Navigation Main | Playable Characters | Shinra Inc | SOLDIER (Sephiroth) | Deepground | Other Antagonists | Other Characters | Bosses
open/close all folders
Marlene Wallace
Marlene Wallace
Voiced by: Miyu Tsuzurahara, Sumire Morohoshi (Japanese), Grace Rolek, Ariel Winter (English)
Appears in: Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children
"Sadness was the price to see it end. It's been two years since they told me that."
Barret's young daughter. Her biological father was his old friend Dyne, who supposedly died when their hometown Corel was massacred by Shinra. Barret found Marlene in the rubble and took her in as his own. After the events of the game, Barret leaves her in the care of Cloud and Tifa in Edge.
- Cheerful Child: She is very well-adjusted and happy considering what she's been through.
- Children Are Innocent: Due to her age she doesn't fully understand what goes on around her. The intro to Advent Children has her explain Sephiroth's plan to kill all life and become a god as "Sephiroth hated the planet so much, he wanted to make it go away."
- Daddy's Girl: She adores Barret as much as a biological dad.
- Deadpan Snarker: Come Advent Children, she's begun to grow into a dry wit.Marlene: You've been trying so hard to find a cure for Denzel.
Cloud: You knew about that?
Marlene: Cloud, you should clean up your desk once in a while. - Generation Xerox: Despite no family resemblance, she looks a lot like Aerith, and even has her iconic hairstyle with a ribbon in Advent Children.
Word of God says she's picking up Tifa's stubbornness too, making her a combination of the two women. - Happily Adopted: By Barret. Also by Cloud and Tifa in later follow-ups in the Compilation.
- Morality Pet: To Barret. She is the only thing keeping him from going off the deep end. Barret is aware of this trope and notes if he didn't have Marlene motivating him to be a good dad for her, he may have become something worse a long time ago.
- Plucky Girl: She's eternally cheerful and upbeat, which is impressive considering the stuff she went through.
- Protected by a Child: Marlene does this for Tifa by throwing a Materia at Loz's head.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She calls out Cloud on his angst in Advent Children Complete, imitating Barret for good measure. "How are you supposed to look after your family if you can't even look after yourself?"
- Wise Beyond Their Years: She shows a remarkable amount of maturity for a 6 year old.
Denzel
Denzel
Voiced by: Kyousuke Ikeda, Kazumu Izawa (Japanese), Benjamin Bryan, Aaron Refvem (English)
Appears in: Advent Children
"He'll come back. He said that he would."
A young boy living with Cloud and Tifa in Advent Children, he's an orphan from Midgar that Cloud found in the Sector 5 Church and took in. When he caught Geostigma, Cloud left to try and find a cure to save him.
- Action Survivor: Living in the ruins of Midgar turned him from a normal kid to a resourceful scavenger.
- Flat Character: He doesn't get a lot of personality to build on in Advent Children; justified since he's fatally ill for much of it and not fully coherent for it. His novella expands on his character more.
- Happily Adopted: Twice; both by Reeve's mother and, eventually, by Cloud and Tifa.
- Heartwarming Orphan: Despite living in absolute misery, he eventually found a loving family.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: He has Geostigma and curing him is an important subplot.
- Lower-Deck Episode: His novella serves to demonstrate how Midgar's civilian population handled the events of VII.
- Street Urchin: After Meteorfall he ran with a gang of street orphans in the ruins of Sector 7, collecting and trading scrap for food. Many of the kids were too stubborn to give up their independence, at first. But when the heavy machinery moved in and Geostigma became more widespread, the gang started to break up. Eventually Denzel was the only member left, and he wandered the streets for a time before being found by Cloud.
- Upper-Class Twit: Has shades of this since his parents were too; he thinks slum people eat rats for instance.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: In contrast to the above, Denzel may be young but he's no fool. In both the novel & short film; he overheard his father's convo with a fellow employee about who was really responsible for the sector 7 plate crash. Not once believing a word of what a Shin-Ra infantryman said when he oversaw the wreckage when thinking of his lost parents.
Moogle Girl
Moogle Girl
Voiced by: Rina Mogami (Japanese), Andrea Bowen (English)
Appears in: Advent Children
A girl Denzel befriended, who also suffers from Geostigma.
