train them all or not?

i am in a bit of a crisis.

so far my party always consist out of Cloud, Aeris and the one with the lowest lvl.
naturally Cloud and Aeris become alot more higher then the rest but i really cant play without Aeriss quick heal.

but the rest get too far behind.
so my question is: Should i drop some characters, so the other can get stronger faster?
or do i really need too lvl all the characters becaus im going to need a specific skill later in the game?

its already a crisis sort of solved becaus now i noticed i need Barret at Don Corneo's big bird (in Wutai) and Red XIII's Lunatic high comes in very handy in times.

but what does the rest have to offer?

p.s any tips to take down Don Corneo's bird? he easely takes me down with Aero3. moves like Seal evil doesnt seem to stunn him, but i have read that Barrets Mind Blow will kill his Aero... i have no materia at all :l curse you Yuffie! D:

also they say an item that casts Bolt3 on him wil do quite some dammage.. BUT my inventory is pretty much empty? did yuffie take those too?

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.

I remember leveling up the three in my party at a time every two or three levels before each major boss fight. That's pretty much how I won. I can never remember who were in my party at a time or how consistent it was outside of Cloud, but you could probably get away with sticking with a certain group throughout most of it. I know Barrett will have to fight solo in one part of the game so it'll probably be a good idea to keep him strong.

I never fought Don Corneo's bird so I can't help there.

You don't really need all the characters. Also, sidelined characters won't ever be horribly underleveled, as they get a percentage of the exp that the main party gets. If you play only with three specific characters until level 60, the rest of the crew will be around lv50 anyway. The only thing they'll lack is developed limit breaks, but that's not very time consuming to sort out if you read up on how to do it most efficiently.

Just pick two you like and roll with them, They can all be used effectively so go with your favourites.

From memory, the enemies on Da Chao (the mountain) drop items that allow you to cast high level magic when you use them. Also worth levelling up a little if you're having trouble, too; you can always rest in Godo's (Yuffie's dad) house.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

If you play only with three specific characters until level 60, the rest of the crew will be around lv50 anyway.

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Unless the characters are dead. KO'd characters don't develop. Some challengers do this on purpose to fight the final boss at base level... waste-of-time.

Personally, my character selection tends to be random. I don't really have a favorite, battle-wise. If I could, I would choose a lead character other than Cloud, sh$ts and giggles... overall my character leveling tends toward sporadic.

I only bother for completion's sake and even then it seems easier to powerlevel the others in one go rather than swapping everyone back and forth and messing with their materia setups over and over.

If you're just playing the main game, you can pick whoever you enjoy the dialogue of and complete it no problem.

If you're wanting to beat the Emerald and Ruby Weapons then obviously you have to level up the people who are important for each but I seem to recall it's still mostly the materia setup that's important.

Barret's Mindblow definitely comes in handy against Rapps. I always go into the fight with Cloud and Barret's Limit Breaks ready to fire too. You can buy items in Wutai that give you Fire 3 and Bolt 3 to use against him instead of your materia. It shouldn't take too long if you have those.

I don't tend to worry too much about certain characters being under-levelled. They level up reasonably well on their own anyway. I do level up Yuffie before Wutai though so I can leave there with Leviathan in tow.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

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no not in that way :) when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

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Originally Posted by Shaibana

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

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no not in that way :) when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

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Oh. I don't remember that. Is that a side-quest or something?

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

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Originally Posted by Shaibana

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

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no not in that way :) when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

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Oh. I don't remember that. Is that a side-quest or something?

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yes its optional

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Originally Posted by Shaibana

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

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Originally Posted by Shaibana

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

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no not in that way :) when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

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Oh. I don't remember that. Is that a side-quest or something?

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yes its optional

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That's probably why, then. I either missed it or just don't remember.

Definitely worth playing through, a cool little sidequest.

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Originally Posted by Jiro

Definitely worth playing through, a cool little sidequest.

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It most certainly is.

I know a lot of people on here aren't too keen on the Wutai sidequest. I smurfing loved it. It's a great setting, definitely a challenge without materia and the Wutai music I thought was excellent.

I'll keep it in mind for when I replay VII in April.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

I'll keep it in mind for when I replay VII in April.

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I admire how organised you are!

I don't even bother to train the characters inside the party, much less out of it.

I did, but I don't think its necessary.

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Originally Posted by Cloudane

If you're just playing the main game, you can pick whoever you enjoy the dialogue of and complete it no problem.

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This, sort of. I usually just go with whoever is most relevant to what it is I'm doing/where it is I'm going. I'm too much of a story junkie.

