Do you think FFVII Remake part 2 and so on will have a world map similar to the original game?

[TheOne]

As in, being able to manually move your party through a huge map containing lots and lots of different locations?

I would be incredibly surprised if Square Enix allows the player to move through a map similar to the original one. I believe it will much more constrained this time around. I haven't played the game yet so I do not know how do we navigate through Midgar in the remake, but it wouldn't surprise if they tried something similar to FFX, like from Kalm to Midgar Zolom will be a corridor type map leading to it.

Opinions?

 

[KOfLegend]

I'm expecting something like an expanded version of how DQXI handled the open world. Large interconnected zones.

 

[Dreamboum]

It will not have a world map like the original game. They moved on from that 20 years ago

 

[Venuslulu]

No, the chapter base format likely means they'll guide you to each area, and then transition you to new hub areas. After seeing reviews and maps I can see the next gen part 2 just being a more expanded version of that.

I had no premise in my head really before on how this would've of worked before Part 1 came out, but now you can definitely see them hit most of the major story points in this format.

 

[robot]

I don't know how that would even play or look like in 202X. I'm guessing FFX/XIII style with linear progression through detailed areas and eventually a way to revisit them.

 

[nelsonroyale]

Something like RDR2 I hope

 

[ramenline]

it will definitely be like DQXI imo.

 

[Nama]

Large interconnected. If you remember og 7 then theres several points like the mythril mine where game bottlenecked you that translate well to interconnected zones.

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

I demand I can still run around the earth like a towering monster!

 

[Xtortion]

I think it's going to have some kind of huge overworld you can run around in. Games are going to be way different with next-gen SSDs and CPUs as the new lowest common denominator. Wouldn't surprise me if part of the decision to go Midgar only for part one was to bide time until the new consoles can actually handle the scale of the overworld (well, without being largely empty like FFXV's :p)

 

[PlanetSmasher]

No. It's going to be FFX-style. Expecting expansive world design out of this remake seems like an unwise choice, given Square's extreme issues with overworld and content design in recent years.

I would be legitimately shocked if they even let you pilot the Highwind around by the end of it all.

 

[Spehornoob]

I would like it to! But I don't expect it to.

World maps were awesome and abstracted the concept of a global adventure into something efficient. In general, the industry has tried to move away from abstractions like it though.

I think an interconnected world a la XII is possible though. I think a full, XV style open world would be a terrible mistake.

 

[TheOne]

I think it's going to have some kind of huge overworld you can run around in. Games are going to be way different with next-gen SSDs and CPUs as the new lowest common denominator.

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I don't think it is the current generation of consoles that is preventing such a feat; rather it's the amount of effort to do so in a respectable amount of time.

 

[Deleted member 13155]

Absolutely not.

You will probably reach Kalm after chapter 1 (or 2), which are the badlands around Midgar. Then Kalm is a chapter, ofcourse expanded by a huge throwback. Who knows Kalm itself is also expanded into a hub full of quests much like Sector 5. And probably the next chapter ending with the Zolom or farm first. Then I can see the mines being heavily expanded, being one or 2 chapters. And the game will likely end at Junon, or rather, the boat. Fort Condor might be a side story.

Another reason for this take is that games tend to be story driven nowadays. If you've played FFVII Remake, its heavily story driven. Much more than the original in fact. They won't stray from this path.

 

[TheOne]

Absolutely not.

You will probably reach Kalm after chapter 1 (or 2), which are the badlands around Midgar. Then Kalm is a chapter, ofcourse expanded by a huge throwback. And probably the next chapter ending with the Zolom. Perhaps Fort Condor as side activity inbetween. Then I can see the mines being heavily expanded, being one or 2 chapters. And the game will likely end at Junon, or rather, the boat.

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Dude at this pace there will be 18 parts for christ's sake.

 

[Jencks]

I am absolutely afraid that they will pursue a fully open world akin to FFXV. Considering the scale of Midgar in part 1 I could see it happening.

