How Final Fantasy 7 Remake Compares to Kingdom Hearts 3

One of the most talked about trailer in gaming is the Final Fantasy 7 Remake gameplay video that was on display at the 2015 PlayStation Experience earlier this month. It was our first look at how the highly anticipated title would play and reactions were definitely mixed. In one corner you had the tried and true fans who yearned for the exact same experience as the original, only with snazzy PlayStation 4 visuals. On the other side of the fence you had the fans who were excited for a new way to play through the classic title.

We covered the details of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake battle system in a previous article, so if you haven’t read that head over there now. While the game is no longer turn-based, it provides a bit more room for strategy compared to Kingdom Hearts. One of the comments Square Enix had about the new battle system is that Dissidia is the complete action-oriented Final Fantasy game, with Kingdom Hearts offering a battle system that’s a little less action-based, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake featuring even less action than Kingdom Hearts.

With Square Enix making a direct comparison between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, we thought it was time to take a look at both titles and shed a bit more light on the combat of the Remake title. Let’s delve into some of the ways these two games are similar, and also how they’re different.

Party System

In Kingdom Hearts you generally only control one character while the other two members of your party act on their own. You can give them basic commands, but you don’t really directly control them or actively switch between them. Final Fantasy 7 Remake also features a system in which there are three characters in your party, but true to the original game, you can switch out your characters frequently.

While it was possible to control all three characters in your party in the original Final Fantasy 7, the Remake will allow you to control just one character at a time. Players will have the choice to play through the entire game as one character, letting the AI handle the rest, or they can constantly switch between characters. While Square has not yet confirmed how control over the other members of your party will work, it’s likely that you’ll be able to issue basic commands similar to Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy 12.

Combat

Kingdom Hearts is a game designed for a slightly younger audience. There isn’t a lot of depth to the combat system when you compare to other similar titles. This isn’t a bad thing by any means, but it’s something that we won’t see in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. While Square wants the new title to appeal to a massive audience, and you won’t need to be an expert at action games to win battles, it won’t be quite as simple as the Kingdom Hearts combat system.

Square hasn’t decided how they’re going to handle guarding in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but you should be able to defend in some way. It looks as though you’ll have to manage two different meters, one for your Limit Break and one for a new mechanic that Square isn’t quite ready to discuss. With just this knowledge alone we can already see that Final Fantasy 7 Remake will have a deeper combat system than Kingdom Hearts. We don’t even know how summons or Materia will be handled.

Graphics

Both Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake are being developed using Unreal Engine 4. In fact, the developers working on Kingdom Hearts 3 have been helping the Remake team since they’re already knowledgeable on Unreal Engine 4. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Kingdom Hearts 3, but the game will have a similar look to the previous games in the series. It will resemble a Disney cartoon for the most part. When Square began work on Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the first order of business when it came to the graphics was to start with the Advent Children look and improve from there.

There have been a few complaints about how thin Cloud looks, but otherwise the game looks better than Advent Children at this early stage. The development team has commented on the fact that they can still improve the character models further, so expect to see visual improvements in the future. At the very least, we know Final Fantasy 7 Remake is going for a more realistic look, while Kingdom Hearts 3 will maintain the cartoon appearance the series is known for.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is still very early in the development process so anything could change. However, it’s clear that there are some similarities and a few differences between Kingdom Hearts and the Remake. We’ll have more on both games in the near future!