Highlights

  • Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will build on Rebirth's foundation, offering an epic conclusion to the trilogy's remake project.
  • Despite some controversy, Part 3 has a chance to address fan reactions and controversies, particularly regarding the redesign of Moogles.
  • Square Enix can double down on the creepy Moogle design controversy in Part 3, potentially introducing unsettling new variants as part of a side quest.

The third and final part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is set to build on the foundation laid by Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, incorporating the game's combat, world design, and plot into an epic conclusion of the remake project. The ways Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth deviates from the original game set part 3 up to pay off on some complex new plot threads and potentially showcase fan-favorite characters in a new light. However, part 3 also has the opportunity to double down on some of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's most controversial characters, possibly even acknowledging the fan reactions to their appearance in the previous game.

Despite the general praise for the game, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth hasn't been without controversy since it launched, with some fans criticizing the game's bloated open world or its use of yellow paint to mark climbable ledges. The design for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Moogles has also been a contentious topic among fans, with some seeing them as creepy or ugly when they are usually supposed to be the Final Fantasy series' cute mascot characters. Part 3 of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy should take the opportunity to lean into this controversy and give these Moogles a more devious role in the trilogy's finale.

Moogles Origins Final Fantasy
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The Origins of Final Fantasy's Moogles

Moogles have been part of Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy 3, and their creator never expected them to become the popular mascots of the series.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 Should Reference Rebirth's Moogle Controversy

Moogles are an iconic part of the Final Fantasy franchise, so it's no surprise that they appear in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as well. Players can find Mog Houses throughout each of the game's main regions, where they must participate in a mini-game to round up all the missing Mooglets before the Moogle Emporium becomes available to them. This side activity is worth completing since useful items like accessories and Manuscripts for character skill points can be purchased there with Moogle Medals, but players will need to look past the unsettling look of the game's Moogles to access them.

Historically, Moogles can be identified by their white, fuzzy bodies, purple wings, red noses, and chibi proportions, but these elements have varied slightly from game to game. Although a title like Final Fantasy 12 changed the appearance of Moogles fairly significantly to make them look more mouse-like, they still retain many of the proportions and features that make them cute. The main problem with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Moogles is that their bodies have been elongated, so they no longer have the chibi proportions of past iterations, their eyes are now small black dots rather than more placid curved black lines, and their ears are more rounded.

How Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 Can Double Down on its Moogle Design

Noctis with moogle mascot.

Square Enix has a great chance to poke fun at Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Moogle design controversy in part 3 of the trilogy by doubling down on the design choices players took issue with. Perhaps Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 could feature a side quest where the Moogles involved are even more unsettling looking, with more humanoid proportions. This type of quest could go in the opposite direction as well and have players find Moogles that are much closer to the traditional design and potentially refer to themselves as the "real" Moogles of the world.

Part 3 of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has the perfect place to include a side quest like this, as players will travel to the Great Glacier as part of their hunt for Sephiroth. In the original game, Moogles played a somewhat substantial role in th game, appearing during the iconic snowboarding mini-game and along certain routes of the Great Glacier. This was the first time the original game showed Moogles existing within the world and not just as a summon, in the Mog House mini-game, or as mechanical ones in the Gold Saucer, so having a side quest where players find "real" Moogles in the remake trilogy's version of the Great Glacier makes a lot of sense.