Party Setup

[164Gamin]

I'm kind of new to Final Fantasy (I've only beat 6 and played part of 5 before starting this) and I'd like to know if this setup plan is any good.

Cloud- Red Mage but better. Some healing, some offensive magic, and really good physical attacking.

Tifa- Monk, obviously. I'm having a bit of trouble with her because her attacks seem underwhelming. I'll have to keep working with her. Some offensive magic to give her more options.

Barret- Defensive tank (I don't know what class that would relate to... Knight, maybe?). Stay in back row to increase defense even more and just attack away. Maybe like one type of magic just in case.

Aeris/Aerith- White Mage. Offensive magic whenever Vincent isn't in the party. Pretty straight forward.

Red XIII- Warrior. A few magic spells because he seems to be relatively competent with it. Not much else to say.

Yuffie- Thief/Ninja. I'm giving her almost every command materia and some offensive magic to balance her out. She actually seems kind of competent in boss fights too.

Cait Sith- White Mage/Gambler. Dice seems just as broken as the Fixed Dice were in FF6. Staying far away from the roulette (and no, I'm not going to use the stopping trick to break the game). Other than that, he's replacing a certain character when a certain story event happens.

Vincent- Black Mage. Camping in the back row and using spell after spell after spell. Maybe using Limit if I really need some strong physical attacks.

Cid- Just got him, haven't used him yet. All I know is that he's a Dragoon with high defense. I guess we'll see when I play again.

[ZoDDeL]

you know there is no job or class system in ff7 right? every character can do everything because all can take every materia for spells, summons, commands. the only real difference between them is their weapon (melee / range) and the limitbreaks. the most limitbreaks are just straight damage but some are more utility. aerith is the only one who dont have any damage based limitbreak.


in short:
its absolutely doesnt matter which character get the materia.

pro tip:
keep aerith always in party if you can and dont let her only heal.
she must kill enemies to get new limits like all other characters. (once 80 kills and then 160 kills)

[164Gamin]

Originally posted by ZoDDeL:

you know there is no job or class system in ff7 right? every character can do everything because all can take every materia for spells, summons, commands. the only real difference between them is their weapon (melee / range) and the limitbreaks. the most limitbreaks are just straight damage but some are more utility. aerith is the only one who dont have any damage based limitbreak.


in short:
its absolutely doesnt matter which character get the materia.

pro tip:
keep aerith always in party if you can and dont let her only heal.
she must kill enemies to get new limits like all other characters. (once 80 kills and then 160 kills)

Yeah, I know that. I'm already 12/23 hrs into the game (I'm not really sure. My save file says 12 I think, but my Steam stats say 23. I dunno.). I just want to set up characters to be the best they can with their own stats. Like, I can already tell Barret sucks with magic, and things like that. I always bring Aeris in dungeons and bosses. She uses offensive magic when I don't want to deal with Vincent's gimmick. Is it really worth getting all of Aeris's limits? I mean, Healing Wind and Seal Evil are working fine for me and I'm not going for a 100% run that could get screwed after "it" happens.

Also, any tips for Tifa? She seems so underwhelming and her damage output is less than stellar.

[Heru]

I agree with drae, but to share some info: cloud is overall the best, vincent is literally a worse aeris, barret is the best overall tank. Cait sith has the best limit in the game (slots) while aeris has the most utility in her limits. Cid and Tifa are mainly physical characters so long range materia and deathblow will be SLIGHTLY better on them than the average character (and explains why you find tifa's damage underwhelming, shes not a magic character.).

Another thing to keep in mind is that most materia lower your hp and heighten your magic stat. so in some instances it makes more sense to not equip materia to increase your survive-ability.

Unfortunatly this game is so easy for anyone not playing it the first time that besides limits nothing really matters ;P I just beat disc 2 having modded in and swaped the hp and mp for all my characters (so pretty much one 10th the hp)

[Alucard]

Originally posted by Kitty Jaws:

I agree with drae, but to share some info: cloud is overall the best, vincent is literally a worse aeris, barret is the best overall tank. Cait sith has the best limit in the game (slots) while aeris has the most utility in her limits. Cid and Tifa are mainly physical characters so long range materia and deathblow will be SLIGHTLY better on them than the average character (and explains why you find tifa's damage underwhelming, shes not a magic character.).

Another thing to keep in mind is that most materia lower your hp and heighten your magic stat. so in some instances it makes more sense to not equip materia to increase your survive-ability.

Unfortunatly this game is so easy for anyone not playing it the first time that besides limits nothing really matters ;P I just beat disc 2 having modded in and swaped the hp and mp for all my characters (so pretty much one 10th the hp)

That's all well and good except for the part about the best Limit Break in the game.

The best Limit Break is Aerith's Great Gospel, bar none.

Cait Sith's Slots sure can be very good but at the same same can also turn very bad, and being dependant on the place the reel stops it brings a factor of inconsistency and potential bad outcome, or simply not the outcome you need or were looking for.

[jock itch]

Yuffie is the best

[Zesty3]

like others said there is no job system. unless your big on min/maxing it doesnt really matter.

I typically run cloud, barret, and whoever else i feel like using. im not big on magic and mostly focus on physical attacks and healing.

