The reunion at hand may bring joy. It may bring fear. But let us embrace whatever it brings, for they are coming back.

[FFShinra]

Not really. Part 3 ends at the temple. Part 4 ends with meteor, part 5 is Cloud coming back. Part 6 is endgame.

 

[Odysseus]

So (Nibelheim Flashback -> Chocobo Farm -> Mytheril Mine -> Fort Condor -> Junon -> cargo ship)
is one part, but
(City of the Ancients -> Snow Fields -> Icicle Inn -> Snow Fields 2 -> Gaia's peak -> North crater -> Junon 2 -> Mideel -> Corel Huge Materia -> Fort Condor Huge Materia -> Ultima Weapon -> Cloud's mind)
is another?

I just don't think Kalm to the Cargo Ship will take an entire part, it's like four hours of the original and I don't see the stuff beyod Midgar getting blown up to the extent that Midgar has been, its just not necessary. The earliest end point for part two that I can see is the temple.

 

[FFShinra]

I mean by that standard even breaking it up is not necessary. But they did it. And they might as well keep at it lest it feels less dense than part 1.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Just because Square did something doesn't mean they'd be inclined to do it in the worst possible way.

They might as well have made the game episodic or continually expanding DLC/expansions on a base game if they were gonna make it 6 parts. That carves up the narrative in such unsatisfying and discordant pieces that it functionally dilutes its entire story and draws it out to the level of parody.

The padding to expand those parts into full entire games would be extensive and utterly ridiculous. How would just Kalm to Junon/Cargo Ship be enough content to fit an entire game when the part of the story it represents, is literally just the beginning of the quest to find Sephiroth?

Where is the climax? The tension and confrontation with any sort of antagonist? The only thing close would be the end of that installment... Confronting Sephiroth on the Cargo Ship. The entire meat of the game would be just going to towns, finding info on Sephiroth and Shinra, getting to Junon and sneaking aboard... That's a dearth of narrative content and game content. Unless they went to extreme lengths to just stuff the game with padding that would make a taxidermist go, "... You added too much..."

No one would take Square seriously if they did that and the game would be a laughing stock, especially with how it'd prove the principle argument of the critics of this game correct. They wouldn't be doing this due to work effort and detail, it'd be a naked cash grab.

 

[Tetsujin]

That pacing would make disc one take 3 or 4 parts on its own

Not really. Part 3 ends at the temple. Part 4 ends with meteor, part 5 is Cloud coming back. Part 6 is endgame.

Wait I'm confused how can you say 'not really' but then lay out that disc 1 would indeed take up almost 4 entire parts with your structure?

Anyway, that is definitely too much. Part 2 ending at the cargo ship wouldn't make sense as there is zero story between Kalm and Junon.
But basically, what Mako said above me.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

What did you do to Cloud's teeth, mako?

 

[Jairus]

I don't know where Part 2 would end. It takes traveling about 7 to 8 times the diameter of Midgar just to reach the Chocobo Farm, and that's if SE doesn't expand the distances. How far can one reasonably travel on a world map matching the scale of Part 1's Midgar? Because the scale has to match to make sense, which would make the map absolutely huge, probably bigger than any other RPG world ever seen. Could the entire world map at that scale even fit into a single game? As far as I'm aware, FFXV's world was only a partial one, not the entire globe like VIIR's would be, and only one or two real towns were even visitable. VIIR's world is bound to be much larger with a much greater density of content and many towns that will no doubt feel fully alive and lived-in. Not to the scale of Midgar, of course, but still big enough to provide that feeling of authenticity. I just wonder how far it's possible to travel in a single game in a world that's likely to be on such an unprecedented scale.

 

[Makoeyes987]

What did you do to Cloud's teeth, mako?

I made Cloud's smile better.

It's one of the best tracks of the movie. Might as well make the smile match the theme, right?

 

[Erotic Materia]

I don't know where Part 2 would end. It takes traveling about 7 to 8 times the diameter of Midgar just to reach the Chocobo Farm, and that's if SE doesn't expand the distances. How far can one reasonably travel on a world map matching the scale of Part 1's Midgar? Because the scale has to match to make sense, which would make the map absolutely huge, probably bigger than any other RPG world ever seen. Could the entire world map at that scale even fit into a single game? As far as I'm aware, FFXV's world was only a partial one, not the entire globe like VIIR's would be, and only one or two real towns were even visitable. VIIR's world is bound to be much larger with a much greater density of content and many towns that will no doubt feel fully alive and lived-in. Not to the scale of Midgar, of course, but still big enough to provide that feeling of authenticity. I just wonder how far it's possible to travel in a single game in a world that's likely to be on such an unprecedented scale.

