Final Fantasy 7 Remakewas met with seemingly unyielding praise for the way it took the classic story of the original and modernized it in grand fashion, but Square Enix could take things one step further to create the ultimate experience,raising the ante forFinal Fantasy 16even higher. Considering that the first part of the remake consisted of only the first five or so hours of the original game, it stands to reason that the game has a lot of room to grow in future installments, and one great way for it to do so would be to implement an online cooperative multiplayer mode.
Final Fantasy 7 Remakeis predominantly a single player experience, and there is nothing wrong with that. As players immerse themselves in Midgar, the care and attention to detail put in by the developers becomes abundantly clear. Even still, adding a multiplayer mode to the game would allow players to experience all of that together as a team, and there are a number of ways this could be done that wouldn’t take away from the experience of the main game. What’s more, there’s actually a history, albeit a small one, of multiplayerFinal Fantasygames that Square Enix could look back on for inspiration moving forward.
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History of Multiplayer in Final Fantasy
It should be said right off the bat that multiplayer has never been a focus within main entryFinal Fantasytitles, so it is no surprise that it wasn’t featured inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake, especially since the original game didn’t have multiplayer.Final Fantasy 4,5,6,and9each featured a pseudo multiplayer mode where players could assign different party members to different controllers, andFinal Fantasy 11and14were both MMOs and therefore had multiplayer baked into them by nature, but aside from this, there was nomultiplayer in mainstreamFinal Fantasygamesuntil recently.
Final Fantasy 15broke the mold with its Comrades DLC, allowing players to create their own custom character and go on cooperative missions with their friends in online play. This was the first time players weren’t just taking turns selecting commands, but instead moving around a 3D battlefield simultaneously in a main entryFinal Fantasygame defeating enemies and completing objectives. Of course, this still wasn’t exactly what fans were hoping for, as being able to play through the story mode in co-op would have definitely been preferred, but it set a precedent for the future of theFinal Fantasyfranchise.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Multiplayer Potential
One of the things holdingFinal Fantasy 15back from multiplayer initially was that only Noctis was playable as a character. With each story episode Square Enix released, it came one step closer to allowing players to create their own character with a unique style. By contrast,Final Fantasy 7 Remakealready allows players to useCloud, Barret, Tifa, or Aerithin battle, and each of them have fully functioning movesets and progression laid out. What’s more, the combat ofFinal Fantasy 7 Remakefeels very similar to that ofFinal Fantasy 15, with just a little more polish placed on top.
IfFinal Fantasy 7 Remakewere to add multiplayer, there are two main ways it could go about this. The first and most preferable way would be to simply make the story playable in co-op, allowing additional players to control the other party members whenever they are with Cloud. This would invite some challenges, but it certainly isn’t impossible. Another option would be to create a mission based mode similar toFinal Fantasy 15Comrades, perhaps allowing players to take on VR Battles online each controlling a different character.Final Fantasy 7 RemakePart 2will expand the roster of playable charactersas well, making this even more viable.
Final Fantasy 7 Remakeis available now exclusively on PS4.
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