History VideoGame / FinalFantasyRecordKeeper

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

* DropTheHammer: Powerful hammers are available to use, albeit by very few characters like Paladin Cecil and Galuf.

* BonusBoss: Most Challenge Events have bonus battles released three days after launch, with increasingly difficult {{Boss Only Level}}s starting at Ultimate+ difficulty and going all the way to [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Apocalypse ++]].
** Festival events feature the special Boundless superbosses, with special gimmicks to add to the difficulty. So far, ten have been released: [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Nemesis]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Ozma]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Zeromus EG]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII Yiazmat]], [[VideoGame/CrisisCore Bahamut Fury]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Shinryu and Omega]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Omega]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII Iron Giant]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI Proto-Ultima]] and [[spoiler: [[OriginalGeneration Shadowsmith]]]].

** Events typically feature challenging extra stages after you clear the regular stages, each of which is labelled with an increasingly exaggerated difficulty title. You start with [[BossRush EX]], then you go onto [[BonusBoss EX+, EX++, EX+++, Ultimate, Ultimate+ and Apocalypse.]]

** "Ultimate", a special type of Event fight that exceeds even [[BonusBoss +++ fights]], feature massively powered up [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Ultimate"]] versions of previous boss fights, now overhauled with [[DamageSpongeBoss enough HP to fill an Olympic swimming pool]].

** Most Record Dungeon bosses are this since you need to use a predetermined party with fixed equipment, stats, abilities and Soul Breaks. There's always at least one BonusBoss per Record Dungeon update that generally requires you to use a very specific strategy to beat them, some of which are unintuitive at best and a borderline MoonLogicPuzzle at worst.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The BonusBoss Nemesis's strongest form has Transcendent Ethereal Cannon, an attack that ''always'' hits for '''99,999''' damage.

*** The ''Final Fantasy V'' Gogo was found in the Sunken Walse Tower and thus is a Water-elemental character here. This trope is oddly inverted to the core cast of the game, though -- Bartz has a FourElementEnsemble focus, Faris is Wind, Lenna is a White Mage, Galuf is Earth, and Krile is Fire; in the original game Bartz was Wind, Faris was Fire, Lenna was Water, and Galuf was Earth which he passed on to Krile. A fourth-year ''V'' event gave them several Relics in these themes to nudge them into their original elemental affinities.

* FourElementEnsemble: The typical Water/Fire/Wind/Earth quartet referenced through the series appears here.
** The ''Final Fantasy III'' DS heroes each symbolize these elements, in keeping with the original game; Luneth is Wind, Arc is Water, Refia is Fire, Ingus is Earth. The Onion Knight meanwhile has magic-focused Soul Breaks that deal damage in these four elements, and his Ultra Soul Break lets him do a follow-up attack when casting magic of those elements.
** Played with for the ''Final Fantasy V'' central heroes, who embodied one each of the elements in their home game. Galuf is Earth, which matches the home game, but Faris is Wind here while she represented Fire in ''V'', Lenna is a healer with no elemental affinity but is supposed to represent Water, and Bartz embodied Wind in ''V'' but has all four elements to himself here. A later event for ''V'' tried to rectify this; Faris and Bartz got new Ultras that give them Fire and a Wind focus, respectively, while Lenna got a new healing Soul Break that buffs the party's resistance to Water and Ice. Their new Soul Breaks are even named after the elements and particular virtue associated with them as spoken in ''Final Fantasy V'' when they were chosen as the Warriors of Light.
*** Bartz is a SpellBlade fighter who specializes in the elements thanks to his home game: he gets a Burst Soul Break dedicated to each element, and his Ultra Soul Breaks, Overstrike Soul Break, and Arcane Overstrike, deal quad-elemental damage, and his Ultras have effects that encourage use of Spellblade abilities in those elements too.

* BladeOnAStick: Spears and polearms can be equipped not only by Dragoons such as Kain, Freya, and Fang, but also a handful of other warrior-type characters and a few of the mages as well.

* WhipItGood: There are a handful of whips in the game, though they are generally limited to a few magician girls (Cloud of Darkness, Rydia, Ursula, Faris, Krile, Relm, Quistis, Selphie and Nabaat) -- plus Tyro and Onion Knight.

