Main Characters | Remake Main Characters | Rebirth Main Characters | Shinra Inc. | Antagonists and Bosses | Summons | Queen's Blood | Other Characters
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General
- Adaptational Badass: Cloud and company are noticeably a lot stronger from the start, able to fight at levels that go far beyond what their 1997 selves were capable of around the same time frame. For example, Reno from the original game's Sector 7 plate showdown managed to hold off Cloud, Barret and Tifa all by himself and even left under his own power, whereas in the remake, he not only has to rely on Rude for backup, but gets beaten up so badly that he has to be carried out by the end of the encounter. This upgrade in the heroes' fighting prowess eventually becomes a plot point, as defeating the all-powerful Arbiters of Fate opens up the future for the protagonists to overcome problems they couldn't before. Or mess them up worse. Likewise, while it's argued that being able to beat Safer Sephiroth at the end of the original suggests they can take down a being that can destroy a solar system (since his limit break, Supernova, involves the illusory destruction of the Solar System), by taking down the Arbiters of Fate, within the first fourth to third of the story, they've essentially shown the capacity to beat destiny itself. Another display of adaptational prowess is the fact that, while it took the entire party together to defeat Sephiroth in the original game, this time just five of them are already enough to fight and push him to a corner.
- Adaptational Heroism: More like adaptational lack of Anti-Heroism, but, as opposed to the initial Bombing Run involving the reactor being destroyed by Avalanche's bomb, it only destroyed that smaller one inside, with the entire reactor's destruction being Shinra framing them.
- An Adventurer Is You: Each of the characters has a distinct role in battle, reflected in their unique mechanics and weapon types:
- Cloud is a cross between a Mighty Glacier and a Lightning Bruiser, unleashing both powerful and slow but also powerful and fast-hitting attacks on enemies, especially in Rebirth, where he darts around the battlefield with superhuman speed. His unique mechanic lets him use Punisher Mode to decrease his movement speed for a boost in damage output and countering blocked melee attacks. His normal attacks cover a large area around him, especially in Punisher Mode, letting him handle groups of enemies easier, and his unique abilities are just various extra-powerful attacks to heighten his offensive potential. As he's the main character and is not removable from the party in most circumstances, he's also a Jack of All Stats who doesn't need as much micromanagement of unique mechanics and is easy to play as, but he's a Master of None who struggles to do well in fights with enemies that resist melee damage and/or don't use physical attacks that he can reliably counter.
- Barret is a Long-Range Fighter, able to use his gun-arm to attack enemies from distance (though he has a few melee weapons). His unique mechanic Overcharge lets him unleash a massive barrage of gunfire, but it has a long cooldown he can hasten with the Recharge command; his normal attacks also have him stop to recharge his gun-arm every couple of seconds, so players can use the Recharge command to refresh his normal attacks and Overcharge at once, giving a sort of rhythm to his attack patterns. His ranged ATB skills consume all charges he currently has, but they deal more hits when he has two charges to expend instead of one. He also has elements of a Stone Wall, with unique abilities to draw damage away from allies and reducing the damage he takes, and he has the highest natural HP.
- Tifa is a Glass Cannon who relies on Combos of kicks and punches to quickly build up an enemy's stagger gauge as well as her ATB bar. Using Tifa's default ATB ability Unbridled Strength increases her chi level, boosting the power of her attacks and upgrading her unique attack Whirlwind Uppercut to Omnistrike, and then to Rise & Fall; each of these increases the stagger damage bonus against enemies, but the higher-level attacks consume chi to use. Her ATB skills also provide opportunities to combo into each other, helped by her unique attacks and her rapid-fire normal attacks quickly charging her ATB gauge, letting Tifa unleash a barrage of blows with proper technique and a bit of prep work. However, unlike other fighters, she doesn't have many defensive options, and her HP and Vitality growth are only slightly better than Aerith's, so she's not very durable.
- Aerith is a Squishy Wizard who attacks from range by firing Energy Balls, thus her default attack is considered magic damage and she is the only character with such a status. She has the highest natural MP and Magic of the group, making her the best fit to be focused as a mage, but of course she has the lowest natural HP and Vitality. She's also a Support Party Member with unique abilities related to Field Power Effects, such as a shield that blocks incoming projectiles or wards that let party members in them dualcast offensive spells or absorb Aerith's ATB to increase their own. Her unique attack in Remake is Tempest, a magic attack that Aerith can charge for much greater power and area-of-effect damage, and in Rebirth is changed to Ward Shift, which teleports her to any active ward she has set up so she can more quickly get into position to utilize their benefit.
- Red XIII is a Jack of All Stats who focuses on Gathering Steam. As he blocks damage his Vengeance Gauge builds up, and he can activate Vengeance Mode for a stat boost and a unique attack that damages enemies and heals him, but the power-up only lasts until the Vengeance Gauge depletes. Being in Vengeance Mode also powers up his ATB skills and turns him into a Lightning Bruiser that can strike hard and fast, and he can build up stagger almost as well as Tifa. He also has elements of a Support Party Member, as several of his ATB skills let him consume the Vengeance Gauge to support his allies, and because Vengeance Mode encourages him to take damage to charge it up, he has aspects of a Mighty Glacier to help him tank damage easier.
- Yuffie is a Magic Knight and a ninja-themed Mage Marksman. She can use both melee attacks and magical attacks via her Ninjutsu, which she can imbue with an element, and her Attack and Magic Attack are both decent, allowing her to deal reliable damage to enemies that resist physical or magical attacks and hit elemental weaknesses to pressure enemies. However she has mediocre defenses and poor HP, and her stronger ATB skills are circumstantial and rely on her having a lot of ATB to spend, so she's more reliant than others on charging her ATB gauge to help her damage output, and she's the only character who needs United Refocus active to utilize one of her ATB skills. She's also a bit of a selfish character, as she learns no support abilities that let her help her allies.
- Cait Sith is a Mechanically Unusual Fighter Support Party Member. His base ATB skill summons his Moogle to help him out, and Cait can either ride the moogle to fight with it or jump off to fight on his own while the Moogle tanks damage and draws aggro away from him and his allies, as Cait is very fragile on his own. His other ATB skills have random effects, or need his Moogle out to be used and have more varied offensive attacks, including one that takes advantage of the Moogle being disposable by having it self-destruct. He also incorporates aspects of a Critical Hit Class; many of his weapons have a support ability that boosts his Luck by 100 points when riding on his Moogle, and he has an ATB skill that increases the party's critical hit rate. Finally, he has a unique skill that lets him briefly call out the Summon he's equipped with to use one of their normal commands, a feature that allows a lot of versatility in how it can be used but repeated uses take longer and the ability still isn't as strong as when the summon is called normally.
- Art Evolution: In stark contrast to the original game's blocky, anime art style, Remake goes with the stylized realistic look that the Final Fantasy series has been rolling with ever since VIII. Characters overall have had their designs overhauled or updated to fit with the new style, as well, and the end result is something that lies at around the midpoint between characters' original designs and the designs they were subsequently given in the Compliation.
- Cloud's outfit, rather than being the darker purple it was in the original game, is now mostly pure black. His famous Anime Hair has also been toned down to be a bit more realistic, though it's still obviously there.
- Barret has had a massive wardrobe update. While his vest is still ripped at the sleeves, it now looks more stylized rather than improvised. He has more tactical gear added to him, like a bulletproof vest and some cargo clothing, as well as an overhaul of how his Arm Cannon is attached. In the original game, it was seamlessly attached to the end of his arm. Here, it has a large cloth covering to hide the spot where his gun connects to his arm.
- Tifa has had her overall design made to look a bit more sporty. She now wears stockings, she wears a proper gauntlet on one of her arms rather than just an elbow pad, and she now wears a sports bra beneath her shirt.
- Aerith has seen only subtle changes, as opposed to the overhauls of other characters, mainly in regards to her jewelry. The original game had her wearing some large metal bracelets, whereas here she now wears two sets of three more colorful bracelets. Her dress has also been given some additional details toward the bottom.
- Yuffie is first seen in the Remake DLC wearing a very faithful recreation of her original outfit. This changes in Rebirth, where her signature arm cover is now segmented to resemble armor rather than just being one large piece of clothing. She now also wears a holster on one leg and a belt around her waist.
- Balance, Power, Skill, Gimmick:
- Remake: Cloud is the balance, with a solid spread of stats and abilities. Barret, the power who is geared towards bringing overwhelming offensive force down on enemies. Tifa is the skill, she is equipped to bring enemies down into pressure status the fastest and capitalize on it with her unique attacks. Aerith is the gimmick, uniquely she is the party's dedicated mage who has specialized techniques to facilitate more magical playstyles.
- Rebirth: The second game adds Yuffie as another Balance with her even spread of stats and abilities, like Cloud. Barret is still the only Power, but Red XIII is added as another Skill alongside Tifa with his Vengeance mechanic requiring use of blocking as another type of resource management. Cait Sith joins Aerith in Gimmick, in that he gets new abilities when mounting his moogle and his playstyle changes, and in general his abilities rely on setting traps or using luck.
- Birds of a Feather: In contrast to the guys, Aerith and Tifa hit it off immediately. However, the game makes it clear that this is not the cliché "Women Are Wiser" trope at work, rather the two women just click with each other.
- Character Check: A lot of the characters are moved closer to a more fleshed-out version of their original characterization, as opposed to their Flanderized versions from later.
- Costume Evolution: All characters have their Iconic Outfit updated for Remake.
- Damager, Healer, Tank:
- Remake:Tifa's a Damager, Aerith's a Healer/Mage, and Barret's a Tank. Cloud is whatever's best in the current situation - normally acting as a Damager/Tank but can also function as a healer in a pinch.
- Rebirth: In addition to the above, Rebirth adds Yuffie as a Damager, Cait Sith as a Healer/Mage, and Red XIII as a Tank.
- Dream Team: The party is made of a top rank Super-Soldier, a human weapons platform, one of the finest martial artists in the world, the greatest sorceress in the world and a legendary beast. It's no wonder, it took less than half the party to become Midgar's gladiatorial champions. Later on, they are joined by a Wutai ninja, a robot cat and his giant moogle assistant, the world's greatest pilot and a shapeshifting ex-Turk. Pointedly, when they go to an ancient temple that no one has ever come back from, the only casualty is the cat, and he got better.
- Dysfunction Junction: This is not a well adjusted team. Says something that the one with most of their problems squared away is the Last of Her Kind former lab project orphan Aerith. And she is only that because she is a Stepford Smiler.
- Everyone Has Standards: They all have a bone to pick with Shinra for one reason or another, but they're very much trying to be moral and proper about it, even when Revenge is the motivation. Seeing anyone else go a bit too far tends to invoke a What the Hell, Hero? claim, especially towards Cloud's more Jerkass tendencies. This gets upped in Rebirth when Sephiroth starts blatantly taking over his mind, and Cloud mercilessly murders the hell out of Shinra troops before the group's horrified eyes.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Cloud, Aerith and Tifa respectively.
- Cloud, being a strong physical attacker with a heavy sword and being capable of switching to Punisher Mode, which gives him even more power at the cost of speed, is the Fighter.
- Tifa is the Thief. Her playstyle is based on Japanese kempo martial arts and makes her a low-defense and quick-hitting Thief-Fighter hybrid much closer to the former than to the latter. She can run very fast, pull off long but not very powerful combos of quick punches and kicks, even in the air, and dodge most enemy attacks easily. Equipping her with the Steal Materia, Materia that boost evasion, speed and Luck and status-inflicting spells turns her into a full Thief.
- Aerith is the Mage, because her playstyle revolves entirely around magic: she has the best Magic and Spirit growths, her abilities are all magic-based (including normal attacks) and she's the most suited character to being the party's healer and caster.
- Barret doesn't fall squarely in any category, but could count as a bulky Magic Knight that leans more heavily on the Fighter side (especially if equipped with melee weapons), as he has long-range attacks and decent magic but a strong build more focused on tanking physical hits.
- The new characters in Rebirth also have this dynamic. Red is the Fighter, using up close claw and spinning strikes with a vengeance style built up with damage. Yuffie is the Mage, much of her gameplay is centered on her ninjitsu empowering physical attacks and making puppet doppelgangers. Cait is the Thief, an unusual cat/giant moogle fighter who changes stances to keep those around him off guard.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Barret and Cloud are a classic case. Initially hostile towards each other due to their different temperaments, they nevertheless make a good team. As the story progresses the two men gradually start to develop a camaraderie, learning that they can count on each other in a fight. By the end of part 1, they've formed a solid friendship, though they still get on each other's nerves.Cloud: Keep it up, man.
Barret: Yeah, you too. - Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Cloud - Melancholic (introverted and initially standoffish, aloof and apathetic).
- Barret - Choleric (angry, boisterous and short-tempered).
- Tifa - Phlegmatic (kind, empathetic and a bit shy).
- Aerith - Sanguine (a Nice Girl like Tifa, but more outgoing and eternally playful).
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Played straight in Remake since Red XIII isn't a controllable party member, which leaves the playable party with two men and women. Gradually subverted come the second part, for while it temporarily becomes equal when Yuffie joins the group, it tilts towards the men once Cait Sith also joins and stays unbalanced from then on, with Cid and Vincent also joining, and one of the women leaves at the end of Rebirth, turning it into a group with two women and six men.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Shinra goes above and beyond to demonize them as much as possible. First, when Jessie's bomb initially just wrecked the base core, they destroy the entire reactor as part of a False Flag Operation. It all climaxes when they attack Mako Reactor 5, where Shinra writes them off as pawns acting against Midgar under Wutai's orders.
