History VideoGame / FinalFantasyRecordKeeper

*** In ''Final Fantasy VI'', Fire was Terra's innately learned spells but she could learn all spells like every character, but this game makes her a pure Fire mage. Locke's only association with Fire was a connection to the Phoenix Magicite; here he's a Fire-elemental fighter and several of his Soul Breaks evoke Phoenix imagery. Strago's staring Lores were Stone and the Wind/Water-elemental Aqua Breath but he otherwise had a wide variety of Blue Magic abilities; here he's a focused Water-elemental with Wind and Earth as secondary elements. Edgar had several Tools in his game, one of the first of which was the Poison-elemental Bio Blaster, and thus he's a Poison-focused character here with a secondary focus on Fire and Lightning. Sabin had multiple elemental Blitz commands, but he's tied more heavily to the Fire element due to the Rising Phoenix Blitz, probably because it's one players get a lot of use out of in his home game.[[note]]Oddly, another Blitz of his is Razor Gale, which was Wind elemental; here it's a non-elemental Soul Break.[[/note]]

** Beatrix's and Paine's Hero Abilities do a single target holy and water attack respectively that can break the damage cap. While not as flashy as other Hero Abilities, these are a huge help against endgame holy weak and water weak bosses that stack savage levels as it's guaranteed to break their highest savage level under a chain compared to multi hit abilities.

** '''Job/[[DubNameChange Core]]:''' [[MightyGlacier Warrior]], [[StoneWall Knight]], Monk, RedMage, BlackMage, Magus, WhiteMage, Devout, [[SummonMagic Summoner]], [[EverythingsBetterWithSamurai Samurai]], Dragoon, [[CastFromHP Dark Knight]], [[MagicKnight Spellblade]], Viking, Berserker, [[ArcherArchetype Ranger]], [[FragileSpeedster Thief]], [[MagicMusic Bard]], Ninja, Gladiator

->'''Note:''' Characters in italics are, as of August 2020, available only in Japan.

* '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV XV]]:''' Noctis Lucis Caelum, Gladiolus Amicitia, Iris Amicitia, Prompto Argentum, Aranea Highwind, Ignis Scientia, Cor Leonis, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, ''Ardyn Izunia''

* PlayingThePlayer: The Record Dungeon in Chapter 5 for the Gogo fight is set up like this: your entire party is equiped with a number of strong fire-elemental abilities and Soul Breaks, but all the enemies you fight before the boss are immune to them, one of them counters all physical attacks by Berserking your party and the only way to beat Gogo is to do nothing, meaning you never get to actually use any of the said abilities and Soul Breaks on any of the enemies.

** '''Limit Break Overstrike:''' An even stronger variation of Arcane Overstrikes, these instead utilize an actual Limit Break bar that appears on top of the screen when someone in the party has one equiped: the bar fills up over time instead of filling up from using abilities or taking damage, taking roughly 25 ingame seconds to fill up fully, and using a Limit Break Overstrike will consume all of it. All Limit Break Overstrikes ignore the respective enemy defensive stat and in case of physical [=LBOs=], have a 100% critical hit rate, and all of them hit at least 4 times at minimum if they cover multiple elements and 5 times if they only cover a single element, although some of the later Limit Breaks can reduce the hit count to as low as 3 if they both hit multiple elements and provide another effect other than just damage. However, despite their defense-ignoring capabilities, their power can be highly variable and the amount of damage they do if used without first honing them or without sufficient Limit Break bars can be underwhelming. Only a single [=LBO=] can be equiped per party, it can only be used once per battle, and when a party member is in the middle of casting one, the other party members cheer for them, much like in VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV where this style of Limit Break is taken from.

** '''Limit Break Overstrike:''' An even stronger variation of Arcane Overstrikes, these instead utilize an actual Limit Break bar that appears on top of the screen when someone in the party has one equiped: the bar fills up over time instead of filling up from using abilities or taking damage, taking roughly 25 ingame seconds to fill up fully, and using a Limit Break Overstrike will consume all of it. All Limit Break Overstrikes ignore the respective enemy defensive stat and in case of physical [=LBOs=], have a 100% critical hit rate, and all of them hit at least 4 times at minimum if they cover multiple elements and 5 times if they only cover a single element. However, despite their defense-ignoring capabilities, their power can be highly variable and the amount of damage they do if used without first honing them or without sufficient Limit Break bars can be underwhelming. Only a single [=LBO=] can be equiped per party, it can only be used once per battle, and when a party member is in the middle of casting one, the other party members cheer for them, much like in VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV where this style of Limit Break is taken from.

** Most Soul Breaks are this now. Ones to note are Assault Rush (Zack), Element of Treachery (Balthier), and various other 8-hit [=SBs=]. Most damage-dealing single-target [=USBs=] and some more recent [=BSBs=] deal at least 10 hits by default, with some of them doing up to 12, 15, 17 or 18 hits, and the multihit variety [=AOSBs=] always deal 21 hits in total.

