How the rest will be divided up (my theory)

[JJ Strife]

Howdy, so I thought for my first main post on the forum I'd share my thinking about how the rest of the story will be divided up.

I originally thought it was obvious that it would be just 3 separate full-length games. But then they go and make Midgar into an entire game, and now I think 3 games is basically impossible unless they completely backtrack on their original rationale for dividing it up: that they didn't want to cut or condense anything. They only wanted to add and expand.

My basic theory here is that the length of each part of the story is going to massively change from the original because the key factor has now become the physical scale of the world itself. That was far less of an issue in the original. You could travel across the world map in mere seconds, and supposedly large areas could take up tiny amounts of development time for them (e.g City of Junon was like 5 or 6 screens). That is no longer true. The physical size of the map and the size of towns/cities will determine how things get divided up because they determine how much development time is needed for Squenix, as well as how much disc storage. So my prediction is that the game will be divided into 4 total parts (3 remaining) based on physical area. As follows:

Game 2 - The eastern continent. Open World->Kalm->Kalm Flashback (includes development of Nibelheim and Mt Nibel areas)->Open World->Choco Farm->Swamp->Mythril Mines->Open World->Extensive subplot involving meeting Yuffie in a forest->Fort Condor->Open World->Junon (lower village)->Junon (large upper city area)->Cargo ship. Final boss Jenova on ship like in original.

Game 3- The main continent. Costa Del Sol-> Open World->Corel-> Gold Saucer->Corel Prison->Open World->Gongaga->Open World->Cosmo Canyon->Nibelheim (already designed for Game 2 so no dev time needed)->Substory to get Vincent->Open World->Rocket Town to get Cid->Tiny Broncho exploration-> Temple of Ancients. I think Aerith will die at a different time and place than in the original, cos they don't want us to be ready for it. So I'm gonna guess she dies here instead, followed by final boss Sephiroth/Jenova.

Game 4- Wutai and the northern continent. The beginning of a new game is a good time to cut to the Wutai sub-plot, maybe they took some time off after the shock of losing Aerith. Next cuts to northern continent->Bone Village->City of ancients->Icicle Inn->Great Glacier->Gaea Cliff->Northern Cave-> Entire 'Weapon' subplot-> Cloud's confused identity-> Return to Midgar->Northern Crater final dungeon.

Part of the reason I think they might go for this, is because it would align perfectly with the challenges of making an open-world map, giving each game a clear physical boundary that corresponds to an ocean surrounding each landmass.

What does everyone think? Likely? Possible? Completely mental?

[Fynn]

I personally believe it might still be three games. Sure, going by sheer length, Midgar is nowhere near as long as a third of the entire game, but it’s important to keep in mind that Midgar was the densest part of the game with plenty enough room to expand it the way the remake does. So going by the original story pacing alone, I think there’s just enough stuff there to put the rest of disc one in part 2, and then part 3 could be the rest of the game. Your four-part plan seems to be pretty possible too, though.

But of course, all this speculation is not taking into account the fact that the game might go completely off the rails at some point. I honestly expect this to be kind of a Rebuild of Evangelion situation - first part is pretty straightforward until the very end where there’s a pretty big change that means a lot for returning viewers but not a lot to new ones, second speeds things up and condenses they old story more while also totally taking it in a different direction (so in our case and the scenario I listed, we could for example reach the City if Ancients by the end of part 2 but Aerith doesn’t die this time and instead something insane happens), and then from the third part onwards the story is pretty much unrecognizable.

[Mr Gashtacular]

i dont expect it to be open world, at all, that would really surprise me

[Mercen-X]

Rebuild of Evangelion situation.How I feel they did FMAB.

I doubt the open world as well. Likely methods of fast-travel will condense the world size.

If Kalm is its own hub with sidequests and if Chocobo Bill's Farm is its own hub with sidequests (maybe even early access to Chocobo Breeding and Racing), and Mythril Mines is its own full episode, and if every Fort Condor battle is fought on initial arrival (rather than being a mini-game like a whack-a-box you can pursue later), the Junon parade is lengthened (like the dance-off), make the boat its own full episode, maybe bring the length of the story to the end of Barret's Corel Prison events... there may be two more full game's worth of content left over.

[Fynn]

FMA Brotherhood was a more straightforward adaptation of the source once it got finished. It’s not the same situation at all imo

[JJ Strife]

i dont expect it to be open world, at all, that would really surprise me

Possibly yes. But even if it's not a complete FFXV style open world, I think they still need to go with fairly large open areas in order to convey the scale of the world. Their next best option would be kind of segmented semi-open areas, a bit like how the later Souls games work. I'm thinking Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 especially. DQ11 had a similar approach too (but had more loading screens that the Souls games). Any of those approaches would work fine too.

Even with that style though, they still have a situation where the sheer size of the world needs to be represented to scale in some way, because it otherwise wouldn't feel correct in terms of the lore of the world. Like for example, Midgar and Junon need to feel a long way apart. Because why would Shinra (or anyone) build 2 cities that are just a 10 minute walk from one another. That wouldn't make sense. You'd just join them together if that was the situation.


I think there’s just enough stuff there to put the rest of disc one in part 2, and then part 3 could be the rest of the game. Your four-part plan seems to be pretty possible too, though.


The rest of disc one contains most of the entire world map though. Pretty much everything except Mideel and the Northern continent (guess they could push Wutai off into the game after). How could they possibly manage that without heavily limiting every other area they create?

They would basically have to create places like Junon so they're just as brief as in the original game. Like you're only in the upper city part of Junon for 20 minutes or something. I just can't imagine them doing that after how big Midgar was. It would kill the sense of consistency in the world design, and would undermine that whole reason why they chose to split it up in the first place.

I guess it's not impossible, but I really hope they don't do that. I want places like Junon to be huge towns that you can explore for an hour or so. Not as big as Midgar obviously, but at least made with similar sense of scale and detail in mind.

[Fynn]

Geographically, it’s a lot. But story-wise, not a lot really happens, especially compared to Midgar’s density. Since they’re still ironing out the details of how they’ll handle exploration, I imagine it’s entirely possible we’ll be jumping a bit between important plot points.

[Mercen-X]

As with Sector 8, Sector 7, Sector 5, and Wall Market, any further hubs will also be self-contained episodes. Such will be the case with both Kalm and Chocobo Bill's Farm.
Leaving the Midgar desolation area needs to be its own episode.
Midgar Marsh needs to be a fleshed-out area with Zolom as the boss at episode's end.
Mythril Mines episode.
Fort Condor just like any other reactor but as a hub with NPCs offering sidequests.
Forest area between FC and Junon: whole episode.
Town below Junon: hub.
Path to Junon, airport, and Shinra barracks (where Cloud obtains his disguise) as all one episode.
Shinra soldiers will force Cloud to join the parade which be at least a 5-minute mini-game and then the send-off to Rufus will play out similarly. Expanding the Junon story will require a disguised Cloud to play a part in more story elements (Rude playing poker; Reno, Tseng, and Elena in the bar; Heidegger and Rufus on Junon's upper level, etc)
Even including the Nibel flashback and the Shinra Boat, this only adds up to 12 episodes.
Costa Del Sol: hub.
Corel Mines
North Corel: hub.
Gold Saucer: hub.
Corel flashback.
Corel Prison with Dyne final boss.


