With Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 in development, many fans are wondering where the next chapter in the ambitious remake project will take them. Based on the chronology of the original game and where FF7 Remake left off, the next chapter will most likely introduce players to a much larger world than the first title. Many are wondering if that means the next part will be a truly open-world game.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake ended after Cloud and the other members of Avalanche defeated both Sephiroth and the Whispers. The arbiters of fate being defeated means that the rest of Final Fantasy 7 Remake won't need to follow the original story beat-by-beat. It did however end on the same note as the original game's introduction with Cloud and company leaving the city of Midgar. How much of the map will be available in FF7 Remake Part 2 is a question high in the minds of many fans.

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How Far Will Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 Take Players?

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 Map

In the original Final Fantasy 7, the group leaves the city of Midgar behind to explore the world at large. They split up and agree to meet up at the nearby town of Kalm, where Cloud then gives his full account of the events at Nibelheim that led to Sephiroth's madness and Cloud's vendetta against him. While much about Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 has already been changed it's likely that the basic chronology of events will remain similar. This was the first time players could explore the world freely (to a point), so it seems likely that Final Fantasy 7 Remake will do the same.

What will be interesting to see will be specifically how the world opens up to players. The initial reveal of the game's overworld was impressive but in reality the areas player could reach would stay fairly limited until much later in the game after acquiring the Tiny Bronco and then the airship. Several features that would have appeared early in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 have already been altered like Fort Condor. So now that it's unlikely to appear as an actual location, except maybe much later in the game, that's one less location to visit early after leaving Midgar.

The basic chain of events lead the party from Midgar to Kalm, and then from there to the Chocobo Ranch where they acquire a Chocobo in order to outrun the enormous Midgar Zolom that haunts a nearby swamp. The group needs to pass the swamp to reach a cave network that leads out to the other side of the continent. In the original this is where Fort Condor first appears, the first of many mini-games that Final Fantasy 7 Remake will need to address. This is also the first area where players can encounter Yuffie, although given the events to come in Intergrade, her introduction will likely be handled differently in Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

From there, the group makes their way to Junon in order to board a ship bound for the continent to the west. This section of the game will likely be a big chunk of the early story for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, as Cloud and the others participate in a military parade in various disguises. Given the enormous amount of detail given to events in Midgar , hopefully every city and event throughout the rest of Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be treated with the same level of care. It's likely that players will end up spending a big chunk of time in Junon before crossing the ocean.

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When Will Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 Go Open World?

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Given the linear nature of the main narrative of the original, it's likely that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 won't become truly open world until the party is able to acquire transportation that allows them to cross open water. While the areas themselves are likely to be expansive, after crossing the ocean and arriving in Costa del Sol, Cloud and the others are locked to that continent until much later in the game. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will have quite a few problems to address, and transportation may be one of them.

With how much larger environments in Final Fantasy 7 Remake have been compared to the original, it stands to reason that whatever version of its overworld appears will also be massive. It's likely that the group may be leaving Midgar on foot, as in the original, but a much larger world may point toward the group keeping some form of vehicle other than a Chocobo. That of course brings up its own issues; if the group already has transportation, why would they need a Chocobo to avoid the Midgar Zolom? With so many variables, predicting anything about Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 can be daunting.

Depending on how far the next part of the remake project gets into the original storyline, players may not have a fully open-world game on their hands until much later in the game. This seems likely both because of the linear nature of the story to a point, barring any other huge implications from Intergrade, and the tendency for Final Fantasy games to follow this formula in general. Even the world of Final Fantasy 15, which was pretty much completely open to players from the outset, was limited by enemy difficulty and sheer distance in the beginning of the game.

It's more likely that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will feature a quasi-open world. Each new area is likely to be as fleshed out as Midgar: Final Fantasy 7 Remake took the city and created a vibrant game world full of side quests and other content, all from a location that players in the original game only spent a few hours in total. So it's likely that each new area in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will be treated similarly. And again, given the impact of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade bringing in storylines from spin-off games, the players may get waylaid along the way by new story beats.

While it's purely speculative, it seems likely that the next natural stopping point in what's probably going to end up as a trilogy for FF7 Remake will be after the events at the Temple of the Ancients. By that point players have much more autonomy on where they can travel and had reasons to diverge from the main narrative. Places like the Gold Saucer were full of mini-games already and there were plenty of secrets for players to discover like Aerith's weapons and limit breaks in the original FF7.

While Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will undoubtedly open up more of its world, the game itself will likely not be truly open world until closer to its conclusion. With so many events to include in Final Fantasy 7 Remake like Vincent's introduction, the Gold Saucer, and Cosmo Canyon it's likely to stay a fairly linear experience. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for players though. If Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 treats its world with the same care as the first part, fans are likely going to have a lot to enjoy and explore when it eventually releases.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is currently in development.

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