Hamaguchi on FF7 Rebirth's Ending, Rocket Town in Part 3 & The Temple of the Ancients

I finally finished Rebirth so it's time to talk about my thoughts on the ending as we look aver some quotes from Naoki Hamaguchi on the last portion of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
0:55 Red XIII & Nanaki
3:27 The Temple of the Ancients Trials
6:45 Loveless Performance
8:34 Ending Talk
20:16 Rocket Town in Part 3
21:51 Vincent in Rebirth
Sources:
deadline.com/2024/03/final-fa...
www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
www.ign.com/articles/final-fa...
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[@REVOLVERE]

I actually cried when you play as kid Aerith. I felt that part in my soul, just imagining a little kid losing her mother like that and nobody giving a damn.

[@beachzack7064]

Honestly, hearing her saying "I really tried" was probably one of the most crushing things. Was a wreck at that bit 😂

[@DFTNSHEXGRM]

That part destroyed me. The whole final 4-5 hrs of this game is a roller coaster of emotions..

[@linkshunter608]

that whole section made me cry... Nanaki getting branded, Sonon, Tifa following baby Cloud, Myrna, Ifalna, it's too much

[@Colombianbusiness]

Dude that aerith trial was just evil on SEs part

[@Guy9998]

I still can't play that section without tearing up. The acting is so good there.

[@michaellindley2292]

Man finally meeting Barrets wife Myrna was cool and tragic. She was only 1 line of text back in the OG

[@laserbeamlightning]

When Barrett said I'LL KILL YOU I felt that. Barrett the dad of the group. Man all the voice actors crushed it this time but especially John Bentley

[@nathanking5137]

100%. People saying the end of rebirth wasn't emotional enough are full of shit. Everything from temple of the ancients to endgame cutscene was an emotional roller coaster. The voice acting really was top shelf all round. Incredible, masterpiece of a game and storytelling.

[@laserbeamlightning]

@@nathanking5137 I have massive respect because it’s so easy to just go for the obvious resolution but that would leave us with no hooks for the next game. Excited to see what happens next

[@RaccoonBrigade]

​@@nathanking5137no one's saying it's not emotional enough. The emotions were undermined by what was actually happening in the story

[@sl-nj5ry]

Those parts were good but they had to ruin the most important part of that game. Thats why people complain.

[@nathanking5137]

@@sl-nj5ry they ruined Aeriths death by.. killing Aerith 🙄

[@Kiddo_williams]

I just hope they wrap everything up in the third game perfectly fine and not add nomore confusing garbage

[@johnnysheen9615]

I think Cloud is now perceiving multiple universes. He did save Aerith, which is the world with the rift.

[@billybatts8283]

The problem is everyone calling it an ending, it is not an ending rather an intermission and here lies the problem. Remake and Rebirth go from extended versions of the story into huge scale flat out bonkers end sections trying to out MCU the MCU. How they conclude all this remains to be seen, so I will judge it all on how they handle the real most important section in Final Fantasy 7, the discovery of Clouds true self. How they handle Cloud is key to everything for me. They've laid some good foundation but if they rob from him his heroes journey, the significance of what he done and how he saved Tifa and Zack first then I'm out...

[@GaminexPro]

Now go home and get yer' fuckin' shine box~!

[@NDCCMTX]

I honestly don't know how they're going to wrap it up with one final installment. When Aerith died in the original, we would insert disc 2 and still have another disc 3 after that. How they're going to release the WEAPONs, get Vincent's and Cid's story in, go to Wutai, go to space, have the WEAPONs on the rampage, comotose Cloud story, while inserting the stuff from Dirge of Cerberus and then tie up all the loose ends in one game will be astounding and maybe disappointing at the same time. I hope there's at least two more FF7 titles.

[@GaminexPro]

@@NDCCMTX Disk 3 is nothing but the final dungeon and cutscene. I do think they've left a lot of ground to cover but they really just have Disk 2's worth of content and then some to worry about. TBH for that reason I think Part 3 will just have the least padding of the whole remake trilogy.

[@romanlynch4533]

You’re not weird. It was a great ending. It’s like people forget they have a whole game left to explain everything.

[@ojisankusai]

Dunno if this has been mentioned, but the "date" with Aerith in another world happens in a different world from the one Zack was predominately shown in. Every time there's a different Stamp shown, it's meant to be a completely different "world" defined by, mostly, Zack's decisions at the end to either save Cloud, stop Biggs, or do neither. So, by the end of the game we've seen four* different variations of that crack-in-the-sky world: the primary Zack one, the one with Aerith and Cloud shopping, the one where Biggs and Zack talk, and the one where Sephiroth walks up the stairs at the church. The reason that it's all confusing is because they seem to blend into one another (e.g. Sephiroth walks up to the church in one world, and enters into another when walking _in_ to the church to find Aerith). *EDIT: There's actually five worlds. I forgot the one where Zack goes to Shrina HQ, and there's a Stamp picture behind him displaying a different dog breed.

[@CaliforniaRaisens]

I disagree, Zack's interlude world and where the date happens are the same, the stamp markings don't mean a different world / timeline, thats where most people get hoodwinked. In the interlude bit during Chapter 10, when your playing as Zack and walking behind Biggs, pay careful attention to the NPCs, you literally see the photographer and gift stalls that appear during Aerith's date with Cloud in Chapter 14. The whole interlude world is made up of people from Aerith's memories.

[@jonathantodd2054]

Agree 💯 they make a certain point about those stamps throughout dating back to a throwaway comment in remake. I’m not sure how many time lines but that’s the definitely the Key to all of this

[@rzxwm10]

Different world, different stamps, same characters

[@nathanking5137]

@CaliforniaRaisens "Think of it like a dream"

[@brucey5585]

At the end where cloud saw the tear in the sky is the reason why they changed aerith's line for remake. Everyone was talking about why they changed her lines at the end of remake. But the reason is because aerith can see the change in timeline when they defeated the arbiter of fate. It also mean the current timeline is not the OG timeline.

[@zacatkinson3926]

Cloud knows the timelines too he said he did it once and can do it again and suddenly he seemed suddenly confident in beating Sephiroth

[@ryanisaac6480]

Aerith knowing more was always evident in remake. Cloud shedding a tear after just barely meeting her pointed out something in him already knew her.