In regards to map size/realism, if the world were scaled to match Midgar (more or less), that would mean massive open areas of nothing between towns/cities/etc. Which would only serve to take away from the overall experience, I feel.

If they do stick to the world map, I wonder if they'll add things to pad it out? Like small towns, side quest areas, etc.

 

[Saven]

I figure it will be spread out through zones like FFXI, XII, XIV, or even DQVIII and XI. Like the latter, sea and air travel will be in two different maps that make it seem that you are on the same map all the time, but it's really not.

 

[Erotic Materia]

Full disclosure: the only other game I've played after X was XV.... So I have no idea what those look like.

 

[oty]

I assume that such unprecedented scale is why they are putting Part 2 and beyond in PS5's hardware. The extra power should be utilised.

As for the world itself, they only need to expand the Overworld so that it's roughly the same "size" (content wise too) of the expanded Midgar. As in, they wont expand the world as much as they expanded Midgar, that would be crazy. If I could make an example in numbers, it would be like X*Midgar = Y*Overworld, so if they expanded 10x Midgar, they would need to find a Y number (that would be obviously smaller than X since Overworld is bigger than Midgar) to expand Overworld so they would be roughly the same. That's what I believe in, at least.

I wouldnt really mind a similar way to what was made in the original, specially if loading times were small, so dropping in and out of the expanded areas doesnt make me wanna kms lol. But one idea that I saw, that was really interesting, is keeping the distances botched up, but still presenting the world as "open" of sorts. So pretty much, in open world games, you can wonder out in the area and you will find a cave, with monsters and dungeons and whatevers inside of it. And that amazes people because it presents a realistic world that feels free, because you really just explored and found something. Well in FFVII, it would be similar to that, except you wouldnt just find any cave, you would find the Mythrill Caves or later you would find the Materia Caves. When you play the game, it would feel free and also like you really are in a realistic world, but if you would make a map of it, it would be signifcantly smaller than an actual world, thats why the distances would be botched up.

It would also make it easier for them to create new areas and integrate them into the world, and would make the game much more streamlined and without loading screens and stuff like that, which is the whole thing about the next generation of consoles.

 

[Jairus]

Not keeping the scale consistent with Midgar, though, would seem to detract from the sense of realism they seem to be going for. They even revised the plate height to be more realistic. And just because the distances might be made to be more realistic doesn't mean the lands in between the points we know would have to be empty. New locations - towns, dungeons, etc. - could be added along with narrative points to bring them into the story. For example, instead of just one Mythril Mine, there could be several (many likely being optional areas) in the region with the one from the original being the biggest and busiest - at least until the monsters showed up. And it would solve the issue of the miners living so far away from where they work.

If there are more towns and mines in the area, then that would be more realistic than trying to believe that people traveled halfway across the continent just to go to work every day. Having one of the new settlements be just outside the main mine (the one from the original and the only one leading to Junon) and plagued by monsters would provide both story material and added gameplay in terms of quests, hunts, etc. Also, I hope they'll greatly expand the journey across the marshes and make it much longer and more dangerous, with you having to evade the Zolom as it continually shows up again and again to hound you like X-ATM from FFVIII. And like that boss, you could fight it, but in this case, you would never be able to beat it, just hit it long enough to get a chance to escape. This would make the sight of the dead Zolom at the end of the swamp more frightening and effective and highlight just how much stronger Sephiroth is than your group at that time. Also, I'd like to see the crossing handled in a more realistic way, as there's no way that four humans and a red panther creature could all fit on one chocobo.

 

[Erotic Materia]

Hot damn, I think those are all great ideas, Jairus.

 

[Jairus]

Thanks! I could also see the main Mythril Mine having some optional lower levels for higher end late game content for Part 2. And if they can expand Midgar to the size it is now, they should easily be able to expand Junon's size and story to about half that, which would still provide a lot to do and see.

