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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthoffers a decent challenge for veteran RPG fans even on its default difficulty mode, Normal. There’s also an Easy mode, and - much like in FF7 Remake before it - there’s a Hard mode, but it must be unlocked through completing the story for the first time.
There’s a new kid in town, though. Namely, Dynamic mode. Dynamic blows the Remake games' established conventions wide open, giving us a new way to deal with every fight. Combined, these four modes provide options suitable for just about every player. You should know what you’re getting yourself into with all this.
Easy
If you’ve experienced Easy mode inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake, you may be expecting a similarly comfortable situation. However,the challenge in Easy has been further relaxed for Rebirthfollowing the trilogy’s first chapter.
Enemies don’t justdeal less damage, but theytake more damage, they’re somewhat slower, anddodge and parry timing is quite generous. By comparison, Remake’s Easy mode felt more like a half-step beneath Normal.
If you wish toenjoy the story of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth without much challenge,or if you simplydon’t care to engage with action-centric games,Easy is for you.
Normal
As ever,Normal is the baseline difficultyin Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. But you should be advised toexpect a somewhat steeper challenge with Rebirth’s Normal than with Remake’s, because there has beenan increase in more complex battle mechanics.
The enemies tend tohit harder and more relentlesslyto accommodate for thedramatically heightened number of ways to turn the tide against them.
Synergy Skills, better Materia with great buffs and debuffs - it’s a lot of power to wield, butprepare for sharper parry timing,far more diverse enemy-pressuring requirements, and so forth.
Normal is a good way to go formany players, especially if it’s your first time with FF7 Rebirth. But if you’re bouncing straight off of FF7 Remake, do adjust expectations for aslightly harder Normalby contrast.
Dynamic
New to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the Dynamic mode, which draws from the age-old RPG gameplay balancing approaches in a way that radicalizes our experience. Namely,enemies' levels scale with your own.
In the Remake trilogy, your foes don’t have actual levels, butDynamic essentially gives them expanding stat distribution to reflect the strength which you have acquired.
This does have the somewhat humorous effect ofmaking enemiesweakerif your own level is lower than advised, hence the ‘Dynamic’ moniker, no doubt.
Regardless, we would generally regardDynamic mode as being more challenging than Normal. Dynamic keeps you on your toes. It can also, quasi-paradoxically, mean you feel less of an urge to grind, since the opposition grows alongside you.
But you can still turn the tide overall with enough EXP gain. Remember thatcharacter levels are but one of several ways to power up your party. Materia loadout, Weapon Upgrades, Synergy Abilities, it all adds up!
Hard
Hard mode unlocks upon completing FF7 Rebirth, so it isn’t available to you until a full-fledged replay. You’llboot the game back up via a clear filefrom the load screen, and you canmanually set whether to play on hard or a preexisting difficulty.
In hard mode,enemies are tougher, and you won’t have access to items. Also,rest stops recover HP, but not MP. In other words,yes, it’s like FF7 Rebirth again.More character manuscripts are added, so there’ll be more SP to spend on the folio board.
Crucially,you can port over your party’s levels, equipment, and abilitiesvia the kind-of-sort-of New Game Plus when replaying chapters on hard mode. We suggest you do so. We also suggest youavoid unnecessary fights in linear locationsto save your strength for bosses!
