For those who remember the original game, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is about to open up quite a bit compared to the first episode. Upon leaving Midgar in the original Final Fantasy 7 is typically when the game really opens up from being completely linear to more of an open-ended JRPG adventure. Of course, with Final Fantasy 7 Remake things are going to be a little different. While it'll be interesting to see more added detail throughout the lion's share of Final Fantasy 7, the second episode also presents an opportunity for the series.
With Final Fantasy 7 Remake's second episode, the reimagined adventure has an opportunity to iterate and improve on Final Fantasy's open world design. Final Fantasy 15 was the franchise's first foray into modern, large scale open world design, and frankly wasn't a bad first attempt. That being said, Remake Part 2 has an opportunity not to repeat the same open world mistakes that Final Fantasy 15 made, encouraging exploration without making players feel totally restricted or linear.
Exploring Outside Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Once Cloud and the party evade Shinra's forces and escape Midgar, the journey to defeat Sephiroth and save the world finally begins. In the original game, this was the moment where the tutorial-esque hand holding ended and the true game began. This was the point where players truly got to experiment with character and Materia builds, get used to their favorite party members, and finally explore the world of Final Fantasy 7. With Final Fantasy 7 Remake, things are almost certainly going to be very different compared to the original game.Those who played Final Fantasy 7 Remake's first episode understandably have a lot of questions about how Remake Part 2 will play out, and not just from a story perspective.
While Final Fantasy 7 Remake's gameplay was mostly linear, there were some hints of open world-esque gameplay from Chapter 8 and Chapter 14. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is going to be largely open world, and while the main story will still be ongoing, all of the world outside of Midgar will become explorable. That means locations surrounding Midgar like Kalm, Junon, Chocobo Ranch, the Mythril Mines, and Fort Condor will be explorable. That's without even counting any other continents or surrounding islands that are visited later on in Final Fantasy 7's story.
Final Fantasy 15's Open World is Huge, But Linear
Luckily, the franchise has experience with expansive open worlds in Final Fantasy 15. Most of the continent of Lucis is explorable by Noctis and crew, with only a few expeditions to places like Altissia and Niflheim throughout the story. There are certainly plenty of places to explore in Final Fantasy 15, but the game had an encouragement problem in the form of the Regalia. Every main location across the game's map was best accessed via the main roads, where the Regalia could quickly travel across the game's world. Noctis' car was fast, convenient, and in some cases even enjoyable to ride around in.
While the road trip vibes were undeniably worth praise, there wasn't much reason to step out of the car unless it was in service of a main quest or any side quests. Final Fantasy 15 didn't have many organic reasons to explore outside of the Regalia, which meant exploration was always in service of another quest. Players could get hunting requests from hub areas like towns and cities, but if players saw something interesting in the distance, they wouldn't have much a reason to step out and explore. The game establishes very early on that any place you see will undoubtedly be visited in some kind of quest, so there's no need to explore something if there isn't already a waypoint on the map.
Emphasizing Wonder in FF7 Remake Part 2
Games like Breath of the Wild and Ghost of Tsushima made great efforts to reduce this waypoint-esque linearity in open world games, and that's something Final Fantasy 7 Remake's next episode should emulate. Final Fantasy 15 had a beautiful and expansive world to explore, but never capitalized on evoking the desire in players to explore that world. Over-reliance on quest gathering meant there was no reason to feel a sense of wonder if every location felt like an inevitability. Even if there were explorable locations like that, why would a player bother?
For Final Fantasy 7 Remake's second episode, Square Enix has an opportunity to emphasize the ambiguity that the original Final Fantasy 7's world had. Rather than positioning waypoints on the map and riding there like in Final Fantasy 15, players should be able to explore the surrounding regions of Midgar and discover places for themselves. Iconic moments like finding the Midgar Zolom, impaled by Sephiroth, should be something that players discover naturally instead of following a linear path. Rewarding the player's curiosity is what an open world game should be all about.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is in development.