Quote Originally Posted by Bolivar View Post
VII's statistic impact was immediate and noticeable. Loading a character with magic spells will diminish their physical attack, but give them a huge edge magically. But you still have to think with it, because loading up Barret or Cid will never make effective mages as it would Cloud or Red XIII.

The strategy is there, and as with all other FF's, the most effective battle plan is to capitalize on each character's strengths, even if it means further compromising their weaknesses - this has been all throughout the series.
Materia never had a noticeable impact on characters. Even altering their HP and MP, or other stats by what should be noticeable percentages does nothing to really affect their effectiveness in battle. Some are good at physical attacks, some aren't, and everyone can rock the house with magic. There was no strategy in FFVII except attack with magic (particularly if the enemy is weak against something), heal when you need to, and use limit breaks as soon as they fill up. Even if you're a little underleveled, that will pretty much guarentee that you never die. I'm not going to sit here and claim that a game like FFVI needed more strategy than that (despite being my favourite it really didn't though boosting stats makes more of a difference in it), but I've played VII more than enough to know that it's stats, weapon differences, and characters don't really matter. It stands as one of the easiest games in the series.