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Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier Classes Guide (Styles)

Learning to master your favorite Style

Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier Classes Guide (Styles)

The job system from the original Final Fantasy games is an odd choice for Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier to borrow from, but it actually brings along some welcome variety to this new title in a populated genre. Instead of solely relying on your favourite weapon to lead you to victory, you will be able to take advantage of class-specific perks, skills, and abilities that can assist you on the battlefield. As you play, you’ll grow your ‘style’ mastery and start increasing the powers of these styles, becoming a veritable force to be reckoned with.

Each style has a specific melee weapon that they use, and they also have sets of special bonuses that follow along with how that particular soldier would fight. As you get used to each one, you’ll likely figure out which one works best with your playstyle, but they all have a pretty fair balance between each other. 

There’s no ‘rock-paper-scissors’ definite win in a firefight between one against another, and most of the time, your resourcefulness will determine who comes out on top. While The First Soldier styles are not finalised during the Beta, they do seem to be pretty well defined, and hopefully, they stick to a similar setup in the final release.

Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier Styles

Warrior

FF The First Soldier - Warrior

Profile: The warrior is quick on their feet with a rush ability that gives you an additional boost of speed and an increased melee reach that puts you in range for a longsword attack quicker. You also gain HP as you slash opponents, making the choice to move in close worth it. Weapon: Model 89 Longsword Trait: Fearless Charge

Increases the distance that you can target with a melee attack and creates a barrier when you attack the target while moving or when you use the Rush ability.

Ability: Rush

Grants you the ability to move rapidly in the direction you are facing.

Ability Upgrades: Punisher - Increases melee attack damage, melee attack range, and movement speed for a fixed amount of time. Skill: Siphon Slash

Recovers a fixed amount of HP when damage is dealt using a melee weapon.

Skill Upgrades:  Warrior Spirit - Augments the barrier applied by Fearless Charge and Rush. Countershield - When you take damage, creates a barrier facing the direction of the attack (limited to once per level).

Sorcerer

The First Soldier styles - Sorcerer Profile: The sorcerer uses magic more efficiently with a boost to MP amount and recovery speed. Can eventually unlock the ability to see spells cast on the mini-map and fire off more powerful spells faster when put into their Trance, making them a spell-slinging spitfire to strike fear in the hearts of your opponents. Weapon: Model 89 Staff Trait: Magic Boost

Increases MP by 1 and augments Fire/Blizzard/Thunder materia.

Ability: Arcane Field

Creates a field that increases MP recovery speed and cooldown recovery speed.

Ability Upgrades: Trance - Reduces MP cost, increases materia Lv. by 1, and increases movement speed temporarily. Skill: Concentration

Increases MP recovery speed.

Skill Upgrades: Etheric Drain - Recovers HP/MP by a fixed amount when you use Fire/Blizzard/Thunder materia to defeat an enemy candidate. Magic Detector - When materia is used within a certain proximity from your location, the area of the effect displays on the mini-map.

Monk

Styles - monk Profile: With only their fists to defend themselves in a melee fight, it’s a good thing that they have both a barrier to protect from damage and ways to increase their health, including an added boost when it dips below 20%. When they are nearing their demise, that’s when they become their strongest with an added boost to critical attacks. Weapon: Fists Trait: Inner Strength

Automatically recovers a fixed amount of damage when at 20% HP or less for a fixed amount of time and increases critical by 100% one time only.

Ability: Manawall

Creates a defensive barrier in front of you that reduces damage.

Ability Upgrades: Chakra Field - Creates a field that removes poison and constantly recovers HP for candidates inside the field. Skill: Revitalize

Increases the effect of HP recovery you perform with the exception of consumables.

Skill Upgrades: Chakra Unleashed - Immediately recovers HP when a certain amount of damage is received at once (limited to once per level). Awakened Strength - Increases the automatic recovery amount for the Inner Strength trait.

Ranger

The First Soldier styles - Ranger Profile: Focusing mostly on targeting and tracking others, the ranger is the master of their surroundings, and can manipulate their map to show location info for players, monsters, and other effects. They can also go full stealth and reduce the sound of all their guns, make their targets clearer in their scope, and even blind opposing snipers from targeting them.  Weapon: Model 89 Shortsword Trait: Mark

When you have your scope trained on an enemy candidate for a fixed amount of time, or if you inflict damage, a marker is attached to the enemy candidate.

Ability: Assess

Marks nearby candidates, monsters, blizzard effects, and gravity effects on the map.

Ability Upgrades: Control - Grants you the ability to manipulate a slug-ray to scout the surrounding area. Skill: Sniper Eye

When looking through your scope, enemy candidates appear more clearly.

Skill Upgrades: Silencer - Reduces the firing sound of all guns. Acute Sense - When an enemy candidate has you in their scope, reflected light appears, hindering their view.

It’ll take time to learn and master each of these classes, but eventually, you’ll be able to wield your favorite style with great skill. As the game continues to develop, I’m sure there will be even more upgrades to unlock and skills to brandish, but for now, there’s a lot to unpack here.

If you’re looking for more info about each of the weapons and are trying to figure out your favorite before you dive into your next match, check out our Weapons Guide for information and tips.

Bryan Taylor
Bryan Taylor
Bryan has a passion for writing and has been gaming since the 80s. His favourite games include Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, and Rez, and he joins us bringing his vast knowledge of games to the team.