Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PC/PS4) - March 3rd, 2020

[Niiro]

Honestly, if they don't use a world map... I think it'll take quite a bit away from the game.

Eh....we haven't flown an airship* or had a proper world map since the PS1, I wouldn't hold out too hard for that kind of experience.

I agree it takes away from the game, but I'm just not seeing how they could do it well.

*or piloted any other vehicle for that matter

[Teknique]

Am i the only one excited at how creepy they can and will make the sunken gelinka? (Or whatever it was called)

[Alkar]

A world map would look terrible in this remake, make big open maps instead. You can still use vehicles in those you know (see any open world game ever).
Are they gonna do it? Hopefully... with this release plan they can build the open world piece by piece and have it all connect in the last game.

[The Stig]

I also am on the side of not wanting a world map. The amount of fleshing out just boggles my mind. Outside of Midgar (arguably a world map itself) is just a dopey village and a farm, and a swamp that houses a snake. To create this to scale (placing Midgar on the world map against Kalm) would just be enormous and I just can't see it working; there will be too much of nothing. FFVIII had this issue with Esther City which takes up a massive portion of the map. If the depictions of outside Midgar are accurate as seen in Crisis Core, Advent Children and Last Order (OVA), it's just all wastelands anyways (though the highway/road battle Zack partakes in the OVA is questionable, unsure where exactly that is).

I suppose a FFXV style map with Midgar in the background would work, with Kalm, Choco Farm and Swamp/Mythril Mines being accessible, but then if they need to flesh that out I can imagine doing a clear 1000 mob quest so chocos can be encountered and captured because monsters were scaring/eating them away (or grind your ass off to kill Midgar Zolom head on lol; some badass will do that I'm sure).

I would also say most of my imagination is within Midgar; if I can explore that partially GTA style I'd be quite satisfied. And don't forget the upper plate for the rare time we do get to go there (outside Shinra HQ I think; and not sure if the sequence shown in trailer is considered upper plate).

[Waraji]

I do believe the scenes starting from when Cloud & Co. depart the burning tunnel and meet back up with Cloud jumping on the train from the bridge is part of the upper plate. So a lot cleaner, with actual buildings and not shanty towns. As far as I can remember, that is the only time we're in the upper plate. Damn.

I'm waiting to see how All of FFXV "world map" is fleshed out, because Square-Enix doesn't "usually" create completely new assets to completely throw them away the next game. They're already reusing those crawling/wedging animations from Tomb Raider no? We are now in a completely new era of open world after many years of what we had since the PS1 era of open world. And I couldn't be more happy this is the time they chose to remake this game.

[Enkidu]

Though I expect and hope for a lot of change, I still want a world map and the ability to travel anywhere in the world seamlessly once you get the airship/gold chocobo. I think it just breaks or dumbs down too many ideas in the game if it's removed.

Looking forward to seeing how FFXV handles this as well. It's just important to remember that FFVII's scale is an entire planet - not just a city or even a continent... Not sure what FFXV entails though, but it looks like it's supposed to represent a continent or an island.

[Alkar]

But you don't need a world map in the old school sense to achieve that.

[Koul]

ni no kunis world map was absolutely amazing. art style is completely different but still.

[Waraji]

Are people really that much more interested in Flying around in the Highwind from town to town, instead of capitalizing in the ease of access of Fast Travel in games now?

[Zetanio]

Are people really that much more interested in Flying around in the Highwind from town to town, instead of capitalizing in the ease of access of Fast Travel in games now?

Yes.

[Tyrath]

Are people really that much more interested in Flying around in the Highwind from town to town, instead of capitalizing in the ease of access of Fast Travel in games now?

Don't judge my nostalgia asshole.

Airships > fast travel.

[Niiro]

If you would rather point and click a location on a map than fly around in a goddamn airship I have no words.

[Gokulo]

Flying in VII was pretty great, not like the world was very big plus the feeling was just so cool, gliding and stuff.

[Destinye]

Are people really that much more interested in Flying around in the Highwind from town to town, instead of capitalizing in the ease of access of Fast Travel in games now?

Realistically it's a trade off, because they can run the risk of adding too much with too little payoff in the end or getting extremely...shitty with some of the addition. For example Rocket Town - They clearly can add a runway..or..something..because to this day it still bothers me how not only do you get the tiny bronco from his backyard unscathed (aside the bullets) but enough space to actually get proper liftoff..despite the town itself being cramped as fuck.

Stuff like that is fine with the exclusion of the World Map, but fast travel type stuff really depends on the detail they throw into and as long as they avoid adding too much "story" that runs the risk of making it a bit too bloated for the sake of "hey this NPC now tells you more backstory that wasnt in the original, are you happy the episode is even closer to completion because of this addition?" (Not serious, but still, I only enjoyed the DS remake of CT because of that optional bit of story to link Cross.)

Besides..wasn't one of the biggest criticisms of X+ Era FFs (excluding XII since it built off of XI) the fact it got rid of an actual world map?

[Enkidu]

But you don't need a world map in the old school sense to achieve that.

To seamlessly travel across a planet? What games have done anything close to that without a fast-travel type world map?

[Alkar]

To seamlessly travel across a planet? What games have done anything close to that without a fast-travel type world map?

Plenty of open world games have vehicles you can ride or fly around and having a fast travel option does not change the fact that they do. Or is fast travel a bad thing now?

[Tyrath]

I think people are complaining that if the only option is fast travel. Obviously nothing wrong with having a fast travel option even if you can manually fly places. Sometimes you don't want to take that 50th trip from Midgar to Costa del Sol.

[Lokus]

Part of the charm of the world map was finding optional places and hidden gems like that one island that wasn't on the map in VII that needed a gold chocobo reach or things like the Cactuar Island in VII and Island Closest to Hell & Island Closest to Heaven in VIII. I hope they at least manage something like that with the Open World map format if they go that route.

[Enkidu]

Plenty of open world games have vehicles you can ride or fly around and having a fast travel option does not change the fact that they do. Or is fast travel a bad thing now?

I specifically said "seamlessly travel across a planet". Not talking about vehicles or fast-travel in general... Name some games. I don't think it's ever been done without a world map akin to FFVII's, but maybe I'm wrong...

I also have no problem with fast-travel as an option... I was talking about games like The Witcher 3, for example. You can't seamlessly travel the world, but instead you pull up a map and choose which area to zone into (fast-travel world map)... I don't see how this is any more 'new school' then an actual world map you can interactively explore.

I don't mind either system, honestly. It's just that FFVII was built on a world map and removing it and replacing it with a different system just seems counter-intuitive and needlessly breaking and/or necessitating major changes to many of the ideas in the game.

[archibaldcrane]

I don't see why you couldn't fly an airship on a world map, but any walking/chocobo riding is done Gran Pulse style.