A recent interview has all but confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will feature an open world and have gameplay that "leverages the vastness of the world".
The confirmation comes from a new interview with IGN that discusses the recently released Episode Intermission for the PS5 version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. IGN asks about the DLC episode but inevitably asks for more detail on the upcoming sequel.
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The first mention of an overworld comes from co-director Motomu Toriyama referring to an "expansive world outside of Midgar" when referencing how Yuffie will meet the rest of the crew.
After this small mention, co-director Naoki Hamaguchi outright states that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 will have an overworld of sorts by saying, "As for improvement, or should I say "change," moving forward — because the next installment will involve Cloud and company to leave Midgar and explore the world map, our next challenge will be to create gameplay that leverages the vastness of the world, unlike what we did in this current title."
The mention of a "world map" and the "vastness of the world" definitely makes it sound like the second part will have an overworld, something which the first game didn't have due to its singular focus on Midgard. This may seem incredibly obvious to some, but considering how many changes the first part made to Final Fantasy, it's good to hear it's still considered necessary.
Up until now, Square Enix has been surprisingly coy about the inclusion of an overworld in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2. Nomura briefly mentioned that he saw Cloud running in an area surrounded by nature, which many attributed to the Grasslands outside of Midgar, but that was the closest thing to confirmation we had until this interview.
The interview has a ton of interesting information for Final Fantasy fans, including the fact that Episode Intermission was originally going to take place outside of the timeframe of the first game before being decided that it would happen in the middle of the game.
