In the original Final Fantasy VII you could change party members any time in the field by using the almighty PHS - a mobile device you could use to call your pals back in 1997? Neat. In Final Fantasy VII Remake you rarely had the opportunity to swap out party members, as there were only four playable characters and the plot usually kept them separate. Now, however, in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you’ll be able to recruit up to seven total characters, any three of which can be in your party at any given time (excluding the not uncommon story areas which will regularly impose party compositions on you). Not only will you have the need/opportunity to swap out characters, the means of doing so can be somewhat obtuse. That being the case, this page will cut through the clutter of the game’s menu and cover how to swap party members in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

• How to Change Party Members in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Enter the menu, select the “Combat Settings” option, pick a party slot with L1/R! ( / ), then press Square (). Select character icons and move characters between the frontline (active party) and backline (inactive).

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(1 of 2) To change your party composition, enter the Combat Settings menu.

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To change your party composition, enter the Combat Settings menu. (left), Then press the [Square] button to reach a submenu where you can swap characters between the frontline and backline. (right)

Party Rules - Active and Inactive Party Members¶

You can swap characters much of the time in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - your whole squad will run around together and characters who aren’t in your party will even make token contributions to combat! This is mostly cosmetic, however, so you shouldn’t perk up too much at the thought of sensibly having everybody contribute to battles that literally determine the fate of the world. As per the standard since Final Fantasy VII, only three characters participate in battle in any meaningful capacity, and Cloud must be one of these party members most of the time. There are exceptions where other characters will temporarily get to play the protagonist, and some story beats may prevent or mandate some character(s) from participation, but generally the following rules apply:

• A party must have three characters.
• Cloud must be one of these three characters.
• You can swap active party members out at any time via the menu.

You cannot swap out characters mid-combat, but you can use spells of characters who aren’t in your party outside of combat. A back-bencher doesn’t need those MP - might as well use them to heal the front-liners! All characters earn XP and AP whether they’re in the party or not, so there’s no reason to leave materia sockets empty! If you use spells that target the entire party outside of combat (like Cure + Magnify), characters who are not in the active party will also be affected.

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You can set the Party Leader in the Combat Settings menu, which will determine who you begin combat controlling.

Changing Party Members and Party Leaders¶

Should you find yourself wanting to change your party composition, enter the menu by pressing the Touchpad Button (), where you should find the “Party” option. This seems like a smart place to look for party options, but this option is, in reality, more like the “status” menu from other Final Fantasy games, being useful for seeing what stats and commands each character has at their disposal - useful enough, to be sure, but not what we’re looking for. Otherwise, the most this screen does for party management is show you who is in your active party, and who is the leader - things you’re probably already aware of.

Instead, enter the “Combat Settings” menu, where you’ll also see who is in your party and who is set as the party leader, along with info on how to perform each character’s abilities and synergies (note that you can edit these by selecting a character and pressing the X Button (), if you’d prefer to set up different shortcuts). More importantly, this is where you can edit your party composition and set the party leader. To change who the party leader is, select a character from your active party and press the Triangle Button ().

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(1 of 2) You have three party slots you can customize via the Combat Settings menu.

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You have three party slots you can customize via the Combat Settings menu. (left), Once party slots are set, you can change between them quickly on the field, without having to enter the menu again. (right)

In order to change your active party, press the Square Button () while in the “Combat Settings” menu. This will take you to a screen where you can select any characters in your active party by pressing the X Button (), then scroll over to inactive characters and swap them out (again with the X Button (). Note that in this screen and in the previous one you had three party slots, which you can toggle between with R1/L1 Buttons () / ).

These are party loadouts so you can swap between different party combos quickly, should the need arise. Each character is better at different things and may prove more useful in various scenarios, and since everybody’s equipped materia gains AP as long as it’s set, there’s no good reason not to strive to keep everybody combat ready. This along with each character’s synergies should provide sufficient incentive to experiment with different party compositions.