Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) Rebirth features a ton of great, compelling party members for you to choose from. However, not all of them are created equal when it comes to combat. As such, here’s our ranking of all the FF7 Rebirth party members from worst to best.
Aerith Gainsborough
Aerith, I love you, but I hate playing you.
Part of the issue with Aerith in FF7 Rebirth is that she’s not particularly well-suited to how the franchise has evolved since Remake. Ranged characters in the sequel really struggle because the combat is significantly more action-oriented, which means when you’re playing Aerith, you can often end up getting rushed by a ton of enemies. She’s not really built to handle that sort of fighting, so I found myself only switching to her if absolutely necessary. Solo sections with her were also a massive challenge that I didn’t, in general, enjoy, owing in large part to her relatively slow attack animation.
Aerith isn’t all bad, though. Her abilities and Limit Breaks can be wonderful if they’re used correctly. She’s without a doubt the most capable natural healer in the game. Still, whereas I loved Aerith in Remake, I found her lacking in Rebirth.
Barret Wallace
Like Aerith, Barret suffers due to FF7 Rebirth‘s changes to combat. He also doesn’t have any real melee weapons, so he’s really not suited to every situation, and it’s harder to take advantage of his relatively high amount of HP because of that. Playing as Barret can also be a bit… boring. It’s a lot of holding down the shoot button and then dodging when enemies start attacking you.
Barret edges out Aerith for me just a bit, as he’s got better survivability. He’s relatively helpful when it comes to taking down enemies in the air as well, and I found he made a pretty competent ranged magic user. As such, Barret was in a fair number of my parties, but I didn’t actually enjoy playing him that much. Generally, I only switched to him to use spells, and then it was right back to someone else.
Cait Sith
This is a hard one for me. I like Caith Sith in FF7 Rebirth. He’s got some absolutely devastating abilities, including one that just lets him use a summon’s ability out of nowhere. He also had a lot of really nice effects that were good for enhancing the rest of my party and getting them to perform better, like boosting critical rates.
The problem with Cait Sith is his moogle. You’ve got to charge up an ATB gauge to get your moogle, and most of your abilities require you to have him. Assuming the moogle doesn’t get immediately melted like he does in many of the boss battles in FF7 Rebirth, Cait Sith becomes more difficult and annoying to control. Once you’ve got the hang of him, he’s good! However, until that happens, he’s not. He only barely edges out Barret on this ranked list, because I do think he’s a bit better once you get used to him.
Red XIII
Red XIII is a very good boy. Designed to operate as the party’s tank, Red XIII fits really well in a lot of different types of parties. That’s in large part due to his Vengeance Mode, which gives him additional powers after he’s blocked some damage. Since the friendly AI loves to block, it’s pretty easy to switch to Red XIII during a fight and just activate Vengeance Mode and really start dealing damage. Also, if you slap a Provoke Materia on him, all the better!
The only real issue with Red XIII is that he’s not necessarily as good as some of the other characters on this list. Part of that has to do with the fact that I don’t really think you need to lean into defensive characters in FF7 Rebirth, since the combat is relatively fast-paced. He’s got his uses — and he’s a big part of one of my end game parties — but he’s not in every party that I make.
Related: All Region Maps in Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) Rebirth
Cloud Strife
You’ll spend most of FF7 Rebirth playing Cloud, and a ton of the game’s combat feels like it’s especially tweaked and balanced for him. I like Cloud. He’s got a good mixture of speed and power. His abilities are formidable, and he’s got one of the most intuitive blocks in the game. You really can’t go wrong using Cloud or having him in your party.
My main issue with Cloud is, really, that I like the next two characters on this list better, and as the game went on, I found myself switching to one of them. Cloud’s a lot of fun to play overall, and you can certainly do worse, though.
Yuffie Kisaragi
I had my doubts about Yuffie in FF7 Rebirth, but she quickly became one of my favorite characters to use in the game. A big part of that is her Elemental Ninjutsu makes her super useful for pretty much any situation. You can combine that with other abilities to then make her do a ton of damage and charge things up super fast. Plus, Yuffie can hit things on the ground, in the air, close-up, and at a distance. She’s genuinely pretty perfect from a utility standpoint.
Tifa Lockhart
Tifa was my favorite character in FF7 Remake, and I’m happy to say she retains the title in FF7 Rebirth. She’s fast, hits hard, and it’s extremely easy to charge her ATB gauges. Her only real drawback is that she’s not as good at hitting things in the air as other characters, but she can absolutely melt enemies on the ground. I also found her dodge to be the best of all the characters, and I often used her specifically to take down some of the toughest bosses in the game, because she was so maneuverable.
And that’s our ranked list of all the party members in FF7 Rebirth. If you’re looking for more, check out our guide on how to romance Tifa.
