Final Fantasy VII Tricks and Tips

OTHER STUFF
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     -A cool trick: If you have any of the CDs except the install disc in your CD drive, you can watch all the cutscenes-including the ending!-without entering the game. Just go into My Computer or Explorer, then the CD; there will be a folder labeled movies. Open it, and if you have a .avi player, you can watch all the cutscenes and copy them to your hard drive. Another trick: some programs and computer setups allow you to play .avi movies on startup and shut down. If you copy the movies to your hard drive, you can use them for this.    (I advise waiting until you finish the game to watch the endings. That way, you also get to see the duel between Cloud and Sephiroth. )
     -Whenever you're having a rough time with the local monsters, there's a way you can get Limit Breaks every couple attacks. Buy a lot of Hypers; use one on a character who's normal, and they'll enter Fury. While in this state, they hit Limit Breaks a lot faster, which is useful when they're taking a lot of damage. This is one of the easier ways to conserve Aeris's MP; when this trick works, you can rely on her Limit Breaks for healing and use her MP for attack spells.
     -Keep a sense materia equipped, and check each new monster the first time you see it. If the message, "weak against Holy power" comes up, casting cure, regen, and related spells will harm the creature. In the case of the Gi Nattak in Cosmo Canyon, the most damaging attack you can have at that point is a level 2 Cure. In the Shinra Mansion basement, you can knock out the bats with a single casting of All=Cure 2. Regen is murder on the ghost ships in the underwater reactor tunnel.
     -"Yeah, well, if we had some rope and a baseball bat, we could hang you up and play pinata."
    "So you think of me as something bright and colorful, filled with toys and candy for small children? Why, thank you, Mr. Garibaldi. This makes me feel much better about our relationship."-Bester and Garibaldi, Babylon 5
    You don't need rope or a bat to turn Jenova*LIFE into a pinata. It's really quite easy: Pick one character-any character-who I'll call the healer from here on out. Equip the Healer with the Water Ring. Then, give them these Materia: Life=All, Restore=All. (You may also want to give the Healer an Enemy Skill materia, to pick up the impressive Aqualung attack.) Because all of Jenova*LIFE's attacks are water-based, the Healer will not take any damage-they'll actually be healed of any previous damage. Leave the other two characters dead, and have the Healer defend until the message comes on screen that Jenova*LIFE has used up all her skill points. When that happens, she's incapable of doing anything. Resurrect the other two characters, heal them back up to full strength, and pick Jenova apart at your leisure. A variation on this trick, replacing the Water Ring with a similar artifact related to Fire-such as the Dragon Armlet-will work on Jenova*DEATH.   (Yeah, you could win with just the healer. But then the other two characters wouldn't get any AP or XP, and that's hardly fair, is it?)
    -A cool trick, although not that useful:During the Kalm flashback, you can enter the menu and look over Sephiroth as if he were a member of your party. You still can't control him, but you can look him over in Status. This trick led me to an interesting note-in Speed Square, one of the prizes for 3000 points is labeled Masamune. Sephiroth's sword, in the Kalm flashback, comes up as Masamune in the menu. Now, I'm rotten at Speed Square, so I just gotta ask: Is that just a (useless, unequipable) replica of Sephiroth's sword, a different sword that Cloud can use, or an identical sword that Cloud can use?
    -Related note: If you want to use any of Sephiroth's healing spells in the Nibelheim flashback, but can't get him to use them in battle, you can use them in the menu as if he were a member of your party.
    -Just because Reno isn't that tough in the pillar battle, don't get cavalier about fighting the Turks. Each individual Turk is slightly more powerful than your strongest party member; if you're facing two of them, it's an even battle. Luckily, you only face all three twice, and the second battle can be avoided without missing any of the storyline. (Just finish Yuffie's sub-quest.) Oh, yeah, and if it looks like they're holding back: They are. I've gone through battles where Rude didn't do anything for tens of turns at a time.