Summary
As one of the biggest names in gaming, theFinal Fantasyfranchise has produced numerous iconic characters that even gamers unfamiliar with JRPGs recognize. While these characters tend to be the franchise’s mostly male protagonists, a good few of them are women.
Final Fantasy has produced some ofthe most badass women in video games. Most entries in the franchise have at least one female character capable of giving their male counterparts a run for their money. Sometimes these women are on the side of the heroes, either as player-controlled characters or NPC allies. Other times, they’re villains. These areFinal Fantasy’smost powerful female characters based on their abilities, combat skills, lore, and roles in their games' stories.
At first, it’s easy to dismiss Lunafreya as Noctis' love interest, but she’s more than that. InFF15,Lunafreya is an oracle, a powerful religious figure capable of talking to the Astrals. She also has the power of prophecy and plays an important role in guiding Noctis to his fate as the True King.
While she lacks combat prowess, she’s a powerful healer, capable of curing those inflicted with the Starscourge. With the Trident of the Oracle, she’s able to stop Leviathan’s attack and can summon the Royal Arms to give Noctis a boost. She might have a tragic fate, butFF15’sendingshows that even death isn’t enough to stop the power couple.
Summoners inFinal Fantasyhave always been glass cannons. Their summons pack a massive punch, but otherwise, they’re squishy in battle. That’s Garnet. Outside of her powerful summons, she’s limited to healing magic and weak physical attacks with her rods.
This is exacerbated by the fact that her summons can’t break the game’s 9,999 hit point damage limit, making them less helpful as the game progresses. Lore-wise, though, Garnet is more of a powerhouse.FF9’ssummons are shown to be capable of leveling entire cities and bringing nations to their knees.
In the originalFF7, Aerith can be a useful party member. As a mage, she’s squishy, but has the game’s highest default magic stat. With the right materia, she is a powerful offensive magic wielder with powerful healing abilities. Players can also get her ultimate Limit Break much earlier than other party members.
Aerith is the last of the ancient Cetra civilization, which gives her a close connection to the planet. She can communicate with the planet itself and harness its power, which allows her to help protect the planet from Sephiroth’s devastating meteor spell. In the remake, she has also shown prophetic abilities and limited knowledge of the future. This being said, in one ofFinal Fantasy’s saddest moments, she gets skewered by Sephiroth. This tragic ending highlights Aerith’s more vulnerable nature.
Rinoa starts out as a pretty weak long-range hitter, but with good use of theexcellent magic/junctionsystem, she can become a powerhouse. Her limit breaks, which utilize her bond with Sant' Angelo, are also fantastic. This being said, her damage output never reaches the heights of Squall or Zell.
Rinoa’s ranking rests mostly onFF8’slore, because she receives sorceress powers from Edea. Sorceresses inFF8are powerful magic beings with powers like telekinesis, mind control, and even reality-warping. Players never see Rinoa tap into these powers (apart from when she’s being controlled), but her potential is huge. Sorceresses tend to grow in power over time, and it’s implied that Rinoa could be particularly gifted. Sadly, players never get to see Rinoa at anything close to full power.
Even for a summoner, Rydia packs a lot of power. A child prodigy, she only became more powerful after her time in Feymarch, which accelerated both her summoning and black magic abilities. While mostFinal Fantasysummoners lack offensive options outside their summons, Rydia is also a powerful black mage, which allows her to exploit enemies' elemental weaknesses.
Lore-wise, she’s similar toFF7’s Aerith in that she hails from an ancient race connected to the planet. Unfortunately, like other magic-basedFinal Fantasycharacters, she’s a bit of a glass cannon.
Ranking Yunalesca isn’t easy. She’s one of the main villains inone of the best PS2 RPGsand is vital to the game’s lore. When examining her abilities according to that lore, she should be at the top of this list. However, her defeat by Tidus and friends means she can’t bethatpowerful.
Yunalesca was Spira’s first High Summoner and the first person to defeat Sin. As the daughter of Yu Yevon, she inherited massive magical power and knowledge. She’s unsent, making her functionally immortal until someone like Yuna comes along and sends her to the Farplane. She can cast spells like Mega Death, shapeshift into powerful forms, and transform a summoner’s guardian into the Final Aeon. For a thousand years, she helped control the religious and social structure of Spira by continuing the cycle of Sin’s rebirth.
Yuna comes across as quiet and mild-mannered, but she’s a powerhouse. As one ofthe best female Square Enix heroes,she has saved her world twice, taken on gods, and led a successful career as a pop star. In-game, Yuna is more versatile thanFinal Fantasy’straditional summoner class. She’s designed as a white mage, but with enough grinding, she can be a jack of all trades.
Her summons are some of the most powerful inFinal Fantasyhistory. Yuna can summon both Anima and the Magus Sisters, both of whom can dish out incredible damage numbers. Outside gameplay, Yuna is equally impressive. Alongside her guardians, she’s responsible for breaking Sin and Yunalesca’s cycle and finally putting an end to Yu Yevon. In10-2, she led the charge again and refused to give up, despite losing Tidus at the end of the first game.
FF6stands out as one ofthe bestFinal Fantasygamesfor plenty of reasons. One of the biggest is that, unlike other entries, it doesn’t really have a “main” protagonist. Terra, though, is arguably the next best thing. She is the daughter of a human woman and a male Esper, making her a demigod byFF6’sstandards.
While almost every other character in the game needs magicite to use magic, Terra is a natural magical user. She has an impressive arsenal of spells, and even better, her trance ability lets her morph into her Esper form. In-game, this doubles her attack and magic stats, while lore-wise, it means she transforms into a god. Unlike similar characters in otherFinal Fantasygames, she’s also impressively versatile. Terra isn’t just a magic user; she has balanced stats that mean she’s no glass cannon.
Ultimecia isn’t justFF8’smain antagonist. She was the first (and so far only)female main antagonistin any mainlineFinal Fantasygame. She’s an ultra-powerful sorceress from the future who is so powerful that, by the game’s end, she’s basically a god. Through the game’s story, the player learns that Ultimecia has possessed other sorceresses across different time periods, using them to manipulate nations and bend powerful characters like Seifer to her will.
In battle, she wields powerful spells and can change into powerful forms. Near the end ofFF8,Ultimecia is successful in compressing time, making her a god that exists outside of time and space. When the player finally chases her to Ultimecia Castle, they find that these reality-warping abilities have gameplay-changing implications. All their abilities have been sealed away and must be unlocked again by taking on powerful boss enemies.
Over a decade after its release,FF13remains the black sheep of the franchise. There’s a lot about the game that fans dislike, but over time, one aspect of the game has managed to win over some: the protagonist, Lightning. She might seem cold and standoffish at first, but she has a heart of gold.She’s also a total badasswho, by the end ofLightning Returns,has ascended to godhood.
Killing gods is nothing new forFinal Fantasyprotagonists, but Lightning takes it to new levels. In the third game, she kills her universe’s primary deity, Bhunivelz, and becomes a god herself. She then not only recreates the entire universe, but the game’s ending implies she creates a better universe where everyone can be happy. She isn’t just the most powerful female character inFinal Fantasy; there’s an argument to be made that she’s the franchise’s strongest protagonist.
