Life's Final Fantasy VII Blind Playthrough (mostly blind, really)

[Life]

I didn't buy the Quake Materia simply because I felt that I didn't need to. I wanted the Heal so that I could level it up to Esuna (might take a LONG time but hey, it'll be worth it). Also, I'm rotating team members simply because I don't know if this game is going to pull shit like FF6 (split the entire cast up into a couple of teams by the end of the game) and if it does, I want everyone at a decent level. If it doesn't, DON'T TELL ME.

Junon Harbor, the perfect getaway spot:

To be honest, this place looks like a piece of shit. Anyways, visited the Weapon Store to buy another Mythril Armlet to get the Four Slots off of Aeris so that I can equip it on anyone. Which is hella useful, mind you. After that, the team went south and Cloud, Barret and Tifa had to save a little girl from a huge flying snake thing.

Boss: Bottomswell

Best way to describe this boss is "what the fuck is that shit?". He's got a move similar to Reno's Pyramid but it doesn't fucking go away. Which annoys the hell out of me especially when you consider that it also drains your HP. Aside from that, he does really good damage to the team with Big Wave which can suck when you're handicapped.

First move was to hit Bottomswell with Cross Slash and Beat Rush/Somersault. I then tried to poison Bottomswell with Barret but that failed. He then stuck Barret with the bubble attack and I had Cloud and Tifa pound damage onto Bottomswell and Barret (so that I could revive him to be free of the bubble and to hit Bio). Once Barret was revived, he stuck both Tifa and Cloud but Barret managed to fully poison the fish. After that, all it took were a couple more shots of Bio, a Deathblow from Choco/Mog and a Tifa resurrection. Dead fish!

Afterwards, Cloud does CPR on Prissy (the kid) and saves her life. The trio get invited back to Prissy's house and stay the night. That night, Cloud has another weird dream that mentions the accident in Nibelheim 5 years ago. He wakes up and tries talking to Tifa about it but she tells him to go outside since something weird is going on. Yeah, I know what it is! THE MUSIC'S FUCKING CHANGED, THAT'S IT! Turns out the team is gathered outside of the steps leading up to a house. Prissy walks out of it, right as rain. She then gives me a Shiva Materia in return. Cool!

Turns out that Rufus Shinra is in town. And if you go in the water, some sort of high voltage tower shocks the life out of you. Not to mention that Sephy ain't here right now. Something is definitely up. Cloud is sent to talk to Prissy about the dolphin that she was playing with earlier since apparently he can help me do... something.

And... wow, that's high. The dolphin boosts Cloud onto a pole and he climbs to the top of the tower to see a giant flying ship. Cloud then investigates the tower and manages to slip inside a building. He's then mistaken as a Shinra soldier who isn't dressed in his uniform and is told to change. Wow, talk about stupid soldiers, can't even recognize a defector. And now he looks like your average Shinra soldier. Yippie. And Cloud now has to fit in during the march and song. Give me a second while I fail to do this correctly.

Got past it. Looks like Rufus is chatting to Heidegger about the airship. Heidegger claims that the long range airship will be ready in about three days. And apparently Seph's been here to Junon, killing some Shinra soldiers too. Good, less for me to deal with. And... SHIT. Formation. Another thing for me to fuck up. Made Rufus really upset too. I mean fuck, it's hard to do it on an emulator! Got Silver Glasses from it though.

And then Rufus happens to mention Cloud. Which is all nice and dandy when Cloud's standing right behind him in costume. Heidegger plans to crush Cloud and his buddies but Cloud obviously has other plans. Instead of just leaving, Cloud then boards Rufus' ship. Problem is, THE REST OF THE FUCKING PARTY IS MISSING!

All aboard Rufus' private vessel:

After quickly messing with Cloud's Materia (he's got all the best possible shit on him now), I explore the ship. There's an Ether in the chest nearby along with another All Materia, if I didn't have enough already (this is my 4th I think). Yeah, that's getting sold. And then I find Aeris in a Shirna uniform on the ship. Wow. Where the fuck did she come from?

Then Cloud runs into Tifa on the deck after going up the right staircase. And I can't wait to see Barret hiding out in a Shinra uniform. And then a little further, Red XIII is hiding out in another uniform. My god, HE'S A FUCKING RED TIGER! HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU IDIOTS NOT REALIZE THAT YOU'VE GOT A SPY IN YOUR MIDST?! ESPECIALLY WHEN HE HAS A TAIL AND CAN BARELY STAND! I'm sorry, but this beats Exdeath in stupidity.

And... Now I'm stuck. Like, physically stuck. I'll finish the post once I figure out how to continue on.

[Life]

Big problem.

Turns out that my computer has stopped working. Don't know why. As a result, I'm stealing my sister's Mac for the rest of the summer and... yeah, lost all of my data on the run. I'll restart it ASAP and get back to the place where I was... if I can use ePSXe on a Mac. If not, run is suspended until I get a new computer.

[grandjackal]

Ouchies, that sucks man. My condolences.

As a note, to make the Bottomswell fight easier, the bubble can be removed, but you need magic to do it. Use fire.

As for Red XIII's "ingenious disguise", you have to wonder if he tries to put on an accent like TF2's Spy.

[Life]

Well, here's the story.

I'm bored of FFIX (I'm in Pandaemonium).

I'm at BBD in FE7 in order to reunlock EHM.

Football starts tomorrow so forget using the TV to play ToV.

I'm currently working on FE4 but that's designed to be a boredom run.

So I'll just continue this. Going to quickly speed through the game until I get to where I used to be.

[Life]

AND... We're back. I did do a couple things differently including selling my 2nd Lightning Materia by accident... But oh well.

All aboard Rufus' private vessel (Part 2):

Aeris wants to make sure that Barret isn't doing anything stupid. But if standing behind a bit of glass and staring at Rufus Shinra and Heidegger ain't stupid, I don't know what is. Suddenly, an alarm goes off and Cloud runs to find the others.