This assumes SQEX will want to repeat its 18 episode count. Unlikely.

[JJ Strife]

Geographically, it’s a lot. But story-wise, not a lot really happens, especially compared to Midgar’s density. Since they’re still ironing out the details of how they’ll handle exploration, I imagine it’s entirely possible we’ll be jumping a bit between important plot points.

Yeah that's true. But that's my whole argument here: that it's the geographical side of things which now becomes the main determinant.

Like if you were to measure the length of parts of the original game compared to the Remake, it would be something like this:

Dialogue between 2 characters: 1 minute in original game -> 3 minutes in remake.
Travelling between 2 areas: 5 minutes in original game-> 1 hour in remake.

So I think the only way the next game could end at Aerith's Death is if they completely scrap the geographical scale of things. Maybe if they just turned everything into a linear path between towns, like in FFX, then it would be possible. But that would be so disappointing after the massive beautiful worlds in games like FFXIV and FFXV, so I just can't see them doing it.





North Corel: hub.
Gold Saucer: hub.
Corel flashback.
Corel Prison with Dyne final boss.



That would be fine with me. But after how they did the first game, I just get the sense that they'll want each game to end with something that's relevant to the larger Sephiroth/Jenova plot. They want each part to feel like a self-contained story. That would make it unlikely to end up the Dyne stuff, because that has so little connection to everything that happens prior to it. It's more of a side-quest really.

[Mr Gashtacular]

I'm sure there are ways they can add scale and a geographical sense.

Who cares about Mythril Mines anyway, for example? It was something to do in between the marsh and Junon/Condor (fort condor being optional iirc), and contained nothing important aside from a meeting with the Turks (which only really introduces Elena and confirms they are also hunting Sephiroth).

They could expand the mines, give some more backstory, include a boss battle etc (i.e, make it a Train Graveyard-style filler). Or they could just skip it and move the Turks somewhere else with no impact.

Imo, skip it and replace it with a Zolom fight or a happy montage of chocobos riding over the great plains and marshes until Junon or Fort Condor is reached.

[Mercen-X]

The point is they won't skip it. They'll look at every aspect that could be expanded and they will expand it to milk as much content as they can out of it. And I will enjoy every minute of it, because I'm not a pessimist like some people.


after how they did the first game, I just get the sense that they'll want each game to end with something that's relevant to the larger Sephiroth/Jenova plot. They want each part to feel like a self-contained story. That would make it unlikely to end up the Dyne stuff, because that has so little connection to everything that happens prior to it. It's more of a side-quest really.A sidequest you're forced to play because it's actually part of the story, but yeah. As much as Cosmo Canyon or obtaining Cid's seaplane (as you later find out you could have just been breeding chocobos to reach the Temple), it's really just a sidequest. But they could easily (and likely would) re-write the Dyne events to be more relevant to Sephiroth and Jenova. It's already low-key relevant to Avalanche and Before Crisis.

[JJ Strife]

Who cares about Mythril Mines anyway, for example? It was something to do in between the marsh and Junon/Condor (fort condor being optional iirc), and contained nothing important aside from a meeting with the Turks (which only really introduces Elena and confirms they are also hunting Sephiroth).


If they're gonna start randomly removing stuff, I'd prefer they not mess with something like Mythril Mines. That adds some environmental variety to things.

If you wanna remove something, just get rid of useless places like Gongaga, which is boring and unimportant for the story. Its only relevance is being Zack's hometown. Or Mideel, which is a pretty unimportant place. Cloud's wheelchair part of the game could easily be moved to another town like Kalm or Costa Del Sol (both of which are never used again once you've passed through them).

[Lord Golbez]

My thought on it is that your breakdown is cramming about 40% of the original game into the last part and including, at the absolute most, only 10% of the original game in the second part. Seems like a crazy way to do things, especially since there probably won't be any kind of world map so division by continents doesn't seem to have much value.

[Jarvio]

It's all about appropriate start-points and end-points IMO.

Based on that, I think it will go like this:

Part 2 (FFVII Rebirth) - Kalm/Nibelheim flashback to Nibelheim/Mt Nibel (So starts and ends with Nibelheim)

Part 3 (FFVII Resurrection) - Rocket Town, Tiny bronco sea exploration, Wutai (compulsory), Gold Saucer Date, Temple Of The Ancients, Bone Village, Sleeping Forest, City Of The Ancients

Part 4 (FFVII Reunion) - Northern Continent, Icicle Inn etc, all the way to endgame (So starts and ends at the northern continent)

It really is hard to say though. It really depends on how much extra stuff they add. If they add as much extra stuff to everything else as they did to Midgar, then by that logic it would be about 10 parts lol. They have A LOT to cover, and I personally don't know why so many people think it will be 3 parts, it surely has to be more

[Mercen-X]

But what does it imply on a deeper level for Part 2 to be called Rebirth rather than one of the other two titles you've selected?

Rebirth implies "new beginning". Seemingly Part 1 would make more sense to have been the Rebirth. Of course, Resurrection, means to "rise again", thus with fan and development team expectation, Part 1 could have been called Resurrection. I don't want to believe that SQEX would choose titles for 7R's subsequent installments that didn't also have the double meaning attributed to Part 1's Remake.

[Lord Golbez]

I think it's kind of hard to push both Northern crater visits into the same game. That's covering a lot of material. I could see it if they only do 3 games, but with 4 or more, I'm more inclined to expect the first northern crater visit as the final section of the penultimate game.

[JJ Strife]

My thought on it is that your breakdown is cramming about 40% of the original game into the last part and including, at the absolute most, only 10% of the original game in the second part. Seems like a crazy way to do things, especially since there probably won't be any kind of world map so division by continents doesn't seem to have much value.

I agree if they don't go with a typical open-world, then there's less reason to have it align with each continent, and so they might have the next game end at the Gold Saucer, or Cosmo Canyon instead.

I still think the general point about geographical size is correct though, even without a standard open-world. The size and detail of the locations just dictates how long it takes them to make, and how much disc storage it takes. So the fact that it's 40% of the time spent in the original game just won't matter. Because that 40% requires almost no new assets, except a few new models (the Weapons) and a lot of voice acting/animation.

That 40% probably took them a lot less time to make during the original game too. It's just that we never knew that, because it's sold as an entire story, so you don't get to see how the development time was divided up.



It's all about appropriate start-points and end-points IMO.

