Final Fantasy VII is one of the most influential video games of all time, due to the fact that it helped bring the JRPG genre to mainstream attention across the world. The earlier Final Fantasy titles and games like Chrono Trigger were highly acclaimed and earned cult audiences of their own, but they never quite cracked the marketplace in the same way that Final Fantasy VII did.
The popularity of Final Fantasy VII meant that a lot of players tore through the game's code in order to learn all of its secrets. Final Fantasy VII is a game that has been Let's Played and streamed by many people over the years, which has led to even more tricks and strategies that players weren't aware of.
Those who played Final Fantasy VII on the original PlayStation in the late '90s as teenagers have now since grown up into adults and can now appreciate the game in a different way. Final Fantasy VII was filled to the brim with secrets that even the strategy guides of the day didn't know about.
We are here today to reveal the tips and tricks that many Final Fantasy VII fans may not be aware of - from making Tifa stronger through illness, to the secret way of keeping Aerith alive.
Here are Twenty Tricks From Final Fantasy VII That Casual Fans Have No Idea About!
20 You Can Make Tifa Stronger By Inflicting Status Effects On Her
Status effects are a common nuisance in RPGs, with paralysis and poison being the bane of many adventuring parties. Tifa isn't as bothered about status effects as most RPG characters, as it's possible to make her even stronger by inflicting some on her.
Tifa's strength is increased by status effects when she is using the Master's Fist weapon, which means that you can throw poison, sadness, and silence effects on her to give her a huge boost in her offensive power.
The poison damage is negligible in Final Fantasy VII, while sadness only fills her Limit bar slower, and the silence effect has no influence over her attacking skills, which means that all of them can be used to give Tifa a boost.
19 You Can Find A Staff In The Train Graveyard That Will Make Aerith A Powerful Fighter
Aerith is primarily a spellcaster and her stats are based around magic rather than physical strength. This means that you will want to keep Aerith in the back row throughout the game and have her use her healing spells on the party.
It's possible to turn Aerith into the most powerful warrior in the party for a period of time at the start of the game.
When you reach the Train Graveyard, you can encounter a rare and powerful enemy called Eligor. It's possible for Eligor to drop an item called the Striking Staff, which is the most powerful weapon available to the party at that point in the game and has four materia slots, which is more useful than the rest of your equipment.
18 You Never Need To Worry About Money If You Master An All Materia
The All materia is one of the most useful support materia throughout the early portion of Final Fantasy VII, as it allows you to change the parameters of offensive spells so that they affect all enemies with a single use, or allow healing spells to affect the whole party.
The real reason why you should keep using an All materia is due to the financial benefits, as a mastered All materia sells for 1.4 million gil, which will give you more money than you ever need for the remainder of the game.
17 You Can Defeat The Boss Of The Cave Of The Gi With Life Magic
It's a common notion in RPGs that the positive energy created by healing spells is detrimental to undead, as they are created by negative energy. This means that healers can also damage undead with their magic.
There are many undead creatures in the Final Fantasy series that will take damage from healing and reviving spells, though these are usually common enemies.
The Gi Nattak enemy in Final Fantasy VII is an example of an undead boss that can be defeated using healing spells. All it takes to defeat Gi Nattak is to use an Elixir, a Phoenix Down, a Life spell, or an X-Potion on it during the battle.
16 There Is A Secret Materia Hidden In Tifa's Piano
Cloud Strife may be the protagonist of Final Fantasy VII, but you don't control him throughout all of the game, as there is a part of the story where he is incapacitated due to his injuries and the leadership of AVALANCHE passes to Tifa, followed by Cid.
It's during the brief period of time when you control Tifa that you can find a secret materia hidden in Nibelheim.
If you played the piano during the Nibelheim flashback sequence, then it's possible to discover an Elemental materia hidden in the piano in Tifa's house. You need to play the theme of Final Fantasy VII on the piano to find the materia.
15 Tifa Can Offset The Penalty Of The D.Blow Command
The D.blow materia in Final Fantasy VII gives a character the ability to strike with a guaranteed critical hit, with the drawback of only having their accuracy reduced to a third of what it normally is.
It's possible for Tifa to overcome the drawback of the D.blow materia with the use of a certain weapon.
If Tifa equips the God's Hand weapon, then she will have an accuracy of 255%, which will overwrite the penalty of the D.blow materia and allow her to strike critical hits with all of her attacks.