That said, I would ideally like to see massive zones like FF12 and Xenoblade. That's probably the best compromise in terms of linearity and still having some exploration. Something similar to what they showed for the early Versus XIII trailers.

 

[Th0rnhead]

I can't see them doing an overworld like in the original. I also can't see them going completely open world either.

I think they could do several smallish open hub areas in between locations. Those hubs could be strung together by linear zones and/or even just 'traveling' through a dialogue prompt in a town.

 

[Spehornoob]

Absolutely not.

You will probably reach Kalm after chapter 1 (or 2), which are the badlands around Midgar. Then Kalm is a chapter, ofcourse expanded by a huge throwback. And probably the next chapter ending with the Zolom. Perhaps Fort Condor as side activity inbetween. Then I can see the mines being heavily expanded, being one or 2 chapters. And the game will likely end at Junon, or rather, the boat.

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There's no way in hell the second game only ends at the Junon boat. There was more vastly more content even in OG MIdgar than there was from Kalm-Junon Boat.

Assuming they follow the VII story relatively faithfully, you won't see the same expansion to other areas that you saw in Midgar. They don't lend themselves to expansion in the way the Midgar arc does.

 

[Ruisu]

I'm expecting something like the open world from FFXV, but some of the main cities could probably be their own separate maps.

 

[Carn]

The overworld/worldmap worked because the whole scale thing didn't matter, and it was pretty much a glorified area selector as in with many rpgs of that era. if they want to keep the scale right, it would be a true open world and I don't see that happening. On the other hand, the original game is very lineair so just pushing the story forward works fine by me.

I would sign for some bigger hub like areas, or something what Uncharted tried to do. But I'm not under the assumption that we're getting a full planet/world to roam freely with the current level of detail. I'm all for FF12-ish bigger areas to explore.

 

[Ayirek]

Im expecting an overworld similar to how XV handled it, in terms of openness. But people need to remember, FFVIIs world map wasn't all that open. It wasn't like you could cross from Midgar right to Junon. You could go to Kalm or the Chocobo Farm. So there is a lot of room to expand.

 

[Lobster Roll]

You're going to pick locations from a menu like in FFX and Cid will die a little on the inside.

 

[Comic Obsessed]

Not expecting anything.

 

[Deleted member 224]

No, locations will be connected by cutscenes.

 

[Hugare]

Square is not Rockstar or Ubisoft to be able to make detailed, huge open world games

We all saw how FF XV open world turned out in the end. A wasteland, with some small cities here and there with almost no interaction.

It will be chapter based with hubs, otherwise they wont be able to mantain the detail that they had with the first part (and that will be expected of them for the sequel)

 

[Rickyrozay2o9]

With Nomura in charge who knows but I'm going to assume this game will be completed on the current generation consoles with some added enhancements for the ps5. Unless I'm off basis.

 

[Deleted member 13155]

There's no way in hell the second game only ends at the Junon boat. There was more vastly more content even in OG MIdgar than there was from Kalm-Junon Boat.

Assuming they follow the VII story relatively faithfully, you won't see the same expansion to other areas that you saw in Midgar. They don't lend themselves to expansion in the way the Midgar arc does.

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This is true. But what would be a fitting end? The boat was always a fitting end for part 1 to me. And the Forgotten City a fitting end for 2. The bulk of disc 2 was never interesting to me (gathering huge materia) I could see them doing that and the very end in a single release. Disc 1 was by far the biggest disc of the game after all, took me well over 20 hours first time and I ended the game at about 34.

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

I'm expecting it to be like Remake part 1: chapter based and moving in turn to each main location. I think it may be required if they keep the battle system so as not to have to spend a lot of time re-engineering it.

I would honestly prefer it that way so that a 2 or 3 part Remake series retains a consistent identity across its episodes.

(I have a feeling this is going to turn into three installments.)

