The Complete Evolution of Ultimate Weapons 

The pursuit of ultimate weapons for every character has took up the lion's share of my time playing most Final Fantasy's.

I personally love it when an Ultimate Weapon is character exclusive. Yes it is cool when you can have multiple characters or even all characters use an ultimate weapon but I feel that comes at the cost of the uniqueness of the weapon.

*The ultimate weapon for Monks:* Being Unarmed

*The Ultimate Weapon:* 1. Plot Armor

In DISSIDIA, when a character goes into EX mode, they wield their ultimate weapons from their respective games. EX mode increased your damage, so technically it functioned the same as equipping ultimate weapons in the mainline games.

I think the reason there hasn't been too many "ultimate weapons" in games is because some people feel it "breaks" the game. The current climate with games is to have a balanced approach as things have sort of shifted away from single player into our multiplayer climate we see today. I LOVE my single player games and cherish the idea of ultimate weapons and becoming godly. I do understand and feel the sentiment though of breaking the game. I do like the progression of making the ultimate weapons ultimate through continued knowledge of the game. Fantastic video friend.

It's hard to argue that Excalibur is on the same level as Masamune in the original Final Fantasy. Due to programming errors, Excalibur's "effective against every type/element" didn't work.

FFX was a true celebration of the ultimate weapon. They needed hard work to obtain, and their abilities were game changing.

"Hey, I have an idea. To get the strongest sword for Steiner lets ask the player to go trough an insane speedrun. That'll be lots of fun!!" - Some asshole madman from FF9 production team

ah yes, the ultimate weapon. . . the chicken knife.

Behold! A weapon to surpass Metal Gear!

Another important thing about FF7's ultimates lie in the fact that weapon (and armor) choices directly effect that character's magic loadout as well. So the ultimates were real end- game weapons, with no materia growth, but allowing for 8 linked slots and the choices of materia that comes with that. So even with not-that-good battle stats compared to lower- tier weapons, they still allowed their wielder to become way more powerful than normal.

The chicken knife and brave blade from FFV had interesting mechanics, and they could be stronger than the ragnarok at their max, felt like that was left out

Well, in FF7, the real difference between Ultimate and Penultimate weapons wasn't the raw damage of the weapon, it was the additional materia slots that the character got. They all had the drawback of x0 Materia Growth, while most of those of the rank just below it would have very limited slots with a larger materia progression. I feel like that should've been mentioned, because it really was quite a difference when facing the Ruby and Emerald Weapons, since the player would need those additional slots for most of the better spell combinations.

We hope you enjoy this recent exploration into how concepts have evolved throughout the Final Fantasy franchise! It was a pretty interesting one to dive into and it makes us very excited about what other themes, tropes and topics we can explore in the future! ~Darryl/Lauren

Totally glossing over the Seitengrat in Final Fantasy XII. I get thats it’s collected from a hidden chest and is a 1/10,000 chance, but it’s still the most powerful weapon in the game.

I really like ff13's flexible ultimate weapon system.

My favourite Ultima Weapons aren't even from FF, they are from Kingdom Hearts main numbered games, because of them being a reward in the crafting system and super stylish designs

“They must be the most powerful weapons in the game.” Tidus with a crafted weapon: *AAHH HA HA HA HA HA HA*

While technically not a legendary weapon, gotta give a shout out to the ff6 valiant knife

I think you could emphasize more on how insane, brutal, and near impossible for most people to obtain the ultimate weapon in FFXI. It still stands as the most hardcore undertaking in any game I've ever played. It takes anywhere from months to years with a good number of real people dedicating their time to your cause over the journey.

One of the things I loved or thought was super interesting about the ultima weapons in 7 was they had no materia leveling basically telling you hey this is it ( which is what Ultimate means, the end )

Worth noting that VI and VII had drawbacks with their Ultimates. VII’s zero-Materia-growth schtick meant I, personally, never used them, and to get Illumina in VI required you to give up the Ragnarok Esper (which I never did - the Morph ability was too useful)

Always enjoy your videos guys, you all put in so much work and time into a series we all love, so thanks a lot

Was the Buster Sword ever an ultima weapon? It’s just so iconic for Zack Fair and Cloud Strife that I couldn’t bear using a different sword.

