FFVII Ever Crisis - Getting started with fighting

In an effort to streamline the combat in Ever Crisis, most of the controls have become automated. When you're in battle, your characters will automatically and periodically attack regardless of speed or energy. They'll also use skills on their own, but there's no way to determine which ones they use and when. You can take direct control of characters and can choose which KEY abilities they use which can range from offensive to supportive. Each character has their own abilities each with different costs. They don't have cooldown time but rather share the ATB energy.

One of the biggest criticisms of the Final Fantasy series and JRPGs in general is the use of random battles. It was surprising to be wandering through an empty area and all of a sudden be sucked into a battle screen. This tradition returns in Ever Crisis, which means that there's no such thing as safe exploration when you're in the field. The good thing is that enemies won't attack when you're not moving. When they do, the battle begins and time begins flowing with both the enemy side and your party members attacking automatically.

Another notable mechanic in FFVII that returns in Ever Crisis is the ATB system. This stands for Active Time Battle, which was the designers' attempt to make turn-based combat more engaging. Instead of being like Pokemon where each side waits for their turn, both sides will attack whenever they have that chance. ATB is represented by a bright blue bar split into segments that fill up over time. This doesn't determine whose turn it is as you can freely cycle through characters, but it determines your Ability energy. The character's available abilities are underneath the ATB bar and their ATB cost is shown above each of their icons. When you use one, you empty a certain amount of the ATB and can't use the ability again until the ATB fills up. It is constantly filling up, but can be sped up or slowed down during battle by party members or enemy abilities respectively. Remember, your party SHARES the same ATB bar - they don't each have their own - so use your abilities wisely.

Whenever you enter an area that has enemy encounters, you have a chance to research the area. By selecting the menus on the side of the screen, you can get a readout of the types of enemies you'll encounter. It shows you information like appearance, name, level, power, and more importantly, weaknesses. Ideally, you'll want a well-rounded party to cover all your bases, but depending on the composition of the enemy forces, it may be beneficial to change your party members. Choose abilities that play on enemy weaknesses or strengthen your party in ways to counter enemy tactics.

A notable part of FFVII and, by extension, Ever Crisis is the presence of powerful bosses. The story leads you along a path where you'll encounter a manner of monsters, machines, and mighty humans that will stand in your way. Though they behave like any other enemies, they gain access to significant defences and health. They also have special attacks that take time to charge up and can do massive damage to individual or multiple party members. While charging up, the boss's attacks slow down, but you'll need to remember to switch your party to a Defensive stance in order to endure the attack. These bosses can also put up shields that will protect their health until broken. This is the chance to select your stronger abilities or ones that hit multiple times to quickly destroy the shields. When this happens, the boss will be incapacitated, preventing them from acting and filling up the ATB bar faster to allow for a strong offensive or a chance to recover.

It feels so satisfying and empowering whenever you get a chance to use special moves in gaming, and FFVII introduces them in the form of Limit Breaks. Each character has their own Limit Break, which is represented by an orange bar underneath their green health bar. The Limit Break bar will slowly fill up, but fills up faster from using Abilities and taking damage. Once filled, the Limit Break icon will glow brightly on the right side of the screen and to the right of the character's health bar. It's tempting to use them right away when they become available, but offensive Limit Breaks should be used together to create a combo that stacks extra damage for increased effectiveness.

These are all of the combat tips that we have. When you get into fights, you'll have to know the best weapons in FFVII Ever Crisis as well.

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Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis