The Final Fantasy series counts a lot of strange creatures among the various playable characters that appear in each game. It’s possible to have aliens, abominable snowmen, moogles, monsters, robots, and wild animals in your party of adventurers.
The Final Fantasy games also offer no correlation between a character’s appearance and their strength, as the little girl who wields a paintbrush in Final Fantasy VI can hit just as hard as the muscle-bound monk as long as she has the right equipment and stats.
It’s common for players to pick their Final Fantasy party based on which characters they like in each game. This means that the more annoying characters will never get their chance to shine, while the cool ones may be underperforming in battle.
We are here today to see which Final Fantasy characters are secretly badasses and which ones have skated by due to looking cool.
From the gothic gunslinger his terrible Limit Breaks to the cat who can beat the most powerful bosses with a single attack, here are the 10 Final Fantasy Characters Who Are Weaker Than You Thought (And 10 Who Are Even Stronger)!
Weaker: Vincent Valentine
The cast of Final Fantasy VII is all similar to each other in a technical sense, as they are more defined by their equipment and materia than their stats.
There are some differences in the starting stats and their growth as the character levels up, but these are mostly negligible.
The biggest difference between each Final Fantasy character is their Limit Breaks. It’s in this regard that Vincent Valentine falls behind the rest of the cast, as his four Limit Breaks allow him to transform into different creatures, with each of them possessing their own unique attacks.
The problem with Vincent’s transformations is that you lose control over the character.
You can’t even force him to revert to his original form. This can turn Vincent into a liability in situations where the other two party members pass away, or if his new form has an attack that can be absorbed by the enemy.
Stronger: Quina
Quina is the most unusual playable character in Final Fantasy IX. Quina comes from the genderless Qu species and seemingly only joins the party in order to eat as many different kinds of food as possible.
Quina is the resident Blue Mage of the group, which means that she can use certain monster abilities after weakening them in combat and eating them whole.
There is an ability that Quina can learn early on in Final Fantasy IX called Limit Glove that allows Quina to deal 9999 damage, but only if Quina has a single hit point left.
Players have discovered numerous ways to put Quina at a single hit point and keeping it that way.
This makes Quina incredibly powerful throughout the whole game, to the point where the Quina/Limit Glove combo has become useful in speedruns of Final Fantasy IX.
Weaker: Dagger
Princess Garnet (usually referred to as Dagger) is one of the most important characters in the story of Final Fantasy IX. The problem with using Dagger in your party is that she is outclassed by another character with the same set of abilities; Eiko.
Eiko has a far better selection of White Mage spells than Dagger and can cast Esuna, Full-Life, Haste, and Regen.
Dagger is supposed to offset this by having a wider selection of eidolons to summon, but most of these don’t deal much damage and cost a lot of MP to use.
Dagger has access to the best two eidolons (Bahamut and Ark) but you don’t get them until late in the game, at which point the other party members will be dealing more damage.
Chances are you won’t get a chance to use Ark, as you need to beat one of the bonus bosses in order to unlock it.
Stronger: Gau
Gau’s unique combat abilities involve a lot of messing around on the part of the player.
Once a specific enemy formation is defeated, it will appear on the Veldt, which means that Gau can use his Leap command on them.
The player then has to encounter Gau again in order for him to rejoin the party. Gau will then have access to the creatures move list in the form of one of his Rage commands.
It was possible to turn Gau into one of the best party members in the game in the SNES version of Final Fantasy VI.
You can do this by giving him the Merit Award and the Offering Relics and giving him a Kazekiri. If Gau then used the Stray Cat rage, then he would perform four powerful attacks, each of which had a random chance of using Wind Slash.
Gau can no longer use the Merit Award in the later versions of Final Fantasy VI, due to how overpowered he was.
Weaker: Cecil Harvey
Cecil Harvey is the protagonist of Final Fantasy IV. The story of the game follows his journey of discovery, both of his own true nature and the secrets of his lineage.
Cecil’s story might be interesting, but he might be the most boring protagonist in the series when it comes to his combat abilities.
Cecil is easily the least effective party member of the final five character that you use in the game.
Cecil’s physical strength is impressive, but it is outmatched by Edge’s ability to dual-wield weapons and his Throw command, which can deal a ton of damage when throwing specific items.
Cecil’s White Magic list is bare compared to Rosa, who has access to the best healing & support spells in the game.
Rydia’s summons can deal a ton of damage to groups of enemies, while Kain’s Jump command is not only powerful, but it allows him to evade damage while he is in the air.
Stronger: Selphie Tilmitt
Final Fantasy VIII is a game that puts a heavy emphasis on the Guardian Forces, to the point where they were a necessary component in strengthening your character, as they gave you the ability to junction magic spells to stats, in order to improve them.
The best attacks in Final Fantasy VIII are the Limit Breaks that belong to each character, with Zell being able to dish out tons of damage by spamming his first two attacks and Quistis being able to break the damage limit.
