Auron is a character in the Playstation 2 game, Final Fantasy X. His English voice acting is damn near perfectly done by Matt McKenzie. His Japanese voice actor is Hideo Ishikawa.
Physically, he's quite a menacing character. In the
tradition of many Final Fantasy characters, his choice of weapon
is a sword, which he carries strapped on his back. His grim face
is marked by unshaved stubble, black fading to grayish hair, a pair
of dark shades, a scarred eye, and a constant, contemplative frown.
One particularly noteworthy piece of his getup is the little white
saké jug tied to his hip. To an uninformed passerby, it may
appear that his right arm was injured by the way he allows it to
swing limply above his golden belt that holds his dark red robe
together. However, during battles he pulls it out and can use it
quite fine, for some unexplainable reason. All in all, Auron looks
like a combination of a battle-scarred samurai and
blingin' gangster with a red cloak.
Concerning the
gameplay, Auron begins with an unusually large amount of
strength, but with ridiculously low accuracy. As his character
levels up and progresses, strength bonuses and traditional Final Fantasy knight class techniques
become available, such as Armor Break which makes enemies
more vulnerable to attacks, Magic Break which makes enemies
more vulnerable to magic, and Sentinel which guards other
characters when they are near death. His special attacks, or
Overdrives, are enhanced by pushing certain button
combinations in a small amount of given time. He learns new
Overdrives by collecting spheres scattered throughout the world.
Auron is a vital character to the game's story. Guiding
the two heroes, Tidus and Yuna, in their quest to defeat Sin,
the veil of mystery that surrounds him slowly fades over the course of the game. Seemingly
cold and distant early in the story, he begins to give fatherly advice
to the troubled heroes. Eventually, through a series of pseudo-flash
backs induced by fairy-like spirits called pyreflies, his
past and motivation to destroy Sin is revealed.
Auron's
character is defined by several concepts. He essentially plays the
mythological role of the Japanese sword master;
think Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars, Morpheus from The
Matrix, or Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. He follows this
popular archetype by doing several things: he appears in the time
of a crisis, bestows a physical weapon to the main character,
Tidus, and sets him on a quest by giving him a mental/spiritual
commitment. Like many other sword master characters, his past is
tumultuous.
His closest friend, Braska dies vainly in an
attempt to destroy Sin, a gigantic destructive monster. Because
Braska is Auron's leader, his death leaves Auron without a focal
point to channel his motivation to destroy Sin. After traveling
throughout most of the world in search of a way to destroy the
monster, Braska sacrifices himself to cast a powerful spell,
believing he will be victorious. However, Sin survives by being
inexplicably reborn ten years later and continues its terror. Auron
takes the death of Braska and rebirth of Sin as a very personal
failure. Parallel to Braska's vain attempt and death, Auron vainly
tries to avenge his friend and master, but dies. Thus the entire
playable game Auron is actually a ghost. In fact, the first part of
his name resembles the word aureole, a circle of light
surrounding the head or body of a holy person, or a halo.
Because of Braska's death, he becomes a ronin, or a masterless
samurai. His actual life is over; he only survives through a strange
phenomena exclusive to Final Fantasy X's world of Spira. Figuratively, his ghostly state
personifies and expands upon ronin-hood. Ronins have a
reputation of avenging their masters as well as committing
sepuku, or killing themselves because they have no purpose in
life after allowing their master to die. Auron symbolizes a 'what if'
possibility: What if a ronin got a second chance to avenge his master?
While all these ghostly and epic mythological themes define Auron's character, he still comes off as a very real character with real problems. He's arguably one of the most fleshed out and well constructed characters in Square's illustrious history.