* TheGunslinger: Characters who can equip Guns, like Lightning, Irvine, and Sazh, can be this if you give them one. Unfortunately, since Guns are [[CommonplaceRare incredibly hard to come by]], this makes the latter two, who can only use Guns as an alternative to Daggers, [[CripplingOverspecialization difficult to use unless you're lucky enough to get your hands on one]] and [[TierInducedScrappy unpopular with players]].

** This can happen to some characters (namely low-level party members and [[TierInducedScrappy most of the Core classes]] regardless of level) in dungeons that are too difficult, as a player may have to focus time on keeping them alive instead of fighting the enemy.

** This hit Aria in the game's early years. Her Soul Breaks all have the gimmick of making the party more resistant to Fire damage, so against a boss that prominently uses Fire, she's outstanding -- if they don't, she's supbar. Her later Relics transitioned her to a more generalist White Mage role.

** Aside from new Soul Breals, numerous characters have their ability pool expanded, either through Record Spheres and Record Boards or through game updates, giving them more versatility and sometimes changing their playstyle; for example, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Red XIII]] began as a generic support character, but a later update allowed him to use higher-tier Black Magic, increased his Magic, and he got [[DishingOutDirt earth-elemental]] Soul Breaks at the same time, turning him into an earth mage.

* SpeedRun: Magicite and Torment Dungeons have an additional stipulation that you must defeat the boss as fast as possible to get the best possible rewards. Thus, players are encouraged to build around faster, harder hitting strategies that capitalize on the enemy's vulnerabilities (especially elemental) to burst down bosses in record time.

* AnAxeToGrind: Axes are fairly common and are usable by several characters, including Gilgamesh, Ramza, and Luneth. Strangely, Golbez gets them as an option as well, despite them being a very questionable choice for most mages. One of his unique relics is an axe which greatly boosts the wielder's magic stat, which only he can make full use of.

* WeaponOfChoice: Every character can equip multiple weapon types, but only the ones they would be able to use in the game they come from or which are suitable proxies [[ImprobableWeaponUser for the more outlandish preferences]]. There are a few exceptions, such as Daggers, usable by everyone (but generally weak), and for the sake of balance some characters gain access to weapons they never wielded, such as Wakka, who can use Bow weapons on top of Throw ones. Tyro can equip everything, and Book weapons are almost exclusive to him (they can be also equipped by Onion Knight and Alphinaud). On the other side of the extreme, characters from games that had no real restrictions (like II, III and V) do become more specialized in their roles and weapon selection.

In June 2022, it was announced that the global version of the game would be [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames shutting down]] on September 30 of that year. The Japanese version will still be going on.

In June 2022, it was announced that the global version of the game would be [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames shutting down]] in September of that year. The Japanese version will still be going on.

* SimpleStaff: In two flavors: Rods and Staves. Both increase the Magic and Spirit stats, but the former grants a bigger bonus to Magic, while the latter grants a bigger bonus to Spirit. Rods are mainly used by Black Magic users, Staves by White Magic users.

* '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI XI]]:''' Shantotto, Ayame, Curilla V Mecru, Prishe, Lion, Aphmau, Zeid, Lilisette, Naja Salaheem, ''Arciela V. Adoulin''

* BadassDriver: Laws of physics apparently don't apply to the Fenrir; in Cloud's first Burst Soul Break, Fenrir Overdrive, he manages to do several drive-bys with the Fusion Swords, then does ''aerial cartwheels on a motorcycle''. His second BSB, Cloud Cycle, combines this with CarFu, as he jumps off his bike mid-attack, has it zoom around driverless as he slashes at the enemy before finally having it crash into the enemy and
explode as he finishes off the attack with a final slash.

In June 2022, it was announced that the global version of the game would be [[NoExportForYou shutting down]] in September of that year. The Japanese version will still be going on.

