Why develop different characters?

[Doom Chocobo]

I just started playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time. Unlike many of the earlier games, it seems to me that most of the characters are interchangable in terms of skills. Since you just use materia to do stuff, there's no reason why you couldn't pick three characters at random, say, Cloud, Tifa, and Barret, equip them will all the best materia, and then completely ignore leveling up the other characters. Am I wrong in this respect?

[TheAbominatrix]

Nope, you're right. Well, with one exception, but it's a spoiler and I shant say it.

The only real thing they have that sets them apart from eachother are the limit breaks, but even then they're pretty standard. I just go with whatever characters I like and don't worry about the rest.

It's basically the same thing for every game since, save for IX.

[Mindflare]

I prefer this setup, strangely enough. I find it much less restrictive.

[TheAbominatrix]

Yeah, it's really just a matter of preference. I prefer the way IV did it... with every character different as far as abilities went, and without the option to cross-train people.

[Jojee]

I prefer how FFV did it... which is about the same as FFVII, as jobs == materia ^_^ Just pick your favorite people :}

[DJZen]

Materia is WAY more versatile than FFV's job system. I love the job system, but with materia you can easily make all your characters godlike.

[Shoden]

gbut materia has downfalls it can reduce stats like HP by up to 15% and there is a limit to how many materia you can fit depending on your equipment, it's simple to use but the materia levelling up is very good so it can take a long time to master ones like KOTR