Turns out that we haven't been made. But what if it's Sephy? Cloud grabs Red XIII and Tifa to search the ship. Red XIII has Choco/Mog and a bunch of Magic Materia on him, making him my caster. Tifa's sitting in the back row with Long Range and Cover, along with Steal. As a result, Cloud is my Jack-of-all-trades with Elemental+Shiva, Sense, Enemy Skill and Poison.

And... shit. We run into Seph in the Engine Room and he sics his pet Jenova-BIRTH on us.

Boss: Jenova-BIRTH

This is one ugly mofo. Jenova-BIRTH also has Stop and a lot of HP (4000). That being said, he's pretty easy. He might use Tail Laser twice in a row but he's really slow so you'll get in about 2 full rounds before he goes.

Cloud and Red XIII both used their summons on JBIRTH to do some quick heavy damage. After that, it became a bit of a battle of attrition since JBIRTH hit Cloud with Stop first and then Red XIII a little after Cloud started moving again. The trio hit JBIRTH with a couple of Limits though, including a YEAH x2 from Tifa. Ultimately, Red XIII got the kill with his Sled Fang after JBIRTH got worn down.

Turns out that Jenova-BIRTH was the arm of Jenova. Cloud then summarizes what we know to date and the ship decides to get ready to dock at Costa del Sol. I also receive the Ifrit Materia and a Wind Slash (some sort of long range weapon that nobody can equip).

Time for some fun on the beach:

Apparently, Costa del Sol is a hot place. Cloud and co. leave the screen and a helicopter lands with Heidegger and Rufus waiting for it. Rufus then chews up Heidegger for letting both Sephiroth and Cloud/Barret/Tifa/Aeris/Red XIII on board. Rufus then leaves in the helicopter while Heidegger punches everyone off the dock.

The party then finds Hojo down at the beach. He mumbles something about "go west" and I decide to oblige. After stocking up in town and grabbing a Platinum Bangle (Hi double growth), I leave Costa del Sol and do a bit of training outside.

Cloud - Level 17

Hardedge: Elemental Lv. 1 (878) + Shiva Lv. 1 (96), Sense Lv. 1 (856), Restore Lv. 1 (1030)

Mythril Armlet: Lightning Lv. 1 (96) + Enemy Skill (1)

Aeris - Level 15

Full Metal Staff: All Lv. 2 (1803) + Restore Lv. 1 (1176), Choco/Mog Lv. 1 (636)

Four Slots: Heal Lv. 1 (691), Poison Lv. 1 (825), Fire Lv. 1 (1819), Ice Lv. 1 (1087)

Barret - Level 15

Atomic Scissors: All Lv. 1 (1134) + Lightning Lv. 1 (1171), Cover Lv. 1 (482), Long Range Lv. 1 (320)

Platinum Bangle: Steal Lv. 1 (921), Ifrit Lv. 1 (0)

Tifa - Level 16

Red XIII - Level 16

Extra Materia:

Enemy Skill (0)

Ice Lv. 1 (881)

All Lv. 1 (0)

All Lv. 1 (528)

Fire Lv. 1 (929)

Edited September 18, 2010 by 4chan

[eclipse]

I'll assume that the second Aeris is Tifa, and continue to wait for more updates.

[Life]

Heading Westward:

After fighting a bunch of battles to gain money, I manage to buy a Revive Materia for Aeris. Good thing too, since it knocks her Magic up by 2 and Max MP by 5% rather than the 1 and 2% that most other Magic Materia give out. Summons are similar but they don't take away from Strength, only Max HP. Other bonuses from Materia are a +1 Vitality from Cover and a +2 from Steal, both on Barret along with the Long Range (he's got the Atomic Scissors equiped which isn't a gun).

Grangalans are interesting. They can spit out a Grangalan Jr. (a mini Grangalan with less health) who in turn spits out 3 Grangalan Jr. Jr.s. Fun stuff. Killing the Grangalan automatically kills the offspring making it the prime target for... well, everything. Aeris using Fire2 works wonders on it, knocking off more than half his HP. Same goes for any Limits you have (aside from Evil Seal).

As the party goes east, I eventually find a mountain path. Now that's cool since this path is on the world map and not an actual dungeon. The enemies change too. Cokatolis have a lot of HP and Petrify Smog and should probably die ASAP. You can also steal Softs from them in case they hit Petrify Smog. Needle Kisses are a bit annoying with their invulnerability to Lightning but Elemental + Mog/Choco hits their Wind weakness pretty hard.

Corel? I hardly know her!

Upon arriving at Mt. Corel, a traveller tells the party that a black cloaked man passed by. And I'm officially sure that Cloud is stalking Sephiroth to either get an autograph or to rape him up the ass. Probably the second since Cloud wants him something bad.

Bagnadranas can poison the party with Poison Breath and do quite a lot of damage with that attack. However, Search Crowns are pretty forgettable. Bloatfloats can do 200 damage with Spiky Hell and will activate if you attack them with magic. If you do and more than one is still living, you might find yourself using Life or a Phoenix Down. Bombs will grow after hitting them a couple times and can deal major damage when they blow up from using Bomb Blast.

Going up the only path leads to a railway. On the top of the railway, there's a W Machine Gun for Barret... only my party is now Cloud/Tifa/Red. A little further on and I grab the Turbo Ether and Transform Materia which teaches Mini and Toad after it matures. After trying out Mini in the first battle possible, I come to the conclusion that it will be very useful in the future.

Turns out that Barret and Aeris are stuck at a bridge. Looks like Cloud has to find a way to lower it. The northern path leads to a shack that lowers the bridge so that's all good. Another big bridge later and... did he just punch Barret? Fucker, I'll kill him!

