Battles within Final Fantasy VII are set up with characters positioned in either the front or the back row of the battle and the mechanics of the fight can differ depending on which row you place your characters in.

Those unfamiliar with front and back row mechanics but familiar with Final Fantasy VII will recall that when Aeris initially joins up with Cloud in the Church of the Sector 5 Slums, her character portrait appears slightly to the right of Cloud’s portrait in the menu screen. This ‘misalignment’ is because Aeris is placed in the back row by default.

You can place a character in the back row of the battle screen by entering the menu screen, selecting the “Order” option, selecting one of your characters, and ‘placing them’ in the same position that they were in. Performing this action will cause their portrait to slide to the right, placing them in the back row, or to the left, putting them in the front row.

What impact do the front and back row mechanics have during a battle?

Placing a character in the back row reduces the amount of damage they take from regular, short-range attacks but it also reduces the amount of damage done by their regular attacks. You can take advantage of this in three ways:

1. You can place weaker characters in the back row to ensure that they take less damage.
2. You can place characters that are geared towards magic attacks or summons instead of regular attacks in the back row to take less damage.
3. You can place characters with a long-range attack in the back row, as they will receive no reduction in damage from regular attacks while still benefiting from the defensive benefits of being in the back row.

You should always keep your characters with long-ranged attacks in the back row, as they suffer no attack damage reduction when you place them there. Long-range characters include Barret, Yuffie, and Vincent. Keep in mind that Barret has a few weapons that are not long-range, including the Rocket Punch and Pile Banger.

You can also equip a Long Range Attack Materia on a character, and they will not receive an Attack Power reduction from being in the back row. This Materia should only be used on characters with short-range attacks, such as Cloud, Tifa, Cid, or Cait Sith (or Barret when using one of the short-range weapons previously listed).

The screenshot below demonstrates the placement of Barret in the back row at the beginning of the game: