MERCENARY QUESTS
Who can resist a side-quest now and then?
Midgar might not have been turned into an open world in Final Fantasy VII Remake, but that doesn’t mean the JRPG can’t have side-quests. As you make your way through the city you’ll come to more open areas where the main storyline will take a bit of a breather. In these areas you’re free to explore and talk to people around the place, some of whom have quests you can undertake – either for rewards, or just to feel like you’re helping out (Cloud would insist it’s the former).
You can view these Mercenary Quests, sorted by chapter, in the menu once you’ve taken them on. Any new quests you haven’t accepted yet are represented in the menu as question marks, which is handy – make sure you uncover them all if you don’t want to miss any. The quests vary in objectives and length, and how far through you’ve come is also represented by icons.
With tasks ranging from clearing out areas of monster infestations to tracking down missing pets, there are plenty of ways for Cloud and the rest of the party to help out in Midgar. Not every chapter will have Mercenary Quests to take on (some are completely linear, like the missions where you sabotage the Mako reactors). But if you check your quest list whenever you stop off somewhere, you’ll see that there are quests to be found. Once you’ve finished with a chapter you move forward, which suggests you might miss out on the chance to complete quests (we’ve yet to find out how FFVII Remake will handle revisiting older chapters).