Practically every JRPG party has its strongman, with Final Fantasy making some of the most popular iterations of the character archetype. From Steiner in Final Fantasy 9 to Basch in Final Fantasy 12, there’s been a litany of heavy hitting characters whose sole purpose was to deal out damage in battle. Different Final Fantasy games have experimented with different personality types for strongman characters, meaning they doesn’t always end up being more brawn than brains.
Final Fantasy 7‘s Barret and Final Fantasy 15‘s Gladiolus are two perfect examples of complex strongman personalities in Final Fantasy. While both are gruff but passionate warriors, their motivations and emotions differ vastly. Not to mention their methods of battle and roles are different, despite fulfilling the same tank archetype with high health and defense stats. Both stand by their battle counterparts as confident fighters willing to make the sacrifice necessary to complete their missions.
The vivacious freedom fighter of Avalanche’s Midgar division, Final Fantasy 7‘s Barret takes on the strongman type with a bit of a twist. Rather than fighting with some kind of giant axe, Barret is actually a strong ranged fighter with his gun-arm. Barret leads the charge against the Shinra Electric Power Company, attempting to stop them from using the planet’s lifeblood Mako to power Midgar’s electricity. He fights for the planet, his daughter Marlene, and alongside Cloud throughout all of Final Fantasy 7‘s journey. His brash and confrontational personality comes from a good place, but he’s oftentimes viewed as off-putting.
In combat, Barret is typically a ranged-fighter, save for the few melee weapons he has access to in Final Fantasy 7 and Remake. His high strength still keeps him in the same bracket as other tank-like characters, but the added ranged capability makes him a very versatile fighter in Final Fantasy 7‘s main party. His magic stats are a little weaker, but he traditionally takes on a more support role in battle when it comes to Materia anyway. Same goes for Remake as well, as his character build and abilities is designed around his high defense/high HP to protect the other party members.
Gladiolus, one of Noctis’ childhood friends and a member of the Crownsguard, is the powerful warrior in Final Fantasy 15‘s playable crew. Gladio’s gigantic sword fits his character deep into the stereotypical strongman, but he’s not particularly brash in combat by any means. He can be quite blunt though, especially to Noctis, and always speaks his mind when necessary. He’s not a man of consistent recklessness, rather he’s honest and generally calm and collected compared to Noctis, who usually fits that bill. Gladio keeps Noctis working hard to become the best king he can, keeping him in check and on track to his goal. In battle, Gladio acts as King Noctis’ shield in both form and function.
As the strongest character in Final Fantasy 15‘s party, he’s both the heavy damage dealer and receiver. While Final Fantasy 15‘s party members are autonomous unless players swap characters, Gladio typically plays on the frontline of battle. His high damage output is perfect for dealing serious damage to staggered enemies. He also utilizes a “Tempest” ability that, in tandem with Noctis’ warp strike, can initiate a stagger on enemies as well. Gladio specifically has a lot of area-of-effect attacks like Impulse that also help clear the field when dealing with multiple monsters in a single fight. Gladio’s versatile battle mechanics help with systematically taking down enemies as quick as possible.
Funnily enough, both Barret and Gladiolus fit into the strongman stereotype exactly, but in only certain capacities. Barret fits the personality particularly well, but equipping the tank character with a ranged weapon almost seems counter-intuitive. Gladio’s personality is far different from the typical strongman, as a much more honest and cool-headed character who holds Noctis to a high standard. Unlike Gladio, Barret is very vocally abrasive to the slightest antagonisms and fits right into the hot-headed stereotype of the big guy. That’s not to say Gladio is not capable of being brash, especially considering he took on Gilgamesh himself in the Episode Gladiolus DLC just to become stronger. That’s just not Gladio’s typical MO, unlike Barret who’s always mouthing off during any tense situation.
As for battle, the two serve very similar roles in different ways. Gladio’s all about serving up damage in huge sweeping melee attacks, while Barret serves up high DPS at range. Barret usually is equipped with support materia, as his magic stat isn’t the highest, so he typically finds any way to protect others while also being able to deal damage at range. Gladio doesn’t have much in the way of support abilities, as he specifically is all about staggering enemies and dealing massive damage. Both are extremely useful in battle in their own respective ways, despite their roles being fairly different.
Barret’s an interesting take on the tank-type character in the battle party, but Gladio isn’t necessarily a one-note stereotype either. Both have unique battle capabilities that make them fairly different, not to mention how different their personalities are.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is out now on PS4.
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