[@jaybrizzy820]

@@zacatkinson3926 i thikn cloud meant that he did it before in Nibelheim as his true self... but you might also be right. outside of the ending where he says "he'll stop sephiroth", and how he told Chadley that he will "save the planet", im not sure if there were other hints of Cloud knowing the OG events

[@lucystoole4355]

Can we talk about how weird it is that they rebuilt the wings on the tiny bronco? I thought they were in a different universe for that fact alone

[@Eric95372]

Fantastic video . Really raw.

[@LelanWellz]

I love how calm and centered your perspective is on the ending. I really appreciate your rationality. Like button hit my friend

[@CuriousCorduroy]

Thanks!

[@LC356]

Glad to hear your thoughts on the game man!

[@DayFul]

The ending didn't hit for me mostly because I was hoping to see the scene with the party members saying their goodbyes to Aerith while Cloud watched on (Except for Yuffie the hug while she's crying would have broke me). Im excited to see how Clouds deteriorating mental state affects the group as we climb the mountain up to the crater he could cause some rifts. Im not a fan of the multiverse stuff it feels like a plot device to make Zack playable but it's coming at a very high cost. I loved Temple of the aincents, Splitting the team in to two allowed us to get two contrasting sub stories. Cloud slowly breaking and Aerith's trails with Yuffie and Red providing emotional support for her was a real nice touch that chapter was absolutely stellar.

[@dickwallace8567]

Same. It didn't even feel like she was dead so I wasn't sad. We got to play as her AFTER she "died" ffs. In the OG, once she was dead, that was it. There was zero closure. As Sephiroth came down from the sky my heart was racing. I almost paused the game, I was not ready to see this even though I knew it was coming. When Cloud blocked Sephiroth's sword I screamed out "you gotta be fucking kidding me!"...Once I seen the blood I was like "ok, he DID get her", but it was too late. The moment for potential impact was gone. I wasn't sad or anything...kind of like Cloud. Still an amazing game overall, just kind of disappointed how they handled that scene.

[@beachzack7064]

Same feelings for me too. It was not getting that emotional payoff at the critical scene which left me feeling... cheated? Not a fan either of the weird stuff, but still would have been completely fine if they just put it AFTER the emotional moment. Let us see her die, grieve, and THEN shock us with the multiverse revelation that she might have survived in that timeline.

[@Pysnpai]

It’s because they’re planning to use it elsewhere. This cloud doesn’t know that she is dead. He sees either see an alternate universe version of her that’s in a dying universe or her in the lifestream. He’s in denial as well similar to how he is about Zack. When he learns that she’s death, it’s going to break him further than he was in the OG. It’s going to make us cry. Hard.

[@beachzack7064]

But in my opinion, if theyre just going to have a sad goodbye in Part 3, they could have just done that in addition to letting us have the payoff in Part 2? Cloud can still be in denial and have a heart-shattering goodbye when he accepts reality in part 3 😢

[@DFTNSHEXGRM]

@@beachzack7064 I think doing that lessens the impact. They’re wanting the player to be in the same mindset as Cloud right now. Confused. We will get that revelation at the same time as Cloud does in Part 3, making that whole scene have more impact. They want the player in the dark so that we get information at the same time our characters do. Similar to Attack on Titan’s story when the main characters finally reach the basement and find out the truth.. you’re learning the truth along with the characters which makes for a more impactful moment rather than already knowing and just watching it happen.

[@RayEros]

Its like Cloud is carrying her within him, her spirit or spirit energy. The same way he is carrying Zacks spirit with him and sephiroths. As long as Cloud survives they all survive. One of many theories i have. Great vid 😊

[@RoninXDarknight]

I think what a lot of people aren't understanding about Aerith's death scene is that we witnessed the creation of an alternate timeline. We saw several of those created at the end w/Zack and how his different choices (Save Biggs, Save Cloud, Can't Decide) each birthed a different timeline. With Aerith we were seeing one timeline where Cloud was able to stop Sephiroth from killing her while also seeing a timeline where he wasn't able to save her. The thing that a lot of people are missing is that, we don't know which timeline we're in by the end (or if we're even seeing a single timeline) but it's almost certainly not the one we started the game in. All the various timelines can be identified by which version of Stamp we see...and they are pretty good at making sure he's somewhere in those sequences for us to do so. Unless I missed it, however, we don't see Stamp during the endgame sequence revolving around Cloud's group. Combined with the fact that it's been made very clear across the entire game that Cloud is not a reliable narrator at all as well as the idea that by the end of the game he may be able to see across timelines similar to Aerith & Sephiroth (and possibly Zack, Marlene & Biggs as well as Red to a degree) and we don't have the slightest clue what timeline we're seeing but it's pretty safe to assume that the timeline we end up in at the end of Rebirth is not the one we started in at the beginning. The biggest clue: The Tiny Bronco. During that entire end scene the implication is that Aerith just died, and yet the Bronco has its wings. If she just died there is no way Cid was able to restore the Bronco that quickly (or in the field for that matter). That being the case, in the timeline we're seeing at the end of the game, the Bronco never lost its wings to begin with. We ain't in Kansas anymore folks. Unrelated: Pretty sure Myrna was only mentioned in the original game. The kid Aerith section was actually detailed in the novel "Traces of Two Pasts". Highly recommend reading as it fills in some big gaps in both Aerith's & Tifa's backstories.

[@Silverfish-qv8ig]

Totally! I don't get how people miss this, the colour was what made it obvious to me.

[@thebrigade7684]

This entire theory gets destroyed by seeing terrier stamp at gold saucer and junon unless they are actually a mistake I don't believe the timeline shit anymore

[@PerfectEclipse]

You missed it, but when Cloud deflected Masamune a world was created where Aerith lived. You can see this in the context of the Rainbow effect that happens. This world is the one that Cloud enters, as he is the only one who breached the whisper wall of fate. Basically, she is alive in the world where Cloud deflected the blade, but dead in the Beagle world.

[@7989]

14:33 I think Tifa can see the different Aerith's because she fell in the lifestream earlier in the story then she should of.

[@KOLLOSS40235]

i also think that Tifa can see through sephiroth's lies and/or his false realities.

[@CuriousCorduroy]

That’s a great point. Didn’t even think of that.

