The party
🗡️ Cloud
Operator stance for speed and blocks, Punisher for damage and counters. Braver, Focused Thrust and the counter in Punisher are the core; he is the safest character to learn the game on and the one hard mode leans on for counters.
🔫 Barret
Ranged, high health, and the party's tank through Lifesaver (he takes hits for the others) and Steelskin. Overcharge is a free ATB shot on a cooldown; use it every time it is up. The best partner for Aerith.
🥊 Tifa
Unbridled Strength raises her chi level, and her chi abilities push the stagger multiplier past anything else in the party. She is the answer to the shell bosses and the reason the 300% trophy exists.
🌸 Aerith
The strongest caster and the frailest body. Wards (attack spells cast inside Arcane Ward are cast twice) and Radiant Ward are her identity; filling ATB inside ATB Ward adds to the allies' gauges. Keep her behind Barret.
🐾 Red XIII
Blocks fill the Vengeance gauge; Vengeance mode drains it for speed, damage and self-healing. He is built for fights that come to you — and for Gi Nattak, where he deals the damage while Barret heals.
🌀 Yuffie
Throws her weapon for ranged pressure, switches her ninjutsu element to whatever the enemy hates, and Doppelganger gives her a shadow that repeats abilities. The most flexible character and the best solo in the Corel minigames.
🎲 Cait Sith
Weak alone, different on the moogle: the mount takes the hits and adds attacks. The dice are luck, the moogle is not. Support materia and Auto-Weapon Ability make him work without your attention.
Pairs that carry
Cloud, Tifa, Aerith
The classic: Tifa staggers, Aerith doubles a spell from her ward into the stagger, Cloud counters everything in between. Works from chapter 2 to the credits.
Barret, Aerith, Yuffie
Barret takes the hits, Aerith casts, Yuffie provides any element at range. The safest party for a boss you have not learned yet.
Cloud, Red XIII, Cait Sith
Two block-based characters and a mounted third. Slower to kill, very hard to kill — the hard-mode party for chapters where MP is the constraint.
Whoever the chapter gives you
Chapters 8, 10, 11 and 13 split the party or lock it. Keep every character's materia and accessories current from chapter 6 on, because the game will take three of them away without asking.
Still to verify
Cross-checked on 16 September 2026 against Square Enix's character pages and the guides of Game8, RPG Site and PowerPyx. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.