The next volume of the Final Fantasy VII Remake saga absolutely, unequivocaly, unconditionally needs custom loadouts for equipment and materia

[AuthenticM]

I finished the Yuffie DLC in hard mode tonight. It has only reinforced my opinion from last year that the next game seriously needs custom loadouts for equipment and materia. Too many times I wished I could save a specific set of equipment and materia for use against specific enemies, such as bosses, so that I could load it at any time without having to fumble in the menus. It's such a no-brainer that I'm surprised it wasn't already in the game last year. Then again, it apparently took Monster Hunter 20 years to get that feature, so who knows.

In any case, the next game needs to have that feature. Seriously.

 

[Musubi]

Agreed. Its 100% one of the few weak points of the remake. The materia system is robust and interesting but it's also an incredible hassle setting up specific loadouts for like 3 people.

 

[matrix-cat]

I'm surprised to hear they didn't add this for Intergrade, let alone the next game. This was an obvious problem with the base game.

 

[leng jai]

Feels like there is next to no QoL stuff like this in Intergrade.

 

[mindsale]

Couldn't agree more especially with weapons offering completely different specializations.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Agreed. I feel like they didn't do this for Intergrade since it would require a rethink of the menu UI, which is pretty elegant and deliberate. I imagine having the ability to swap materia loadouts mid battle would require a substantial amount of work under the hood.

 

[Quinton]

Never even occurred to me. I guess it would be nice though, yes.

 

[Dolce]

We need to see how the battle system turns out first, maybe it'll change a bunch. I haven't kept up with anything they've said about that.

Though, yes, agreed.

 

[Makoto Yuki]

Loadouts would be a nice inclusion if done correctly.

 

[Iori Fuyusaka]

It's in Stranger of Paradise, so maybe?

Different devs, though.

 

[Souls Survivor]

Loadouts, and the ability to see the abilities of a weapon at a glance. We shouldn't have to pick a weapon, load up the weapon core UI, and then walk through each core to see if a weapon improves blocking, MP regen, etc.

This bugged me to no end on my hard playthrough. Just a few QoL tweaks would go a long ways for Part 2 I think.

 

[snausages]

What's wild is that the old 1997 game has a better equipment interface than the new one

 

[AuthenticM]

Feels like there is next to no QoL stuff like this in Intergrade.

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The devs added a visual indicator next to the name of enemy attacks to indicate when the attack is unblockable. That's nice. Before, it was a process of trial and error to see which attacks were blockable and which weren't.

Agreed. I feel like they didn't do this for Intergrade since it would require a rethink of the menu UI, which is pretty elegant and deliberate. I imagine having the ability to swap materia loadouts mid battle would require a substantial amount of work under the hood.

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Oh changing materia mid-battle is definitely something that would completely mess with the balance of the game. I personally am not asking for it.

 

[Aly]

Agreed. Will be a nice QoL.

 

[PARAdoja]

I believe it would be hard, since if you use say Cure materia on one loadout to which to want to change to, but you have that materia already assigned to another user, it should prompt you and maybe mess with your other character (I know you can have multiple copies of some materias)

I don't see how it can be streamlined for it to be offered

 

[Arkeband]

Couldn't agree more especially with weapons offering completely different specializations.

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They really could be specialized a lot more as well. By the end their benefits are either slim or mostly shared by others.

I'd like to see them be strong (or weak) against certain monsters, like have the Hardedge do bonus damage to machines and have the Buster Sword do more against humans to really force the player to use their arsenal, but that might require allowing the player to switch weapons midcombat.

Weapons also having single element bonuses would be nice, it's kind of underwhelming now where it just has you pick one or multiple nodes to add a measly 5% to.

Lastly, learning abilities permanently is cool but as the list of abilities increases, it should force you to choose five + the one from your currently equipped weapon for free.

 

[Nida]

Agreed. I feel like they didn't do this for Intergrade since it would require a rethink of the menu UI, which is pretty elegant and deliberate. I imagine having the ability to swap materia loadouts mid battle would require a substantial amount of work under the hood.

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I'm playing the game for the first time, and don't understand how you're supposed to play without a guide to tell you what materia you're going to need for boss fights. Are you just supposed to fight, probably lose, and then swap your materia after reloading?

 

[Socivol]

Agree OP was a bit disappointed they didn't add this with Intergrade as well. They also need to stagger lock bosses so they don't switch phases while they are staggered. Really dosappointed they didn't add that either.

