So far, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been extremely well received by both players and critics, even with the more controversial decisions that went into development. One of those decisions, specifically making Final Fantasy 7 Remake episodic, has left Square Enix in a strange position for some of the more central mechanics and new characters that appeared in the first episode.
The materia shop and walking trophy list Chadley creates one of the more difficult situations for Square Enix to remedy, as the character not only operates some late game challenges, but is also the primary source of summons in the game. However, where Final Fantasy 7 Remake can take the character is extremely limited by the truth that is revealed about him after facing the most difficult challenge he offers in Hard Mode, which requires a Spoiler Warning moving forward.
Originally, Chadley introduces himself to Cloud and the player as an intern working for Shinra in the slums of Midgar, but admits that he is willing to turn on his employer in support of AVALANCHE. However, at the end of Chadley’s final challenge, which requires players to tackle a series of brutally hard bosses including the Pride and Joy Prototype, it is revealed that the character isn’t actually an intern. In a cutscene following the challenge, it’s is revealed that he is actually a highly advanced AI created by Hojo with the intent of gathering intel from around Midgar.
Chadley eventually escapes his programming in a sense and is able to take on a mind of his own, although it is left extremely vague what he will be doing after finding his freedom. What is also left unclear is exactly how physical the form the players see is, as the in-game dialogue suggests that the character is a cyborg, but the digital effect floating around him during the scene suggests that Cloud is speaking to a hologram. Granted, terms like AI, cyborg, and android often get thrown around fairly wildly in high-action sci-fi adventures like Final Fantasy 7, so this may be more of a nitpick on semantics than a future plot hole.
The canon of Chadley’s final cutscene is questionable at best, due to it being locked behind a number of special challenges within a difficulty mode that can only be unlocked after beating the game once. However, with or without Cloud being aware of the young intern’s true nature, it is still unclear whether or not the character will be leaving Midgar and traveling around the world at a similar rate to the player. While it still remains a possibility that Chadley will still offer players the opportunity to fight and obtain summons in Final Fantasy 7 Remake‘s later episodes, the question now stands of how this will be done, or if the materia will be given or found like Ifrit and Choco/Mog.
It was somewhat implied that the previous Battle Intel missions that Chadley tasked Cloud with were only capable of creating summon materia, like Fat Chocobo, because he was linked into Shinra’s network. This, unfortunately, won’t be an option in the next section, as he is now free from Shinra and Hojo, and would likely either be barred from accessing older information or be attempting to hide away from the company’s prying eyes. All of this together leaves Chadley in a very strange position when it comes to assisting Cloud and the others again, but even if he does show up in the next episode, that still leaves the matter of which summons will appear up in the air.
One specific oddity about the summons in Final Fantasy 7 Remake is the fact that a number of them appear in this first episode, even though they didn’t exist in Midgar in the original. Both chocobo summons, which were originally just a single materia, didn’t originally appear until the Chocobo Farm, and Bahamut is first found in the Temple of Ancients at the end of the original’s first disc. By including these and other summons as early as Midgar for obvious reasons, the remake now has somewhat free reign to throw whoever Square Enix wants into the players’ hands without much care.
Even new summons introduced in additional content from after the original game launched could be up for grabs, including Crisis Core‘s Bahamut Fury or the Bahamut SIN called by Kadaj in the Advent Children sequel film. In all likelihood, players may want to keep an eye out for never before seen summons making their way into the Final Fantasy 7 world for the first time, like how Carbuncle arrived with a pre-order bonus. The sky is honestly the limit for the next episode, and with new confirmations cropping up like President Shinra’s Final Fantasy 10 roots, it may not be a surprise to see aeons like Valefor and Anima make an appearance at this point.
Of course, bringing in new and more powerful summon materia could mean some sidelining for the older helpers that players worked so hard to get in the first place. At this point, it’s still unclear exactly what players will be able to carry over when the next episode of Final Fantasy 7 Remake does finally arrive, if it turns out to be anything at all. In the event that players are allowed to keep their summon materia, however, adding more entries to the roster could overload the mechanic a bit.
The primary problem in this case comes from the way that summons work in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, compared to how they worked in both the original, as well as previous installments in the series. With each character only being able to hold one summon at a time, the seemingly small roster of these ethereal allies actually fits in fine with the current mechanics surrounding the powerful materia. However, if too many of these items are added to the game, many will quickly wind up neglected, which may fortunately mean that an entire overhaul of the summoning system is in store for the next episode. If there’s not at least some minor tweaks, the next game’s summons could be in trouble.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is available now on PS4.
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