I usually run barret (back row with ranged weapon) with counter/counter attack/cover and some HP plus. in the early game hes just a physical attacker/tank that sometimes counters and soaks for your party. late game the chance for the counter/cover to trigger goes up and he becomes a monster. strong but not game breaking unless you go crazy and start counter/mimeing omnislash or some such nonsense.

[164Gamin]

Originally posted by drae_perin:

You didn't listen, or fully understand. Materia changes your stats to make you better at using that type of materia. Placing materia on a character is more than sufficient to compensate for any small statistical difference in base stats.

Nobody is "bad" at anything, everyone is "good" at everything.

Weapons and armor have hidden traits too. Some of these traits can radically alter how a character performs, especially under the right conditions.

There is no single best way to use any particular character based on superficial observations like "Barret deals less damage with magic than Cloud" or "Tifa deals weaker physical damage than Barret". These superficial differences can easily mislead you into believing that a character is only suited for a certain type of action, and this is simply not the case.

Try many things, and don't sell equipment just because it seems useless, it may boost the Strength stat, Magic stat, or have some other completely game-breaking secret power...

Alright, thanks. Yeah, I didn't fully understand what you were saying (sorry about that). I'll try some different things and see what I come up with.

[Heru]

Originally posted by Alucard:

Originally posted by Kitty Jaws:

I agree with drae, but to share some info: cloud is overall the best, vincent is literally a worse aeris, barret is the best overall tank. Cait sith has the best limit in the game (slots) while aeris has the most utility in her limits. Cid and Tifa are mainly physical characters so long range materia and deathblow will be SLIGHTLY better on them than the average character (and explains why you find tifa's damage underwhelming, shes not a magic character.).

Another thing to keep in mind is that most materia lower your hp and heighten your magic stat. so in some instances it makes more sense to not equip materia to increase your survive-ability.

Unfortunatly this game is so easy for anyone not playing it the first time that besides limits nothing really matters ;P I just beat disc 2 having modded in and swaped the hp and mp for all my characters (so pretty much one 10th the hp)

That's all well and good except for the part about the best Limit Break in the game.

The best Limit Break is Aerith's Great Gospel, bar none.

Cait Sith's Slots sure can be very good but at the same same can also turn very bad, and being dependant on the place the reel stops it brings a factor of inconsistency and potential bad outcome, or simply not the outcome you need or were looking for.

I'm sorry but your completely wrong. if you know how to manipulate the slots correctly cait sith will win your team the battle immideatly. for instance, struggling against ruby weapon? BOOM one shot him with cait siths slots.

[Cyseal]

Well, the characters have different stats so there ARE differences. But in a first playthrough (or actually, every playthrough), it doesn't matter at all. Every team combination can defeat every enemy in the game. It all comes down to Limit Breaks and whether you like that character or not.

I always play with Cloud, Tifa and Nanaki. Or swap Tifa for Yuffie. Most of the times, Tifa is my healer/summoner and Cloud does most of my physical attacks.

But, as said; play with a comp you want to, it doesn't matter much. Just don't put all of your summons, for example, for one character. They severly drop your max health.

[Alucard]

Originally posted by Kitty Jaws:

Originally posted by Alucard:

That's all well and good except for the part about the best Limit Break in the game.

The best Limit Break is Aerith's Great Gospel, bar none.

Cait Sith's Slots sure can be very good but at the same same can also turn very bad, and being dependant on the place the reel stops it brings a factor of inconsistency and potential bad outcome, or simply not the outcome you need or were looking for.

I'm sorry but your completely wrong. if you know how to manipulate the slots correctly cait sith will win your team the battle immideatly. for instance, struggling against ruby weapon? BOOM one shot him with cait siths slots.

If one is going to cheat the system anyway then he might as well just go ahead and use Black Chocobo.

My comment still stands true if a person isn't interested in cheats/exploits.

[Heru]

Originally posted by Alucard:

Originally posted by Kitty Jaws:

I'm sorry but your completely wrong. if you know how to manipulate the slots correctly cait sith will win your team the battle immideatly. for instance, struggling against ruby weapon? BOOM one shot him with cait siths slots.

If one is going to cheat the system then he might as well just go ahead and use Black Chocobo.

My comment still stands true if a person isn't interested in cheats/exploits.

theres a diffrence between using a save game editor and using an ingame mechanic/exploit, i do agree tho that on your first playthrough great gospel is the best (which is why i said Cait sith has the best limit in the game (slots) while aeris has the most utility in her limits).

[Cyseal]

Originally posted by Kitty Jaws:

Originally posted by Alucard:

If one is going to cheat the system then he might as well just go ahead and use Black Chocobo.

My comment still stands true if a person isn't interested in cheats/exploits.

theres a diffrence between using a save game editor and using an ingame mechanic/exploit, i do agree tho that on your first playthrough great gospel is the best (which is why i said Cait sith has the best limit in the game (slots) while aeris has the most utility in her limits).

On your first playthrough, you're not going to get Great Gospel. And if you do get it, you'll probably know what you're doing, making it pretty obsolete. I'd rather pick Fury Brand any day over Great Gospel. It charges way faster and depending on your party composition, it's just strong as hell. There aren't no shortage of healing items and Ethers in the game and there's only one boss where a new player might ever need to use Great Gospel before THE moment.