Based on that, I think it will go like this:

Part 2 (FFVII Rebirth) - Kalm/Nibelheim flashback to Nibelheim/Mt Nibel (So starts and ends with Nibelheim)

Part 3 (FFVII Resurrection) - Rocket Town, Tiny bronco sea exploration, Wutai (compulsory), Gold Saucer Date, Temple Of The Ancients, Bone Village, Sleeping Forest, City Of The Ancients

Part 4 (FFVII Reunion) - Northern Continent, Icicle Inn etc, all the way to endgame (So starts and ends at the northern continent)


This sounds very plausible too! I definitely agree on the start point/end point issue. They definitely want each part to feel like its own standalone story, given that they haven't gone with "part1, part2, part3" subtitles.

The Nibelheim point also makes sense because they'll probably have storage space issues, like they did with Remake. So beginning and ending with the same location is helpful because it means they won't need to reuse it again in the game after.

[Fynn]

I honestly don’t think Nibelheim is a good place to end an episode since there’s nothing exactly climactic happening there during your first actual visit. You see the weird Sephiroth clones, pass through and... that’s pretty much it. Oh yeah and you get Vincent. Not exactly a good place to end a game imo, unless I’m forgetting something big.

[Jarvio]

I honestly don’t think Nibelheim is a good place to end an episode since there’s nothing exactly climactic happening there during your first actual visit. You see the weird Sephiroth clones, pass through and... that’s pretty much it. Oh yeah and you get Vincent. Not exactly a good place to end a game imo, unless I’m forgetting something big.

Well my expectation was that they'd add a tonne of stuff to it. And have Vincent as a guest like Red XIII was

[Jarvio]

But what does it imply on a deeper level for Part 2 to be called Rebirth rather than one of the other two titles you've selected?

Rebirth implies "new beginning". Seemingly Part 1 would make more sense to have been the Rebirth. Of course, Resurrection, means to "rise again", thus with fan and development team expectation, Part 1 could have been called Resurrection. I don't want to believe that SQEX would choose titles for 7R's subsequent installments that didn't also have the double meaning attributed to Part 1's Remake.

Well I was thinking Jenova Rebirth but who knows really. I just like the idea of 'Re' titles. They could also throw in some rebirth stuff with Zack in the gongaga parts, but I'd personally not want them to screw with that

[Lord Golbez]

I honestly don’t think Nibelheim is a good place to end an episode since there’s nothing exactly climactic happening there during your first actual visit. You see the weird Sephiroth clones, pass through and... that’s pretty much it. Oh yeah and you get Vincent. Not exactly a good place to end a game imo, unless I’m forgetting something big.

Nothing really big happens in the original, but it's a significant location to the story, so I could easily see that changing in the remake. It's also an area where you (optionally) see Sephiroth again and can have the Destruct materia chucked out. The famous line "I don't even know what a reunion is" is spoken there. The fact that you see Sephiroth potentially leaves it open for adding a
Jenova battle, but I'm not sure that would be a great idea. Also, it's probably the first time in the game where they really start casting doubt on Cloud's story (yeah there are hints before, but those wouldn't be as easy to catch on a first time through). Here Cloud is trying to figure out why the town he saw burn down five years ago is still standing and why none of the townspeople he questions about it know what he's talking about. It might not be a great location for a final battle, but its rich with potential for dramatic storytelling.

[JJ Strife]

It's been so long since I played the original, I don't even remember what happened with Nibelheim in the story.

How was it supposed to have been restored to normal, with new people? Did Shinra just rebuild it?

[Lord Golbez]

Yeah. Shinra rebuilt and replaced the residents with a bunch of researchers, if memory servers, which is why they lie that there was never a fire there when Cloud shows up and starts asking about it. A lot of this is completely optional dialogue though. I think there's some scene as you enter town, but other than that you can pass through straight to Mt. Nibel without talking to anyone, including Sephiroth. In fact, I remember testing this out and if you skip the Sephiroth scene here you can come back much later when it wouldn't really make sense and the scene still plays out. If I remember correctly, I did this on disc 2, but I might be remembering incorrectly on the timing.

[Mercen-X]

If Part 2 can take the story all the way back to the rebuilt Nibelheim, then Resurrection could make sense as a title.

[JJ Strife]

Yeah they could easily alter that to be the end of a game. Just have a battle in the mansion basement, or maybe in the reactor at Mt Nibel, just like the Sephiroth battle in Crisis Core.

[Mercen-X]

It's true, Sephiroth does make a canon appearance in the Shinra Manor's basement. Hell, he could finish the epic battle by pelting Cloud with an orb of materia and casually walking away.

[Mr Gashtacular]

I think a Jenova battle in the Mansion basement instead of the boat might be a really good one.

Then again, I guess a cargo ship would allow for more room. Maybe the Shinra lab could be expanded in size like the one in the Shinra building.


I think some kind of flashback battle featuring a younger tifa/cloud getting thoroughly hammered by Seph could also be some fun, along with a bunch of Tifa "i dont remember any of this" stuff.

[Wolf Kanno]

I need to confirm two things in the Remake before I'll post my thoughts on this.

[maybee]

Part 2 predictions :


Chapter 1- Traveling to Kalm
Chapter 2- Cloud's past
Chapter 3- Cloud past, Sephiroth burns down Nibelhiem
Chapter 4-Chocobo Farm, Midgar Zolom and Elena's introduction
Chapter 5- The Great Ninja Yuffie of Wutai !

Chapter 6- Helping Fort Condor
Chapter 7- Junon
Chapter 8- Rufus's Parade in Junon
Chapter 9- Junon Boat and Jenova
Chapter 10- Costa Del Sol

Chapter 11- Travelling to Corel
Chapter 12- Corel and Barret's Past
Chapter 13- The Theme Park and Cait Sith
Chapter 14- Corel Prison and Dyne
Chapter 15- Me, Gongaga ! Also hoping here for Cissnei as guest or saving Dyne.
Chapter 16- Traveling to Cosmo Canyon
Chapter 17- Cosmo Canyon and the Gi Tribe
Chapter 18- Traveling to Nibelheim with another Sephiroth last battle, because of course.


Part 3 predictions :


Chapter 1- Vincent Valentine
Chapter 2- Mt Nibel
Chapter 3- SIT DOWN AND DRINK YOUR GODDAMN TEA !
Chapter 4- Wutai
Chapter 5- Wutai, Don Corneo


Chapter 6- Some more Wutai
Chapter 7- Gold Saucer date
Chapter 8- Cait Sith Betrayal
Chapter 9- Temple of the Ancients
Chapter 10- Black Materia


Chapter 11- Aerith Leaves
Chapter 12- Finding Aerith and the Sleeping Forest
Chapter 13- The Ancient City, and Aerith death ?
Chapter 14- Snowboarding yeehaw
Chapter 15- Ice Ice Baby and Snow
Chapter 16- More Ice Ice Baby
Chapter 17- Cloud losing his mind, Sephiroth boss fight, that you lose.
Chapter 18- Weapons awaken


Part 4 :

Chapter 1 : Tifa in Junon
Chapter 2 : Escaping Junon
Chapter 3 : Mideel
Chapter 4 : Weapon in Mideel, Tifa leaves
Chapter 5 : Big Materia

