Final Fantasy, as a series, has been around for nearly 40 years, and that means that it’s had plenty of time to create characters that you love, and those that you love to hate. Naturally, the protagonists and antagonists of each game tend to have more power when compared to random NPCs. Within the individual game, it’s usually easier to debate over which characters reign supreme in terms of power. The real challenge comes when you try to compare the strength of characters from different Final Fantasy games, since you need to rely on their individual abilities a fair amount and try to figure out how the difficulty of the obstacles they face varies.
Final Fantasy has so many characters with an unbelievable amount of power, which makes it possible to fight gods and god-like bosses that tend to appear in the series. While an official ranking of who the strongest characters are across the franchise is unlikely to ever be made, this is our own ranking of the most powerful the series has ever seen.
10. Ultimecia (Final Fantasy 8)
When a character specializes in time and space manipulation magic, you know that they have some serious power. That power over time and space is also a crucial part of Ultimecia’s plan, which is to travel to the past and compress the timeline to basically make herself a god. Unfortunately, Ultimecia’s meddling with the timeline to avoid her future demise is exactly what sets her fate into motion, since power over timelines has the flaw of frequent unintended consequences.
9. Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy 14)
Emet-Selch quickly became a fan-favorite character, but he’s also among the most powerful characters you meet in FF14. Before the world was sundered, Emet-Selch was known as one of the most powerful sorcerers of the time, even holding a seat on the Convocation of Fourteen. Since he was able to avoid having his soul sundered, Emet-Selch maintained his power, including his ability to use creation magic. While creation magic is powerful, it’s not infallible, as you see the Ancients’ demise.
8. Jenova (Final Fantasy 7)
Jenova technically led to the extinction of the Ancients, lowering their numbers so drastically that they weren’t able to defend themselves against humans or revive their own population. Unlike a lot of characters, Jenova’s power comes from basically being able to infect people and then control them. Her cells are the source of Sephiroth’s abilities, and although she was contained when she was sealed by the Cetra, Shinra unintentionally made her a threat to the planet again by finding and using her in experiments. It’s no wonder that the Cetra referred to Jenova as the Calamity from the Skies, as she proved to be the end of their society.
7. Kefka (Final Fantasy 6)
Kefka is the main villain of Final Fantasy 6, and what kicked off his villain arc was being used as part of an experiment to create Magitek Knights. While the experiment was successfully able to give Kefka the power to use magic, it damaged his mind, turning him into the cruel character you meet in-game. In his endless thirst for power, Kefka would drain the Warring Triads of their power, turning himself into the god of magic. From here, he was able to rule the world as citizens were afraid he would use the Light of Judgment on them, at least until the party regrouped and fought him again.
6. Terra (Final Fantasy 6)
In a world where humans have to use Magitek for any magic abilities, Terra has the unique ability to innately use magic due to her unusual lineage. While she focuses on fire-based magic, Terra is able to use other types of abilities. On top of that, Terra is able to take an esper form temporarily, which greatly increases her damage and allows her to fly. Since Terra is in a world where innate magic is nearly non-existent and she’s half esper, Terra is obviously stronger than many others in the world of FF6, but even compared to characters across the series, she can hold her own in terms of strength.
5. Noctis (Final Fantasy 15)
If not for a childhood injury, Noctis would be able to achieve greater power, but his current powers are nothing to scoff at. Since he inherited the royal Lucis Caelum bloodline, Noctis can tap into the magical power of the Crystal. Additionally, the royals tend to form covenants with the Astrals, who are gods of Eos, which lets them receive help from the Astrals. However, Noctis takes this a step further by gaining the power of Providence, which could make him even stronger than the Astrals.
4. Clive Rosfield (Final Fantasy 16)
Clive learned how to fight with a sword and can use magic, but his real power comes from being the Dominant of Ifrit combined with his ability to absorb the aether and abilities of other Eikons. This gives Clive a lot of pure strength to wield, even if using his Eikon abilities comes at a cost. Then, Clive got another power boost by absorbing Ultima’s powers, which basically made him into a god. However, Clive only had this power temporarily as his body was not strong enough to actually be a vessel for Ultima.
3. Lightning (Final Fantasy 13)
Regardless of how you might feel about the FF13 trilogy, it’s difficult to deny that Lightning goes through quite a series of power-ups throughout her journey. While Lightning starts off her journey as a standard soldier, she ends up as a Pulse l’Cie. Then, she becomes Etro’s Chosen, and then Bhunivelze’s Chosen, with Bhunivelze being the god who created basically everything. Lightning, with help, is able to defeat Bhunivelze and usher in a new world where she can give up fighting and live peacefully with her friends and family.
2. Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy 14)
The Warrior of Light is the player character in Final Fantasy 14, which puts them at the center of most events that happen in-game. As a result, the Warrior of Light becomes essentially unbeatable by the current expansion, Dawntrail, where NPCs and enemies now notice that you’re a threat they can’t deal with easily. You start off with the power of being immune to Tempering, which makes you perfect for fighting Primals. Then, you continue getting stronger throughout the expansions until you face off against the manifestation of despair on a dragon’s back while flying through the universe. Where else can you go in terms of strength from that?
1. Chaos (Final Fantasy)
As the first final boss of the series, Chaos is rather iconic. Where you have the Warriors of Light as the heroes in Final Fantasy embodying light and harmony, you have Chaos as their opposite force that embodies darkness and chaos. He has the ability to keep time looping in order to be immortal, but the more interesting lore behind Chaos comes from Strangers in Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, where you learn that Chaos isn’t corporeal but more like a force. Even in FF1, the boss Chaos you face at the end is created when Garland manifested creatures with his hatred that sent his body into the past, where it transformed into Chaos. This would be the time period that keeps looping, as Chaos kept having those creatures send his body as Garland back in time so he could become Chaos.
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Final Fantasy has a lot of characters and some fun spinoffs that let you see those characters interact in the same universe, such as in Dissidia. While it would be exciting to see characters across games pitted against each other in battle, you’ll likely have to simply rely on speculation to determine who’s stronger, as an actual battle royale seems unlikely, at best.
