in terms of raising charactors and battles how do you play the game

do you level up alot in the begining or not and what do you do about materia and all of that

I am on my second playthrough and right now i just got to junon

i have cloud yuffie and red as my party with cloud as a black mage yuffie as a wht/blu mage and red as a attacker/blackmage (i have two fire materia and right now fire does more damage then his attack so)