- Love Triangle: Suffice to say that the (in)famous love triangle between Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa has been brought back for this game. There are plenty of Ship Tease moments between Cloud and the two ladies; some sweet, some funny, some sad, all memorable. The player has dialogue options this time around to make Cloud seem slightly more attracted to either of them, as well as show some interest in Jessie. Or you can choose options to make Cloud a dick to all of them.
- Male Might, Female Finesse: Cloud, Barret with a Melee Weapon and Red XIII are significantly less graceful than Tifa and Yuffie, but make up for it for their higher damage potential.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: Barret and Aerith in Remake, due to Cloud meeting Aerith after separating from Barret and Tifa, and only getting Barret back when Aerith is taken by Shinra. Subverted, as Barret and Aerith are playable simultaneously (but not in the party alongside Cloud) for a single boss battle after Cloud faces Rufus on the rooftop of Shinra HQ. The trope is avoided should Aerith and Barret be the ones to come to Cloud's aid in the final boss fight against Sephiroth, and also during Chapter 17's Hard Mode-exclusive combat simulations with Chadley, where Aerith and Barret are both available to use for three-person battles.
- Physical, Mystical, Technological: Cloud and Tifa are Physical, Aerith is Mystical (as her attacks are completely magic-based) and Barret is Technological (since his weapons are mechanical arms and most of his moveset is focused on shooting). Though Barret becomes mostly Physical if equipped with a melee weapon. The three new character in Rebirth are even clearer, with Red as the Physical, Yuffie as the Mystical, and Cait as the Technological.
- Plot Armor: An in-universe example in Remake. The Lifestream will not let any of them die to preserve the preexisting timeline. Several times the group is saved from certain death, twice during the end chase sequence when Barret misses the bombs with his Arm Cannon and again when Cloud would've accidentally killed the whole gang with a helicopter. This even extends to bringing them back from the dead if it has to, such as reviving Barret after Sephiroth fatally stabs him at the chest, and possibly resurrecting Cloud after he smashed into the ground falling from the reactor into Aerith's flower patch. Sephiroth's goal is to get rid of this by tricking them into killing the Whispers for him.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Out to save the world is a low-paid mercenary, a miner turned eco-terrorist, a bartending martial artist, the local florist and a lab rat-dog. Conversely they're also the Dream Team. Later they are joined by a renegade ninja, Shinra mascot, Ace Pilot freeflier and a transforming gunslinger from a bygone time.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Some of the main cast are essentially personality foils. Cloud is the Blue to Barret's Red, and Tifa is the Blue to Aerith's Red, and so on, complementing one another with their differing temperaments.
- Soldier Versus Warrior: Cloud, the consummate professional mercenary who insists that he's Only in It for the Money (Soldier) versus Barret, the hothead eco-terrorist who fights to bring down Shinra and protect the Planet (Warrior).
- True Companions: Not initially, as the group only had a couple of interpersonal connections (Cloud and Tifa as childhood friends, Tifa and Barret as co-conspirators), but a combination of Fire-Forged Friends and just plain spending time alongside one another have made the group as close as family who are willing to fight to the death for each other.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sephiroth convinces them, even if perhaps mostly incidentally, that the Arbiters of Fate are the current big threat, to which they fight the mysterious spirits off accordingly. It turns out that seizing their own destiny may very well have denied them their canonical future in later installments by setting an alternate timeline into motion, and freed the board for Sephiroth's own machinations to change history. Whoops.
- Unwitting Pawn: Shinra uses their control of the news media to paint Avalanche as terrorists operating under Wutai's oversight. Shinra's dropping of the Sector 7 plate is not only meant to wipe Avalanche out, but also to frame Avalanche for the deed so they can orchestrate a False Flag Operation and renew their war on Wutai. With such power and willingness to destroy Avalanche available to Shinra all along, everything the heroes did just reinforced the false narrative they were crafting.
- With Catlike Tread: Avalanche sucks at stealth. They make lots of noise and run right past security cameras, and the only reason they don't bring all of Shinra down on their heads in Shinra HQ is because Mayor Domino is covering their tracks as they progress. In the team's defense, however, they're all entirely prepped and ready to fight at a moment's notice, and "stealth" is less of a priority altogether than saving Aerith by any means necessary.
- For Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockhart, Aerith Gainsborough, Red XIII, and Yuffie Kisaragi, check the Remake Main Characters sheet.
- For Cait Sith, Cid Highwind, Vincent Valentine, and Zack Fair, check the Rebirth Main Characters sheet.