- Big Sister Instinct: She had a little brother and takes care of him, since both of them suffer Geostigma.
- She wiped her little brother's face after being splash by other kids that run by a puddle.
- She covers his eyes when seeing a man suffer Geostigma melted right in front of them.
- She carried him all around, even though he's already dying.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: She also suffers from Geostigma the same as Denzel.
- Missing Child: She and other children with Geostigma are kidnapped by the Silver Haired Men and brainwashed by them. Not only that knowing your kids died because Geostigma is what happened to her little brother.
- No Name Given: Moogle Girl is never called by her real name, even the credits just title her Girl.
Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge
Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge
Appear in: Final Fantasy VII
The other 3 members of Barret's Avalanche crew consisting of Tough guy Biggs, Wrench Wench Jessie, and Rolly-Polly Wedge.
- Barred from the Afterlife: According to Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega the three of them were barred from entering the Lifestream after they died because of all the people they killed blowing up the Mako reactors.
- Big Fun: Wedge is friendly and by his own admittance, rolly-polly.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted. Their deaths weigh on Barret through most of the game, and he talks about them from time to time.
- Karmic Nod: Because their actions killed so many people, all three of them feel that their deaths are well-deserved during their final moments.
- Mauve Shirt: All of them are given a distinct personality, which makes their deaths early on in the plot all the more dramatic.
- Ms. Exposition: Jessie has a conversation with Cloud in which she gives him a rundown of Midgar that largely serves to inform the player about the city's overall structure.
- Rescue Romance: Downplayed with Jessie. She develops a crush on Cloud after he saves her from getting stuck as the Sector 1 Reactor is about to explode.
Elmyra Gainsborough
Elmyra Gainsborough
Appears in: Final Fantasy VII
Aerith's adoptive mother.
- Good Parents: Despite not being related to Aerith by blood, she treats her as her own daughter and loves her dearly. She even offers to look after Marlene later in the game after the destruction of Sector 7.
- I Will Wait for You: When her husband didn't come back from the war, she waited for his arrival every day at the train station, until she was told that he had been killed in action.
- Mama Bear: A non-violent example; she's very protective of Aerith, to the point of asking Cloud to leave her home without telling Aerith when she realizes that he's a SOLDIER.
- Muggle Foster Parents: She is one to Aerith, the last Cetra in the world.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She lose Aerith because of Sephiroth. The Main Party blames themselves for Aerith's death. But, Elmyra makes it clear she doesn't blame them for Aerith's death.
Zangan
Zangan
Voiced by: Hiroshi Fujioka
Appears in: VII, Crisis Core, Before Crisis, Last Order
"I'm Zangan. I travel around the world teaching children martial arts."
He is the resident martial arts master in Nibelheim, training Tifa in the art of self-defense.
- Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Zangan's travels reveal that a lot of passersby's shared stories about how the Shin-Ra go around quelling and/or silencing any possibly harmful content related to the company that might hurt they're public image. The aftermath of Nibelheim incident proved such rumors correct.
- Old Master: is this to Tifa who training martial arts. He even boasts training martial arts to 128 students across the world.
- Passing the Torch: He gives his secret technique Final Heaven to Tifa because "he can't even jump anymore". Which serves as her final Limit Break.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears briefly in the Nibelheim flashback, but if not for him, Tifa likely wouldn't have survived, ended up in Midgar, joined AVALANCHE, or reunited with Cloud and start him off on his journey.
Bugenhagen
Bugenhagen
Appears in: VII, Before Crisis
The leader of Cosmo Canyon and Red XIII's adopted "grandfather". He knows much about the nature of the Lifestream and the planet and helps guide the party on their journey.
- Cool Old Guy: 130 years old and one of the most knowledgeable people in the world. There's a reason he commands so much respect in Cosmo Canyon.
- Guest-Star Party Member: A non-fighting variation when he accompanies the party to the City of the Ancients in order to unlock the secrets of the White Materia.
- Life Will Kill You: He passes away from old age near the end of the game, right after giving Red XIII his ultimate weapon.
