Highlights

  • Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth features Synergy Abilities for strategic party management, merging turn-based and real-time combat effectively.
  • Players can easily swap between companions and enhance party composition through Weapon Skills and Synergy Abilities in Rebirth.
  • Rebirth strikes a balance between traditional turn-based gameplay and action-focused combat, catering to a wide range of Final Fantasy fans.

Much more than just a continuation of the story from the first game, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth definitively sets itself apart as a bold new chapter in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. Beyond taking the party out of the confines of Midgar and into an expansive and dense open world, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth skillfully enhances many of the aspects of Remake, iterating and improving on the first game's systems. One of the main areas in which these changes are most immediately noticeable is in Rebirth's combat, which greatly expands on Remake's through the introduction of Synergy Abilities.

While Final Fantasy 7 Remake opted for a real-time combat system, players could still slow time and input manual commands for Cloud and his companions by utilizing menus during combat. Final Fantasy 16 would abandon this system in favor of a single-character focus and greater emphasis on action, losing one of the things that many expect from a Final Fantasy title in the process: party management. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's introduction of Synergy Abilities feels like the perfect middle ground between the series' turn-based past and its more real-time action-focused future, bringing the best of both worlds into its engaging combat.

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Synergy Abilities in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Make Party Composition Easier

Unlike Final Fantasy 7 Remake, in which players spend a considerable amount of time controlling Cloud and one or two pre-set party members, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth immediately allows players to have Cloud accompanied by two companions of their choosing. And, rather than presenting players with a choice between four party members and risking a kind of "option paralysis" from having to choose between which ones to bring into battle, the inclusion of Weapon Skills and Synergy Abilities work in tandem to make that choice much easier. Right from the start, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth emphasizes strategic party management.

Monitoring everyone's weapon growth and choosing party compositions based on ideal Synergy Ability loadouts makes the choices involved in party composition more clear-cut, and the abilities themselves have considerable effectiveness in combat from both an offensive and defensive standpoint. Synergy Abilities grow based on party member affinity with Cloud as well as their Weapon Level growth, meaning it behooves the player to regularly switch up companions and discover teams that work.

This is made even more manageable through the ability to preset up to three teams and easily swap between them, even amid combat.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Emphasis on Party Management and Synergy Presents an Ideal Series Middle-Ground

For all the ways that Final Fantasy 16's embracing of real-time character action combat managed to cater to a wide variety of players through its accessibility and fluidity, there were still plenty of longtime Final Fantasy fans that lamented its streamlined approach. One of the most glaring omissions made by its combat system to move the series forward was its abandoning of the traditional party structure that has been part of the franchise since its beginning. By placing importance on synergy between party members within a real-time action combat system, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feels like a true bridge between the series' turn-based past and real-time future.

Whether the Final Fantasy franchise continues to embrace real-time combat in future entries remains to be seen. But, in terms of a system that seems to blend the best of the series past and present a comfortable middle-ground between turn-based and real-time combat, it's hard to argue against Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth dialing in that balance correctly.

A key component of that balance is the Synergy Abilities. They aren't only an essential component of high-level play in challenging encounters; they punctuate the importance of Cloud's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth companions and their bond.