It's not that pathetic, what's pathetic is spending many hours in the very beginning walking around in circles fighting enemies boosting limit breaks, and ending up fighting guard scorpion with meteorain and satellite. Then after that, work on aerith and tifa so they get level three limt break and when you get red, work him up to level two and at the very end where you fight rufus, have every character except red at level three limit breaks...

Then, as soon as you get past the mythril caves, find yuffie and work on her to get her limit breaks. That way, when you reach Gold Saucer, you'll have Bolt3, Ice3, Regen, Fire3, and some good level materia. After that, you can get through everything easily. Then you spend the hours with Vincent and Cid, now you are ready for your level 4s when you get them.