Final Fantasy VII Remake: How to use Magnify, the closest thing to the All materia
One of the most common and most powerful materia in Final Fantasy VII was the 'All' materia -- a support materia that converted any magic spell into a party-wide (or enemy group-wide) cast. Connect All to Restore in the original game and have party-wide heals for as long as you have MP. As a bonus, selling maxed-out All Materia was a nice way to easily inflate your gil stash -- which sadly doesn't factor in here.
While All isn't found in Final Fantasy VII Remake, we do have Magnify, which works much in the same way. While Magnify isn't quite as obtuse as Synergy, it does function in a slightly peculiar manner. Here, we'll discuss where you find Magnify, and how exactly Magnify works.
We've got lots more assistance for those playing this huge remake - just hit up our full FF7 Remake guide & walkthrough. It covers everything from all materia locations and music discs for the power of music quest to Cloud, Tifa and Aerith's bridal dresses, Corneo's secret stash and even a detailed choice and consequences guide for those difficult dialogue options - and that's just a handful!
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Where to find the Magnify materia
While Final Fantasy VII Remake is kind enough to dole out two copies of Elemental materia , there is only one copy of Magnify in the game, and you'll find it in Chapter 9. In the Collapsed Expressway on the way to Wall Market, you'll encounter some puzzles involving using robotic arms to move Aerith over to platforms and ladders to clear the path. On the second of these two puzzles, you can drop Aerith off near a Binding materia, which is neat but not unique. However, on the third and last of these puzzles is where you'll find Magnify.
Before stacking up the two shipping containers to move Aerith across to the final ladder, place the lower shipping container near the Materia resting in the tunnel on the right-hand side, then drop Aerith off on top of it to have her fetch the materia. After this, you can reset the puzzle to clear the way to Wall Market in the typical manner. Do note that while you can go back via Chapter Select to get this materia if you've missed it, you can't use Chapter Select to get more than one copy.
Final Fantasy VII Remake: How the Magnify materia works
Magnify is a support materia, like Synergy and Elemental. So you must use a linked pair of materia slots in your weapon or armor to use it. Magnify works with any green magic materia, and pairing any materia up with it will allow you to cast it on multiple party members or enemies, with the effectiveness increasing as you gather AP and level the materia up.
Once you've selected which materia you want to magnify, you can use it in two ways: via either the Battle Settings shortcut menu, or simply via the in-battle command menu.
If you want to link a spell along with Magnify in the Battle Settings menu, you can hit L1 to pick whether you want to Magnify the spell or not. So effectively, you have to make the hard decision about your shortcut either always casting the wider version of the spell, or always single target -- you can't toggle between. If inclined, you could set multiple shortcuts. Note that the MP cost doesn't change whether you Magnify or not.
More likely, you'll be using the regular command menu to cast your spell. When in the spell list, simply hit L1 to toggle between the normal and altered spell versions. You'll know when the spell is Magnified when the circular icon next to the spell name is lit up.
While using Magnify on offensive spells like Fire will result in a slight decrease in the output damage as a sort of balancing effect, pairing off with a support spell like Haste means the duration will be slightly shorter -- but at the trade-off of buffing all your party members at once. This could be useful for speeding up the entire team at the start of a battle, or for splashing out a defensive buff like Manawall by pairing Magnify along with Barrier, which could be useful in a pinch to survive some bosses' ultimate abilities.