Quote Originally Posted by Sephiroth1999AD
BTW, I could be the only one to do like this, but I usually take the Shield and give up the Sword. It actually gives you the best stats in the game.
Kind of incorrect. Strength, Defense and AP can all be altered by Up items. HP and number of Accessories are constant no matter what you choose. So that leaves MP and number of Items that are only alterable by the choose between Sword, Staff and Shield. So there are two possibilities here, one is to have max MP and the other is to have max Items. To have max MP, you must choose the Staff. But by doing this, you can only have 6 Items, even if you don't sacrifice the Shield. To have max Items you must choose the Shield, but you are limited to a max of 8 MP instead of 10 (without add ons). So in your case, having max Items, you can choose to take the Shield and sacrifice either the Staff or Sword and end up with the same thing. I choose to take the Staff, for several reasons. So in my case, max MP, I can take the Staff and sacrifice either the Sword or Shield and end up with the same thing.

But, you don't play through the game at level 80, you play through the game as your progess from low to high levels. So I don't just consider what I might have at the end, but what I have along the whole path, when I choose what to take and sacrifice. I have before choosen to take the Sword, which is a good choose. You learn several fighting skills very early in the game, which helps in battle, and you gain strength more quickly. Should you choose the Shield (another good choice), you learn Second Chance at level 12, which can save you against many of the early bosses where your defense isn't that great and you don't have the Cure spell and Donald and Goofy don't really know what they're doing yet. Should you choose the Staff (a third good choice), you will have more MP which will make your magic stronger. You will also gain AP more quickly, and your Cure will be more healing than otherwise (because of more MP). And, I personally like having things like Treasure Magnet, MP Haste and a very early Critical Plus, but that's just me.

And (to stay on topic) that funny scene at the end isn't a scene it's just a picture with the whole case making a silly face, and then it shows your battles stats. It shows things like number of heartless killed, number of items used, number of time you cured an ally, number of times ally died, ect. ect.