- Mr. Exposition: He exists largely to give info dumps on topics most other characters in the game are ignorant of, primarily the Lifestream and the Cetra.
- Parental Substitute: He's taken care of Red XIII for decades since his parents are gone.
- Power Floats: He inexplicably floats on a large green orb at all times.
- Shout-Out: He's named after the archeologist in The Omen (1976) who tells the hero the lore of the Anti-Christ.
- Signature Laugh: "Ho ho hoooo!"
Cloud's Mother
Claudia Strife
Appears in: VII, Crisis Core
Cloud's mother.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Cloud meets with his mother who worries about him, especially concerning getting a girlfriend. Which annoyed Cloud a bit.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Thanks to Sephiroth, Cloud lost his mother due to the Nibelheim incident.
- Good Parents: Towards Cloud. Cloud even describes his mother as “vibrant” and once invited Zack to come to his house and try her cooking. Her death at the hands of Sephiroth is one of his (many) grudges against him.
- Posthumous Character: She died five years before the game starts, during the Nibelheim Incident. In Remake, Sephiroth reveals that he killed her.
- Supreme Chef: Cloud loved his mother cooking. It's to the point that he invited Zack to come over to his mother's house and try her cooking. The early character sheets say her specialty is stew.
- Unnamed Parent: She isn't named in the original game. Although, the early character sheets apparently had her named Claudia Strauss. Her given name was canonized in Remake, but her family name is still Strife, like her son's.
Tifa's Father
Brian Lockhart
Appears in: Final Fantasy VII
Tifa's father.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Thanks to Sephiroth, Tifa lost her father due to the Nibelheim incident.
- Good Parents: Towards Tifa. When he about to die after being killed by Sephiroth, his last word to Tifa is to run away so Tifa didn't get hurt. As result, Tifa declares her hatred for Shinra, SOLDIER, mako, and Sephiroth.
- Misplaced Retribution: Tifa was so torn up over her mother's death that she tried to find her mom in the Nibel mountains. Cloud followed her, and they both fell into a ravine when the bridge to the reactor broke. Tifa's father mistakenly thought Cloud was the one who led Tifa into the mountains and yelled at him for his supposed carelessness. It's implied this is one of the things that led Cloud to see himself as weak and needing to become stronger.
- Posthumous Character: He died five years before the game starts, killed by Sephiroth during the Nibelheim incident.
- Unnamed Parent: He isn't named ingame. Although, the early character sheets named him as Brian Lockhart, which was canonized as his name in Remake's Ultimania guide.
- What the Hell, Hero?: He mistakenly thinks Cloud took Tifa into the Nibel mountains where they fell and she ended up in a week-long coma. He warns Cloud to stay away from Tifa even when he returns to Nibelheim with Sephiroth.
Godo Kisaragi
Godo Kisaragai
Appears in: Final Fantasy VII
He is the father of Yuffie Kisaragi and the leader of the nation of Wutai.
- Heel Realization: After Yuffie defeats him in battle, Godo tells her that the war made him realize that in using their power to fight, Wutai was no different from Shinra, and now realizes from Yuffie that to make a true difference, one needs not just strength, but determination.
- Retired Badass: Implied to have been a fierce warrior and an independent king, standing up against the Shinra Electric Power Company to defend Wutai's honor and culture. Now, he is thought by Yuffie to be a shell of his former self who spends the day sleeping and has let Wutai become a tourist resort.
Shera
Shera
Appears in: VII, Before Crisis
She is a scientist who once helped out when the Shinra planned the launch of the first rocket to outer space in Rocket Town. She lives with Cid Highwind.
- Happily Married: After she and Cid reconciled. They got married as of Dirge of Cerberus.
- It's All My Fault: Thinking it's her fault Cid's dream shattered. She even takes all Cid's constant criticism believing she deserves it. In reality, it's not really her fault; there was a fault with the rocket oxygen tanks and she was trying to fix it.
- Nice Girl: Despite the hardships that followed the event, she is still a caring person.
Johnny
Johnny
Appears in: VII, On The Way To A Smile
He is a purehearted troublemaker who lives in Sector 7 Undercity with his parents and has a crush on Tifa.