*** '''Brave Ultra Soul Break:''' Similar in power to normal Ultra Soul Breaks but instead of an EX Mode, they instead allow the character to enter Brave Mode, which changes their Attack command to a Brave command which can be powered up by using abilities belonging to a specific school in 3 levels, the effects of which ranging from powerful single attacks that can break the damage cap, a large number of weaker attacks that also have a special effect, a party heal with a special effect to a variation of any of the above.
** '''Chain Soul Break:''' Applies a timed "chain" effect to offensive skills of a certain element to multiply their damage for each successive hit. These come in 3 main varieties: the first type deals damage on their own and gives some sort of party-wide support effect as well as a 20% boost to all damage of that element and the ones that don't give any supporting effects, deal twice the number of initial number of hits, while the second type trades the extra hits and damage for a strong party ATK/MAG buff, a 50% boost to all damage of that element and a higher max chain count of 150 compared to 99 of the older types of chains. There's also a third type of Chain Soul Break that's not as much of a direct upgrade to the second type of chain: they only have a max chain count of 99 like the first type of chains, but they retain the second type's ATK/MAG boost and larger base boost to elemental damage and in exchange for the lower max chain count, they cast instantly and also provide the party an additional 20% increase to the damage of that element, allowing the party to potentially deal more damage at lower chain counts but also having lower maximum overall damage during the chain.

** Cloud is a Wind-elemental fighter whose Soul Breaks infuse him with Wind, and his USB "Ultra Cross Slash" grants him 100% critical hit rate. Zack is a Wind-elemental fighter whose Soul Breaks lower the enemy's resistance to Wind, and his CSB "Lucky Stars" boosts the Attack, Wind-elemental damage, and critical hit damage of allies. Together they two form a perfect combo with Zack's Soul Breaks acting to maximize Cloud's damage output.

** Serah and Snow are both Ice-elemental characters, Serah a mage while Snow is a warrior.
*** Bonus points to this couple for each of them having their own Chain Soul Break.
** Tyro and Elarra are starting to become one: Tyro has an Ultra Soul Break that increases the party's critical hit rate up to 100% with repeated use of Support abilities, while Elarra's second Soul Break is one of the rare few that boosts the party's critical hit damage and is only such Soul Break found on a dedicated healer.

* AbortedArc: None of the games represented by the Realm Dungeons have actually been adapted all the way to the end, despite several of their sequels being added, and given that it's been several years since most of them were updated, it seems likely they just won't ever be finished.

* '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV XIV]]:''' Y'shtola Rhul, Thancred Waters, Papalymo Totolymo, Yda Hext, Minfilia Warde, Alphinaud Leveilleur, Cid nan Garlond, Haurchefant Greystone, Estinien Wyrmblood, Ysayle Dangoulain, ''Alisaie Leveilleur''

** In the game's early days, Full Charge was a powerful ability due to hitting four times for heavy damage, and Crystals to craft and hone Omega Drive were rare. That isn't a problem now so Full Charge has been completely forgotten in favor of Omega Drive, and even Omega Drive isn't that impressive on characters that aren't Cloud.

** '''Limit Break Overstrike:''' An even stronger variation of Arcane Overstrikes, these instead utilize an actual Limit Break bar that appears on top of the screen when someone in the party has one equiped: the bar fills up over time instead of filling up from using abilities or taking damage, taking roughly 25 ingame seconds to fill up fully, and using a Limit Break Overstrike will consume all of it. All Limit Break Overstrikes ignore the respective enemy defensive stat and in case of physical [=LBOs=], have a 100% critical hit rate, and all of them hit at least 4 times at minimum for magical [=LBOs=], with physical [=LBOs=] generally hitting 5 times. However, despite their defense-ignoring capabilities, their power can be highly variable and the amount of damage they do if used without first honing them or without sufficient Limit Break bars can be underwhelming. Only a single [=LBO=] can be equiped per party, it can only be used once per battle, and when a party member is in the middle of casting one, the other party members cheer for them, much like in VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV where this style of Limit Break is taken from.

** '''Limit Break Overstrike:''' An even stronger variation of Arcane Overstrikes, these instead utilize an actual Limit Break bar that appears on top of the screen when someone in the party has one equiped: the bar fills up over time instead of filling up from using abilities or taking damage, taking roughly 30 ingame seconds to fill up fully, and using a Limit Break Overstrike will consume all of it. All Limit Break Overstrikes ignore the respective enemy defensive stat and in case of physical [=LBOs=], have a 100% critical hit rate, and all of them hit at least 4 times at minimum for magical [=LBOs=], with physical [=LBOs=] generally hitting 5 times. However, despite their defense-ignoring capabilities, their power can be highly variable and the amount of damage they do if used without first honing them or without sufficient Limit Break bars can be underwhelming. Only a single [=LBO=] can be equiped per party, it can only be used once per battle, and when a party member is in the middle of casting one, the other party members cheer for them, much like in VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV where this style of Limit Break is taken from.

