Let’s talk about where Final Fantasy VII Remake ends, and where it could go

To infinity and beyond

Now that Final Fantasy Remake is out, I can talk more about it.

But don’t fret! I’m not going to explicitly chat about the new ending and final chapter. Rather, I’m now able to speak to where the game could go with the next installment.

Spoilers, but mostly for the original Final Fantasy VII, as I’m not talking about the ending of the Remake here.

Where could the next remake go from here?

Yep, I’m not talking about what happens in Chapter 18: an all-new very Nomura-Kingdom Hearts-esque final capstone. Not yet, at least.

This is more of an overview for people who are curious as to how “complete” the remake is and where the next part will pick up. As a reminder, it took me roughly 35 hours to do nearly everything possible in the game, with another five serving as a cleanup for most of the other major content.

Suffice to say, Square Enix has said time and time again that the Final Fantasy VII Remake that’s out this month is “Midgar’s story” and that is accurate. Although the original game’s “Disc 1” went beyond that point and into the open world, the Remake doesn’t venture there yet. At the end you get some text noting “The Unknown Journey will continue.” That’s all we’re getting for now. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of discussions in the weeks to come once the heavy spoiler-phase has ended. Once you’ve finished the game you’ll get a chapter select option, as well as hard mode, more VR challenges and enhanced experience/AP (materia) gains from there on out. Think of it as a “New Game+.”

The question is, how does Square Enix reconcile this with “part two?” Can they please start talking to us about plans for part two, for that matter? We still have no clue if anything is going to carry over, like stats, levels, materia, equipment and so on. If I had to guess, it’s probably not going to be a full data transfer, as there are too many variables to account for, and the second part would have to be balanced for everyone who hit max level and completely decked out their party.

Right now with the party having exited Midgar, the second part will seemingly have Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aerith (and Red XIII? Maybe he’ll duck out for a bit?) visiting the town of Kalm, where we’ll get more flashbacks and more shades of Crisis Core and Advent Children. The ride is only going to get crazier from here.