If the remake does have an overworld then the exploration, which we eventually have when we get the Highwind, could be allowed in the later episodes. The first episodes could feature a partial overworld, limited equally to how it was with the orginal FF7, the rest of the world would look like 3d background.

Later episodes would just let you enter the towns you visited. I am sure that once you've played the first episodes and the cutscenes and story moments are experienced, then it wouldn't take much data to just let you go there and visit them for some possible sidequests and stuff.

2) If there is no overworld then yes, we could expect some open towns and then some shitty world map when you enter the Highwind or something and a pointer to click on towns to let the game drop you to them. Something similar to what was introduced with FFX.

If I didn't misunderstand what the OP is saying this is just HILARIOUS, first FFVII didn't come to N64 because it needed too much space and now it's going to have a split release in god knows how many games. Makes me wonder if NX, supposing FFVII will later come to it too, will have the same treatment or, for "moral justice" they're going to release everything in the same package... who am I kidding it would be foolish by SE to not make multirelease everywhere, they're gona milk so much $$$

I never said it did, I said that it is better that customers react ahead of a release than after. Some in this thread react positively, some react negatively. The people in these forums also frequent other social media, so this is just one outlet ofcourse. And the notion that consumer power can only be enacted through the wallet is just wrong.

if they do yearly release like FF13,FF13-2,FF13-3 and such then its going to suck to get to a certain spot in the story and then bam wait till next year to continue

thats one thing that sucks about this too

Except FF13 in itself was a complete enough story, convoluted and awful as it was. Like someone else mentioned, SE saw money in sequels, and so they decided to lace together a seriously bad story across three games. It isn't episodic since each game on its own consitutes a complete experience, and the fact that you can get away with not having played any other entry while understanding each on an individual level.

People calling it FF7R-1, FF7R-2, etc., is seriously misleading. It will be more like:

Final Fantasy VII: Episode One - Midgar Crisis
Final Fantasy VII: Episode Two - Calm Before the Storm (because puns are necessary)
Final Fantasy VII: Episode Three - Gambling at the Gold Saucer
Etc.

It really depends on Nomura how convoluted this gets with releases, but this is episodic. This won't be like the FF13 trilogy, nor will it be like the FF10 games. These are not FF#-# experiences, but more like Telltale games, splitting a single story into multiple pieces.

I don't think it will be digital only. They said they could not fit the whole game in one release so that means one episode is literally as big as one entire game. It will not be like the walking dead or life is strange.  Also read the latest interviews and info. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1152062

Well, if they had it announced like this at e3, the audience would've been a slow clap. Guess FF7 as it is will always be "my" FF7 and the remake, rebranding, re-iterating and re-monitizing will be something different - the new art-style already put me off completely.

Don't mistake GB size for a large amount of game. Assets can take up a huge amount of space these days. The fact that Uncharted 4 will fit on a single Bluray disc must have taken a bit of work on part of Naughty Dog, and that's just with what will probably be about a 10 hour single player campaign and a multiplayer mode.

Nomura could go crazy expanding Midgar for example and make the one town take up 20GB on its own, if not more, with a ridiculous level of detail. I really don't doubt Nomura's ability to screw this up horribly, prioritizing pretty over the actual game content itself.

An annual release is a possibility if they make each episode as big as one full game. They're also adding more content and possibly including the story from the other ff7 games so that will contribute a lot to each episode. The original game already contained up to 20 hours or so of content in disc one alone and that's with you not being able to fully explore every thing.

I'm still confused on the battle system to be honest. They said ATB is still present but in a different way and the actions will be as fast as Dissidia but will not be too chaotic or too much like an action game or something. We still need further info on everything pretty much. Hopefully this upcoming Jump Festa in Japan(Square will be showing off FF7:R) will shed more light into these matters.

Nomura: We are planning some mechanism to dig deeper into each episodes. Players who have played the original version surely would know everything from the beginning to the end of the game, including some very important moments. And we are planning to give even such users surprises


plot twist: Aerith lives