* GuideDangIt: Certain bosses get "out of reach" from melee attacks, and can only be hit with magic or ranged physical abilities. It's not easy, though, to figure out which physical abilities are ranged without common sense or TrialAndErrorGameplay.
** A far more common example of this is (de)buff stacking: there are a ridiculous amount of buffs that stack in somewhat logical but arbitrary ways, but the game never mentions this at any point: basically, each (de)buff has its own internal ID, and as long as 2 buffs have their own unique ID, they can stack. What makes this counterintuitive is that instead of always wanting the (de)buffs that affect the largest number of different stats, you instead want as many (de)buffs that affect as many combinations of stats as possible, making (de)buffs that affect rare stat combinations the best overall.

** '''Limit Break Overstrike:''' An even stronger variation of Arcane Overstrikes, these instead utilize an actual Limit Break bar that appears on top of the screen when someone in the party has one equiped: the bar fills up over time instead of filling up from using abilities or taking damage, taking roughly 30 ingame seconds to fill up fully, and using a Limit Break Overstrike will consume all of it. All Limit Break Overstrikes ignore the respective enemy defensive stat and in case of physical LBOs, have a 100% critical hit rate, and all of them hit at least 4 times at minimum for magical LBOs, with physical LBOs generally hitting 5 times. However, despite their defense-ignoring capabilities, their power can be highly variable and the amount of damage they do if used without first honing them or without sufficient Limit Break bars can be underwhelming. Only a single LBO can be equiped per party, it can only be cast once per battle, and when a party member is in the middle of casting one, the other party members cheer for them, much like in VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV where this style of Limit Break is taken from.

* VancianMagic: Except for [[LimitBreak Soul Breaks]], the game uses this system for all special abilities, magic included.

** Some Cid Missions or fights in general are difficult enough that unconventional strategies are encouraged. A very common example in second year of the game's history was to look at the list of {{Magic Knight}}s, find someone with ''any'' magic access even if their natural stat was terrible, and then turn them into a mage since LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards holds true at low-Relic/buff play. Darkness physical units turned into magical ones using Cid Raines' Burst Soul Break as a Roaming Warrior were very common.

** Even the Core generics aren't immune: the Thief in Core and the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' Thief are separate characters with the same "name".
** Though not really a legacy name, the names of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Rikku]] and [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Riku]] are almost identical.

** Dark Knight Cecil and Paladin Cecil as separate characters. They were released simultaneously in the first FFIV event, one of the first limited-time events ever. Since then characters who undergo class changes or significant ability and appearance changes (Kain, Yuna, Rydia, Lightning) have their alternate outfits added as Wardrobe Records, and their abilities expanded or ignored. Cecil's Dark Knight and Paladin forms have grown to both be perfectly viable party members, and he's the only character to have two different incarnations as separate party members.

*** '''Glint+''' or '''Superglint''': An upgraded form of Glints with no immediately obvious distinction to the existing type other than the fact that they come from rarity 6* equipment and that their Soul Break type icon is blue instead of green like regular Glints: they generally have a similar effect to a Glint that character might already have, but they cost no SB gauge to cast and can only be used once per battle.

** '''Awakening Soul Break:''' One of the strongest types of Soul Break, they put the character into Awakened mode after use, which has the general effect of giving them a boost to their main element or school, increasing their damage cap, giving the character infinite ability uses for its duration and in most cases, letting them doublecast the effected abilities automatically. They also have other character-specific effects, usually consisting of followup attacks after a set number of ability uses. Like Arcane Overstrikes, can only be used once per battle, although they only require the default amount of 2 SB bars to use.

** Similar to Cloud, Cidolfus Orlandeau. He lacks an elemental infusion, but his Ultra Soul Break and Awakening Soul Break give him a 100% critical hit rate.

->'''Note:''' Characters in italics are, as of June 2020, available only in Japan.

** '''VideoGame/FinalFantasyBraveExvius:''' ''Rain'', ''Lasswell'', ''Fina''

The playable cast spans the entire ''Final Fantasy'' franchise, around 200 currently, each with their own equipment draw, ability pool, and Soul Breaks with associated Relics.

->'''Note:''' Characters in italics are, as of April 2019, available only in Japan.
-->Character count as of April 2019: ''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters 236]]''

** '''[[OriginalGeneration Record Keepers]]:''' Tyro, Elarra, [[spoiler:[[PromotedToPlayable Dr. Mog]]]], Biggs, Wedge

* '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV XV]]:''' Noctis Lucis Caelum, Gladiolus Amicitia, Iris Amicitia, Prompto Argentum, Aranea Highwind, Ignis Scientia, Cor Leonis, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret

* '''Beyond'''