What was/is your main party set up? And why?

[Big Boss]

Final Fantasy VII was one of the first video games I got really deep in. It was the first video game I ever completed, so it goes without saying it holds a special place in me. That being said, since every character is generally just as useful as the last (with the exception of limit breaks) I like to use all of them. I often replay the game and whenever I do my party consists of whoever the game's story will be focusing on in the following event. Cloud is the main character but everyone gets their moment to shine as an individual.

Before Gold Saucer it's Barret, Cloud and Aerith (because it's really Barret's chapter).
Before Cosmo Canyon it's Red XIII, Cloud and Barret (because it's Red's chapter but the location has personal meaning to Barret).

And so on... Whenever a character is about to get a moment in the story, I use them. The customization in this game makes everyone extremely versatile, and limit breaks come so rarely that they don't make any difference to gameplay, I hardly use them to begin with. Unless I'm doing a low-level game. In which case it's usually Cloud, Barret and Yuffie.

 

[crotea]

I feel the need to use a girl character just because . So my primary party would be Red XIII, Cloud and Yuffie. Although now I don't really care so I will probably change it to Cloud, Red and Vincent. (I'm going through this game for the first time)

 

[rowe]

Obviously Cloud is a powerhouse, so he was always in it.

Along with him, I preferred to have Tifa and Vincent. Tifa is a physical powerhouse (and nice to look at ), and Vincent is my favorite FFVII character (following Zack).

I did definitely make use of Aerith before her time came. Her limit breaks were awesomely cheap. Haha.

 

[Captain Squee]

I always rushed through getting Cid, until then I never had a concrete party because my group consists of Cid, Cloud, and Vincent.

Cid is very powerful for his attack and limit breaks, so I load him with attack increasing materia such as counter, long range, and a few HP plus early in the game. He's not very good with magic, so Poison and Added Effect are quite nice, but other than that I put things like the time materia on him, things that aren't based on the magic stat that buff up the party, it's a really nice combination since he only has to sue them once in a while.

Cloud holds my Enemy Skill materia, he's an overall powerhouse, so I put restore all on him and load him up with all sorts of damage magic materia.

Vincent is under-rated for his power. His massive attack accuracy allows him to be devastating with the deathblow materia, especially once you get his accuracy higher and higher. His deathblow has the same chance to land as most characters normal attack once you get better weapons. I have a restore materia on him, too, since he is decent with magic. I don't have very much damage magic on him, instead he holds the majority of my summon materia.

And every now and then I trade out vincent for Yuffie to steal those really important things, since she has the best chance to steal. This is a rare occurrence, though.