The original Final Fantasy VII wasn’t directionless, but it incentivized player freedom on quite an extreme scale as soon as the party left Midgar. Before then, however, players were more or less relegated to a rather linear Midgar. A dynamic one with its own secrets to uncover, but nothing on the scale that the rest of the RPG offers.
In that regard, Final Fantasy VII Remake is rather faithful. The remake holds the player’s hand virtually all the way to the end, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in secrets. For as linear as Final Fantasy VII Remake can be, there are plenty of awesome things players can do.
10 Skip Motorcycle Segments Via Chapter Select
Upon defeating Sephiroth and watching the credits roll, players will unlock access to both a Chapter Select and Hard mode. This more or less allows players to replay New Game Plus at their own pace, but it does come with its set of quality of life additions: most notably a feature which allows players to skip the lengthy motorcycle segments.
Now, considering these are some of the most high octane moments in the entire remake, it’s suspect anyone who even want to skip them. That said, the meat of the game is the combat and it’s very nice of Square Enix to not only recognize that, but accomodate FFVIIR’s post-game around said fact.
9 Unlock New Bonus Battles
Along with unlocking Chapter Select upon beating Final Fantasy VII Remake’s final chapter, players can head back to Corneo’s Colosseum to not only complete any challenges they missed, but fight a new battle altogether. The same goes for the VR Battles, both in Chapter 17 and Chadley’s personal Summon battles.
There are quite a few optional battles to unlock. When taking into consideration that the original Final Fantasy VII really only had the Emerald and Ruby Weapons as post-game bosses (which took a lot of time to prepare for,) it’s nice that FFVIIR features so many unlockable battles while also being far less demanding.
8 Restore MP On Hard
At first glance, it doesn’t seem there’s any way to restore the party’s precious MP on hard. Benches only restore HP and items are actually completely locked. Materia like MP Absorb seem to be the only reliable way to earn MP… unless players have the right weapons and a Weapon Level of 6.
Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa all have access to weapons that restore their MP on Hard mode. Barret’s unfortunately left to dry, but magic shouldn’t be his role anyways. It goes without saying that getting everyone’s Weapon Level to 6 is paramount before starting a Hard mode playthrough.
7 Explore Most Of Midgar At Once
As far as the Final Fantasy franchise is concerned, Square Enix considered overworlds a dated concept. This is frankly a bit disappointing as Final Fantasy VII is one of the best examples of how an overworld can add to a game, but what’s more disappointing is how restrictive Midgar is… until Chapter 14.
While Final Fantasy VII Remake operates on an extremely linear structure, Chapter 14 does at least allow players to explore virtually all of Midgar in one burst. Cloud and company can even go back to the church where he met Aerith to plunder for Materi, and even go back into Don Corneo’s sewers (but more on that later.)
6 Unlock New Scenes By Completing Side Quests
The original Final Fantasy VII has some of the strongest side quests in its genre, many of which contribute to the game in an incredibly meaningful way. The same cannot quite be said for Final Fantasy VII Remake, with a good chunk of the side quests rather poor in overall design, but they do at least unlock new scenes.
Completing every side quests in a chapter will result in a new cutscene playing near the end of the chapter. Usually these scenes help flesh out the dynamic between Cloud and his party members. Tifa’s first set of side quests in particular even lead her to asking Cloud which dress she should wear for Don Corneo.
5 Make Rude Back Off By Playing As Women
One of the more endearing background details present in the original Final Fantasy VII is the fact that Rude has a crush on Tifa. Final Fantasy VII Remake ends up playing with this in a very clever way, making Rude’s infatuation for Tifa a more visible part of his character.
Beyond sparing her life so Reno won’t shoot her down, Rude will back off if players control Tifa during the fight on top of the Plate. Not just that, controlling Aerith during Cloud’s fight with Rude will result in the Turk trying to subdue Aerith passively so he can focus on Cloud.
4 Triple Slash Through The Crate Mini-Game
Chapter 8 marks the player’s first real chance to bond with Aerith, and there are naturally quite a few side quests presents to help flesh out Cloud and Aerith’s relationship. One side quest in particular requires Cloud to play a mini-game: Wack-a-Box. Cloud is tasked with breaking as many Crates as possible to earn points.
The easiest way to make quick work of this mini-game is to equip the Iron Blade. The Iron Blade’s Weapon Ability, Triple Slash, will now be available during the mini-game. Two Triple Slashes back to back with a full ATB bar will completely destroy the sturdiest boxes, allowing players to earn the Crate Annihilator Trophy with ease.
3 See Kyrie Early
Near the end of the game, the party will walk in on Kyrie spreading anti-AVALANCHE propaganda, greatly irritating Barret. While a scene meant to showcase how AVALANCHE’s actions are affecting the average citizen, Kyrie also goes on to play a semi-important role in some of Chapter 14’s side quests.
Interestingly, Kyrie’s role in Final Fantasy VII Remake isn’t just relegated to the backend of the game. Rather, she can be seen in a few early chapters just living her life. She isn’t an interactable presence, but replaying the game makes it notable that she was present in the background all along.
2 Watch A New Shinra Recruit Grow A Spine
As a part of Wedge’s big moment before the Plate comes down on Sector 7, he manages to convince a young Shinra recruit to open the gate and evacuate Sector 7’s citizens. Like Kyrie, however, players can make note of this Shinra recruit much earlier than this moment. He can be found guarding the same gate when players first gain access to Sector 7.
Not just that, anyone who stands around the young recruit long enough will overhear his commanding officer yelling at him. Spineless, the young recruit isn’t sure of his place in Shinra. It isn’t until Wedge talks some sense into him that he firmly chooses to follow his own morals, disobeying his commanding officer and saving dozens of lives.
1 Plunder Don Corneo’s Secret Stash
Players making their way through Sector 5 early on in the game may have noticed Don Corneo’s Secret Stash. A gated vault filled with golden treasures, Cloud and company can only gaze from afar as Corneo’s stash for most of the game. It isn’t until Chapter 14, when Midgar opens up, that players are finally allowed to plunder the vault.
That said, doing so requires completing multiple side quests in Chapter 14. Chapter 14 is notable in that many quests weave in and out of each other. Following the natural quest lines will result in players inevitably unlocking the vault, but be prepared to go all over Midgar and even back into the Sewers.