I've beaten FFVII before but I missed a lot of things and didn't bother defeating the weapons but now I've started over and trying to kill the weapons.

The Mega-All and Counter Materia is in the Final Dungeon, right? I read a thing about how to beat the american weapons and it says that those materias would really help.

But the last time I played the game if I entered the Final Dungeon I couldn't get back out to the Airship. Is there a way to pick up all the powerful materia found in the Final Dungeon and then return to the world map?

I don't know about the american version but I do know in the Europe version that you can enter Northern Cave (Final Dungeon in US) and get the materia you want and return to the airship.

<font color=red face="comic sans ms">I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to get back out again in the American version... :uh?: depending on which way you went down the crater, once you get to the part that says "Bottom of Nothern Cave" (where the music stops, and yes the misspelling of "northern" was intentional, it's spelt like that in the game if you look ;)). Anyway, once you get that far, there is a path that leads back up to the top again. Follow this until you get to the first screen (might take a while), then go through the big opening in the top screen. From there you can climb up and out of the crater. :)

One thing though, make sure you don't use the save crystal so that the save point will be in a place that blocks your way back. People have done this before and haven't been able to get out of the crater... but yeah, apart form that, it's possible to get out at any time before you go down to fight jenova. :)

Well I dunno what to say, but to get to the Highwind you have to go back to the top where there is a cave entrance... All you have to do is re-climb the entrance to the crater and then go to the cave that is at the top, and it should take you back to the Highwind...Try that and if it doesn't work then i dunno what the problem is...

I'm only asking this because I remember the last time I played this game about three years ago and I think I remember trying to get back up but as you go down a rock or part of the path falls that won't allow to leave. Maybe that really didn't happen, I was just checking to see if that really happened.

Regardless of how many rocks fall, cloud is still able to jump across the platforms to ascend the crater to get to the highwind. At least he does when I go back and forth from time to time...

Hmmmm, yes. Who could possibly say that before you go down those rocks towards Jenova, you can't get out. It's lame. How would you get the master materias (except summon) if you don't go down and go back up again. Plus, there's final weapons and stuff that can only be gotten on 3rd disk...