It’s hard to pick my favorite aspect ofFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth. The game looks great, the gameplay is the perfect blend between older and newerFinal Fantasytitles, and it makes meaningful additions to the original story and its characters. While I would love to see many aspects ofFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthmake their way into future entries in the series, there is one feature that I think everyFinal Fantasygame needs, especially remakes of the older titles.
When IreviewedFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthfor PC, I’d already sunk nearly 80 hours into the PS5 version of the game. While I played about 20 hours of the PC version, one feature made it hard not to keep going back to my PS5 version instead when I wanted to revisit the game.I also find myself booting up myFF7 Rebirthfile more often than some of my favorite games in the seriessimply because they lack this key feature, which I hope can be included in any future remakes or newFinal Fantasygames.
It’s Unlikely All Final Fantasy Games Will Get Full Remakes Like FF7
The FF7 Trilogy Is A Massive Project And One That Might Be Too Risky To Repeat
In an ideal world, it wouldn’t just be a single feature thatFinal Fantasygames would lift fromFF7 Rebirth.Honestly,I would gladly play full remake trilogies for all my favoriteFinal Fantasygames, so long as they were made with the same care and quality as theFF7 Remaketrilogy has been so far. That said, I don’t really see that happening.
Despite being a critical success,Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthreportedly underperformedbased on Square Enix’s expectations. Although sales numbers ofFF7part three will likely play a large role in the company’s decision moving forward, it’s undeniable thatmaking three massive and expensive games for eachFinal Fantasyremake is a major risk. And, if even one multipart remake was left unfinished due to budgetary restraints, it would likely damage or even break players' trust in this release strategy, making it hard to ever do again.
I think it’s much more likely thatwe’ll see a variety of different strategies used for any futureFinal Fantasyremakes. I wouldn’t be surprised if Square Enix took inspiration from theirDragon Questremakes, and did some HD-2D-style remakes of retroFinal Fantasygames, instead of giving them the fullFF7treatment. However, even if this is the case, I really hope that these remakes still include one aspect ofFF7 Rebirth: Chapter Selection.
Future Final Fantasy Remakes Should Keep Chapter Selection
Chapter Selection Makes Replaying FF7 Rebirth More Accessible
After completing the main story ofFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth, you will unlock the ability to use Chapter Selection.This lets you revisit previous parts of the game and replay the main story, and there are options for resetting side-questsas well if you want to replay any other aspect of the game. You retain your level and equipment, which means there’s no need to grind or spend time looking for loot if you don’t want to, and cleaning up any unfinished quests can be done very efficiently.
Chapter Selection is one of the reasons whyI find it harder to replay otherFinal Fantasygames than it is to revisit moments fromFF7 Rebirth. Not only can I hop right to the part of the game I feel like playing, but I also know that I’ll just be able to experience the parts of the game that I enjoy without having to do quests I don’t feel like revisiting, or anything tedious like grinding. Switching on the game’sDynamic Difficulty modecan also keep things from feeling too easy on a replay.
My favoriteFinal Fantasygame isFF6, and I would love a version of the game that includes Chapter Selection. Honestly, I would probably just use it as a New Game Plus feature, and simply replay the entire game secure in the knowledge that my progress won’t get slowed down. Although I’m sure that there are players who enjoy the grind of olderFinal Fantasygames,it is the number one thing keeping me from replaying the retro titles as often as I’d like.
Grinding Is The Most Dated Aspect Of Retro Final Fantasy Games
Farming Experience From Random Encounters Gets Tedious
There are good and bad aspects to grinding inFinal Fantasygames. Although a grindy game can be very satisfying when you beat it the first time,that sense of accomplishment isn’t as easily recaptured on a second or third playthrough. Whenever I playFF6, I know I’m going to be stuck going around in circles on the raft to farm experience and Gil, and I know I’m going to have to grind even more later to catch up with characters like Celes and Locke who aren’t on the raft, which sometimes deters me from picking it back up.
Features like New Game Plus or Chapter Selection are the perfect way to avoid tedious grinding in RPGs. I loveFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but it probably wouldn’t be the game in the series that I replay the most if I had a Chapter Selection feature on otherFinal Fantasytitles. Whatever form futureFinal Fantasygames take, I hope they at least feature something like Chapter Selection that makes it possible to replay them without reinvesting another 30–40 hours in a game I’ve already beaten.