 

[HockeyBird]

It will be linear like FFX and FF XIII and many of the locations from the original will be cut.

 

[Hieroph]

It's going to be something bad and disappointing, you just watch.

 

[giapel]

It will be open world and will come out at the end of next gen

 

[Spehornoob]

This is true. But what would be a fitting end? The boat was always a fitting end for part 1 to me. And the Forgotten City a fitting end for 2. The bulk of disc 2 wasn't never interesting to me (gathering huge materia) I could see them doing that and the very end in a single release. Disc 1 was by far the biggest disc of the game after all, took me well over 20 hours first time and I ended the game at about 34.

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The Forgotten City is a decent cliffhanger, but the best narrative arc would be to begin at the Nibelheim flashback and end all the way at the first Northern Crater visit and Meteor. However, that's a lot of game to cover with these production values, so if Square does go for it, I would expect the story to be trimmed or streamlined accordingly.

I don't think it's as impossible as others do though. A while back, in one of these threads, I did a comparison of locations and events between the "Search for Sephiroth" arc of VII and the whole of Final Fantasy XII, and it lined up relatively well. But it would have to be scaled right. Square wouldn't be able to do it while also putting resources into a massive open world or anything.

 

[B.K.]

I'm expecting it to either have a linear pathway, like X and XIII or to automatically move you on to the next location, after you finish the story where you are. Assuming Episode II even takes place in more than one area.

 

[Deleted member 13155]

The Forgotten City is a decent cliffhanger, but the best narrative arc would be to begin at the Nibelheim flashback and end all the way at the first Northern Crater visit and Meteor. However, that's a lot of game to cover with these production values, so if Square does go for it, I would expect the story to be trimmed or streamlined accordingly.

I don't think it's as impossible as others do though. A while back, in one of these threads, I did a comparison of locations and events between the "Search for Sephiroth" arc of VII and the whole of Final Fantasy XII, and it lined up relatively well. But it would have to be scaled right. Square wouldn't be able to do it while also putting resources into a massive open world or anything.

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One worry I have is that while Midgar was suited for a linear remake, as the original was completely linear and cinematic as well, the rest of the game will see lots of sacrifices.

What about the highwind, Ruby and Emerald, gold chocobo etc. They'll be streamlined for sure, the weapons perhaps becoming some sort of post game challenge or something. Or they're being made into mandatory bosses like the first Ultimate Weapon fight and Diamond.

 

[Kazuhira]

I honestly have no idea,interconnected semi-open maps like XII perhaps?
Or tone down the scale of each continent like,i dunno,let's say that the first continent is the size of the Leide region of XV..which is kinda misleading because it looks huge in the world map but it really isn't when you start to walk around.

 

[Argentil]

Considering how important map traversal was in FFVII, I really hope they figure it out. It feels like they chose to end the first part at the end of the Midgar section to allow themselves more time/resources to decide on a solution for the world map. It seems to be a puzzle they haven't attempted to crack since the PS1 era. Why can't they do a classic world map? I don't think it's a stylistic limitation, it feels like a technical one to me, and if that's the case, could the faster hdds in the next gen consoles allow for a more detailed, expansive overworld?

Does anyone here feel like a classic, chibi-styled overworld would be jarring with FFVII's visuals?

 

[Tigress]

It seems they are trying to go for more 3d game than just sprites moving on a map (I think that was one of their original objections to remaking it cause they felt it was too big to remake at the time cause of how big the world was). And the world I think is too big to just do one big open world (I could be wrong) so I'm guessing open fields with exit points. I just want to know if we have both games if we can go back into Midgar at any point or if it will block out areas that are part of previous games.

 

[Fjordson]

If they do open it up, I could see them doing something like DQ XI. Large, connected zones, but not open-world.

 

[Aadiboy]

It should be open-worldish, with cliffs, mountains, and ocean serving as barriers. I expect the world to be big since they had to split development of the game into multiple parts.

