizing because his Text Adventure’s basement plant monster plot was reused in 4 plus he created an archetype in the form of Hahn…

43
But at the same time when you think about the home dialogue there is an easy connection the other seven have, that makes them sympathetic or match the bleak storytelling this game has and are very motivating into wanting to help them work their way to freedom.

44
They faced some form of hardship even inferring solely from the description in Rolf’s home.

45
Rolf, Nei, Rudo and Anna lost their families.

46
Rolf, Nei, Anna and Kain have to live on their own young.

47
Kain and Shir do not have happy home lives.

48
Amy may have an ordinary childhood too but has to deal with people who are suffering as a doctor.
All of these have very good motivations for you to hire them beyond just their decent gameplays.

49
Rolf was an arrogant spoiled child with a lot of natural talent who has to learn how hard the world is even for those with natural talent, he has to prove that he can work to make his talent flourish and he was put to the test to prove that he learnt his lesson.

50
Nei is very upbeat despite her crappy past and short lifespan, she adapts very quickly because of her Newman blood but is still occasionally bratty because of her young actual age because in some way her brain cannot mature completely and for her fear of abandonment after what happened to her parents, but she isn’t weak, she wants to help Rolf despite suffering so much and while it’s not her choice, she died helping him, instead of being sheltered and alone.

51
Rudo lost his family very suddenly a few years ago and shows it at first, going on a mindless rampage against the biomonsters with no regard to his own safety, but ultimately he knew he had to control himself for the sake of everyone else still living, even if in reality he would rather die to be with his family, Nei’s helplessness when she was a child was something that rekindled his spirit when he offered her a necklace, the Playstation 2 remake also has a sidequest for Nei to get it back and realize what happened, adding another depth for both of them whether Nei dies or survives past that.

52
Amy has an easy life and is a sweet hearted and attractive woman but she’s more than that, she’s very selfless and willing to do anything to help others even facing unfamiliar and dangerous territories but she’s not invincible, she knows when to seek help when a target is too powerful for her but she will still assist, she won’t stay behind even when she would be safe. Even so she’s not fully job orientated, she likes to pretty herself up in her house and wears a fashionable outfit in the main adventure. The remake has a consult where she suggest playing a piano.

53
Anna seems cold hearted but she has a warm heart underneath, she may seem like nothing more than a hunter who hunt down crime, but she can feel sorry for even criminals who turn to crime because they have nowhere else to go, in the Playstation 2 remake she was also willing to talk a little to some of the party members so she puts the time to at least acknowledge them.

54
Kain seems like nothing more than a loud joke character and the PS2 remake emphasize this more as well but his Text Adventure reveals that his life is rough and dangerous for him and he does have people who he cares about in particular with Sue but for him, he just lives in the present, never dwells in the past even with his failures and he does like and is used to this kind of dangerous lifestyle so he is not really unhappy with that.

55
Shir seems little more than a shallow rich bratty teenage girl but she didn’t like her life at home, she will use her knowledge to distract other nobles but she is most happy when she gets anything with her own hands and say anything she wants, all she want is to be free and not shackled.

56
Conversely what hardship or grief does Hugh has or have to encounter? What depth does he have to offer beyond surface level kindness and attractive looks? What does he offer on his own that Amy (or the others really) doesn’t also offer? Is he just a shallow positive figure? Character depth is a huge appeal for many characters, especially main characters.
He’s just some coddled college student in a game known for how bleak and controlled its world is.
In addition to that in his own story, it’s very likely he caused his own problem in the first place.
Even if you want to pin him as the ordinary relatable young man, the lack of struggling he has to deal with squishes that… Mostly, the bullies will be covered later.

57
The topic of an ordinary underdog helping out is something I seen time and time again.
Their execution varies extremely wildly. Sometimes they are very effective characters who are fundamentally still that but can make a big impact to those around them or realize something most take for granted because they had to struggle to get to that point.
But all too often they never realize this potential, are more often than not victimized, cause more problems than they solve or left to sit on the sideline after awhile or exist to prove how major every stake in the story is.
Or they overcorrect and give them powers which while keeping them respected by others and stops them from suffering, kills the entire concept.

