Top 5 Most Interesting Final Fantasy Special Moves

People talk about Cloud’s Buster Sword and his various Limit Breaks over the course of Final Fantasy 7, but quite frankly, the absolute comic genius of this move is a foundational component of Final Fantasy 8 that reminds players this game is supposed to be fun. The move is utilised by none other than Squall’s love interest, Rinoa Heartily, and involves essentially seating her rather large sheepdog, Angelo, on her mechanised projectile weapon and then firing him like she’s launching him out of a cannon at the enemy.

The animation of that poor dog hurtling through the air brings to mind things like the Hamster Launcher in Death Jr. and is an absolute delight to behold, particularly when you see the damage Angelo can inflict after becoming a zoomorphized bullet. This combative arrangement gives a whole new meaning to the phrase man’s best friend. That poor canine would have to be your best friend to take that kind of punishment on the regular.

#2: Oblivion

This is easily one of Final Fantasy’s more terrifying attacks. It’s wielded by Final Fantasy X and X-2’s Anima, and it breaks the damage wall of 99,999 points of damage with its sixteen-hit combo for a whopping 1,599,984 points of damage. Anima is first encountered when the party fights Seymour in the icy caverns of Macalania Temple.

Striking an impressive pose, Anima emerges when summoned in a Venus fly trap cocoon, restrained in bandages and looking a lot like she might be at home in one of those theme park horror houses. A particularly distinctive feature is the way that the lower half of her body is missing, but this will come into play later.

As the party engages with Anima, the attacks come swiftly with a terrible array of status effects designed to cripple the party and if that’s not enough, once that special move is engaged, the party is pulled down into another chaotic dimension where the bottom half of Anima is fully revealed. As it turns out, it’s not just legs Anima’s stashing in that other dimension, it’s another monstrous creature conjoined to Anima’s torso that goes about absolutely decimating the party for non-elemental and emotional (at least for the player anyway) damage.

#3: Omnislash

This might not be the most powerful move in Final Fantasy, but it makes this list for the simple fact that it is Cloud Strife’s signature move and has been copied multiple times throughout the franchise’s many incarnations. It makes an appearance in Final Fantasy Tactics, Dissidia, and Brave Exvius as well as numerous other titles, and even though it’s not Cloud’s most powerful move, it has become synonymous with the spiky, blond badass regardless.

The move can be obtained in Battle Square after obtaining the Tiny Bronco, though that acquisition is a time if you don’t have Highwind available. Being Cloud’s Level 4 Limit Break, the player needs to have learnt all other Limit Breaks before being able to learn Omnislash. Once these prerequisites have been met, however, and that rainbow flash of colour pops up at the bottom of your screen, then Cloud will go to town on his enemies, dealing 0.75 times more damage per hit over the course of fourteen to fifteen hits.

#4: Dragon’s Crest

One of the coolest things about Final Fantasy 9 is the way in which it made its battle system a lot more accessible than previous Final Fantasy entries, and this is true of its ultimate moves. You can obtain Freya’s Dragon Crest by defeating one hundred dragons, and with each dragon defeated, the damage that Freya inflicts using this move multiplies, which is intensely satisfying to see. Quina’s Frog Drop applies the same mechanism, except their move relies on catching one hundred frogs. Between Freya and Quina alone, your party can end up doing at least 200,000 points of damage per turn, provided the mana is plentiful.

Dragon Crest makes this list over Frog Drop simply because it’s easier to obtain strong numbers early, particularly if you make use of the tower inside Gizamaluke’s Grotto on the way to Burmecia, which pits you against an endless barrage of Grand Dragons that can be farmed to level up the whole party.

#5 Lvl 5 Death

Innovation is key to winning a battle, right? Like Combine, this skill stands out in the way that it catches the player off guard, though this special move is a lot more deadly than anything Rinoa and Angelo can pull off. Should your party find themselves facing certain enemies, then they might come up against an attack that either does absolutely no damage whatsoever or, if any of your party members are currently a level that is a multiple of five, they will instantly die.

This doesn’t sound like much of a problem, just get your party to a point where they’re one level above or below that dangerous multiple of five. Except it’s not that simple. The party members might all be at a level that is a multiple of five already, and at higher levels, it can be difficult to raise the bar even one more level. Or, you might find that certain party members are only inches from leveling up into the danger zone, which makes using them in battle in certain dungeons next to impossible.

It’s a fascinating technique that allows our beloved devs to box the player into odd choices, and the coolest thing about it is that it’s generally a learnable move through the use of blue magic.

Will Final Fantasy 17 Give Us More?

As powerful and varied as the moves above are, there’s clearly going to be more in store with Final Fantasy 17 in the works. The old favorites, like Cloud’s patented Omnislash, are sure to make a comeback in a homage moment here or there. Still, with the more powerful graphics available through new consoles being released and expectations of fans climbing higher and higher, the imaginations of the creators know no bounds. As we’ve seen with Final Fantasy 7’s Remake, they really can pull out all the stops.

For the moment, there is no concrete release date for Final Fantasy 17. Development focus seems to be turned towards Kingdom Hearts at the moment, if the release of the screenshots over on X are anything to go by, and maybe, if we’re very lucky and give the magic Chocobo his gysahl greens, our devs might just be giving some love to the Final Fantasy 9 Remake as well.