Chapter 6 : Big Materia
Chapter 7 : Cloud and Tifa Lifestream
Chapter 8 : Cloud is cured
Chapter 9 : Underwater Reactor
Chapter 10 : Underwater Reactor

Chapter 11 : Going up in Space
Chapter 12 : Space
Chapter 13 : White Materia
Chapter 14 : Weapon heading to Midgar
Chapter 15 : Returning to Midgar
Chapter 16 : Midgar
Chapter 17 : The end of Shrina. Sephiroth battle, because of of course.
Chapter 18 : Vincent vs Hojo


Part 5

Chapter 1 : Underneath the Highwind
Chapter 2 : Characters saying goodbye
Chapter 3 : Final Cave
Chapter 4 : Final Cave
Chapter 5 : Final Showdown with Sephiroth
Chapter 6 : Lifestream saves the day


Chapter 7 : Zack Crisis Core 1
Chapter 8 : Zack Crisis Core 2
Chapter 9 : Zack Crisis Core 3
Chapter 10 : Zack Crisis Core 4
Chapter 11 : Zack Crisis Core 5


Chapter 12 : Advent Children timejump
Chapter 13 : Timejump part 2
Chapter 14 : Timejump part 3
Chapter 15 : Timejump part 4
Chapter 16 : Timejump part 5
Chapter 17 : Timejump part 6
Chapter 18: Sephiroth's return and Ending.



TL;DR version : Predicting 5 parts with a mini Crisis Core remake and mini Advent Children remake slapped on at the end.

[Lord Golbez]

If they actually end a battle with Sephiroth clocking Cloud with an orb of materia, I might just forgive them for the plot ghosts.

[JJ Strife]

Chapter 11- Aerith Leaves
Chapter 12- Finding Aerith and the Sleeping Forest
Chapter 13- The Ancient City, and Aerith death ?


The one thing I'm absolutely convinced of is that Aerith won't die at the same time and place. They're gonna want it to be a shock for us.
Maybe it'll be a bit earlier at Temple of Ancients, or maybe it'll be a bit later at the Northern Cave, or somewhere in the snowfield.

[Lord Golbez]

I could see it going a couple different ways. One is that perhaps Aerith won't die at all. Another is that she does die, even possibly in just the same way as the original, but then Square decides to give us the Holy Grail of FF7 rumors and make it real this time: Aerith Resurrection!

[Mercen-X]

It'll be in the Sleeping Forest

[Mr Gashtacular]

I can't imagine them changing it from Ancient City, it's an iconic location and I can't think of the scene without her "burial".

On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if they totally change everything, so who knows

[JJ Strife]

Yeah and the materia bouncing down the steps is iconic. They'd have to certainly work hard if they replaced it with something else.

But since the end of Remake gave us the idea that their fate is now open to be changed, I've been convinced this is one of their main intentions. I bet they'll try and lure us into thinking she'll survive this time, that way when they inevitably kill her, it will create the same kind of shock we had with the original (assuming you're one of the people who played it on release in 97 so nothing was spoiled)

That was one of the problems with just following the original perfectly (which I was generally in favor of). These big moments in the story just wouldn't have the same impact when pretty much everyone knew they were coming ahead of time. Even most people who haven't played the original know about her death scene. It's one of the most famous moments in gaming history.

[Mr Gashtacular]

I think with proper voice acting and updated character design it could still be pretty damn affecting. It won't be a shock or a surprise but it could bring other, similar emotions if done well.

incidentally, i am pretty sure when things went a bit crazy towards the end of the remake there were some flash-forwards that featured the ancient city pool and those steps. im sure they were put in specifically to target that vulnerable nostalgic part of us who played the original

[Shiva95]

I'm also pretty sure they want us to think Aerith can be saved, but she won't. Her death is too important and impactful to the story, but they will want to shock us, even people who played the og.

[Lord Golbez]

It's a silly attempt at recreating the feeling of the original, if that's what it is. No one is going to be all that surprised if/when she dies. Everyone may be thinking "hey maybe she won't die this time," but that kind of thought won't produce the same shock as when you just weren't thinking about her dying and she suddenly gets killed. The only person who could actually experience the same shock is that rare gem who somehow never heard of her death and yet still is playing the FF7 Remake for some reason? I'm not sure that person exists but they are literally one in over a million if they do.

[JJ Strife]

It's a silly attempt at recreating the feeling of the original, if that's what it is. No one is going to be all that surprised if/when she dies.

If she dies in her sleep because Sephiroth poisoned her food, I'd be pretty damn surprised at that!

[Mercen-X]

Her death is too important and impactful to the story.
Again, no, no it wasn't. It never was and it never will be. She's not Telluh or Darth Vader. She didn't sacrifice herself while taking down the bad guy.

If at some point, ANY point in the story, it had been made clear that dying willingly was the ONLY way to summon Holy, then yes, her death would be important. But it's not. Cloud lost his hometown and even his own mother because of Sephiroth. Cloud was always gonna hunt down Sephiroth. Potentially, Sephiroth would always have told Cloud to meet him at the crater. Hojo would have always revealed that Cloud is a puppet. It's not as if Aerith had any greater power to console and convince Cloud than Tifa did. Aerith didn't know about Zack's trip to Nibelheim.

Aerith's death had no bearing on the plot or Cloud's motivations or even how we the audience viewed Sephiroth. We never hear anything about Holy until after her death, so potentially, the world would have been fine without its help.

Aerith's death is completely meaningless. You're welcome.

[Lord Golbez]

1. Saying her death is important and impactful to the story does not mean that it was a sacrifice that accomplished something.

2. Comparing the significance of her death unfavoravly to that of Tellah's is laughable. Tellah's death has very little significance and amounts to playing some sad music for a few seconds and then moving on like it never happened.

3. Yes, the game already does strongly imply that Holy was activated by Aeris. If not specifically by her death, than at least by what she was doing prior to her death, which certainly makes her death as much of a noble sacrifice as Tellah's.

4. The game also implies, either independently from or due to activation of Holy that Aeris bears some responsibility for the lifestream coming to protect the planet from Meteor. Likely only possible because she died and returned to the Lifestream.

[JJ Strife]

Yeah I think it is pretty heavily implied that she was responsible for the lifestream destroying meteor.

In the "On the Way to a Smile" book, it states that Ancients have the power to retain their individuality within the lifestream, and that Aerith chose to do this in order to try and help Cloud. The part where the Geostigma is healed at the end of Advent Children was supposed to be Aerith consciously exerting her power from within the lifestream.

I think when you combine that with the fact that an image of her face flashes when the lifestream destroys meteor (in the original), it IS supposed to be her doing it.

[Mercen-X]

Well, Yoshinori Kitase himself (grieving his mother's death), intended Aerith's death to be meaningless. For story, for plot, for characterization, for any kind of development within the FF7 mythos, her death is MEANINGLESS. It could literally be any other character who could fill her shoes by ultimately dying a MEANINGLESS death. Yuffie could've easily been chosen if they had decided during production to make her a mandatory character rather than a secret option.