58
Even if all you want is a simple, sweet person who wasn’t traumatized, Amy covers that much earlier without feeling like being talked down to.
And what do I mean with that?
This is a far bigger issue in America but there’s also a lot of controversy around cute, helpless characters in Japan too at that period. This is not as controversial by the late 90s(for fans, creators took longer to accept it) and there are cute anime for kids back then but this isn’t as accepted as a whole in the late 80s and early 90s.
There had been attempt to force cute, helpless characters in narratives in older anime too that feels gratifying to look after even when they only cause more issues way beyond a damsel in distress. Doubly so if they were a woman or a kid under a misguided believe those alone makes them compelling.
Many both fans and creators are frustrated with these characters that ultimately caused many works to get cancelled instead would seek to put these characters into the background or make them have more bite.
Just like everything else about this game that plays with expectations, Phantasy Star’s women are about rejecting helplessness.
Sure, they look and act cute but these are not helpless, Rolf made the mistake to believe Nei needed protecting because of the abuse she suffered when she was on the street, Shir’s family made the mistake that she needed sheltering because of her wealth and delicate looks but in reality these girls want to be independent and still be cute and feminine.
You may think isn’t Amy cute? She may look very young and petite, she does need bodyguards because she’s more of a support than a major damage dealer but she is someone who refuses to sit back and not assist, she will always want to contribute when she can and she’s a very well put together adult in spite of her looks and gentle demeanor.
So, it comes as a shock the game has a moe character that is presented as delicate in the form of Hugh.

59
When you hear that the Biomonster incident is getting dire and you need someone who specialize in it, you might expect someone with experience with Biomonsters including dismantling them.
Sure enough they telegraph that you will get assistance, when you return home, you meet this man who looks smart, neat and well put together…
Then he opens his mouth something isn’t right…
He’s polite to you and tries to be nice even more so than Amy, maybe too nice…
You expect him to be utterly clueless and way out of his league for taking it all so lightly and you are right.
And he’s not the expert against Biomonsters you would expect such a situation to help you, this is someone who is barely adequate at best if not an outright detriment to hire who will burn your finances at worst to keep.
So why… why did they allow him to join? Why would they want to give you someone who needed protecting? You already have Amy for the sweetness and stable life and she’s nowhere near as helpless. This game is about rebelling against being complacent and becoming weak and lazy so why did they fall for this?

60
Even Hahn, a character also designed to be an ordinary, relatable man who has a loving family, has to deal with an uncooperative school and a family who wants him to inherit a job he is unsure about and still trying to discover himself even in his mid 20s. This is not drastically dark but it’s something very relatable for most people growing up and adults.
As you can see on my caption, Hahn is insecure of himself as well, even adults can feel that even when they learnt a lot, there’s a feeling you are still inadequate, there’s a lot of adults I know who feel like that.
Technically Hugh is a bit timid himself but he’s better at trying to act confident or at least makes it clear he’s very eager to do his job even when he’s uncertain about his own abilities, that even Rolf feels he can be helpful while Hahn needed some… prodding.

61
Speaking of Hahn and the others (with the exception of maybe Nei especially if you factor her human age) these cast are mostly in their early 20s, depending on which book you use, Hugh himself is either 20 himself or only 19, the latter is the latest age used in an artbook for Phantasy Star 4’s drama CD and he has the attitude of a teenager.

62
19 makes more sense because in a lot of ways he’s treated like a minor in his own Text Adventure which is set shortly before he’s hired, Japan treats people under 20 as a minor and he lives in a law abiding town, which does explain why the people in the factory considers him a child lying to them and he needs a permit to leave his town.
Although even if he is considered early in his adulthood, a lot around him revolves being very inexperienced and sheltered.

63
In a lot of ways that makes me think about Final Fantasy’s blue mages even if he’s older than the first usage of this class in Final Fantasy 5, I did think about this a few times but with this essay I will tell it all.
For those who don’t know what blue magic are, they are heavily defined by how you can’t really categorize any of their magic as they are extremely diverse and involves encountering enemies to learn them not by generic levelling up. How you get those varies from getting hit by them, using a monster drop or using an ability akin to monster catching. Blue magic can be defined from status effects to physical magic with unusual properties that target stats to healing.
The first time I really noticed blue magic was in Final Fantasy 9 with Quina, a random character I got just getting lost in the world map and finding a random swamp. I first saw it as Quistis limit break in 8 but it left no impact on me minus the fact she learns more from monster drops(and the ones I found were all generic attack something a different way).
I got stuck in that game because the boss is aggressive so I wandered around… I did frog hunting and saw a guidebook from a relative about how to get her magic… This guidebook is otherwise very low quality and reliant on a paid internet service but it DOES tell you how she learns her magic.
I did… a bit too much I hunted EVERYTHING, I even played this amazingly slow frog catching minigame, I have no reflex to do very well in.
She has a LOT and I mean a LOT in her pool… she was how I killed this boss.
That was the point I had interest in this class.
Kimahri was also one which I saw later but I didn’t register him because his was a limit break just like Quistis(and that one is less accessible than in 8), I found out later many people HATE playing as this character… I agree there is something wrong about him and Quistis in this concept to play as. (in Kimahri’s case, more than just that in the normal difficulty but that’s a different story) I think the earlier get hit by an enemy with that magic or Quina were much better.
Ah yeah there’s Strago from 6 who’s an old blue mage but he’s a different beast being an old man trying to learn new things at his age partially because he recently adopted an orphaned child which maybe in some way can work with what I say right now and he learns his by enemies firing off the magic, he doesn’t need to be hit by it.

