Ideal party?

[Swaggaccino]

What's everyone's ideal party and how do you split up the materia among them? I know everyone recommends you take either Tifa and Aerith or Barrett and Red but I'm pretty comfy with Tifa as my damage dealer and Barrett as my tank.

Also, splitting up elements between all the characters so I get good coverage....
Cloud - Lightning
Barret - Earth
Tifa - Wind
Aerith - Ice
Red - Fire

Anything else worth taking to fill up the slots? High HP? Heal/Chakra? Synergy? thanks.

[Iron Reaper]

just build on what they are already good at. barret is excellent at tanking and support, aerith at magic dps, tifa at speed and melee dps, and red is hella fast and is good at both melee and magic dps but also at support

the great thing about materia though is that you can make anybody do anything, so if you aren't concerned about doing the most optmized setup then just go with what is cool and you'll be fine

[Swaggaccino]

Originally posted by Iron Reaper:

just build on what they are already good at. barret is excellent at tanking and support, aerith at magic dps, tifa at speed and melee dps, and red is hella fast and is good at both melee and magic dps but also at support

the great thing about materia though is that you can make anybody do anything, so if you aren't concerned about doing the most optmized setup then just go with what is cool and you'll be fine

So I'm not gonna screw myself with the synergy / support because when you level up, some moves are exclusive to Tifa/Aerith and Red/Barret? I feel like the game wants you to use one or the other pair.

[Rand0]

Originally posted by Swaggaccino:

Originally posted by Iron Reaper:

just build on what they are already good at. barret is excellent at tanking and support, aerith at magic dps, tifa at speed and melee dps, and red is hella fast and is good at both melee and magic dps but also at support

the great thing about materia though is that you can make anybody do anything, so if you aren't concerned about doing the most optmized setup then just go with what is cool and you'll be fine

So I'm not gonna screw myself with the synergy / support because when you level up, some moves are exclusive to Tifa/Aerith and Red/Barret? I feel like the game wants you to use one or the other pair.

Seems like the synergy kinda has various options to fit into your particular play style. I have been a Red, Cloud, Tifa main since the OG, and I still use them. I like to stagger then do the synergy that increases stagger length, 5000 omnistrikes... then just slam ass with her and melt everything. They dont really want you to use one or the other, more so they are just covering all bases IN CASE you use a certain party.

As far as the materia goes, try to make sure you have at least one of every element on your party at all times (u got that covered) other than that if they are melee and up close...atb stagger, steadfast block, etc. Just try to synergize your materia with your play style and skill choices. Also dont sleep on the time materia. Haste is clutch.

[Lionheartwolf]

The the bulk of the game you really can just use whoever you want, whenever you want. I wouldn't say there is really an ideal setup until you get into some pretty specific late game vr missions.

Even with that said, this game is more about ideal materia loadouts, because without a way to duplicate some limited materia you are really forced to choose where to put it.

You really just want to focus on 2 things: who gets enemy skill, and who gets all the ATB bonuses.

Enemy skill is most useful on Cloud or Yuffie. I prefer Cloud since Yuffie is a better ATB battery imho. She just has to stand still and give everybody infinite gauge.

Aerith really has two different builds too. She can either generate infinite limit breaks, or quad-cast spells for almost nothing.

Tifa is built by just stacking her DPS because he build relies mostly on just staggering and adding up those multipliers to a crazy high dps output. This makes her an ideal candidate because she doesn't really take the limited important materia away from those who need it.

For me personally, I would say Cloud Aerith and Tifa. But you could just as easily argue Yuffie Aerith and Tifa.

[Coffee Addict]

my main party is cloud tifa yuffie

i give them materia based on what iam doing, i give cloud HP up and provoke so he can be the tank i give tifa cure and auto use MP up and all that so she can dish out heals as the battle rages on and most of the combat stuff i give to yuffie since i mainly play as her

before you get yuffie i use aerith and i give her cure and other healing stuff while i main tifa with the combat materia

[ABCD]

Originally posted by Swaggaccino:

So I'm not gonna screw myself with the synergy / support because when you level up, some moves are exclusive to Tifa/Aerith and Red/Barret? I feel like the game wants you to use one or the other pair.

