Final Fantasy VII: Remake left fans with an unexpecting and riveting ending filled with questions of where the story and characters are going next. Although we are long away from seeing anything new from Final Fantasy VII: Remake Part II, we have received new information on what’s happening with production at Square Enix and it’s quite exciting. First, Final Fantasy VII Remake: Part II will have a new director in Naoki Hamaguchi after Tetsuya Nomura, director of the first part, was moved to creative director. Hamaguchi was a co-director on the first part with Nomura, so this is a perfect choice to direct the second part. And secondly, Tetsuya Nomura has confirmed that, although being a remake, Final Fantasy VII Remake: Part II will still contain parts from the original. Similar to Final Fantasy VII: Remake, Nomura fleshed out and expanded on the world of Midgar into a new story while retaining some of the original story points of Midgar from the original game.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Part II is going to be an interesting game that’ll introduce new and exciting characters, locations, and story points fans may remember from the original game as well as new gameplay elements. For those who’ve played the original game, after escaping Midgar you enter the world of Gaia which becomes an open world with different locations to explore. With current next-generation hardware and software, the open world could be the biggest gameplay element Square Enix has done since Final Fantasy XV. Utilizing Unreal Engine V could give developers the power to render and generate open-world environments with fewer polygons using nanite and manipulating light using lumen. And with the new world partition system, developers can now collaboratively split sections of open-world environments into grids for easier cells to be streamed. Core gameplay could still be the same with some few changes, specifically air combat, as two of the newest members to the party, Yuffie and Vincent, utilize swift and cunning air moves. More material, summons, and abilities could be expanded on for each character as well.

Speaking of new characters: Vincent Valentine, Yuffie, Red XIII, and Cait Sith join the party! Red XIII appeared in the first part towards the end of the game but wasn’t playable which disappointed a lot of fans. Red XIII will play an important part in the story as the party will travel to his home of Cosmo Canyon and meet his grandfather Bugenhagen. Yuffie appeared in the first part’s DLC, Intergrade, and followed her on a new journey before we meet her again in the forests. Vincent Valentine will play an important part in the story as well as connect to Cloud’s past in Nibelheim. We’ve already seen a little bit of his story fleshed out with the inclusion of Nero the Sable and Weiss the Immaculate, his two brothers who first appeared in Dirge of Cerberus and recently appeared in Intergrade. Cait Sith will play a small part in the story as a spy for Shinra and the Turks. We don’t know how long Final Fantasy VII: Remake Part II will be, so the appearance of Cid and visiting Rocket City could be saved for the third party. 

Final Fantasy VII: Remake and Intergrade set up an intriguing story filled with questions that make for great speculation and theorization. After Intergrade, we saw the party (Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aerith, and Red XIII) getting a ride from Chocobo Bill to Kalm. The second part could begin with Cloud retelling what happened in Nibelheim and Sephiroth at the party. These flashbacks are important later on in the story because the events that transpired aren’t Cloud’s memory, but Zack Fair’s memory. With that said, let’s address the elephant in the room: is Zack Fair alive? Answer: we don’t know, but many have theorized that Zack Fair could be alive in the lifestream or perhaps another timeline where Aerith dies before the events of the original game occur. Sephiroth will be more of a threat than in the first part, manipulating Cloud’s mind through Jenova cells so he can obtain the Black Materia. Sephiroth’s appearances throughout the first game left fans wondering if that was truly Sephiroth from the original game as this version knows a lot more about future outcomes and uses the black wing which he only used in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. There will be many places to visit like Nibelheim, Cosmo Canyon, Temple of Ancients, Junon, Costa Del Sol, and many more.

While we are a long way from hearing anything about Final Fantasy VII: Remake Part II, it has been fun getting to speculate what the future for this game looks like.