North Corel is a town that was apparently destroyed by Barret. Nobody's talking about it though. I grab a Force Stealer for Cloud and even though it now keep Cloud from using Restore + All, it's got Double growth which will be good for some Materia. I'm trying to grow Materia now for the future since the MP cost for higher level skills (Fire2 specifically) is kinda high. I load Restore, Transform and Ifrit into the Force Stealer while moving Ice, Lightning, Poison and Revive into the Four Slots that Cloud is using. I then head for Gold Saucer, the casino.

How about a Silver Teacup?

Turns out that Barret used to live in Corel. The whole town including Barret minus one person (some guy named Dyne) wanted to move from mining coal to mining Mako. The entire town thought that the Mako Reactor would bring them happiness and money but Shinra doublecrossed the town by burning it down a couple days later while Dyne and Barret were out of town. It explains why Barret is mad at Shinra, especially since he lost his wife in Corel too. Barret also mentions that Dyne was his best friend.

My my, what a place. I haven't seen a nicer place in a Final Fantasy game since Nautilus in FFXIII (I've played 13 before 7, shut up). But the save point costs 5 GP... FUCK YOU. I don't have GP and I've got no clue what it is so I head inside. 3000 Gil is pretty hefty right now but I'll suck it up since I can just train outside of a town to make some cash.

GP is the Gold Saucer's form of money. It apparently can only be redeemed at the games in Wonder Square and at the Chocobo Races. I've got bookie blood in me so I figure that I can make some quick and easy money at the races. The party splits up inside of the casino and I can only grab one person to bring with Cloud other than Barret. I make a gut decision and bring Tifa along, knowing that I'll probably regret not taking Aeris instead. Whatever.

According to Dio (owner of the place), Seph has been here. But I need GP so I head to the Wonder Square. And run into... a cat on a stuffed... and I thought that Red was weird. But I can name him so... Cait Sith it is. Apparently, he's a fortune telling machine but he can also find missing people or things. Cloud asks Cait for Seph's whereabouts and... let's just say that Cait messes up. More than once. The last fortune is of note since it's a bit creepy (like Kingdom Hearts stole it creepy). It reads that to find something of importance, I'll have to lose something else. Too bad Cloud won't lose his memories and try to make a deal with Hades to destroy Sora in the Olympic Colliseum... I hope.

Cait decides to join the party since he's a bit creeped out by that last fortune that he gave Cloud and he thinks that he'll figure out why it popped up if he works with Cloud for right now. Guess that explains why I could only choose one other person. Cait also comes with a Silve Armlet which is amazing. He also makes for a better magic caster than Cloud so he gets most of the Magic Materia. And I get another Transform but this one is only 1000 AP way from Toad along with a Manipulate Materia. Awesome. I love you, Cait Sith.

Heading to the Battle Square has us finding a dead Shinra soldier. Seph's here somewhere. Inside the building, it's even worse. I count 4 dead soldiers and a couple other people. But... they've been shot? Looks like it's not Seph. A lone survivor says that a man with a gun on his arm did this... Wait, Barret wouldn't shoot up a room full of people! Dio comes in and Cait gets the bright idea to run. Tifa and Cloud follow him but the trio get surrounded by Dio's robots.

A gun for a hand:

After getting tossed in Corel Prison, we find Barret standing on top of a dead person. Barret runs away with Cloud/Tifa/Cait chasing after him. The group finds him in a house, Barret shoots another person and Aeris and Red run in. How the hell did those two end up here?

Red asks Barret if he shot everyone in the casino and Barret shakes his head. Apparently, another man got a gun implanted into his arm 4 years ago... which was around the same time that Shinra torched Corel. Both Barret's and Dyne's arms were shot up, forcing Barret to start using an artificial arm. Eventually he tossed that away and grafted in instead. Apparently Dyne also had the same operation as Barret but for his left hand.

Since we're going after Dyne, I'm forced to use both Cloud and Barret. I grab Cait to use as my third person in order to test him out properly. I mean, come on. It's a fucking cat on a giant white thing. Also, the W Machine Gun has the same properties as Cloud's Force Stealer, meaning double Materia growth, not to mention that I can finally stick Barret back in the back row.

Cloud - Level 20

Force Stealer: Transform Lv. 1 (7020), Heal Lv. 1 (1623), Ifrit Lv. 1 (1331)

Four Slots: Long Range Lv. 1 (1105), Cover Lv. 1 (1267), Sense Lv. 1 (1675), Enemy Skill (1)

Barret - Level 18

W Machine Gun: Shiva Lv. 1 (1154), Poison Lv. 1 (1654), Revive Lv. 1 (501)

Platinum Bangle: Steal Lv. 1 (2491), Restore Lv. 1 (1995)

Cait Sith - Level 18

Yellow M-phone: Elemental Lv. 1 (1697) + Choco/Mog Lv. 1 (1455), Manipulate Lv. 1 (10), Fire Lv. 1 (1533)

Silver Armlet: All Lv. 1 (528) + Restore Lv. 1 (1954), Lightning Lv. 1 (1693), Ice Lv. 1 (1906)

Red XII - Level 18

Aeris - Level 19

Tifa - Level 18

Extra Materia:

Transform Lv. 1 (229)

Lightning Lv. 1 (1307)

Ice Lv. 1 (1144)

Fire Lv. 2 (2399)

All Lv. 2 (2622)

All Lv. 2 (1919)

All Lv. 1 (0)

Enemy Skill (0)

Edited September 19, 2010 by 4chan

[grandjackal]

What can you tell me about Cait Sith's stats compared to the rest of the party? I recall him also having a monsterous amount of HP compared to the rest of the team, but it's been so long since I've played it. That still the case for him?

As for Cait's problem, you will see it immediately with his limit break. Other than that, if he's got great stats on him, at least that's something he's got.

[Life]

What can you tell me about Cait Sith's stats compared to the rest of the party? I recall him also having a monsterous amount of HP compared to the rest of the team, but it's been so long since I've played it. That still the case for him?

As for Cait's problem, you will see it immediately with his limit break. Other than that, if he's got great stats on him, at least that's something he's got.

