Final Fantasy titles are typically every disconnected from the remainder of the sequence – however Final Fantasy 7 Remake doubles down on a much-debated connection to a different entry. This article comprises a minor easter egg spoiler for Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
In 2003, Final Fantasy modified ceaselessly. The core, numbered entries in Square Enix’s beloved RPG sequence had by no means seen a direct sequel – however then there was Final Fantasy 10-2. Only the second sequel in the whole franchise historical past (a FF anime obtained a direct sequel in 1994), the persevering with adventures of Yuna marked a serious sea change for the sequence. It was the primary true sequel, within the west it was the primary Final Fantasy game to be launched by the newly merged Square Enix, and it was the primary Final Fantasy to determine a story connection between two Final Fantasy universes.
You see, Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 10 apparently happen in the identical universe. In FF7 Remake, it’s all to do with this little photograph discovered within the background of 1 space of the game.
The connection goes again additional than that, nonetheless. Like we mentioned, it goes method again to 2003.
“So there is this young boy called Shinra who appears in Final Fantasy 10-2 and as you would expect from that name, there are fan theories that he might be connected to the Shinra Company from Final Fantasy 7,” mentioned developer Yoshinori Kitase in a making-of video on the FF10 titles. Kitase will be thought-about one thing of an authority on the topic; he directed the unique FF7 and acted as producer on FF10, its sequel and FF7 Remake.
“The scenario writer Mr. Nojima has not made any official pronouncements about it. But as a kind of “secret history”, he thought that Shinra from X-2 would possibly develop up and his descendants a number of generations later probably go on to discovered the Shinra firm.”
Final Fantasy 10-2 leans into this concept. One scene has Shinra pouring over knowledge of the Farplane, the place the place the spirits of the lifeless find yourself in FF10’s lore. “With a little work, we could probably extract the energy in usable form,” he feedback, earlier than noting that doing so would “take generations.” In an on-the-nose reply, heroine Yuna means that “One day we could build a city full of light – one that never sleeps! Just imagine!” Hello, Mako Energy and Midgar.
In the lore-filled Final Fantasy 10 Ultimania books, FF10 and FF7 author Kazushige Nojima goes into additional element, suggesting that the occasions of FF7 are 1000’s of years later and even on a unique planet after Shinra’s descendants develop a option to journey from Spira, their world, to Gaia, FF7’s. The time distance set it up properly as a non-critical lore element, with the narrative time distance between the games such {that a} extra detailed connection is pointless. It’s a Zelda timeline stage connection.
Despite this, the idea can be hinted at additional in later Final Fantasy 7 sequence developments. Sequel film Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children has beloved airship pilot Cid behind the wheel of a brand new automobile, the Shera. Background data shared in Advent Children and 2006’s Dirge of Cerberus counsel the Shera’s engine and even probably the ship itself wasn’t constructed, however was discovered, an historic relic of a misplaced civilization powered by know-how the folks of FF7’s world don’t perceive. The Shera, named for Cid’s spouse, does certainly look lots like an airship from the world FF10.
That brings us to Final Fantasy 7 Remake. In a later chapter of the game the characters discover themselves in Shinra Headquarters, the monolithic workplace on the coronary heart of Midgar. As a part of your go to you’re pressured by way of a Shinra museum of types, paraded previous artifacts from all through the historical past of the electrical energy firm’s villainous historical past.
Next to a placard that reads “Shinra Factory” in Japanese there’s an aged, monochrome photograph… and, hey, who’s that within the entrance row? That masks seems acquainted…
More than something that is the builders and writers of FF7, its remake and the FF10 games getting cute and intelligent. They know this narrative connection between the 2 games has been debated and dissected by the followers for years, and so right here it’s – a transparent, apparent wink to that story thread that Nojima, who led writing on the remake, is so keen on.
Could it truly be Shinra, by some means having survived all these years? A descendant carrying his Al Bhed masks, handed down by way of generations? Or maybe it’s only a coincidence. Who is aware of? The truth he’s slap bang in the course of the image definitely suggests it’s someone essential to the Shinra firm’s historical past. For followers, it’s intriguing gasoline on a hearth that’s been burning for 17 years already.