- Abhorrent Admirer: He's head over heels for Tifa, even proclaiming that she's his girlfriend. She can only sigh in exasperation.
- Fiery Redhead: Has bright reddish hair and a short temper to match.
- Hopeless Suitor: He is in love with Tifa and utterly convinced she is his girlfriend, to her exasperation.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After Johnny left Midgar and moved to Costa del Sol, He started a "new life", moved into a house, and met a girl who became his girlfriend. Johnny even revealed that he had proposed to his girlfriend.
Ifalna
Ifalna
Appears in: Final Fantasy VII
"Take Aerith someplace safe."
The last pureblood Cetra, she was studied by Shinra as part of their research on the group until she escaped with Professor Gast. She bore a child to him, Aerith, but days after the birth Hojo tracked them down, killed Gast, and took the two captives. Ifalna and Aerith escaped Shinra years later, but Ifalna was injured in the attack and entrusted the care of her daughter to the passing of Elmyra Gainsborough.
- Color-Coded Eyes: Like her daughter, Ifalna had vivid green eyes to show her connection to the planet and the lifestream.
- Last of Her Kind: The last pureblood Cetra; Aerith is only half-Cetra.
- Missing Mom: She died when Aerith was seven years old from injuries she sustained while escaping Shinra Tower.
- Mr. Exposition: Her video logs of her talking to Gast explain a lot of the backstory.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: Leaves the White Materia to Aerith, the only memento she has of her.
- Posthumous Character: She's been dead for well over a decade by the time the game begins. She appears only in flashbacks and in a series of video interviews Professor Gast has with her.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Her model and concept art depict her as looking just like Aerith, even wearing a red dress.
Shalua Rui
Shalua Rui
Voiced by: Yuu Asakawa (Japanese), Kim Mai Guest (English)
Appears in: Dirge of Cerberus, Before Crisis
"For my... reason to live."
A scientist working with the WRO, she is searching for a reason to live after her sister was captured by Shinra years ago.
- Artificial Limbs: She has a robotic left arm as a prosthetic. The backstory also establishes she was the one who gave Barret his gun-arm.
- Coat Cape: She wears a lap coat slung over her shoulders like a cloak.
- Disney Death: Possibly. Her body is recovered and put in a medical capsule, but Yuffie says she has too much head trauma and will never wake up, and come to the end of the game her broken capsule is left in Midgar's ruins as Omega is destroyed and the Lifestream rains down on her, so there's a chance she'll return. Word of God says they purposefully left her survival open to interpretation to look at in future games.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Platonic example. She says this towards Shelke before Azul gives her head trauma.Shalua: "And remember, I'll always love you."
- Gory Discretion Shot: We don't see precisely what Azul does to her behind the door, but when she's being cared for afterward it's mentioned she has head trauma.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Apparently dies helping Vincent and Shelke escape Azul.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Her sister turns out to be Shelke.
- Stripperiffic: It's a mystery where she buys clothes that look like that.
The Weapons
The Weapons
Appear in: VII, Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core
Ancient bio-mechanical superweapons created by the planet 2000 years ago to fight Jenova, they were put to rest in the North Crater after she was sealed. The events of the series that throw the planet into crisis again cause them to awaken. Five Weapons appeared in the original game, the expanded Compilation added two more.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Sephiroth is meant to be the immediate threat that the Weapons were supposed to take down once they were awakened. However, in an ironic twist, he sealed himself off at the crater's energy barrier; the only place the Weapons can't meddle with because the crater is still healing from JENOVA's descent into the Planet. Due to Sephiroth sealing himself off essentially, the awakened Weapons are left confused as to why they awakened and move on to strike the next immediate threats sucking the Planet dry, being Junon and Midgard.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Weapons are massive, towering over skyscrapers.
- Beam Spam: Most of them attack with an assortment of rays and lasers. Emerald Weapon's four Eyes that accompany it only have one attack, Emerald Laser, so you'll be seeing a lot of it.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Jade Weapon heavily resembles an insect of sorts, primarily a beetle.
- Boom, Headshot!: Sapphire Weapon gets a point-blank blast from Junon's Mako Cannon, obliterating its head.