64
But storywise, all three of these younger narrative blue mages do interest me and this is where Hugh intersects with them.
They work at what are considered very young ages, have natural talent according to the narrative but are still so inexperienced and sheltered, they can’t execute them very well so they are requested to travel to actually learn how to use them.
Sounds familiar?

65
Now the issue is being discouraged to use them because they are so trial and error reliant, tend to have terrible stats and the there is a risk there is so much of the game engine playing against them by not letting them use it enough or having their progression blocked by the plot. They give enough of a taste of power with Quina by letting you give her very strong blue magic early on if you wish to seek it out(or just play hours of frog catching) but Quistis and Kimahri aren’t so lucky as it demands you go to later areas to get item drops and they really low ball their power early on, in addition to those magic being blocked by limit breaks versus having full access at all times as long as she has MP, Kimahri is worse as Quistis just needs to have low health to use hers.
Hugh is… Hugh is in between where he doesn’t need to be restricted to use his abilities and it’s just a normal magic command but he has a period he can’t use the Biomonster based ones as they only target them VERY similar to blue magic that only target enemy levels. And it can be a potential handicap with how extended this period is against enemies most others are already not doing well with themselves. To add a twist to the knife, the reason to train him is to use a CHANCE BASED spell once he can use them again so the risk all that training amounts to nothing is incredibly high for everything you have to do to put up with a character who up to this point is barely acceptable at best for an extremely long time even in his own specialty much earlier on.

66
Nobody comments about this but that’s something else I think was an interesting common root with it and Final Fantasy 7 since most of the comparison was over a dead main character.
That game mostly revolves around full grown adults, Red XIII has the same debatable issue Nei has but in reverse, being in his late 40s in human years but is 16 in his race years and Yuffie is 16 years old with the attitude to match.
One appeal about such a cast for works aimed at teenagers was the fantasy of seeing people older than they are and how they could possibly think and behave.
It also adds the bonus that adults find them very relatable.

67
Rolf and Kain are in their early 20s but have mostly settled in different ways, Rolf is fairly comfortable and rather serious though still young enough to have a brother-sister bond with Nei.
Kain on the other hand is constantly moving about but takes it all with stride, even getting along with the people he meets along the way while he’s with them.

68
Speaking of Kain, since he and Hugh are very obvious contrasts but they are pretty close in age with Kain being half a year older.

69
They are both lighthearted, youngest (humans) of the group but Kain is more mature both for being older but he also has to grow up faster so even as a teen in Text Adventure he is very independent and mature, even doing adult things like drinking and driving underaged.
So even at that age he has that whole grow up fast situation, I think that’s actually something he and Nei(he has a crush on her in the Japanese version) have in common.

70
Hugh though has the youth Kain didn’t get and stayed in the same town his entire life, I will cover more around him on his own term once I finish the others.


71
Shir is the same age as Rolf and Kain but she’s interesting, in that she acts very immature for her age like Hugh, to an even greater degree in fact.
But in her case, it’s more like an adult compensating for not being able to enjoy it in her childhood, there are plenty of tales of childish adults who are like this.

72
Amy’s a bit further up there in adulthood despite looking like a girl in her early teens, she technically just started her business but she’s a lot more put together than the others, kinda like Hahn actually minus Hahn trying to sort his own life out.
Actually… she does meet this hermit named Hein who does look quite a bit like Hahn with a similar looking outfit(though Hugh does wear the same coat in his own adventure) in the concept art of Amy wearing his outfit… even their NAME sounds similar even in Japan. (Hugh’s Japanese name is Huey)

73
Anna has no age given though she does fit the whole being out there for so long in mystery angle.
She’s the super hero of this game.

