Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 is in a Unique Predicament
Final Fantasy 7 Remake part 1 takes players through the Midgar section of the original game. Though this was initially only a five hour segment, the remake breathes new life into Midgar and stretches this out into a full length experience. This worked well enough for the first part, but there's a lot of confusion about how the rest of the game will be handled. One major question fans have is how Square Enix plans to move forward in regards to new consoles. With the launch of the PS5 less than two weeks away, it's unclear whether development will continue on the PS4 or shift focus to prioritize the new PS5 hardware.
There's a couple things to consider here regarding which console Final Fantasy 7 Remake part 2 releases on. Even putting aside the obvious differences of hardware and capabilities, there's backwards compatibility, maintaining a player base, and more to think about. At the moment there's no information from Square Enix or Sony regarding what the plans for future installments of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake are, so this is all purely speculation. Fans should keep in mind that until there's an official announcement, nothing is set in stone and anything could theoretically happen. Despite this, there are some context clues fans can use to get a sense for how this will work.
It seems obvious that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 would continue forging its path on the PS5, as it simply wouldn't make sense for the rest of this thrilling tale to be told on the PS4's comparatively weaker hardware. Even so, there are a lot of pitfalls that come along with taking this approach that Square Enix will have to navigate, mostly in regards to the first game moving forward. It would be somewhat odd if the first part of the remake was the only one to release on PS4.
In order to get around this, there are a couple things that Square Enix could do. The first, and potentially most likely, is to simply make the first part of the remake playable on PS5 through backwards compatibility. This would ensure that all the parts of the remake can be played on one console and not require switching between the PS4 and PS5. It's also possible that Square Enix will release every installment of the remake on both PS4 and PS5, taking a cross-platform approach throughout the entire project, but this puts more time on development while fans are still awaiting word for the next part. Finally, Square Enix could theoretically never make the jump to PS5, choosing instead to keep Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PS4 for its lifetime, but then it loses out on a lot.
Of all these potential options, the first seems the most likely for a number of reasons. The thought of Square Enix refusing to take one of the most anticipated games of the year to the next generation of gaming is too far fetched to believe. Already Final Fantasy 7 Remake stunned fans with its gorgeous visuals and sound design, pushing the PS4 to its very limits. Fans want to see how far it could go on the PS5, as it could be a true display of the next generation of gaming.
On the other hand, while each installment releasing on both consoles would be the best option for players, it is also the more time consuming and resource intensive of the three. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is already taking quite a while to develop, and having to test two separate versions of the game would only add to that time. There's also a question of whether it would be worth doing monetarily for Square Enix, something that won't be easy to tell until a few weeks after the PS5's release. It's likely that many gamers will stick with the PS4 for some time before making the jump.
For the sake of speculation, say Square Enix did decide to keep Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PS4. As odd as this would be, it could theoretically work thanks to the backwards compatibility features on PS5. Keeping it as a PS4 game would allow the developers to maintain most of the systems from the first part without having to rewrite code for PS5, and theoretically the game would still be playable on that console anyway thanks to backwards compatibility. Naturally, this would come with its own set of drawbacks as well.
Of course, the downside of this is that the game will still feel like a PS4 game. Without specific adjustments made to tailor the game as a PS5 experience, certain next generation features may be absent or lacking. This does help with the issue of audience though, as players with either a PS4 or PS5 would be able to enjoy the game in its entirety. It just may be a slightly disappointing experience for PS5 users when compared to the fidelity of other games designed specifically for that console.
According to some theories, this entire problem may not actually be a concern to Square Enix at all. This is something of a crazier idea, but there are those that believe the next entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake adventure won't be a part 2 at all, but instead a completely separate game. Though Final Fantasy 7 Remake part 1 followed the story of the original fairly closely, the introduction and eventual defeat of the Whispers caused a lot of minor changes that will snowball down the road.
As these snowballs gain in speed and size, the story moving forward could look vastly different from the original game. It's possible that the next entry could release on PS5 under a different name, and the PS4 Final Fantasy 7 Remake actually just served as a prologue of sorts to the real story Square Enix wants to tell using the characters of Final Fantasy 7. Of course, there's no evidence to back this up, and Square Enix hasn't made any sort of announcements indicating this sort of plan, instead insisting the rest of the adventure would see less major changes. Until something official comes from either Square Enix or Sony, fans will just have to wait and see how the remake is handled on the next generation of consoles moving forward.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is available now exclusively on PS4.
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