Any combat tips?

[TheRaienryuu]

Completely new to this stuff. Only played some Tales of Arise before which is somewhat but not entirely the same. On one hand I enjoy the combat, but certain enemy types/bosses are just the biggest F you ever. They spam out ♥♥♥♥ 24/7 and here I am stuck just trying to dodge stuff and as soon as I stand still to cast a heal or do anything Im animation locked and get charged/attacked.

Party members hold literally 0 aggro and in boss fights I die in 3 hits unless I heal. Im more dodging and getting frustrated the enemies can spam me senseless, while I'm waiting for this ♥♥♥♥ ATB bar to fill so I can actually put out damage.

I'm probably just total ass at the combat, especially being new to it all. But it sure is frustrating when combat isn't combat but a dodge fest. Also giant L to this party AI and aggro, at least in Arise my partymembers can do some basic stuff on their own.

[Weltall8000]

This game's dodging is a little different in that it doesn't have the invincible frames that many other games do. Either you get the character completely out of the attack or you take full damage.

Unless you block.

This game, unlike many other of its contemporaries, emphasizes blocking. There are several options in the game to further enhance blocking in various ways.

Agro doesn't really work the way that many other games, especially MMO's do. The enemies primarily will focus whomever the player is controlling. You may need to reexamine your setup and strategy if you are going down that fast. Maybe you need more defense or if elemental damage is hammering you, equip some defensive Elemental [support/blue] materia paired with the element you are having trouble with (this combo reduces/negates/absorbs the element paired with Elemental).

Yeah, "dodgefest" is a dead give away that you're "playing it wrong." This game is pretty unlike many of the other action RPGs that are popular right now. Just a little adjustment in your approach and it should become much more accessible. That big sldesign difference is at the heart of a lot of people new to this game's confusion.

[Kerobe]

Best tip for me is to regularly switch party member to use their techniques, charge atb faster and use it. Like you say, the AI is kinda passive so their atb are slow

Other than that, assess bosses to get their weakness and some tips

For the aggro, ennemies focus the character you play in general, so switching character help for that too
Also, if you guard to tank hit, you build ATB, it can help too

[Shock_&_Awe]

A couple tips with the combat:
-Use assess if you're not already to find what enemies are weak to or what causes "pressure"
-Pressure is important because building pressure leads to staggering which will let you deal extra damage while the enemy is incapacitated for a short time.
-Knowing enemies weaknesses is important for your materia setup as well. Make sure if you die, before restarting the fight, re-adjust your materia setup to take advantage of enemy weaknesses.

-Party management: Build ATB with character A, switch to character B to draw aggro. While playing as character B, bring up the command menu (left/right triggers), spend ATB from character A to cast a spell, attack, etc. This way they can safety cast with less chance to be interrupted.

-Damage mitigation: Blocking is typically more effective than dodging in this game as there are no i-frames. Sometimes dodging is still the best move, but most of the time blocking will be the better option. Being hit while blocking also increases ATB build-up while dodging slows ATB build-up.

-Flow of combat: You need to attack to build ATB. If you are waiting for it to fill up, you're going to suffer through fights. The enemies do their series of attacks, block or mitigate the damage taken as best as you can, then build up ATB and use your bigger spells/attacks to deal damage or pressure.

I'll post more later if I can think of anything specific. I also recommend just looking at a couple combat guides on YouTube for each character if you are really struggling to get a feel for the combat. It took me a long time to "get it."

[SHINRA-CORP]

When in combat and you're using Cloud press triangle as soon as you're about to get hit. You'll switch to his power stance and parry the attack

[TheRaienryuu]

Thanks for the responses guys! I'm 20-ish hours in and for someone that usually only plays shooters or the occasional souls-like. The combat is really hit or miss with how well I do. Most of the stuff I find online is more focused on Rebirth which isn't on PC yet, so I appreciate the tips!

[Xengre]

Always have assess materia because it shows weaknesses which can make fights trivial due to the mechanic where they become stunned and you can do over dmg bonus.

Usually most areas will have an enemy weak to a specific element. Like lighting for one type of enemy, fire for the other type. You can see who you are usually fighting and as you explore it usually doesn't mix the enemies up, but if it does you can just use the element for the harder ones to instantly kill them or instantly win most battles. Magic far trumps melee in this game.

In fact, Aerith's double casting ward and her insane magic attack stat allow her to annihilate bosses like cutting through hot butter. She combos well with Cloud if he equips his magic oriented weapons and also stands on the ward. This is easily the most powerful combo in the game.

Magnify (aoe effect) + the element of choice can make most non-boss fights end in <5 seconds.

Fire/Thunder/Aero have the same stagger build up. Ice does not as it is superior. -aga tier (aka tier 3 like Blizzaga) do not have superior stagger to tier 2 -ara spells. This means Blizzara is the best spell for building the stagger gauge. This might seem a tad annoying because of its slight delay after firing but the build up is so massive that it can instantly stagger most of the game's bosses in a single cast (or duo with Cloud + Aerith on arcane ward). This is one of the most powerful tricks in the game and it only needs a small bit of practice to get used to.

Also Tier 1 & tier 2 spells are way more MP efficient than tier 3, especially in hard mode.

Cloud has two counters. Like others said, blocking is often far more than enough to avoid taking heavy dmg, especially in normal where you can abuse MP recovering from items/benches and thus utilize cure however much you want. However, consider putting Chakra on him, too, as well as putting Pray on Aerith (and arguably Barrett if using a weapon that doesn't have horrible magic stat and the healing boost accessory). Chakra and Pray may seem weak at first but after mastering them they're incredible, especially in hard mode where you can't spam cure.