[@malenky4057]

My read on that scene wasn't that Tifa saw something different. I took it as it flicking from what Cloud created in his head (or maybe created another world/timeline that splintered off - see rainbow lights), to seeing what our main timeline's characters actually see, the blood and a dead Aerith. Cloud is refusing to see the truth due to his trauma all over again. We start to see the ending as Cloud, the unreliable narrator. We don't see the scene with Cloud lowering Aerith in to the water, because Cloud autopilot did it, and then immediately shut it out of his memory. He is refusing to see the truth (with clouded eyes).

[@rzxwm10]

I think he has accepted her death, but knowing the true state of reality, he also know she is alive somewhere. Cloud knows more than he should. That is why he is unaffected by her death. He just fought Sephiroth with her, traveled between worlds, so he knows much more

[@raiokumoonscar7600]

@CuriousCorduroy Pay attention to all the different stamp mascots towards the end of the game. Each represents a different timeline. You currently we've seen a Beagle, a Terrier, a Pug, and a Pomeranian.

[@antivanramun6998]

I like the ending too! I love that it has me thinking about it even though it's ben a while since I finished the game

[@TheSteelers4190]

FYI the rift looks just like something in the background during the LS sequence of the OG

[@KingNazaru]

Nomura gets a lot undeserved hate. Tetsuya Nomura isn’t even responsible for the out there endings to remake and rebirth. In fact he originally wanted it to be as faithful as possible. Nojima who wrote the original game and the Expanded Universe was the likely person behind it. Then again we should expect grandiose endings because this is still a fantasy game series.

[@NDCCMTX]

5:51 When I played the OG FF7 I was a teenager. Now that I'm married I see life through a different lense. Moments after I saw Barrett's backstory play out, I wept for a good 20 minutes. I was a puddle putting myself in his shoes. I cannot imagine losing my wife the way he did and remaining _sane._ I identify with Dyne a lot more. What's not touched on is Barrett's incredible constitution. He got boiling mad at Shinra, but he didn't snap.

[@mavew]

I love the ending watching it a few times It's lining up part 3 well

[@Foxheimer]

Thanks for the video! Like you I enjoyed the game so much. I finished the game a week ago and since then and my brain hasn’t stop working on theories about what’s coming in part 3 Cloud is the only who crossed a portal before reaching Aerith it may explain why he can see things the others can’t. Don’t think the position of Cloud and Aerith is different from Tifa’s point of view. She seems to see 2 realities on top of each other blood and no blood. She bathed in the mako/lifestream during the Gongaga incident maybe she has some abilities now. Zack in front of the church is not from the same univers as Aerith and Cloud from the date. Different dogs I noticed the CGI scene with sephyroth in the forgotten capital is almost identical as the scene in Remake before fighting him. Even the character’s line. + Barret referencing the expressway … like if the devs wanted to remind us the last chapter in remake what we did there and the consequences it had on Rebirth Cheers

[@Thor_Asgard_]

Nah, Aerith kinda being alive is amazing. I liked the ending quite alot. Just asking myself why Cloud isnt telling anyone. Most people i know like, that Aerith is not completely dead.

[@sisyphus4889]

Bruh...

[@AnthonyJP91]

Playing as kid Aerith broke my heart. I've never wanted to hug a video game character more than her. The scenes were heartbreaking.

[@johnmininger8480]

Great perspective on this video! I love how they treated temple of the ancients- amazing! The ending was unclear intentionally and they did it to play to all sides. Aerith vs Tifa, but also the idea of Sephiroth reuniting all realities into one. Part 3 better flesh out the details though or it will all fall flat. Can’t wait for those Weapon battles!

[@kurisu7885]

No doubt the trauma Cloud faced is being saved for the third part, namely the crater incident.

[@drumjod]

"When I think about this stuff, my brain doesn't immediately go to the negatives. My brain just kind of goes into inquisitive mode." Very well said. That's exactly how it's been for me too. I genuinely didn't have a strong emotional reaction at the end of Remake or Rebirth, and wasn't even sure how I felt. It's like I become so focused on pondering and trying to absorb everything that just happened, it's hard to come to any sort of conclusion either way. Increasingly over time, as it all settled in, I started to love the off the rails crazy train-ness of Remake. Pretty sure it will be the same for Rebirth in my experience as well (just beat the game an hour ago.) Also, gotta say I totally agree about Gongaga lol. It was a headache to navigate.

[@PetarBladeStrok]

What I dislike about the ending is that ot completely robbed us of the emotional impact of Aerith's death. I love what ot does for Cloud, but that could've be done without it robbing us out of the same thing. It just won't hit the same of we see it later, as it would in THE moment. BTW Gongaga was my favorite to explore. Especially the ancient ruins part. The sense of wander & exploration was INCREDIBLE!

[@jorgemartinezromero486]

In Rebirth they fixed what had been a long unanswered question of mine "why the hell does Shinra need to borrow the Tiny Bronco when they have a fleet of airships and choppers?". Now, the way you get to meet Cid and use the Tiny Bronco makes so much more sense.

[@Jylstin]

I’m Glad you liked it because I really liked it too! Granted the execution was a bit wonky but the emotions like Hollow and Emptiness was so powerfully conveyed during the music when jenova consumes aerith’s notes in its own theme. Everything set up was Amazing because the game captured the feelings I was supposed to.

[@TheMrGiannisgr]

The ending is a masterpiece.

[@dreamphoenix]

Lol Gameshark! Great video, thank you.

[@Zero-rq9ti]

This is game of the year for sure. Amazing game.

[@Awesomus54]

I thoroughly enjoyed the entirety of the game including the ending

[@kyleklim1636]

If it connects to Advent Children so Aerith must die but she lives in livestream btw

[@inunarugo]

Oh no, don't apologize for having a long video. I enjoyed it and the end of Rebirth. Makes me wonder if Cloud is able to see Aerith then Tifa may be able to see her to since she was exposed to mako.

