Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth promises a brilliant feature for RPG players of all skill levels: Dynamic difficulty.
The eternal JRPG debate is this: is it better for enemies to scale their level with the player's, or for set enemies to have specific levels that they stick to rigidly throughout a game? Do you want a challenge or a quantifiable sense of progression? Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is apparently aiming to solve this by simply positing that both are possible.
Earlier today, November 27, the main Final Fantasy 7 Twitter account drew attention to a new feature for Rebirth: Dynamic difficulty. This will make enemy levels scale in accordance with the player's level, meaning that when Cloud Strife hits level 40, for example, every enemy in the game will also be at around level 40, providing a constant and robust challenge for the entire party.
In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Easy difficulty allows you to focus on the story, while Normal provides a reasonable challenge.In the newly added Dynamic difficulty, enemies grow stronger as your characters do—perfect for players who crave constant challenge. #FF7R pic.twitter.com/tpc1DU8JcmNovember 27, 2023
If you don't like the sound of that, there's great news. Dynamic difficulty is the only setting on which enemy levels will scale, meaning you can cruise through Rebirth on Easy difficulty, or have enemies stick to their predetermined levels in the whole massive game on the standard Normal difficulty.
This is a big new feature for Rebirth. Final Fantasy 7 Remake never featured scaling enemy levels, and neither did the Intergrade relaunch a few years later. This meant you could always go back and grind weaker enemies for XP later on in the game, but you'd risk running into difficulty spikes every now and then if you ventured into a boss battle severely under-leveled. You could also find yourself boringly overpowered for some areas just from being a completionist but without any deliberate grinding whatsoever.
"'Easy' difficulty allows people to focus on the story rather than battles, while 'Normal' provides a reasonable challenge for most players," reads a Square Enix blog post from earlier this month. "In the newly added 'Dynamic' difficulty, enemies grow stronger as your characters do - perfect for players who crave constant challenge."
It's a fantastic move from Square Enix - whether you do or don't want enemy level scaling in Rebirth, you've got options which cater to you. It's also pretty refreshing to hear Square Enix talking about why it's included the option in the blog post. More settings like this, which cater to as wide a player base as possible, are never a bad thing.
Read up on our big Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth preview for more of what to expect from Square Enix's sequel on February 29, 2024.