- Boss-Altering Consequence: The Emerald Weapon normally has a 20 minute timer during the fight due to taking place underwater. However, if you obtain the Underwater Materia, that timer will be removed.
- Bragging Rights Reward: The rewards for defeating Ruby and Emerald are rewards that can be traded for a set of unique Master Materia, and a Gold Chocobo. But if you're strong enough to beat them, you've defeated the game's most powerful enemies, so you don't need those items now.
- Breath Weapon: Sapphire Weapon's attack is a blast of energy from its mouth. Ruby Weapon and Ultimate Weapon also fire projectiles from their mouths. Emerald Weapon also fires an energy beam from the mouth-like orifice in the center of its body.
- Casting a Shadow: Ruby Weapon and Ultimate Weapon can cast Shadow Flare. Ultimate Weapon will use the attack as a parting shot should one be able to kill him; he'll usually attack his killer, so make sure they're the one holding the Enemy Skill Materia.
- Chest Blaster: Ultimate Weapon and Ruby Weapon fire attacks from orbs on their chests.
- Color-Coded Characters: One is red, one is green, one is blue, one is white, and one is black and purple. The additional weapons added in later games are dark green, and silver.
- Combat Tentacles: Ruby Weapon's arms.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Omega's purpose turns out to be a dark twist on what Jenova does (and what Sephiroth would later plan to do) to planets. Jenova is a human-sized extraterrestrial invader who absorbs all the energy of a planet and then uses it as a vessel to travel to another and repeat the process. Omega is a biomechanical creation of the Planet itself, whose purpose is to absorb the Lifestream and find a new planet when the Godzilla Threshold is reached.
- Cool Plane: What Jade Weapon can best be described as.
- Cowardly Boss: After doing enough damage to Ultimate Weapon in any fight with it except the last, it flies off. After fighting Diamond Weapon (assuming it is not the original Japanese 1.0 version), you then have to chase it down across the Planet to get back into battle with it except for the last fight, where it will be stationed over Cosmo Canyon.
- Cutscene Boss: Sapphire Weapon is blasted by the Sister Ray and never fights the heroes. The same was true of Diamond Weapon in the original Japanese release, but all later releases add a mandatory fight against it.
- Detachment Combat: Emerald Weapon separates its entire top half from its lower half in order to use Aire Tam Storm
- Dishing Out Dirt: When Ruby Weapon takes away two of your party members to fight only one, he does so by sucking them into quicksand.
- Dragon Their Feet: Jade Weapon is released by Zirconiade and serves as an antagonist after the latter had already been taken out by the heroes.
- Duel Boss: Ruby Weapon's Whirlsand attack permanently takes two party members out of the fight, eventually making it one-on-one. The only way to avoid this (or at least have a choice in who gets taken out) is to enter the fight with two party members already dead.
- Elemental Powers: Each Weapon appears to be based around a particular element. Diamond is earth, Ruby is fire, Ultimate is air, Sapphire is water, and Emerald is energy (despite also being water-based).
- Expy: The Ruby, Diamond and Emerald Weapons resemble the MSM-03C Hygogg, AMX-004 Qubeley and AMX-002 Neue Ziel, respectively.
- Four Is Death: Four of the Weapons can be fought as bosses in VII (two HAVE to be fought to complete the game), and all four are very powerful and very dangerous.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss:
- Ultimate Weapon fights a few rounds, then flies away to be chased down and fought again until you whittle it down to nothing.
- Jade Weapon retreats each time it would be defeated in Before Crisis.
- Godzilla Threshold: They are the Godzilla in the trope name — when the planet is in dire danger or some threat appears that could cause mass destruction, the Weapons awaken to fight it off. Omega is the final one of these — when the other Weapons are gone and the planet is in danger still, it awakens to gather the Lifestream and take it to another planet to escape the threat, leaving the old planet to wither and die.
- Hufflepuff House: Despite being played up as the planet's most powerful defenses against threats, they usually get less and less relevant for each subsequent appearance.
- Jade Weapon, chronologically the first of the Weapons to be released, is the Arc Big Bad of the Weapon Mode of Before Crisis, following the destruction of Zirconiade and serving as the incredibly persistent True Final Boss of the story. However, Before Crisis has been completely shut down since March 31, 2018.
