Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis was one of ourmost anticipated Android games in 2023. The Final Fantasy franchise has a history of delivering some top-notch stories that can be loaded onto anyfavorite Android gaming phone. Now, with Ever Crisis available as a free-to-play mobile and PC title, you can finally play through the entire Final Fantasy VII compilation.
We’ve created a guide after analyzing the game mechanics since thestart of the closed betaandplaying through the official release. Our guide offers insight into the basics of battling and details how Ever Crisis' character growth and weapon enhancement systems work. With our beginner’s guide at hand, there is no need to use more Phoenix Downs than necessary to experience Final Fantasy VII’s epic storyline.
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Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis battle system explained
Ever Crisis uses the ATB (active time battle) system; instead of waiting for the opponent’s turn to finish, you can select an action at any point during your turn. It brings a dynamic style to turn-based combat, which means you must time your skills and magic to outplay enemies.
Skills and magic light up once the associated meter cost is met; for example, casting Cure might cost three bars in your meter, so once those bars light up, you’ll be free to cast Cure. The meter fills up over time at the same rate.
Changing party stance
Playing through the tutorial unlocks the stance change, which is the primary way of boosting offensive attacks or saving yourself from devastating blows. You can tap on the stance to change it anytime.
Tip: If you accidentally forget to swap to the defensive stance during an attack, swap to the defensive stance while casting recovery skills and magic.
Limit Breaks and party members
You can control one character at a time but switch between them by tapping their profile in battle. Limit Breaks (a unit’s ultimate attack) have a separate golden gauge to charge up. These powerful abilities can be chained together to inflict extra damage.
Hitting enemy weak points
The elemental system is back, so using the right magic becomes the quickest way to win in a fight; to view the elemental weaknesses before playing a mission, tap on the magnifying glass and then re-equip your Materia to match.
How to increase combat power
Episodes list a recommended combat power, and falling too far below could spell trouble for your team. You essentially want to stay equal to or above the rating; that way, you will have no problems beating bosses and mobs during your playthrough.
Upgrading weapons
The combat score can be increased by upgrading weapons and equipping higher rarity items. However, you will likely pull on the gacha to acquire better weapons and dupes. Otherwise, you will spend stamina during Solo Content missions to obtain level-up materials.
Improving Materia
Like weapons, Materia (what holds your skills/magic) has stats that can also be improved, but it requires synthesizing and enhancing. To gain better Materia, you will need to craft or enhance, but that doesn’t get unlocked until you’ve entered the Sealed Tower of Cetra. After enhancing Materia to its maximum level, upgrading Materia also increases its rarity.
Unlocking more Solo Content
Enhancing weapons, gaining EXP (experience points) items, and improving Materia require grinding the Solo Content missions. You must complete chapters and episodes in story mode to open up more mission levels.
To maintain your combat rating, always circle back to spending daily stamina, finishing daily achievements, grabbing freebies from the shop, and then spending what you have to level up and uncap your weapons.
The Draw system in Ever Crisis
If you’re here to experience the story and want fast results for boosting your combat score, dipping into the gacha becomes an inevitable affair for your account.
You will need premium currency (collected from the story mode, achievements, and daily loot) to perform draws. There’s a 7.5% chance of gaining a 5-star weapon drop and a 22.5% chance of receiving a 4-star. Adding certain weapons to a wishlist increases your odds of obtaining a targeted weapon.
Finishing Stamp Cards nets you Battle Gear, costumes containing powerful battle passives. But you only gain Stamps by completing Draws of 10.
How to enable cross-progression between Android and Steam
With the Steam version arriving later (than mobile), you want to transfer your Ever Crisis from Android to Steam (and vice-versa). Luckily, Square Enix included a way to do this by tying your app data with a Square Enix account. To get started, check the steps below:
You can also transfer your saved data across devices, so if you own an iPad but have begun playing Ever Crisis on your Android phone, you can use the same method to carry over your app data.
Ever Crisis packages up the entire VII compilation on Android
Final Fantasy VII has always left an impressionable mark on Hironobu Sakaguchi’s legacy series. And it has always been one of ourfavorite Final Fantasy titles to experience on Android. But now, with Ever Crisis reaching Android and Steam, new Final Fantasy fans and veterans can finally experience the complete VII compilation in a single place.
Ever Crisis may have an unhealthy dependency on using a monetization scheme to drive the game’s future forward. But, at the very least, the abridged story-telling still uses 1 to 1 dialogue to retell the events of VII — and the story doesn’t have a stamina cost. And to any curious gamer, that’s a valid enough reason to give this meaty Final Fantasy VII compilation a shot, which is why we’ve included the download below.
