Slowed Up or Sped Down: Heuristics and Playstyle Innovation in Final Fantasy VII Remake

The designers of Final Fantasy VII Remake knew their primary audience — fans of the original 1997 PlayStation installment — and channeled the spirit of the original game into the remake in two primary ways: by including niche plot and character references, as well as building and iterating upon the combat mechanics to align them with current popular playstyles, rather than entirely replacing them. The result of this innovation is a unique hybrid of turn- and action-based mechanics, constructed to support each other for a smooth and modern gameplay experience. There is no doubt that developing the best way to fuse these two styles of mechanics took lots of creativity and work — but how does the combat system hold up to modern principles of good user experience?

To understand this I will break down the key aspects of the combat elements, including the HUD, controls, menus, and mechanics, and then analyze them against Nielsen Norman Group’s ten usability heuristics.

Combat Overview

Since combat is a mix of active action and more passive turns, there are many elements that contribute to the overall experience.

Action Elements

Fighting enemies takes place in an active dimensional space: the player as well as opponents actively move around each other and apply offensive movement directly to targeted characters by use of action buttons. Generally, each playable character has a basic attack, a heavy attack, and a guard/block action. The specifics of these actions depend on the fighting style of the character: Cloud and Tifa are primarily melee fighters, while Barret and Aerith are primarily ranged fighters. Actions by all characters in a fight happen in real time, and the constant changes in status are actively reflected in the status HUD in the bottom right corner of the screen. Dealing enough applicable damage to an opponent will pressure and eventually stagger them, allowing the player to multiply the damage each attack makes.

Turn-Based Elements

Each playable character has special actions and abilities that are activated through the small HUD menu in the bottom left corner of the screen when Tactical Mode is activated and are supported by information in the status HUD in the bottom right corner of the screen. In the status HUD, the player can see their health, ATB, MP, limit, and summon (when applicable) bars for each character in their party:

• Health denotes how much life the player has before they die and get a game over. Health is gained by using healing items and spells, and lost when taking hits from enemies.
• ATB denotes the level of power built up to use special abilities, spells, and items. ATB is gained by using offensive action attacks against enemies and lost when activating an ability, spell, or item.
• MP denotes the level of power the player has to use spells only. MP is gained by consuming Ether and lost when activating a spell. Using a spell depletes both ATB and MP.
• Limit denotes the amount of power built up to use an extra-special offensive move called a Limit Break. Limit is gained by taking damage from enemies and lost when activating the Limit Break.
• Summon is only displayed when the Summon Materia is equipped to the player and after the player both deals and sustains damage during the battle. Summon is gained as the player fights, and is depleted after the player summons the creature and while the creature is fighting.

Entering Tactical Mode opens up a mini menu that allows the player to choose any desired item, spell, and ability for activation. It also slows the active action to bullet time, allowing the player to navigate through the HUD menu for these options without them losing active combat time. The player can access other characters’ menus by tabbing left and right using the L2 and R2 trigger buttons.

Heuristic Analysis

Visibility of System Status

“The design should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.”

The HUD keeps players accurately informed as the various meters are immediately updated as the player adds or subtracts various elements through gameplay. There is no delay between an action and its consequence to the player status. For example, when a player takes damage from an enemy, there is no delay between the moment the player receives the hit on their character and the visual depletion of their health bar.

Other ways the system status stays visible:

• All debuffs are visible via icons below the respective player’s name.
• Abilities and items that don’t have enough ATB, magic, or limit are grayed out in the Tactical Mode menu.
• The status of the opponent is displayed in the small HUD that is tracked to the opponent’s position. The player can easily see which opponent has the most or least health, whether or not they are invincible to an attack, if the opponent is pressured or staggered, and the name of the special move the opponent is about to make.
• In the settings, the player can see the actively mapped button customizations, as well as active materia, items, and weapons equipped.
• When players pick up loot after defeating an enemy, the type and amount of loot is briefly displayed on the screen. This includes items, money, and experience.

Match Between System and the Real World

“When a design’s controls follow real-world conventions and correspond to desired outcomes (called natural mapping), it’s easier for users to learn and remember how the interface works. This helps to build an experience that feels intuitive.”