I LOVE Cait's Limit Break. Yeah Dice can be shit if you roll two 1's but the average is about 700 damage to a single person, more than anyone else can do (Cloud's got Diffuse Blade so he's in a different category). It also builds up stupidly fast in comparison to the rest of the team (or that's what it seems like).

As for stats, he's actually kinda average at level 19. He's got 772 HP but Barret's got 800 at level 20, not to mention that he's losing about 10% thanks to Magic against Barret's 11% loss. He's got 72 Defense which is beating Cloud and Barret pretty badly but again, he's got the Protect Vest and Silver Armlet. He's all around decent when it comes to stats with higher than normal HP.

Edited September 19, 2010 by 4chan

[grandjackal]

Well, I could tell you how characters will tend to play out based on some stat readings and some assumptions on weapons and limit breaks if you care to let me spill that bit of info with you. Perhaps that would help better let you decide on your team creation.

Now I won't if you say no since this is a blind run, but I figure that it won't be like I'm spoiling boss fights for you or anything.

[Life]

Well, I could tell you how characters will tend to play out based on some stat readings and some assumptions on weapons and limit breaks if you care to let me spill that bit of info with you. Perhaps that would help better let you decide on your team creation.

Now I won't if you say no since this is a blind run, but I figure that it won't be like I'm spoiling boss fights for you or anything.

I'd put your musings in a spoiler.

[eclipse]

Heh, glad to hear I'm not the only one that's fond of Cait Sith's Limit Break! I'm willing to take my chances!

I'd like to see if your opinion of it changes as the game goes on.

[grandjackal]

Very well then. For anyone else that would like to know, I'll put up some musings here, but remember not to read it 4chan.

NOT FOR 4CHAN'S EYES!!!

First I'd just like to remind you that these are musing's based on what I know of their stats and limit breaks alone. This does not take into account things like higher level, or equipment (such as seeing Cait Sith seemingly being tough based on low materia equip with fantastic equipment like hte Silver Armlet and Protect Vest). The situations in-game might force a difference in performance throughout, but just based o hte basics alone this can easily be assumed.

Cloud

Cloud is above average durability in both Vitality and HP, above average MP, average luck, average speed, and fantastic in Strength, Vitality and Spirit (Essentially, he's in the top best 3 for every stat if he's not already #1). Cloud can easily adapt to any situation, which is great for a character who's forced. You can slap quite a bit of materia on him and he's still gonna be among your hardest hitters while having powerful magic and spirit on his side, or you can choose to bolster him with stuff like Cover to make him tougher while making him hit harder with his single-target limit breaks.

I think his only real weakness is that his limit breaks lack crowd control until Meteorain (which still has the problem that all the meteors might not kill everything), Blade Beam being his first and might be a tad underwhelming in that department when you compare it to stuff like Barret's Grenade Bomb. However, he's still got powerful single hit abilities like Braver and Climhazzard for boss fights, gaining Meteorain when it comes time for Multi-hit to take precedence over strong single hits. However, Cloud has another problem with his limits in that he needs a ludicrous amount of kills and activations to get his, especially compared to the team (Cloud needs around 120 kills for Blade Beam. Compare that to 80 for Barret to get Grenade Bomb). Good news is that he's got plenty of time to get his own kills (Before jumping onto the train, not getting picked in Don Cornio's Mansion, always forced on the team for most of the game even during parts where other characters are forced into the party), but it can still throw off the timing of when you get them, especially when it comes to judging hte situation on when you want to get which (which would help me progress faster sooner, Blade Beam or Grenade Bomb?). Doesn't help that the omnipowerful Omnislash is probably among the more annoying final limits to get. Stupidly powerful as it is, you aren't getting it without Ribbon and some great luck (even with the best slot outcome in the arena, the last opponent can still be a St. Elmo Ship, which has an ability that simply tosses you out of battle, throwing you back out). It may very well come late to a point it might not actually save you time, since A. You most certainly need a Ribbon, B. Otherwise needing stupid amounts of luck, C. Might run into a St. Elmo Ship forcing you to restart, and D. Even then you might STILL not have enough points to get Omnislash, forcing you to go back in and try again. Doesn't help you could have stupidly long fights with things like Tonberries, those weird raptor things you fight on the fields outside of Bone Village, and the powered up versions of enemies at the end of the arena, not to mention possible Power Cuts you could get from the arena slots. I hate the arena with a passion.

Cloud's final weapon is the Ultima Weapon, which the damage fluctuates depending on how much HP Cloud has during battle. The closer he is to max, the more damage he does. Lower the HP is, worse damage. This is pretty nifty, but again getting it might be a time waster since it requires you to chase Ultima Weapon all around the world for you to kill it. If you could get by with Ragnarok, Ultima Weapon might be a waste of time overall.

Essentially, whatever your party is missing, Cloud can fill the nitch while still performing decently in other situations. Cloud's quite powerful compared to the rest of the team.

Barret

Highest HP, is pretty much as powerful as Cloud, highest Vitality, sits in the back row to take even less damage while still doing full damage himself (barring stuff like Atomic Scissors). This dude simply will not die to physical attacks. However, he's got 3 glaring problems. Worst magic output (this can hurt when tying to All-Nuke to get his limits easier), slowest member on the team, worst luck. He's the best in the category's he's good in without question, and his weak stats are the worst in said categories no question. Low Luck doesn't seem like a problem, but over the course of the game you could say it stacks up. More a subtle touch, but I'm not sure how bad that speed is a problem given how much long attack animations can run so his meter's still gonna fill up. At worst he's a bit more vulnerable to magic, but it simply does not make up for how tough this guy is because he simply has the highest HP to make up for it.

