One of the heaviest critiques on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake is the way that limiting the game to Midgar made what many fans remembered to be a fairly open-world into a series of linear hallways. The criticism didn’t land on this release as hard as it did on Final Fantasy 13, but it is still an issue that Square Enix is going to have to address when it comes to Final Fantasy 7 Remake‘s next installment.
Unfortunately, the more realistic design that Square Enix is going for with Final Fantasy 7 Remake moving forward means that the old strategy of simply toning down the outer-world as a low-poly map won’t work anymore. Of course, Final Fantasy 15 went for an open-world experience with a life-like design, but one of the biggest critiques of how that title approached this type of mechanic with the Regalia.
When players first boot up Final Fantasy 15, they are immediately greeted with a somewhat emotional cutscene where King Regis gifts the protagonist Noctis the Regalia, a sort of royal Ground Force One. Even players who might have missed out on the massive marketing strategy of the game will likely feel the gravity of this moment as it becomes clear that Regis is essentially leaving the car as his final gift to the future king. Then players have the joys of the new car stripped from them as the Regalia breaks down outside of Hammerhead and sends them on a tutorial quest before giving players control of the car again.
All of this setup primes the player to explore the open world of Final Fantasy 15‘s Eos, first by showing exactly how large the area is by forcing them to run around without the Regalia, then opening the rest of the area up soon after. Looking at the way the game builds this anticipation is certainly a success that should be emulated in the next section of Final Fantasy 7 Remake as Gaia begins to open up after leaving Midgar. However, the exact way that the Regalia takes players around the world, especially in the earlier areas where only Ignis can drive, really drops the ball from what the game had been previously setting up.
The world of Final Fantasy 15 might be incredibly open, but the tool that so readily brings the players from one location to the next keeps the player railroaded throughout the adventure. It really comes down to the way that the Regalia can’t be stopped at any time (initially anyway), instead requiring the player to find a parking spot to get out and explore on foot. This can make even the open-world sections of Final Fantasy 15 feel linear, as players are guided exactly where they can and can’t go according to where these parking spots are placed.
A patch did eventually arrive that let Final Fantasy 15‘s Regalia go off road, but this isn’t available until later in the game and many early players never got the chance on their first playthrough at all. Besides the Regalia, the only other ways to freely explore the open world of Eos were to either walk around on foot or take the chocobos from location to location. However, while these were always options, neither were anywhere near as quickly or reliably as the Regalia, and that doesn’t even cover the “airship” as it appears in Final Fantasy 15.
The Regalia Type-F might be the ultimate example of exactly how poorly implemented the Regalia is in the open world title. While there are a number of Final Fantasy 15 features that Final Fantasy 7 Remake should take for itself, this version of an airship certainly isn’t one of them. An extremely limited flying mechanic that can only lift off and land in a handful of locations across the map is most certainly not what the series needs to repeat.
Looking at the vehicles from the original Final Fantasy 7, there are some options for how to best let players move around Gaia in the next installment of the remake. The obvious choice would be the buggy, the first vehicle that players gain access to in the original that allows them to travel over shallow water and moving sand. However, it is possible that if Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 reaches Cid, it could also include the Tiny Bronco in the later chapters of the game.
For either of these options, it’ll be important for Square Enix to keep previous criticisms in mind and make sure that the new vehicles have the freedom of movement that the patched in monster truck Regalia had over the launch version. It may be a tough ask to rework the two main continents of Gaia into a single open world at all, but if this is the direction the game intends to go, then the illusion of freedom won’t be enough. However, one form of transportation could be the fix that Final Fantasy 7 Remake needs, and drawing from other titles could be the key to success.
Taking one simple mechanic from Final Fantasy 9 and implementing it into the upcoming remake can both make open-world exploration the best its been in the series and begin to introduce Final Fantasy 7‘s best sidequest. Specifically speaking, it’s the Final Fantasy mascots, the chocobos that could be the most important feature to work on in order to make traveling across Gaia as rewarding as possible. This could both give players a fun way to travel, working as possibly a faster version of Final Fantasy 15‘s chocobos, but with the versatility of Final Fantasy 9‘s version of the creature that could walk, swim, and fly.
Combining this with the Gold Chocobo sidequest as well, where players periodically open up different levels of traversal with the blue, green, and black versions from the original game. Considering how well Final Fantasy 7 Remake has represented chocobos so far through the multiple summon materia, the next part should definitely take the next logical step of making the creatures mountable. So, while it might be strange to dismiss vehicles like the Tiny Bronco and the Buggy, the remake is the perfect time to streamline open world traversal with better utilization of chocobo breading.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is reported to be in development.
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