You missed one thing about Ragnarok in VI. Another unique feature of it is that you have to choose to either make it a sword or keep it as an esper and since the only way for anyone but Terra to learn Ultima the spell is via either the Ragnarok esper or the Paladin's shield, which is a headache and a half to obtain and should get an honorable mention for being the ultimate shield, you have to forego getting arguably the most powerful spell in the game on nearly your entire party until it's basically redundant should you choose to keep it a sword but if you make it an esper you can never get Lightbringer at all. Like something out of Star Wars, quick and easy path and all lol.

13:11 "Cloud's ultimate weapon is the only weapon that requires fighting a boss to obtain." Assault Gun from Guard Scorpion: "Am I a joke to you?"

You forgot the Final Fantasy 2's main Ultima weapon: the fists. Yes These are the Best freaking weapon in the game.

4:56 Blood sword : am I a joke to you?

Farming the Wyrmhero Blade (FF12 : Yiazmat, Omega, fishimg sidequest) was so much fun.

I love y’alls Final Fantasy content. Definitely one of my favorite FF channels.

Great idea for a video, ultimate weapons have always been my thing

Great video series, scratches an itch I didnt know I had. Also: a fun drinking game! take a shot every time the narrator says "natural progression"

15:17 aaahh my true mentor, my guiding moonlight

Kingdom Hearts also has it's Ultima(te) Weapon (Keyblade) that involves tireless grinding of monsters for drop items that can be synthesize by moogles to create it. It's existed in all KH games and is normally considered a post game quest since certain monsters were only achievable at the late game stages. In that way, it's very much like a regular Ultimate since by the time you get it, you're very much OP for the main storyline. However, KH has secret bosses that are WAY harder than the Final Story boss so it's not has redundant as certain FF games.

Good video! This gave me the motivation to finally finish FFX!!

Great video as always, keep up the great vids 👍

I would personally love an entire video dedicated to the ways FFXI did ultimate weapons. Tbh any XI specific content in general would be awesome.

I live this channel. You deserve so much attention bro. Well made & well researched. Bravo.

How about an evolution video about Biggs and Wedge throughout the series?

I do love the fact that sequence breaking and prioritizing exploration can really juice your performance in FFXII while still letting you use those toys against the numerous challenge bosses. Many of the "non-hack" gear could be found throughout the game and they remain relevant throughout. The "busted as shit" gear is useful for trial mode which gives them some use as well.

You have earned a subscriber! Love the contents you have made!

17:06 "Performing well in minigames" Me who has gone through the hell to get all celestial weapons multiple times: -_-

I know it isn't a weapon, but the Adamant armor in FF4 really gives that feeling of being invincible. Plus, it fits the criteria of being a pain in the ass to get.

This is my favorite video from this channel

FFT had some ultimates and were often tricky to get.

You have my sub sir. Best of luck with your channel growth.

My favorite hands down is Lionheart in FF8. There's nothing cooler than semi-transparent listerine-colored blades

Loved that Atma weapon in FFVI. Being based on HP kept zombie Locke from wiping my party several times.

goddamn these videos are so fucking good. I listen to these in their entirety

Didn't talk about the ultimate dress spheres in FFX-2 or The guns from Dirge of Cerberus.

Real talk: why does the fighter job from I, III, and Firion all look the same? Coincidence, i think not...;)

Excellent video, loved it. Thanks.

I remember building a Mandau in FFXI. I even got it to item level 119 before i quit playing. I was so proud of it. And those weapons were psychotic. Mandau had the soul of a bloodthirsty woman in it. She always wanted to kill. She'd constantly ask for blood from the PC.

Hi team! Great reviews and awesome videos! I seriously love it! :) May I request to have a history of Biggs and Wedge in all Final Fantasy as well? Thank youu! You guys are awesome!

I remember I played FFIV so much I found a kind of alternative for Kain's Holy Lance. It was the Dragoon one. It would decimate some enemies better than the Holy Lance.

Not sure is this was implemented in any FF game already, but I think it would be cool to have the option of obtaining ultimate weapons early on. The reason would be because the strength of the weapon is inherently tied to how much you use it. Normal weapons could have static damage output, but ultimates could potentially have higher output if leveled up with the character. And instead of the character learning abilities from having a weapon equipped, the opposite would be true. The weapon could be equipped by various characters to give it unique abilities like chance to absorb health, cause status affects or cast certain black magic, but only if those characters knew those spells. There would have to be limits of course, and maybe the amount of exp the weapon got would be based on certain types of character damage output while wielding it per encounter. Idk, just like theorizing about stuff like this.