Since there is so much menu navigation in combat due to Tactical Mode, the main controls there are buttons for confirming and canceling an option. Historically, games use an A/B control system for menu options, where A (or X on the PlayStation controller) confirms, and B (O on the PlayStation controller) cancels. Since this is such a typical system that has worked well for games since the very first video games, this system is already intuitive to the player.

Though shifting to other characters with the bumper trigger tabbing action is intuitive, the way the game locks the characters to specific sides on the triggers can be disorienting, especially when the characters move around and shift in a physical space. This is because:

• Not all players remain in the party at all times, so if they leave and rejoin, it resets the character position in the party’s order, causing the characters to not always be in the same tabbing order.
• Due to the characters moving around in space, the position of a character in the party in relation to the player’s active character may not always match. For example, if the player is currently controlling Cloud and wants to switch to Tifa, which is labeled on the left trigger, there are going to be circumstantial instances where Tifa will be physically standing to Cloud’s right.

Language wise, the game does not employ extreme use of jargon, and when it does use world-specific terminology, like materia, the meanings are easy to remember and apply to familiar mental models of structural mechanics.

User Control and Freedom

“When it’s easy for people to back out of a process or undo an action, it fosters a sense of freedom and confidence. Exits allow users to remain in control of the system and avoid getting stuck and feeling frustrated.”

FF7R provides contingency options in a few different areas to account for the player changing their mind or getting stuck in certain spots in the game. For example:

• The game provides multiple save slots in case an event happens unintentionally or the player happens to miss something they didn’t want to miss.
• The game allows the player to change difficulty (as long as they aren’t in the middle of a battle) in case the original difficulty is too easy (not engaging) or too hard (too frustrating).
• Materia and gear are extremely varied and the ability to equip them is limited, but they are not locked permanently once equipped. Players can easily switch them out for other items and materia if they feel the enhancements better suit their own style of play.

Consistency and Standards

“Users’ experiences with other products set their expectations. Failing to maintain consistency may increase the users’ cognitive load by forcing them to learn something new.”

As mentioned prior, the A=confirm and B=cancel system typical across all video games is consistently applied here. Additionally, when actively fighting elemental enemies, the opposing element generally counteracts them, keeping consistent with real life elements as well as older games that have elemental abilities. For example, many fire elemental enemies are weak to ice, just as many water elemental enemies are weak to thunder.

The game also keeps in place the gameplay language and base mechanics that were used in the original game, so players who are familiar with the original don’t have to learn the mechanics all over again. The 1997 FFVII also uses similar materia icons, uses for ATB (called Time in the original) and Limit, and nested menu structure for turn based elements. Characters keep the same general fighting styles and the game overall uses familiar elements used across the RPG genre such as experience points and levels, boss enemies and fight phases, and side quests and upgrades.

Error Prevention

“…The best designs carefully prevent problems from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions, or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.”

One interesting aspect of the game is that players cannot access side quests that they leave behind in chapters of the game that they progress through. All side quests for an area have to be done in that chapter and cannot be left for later if/when the player feels like it. To its credit, the game does warn the player when they are about to trigger the next part of the game, and asks the player to confirm through a dialog box whether or not they are ready to proceed. While this helps prevent the player from continuing accidentally, it does not help the player understand the significance of what they are skipping if they choose to go on without completing the quests. Progressing without side quest completion forces the player to be locked out of certain events that they may realize later on they want to be a part of — however, the game does not warn the player which events are tied to uncompleted quests.

Besides that, most resource-consuming actions such as money purchases and equipment upgrades are interrupted by quick pop ups that require the player to officially confirm their decision before it is completed.

Recognition Rather Than Recall

“Humans have limited short-term memories. Interfaces that promote recognition reduce the amount of cognitive effort required from users.”

