Help Recommended party for a first time player

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graverobber9

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From February to March of this year I played, completed, and thoroughly enjoyed Final Fantasy VIII. I decided to give its predecessor a shot in result, however I was torn from the game due to a superfluous amount of school work. Now that it's summer I have decided to play the game from scratch.

When I played it before I used Barret, Cloud, and Aeris in my main party, and I was reasonably successful. Considering that most people here have beaten the game at least once, I would like to hear what characters would make the best possible party for a novice. I'm not going to "power game" my first complete play through, so don't choose characters for esoteric reasons. Also, Materia recommendations would be helpful too. I fortunately own a strategy guide of the game, but it doesn't discuss party mechanics a whole lot.


Any recommendations would be helpful, thanks.
 
I'll go ahead and shift this to FFVII Help Booth for you. ;)

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Well Um dont get
attached to Aerith/Aeris freind:sad3:

Cloud and Barret are a great combo but lean your party towards being slower with Barret being bulky and Cloud being the all rounder not favoring any particular statistic.

It depends on what kind of party you want?

Ideally you want a balanced party, with speed,HP and powerful limits.
Cloud Barret and Cid are not so bad its like "The Boys" becareful tho as this is a PG group ;).

Cloud Yuffie and Red XIII offer speed and a wide variety if Limits that boost stats and restore HP.

Cloud Tifa and Barret in my experience are the best all round Party

Vincent fits in well with all parties, but has no specialty and is used more as a fan favorite.

Hope this helps:monster:
 
I'd say Cloud, Barret, and Red XIII starting off, and then replace Red XIII with Vincent mid-game.
If you want to find Vincent, he's an optional character hidden in Nibel Mansion later on.

Red XIII is solid all around, with nice limits that are offensive and supportive.
Barret is also nice, with long and short range weapons (mostly long range) and nice limits. Also has a good constitution.

But replace Red XIII with Vincent and you have a solid team. Some say he isn't that great. I don't know why, I think he is better then most. Don't listen to them :D. Anyways, equip Cloud with long range materia (found in cave after crossing marsh with giant serpent) and you have a fully long range party! Put them all in the back row as they will do the same damage + take half attack damage.

Of course, most of this will sound like giberish if you are still in Midgar near the beginning of the game. Don't worry, you will know these things later on.

For future reference- some beast materia combos:

Wanna beat Emerald Weapon but can't seem to not die first?
Knights of the Round<>HP Absorb
Mime

Wanna add some variety to your attacks?
Added Effect<>Death
Added Effect<>Hades

Cloud doesn't get a weapon upgrade until after Midgar.
When infiltrating Shinra Headquarters, steal from 1st class soldier and get the Hardedge, which is better then his next weapon.

Have fun!!
 
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My idea of a good end game party would be Cloud, Yuffie and Cid. During disk one it would have to be Cloud Barret and Tifa. The earliest you can get Yuffie is in the forest near Junon. From this point I would suggest Cloud (with the long range materia), Yuffie, and Barret. You can play with any character and complete the game. There isn't one that is bad except maybe Cait Sith.
 
Personally, I leave Vincent in the basement (I think I said this before somewhere too, but repetition is the grandmother of everything good). I know how to get him, but he can stay there for all eternity :)

I think one problem with FFVII that I have was, that besides the limit breaks the characters are functionally almost the same. Cait Sith and Vincent (and to some extent Red XIII) are kind of terrible in comparison if you want to nitpick about limit breaks, but otherwise it really doesn't matter that much. Putting a functional party together as a whole seems more to me a question of what materia you stick to what character, as opposed to the characters being über special in something. Sure, they have minor differences and it's not very wise to put Aeris to deal the physical damage ( :) ), but just about any party will really do. Since the limit breaks are just about the only things that really separate the characters I guess I'd go with Cloud and the other two members from the group Yuffie, Barrett and Cid.
 