 

[reKon]

I think this will be a for sure thing in the next installment. Can't wait for it

 

[Break_Away]

Hey that's actually a pretty good idea. I never thought of it, but it would definitely make things a little more enjoyable and smoother.

 

[Absolute0]

I just want a way to sort by materia type. Like filter only blue or green etc etc. finding the right materia now and doing new builds takes forever to scroll through all the damn materia. It makes me less likely to change anything out and just go with what I have even if it isn't ideal for the situation. Unless there is a way to do this now and I don't know about it. Seems like a no brainer to have in the game.

 

[Fisty]

Haven't done hard mode myself yet, but it seemed like the variety needed isn't really that wide. Maybe just swap an elemental or ability/command materia depending on the fight/biome

Would be a great feature though, really awesome idea OP

I'm playing the game for the first time, and don't understand how you're supposed to play without a guide to tell you what materia you're going to need for boss fights. Are you just supposed to fight, probably lose, and then swap your materia after reloading?

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I think the intention is that on the first playthrough, the player tries to adequately cover most scenarios in the build while fully Assessing every enemy you come across. Normal mode isn't too taxing outside of a couple fights you might need to prep for.

Then you go through hard mode with a lot of knowledge and all the enemies already Assessed

 

[CrichtonKicks]

I'm playing the game for the first time, and don't understand how you're supposed to play without a guide to tell you what materia you're going to need for boss fights. Are you just supposed to fight, probably lose, and then swap your materia after reloading?

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Kinda. There is a restart battle option on the pause screen that will start you immediately before initiating battle. So if you get into a battle and realize you need an Ice spell but it isn't equipped, just hit restart battle, then you can swap materia, hit skip cutscene, and you are right back in battle. It's relatively painless with the super fast loading that Intergrade brings to the table.

 

[Arkeband]

I'm playing the game for the first time, and don't understand how you're supposed to play without a guide to tell you what materia you're going to need for boss fights. Are you just supposed to fight, probably lose, and then swap your materia after reloading?

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You're generally supposed to have at least one of each elemental materia equipped, which will cover 90% of fights. In some very rare circumstances you'd want some of the status effect materia as well, and then on hard mode yes, you typically need to equip elemental resist/absorb materia for certain fights which you will need to use the bestiary or trial and error to figure out.

 

[Nida]

Kinda. There is a restart battle option on the pause screen that will start you immediately before initiating battle. So if you get into a battle and realize you need an Ice spell but it isn't equipped, just hit restart battle, then you can swap materia, hit skip cutscene, and you are right back in battle. It's relatively painless with the super fast loading that Intergrade brings to the table.

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Thanks. I'm legally blind so I'm playing the game not being able to read text. For Materia I end up standing in front of the TV, and then consult materia lists online for reference.

 

[Kuro]

I'm playing the game for the first time, and don't understand how you're supposed to play without a guide to tell you what materia you're going to need for boss fights. Are you just supposed to fight, probably lose, and then swap your materia after reloading?

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There's a pattern in the game for weaknesses. Monsters tend to be weak to ice, Robots to lightning, Humans to fire, Flying Enemies to wind.

Its good to have multiple elements spread across different characters if you're unsure what you'll run into in a level. Its not completely necessary to hit enemies or boss with their elemental weaknesses though except for only one very specific boss in the game.

 

[Nida]

There's a pattern in the game for weaknesses. Monsters tend to be weak to ice, Robots to lightning, Humans to fire, Flying Enemies to wind.

Its good to have multiple elements spread across different characters if you're unsure what you'll run into in a level. Its not completely necessary to hit enemies or boss with their elemental weaknesses though except for only one very specific boss in the game.

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Is that the enemy from Hell? I just beat it last night if so. Woof.

 

[Kuro]

Is that the enemy from Hell? I just beat it last night if so. Woof.

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yep its a very long fight if you dont have all the elements

 

[KENMASTERS1]

Definitely. Materia load outs have been a highly requested QoL feature since last year. I'm sure they're aware of making said changes but I'd be surprised if it doesn't make it in the next game.

 

[Nida]

yep its a very long fight if you dont have all the elements

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I did but found it still hit like a truck. I think I used too many abilities during the first phases and found it easier when I tried holding off for later. Otherwise, I'm running around unable to do anything because if I get close I'm dead.