 

[hussien-11]

No it won't, it is very obvious now that Kitase's team don't want to make this kind of game (sadly).

They will make a big area like ch11 in FFXIII for a specific chapter and the rest will be another cinematic adventure.

 

[Dreamboum]

FF7 Remake is literally the same structure as FFXIII. FF7 Remake Part 2 will follow the same structure. You might have large areas but you'll never be allowed to backtrack to them once the story decides it to be so.

You will not be able to explore in part 2, this is a guarantee. FF7 Remake will be in the same lineage as FF10 and FF13.

 

[AGJTX]

Honestly, It will probably be a more sophisticated DQ VIII (don't know about XI as I have not played that one) world map that will large and open. That is what I prefer and with SSD, that is going to make it much more possible and interesting.

 

[Horohorohoro]

I don't think Part 2 will. If the final episode begins with them getting the Highwind, then sure, but I highly doubt anything before that will have a world map of any kind.

 

[jaymzi]

It will be like the FF7 Remake.

Chapter based as you move from location to location. Then at some time you will be able to travel to previous areas via a menu, with a small Chocobo cutscene or something.

 

[Argentil]

No it won't, it is very obvious now that Kitase's team don't want to make this kind of game (sadly).

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This is sad if true. I feel like what I've seen of FFVIIR so far would have lent itself to a more stylised map, because the game seems to be quite tongue-in-cheek and unafraid to embrace it's more campy/cartoonish roots. I'm tired of open world games, and I hope they don't waste time and resources trying to create massive, detailed maps filled with fodder to waste the time of its players. This is a pointed dig at FFXV.

 

[Foffy]

They will not even consider a world map like older games. Interconnected zones or you're being teleported from place to place by something.

 

[Leo-Tyrant]

Final X seems like the sensible choice. It would still allow them to show all they want from the world, ...by selecting locations from a menu.

I'm fine with this approach, as I dislike empty or padding-filler open worlds just for the sake of it.

 

[Firmus_Anguis]

I'm doubting it... But I'm hoping that with the next-gen consoles, they'll have a much easier time. Especially with SSD's in mind. I think (and hope) it'll do wonders for game-design.

 

[Carmelozi]

I think it'll be a next-gen exclusivity and will benefit of technology/software improvements to do whatever they want. I think a FFXII world design could be great for the next game, with a good balance between having large zones and good level design in order to have interesting exploration.

APZonerunner talked about their possible world design in past threads and he brought Lost Odyssey. I never played this game but from what I understood, it's FFX linearity until you get the ship/plane then you can move like the original game. And it could be a good idea I think too.

 

[APZonerunner]

I think it'll be a next-gen exclusivity and will benefit of technology/software improvements to do whatever they want. I think a FFXII world design could be great for the next game, with a good balance between having large zones and good level design in order to have interesting exploration.

APZonerunner talked about their possible world design in past threads and he brought Lost Odyssey. I never played this game but from what I understood, it's FFX linearity until you get the ship/plane then you can move like the original game. And it could be a good idea I think too.

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It's actually very similar to DQ11, but I feel like Lost Odyssey is a better comparison to FF7 as it has a similar 'photorealism' look. Basically the way LO works is it's linear zones and a fast travel warp menu until the point at which you get larger vehicles, and then you can drive those vehicles around a world map. You can only 'dock' at cities and other places where you can naturally walk around. This allows you to go hunting for new areas etc, and Lost Odyssey also had a submarine and a whole underwater section of the world map with lots of hidden stuff (which again brings FF7 to mind, tbh), but it avoids the artistic clash of city-sized people stomping around a size-mismatch map, or tiny characters taking ages to walk anywhere.

I'm not convinced there will be a world map - with the way the first game in FF7 Remake is structured you can easily see how the whole game could have a linear FF10/13 style structure - but if they do, you've got to imagine it'll be like DQ11/LO.