Shadow (Final Fantasy)

Shadow (シャドウ) is a player character in the 1994 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VI by Square. He is a mysterious and cynical assassin and mercenary, always accompanied by his faithful attack dog, Interceptor (インターセプター).

Character design
Although drawn by Yoshitaka Amano, this character's concept was designed by Tetsuya Nomura.

In video games
During the first half of the game Shadow operates only on a freelance basis, at times available to the player for a fee and at times appearing in the employ of the Gestahlian Empire. In two instances within the World of Balance, Shadow is forced into the player's party – Crescent Island and the Floating Continent. Shadow's fate is determined entirely by player action on the latter area; should the player have too little time remaining attempting to escape the Continent's destruction, Shadow is presumed to have perished during the collapse of the world. However, if the player has enough time to wait before leaping to the airship, Shadow will eventually accompany the party aboard the Blackjack and be available for permanent recruitment in the World of Ruin.

In the second half of the game, Shadow is found injured within the Cave on the Veldt and is returned to Strago's home in Thamasa to heal. Later on, he may be acquired by betting an item he seeks at the Dragon's Neck Coliseum and winning the ensuing match. Whenever Shadow is placed in the party, his backstory is revealed through dreams and nightmare sequences by using a Tent or resting at an Inn. Shadow's actual name is Clyde (クライド) and he once lived a life of crime with his partner, Baram ("Billy" in the Japanese version). The pair are infamous in the pre-war period before the game begins as a duo train robbers known as Shadow Bandits, but Baram eventually suffers mortal wounds during a failed railway heist. Baram tasks Clyde to finish him off, but Clyde instead panics, fleeing his friend. An indeterminate span of time passes, seeing Clyde collapse from exhaustion upon reaching Thamasa, found by a young woman and her dog. It is heavily implied (and was actually confirmed in a 1995 interview with the game’s developers ) that Clyde fathers Relm with this woman, eventually departing Thamasa under the guise of Shadow to escape his guilt over abandoning Baram.

At the game's conclusion, Shadow remains within the crumbling ruin of Kefka's tower, quietly separating from the party and encouraging Interceptor to flee with the others. His final words are directed to Baram: "It looks like I can finally stop running... Come and find me all right?" (Japanese version: "I don't need to flee anymore. Embrace me warmly.") Interceptor is later seen with Relm in Strago's section of the ending. In Final Fantasy VI Advance it is implied that Shadow killed himself.

Shadow also appears in the 1995 Nintendo 64-based technical demo Final Fantasy VI: The Interactive CG Game as one of the three featured FFVI characters and makes a cameo appearance in the 2008 action RPG fighting game Dissidia Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals, alongside Interceptor.

Gameplay
Shadow avoids engaging in close combat, instead opting to throw ninja weapons at distance. His special ability "Throw" enables him to throw unequipped weapons that may inflict extremely heavy damage on an enemy. As a Ninja, Shadow has high speed and strength but low defense and average magic statistics. His weapons are various daggers and he can also use specialized throwing weapons to attack multiple enemies.

If an enemy hits him with a physical attack, there is a chance that Interceptor will block it, absorbing all or most damage. Interceptor's counterattacks ("Wild Fang" and "Takedown") can inflict powerful non-elemental damage at a non-floating enemy.

Reception
Despite appearing in only one major role, Shadow was critically well received and well remembered even many years later. As such, he was featured in several lists of the top ninja in video gaming,   notably ranked as fourth by CrunchGear in 2008 and as sixth on a similar list by Machinima.com in 2011. He was also included among the manliest men of the Final Fantasy series by Destructoid in 2007 and "a few standout examples" of ninja characters in all video games by GamesRadar in 2008.

In addition, his dog Interceptor won the Nintendo Power Awards '94 in the category Best Goodie ("the most popular good guy that isn't quite the main hero of the games") at the first place.