Helloooo!
This time around, I’m going to be doing another first impressions piece! This time it’s with a game that’s been around quite a few years, but I’ve never actually beaten.
That’s right! We’re going to Midgar and experimenting with Materia in Final Fantasy 7!
As this is my first time jumping into this game, I’m trying to do as much of it blind as I can, meaning I’m using little to no guides going through it. Only piece I’m using a guide to make sure I do is for getting the optional party members.
Here’s thoughts so far from the eyes of a long time RPG player! Minor spoilers ahead, but not too bad.
Grinding isn’t as necessary at least so far as in some of the more current RPGs I’ve played.
I’m currently a little ways in. I have all my characters (pretty sure, not 100% but I have both Yuffie and Vincent as well as just getting Cid) and now have my plane. Beyond just my want and will for grinding, I really haven’t had to do a whole lot. Beyond when I’ve needed more Gil in order to get Materia or weapons, I’ve been able to just kind of blitz through the story so far.
Keeping everyone on similar levels in terms of their limits is very helpful
In the beginning at the very least, your trapped with keeping Cloud in your party. I’m not sure if this changes throughout, but I found myself getting his limits up super fast and I already have his first 6. Aeris is another I found myself leaning towards because healing is kinda a must, especially when everything healing related is manuel and does not automatically trigger unless you’re going to be sleeping in an inn. After that, you leave room for one more. Tifa is a great choice because all of her limits just stack on top of one another, but that leaves another 7 more team members who are not getting the chance to get their limits up.
What I’ve found myself doing is trying to keep them all in line. Someone still on limit one and need to get all of them? Put them in. Everyone done with limit one? Rinse and repeat. Not only do you have to kill enemies with the characters, but you have to use their limits in order to get all of them. They all have a special move at the end that requires a special little something, but you can at least get them all on the same level to start! That way, when the inevitable side quest comes along when you need to have a certain person in your group? They’re not so woefully underpowered it makes that piece of story unbearable.
Materia is super important and the load out even more so
Materia is what gives the ability to do anything other than just attack and use items. They are were spells are generated and where you can learn monster abilities. Summons are also super handy. Every weapon and every armor will have Materia slots, at least a couple. Depending on how you put in your Materia and how the equipment will hold the Materia is critical in your success throughout the game.
There are support Materia that function very different then the other Materia. They don’t do a whole lot on their own, but paired with a spell? Their potential is released. Have a high fire Materia? Put an All supportive Materia on it and suddenly it’s casting Fire3 on every creature in battle. Going into an area that’s weak against fire? Elemental plus fire of any level will give your equipment fire elements without casting a thing. These small details can really elevate your game play.
Most status effects don’t linger after battle… most!
Status effects are always fuuuun! It will turn a super easy battle into a trickier one with one drop of poison or a simple silence spell. While many of these will fall off when your heroes dance or swing their weapons with victory, there are a couple I have noticed stay around: Fury and Sadness.
To my understanding, Fury will bring down your accuracy but increase your Limit Gauge rate. Sadness will bring down the damage you take, but also decreases your Limit Gauge rate. Either one could be good or bad, but the only way I’ve found to get rid of Fury and Sadness is to use their items, Tranquilizer or Hyper respectively, find a Remedy (I haven’t found one in my playthrough yet), cast Esuna, or use one of Aeris’ Limit breaks that removes status effects.
