Magic materia suck

[Raistlin]

It's been a while since my last thread on this subject.

Magic materia, except for a limited amount of time at the beginning of the game, largely suck in this game. I would rather have one mastered Enemy Skill materia than all of those useless green orbs.

You can get Beta, Trine, Big Guard, and White Wind in disc 1... and then of what use is Cure, Barrier, or the elemental materia?

Ultima also blows. Magic Breath is an underrated Enemy Skill with half the MP cost and nearly as much damage... and you get it earlier in the game.

There are some magic materia which are worthwhile. Revive and Manipulate come to mind. Comet (for a short time), Contain, and Shield aren't completely worthless. The rest can pretty much be tossed overboard sometime near the end of disc 1 and wouldn't be missed very much.

Discuss the awesomeness of Enemy Skills and how much magic materia suck.

[Karifean]

The ONLY magic materia I really used was Restore, which was the only way for me to survive the looong leveling in the Junon forests. I agree, Ultima just cost way too much MP. As soon as I got Beta from the Zolom, which was always before entering Junon, the game was pretty much over.

[seiferalmasy2]

Unfortunately FF7 does not utlise its system as good as it could, but a difficulty mod I am making will address this

[Kyros]

restore led to regen and time/death + added effect was nice, magic in general for VII and VIII both overall was pretty crappy, and in VI it was good but not great

[Xaven]

Both runs of FFVII, I made full use of plenty of little green materias! D: I suppose I it may have been different had I explored Enemy Skills, but a super magic-bloated Cait Sith was the biggest overall hitter of my main party. :/

If I ever play FFVII again in the far away future, I'll try to play the Raistlin way~! xD

[MJN SEIFER]

Heh.

I love have a wide selection - so I just get all I can and use it as much as I can. I think that Square wanted you to have alternatives (seeing as each attack looks different aswell) So I just alternate between using magic and E.Skills - I sometimes use items as well if I have them ("Swift Bolt" for example - it's the same as one of the "Bolt" attacks, but it's just a change of paste for me.)

Oh, and Ultima is not the same as Magic Breath - I do like Magic Breath, but Ultima always did more damage for me.

[Aerith's Knight]

Well, I for one liked this way better over the systems used in ANY FF older than VII. I do not say younger, because the magic systems from 1-6 were solid.

[Raistlin]

Oh, and Ultima is not the same as Magic Breath - I do like Magic Breath, but Ultima always did more damage for me.

Ultima does do a bit more damage... for twice the MP and is found much later in the game. I wasn't saying Ultima did less damage; I was saying it was less useful for less time. Ultima does crap damage for when you get it in the game for a bunch of MP.

[seiferalmasy2]

Ultima is the ultimate magic though and it does ignore magic defence. Magical breath and other attacks don't and can be a liability against monsters with attribute defences. Magical breath is an attribute (elemental) based attack.

[Kyros]

I just found almost all offensive magic useless since it didn't do the damage regular attacks did.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Magic materia can be linked with Elemental materia for specific defenses and attacks, as well as with Counter and other materia for specific automated actions and reactions. If you're just using the Fire materia to cast Fire, you're not taking full advantage of FFVII's mechanics.

[Kyros]

Not necessary if youre 4x cutting for 9999 w/o it.

[Raistlin]

Magic materia can be linked with Elemental materia for specific defenses and attacks, as well as with Counter and other materia for specific automated actions and reactions. If you're just using the Fire materia to cast Fire, you're not taking full advantage of FFVII's mechanics.

I certainly concede that magic materia, especially early on, has additional benefits outside of simply casting it. I still would prefer Enemy Skills to those, though.

[BG-57]

One of E. Skills greatest strengths is you get up to 24 skills on a single materia. This is matched only by the master materia, which you get much later.

There's no point at which I don't use magic materia (except when Yuffie's involved!), but I always save a slot for E. Skills, since there are so many useful ones.

[Mercen-X]

Magic materia, except for a limited amount of time at the beginning of the game, largely suck in this game. I would rather have one mastered Enemy Skill materia than all of those useless green orbs.

Agreed.

You can get Beta, Trine, Big Guard, and White Wind in disc 1... and then of what use is Cure, Barrier, or the elemental materia?

Agreed.

Ultima also blows. Magic Breath is an underrated Enemy Skill with half the MP cost and nearly as much damage... and you get it earlier in the game.

Ultima does not blow. Not really. Maybe slightly. Where was Magic Breath... where has it ever been underrated? Whose rating system is being used? Magic Breath is like the best spell in the game.

There are some magic materia which are worthwhile. Revive and Manipulate? come to mind. Comet (for a short time), Contain, and Shield aren't completely worthless.

I'll agree that Command materia can be useful, but let's not call Manipulate a Magic materia. Did you mean Mystify? I love Comet and Contain.

Discuss the awesomeness of Enemy Skills and how much magic materia suck.

I still haven't been able to complete a single E.Skill materia.

Well, I for one liked this way better over the systems used in ANY FF older than VII. I do not say younger, because the magic systems from 1-6 were solid.

You've got the phrasing backwards. As "older" and "younger" refer to age, 1-6 would be older. --McNitpicky