What i love is lionheart from VIII Back when internet wasnt so advanced, and you had to find marerials on your own

And thus the Brave Blade was forgotten.

I had a minor mental breakdown trying to dodge 200 straight thunderbolts to unlock Lulu's Ultimate Weapon's full potential in FFX

Always remember the Dragon Buster and the items you need to make excaliber in ffiv, the admantian and rat's tail.

I played FF XI for over 10 years. Took me 5years to get my first fully upgraded relic weapon for Samurai and 2 more years to get my second relic for ranger. It was very time consuming. I love this video. Can’t wait to see more like this.

back in the day I did the realm sketch on an invisible enemy glitch - this gave me a buncha secret weapons like paladine shields and more than one atma weapon. 2 atma weapons + genji glove + offering = the ability to attack 8 x for 9999 each - you can kill any ultimate enemy in one or more shots with this.

Would love to see the Evolution of Airships Video. Thanks guys :)

It would be cool if you guys could make a video about the ultimate weapons featured in the Dissidia franchise, since many of them aren't true weapons but cool references and callbacks to their respective games for example Golbez's is the Zeromus shard, which is not a weapon featured in FF4 but it was a shard he gave to Cecil in order to be able to damage the final boss

My favorite ultimate weapon is Squall's Lionheart. I'm working on the Gunbreaker relic in FFXIV because I hope the last step this expansion will be Lionheart. 😁

Cloud’s Ultima Weapon will probably always be my favorite

FYI the Lightbringer in the original version of FF6 was called Illumina.

There are a few other weapons in Final Fantasy 6 worth mentioning as being "ultimate" weapons by your own criteria: Fixed Dice and Valiant Knife. Fixed Dice is unique to Setzer, and is found in Kefka's Tower. It has a unique damage code where the attacker throws 3 dice at an enemy, the numbers of which are then multiplied together and that result is then multiplied by the character's level. If the attacker rolls three of the same number, the damage factor of those numbers is tripled. Because the attack damage is coded as a unique effect, it bypasses a few regular Attack command steps, resulting in the weapon ignoring enemy defense and bypassing the 50% damage penalty from using X-Attack via the Offering (Master's Scroll) relic. (but NOT Berserk status; you still get the damage bonus) Valiant Knife is a dirk/knife weapon only available to Locke (sans Merit Award shenanigans) and is very similar to the Ultima Weapon in how it ignores enemy defense, ignores enemy evasion, and adds damage based on the wielder's current HP vs their max HP. However, there are two major differences. First, the HP damage formula is inverted, meaning it GROWS in strength the closer to death its wielder is rather than getting weaker. Second, unlike the Ultima Weapon, Valiant Knife retains its full normal statted Battle Power regardless of what the wielder's HP is (and still ignores defense on top of this) meaning there is no real drawback to using it. As a consequence, Valiant Knife is actually comparable to Ultima Weapon at most stages of the game, and will easily hit the damage cap when Locke is max level (especially if you Vigor-train him via Esper level up bonuses).

Excellent video. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Whale Whisker the ultimate Freya lance? Excellent video. Subbed.

Saying that FFXI and FFXIV have "Ultimate Weapons" is a bit disingenuous. A better term would be Artifact or Relic Weapons and FFXIV has always had weapons from the final tier of the Savage raid and purchased (Augmented) Tomestone weapons that are similarly powerful to the completed Relic weapon.

I really liked how 13 handled it, allowing for a player to customise their characters stats a bit more via weapon upgrades feels good imo

was wondering why i wasn't subed.. ty for vid :)

I remember the first time I ran through Final Fantasy XII before my older brother brought me an official guide, Phon Coast was a treasure trove... Util I found out about the 4 forbidden chests xD. Oh the horror back then, completely scrapped my playthrough and started over.

ultimate weapon in Goldeneye: Picking Oddjob in multiplayer

Ultimate weapons and you had the M4 from the most recent COD. THAT is solid work bro.

in ff1 monk fist were stronger than any character weapon at lvl 50, ifu play the game that lets u grind to lvl 100 it becomes even stronger

An evolution of damage output would be interesting

Great video, Darryl and Lauren. How about the evolution of Biggs and Wedge for the next topic?

FF14: You also forgot to mention how 13's aspect of "the weapons have the same visual" was carried over into 14 to a degree, but mostly applied to general cosmetics, not only for the weapons, but also outfits where you could have the look of one set of gear and weapons, but have the stats of another.

