The sniper rifle is basically used to kill snipers, and barely anything else. In Very Hard, they literally take off 800 to 1000 HP with one shot, so having the Hydra to combat them is amazingly useful in that sense. From time to time, you are capable of killing mass groups of people by targetting a barrel that is conveniently placed next to them. The Cerberus peters short in range (even with the Nova Barrel), and more than anything, caused the soldiers to then become alerted of your presence. The Gigant Hydra is the only gun that surpasses the Ultima Weapon in damage (280 compared to 200).

But seeing as most of the game will be played in medium to short range, the usage of the Hydra is limited. Unless you are one of the types that enjoys picking soldiers off from afar with calm patience and effectively hiding yourself, the Hydra is not a gun that you will use very often.


And as for magic, get a materia floater and upgrade it so that your magic level is maxed (3). Then proceed to see what magic is truly capable of. To further the use of magic, it does not use bullets, allows you to kill off large groups of soldiers easily in one or two magic shots (Fire or Thunder materia), and also ignores defense.

How do you think you kill the Dual Horn in order to get the Manahaert? Thunder materia and the Ultima Weapon coupled with a lovely chain.

So really, magic and the Hydra are actually quite useful - it simply takes a certain amount of thought and patience in figuring out how to use it exceptionally well. However, once harnessed, I found that Very Hard was actually quite easy.