[@zacatkinson3926]

I like how they threw cloud downwards in the battle , in advent children they threw him upwards

[@megavox7895]

When you mentioned Deepground possible appearing in Part 3 I think this is almost a guaranteed, as in Rebirth they’ve already said on the news that “the tornado ripped through sectors 0, 1 and 2”… Deepground in the OG game series are located within Mako Reactor 0 beneath the Shinra Building and are kept there against their will. So I’m thinking Midgar Sector 0 was mentioned specifically for the reason that Deepground could be free and in Midgar. So I’m guessing you’ll see more of Deepground and the Tsviets when you parachute back into Midgar during the late game, the party “could” break up and go different ways here because if I remember right Cloud and Red XIII are compulsory in the party (I haven’t played the OG game in 25 years lol)… but they could do it so it’s a locked party again with Cloud, Red XIII and Vincent to end these particular story arcs going forward where Vincent can get some level of justice for Lucrecia and Red can avenge his experimentation and Cloud giving him the “I’m no failure”…. Then you could have Barrett, Tifa and Yuffie take down Scarlet and Heidegger with Cid and Cait Sith either around the party in the background then be confronted by Deepground…

[@immi7560]

100% with you on the ending. It creates conversation within the community, which a 1-2-1 remake would never.

[@Kodiie]

What’s the value of conversation if it negatively impacts the quality of the work.

[@billybatts8283]

Yeah, I can walk into a garden on a night, shit on the path and it will generate a conversation, but isn't one needed?

[@Kodiie]

@@billybatts8283 also let’s ignore the decades of conversation centered on OG FF7.

[@immi7560]

@@Kodiie Of course there has always been discourse around the OG and there always will be. I just feel a direct remake would not add anything new to the conversation.

[@Kodiie]

@@immi7560 well this goes into the fallacy of the 1:1 remake. Most people didn’t want that. Most people wanted what we got from Barret story. Loyal to the OG while also making respectful additions. There has been plenty of conversations centered around Barrets story. Most think it’s a high point of the game, I certainly do. If the game had been this from top to bottom while maintaining the quality of the rest of the game there would be no issue. The problem stems exclusively from the new story and a section of the community that places theorizing or “discussion” above quality of writing.

[@danielcarroll1816]

Deep ground will be introduced through Vincent as Nero is his story in Dirge of Cerberus

[@Silverfish-qv8ig]

Thanks for the video! I also like the ending and have read it completely differently to you. In my mind, Cloud has split the timelines by parrying the blade. So there's a dead Aerith universe, but also an alive Aerith universe. Eventually the various timelines will converge and no doubt we will say goodbye to Aerith again, but right now, I believe there is an alive version kicking about.

[@pimentx3253]

Me liking this ending hinges on the idea all of this it's cheikov's gun. And even if its, it came at the high price of undermining the ending of this game, and that was in favour of what exatcly? Is that trade-off worth it? . The issue with the ending it's not even that is convoluted, we can have that, if you also asnwer some of questions the previous game had, instead of doubling it down on them and making even more confusing in the last 30 minutes of it. Want to have the big, convoluted ending in the end of the game? Earn it. Develop and and pay off the set ups established in the first game gradually and organically, instead of having small sections diluted through a biggesr story. The thing about the mystery box bullshit is that it only works as long as we are instigated to look for answers, and if the story you wanted to tell fails to deliver on those in organic way, it kills the hype, hurting the faith we have as "audience" to trust the process. The biggest problem with this project is that wants to have the cake and eat it too, it doesn't commit to the any of it's narrative choices by pretending to make all of them at the same time. Want aerith to live and defeat Sephiroth? Fine. Wants this to be multiverse story? That is good. Wants the story to be completely different? That works too. Literally, anything goes, but you HAVE to pick, otherwise it looks like you are either stringing us along, or you have no confidence in the story you want to tell. Only part 3 will tell.

[@deedoubs]

Yes, setting up new mysteries have felt a lot less irritating if they had actually bothered to pay down some of the mysteries they set up in part 1, but they didn't do any of that. We still don't know shit about what was happening with Marlene. We still don't know why Rufus sees the specters. We still don't know why Zack is seemingly back to life. We don't even know what the actual implications of any of the multi-world merger shit is. Hell, every time Sephiroth tried to talk about it Aerith just kinda ignored it. Zack's whole section in the game felt half-assed, unnecessary, and like it didn't move the plot forward at all. None of it built to anything. The Biggs resurrection didn't end up meaning anything either. You don't even get to try out his real moveset until you are actually fighting with him against Sephiroth. Just felt so ridiculously contrived.

[@spiderhulk26]

The whispers and the arbiter of fate ( were the will of planet ) . When the team defeated the arbiter of fate in the lifestream it created new realities within the planet or lifestream. The lifestream is playing a major role ( its how aerith and sephiroth know so much , it's how he traveled to the past , it's where the arbiter of fate was when u fight it and sephiroth ) . Towards the end of remake and rebirth these events takes place within the spiritual form of the lifestream . we have seen the spiritual form of the lifestream in advent children ( with cloud talking to aerith ) and crisis core ( with zack standing in the pool of water ) . The multiversus is just new realities within the lifestream or planet that sephiroth wants to merge with the main reality to bring about despair ( I feel despair of others gives him more power ) . He wants to cause a war between Shinra and wutai , he wants to summon meteor, he wants cloud to be filled with hatred and anger .

[@spiderhulk26]

​​​@@deedoubs with marlene . When aerith was trying to comfort her at the bar in remake ( when she hugged her ) she sensed /saw something ( she saw her die . Which left shocked and she was quiet for a moment .)

[@spiderhulk26]

I feel (when referring to her death ) that cloud is not accepting that she is dead ( he is aware that she is in the lifestream but doesn't think she is dead ) And he is aware that he save her( well he created a new reality in the lifestream where she is alive ) aerith said : I saw what u did for me back there thank you . Then he said thank me later during the fight I feel ( during the death scene) it makes sense for aerith to try to protect cloud sanity at that moment ( she knows what he been going through ) .

[@spiderhulk26]

I do think in the next part it will focus more on her death for cloud and him learning to accept her death and everything else

[@robertmurphy9070]

My favorite thing in the end is the Elephant in the room waterside that nobody is talking about . People that want Aerith to live are doomed. People that are mad that they changed it are not going to avoid having that rug pulled out from them unless they don’t play part 3 at all. There is no possible way that at least Tifa and Cloud didn’t talk about Aerith’s death. That means Aerith was dropped in the water. Everything you need to for now I believe is they’re establishing just how fractured Clouds mind actually is and it is in his expression before seeing Aerith, then the Sephiroth fuzz, and After. I believe you will see the full scene, you’re just going to see it after Tifa helps Cloud and when you’re not expecting it. That just changes when you see it. Thus, changing your emotional response to something you know happens. Keeping that moment 1 to 1 with the Original would not have had the same affect on you and that is exactly the way they want it I believe. They want you to still experience it, they just don’t want you to see it coming.

