Limit Break

Final Fantasy VII

Not The First, Not The Last

The Limit Break appears in Final Fantasy VII as a special move that can change the outcome of a battle in an instant. In Final Fantasy VII, a Limit Break could only be performed once the Limit Bar was completely full.

Contrary to common belief, Final Fantasy VI was the first game to have some kind of limit system, not Final Fantasy VII. In Final Fantasy VI, 'Desperation Attacks' could be performed when a character reached a critical level of HP and although this differs from the Limit Break, the concept of receiving damage in order to use a powerful attack still remains true.

Different Moves For Each Character

In Final Fantasy VII, every character had a unique set of moves which could be performed as a Limit Break. For the most part, everyone had seven different variants, but some, like Vincent, only had four. Each of the characters had an ultimate limit break, which couldn't be learnt just by battle experience alone. In order to obtain this ultimate limit break, players had to perform tasks, or just find it in a chest.

Ironically, the ultimate limit break wasn't always the best in the eyes of players, but it still gave a sense of achievement to finally watch each character perform their ultimate attack; especially Cloud's Omnislash. Probably the most satisfying would be obtaining Aeris' ultimate Limit Break (Great Gospel - see right) though, as there was only a limited time through which it could be obtained.

Although some of the limit breaks involved absolutely no user interaction, some, like Tifa's, encourage the user to take an active role in the outcome of the limit break.

From Happiness to Sadness

The Hyper item is a godsend when it comes to Limit Breaks. Aside from being the item that cures the evil ailment of Sadness (which in-turn decreases the rate at which your limit bar increases), it can also enduce a state of fury. This causes the limit bar to go red and means that attacks cause the bar to increase much more rapidly.

Final Fantasy VIII

Special Arts in Japan

(^Top) With the success of Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VII, it was a no brainer that they would return in Final Fantasy VIII. However, the Limit Breaks seen in Final Fantasy VIII are effectively a combination of those in Final Fantasy VI and those in Final Fantasy VII.

Each character still had their own separate moves, but they could only be performed if one of two conditions were met; if they were in a state of critical health (yellow); if they had Aura magic cast of them. Usually if they were in either of these states, they would get a Limit Break and if they didn't spamming the Triangle button (pass turn) would generally make one appear.

Read Books, You'll Learn Stuff

Final Fantasy VIII introduced a very odd way of obtaining new limit breaks. Unlike in the previous game where they were obtained from chests or by completing tasks, in Final Fantasy VIII, they were learnt from books and magazines. Some other characters had different ways to learn them though, like Quistis whose limit breaks were learnt by using a specific item in the inventory and Irvine, whose limit breaks depended on the type of ammunition that was being carried at the time.

One failing with the book/magazine system though, was that if more than one was learnt, it would pick the limit break which was to be performed... completely at random. This meant the limit break was effectively out of the user's control and the only way to counteract this was to abstain and just not learn the limit break in the first place. It was very frustrating to have Squall perform Fated Circle, when he could be performing Lionheart or Rinoa could perform Angelo Search (completely pointless!) instead of Invincible Moon (see right).

No Pressure, Plenty of Time!

Some of Final Fantasy VIII's limit breaks involved a lot of user interactive and some were also set to time limits. These time limits varied, but they usually required actions to be performed as quickly as possible. Zell's limit break required users to input button combinations, while Irvine's required users to press R1 as many times as possible. Squall's default limit break also allowed players to fire off the gun on his gunblade also using the R1 button. This caused each strike to be a critical hit.