Players seem to be loving Final Fantasy VII Remake and are enjoying the changes the developers have made to modernize the game. The action is more intense and players have a more active role in combat, all while maintaining the strategy elements from the original game.
This can throw off fans who aren’t accustomed to the new game mechanics and newcomers to the series may be struggling with the more tactical aspects of party combat. To get everyone on the right foot and performing better here are some things to keep in mind.
10 Parry Often
Cloud has the unique ability to parry attacks whenever he’s in his alternate ‘Punisher’ mode. Players tend to avoid this mode because it’s slower, but parry makes up for this lack of speed in a big way.
When an attack is incoming simply hold down the relevant button and Cloud will parry. This not only negates the incoming damage, but it will also raise the enemy’s stagger bar, fill up Cloud’s ATB, and do a healthy amount of damage against the enemy. Now that the enemy is staggered and Cloud has a full ATB bar he can bring the pain with a special ability or spell.
9 Spam ATB-Based Attacks
Speaking of which it’s important to develop the habit of spamming ATB-based attacks. In the early game the standard strikes will serve you well, but in the endgame you’ll be facing monsters that can take quite a beating. Spells are the only way to cut them down to size so learning to utilize them often and efficiently is key to winning.
Also get in the habit of stringing together combos, this is one of the fastest ways to increase an ATB bar which will allow you to fire off spells more often.
8 Blocking Is Better Than Evading
Dodging an attack has the possibility of letting you avoid the damage completely, but only if the attack misses. Otherwise, you receive the full amount of damage. Blocking, on the other hand, is guaranteed to mitigate most of the attack and slowly fill up your ATB bar.
Blocking also has the advantage of minimizing the damage received from AOE attacks which dodging in many cases cannot avoid. Obviously dodge if you can do so safely, but be sure to get in the habit of blocking attacks to help you in the long term.
7 Upgrade Assess
Every Materia in the game has a purpose and can be utilized to some degree in combat, but by far the most useful is Assess. This spell costs an entire ATB bar and will let you see the health, weaknesses, and resistances of your enemies.
When upgraded fully it will do this for every enemy in the encounter. The cost of a full ATB may seem steep, but you’ll receive information on which enemies to prioritize, which elements to use, and how to best defeat your enemies.
6 Barrier Materia Is Handy
Perhaps the next best Materia you want to obtain early is Barrier. You will get this automatically later in the game, but do yourself a favor and buy it as soon as you can. It’ll help a lot in the early game by providing some critical defenses.
Where it really shines is in the mid to end game when it’s been fully upgraded to Manaward. Manaward can mitigate 50% of all magical damage. That’s huge when you have endgame bosses that can normally wipe out a team with one well-placed spell.
5 Heal Between Battles
Whenever possible you should aim to do the majority of your healing between battles. The reason for this is that when done in battle a heal will cost an ATB bar, but outside you can do so at your leisure and there are often benches handy.
Obviously you should heal if a party member is near death in battle. But by not wasting ATB you’ll notice your team will get more attacks in and finish the fight faster than if they had taken a moment to heal. Strike a balance and you’ll see your grind time cut down significantly.
4 Heal & Element For Each Member
On the topic of healing, it’s important that every member of your team is equipped with some kind of healing ability. This way if your primary healer does go down (or you’re reduced to one character) you can still get everyone back up.
It’s also important to ensure that each party member has a different elemental attack. This allows you to take advantage of any weaknesses your enemies will have in each encounter. Having this spread of heal and elements will keep your team rounded and you’ll find yourself winning fights more often.
3 Stuff Your Characters With Materia Slots
If it hasn’t become clear by now Materia is where the crux of your characters’ power lies. Items are important, but improving the ability to cast these spells will improve your sustainability and damage far more than any sword or bracelet could.
That being said, wearable items are essential to giving your characters more Materia slots. Stuffing these items with more slots gives your characters more abilities to use and makes them more powerful in combat.
2 Do Chadley Missions
While you should strive to complete all side missions to improve your characters and experience more lore, you should at the very least do Chadley’s missions. He’s the quest giver that lets you obtain the Assess Materia.
But even after you’ll find the other Materia he gives are incredibly useful, and you’ll even obtain powerful Summons to aid your team in tougher battles. Take a break from the main story every now and then to make this guy happy, it’s worth it.
1 Hop Characters
You should stick with a single character the majority of time in battles, but make sure you are visiting the others every now and then. The reason being is that a character regenerates ATB much faster when you are directly controlling them.
Taking a moment to hop between characters will ensure that everyone is using spells more often which will make things easier and complete battles faster. Go ahead and spend most of your time with Cloud, just don’t get so much tunnel vision you forget about the others.