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Limit Breaks (sometimes shortened to just Limits) are powerful combat moves featured in Squaresoft's Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII games. Limits are caused by characters taking large amounts of damage in combat and represents burst of strength from anger. Subsequent games in the series have used similar mechanics with different names.
Several other games have adopted systems similar to the "Limit Break" mechanic.
Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VI
In the game Final Fantasy VI, the limit break is introduced under the name "Desperation Attack". In the game Final Fantasy VI each character has a unique desperation attack. Whenever the player chooses what action a character should follow, there is a random chance that the player will be given the option to use a character's desperation attack. The lower the HP, the higher the chance the desperation attack will be available.
Terra
Terra's "Riot Blade" uses the standard attack option, but yields a much higher damage amount despite how powerful the enemy is. Most of the time, the desperation attack is proportional to how much HP is remaining in the opponent. However, there are instances that some bosses can be killed with one hit of Terra's "Riot Blade".
Locke
Locke's desperation attack is similar to Terra's based on the amount of damage it can potentially give out. However, it differs in the added defense it adds. Locke's "Mirager" temporarily raises Locke's defense to maximum for the duration of the battle. This is especially useful against bosses more focused on physical attacks rather than magic attacks.
Edgar
Edgar's "Royal Shock" is a massive burst of lightning damage towards an opponent. The attack is best used against bosses weak against magic, especially lightning in particular.
Sabin
Sabin's "Tiger Break" desperation attack is combination of any random three Blitzes that Sbin has learned so far. However, the selection of which Blitzes is performed is chosen by the game so the player cannot influence which Blitzes to use in the attack.
Cyan
Cyan's desperation attack is called "Black Blade"
Shadow
Shadow's desperation attack is called "Shadow Fang"
Celes
Celes's desperation attack is called "Spin Edge"
Setzer
Setzer's desperation attack is called "Red Card"
Strago
Strago's desperation attack is called "Sabre Soul"
Mog
Mog's desperation attack is called "Moogle Rush"
Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VII
In Final Fantasy VII, each character has a Limit Bar that fills up as the character takes damage. When the bar is full the character can unleash a powerful attack. Not all Limits have damaging effects; some, like Aeris Gainsborough's Healing Wind, heal the party or weaken the opponent.
Limit breaks are divided into 4 levels. All the characters start the game knowing one Level 1 limit break, as they become stronger they gain a second Level 1 limit, then a Level 2 limit, then a second Level 2 and so on, up their second Level 3 Limit. Each character only has one Level 4 limit and this must be gained by finding hidden items called "Limit Manuals".
The player can decide which Limit Break of a certain level to use when the time comes in combat, however, they must choose which Level to use outside of combat. The statistics screen has an option to set Limit Level, changing which level of limit to use will empty the characters limit guage. The higher level a limit break is the stronger the attack, but the longer it takes the limit guage to fill up. So while a Level 3 limit is stronger than a Level 1 limit, the character can use it more often.
The characters Cait Sith Vincent Valentine and Tifa Lockheart have limits that work in different ways to the other characters.
Cait Sith
Cait Sith only has 2 limit breaks, Dice in Level 1, and Slots in Level 2. When Dice is used, Cait Sith rolls several large dice the numbers that are rolled determine the damage dealt. Slots brings up a slot machine with spinning wheels, the pictures that appear cause a random affect to happen, Some deal damage or heal the party, others make them temporaily invulnerable, there are however two very powerful attacks. If the right pictures appear on the three slots then the enemy is killed instantly, this is even rumoured to work on the final boss of the game, but due to the difficulty of rolling the correct pictures this has not been proven. If 2 of the three pictures required for this instant kill attack are rolled with another picture then the reverse happens, the player's own party is immediately killed.
Vincent Valentine
Vincent only has 4 Limit breaks, one for each level. When used they turn Vincent into a powerful monster. His health is raised dramatically so that it is higher than his normal full health. The player loses control of Vincent and he attacks relentlessly with one of two attacks; at the end of the battle Vincent is turned back into his normal form.
Tifa Lockheart
Tifa has the standard distribution of Limits (2 Level 1, 2 Level 2, 2 Level 3 and 1 Level 4) and learns them in the same way, her usage of them is completly different from the norm. When she uses her Limit she uses every limit she knows, up to the level that has been set. When activated several slots appear on the screen, one for each Limit, marked with "Hit" "Miss" and "Yeah!" The player has to try and stop the wheels on a "hit" or a "Yeah!" the more "Hits" and "Yeah!"s the wheel is showing when stopped the more damage that is dealt, if too many "Misses" are rolled the combo stops there. With all Limits learned and the Limit Level set to 4, Tifa's attacks are (in order)
- Beat Rush
- Somersault
- Waterkick
- Meteodrive
- Dolphin Blow
- Meteor Strike
- Final Heaven
Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy VIII
In Final Fantasy VIII, characters don't have limit levels or limit gauges. Instead, there is a small chance that when a character turn comes up, they will be able to perform a Limit; the less HP the character has, the more likely this is. Characters who are near death can use their limit breaks very frequently. As a result, in certain battles (especially those against the optional bosses) it is considered a good strategy to allow some or all characters to stay critically wounded. Each character's Limits have little in common with the others. Zell Dincht's limits require the player to hit combinations of buttons that appear on the screen, while Selphie Tilmitt's limit performs a random spell a random number of times. The Aura spell gives a character automatic Limit Breaks as long as the spell is active. Squall Leonhart's Lionheart is often compared to Cloud Strife's Omnislash Limit, since each delivers a long series of hard-hitting blows to the enemy.
Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy IX renames Limit Breaks to "Trance", but the implementation of the system is otherwise similar to that of Fantasy Fantasy VII.
Limit Breaks in Final Fantasy X
As with Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X renames the Limit Break system but retains its core function. However, in addition to each character's different Overdrives, the characters can also learn new Overdrive Modes, which change how the character's Overdrive meter is filled. For example, characters who heal their allies often will learn the "Healer" Overdrive Mode, which, when selected, increases the character's Overdrive when they heal allies instead of when they take damage. Only one Overdrive Mode can be selected at a time.
Limit Breaks in Exalted
In the White Wolf Game Studio tabletop role-playing game Exalted, a limit break is a negative psychological effect rather than a positive combat effect. Other than the name, there is no similarity between this and the Final Fantasy Limit Breaks.
Limit Breaks in Kingdom of Loathing
In the Asymmetric Publications online game Kingdom of Loathing, the birdlike familiar known as a cocoabo is able to execute limit breaks, which enhance the power and effectiveness of its abilities for the current turn. Unlike the Final Fantasy limit breaks, this ability occurs randomly and is not related to damage dealt or other factors.
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