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Alright beautiful people, we're doing this. I'm going to lay out how a multi-volume remake of FF8 would be an easier project to plan and manage by Square than FF7's.
With the remake of FF7, there's a lot of speculation about the level design outside of Midgar. What will the world look like? Full to-scale open-world like FF15? A linear design like FF10 and 13? Some in-between like FF12? A return to an instanced chibi overworld as it was before FF10?
Lots of people would love a big open-world à la 15, but most are aware that it would pose issues because of how the level design and the game's story are designed together. Narratively, it would make sense for the second volume to end at the Northern Crater, but that would mean that Square would have to design like 90% of the game's world to get there. That's an insane task for the second volume of a game that will assuredly have more, and it defeats the purpose of splitting the game into multiple volumes in the first place.
The second volume could end earlier than Northern Crater to alleviate the amount of assets the devs would have to make, but everyone agrees that it makes less sense narratively. Not only that, but it still poses some challenges in the level design department. If you end the game, say, in Nibelheim, how do you design the world of the second continent? Do you only make half of it? Two-thirds? If you don't fully design the world, how do you gate the player?
Despite these issues, some keep hoping that the following volumes will indeed be like FF15, because it allows for a more immersive experience, and, perhaps more importantly, it allows the game to offer to the player an airship that can be fully controlled, just like it was in the original game. Except for the chibi overworld, the other options don't allow an airship to be in the game. Personally, I think the lack of an airship would suck big time.
Enter Final Fantasy VIII Remake.
The game, as it is currently designed, is ripe for a remake like its older sibling, and I think would actually be easier to manage as a project than 7-R, precisely because of how the narrative and the level design go hand in hand (for the most part).
The first volume of FFVIII-R is the original game's first disc in its entirety. It makes perfect sense narratively. You have the prologue at Balamb Garden and Dollet, followed by the main plot revolving entirely around your first mission as a SeeD: the assassination of the sorceress Edea. That story, just like the Midgar arc of 7, is already structured into your regular three-act narrative. So that's taken care of.
As for the level design, all of disc 1 take place exclusively on Balamb Island and Deling Continent (no idea if that's the continent's official name). In the game's prologue, you have Balamb Island that serves as a smaller sandbox area, similar to the plateau in Breath of the Wild, for the player to be introduced to the game's design and systems. For the attack on Dollet, the city would be heavily gated, since that part of the game is very linear anyway. Then after Squall and co become SeeDs and are dispatched on their mission, the true open-world is given to the player.
If you want to picture exactly what I'm talking about, take the world of FF15; its design and size: that would essentially be the world of FFVIII-R volume 1. The devs would not even need to consider anything outside of that. So that's taken care of as well.
I'm not going to dwell too much on how Volume 1 would be expanded or populated with content. If Square was able to make a full-game out of Midgar, I'm sure having a whole continent at their disposal would make their job much easier.
Then you have disc 2. Disc 2 of FF8 reuses a lot of areas already introduced in disc 1 (first continent world map, Balamb City, Balamb Garden, Galbadia Garden mainly), so those assets are already done. The other mandatory points of interest are Fisherman's Horizon, Trabia Garden and Edea's Orphanage. That's not a lot of new areas. Disc 2 of the original game is where I think you would see the most amount of changes, both to the world and the story. I'm not going to spend much time on this topic since it's purely conjecture and fantasy (though I am inviting you to do so!), so I'm going to stick to the main story beats of the original game.
Before I do that though, we have to talk about Balamb Garden and its use as a vehicule. I'm using my brains real hard here, but I don't think that would work in a to-scale open world. Balamb Garden alone would be like... three or four times the size of the giant adamantoise from 15. You can't use that as a vehicule to just go anywhere you want. Even if next-gen console could handle it from a technicale point of view, I just don't think it would be good design because the entirety of the world/level design of the game would have to accomodate the player using this skyscraper-adjacent thing as a vehicule to roam the world. I don't think that works. The only thing I could see is letting the player use it while navigating the seas. If you confine the Garden to the oceans, with pre-determined drop points on each continent, then that removes a giant headache for the devs in regard to the level design of the continents.
Anyways. Regardless of how they proceed, I think the level design of volume 2 would have to differ substantially from the new stuff of disc 2 of the original game. Fisherman's Horizon is in the middle of nowhere in the sea, so that's not an issue. But Edea's Orphanage is on a desolate continent that has nothing on it except for an optional dungeon. As for Trabia Garden, it is on a secluded part of a new continent, with nothing really to explore or do there.
Basically, the level design would have to change substantially because you can't sell an entire new game that does not offer some vast and new environments to explore. You just can't (at least not one that's not the final game in the saga). Personally, I'd create a new continent on par in surface area with the one from Disc 1. That new continent could be home to both Trabia Garden, Edea's Orphanage, as well as brand new areas/cities. I'm not going to spend much time here (though I invite you to do so) other than saying that there absolutely needs to be a "Trabia City" of some kind. Even back in the original game, I always thought it was weird that Trabia Garden was in the middle of nowhere with no city next to it. A remake could fix this.
