While every weapon has remains effective throughout the game, each character has a weapon that best suits them for most encounters.
The four playable characters in Final Fantasy VII Remake can each utilize a variety of weapons. Each weapon raises or lowers specific attributes of the wielding character, catering towards different play styles and team dynamics. Additionally, each weapon has an ability the character can utilize while equipped.
Unlike the weapons from the original Final Fantasy VII, FFVII Remake encourages finding and using every weapon available in the game. When a new, stronger weapon was found in the original, there is often little reason to use the older one other than, the older one having more materia slots. For this reason, players could sometimes skip over weapons because they already had a better one. In the Remake, the player is incentivized to use every weapon because of the unique weapon abilities tied to each one. With enough use, the ability becomes permanent to the character's arsenal. Additionally, each character gets skill points every time they level up. Those skill points can then be used on all of their weapons. This makes sure no weapon becomes utterly obsolete as the game progresses. As a result, however, it becomes harder to determine which weapons are the best.
When considering which weapon to use for any given character, it is important to look at their role in the team. Ideally, the characters all together should fulfill any need from battle to battle, such as close-range/long-range, physical/magic damage, healing, buffs, and debuffs. Each character—outside of weapon buffs, armor, accessories, and materia—has certain strengths and weaknesses in their attributes and overall abilities that help influence what roles they can and can't be proficient in. While the right weapon for a battle can be situational, the best weapon in FF7 Remake for each character can be determined from their general effectiveness in combat across the game.
Best Weapons for Cloud in Final Fantasy VII Remake
First up is the main character for Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife. Cloud's best weapon is the Buster Sword, despite it being the first weapon. Cloud is good in back physical and magical attacks and focuses on close-range combat. This allows Cloud to be a viable option for physical and magical attacks. What makes Cloud unique in battle are his two stances. The first is Operator Mode, allowing Cloud to be equal parts offensive and defensive. His attacks are standard. Additionally, he retains his normal movement speed and can dodge and block.
His second stance is Punisher Mode. While in Punisher Mode, Cloud moves very slowly, cannot block, and cannot dodge without losing his Punisher Mode, but his attacks are quicker and more powerful. In place of his block, Cloud gains a counterblow if he is attacked with a physical close-ranged attack. However, he cannot block or counter long-range physical or magic attacks. The best builds for Cloud are rooted in his need to be up close to the enemy and skillfully utilize his two stances, defensive and counter options. He needs to be within the thick of battle to get things done; even when blocking and countering, he'll be taking lots of damage, both physical and magical. Out of all the weapons, the Buster Sword is the only weapon that gives a defensive boost to both the physical and magical defensive stats.
Being the first weapon of the game, the Buster Sword will naturally be the weakest of all the weapons without upgrades. However, as the game goes on and more skill points are unlocked, the Buster Sword will have a strong physical and magical damage balance. While the Hardedge and Mythril Saber can be used to focus heavily on one kind of damage, the Buster Sword's balance allows Cloud to be able to jump into a fray, deal close-range damage. He can then use his built-up ATB abilities to continue laying on the physical damage or back out and use offensive magic instead. Since both spells and abilities pull from the magic attack stat, this allows Cloud's abilities to deal good damage alongside his normal attacks.
Best Weapons for Barret in Final Fantasy VII Remake
Barret's best weapon is Big Bertha, as it focuses on long-range physical damage and can deal lots of damage. Barret has the largest amount of health and the largest natural physical defense stat. In combination with his lower movement speed and slow dodge, the best defensive option for Barret is to block and tank the hits he gets. Barret also has a low magic attack, magic defense, and MP, making him a poor choice for lots of offensive magic usage. Certain weapons like the Steel Pincers can mitigate this, but at the cost of long-range physical damage. Builds like these for Barret, ones very magic-oriented, are very situational roles.
For this reason, it is better to lean into Barret's tank role: being able to do lots of damage and to take lots of damage. Big Bertha boosts Barret's maximum health, physical attack, and defense at the cost of less magic damage. Along with the stat boosts, Big Bertha's ability is Maximum Fury, an excellent attack for clearing out a room of weak enemies.
Best Weapons for Tifa in Final Fantasy VII Remake
The third character is Tifa. Tifa's best weapon is the Feathered Gloves. Like Cloud, Tifa is a close-ranged fighter with some decent capacity for magic. What makes her distinct in battle is her mobility. Especially when paired with a parry materia, Tifa can quickly travel the battlefield. Her lower defense is compensated by her ability to dodge and avoid most attacks. A unique mechanic of Tifa's is her Unbridled Strength ability. This ability enables Tifa to increase her chi level. Her martial technique attack gets stronger with every chi level, and she gains access to longer strings of normal attacks. The trade-off is Tifa needs to use a bar of ATB to activate Unbridled Strength, and when she uses her martial technique, she drops one level of chi. To keep on the damage, Tifa benefits from builds that constantly build ATB so she can use it on Unbridled Strength.
Along with giving a boost in physical and magic attacks, the Feathered Gloves significantly increase Tifa's speed attribute, which determines how quickly a character's ATB fills. This speed increase allows Tifa to use Unbridled Strength more often and all her other abilities as well. The ATB increase can also make Tifa a good support or magic character, as she'll have access to materia abilities like assess, prayer, or enemy skill more often.
Best Weapons for Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Remake
Finally, there is Aerith. Aerith's best weapon is the Reinforced Staff. Aerith is a long-ranged magic-user whose physical attack is practically useless. Aerith's normal and Tempest attacks use her magic attack stat, leaving her physical attack for her actual staff. Aerith's physical defense, mobility, and the amount of physical damage dealt (even with the Bladed Staff) leave the use of physical attack completely nonviable. Therefore, the best builds for Aerith should be focused more on her magic capabilities—a balance between MP, magic attack, and defense. While it does cut into Aerith's MP and health, the Reinforced Staff gives additional magic attack and magic defense. While the Mythril Rod gives even more magic attack than the Reinforced Staff, it provides no defensive boosts and cuts even more into Aerith's MP. The Mythril Rod acts best situationally while needing greater magic damage, while the Reinforced Staff strikes a good balance across more situations.
Next: Will FF9 Remake Be Episodic Like FF7 Remake?
Final Fantasy VII Remake is currently available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.
