IN order to properly rebuild 1997’s Final Fantasy VII (FF7) for a modern gaming audience, Square Enix looked at the successful entries of the more modern games in the franchise.
Instead of entirely leaving behind turn-based gameplay, 2020’s Final Fantasy VII: Remake melded old and new together, delivering a hybrid system that keeps the adrenaline-pumping high-octane action while still giving players the freedom that comes with turn-based gameplay.
An aspect that plays a big role in Remake’s action are its weapons. Just like the small amount of “limit breaks”— special moves that cause extreme damage — the weapons in Remake are also limited.
Coupled with how the game only gives access to four characters (five if we count Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade), the pool players can play in is very shallow.
In the original FF7, each character had 16 weapons that could be acquired in a multitude of ways, but in this game, there are only six weapons per character.
For this article, the focus is on the best weapon each character can get their hands on in Remake and what gamers can expect in the upcoming sequel.
Hardedge
Lead character Cloud Strife’s hardest-hitting oversized sword, the Hardedge, can be purchased halfway into Remake’s story and by the end, it will boast the highest damage out of all his weapons.
It also comes with the ability called “Infinity’s End”, which causes damage and staggers enemies.
A close contender is the Twin Stinger, but it lacks the damage output and due to Strife being a melee fighter that needs to get in close to deal massive damage and stagger, the Hardedge is a much better fit.
Big Bertha
Though the gun-armed leader of Avalanche has two weapons that let him crush enemies up close and personal, Barret Wallace is far more suited for being a ranged fighter, firing his machine gun and covering his comrades from a distance.
For that purpose, Big Bertha is Wallace’s best “gun-arm”. Out of all his ranged weapons, it boasts the highest power, has decent slots and comes with the Maximum Fury ability, where Wallace continuously fires his gun-arm and pulverises enemies under a rain of bullets.
Feathered Gloves
Like Strife, Tifa Lockhart is a close-range fighter. Instead of using weapons, Lockhart fights using martial arts, magic, punches and kicks, with her weapons being different types of fighting gloves that do different things.
Playing a slightly different role from the others, her function and skillset are geared towards staggering and stunning enemies fast, using both physical and magic attacks.
Due to this, Lockhart’s best weapon has to be her “feathered gloves”. Being the most balanced glove, it allows her to fulfil her primary role as a mixed attacker.
Mythril Rod
Going back to the start of the article, Remake has only four characters and there is not a big sandbox to play in due to how every character has specific roles they need to stick to during battles.
This cannot be any more true with Aerith Gainsborough, Remake’s only healer and magical damage dealer. The other three characters can use healing and magic spells, but none are able to pull off what Gainsborough does because of her astronomical magic proficiency.
Her weapons reinforce it further, as each weapon has huge magic attack statistics and none boasts strong magic like the “Mythril Rod”.
It’s huge magic is complemented by great slots and the “Ray of Judgement” ability, which everyone who played the game has used ad nauseam.
Four-Point Shuriken
Yuffie Kisaragi is not in the base Remake game, but she is introduced in the Intergrade re-release for the PlayStation 5. Due to her story being extremely short, she has even fewer weapons, numbering at three.
Out of those, the base weapon that she starts with — the Four-Point Shuriken — is the best. While the Steel Reaper has a little bit more damage, it cuts Kisaragi’s health by about 250 points.
Due to Intergrade only having her and new character Sonon as part of the team, survivability is far more important than damage output.
This list would not cover Sonon’s best weapon, as he is a non-playable character.
As for the soon-to-be released Rebirth, Square Enix will undoubtedly increase the number of weapons each character has, but it most likely would not have all of the 16 from the original game, as some would only chronologically appear in the untitled sequel to Rebirth, like Strife’s ultimate weapon.
It is also worth noting that Square Enix has confirmed that progress from Remake will not carry over to Rebirth, so all the weapons players had in the former will need to be collected again in the latter.
Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth will be released on Feb 29.
