I prefer Cloud/Vincent/Cid.

That's what I used the first time I played, then later on I realized how much Vincent sucks^^

if you use him right he's a fucking beast though.

When you get to the Gilneka (spelling)... use Yuffie / Cloud / any other

Use mass morph on all of them... do this over and over and over again, you use the "stat" gems on your characters, when you get all (except str) to 255 on all characters... move on.

The slowest to get to is the Strength, there are two places to get them, one is earlier, but forgot the locations of both... it looks like a junkyard map and has one beast that seems hard.

Been so long since I played this...

Yuffie Yuffie Yuffie

Depends what you mean. I think the three most Canon to the story are Cloud, Tifa, Barrett. I'd say use those three if that's what you're looking for. Besides that, the only REAL distinction between characters is their limit breaks since the Materia system is so simple. You can use any three and easily have a winning party for this game.

Vincent doesnt suck.. but his limit does.
Give him Deathblow + Added cut and that one gun that has a crazy amount of Accuracy early on, and he'll wreck until you get x4 cut.

Yuffie obv for morphing

Cait sith for cheap victories (insta-win Ruby/Emerald)

Cid then Barret have the best dmg limit break after Cloud.

Aerith for invincibility/limit leveling

cloud/cid/yuffie

I always played with cloud, cid, red

cloud cid barret