Aeris has awesome Limit Breaks

[Carl the Llama]

To be fair, Aeris will be one of your biggest physical attackers if you're savvy enough to steal a Mythril Staff(?) from the chariot enemy while going through the train graveyard. Cloud gets a similar weapon (Hardedge?) from the SOLDIER: 3rds on the upper floors of the Shinra tower before you get caught.

Just that Aerith leaves you 3 metres later.

That is entirely beside the point, the point is she is a viable character for both physical and magical attack when it gets down to it.

In actual fact if you really wanted to use her as an attacker you could get the Umbrella from the Gold Saucer which has an attack power of 58, weapons the likes of which do not have the same attack power till you get to the Icicle Inn so lets think about how long you could have her doing more damage then your average attacker:

Gold Saucer > Desert Prision > Gongaga > Cosmo Canyon > Niblheim > Rocket Town > Wutai *Note: You can get Nanaki's Hairpin which gives him an attack of 57* > Gold Saucer > Temple of the Ancients.

That's right the rest of the game she is in our party, so all this trout about her not being a good fighter is exactly that: trout.

[Sephiroth]

I hope you know that I know it is not really a measuring unit for time.

And it is not beside the point because you have mentioned she is the strongest attacker until you get Hardedge, Atomic Scissors, et cetera and that was why I wrote it. It is not for long. Plus, the Umbrella is hard to get. I know what Aerith can do and know her weapon list but I have never seen her being prefered over Cloud and the others as attacker for the sole reason that she either is not in your team or the weapon you get for her is not strong enough, to hard to get, et cetera. On top of that the Umbrella has its disadvantage. With her stats and weapons being known it is not necessary to discuss about what she actually is. In fact she is always in my team, while I prefer her as magic user for the sole reason that I give my characters something to do with actually is fitting for them as person. I only talked about a time span and inconvenience when it comes to using her.

[Carl the Llama]

I hope you know that I know it is not really a measuring unit for time.

And it is not beside the point because you have mentioned she is the strongest attacker until you get Hardedge, Atomic Scissors, et cetera and that was why I wrote it. It is not for long. Plus, the Umbrella is hard to get. I know what Aerith can do and know her weapon list but I have never seen her being prefered over Cloud and the others als attacker for the sole reason that she either is not in your team or the weapon you get for her is not strong enough, to hard to get, et cetera. On top of that the Umbrella has its disadvantage. With her stats and weapons being known it is not necessary to discuss about what she actually is. In fact she is always in my time, while I prefer her as magic user for the sole reason that I give my characters something to do with actually is fitting for them as person. I only talked about a time span and inconvenience when it comes to using her.

Hard to get or not, its viable, and with an attack power of 58 a crit rate of +5% and +20 Vitality, it has a huge advantage if you want to ignore her best stat magic I am not saying use her... I will be the first to admit I don't use certain characters in games because I dislike their character in said game, but all this trout about her being bad in battle is completely unfounded, sure if you don't use someone and they don't have powerful weapons they wont be pulling in the big numbers like some of the character who are in your party all the time, its just down to personal preference.

My point if any is that she IS a prominent fighter for the time you have her if you USE her, its like you don't even know how to play to her strength's she IS a potent magical force, point in case, I demolished Materia Keeper last night before he even had a chance to cast Trine thanks Yuffie and her repeatably casting Aqualung... I didn't even need to heal myself once, and this is the boss that some people find troubling...

[Pumpkin]

I think they purposely gave Aeris some super awesome Limit Breaks and good stats and what have you so that you would use her and be all "man, she's so great whaaaaaaaaaaaaat" and then she dies and it would hit you harder. I didn't like her, but I like all of my characters to be at an equal level, so I was using her more than I would have if I just leveled up based on preference. She did have some useful limit breaks, but I still didn't like her, or like using her.

[noxious.sunshine]

I think they purposely gave Aeris some super awesome Limit Breaks and good stats and what have you so that you would use her and be all "man, she's so great whaaaaaaaaaaaaat" and then she dies and it would hit you harder. I didn't like her, but I like all of my characters to be at an equal level, so I was using her more than I would have if I just leveled up based on preference. She did have some useful limit breaks, but I still didn't like her, or like using her.

shion hit the nail on the head with that one.

[Shauna]

~Opinions~

[Roogle]

I think they purposely gave Aeris some super awesome Limit Breaks and good stats and what have you so that you would use her and be all "man, she's so great whaaaaaaaaaaaaat" and then she dies and it would hit you harder. I didn't like her, but I like all of my characters to be at an equal level, so I was using her more than I would have if I just leveled up based on preference. She did have some useful limit breaks, but I still didn't like her, or like using her.

I agree with your assessment. I think they could have souped up her stats a bit more or made her Limit Breaks more practical such as providing less support. Breath of the Earth was underwhelming to me. Also, Great Gospel cannot revive knocked out party members, but Pulse of Life can, I believe? I'm not sure on this one. Regardless, her supportive abilities may not have appealed to every gamer, so I think if they made her a bit more powerful or if they upped the difficulty, she would have really come in handy. As you can see in this thread, there are a lot of people who said that they did not use her in combat unless she was forced into the party, but I would like it if she was really decent enough that you wanted to have her while she lasted.

[Skyblade]

While her Limits are awesome, they're just pointless. You can make your team invincible. Whoop-dee-do. They're practically so anyway. Support is just not worthwhile in this game. You can keep your party going longer, but they never really get in trouble anyway.

