The Most Powerful Final Fantasy Hero?

[Mister Goober]

Hi friends.

So like... In the whole Final Fantasy franchise, which "good person" is the strongest? It doesn't have to be the main character of the game, but he or she has to be part of the hero roster, like Quistis in FF8, Tifa in FF7, and Kimahri in FF10. Yeah, people like that. Of course, consider the actual main person too...

As Dionysos told me, Sabin is quite possibly the strongest MONK in the series, with insane physical strength. But we gotta understand that physical strength ain't everything. Sorcerers are physically weak but are extremely powerful.

Honestly, I'll put my vote on FF14's Warrior of Light. Why? Because he beat gods throughout his adventures. Who and what you defeat matters.

I honestly wanna put Quistis in the spotlight because of her ability to cast "Shockwave Pulsar", which is actually the final boss's most powerful attack before she turns into her final form.

 

[Dionysos]

This is a good thread!

Yeah, I'd say probably FFXIV’s Warrior of Light. Not so much at the beginning, but by the end of Shadowbringers for sure. He/she/they isn’t likely to be getting any weaker. They'll only get stronger as the game progresses. I'm not just talking about the level cap either. As the threats increase, the Warrior of Light rises to the challenge.

Spoiler: Serious Shadowbringers spoilers

Sharing the same origins as the Ascians, the Warrior of Light is stated to be Sundered, but it is hinted that he/she/they were once prominent amongst the Amaurotines. At the beginning of FFXIV the player only controls the WoL with a fraction of his/her/their strength, and no memories of their former life. These circumstances were mirrored by Ardbert on the First, since he was, at least where his soul was concerned, the same person but living in a different world and timeline. When the WoL combines with Ardbert at the conclusion of Shadowbringers' MSQ, two shards of the same soul are reunited for the first time in millennia. The WoL gains a massive power boost and gains the memories and life experience of Ardbert. Imagine a similar reunion with all of the other versions of the WoL's split self, and then he/she/they would be even more powerful… God-like powerful.

At this stage, it isn't clear how many other versions of the WoL still live. There were once thirteen shards (reflections/copies) of the Source world, and each time the Ascians encouraged a calamity it was actually consuming a shard world and rejoining it with the Source. There have been seven Umbral Calamities to date, meaning that seven shard worlds have already been consumed. Additionally, the Thirteenth Shard sort of imploded and became the Void, which the Ascians considered to be a failure as they messed up its rejoining. It is possible that one of the few survivors from this shard are also a WoL, but other than that there might be no traces left there either.

So there could be additional WoLs out there, or they could be mostly dead by now. I'm not sure.

That said, the enemies in new zones will always be a problem for the WoL upon their first encounter. For gameplay and narrative purposes. The WoL has to remain grounded for threats to actually mean something, but for sure the WoL is very powerful.

However, the WoL has limits and we haven't seen him/her/them lift up a train yet... In terms of physical strength, Sabin could remain the strongest. But you are right, that is only one aspect by which we could judge the 'most powerful'.

I'm trying to think of heroes which are so powerful that they essentially become gods. Aerith could be heading that way in terms of her spiritual essence remaining within the Planet for some time after her physical death, and there are some fan theories speculating that she could be getting groomed to become the new Minerva in the Remake. Lightning by Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII was also heading in the direction of becoming a goddess, but she ultimately rejects that fate and destroys the very existence of deities entirely.

I suppose Noctis was extremely powerful, due to his Lucian blood and the power of all of the Lucian Kings behind him. His sacrifice saved the world, etc. However, it wasn't just his sacrifice. Everybody close to him sacrificed something to ensure that he fulfilled his duty, including the villain! But in terms of combat, he was essentially Nightcrawler with swords, crossbows, axes, etc, in possession of the One Ring... That's quite a combination. But his (quite endearing) laziness and obvious wish to be anybody but himself during the events of the game could have made it take a while for him to reach his potential.

I'd have to think harder for others. I don't have a definitive answer other than it likely being FFXIV's WoL, if not now then sometime in the future.