[Lord Golbez]

No one would care if it were Yuffie, so no., it couldn't have been. I think you mean Sakaguchi and I've never jeard anything to the effect that it was supposed to be meaningless. Even if you're right though it doesn't change tje fact that it WAS impactful nor that it was obviously intended to be so. If a creator was so moved by their mother's death as to insert it into their story, obviously that's pretty damn important.

[Mercen-X]

Again, "no one cares about Yuffie" because she was an OPTIONAL character. If she had been forced into the party from the beginning and her character arc was mandatory, plenty of people would have cared about her ultimate demise a lot more. Further, let's say there was no date option. Only Yuffie. After all, she was the only one out of three girls to kiss Cloud. She expressed the most affection toward him. Hell, even when Aeris died, Yuffie practically climbed into Cloud's arms for consolement. Yuffie is not only likable, she's damned lovable and it's only because players had the option to dismiss Yuffie and Vincent entirely that her story carries less meaning. But as of the Compilation, Yuffie is no longer strictly an optional character and you can't say trout like that anymore.

[Lord Golbez]

Nah. People hate Yuffie, because she stole their materia, man. Has nothing to do with being optional. Plus, for an optional character, Yuffie is actually more developed than plenty of mandatory characters in other games. If you didn't know she was optional, you'd never know it from her interactions

[JJ Strife]

Yuffie was never really portrayed as a serious character. Even in Dirge of Cerberus, which is her most serious role, she's still pretty silly.

I think if they're gonna kill someone for dramatic effect, it's gotta be either Aerith or Tifa. They're both mostly serious characters and both have the relationship with Cloud, who we're supposed to be seeing the world through.

If they killed either Yuffie, Cid, Vincent or Red, Cloud is really not gonna be that traumatized. He'd just be a bit sad, but carry on as usual.

[Lord Golbez]

Nope, the choice didn't matter at all. The effect would have been exactly the same if Cait Sith Number 2 had died. Sure, Cait Sith Number 3 would be right around the corner, but we'd have been devastated by the loss of our short lived pal. In fact, I'm sure Kitase just rolled some dice to decide who would die, because it didn't matter at all.

[Shiva95]

1. Saying her death is important and impactful to the story does not mean that it was a sacrifice that accomplished something.

2. Comparing the significance of her death unfavoravly to that of Tellah's is laughable. Tellah's death has very little significance and amounts to playing some sad music for a few seconds and then moving on like it never happened.

3. Yes, the game already does strongly imply that Holy was activated by Aeris. If not specifically by her death, than at least by what she was doing prior to her death, which certainly makes her death as much of a noble sacrifice as Tellah's.

4. The game also implies, either independently from or due to activation of Holy that Aeris bears some responsibility for the lifestream coming to protect the planet from Meteor. Likely only possible because she died and returned to the Lifestream.

This is exactly what I meant when I said her death is too important and impactful to the story. I never said she sacrificed herself because I know she doesn't. Life and death and surviving complex are major themes of FFVII. Her death becomes a motor for the others, and even if she summoned Holy before dying, she's also helping from the Lifestream. As much as I love Aerith, if she doesn't die, it ruins a huge part of the story.

[Mercen-X]

The effect would have been exactly the same if Cait Sith Number 2 had died.lol, I forgot Cait Sith even existed.

[JJ Strife]

That just made me realize. They probably do intend to get as far as the Gold Saucer in the next game.

Why else would they have shown Cait Sith in Remake? They're not gonna show him and then wait until the third game to have the character appear.

[Wolf Kanno]

I never got around to doing this:

Chapter 1: Fleeing to Kalm - To start the game off with a bang, the party will now be pursued by Shinra forces. May have a battle with Reno or Rude, or perhaps bring back our SOLDIER boy to lead these troops.

Chapter 2: Kalm - Party reaches town, which is now a hub world. The party ends up having to do odd jobs to get their supplies in order as they plan their next move. Sephy makes an appearance before some of them and says something like he's heading "to where their story began". Cloud confirms it will be Nibelheim and now the team has to figure out a way to get to the other continent. They decide they'll head to FT Condor first.

Chapter 3: Nibelheim Flashback Part 1 - The night before the party leaves, Cloud begins the story about Nibelheim. Covers events up until the end of the first trip to the reactor. Nibelheim will now have more things for Cloud to interact with, Sephy will be a guest party member like Red XIII.

Chapter 4: Nibelheim Flashback Part 2 - Details Sephiroth torching town. Cloud will have more stuff to do like saving civilians during this point. Nibelheim and Mt. Nibel will serve as a dungeon. Sephy will now be a boss fight.

Chapter 5: Escape from Kalm - Tifa tries to admit something is off with Cloud's story but the Whispers show up to stop her and the party gets annoyed they are still around trying to fix the timeline. Shinra troops roll into town and now the party has to make a flashy escape. They steal some vehicles and get out.

Chapter 6: Pursuit - The teams vehicles get attacked as they flee the town. Redo of the motorcycle sequence from first game with our SOLDIER guy showing up again. Ends with Cloud's team destroying the pursuers forces, but getting their own vehicles wrecked.

Chapter 7: Chocobo Ranch - The team wind up near the Midgar Marches and have a run in with the Midgar Zolom, they barely survive the encounter before traveling through a field and finding the chocobo ranch where they do odd jobs for the farm hands in exchange for the use of a chocobo to get across the marshes.

Chapter 8: Midgar Marshes - Team gains a group of chocobos which they use to try and evade the midgar zolom which chases them through a winding maze of the marshes. It ends with an actual boss fight with the Midgar Zolom. Once they beat it, they try to reach the mythril mines, only to encounter another one, which is then cut down before them by Sephiroth who says some cryptic trout about overcoming destiny. He flees into the mines and the party pursues.

Chapter 9: Mythril Mines - Now re-imgained as a real mine with mine carts and needing to do some puzzles to get further in. The team encounters the Turks Tseng and Elena and actually get to face off with them.

Chapter 10: Journey to Ft. Condor, the team go through a new section of the mines to wind up in a forest on their way to Fort Condor. They encounter Yuffie in these woods which leads them on a wild goose chase as she steals a materia from them. They find Ft Condor by the end.

Chapter 11: Ft. Condor - Hub town with several new NPCs. Town is protesting the issue with the Condors, and Shinra claims that the town has been infiltrated by Wutai in order to justify their campaign in there. Cloud doesn't want to get more involved but the team has to stick around to track down Yuffie who steals something they'll need to get into Junon. The locals like Yuffie because she sticks it to the Shinra and does some robin hood type stuff occasionally, so the team has to do odd jobs to earn the trust of the locals to get info about her. Side quest hell ensues.

Chapter 12: The Shinobi from Wutai - After gaining all the information they need from Ft. Condor about Yuffies base within a forest. Lots of traps and Yuffie taunting the team. Eventually they chase her down when she accidentally wakes up a nest of those bird creatures with white wind that are random encounters in the area. The team ends up having to save her. She yells at the team for helping her and runs off but leaves behind the item they need to get into Junon.

