...useless? Do you know about the Kalm Traveler and how you can exchange said "useless items" for 1) the fastest gold chocobo in the game and 2) three Master Materias which are three different colored materia that come equipped with every spell of their color in the game? I think they are green, yellow, and red.

And if you did already know this...well, your characters must just be uber or something.

Well, by no stretch were my characters topped out. But all of their essential materia (the stuff you need to survive in most combat) was all mastered. In that respect, I didn't need more materia, because I could sit there yawning while pulverizing Jenova and Sephy-poo. In the chocobo respect, I already bred a gold chocobo, I didn't need a new one. Even if it WAS faster, on the maximum difficulty race mode I could literally start the race and put down the controller, then watch my chocobo win the race at his standard speed. In my game, the prizes were essentially useless. Experience was nice though.

It wasn't just about the prizes. It was about beating the Weapons. :-) I remember playing this and having a lot of fun beating the Weapons. Ruby was a beast the first time until I learned about the Status effect thing. Emerald wasn't so hard though if you knew how to do it.

Without a doubt. I had a lot of fun trying different combinations of magic/materia to try and beat the weapons. I did find Ruby's vulnerability to stop at one point, but I never bothered to sit through and beat him. Not sure why, I think I was starting to get bored of side questing. :)

Ya, even though the rewards own, it is all about going onto a forum and telling others about your bout with Ruby and Emerald, not about actually using the very powerful but ultimately not life changing gifts you get from them.

Hehe. THe first time I fought Ruby Weapon, I got creamed. I decided to look on the internet for strategies, and I managed to misread a tip on a random site. It said something about Ruby using an ultimate attack to wipe out 2/3 party members, so going into the battle with just one (usually Cloud) would be a good idea. I accidentally unequipped all of Cloud's materia and put it on the party member I wiped out! So I went into the fight against Ruby with a naked Cloud. Yeah, didn't last all that long. I think his physical attacks were doing about 150 damage.

Who here knows the secret about Emerald's ultimate attack? :)

I know it, which is why Master Magic/Summon/Command Materias are so much fun against him. All you need, those. :)

EDIT: Oh yeah...The Aire Tam Storm does 1111 damage for each Materia you have equipped.

I didn't know that trick, and I was loaded down with the stuff...

BUT THE MOVE MISSED!

Cloud's edit was right. Way to go. :)