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Final Fantasy 7 Remake's lead battle programmer wants to surpass Final Fantasy 12's beloved battle system.
Final Fantasy 12's 'Gambit' system has long been one of the high points of the long-running series in general, garnering praise from fans for well over a decade for its intricate workings. Now though, Final Fantasy 7 Remake's lead battle programmer, Satoru Koyama, has expressed his desire to surpass the famed Gambit system with his next work in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
This information comes courtesy of a companion book for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, called Remake Ultimania. This book has never been released outside of Japan, and as such has never received an official English localization, leading fans via the Twitter account below to pull their efforts together and translate for prized book for others around the world.
FFVII Remake's lead battle programmer, Satoru Koyama, says that for the next game, he'd like to create an AI that can juggle a variety of techniques and magic in addition to simply attacking and guarding. He says his goal is to surpass FFXII's Gambit system. (RU, 2020) pic.twitter.com/mKstUbzRMMApril 7, 2023
"This time around, we had it so AI teammates could only perform the Attack command in order to allow players to switch between characters as they fight," Koyama says in Remake Ultimania. "However, next time, I’d like to create an AI that can juggle a variety of techniques and magic. My goal is to surpass Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit system," the lead continues.
"I’d also like to focus more energy into aspects that support player control, such as Classic Mode, where characters fight automatically. I think it’s a shame when people can’t play a game they’re interested in just because they aren’t skilled with action-oriented mechanics," Koyama concludes, seemingly hinting that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will feature a slightly different combat system from Remake.
Keep in mind that Remake Ultimania was originally released in Japan in 2020, around the time Final Fantasy 7 Remake first launched. We're now three years removed from the remake's launch, so perhaps it's best not to take Koyama's comments as absolute confirmation that Rebirth will have a drastically different combat system with increased support for players.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is still slated to launch this Winter as a PS5 exclusive, but we've seen nothing of the game since it was announced last year. That's not a huge shock though, considering we're just under two months away from Final Fantasy 16's grand debut, which recently went gold.
Check out our upcoming PS5 games guide for a full list of all the other big exclusives slated for the new-gen console.