[@user-lk1mv5hz3w]

One interesting Aerith theory I heard was that when Cloud saved her, time shifted to a reality where he failed to save her. The Aerith “ghost” he saw after the battle and the Aerith he asked to wake up are the same Aerith: the one from the reality where he succeeded in protecting her.

[@user-lk1mv5hz3w]

That raises some interesting questions and possibilities, don’t you think?

[@valetineinc]

I too think this is a sequel and it’s so insane to actually believe that possibility and how they’re pulling it off! It keeps O.G. Story intact and expands upon it that way which is just…Mwa! 👌chefs kiss!

[@m4ur1r4g3]

i had the feeling the timeline stuff ends with this game because at the end sephiroth is already merging worlds

[@KingNazaru]

Do you have any tips on how to do the piano mini game for novices?

[@CuriousCorduroy]

I loved that piano mini game and it kinda came naturally to me, but switching to 60 fps mode really helps with the timing. I’d say, more than anything, just feel the rhythm of the music and don’t stress so much over the timing of the notes.

[@j.s.6654]

Interesting. Why do they show the blood go in and out when tifa runs up…

[@TheFuzzay1]

I think it's worth considering that the function of denying a proper Aerith scene like the original seems to be having the same effect that grief has. People being mad that "characters didn't get a proper send off" and propping up theories about alternate outcomes has shades of denial, anger, and bargaining, which are all features of grief.

[@SkyHiltribe]

It's not just you because I liked it too. Some didn't like it because they wanted to see a good ending but I believe that's the dev's intent to be vague with a cliffhanger ending. The people that complains about the ending are those that complains about everything or that they remained too loyal to the OG to which they failed to realized the ending isn't something that the devs just cooked up at the last minute of the game. This was something that the devs had been cooking for 30 years. The story has already been written and planned. The only thing that's left is putting the actual work to convert that into art and animation within the game. In my logic, instead of bitch and moan about every little aspects that's not in our preference, we need to relax and enjoy the ride. It's not everyday that a beloved RPG game from 30 yrs ago gets a redo.

[@crodo123]

this comment is generalization nonsense. you don't know what you are talking about

[@SkyHiltribe]

​@@crodo123and I suppose you do? For the devs to have pulled something like this, they don't just make things up as they go as you'd think. Talk about nonsense, now that's nonsense. I believe the storyline's been written and what's left is for the devs to put in actual work to develop that into art. So, instead of bitch and moan about every little aspect that's not in each of our own preferences, just relax and enjoy the ride. Now, that's logical. What's not logical is to called out others with logical generalizations as "nonsense"😂😂

[@crodo123]

@@SkyHiltribe nothing you have said is logical. I would be hard pressed to believe you even know what the word means. This story has not been planned for 30 years. It doesn’t matter if the devs planned to ending to play out the way it did, it doesn’t make it a good ending. And your generalizations about who is complaining and why are dumb and unfounded.

[@SkyHiltribe]

​@@crodo123all the logical things that's said are illogical, dumb and unfounded, -- saids the triggered illogical, dumb and unfounded troll. For once, I couldn't agree with you more...all you had to do is look in the mirror and you'll see the dumb, illogical, and unfounded staring back at ya 😂😂😂

[@youtubeperson199]

The game was trash, Isthat simple for you to understand . PS we don't need a essay

[@jaybrizzy820]

lets not forget, Tifa has lifestream exposure with the Weapons. i think thats why she was able to see that

[@beachzack7064]

Just personally, I dont understand how people cried at this ending? The original was truly heart-rending, just Aeriths theme playing as you fought Jenova through the tears. But with the 10 minute boss fight and everyone throwing cheesy one liners, I had virtually no sadness. It was so gutting having to watch all the characters be heart broken after the fight when we already lost that opportunity to join them by getting dragged out for bizarre exposition. Could easily have added the "whoa" moments, and cloud seeing aerith afterwards without ruining such an iconic death in gaming history

[@ryanhorton9594]

Yeah there was no emotion. Just a bunch of multiverse back and forth

[@linkshunter608]

I disagree with all of this except for the cheesy voicelines thing, that definitely wasn't cool. I get the characters were probably full of adrenaline or whatever fighting Jenova but I wish they made new lines for that fight like they did for the dyne fight

[@meghannhotmire3379]

Clown ass takes this game is better the og just this part alone has a better score and rewards and reviews and better sales then the og

[@kingf4158]

Its quite simple for me. If part 3`s ending lands then all these endings are solid. I'm honestly worried tbh I dont want fast forward mode for the last or second to last chapter.

[@MrLightlike78]

14:40 I noticed this as well- I think maybe Tifa's trip through the lifestream may have had a lingering effect perhaps? Allowing her to see the glitches in the matrix albeit to a lesser extent than Cloud does...Heck, now that i think about it- Someone posed to me that what Aerith mouthed to Tifa in Gongaga is "Let me help you"....maybe...hm. So many dangling threads the devs could pull on- Like most of ya'll I just hope they wrap it up with a bow on top.

[@dariusjarvis1992]

My prediction is, In the final scenes Zack and Aerith will showed up to teamwork with the party to fight Sephiroth until end in the Lifestream Realm, preference for the sequel in FF7 Advent Children final scenes.

[@icedrop1960]

I loved the ending of the game. The ending gave the same impact as the aerith kid flashback and it wrecked me for a good couple of minutes. This trilogy is a beautiful remake of the original and I can’t wait for the last game.

