Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Team Attacks Could Push Combat Above and Beyond

Not everyone will agree, but we really, really like the combat system in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. A punchy mix of action and menu-based commands, we reckon it's a highlight of the experience — and it's starting to sound like Square Enix has put a lot of effort into making it even better in the sequel.

As demonstrated in the first trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth — and in all of the gameplay footage since — battles have been expanded quite significantly. Not just with additional playable characters like Red XIII, but thanks to a wider range of abilities per character, and all-important team attacks.

These so-called 'Synergy' moves see two party members temporarily team up and unleash a powerful technique. They're not quite Limit Breaks in terms of raw strength, but they can be used much more frequently, and the developer seems to have put a lot of love and care into this fresh mechanic.

In an interview with RPGFan, director Naoki Hamaguchi explains that every character will have a Synergy attack with every other character in your party — it's not just specific pairings. "All characters will have synergy attacks with every character pairing," Hamaguchi clarifies.

"Sort of the reason why we decided to do it this way was to give players that freedom and fun of choosing through trial and error their favorite pairings or trying unique pairings they hadn’t tried before. If we were to have it so that only specific characters are able to synergy attack, that would go against this idea of freedom and enjoyment for the player. We really wanted to keep that idea of freedom for the players despite knowing that a lot of hard work and graphic resources went into making it this way," the director continues.

We've said this before, but it feels like Rebirth really is going above and beyond what Remake accomplished. With the foundations already in place, Square Enix has clearly been afforded the time and resources to go all-in for this upcoming sequel. Hopefully it'll live up to the billing.

Hamaguchi goes even further: "On top of this, each character is going to have their own skill tree in which one could develop and gain new synergy actions and abilities for their favorite characters. For players that really like Cloud and Aerith, they can focus entirely on them or any pairings. We just wanted to give the players choice and freedom to pick what they like the best or what they feel is the most suitable for defeating certain bosses or enemies. I think that could be a really fun experience."

How are you feeling about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth? Grab a partner and unleash your own team attack in the comments section below.