No slots but the best armor in the game.
Not sure what you're talking about; Rude doesn't have a Mystile!
Ziedrich is still pretty good, though I tend not to use it anyway due to the lack of slots. I do tend to use the Nail Bat, etc., until Icicle village though. Improved offence to me just feels more important. It probably doesn't hurt that right after you get the 0-slot weapons you face an unusually strong boss with extremely high MDef and low Def for you to use them on!
I thought the Shinra mansion was forced, too, but I guess we'll see. I did skip Gongaga on my first playthough; just missed it. No Titan's not that big a deal, the early FF7 summons aren't that powerful until suddenly Odin out of nowhere kicks ass (even its non-instant death attack is something like double any previous summon's damage). I guess Odin is quite missable and you're potentially waiting until Bahamut otherwise, though.
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