- Sapphire Weapon, the first to be introduced and establish the Weapons as a threat, is almost immediately taken out in a cutscene without any player input.
- Diamond Weapon couldn't even be fought in the original Japanese version, though that did get rectified later as a mandatory fight. Even so, it easily played the biggest part in the story by causing the Raid on Midgar.
- Ultimate Weapon was the only one that had to be fought, regardless of which version of the game you played, and devastating Mideel as soon as it shows up, but after fleeing the scene, it doesn't play a role again other than as a Recurring superboss.
- Emerald & Ruby Weapon are Superbosses that don't play a role in the story, the only thing they do being awakening from the North Crater.
- Omega, an even bigger case of Godzilla Threshold, only shows up around the end of Dirge of Cerberus before it's tricked and taken over by Deepground and Weiss.
- Kaiju: They're enormous monsters who wreak havoc on humanity, so this is a given. For added points, they represent Gaia's Vengeance and all have a vaguely humanoid shape that harkens back to the People in Rubber Suits effect that Toho typically employed.
- Knight Templar: They exist to protect the planet from threats, but their only method for doing so is to destroy those threats.
- Marathon Boss: If you wish to fight Emerald and/or Ruby Weapon, you will be dealing with them for at least 15 minutes each (unless the player does Cait Sith's One-Hit Kill slot move or is underpowered; in the latter, the two Weapons will break AVALANCE apart in only a few moves). Chasing Ultimate Weapon also can take a while.
- Mysterious Mist: An area being clouded in black mist is the telltale sign that the Jade Weapon is present in a certain location, only able to be penetrated by the light from several Materia Pillars across the planet.
- Off with His Head!: Sapphire Weapon's head is blown off by a point blank shot from the Sister Ray.
- One-Hit Kill: When fighting Emerald Weapon, make sure at least one person has less than 9 Materia on them; anyone who has 9 Materia or more equipped will be subject to this trope via Emerald's ultimate attack. Which can be reversed by Loophole Abuse by equipping your characters with two Materia that bring your up health to 9999. when it uses Aire Tam Storm it'll deal 2222 damage, trigger All Lucky 7s and take off a significant chunk of Emerald Weapon's health. With the proper build to back this up, one can subject Emerald Weapon to a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Organic Technology: They're 2000-year old bio-mechanical weapons spawned by The Lifestream that appear to have mechanical workings and weapons.
- Playing with Fire: Ruby Weapon's Ruby Flame.
- Predecessor Villain: As Before Crisis was set before VII itself, Jade Weapon is this to the rest of the Weapons.
- Purple Is the New Black: Ultimate Weapon is referred to as the black Weapon, but is mostly purple with some black coloring.
- Recurring Boss: In total, the Jade Weapon takes around nine battles at each location across the planet before it's decommissioned.
- Recurring Element: This wouldn't be the first time there was a Superboss named Ultima(te) Weapon, though this is easily the most famous and powerful version, as well as the most reoccurring.
- Sdrawkcab Name: The "Aire Tam" in Emerald Weapon's "Aire Tam Storm" is "Materia" spelled backwards, clueing you in as to what influences it.
- Shock and Awe:
- Aside from Ultima Beam, Ultimate Weapon attacks by shooting orbs of lightning at party members.
- Emerald Weapon's ultimate attack is called Aire-Tam Storm, which has him engulfing the entire party in a thunderbolt shower. This attack does 1,111 points worth of damage for every Materia a character has equipped, so if somebody has 9 or more...
- Shoulder Cannon: Emerald Weapon is armed with four, while Diamond Weapon has a series of flare launchers in its shoulders.
- Shoulders of Doom: They also rock absolutely massive ones.
- Sixth Ranger: Jade Weapon first appears in Before Crisis, though it chronologically is the first to awaken. The Omega Weapon itself appears in Dirge of Cerberus.
- Skewed Priorities: They come to life to protect the planet from whatever endangers it. In this case, they go after humanity as a whole, who are only progressively destroying the planet, instead of Sephiroth, whose threat level to the planet is much more immediate. It is implied that the energy shield around the northern crater not only protects Sephiroth, but also hides him from/confuses the Weapons.