As for his limit breaks, they are ludicrous. He needs a somewhat high number of kills, but nothing compared to Cloud, and compared to the rest of the team he has a LOT of earlygame time to nab them. He starts with Big Shot, which like Braver is just a harder hitting attack. Mindblow sucks, but what's it compare to when Cloud's got the ever-niche Cross Slash, and the way Tifa's limit break works? Mindblow's not that big a problem for a bad limit break. Then he gets Grenade Bomb, which could be argued is the best nuke limit for earlygame. Just cuts through enemy groups. This also helps him easier get to Satellite Beam which is just another powerful nuke, before his glorious multi-hit Ungermax. Catastrophe I recall hearing later on is actually weaker compared to Ungermax in certain situations since I recall Ungermax hits more times. That could have been a high level BS stuff though, so judge on that yourself. Still, Catastrophe is probably the easiest one to get, since after you stop the train with the Huge Materia, you just visit a nearby tent and some woman gives it to you.

Final Score is also easy to get, if a tad latecoming. You just pick it up on your way to fight Hojo (though I forget how you are supposed to get it, since I recall something specific was needed. I think Barret has to be on the team, which isn't a big deal.). Final Score is a weird weapon for Barret though, because the more AP in the materia filling Final Score's slots is what powers it up. Without enough AP, this weapon's weaksauce. However, still throwing a lot of high AP materia (outside of non-magic materia) sort of dimishies his high drability and hard hitting persona. He balances out a bit if you could say that, but he's still got a problem of awful Luck and Speed. On the other hand, loading him up with high AP non-magic materia would make him a bit inflexible since I know armor tends to have low amounts of slots (or at the least hard to come by). I don't think he'd mind being a bit inflexible, being a tough to kill character that hits hard and has awesome limit breaks sounds A-OK to me.

If you want combat, Barret's your guy.

Tifa

Tifa's got above average Str, but noticeably weaker than your heavy hitters like Barret and Cloud. Durably, she's kinda...meh, and it's worse that she's forced on the front lines outside of Long Range materia. Tifa's magic is also average, though her Spirit's pretty good. Teamed up with her decent HP, magic shouldn't be too big a deal for her as others. Her speed's also above average, as is her Luck. I suppose that's the best way to describe her. She is above average in all areas, aside from physical durability though not quite so prone to crits. I think it doesn't help that Tifa starts noticeably hitting weaker, but early on you don't really have a choice outside of Aeris. At the same time though, that might be her downfall. Aeris is simply more useful since she is bound to hit harder with magic, and heavy hitting is already taken care of with the 2 hardest hitters of the bunch. Along with needing similar kills for limit breaks, I feel Tifa does not have a good start. I suppose Speed is to her benefit though. I'll talk about limit breaks when I get to it.

Limit breaks speaking, she basically starts with the same hard hitting limit break everyone aside from Aeris does, but as she learns more limit breaks you learn she doesn't have to switch around for them. She basically already starts with a multi-hitting limit break, and can make for good boss killing. The problem is, that in the time you get her level 2 limit is basically having a multi hit of 3, but with those kills we could have gotten a powerful Nuke out of Barret through Grenade Bomb. Since large groups of enemies tend to be more common than single targets, it might be harder to justify those kills going to her. Sharing doesn't help either, since that would just delay Grenade Bomb. But, it's hard to argue it not being good for boss fights, since it is ridiculously quick to get multi-hitting. What I don't like is how her limit break is so reminiscent of Blade Technique form FF6, in that it runs the clock while you're trying to play slots (though granted the slots are pretty easy to time). Her limit break is wonky, but it serves it's purpose exceptionally well.

Her final weapon is Premium Heart, which gets stronger the more times you get MISS on the slots on her limit breaks...Which is ass backwards. Just use Godhand. Getting Premium Heart's just another waste of time anyways, requiring you to excavate the key to Midgar at Bone Village, returning to Midgar, going to a specific part of Cornio's slums and picking it up. However, I don't think Tifa's quite as able to get away witha weaker weapon as Cloud is with Ragnarok, because she is noticeably weaker hitting.

Maybe I'm missing something, but Tia seems a bit weak. However, her boss slaying niche she fills she does so greatly. If you can get her the limit breaks in good time.

Aeris

SUPER SPOILERS!! Aeris is bound to the roll of limited utility, she will not be around all game SUPER SPOILERS!! so think short term with her. And really, that's all you need. She has super powerful magic, so giving her All-Magic is a great way to nuke as to let your other guys lynch kills for their limits, and Healing Wind+Seal Evil are pretty good utility limits. That's all I have to say, outside of the fact that all her offense comes from magic. Her physical stats suck.

Red XIII

Red XIII is well balanced all around, but is not particularly shining in any stat outside of speed of which he is the fastest one in the game. His Luck kinda sucks though, 2nd worst. Red XIII is another guy that's easy to adapt into a roll, but the problem is that unlike Cloud who is strong in nearly everything, Red XIII is above average in everything. If he fills one roll, he will have the weakness of that roll. Unlike Cloud, he can't be 2 things at once.

Red XIII has some interestingly wonky limit breaks. He gets Lunatic High, which is great for a boss fight since it's basically Haste-All before you have access to Haste. He gets a multi hit out of Stardust which I think is a lvl 2 hit, and Earth Rave for lvl 3. However, the biggest problems come form his Lvl 3 and 4 lmits. Tog et Earth Rave, you need to use Berserk Moon a certain number of times, and Berserk Moon SUCKS. Berserking the whole team is not fun, and generally does nothing. All to get Earth Rave, which doesn't hit air enemies to serve it's multi-hit purpose (and some bosses do fly or float, lke Hojo's 3rd form). Cosmo Memorys just a power nuke, and by then you have plenty of ways to do that. However, he needs noticeably less kills than hte first three characters you get, so he can go about getting his limit breaks quickly to adapt to the situation. Cosmo Memory you do have to do a bit of a side quest, but you go into the mansion anyways so you might as well pick it up. You also get Odin and Vincent out of it.

