FINAL FANTASY VII

             Hints and Tips from Stefan Herber

There are many guides for this game on the internet - I must warn
readers that these are nearly all written for the Playstation in
mind but they cover most things - except the following.

a) The best party is probably Cloud, Yuffie & Cid.  I'm sure it's
possible to win the game with other combinations but I really
don't feel like playing through it all over again to find out. By
the end you have a choice of 8 characters, all with significant
strengths, but it's going to be your magic that avails.

b) Raising chocobos is vital. The best two spells in the
game (Knights of the Round which inflicts an enormous amount of
damage, and Mimic which allows repetition of this or any other
spell or action by another party member with no loss of points)
are found in areas only reachable with some of these birds.
Raising them is slow to begin with, very frustrating and very,
very expensive.  The game has no time limit and the best time to
start this is probably early in Disc 3 before one takes on the
final villain.

c) Taking part in the battle arena is equally vital but even more
frustrating. No other way can Cloud's best attack be obtained - I
personally didn't have the patience to try for the ultimate prize
which would have taken twice as long.

d) Monster generation is random - one can't clear an area of
baddies and then explore as they all get reincarnated frequently.
This can be extremely annoying but think of the experience you're
getting...

e) Over to you; I was told that the playing time was 300 hours -
with most of the optional arcade elements done my time was 50
hours.  The Playstation expert finished it in 20 hours but I'm
assured the PC version is harder.

                              - o -