Selphie has the most useful Limit Break in the game, as it allows her to use an ability called The End.
The End allows you to defeat all non-undead enemies in the game with a single attack. It only has a small chance of appearing, but when it does you are almost guaranteed a victory.
Weaker: Kimahri Ronso
Final Fantasy X replaced the old leveling up system with the Sphere Grid. This was a huge board made up of nodes that represented stat points and abilities.
Each party member started on a different place on the board and their path reflected the abilities of the old Final Fantasy classes, such as Lulu’s path being filled with Black Magic spells and Rikku’s containing Thief abilities.
Kimahri was unique in that he had no path on the Sphere Grid and had to follow someone else.
This meant that Kimahri would always be a lesser version of another party member, as their stats were more suited to their chosen path.
In the end, most players just turned Kimahri into a less effective version of Auron.
Stronger: Setzer Gabbiani
Setzer is one of the more gimmicky characters in Final Fantasy VI. His official job role is Gambler, which means that his command ability is linked to a game of chance.
Setzer can call upon a slot machine which has a random chance of using different effects, one of which includes destroying the party.
It’s possible to turn Setzer into one of the best front-line fighters in the game.
This is due to a glitch that is present in most versions of Final Fantasy VI.
If you equip Setzer with the Fixed Dice and a Master’s Scroll, then the damage penalty used by the Master’s Scroll will be ignored. This means that Setzer can potentially perform four maximum damage hits with a single attack.
Weaker: Malak & Rafa
The story of Final Fantasy Tactics makes Malak and Rafa seem far more powerful than they actually are in the game.
Grand Duke Barrington massacred an entire village in order to steal Malak and Rafa who possessed the powers of the Heaven Knight and the Hell Knight.
With cool names like Heaven Knight and Hell Knight (which were later changed to Skyseer and Netherseer), you would think that those jobs would come with powerful abilities.
As it stands, though, the unique attacks of each job work at random. This means that there is a possibility that Malak or Rafa will fire off several powerful attacks… which all land on unoccupied squares.
Final Fantasy Tactics gives you access to several unique characters who are far more powerful than the generic units that you can hire. Malak and Rafa aren’t worth all of the frustrating battles you have to go through in order to unlock them.
Stronger: Exdeath
The combat in the Dissidia series is similar to other fighting games, in that the characters who are fast or have the ability to quickly chain combos of moves together are generally the best in the game.
Exdeath seems to be the antithesis of this, as he moves at a snail’s pace across the battlefield. The player has to master a teleportation mechanic in order to quickly move Exdeath around, which can be hard to get your head around in a 3D space.
Nearly all of Exdeath’s moves are based on blocking and countering, which means that you have to become familiar with all of the other attacks in the game in order to make him worthwhile.
Exdeath is worth mastering, as he is the undisputed highest tier character in the first two Dissidia games.
A high-level Exdeath player is practically unbeatable, as they will be able to protect themselves from all incoming attacks and counter them for a ton of damage.
Weaker: Umaro
Umaro is one of the new playable characters available in the World of Ruin of Final Fantasy VI.
His combat abilities are similar to those of the Berserker class seen in other Final Fantasy titles, as he gains a huge boost to his strength, at the cost of not being able to control him in battle.
Umaro falls into the same trap as Vincent, as the lack of control makes him almost totally worthless as a character.
His combat strength is outmatched by other characters (such as Sabin) and his unique abilities require the use of specific Relics, which means that he cannot equip other Relics that would make him more useful.
Umaro’s inability to equip Espers also means that you cannot influence his stats in the same way that you can with the other playable characters in the game.
Stronger: Oerba Dia Vanille
There are six combat roles in Final Fantasy XIII that are meant to emulate certain jobs from the older games in the series. The Saboteur class is similar to the Green Mage, as it focuses on debuff spells that can weaken the enemy in various different ways.
Vanille is intended to be the best Saboteur in Final Fantasy XIII, which would make you think that she doesn’t have many spells that deal damage.
It turns out that Vanille has access to the best spell in the game for taking out enemies– Death.
Vanille’s Death ability only has a few percent chance of working, depending on how many debuffs have been inflicted upon the enemy.
When it works, though, the Death spell can destroy the end boss, as well as the Adamantoise monsters, which all have over five-million hit points each.
Weaker: Bartz Klauser
The most powerful job in Final Fantasy V was the Mime, which could copy the moves used by other characters in the party.
Bartz was given a variation of this when he appeared in the Dissidia series, as he used mixtures of the attacks used by the other characters in the game.
You would think that having access to such a powerful arsenal of weapons would make Bartz a powerhouse, but he is actually one of the weakest characters in the early Dissidia games.
Bartz was given a new moveset in Dissidia 012 and he became much less effective in combat. Bartz’s moves have a noticeable lag before they are activated, which isn’t great for a character in a game who is already so punishing when it comes to blocks and counters.
