Final Fantasy VII/Introduction

Conventions

Button names

The guide tries to use the button names as specified in the game controls section. Some bits may refer to either the specific Playstation or PC controls; these should probably refer to the generic control names instead, with possible explanations on which buttons to use on either platform. Example: Instead of "Press O to climb the ladder" the guide should say "Press [OK] to climb the ladder", or, if necessary, "Press [OK] (Enter on PC, O on Playstation) to climb the ladder".

Bold

In general, boldface entries in text is used to denote

• an important item that the player might be interested in picking up (for example, "On the floor you'll find Steal materia.)
• flunkies of a boss (see below)

For editors: Materia names should be marked fully in bold ("Steal materia" instead of "Steal materia"). Boldface may also be used to emphasise important issues, but for that purpose, italics is recommended.

Boss statistics

An example of boss statistics is as follows:

Looming・DEADLINE

Lv: 32, HP: 12000, MP: 600, Weaknesses: -, Strong against: Gravity, Absorbs: Time

Whatever you do, don't cast Haste on party members, because the boss is able to absorb this, and heals approximately 1000 points when you do this. Stop works on this boss, but only somewhat. Aside of this, most summons work pretty well, though Odin does almost no damage. The boss keeps summoning Depart Mgrs (sic)—ignore them and focus on attacking the boss itself; The Mgrs have a nasty Report Cover Sheet Reminder attack that might be nasty unless the character has Deaf status ailment up.

The statistics are explained as follows:

• Boss name should be self-explanatory. You can see the boss name in the game by pressing [Assist] to bring up the name display, or by using the Sense materia (if Sense works on this boss at all).
• Level means just about the same as character level; if your party is close to the level of this boss, the fight should be fairly straightforward to win. A good trick to do is to train your party to be near the level of the boss before wading in to the area where it's found.
• HP and MP tell how tough the boss is, physically and magically. Like the characters, the boss dies if it's HP goes to zero. If MP goes to zero, the boss can't use magic attacks anymore (some bosses use attack arsenal based entirely on magic attacks, and thus become sitting ducks if their MP runs out).
• Weak against shows attack types that are particularly effective against the boss.
• Strong against (In more technical terms, Blocks) has attacks which do little damage against the boss. This field also includes attacks that the boss Nullifies (in other words, does no damage whatsoever to the boss). As a side note, most bosses are strong against Gravity attacks (Demi, etc).
• Absorbs lists attacks that not only are useless against the boss, but actually heals the boss (This is often pretty obvious - a creature that's obviously on fire might just be healed if you use Fire attack on it), sometimes as much as the damage that would be normally inflicted.
• Strategy text should be self-explanatory. This section will also list possible flunkies of the boss (ie, smaller enemies the boss keeps summoning over and over) in boldface. The strategy generally refers to how to defeat the boss as a whole.