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Limit Charge / Finishing Touch

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For the tournament, see Tournament:Limit Break.
Limit Charge / Finishing Touch
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Limit Charge and Finishing Touch in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
User Cloud
Universe Final Fantasy

Limit Charge (リミットチャージ, Limit Charge) is Cloud's down special move.

Overview

Over the course of normal play, Cloud charges up his Limit Gauge (invisible in SSB4) while giving or receiving damage. This mechanic is identical to the Power Meter expressed by Little Mac. As much as 250% (150% in Ultimate) in raw damage must be dealt by Cloud to players, or 100% taken by him, to fill the meter by only giving or receiving damage, respectively. If not using Cloud's natural moveset, in-hand Battering items (and not damage caused by effects, such as the Flower ailment from a Lip's Stick) and the Speed Crasher and Shield Exploder equipment effects also count.

His down special is an alternative method of filling this gauge, as it works akin to an auto-charge special. It takes 400 frames, or 6.667 seconds (335 frames, or 5.583 seconds in Ultimate) to fully charge with this down-special alone, and no sustained input is required to continue charging. This is also the only way to see the Gauge's progress in SSB4 (Ultimate places the Limit Gauge over Cloud's Damage Meter). Limit Charge can be charge-canceled by pressing the special button (in addition to all conventional methods of charge-cancelling via rolling and shielding on the ground, or air dodging in the air), which can be used situationally to move or attack quickly out of the charge cancel.

In SSB4, even if Cloud is attacked while charging, the meter will visibly fill up in proportion to the sustained damage. However, Ultimate has the opposite effect, where taking damage mid-charge or during the move's cancel lag instead drains the meter accordingly. Additionally, if he gets grabbed out of either portion, any subsequent pummels and throws used on him, as well as other characters' collateral attacks, will drain the meter as well until he breaks out of the grab. Oddly enough, this does not apply to command grabs, with the sole exception of Force Palm.

Cloud's appearance while the Limit meter is fully charged.
Cloud's appearance while the Limit Gauge is full.

Regardless of how full charge is obtained, Cloud will undergo a "Limit Break" status, emitting a blue, flame-like aura from his body, accompanied by the sound effect from Final Fantasy VII. If the gauge is fully charged via his down special, Cloud will also announce 「限界を超える」 (localized in Cloud's reveal trailer as "Limits are meant to be broken"). While retaining Limit Break status, all of his attributes change: his gravity, fall speed, fast fall speed, initial dash distance, and running speed are increased by 10%, his walk speed and traction are increased by 15%, and his air speed and acceleration are increased by 20%. It also allows him to use a more powerful version of his special moves for one use, which will fully expend the Limit Gauge once performed. Though Limit Break lasts until Cloud expends the gauge or gets KO'd in SSB4, it lasts only up to fifteen seconds in Ultimate, forcing Cloud to behave more aggressively and charge wisely, lest he run out of limit offstage and be forced to use his drastically inferior Climhazzard.

Limit Charge is one of the only chargeable special moves that can be used to instant charge-cancel, along with Gyro and Needle Storm, and this advanced technique is referred to as Instant Limit canceling for Cloud. It allows him to bypass every conventional charge-cancel method (including the option to cancel Limit Charge with another special button press) and perform either his neutral attack, tilt attacks, or smash attacks almost instantly out of Limit Charge. This technique was removed in Ultimate; additionally, even shielding and dodging out of Limit Charge have the same delay as cancelling the move with the special button.

The Limit Break status has no effect on Omnislash, and vice versa.

Finishing Touch

If the down-special input is pressed again when the Limit Gauge is full, Cloud will instead perform Finishing Touch (画竜点睛, Finishing Touch), a large whirlwind slash that deals only 1% damage, but has very high knockback. It is able to KO most fighters before 70%, launching foes too close to Cloud upward, though enemies that approach after the initial damaging hitbox are pushed away by a windbox. The move has less knockback when hitting opponents behind Cloud, KOing about 10% later, and even less knockback when performed in the air, KOing about 24% to 36% later, depending on the opponent's position. Despite its power, Finishing Touch can be shielded, countered (though safe due to the move's extremely low damage), or armored, negating its huge knockback while leaving Cloud wide open to attack. If used in the air, Cloud will briefly hover in place until the move ends, which can somewhat help his recovery, although a Limit Break Climhazzard is significantly better in this regard. Attempting Finishing Touch counts as using an improved special move, and will reset the Limit Gauge.