As for the story part of Disc 2, I think if you expand it, it makes perfect sense. You start with your characters in a hard spot, the context of the world having changed around them. And it ends with the (in)famous plot twist, as well as the revelaiton that Edea is possessed by the game's true villain. Last but not least, Rinoa falls into a fucking coma.
Onto volume 3. The entire Esthar continent would not be featured in Volume 2 of the game. Those assets are saved for the 3rd and final volume of the game. Most of the work for Volume 3 would be focused on making Esthar the most impressive city ever built in a JRPG. Personally, I'd be content if like 90% of the continent consisted of the city itself. I wouldn't need new environments to explore; I would take a gigantic city that is as impressive to the player as it is to the characters who see it for the first time. To make it easier for the devs, it would probably be smart to make Esthar only partially explorable, and have the non-explorable part of the city be inaccessible to the player, both by land and by air. They could deal with it similarly to how they dealt with Insomnia in FF15, by having the game forcing the player to turn back when they try to go over the city by airship. Stuff like that. Anyways.
With all the continents realized in Volume 3, the player can finally have a fully-controllable airship, letting them visit every area of the previous two volumes. The other areas like the space station and Ultimecia's Castle are instanced, so that would make it easy for the devs to design them.
That's pretty much it. That's how I see it, anyway. I think partitioning the game in such a way seems realistic, and would lead to new story elements are new areas that would enrich the world of the game.
Let me know what you think!
Addendum:
I didn't think this could be well-integrated into the previous text, so I'm putting it here. In Disc 2 of the original game, I always thought it was disppointing that the game didn't do much with the idea of having the party be split in two, each team going for different objectives. More specifically, I always lamented the fact that, after the prison, the player regains control of Squall once he's already reached Balamb Garden. I wanted the game to show us (and make us play) how he got there. He's got the full army of an entire country on the lookout for him. Did he steal a boat? Did he have to sneak through Dollet to get one?
Here's an idea. The original game doesn't do anything with Dollet after the prologue is done. Dollet is just there to explore optionally, with basically nothing to do there except play cards. I always thought that sucked. The remake could do something there. I'd love for that part of the game to have Squall and company infiltrate Dollet to find a way across the sea, similarly to Locke in FF6 when he infiltrates South Figaro. There's potential there for cool game design (sneaking past guards, stealing costumes, etc.) and for cool set pieces.
Alright beautiful people, we're doing this. I'm going to lay out how a multi-volume remake of FF8 would be an easier project to plan and manage by Square than FF7's.
With the remake of FF7, there's a lot of speculation about the level design outside of Midgar. What will the world look like? Full to-scale open-world like FF15? A linear design like FF10 and 13? Some in-between like FF12? A return to an instanced chibi overworld as it was before FF10?
Lots of people would love a big open-world à la 15, but most are aware that it would pose issues because of how the level design and the game's story are designed together. Narratively, it would make sense for the second volume to end at the Northern Crater, but that would mean that Square would have to design like 90% of the game's world to get there. That's an insane task for the second volume of a game that will assuredly have more, and it defeats the purpose of splitting the game into multiple volumes in the first place.
The second volume could end earlier than Northern Crater to alleviate the amount of assets the devs would have to make, but everyone agrees that it makes less sense narratively. Not only that, but it still poses some challenges in the level design department. If you end the game, say, in Nibelheim, how do you design the world of the second continent? Do you only make half of it? Two-thirds? If you don't fully design the world, how do you gate the player?
Despite these issues, some keep hoping that the following volumes will indeed be like FF15, because it allows for a more immersive experience, and, perhaps more importantly, it allows the game to offer to the player an airship that can be fully controlled, just like it was in the original game. Except for the chibi overworld, the other options don't allow an airship to be in the game. Personally, I think the lack of an airship would suck big time.
Enter Final Fantasy VIII Remake.
The game, as it is currently designed, is ripe for a remake like its older sibling, and I think would actually be easier to manage as a project than 7-R, precisely because of how the narrative and the level design go hand in hand (for the most part).
The first volume of FFVIII-R is the original game's first disc in its entirety. It makes perfect sense narratively. You have the prologue at Balamb Garden and Dollet, followed by the main plot revolving entirely around your first mission as a SeeD: the assassination of the sorceress Edea. That story, just like the Midgar arc of 7, is already structured into your regular three-act narrative. So that's taken care of.
As for the level design, all of disc 1 take place exclusively on Balamb Island and Deling Continent (no idea if that's the continent's official name). In the game's prologue, you have Balamb Island that serves as a smaller sandbox area, similar to the plateau in Breath of the Wild, for the player to be introduced to the game's design and systems. For the attack on Dollet, the city would be heavily gated, since that part of the game is very linear anyway. Then after Squall and co become SeeDs and are dispatched on their mission, the true open-world is given to the player.