[@Laviente7]

Cloud can see other timeline, so you mention 3 buble thats is the world where Aerith alive, where cloud deflected sephiroth attack, the 3rd bubble is not the original ff7 timeline, because that timeline already split in remake when the team defeat sephiroth and the fate

[@goat2601]

Honestly I thought the ending was not that complicated. End of Remake, the world split into several. Sephiroth does this in order to end/converge those extra worlds causing a lot of death and "sorrow" in order to feed "the planet" (he means Jenova, who feeds off the planet). Outside the church, Sephiroth sends Zack into OG universe (and sends him back at the end of their fight). Aerith dies, but on the way back to the lifestream she helps Cloud fight, and seems to push Zack into OG world. The rainbow stuff is similar to Sephiroth exerting his influence but for Aerith, so Cloud sees Aerith through this lifestream energy bullshit. Red senses her too because she's attuned. The most confusing thing to me at first was Zack's multiple timelines where he chose all 3 people to help, because we had only been shown 2 timelines up until now, but it's clear there are many. The Tifa/Sephiroth flashes is weird but I think it's just meant to trigger her, it works on her because of her trip into the lifestream. As Sephiroth says something along the lines of "turning fleeting moments of joy into sorrow" -- he shows Cloud and Tifa glimpses of Aerith surviving in order to rip it away. Jenova feeds off this shit. I liked the ending because it gave us what we needed but maybe didn't want in Aerith's death, collapsed the timelines so hopefully no more BS in the finale, and set us up for a fight over Cloud between Sephiroth and Aerith. My inkling is that Zack ends up having a big moment in the OG world and is reunited with Aerith at the conclusion.

[@emmam-rr8qe]

Great analysis. Very thoughtful and insightful but Aerith really should be Rosa...the whole point of Loveless in this story is it echoes and parallels Aerith and Cloud...this is why Rosa has a staff and Alphreid has a sword. I know you can choose your Rosa but Aerith fits it best. 🎉❤ this is why she defaults as Rosa in 4/6 scenarios. Tifa is not a white mage nor is Yuffie.

[@RCDeschene]

A correction regarding your interpretation of the ending date scene. You're thinking that it's the Terrierverse, the same world Zack was in during the game where Stamp is a terrier breed instead of a beagle, but it's actually a different world as shown by Stamp being a Pomeranian as seen by the merchandise. So, Aerith took Cloud to a third world where Zack brakes-off into a forth world where Stamp is a pug as signaled by Biggs' chip bag.

[@edzzieng1314]

I was pretty confused with the storyline, on why Zack and Biggs are alive, but after re-watching the cutscenes again, now I understand that there's a parallel universe and what was Sephiroth's goal. I do have to say that this version of Aerith's death, it wasn't as emotional as the original, but I still like it.

[@warden8508]

Everything in these three games will culminate in a final shot at the end of part 3, where we will still see Nanaki running with his children, but it will pan out to a wide shot of a world still inhabited with humans coexisting with nature, instead of the original bleak shot without humanity

[@zacatkinson3926]

Tifa was in the mako pool so she’s sees the two timelines

[@ryanwalker1169]

Ok. So, not a player of the original. I have seen advent children, and I’ve seen various content creators talk about the original to various degrees. I loved Remake, did I get the ending, not really. That didn’t matter, it was a good game. Playing Rebirth, at multiple points I was looking at my game time and was like “I’m not playing though this slow, I’m going pretty quick” and by the end it took me 110 hours to beat the game on Dynamic… like holy snap. FFXVI took me about 80 hours and I thought that was long. While some might argue that it’s important to have a “genuine” playthrough, the one thing I wanted to not miss was making sure Tifa was the special one. So I made sure I knew how to prevent a mistake there. I felt like for me, my 1st playthrough was just “get to ch12 to hang out with Tifa” and man oh man, their intimate cutscene- that right there, was the singular greatest moment of any video game that I’ve ever played. Everything that came after was just me taking it as is. Honestly, I had a harder time with the ending not because it was different, but because I was like “ain’t no way Cloud, you ain’t no cheater bro, sorry. We’re not gonna do Zack like that.” But man, the fight with Zack was my favorite fight of the whole game. It made me think back to Zack’s game in Crisis Core and just how much of a beast Zack really became after everything he went through. I love Cloud, but I just feel more affinity towards Zack because like, he is literally the one who is the precursor to Cloud. So overall, 11/10 game. FFXVI was my favorite game ever, but this just topped that. So, very excited to see what comes in the final installment 😊

[@ozaiobee]

I wonder how many chapters we will be without playing as Cloud in part 3.

[@TN-CapN]

I guess you just need to follow the scamp dogs' images to determine which timeline is showing.

[@zacatkinson3926]

You don’t say ? …it’s amazing how people still can’t figure that out when it’s common sense

[@shenloken2]

The ending only makes me anticipate Part 3 more! And the wait for part 3 is killing me because of all the other negative things in life I have to overcome while waiting for it. Guess it’s like with Aerith’s fate: I gotta know how to move on without her so to say!

[@Lakerjon24]

I still don’t expect part 3 to answer everything sure it will some stuff but imo a lot will be left up to interpretation and be ambiguous

[@biz0586]