Red XIII's final weapon the Limited Moon is pretty simple to get. Later in the game, visit Bugenhagen and bam, there you go. It's out of the way, but it's not exactly wasting too much time. It's similar to the Ultima Weapon, except it works off MP instead of HP. This is pretty cool, but you'll want to conserve MP on him, making him want to stray form magic abuse later on.

Red XIII's quite an adaptable character, jack of all trades but not relaly a master of anything. Also, Lunatic High.

Yuffie

Yuffie's got very meh durability, but it's mitigated by the fact she can go back row. Also, for a character who loves to steal materia, she's got surprisingly low MP, though pretty good magic to at least back it up. Her Spirit's ok, but she's second fastest chaacter and easily the luckiest. Her Magic is greater than her physical, but not by much. Since her durability is already kinda meh, might as well make her more magic oriented. Just know that her non-magic offense might suffer worse than Red's, though at least her magic hits harder. Still weird, because her MP is low.

Yuffie's limit breaks are pretty straight forward outside of her lvl 1 limit breaks. Lvl 1 she has a single hart hitting move, and Clear Tranquil which can make up for Aeris not being on the team once she gets it. However, her lvl 2 and 3 limits are better because they each have a Nuke and a Multi-hitter, letting her be good in random encounters AND a boss fight for those limit instances. Her lvl 4 Limit is All Creation, which like Cosmo Memory, sucks. However, you do get Yuffie 4 extra kills trying to obtain it which can help her to getting her higher level Limits outside of her level 4 if only just slightly, while working up Materia AP, though those 4 fights could be considered a waste of time. You also get Leviathan out of it. Problem unlike Red XIII's side quest for Cosmo Memory, Wutai is an entire waste of time in and of itself, outside of building your limits for non-Yuffie characters (since you get no AP out of this, thanks to all your materia being stolen). You get better equipment and some extra stuff out of Wutai, but seriously...Wutai's a nightmare.

Yuffie's final weapon is the Conformer, which does more damage to higher level monsters. This is a weird one to judge, because how do you now when that weapon is better? Obviously if you're just blitzing through the game, this weapon is gonna be stronger than if you grind, and it does help that Yuffie joins with a somewhat lower level start. However, how do you know what levels monsters and bosses are without constant use of Sense, or a game guide? Hard to judge unless you know for sure what situation you're getting into. Conformer is gotten off the sunken plane after you get the sub, so it's not too out of the way. Just be careful though, the monsters are EVIL on that thing.

Yuffie's...Weird. I think her biggest problem is that she's basically a back row Red XIII with better limit breaks and back row, but suffers that she's not as utilic. however, she is better at Red XIII at nuking enemies and killing bosses (despite Lunatic High), so consider her a damage dealer to Red XIII's utility. Red XIII's also got more time to build his stuff up. Having Stardust Ray before Yuffie has lvl 2 limits is weird, but I guess that's why Yuffie has Clear Tranquil.

Cait Sith

Cait Sith has quite a bit of HP to make up for his stunningly low Vitality (and apparently starts with great equips), and has a problem of being pretty weak hitting. However, Cait's got high magic and spirit, so he's clearly a magical guy. However, making his durability worse with magic might be a bit painful, since he's a front row guy. I suppose if you plan on having him sit in the back row and cast magic all day, it's not that big a deal. He's also got pretty good luck. He's uhh...a bit sluggish in speed though. Tied for 2nd worst.

Cait Sith's limit breaks are Dice and Slots. I don't want to touch Slots. Ever. Slots can do good things, but at the same time can do incredibly bad things (auto-losing, maing Cait Sith the only character on the field). Rather, focusing on Dice. Dice is an incredibly cheap non-kill requiring limit that grows in power as Cait levels up. Adding more dice increases the max and min possible damage along with the average, and can climb up to heavy damage nicely. Think of it like axe damage in FF5, or Quina's attacking except reserved for limits and teamed up with powerfulmagic behind it. Cait allows you power without taking kills for himself for limits. He allows your other two characters to gobble up kills while he helps, adn that is probably his best use.

Cait Sith's final weapon, HP Shout, is exactly like Cloud's. However, since he can be placed in the back row to cast magic all day, it could be a way to make up for lacking damage if we suddenly put him in the front row. It's also not as huge a waste of time as getting Cloud's, and HP Shout might actually serve to HELP Cait's somewhat awful physical damage. Also, more slots for more magic to use his powerful magic stat. One way or another, certainly doesn't hurt him to nab it. A bit out of the way, but not MUCH so.

Cait Sith is cheap and selfless, if a bit basic and luck oriented. I suppose he's not that effective, but he helps in making your two other guys build up their limits since Cait needs 0 to have...Reletively bad limits. He's certainly not gonna be with you the entire adventure unless you really love blasting things with magic and HP Shout.

Vincent

Vincent is exactly the same statistically as Cait Sith with a few noticeable traits. Vincent comes later. Vincent has a weaker physical attack. Vincent has worse durability with a sizable loss in HP. Vincent has a better excuse to be in hte back, since his weapons are long range (which if Cait's going in the back, Vincent's probably hitting harder regardless. If Cait goes in front, Vincent's tougher). Vincent's final weapon and limit breaks function differently. Vincent has the benefit of starting out with the Peacemaker you got in Kalm, which means he has 3 slots to Double grow Materia off the bat, and has weapons like Sniper CR for perfect accuracy.

Vincent doesn't need a LOT of kills, but it's not much less than someone like Yuffie or Red. Thing is, for all his limits he needs EVERYTHING to be kills. Vincent is greedy for limit kills, and what do we get out of them? Well, various stat boosts, and elemental damage. He basically becomes better at combat while not costing MP, but hte problem is he is uncontrollable during this time, and he's elemental. A big problem off the bat is with Galliant Beast, a Fire elemental limit. I say this is a problem because you almost IMMEDIATELY fight the Materia Keeper who hapens to absorb it. You need to get him quite a few kills before that fight if you don't want him purely dedicated to magic. It still gives you the feeling of (I could have had someone doing more damage now). His third limit break is also weird, since half the time it basically uses Bad Breath, which helps but is not helpful all the time despite the other half allowing multi-hit, the only time he has it. His final limit, Chaos, is pretty good for boosting his durability and making use of the back row, along with Nuke, so his final limti is not horrible by any means so it pays off. However, you'll have to get your multi-hit elsewhere. to get him out of these modes, you have to kill him and bring him back (or let the enemy kill him). This can get annoying at times.

