Although Final Fantasy VII Remake shares a lot with the source material, many features have been added or modernized for the PS4. The remake will feature real-time combat with both unique weapon and character abilities, and the option to switch to Classic Mode, mirroring the turn-based mechanics of the original. Powerful summons also return, bringing different creatures to help you in battle. The EU PlayStation Blog got its hands on a number of new screenshots from the remake, and along with the images, Square Enix detailed many of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s new features.
Unique weapon abilities will play a large role in the remake, giving you the option to learn a wide variety of skills to enhance combat. Each weapon has a specific skill attached to it, and the more you use them, the more you level up their proficiencies. When you reach the maximum proficiency with a certain weapon ability, you’ll be able to use it when wielding any weapon. You’ll also be able to upgrade your weapons using skill points which will upgrade things like attack power, wielder’s HP, and Materia slots.
Each character will also have a unique ability that you can use during combat. For example, when playing as Cloud, he can switch between two fighting styles: Operator Mode and Punisher Mode. Operator Mode gives you a healthy balance of attack and defense, while Punisher mode—like the name suggests—focuses on offense, giving you increased damage when striking with basic attacks at the cost of movement speed.
Chocobo & Moogle was also shown off as a returning summon with their special move “Stampede.” Summons will fight on their own, so you can focus on dealing blows, though if you want to spend your character’s ATB charges on the Summon’s special abilities (which vary depending on which Summon you use), you can. As the Summon leaves the battlefield, it will perform its unique special move—”Stampede” in the case of Chocobo & Moogle—which mimics the way they were used in turn-based battles in the classic game.
Speaking of the turn-based combat of the classic game; Final Fantasy VII Remake has you covered with Classic mode, giving you the option to allow party members to act automatically as the ATB gauge fills while they engage in combat. Instead of positioning on the battlefield, you’ll simply be selecting abilities, magic, and items to use your ATB charges for through the game’s menus, more akin to the original game. While it’s not identical to the turn-based combat of the original, the intention is to get the feeling a little bit closer to that menu-based system than the action-RPG combat of the remake. Classic mode is considered a difficulty setting, and choosing Classic will set the combat difficulty to Easy as the game takes over control of many functions for you. You can switch from Classic to direct control on the fly at any time using buttons right on the controller. No need to dive into a menu.
Additional screenshots provided to the PlayStation Blog gave us our first look at Aerith’s house, both inside and outside, as well as new renders of Biggs, Wedge, Jesse, Reno, and Rude. We also got additional combat images, a peek inside Aerith’s church, and another look at the motorcycle combat sequence as the team attempts to escape the city. You can see some of those images below (click to enlarge).
Nomura has addressed fans who are skeptical that a game based solely on Midgar can be all that big, saying that he had to give direction to “lighten” the density and volume of everything that the team is packing into it. While part one will focus on the Midgar chapter of Final Fantasy VII’s story, we know that Square Enix is already working on the next part of the remake with an unknown release date at this time.
The wait is almost over. Final Fantasy VII Remake will release for PS4 on March 3, 2019. You can preorder it from Amazon.
[Source: EU PlayStation Blog]
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