Do You Use Enemy Skill Materia?

[markandrewkinzett]

I am just wondering how many of you out there use the Enemy Skill Materia? The first few times I went through the game I never used it cuz I thought it was shit. But when I found out how to obtain all the Enemy Skills in the game I used it. Now every time I go through it I fill 3 Enemy Skill Materia's as it is one cool piece of Materia. Especially Big Guard (Barrier, MBarrier, Haste) which saves you needing to buy Barrier and Time Materia, White Wind (Heals you up using you remaining HP). Some of the attacks are crap (Chocobuckle, L4 Suicide and ??? to name a few) but I still fill the Materia up cuz it looks so cool that way. But the question at hand is do YOU use it?

[Kaiden]

I get big barrier and thats really it. Not worth wasting a material slot on it until I get that. Most of my magic slots end up being healing or tagging Summons with some sort of effect material.

[Dodie16]

I use it, but I usually don't bother to find all the enemy skills anymore. I tried that once when I wanted to do a full completion of the game, but my file got erased before it happened.

Big guard is definitely a good skill to have, as is White Wind, and I like getting Trine from the Materia Keeper just in case I do ever feel like finding all the skills again.

[Sasquatch]

Actually, the Enemy Skill Materia was one of the few things about FFVII that I thought was better than most of the other FF games. I liked the idea of not having a dedicated Blue Mage -- usually, those characters suck enough to not be worth using them, so they don't learn any enemy abilities to get any better. But with the Materia, you could put it on an otherwise decent character (since they're prettymuch all the same anyway), always keep it in the active party, and it's always there to collect abilities.

So I used it all the time. At least one person in my party would have it equipped.

[the_savior21]

same here usually i put it on my healer/summoner or my attack guy

[JuzamDjinn]

Yes, I used it on cloud, and gave him little to nothing else.
E-Skill is one of the most usefull battle stradegies in final fantasy.

Aqualung, Trine, and Beta are all very usefull though most of the game.

[MAUTADINE]

I kinda rushed through the game when I played FF7 so I never found any E.Skill.


I did fine without it ,FF7 wasnt a hard game anyways. The hard part was to find all the secret stuff or just knowing where the hell you were suppose to go next in your main quest.

[JuzamDjinn]

Things like E-skill are not usually completed in your first round though a game.
I'm sure you'll see someday when you feel like taking a slow thourough run(we're all bound to do it at one time or another).

E-skill materia is easy to get in this game, you simply have to be attacked. No need to weaken then eat, or some such method.

[MAUTADINE]

But don't you need to equip the materia first and after you just need to get attacked? Because that's the thing, I never had any E.skill to equip.

I finished the game and after I watched a few videos of a playthrough some girl did and she had like a shit load of E.skill. So I was like "where the hell do you find these materias??"

Oh well like you said I will probably do a more complet playthrough one day and try to find all the secrets stuff. Like I know Lucrecia is hidden in a cavern somewhere.

[loaf]

Enemy Skill = Blu Magic
Blue Magic = My Favorite type of Magic

Yes I use Enemy Skill. Mainly the good good skills that benefit greatly to your party. There are many good spells to use from them that are interesting.

[Aerif]

I actually found that a lot of the E. Skills were quite useless most of the time. I always had them equipped as soon as I got them, and used Big Guard in basically every boss battle, but the problem was that a lot of them came at the wrong point in the game to be of any use.

Sure, L4 Suicide was useful if you knew how it worked, but it's given to you at a very early point in the game, where it is unlikely to hit anything. I think most new players would see it as essentially useless due to it being so rarely worthwhile.

One skill I definetly liked acquiring was Beta. Most people go into that fight for the first time, with no idea about how badly they're going to be beaten, the Zolom casts Beta and a little message pops up at the top, too bad that you were killed by the attack and recieved a Game Over, because that shit could be useful. In this case the E. Skill is used as an incentive for playing well and finding a strategy against the Midgar Zolom, with the reward being an overpowered skill.

FFVII handles Blue Magic better than the other titles, but personally I think Blue Magic isn't very useful except in extreme cases, and even then usually not worth having a defenseless character in the case of other FFs with Blue Mages who have yet to learn any skill (and in Tactics Advance, where Blue Mages start without the ability to even learn new skills!)

[scorptatious]

I always used enemy skill materia. Although in my last playthrough, I limited myself to only using one instead of having one on all of my party members. I was trying to make the game more challenging as enemy skills such as Big Guard and White Wind are ridiculously overpowered.

Let me tell you, the difference in difficulty was pretty noticeable.

[Kyreaan]

*possible spoiler*


One of my favorite parts of the FF series was stealing the abilities of enemies. First, it was the blue mage and then they came up with different versions. In 7, I remember the first big enemy skill I got was when you first meet up with the swamp area outside Midgard. Normally, you are suggested to sneak by the Midgard Serpent to get into the caves. However, I wanted to be strong enough to take it on before getting past that point in the game.

I ended up running around that field until I had the life and defense to survive the Midgard Serpent's magic attck, Beta. It looks like a h-bomb was dropped. Presto chango, I survived and got the enemy skill, Beta, to run around with during the beginning of the game.

Nar har haarr.

[Unknown Entity]

I just kept it on me to get new skills. I never got to fully max one out though.

I used Trine a lot. I got it from the Materia Keeper, and it dealt a decent amount of damage from what I remember. Beta was good too.

It didn't bother me if I didn't have it equipped though. Buy the time I had some decent skills on it to use, I had loads of maxed materia anyway.

[Ryu-Kentoshii Hirokima]

HELL YES I DO!!! It Is Awesome! Just Got Red XIII A Couple Of New Enemy Skills Recently. It Now Has Flamebreath, L.4 Suicide, Matra Magic, Trine, etc...

