Quote Originally Posted by Mercen-X View Post
Except that, as mentioned earlier, she's got some of the best white magic based limit breaks the series has ever seen. Take E. Skill, Ultima, KotR, QM, HP+, and Shield materia out of the game. Maxing out Aerith and being able to keep her would have broken the game. Thus everyone who started out on the Aerith hate train and refused to build her up before getting to know her would have been cursing themselves later on because the game would by this time be made ten times more difficult. Of course, that's a hypothetical.
Actually, they'd be remembered the same way all support skills in this game are: Awesome, Yet Impactical (thank the fact I'm posting from my phone that you were saved a TV Tropes link).

Most of the support abilities in this game rock. Barrier, Time, Heal... They're all really useful. Yet you never use them. Why? Because most battles take a few seconds, two turns, tops. Using support skills just drag the battles out, rather than actually improving your efficiency.

Healing Wind is basically Restore + All. A little more useful due to having Limit priority, but that's all.

Seal Evil is rarely used. While powerful, especially if Stop works, most bosses are immune, and for most enemies, a quick spell to kill them is better. Why cripple what you can kill?

Her next one (forgot the name, sorry) is another Useless Useful Spell (darn it, another missed link). Getting Esuna early is awesome, even if you can only use it every few battles. Oh, except that status ailments are rarely a problem. I mean, most enemies don't use them, and they wear off after a battle, so, again, it's easier to just kill them. The only time status ailments really cause a problem is when facing the frogs in Gongaga Forest. Oh, and Frog means you can't use limits, so too bad.

Fury Brand sounds awesome, and is one of Aeris's best limits. Great for training limits, especially. And it gives you two for the price of one! Provided you're willing to hang on to it. Because otherwise, Aeris will hit her limit while the others are halfway there, wasting the extra limit power. I suppose it's nice unleashing four limits on a boss right out of the door, but is it really that much better than three?

Pulse of Life is Healing Wind all over again. Sure, it heals fully instead of half, and it cures status ailments too. But status ailment curing is relatively pointless, and the healing is basically Cure 3 + All. A little better, but not enough to matter.

Planet Protector. Ho hum. Sure, limited invulnerability is nice, but you rarely use it. You can't heal while it's active, so all it does is buy you more time to attack. A healing spell would do much the same thing, and an actual offensive limit at that level would finish most battles. This one just gains you so little, overall.

And then we get Great Gospel. Both of her last two combined. Way more useful than Planet Protector, since it heals as well. Definitely her best. But rarely needed, and, as a final limit, difficult to spam. Heck, it gives you several turns during which none of your character's limits will advance. Powerful? Yes. Game breaking? Maybe, but no more than half the other skills in the game. Even removing your entire list, though, the game isn't nearly hard enough to make this limit have more than token functionality. I never use Shield or Quad Magic, I only use KotR and Ultima when I want to be flashy, and only use Enemy Skill for the variety. The game still isn't that hard.

And that's the thing. The game isn't hard enough, and the battles don't last long enough, to make any of the support abilities really useful. If it were, they'd all be game breakers, because there are some really powerful ones. But you can breeze through the game with only basic Materia, if you want.

She wouldn't be remembered for her limits, because they aren't actually that useful. She'd be remembered as a "nice idea", trying out a character with entirely defensive limits, but that's all.