Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s ending is a paradox. It ends in exactly the place the place followers anticipated it to, however that place can also be someway shocking and new, triggering a wave of intense response from followers in each route. It additionally arguably lays out fairly clearly what must occur subsequent.
The following article incorporates full-game and ending spoilers for each Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the unique game. You have been warned.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake isn’t actually a remake – besides it’s – besides it isn’t. Sure sufficient, it begins out as a devoted remake of the unique game, but it surely fairly rapidly begins to deviate in minor methods. Towards the tip of the game these deviations grow to be main, after which the reality is revealed: FF7 Remake is as a lot a sequel to the unique Final Fantasy 7 and its direct sequel Advent Children as it’s the rest.
Before we get into what Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 may appear like, a fast recap: Throughout the game, ghostly characters referred to as Whispers seem and manipulate the characters and occasions from the PS1 unique. Initial suspicions are later confirmed when it’s revealed that these specters are beings from a ‘future timeline’ traveled again to the previous to make sure historical past performs out as nature supposed. The characters’ preordained future is, after all, the story precisely because it performs out within the unique Final Fantasy 7.
By the tip of the game, the principle forged has had sufficient. They resolve future isn’t absolute and resolve to insurgent towards it – a theme beforehand explored in Final Fantasy again in FF13. The escape from Midgar stays the climax of the game, but it surely’s now additionally an escape from future itself. The occasion does battle with the Whispers and defeats them. By doing so, the characters aren’t simply “changing fate itself”, however even “changing themselves,” as Aerith says.
From there, the FF7 Remake ending performs out simply because it does within the unique game’s escape from Midgar: in the end, the ultimate pictures are the crew of FF7 Remake leaving Midgar, getting ready to chase Sephiroth throughout the planet to settle the rating. This acquainted finale is juxtaposed with issues which have modified: glimpses of characters who earlier than had died that are actually alive, plus glimpses of great gamers within the ongoing narrative like Rufus who seem to concentrate on the Whispers’ intervention.
This ending does really feel a bit of like FF7 Remake’s writers hedging their bets. You get the wildly completely different ending, however you additionally get the acquainted – and sufficient stays undefined about how a lot defeating the Whispers truly impacted and the way a lot destiny has been modified that within the occasion of a serious, overwhelming backlash it’d be straightforward to climb down and current the remainder of the game because it was with minor adjustments. Square Enix shouldn’t try this, nevertheless. Now they’ve opened that exact pandora’s field, Final Fantasy 7 Remake half 2 ought to run with the concept of modified destiny utterly and go bananas with it.
From the implication that Zack is alive to the far wider-reaching suggestion that Sephiroth and Aerith seem to have copies of the unique game’s script and be utterly conscious of their unique fates, the defeat of the Whispers in FF7 Remake units up the potential for the narrative to deviate massively from the unique game. While that is causing some fans to worry, I truly argue the alternative: I’m right here for it.
The unique Final Fantasy 7 is a reasonably unassailable work so far as video games go. All the complaints about turn-based fight, blocky visuals and easier storytelling don’t actually ring true: it’s a relic of its time, and it’s all of the extra lovely for it. At absolute most the game might use a top-to-bottom retranslation and an official embracing of the AI-powered background upscaling fans have undertaken – but it surely’s fantastic. That story has been advised.
In some ways it appears FF7 Remake agrees with this speculation. The first scene of the game’s ending is a showdown between Cloud and Sephiroth that recreates the visuals and even the camerawork of their last duel, Sephiroth’s execution, within the unique game. Why put these iconic visuals right here and now should you merely plan to repeat them in a subsequent half, of their unique dwelling? To my thoughts that is unnecessary; however putting these visuals right here is smart if the narrative is about to spin off in instructions that imply we could by no means see this scene remade in its unique type.
I’ve little doubt that the persevering with adventures of Cloud and firm will nonetheless hit the massive bases and contact on probably the most iconic scenes. The crew will certainly go to the Gold Saucer so gamers can expertise a haunted mansion, desert jail and romantic date. You’ll little doubt have your materia stolen by Yuffie and throw open Vincent’s coffin, albeit as a part of the important path this time. Cid will curse at you to drink your rattling tea, and the occasion will sit round a camp hearth for a young second in Cosmo Canyon. Classic bosses and enemy encounters will likely be reimagined with vigorous creativity simply as on this first half.
But behind all of it is a considerably modified backdrop, the place the antagonist seems to have comparable however in the end advanced motivations and the main heroine seems to know what’s speculated to occur forward of time. And, after all, there are individuals alive on this planet who weren’t earlier than. The butterfly impact from these adjustments might be monumental. Maybe total chapters of the story will likely be lacking, changed by new detours. Maybe different deaths will likely be prevented.
What has been executed with FF7 Remake won’t be each fan’s cup of tea. Many absolutely needed a shot-for-shot remake of the unique with all the pieces upgraded to hyper-realistic 4K visuals and with a contemporary cinematic aptitude. I perceive that drive, however as I’ve famous earlier than, Final Fantasy is usually about reinvention. That is why the sequence has historically dumped its beloved casts, worlds and gameplay techniques with every new entry.
It’s not like we shouldn’t have seen this coming, both. The ending of FF7 sequel film Advent Children is joyful, but additionally not finite – Sephiroth’s final phrases there implied his return. Dirge of Cerberus, the newest entry within the unique FF7 canon, has a secret cliffhanger ending that teases a continuation that by no means got here.
Now it appears the world of FF7 has its continuation within the remake. Finally, additionally, that easy title is smart: this game remakes FF7 within the much less widespread dictionary definition, to reimagine utterly, to make anew. This isn’t the game made once more – it’s the game made new. What comes subsequent will presumably not merely be known as Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 however as an alternative have an appropriate subtitle to sign that that is going someplace new. As the ending card says, The Unknown Journey will proceed.
You may be upset within the adjustments all you want, however the genie is out of the bottle. It is finished – and we nonetheless have the unique game. The smartest thing we are able to now hope for is that the imaginative and prescient of a brand new, reconsidered FF7 is thrilling and wild, and makes the many of the alternative this modified future presents for storytelling.
Put merely: at this level, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 may as properly double down. Do it. Go all the way in which. Save her, reunite them, and switch the story the other way up. If it finally ends up garbage, so what? We’ll nonetheless all the time have the unique.
