The is probably the highest-profile RPG series in the world. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy VII, in particular, was the breakthrough entry that turned many of us into JRPG fans for life. Over two decades after the original’s release, the Final Fantasy VII Remake’s succesꦐs proved just what a phenomenon the game🧔 continues to be.
We’re all familiar with Cloud Strife, his laughably impractical Buster Sword, his abilities, and his electrified cockatiel hairstyle. Squall Leonheart, of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:series black sheep Final Fantasy VIII, is a similar brand of fighter with a similar grumpy demeanor, but who would triumph in a fight betw🧔een the two? Let’s compare them on a series of important battle🌳 factors and find out!
10 🐟 Round One: Training: Squall Wins 𝓀
This first factor is a crucial one. After all, this isn’t a schoolyard brawl we’ve got on our hands here. A no-holds-barred battle between two combat veterans of this caliber is going to be a serious affair, so who has the edge when it comes to𝓰 combat training?
As we know, Squall has lived at Balamb Garden since he was very young, training to become a SeeD first: a gunblade specialist. Achieving mastery of this complex and unwieldy weapon is no mean feat, and he’s been drilled rigorously with the rest of the cadets to reach that point. Meanwhile, Cloud is a confident and adept swordsman who worked to become a true elite: SOLDIER 1st Class… or so he believed. Though he does have that knowledge inside of him, he was 🧜only drilled as a regular infantryman in actuality, which gives Squall the edge here.
9 ☂ Rou﷽nd Two: Weapons: Draw
Now, this one really was too tough to call. Cloud’s arsenal of enormous broadswords versus Squall’s armory of gunblades? As 🌠the protagonists, both chara🐓cters are equipped with some of the strongest weapons in their respective games.
Cloud’s ultimate weapon is the Ultima Weapon, a blade that boasts tremendous damage when its wielder’s HP is full and is reduced as his health falls. Squall’s Lionheart gunblade doesn’t have this restriction, but it doesn’t tend to have the raw damage potential in a regular playthrough either. With all these factors in mind, it’s tou⭕gh to say whose weapons are better overall.
8 Round Three: Allies: Draw ♈
Now, nobody said this strictly had to be a one-on-one match, did they? It was kind of inevitable that allies would be dragged into things at one point or another. Which character has the strongest party around them💞? Again, we wouldn’t really want to choose between them.
How do the summon monsters of the Final Fantasy VII world stack up against Guardian Forces? Do GF-augmented 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy VIII characters top those boosted by powerful Materia? How about Quistis’ blue magic against Vincent Valentine’s transformation Limit Breaks? This is why mainline 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy ent♑ries tend to exist in a bubble: it’s very hard to directly compare different mechanics like this.
7 Round Four: Omnislash Vs Lion Heart: Cl✅oud Wins
If we are talking about a direct battle between these two characters alone, though, there’s another important element to consider: their iconic strong൩est moves. Both Cloud and Squall have an incredibly flashy and damaging final Limit Break: Omnis♋lash and Lionheart respectively.
In terms of damage potential overall, Omnislash wins this oꦑne. 15 auto-crit hits with a damage modifier is a formidable prospect, particularly if our hero is armed with the Ultima Weapon. While Lion Heart ꧟hits 17 times and can also hit max power each time, Renzokuken mechanics give Squall only a 25% chance to use this technique (and only while the Lionheart is equipped), making it a good deal less practical to use.
6 Round 5: Materia Vs Junctioning: Squall♛ Wins 😼
There are a lot of very close calls in this contest, and t👍his was another one. In terms of the potential of the two warriors, we’ve got to look at their means of powering themselves up in their respective games: Materia for Cloud and Junctioning for Squall. The infamou🉐s Junctioning system, for our gil, just wins out here.
One major factor that makes Final Fantasy VIII so con🍃troversial, the Junctioning system can be utterly broken. Dedicated players can boost their characters to an absurd degree very early on, by exploiting Triple Triad and converting cards to items. Players can also do downright silly things with Materia, of course, but the strongest ones simply aren’t available until much later.
5 Round 6: Enemies They’ve Beaten: Squall Wins 🍸
Yes, we know. Sephiroth is probably the most popular and iconic Final Fantasy villain of all time. However you may feel about him, there’s really no disputing that. Tཧhe issue is, though, we’ve got to weigh up the superhuman silver-haired swordsman’s potential against 😼that of Ultimecia herself.
Final Fantasy VIII’s true antagonist boasted powers🌃 that are really beyond human comprehension. Juꩵst think about the very concept of time compression, the sort of power such a feat would acquire, and the connotations of it all. Both Ultimecia and Sephiroth desired to be ‘higher beings,’ but we have to give this one to the former (and to Squall, for ultimately vanquishing her).
4 🍎 Round 7: Stats: Cloud Wins ๊
Absurd Materia setups and junctions are one factor, but it’d be remiss of us not to take the biggest power factor in RPGs into account 💧too. In terms of raw stats alone, in average playthroughs, Cloud’s stats are generally higher and more beneficial than Squall’s.
In Final Fantasy VIII, enemies level up along with the party, gaining far more for𓆉 doing so (in terms of stat growth) than the party does. This is why the junction system is so important. Couple this with the fact that Clou🧜d has some of the highest all-around base stats in his own home game and he runs away with this one.
3 Round 8: Feats The🃏y’ve Performed:꧒ Cloud Wins
Of course, it’s tough to take certain feats seriously. After all, limit breaks that pierce the sky and travel up into space (Squall’s Blasting Zone) are deꩵcidedly non-canon. It’s a gray area for sure, but in terms of ‘superhuman’ potential, we’d give C🌞loud the nod here.
Final Fantasy: Advent Children, for instance, does all kinds of silly t🌜hings with canon, but it also presents us with a Cloud who can slice through hunks of raw, steely, furious building and seemingly fly. By contrast, Squall is a formidable and experienced warrior but very much a regular human for the most part.
2 Round 9♍: Other Assets: Squall Wins
As we’ve mentioned before, nobody specified that this had to strictly be a one-on-one battle. Moreover, we’🌃re not necessarily looking at a mano a mano blade-swinging slugfest either. What else do our combatants bring to the table, besides in-game mechanics like stats, party members and suc🧸h?
If we put all the Advent Children theatrics aside, both🧸 Cloud and Squall have airships to their names, though Squall actually ‘owns’ the Ragnarok and it’s far more of a battle-oriented ship. A spaceship to boot, which could presumably tear through the Highwind with ease. Let’s not forget, either, that the highly-trained SeeD members and cadets gave Squall an army of his own, essentially (depending on where we happen to be in the game’s t𝔍imeline). How would Cloud approach this sort of threat?
1 ౠ🦩 Winner: Squall (Tentatively)
In terms of sheer numbers here, Squall wins 4-3. Nevertheless, Cloud fans needn’t fret. That’s a bit of a technicality really. In the end,♏ it’s almost impossible to really draw fair comparisons between the two 🅠warriors. They exist in entirely separate worlds, as we’ve said, in which mechanics, reality and strength really don’t directly compare at all.
If Squall appeared in Cloud’s world or vice versa, their movesets, combat approaches, and abilities could vary wildly. In the context of a more ‘realistic’ fight, Squall would probably prevail, but what chance would he have in an Advent Children-style setting without Cloud’s abilities there? Would he have them too? There’s no definitive answer here, but one thing’s for sure: these two Final Fantasy legends would put on one heck of a show.