Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth had its fair share of bloat. While Square Enix’s open world was significantly more compelling than anything Ubisoft has done recently, it consistently felt like many of its materia springs and combat encounters were present just to give us something to do, rather than feeling like legitimately engaging content.
The remake trilogy was always going to bump into this problem. While the first entry featured some larger towns and similar zones to explore, it was otherwise confined to Midgar, making use of these constraints to tell a tight and engrossing story that expands on the original in so many ways. But when Cloud and friends reach the end of the highway and the borders of the industrial city, an entirely new world awaits them. From there, they had no choice but to go big.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 Doesn’t Need To Be Bigger Than Rebirth
Recently, producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Naoki Hamaguchi have expanded on some of their plans for the third entry, and how exactly they intended to depict the open world when players have access to Cid’s airship. More specifically, they have told fans they don’t intend to “cheat” when it comes to exploring the entire open world from the skies. In theory, we will be able to jump into the airship and explore the remake trilogy’s entire landmass, including Midgar, every single region featured in Rebirth, and all new areas to be added as part of the third game.
That is a big map and, judging from the team’s comments, a developmental obstacle that still needs to be figured out. The fear this gives me is that the third entry will nip or tuck in places it doesn’t need to in order to achieve this sense of scale, when its efforts would be better spent elsewhere.
Remake and Rebirth are stronger when they are focused on stories and tighter, scripted encounters within environments that have had so much love and effort poured into them. Not to say Rebirth’s open world was produced in a lazy stupor, but when you try to create on a scale that big, the quality bar has to lower to accommodate this shift.
Which means the third entry should go smaller, even if it means moving away from the open world formula it established in Rebirth to great effect. Curated areas alongside towns and cities I am free to explore with a legitimate substance would whet my whistle far more than a giant map filled with hollow icons. Instead of treating the airship as a vehicle designed to get us around the open world, why not introduce it as an evolving hub for the player to explore?
Cid’s Airship Should Be A Hub World, Not A Glorified Means Of Fast Travel
The original Final Fantasy 7 did much the same, with the airship turning into a location you could explore upon entering it on the world map. The cockpit was filled with a handful of the main party you could converse with, while Yuffie and Red XIII could be found hanging out in the lower reaches as they struggled with travel sickness. Conversations could be had in so many places, making the airship feel like not just a means of transportation, but a home that responds to both your actions and that of the wider narrative.
Final Fantasy 7 Reunion – or whatever it ends up being called – has a chance to expand on this to incredible effect, so much so that I wouldn’t object to characters having rooms where you could strike up conversations, take on quests, or even have your own space to decorate, much like Johnny’s lodge in Costa del Sol. Square Enix would have to do something wild to bridge the worlds of both Remake, Rebirth, and third entry into a cohesive whole, and that’s without mentioning how much space a game like that would take up on your console. It’s a reason to be wary of how exactly it aims to depict its open world, and whether it will opt for scale even if that results in an experience that feels inconsistent, bloated, and pointless.
In both Remake and Rebirth, the optional side quests that flesh out the worlds in new ways that aren’t attached to the original canon are always the weakest. Cut back on those and do more of the stuff that players love.
Make the airship a dense hub of character and consequence, and then focus on recreating or refreshing new and existing locations you can visit by selecting a menu or travelling on a facsimile of the open world that is visually gorgeous but not something you can explore with unlimited freedom. In doing this, you are shackling the player to potential mediocrity that we know Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth are far better than. Take a cue from games like 10 or 10-2, which gave you access to an airship where you could visit locations across Spira. It’s stylish enough that the world still feels sprawling, but you’re merely exploring curated zones or cities that the developers put so much time and effort into bringing to life.
When I try to picture the open world Square Enix has in mind for its third game, I can’t help but worry it will fail to achieve its purpose, and end up representing the worst parts of triple-A game design instead of focusing on the characters and stories that make Final Fantasy 7 so beloved. It’s going to be an open world in some capacity, but it needs to be different than all that came before.
