What do we want to see in Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2?

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade was recently released — check out our review here — and with the release of the additional DLC episode for Remake that Intergrade brought us, I’m left wanting more. So it’s time to look at some of the features that hint towards the future of Final Fantasy VII Remake.

This also seems like a good opportunity to go through my own personal feature wishlist for the sequel to Remake — and why I want those things to be included. I won’t really be diving into the story too much here; rather, we’ll keep focused on gameplay features. Alright everyone, let’s mosey. (Damn! Again! Stop sayin’ it like a wimp! – Ed.)

Synergy Attacks and materia

The main thing that Intergrade really showed off was the new addition to the combat system — synergy. With the press of a button, the player could have Yuffie and Sonon synergise together, giving them access to new moves, new ATB special commands, and the ability to use synergy materia as well. 

This is a feature that I want to see carry on into Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2, as I really think it added a new layer to the combat in numerous ways. Most importantly though, these kinds of team-up attacks just look so damn cool! Seeing Yuffie grab onto Sonon’s staff to create a synergised windstorm, or jump onto it and kick herself off to perform a ninja cannonball — so awesome!

These are things that the main party could easily incorporate as well. Cloud’s Buster Sword or Barrett’s muscly arm could serve the same purpose as Sonon’s staff and launch fellow party members. I can already see it now — Cloud launching Red XIII off his Buster Sword to perform the “Cosmo Cannonball”. Tifa and Yuffie teaming up and delivering a high-speed “Bijin-Barrage” that rapidly builds the enemy’s stagger gauge… Square Enix, hire me! I have way too many ideas for this!

An open world map

One of the biggest things that I think Final Fantasy VII Remake is trying to do is recreate the feelings of excitement that players had when they played the original Final Fantasy VII. When Part 2 begins, the party will have just left Midgar and now the whole world map is opened up to them — so where do you go from here? I can feel it in my heart that this is what they are after with this game, which is why I think the world map will be coming back. 

However, I don’t think that it will be a humongous open world like that of Final Fantasy XV, but rather massive areas in which you can move around with the assistance of various different forms of transportation. While there are cases where an entirely open world can work in an RPG — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt being a great example — they often run the risk of distracting the player’s attention away from the main story.

Active party member switching

As it currently stands, we know that we can have up to three party members we can actively switch between in battle. However, we also know that as the story progresses we’re going to be meeting more characters, which means even more options when it comes to combat. Even by the end of Remake, we have 5 total party members with the addition of Red XIII. 

Just as they do in Remake, each character in Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 will likely specialise in different areas when it comes to combat. Cloud does tons of damage to grounded enemies, Tifa is a combo and stagger queen, Aerith has her ranged magic, and Barret has fast long-ranged attacks to deal with those pesky flyers. It’s these specialist areas that will give us reasons to constantly want to switch up characters and make for a more in-depth and fluid combat system. 

Similar to games like Final Fantasy X or Dragon Quest XI, being able to switch out the currently active party members could be a really fun and even more immersive addition to the combat. A possible alternative could be utilising the synergy system and incorporating synergised attacks with the currently inactive party members. 

Summons 

Summons in Final Fantasy VII are all about materia, the small magical orbs which contain each summon. In Remake we saw these summons utilized by the VR combat simulator throughout the game and they were presented to us as optional bosses. I really liked this idea, as it presented more challenging boss battles for players to sink their teeth into. 

That being said though, I think it would be equally as cool to add a bit more background to the summons — especially some of the big ones such as Knights of the Round. In the original game, this particular summon could only be obtained by traveling via Golden Chocobo to a distant island, and as much I hope this still remains, I would love to have additional story elements surrounding this. 

Maybe it’s hearsay around different towns about the “ultimate summon materia” or a questline involving someone who is obsessed with finding the legendary Knights of the Round. I think that something like this would add a great additional flavour to one of the coolest parts of any Final Fantasy game.

---

What about you? What would you like to see from the next installments in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series? Why not pen us a letter for the Rice Digital Friday Letters page and let us know your thoughts in detail?

^{Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support Rice Digital!}