How to change party leader in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Cloud is the default party leader in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but it turns out, you aren’t bound to him. If you’d like, you can very easily swap him out for someone else. While you’re stuck controlling him while you explore the world, that doesn’t mean you have to use him in combat. If you’d rather play as Tifa, Aerith, Red XIII, or Barret, it’s entirely possible. However, the main menu is a little misleading, so we’re here to help.

If you want to change your party leader in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for combat purposes, we’ve got exactly what you need to know. Even if your party is locked, you can change the leader - you just can’t swap out people that aren’t available at the time.

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Easily change your party leader in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Want to play as Tifa instead? It's as easy as going into the menus (Image via Square Enix)

It’s an easy matter of changing your party leader in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. This, and changing your party makeup might be a little confusing, if you are looking at the menu for the first time. One might think they go to “Party” to adjust the lineup, but that’s actually the Status Screen.

It shows your current stats, equipment, Affinities, Resistances, and any Passive Skills you have thanks to gear/weapon skills. Since one of the best tips I can recommend to new players of this game is to try everyone else out, learning how to change the party leader in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is important.

You can manually swap them in combat via the directional pad, but that can become tiresome quickly. Instead, here’s how you can permanently change the party leader so that whenever a fight begins, you swap to someone else automatically:

• Press the “Options” button to open the main menu.
• Select “Combat Settings.”
• Highlight the character you want to be the leader, and press X.

Note: This only works on characters that are in the current party.

In most cases, you can enter this menu and edit parties (Image via Square Enix)

If you want to make someone else the party leader in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in another default party, press Square to “Edit Party” first. Then, adjust the groups the way you see fit, select one of them, and select a new leader in that menu.

You can change your party leader any time you have more than one character in your group at a time. While you can’t always edit the party group, you can change the party leader at almost any time.

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You can read our in-depth review of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth right here. The title will be available on PlayStation 5 on February 29, 2024.