74
Rudo’s fairly grown up in his mid-30s, he’s over a decade older than the others.
He’s relatable for older people who have mostly settled or have a family but younger fans could really look up to what an adult could be like or be a parent figure.

75
Nei’s interesting since her age is disproportionate to her looks in human years but she’s partially Biomonster which are considered animals in this universe so she ages closer to the latter. It’s still shorter than the musk cats she is created with though since she’s a faulty prototgype…
She’s a mix of being very young yet fully grown at the same time with her clingy brattiness yet her strong independence and learning fast but also aging so fast that you can tell she is decaying fast too with how her growth reflects in particular.

76
Hugh doesn’t have much of this adult edge, he is over 18 but for the most part he seems like the team’s baby being very teenage-like.
He seems to be a gap between the end of teenhood and only just entering adulthood being in college with a very free-spirited, relaxed mentality and slightly odd speech pattern most would find embarrassing in a business meeting.
It doesn’t make much sense to most English speaking viewers but his Japanese speech pattern is considered fairly child-like and timid with a lot of polite speech enders, Amy does use the latter to some degree too but his is a higher degree that he seems very timid.
While he does have a job as abiologist as well, this lack of maturity clashes a lot with the adult theming the other cast have.

77
This is heightened in Text Adventure when you see his small group of friends, a distinctively happy childhood, pretty girlfriend and just getting away with a scolding and slap for his plants messing up the factory even if nobody died in the end.
He does have classmates who hates how his girlfriend hangs out with him and the people in the factory don’t want him around and believe he’s a liar, although the classmates are easily curbed off with the silly glasses and the people in the factory doesn’t drive him out of their facility.

78
And that’s not getting into the oddball solutions he comes up with resolving issues in that adventure. But I will get more to that a bit later on.

79
His lack of assertive traits is also another issue where you wonder why such a soft person in body and demeanor would step out into danger when there are others more capable.


80
I don’t think there’s any jealousy anger over how fortunate he is, it’s anger for how much he clashes with everything this game has to offer.
The dark storyline, the hardships your other party members have or has to see in person and how much all of them have to grow up fast or desire to feel free, the way the world of Algol has been controlled like a machine.

81
Before Text Adventure, it was mostly leisurely playing the game, knowing a little about the characters I hire from their base dialogue, I played it because I want to know more about my other party members and I was stuck in the Roron dump because the remake forced this silly chatter with NPC a lot to progress at this time.
The party comes off as fairly alright as characters at the time but I did think Hugh’s remake design is super cute so I did his story last to give the others a chance.
For the most part my first impression is still true for everyone else but I did think Kain is more likeable there than he was once I hired him. (though I mainly found him slightly obnoxious, not outright dislike his main game dialogue)

82
But Hugh and Amy’s were done a day after the other six characters.
Amy is also what I expected and I do admire her, that she does so much despite her cute dainty looks.
Hugh’s case is… a long story.
It has this laidback casual tone compared to the other seven, Shir’s not tense either but she’s trying to steal a painting in her story but despite a plant attacking his college’s basement, everyone is so laidback and doesn’t seem terribly concern about that other than Hugh and even then, he’s still casually talking to them.
The pretty girlfriend was both kinda cute (and to be honest, I think SHE is lucky dating such a cutie) and cheesy to be dating what is considered the most beautiful girl in school though they don’t seem very close when talking to her and seem more like a playdate, very short term and he treats her the same way he does to his other friends.
He does like his friends but he clearly likes to spend most of his time alone. Although I didn’t find the storeroom in my first run.
He also comes across as a headmaster pet with how the principal can contact him and work in the school at his age. A really obvious wish fulfillment for young adults, in a game whose setting is dire and against that in general.

83
Then the bullies arrive and makes me wonder if he’s actually one of those talented punching bag nerds, that puts me at odds with his cute character design and sweet demeanor, they can be funny but I was never big on those type of characters unironically.
…then again ironic/punching bag characters can make me laugh actually, though I don’t actually “like” like them, what I mean is, while I don’t actually want them to go away and do want to watch them, I find it more fun when things go against them rather than support them but when it comes to Hugh, his sweet demeanor meant I want to be on his SIDE, not enjoy seeing his life be perpetually miserable.
But he quickly curbs them with the pince-nez glasses so that was the first of long chain of domino to sort out.
I think it’s pretty cute and funny, though as I will elaborate below…

84
His very… interesting solution to some of the puzzles does makes sense as someone who plays escape trick room games and I credit him for looking for whatever he can find in this situation without bringing up how silly some of them are.
There’s clearly something off about him, it’s easy to pass this as typical nerd quirk though, but when I found one of the artbook… it’s very likely he DOES have autism although it’s a bit dubious because there’s some details that never got implemented like Hugh turning Biomonsters against each other or Shir stealing from enemies.