If you want to picture exactly what I'm talking about, take the world of FF15; its design and size: that would essentially be the world of FFVIII-R volume 1. The devs would not even need to consider anything outside of that. So that's taken care of as well.
I'm not going to dwell too much on how Volume 1 would be expanded or populated with content. If Square was able to make a full-game out of Midgar, I'm sure having a whole continent at their disposal would make their job much easier.
Then you have disc 2. Disc 2 of FF8 reuses a lot of areas already introduced in disc 1 (first continent world map, Balamb City, Balamb Garden, Galbadia Garden mainly), so those assets are already done. The other mandatory points of interest are Fisherman's Horizon, Trabia Garden and Edea's Orphanage. That's not a lot of new areas. Disc 2 of the original game is where I think you would see the most amount of changes, both to the world and the story. I'm not going to spend much time on this topic since it's purely conjecture and fantasy (though I am inviting you to do so!), so I'm going to stick to the main story beats of the original game.
Before I do that though, we have to talk about Balamb Garden and its use as a vehicule. I'm using my brains real hard here, but I don't think that would work in a to-scale open world. Balamb Garden alone would be like... three or four times the size of the giant adamantoise from 15. You can't use that as a vehicule to just go anywhere you want. Even if next-gen console could handle it from a technicale point of view, I just don't think it would be good design because the entirety of the world/level design of the game would have to accomodate the player using this skyscraper-adjacent thing as a vehicule to roam the world. I don't think that works. The only thing I could see is letting the player use it while navigating the seas. If you confine the Garden to the oceans, with pre-determined drop points on each continent, then that removes a giant headache for the devs in regard to the level design of the continents.
Anyways. Regardless of how they proceed, I think the level design of volume 2 would have to differ substantially from the new stuff of disc 2 of the original game. Fisherman's Horizon is in the middle of nowhere in the sea, so that's not an issue. But Edea's Orphanage is on a desolate continent that has nothing on it except for an optional dungeon. As for Trabia Garden, it is on a secluded part of a new continent, with nothing really to explore or do there.
Basically, the level design would have to change substantially because you can't sell an entire new game that does not offer some vast and new environments to explore. You just can't (at least not one that's not the final game in the saga). Personally, I'd create a new continent on par in surface area with the one from Disc 1. That new continent could be home to both Trabia Garden, Edea's Orphanage, as well as brand new areas/cities. I'm not going to spend much time here (though I invite you to do so) other than saying that there absolutely needs to be a "Trabia City" of some kind. Even back in the original game, I always thought it was weird that Trabia Garden was in the middle of nowhere with no city next to it. A remake could fix this.
As for the story part of Disc 2, I think if you expand it, it makes perfect sense. You start with your characters in a hard spot, the context of the world having changed around them. And it ends with the (in)famous plot twist, as well as the revelaiton that Edea is possessed by the game's true villain. Last but not least, Rinoa falls into a fucking coma.
Onto volume 3. The entire Esthar continent would not be featured in Volume 2 of the game. Those assets are saved for the 3rd and final volume of the game. Most of the work for Volume 3 would be focused on making Esthar the most impressive city ever built in a JRPG. Personally, I'd be content if like 90% of the continent consisted of the city itself. I wouldn't need new environments to explore; I would take a gigantic city that is as impressive to the player as it is to the characters who see it for the first time. To make it easier for the devs, it would probably be smart to make Esthar only partially explorable, and have the non-explorable part of the city be inaccessible to the player, both by land and by air. They could deal with it similarly to how they dealt with Insomnia in FF15, by having the game forcing the player to turn back when they try to go over the city by airship. Stuff like that. Anyways.
With all the continents realized in Volume 3, the player can finally have a fully-controllable airship, letting them visit every area of the previous two volumes. The other areas like the space station and Ultimecia's Castle are instanced, so that would make it easy for the devs to design them.
That's pretty much it. That's how I see it, anyway. I think partitioning the game in such a way seems realistic, and would lead to new story elements are new areas that would enrich the world of the game.
Let me know what you think!
Addendum:
I didn't think this could be well-integrated into the previous text, so I'm putting it here. In Disc 2 of the original game, I always thought it was disppointing that the game didn't do much with the idea of having the party be split in two, each team going for different objectives. More specifically, I always lamented the fact that, after the prison, the player regains control of Squall once he's already reached Balamb Garden. I wanted the game to show us (and make us play) how he got there. He's got the full army of an entire country on the lookout for him. Did he steal a boat? Did he have to sneak through Dollet to get one?
Here's an idea. The original game doesn't do anything with Dollet after the prologue is done. Dollet is just there to explore optionally, with basically nothing to do there except play cards. I always thought that sucked. The remake could do something there. I'd love for that part of the game to have Squall and company infiltrate Dollet to find a way across the sea, similarly to Locke in FF6 when he infiltrates South Figaro. There's potential there for cool game design (sneaking past guards, stealing costumes, etc.) and for cool set pieces.
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