I actually made up a challenge like this for myself and played it recently. -Cloud started out as just a Spellblade, able to add elements to his weapon or armor, but forbidden from casting the spells in battle. Then, after he remembers himself, he can be a super-SOLDIER, using the four powerful magic materia you get after meteor is summoned. He was not very useful early on, but it fit with the story that his battle performance improved once he accepted his past and became himself again. -Barret was my Paladin as a healer/tank, with Cover and the restorative materia. Necessary in tougher battles. -Tifa was a Monk exactly as you described in the video. Great for damage, but low utility. - Aeris was an Ancient, and as such, she was able to use whatever materia I wanted. Useful while she is there. -Red XIII was the Black Mage, but he only had access to elemental magic paired with either All or HP absorb. Useful early on, but not so much later. -Yuffie was the Ninja/Thief. Aside from steal and morph, she got added effect and most status-inflicting materia. Those roles made her crucial throughout the game. -Cait Sith was the Time Mage. He also got gravity, comet, manipulate, and underwater. He ended up having a lot of utility and being used often. -Vincent was the summoner. You get him just in time to replace Aeris in that role. Pairing a powerful summon with MP absorb meant that a summon against 3+ enemies gained him more MP than he spent. By the time you acquire all of the summon materia, equipping the 16 best on Vincent boosted his magic stat over 200, while it reduced his HP to pretty much the same. Truly a glass canon. -Cid was the Kimahri. Ya' know, the combination dragoon/blue mage. He got Enemy Skill and Mime. So he was basically the most powerful character. Using no sources and no master materia, this was a very fun playthrough. Finding ways to beat Emerald and Ruby WEAPONS was fun too.

Oh hey, it's me, I'm Nepheronia! I'm glad you found the document useful for this very interesting video. I definitely struggled a little with developing it, for many of the reasons you mentioned, but that was mainly due to me wanting to give characters multiple "job options" so when I did runs it wasn't always the same. I think your summary of how you'd build them with stat allocations and materia permitted is really sensible and this was a fun video to watch. If I knew how to mod at all though, I'd gladly overhaul the system to ensure earlier pickups for some materia I think of as pretty vital for certain jobs.

i love the idea and video ~ ! the music during the Cloud - Mystic Knight section slaps so hard, heckin’ good stuff there friend !

It's interesting to hear that Cloud used to be a mystic knight. In the new FF7 Rebirth gameplay Cloud has multiple sword imbue skills & team up attacks. So it feels to me like SE is trying to bring that back a little, which is really cool!

I LOVE the idea of Aerith as a Geomancer! I Imagine all Cetras were, where flowers would blossom where they normally wouldn't be able to. Plays into the theme of talking with the planet and the need to heal it. I don't mind if FFVII is a world where there are no white mages -- it makes it all the darker and grittier, yes?

i did stuff like this. was fun. my fav set up was: Cloud: knight->mystic knight (after regaining true memories) as knight he had cover, some command materia like x-cut and slash all. as MK he got cure and esuna materia. no all materia though. HP-up's ofcourse as well as elemental defense materia and elemental attack materia. no direct damaging magic allowed. Aerith: sage. any magic is usable for her. makes sense considering her lore. plus it keeps in tune with the sage tradition of FF's.... Tifa: monk. obviously. to black belt upon helping Cloud's memories. she gets command materia similar to knight but gets cure and esuna BUT no all materia and she can only use up to regen for cure, and singular status ailment healing with esuna (so poisona). the upgrade to black belt grants her access to haste (self target only) and esuna, as well as allowing the use of all with cure 2 and regen, with access to cure 3 on herself only. HP-ups for days. Barret: gunner into mechanist. initially mostly just long range attacks. gave him haste and status spells like darkness, sleep and poison early on. becomes mechanist after golden saucer. gets access to time magic (cause fck it) and thats about it.... honestly i wanted an excuse to not use him as he was always in my final team on normal runs cause his limits are too damn good and wanted to use other people. Red: black mage-> geomancer upon finishing cosmo canyon. black mage, any offensive magic. geomancer grants him defensive buffs like barrier etc only source of cure 3 all. actually really strong and carried till long in. only one who can use ultima. Cid: dragoon->alchemist upon going into space. only one who can use tier 4 items like elixers and above (head cannon is he makes them out of ethers and x potions) can use some command materia like x-cut slash all etc as well as w-item dont underestimate items in this game.... they can be broken as fck even into end game. Cait-sith: time mage->blue mage after the temple. he's broken as hell to make up for his trash limits. Yuffie: ninja-summoner after wutai: only one who can use ALL command materia's other than enemy skill (master command goes on her) and summons. as well as level 2 elemental magic with all (to replicate ninjutsu) and exit. all summons is good too but as she doesnt have much utility... yeah. Vincent: red mage-> chaos bringer after getting his 4th limit and deathbringer. redmage lets him use red and white magic of all kinds up to level 3 of the materia with all attached as well as haste single target. but after getting chaos bringer (the only home brew class here) he loses all black magic in exchange for contain (freeze, break, tornado and flare) and destruct materia (debarrier, deshell and death) to allued to the fact Chaos is meant to wipe out all life. it's not perfect and some characters are definitely OP with this set up..... but it's fun none the less.

