How did you setup your characters with Materia?

[Crossblades]

I'm currently playing a file that I had started about a year ago(3rd playthrough overall)and looking for suggestions and ideas on how to setup my characters with Materia. Usually, I make everyone learn magic, but I want to spice it up in this playthrough

[cloud21zidane16]

I like to even it normally, i have say a healer but also give them the enemy skill materia so they have some ood attacks, i cant really remember how mine is atm.
How about a no materia challenge?

[Bahamut2000X]

My first playthroughs when I was but a lad ages ago, before I had much of a strategy my set up was just pure out load up everyone with healing and then loads of magic or whatever else I had at the time.

[Rostum]

Well, I usually have full enemy skill materia on everyone, and then I'll customise what role they play (for instance, final attack > phoenix on someone). I play with Cloud, Barret and Tifa so I always make sure Barret has materia that has the most amount of AP for his final weapon.

As long as everyone had enemy skill, the game was easy enough (you had white wind that would heal health and ailments fully, big guard and plenty of damage spells).

[Aerith's Knight]

Cloud has both curative and offensive materia(mostly ultima or meteor), because i just want him to attack normally, and act only in danger.

Healing member(mostly aerith or cid): cure, revive and protective magic. Mostly has Ice-based attacks and/or summons.

Red XIII: plowed full with fire, lightning and strong other sorts of materia. one summon.

all characters have at least 50% of HP and MP up materia.. unless they are already at maximum.

[Relapse]

what i did was this:

Cloud: Ultima (as soon as I got it), 3 Elementals (early-mid game), E.Skill (always), strongest summons I had, 2xCut, other stuff.

Aeris (before dying): Cure (duh), FullCure (maybe), Esuna (or whatever materia had Esuna), mostly non-offensive magic.

Vincent: Comet, Poison, other less important offensive magic, support stuff.

Yuffie (after Aeris dies): Cure, Esuna, around the same as Aeris.

Of course, all should have summons, commands, and whatnot.

[Heath]

Well, I usually have full enemy skill materia on everyone, and then I'll customise what role they play (for instance, final attack > phoenix on someone). I play with Cloud, Barret and Tifa so I always make sure Barret has materia that has the most amount of AP for his final weapon.

As long as everyone had enemy skill, the game was easy enough (you had white wind that would heal health and ailments fully, big guard and plenty of damage spells).

Sometimes I want to go through a game without Enemy Skill but it's just so useful that I wonder if it makes the game too easy. I'm a sucker for it too and usually have at least two people with it.

Otherwise it's usually pretty standard fare. Only one or two summons per person, packed up with green materia. Usually have a Cure-All in there and any stat boosting materia for any spare slots I have. Try to add in some HP increasing ones to offset the balance of the other materia somewhat.

[arcanedude34]

An interesting setup fer me when I wanted to beat VII on a friend's file: first off, he was on Disc 3 and had NO cure magic. So I had Yuffie learn Cue-2. After that, I basically stuck her with many summons (weak ones too, no KotR for this man) to boost her magic. Second, Cloud has as many HP Pluses as it took to get him to 9999 HP. He also had SlashAll, and I think that was it. Vincent also had many HP Pluses, as well as Ultima and Phoenix. I was level 55 and not one of my guys died vs. Safer-Sephy. ^_^

[leader of mortals]

Cloud: Nothing that would ever lower his strength. He is for physical attacks only. Has steal, long range, enemy skill, and such

Barret: Healer. Had cure 3-all, Life 2-final attack(phionex is too cheap), and such

Cid: Red mage type, but mostly magic. Had all the important magic attacks like ultima, Hades, KoTR, and such.

I chose these 3 because they have the best limits I think.

[Zephni]

~ Like some people have been saying Enemy Skill is a huge help from the second you get it, to the end of the game. Even when everyones maxed out, things like 'white wind', 'big gaurd', 'lazer'. Then youv'e got things like 'shadow flare' an 'pandora's box' wich are just awsum AND effective.

I generaly use attacking now because i took quite alot of time to get '2xCut' maxed (iow 4xCut) with all three party members. Actualy i have 2 master commands wich is even better. But either way thats 9999 dmg x 4 with each character. (btw i usualy have Cloud, Barret, Cid/Yuffie.{bassed on limit breaks})
This amounts to almost 120,000 dmg in one round!

Um, then some one should have curative magic, something like 'full cure' or 'regan', 'Esuna' and 'revive' magic put on a link with 'all', this way your sorted, esspecialy if everyone has this, works best really if you have 'master magic' materia paried with 'all' on all three members, but there is always ways around.

If you like have knights of the round with somone, but you generaly don't need this (alough it's awsum i agree) if youv'e been getting 'e skills' through the game. Also remember that equiping summons/magic effects your status. Alough master summon/magic doesn't.

