Final Fantasy

General information on the phenomenon that is Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy VII

Party Members | Ultimate Weapons | Essential Materia | Materia Combinations | WEAPON

Party Members
Choosing party members in FF7 is very easy. You should go for the characters that will aid you most. Having a long range fighter is not very important in this FF. The characters do not have limitations to what materia they can equip, therefore all characters can have long range black magic. I choose party members by combat strength and most of all, Limit Breaks. The only true magic user you have is MIA during the final battles.
Cloud
Even though this character is static to your party bar some plot changes, he is definatly the greatest ally in the game. His lvl4 Limit Break, Omnislash, is worth his prescence alone. Also, his ultimate weapon, Ultima Weapon, is a superb addition to your party. .
Cid
The last character who joins your party needs an amount of training before becoming as powerful as the previous characters. Once equipped with ultimate weapon "Venus Gospel", this guy packs a lot of punch. From whence you get lvl4 Limit Break "Highwind" he is a powerful ally.
Barret
For one reason only, Catastrophe.

Ultimate Weapons
Each characters final weapon has silly extras which I don't like. You might. I don't:
Ultima Weapon: Damage increases/decreases with HP.
Missing Score: Damage increases with total AP of equipped Materia.
Venus Gospel: Damage increases/decreases with MP.
HP Shout: Damage increases/decreases with HP.
Death Penalty: Damage increases with the number of enemies killed.
Princess Guard: Damage doubles when 1 party member is KO'd. Damage triples when 2 party members are KO'd.
Limited Moon: Damage increases/decreases with MP.
-Info contributed by, and I quote "Queen of all that if FF7, her Worshipfulness Stefanie Prats, AKA Queen of Typos"

Essential Materia
HP Plus
Use these if your health isn't tip top. Infact, save up all your Gil for when you visit Cosmo Canyon for the first time, but at least two HP Plus for each active party member. When you reach the real battles your Materia will be at a healthy level, therefore only one will be required for each charcater.
Contain
An overlooked materia by many. Contain includes four black magic spells: Break, deals Earth damage. Tornado, deals Wind damage. Flare, deals fire damage. Freeze, deals cold damage. These are very powerful spells. Power comes at a sacrifice of one target and enormous MP guzzling.
Knights of the Round
Possibly the single most powerful attack (bar Limit Breaks) in any Final Fantasy game. A gush of gravity surrounds all enemies sucking them in a temporary oblivion to then find themselves being singulaly cut to pieces by 13 knights dealing up to129987 worth of damage in total. If you have any intention of facing the dreaded WEAPON you need to start breeding those Chocobo now! KoR lies in a cave on Round Island, only accessable through a Gold Chocobo. WARNING: MP guzzler!
Double Cut
A very handy command materia to own. Produces two slashes into the enemy. Once enough AP has been obtained, the 2x Cut command will turn into 4x Cut. This new command delivers four slashes shared between enemies. It is found in the downed and drowned ShinRa Gelnika airship. WARNING: Only for mega strong parties. The three ??? monsters lurk here.
Mime
Pair this with KoR and you're even more of a killing machine. Mime mimics the previous attack without use of MP. Get this re-born twice and you're unstopable. Found in the cave near Wutai. Black chocobo needed to reach here.

Materia Combinations
Many strange and powerful attacks can be made by mixing materia in certain ways. Here are some example(s):

- The Combo (Color of text indicates the color of the materia):
Lightning + Quadra Magic
Lightning + MP Absorb
Lightning + MP Turbo
Lightning + HP Absorb
Lightning + Added Cut
Lightning + Steal as Well
Lightning + Magic Counter
W-Magic
Magic Plus