Stronger: Cyan Garamonde
The usefulness of Cyan’s unique command ability in Final Fantasy VI depends on how you are using the Active Time Battle system.
If you are playing the game with the ATB system set on Active, then Cyan becomes the most useless character in the game, as the enemy will get a chance to keep wailing on you while you wait for his Bushido meter to charge up.
Cyan was almost unstoppable in the original SNES version of Final Fantasy VI, thanks to a glitch.
The Psycho Cyan bug involves Cyan being knocked out when using his “Sky” ability while also inflicted with the Imp status. It’s possible to set off an infinite chain of attacks that won’t end until all of the enemies on the field have been slain.
Weaker: Hope Estheim
Hope Estheim has some of the weakest stats in Final Fantasy XIII. The exception to this is his Magic stat which is the highest of the cast, which should make him the best Ravager in the game, as this is XIII’s equivalent to the Black Mage class.
The strength of each Final Fantasy XIII character is tied to the speed of their casting animation, which varies between each one.
This means that a character can have high stats which would make them effective in certain roles, but their casting speed actually makes them less effective than other characters who would be able to perform the same moves at a faster rate.
Hope’s slow casting speed means that he falls behind in the Ravager role, as Fang, Lightning, and Snow can fire off the spells quicker than he can.
Stronger: Wakka
All of the Final Fantasy X cast members (except for Kimahri) fulfill a specific role in combat.
Wakka’s role is based on his blitzball weapon, which he can use to strike flying enemies. Wakka also has a high Accuracy stat, which can be improved on his Sphere Grid path.
Wakka has a secret weapon that will make him your most valuable party member throughout most of the game.
There is a shop on the Mushroom Rock Road that sells a blitzball called the T.K.O. that has the Stonetouch ability.
This means that Wakka has a chance of petrifying enemies with a single hit, which can be used to deal with most of the random encounters in the game, as you will still get Ability Points from turning monsters to stone.
Weaker: Fran
Fran from Final Fantasy XII is a member of the viera race, which is a species of rabbit-like humanoids.
The viera are more sensitive to Mist than their hume counterparts, which has the side-effect of causing a berserker rage whenever they are exposed to too much of it. This rage can give a viera the strength to tear metal apart.
It seems that the people at Square didn’t take these elements of viera physiology into consideration when creating Fran, as she has the lowest combined stats of all of the party members in the game.
The rest of the party has certain stats that they specialize in, except for Fran.
The updated Zodiac versions of Final Fantasy XII rectified Fran’s original poor stats and gave her the best Vitality score in the game.
Stronger: Edward Chris Von Muir
Edward of Final Fantasy IV was the original Spoony Bard and was well deserving of the name. He had terrible stats and the worst combat abilities in the game.
The only thing that Edward was useful for was potentially inflicting a status effect on an enemy with his Sing ability.
Everything changed for Edward in Final Fantasy IV Advance, as the game allowed you to put Edward back into your party and use him in the post-story dungeons.
Edward was given a whole new set of stat progression in Final Fantasy IV Advance, which included massive boosts to every stat after he hit level 70.
This gives Edward the potential to become the most powerful character in the game in terms of stat points.
Weaker: Cloud Strife
Cloud Strife is one of the most popular characters in the Final Fantasy franchise. It’s for this reason that he tends to be very powerful whenever he appears in other games, such as in Super Smash Bros.
Cloud has some of the best stats in Final Fantasy VII, but he is severely underpowered during his appearance in Final Fantasy Tactics.
It’s possible to unlock Cloud as a party member in Final Fantasy Tactics. It takes a lot of work to bring Cloud up to speed, considering how late you get him in the game.
His unique Soldier job also requires you to find a specific sword, which Cloud needs to equip in order to be able to use any of his special attacks.
It takes a lot of time to turn Cloud into a usable character.
Most people don’t have the patience to do, considering all of the great party members that Final Fantasy Tactics gives you for free, such as T.G. Cid.
Stronger: Cait Sith
If Cloud is the most popular Final Fantasy VII character, then Cait Sith has to be the least popular. His design screws with the aesthetic that is being set by the rest of Final Fantasy VII and you are never given a reason as to why the secretive AVALANCHE group lets an obnoxious robot travel with them.
With all of that being said, it galls us to have to admit that Cait Sith is the most powerful party member in Final Fantasy VII.
The reason why Cait Sith is so powerful is thanks to his Slots Limit Break. It’s possible for Cait Sith to create the Game Over effect, which will destroy any boss in the game in a single hit, including Emerald and Ruby Weapon.
Final Fantasy VII makes it almost impossible to pull off a Game Over using Cait Sith, but it’s possible to manipulate the programming in such a way as to ensure that you will always get the desired effect.
You no longer have to spend hours breeding chocobos in order to find Knights of the Round. All you need to do is memorize Cait Sith’s Slots and take down the Weapon monsters in a single round.
Can you think of any other Final Fantasy characters who are actually much weaker (or more powerful) than most fans thought? Let us know in the comments!
