Final Fantasy VII Fight Tactics

Small post today, I just wanted to share my personal strategy when coming up with a party/materia setup for Final Fantasy VII fights. This is my general strategy, although I'll give specifics as well. It isn't necessarily the best strategy and certainly isn't for certain situations but in general, this has gotten me through the game quite nicely.

My party has been made up of Cloud, Vincent and Tifa from the moment I got Vincent. Before him, I used Barret and when Cloud and Tifa were absent, I used Cid, Vincent and Barret. Here's why.

My general setup uses one tank character, one full magic character and one hybrid, leaning more towards magic. My magic character is the backbone of the party, in this case Tifa. As early as I can, I get her a Time materia and attach it to an All. This allows me to cast haste right away on the whole party. One of the things most newbies do is to ignore Haste. This is a HUGE mistake as Haste is easily one of the best spells in the whole franchise. Not only can you attack about 1.5x as much (meaning 1.5x the damage!) but you can respond to devastating attacks much more quickly by healing frequently. Later in the game, I also attach a Restore materia to another All which allows me to cast Regen on the whole party as well. Tifa can then heal as needed and otherwise use some incredibly powerful magic spells and summons as needed. Her Limit Break also rocks.

If my magic character is the backbone, the tank is the rib cage. The most important materia to place on this character is HP Up. This will increase their HP drastically as time goes on. Then, you want to place Cover on them. This will allow them to cover the other players frequently with their bonus HP. Finally, Counter Attack. This all adds up to a character with a ton of health who takes the damage from other characters and responds with a counter attack frequently. My other characters rarely get hurt from single attacks, making healing incredibly simple as well. Another helpful one is the materia that uses enemies attacks since that doesn't diminish this characters physical stats but still gives them some powerful magic, assuming you get it.

Finally, you want to make sure your two non-tank characters are in the back row. I give Tifa a long range materia and Vincent is naturally long-range. This allows them to take only half damage from attacks. Cloud is front row in my game but if you use a character like Barret as your tank, you can keep them all in the back and still do full damage in return. The last character is rather unimportant as to what you give them, as long as they can hold their own. I have Vincent equipped with Bahamut ZERO, another enemy move materia and some spells like Bio and Escape.

If you are having some trouble getting through portions of the game, check this out and give it a try. I haven't died yet in the game nor have I found any battle all that difficult. Results may vary so feel free to post your own strategies below!