14 You Can Use The Overflow Glitch To OHKO Everything In The Game
Emerald and Ruby Weapon are notorious for being difficult to defeat, but there is a way you can conquer them in a couple of seconds.
There is a glitch present in several Final Fantasy games called the Overflow glitch, which allows numbers to go above a maximum set amount and return to zero.
Vincent Valentine's ultimate weapon becomes stronger for every enemy you defeat, which means that it's possible to make it so strong that it can cause an Overflow glitch to occur and defeat an enemy in a single attack. This is how it's possible for the Weapon monsters to be defeated in a matter of seconds.
13 You Can Combine Final Attack & Phoenix To Prevent Yourself From TPKs
The abundance of powerful healing items available in the Final Fantasy series can help your party survive, so long as a single member is still able to throw a Mega Phoenix or Megalixir at the other members of the group.
One of the best materia combinations in Final Fantasy VII allows you to survive the destruction of the party.
If you combine the Final Attack materia with the Phoenix summon, then you can survive an attack that will destroy the party, as the Phoenix will be summoned in response to the attack and will raise everyone, as well as hitting the enemy for some fire damage.
There are limits to how many times you can use the Final Attack & Phoenix combination, but it should give you enough leg room to survive until the end of the battle.
12 One Of The Best Skills In The Game Is Hidden On The Beach
The Final Fantasy series has included a few characters and jobs with the ability to learn the moves of monsters and use them in battle.
It was possible for the party members to learn the moves of enemies in Final Fantasy VII with the aid of the Enemy Skill materia, which required you to be hit by the skill with the materia equipped in order to learn it.
One of the best enemy skills can be tricky to find, but it's worth the hassle.
The White Wind enemy skill heals a decent amount of the party's hit points while also curing nearly every status effect in the game.
In order to acquire White Wind, you need to find the Zemzelett enemy around the Junon area and use the Manipulate ability on it to make it perform White Wind on the party.
11 You Can Abuse Cait Sith's Slots to OHKO Everything In The Game
Cait Sith might be the most loathsome character in the history of the Final Fantasy series, but he is secretly one of the most powerful allies you can have in your party in Final Fantasy VII.
Cait Sith has access to the Slots Limit Break, which is a slot machine that can produce different effects, depending on how the reels line up.
Those with a knowledge of the mechanics of how the slots work can game the system so that it always brings up the Game Over ability, which instantly defeats all enemies on the field, including the Weapon monsters.
10 You Can Turn Emerald Weapon's Aire Tam Storm Attack Against It
Final Fantasy VII features numerous references to the number seven, the most relevant of which is the All Lucky 7s mode.
If a party member's hit points reach 7777, then they will enter a special battle mode called All Lucky 7s, where they will hit the enemy sixty-four times in a row, with each hit dealing 7777 points of damage.
If you have a party where all of the members have 9999 hit points, then it's easy to exploit Emerald Weapon's attacks in order to enter All Lucky 7s mode.
Emerald Weapon has an attack called Aire Tam Storm, which deals 1111 points of damage for every piece of materia that a character has equipped. If you give a character two materia, then they will drop to 7777 hit points when hit with Aire Tam Storm, assuming you kept them at full health throughout the fight.
9 You Can Use A Glitch To Duplicate Items
There are many powerful healing items in Final Fantasy VII that can only be found in limited quantities, which means that the player will often save them for boss battles and other dangerous situations.
It's possible to receive the maximum amount of every item in the game through the use of the W-Item duplication glitch.
The W-Item materia is intended to allow a character to use two items in one turn. There is a glitch involving the selection process of the items, which will allow you to duplicate the first item that you selected. You can use this glitch to give yourself 99 Hero Drinks or 99 Megalixirs.
8 You Can Use A Glitch To Receive Infinite Elixirs
Elixirs are one of the best types of item in Final Fantasy VII, as they heal both the hit points and magic points of an individual to their maximum value.
It's possible to acquire as many Elixirs as you want in the Great Glacier.
There is a cave in the Great Glacier that contains an Elixir. Normally, when you pick up an item, the game will load a text box and will not allow you to move until you press the button and close the text box. This Elixir is bugged and will allow the player to move around while the text box is active.
If you leave the room before closing the text box on the Elixir, then another one will be waiting for you when you reenter the room.
