I never really care for the stats of a character, since I always learn Beta before Junon and also reach Lv. 25+, which results in the one-hitting of practically everything. The only things I care for are the limits.
I agree about Cid, he also has the best limit break in the game IMO. But that doesn't stop Barret from being a strong character as well.Cid is an amazingly better version of Barret since he has the highest str in the game and has high stats in pretty much everything other than magic atk (which doesnt matter since magic is mediocre at best).
Probably, but due to leveling before Junon, I always get all 6 easily learnable limit breaks with Cloud, Barret, Yuffie, and possibly Aerith so I don't need a building-up limit break, for the 15-hitters are already available.Tifa's limit break is always awesome throughout the entire game since it always just adds an extra attack, making her the only character that always has a multihit limit break after her initial one. You put that with fury and she wrecks everything.
I never really managed to keep myself from overleveling before Junon, actually. I might try a "fast-game-challenge" one day, that should make things interesting.