85
But it was that ending where he finds that he could have possibly mutated his own plant and gets the school annoyed that made me think as well. It’s too much to completely throw him under the bus for just one disaster, mistakes happen.
Though as I said earlier, I wonder about him potentially being one of those cute punching bags which I don’t really like, it’s one thing to get people annoyed at you sometimes, it’s another when it feels like your whole life revolves around getting humiliated.
I will give some credit to his girlfriend however, she wasn’t that fleshed out but she wasn’t a yes-woman to slap him when she got annoyed.
I do like the interactions he has with the other characters around him was a lot more varied than the other characters, while it is true Rolf, Nei and Kain also have people who don’t get along with them either, Rolf was a naughty child at the time and the last two are to people who know nothing about them. Hugh is dealing with classmates who should know him.
I do like Amy and Kain’s text adventure too, Amy’s a super admirable woman, she is easily the most admirable character in the party without being overpowered.
Kain has a cool setting and was exciting with how tense it is, his maybe first girlfriend, Sue is adorable too. It made me at least appreciate him more than if I solely played the main adventure.
But even then, I think I prefer Hugh’s story for what I said above.
It’s cringey when you see bullies and the mess he does and while his principal pet situation can easily be cringey or a backhanded contrast to how everything actually sucks around him but he does have real friends in his school, the principal did care for and understand him, plus solving the plant issue was what got him hired in the main story.

86
I briefly mentioned that I thought about that in the segment about Lutz which is easy to overlook, because they seem pretty similar but I feel that Hugh and Rolf are contrasts of each other. Not Hugh against Kain or Rudo. He is very different to the two gunslingers yes but I do feel Hugh and Rolf are a contrast too.


87
Kain and Rudo are not identical but they have a lot of similarities, their run-down home lives, being drifted by their families, their tall, muscular builds, suffering heavy loses, their contrasts is when they face their loses, Kain lived by himself at a young age of 14 even if by choice and his life is constantly dangerous while Rudo’s when he’s already settled down for awhile so his loss was sudden but they had to face a loss eventually so they had similarities.

88
But when thinking about Rolf’s childhood… looking at him and Hugh… Hugh is often redundant because Rolf is also very versatile but he’s much more consistent about it and can excel at some of it at the price of having a slightly lower variety, Hugh is extremely versatile in what he has but he’s very inconsistent with his result and never excel in anything. (and that includes Biomonsters…)

89
But the real reason I find that they are contrasts is their lifestyles.

90
Rolf was a well off and comfortable spoiled child too until the spaceship accident that took his parents away, he only survived because of Lutz’ intervention, this is stated in Text Adventure, in addition he had a lot of natural talent with a sword, it is understandable he was the way he was as a child until his caretaker shows him how out of his league he was.

91
Which was what caused him to try to improve himself and grow up fast, he chose to live alone as well to make it harder for himself, which is also how he got his job when Major O’Conner and Shelly decided to devise a plan to see if he truly learned.
Rolf has to face a lot of hardship alone so he is prepared for almost every circumstances, the only thing he isn’t prepared for was against machinery so his firearm usage is incredibly poor.

92
Hugh on the other hand, never had anything taken away from his life, he has a happy childhood with supportive people and even by the game’s storyline he still did in spite of the fact he’s clumsy, they are very hands off, he never had to deal with people trying to punish him, show him hardship or do anything to change him, the worst he gets is a scolding and slap.
He’s naturally talented as well but compared to Rolf, everyone around him would support him and leave him to his own device, I will take it his attitude as a child is the same as an adult so he doesn’t really deserve punishment since he wasn’t arrogant like Rolf is though.

93
It’s easy to paint him as a spoiled brat, more coddled than a girl richer than royalty, who only joined because he believes he has the talent to save the world only to get crushed when Rolf never takes him out or when his poor combat abilities are revealed that he’s way out of his league and be completely unprepared especially once robots and more vicious Biomonsters of Dezoris arrive.


94
Though I wonder did Motherbrain try to make him suffer but it’s not as obvious as everyone else? It never stated what really caused the monster to mutate but I wonder if she caused it to mutate and it wasn’t his fault.