Cloud has a very powerful counter attack. Two, actually. His special stance when holding block with the other mode lets him counter ANY melee attack (including bosses like the final boss of the game it is a godsend) and also build up quite a bit of ATB. It is weak vs ranged dmg unlike his normal block. Keep that in mind. He has another counterstance from one of his weapons later on that has a bit more range, but cost ATB, and has its perks (see wiki for more details if you need).

Robots are basically only going to take real dmg when using lightning. Either lightning magic or lightning + elemental when specifically paired on a weapon (not armor) slot. They have weird defense calculations.

Magnify + Haste is arguably the strongest combo in the game for bosses. It makes a massive difference for how much ATB your party as a whole generates plus you don't have to swap characters. Bosses tend to almost exclusively attack only the character you are controlling. This means no more Aerith being thrown around taking massive dmg with her pitiful defense and hp. This also means elemental materia + the right element on your armor slot are extra powerful despite having only one elemental in NG playthrough (two max in NG+). I don't particularly recommend Magnify + Cure for hard fights. Same for Magnify + Barrier, because you can just barrier / magic barrier / wall the one character you intend to control.

Many bosses are weak to status effects... to a crippling degree you might be surprised. Most of the game's bosses are vulnerable to at least one major status effect, if not multiple, such as silence, sleep, stop, slow. This can trivialize bosses like Rude (the guy with shotgun that many people struggle with in hard mode), especially with his instant stagger when you Braver him with a single cast. This includes robots as odd as it may seem. This isn't true for all Final Fantasies but FFVII Remake and FFVIII status effects are often king of the game.


Tifa doesn't suck. She is a utility efficiency boosting character that can stagger and boost over dmg letting you hard nuke bosses. She can also build up ATB with the right materia. She is the least obvious character to setup in the game so a YouTube video might help a ton with her, but this isn't important in NG. Mainly for hard mode if you want to make it easier at times, but really mostly for the super boss near the end of hard mode in the VR side mission.

Barrett is absolutely awesome as a party member in a hard fight. He heavily reduces dmg party members take and has a tank skill for himself. He has absolutely hilariously massive HP with a single HP Plus and thus works fundamentally stellar with the Chakra materia since it recovers (iirc) half of the missing HP (which considering his massive health pool...). He deals deceptively high dmg as you learn to use him and also see some of his skills are stronger with 2-3 ATB compared to 1. He also has the fastest ATB build in the game with his special alternate attack and then some basic shooting which is why I recommend Pray on him as a second person after Aerith because he can frequently use it when directly controlled, or Chakra himself in a pinch. He also can cheese otherwise hard fights like the Levaithan summon (giant aqua serpent) boss in VR by simply standing in the middle arena far way, using tank buffs, and just shooting until it slowly dies lol

Hardedge is nice on physical Cloud but do not underestimate magic Cloud. He may not have Aerith's absurd magic attack, but his own magic attack is pretty nuts in itself compared to Tifa/Barrett. He has a Mithril Sword that really boosts it but his Buster Sword and later a Twin weapon (forgot name) are great dual physical + magic middle-ground hybrid weapons. I'd argue his Buster Sword when high enough weapon level is his best weapon, all around, unless going specifically Mithril for extreme magic performance.

[bugfragged]

TBH, I used guides to look up the unique pressure conditions of each enemy and boss. It's a bit scummy, but pressuring and staggering the enemy efficiently gives them less opportunities to damage you, to the point where you can beat bosses on a fresh run without using items. A well-planned offense is the best defense in this kind of battle system. In a way, this game's enemy/boss design philosophy is very similar to Crosscode.

As for dodging, Tifa can use the Parry materia to spam a sliding dodge very quickly, which lets her dodge attacks way better than other party members. This allows her to dodge attacks that other characters would have no choice but to block.

[dlux]

Originally posted by TheRaienryuu:

Completely new to this stuff. Only played some Tales of Arise before which is somewhat but not entirely the same. On one hand I enjoy the combat, but certain enemy types/bosses are just the biggest F you ever. They spam out ♥♥♥♥ 24/7 and here I am stuck just trying to dodge stuff and as soon as I stand still to cast a heal or do anything Im animation locked and get charged/attacked.

You need to exploit the weaknesses of enemies. Assess them with the assess materia.

Originally posted by TheRaienryuu:

Party members hold literally 0 aggro and in boss fights I die in 3 hits unless I heal. Im more dodging and getting frustrated the enemies can spam me senseless, while I'm waiting for this ♥♥♥♥ ATB bar to fill so I can actually put out damage.

You need to switch between team members. You have to view the party as a single entity and use all of the their abilities.

Originally posted by TheRaienryuu:

I'm probably just total ass at the combat, especially being new to it all. But it sure is frustrating when combat isn't combat but a dodge fest. Also giant L to this party AI and aggro, at least in Arise my partymembers can do some basic stuff on their own.

Don't be ashamed to lower the difficulty until you get good at combat. The combat in Remake is very intricate and unique, so it takes some practice to get used to.

[bugfragged]

Also, if you want to make better use of Punisher Mode, make sure to put a Parry materia on Cloud. For one thing, Parry dodging doesn't switch him out of Punisher Mode. Second, Parry dodging provides guard frames that are distinct from Punisher Mode's guard, which means they can still block projectiles. Finally, you can Parry dodge to cancel most of the lag of a Punisher Mode counterattack, which is good for dealing with uninterruptible melee combos from bosses.