Nice job! I'm replaying FFVII right now and found all your explanations really interesting. Maybe I'll try to stick to my power fantasy...

KoTR carry armor onwards would be even MORE Broken while IN the MIME job so that you can Mime it against Emerald/Ruby weapon and not NEED a materia slot to Mime it.

Best of luck on your channel! I subscribed and liked... if you keep making great content this channel will do great!

More videos like this and you have a new customer my friend.

Subscribed, great content

i would love to see you do a run using this set up!

Thanks for the Brave New World shout-out o/

I'm doing a slightly edited ruleset allotted by Nepheronia's Job System guide. It sounds like a fun challenge.

Just watched the full video and it's quite interesting to see what you've chosen for each character. Slightly different than what I'm doing currently through my own run. I'm also posting videos in hour long chunks so it's going to be a lot lol. No commentary but maybe eventually I'll start talking in some of them. Currently my jobs set for each character artist follows. Cloud -Warrior or Mystic Knight, MK seems appropriate accoridng go the ultimania book. Tifa -Monk with mostly command materia and chakra. Barrett -Paladin type with cover ans counter attack setup. Aeris -white mage though i may go geomancer since she speaks to the planet. Red (Nanaki) -maybe red mage or blue mage before vincent since he has an affinity with the planet through cosmo canyon. Cid -Dragoon with some melee oriented stuff thrown in. Cait Sith -maybe how you described him, but not quite sure yet. Vincent - Blue mage and maybe some status effects thrown in and I'll start collecting spells after I obtain him. Yuffie -Ninja/thief hybrid with some debuff materia thrown in and maybe pre-emptive strike as well. Still not sure exactly how I want to set things up. All I know is currently in my playthrough that I've been posting videos of it's kind of a semi-challenge run for me with a few rules put in place. Should be a fun time.

This is a really good idea.... Cloud being a Knight and later Mystic Knight or Paladin.... Barrett is Gunner but with maybe materia like cover and wall/haste ? Tifa a monk with maybe steal or deathblow ? I LOVE the idea of Aerith being geomancer because in New Threat 2.0 when she guards she also absorbs incoming magic so maybe give her Elemental magic and healing !!

Red XIII seems like his proper job is in the name: Red Mage. He's very balanced in his approach to physical vs. magic stats with magic just edging out on top. He also seems more direct in his mindset towards magic than Cloud who would naturally focus it all towards his martial prowess. Vincent then, with his emphasis on creature power in Limit Breaks, feels like the more natural Blue Mage. A little weapon use, a smattering of basic magical skill, and all the OP enemy jank you can find.

I so wish for the choosing your job system to come back.

I always liked the Cover/Counter-attack combo on Barrett.

Got an easy subscribe from me. I play FF7 at least twice a year so this'll make for an interesting playthrough

I always assign classes to my party. Same in FF8. So boring when the only difference between characters is their limit break.

Hooray for radar charts! Visual stat polygons are fun.

I’d love to see a version of this for remake

Nice bgm!

Barret’s HP can reach 9,999 without HP plus Materia. Its the most time I have ever put in leveling on a console game.

Hmm, I feel that Cid fits best as Dragoon-Engineer (Cid FFIV)/Machinist (FFT/A/A2), which gives him a bit more utility then just Dragoon-bound. Of course, I'm not sure what abilities that would entail in FFVII's context.

I did a Job challenges of this Game IT was a lot of fun time flew Like nothing else

Imo Cait Sith as Blue Mage makes more sense and Red XIII as a Red Mage dunno appart from the name, he has the vibes of a jack of all trades to me

I always saw FF7 characters as Cloud (knight), Aerith (WM), Tifa (Monk), idk about the others 😂

Wait... How do you say Cait Sith?

Square was like "SCREW YOU MAKE YOUR OWN"

I tried to do this by just putting only specific materia on each character myself, but it was boring to me. I use an emulator for the convenience, because I don't have a tv that my ps1 can work on and for the cheat plugin to give myself challenges etc.

Ooh, I've done this loads of times; set up materia to make classic jobs. It's fun. I usually "upgrade" them all about half way through. Tried it in FF8 as well but the game's balance almost entirely encourages physical attacks and everything else feels underpowered and not very fun to use.

If bard materia was in the game I would have made red 13 a bard

FFT

Good video but maybe lower the music just a bit.

Wasn't final fantasy 7 design to appeal to a general audience? NA didn't exactly get a full final fantasy experience. If the 7th instalment was only released in Japan, it may have been vastly different. NA first got Mystic quest, pre-school final fantasy. Then came final fantasy 2, kindergarten final fantasy 4. Final fantasy 5, of course, never left Japan. In a way, NA was treated like a immature market.

Am I the only one who appreciates being able to develop characters how I want rather than have them pigeon-holed into an arbitrary category?

I liked the video but your audio sounded like you had pop rocks in your mouth the whole time

My favorite final fantasy. Played ff8 and 9 before 7 but i never got into them. 7's story and mechanics is by far the best ps1 3d final fantasy