For the most part, Final Fantasy 7 Remake blew away most fans of the series by beautifully recreating Midgar in spectacular fashion while also adding a few twists here and that somehow got players of the 23-year-old game speculating as to where Part 2 might take them.
With an ending that promises to significantly alter the fate of Cloud and company, even setting up potential appearances from characters that were not present or even alive in the original Final Fantasy 7, there is a lot of potential for the story to continue branching off. In fact, the developers for Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2 are not shy at all about the possibilities this different timeline could bring.
This was something Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Co-Director Naoki Hamaguchi directly addressed during the CEDEC + KYUSHU 2020 Online, with both men even being served jokes about Final Fantasy 13’s linearity in between questions. In the interview, translated on Twitter by @aitakimochi, Kitase comments how they would like to bring the same level of detail that enhanced the Midgar experience to the rest of FF7’s world in a way that “not only surprises, but also goes beyond their [players] expectations.”
Among their remarks, Hamaguchi noted how for Part 1 of FF7 Remake most of of the people working on the game were really big fans of the original, while this time around for Part 2 they are looking at people that played FF7 Remake and want bring new ideas into the fold. For example, they point to how in Part 1 small ideas from Final Fantasy 15 influence in the way Midgar’s inhabitants are constantly chatting as a way to add some personality to the city via the NPCs.
As far as fan speculation goes, with the story being somewhat liberated from the original Final Fantasy 7, there’s really no telling of where the developers will take the party once they are out of Midgar. However, it would be almost safe to say that the party will at some point travel to locations like Kalm, Cosmo Canyon, Costa del Sol, Junon, the Gold Saucer and maybe even Nibelheim, though how the world map could be implemented and how big open world gameplay can be implemented in those sections are complete mysteries.
Even if the combat experience in FF7 Remake was very well received, there’s also the possibility of that aspect receiving further improvements, especially with Final Fantasy 16 also on the horizon. Add future encounters with new party members like Yuffie, Cait Sith and Vincent, plus lot of the game’s music bound to receive the same treatment that resulted in FF7 Remake's music being such a hit, and there are simply plenty too many ways in which Kitase and Hamaguchi can definitely succeed in their goals.