FFVII: The First Soldier new gameplay details

The previously announced FFVII: The First Soldier livestream #0, as promised, revealed new details regarding the upcoming mobile battle royale. They want to make it different from the typical battle royales, of course. Some defining features are given as follows:

• Hunt monsters that can drop loot
  • Get EXP from them and level up
  • Levelling up unlocks / improves skills, increase stats
    • EXP from monsters scale according to the damage you deal
    • Monsters with a crown symbol are stronger
  • You still need a level of equipment gathering and monster farming
  • Equipment can vary, including accessories like a Reraise Ring
  • Monsters can also call for backup
    • Also has aggro meter that decreases over time
• Day / night cycle
• Explore Midgar
  • There are vending machines with stuff in it
• Switch between range / melee combat
  • Gunshot sounds can alert other players, so if you want to be more stealthy, then use melee
• Find Materia to use
  • Has varying rarities (white, blue, purple seen so far)
  • Fire is an explosive spell
  • Blizzard can summon a turret-like unit that fires at enemies and disappears over time
  • Aero can boost you vertically upwards onto structures, or trap others
  • Collect duplicates to level them up, has MP costs
  • Apparently friendly fire capable
• Various combat styles
  • Warrior, Sorcerer, Monk, Ranger
  • “Styles” have their unique skills

75 players will be in a helicopter they control as they choose where to drop down. The provisionary map can be seen below:

There’s quite a lot of Materia seen in the game, with a provisionary list including:

• Elemental skills
• Bio
• Comet
• Raise
• Cura

There are vehicles in the map as well, or use a Chocobo Stop to find one to ride on. The chocobo can also jump and kick, besides having its own HP buff and its own stamina bar. The chocobo’s kick isn’t very strong, but there is an achievement to get that asks you to kill someone with the kick.

You can modify the UI according to your tastes if you wish. Controller support for mobile devices is in the works. Check the image carousel for some single player gameplay:

Meanwhile, they also showcased some team play, in trios:

Beta signups are now open until 27 May, 20:00 PT, Android and in US / Canada only. You can sign up through the website here.

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