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.