His final weapon, Death Penalty, is gotten along with Chaos in a rather quick side quest of visiting a cave in disk 2, then again in disk 3. Death Penalty, unlike Chaos, I feel is a horrible weapon. You need a LOT of kills for Vincent alone before this puppy starts to become a bad boy. This is fine later on when you've got your limits all nie and set up, but I just don't like it in the mean time. It displays how greedy for kills Vincent can be, too.

Vincent I feel like Cait doesn't really care what he's doing as long as he's blasting magic. Limtis are similar, in that while Cait's is luck based to do damage, Vincent is luck based to do a nuke or hard hitting damage while becoming tougher. Difference being, Cait can still do other things like more magic or healing afterwards while Vincent might gobble a kill you would otherwise want to give to someone else. However, his being the only 3 slot weapon that doubles AP growth I feel Vincent has a similar roll to Cait, in that Vincent you bring along to grow Materia until you transition to Cid (as opposed to Cait doing the same, except letting you build your limit breaks). I think I just like Vincent less due to not liking having no control over his limits (I don't mind Cait's limit having the possibility of doing less damage, I still can control Cait). It's your preference, really.

Cid

Cid has the problem of being the latest joining guy on the team, but that's made up for by the fact that he has a good chunk of the game dedicated to him being the lead character. Statistically speaking, it's like having a second physically weaker Barret btu with more speed and having to attack at the front. However, he has a bit more freedom towards the end of the game. I'll get to why in a bit.

Cid's limit breaks are fun, though are probably weak in comparison to the rest of the team by then. It doesn't take him a lot of uses of Boost Jump to get the mini-nuke Dynamite, which can get him more kills quicly. He also doesn't need that many kills to get his limit breaks out, so despite coming later' he's pretty cheap to power up. Give him the Cover materia to help him build limit faster, he's still a pretty tough dude since he's basically a mini-Barret. His lvl 2 Hyper Jump is a more powerful nuke as well, and though Dragon kinda sucks, is still nifty. He gets a multi-hit as soon as he hits lvl 3, and gets another that's more meant for crowd control. His final limit break Highwind is as easy to get as the Conformer, and while it might come into play a bit late, is stupidly powerful. Probably the best final limit, since it's nearly as strong as Omnislash but far easier and quicker to get. Highwind hits so many times it can double as a nuke since you have to be STUPIDLY unlucky for so many missiles to not kill all the enemies in a random battle. A bit stronger than Meteorain because of it.

Cid's final weapon is Venus Gospel, which like Red XIII's depends on the amount of MP you have. This is a LOT better for Cid, since Cid is hardly dependent on magic to get his damage out, especially by lvl 3 limit compared to the one way or another Red XIII. This also goes in contrast with Barret's final weapon which requires a lot of high AP Materia, which for the most part is probably magic which will reduce Barret's physical stats. Clod is a guy who doesn't mind a lot of magic, since he can still put plenty to good use with his great magic while still hitting pretty hard. This frees you up a whole bunch of empty slots for Cid which you can fill up with whatever the hell you want to bolster his physical power. He could easily be your best physical fighter by default later on. It also helps that you can get Venus Gospel reletively early compared to most final weapons, and is stupidly easy to get. Just visit Rocket Town and visit the old man looking at where the rocket is after you have launched it. Bam, it's in your hands.

Cid's a bit weak at his start, but you have to eal with him eventually, and he's pretty basic while still being incredibly powerful later on, and is pretty cheap to power up, and doesn't really hog any materia. Fill his Venus Gospel slos with lvl 1 HP UP Materia from Mideel, he doesn't care. Anything physical you need to get done, Cid does it with gusto. Though, I suppose him starting a bit meh might hurt. If you need a guy to hit real hard, he's your guy though. No magic required.

Now remember, his is just a brief synopsis based on what little I know of their weapons, looking at their stats and knowing how the limits function. The situations in-game might prove to be wildly different, but this could be considered a basic outlook.

Sorry for the long read, but it does prove that FF7 hasn't totally killed character uniqueness with the materia system. At least, not as badly as the junction system killed FF8.

Edited September 19, 2010 by Amaterasu

[eclipse]

Er. . .that first sentence describing Cloud makes no sense. Second. . .role.

Lastly:

[spoiler=Cait Sith's dice]

Due to the nature of this limit, you don't really need to do anything about his stats. It's very possible for him to knock out a good chunk of an otherwise tough enemy's HP with this. On the flip side, seeing 1000 damage near endgame is really bad. I made a joke Cait Sith where his only purposes were to grow Materia and deal dice damage. It's amusing, but probably not what you want for a first run.

[grandjackal]

Describing Cloud with a second role in the first sentence? I was just comparing his stats to the rest of the team based on what I was given. I don't recall saying anything about a second role.

If anything, Cloud's sort of a "I do everything good" character. Fill him with magic materia, he can utilize great magic while still having good physical offense, and without a lot of magic materia, just means he hits real hard while being reletively tough.

Edited September 19, 2010 by Amaterasu

[eclipse]

Describing Cloud with a second role in the first sentence? I was just comparing his stats to the rest of the team based on what I was given. I don't recall saying anything about a second role.

If anything, Cloud's sort of a "I do everything good" character. Fill him with magic materia, he can utilize great magic while still having good physical offense, and without a lot of magic materia, just means he hits real hard while being reletively tough.

