Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth sets the stage for an explosive finale to the FF7 Remake trilogy, but there's one element of the game's design that should be left in the past for FF7 Remake Part 3 to be as great as it could be. So far, the team behind the FF7 remakes hasn't been too afraid to embrace evolution, changing key story elements from the original game and making plenty of tweaks between Remake and Rebirth. Although there's still a strong sense of continuity to the whole affair, the fluidity of the formula is a big part of the appeal.

The biggest change from FF7 Remake to Rebirth is the embrace of a huge map to explore, a natural consequence of moving from a focused plot within the city of Midgar to the sprawling midsection of the story that stretches out across the world of Gaia. It's not technically a traditional open world, with each region serving as a discrete open zone, but the gameplay loop borrows heavily from the standards that have come to define open-world games. While it's possible to beat Rebirth while focusing on the main story, exploring the world reveals a large chunk of the content.

FF7 Rebirth Deserved Better Than Remnawave Towers

Borrowing From Ubisoft's Playbook Isn't The Best Move

There's plenty of fun stuff to do in FF7 Rebirth's take on Gaia, but one piece of the open-zone concept that just isn't inspiring is the use of Remnawave Towers. These destinations are new to FF7, but they should be familiar in function to anyone who's played a Ubisoft open-world game like Assassin's Creed or any title that follows a similar structure. Climbing a Remnawave Tower and accessing its terminal unlocks information about the surrounding area on the map, pointing to other locations of interest that otherwise go unmarked.

Dealing with Remnawave Towers is never particularly hard, especially compared to some of the other optional trials in FF7 Rebirth. Although the party might have to defeat a small batch of enemies at the base of a tower, there's generally no other obstacle past that point aside from a few ladders to climb. It's a minor task that's designed to be inoffensive, but the way it slots into the game's approach to exploration as a whole points to an opportunity for significant improvement.

The problem with open worlds designed around towers isn't the act of climbing them, but what they tend to represent. Exploration is exciting when it's built around stumbling on surprises and finding bespoke experiences in the least likely of places. Evenly distributing a set amount of content according to a set number of categories enforces a sense of artificial structure, and FF7 Rebirth's Remnawave Towers serve as the centerpiece of that strategy.

Checklist Content Does A Disservice To Discovery

FF7 Is Exciting When It Isn't Beholden To A Rigid Structure

What makes it so disappointing is FF7 Rebirth frequently elevates itself above that checklist approach, and both the main story and many of the discrete side quests showcase an enormous amount of variety that's clearly guided by love and care. Consequently, it's easy to suggest that the rest of the content isn't a problem. Those who don't enjoy it can simply skip it all, and following this directive results in a more focused experience that still has plenty to offer.

It's not a sacrifice that should be necessary, however, and it doesn't do justice to the rich history of exploration in the original FF7 and the JRPG genre at large. FF7 Rebirth has even more to do than its source material did, but despite a lot of wonderful details with the capacity to surprise, it frequently lacks the joy of discovery in the search for secrets. Whether completing everything the game has to offer or sticking to the main content, the sense of uncovering a world through a player's own agency and wit isn't as strong as in many great JRPGs.

If there's any particular point in remaking a game as great as FF7, it's to make the experience more alive and immersive than ever before, an area where the fantastic voice acting, detailed urban environments, and cinematic presentation all do a lot of heavy lifting. Making exploration feel less mechanical would help raise it to a similar standard, and it just feels like a shame that it's currently borrowing from games that have tackled the open-world problem in a tired way. The structure of the original FF7 is incredibly erratic, and that's a part of what makes it so memorable.

FF7 Remake Part 3 Is The Perfect Chance For A Change

The Trilogy's Evolution Isn't Complete

FF7 Remake Part 3 could set itself on a more exciting course by leaving Remnawave Towers in the past, but the situation might improve even with some smaller tweaks. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild proves that ingenuity and exploration can still matter in a game with open-world towers, as discoveries in Hyrule aren't arranged like a checklist and tied directly to the towers. Even adding some element of excitement to towers can help, and a lot of what originally made them palatable in Assassin's Creed was the joy of swan diving from a staggering historical landmark.

Even Ubisoft stepped away from towers in the recent game Star Wars Outlaws, much to the benefit of the overall experience.

With the inclusion of the Highwind as a means of convenient world travel in the final part of FF7's story, FF7 Remake Part 3 will have to upend some aspects of the open zone approach regardless. There would be no point in revisiting the same regions to complete slightly altered checklists, and inserting Remnawave Towers into the expected new region of Gongaga wouldn't make much narrative sense. Moving on to a more flexible, dynamic approach to side content would be another natural evolution, and ignoring the opportunity might rob FF7 Remake Part 3 of the chance to feel fresh.

Considering the generally glowing reception of FF7 Rebirth, failing to reach greater heights with FF7 Remake Part 3 isn't going to sink the game. Striving for greatness is what's gotten the series this far, however, and giving up on furthering that pursuit now would be the least respectful way to treat the legacy of FF7. Remnawave Towers are the most routine part of a game that mostly tries to be anything but pedestrian, making them the perfect candidates for sacrifice in the quest to make Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 the best finale that the trilogy could offer.