Hopes for Remake & Rebirth (gameplay/combat)

[X-SOLDIER]

I think that one of the big appeals about FFVII's Materia System is that things can be easy if you think them though and focus on reequiping your team on the fly with the right thing for the right job. Sure you CAN get through fights no problem with the right setup, but learning what that is isn't something that you're immediately aware of, and sometimes have to learn through trial and error until something's easy.

Hell, I remember that Crisis Core's strategy guide goes into a nuts amount of detail about how to prepare for a supposedly insanely tough battle against Mako Ifrit... but nothing mentions setting up a combination that absorbs Fire damage, which makes it a cake walk.

That sort of thing is what makes the Wutai side missions so awesome, because all of a sudden you're stuck with no materia, and are focusing on your raw character stats and using items to get by which you can largely ignore the whole game up until that point.


Also, I remember the first time that I had to fight Dyne with a party of only Barrett (a character I never used when I had other options), it was ridiculously difficult, because I was woefully underprepared for a fight with just him, and leveling up around that area was difficult because of the possibility for the dying move Suicide giving no XP for some fights if it killed him.


On a side note, despite the fact that it's a totally different game type, I've always thought that the way that the Fallout games can switch from active to turn-based combat on the fly in a really fluid and dynamic way was really awesome. I'd love to be able to see something similar that gives you an option to toggle in and out of a turn-based & active combat mode.




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[Blade]

When I said KOTR shouldn't kill everything, I didn't mean "nerf it" guys....

I mean something stronger than Ruby Weapon maybe...

Or maybe Onyx and the other so-called Weapon bosses?

 

[Tetsujin]

I wanna fight Sapphire Weapon. I don't know in which context that would be possible but I want to.

 

[Interslicery]

I personally would hate it if they went to the newer FF action battle systems. Not just because I'm not the biggest fan of those systems, but because I wouldn't feel as if I was playing as a team.
Since I'm controlling one person at a time (assuming I can switch who the active character is), I feel like I'm playing AS them and the others are buddies helping me out. Playing FFVII recently, it feels more as if you're playing as the team, even though you're technically playing as Cloud.
The whole game is about this group of characters, even switching control to them at some point because we care about their stories. If the combats more action oriented then it would lessen the impact of the "team" feel in my eyes.
It would be perfect if they could have the option to switch between the modern actiony style and the classic battle system. I dunno how feasible that would be though.

 

[Starling]

I don't really get why nerfing anything would be a good idea. I mean, having the option to use a materia and equipment set up that makes you practically unbeatable doesn't mean you have to use it. It's like how KH BBS had abilities that, once acquired, could be toggled on and off whenever you felt like it. It'd be cool if they improved the enemy AI and got it to do interesting things.

 

[clowd]

In regards to Final Fantasy VII's difficulty, I'd like to see the magic points cost of spells boosted significantly, even as much as 2x. I never even came close to running low on magic points in Final Fantasy VII, even in my first playthrough. It was also way too easy to spam summons like Choco Mog early in the game.

Some possible difficulty upgrades/tweaks

A tent costs 1,000 gill instead of 500

A potion costs 100 gill and heals 200 HP instead of 50gill/100hp

A high potion costs 600 gill and heals 1,000 HP instead of 300gil/500hp

Theres a bunch of tweaks they could do

 

[X-SOLDIER]

An interesting point that a friend of mine just brought up is Limit Breaks.

While most characters have ones that function as a single (or series of) ultra-powerful attacks, Vincent's transform him until the end of combat and put him on AI, which becomes incredibly un-noteworthy if the majority of your team is running on AI the whole time with active combat.

Any ideas on how that'd work with a more active combat system?




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[Lex]

If character switching is a thing (and it better be if we're doing a solo perspective thing), they could just make it so that Vincent becomes non-controllable when the LB is active, so you end up switching between your two remaining characters.

 

[Starling]

In regards to Final Fantasy VII's difficulty, I'd like to see the magic points cost of spells boosted significantly, even as much as 2x. I never even came close to running low on magic points in Final Fantasy VII, even in my first playthrough. It was also way too easy to spam summons like Choco Mog early in the game.

Some possible difficulty upgrades/tweaks

A tent costs 1,000 gill instead of 500

A potion costs 100 gill and heals 200 HP instead of 50gill/100hp

A high potion costs 600 gill and heals 1,000 HP instead of 300gil/500hp

Theres a bunch of tweaks they could do

Seems like artificial difficulty. The challenge shouldn't come from restrictions so much as from the task actually being challenging in itself. Therefore, enemies that are challenging because they're not stupid rather than because healing items cost too much to buy without grinding.

For Vincent's limit breaks in an active combat system, I'd think the AI in would be rather aggressive. Same for the berserk status.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Having a smarter enemy ai would be a good way to bump up the difficulty level, especially as that's one thing that has really improved since the OG. They wouldn't even have to sacrifice the player mechanics a lot for it...