Chapter 13: Battle at Fort Condor - The team return to town to grab some provisions when they find the whole place under-siege. Full dungeon kicks in, probably a new SOLDIER member will be introduced leading the Shinra troops. Yuffie appears to help out during this sequences. Cloud has a minor mini-game where he has to direct the locals to defend certain spots of the town between slicing his own way through the place. Ends with team defeating SOLDIER leader and sending the Shinra packing. Yuffie steals enough enemy supplies to help the locals stayed armed enough to fight back future attacks.

Chapter 14: Journey to Junon - The team finally sets off to get to Junon, they encounter Yuffie on their journey there and help the old mythril miner. The team tries to ditch Yuffie because she's a pain inthe ass, but the Whispers appear to force their hand. The scenario ends when they reach the Town of Junon.

Chapter 15: Town of Junon - Party gets mixed up with the locals as they try to figure out a plan to get into the base. With the item from Yuffie, they can get in easily, but they all need disguises so the team does odd jobs in town to take out Shinra personnel to get their disguises and sneak into the place. Cloud, having taken a infantry soldier uniform, ends up getting separated by the team.
Chapter 16: Rufus' Welcome Parade - Cloud and the others all have to work their way into the city all trying to make their way to the docks. The Whispers make an appearance and try to help them whenever someone blows their cover, which has Rufus zero in on them. Cloud has to fight an exhibition match for Rufus.

Chapter 17: Escape from Junon - The party shenanigans has the city on high alert, but they encounter Sephiroth who helps guide the team to the ship Rufus is taking. Party has to fight through guards to get on the boat. They face off against some of Heidegger's new machines.

Chapter 18: New Lands and Old Enemies - The team try to make their way through the ship to get to Rufus and Sephiroth. They learn that Sephy has been talking to Rufus and the two of them come to an agreement about changing destiny. The party has to fight against Jenova and then have another encounter with the Whispers Darkside avatar. His three minions being based off Aerith, Red-XIII and Yuffie this time. Once defeated, Sephiroth vanishes with the Whispers while Rufus and Heidegger escape by chopper. The ship is badly damaged by the battles and starts to sink with the party barely escaping. Cloud has a dream where Sephiroth elaborates more on the "7 seconds" nonsense and they have a minor battle. When he awakes, he finds the team has washed ashore on the beach near Costa Del Sol. Credits roll.

[JJ Strife]

That's all great, although my only issue would be that Junon would be way too short. If they're gonna make the entire next game fit onto the eastern continent, surely Junon would have to be a fairly large chunk of it. Maybe 1/3rd of the total game time?

[Wolf Kanno]

That's all great, although my only issue would be that Junon would be way too short. If they're gonna make the entire next game fit onto the eastern continent, surely Junon would have to be a fairly large chunk of it. Maybe 1/3rd of the total game time?

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about Junon feeling too short simply because the party will be coming back two more times to this location later on, so they have plenty of opportunities to expand it at those points.

[Lord Golbez]

I can't really see any good reason or justification for extending Kalm so much. If they're going to use Kalm as a sidequest hub, which in and of itself doesn't seem unreasonable, I think it should be a hub for the combined area between Kalm and the Chocobo Farm with sidequests related to both occurring in the same chapter.

[Wolf Kanno]

I can't really see any good reason or justification for extending Kalm so much. If they're going to use Kalm as a sidequest hub, which in and of itself doesn't seem unreasonable, I think it should be a hub for the combined area between Kalm and the Chocobo Farm with sidequests related to both occurring in the same chapter.

I only said that because Episode 1 had pretty much done his for all the "towns". They force you to stay longer than normal and frankly, sticking around Kalm and giving it more for you to do there will make it feel like more than "just that place you see the Nibelheim Flashback in" which is why I imagine they'll extend it. Technically you're only in Kalm for two chapters in my version, as I don't count the flashback as part of it. I actually expect to see two new towns in Episode 2 which will either have a loose connection to the Chocobo Ranch and Fort Condor or perhaps two new places that serves as a stop off between Kalm and Chocobo ranch, as well as Fort Condor and Junon.

Of anything, I'll be surprised if Episode 2 follows the plot closely and manages to get off the first continent. Though I could also see them throwing some serious curve balls like having Fort Condor actually have a serious Wutai presence and sneak in the Wutai scenario with Yuffie into this part of the game. Though considering the direction R1 went with them, I imagine that whole scenario will be both expanded and greatly retooled to be a bit more serious and plot-centric. As opposed to the original where Wutai is completely optional and pointless beyond humor.

[JJ Strife]

I can't really see any good reason or justification for extending Kalm so much. If they're going to use Kalm as a sidequest hub, which in and of itself doesn't seem unreasonable, I think it should be a hub for the combined area between Kalm and the Chocobo Farm with sidequests related to both occurring in the same chapter.

My reason for extending Kalm would simply be that I think it's a cool and pleasant location, Lol.

I always loved it in the original game because it's such an insane contrast to Midgar. It acted as a kind of signal to the first time player by saying "just so you know, this huge world is incredibly vast and varied"

[Lord Golbez]

Kalm is pretty true to it's name though. It's probably the most mundane locale in the entire game, which is why it pretty much just serves as the backdrop for the flashback. It's like they just said we need a place for this story beat, let's use the template for "town."

[JJ Strife]

Yeah it is like the generic FF1-FF5 town, get made into 3D pre-rendered backdrop. Still, I like how quaint and comforting it is.

[Mr Gashtacular]

I always thought of Kalm as being a palate cleanser after the dark and dingy vaguely-distopian Midgar. When I played the game for the first time (my first FF, without knowing anything about the game) stepping out from the dead plains around Midgar and into the green grass of the outside world was almost surprising. Then a tiny village where people are pretty nice? Great.

(i don't really want to see it become a hub town, but it would make sense in some ways. for example i can foresee a fetch mission with a miner who left an item back at the mine before it closed, run over and get it will you? etc).

[Mercen-X]

Was there a mine?

Anyway, I do find it difficul to think of potential missions for a hub expansion. Especially considering you'll likely get that experience in flashback Nibelheim.

I think maybe Kalm's location should be moved if not completely merged with Chocobo Bill's Ranch.

[Lord Golbez]

Mithril mines.

[JJ Strife]

I think maybe Kalm's location should be moved if not completely merged with Chocobo Bill's Ranch.

Nah, they have such different moods between the different area. That's what I like about the FF7 world. It actually feels like a real world where every place is hugely different from the next.

It was really one of the first games to have something like that. In most games until that point, every locations was usually a variation of the same visual style. Like in FF6. I love FF6 but I couldn't tell you which town was which by just looking at them, unless they're one of the main story locations.

[Aulayna]

Chapter 1: Remake was just a dream. Aerith wakes up in a darkened alleyway staring at Mako seeping from a semi broken pipe - cue intro.

[Lord Golbez]

I guess I'll do one of these.

