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Final Fantasy Articles
Final Fantasy Tactics (Not FFT!) [ Author: Norco
]
Part Three: Final Fantasy 7
*Note: Since I haven’t got a save game of FF7 on my memory card,
I went to
GameFaqs.com, and looked at the materia combination guide by Stewart
Bishop.
This guide is great, go read it!! The rest of the article was written
by me, out
of what I know.
Final Fantasy 7 was the very first Squaresoft Game I ever played,
and it
immediately took my breath away. It was also the very first role
playing game I
played, and it is still to this day, my personal all time favourite.
FF7 uses what’s known as the Materia system, to attach magic
to characters.
There are slots in weapons an armour, sometimes linked, where Materia
is
inserted. Materia is a condensed form of spirit energy that comes
from the
planet, enabling the use of a variety of powers.
However, materia comes with a price. When you attach materia to a
character’s
weapon or armour, it has an affect on that character’s stats.
Mostly, materia
will cause your stats to go down, so it’s wise not to overload
on the materia,
until you a) have the materia which can counteract it, or b), have
the stats up
so high that it’s not really a problem.
So, you know that materia can be attached to a character. You get
abilities
and/or stat changes from them, sounds all fine and dandy. Well, if
it were as
simple as that, it would get incredibly boring, very quickly.
There are five forms of materia:
Magic Materia (Green)
This materia class is the majority, and where all your spells come
from. Some
of the later spells have a nasty cut on your stats.
Summon Materia (Scarlet Red)
This materia class is an often abused thing. It offers great power,
but should
be used sparingly due to hideous cuts in stats.
Support Materia (Blue)
Support materia doesn’t work on its own; however, when attached
to other
materia via a linked slot, you can come up with some seriously devastating
attacks.
Command Materia (Yellow)
FF7 doesn’t place a silly little limit on the number of commands
you can use
at anyone time. Shame on you FF8 and FF9! By equipping yellow materia,
you can
give your characters extra (and sometimes very helpful) commands.
Magic,
Attack, Summon, and Item are automatic, with magic and summon being
attached
as soon as you equip Magic or Summon Materia.
Independent Materia (Purple)
Independent materia is the exact opposite to support materia; it’s
designed to
work on its own little lonesome. Purple materia is almost always
useful,
countering (or enhancing!) the stats that are often dropped by using
magic and
summon*
*It should be noted that, when you equip magic, your stats will go
down;
however, your stats will return to what they previously were before
you equip
the materia.
Remember how I said that slots are linked? Well, if you apply a support
materia
(blue) to a slot, and then link it with some other materia, usually
Magic
materia (Green), you can come up with some nifty stuff.
The most basic combo is <Magic> + <All>, which means,
when you attack with
<Magic>, you’ll hit all opponents on screen. Looks kewl
with some of the larger
magics, such as Fire 3, Ice 3, etc.
Let’s delve into some more nasty combos. Many an FF7 player
will have remembered
most of these combos, first starting to experiment with them while
trying to
take down the Emerald and Ruby weapons. Later, they experimented
more, and came
up with some of the combos I’m about to tell now…
<Final Attack> + <Materia>
Equip this combo to a character, and watch as he is KO’ed. He
will use the
linked materia, providing enough MP is available (if needed), and
will attack.
Sometimes, it’s enough to kill an annoying opponent (Especially
if it’s Knights
of Round – Nasty summon and Evil MP Guzzler).
The most common use of Final Attack is to place it on your strongest
character,
and combine it with Phoenix. Usually, your strongest character is
the one to go
last, so phoenix will revive your entire party, while causing a decent
bit of
damage to the opponent.
It should be noted that, if you’re heavily reliant on materia,
as I am, the only
way to survive the Emerald Weapon’s Aire Tam Storm (does damage
based on the
amount of materia equipped, quite nasty) is to have Aeris’s
limit break, great
gospel (Impossible, unless you cheat with a gameshark), or you use
Final Attack
+ Phoenix.
Also, Final Attack can be used with any other materia, such as Deathblow,
Ultima, or what not. Most people like to place it with KoR, Phoenix,
Ultima, or
Deathblow. For randomness, equip a Master Summon materia to the Final
attack,
and watch as a monster is summoned at random. Quite hilarious, but
it also means
that your MP will need to be replenished quite a bit.
<Quadra Magic> + <Materia>
Now this is a seriously interesting combo. When you use the linked
materia, it
will be used 4 times. Only applies to Summons and Magic.
Here’s an interesting tactic. Demi1, basic gravity attack, when
used on an
opponent with an insane amount of HP (I make the Emerald Weapon as
my example,
he’s a tough critter to beat), can be quite nasty, for only
6 MP or whatever
it’s worth.