 

[Tetsujin]

I don't know where Part 2 would end. It takes traveling about 7 to 8 times the diameter of Midgar just to reach the Chocobo Farm, and that's if SE doesn't expand the distances. How far can one reasonably travel on a world map matching the scale of Part 1's Midgar? Because the scale has to match to make sense, which would make the map absolutely huge, probably bigger than any other RPG world ever seen. Could the entire world map at that scale even fit into a single game? As far as I'm aware, FFXV's world was only a partial one, not the entire globe like VIIR's would be, and only one or two real towns were even visitable. VIIR's world is bound to be much larger with a much greater density of content and many towns that will no doubt feel fully alive and lived-in. Not to the scale of Midgar, of course, but still big enough to provide that feeling of authenticity. I just wonder how far it's possible to travel in a single game in a world that's likely to be on such an unprecedented scale.

Depends on what scale you're talking about. Most of Midgar will very likely not be explorable same as the original game and in the same vein, the rest of the world very likely also will not be covered at a 1:1 scale. I'd assume it'll be more like large segmented areas rather than a to-scale open world.

 

[Jairus]

I don't know, Nomura did say the game was on 2 blurays for a reason. Though he was talking about there being many choices and choices-dependent events and scenes in the game. Still, I think we'll get see a whole lot more of Midgar than many might think.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Don't overshoot your expectations.

You're not going to visit every sector and square inch of Midgar. This is FFVII, not FFXV. It wouldn't make sense to have Cloud running around on Shinra transit and on foot all across Midgar at the start of VII.

There's new areas and things have been expanded but I don't get how people somehow assume you'll be just visiting every part of Midgar like it's Altissia in Eos. The story has a progression and while there's some leeway, it's not like you can break the story and divert yourself entirely from the narrative. It wouldn't make sense.

 

[Jairus]

I understand that, and even if you can't, the physical size of the city itself is still the same and thus, the scale of the rest of world would need to correspond to it to maintain realism. If, for example, the distance between Midgar and the Chocobo Farm is 8 times the diameter of Midgar, then it should take walking that literal distance to get there in the game.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

You can't visit every part of Altissia. It's very linear. There's basically two long main areas you can visit, on several levels. I can't see SE having much difficulty doing something similar for Midgar.

 

[LNK]

Pandemonium, I wish you would have put that bit about Luna in a spoiler tag. Some, like me, haven't finished FFXV yet, and I would have liked to have not had that spoiled. It wasn't you originally, though. Some wit commenting on an FF Youtube video did the same thing and that's how I found out. Still, though, I wish people would remember to use spoiler tags for that stuff.

Anyway, I'm not sure where Part 2 will end. Given how big Midgar is, the rest of the world has to be scaled up to match. And just how far is it feasible to travel in a single game on a world map with that huge a scale? Look at the size of Midgar compared to the rest of the continent it's on. It's about 7 or 8 trips across the diameter of the whole city just to get to the Chocobo Farm, and that's if they don't expand the geographical distances to be more realistic.

Also, why are there such low estimates for game time? This is two full blurays worth of content. Even for just the story, with that much space being used, 30 hours seems a bit low. I'd say 50 hours for the main story might be more realistic, with 70-80 to account for all the side quests and optional content. That matches up more closely with the original, which could easily be an 80-hour game if you set out to do everything that could possibly be done in the game.

I'm so sorry! I figure at this point people know what happened in the game. It has been 3 years. How long do people continue using spoiler tags? I do apologize though. I never want to ruin things for people

 

[Jairus]

It's alright. I don't know what the right amount of time to keep using them is, though.

 

[Erotic Materia]

It's always going to be subjective; somewhere, someone is playing the original FF7 for the first time today. They might have avoided learning any shocking spoilers prior to this point in time, but the odds of unintentionally learning the forbidden knowledge increase over time.

 

[LNK]

Full disclosure: the only other game I've played after X was XV.... So I have no idea what those look like.

Definitely missing out on 12

 

[Keveh Kins]

It's always going to be subjective; somewhere, someone is playing the original FF7 for the first time today. They might have avoided learning any shocking spoilers prior to this point in time, but the odds of unintentionally learning the forbidden knowledge increase over time.

I'll never forget that gut wrenching plot point when you find out

Spoiler

Mayor Domino is just a glorified librarian!

Ah to be a Final Fantasy newcomer again...