The Explanation:
Okay. This combo is based on the concept that you can link different Support Materia to one Magic Materia spell. The above combo works with ANY spell provided you have enough materia. There is a catch, however. All of the materia MUST be at the same level. If you do this combo and only have one matera at Bolt 3 and the rest at Bolt 1, then you can only do the combo with Bolt 1. Obviously, this combo takes a while to prepare, but the end result is more than worth it. As you can see, I did not use Enemy All in the combo because Quadra Magic does not work with Enemy All. In the long run, this works better. By doing this, you cast the spell 4 times, pausing in between to Steal items from your enemy. At the end of this combo, you attack one of the enemies with a regular attack. Then, because of W-Magic... It Happens All Over Again!! 8 Bolt 3s, 8 Steal Attempts, 2 regular attacks, then because of HP and MP absorb, you end up with more health and MP than you did before you even casted the spell! Now, if you don't have enough slots or time to raise the materia you need, you can neuter this combo a bit. The MP Turbo and Magic Plus are there just to make it extra strong, but considering you're casting a level 3 spell 8 times, it is sort of overkill. Also, the Magic Counter is just so you don't have to wait your turn to do this combo. HP absorb can get tossed out too. Just a reminder that ANY Green Materia will work with this combo. I chose Lightning because only a small number of enemies absorb it and many are weak to it.
-Combo and description contributed by "Queen of all that if FF7, her Worshipfulness Stefanie Prats, AKA Queen of Typos"

WEAPON:
Master Summon - HP Absorb
Knights of the Round - MP Absorb
Phoenix - Final Attack
HP Plus
MP Plus
Master Command
Master Magic + Quadra Magic

This combination is made for facing Ruby or Emerald Weapon. Of course with Emerald to might want to equip the Underwater Materia. I chose Master Command because it contains Enemy Skill, W-Summon, Double Cut, W-Item, and Mime. Enemy Skill, no party is a party unless they have Big Guard. Whenever you summon Knights of the Round you get MP and HP absorbed back to you which WILL refill you if you do anything over 7000 damage per knight. Not everyone has maxed HP and MP so I included the Plus materias. Having Quadra Magic attached to Master Magic can have some annoying effects as well as decent ones. A good effect is four curative spells at one and a bad one is casting Revive 2 four times =( Highly unnecessary. You all know how some Commands alternate every few seconds, why can't 2x Cut and 4x Cut do this? Sometimes I just want to concentrate on 1 target.
- Combo and description contributed by "dgp9999"

- Gravija:
Gravity - Quadra Magic
Gravity
Mega All
W-Magic

This combo is simple and effective. Especially effective on Ruby and Emerald WEAPON. Gravity can be replaced any other Magic Materia. Gravity is another highly under used materia but is really useful. Emerald WEAPON has 1,000,000 HP. Use this combo once (considering Gravity has reach level 3, Demi 3) and you reduce it's HP by 79,992. Remember, Demi 3 reduces HP by 1/4. Also remember you have a damage barrier of 9999.
- Combo and description contricuted by "dgp9999"

Weapon
Weapon. Your worst nightmare.
Emerald: 1,000,000HP ((new picture soon))
Emerald has a very high Defence so don't bother with physical attacks, no use of physical means your whole party can be on the back row. Being on the back row halves damage dealt and damage received, but only for physical attacks! Final Attack materia paired with Revive or Phoenix should be a must at least for one person, therefore when you die, you get ressurected. Level 5 Revive and Phoenix will only revive you 5 times max. Recommended materia:
Mime
Knights of the Round
Quadra Materia
Enemy Skill: Big Guard
Final Attack
Ruby: 850,000HP ((new picture soon))
Ruby's health is not as high as Emerald but it is still high enough for a hard challenge. It starts by removing two random characters from the battle leaving you with one. The way to combat this is to kill off two players before the battle, then, when in battle, revive them using Mega-All Revive or Phoenix. It starts off using Meteor a few times, then it sticks his hands in the ground and they pop up behind you. One hand drains HP, the other sucks MP. Try to dedicate two party members to take these down, preferably the character with Double Cut. The exact same attack strategy goes to Ruby as you did with Emerald: Knights of the Round, Mime, Mime, Mime.