Consider the Following:
Emerald Weapon HP: 1000000 +
Demi 1 Damage: 9999
Demi 1 x 4: 39996
Demi 1 Cost: 6MP (I think, don’t quote me on it ^_^)
Okay, so you can hit the opponent for 40000, not too shabby for 6
MP. Now, let’s
go a little further. Add Two Demi materia to your bracelet, one linked
to Quadra
magic, and the other to all. Also add the reflect materia. Now, cast
Reflect on
your team (or give everyone reflect rings), cast Demi1 -> All.
Suddenly, that 40000 doesn’t seem too shabby at all. Each character
will reflect
the Demi 4 times, so, 12 x 9999 = 119988. Not bad, for say 20MP?
Of course, you
can’t actually kill the emerald weapon in this manner, because
Demi starts to
lose its effect (loss of HP). Then, you’d want to hope that
he hasn’t drained
your MP, or slaughtered you all. I’d then recommend that you
switch tactic, and
slaughter him that way.
But, this isn’t an Emerald Weapon article, it’s FF7. So
I’ll keep moving. But in
short, if you have an opponent with nasty amounts of HP, (greater
than 39996 HP,
since it has to be more than 4 x 9999), then you can use this technique
to bring
him down a few notches. Of course, the effect will be lost after
the opponent
has got under that 39996 mark, but that’s okay!
<Added Effect> + <Materia>
If ST-ATK combined with is Insta-Gib, then Added-Effect is overall
Carnage.
Combined with the materia, you can either attack or defend in a particular
status (or statuses, since materia have multiple status changes.)
Example. Try placing your Time Materia with Added Effect on your
armour, and
suddenly, you won’t be able to be slowed or stopped! I know
that fighting those
damned butterflies in the Gongaga area (who stop you all the time)
is a lot
easier when it doesn’t work.
In addition to defence, you can also attack in a status. Add a Destruct
Materia
to your Added effect, and you have a three-way-Insta-Gib!! Destruct
materia, for
those who don’t know, has the spells De-Spell (Removes Magic
Effect), Destruct
(Removes any barriers), and Death (No explanation necessary).
Any opponent who uses barriers (Iron Giant is a good example with
his adrenaline
attack) can be knocked off just as easy with Destruct Materia attached.
I’ve just had lightning strike my brain (And I absorbed it,
because I had Bolt
Materia attached to Elemental on my armour, more on this shortly),
and realised
that some of the nastiest statuses in the game come from the “Contain
Materia”.
This AP chewing monstrosity will not only deal death to your opponents,
but also
your MP count as well.
Freeze, Flare, Break, Tornado (Not in that order), can cause some
nasty status
ailments, Stop (Freeze), Petrify (Break), and Confuse (Tornado),
Berserk
(Flare). Equipping a Contain to your Attack or Defence would be quite
a smart
move, since those four are probably the most annoying in the game.
<HP Absorb> / <MP Absorb> + <Materia>
Again, this is a great tactic to use against the Emerald Weapon,
or any other
foe that knocks you around a bit. Simply attach the materia that
you need to
replenish on, and cause some damage with the linked materia. Knights
of Round
works wonderfully for this. Remember, how in FF8, we junctioned 100x
Drain to
status Attack, and gained the HP Back when we attacked? Well, this
is better.
Since KoR causes so much damage, anywhere from 90000 upwards (that’s
assuming a
hit of 6000 each time), you can easily earn your HP back. Or MP,
if you’re spell
crazy enough.
As with other combos, double up for the effect. Equip two KoR materia,
and then
a HP and MP absorb to each, and watch as you never need to go near
a megalixir
again, let alone the attack command, because only the Ruby and Emerald
weapons
can stand up to KoR. (And safer Sephiroth if he manages to cast Wall)
Elemental + <Materia>
By attaching an elemental Materia, such as Ice or Fire to this materia,
you can
attack or defend in that particular element. Only downside? If you
equip Ultima,
you won’t get all Elements, which is a real pain in the rear
end. As with Added
Effect, depending if you attach to your armour or weapon, you can
attack or
defend in that element.
Example of Complex Combinations
Okay, so you’ve reached the point in the game, where all your
characters are at
Lv99, and they’ve all learnt Lv4 Limit Breaks, and Ultimate
Weapons, etc, etc.
For the sake of this article, let’s assume that you’ve
mastered all the materia,
and you’ve got copies of the good stuff.
Also, this shouldn’t be confused with the few combos I just
went over, as these
next combos are multiple materia combinations.
The Leave-And-Forget and Go-watch-a-long-movie summon.
Requirements: Nasty Summon. W-Summon. Mime, x 3. Quadra Materia,
lots of MP, at
least 500, if you plan to use KoR.
How to do it? Attach Mime, W-Summon to your character. Then, pop
a Quadra
Materia, with your Nasty Summon. Have one character W-Summon (That’s
8 Times,
kiddies), have the other two characters Mime that W-Summon. Then,
when the first
character gets his turn again, Mime the Mime. Let’s do some
math!
Assumption: You’ve used KoR, and it does 6000 exactly, per hit,
on say, the
Emerald Weapon.