Finaly think about link materia such as 'final attack' and 'magic counter' or 'counter' (wich you pair with command materia), there are 100's of different ways to do this. Alough i generaly have somthing like.

magic counter - curative magic/or strong offensive. (prety obvious)
final attack - i can't remember if this works with 'revive' but it would be handy! (can somone reply if they know this, "can't remember for the life of me!" ;p)
counter (my frave) - 'Mug' , 'mime', not sure if 'eskill' or '4xcut' works

Oh and don't forget your independant magic if your feeling a lil' low on Hp, Mp, Luck, Magic!

In the end there are literaly thousands of possibilitys on how to set up your party, it generaly comes down to what you like, and what you feel
is most effective.. making your final fantasy 7 save different than me/ff7 fans, that's why 7 freaking rules =)

[Bolivar]

Cloud has the highest magic stat in the game after aeris leaves, and since the game starts him off like one, I usually play him as a black mage (spikey-hair instead of a pointy-hat?), offensive materia and all, and keep him in the back row.

Barret I don't give any green materia to, as he's built like a fighter and you want to keep his HP and Str up. He can get pink materia like Counter Attack and HP plus, I give him "Cover" as he has high Vit and can be kept in the back for much of the time, also yellow materia like Enemy Skill - this one goes good w/ the gun-arm concept, plus it doesn't rely on mag stats (I think).

Tifa, same, dont' really give her cover, but she gets HP plus, counter, sometimes steal. Since she's a monk, it's good to giver her D.Blow command, but you might want to give her luck plus and chocobo lures to increase her luck, and chances of it connecting.

Red XIII is well balanced, so I usually keep him as his name implies, a red mage. I might give him an elemental to have his attacks do more, depending on what enemies are in the area. some offensive magic, some curative, some other stuff.

Yuffie, again, only gets independent and command materia, raise HP, speed, luck, maybe have her steal and throw.

Cait Sith has good MP, I like to play his toysaurus/manipulator role, so i give him green like transform, seal, possibly cure, time, barrier, and manipulate or morph command.

Cid, same as other fighters.

Vincent, jack-of-all trades like Red XIII.

[Crossblades]

Cloud has the highest magic stat in the game after aeris leaves, and since the game starts him off like one, I usually play him as a black mage (spikey-hair instead of a pointy-hat?), offensive materia and all, and keep him in the back row.

Barret I don't give any green materia to, as he's built like a fighter and you want to keep his HP and Str up. He can get pink materia like Counter Attack and HP plus, I give him "Cover" as he has high Vit and can be kept in the back for much of the time, also yellow materia like Enemy Skill - this one goes good w/ the gun-arm concept, plus it doesn't rely on mag stats (I think).

Tifa, same, dont' really give her cover, but she gets HP plus, counter, sometimes steal. Since she's a monk, it's good to giver her D.Blow command, but you might want to give her luck plus and chocobo lures to increase her luck, and chances of it connecting.

Red XIII is well balanced, so I usually keep him as his name implies, a red mage. I might give him an elemental to have his attacks do more, depending on what enemies are in the area. some offensive magic, some curative, some other stuff.

Yuffie, again, only gets independent and command materia, raise HP, speed, luck, maybe have her steal and throw.

Cait Sith has good MP, I like to play his toysaurus/manipulator role, so i give him green like transform, seal, possibly cure, time, barrier, and manipulate or morph command.

Cid, same as other fighters.

Vincent, jack-of-all trades like Red XIII.

This is kinda how I wanted to setup my characters, except Cait Sith would be my Black Mage, Cloud would be my Red Mage, Red XIII would be my White Mage and Vincent would be my Blue Mage with the Enemy Skill Materia. And I would definitely keep Throw and Steal on Yuffie. However, I'm kinda undecided on who would be my Summoner

[Gilthanes]

I usually give 1 person the All+Restore combo, as well as the full line of Heal+Revive set, and some of the status effects that reverse each other, such as Transform, as well as Enemy skill to give them a wide range of offensive spells without using too much materia spot

Then I have 1 person that has restore, and an arrangement of attack+all spells, potentially a summon too (for the +mag boost), this is my Nuker for when the occasion calls for

The other person, usually cloud, doesnt get much materia. He'll get Restore, and maybe 1 or 2 attack spells so he has something, but otherwise I keep him light so his melee stats arent gimped too much

[TheSpoonyBard]

I find this works quite well (ultimate weapon + wizard bracelet)

Master Magic[green] = All[blue]
Master Summon[red] = MP Absorb[blue]
Master Command[yellow] = HP Absorb[blue]
HP Plus[purple] = MP Plus[purple]
Double Cut[yellow] = Counter Attack[purple]
W-Magic[yellow] = W-Summon[yellow]
Final Attack[blue] = Phoenix[red]
Enemy Skill[yellow] = W-Item[yellow]

[Roogle]

I have not played Final Fantasy VII in several years, so I cannot make any detailed suggestions.

If I were replaying the game, I would consider the statistical bonuses and penalties associated with each Materia and choose who gets what Materia based on their default statistics. For example, if Barret had the highest STR in the game, I would likely minimize the amount of STR-reducing Materia given to him.