** Some time-limited events take this UpToEleven, summarizing the Realm dungeons, which are already distilled versions of the game they're based on. ''Legendary Plunder'' is one for the FFVI realm (with the only divergence being Phoenix Cave at the end) while the ''A Planted [=SeeD=]'' event is one for the FFVIII realm.

** Cid Raines's battle is the UpToEleven version of this. If you bring a party consisting only of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' characters who are all Level 65 or higher, you will get to read a condensed version of the appropriate cutscene. The "condensed" version is ''two minutes long.'' This in a game where typical boss battles are about the same length, give or take.

** Maria's Meteor XVI summons a massive meteor that does massive damage. Taken UpToEleven with her OSB, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J9IRemkbpY Kerplode XXXII]], which summons an even bigger meteor that's shown destroying the entire planet.

** Yiazmat (Transcendent) from Autumn Fest 2018 cranks it UpToEleven and beyond by copying its HP to the T from ''Final Fantasy XII''. All '''50,112,254 hit points''' worth. However, to counteract this, players can break the damage cap by default and characters will periodically enter the Awaken SuperMode that multiples their damage output by 10x, halves damage taken, and doubles ATB and cast speed.

* GameBreaker: [[MythologyGag Referenced]] and [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by Cidolfus "T.G. Cid" Orlandeau, the infamous GameBreaker from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. He can use every relevant Physical skill in the game[[labelnote:*]]5★ Combat, Spellblade, Knight, Samurai and Celerity and 4★ Darkness[[/labelnote]], with solid stats overall and one of the highest Attack stats in the game. His Overstrike Soul Break has a [[UpToEleven 15x damage multiplier]] and grants him a buff that cuts his casting times to a third; his Burst has strong holy and dark commands and one-shots anything not immune to Instant Death. However, it's not hard for other characters to catch up and Orlandeau, while effective, is just one character in a game reliant on proper team strategy.

** '''Sync Soul Break:''' Essentially a combination of a Burst Soul Break and an Awakening Soul Break taken UpToEleven: they grant the character multiple levels of Elemental Infusion on use, increase their damage cap and grant the character special commands like Burst Soul Breaks do, except far more powerful and generally stronger than existing 6* abilities. Instead of granting the character automatic doublecast like Awakenings, they instead "sync" with the character's equiped abilities, meaning that after using one of the special commands, the character uses the ability that's in the matching slot as long as it matches the allowed ability school, which can result in powerful combinations: however, this means that for the duration of the Sync Soul Break, the synced abilities can't be used on their own and unlike Awakenings, abilities used via syncing them still consume their uses. If combined with an Awakening Soul Break, the ability sync is ignored and the special commands are doublecast instead. To further emphasize their power, Sync Soul Break relics are the first native 7* Relics and have an entirely new animation associated with them when pulled from a banner.

** Of all people, ''[[ButtMonkey Palmer]]'' from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. Originally a ZeroEffortBoss, in this game he actually has decent attack power on top of having loads of health, and is a downright MarathonBoss on Elite. [[MurderArsonAndJaywalking And he doesn't get hit by a truck either.]] This is taken UpToEleven with the Masters of the Planet event, where he's an Ultimate boss with [[FlunkyBoss Shinra mooks he can resummon]] and a devastating AOE FixedDamageAttack when he's on low health.

* SkillTree: Record Spheres and Legend Spheres work like these: using Motes grants a character permanent stat boosts, plus some minor buffs like elemental damage boosts, elemental or status resistances, and additional ability access. Completing Legend Spheres also gives the character access to their Legend Materia, the first of which usually boosting their main element or function to a moderate degree and the second one giving them a much stronger passive ability, such as giving them a chance to doublecast their main offensive ability type or healing spells, a possible unique follow-up attack for their main offensive actions, increasing the duration of their (de)buffs, starting the battle with a number of powerful statuses, cumulatively increasing their main damage stat with successive actions or being able to enter Trance at low HP as described below.

* KnifeNut: Daggers are a common weapon, usable by every character. Among them are the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Maneater]] from ''Final Fantasy VI'' and the Danjuro from Final Fantasy XII. If you pull a mage dagger, like Triton's Dagger or the Dagger of Resolve, then anyone becomes a battle mage, especially in realm.