FF7 Perfect Game FAQ

Q. Is this a speedrun?
A. No, this is not a speedrun.

Q. What is the 'Perfect Game'?
A. Taken from http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197341-final-fantasy-vii/faqs/30493 :
 - Complete the game
 - Purchase the Costa del Sol villa
 - Have all Limit Breaks
 - Complete all sidequests (WEAPONs, Yuffie/Vincent, Wutai (Corneo/Pagoda)
 - Full set of Chocobos
 - All Chocobo Sage information
 - Everyone's Grudge does 9999 damage to each character
 - All characters at Lv 99 with maximum stats
 - Maximum of every item (including equips) possible (usually 99 or 1, some exceptions)
 - Every Key Item (where possible)
 - Maximum Gil
 - Maximum GP
 - Maximum Experience on each character
 - 'Complete' Materia set
 - Either 9999 or 2222 escapes

Q. Isn't this going to take an age?
A. Yes. I'm doing it over a long period with a lot of fairly short streams (a couple of hours for each one) so hopefully that will make things easier for me while still getting it finished in a reasonable amount of time.

Q. Is there any reason to get 99 of every item?/Why bother doing something like this?
A. No reason other than finding it fun. Why bother playing games at all? Different people enjoy different things, and I like the collection and sense of accomplishment from this.

Q. Why are you running away from fights/why do you want low levels?
A. Stealing mechanics in FF7 are weird. Some details can be found here - http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Steal - although this is quite complex, so I'll try to summarise:
 - Each enemy can have up to 3 items, but as soon as you steal one, you can't get any others that enemy could hold.
 - The items have 3 'slots', which check in turn (so, it attempts to steal from Slot 1, then Slot 2, then Slot 3 before failing). Different items/enemies also have different Steal chances, as you'd expect.
 - One item in the game - the Vagyrisk Claw - can only be stolen from Bagrisks near Cosmo Canyon. Bagrisks have 3 items available from Steal, and the Vagyrisk Claw is in Slot 3 with a 'Steal Rate' of 8 - compare this to the two Softs preceding it, which have Steal Rates of 32.
 - That means the Steal needs to fail the two Soft checks before succeeding the Vagyrisk Claw check.
 - If we assume I'm Lv 25 by the time I reach that area, there is a 15/32 chance of stealing each Soft (and, thus, a 17/32 chance of not). I need that 17/32 chance to trigger twice, followed by a 1/8 chance to steal the Vagyrisk Claw, leaving the success rate at (roughly) an incredible 3.5% of stealing.
 - I need to do this 96 TIMES. Wish me luck.
(Done now, so no longer relevant, but leaving it here for posterity's sake.)

Q. Wouldn't W-Item make that easier and take away the trouble with Vagyrisk Claws?
A. I'm reluctant to use W-Item (cloning glitch, for those who don't know), but I might change my mind once I reach the Vagyrisk Claw section. We'll see.
(Edit: Since I've got through Vagyrisk Claws and Earth Mallets now, I'm not going to W-Item. If I can manage those, I don't need glitches to finish this.)

Q. Why do you donate money to Fort Condor so much?
A. There are a few fights throughout the game that can't be accessed at all. (For example, there are 5 between Northern Cave and getting the Highwind.) If you have more than 3000 Gil in the Fort Condor banks, they'll succeed the mission, which is a requirement for the Perfect Game file.

Q. Why 9999 escapes as a goal?
A. 9999 is the maximum stored, so that's one option. 2222 would mean Chocobuckle could trigger Lucky Sevens easily (a trick in FF7 that involves starting a fight on 7777 HP), so that's an alternative option because it has cool application, but was impossible while retaining low levels for Vagyrisk Claws.

If there's anything major missing here, let me know in chat!