Everyone but Cait Sith is usually how I roll. I'm just too much of a stats man to leave anyone else too far behind.

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Originally Posted by Shaibana

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Probably. I know if you don't pick the right dialog options for when you meet Yuffie she steals your stuff. It's a good idea to save before you run into her.
.

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no not in that way :) when you aleady have yuffie and head for Wutai she will steal everyones materia, and then you have to chase her around wutai to get it back

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She does not steal all of them. Normally you just don't have enough so she steals everything you have at that time.

p.s i dont notice anything about other characters developing a little even though they are not in the party... by now Yuffie is 10 levels behind :l

at the moment i entered the temple of the ancients and im concentrating on leveling Cloud, Aeris and Red XIII. im still almost 10 levels behind from when i was here the previous time. so i want to be lvl 50 when i start the fight with Demon's gate again..

pray for me :l

im finaly at my biggest enemy :O
Demon's gate
*dramatic music*


im now lvl 35 instead of the lvl 40 i was previous time :l

just keep level grinding until you can knock down that wall :monster:

Holy moly!! i made it passed

demons gate
*dramatic music*

it actually wasnt that hard as i thought :3
first i grinded to lvl 40. it doesnt take that long since a limit break easely takes down 1000-1500 HP, and getting a limit break isnt that hard at this boss :D


got him at the 1st try :D

Congratulations! I knew you could do it :D

Now im a little stuck at the 2 headed Schizo.
he does powerfull fire and ice attacks, and sometimes both at the time.
Quake leaves me with little HP on all my characters.
i find myself more bussy with reviving and healing the characters then doing some damage on him.
(SPOILER) ooh god, what do i miss Aeriss quick healing now :(

any tip, tricks and hints?

You could try putting elemental + fire/ice on someone's armour and then killing off the other head. If it is a strong level elemental materia, then they will be immune to that element or even healed by it! Schizo is a tough boss though :(

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Originally Posted by Jiro

You could try putting elemental + fire/ice on someone's armour and then killing off the other head. If it is a strong level elemental materia, then they will be immune to that element or even healed by it! Schizo is a tough boss though :(

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Yeah, pretty much this. I have one character on elemental-Ice and also equipped with the Fire Ring which you get from Costa Del Sol basement. That leaves them pretty much invulnerable to his attacks (other than quake).

I always level up my elemental materia as soon as possible. They definitely come in handy!

here is an update on mt FF7 adventures.
just to be sure, i put it in a spoiler tab.

(SPOILER) after getting some good equipment i made it through Schizo!
and the boss after that was a walk in the park (Jenova:Death it was called, i believe)
this jenova pretty much did only fire based attacks, and here is what happened:
Tifa absorbed the fire attacks, and it healed her.
Red was unaffect by the fire, 0 damage.
Cloud only got half the damage (300 out of 3200HP)

:jess:

after that they cut me out of my comfort zone becaus i had to leave cloud behind :l
i replaced him with Yuffie.
and just a view minutes after that i had to leave Tifa behind! who has (after losing Aerith) permanent in my party.

they promoted Cid to party leader and i got Red and Yuffie to join him. but after a vieuw minutes the low health of Yuffie (around 1800, while the rest has a good 2000+) started to anoy me and i replaced her with Vincent.

So not only do i have to play with underdeveloped characters (limit breaks) im also cut back about 5 levels :(
this is the moment i regret not training them :P

i am now facing Weapon in Mideel. he looks like a pokemon

Thankfully you won't have to worry about your under levelled party members for too long; you can go back to your normal party soon!

idd, i had my party back soon!

then i had to fight a Weapon in Mideel, wich luckely went away after a turn or 3, so all i had to do was survive..

got to the underwater reactor, and faced Carry Armour, wich first beated me a view times.. after ome tips and hints i had to go back to get Big Guard and Barrier.
after that it was a No Sweat.

then i got the sub and faced Emerald weapon (oops!!) who destroyed me :l

then to Rocket town, Cosmo Canyon, that Ancient city in the north.
and back to midgar to face another weapon, luckely that wasnt a hard one

Sounds like you're motoring along nicely!

now im just afraid that for when i finish the game.. ive got a good 25 hours in to it now and it feels like this game wil go on forever! im going to feel so empty when i finish it D:

When I finished it it was the greatest feeling in the world. The first RPG/FF I've ever played became the first RPG/FF I've ever beat.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

When I finished it it was the greatest feeling in the world. The first RPG/FF I've ever played became the first RPG/FF I've ever beat.

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Yup, exactly the same for me.

I sometimes wish i could go back to that first play through to experience everything again for the first time.