With such extensive menus in combat, the player heavily depends on a reduced cognitive load while navigating the menus since most of their attention will be taken up by the action that’s happening in limited periods of time. Players don’t have time to sit and think for a prolonged period of time about the options in the menus; each decision is made in split seconds in order to maximize damage and health. Even though the bullet time effect does allow time for the player to make certain turn-based decisions, it doesn’t delay action indefinitely — if the player activates Tactical Mode and just sits, they will still be attacked by enemies and take damage. The HUDs do a good job of implementing the principle of recognition over recall by clearly labeling all actions with their applicable buttons and limiting the use of varied icons. The only place icons get in the way are when enemies attack and apply debuff status effects. Several, if not most, of the icons are not as instantly recognizable in their meanings. This can cause some frustration as players usually need to actively counteract the status effect with an item that can cure or disable it. These status effects are not outlined at any point during the game for the player’s knowledge; at best the information is picked up implicitly from item descriptions that mention them.

Adjusting the icons to speak to more familiar tropes could improve the recognition of the debuff meanings. Slow and haste could possibly be replaced with a turtle and a rabbit, which is a more universal trope of slow and quick movement. Berserk and fury are close enough in tone that the player could switch the meanings accidentally.

Flexibility and Efficiency of Use

“Shortcuts — hidden from novice users — may speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the design can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.”

One really useful option that players have is the ability to freely map buttons on their controller to Tactical Mode actions of their choice. This is a great design choice because it accounts for variable player experiences and comforts, and allows the player to further customize the controls to fit the way they play individually. The same options and mechanics can still be accessed in the traditional way through the menus, but being able to set the controls opens up the customization options for even inexperienced players and can improve the flow of fast-paced action gameplay without having to switch to the bullet time Tactical Mode every few seconds. This element adheres closely with the heuristic, and seems to be the most closely aligned out of all the other usability principles.

Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

“Interfaces should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed… Ensure that the visual elements of the interface support the user’s primary goals.”

The HUDs and much of the information in them are responsive to the player’s current activity in the game. When not engaged in combat or around any enemies, the left menu HUD collapses so that the control for the commands menu is faintly seen, and the status HUD disappears entirely. The amount of information then displayed to the user changes depending on the situation and the number of characters in the party. When the summon materia is not active, the status bar does not show. Similarly, the pressure and stagger bars are not displayed on enemies when those statuses are not activated. When selecting spells, most are categorized by the type of spell and then their strength. This allows the player to skim through spells in a smaller list of the base spells rather than a longer list that has all strengths of all spells listed in the same column.

Whenever information is not needed, it is not there, leaving more room for the player to focus on the main task at hand. The visual design of the UI both in and out of battle is not flat, but still simple, efficient, and matches the tone of the game overall through its smooth animations, blue colors, and sleek typeface that allude to a tech-savvy and futuristic world.

Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors

“…Error messages should also be presented with visual treatments that will help users notice and recognize them.”

This heuristic is trickiest to place in the combat system, because part of the principle suggests offering a solution to the user in order to help them recognize the error. However, part of gameplay in general can include advanced and sometimes abstract problem and puzzle solving — this allows the player to feel challenged and accomplished once they complete a task or win a battle. Despite this, one prevalent indication of error recognition and recovery in battle occurs when a character’s health starts running critically low. The edges of the player’s screen become tinged with red, offering a warning sign of low health and the imminent danger of a game over without requiring the player to always keep an eye directly on a character’s health bar. This visual treatment is a more obvious but still unobtrusive indication of error, and helps the player recognize their situation more quickly, and therefore address it more quickly.

Help and Documentation

“Help and documentation content should be easy to search and focused on the user’s task.”

When the player first begins the game, tutorial texts are common and teach the player how to use certain mechanics and abilities in the game. These tutorials, along with other helpful documented tips, are available for the player to review at any time in the pause menu by selecting the Manual option. Inside the manual is a menu of topics that sort the tutorials for easy access. The manual is also aided by clips of the appropriate actions repeated gif-style to provide the player a handy visual representation of the aid the text is providing.

Conclusion

Overall, the mechanics and the supporting UI elements adhere closely to the principles of best practice in usability. This is a big accomplishment considering the unique structure of the combat system and the expectations that were held as standards from the original game. The structure of the mechanics flow well in the way the action- and turn-based elements work with each other and the visual interface supports those actions with a few minor limitations. Final Fantasy VII Remake is a model for what good combat systems can and should be, and it holds its own against the heuristics that are more generally applied to web and mobile interactions.