Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis Guide and Review [For Global Release]

With the CBT ending, it is time to review and give you a good guide on how Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis gacha game works and what you can expect when it launches.

Special thanks to chukkaque, who put in 50 hours of game time during closed beta to provide us with this valuable information about Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis. We will be using bullet point format for his summary.

FF7: EC Story Mode

• Ever Crisis doesn’t use stamina for story mode unlike many other mobile games.Combat content has recommended power levels, but manual play can bypass this.
• Story content is divided into Story scenes, Battles, and Exploration.
• CBT had 2 parts, letting players experience FF7 up to the plate falling.
• Story parties were limited in CBT, e.g., Cloud and Barret for Reactor 1.
• Major and minor scenes included, but some disappointment due to missing parts like Cloud’s train scene.
• More depth for characters like Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie compared to OG FF7.
• FFCC has 99% OG Script, centered around snack-sized missions.
• 1st Soldier has an original story, offers exploration and character development.
• Graphics: SNES/PlayStation era style with refined chibi units, reminiscent of FF7 Polys x OO graphics.
• Art direction for portraits praised, combat uses REMAKE realism style.
• OST and sound design nostalgic yet fresh.

Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis Battle System

• Combat System: Resembles a mix of REMAKE’s Classic battle system and FFXIII.
• Basic Attacks: Characters auto-attack enemies; ATB gauge fills for skill use.
• Skills: Skills come from weapons, gear, or materia and require varying ATB amounts.
• Modes: Attack Mode for offense, Defense Mode for defense and healing.
• Boss Mechanics: Like CC Reunion, bosses have charge attacks countered with specific skills and icon markers.
• Limit Breaks: Everyone has limit breaks, unlockable and upgradable; comboing them increases potency.
• Character Swapping: Unlocked as you progress through the story.

Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis Gacha System

• Weapon Summon Game: The focus is on summoning weapons instead of characters, which is appreciated by players.
• Character Unlocking: Characters like Cloud, Barret, and Tifa can be unlocked as you progress through the story, not solely through summoning.
• Weapon Rarity: Weapons vary from 3 to 5 stars; reprints can upgrade their rarity to 5 stars or beyond.
• Stamp Board: Offers rewards for repeated x10 summons, with options to set milestones for character-specific weapons or spin for extra stamps.
• Weapon Selection: You can set up to 5 weapons for any character to increase their appearance chances, and you can change them whenever you want.
• Themed Banner Rewards: Achieving milestones, like Cloud’s Samurai outfit, rewards players with bonuses, and you can glamor back to the default outfit while keeping buffs.
• Player Choice and Rewards: The system provides player choice and rewards for using it, making it easier to accept the need for free and premium currency for weapon draws.
• No Repeated Character Summons: Unlike some games where players have to summon the same character repeatedly, EC focuses on weapons, eliminating this frustration.
• Stamp Spin System: Provides the chance to earn multiple stamps on a single x10 draw, speeding up rewards for players.
• Flexibility with Weapon Choices: You can tailor your summons to suit your preferences, whether it’s focusing on one character or spreading it across multiple.

Overall, Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis’s gacha system offers more player-friendly features, reducing the frustration often associated with character-based gacha games.

Additional Information About FF7: EC Content

Apart from the main storyline, there’s a lot to explore and improve upon to enhance your character’s combat abilities.

1. Player Level: As you complete content unrelated to the story, your player level increases, unlocking new game features. However, not all features are unlocked through player level; some require specific story progress or other achievements.
2. Character Levels: Each character has their own level that grows as they gain experience points, leading to stat improvements.
3. Memory Level: Similar to “Job mastery boards” in games like Octopath Traveler, once you reach a certain point, you can earn Character Memory and use it on a board system to enhance stats, increase HP, power up Limit Breaks, and unlock new Limit Break abilities.
4. Weapon Levels: Weapons can be upgraded using specific items to boost their effectiveness.
5. Weapon Rarity: Repeatedly acquiring the same star-rated weapon or using specific cards or materials can increase a weapon’s rarity, depending on its current rarity.
6. Weapon OverLevel: For weapons with a 5-star rarity and level 20, you can further level them to “Red 1 star” or “6-star” status, leveling up to 50.
7. Materia Level: Materia also has levels and can be enhanced.
8. Weapon Slot 2/3: As you progress, you can equip additional weapons to further improve your character’s stats.
9. Offhand Weapon: You can equip a secondary weapon that can be swapped during battles.
10. Materia Fusion: Crafting new materia is possible by using recipes and materials.
11. Fall of Midgar / Tower of Cetra: This content features descending floor dungeons that become more challenging as you progress. Completing these dungeons rewards you with character memory currency and various other prizes.
12. Chocobo Ranch: After reaching player level 7, you unlock the Chocobo Ranch. It allows you to send out a chocobo and a character on expeditions to gather items from around the world, including materials for weapons and materia. There are also hints of chocobo breeding and unique currency for special chocobos and rewards.
13. Dungeons: In addition to the main story, there are Deep Dungeons and Harder Deep Dungeons where you replay sections from the story with specific missions, like opening all chests, defeating all “glyphs” (similar to mini-bosses), ensuring no party members die, etc. Completing these missions rewards you with valuable items. The Harder Deep Dungeon offers even greater rewards but is more challenging.

There’s an option for x2 battle speed, which can make battles go faster. Stamina is used in various grind-focused activities to gather materials for leveling up weapons, materia, and characters. Notably, stamina isn’t consumed in the Fall of Midgar/Tower of Cetra or during the main story.

In the Closed Beta Test (CBT), players could restore stamina up to a certain limit using different types of currency, such as small, medium, large, and premium currency refills.

During grinding activities, you can opt to use a system we’ll call the “Over Stamina” system. It’s a special stamina reserve that maxes out at 10. Using 1 unit allows you to expend triple the regular stamina for content, resulting in triple rewards upon completion.

While grinding, you might encounter rare monsters that yield enhanced rewards, and this applies to situations where you use Over Stamina as well. There’s a multiplayer mode for specific battles, although it was available for a limited time during the CBT. The in-game prompts suggest good rewards for participating, and it uses a separate ticket or stamina system.

Each story mode includes cinematic cut scenes, and their frequency varies. They are essentially taken from their respective games, with the exception of the 1st Soldier story, which is an original creation for EC.

Overall, Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis is quite fun and you should definitely give it a try as a Final Fantasy 7 fan.

Read also: Weapon Guide for FF7 Ever Crisis