Part 2:

Chapter 1 - Cloud's Flashback - This could potentially take 2 chapter as others have suggested, particularly because there's a natural pause in the original game, but given the overall expansion of the game, 1 chapter may suffice. This seems like a good way to open the game. The journey from Midgar to Kalm seems boring and unnecessary and just a really bad way to open a game so I'm on favor of skipping it.

Chapter 2 - Kalm - To my mind this chapter would is Kalm as a hub but would include side quests taking you outside Kalm and even as far as the Chocobo Farm. The chapter would maybe end after spending the night at the Chocobp Farm (or at least this could be the point of no return for the side quests of this chapter).

Chapter 3 - The Swamp - I can imagine this being a full chapter with the Midgar Zolom chasing the party through the swamp.

Chapter 4 - Mithril Mines - I imagine this will be expanded like the sewers and train graveyard were in the first part. Maybe they'll give us more backstory/worldbuilding around the mines. Probable miniboss made out of something like the dragon enemies here. Possible Elena/Tseng boss fight.

Chapter 5 - Fort Condor - I'm not at all convinced this will be mandatory. If it is both the Fort and the (brief) approach to it will not be more than a chapter.

Chapter 6 - Yuffie - The road to Junon is the perfect place to introduce Yuffie. The chapter will largely take place on the forests around Junon, but ultimately will pretty much end with arrival at Junon or close enough to there.

Chapter 7 - Lower Junon - Before heading up (dolphin or no) lower Junon will act as a sidequest hub, possibly even sending you back to Fort Condor (or there for the first time of it isn't mandatory).

Chapter 8 - Upper Junon - The upper part of the city will also have sidequests but they will all be contained as you can't leave at this point.

Chapter 9 - Cargo Ship - Jenova boss fight as in the original but I not really sure what/howuch they can do to expand this. Perhaps it won't even be a full chapter but just the end of the previous. More likely they'll drag it put absurdly.

Chapter 10 - Costa Del Sol to Corel - Do I think Costa Del Sol will have sidequests? Sure. Do I think they'll waste a whole chapter on it? I hope not. Much like with Kalm, I hope/somewhat expect the chapter to cover the area from one town location to next.

Chapter 11 - Gold Saucer - Okay, this one needs a full chapter to itself. Lots of minigames, lots of sidequests, lots of fun. That said, some go between quests involving Corel and Gold Saucer may be warranted. Also this chapter may begin as the party enters Corel, but will focus primarily on the Saucer.

Chapter 12 - Desert Prison - Pretty much as in the original.

Chapter 13 - Chocobo Racer - Will they stretch this out a whole chapter? No clue. Seems stretchy but it would avoid an odd change of stage in the chapter. If not the chapter may include buggying to the next location but probably not the full location itself.

Chapter 14 - Gongaga - Probably lots of Zack BS here. smurf you, Zack.

Chapter 15 - Cosmo Canyon - This chapter will include the approach to Cosmo Canyon, talking to Bugenhagen and the other elders and Cosmo Canyon as a sidequest hub.

Chapter 16 - The Gi Attack - The whole Nanaki and Seto thing and level preceding it

Chapter 17 - Nibelheim - Cloud freaking out that his burned hometown is in one piece. Tifa freaking out too maybe a little this time? A lot more interaction with fake townspeople and trying to get to the bottom of it. Recruiting Vincent and possibly replacing Lost Number with a more meaningful boss fight. Sephiroth boss battle in Shinra mansion.

Chapter 18 - This chapter reserved for more Nomura BS. Also, assuming the same number of chapters as the original, this chapter number could be reached either by adding a second flashback chapter or splitting Costa Del Sol to Corel into two chapters. Possibly both if we also get rid of Chocobo racing as a separate chapter. So a few ways to follow same basic structure and have the same or nearly the same number of chapters as on the first part.


Part 3:

1. Mt.Nibel
2. Rocket Town
3. Drifting on the Tiny Bronco
4. Wutai Continent Exploration
5. Chase the Materia Thief
6. Teaming up with the Turks
7. Hunt for the Keystone
8. Temple of the Ancients
9. Bone Village and Sleeping Forest
10. City of Ancients
11. Aftermath
12. Icicle Inn and Snowboarding
13. Great Glacier
14. Gaea's Cliff
15. Whirlwind Maze
16. The Promised Land?
17. More Nomura BS

Close enough. Could separate bone Village and Sleeping Forest into 2 chapters of include another chapter before Bone Village to kind of transition the party there to get exactly 18.

Part 4:

Chapter 1 - Escape from Junon
Chapter 2 - Mideel
Chapter 3 - Corel Huge Materia - This assumes Huge Materia quest will be kept mostly intact, which certainly may not be true. However, speculation on the course of the game without the huge Materia quest at the level of granularity of chapter subdivisions would be too difficult, so I'm not even going to try.
Chapter 4 - Battle of Fort Condor
Chapter 5 - The Lifestream - This, like the original flashback, could potentially be carried over two chapters but let's say one for now.
Chapter 6 - Junon Underwater Reactor
Chapter 7 - Submarine
Chapter 8 - Gelnika - Considering the possibility that this optional dungeon from the original will become mandatory.
Chapter 9 - Rocket to the Meteor
Chapter 10 - Ancient Forest - Like Gelnika, maybe less likely because it has no story importance.
Chapter 11 - Return to City of the Ancients
Chapter 12 - Return Midgar - This Chapter might go to Proud Clod or there might be two chapters from heading back to Midgar to Proud Clod, but there will surely be at least two Midgar return chapters.
Chapter 13 - Get Hojo
Chapter 14 to the rest -Northern Crater and Beyond - Not sure how they'll divide this up, but I'm sure the last dungeon of the final will carry over multiple chapters and they may extend the dungeon into other areas including maximal Nomura BS. I've mostly confined my predictions of Nomura BS to the final chapters of each game and hopefully it will mostly be confined to that, but I'm sure the plot of each game will be at least somewhat suffused with it like the plot ghosts in the first part.

Might add more chapter descriptions/explanations later for parts 3 and 4 or might not, but that's my basic rundown.

[JJ Strife]

I guess I'll do one of these.

Chapter 18 - This chapter reserved for more Nomura BS.

I like to imagine Squenix call it "Some Nomura BS" when they're plotting out the story too. Everyone except nomura anyway.


Most of that seems very plausible though. I'm fairly convinced it'll be a 4 part game overall, so Nibelheim seems a plausible end point. It'd probably make for a better end point than my cargo ship idea really.

Also the fact that Nibelheim is in front of a mountain range would probably be quite helpful for them dividing the "world map" up. That way they don't need to create the stuff behind the mountains.