- Superboss: All of them except Sapphire Weapon and Diamond Weapon are optional encounters. Ultimate Weapon has to be fought once but survives, and can be fought and killed at the player's choosing.
- Taking You with Me: If AVALANCHE is able to destroy Ultimate Weapon, he'll use Shadow Flare as a final attack.
- Theme Naming:
- The Weapons are Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, and Ultimate. Jade continues the trend, but not Omega, but then Omega is a special member of the group.
- Also carries into their attacks, which are named after them. Diamond Weapon for example uses Diamond Fire and Diamond Flash.
- Time-Limit Boss: Emerald Weapon is found on the seafloor after obtaining the submarine, and fighting him normally down here will give the team only 20 minutes to kill him before they drown and cause an automatic Game Over. Obtaining the Underwater Materia from the Kalm Traveler (you need to give him a Guide Book that has to be Morphed off one of the Ghost Ships in the underwater corridor connecting Junon to the Underwater Reactor) will remove the timer and allow the team to fight indefinitely. You will (probably) need the extra time.
- True Final Boss: Jade Weapon is the Final Boss of Before Crisis' Weapon Mode, set after the destruction of Zirconiade.
- Underwater Boss Battle: Emerald Weapon is fought at the bottom of the ocean, and not even while you're in the submarine either.
- The Unfought: Sapphire Weapon is destroyed by Shinra before the party ever gets to fight it. In the first release of the Japanese version of the game, Diamond Weapon suffered the same fate, but the International version added a mandatory boss fight against him that was also added to later Japanese releases.
- Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: Zirconiade awakened Jade Weapon in order to protect itself, but by the time it arrived, Zirconiade was already destroyed. Without a purpose, it focused on attacking the Turks rather than returning to rest, as they had technically destroyed a part of the Planet's ecology.
- Your Size May Vary: Ultima Weapon is subjected to this. In its introductory cutscene and on the world map, it is massive, easily dwarfing the Highwind like you would expect a kaiju would. However, whenever it's fought in battle, Ultima Weapon only appears to be about the size of a T. rex and looks like it could stand comfortable on the Highwind's observation deck.
Minerva
Minerva
The goddess of the planet and the embodiment of the Lifestream's will. She's the goddess spoken of in LOVELESS and can be fought in Crisis Core's final mission as the game's Superboss.
- Action Girl: Easily the most powerful enemy in Crisis Core.
- Badass Cape: Wears a pair of large white cloaks that hang from her armor.
- Big Good: Guardian of the Lifestream, goddess of LOVELESS, and protector of the planet.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Zack will probably do this literally since Costly Punch is what you're likely going to be spamming against her.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Crimson Flare, Krysta, and Thor's Hammer.
- Gold and White Are Divine: Wears gold and white armor and has blond hair.
- Good Counterpart: As a goddess who embodies the will of the Lifestream, she's a Good Counterpart to Jenova and Sephiroth, false gods who try to corrupt the Lifestream.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: As part of her appearance of a noble goddess and the good embodiment of the Lifestream.
- Hot Goddess: She is very lovely to look at and happens to be a deity.
- It Is Not Your Time: Word of God states this was her motive for curing Genesis of his degradation and bringing him back shortly after Zack struck him down as he had yet to complete his duty as SOLDIER and he still had much to learn.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Wields a shield on her left armor.
- Magic Staff: Her weapon is designed like a staff but comes to a point with bladed protrusions.
- Morph Weapon: Her shield, spear/staff, and armor and cape, come apart and combine to form a giant bow and arrow for Judgement Arrow.
- Pet the Dog: She cures Genesis of his degradation after seeing his pure desire and will to complete his duty as a SOLDIER.
- Physical Goddess: She cements her status as the goddess and protector of the planet, as well as the embodiment of lifestream.
- Sacred Bow and Arrows: Her ultimate attack, Judgment Arrow, has her form a giant bow from her armor and fire her staff at Zack like an arrow.
- Superboss: The game's strongest enemy, fought at the end of a long chain of difficult Missions.
- Valkyries: Her armor and general appearance have this vibe.
