Does Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's Massive World Hint at the Return of a World Map?
The first day of Summer Game Fest culminated in a trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the highly anticipated sequel in the ongoing Final Fantasy VII Remake saga.
In addition to adding fuel to the smoldering lore embers (Everyone is dead? Two timelines?), the trailer highlights impressive new combat feats, as well as gorgeous environments. It’s still not clear whether Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be a truly open-world experience, or simply contain large, interconnected zones a la Xenoblade Chronicles. We certainly hope it's the former, but e ither way, what’s revealed is impressive, and hammers home that the title will be a vast adventure. But how vast?
The Rebirth's world map is one of the biggest gameplay-related mysteries in the Final Fantasy VII remake saga. To date, no franchise entry has tackled a world map of the same scale as the Final Fantasy titles on PS1. Final Fantasy IX was the last game to include one, and every release since then has had smaller zones with fast-travel options. Final Fantasy XV attempted it, but only the first half of the game had anything resembling a world map: the second half of FFXV was essentially an on-rails action game.
So, will Final Fantasy VII Rebirth let us explore a massive, biome-dense continent with no loading or segregated zones? Will we be able to fly the Highwind airship aimlessly once again? We don’t know for certain, but the latest Rebirth trailer may contain evidence that the classic world map is coming back.
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The trailer's most immediately recognizable landmark is Junon Harbor. This enormous city and military installation is home to Shinra Electric Power
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