[Lord Golbez]

Yeah. I tend to favor 4 parts, because the lengths will be a bit more comparable to Midgar (even though Midgar is definitely less than a fourth and probably more like 15%-20% of the original, it has a little more opportunity for expansion than some other parts, so putting it at about 1/4 of the total remake feels about right) and I feel like there are some good beats to stop at with four, but it might get trickier with 5. Three parts is doable for sure, but it might feel like it drags or like they're breezing past some parts too quickly. Also, honestly, even though I think Aerith's death is a great end to disc 1 of the original, I don't think it's necessarily a great end point for a self-contained game, but it would probably be the natural endpoint for the second part in a three part scenario. With four parts, it makes it a bit more natural to put the first visit to the northern crater at the end of a game, which is more fitting for a final dungeon to a game. Granted, Nibelheim doesn't meet the final dungeon scenario so well either, but I expect some Nomura trout to be filled in anyway. I just generally feel like Aerith's death and the northern crater are too close to have her death at the end of the game. Then you do the northern crater at the beginning of the next part? That's gonna feel off to me. It's way too much of a multiple dungeon rush in the original (and would probably be that way in the remake too) to place it at the beginning of a game.

Also, any more than four parts and I have to put serious reservations on them ever completing the thing. Even four parts might be pushing that. Given the development times on these things, you have to imagine that a lot of the creative team will be pushing retirement by the time they finish this up already. Major players dropping out could kill or severely hinder this project. It also should be noted that, while sales for the first part were surely great, there's no guarantee on fan interest being maintained over a period of a decade or more (I suspect more, as I'm thinking minimum 4 years before we see the next part, more likely 5 as in we could be looking at 2035 before this remake is finished and a lot can change in that time). These arguments might favor a three part remake, but I'm just kind of doubting they'll do only three parts, unless it's only three parts because the remake's never completed. Suffice it to say that if/when they finally do finish, I think they're going to be mostly interested in new projects and there will be no talk at all of remaking other FFs in any capacity.

[JJ Strife]

I think the only reason they ended at Midgar is because they wanted it to line-up with Zack's place of death.

[Lord Golbez]

It's possible. I tend to think that decision was made well before the game was thoroughly plotted out, including likely before a decision about Zack's inclusion in the ending was made. I think it was more on the basis of how iconic the setting of Midgar is for FF7 and possibly because many people always wondered what the original game would have been like if it was all contained to Midgar (I know I did), even if they were more wondering about further events in Midgar rather than stretching out the Midgar events of the original game to the length of a full game.

[Jiro]

Hunting Sephiroth is still (part of) the explicit goal, but I expect things to deviate fairly heavily for anything, anyone, and any place whose main function comes after FF7Original's Disk 1 concludes. One of my favourite story beats is Cid going to space, but I absolutely believe they'll scrap this (and the entire Huge Materia quest). That Cloud has already gone to, like, the edge of time or whatever makes going to space so much less noteworthy and marks it as an easy thing to cull. I also expect Wutai to feature earlier and more heavily, given its closeness to a lot of expanded material—which could, in fact, drastically shift the beats on Disk 1 and see practically an entirely different set of events.

[JJ Strife]

"Hunting" sephiroth makes a lot less sense in this version though. That's what annoys me about some of the changes they made. In the original, they think Sephiroth is just a man who's travelling across the land, so it makes sense to chase after him.

But in this version, they've already seen that he can fly, appear out of thin air, and turn into a clone guy (from their point of view). The idea of "lets chase him" would make so little sense from the point of view of these characters. They'd have no idea about where to actually go. Whereas in the original, they think they're literally chasing a man who's just walked out of Midgar.

[Lord Golbez]

To some extent, hunting Sephiroth is just a rationalization even in the original though. Cloud is drawn to Sephiroth because of the Reunion. That's part of why he chases after him.

[JJ Strife]

I can't remember the exact specifics of what's supposed to be going on in the original. Is the version of Sephiroth throughout the first disc supposed to be just Jenova's headless body pretending to be Sephiroth?

Or is it another clone person just carrying the body? Like is suggested in Remake.

Your point could be true, but the player doesn't understand any of the reunion stuff at that point. So I think it does need a practical rationalization for the story to make sense.
But then again, they've already kinda abandoned the idea of a self-contained story by randomly including Zack, even though newcomers have no idea who he was.

[Lord Golbez]

I was always under the impression it was Jenova in reality, but casting the illusion of Sephiroth (or you could view it as Sephiroth projecting his image using the powers of Jenova). That's why whenever Sephiroth comes at you before you reach his body the Northern Crater, the boss fight is always with Jenova, not a Sephiroth clone.

Also, either way even if it's just carrying Jenova's body, I think my point is still valid, because the Sephiroth clones also follow him around.

[Mercen-X]

Chapter 1: Remake was just a dream. Aerith wakes up in a darkened alleyway staring at Mako seeping from a semi broken pipe - cue intro.

Cue end credits

[JJ Strife]

Moral of the story: don't sniff Mako kids.

[Lord Golbez]

So I've been replaying the original and decided to clock some stuff to verify my thinking (that's not the reason I'm playing but since I was doing it. Basically, I'm doing essentially no grinding but talking to every person and trying to get everything as it becomes available including all enemy skills (that does not include buying everything as it becomes available which would require some grinding).

Anyway I clocked at almost exactly 6 hours my first save right out of Midgar. That's with doing everything I said. Trying to get everything and talk to everyone but essentially no grinding. The longest time drag other than what I mentioned is some battles taking longer than necessary because of trying to steal, but I think that's a wash with my postMidgar stuff because I did that there too.

Anyway, doing everything from the Midgar to Junon, including the optional stuff of recruiting Yuffie, doing the first Fort Condor battle, and getting all available enemy skills (except Beta which would almost certainly require grinding at this point) took almost exactly 2 hours to saving right outside Junon.

Going through Junon to getting on the cargo ship including leaving Junon twice to backtrack to Fort Condor for two more optional battles took pretty much exactly one more hour or 3 hours total for the rest of the Continent from leaving Midgar. In other words, as I expected - though more precisely than even I would have predicted - the rest of the eastern continent including optional stuff is almost exactly half the length of Midgar.

Throw in the Cargo Ship until it docks in Costa Del Sol was another 25 minutes for 3h 25 min total from leaving Midgar to Costa Del Sol. I'm actually quite surprised the Cargo Ship took that long but I'm chalking it up to dicking around a bit trying to figure out how to get the sailor out of the way to talk to Barret and that I was making a cup of tea at the time.

At any rate, the ultimate point is that even if you throw in the cargo ship, you're not looking at much more than half of the Midgar section in the original game if you stop with the cargo ship. That means you should either be expecting a game around half the length of the first part or extending things roughly double as much as they did for the first part of you're gonna end there. Do you really want that? What about the eastern continent, even considering Junon, makes you feel that it lends itself to twice the expansion of what Midgar got?

Anyway, I'm gonna keep clocking and see where I end up for the 12 hour mark. I'm sure it will be before Nibelheim but not exactly sure where. I'm not going to keep this up for the entire game for the simple reason that endgame optional stuff pretty much requires substantial grinding of various sorts so it would be a choice between choosing which optional things to omit or letting the estimations of relative length skew absurdly highly toward endgame due to the length of grinding for some optional stuff like the Master Materia and Gold Chocobo. There definitely should not be a whole game about getting a Gold Chocobo so it's kind of pointless. However I believe I can continue in roughly the same way at least up to the first northern Crater visit, so it might be good to check the time scale there.