Registered here to thank you for the project! I played LoF on my brother's PS1 back in the day (I was the little kid who accidentally picked Leonia first because of the light blue color, got creamed by Norgard and couldn't figure out why).
Ha. I think I played as New Almekia first because I didn't know the D-Pad selected other rulers. I didn't get that I had an alliance with Caeleon and promptly invaded their unguarded castle to the south. When Cai yelled at me I tried to give it back, but he never accepted my apology.
I initially went with Caerleon, since he seemed to have the fewest anime cliches hovering about him. If memory serves me correctly... I nabbed Iscalio rather hastily, then marched up into Leonia while Norgard was tearing them up. Norgard got the final blow in, though. I was reluctant to break my truce with New Almekia, so I ate the Esgares empire while I waited for Norgard to destroy my ally so I wouldn't have to. Took too long, so I turned on Norgard and when there was noone else left, finally betrayed my ally.
Anyways, King Cai comes off as the leader with the least self-interest among the rulers, which made him easy for me to accept as an introductory player-character, not exactly critical to most, but it is a factor for me, at least when the protagonist isn't faceless. My experience with Caerleon as a beginner suggests to me that Caerleon is best suited for first-timers. A ruler with room to grow that isn't too weak to begin with, along with a powerful counter to Cador and those upgraded black-element creatures Esgares seems to have an abundance of at the beginning in Dinadan.
