Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: What to remember from the FF7 Remake sequel trailer

Game News Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: What to remember from the FF7 Remake sequel trailer

As the Summer Game Fest 2022 comes to an end, Square Enix has decided to offer an exceptional livestream to wrap up the event. Last night at midnight, we were treated to a (very) short broadcast of about ten minutes devoted to the future of Final Fantasy VII, which over time has become a real sub-series within the Final Fantasy saga by the importance it has taken over the years. Among the announcements that we can remember, the mobile game Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis first unveiled new gameplay images. As a reminder, this is an ambitious project since it promises to retrace the events of all the works taking place in the world of FF7 within the same title.

One of the other big revelations of this little show is also the formalization of a remaster for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Originally released on PSP in 2008, the title traces the life of Zack Fair, a character both mysterious and very important in the universe of Final Fantasy VII. But of course, the highlight of the show is above all the presentation of a first trailer for the sequel to Final Fantasy VII Remake which is not called Part 2, but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. And the least we can say is that we can see a number of interesting clues for the future of this project.

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A radically different trajectory from the original game?

Okay, let’s say it right away: if you haven’t finished Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake, or even Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, you risk getting a lot of spoilers by reading this article. Please continue reading at your own risk. In order to be as close as possible to the vision of the developers, we will therefore rely on what is said in the Japanese trailer of the game. To compare, you will find the French version at the top of the article and below, the Japanese version translated into English, and you will see that the differences are notable. Before taking up all the details, we will therefore start by dissecting all the elements shown in chronological order.

Now that that’s been said, let’s focus on the content of this trailer. At the beginning, we see Zack carrying Cloud while Aerith says that sadness and anger make us stronger, and that we should not think about the past but about the future. We are then entitled to a vision in which a meteor falls on the planet with the phrase “What is the fate of the planet?“. Cloud then tells us about Sephiroth’s plan to regain control of the planet with Jenova. If your memories of FF7 go back a bit, we remind you that Jenova is an alien life form whose cells were Considers her as his mother ever since. Meanwhile, Cloud is seen walking alongside Sephiroth, who is most likely a hallucination as seen often in the Remake. As for the environment, difficult for the moment to identify with certainty where Cloud is heading, even if one could suppose that it is Nibelheimplace central to the plot of Final Fantasy VII, given what’s in the trailer sequel.

However, it is in the second part of the video that the differences are felt from one language to another. In Japanese, Cloud talks about a day when he arrived too late, to which Tifa asks if he’s doubting her and if he’s implying that it was someone else that day -the. If these words are therefore quite vague and enigmatic, the French version of the trailer is much more explicit. In the language of Molière, Cloud tells Tifa that she was lying on the ground and that he thought he had arrived too late, the young woman then deduces that she died in this vision, which leads him to wonder if she is the same Tifa that at that time. To emphasize the mysterious side of these remarks, we can read in the trailer “Which facts are only fiction?“.

Finally, the video ends with a feather falling on injured Zack who carries Cloud unconscious. In voiceover, Cloud then reminisces about a place he supposedly went to five years ago with Zack and wonders where his friend is, followed by Aerith saying she’s looking for him too. It is finally Zack who has the right to the last word, saying that he apologizes for not having been able to do anything in Japanese or for not having been able to help in French.

A new role for Zack?

As you can see, there are a lot of elements to analyze in this Final Fantasy VII Rebirth trailer. First of all, we note that at the beginning of the video, Aerith insists on the fact that we should not focus on the past, but on the future. Through the words of this character, the devs seem to be going straight to the players telling them that they shouldn’t expect to see the story of the original game repeat itself and that we’re going to have to be prepared for changes. Moreover, changes, we observe from this trailer, in particular when Cloud evokes a vision in which Tifa is dead.

Faced with this declaration, we can imagine two possible situations: either Cloud speaks of a past or future vision in which Tifa is indeed dead, either it refers to the events in Nibelheim in which Tifa passes out after being violently pushed away by Sephiroth trying to reach Jenova. In this case, it would be a scene that we witnessed both in Crisis Core and in the original Final Fantasy VII, as you can see in the screenshot opposite. Moreover, we notice that Cloud says here almost identical words to those we saw in the trailer. This second theory seems quite probable, since the environment in which Cloud walks with Sephiroth is reminiscent of the outskirts of Nibelheim, with even pipes that can be seen in the distance.

The other interesting element of this trailer is the place devoted to Zack. If we had been able to see it at the end of Final Fantasy VII Remake in scenes then unpublished, with this new trailer, it seems clear that Zack will play an important role in this second part. An unsurprising choice when you know the popularity of the character for his tragic fate, especially following the launch of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII which was entirely dedicated to him.

Moreover, it is quite obvious that the announcement of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is there to support the importance that the character will have in the future and that this remaster is an opportunity for players who do not have not made the PSP opus to meet this endearing protagonist. The link with the remake is all the more obvious as the design of the Buster Sword, the iconic sword of FFVII, has been modified compared to the original game on PSP, as you can see in the tweet above. But to come back to the Rebirth trailer, we note that a white feather accompanies Zack and Cloud at the beginning and at the end of the trailer. If you’ve played Crisis Core, you might remember that Angeal, Zack’s mentor who passes him the Buster Sword, FFVII’s iconic sword, gets a white angel wing at some point in the game, like Sephiroth and his black wing in the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

With this first trailer, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth raises even more questions than those left by Final Fantasy VII Remake. Filled with clues, this trailer will delight fans with material to theorize for months to come. Pending the release of the title scheduled for winter 2023, that is to say between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, there are still a number of points to be clarified such as the structure of the game, or even when of the adventure will end this second part. So you will have to be patient!

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