7 You Can Combine Added Effect & Haste To Inflict Status Effects On The Enemy
You can find the Added Effect materia in the Cave of the Gi, which only works when combined with a materia that has a status effect. If you equip Added Effect and another materia on a weapon, then there is a chance that your attacks will inflict that status effect, while equipping Added Effect and another materia on your armor will make you immune to that status effect.
If you combine Added Effect with the Hades summon materia, then it has a chance of inflicting eight different status effects on the enemy when used on a weapon. This same combination can also be used on armor to give you lots of immunities to status effects.
6 One Of The Best Defensive Abilities In The Game Can Be Stolen From The Enemy
You get the feeling that Squaresoft intentionally hid some of the best enemy skills in secret places just to sell strategy guides. The average player would never think to use the Manipulate command on random enemies in order to acquire secret abilities.
The Big Guard enemy skill is one of the best in the game, as it casts Barrier, Haste, and MBarrier on the entire party with a single move.
In order to acquire Big Guard, you need to track down a Beachplug enemy near Costa del Sol or Gongaga and use the Manipulate ability in order to make them cast Big Guard on the party.
5 Yuffie's Ultimate Weapon Can Help You Make Stat Boosting Items
The Morph command allows you to transform any enemy you defeat into an item, with the caveat that the attack used by Morph deals 1/8th of the damage of a regular attack.
You need to use Morph in order to max out the stats of the party, as you can acquire stat boosting items by using Morph on the monsters in the Gelnika dungeon.
Yuffie is by far the best Morph user in the game, as her Conformer weapon ignores the damage penalty of Morph, meaning that she can use her full power when attempting to transform enemies into items, which makes the whole process a lot quicker.
4 You Can Use A Glitch To Skip The Cutscene Before The Helletic Hojo Fight
It has become a popular past time for gamers on the Internet to complete games in as quick a time as possible, which is known as speedrunning.
There are many exploits and glitches that can be used to skip portions of a game in order to make it easier to speedrun and Final Fantasy VII is no exception.
It's possible to skip the entire return to Midgar sequence by simply pressing down, right, and run during the cutscene where Hojo is shown after Diamond Weapon is defeated. The game will think that the characters are in the area and will initiate the fight with Helletic Hojo, allowing you to skip the entire Midgar quest on Disc 2.
3 Knights Of The Round Isn't As Good As Cloud, Barret, And Cid's Ultimate Limit Breaks
The Knights of the Round summon has earned a reputation for being incredibly powerful, to the point where it can one-shot almost every creature in Final Fantasy VII. The problem with Knights of the Round is that you have to sit through a lengthy sequence each time it's used.
Knights of the Round is powerful, but it's not as strong as the ultimate Limit Breaks of Barret, Cid, and Cloud, which are the Omnislash, Angermax, and Highwind respectively.
The ultimate Limit Breaks of Barret, Cid, and Cloud actually hit more times than Knights of the Round, which means that they can potentially do more damage in a shorter period of time.
2 You Can Cheat The Date Mechanics
Final Fantasy VII has dating mechanics which are based on your interactions with Aerith, Barret, Tifa, and Yuffie. You can earn or lose points with each character depending on how you respond in dialogue and the character with the most points will go on a date with Cloud during the visit to the Gold Saucer near the end of disc one.
The game wants you to take Aerith on the date and makes it easiest to take her, but it's possible to cheat the mechanics in favor of another candidate.
You can increase Yuffie's affection by responding positively to all questions except for the final one during your first encounter. When you screw up the last question, she will run away and allow you to start the process over, earning you more points each time.
It's possible to max out Barret's affection points in Cosmo Canyon by repeatedly talking to him in the inn when you first arrive, as you can constantly earn affection points from the same question.
1 You Can Use Saga Frontier To Save Aerith From Her Fate
The demise of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII prompted numerous fake methods of reviving her which were spread across forums and message boards during the early days of the Internet. The web series called Pop Fiction revealed a method by which you can bypass Aerith's final encounter with Sephiroth and keep her in your party for the rest of the game.
If you catch a chocobo and swap out the Final Fantasy VII disc with Saga Frontier, then you can move anywhere on the world map due to most of the boundaries being removed. If you remove Aerith from your party and finish the last section of disc one, then you can add her back to your group when disc two starts and keep her with you until the end.