Later in the game you get more synergies, I think they all have synergy with each other, Aerith/Barret, Tifa/Red, etc..., I also recommend that you pay at least one visit to Chadley, he has a dual element materia, fire/ice, wind/electric, it's slower to level up but it saves you a slot.

[Iron Reaper]

Originally posted by Swaggaccino:

Originally posted by Iron Reaper:

just build on what they are already good at. barret is excellent at tanking and support, aerith at magic dps, tifa at speed and melee dps, and red is hella fast and is good at both melee and magic dps but also at support

the great thing about materia though is that you can make anybody do anything, so if you aren't concerned about doing the most optmized setup then just go with what is cool and you'll be fine

So I'm not gonna screw myself with the synergy / support because when you level up, some moves are exclusive to Tifa/Aerith and Red/Barret? I feel like the game wants you to use one or the other pair.

you can't mess up your characters, materia can be switch to anybody and the characters all learn their own abilities and stats separately. also just in case you aren't aware you can change your team lineup under combat settings and mix and match characters

the skill ceiling is extremely high in this game and normal mode isn't very hard. what that translates to is that no matter what team you choose or how you choose to set them up, you will be able to get through it if you have some skill. it's highly customizable so try everything and find out what works for you

[Tanukki]

Playing with every character, and learning their strengths and maneuvers is a good idea. Especially don't ignore Tifa, because increasing the stagger damage multiplier helps with killing bosses, and the other characters can't do that as much.

[Korppi]

It honestly doesnt matter much outside of the absolute hardest challanges in the game where Aerith is the Queen and yuffie if you want o cheese. Just use whatever you like.

[Duvall12]

I usually do Cloud Tifa Aerith, i'm not that far into the game yet only cleared two areas but thats my go to. Anything with magic resists gets Aerith Arcane ward for 2 spells, Tifa is a powerhouse and dive kick is basically a braver from cloud, she just isnt good at aerial. If needed could use a better ranged over Tifa (Yuffie probably). Again I havent gotten that far but the team for beating weiss on hard mode in Remake was Tifa, cloud and Aerith. Aerith is a beast if you get her playstyle down. Put your combo elemental spell materia on Aerith, you want Healing on Cloud and Tifa and spells arent that important in this one. Cloud gets abilities early that have elemental and just use Aerith for magic anyway. First strike materia on cloud and assess and enemy skill I do, then HP ups and things to level so I can master them. basic elemental spell materia can be super leveled quick, you want to focus on materia that take more AP to master so your not grinding for hours late game just to master them.

[Commanderm]

currently playing how i did back in the OG Game, cloud barret and Aerith cloud for balance mix of attack barrett full tank and attack and aerith as healer as all thing should be.

also tifa as back up healer and attack build and red as speed and magic attacks.
once i get yuffie she will be speed and yellow materia mainly.

[MancSoulja]

Why would you limit an element to each party member? If you fight a boss weak to an element you can only attack with one person....

[Vale]

I use my party like this:

Cloud: Fire/Ice/Heal - then some "buff materia" for Cloud
Barret: Pioson/Lightning - he's my tank, so he has provoke and materia that makes him more survivable
Tifa: Wind/Chakra - with a solid mix on materia that improves her offense and defense
Aerith: Wind/Lightning/Heal - first strike and survivability and mp materia is what she got
Yuffie: She's currently just a materia carrier. She's just equiped with materia I like to use on other characters once they get more materia slots.

And then there is Red. Now that I better understand his abilities I'm thinking about letting him fill the role Barret has right now. The reasoning behind it is the vengance mode. I think making Red the tank by equipping provoke and materia that improves his block/hp, combined with materia that lets him use unique and weapon abilities all by himself might work our well.

Due to the fact that Barret is forced to be stationary all of the time for his overcharge and the reloads it might be smart to make more of a damage dealer out of him. With his high rate of fire, luck materia might even do something good here. I have to test this tomorrow I think :)

[zero]

i split the dual elemental materia between cloud and aerith, then i suppliment that by giving a little to whoever my third is, so i can have multiple people who can cast similar spells for easy atb/mana management.

[Bacuda]

I've been playing with Tifa and Aerith only, but I think I'm about to get Yuffie and I really enjoyed playing her in Remake, just no idea yet for who I swap her with... It's probably going to be Tifa out and Yuffie in, which hurts!