95
I don’t want to abolish him of any mistake he could potentially do even if the plant monster isn’t his fault and it IS very likely his fault but the others suffered because she wants to cause them agony and it’s very obvious especially with Kain who can actually see her in person so he has to face most of her abuse. And it ties into that hidden crime behind the scene that was happening in Japan at the time just like with the other seven.

96
Ahh actually… I forgot something, he ADOPTED the plant!
He didn’t actually crete this himself, it was given to him to examine so he couldn’t have known that it would mutate and he doesn’t live in a boarding house so he couldn’t watch it all the time so by the time of his story, not noticing the temperature right away doesn’t actually do anything. It was too late when the plant is in the basement.
So, she could have just sent the plant to his direction to grow.
In the end after the scolding the school gives him, all they can do is make up for him was to listen to his request, which is to travel to stop the Biomonster incident.
His biggest issue was that he seems absent minded and oblivious to others, something that bugs half the NPCs in his hometown but I will say something about this on my defense later on.

97
In Hugh’s case, the most she could do is make him come across as a burden for his school but he managed to kill the plant before anyone died so all he got was a slap but otherwise stayed on and he never changed his behavior, see any desire to really change himself or get broken inside.

98
But it’s easy to think he caused it when he forgets to bring his ID card, doesn’t really register why his lab monitor was off initially or open the case holding the plant to check on it, wear silly glasses to scare bullies, recalls a friend shooting vending machines and in general acts like a cutesy absent-minded child at times than an adult despite his nice looks.
Maybe it does make him come across as rather spotless given she couldn’t take anything away from him like she did with the others…

99
Trying to realize this is why it’s so hard for me to admit I like this character, I felt like it was mainly his looks in the Playstation 2 remake and oddball playstyle that motivated me, these characters mainly speak when you hire them and in their ending quotes, it’s easy to dismiss it all as a game of the old and move on to 4 or anything past that with much better fleshed out characters that can be talked about beyond gameplay and character design.
I want to add to this and say the opinion I found in various fanzines in Japan and the web actually take up a VERY small portion of this feeling, it merely enhances things and it’s mainly because it’s easier to talk about.
The major reason which I didn’t want to tell too much about was because there is a relative who hated me for being close to my mother who she hung out with a lot.
I won’t go too much into it but I got a lot of scathing comment and while I wasn’t actually bothered by it, my ma hearing it bothers me more.
They had a break off a few months before I played Generation 2 for something that isn’t related to me, mind you.
That’s WHAT caused my problems early on even if my Youtube videos doesn’t show it, I was sucked in really fast because of how sweet and adorable he is but he reminds me too much of myself and an accusation I got was how I sucked in people with no real effort and Hugh also got jealous classmates for the same reason.
It’s actually something guilt related that caused my issue.

100
And I have been talking very poorly about him so far but hear me out on this, if you do love a character in spite of the discomfort of being too close to home, you need to figure why do you love them, characters can have what sounds like unlikeable traits (selfish, greedy, rude) and still be compelling in other ways or be a very good motivational hateable, villain you just want to kick.
Conversely you can have a character with only likeable traits and make a shallow character. There’s so many out there who are nice and approachable but that’s all they have, they don’t have any appeal in reality beyond surface level niceness and it does not work for stories meant to be about liking your characters and having a motivation to use them like what Text Adventure is meant to be about.
But you also need to realize those same traits that gets them criticized, dismantle all of it and explain why you think they are so compelling because of those traits, not despite them.

101
And ultimately… I want to stand up to how I feel about him past his looks and I do feel he has a very good reason to be in the party and why I find him compelling.
The cast does live in a pretty crappy setting if you think about it but at the same time not everyone has prepared for battle either.

102
Otherwise, you can grab all of the shopkeepers to fight for you.

103
And in a setting where Motherbrain has affected all of Algol… he too got affected by her greatly, equally as everyone else.

104
Most of your characters are affected in that she’s indirectly controlling them to get rid of them or give up having any motivation, while Shir is also comforted with but the lack of freedom is the hole that causes Shir to lash out, but what about Hugh?

105
He never had anything taken away from him but I mean it in terms of all the comforts he is given from her and he can do anything he desire, so he would become accepting of her and never try to betray her.

106
But he still betrayed her.
He may be very ill prepared compared to the other seven and has no real reason to join when they can contribute better so why should he join when he could have a happy life for potentially the rest of his life?
While he’s one of the people who gotten a comfortable life because of Motherbrain and he has no reason to take his own happiness away, this is true, why would he do this?