The Materia Menu.
Materia (マテリア, Materia?) is a major piece of equipment in Final Fantasy VII, and forms the game's core gameplay mechanic. Materia is used when slotted into a weapon or a piece of armor, and grants them unique abilities, including Magic spells, rare command abilities, summoned monsters, or other support abilities.
Because party members in Final Fantasy VII have limited unique functions (outside of their Limit and different stats), the Materia build on a party member as set by the player determines their use in battle, and thus their playstyle.
Leveling up a Materia piece to its maximum level, and leveling up all Materia to their final levels, earns the Master Materia and Materia Overload achievements, respectively, in the PC version re-release version of Final Fantasy VII. In the PlayStation 4 rerelease mastering a Materia earns Materia Mastermind trophy, though only if it is one with five stars.
Mechanics[]
Materia switch.
Materia can be used when slotted into a weapon or a piece of armor. Once slotted into an equipment piece the wearer can call upon the Materia's powers. Using Materia has both pros and cons. Depending on the type and strength of the Materia equipped, some stats may be lowered or enhanced. As an example, the Restore Materia picked up in No. 1 Reactor at the beginning of the game reduces maximum HP by two percent and Strength by one, but raises maximum MP by two percent and Magic by one. However, in practice the effect is negligible.
Winning battles earns Ability Points that are distributed to Materia currently equipped to the party members in armors and weapons that have AP growth enabled. Materia levels up when it gains enough AP. Some equipment affects Materia growth; some have Materia slots, but the Materia equipped gain no AP, while others double or triple the amount of AP the Materia slotted into the equipment gain. Other equipment pieces have no Materia slots at all.
Some Materia unlock commands when they level up, others allow the user to use the granted ability more times, others give a bigger stat bonus. When a Materia reaches its highest level, it is "mastered" and a second Materia with the same powers is born with 0 AP. Thus, with patience and enough leveling up, even one-of-a-kind Materia can be reproduced infinitely.
Materia can be slotted into a single slot or a connected equipment 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 or allowing the linked Materia to target multiple targets. For example, linking Added Effect to a Materia that contains a status effect to a character's weapon, gives the weapon the properties of the status, and randomly inflicts the status on targets with the Attack command. Linking Added Effect with a status Materia to a character's armor, however, makes the party member immune to said status.
If the player's Materia inventory is full when trying to pick up a Materia piece the game will notify the player and ask them to remove Materia first. The Kujata and Final Attack Materia are exceptions, and will be lost forever if the player "obtains" them with full inventory. When the player's Materia quota is full, mastering Materia also begins to replace certain other Materia, which are simply overwritten without the player being notified this is happening.[1] Which Materia gets deleted depends on a priority system. When a Materia is born and there is no space in the inventory for it, the new Materia will replace the first instance of the lowest ranking Materia that is less than the new Materia in the inventory, regardless of AP. However, the inventory can hold 200 Materia pieces, enough for most players to never get close to filling it.
Types[]
| Color | Icon | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red |  |
Summon | Used to summon creatures to aid in battle. |
| Green |  |
Magic | Used to cast spells, including damaging, healing, and status-inducing spells. Also affects Strength and Magic stats. |
| Yellow |  |
Command | Allows the use of extra commands in battle like Throw and Steal. |
| Blue |  |
Support | Can be linked to other Materia in order to enhance their effects. |
| Purple |  |
Independent | Increasing stats and gives auto-abilities, such as Cover. |
In addition to the above, there is the unique Command Materia, the Enemy Skill Materia, which teaches Enemy Skills to the player.
This variation of Materia appears in Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS in the Midgar stage, along with Cloud. It summons stage hazards.
Behind the scenes[]
The materia system was designed so that any weapon and armor can be equipped with it. It was decided the battles wouldn't be about characters with individual, innate skills, but that combat would change depending on the way Materia was used.[2]
There are several unused Materia in the original Japanese release of Final Fantasy VII. They are the MBarrier, Reflect, and Refurbish Magic Materia, the Law, the Booster Support Materia, and the Underwater Independent Materia.
The dummied Magic and Command Materia offer no commands that are not available from other Materia in the game, and the Support Materia has no effect on paired Materia. The Underwater Materia became available in later releases, serving the function during the battle with Emerald Weapon, however its name given in the Japanese International release was changed from すいちゅうこきゅう (Suichū Kokyū?, lit. Underwater Breathing) to せんすい (Sensui?, lit. Diving). All of these Materia appear in later revisions in all later releases in a capacity, though their names were not translated and various values were removed making them less functional.
Etymology[]
Materia means "matter" or "substance" in Latin, Spanish, and Italian; it also means "subject" in Italian and Spanish, and is the root of Portuguese "Matéria".