This page provides a write up and some commentary on which party members are strongest and which party members you should consider using during your playthrough of the game (if you’re looking to maximize the efficiency of your adventure). That being said…
Its important to note that you can absolutely complete the game using any combination of characters. The sections below are for min-maxing your play through but you can select any party member and, using some of the other strategies outlined in this guide, you will be able to defeat all of the bosses with ease.
Its important for you to note that these are recommendations if you’re looking to construct your version of the “best’ party in the game, and they can be ignored. Don’t be afraid to choose your own path!
The best party members to choose are Squall and Rinoa. The third best party member can situationally be either Selphie or Irvine.
All six characters in Final Fantasy are fairly equal in their overall attributes, and you can place any character in any role (physical attack damage dealer, magic user, etc.) with relative ease. But that being said, there are four important categories to consider when choosing a character to add to your permanent/main party that help to differentiate each of them. They are:
So lets get started with the deep dive…
Each character can junction magic to their character stats using their Guardian Forces, and this is generally where most of their character stats and power will come from. Review the Triple Triad Power Up Strategy for more information on how this works. But that being said, each character has base character stats and not all of them are created equal.
Before diving too deep into the analysis, check out the Character Stats page for more information on what these stats do:
In order to do a side-by-side comparison, its important that we look at each character while they are at the same level. Characters will join your party at various points of the story and at various levels, so the easiest way to compare them is to look at their base line stats at 100.
The following table outlines each character’s stats once they reach level 100. In order to better highlight the differences, high stats are highlighted green, low stats are highlighted red, while the other stats are too close to make a noticeable difference.
| Character | HP | Str | Vit | Mag | Spr | Spd | Luck |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squall | 4187 | 47 | 41 | 45 | 36 | 37 | 22 |
| Rinoa | 4181 | 67 | 31 | 63 | 39 | 36 | 22 |
| Quistis | 3883 | 46 | 30 | 42 | 34 | 34 | 21 |
| Zell | 4018 | 47 | 33 | 42 | 27 | 35 | 20 |
| Selphie | 3680 | 45 | 28 | 49 | 38 | 37 | 26 |
| Irvine | 3880 | 45 | 31 | 42 | 28 | 39 | 21 |
So what are the important takeaways from this chart?
From a character stat perspective, Squall and Rinoa outshine the other party members. But there’s more to it than that…
Each character has a range of Limit Breaks and actions, but which ones are the best?
| Character | Limit Break |
|---|---|
| Squall | Renzokuken, in combination with Lion Heart, is without a doubt the strongest Limit Break in the game. The chance of Lion Heart being cast increases depending on how low Squall’s HP is, but assuming its cast, the total damage of the attack can do nearly 250,000 damage. |
| Rinoa | Angelo will randomly counterattack enemies when Rinoa takes damage, which is a nice additional source of damage. Angelo’s most powerful attack, Wishing Star, can attack an enemy up to 8 times, causing nearly 80,000 damage. |
| Quistis | Her most powerful attack, Shockwave Pulsar, can do more than 9,999 damage. Its a relatively powerful attack but still only attacks once and generally doesn’t do as much damage as other character’s Limit Breaks. |
| Zell | This Limit Break can be a little bit random and depends on how quickly you can input button combinations, but it can hit the enemies multiple times, which puts it a step above some others. |
| Selphie | This Limit Break is the epitome of randomness. The most powerful attacks include Rapture (which just removes the enemy from battle) and “The End” which can instantly end any battle. The problem is the consistency of trying to use it and how un-fun it can be just cycling through menus until you get the spells that you want. |
| Irvine | Using Pulse Ammo can boost Irvine’s Limit Break so that it causes massive amounts of damage to enemies and hits multiple times, putting it in the upper tier of Limit Breaks. |
So which characters come out on top when it comes to Limit Breaks? Without a doubt, Squall comes out on top, and is a step ahead of all other characters. From there, Rinoa, Zell and Irvine have half decent follow-ups.
Quistis has an okay Limit Break with a few different Blue Magic options which can be helpful throughout your playthrough. Unfortunately for Selphie, this is where she falls flat.
All characters have good and bad weapons, and all of them have their most powerful weapons which are relatively on par with one another, so why a section specifically on weapons? There is one ultimate weapon that stands out though and that’s Selphie’s Strange Vision.
This weapon comes with a 255% Hit stat which means Selphie’s attacks can never miss. This means that, early on in the game, you can free up one of your other Guardian Forces that has the 
Hit-J ability and give it to another character to help them reduce their chance to miss.
Squall also can’t miss with his attacks which means your third party member, should you choose to include Selphie, is the only one who needs Hit-J.
This is the one category where Selphie stands out.
In an effort to reduce the potential for spoilers, this section will be kept to the bare minimum. These are the story points that become relevant for choosing your best party:
You may have already read the TL;DR section up above, but here is the final verdict in the form of a tier list:
| Tier | ||
|---|---|---|
| S | Squall / Rinoa | |
| A | Irvine / Selphie | |
| B | Zell | |
| C | Quistis | |
But one last reminder: you can complete the game with any party members relatively easily, so don’t be afraid to use any combination. The strategy guide sections all contain screenshots with Quistis as a party member and this had no impact on the difficulty during that playthrough. Have fun and don’t overthink your pics!
