As in most Squaresoft Role Playing Games magic is a key part of the game. But like Final Fantasy III in Final Fantasy VII there is a major magical element that you must equip to use. Materia is the major magical element of Final Fantasy VII such as Espers were in Final Fantasy III. Materia was created in the Shinra's Makoro Reactors and is a form of crystalized energy.
Materia could be descibed as a combination of Espers and Relics from Final Fantasy III. Materia Orbs must be equiped and they augment your characters abilities. As you gain experience, your Materia will gain levels and give you greater powers. When a Materia Orb reaches it's maximum level it will duplicate itself so that you can give the diplicate to another character. The duplicate is only at level one though. Do not equip the twp of the same Materia to one character for only one will gain experiance. You equip Materia by placing them in holes on your weapons and accessories. The amount of Materia that you can equip depends on the different holes that you have.
There are two types of Materia Holders that are on weapons and other pieces of equipment.
Single Holders: (0) These Holders can only hold one orb at a time. They are designed to hold any Materia except Support Materia. Since Support Materia must be attached to another orb it won't work with this type of holder.
Double Holders: (0=0) These holders can hold two Materia Orbs instead of one. They are designed so that Support Materia can be combined with another Materia Orb. They also can be used to hold to different Materia Orbs.
Materia comes in many different forms...
1) Command Materia: Command Materia allows you to preform specific tasks or attacks that appear on your command bar allong with fight, items, etc.... Special tasks such as Steal and Throw.
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ABILITIES: Steal opponent's items, See opponent's Hit Points or Magic Points, Learn opponent's attacks, Attack more then once per turn.
2) Magical Materia: When you equip yourself with magical Materia you gain the ability to cast certain spells that you otherwise could not. It is not dissimilar to espers from Final Fantasy VII.
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ABILITIES: Heal members of your party, Increase or decrease a character's speed, Confuse your opponent, Cast elemental magic.
3) Summon Materia: If you have played the Final Fantasy VII Demo Disk then you have already seen the summon Materia known as Leviathan. Summon Materia allows you to call forth mystical monsters to fight at your side such as Leviathan.
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ABILITIES: Summon creatures to attack your opponents for you.
4) Support Materia: Support Materia augments the Materia that you already have. It can have many different effect such as changing single attack magic to group attack magic.
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ABILITIES: Attack Multiple Opponents, Counterattack, Increase your attacked orb's status.
5) Independant Materia: Independant Materia affects your character usually by boosting certain characteristics. Certain Independant Materia Orbs boost your Hit Points or your Magic Point, etc...
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ABILITIES: Increase character stats such as Hit Points and Magic Points.
Later I hope to include a list of Materia...
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