A nearly complete list of grounded Finishing Touch KO percentages in Smash 4 can be found here. Because Finishing Touch treats every character as having a weight of 100, the fall speed and gravity of that character is instead the main factor of surviving the move. For example, Bowser, the heaviest character, is KO'd at 59.5%/70% (hitting in front and from behind respectively), while Fox, the fastest faller, is KO'd at 74%/85%, which is the highest percentage required across all characters, barring Shulk with the Shield Art activated. Corrin is KO'd at 64%/74%, while Bayonetta is KO'd at 68%/79%, and Cloud himself survives 3% longer in Limit Break.

In Ultimate, Finishing Touch has slightly faster startup and slightly more knockback scaling, but possesses more endlag. It also no longer ignores weight. However, before the 2.0.0 update in Ultimate, it also had a slightly smaller hitbox due to an error, rendering it unable to hit prone opponents. This has since been fixed.

Instructional quote

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Move List CloudHeadSSBU.png Charges up the Limit Gauge. The Limit Break version launches opponents upward.

Customization

Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:

1. Limit Charge/Finishing Touch
CloudDown1-SSB4.png
"Charges up your Limit Gauge. Causes a tornado with immense launching power during a Limit Break."
  1. Limit Charge/Finishing Touch: Default.

Like the other DLC characters, Cloud lacks custom move variations.

Origin

Limit Charge

The Limit Gauge as it appears in Final Fantasy VII.
The Limit Gauge in Final Fantasy VII.

Limit Breaks are a key feature of fights in Final Fantasy VII. Like in Super Smash Bros. 4, the Limit Gauge (based on how it appeared in Final Fantasy VII) fills whenever a character takes damage from an opponent. Once the Limit Gauge is filled, the character can use a Limit Break, which, in Cloud's case, is any of his Special Moves in Smash. Unlike in Smash, however, one cannot manually charge their Limit Gauge without taking damage although a similar mechanic exists in Dissidia Final Fantasy with EX Burst.

Limit Break status is a reference to the blue aura that surrounds Cloud before he uses his Limit Breaks in Advent Children. The pose that Cloud does when using his Limit Charge special move is taken from Dissidia Final Fantasy when Cloud is charging his EX Burst for Omnislash.

Finishing Touch

Finishing Touch in Final Fantasy VII.

Finishing Touch is Cloud's second level 3 Limit Break, a skill from the same game that has the ability to instantly kill many enemies while dealing 3.125 times Cloud's normal damage to enemies that are immune to Instant Death like most bosses. While Finishing Touch is only rendered in Smash as a small scale whirlwind, it is instead rendered as a massive tornado in its game of origin, while in the Dissidia games Cloud assaults his target locked within the very same one (save for in Dissidia NT, where it reverts to its projectile-based origins). Finishing Touch's animation may be based on Tornado, an unused Limit Break in Final Fantasy VII.

The attack's Japanese name, "Garyō Tensei", literally means "to paint in the dragon's pupil", often used as a term for the finishing touches to one's work.

Gallery

Names in other languages

Limit Charge

Language Name
Japan Japanese リミットチャージ, Limit Charge
UK English Limit Charge
France French Charge de la limite
Germany German Limit-Aufladung
Spain Spanish Cargalímites
Italy Italian Carica limite
China Chinese (Simplified) 极限蓄力
Taiwan Chinese (Traditional) 極限蓄力
South Korea Korean 리미트 차지, Limit Charge
Netherlands Dutch Limietoplader
Russia Russian Заряд предела

Finishing Touch

Language Name
Japan Japanese 画竜点睛
UK English Finishing Touch
France French Finition
Germany German Letzter Schliff
Spain Spanish Toque final
Italy Italian Attacco finale
China Chinese (Simplified) 画龙点睛
Taiwan Chinese (Traditional) 畫龍點睛
South Korea Korean 화룡점정
Netherlands Dutch Afmaker
Russia Russian Завершающий удар

Trivia

  • In Smash 4, the Limit Gauge is not visible in the mirror in Wii Fit Studio.
  • Cloud utters the same dialogue when he finishes charging up his Limit Gauge in both Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, after filling up the Limit Gauge during his EX Burst.
  • The Japanese name of Finishing Touch is the same as that of "Dragon Ascent", Rayquaza's latest signature move in the Pokémon series, albeit written in kanji rather than katakana. In Japanese, the names of both moves are based on the same metaphor for a "finishing touch" in a piece of work. Coincidentally, the move's English name is shared with Corrin's up special move.
  • Like Little Mac's KO Uppercut, the camera zoom effect from Finishing Touch will not appear if Cloud is hit on the exact frame the move connects against an opponent.
  • In Smash 4, there existed a minor glitch where hitting Cloud the moment his Limit Gauge filled up and he attempted to unleash a Limit Break Special Attack would deplete his Limit Gauge without any attack performed, thus removing the blue aura effect, but would still cause his next attack to be a Limit Break version.