Okay, I have NEVER beaten FFVII. Which I regret saying that. Anyway, I have read countless guides and posts in different places. Apparently, you can play and beat this game in different ways. Well, I tried default weapons, no accessories, and no materia. Got me to the second disc. Had to restart because the battles got WAY too hard. See, I would play it the default way. New weapons, accessories, and buying materia. But man, all that stuff is expensive. Basically, can anyone give me advice on how to finally beat this game? Like maybe what materia to buy and not to buy or being certain levels by certain areas? I would be eternally grateful.

Hm, stock your guys with All and Restore Materia.

I make it a point to get Enemy Skill Materia, and get the spells: Magic Hammer, Big Guard and White Wind.

These are the only spells I rely on in the game. I usually pummel the enemy with Limit Breaks.

Getting W-Item for the item cheat and Chocobo Lure for Chocobo hunting is a must as well. And getting 2x Cut and Steal/Mug isn't a bad thing either.

I don't know what you're reading but to me it sounds like you were trying to do a challenge from gamefaqs or something.

The game is simple enough. Fight. Level up. Buy stuff. Continue story.

You can't beat a monster, fight weaker ones until you level up and can. Can't afford some items, sell stuff or fight and get gil.

As for tips... Anti-R said some good ones. Mastered "All" materia sells for alot. White wind should be your cure for the majority of the game; you can get it after you get an enemy skill and manipulate from a zemlett(sp?). Scimitar and Apocalypse for Cid and Cloud are great for leveling up materia; fighting the red balls and pots in N.Crater are best for that as well.

Yes, that's where I got the default weapons, no accessories, no materia challenge.

I probably need to take my time, do more leveling up, and get more gils from the battles.

The challenges actually make it HARDER to beat the game. ^^;

To beat any RPG, the basic idea is to level, level, level. If you wanna cut some time on level-grinding, fight every battle encountered and explore every nook and cranny of a new area. I'm hopelessly anal when it comes to exploring a new place, so I end up spending minimal time focused on level-grinding.

Also, buy the materia you need, you don't need one for every type. I got through most of the game without buying a single yellow materia (er, the one with Steal, 2X Cut etc.). Usually I buy magic materia.

If you're short on money, buy new weapons for your immediate fighting team, and don't bother with the rest. I played the game with one core team and left the rest to rot, so I just focused on buying weapons and armour for them. Money really shouldn't be a problem, though... You're usually rolling in gil by the final battle.

Good luck, beat that game!

Ah yes. One thing I thought was great about FFVII is that even if you have a main party the rest will still receive 1/3 of the exp points gained. Basically by the time i beat the game the first time, the members in my PHS were about level 70. By the time i mastered all my summons to get a mastered summon all of my characters were 99.

And another tip for when you're trying to get master materias; don't try to master every type. If you try to master all different types at the same time you'll end up like me, having to store materia in PHSed characters and having to sell tons of materia you don't want to, and just level the newly born ones later, just to clear up some space. Well that probably won't happen for a while, but just giving you a heads up.

Thanks for all the help you all have given me. At the risk of sounding like a noob here. How do you "master" materia? Is it like where the materia gains experience and it levels up as high as it can go or what?

You pretty much have to battle and earn AP for your materias. It's mastered when it's maxed out and a new materia was born from it. That's one version.

Good luck! Typical thing, like levelling up, getting what you really needed, sell off excess things like old weapons and armours, the usual. Oh and do try and get Aerith's Level 4 Limit Break, Great Gospel.

Yeah. Basically a Materia gains AP. You need a set number of AP before it gains a level(Or a star). When it's AP and levels max out, it becomes mastered and it also gives birth to a new materia. The new one will be the same materia as you just mastered but with no AP gained.

Also, if my memory doesn't deceive me, in some cases for materia, each level(star) refers to how many times you can use it during each battle.

And also, if you plan on selling a materia, remember that the higher level it is, the more it goes for. So a newly born materia isn't going to sell nearly as much as a mastered one of the same kind.

Oh and I probably don't have to say this, but be sure not to sell materia that you can't get through shops. I remember my friend sold his Ultima on accident and didn't realize until it was too late.