Footage of the Final Fantasy VII Remake was at Square Enix’s E3 showcase; showing off more of the game’s action-combat system and familiar faces. The Final Fantasy VII Remake was previously said to be released in multiple parts. Now it has been revealed that the first part of the remake will focus entirely on Midgar. Midgar getting a larger focus isn’t exactly a surprise, considering that it is easily the most iconic location in Final Fantasy VII. Yet with a whole first part dedicated to it, one has to wonder about the overall experience.

The opening Midgar section of Final Fantasy VII was a couple hours long, so unless Square Enix is looking to make a short-yet-quality-filled time, it’s likely that those few hours may be stretched to a more respectable amount to justify full game price. Some stuff seems to be expanded on, like the robot scorpion fight at the beginning of the game; which was shown off at E3 to be a more complex multi-phase battle as opposed to the short and simple fight in the original.

Square Enix may also likely add more scenes to the Midgar section of the game; at the end of the gameplay presentation, for instance, Cloud is shown to be hallucinating Sephiroth’s presence in some back alley, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t happen in the original game.

Just asked Yoshinori Kitase how many games are going to be in the Final Fantasy VII remake – he said he can't say yet "because we don't know ourselves."

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) June 11, 2019

The main problem of the Final Fantasy VII Remake for me is trying to imagine the game beyond Midgar. How many more installments will there be, and if so, what will each part contain? The thing is, not even the developers know yet. Kotaku editor Jason Schreier asked producer Yoshinori Kitase about it and even he doesn’t have an answer.

The statement is worrisome because it shows a lack of vision. With a whole game dedicated to just one area (albeit, an iconic one) of the original Final Fantasy VII, it throws everything beyond that into question. It’s unlikely that other individual areas in the original game will get the same treatment that Midgar has, so it’s hard to imagine how the rest of the game will be treated. If future installments are more one-to-one as a remake, the overall pacing becomes bizarre, seeing as you’ll be jumping from a game full of set-up to a globe-spanning adventure.

Would a lot of the original Final Fantasy VII be condensed to fit with the pacing of the first part of the Remake? Or will the first part add enough content that it would balance out those concerns? Will the world map system in the original be replaced by open-world roaming like Final Fantasy XV? Would optional stuff like Wutai even exist in the Remake? Do the developers even have an idea for what to do for everything past Midgar?

Right now we don’t have those answers. I do like how the Final Fantasy VII Remake looks so far, in terms of gameplay and visuals, but I sincerely worry about the overall narrative and pacing of the remake. I mean, if I wanted to experience a story, the original game is still there and the existence of the remake doesn’t negate it, but if they’re going to retell the story, I hope it does the original story justice.

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