A lot of other characters have Limits which can pretty much eliminate an entire enemy unit in a single strike, and when they get to higher levels, they can wipe out entire groups instantly. Why would you bother with a skill that prolongs combat, rather than ending it quicker?

[Carl the Llama]

While her Limits are awesome, they're just pointless. You can make your team invincible. Whoop-dee-do. They're practically so anyway. Support is just not worthwhile in this game. You can keep your party going longer, but they never really get in trouble anyway.

You forget, the game is designed in such a way to make it challenging the first time you play it, not every single time. I remember the first time I fought Demons Gate... he absolutely slaughtered me, he has a massive 450 magic defence which means spells like Beta and Aqualung do at best 250 damage even in the higher levels (I can confirm this with my party as this is how much I dealt him with those spells) and P attacks are almost equally weak, Demons Gate IS a real challenge the first time you fight him.

A lot of other characters have Limits which can pretty much eliminate an entire enemy unit in a single strike, and when they get to higher levels, they can wipe out entire groups instantly. Why would you bother with a skill that prolongs combat, rather than ending it quicker?

Limits are typically saved for bosses as in the lower levels all enemies can be wiped out with a simple casting of an Enemy Skill (Matra Magic, Beta, Aqualung and Trine are > Any spell with an all on the first disk) where as a single limit can kill 1 character, even if you cheat and have unlimited limits on all characters what happens when you run into a group of enemies and you have single hit limits I mean you would still be killing a single enemy with a single move and that makes 5 limits it would still be considerably quicker just to cast a single spell and wipe them all out.

THEN we take into account Aerith and her 2/2 limit break Fury Brand, you say 3 attacking limits is > 2, well I take your 3 sir and raise you a 4. All it takes is a meagre 80 kills and 7 uses of her 2/1 limit to unlock which can be done be giving her your ES Materia and having her mow down all enemies you encounter with a single spell.

[Pumpkin]

I disagree KD. I did my first full playthrough of the game with no difficulty at all. I can't think of one singal fight where I actually struggled. I didn't do the optional weapons fights, but we're talking about disc 1 with Aeris anyways, so that doesn't matter. If your characters are at a decent level, Aeris limits aren't really necessary. I built most of her limits up and then just set it back to level 1 for her healing Limit and that's all I cared to use. It was the only one I found mildly useful, even though I had Cure-All. It was basically a free Cure-All.

[VeloZer0]

Also consider that a good chunk of your limits are going to be occurring n random battles. Though obviously 'per capita' you get more limits in boss fights you do spend a much more time in random encounters where the limits are definitely more lack luster.

[Shauna]

I agree with shion. I am playing FF7 through for the first time right now, and honestly? There has been zero struggle. It is not difficult. If I'd played when I was younger? It would probably have been more difficult for my child-mind.

I don't need a limit that makes everyone invincible. I don't need one that heals everyone. Restore materia with an All attached is more useful since I don't have to wait for a limit to load up. Not denying that they can be useful to some people, but not me.

[Carl the Llama]

I agree with shion. I am playing FF7 through for the first time right now, and honestly? There has been zero struggle. It is not difficult. If I'd played when I was younger? It would probably have been more difficult for my child-mind.

I don't need a limit that makes everyone invincible. I don't need one that heals everyone. Restore materia with an All attached is more useful since I don't have to wait for a limit to load up. Not denying that they can be useful to some people, but not me.

okay so i ran into demons gate and i tried to beat him around 15 times and i cant! the hard part is im only lvl 26 and im trying to defeat him with no gaurd or barriers and no phoenix downs. i have cid cloud and aeris in my party. i dont know if aeris has pulse of life or not but hes hard to beat because without PDs cid dies at the boses first blow. my health is around the thousands. is there maybe a ay i can go level up or buy some PDs because i think im stuck and i dont wanna do over the game

Ok, I refuse to want to level up since we're forced to have Aeris in our party and I know she snuffs it. Cloud and Vincent are level 28 while she's 22. I really need help with these guys, I'm stuck at Red Dragon but guides arn't helping me at all and they all say Demon's Gate is hard and since I'm underleveled it will be a lot harder for me so I need some help very badly.

Ahhhhhhhhhh HELP!! Im stuck on this damn boss and i cant get past and its p1ssing me off

Let me give you some details about my team.

I have cloud, aka waste of time and space aeris, and Red XIII. All around level 29 and 1000 - 1300 HP.

I DONT have haste. I dont have deathblow (thnx F-CKIN AERIS #~!$%"!!!) and i dont have MANY abilities. I managed to get past the first boss fine, but this boss SEEMS TO RAPE MY ASS EVERYTIME I TRY TO FIGHT IT. AM I STUCK? SHOULD I JUST GIVE UP AND LEAD A NORMAL LIFE WITHOUT FINAL FANTASY VII?!

Just because you do not have difficulty does not mean others don't as well. An adult mind who is used to strategy games and RPG's will easily defeat someone given the proper preparations, but the fact is no boss before Demons Gate was a challenge. On my first play through back in 97 (when I had no internet and knew nothing about the game, no guides to help and no forewarning that the Demons Gate was likely to cave my head in) he WAS a challenge!

[Aulayna]

Aww guys, fightin' over lil ol' me. Shucks.

[Skyblade]

So Aeris is useful...for one boss.

That's not a very compelling argument.