 

[clowd]

Seems like artificial difficulty. The challenge shouldn't come from restrictions so much as from the task actually being challenging in itself. Therefore, enemies that are challenging because they're not stupid rather than because healing items cost too much to buy without grinding.

For Vincent's limit breaks in an active combat system, I'd think the AI in would be rather aggressive. Same for the berserk status.

Stronger enemies would do the trick. If they're dealing and absorbing more damage than you'd need to use magic and healing items more often.

In a turn based RPG I think the trick to difficult enemies is not to just make them stronger, but to add a level of strategy to the fight, especially with bosses. For example avoiding attacks on the Guardian Scorpion when it has its tail laser raised, having to break Reno's pyramid trap, or Bottomwell's water bubble. Those are simple examples for early bosses but they need to be expanded upon with later more difficult bosses. You should have to think your way through a boss fight instead of simply overpowering the enemy. And as an extra touch make boss fights more cinematic. As the boss' HP lowers maybe the fight is taken somewhere else, etc.

I'd like to see bosses and even some stronger normal enemies use status effect attacks more often. Make it like FFVIII where status effects are not cured automatically after battle. I believe only sadness and fury stayed with characters in VII.

And for the sake of making this a proper game that lives up to it's predecessor, please no casual garbage like level caps or auto replenishing HP after battles.

Can somebody explain to me what was so bad about XII's battle system, why people hated it? I'd love to have that system (but improved) for this remake. It looked to me like a natural evolution of turn based combat. I was genuinely surprised when XIII went back to loading screens etc

 

[Kai Schulen]

! I would like to see more aerial battles, it's a shame they only times you fight on the Highwind is only for the Ultimate Weapon. Though, I don't know what other enemies you can include in an aerial fight...

 

[Flintlock]

Can somebody explain to me what was so bad about XII's battle system, why people hated it? I'd love to have that system (but improved) for this remake. It looked to me like a natural evolution of turn based combat. I was genuinely surprised when XIII went back to loading screens etc

I liked XII's battle system, but that's probably the programmer in me talking. I can see how it would have felt very abstract or disengaging for other players.

 

[55-]

Can somebody explain to me what was so bad about XII's battle system, why people hated it? I'd love to have that system (but improved) for this remake. It looked to me like a natural evolution of turn based combat.

This was just my personal experience.
It's been a while - and I still own XII and would like to give it another shot - but mostly I just remember being perpetually underpowered and poor, to the point where I couldn't progress any further.
I know that's less about the gameplay itself and more about poor execution and balancing. But it just makes me really annoyed thinking about it.
I don't know how I feel about the whole gambits thing. Again, I'd have to revisit it and see it in more detail.
But, I like micromanaging. I like strategizing. Put me in the category of desiring something closer to X's wait system, rather than XII's active combat.

 

[ForceStealer]

I think XII's battle system is just...uneventful and boring. Disengaging, as Flint put it. I often wonder if I would have a different opinion of it if the game itself wasn't so damn grindy. Maybe if I didn't have to chain shit in the sandsea for 3 hours I wouldn't find it so boring.

 

[hleV]

From an interview:

"we can't have these upgraded, beautiful 3D models of Cloud and Barrett, still lining up in a row, jumping forward to attack an enemy, then jumping back to wait for their next turn. That would be bizarre. Of course there will likely be changes there."

Action battle system with free character control confirmed?
*Sees what he wants to see*

 

[Wolf_]

Wouldn't it just be easier to to just have the buttons reassign when Vincent uses his limit to a couple of unique moves for each limit? Or put his limit on a timer.

 

[clowd]

I'd like to see them add roads between the cities. So like FFVIII you can rent a car and drive between cities at a high rate of speed.

 

[Zef]

Hard & very hard mode please. Modular difficulty would be the best way to appeal to the entirety of the fan base.

 

[clowd]

Hopefully in addition to all the gold saucer mini games, we get at least one new one. Something like a card game or fishing.

 

[Cthulhu]

Re: that road... A world map where you can actually see where you have to go next. Like idk, an arrow, or a world map, or something like that. I know that exploring the map (and ending up somewhere you weren't supposed to yet) is part of the game, but at the same time, it was fecking annoying .

Speaking of... wouldn't mind not needing a walkthrough to find Vincent/Yuffie,

 

[Lex]

I honestly really hope there aren't difficulty modes. But I wouldn't die from rage if there were.

 

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

I'd love difficulty modes. I think it's one of those things along with loading screens (which I hate) that doesn't belong in an FF game, yes, but if any tradition has to be broken I'd love that one. I want a hard mode.

 

[Clement Rage]

Fewer, more difficult enemies over lots of weak ones.

 

[Smaddy]

This is a very specific request but I wish that when the party splits up in the Northern Crater at the end, it became a multi-party dungeon. I think it would make that part more interesting. It would also create a challenge in that you'd have to consider which characters you'd use, rather than the same 2-3 through most of the game.