The Game's difficulty is a joke

[Sephiroth]

But that's like saying "walking to the store is hard, if you just chop off your legs and arms, and don't use an electric wheelchair, and also do it in winter when the roads are full of ice".

No it is not because Ribbons make the last battles so easy. But the storyline does not expect you to visit all Temple rooms, the secret room in the Cliff and the pockets of Master Tonberrys. The Materia thing I said was just an extra advice to make things harder.