Emerald HP 1000000+
Damage Caused by 1 x KoR: 90000
Damage Caused by First W-Summon x 4 = 720000
Doubled, for the second character to Summon = 1400000 (Mime)
Tripled, for the third character to Summon = 2120000 (Mime)
Quadrupled, for the first character to Summon again = 2840000 (Mime)
Just for the numerically impaired, that’s Two Million, Eight
Hundred and Forty
Thousand Damage. Or, in laymen’s terms: LOTS. Considering that
if you summon KoR
Twice, you’ll use 500 MP, and pop off 180000, and just make
him Mad. Note, that
if you use this, not only will you be able to leave and forget, but
you will
also use the same amount of MP, to perform 15 times the damage.
And, I’ve just realised, that that’s only for a 6000 hit.
Imagine if it were a
full 9999?
Emerald HP 1000000+
Damage Caused by 1 x KoR: 149985
Damage Caused by First W-Summon x 4 = 1199880
Doubled, for the second character to Summon = 1199880 (Mime)
Tripled, for the third character to Summon = 3599640 (Mime)
Quadrupled, for the first character to Summon again = 4799520 (Mime)
In other words, you’ve killed him by the first time you’ve
summoned. That’s a
whopping 26 times more damage then KoR summoned Twice. The numbers
are
astronomical; always remember that maths is a big part of any RPG.
For Irony, and to waste your time, have your characters perform the
4million
hitter on some creatures around Midgar. They won’t know what
hit them! Hehe…
(They’d die after the first 8 summons, but who cares?)
The Counterer: (Created by: Stewart Bishop; obtained from his guide
at GameFaqs.Com)
Requirements: HP Plus, Cover, Counter Attack x 12 (All materia mastered)
Works best with Yuffie, her conformer, and her Mystile.
Every time someone was hit, she would block for them and counter
12 times, each attack doing 9999 damage (119,988 total).
General FF7 Tips
1. To achieve a limit break faster, use a Hyper to give all your
characters
“Fury” status. They will hit harder, and the limit gauge
will fill faster.
2. Use Haste and Slow effectively, hasted and furied characters versus
a slow
opponent are almost unbeatable.
3. Don’t use Comet2. It’s awful. Don’t bother.
4. Shield is incredibly handy, especially if you’ve learnt Wall.
Use Wall
against enemies who have nasty HP and evil physical and magical attacks.
5. Use Full Cure only in dire straights. At some phenomenal MP (180,
I think)
it’s not a spell to be used lightly. Use KoR, and kill your
opponent instead.
6. If you neglect several characters, and need to learn their limit
breaks, try
using HP <-> MP Materia, to switch the MP and HP values. Equip
a mastered MP
Plus, to give the character a HP of 999. Fury the character. Now,
pop over to
the great glacier, and manipulate those bunny things. One of the
attacks does
about 400 damage, and two hits will be enough to send your character
into a
limit break. Use the limit break, and rinse and repeat till you’ve
learnt the
limit breaks
7. Each character should have 3-4 weapons: Their default weapon,
if you can’t
sell it; their ultimate weapon; their strongest non-ultimate weapon;
and a
weapon that has good growth, perhaps double or triple.
8. Sell Mastered All materia for a quick profit, use Mega All instead,
you save
on slots.
9. Coin is useless, don’t bother. You can waste your money at
the Gold Saucer
instead.
10. Always try to have megalixirs on hand; they are a godsend, eliminating
statuses, restoring MP and HP to all.
11. ALWAYS keep Enemy skill with you. ALWAYS Learn ALL the enemy
skills. There
are some powerful attacks in that bundle, such as Shadow Flare, Pandora’s
Box
(My mother is obsessed with that game, shame on you Microsoft!!),
Angel whisper,
Big Guard.
12. If you sense your opponent, you can press select and place your
cursor over
the target to see how much HP it has left.
13. Don’t waste your money on items like grenades at the beginning
of the game.
Stick with the basics. Potions, antidotes, weapons and armour.
14. Save your money for the high powered materia at Kalm Town.
Quake is a good
one to use.
15. Gang up on your opponents. Attack one opponent all at once, and
ignore any
others, until your target is destroyed. Rinse and repeat until done.
16. For a little good clout, to weaken your opponent, say to morph
or something,
use Bahamut. It’s good to your MP count; it’s also a nice
hitter, and non
elemental. You also don’t have to wait forever with it.
17. Flash is an absolute No-no. Any enemies it works on are not worth
using it
on, since they’re just as easy to kill as normal. And those
it doesn’t kill are
just as easy to kill, especially if you’ve got your ultimate
weapons.
18. Listen to me; I know what I’m on about, okay?
Next Article:
The last Article in the Rough gameplay series, I’ll be going
over FF9. Once I
find my memory card, and Play it again!
Questions? Comments? norco@fantasysquare.com
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