1. Read the first sentence you wrote about Cloud.

2. It's role, not roll. Sorry, it's a pet peeve of mine.

3. Otherwise, I'm not going to argue with those character rantings! They look good to me!

[peener weener]

I've also been playing this, but I just can't freaking find Disc 2.

[Life]

I don't think I'm allowed to link you to where I get my ROMs from, unfortunately. Add me on AIM and I'll give you the link that I use.

[Life]

A big 'ole family... Can you put your arm down please?

Finding Dyne took a while. There's a new path that opens up where you go through a fence and find yourself in a junkyard. At the end of the junkyard is the "boss", AKA Dyne. He's a pretty scrawny guy... but he's got a gun for an arm so better safe than sorry.

Barret tries to talk some sense into Dyne but it turns out that the man's pretty bitter about life and everything. Barret tries to tell Dyne that Marlene is still alive but Dyne decides to force the fight.

Boss: Dyne

Looks like a one-on-one brawl between two cyborgs. Dyne has Needle Gun, S-Mine and Molotov Cocktail which all do pretty shitty damage. First thing to do is summon Shiva right away. Afterwards, I stick a Bio on Dyne and turn the rest into a battle of attrition. It's an easy fight, to be honest.

After the fight, Dyne gives up. He tosses Barret his wife's old pendent and asks Barret to give it to his goddaughter. And then he takes a head first dive off a cliff... Ouch.

The next thing to do is get out of this slum. Which means that we need to win the Chocobo Race that's held in the Gold Saucer... YAY, RACING! FUN! Barret decides that Cloud is the guy who should deal with Dio. We then get a manager by the name of Ester who teaches me how to ride a Chocobo.

There's a Ramuh Materia in the jockey room. Soon after, the bell signals that it's time to race. It takes a couple of tries before I snag first place but when I do, I win it pretty easily. Dio then sends me a letter claiming that the party is free to go. What's the catch? Best yet, Dio also writes that Sephiroth is heading towards Gongaga... I'm going to catch that motherfucker.

And now I have a buggy too! This is great news! I change out Barret and Cait for Red and Tifa and quickly redo the Materia settings. Cloud becomes my fulltime mage with no less than an extra 15% MP and 7 Magic. Tifa sits in the back row with Long Range and Cover on along with Steal and Manipulate while Red XIII is the jack-of-all-trades (healing, attacking, magical damage).

Zoom, zoom, zoom!

After fighting a few battles, I realize that Tank Tifa is not to be, making me switch Tifa's and Cloud's roles. The next thing to do is to drive south to Gongaga. Red XIII learns Lunatic High on the way too which will definitely nifty. And I never knew just how annoying Touch Me's could be but fuck, they should all die.

And... great. I manage to run into the Turks... AGAIN. This time, we're facing Reno and Rude.

Boss: Reno & Rude of The Turks

The boys really aren't that hard. Yeah, they can hit hard. That's about it since Rude can use Fire for a measly 0 damage. Or something like that. A quick summon rush should knock off most of their combined HP. Oh and Cloud gained Climhazzard which is quite nice.

After the fight, Cloud, Cait Sith and Aeris (switched the party) wonder how the Turks knew where the party was going to be. The only possible explanation would be a spy but nobody seems to check out. I mean, it's clearly not Cloud (I'm not expecting Cloud to pull a Kalas if you get the reference), Tifa and Barret are part of AVALANCHE, Aeris is being chased after by the Turks, Red XIII was captured by Shinra but clearly hated it and Cait Sith is from Gold Saucer.

Anyway, Gongaga is a pretty rundown place with not much going on. But I meet the parents of a boy named Zack who apparently was also in SOLDIER, just like Cloud. Cloud doesn't know him but Aeris might. She did claim to have a boyfriend in SOLDIER and the name sounds familiar to her. She walks out of the house while Cloud and Cait chase after her.

Well, apparently she was going out with Zack. Both him and Cloud were SOLDIER First Class but Cloud's never heard of him. I check out the shops afterwards and buy some stuff. And then I notice a weapon called Fairy Tale in my inventory that gives Aeris 7 Materia slots along with 15 Attack over the Full Metal Staff. What the fuck?! I buy the Mystify and Time Materia and then pick up the White M-phone for Cait.

Just so you know, Aeris is a pure mage right now. She's got 2 Summons (Shiva and Ifrit) along with 9 Magic Materias including Time and Revive. That's +28% MaxMP, +13 Magic and +2 Magic Def. On the flipside, that also means -28% MaxHP, -11 Strength and -2 Vitality. Geez.

Cloud - Level 23

Force Stealer: Manipulate Lv. 1 (1732), Steal Lv. 1 (4825), Long Range Lv. 1 (2917)

Platinum Bangle: Cover Lv. 2 (2989), Ramuh Lv. 1 (1220)

Aeris - Level 21

Fairy Tale: Lightning Lv. 2 (2103), Restore Lv. 2 (3719), Heal Lv. 1 (3649), Poison Lv. 1 (2924), Ice Lv. 2 (2016), Time Lv. 1 (0), Fire Lv. 2 (2399)

Silver Armlet: Ifrit Lv. 1 (3011) + Shiva Lv. 1 (2978), Transform Lv. 2 (8634), Revive lv. 1 (2481)

Cait Sith - Level 21

Yellow M-phone: Elemental Lv. 1 (2809) + Choco/Mog Lv. 2 (2723), Enemy Skill (3), Sense Lv. 1 (2787)

Silver Armlet: All Lv. 1 (1324) + Restore Lv. 2 (3066), Mystify Lv. 1 (0), Ice Lv. 2 (2146)

Red XII - Level 21

Aeris - Level 21

Tifa - Level 21

Extra Materia:

Lightning Lv. 2 (2009)

Fire Lv. 2 (2035)

All Lv. 2 (3232)

All Lv. 2 (2235)

All Lv. 1 (0)

Enemy Skill (0)