Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: How to change Party Members

There's a lot going on in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which is perhaps the premiere "maximalist" RPG design of recent years. With so many systems and menus underlying Cloud and company's epic adventure, a few key functions end up buried the menus despite their crucial status. That includes how to edit your actual combat team. If you've had trouble finding that function, keep reading our quick guide to adjusting your party.

How to change Party Members in FF7 Rebirth

In Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth you have a total of three different combat party configurations you can switch between anytime you're not in a fight and whenever party selection isn't restricted by circumstances. You'll want to edit those compositions according to your preference.

Confusingly, editing your party in FF7 Rebirth isn't part of the "Party" menu. The party editing function is buried in the Combat Settings Menu.

Check it out in the image below. You'll find Combat Settings in the main menu, below Materia and Equipment.

The Combat Settings Menu is where you can set the combat hotkeys for every cahracter. These hotkeys are accessed in a fight by hitting L1 + A face button, and can be assigned to any ability, spell, or even item that a character has equipped. Meanwhile Synergy Skills are automatically assigned to R1 + face buttons based on your party composition.

To edit your party from this screen, use the shoulder buttons to select the party, then hit Square to open the Edit Party screen.

The Edit Party Screen

Once you're on the Edit Party screen, you can then freely select members for your Party. Most fights in the story and open world will require Cloud's presence, so you're usually selecting Cloud's two "Frontline" companions. The rest of the party in the "Backline" will stay out of the fight but occasionally lend support. If a party member goes down, you may see a "Backline Support" option pop up in the menu, allowing you to trigger a Synergy Ability involving one of the members in the backline.

You can also select a party member as "Leader." While Cloud leads the party when walking around in the open world, selecting a different member as Leader means that control will immediately flip to that character when combat begins.

You should set three different parties in order to maximize the different skill sets of the characters in the game. Out in the field, you can switch betwen these three parties with L1 and R1, but only when you're outside of combat.

Why Edit Your Party in FF7 Rebirth?

Editing your party is a must in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth because party composition forms the core of your combat capabilities. Every character has a unique fighting style and unique mechanics, abilities, and Weapon Abilities, so their capacity to support the team or deal damage will change based on who's with them. This is particularly true with the advent of Synergy Abilities, which are powerful on the level of Limit Breaks and far easier to access. Our musings on the Best Party setup for FF7 Rebirth are based around considering these factors.

You should also get to know how every single party member plays and not just focus on a few - as several story missions will be forcing you to play as pretty much everyone at some point, for a not-insignificant length of time. You should experiment with parties and party members, constantly equipping them with the best weapons and materia available to you at the time and learning their abilities. 

In addition, your choice of party members can impact non-combat systems, as doing things like using Synergy Abilities can raise and adjust the affection stat that determines your Romance and Gold Saucer Date partner.

Basically, you'll want to explore different options as party members gain new tricks and gear, the better to master their nuances and find the ideal way to incorporate them into combat.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is available on PS5. Check out all our available FF7 Rebirth guides!