I know this isn't really anything big But in the game World of Final Fantasy, the main antagonist brandelis uses the sealed weapons in his final battles. He uses mostly murasme and excalibur, if you notice the excalibur resembles the version from final fantasy 9. I guess its just some little details that i like to point out in some games, Square Enix is pretty good at putting stuff like that in their games ^^

IDK, I thought FF7's weapons were pretty ultimate. Cloud's Ultima Weapon can only be gotten from a boss, it has 4 linked materia slots, with the only other sword that has that has 1/3 the attack damage without counting Ultima Weapon's bonus. At full HP it does 4x the damage. I'd say it's pretty Ultima. Maybe FF7's ultimate weapons dont seem impressive because of how OP materia combos can make you.

Am I the only one who thought this was a video of the evolution of the Ultimate Weapon in FFVII? I'll take my unintentional view back

I do admit i miss the whole ultimate weapon sidequest some games used to have and how it ties to a personal narative arc sometimes to a main character. It did get lost in time past the 2010s era.

Should've mentioned that the Wyrmhero Blade is a direct reference to the Dragon Quest series since its sound effects for attacking and missing are akin to those in DQ.

It made me remember how hard was getting the stronger weapon from final fantasy tactics

is the ultima weapon on ff IX a double sword ?

This video reminded me of a Book I read when I was young called The Book of Swords. Some of you may have read it. My favorite was a sword called Shieldbreaker. "I shatter Swords and splinter spears; None stands to Shieldbreaker. My point's the fount of orphans' tears My edge the widowmaker."

is me or what about the brave blade and chicken knife from FFV ? i mean there is not a ultimate weapon but are very unique weapon that have very high raw power specially the brave blade bc have more raw str than ragnarok and even apocalypse from the gba/ios port btw i forgot about the ultima weapon from neo shinryu....

One thing you forgot to point out with Final Fantasy X is that many of the ultimate weapons, when powered up with their respective crests, allow Yuna's Aeons to also break the damage limit.

It was so enjoyable to grind for 12's ultimate weapons like Wyrmhero blade

The everlasting tradition of deducing, questing, waiting, warring, searching, and spending; all for the satisfaction of obtaining your party's most devastating weapon... the feeling of fulfillment when the battle screen pops up and you see the spectacularly designed arms in the possession of your party members and the DMG number that displays once said weapon lands its initial blow. For some, the game is not complete until you see the ultimate weapon equipped on your team. And you want to see it for every single party member; as they deserve no less. You dare not approach a mega boss until you have these weapons...

Me: *after spending three years of my life obtaining Excalibur Zera in FFXIV* "I finally, truly feel powerful." Sephiroth: *after starting the prequel to FF7 with Masamune already in-hand* "Neat. Catch up."

I'm surprised you didn't mention the kh series. Sure it grew outside of final fantasy but it's usage of ultima weapon is much more prevalent in the series with it's upgrades being more apparent

I think it's fair to include the Vortex weapons as FFXV's Ultimate Weapons, because, while I think it's a great game now, it was clearly unfinished upon it's initial release. If games weren't patchable like back in the day, I assume FFXV: Royal Edition would have been the only version of FFXV we saw.

You, good Sir, got a sub

FF IX Zeus Mace (Vivis Ultimate) is crazy strong if you are familiar with the mechanics of the game. It grants Vivi Doomsday wich does 9999 dark dmg to all characters/monsters on screen, wich resulted in your party getting fully healed with the right accessiore equipped while the enemy got completely destroyed.

ffx-2 had an "ultimate weapon" if you count the dresspheres as weapons. You had the standard mascot dressphere which could be used to give your party the ability of 3 different move sets for each character along with the move sets of 2 others per character, but then you had the "special dresspheres" that removed the other two party members and made one character act as 3, and if they fell, their allies could rush back into battle, revive them, and you know how that song and dance goes.

FF3 was an interesting entry for a variety of reasons, but I loved the DS remake’s approach of hiding some ultimate weapons behind bosses in Eureka. Even more interestingly, the ultimate Dragoon weapon, Gungnir, has to be stolen from an optional boss in an optional underwater dungeon only accessible late in the game. And you have to have a thief with a high enough job level (75 iirc) to actually steal it from that boss

ok ok ok! I subscribed. (That worked mate :) )