Depending On The Move, It Can Be Really Good To Use. Adds A Twist To the Gameplay, Which I Like.

[DC_Sparky]

i didnt really use E. skills, because you can complete wyhout. I beat most secrets without, but that could just be me

[Rowan]

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[Antidrall]

I started to use it when I didn't have summons. In fact, when I first played, I hardly even used any weapons. I'd just ram summons right at them and maybe do a limit break.

[ZantetsukeN]

I very rarely use Enemy Skill, but I always have it equipped when I fight Ultimate WEAPON, because then you learn the 'Shadow Flare' skill, which is a great non-elemental damage dealer. That was really the only skill I would actually use.

[Master Garland]

I like to use ES materia because it can be very powerful especially early in the game such as learning Beta before you even enter the Mythril Mines. Having Beta which is stronger than Trine very early in the game makes most battle jokes. I am a perfectionist as well so in my games I learn everyt enemy skill at the earliest times ie Aqualung before even getting the Buggy and Big Guard and White Wind before Cosmo Canyon etc. I also get all Enemy skills learnt on all Enemy Skill Materias as well. To do that though you have to wait until you have your 4th ES materia before you fight Godo and equip all ES materias that does not have it learnt on a character then fight him and learn it then. Also be warned the ES magic Pandoras Box will only be used once in the entire game so make sure all your party members who have ES materias take the bath where the Zombie Dragon is located so that all 4 of your ES materias learn the spell!!!

[Zidane77]

I use it, White Wind and Big Guard mostly though.
Early in the game elemental magics like Beta were really effective and in the beginning Matra Magic,Laser as well.

None of them are useful to me in the end, except those two.
Big Guard is the most useful and secondly White Wind cause it doesn't require all materia,
and i have every party member equipped with enemy skill and only 1 with master magic, so i have 3 healers

[FF9isthebest]

I like to use ES materia because it can be very powerful especially early in the game such as learning Beta before you even enter the Mythril Mines. Having Beta which is stronger than Trine very early in the game makes most battle jokes. I am a perfectionist as well so in my games I learn everyt enemy skill at the earliest times ie Aqualung before even getting the Buggy and Big Guard and White Wind before Cosmo Canyon etc. I also get all Enemy skills learnt on all Enemy Skill Materias as well. To do that though you have to wait until you have your 4th ES materia before you fight Godo and equip all ES materias that does not have it learnt on a character then fight him and learn it then. Also be warned the ES magic Pandoras Box will only be used once in the entire game so make sure all your party members who have ES materias take the bath where the Zombie Dragon is located so that all 4 of your ES materias learn the spell!!!

I want to get all of the enemy skills on all of my materias, is it true that multiple ES materias on one character will all learn the move? That would help me a lot because I didn't think it was possible that way, oh and its been a while since I played FF7 where does the dragon zombie show up so I can be ready for him?

[Master Garland]

I want to get all of the enemy skills on all of my materias, is it true that multiple ES materias on one character will all learn the move? That would help me a lot because I didn't think it was possible that way, oh and its been a while since I played FF7 where does the dragon zombie show up so I can be ready for him?

To answer you questions, yes you could equip one character with 4 Enemy Skill Materias and if that character is hit with a skill that is new to all of the equiped ES Materias(ie not one ES materia on that pperson should have the used Enemy Skill already learnt on it) then every last one of the Materias will learn the skill. As for the location of the Dragon Zombie it is located in the Norther Crater on the path to the Right after the party first meets up.

Good luck and have fun!

[FF9isthebest]

To answer you questions, yes you could equip one character with 4 Enemy Skill Materias and if that character is hit with a skill that is new to all of the equiped ES Materias(ie not one ES materia on that pperson should have the used Enemy Skill already learnt on it) then every last one of the Materias will learn the skill. As for the location of the Dragon Zombie it is located in the Norther Crater on the path to the Right after the party first meets up.

Good luck and have fun!

Thanks for the advice, playing through FF7 again and that's on thing I never completed before, the enemy skills kick ass to especially trine, white wind and beta.

[nickness89]

I never really thought the Enemy Skill Materia was useful, i preferred more powerful Materia, or the kind that could be put to good use. When i first played 14 years ago when it came out when i was a kid, i just ploughed through it, then a second gameplay i tried to get as much as i could.

Over the years though i have been doing all the secrets, side-quests etc to get a perfect game, and i find that there are much more useful ways to fill up materia slots than with ES materia, such as with buff and deBuff materias, and fully mastered materias (unless i was trying to master newly-born materia).

[BDub2277]

I was actually a big fan of the E skill for 3 abilities, since my first playthrough of FF7. I like matra magic for quickly finishing off weaker mobs, upgrading to trine when I can get it. Also I'd learn flamethrower from the mythril mine to use on Bottomswell in Junon.

[Tepsha]

I used it to scan all the enemies once for the whatever-mo-bob and then just pretty much trashed it.

[markandrewkinzett]

Thanks for answering this thread I orginally posted I love the diversity of the answers that have been given here. I am just gonna say a couple of things in reply to what has been said. The first couple ot times I went through FF7 I never used ES materia it was only on my third playthrough I did and my friend lent me a mag with how to get all ES skills in the game. Now I use 3 Every time one on each character and Max it out mainly cuz it looks so much cooler when mastered as like some people have said some of the E Skill are a bag of shit but the good ones such as Big Guard, White Wind, Beta, Aqualung and Trine make up for it in my eyes!!!

[Diamond Dust]

I always found spamming Magic Hammer on certain bosses/enemies could make them a walk in the park, so that was always useful too.

[FF9isthebest]

Well I got to the dragonzombi and I got Pandoras Box, but how do you leave the crater with it? I can only proceed forward towards Seperoth... You can't keep Pandoras Box on the field?