As someone who played the original three disc game when it first came out, I absolutely love this game as well as the original. Remake + Rebirth made parts in the original game, which didn’t make sense, better and more fleshed out. Like how didn’t Shinra not notice Red 13 in their outfit in Junon? 😂 I was a little disappointed to not see Red in the uniform during the parade, but laugh my butt off at Red not being allowed to play Queens Blood on the boat. Then, he used the uniform to get smacked around in Queens Blood. 😊 Seeing Jessie again and remembering how I wind up loving her as a character at Loveless. Hints at Aerith’s fate. This game really made unimportant characters more important. I really liked this. She’s still alive because someone has to cast the holy materia to stop the meteor. Another thing that doesn’t makes sense in the original. 😉 She said during her prayer attempt “I’m the last Cetra and mom didn’t teach me how to pray.” 😢 Like Sephiroth, Aerith will learn from the prior Cetrans possibly the original Aeris. The rainbows are her interference and portals. In, the original game Sephiroth said that he used the lifestream to learn everything he needed to know where the promised land location at ironically “The Temple of the Ancients.” Sephiroth’s and Jenova’s multiple appearances made no sense in the original. The use of the unimportant black robes experiment is the absolute genius way to explain this, as well as the black fates ghosts. This is how Aerith is talking to Cloud I believe. It’s the same way Cloud was tormented by Sephiroth without the party seeing him. The party mainly seen Sephiroth and Jenova through a physical conduit aka black robes. The black fates was for Cloud to be taunted or control his body. The mental breakdown of Cloud never made sense in the original game. The mako poisoning is allowing Tifa to experience a minor effect of what Cloud is experiencing. The game had to add new stuffs to it due to new technology. I knew something was going to be completely off during remake with the first meeting of Cloud and Aeris/Aerith meeting. The first gray fate ghosts attack. I bet many missed the fact that Fort Condor can’t be visited at all. Also, the real original Temple of the Ancient is to the “SOUTH” not north. The lack of materias such as Water and Enemy Skills doesn’t work the same way… 😢 no Trine being casted by us. Perhaps the Sephiroth we’re fighting is the original timeline one, but his interference with portal and timeline has reshaped locations of places and events. It makes more sense how noticeable changes to characters acting differently to the party. Yuffie was a thief and always wanna fight. Vincent joined us immediately and not be very mysterious and non playable. Cid joined immediately, but was angry about his past failures and smokes cigarettes. But, this Cid has a purpose and a business. Now, I’m not sure if he will be an astronaut. Cait Sith was actually abandoned after the betrayal. The ultimate weapons don’t look the same. They look like miniature sin with giant materias from ff10, which the Shinra family bloodline is there. The battle between the gray versus black versus white fate ghost is interesting. Gray is original game. Black is Sephiroth’s interference. White is Aerith’s and the lifestream interference. Truthfully, I’m not sure the ending happened, because Cloud and Aerith fell from a high place at the temple destruction. Could be a coma interacting with the original Cloud or original timeline. It makes no sense to carry a hurt Cloud to fight the fight of his life without medical attention first. We build relationships with the party and they’re like rub some dirt on it we’re fighting Sephiroth. 😅 Besides where did Cid get the parts to fly the bronco again? It didn’t fly again in the original. Who put it on land? This could explain why we fought all of Sephiroth’s forms before the actual final boss fight. It explains how we don’t know how we got to the Sleeping Forrest and Forgotten City. Even getting through it without the harp. It felt too rushed compared to the rest of the game. Otherwise, Sephiroth is going to have to step his game up for the final boss fight. Perhaps, it will lead to an alternate universe of a good Sephiroth joining us. I would imagine this current one is killing other Sephiroth in other universes to prevent competition. The only way to truly kill evil original Sephiroth is to remove his body from the lifestream, which his body fell into the mako reactor of Nibelheim. Maybe, Zack can prevent Sephiroth from going to Nibelheim all together in another universe.

[@throwmeaname]

I legit cried to Aerith’s death scene. The fact that you see an alive Aerith signifies to me that Cloud’s mind is breaking. He’s in so much pain, he’s deluding himself to a vision where Aerith is alive. Even Sephiroth said himself - you cannot see reality with such clouded eyes.

[@zacatkinson3926]

No the timelines split there’s 5 in total now not counting the OG

[@DarthPingu07]

Look for the glow dude, he creates a new timeline

[@throwmeaname]

@@DarthPingu07 nah, they’re in the lifestream which doesn’t differentiate between between physical reality and the hopes/dreams of people. In the lifestream, Cloud imagines a reality where Aerith lives - and so lifestream granted him this image. In actuality, Aerith is dead. Here’s a question to you: If Aerith is alive - why did she fall down? Why is she lying down despite Cloud “saving” her? If you played the original game, you’ll see Cloud’s psyche is actually pretty messed up. The interpretation that Cloud is deluding himself that Aerith lived is aligned with Cloud’s original concept of an unreliable narrator. Hence why Sephiroth is laughing at him for not seeing the truth.

[@AmorFati777X]

I cried when I saw how bad they botched it.

[@Colombianbusiness]

Nanaki can sense her, he can feel her, I think the aerith right after her death is in his head because of how dark and twisted the music is, the aerith we see at the end is def ours

[@daigo12865]

Cloud is the only one seeing something different. Everyone elese is seeing the bloody scene where Aerith is already dead. Cloud sees her alive in his arms still for a few moments.

[@RihleeX]

Uhh, this is probably off topic, but... How come in my game, Cloud had a mask on during the play? In every bit of footage I've seen since (was avoiding spoilers) he's always maskless. Is this a relationship thing or what?

[@ftcnix7696]

I wanted the ending to hit harder because other moments hit really well during the game. However, when cloud parried sephiroths attack on aerith, I literally facepalmed myself and was like "really?" then she's dead, then alive again, dead, alive, then you get phase one of the final fight with aeriths sad theme playing yet you don't know why you should be feeling sad because you don't know what the f's going on. Then an hour later you beat the boss sequence and have forgotten by then what you were even confused about. Then you tell yourself "oh yeah, time for that famous funeral scene right?.... or.. not, ...ok". Then you have to walk over to your detective pin board and use 10 rolls of string to piece together all the clues of what it could all mean and how you should feel about it. It's like, c'mon, just make it clear what happened and make it clear how i should feel and please don't make me have to think so much at this crucial moment in the story.

[@LatestBits]

Cloud saves aerith in the timeline we played in, sephiroth send cloud to the OG timeline as he wants him to be angry and feel pain, Aerith is learning how to manipulate the lifestream like sephiroth, part 3 will send cloud and tifa into the lifestream where they will meet Aerith again and she will explain what's going on, and once cloud is mentally healed she might appear again if timelines collide, or survive in another. What this video failed to explain was Red xiii can also sense her.

[@NoctLightCloud]

the only reason I see why they didn't properly show the Aerith death scene in Rebirth is because they're probably going to use it properly in part 3.

[@JKSmith-qs2ii]

I greatly enjoyed the game and the ending. Contrary to a lot of people Aeriths death did have impact on me in Rebirth and I thought that ending it on Cloud losing his marbles completely placed it in a very interesting position for Part 3. I don't need the story to be completely coherent and water tight, I just need it to hit its general themes of loss, self-identity, friendship etc... I'm one of those people that does not care much for 'plot-holes', as long as its thematically sound. I also do not see Aerith as being kind of alive, I think Cloud just went nuts and her being in the lifestream isn't the same as being kind of alive.

[@coop8549]

I'm gonna have to agree with the rumors, and the ending was dark, darker than everyone thinks it is, and I'm here for it. You can take it at face value and be "happy" about it but damn, if you dig back a couple layers, it's so damn dark, love it.

