Barrier and MBarrier

Okay so I've been wondering about this for a while. What is the perks to having this buffs on? The most effective way is Big guard as many believe that enemy skill is awesome if not the best in the game. I think differently. The effect of Protect and Shell go away so fast that it only cuts damage for 1 maybe 2 attacks. I like the haste part and I use this enemy skill, but it seems that the best way to use wall in this game is with a character in slow status. It seems pointless to have bars dedicated to knowing how long barrier and Mbarrier last if they are just here one moment and gone the next.

Feed back?

i suppose its nice to know when your buffs are going to run out so you can cast it again...but i never used buffs on my playthrough...i jus go for the attack...i dont think i ever used haste on ff7...really the only ff game i have used it multiple times on was ff10

If I recall correctly, I've cast wall one time in about 6 playthroughs. I'm pretty sure I saw how long it lasted and decided it was relatively useless. So I very much agree.

Depends on the situation, but I don't find those spells terribly useful. However on my last playthrough, I used them quite a bit. Go figure. And to be fair, most players (unless they are FF lifers) probably won't find Big Guard the first time through.

Also, future games should have had the energy meter for buffs. I like 'em.

why would you use MBarrier+Barrier? Using wall is even more MP-waisting....just acquire the big guard enemy skill (use manipulate on the Beach Plug enemies on the beach in Gongaga/Corel Area Shoreline and cast it on your member which has the enemyskill materia equipped). It does Wall+Haste at the same time with less MP per turn.
I think it costs 56MP, while Wall costs 58MP.

As was mentioned earlier, most new players wouldn't fund Big Guard on their first playthrough.

The barriers also decrease faster depending on your speed. So at the beginning of the game they last way longer than at the end.

Protect and Shell are likely meant to be applied constantly over time by a character that you have given a more supportive skillset to. For example, the developers probably imagined that you would give mostly healing and support spells to Aerith, who likely, as a result, would have little in the way of offense. Decreasing the amount of time that the supportive spells are active would give a character with this type of path more to do.

I can see having a character dedicated to these buffs as a good plan, but I don't understand why you can't re-new it right away. From what I've seen in the game you can't cast Barrier/MBarrier/Wall/Big Guard as long as you still have these buffs... unless you are wasting MP. Even if its low and you want to cast it then instead of now. If you have a protect status running out you have to wait until its allllll gone before your dedicated buffer is allowed to do its job.