The following article is based on a subject that has not been officially named in any official Square Enix material; the current title is merely a placeholder.

A character's dextrality, also known as handedness or, more rarely, laterality, refers to the concept of hand dominance, i.e. a character's preferred hand when holding an object or wielding a weapon. Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy IV incorporate it as a minor game mechanic, adjusting the effectiveness of equipped weapons and shields based upon whether they are equipped in a character's dominant or recessive hand. Other titles do not apply this attribute to gameplay, but it is often reflected in character animations and listed in supplementary material.

Many games in the Final Fantasy series still have characters explicitly as right- or left-handed even without a dextrality system, such as Sephiroth being left-handed in the Final Fantasy VII series. Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia did not respect any unit's given dextrality; most held their weapon in their left hand. Yuri held his in his right hand.

Other games' equipment systems have the player equip both hands, but the characters themselves do not have hand dominance and there is only one way to equip the hands.

Appearances[]

Final Fantasy II[]

All characters can equip weapons in both hands regardless of dextrality, but any weapon equipped in the off-hand only applies half of the character's Strength stat in calculations. Bows are treated as two-handed weapons. If no shields are equipped, the weapon operates as if held with both hands, which grants a small boost to Attack. Leon, Leila, and Scott are the only lefties.

Final Fantasy III[]

All characters have a hidden level for both right- and left-handedness. While all characters can equip weapons in both hands regardless of dextrality, they will not be as efficient with whichever hand until the according hand is leveled up. Handedness gains 3 hand experience per use, and levels up once every 99 hand experience gained, up to a maximum level of 99 per hand.

Final Fantasy IV series[]

In the 2D versions of Final Fantasy IV and The After Years, the characters only equip weapons in the main hand and shields in the off-hand, so dextrality is mostly cosmetic (ambidextrous characters aside). The exception are bows in Final Fantasy IV—the correct way to equip them is to place arrows in the main hand and bow in the off-hand, as equipping in reverse cuts attack power by 20%.

Kain, Dark Kain, Palom, and Golbez are left-handed. Edge, Yang, Ursula, and Tsukinowa are ambidextrous.

Final Fantasy V[]

Party members' hands are treated equally for damage computation purposes. There are no dominant and weak hands, nor "right" or "wrong" hands to equip weapons and/or shields (although it is impossible to equip 2 shields).

The only difference between right and left hand is that, when attacking (or executing offensive physical commands) while wielding a weapon in each hand, the right hand always executes its action before the left hand. If the right hand executes an action that causes the party to escape, or the attacker to get petrified, the left hand will skip its action. In all other cases, including self-inflicting KO with the right hand, and killing the last enemy with the right hand, the left hand will still act.

Final Fantasy Tactics[]

Human units have two hands that can be equipped. Right hand acts first if both hands are equipped via Dual Wield. Units do not have "dominant" hands. The player can equip the hands with weapons or shields. Some weapons are naturally two-handed and one-handed weapons can be dual-wielded or double-gripped.