I liked the materia system most because instead of having to make each induvidual character stronger for them to get spells you just level up the materia and then put it on whichever character you want, I think this gave the player alot more freedom to use whichever character they wanted at any point in the game regardless of when they joined, unlike in 6, 9, and 10 where if you try to use a character late in the game they will be so underpowered that they will just get owned. Plus I used alot more spells in 7 than i did in most others like: Ultima, Contain materia, Comet, the Bahamuts, KOTR, Barrier, Haste, and Bolt, Fire, and Ice but only until i beat Lost Number then i got rid of those 3.