It would be impossible to talk about some of the best and most legendary JRPGs of all time without mentioning the masterpiece that is Final Fantasy VII. After all, the fact of the matter is that this title went on to sell bucket loads and ended up sparking the golden wave of JRPGs on the original PlayStation, leading to the creation of some masterful titles that have become classics of the genre in their own right.
All of these games have to thank Final Fantasy VII for making JRPGs so popular in the West, to begin with. The story of Cloud and his friends as they struggle to save the planet is an engrossing tale in every sense of the word, making for a sublime experience that most fans still look back on fondly to this day.
A big part of what makes Final Fantasy VII memorable is the flashy Limit Breaks that players can pull off in battle, making for some truly energetic combat set-pieces indeed. Keeping this in mind, here are all the final Limit Breaks of the main characters, ranked in order of how epic they are.
9 Cait Sith — Slots
Cait Sith is easily one of the worst party members in Final Fantasy VII, and his Limit Break perfectly reflects just how useless his character really is.
Cait Sith has a Limit Break called Slots, which brings forth a bunch of effects and attacks based on what slots the player lands. One of these Slot effects is extremely powerful and can destroy pretty much every enemy in one fell swoop... but messing up this loadout even once — something that can happen quite frequently — will cause the party members to die off instead.
8 Vincent Valentine — Chaos
Vincent might be one of the coolest party members in Final Fantasy VII, but one can't deny the fact that his Limit Break is extremely unreliable, with other party members having way better Limit Breaks in this regard.
The inability to control Vincent once he transforms into a beast is one of the main reasons why his Limit Break's effectiveness suffers so much... even though it's still admittedly quite cool to see him transform in the first place.
7 Red XIII — Cosmo Memory
Red XIII might be one of the most mysterious and intriguing party members in Final Fantasy VII, but one can't deny that his final Limit Break is extremely disappointing and comes nowhere close to the power levels showcased by other party members.
Cosmo Memory might certainly be a cool-looking Limit Break, but its power is so ridiculously minuscule that players are better off just using a summon that can reach the 9999 damage limit instead.
6 Yuffie Kisaragi — All Creation
Yuffie might not exactly be the best party member around — with most people actively hating her guts for some justifiable reasons — but there's no denying the fact that her final Limit Break is extremely damaging, and can cause no end of trouble for enemies.
The only problem with Yuffie's ultimate Limit Break is that she already gets Doom of the Living right before, which — with the right setup — can deal 9999 damage with every hit, making All Creation obsolete in comparison.
5 Tifa Lockhart — Final Heaven
Tifa's Limit Break might be quite satisfying to pull off perfectly, but one can't deny that her beatdowns can take quite some time to nail down, with the end result perhaps not even being worth this massive grind, in the first place.
Final Heaven might be a visual spectacle, but the overall Limit Break's damage potential simply isn't as high as some of the other people on this list, making it fairly useless and annoying to pull off near the end game.
4 Aerith Gainsborough — Great Gospel
Aerith might take an early exit from the party due to her sudden demise at the hands of Sephiroth, but that doesn't stop her from developing an amazing Limit Break that serves as pretty much the best restorative spell in the game.
In a tight spot, a single use of Great Gospel will restore the party's HP and MP, while simultaneously making them temporarily invincible to all physical and magical attacks.
3 Barret Wallace — Catastrophe
If the main focus of this list wasn't ultimate Limit Breaks, then Barret's Angermax would've been ranked way higher due to its damage potential. It's simply better near the tail end of the game, making it a similar situation to Yuffie with her Doom of the Living Limit Break being more powerful than her final Limit Break.
That being said, Catastrophe is also an excellent Limit Break that hits multiple times for higher damage. However, if the player is already reaching 9999 damage with their attacks, then they're better off equipping Angermax instead.
2 Cid Highwind — Highwind
Cid's Highwind attack is easily one of the best Limit Breaks in the game, and one need only look at the function of said Limit Break to understand why this is the case.
The fact that he brings forth the airship itself to launch missiles on enemies should be more than enough to prove just how powerful this Limit Break really is, making it one of the major reasons why so many people choose to keep Cid in their final party.
Well, they also tend to keep Cid around because of his overall high damage output... but the Limit Break surely plays a role here as well.
1 Cloud Strife — Omnislash
It was only a matter of time before Cloud's Omnislash would make this list, and any person who's played Final Fantasy VII will understand why his Limit Break is at the very top of this list.
The Omnislash is easily the most overpowered Limit Break in the game, hitting enemies a total of 15 times for massive damage and unlocking a ton of damage potential once the players get through the slog that's involved in unlocking said Limit Break in the Gold Saucer.
The fact that this technique is used to destroy the remnants of Sephiroth in Cloud's mind once and for all also adds to its overall epicness as well.