Materia (Final Fantasy VII)

Materia are items in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Materia allows a character to cast spells, Summon, use new commands, and have various other uses. It forms the basis of the skill and ability system for Final Fantasy VII, and also plays a prominent role in the skills of characters in other games.

Description
Materia is crystallized Mako. Metaphysically, Materia calls upon the wisdom of the Lifestream in order to manipulate nature itself. This ultimately results in the manifestation of magic for most Materia, although other Materia pieces enhance the user's abilities. Sephiroth mentions that he and Professor Hojo debated the nature of Materia in Cloud's story flashback in Kalm. Hojo objected to the term "Magic" being applied to Materia, but could offer no better explanation.

Materia is able to occur naturally, as noted by Sephiroth, but it is very rare to see natural Materia, so the implication is that most Materia is artificially created. It is never specified if natural Materia has any appreciable difference in usage and power from artificial Materia. As mentioned, different Materia produces different effects, distinguishable through color and size. Most Materia is roughly the size of a marble (as can be seen in character illustrations), although some are larger or smaller. Materia also produces new Materia shards over time, although the exact process of this is not specified. The new Materia is said to be "born".

Final Fantasy VII
Materia can normally only be used when slotted into a weapon or a piece of armor, although there are exceptions - in general the Materia merely needs to be in possession of a person for it to be used. Once slotted into an equipment piece the wearer is able to call upon the powers that Materia possesses.

Winning battles earns AP, which is a special type of Experience Points for Materia. Just like characters, Materia levels up when it gains enough AP. Some Materia allow access to stronger commands when leveled up, others allow the user to use the granted command more times, others give a stat bonus that grows larger, and so forth. When Materia reached its highest level, it was "Mastered", and a second Materia with the same powers was created. Thus, with patience and enough leveling up, even one-of-a-kind Materia could be reproduced infinitely.

Materia can be slotted into a single slot or a connected slot. When slotted into a connected slot, the Materia can be joined with a Support Materia to varying effects, including adding elemental properties to the slotted equipment, allowing the Matera to target multiple targets, etc. Some equipment also affects Materia growth through AP. Some have Materia slots but cause the Materia in them to gain no AP at all, while others double or triple the amount of AP given to the Materia. Other weapons have no Materia slots at all.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-
Materia in Crisis Core works very similarly to the way its used in the original Final Fantasy. However, a new feature called Materia Fusion allows for two Materias to be fused together to create a stronger Materia with higher stats. There are also many more colors.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
Materia is produced in Before Crisis in a unique fashion. Once they select the option to create Materia, the player takes a picture with their cellphone, and based on the predominant color in the picture, the game creates a Materia piece - a red picture would produce Fire Materia, for example. The player can only equip three Materia at a time - two in their armor, one in their weapon.

Materia levels up as it is used, to a maximum of Level 9. However, higher levels do not award stronger spells - Fire and Fira, for example, are different Materia from each other, and Fire will not become Fira as it levels up. What level affects is the chance of the equipment piece taking on the elemental attributes of that Materia. For example, when Fire Materia is slotted into the weapon, there is a chance that the player's attack will be Fire elemental, the higher level the Fire Materia, the more likely it is the attack will be elemental.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-
Vincent Valentine can equip Fire, Blizzard, or Thunder Materia to his weapon to enhance his attacks. Fire-elemental bullets create a wave of fire when they hit their target, hitting multiple enemies. Blizzard-elemental-bullets freeze their targets in place when they hit. Thunder-elemental bullets can hit multiple enemies with a "chain lightning" type effect.

Types
In Final Fantasy VII, there are 5 Types of materia, each with a different color.


 * Red - Summon Materia: Used to summon monsters to aid in battle.
 * Green - Magic Materia: Used to cast Magic spells, including Black, White, and status-inducing spells. Also affects Strength and Magic stats. Note that there are different shades of green denoting the types of magic in Crisis Core.
 * Yellow - Command Materia: Allows the use of extra commands in battle like Throw and Steal.
 * Blue - Support Materia: Can be linked to other Materia in order to enhance their effects.
 * Purple - Independent Materia: Various functions, including increasing stats and auto-abilities such as Cover.

In addition to the above, there was the unique Command Materia, the Enemy Skill Materia, which taught Enemy Skills to the player.

Special Materia

 * There is a Black Materia; however, this materia is unable to be used by the player. The Black Materia unleashes the Ultimate Destruction Magic, Meteor.
 * The White Materia, Holy, also exists, but again is unable to be used. Aeris has this materia hidden in her hair, and when she is killed, it falls into the water in the Forgotten Capital.
 * Huge Materia are encountered several times in Final Fantasy VII, and if the player manages to get one of them, they can be used to fuse mastered materia sets into Master Materia.
 * Master Materia is available for Command, Magic, and Summon Materia, and contains all of the Materia for that particular type.
 * In Dirge of Cerberus, there is also the Protomateria.
 * In Before Crisis, there is a Summon materia which summons Zirconiade. It was implanted by Fuhito into Elfé's body, which allows her to have superhuman strength but is gradually consuming her.
 * In Crisis Core, there is an incredibly enormous red Materia called "The Goddess Materia" which resides in the secret cave at Banora Village on top of the Goddess' statue. Genesis ends up using this Materia in order to transform himself into Genesis Avatar.
 * In Final Fantasy Tactics, White Materia, Black Materia and Red Materia are artefacts that can be collected. Both are described with the following text:
 * ''These stones, developed by the ancient Saronians, are the result of experiments in storing knowledge within gems for later generations. They are said to enhance the abilities of the possessor.

Trivia

 * Kadaj uses Materia in the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Unlike in the game, Kadaj uses a blue Support Materia that allows him to use Enemy Skills and summon Bahamut SIN, both abilities that Support Materia could not normally provide.
 * Vincent uses Red Materia as his Fire Magic Materia in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, which would normally be dark green.
 * Interestingly, Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz never actually utilize the common methods of fighting with their Materia; that is, they never actually insert them into weapons or armor, instead absorbing them into their bodies. When Kadaj first receives Cloud's Materia, it seems to merge right into his flesh, and, during their death scene, Loz and Yazoo both have at least five Materia shining through their fading bodies.