Honestly I never found great use for Barrett.
Tifa is one of the best to have in your party, because her limit breaks help a lot and she has a pretty good attack.
Once you get Vincent, you're gonna like to have him in your party.
Aerith is a really good healer, and actually later her attack can get moderately high.
For me a good party is probably Red, Cloud, and Aerith or Tifa, Cloud and Aerith. (For disk 1 anyway)
 
I think choosing a good team depends on how you like to play a game, tbh :hmmm: As someone who likes a party who can just tear through enemies as fast as possible, with admittedly little attention to using interesting tactics, I found myself going with Cloud, Barret, and then either Cid, Red or Tifa. Despite Aeris's healing abilities, I found that I almost never used her, even for that, and so it was frustrating to have her in the party and not be able to do very powerful attacks. If your party is able to maintain their health well enough then I would definitely pick a group from the above members I mentioned.
 
Well I well say this (this will be for just for overall if you have everyone at the same level)

Cloud and Barret are the top attackers for power

Red XIII and Tifa are the fastest

Yuffie and Aerith are the top magic users (I think Cait Seth is up here too but someone can quote me wrong on that)

Cid and Vincent are the are the most balance of everyone (some people argue Red XIII is in the most balance but I think overall these two are your most average of the group)

So going off that my typical group (if I have everyone) Is usually Cloud Barret and either Tifa or Cid (mainly cause I like controlling my characters and if you have Vincent use limit break you cant control him, lame reason but thats my reason for it) I typically use Red also he has a good limit break also. I never bother with Yuffie or Cait Seth or Aerith too much (Aerith you figure out why later if you didn't read any spoilers)
 
There's really no "wrong" party, so use whoever you want. Materia is crucial to what kind of role each character will play in the party, so set it up however you like.

I used Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent throughout my game and had very little problems. Course, I also "grinded" the materia levels and maxed everything out, but it doesn't really matter in the long run.
 
Aeris, Cloud, Barret I reckon. Aeris should be able to help you out with her healing wind, when you're running low and need to heal ASAP, and Barret is a huge tank, and has heavy limit breaks.
Red is also good with limit breaks, same with Tifa. I don't recommend having the same party all the way through, because some characters do better at some fights than others, so experiment a little bit. Aeris, Barret, Red and Tifa are sure to get you through.
 
On my first and only playthrough of VII I used Tifa, Cloud, Red, and Aerith the most. Aerith was really good at healing, Cloud had some of the best limit breaks and strength for me, Red I grew really fond of and he was strong and also had nice limit breaks. I'll admit I wasn't always a Tifa fan. Her attacks never delt that much damage for me in the beginning and I hated her first limit break...but towards the end she started to deal more damage when she got some of her better gloves. I agree with what others may have suggested in having Barrett on your team...he's an absolute beast as far as strength, has good weapons, and his limit breaks deal a LOT of damage.

Its really up to you though...we all get attached to different characters for different reasons...so if you happen to like one character more than another put them on your team. If you really end up liking the game you'll probably end up training all of them like I did :lew:
 
Stella Nox Fleuret said:

Its really up to you though...we all get attached to different characters for different reasons...so if you happen to like one character more than another put them on your team. If you really end up liking the game you'll probably end up training all of them like I did :lew:
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This. The Materia system really gives you a lot of flexibility regarding character development, so there's no real need to have a particular party setup to guarantee success. The only points of real difference are Limit Breaks and the characters' individual personalities.

I had a tendency to use Cloud, Cid, and Red XIII.

Cloud- Obvious reasons.
Cid - I considered Highwind to be a must in terms of Limit Breaks (it's nearly on par with Omnislash), plus I liked Cid.
Red XIII - Ever since Cosmo Canyon, Red always had a place in my heart. :(
 
I use Cloud, Barrett and Tifa. Tifa is mainly my support character since she doesn't put out much damage but later is on the level with Barrett. So they kind of both become mainly support and Cloud is the heavy hitter once all limit breaks are acquired.
 
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