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Big changes are coming to the classic turn-based combat in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and it sounds like players will be able to switch between characters whenever they want during encounters.
When dealing with a game as memorable as Final Fantasy 7, it’s impossible to make every fan happy with a remake. The team behind Final Fantasy 7 Remake has already confirmed that there will be more than just a graphical upgrade and that some changes to gameplay are on their way as well, so lots of fans are curious what that means for the classic JRPG turn-based combat system. New details point to a combat feature to switch between between players in a more action-based encounter.
Even though Final Fantasy 15 was more focused on action, even that game didn’t allow actual character swapping. Noctis could call on the rest of his party for help with a quick combo attack, but the player couldn’t assume control over another character at will (though this may happen in future FF15 DLC). New descriptions for the combat encounters of Final Fantasy 7 seem to suggest that there will be some ability to switch between characters at will.
Director of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3, Tetsuya Nomura, talked about some of the combat changes in a recent interview:
“Instead of just ending it at the scaffold, we’ve decided to make better use of the space and developed a battle that takes advantage of the map’s characteristics where you’ll fight while switching between Barret and Cloud. For instance, when there’s an enemy in a position that can’t be reached by Cloud’s sword, it’s more effective to change back to Barret. It’s also becoming strategic in that way. The Guard Scorpion will change modes in the middle of the fight and demonstrate behavior not in the original version.“
Although players already have the ability to control each party member’s moves in the turn-based encounters of the original FF7, changing at-will in the middle of action-based combat would be a massive change. Players who enjoyed the updates made to combat in FF15 will be excited with this news, but traditionalists will probably be very unhappy. Let’s hope that there will be an option to switch between turn-based and action-based combat, so that both types of players can enjoy the much-anticipated remake.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is currently being developed exclusively for the PS4.
