Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s combat system will be action oriented rather than command-based, game director Tetsuya Nomura has confirmed. As part of an interview in the latest issue of Famitsu Weekly (via Gematsu), Nomura makes the distinction in an effort to avoid potential confusions over the matter following an “imperfection” in an interview conducted previously. On the topic of how combat will work in the long-awaited remake, he said:
Battles are not command-based, they’re action-based. Regarding cover actions, there are places where they can be done on the map, but they are not required. Because it’s seamless, I showed that there can be actions in response to various scenes.
Judging from the very little footage we’ve been privy to for the remake so far, it’s not particularly surprising that Square has opted to go in this direction for the return to Midgar. While the original game was, in fact, turn-based, the system is often considered to be an outdated one, with the most recent iterations of Square’s own series – Final Fantasy XV in particular – having adopted this approach.
Besides that, though, Nomura also touches on the presence of environmental destruction, confirming that it will be present in the upcoming RPG, an example of which was shown in an image of the Guard Scorpion boss battle (pictured above).
The Guard Scorpion battle has map destruction and a great number of attacks that weren’t in the original, so it has become a significantly flashy battle. If you look closely, I think that you can see that there are a number of missiles are coming down.
Sadly, Nomura doesn’t provide any further clues as to when we can expect the first part of Final Fantasy VII Remake to arrive, but between the recent news previously that there’s still a ways to go until development reaches completion and that voice work for the main story is nearing completion, it’s anyone’s guess as to when it’ll drop. We estimate early 2018 – what about you? Let us know in the comments below.