The developers behind Square Enix’s upcoming action role-playing game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, have revealed new details regarding the game’s world map, key story events, and more.
Speaking during an interview, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Producer Yoshinori Kitase, Director Naoki Hamaguchi, and Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura shared new information regarding the game, including details on the world map and key story events.
In response to a question regarding the world map design being comprised of large, individual areas or a full-fledged open world, Hamaguchi stated that it depends on what the definition of the term “open world” is. In this game, the western, eastern, and northern continents and the central ocean are all seamlessly connected as one space. There are large chunks of individual areas, but players can move between them arbitrarily without the need to switch maps, including the oceans that connect them. In addition, by design, the accessible regions of the world map will expand as the game progresses, and, in the latter half, it becomes possible to go across the ocean once a certain vehicle has been obtained.
Nomura added that the term “open world” suggests that players can come and go as they please. In the original game, however, the world expanded as the story progressed, and the degree of freedom increased. Eventually, players were able to explore the world map like they would an open world. According to him, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth essentially follows the same format.
On the subject of key story events, the developers mentioned that the date episode from the original is included in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. However, they didn’t reveal who you can date, as that would be a spoiler. They did mention that dating is not restricted to the opposite gender, and that the development team has built a lot of new elements into this aspect.
Additionally, Nomura mentioned that, during development, there was a point when it was decided that Sephiroth wouldn’t be a playable character. However, since this was a valuable chance to play as the iconic character, Nomura asked the development team to feature him as a playable character.
