Knights of the Round

Before it was the name of some lame-o special attack in Final Fantasy VII, Knights Of The Round was a fabulous scrolling beat-'em-up coin-op by Capcom. Choosing from three Arthurian characters, you set off to hack and slash your way through level after level of semi-mythical action. The game is like a more advanced version of Golden Axe. There are vehicles (in this case horses) on some levels, bosses and special moves (but no magics if I recall correctly).

A neat touch was that you levelled up as you went through the game, which would change the appearance of your character and let you do more damage. Capcom seemed to have a thing for medieval-themed games for a while - there was this, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Ghouls 'n' Ghosts and King of Dragons. Also, the character from Street Fighter II known in the West as Vega (a masked bullfighter) was originally going to be a medieval knight, until the game's theme demanded characters from different countries, and not different eras through history.

Note that the name of the Materia and spell is actually "Knights of Round". The "the" is added in by most gamers, but is not actually correct.

This is probably meant as a pun, as the island where the Materia is obtained is called "Round Island" (and it is, indeed, a round island). Save the game in the overworld on this island, and its name will appear on the Save screen. The name is also, of course, likely to be a reference to the Knights of the Round Table. Only one of the warriors -the last one- wields a sword; the others use a wide variety of weapons. Excalibur, maybe?

Also, generally considered to be the first in a long line of Squaresoft spells that could be used as egg timers, because of the absurdly long (if cool) animation.

In Final Fantasy VII, Knights of the Round (KotR) is the 'ultimate' summon materia to be had. (Its actual game name is "Knights of Round", but most gamers and FAQ's seem to put in "the".) When summoned, the title of the summons is "Ultimate End". All enemies are drawn into what appears to be the deeps of space and time, where 13 humanoid monsters attack in full force:

1. Armored humanoid with a sword.
2. Armored humanoid with a staff.
3. Cloaked druid casts a fireball spell.
4. Armored humanoid with a warhammer.
5. Armored humanoid with a sword.
6. Armored humanoid with a sword.
7. Druid casts an explosive ice spell.
8. Armored humanoid with a poleaxe or other polearm.
9. Druid casts a spell bringing down boulders.
10. Armored humanoid with a staff.
11. Armored humanoid with a battleaxe.
12. Armored humanoid with a sword.
13. An armored, cloaked figure rises directly in front of the enemy. It wields a white sword, and appears to cleave the enemy in two.

(The process of watching this spell in its full cycle, from the cast to the completion, takes close to two minutes. Use sparingly.)

None of the spells are blockable, except by normal magic defense (which merely reduces the attack effectiveness of all the monsters on the list). Each of the 13 can cause a maximum of 9999 damage (based on the caster's magic characteristic and the enemy's defense). There are only four materia pairings that work with KotR: HP Absorb, MP Absorb, Final Attack and Magic Counter. HP Absorb will absorb Hit Points from the enemy into the caster; MP Absorb does the same with Magic Points (both pairings are highly recommendable). Final Attack (when paired with KotR) will cast KotR without using MP if the character is killed (not a recommendable combo). Magic Counter will counter-attack with the spell or summon materia it is paired with whenever the character is attacked (not a particularly recommendable combo). In fact, if you have an enemy with a lot of HP (like the Ruby or Emerald weapons), don't equip Magic Counter (or regular Counter) on any of your characters. Instead, equip everyone with Mime, and equip one character with KotR paired with HP Absorb. That way, you can mime in a circle, and you don't have to spend the 250MP per cast that KotR requires.

Levels

Like all summon materia (except the master summon materia), KotR has five levels, and begins at level 1:

• Level 2: 50,000AP
• Level 3: 200,000AP
• Level 4: 300,000AP
• Level 5: 500,000AP

Now, for those readers unfamiliar with FF7, 500,000AP is basically the whole game (with some interesting exceptions). There are only two monsters (the ruby and emerald weapons) who will return 50,000AP each upon defeat (that is the most), and each can only be defeated once. But there are ways of getting more AP from a fight than a monster gives you. For instance, Cloud's Apocalypse sword has a triple materia growth rate (and three materia slots as well), so ruby's 50,000AP can be turned into 150,000AP for the materia in those slots. This is important when considering one of the FF7 rumors: "Place eight mastered (level 5) KotR materia into the Ultima weapon to make Excalibur." I am currently 400,000AP into my sixth KotR, so I have some hope of validating this rumor (1,100,000AP left). According to xMVince, this rumor is very likely validated! From his comments (August, 2006):
xMVince says Hey, I recently got 8 KoTR mastered materia in the Ultima Weapon for FF7 with Cloud. The weapon blinks blue and then grey, but when the materia is not in there its just grey. does this mean that the myth of excalibur is true?
xMVince says no, the properties did not change, but instead of hitting around 4000 damage i hit 9999 every time, but my HP is very low with all the KoTR materia equipped. ...

Attributes

The KotR materia will change the character's status in the following way (when equipped):

• Magic: +8
• Spirit: +8
• MaxHP: -10%
• MaxMP: +20%

Where to find KotR

Round Island is only accessible via gold Chocobo. Get one of those, then ride it out into the ocean up to the northeast corner of the map. Round Island is somewhat east and north from goblin island. The KotR materia is inside the cave that is on the island.