Rebirth instead setting players loose in multiple open regions.

While FF7 Rebirth is an open-world with a wide array of species, items, and mysterious discoveries, there are some parts within this open-world game that have frustrated players. This is the puzzle-like navigation in some areas of the Rebirth world – Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon specifically – where players are forced to slow down quite a bit, and instead of taking in the breathtaking view, they have to figure out how to get from one location to the next, following linear paths.

Gongaga Isn’t That Bad In FF7 Rebirth

A Beautiful Landscape, Followed By Linear Paths

For many Final Fantasy 7 players, both new and returning, Gongaga was not the favorite region to traverse. Visiting Gongaga was certainly exciting, considering that the location is filled to the brim with lore of the reactors and characters that returning fans anticipated – Cissnei, for example – and it definitely proved to be worth the visit. However, despite being able to explore this exciting area in updated graphics, many players found that Gongaga was astoundingly bad in of map design. This isn't to speak of the village specifically, but the dense region around it.

In the jungle of Gongaga, the player is surrounded by bushes, trees, branches, and rocks, among many other things. It is one of the few places that is so fully fleshed out in greenery, and it makes sense, considering the landscape is supposed to be overgrown with vegetation. This is especially clear since Cissnei tells Cloud's party that it's been some time since a new person came by. But as the player leaves the village of Gongaga to check out a potential Weapon sighting and some mysterious whisps, players are released into the wild.

They are proceeded to be ambushed by an onset of challenges, including invisible barriers and dead-ends. Linear paths and climbing are also key parts of navigating the jungle region, and while this might be frustrating, considering it has puzzle-like navigation of retracing steps or doing loops to get back on track from Chadley's world intel quests in FF7 Rebirth, Gongaga isn't necessarily that bad. Sure, the lack of proper exploration might be a bit disappointing, but considering the landscape the player is exploring, it makes sense that Cloud and his party can't walk off right into a bush.

It might be a little lackluster and a little disappointing to be unable to openly explore this beautiful region, but navigating Gongaga has proven to be far more interesting than just aimlessly wandering the open expanse of grasslands. After all, having to find a path to the location the player is trying to get to is miles better than treading through every inch of the gigantic map that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has to offer.

FF7 Rebirth’s Navigation Puzzles Can Be Interesting

Endless Open Terrain Can Be Boring

As mentioned earlier, navigation puzzles add a touch of fun to the open-world exploration that so many games nowadays seem to include, even when it doesn't seem necessary. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth changes this a bit with its navigation puzzles, attempting to lock the player in and have them focus on finding all possible walking or entry points. At some point, wandering around a wide open map has to be a bit boring and repetitive. It's clear that Square Enix wanted to avoid that, considering there are still plenty of areas that characters will need to explore in its last installment.

Even Cosmo Canyon, despite it being somewhat confusing initially, has proven to be exciting. It's not tightly-packed terrain; rather, it's more open, with a bunch of more interesting challenges requiring players to fly on a chocobo. Had it not been right after the Gongaga section of the game, Cosmo Canyon would likely have been better received. Being able to time one's jumps from one area to the other or restart provides for a refreshing navigation system. Likewise, being able to think strategically about where to go in Gongaga is refreshing as well.

Open-World Challenges Are Hard To Create

FF7 Rebirth Adds Flair To The Open-World With Challenges

When it comes to open-world challenges, many don't fully realize just how difficult it can be to create challenges in this kind of setting. An open world allows for exploration of a vast expanse, but when regions are too large barren, it's difficult to keep gameplay interesting. Gongaga isn't necessarily a perfect open-world puzzle – it might have been a little too difficult exploring the terrain with chocobos – but it adds flair to what could be considered a walking simulator.

Likewise, the puzzle-like navigation could have been cleaned up a bit to make the section more tolerable. But that's the challenging part about creating open-world obstacles: it's hard to figure out what works correctly, and what fans and players can tolerate, even if they're interested in learning different systems when they're trying to get through the story. Still, no matter how frustrating fans may have gotten with Gongaga in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, it's at least a cleverly designed area and a much-needed reprieve from the expansive, wide-open regions.