[@magilas8485]

I honestly dont even know how people can view the ending as “happy” after the events before it and everyone being somber at the end. Cloud was hella weird too, which makes that “Aerith” very suspicious

[@youreprettygood2603]

I hope part 3 adds Rocket Town, the Wutai continent, Mideel and of course the Northern continent, that'd be the entire world. As for the rest, they can just recycle Rebirth's environments for the rest it's fine, just add new side quests and minigames here and there. In any case OG FF7's disc 2 is mostly about revisiting already seen locations to get the huge materia and disc 3 is only the Northern Crater. It would also be great to be able to return to Sector 5 and 6 aka the Wall Market in Midgar like in OG, just reuse the existing maps from Remake and extend the wasteland from Rebirth to the entrance door to Midgar, add a small path next to Aerith's church in sector 5 and link the two together with a loading screen, can't be that hard. As for the Highwind, I could imagine a system similar to FF12 except that unlike FF12 we should be able to fly it manually, but like in FF12 only be able to land at airstrips in towns or drop anchor at designated places around the wilderness while the Highwind stays in the air.

[@deedoubs]

Disc 2 and 3 together really aren't very big. When you compare it purely by number of dungeon-eseque spaces, you've got 3 in the form of the glacier, the cliff, and the first visit to crater. You get Corel revisited (which is short and just involves a sequence of hopping between trains) and Underwater Reactor. Then you have the raid on Midgar and the final area. There will probably be an increased amount of stuff to do in Rocket Area and Mideel. I would expect Wutai in particular to get expanded into possibly a whole continent worth of activity. I also expect Midgar to get an increased focus. I also really hope that they actually let us explore the Forgotten Capital this time around because one of the most absolutely disappointing things about Rebirth to me is how much everything got wrapped up in a hurry once you got to Temple of the Ancients. That shit just felt wrong. No wandering around Ancient Capital, no ominous approach to the prayer chamber, the whole thing felt like they ran out of time and/or money.

[@DarthPingu07]

But Aerith is alive... When he blocks Sephiroth everything glows, signalling a new timeline. Cloud was the only one to enter Aerith's destiny's crossroads. Thus he's torn between both timelines as he changed HER fate instead of THEIR fate. So she is alive to him, dead to everyone else. As her sing says, she hopes he'll find her in their place (church) and never let's her go.

[@kos-mos2084]

This is factually wrong. Nojima admitted that her song is not about Cloud or Zack. Her song is about all the party members she loved. Stop making this seem like fact when the devs said otherwise.

[@DarthPingu07]

@@kos-mos2084 one dev said otherwise. Loren who performed the song said it was about Cloud, Uematsu agreed with her and the lyrics match up. So no, not "factually wrong".

[@kos-mos2084]

@@DarthPingu07 Hollow in FFVII Remake is about Cloud while No Promises to Keep in Rebirth is about Aerith’s destiny as the last Cetra singing to all the people she loved and travelled with. It had elements of a love song but that wasn’t their intention. I’m just saying what they said in the interviews/videos. Nothing in the song hints at the future or anything like that. Regardless of whether Cloud was the only one to enter the crossroads, he didn’t change her fate and he’s struggling with thinking he did, as well as the crack in the sky which he sees.

[@mytonerghf]

love your thoughts and I fully agree (except for gongaga, I loved it!)!

[@NebetSeta]

Am I the only one who heard Aerith scream and take her last breath, when Cloud is pushed and is falling through the void with the different whispers?

[@beefsquatch5352]

Wait, what?! Now I need to go rewatch that scene

[@A203D]

The thing I hope happens is for Sephiroth is finally win. I want to see him completely overpower the party now that he has broken the bounds of fate. This is where Vincent and his connection to Lucreica comes in. Sephrioth's mother is still alive and she can stop him. It would add a completely different dimension to the story I know, but I hope they build on Vincent and Lucreica, because there was hardly anything devoted to these characters in the original.

[@kurisu7885]

Um, no, Myrna was not in the original game, she wasn't depicted at all in the original media as I recall.

[@sora_escandar222]

The Cloud and Zack team up at the end was mind blowing !! Cloud was just like "Zack ??" And Zack just "Hey" 😂 and then they have synergy attacks and its name was just soo cheesy lol. Aerith only appearing in Cloud's mind and pov and him smiling by himself was super duper creepy. He was already messed up in the head and that kinda made it even worse. Extra mind fcked with even more to top it off.

[@-xXsupremacyXx-]

Cid is a heavy smoker with an attitude. This Cid is none of that, he is more for the kids than he is for the fans of the OGff7.

[@sosbrigaders]

Yeah. I was pretty disappointed too. I liked the IDGAF attitude of the original. Pretty sure they will tone down the Shera disrespect in the 3rd game smh

[@aytony4090]

​@sosbrigaders It seems more subtle that something might be wrong with this guy. His whole demeanor to me feels fake and I hope they go that way with this Cid.

[@jvrazo]

Yeah cuz the cid we see in Rebirth is his whole personality right? Makes complete sense

[@sosbrigaders]

@@jvrazo well for now, yes it is. Until the last game comes out Rebirth Cid is what he is. And yeah, his first impression personality wise is pretty weak. Obviously they’ll expand upon his character in the next one.

[@-xXsupremacyXx-]

@jvrazo Right, the Cid we see in rebirth. That's my freaking point. Do you see any other Cid around at the moment? When you first meet Cid in the original, you can almost immediately tell this guy is off his rocker. And that's just in the introduction, because after all, there's something to be said about first impressions. Thus far, based on what I've seen, this guy is two shades removed from the original. It's all.

[@kngptxr]

Final Fantasy 7: Reunion

[@casualindieplayer]

What side quest bugged out for you?

[@DeathsFlagShip]

Can't Stop Won't Stop is bugged for digital only players. The GBike minigame doesn't pop a quest complete if you already beat the the time limit before the quest unlocks.

[@ThatBeingCed]

Aerith's final line in REMAKE was changed from The steel sky, I miss it. To The Sky, I don't like it. So Remake Aerith could see the tear in the sky.

[@aaronw6195]

So Sephiroth explains to cloud in that scene with the bubbles that what he's seeing is the true nature of reality. I think there might be something to this idea that everything is taking place in the lifestream including the rewritten OG timeline we're seeing. Something that was never really a huge factor in the original game was this concept of "destiny" , and that concept was introduced in Remake pretty darn quickly. The fact that it could be changed or overwritten was introduced throughout remake. Sephiroth is a lot of things, but I really don't take him as a liar or a inaccurate narrator even. He does some 4th wall breaking with the "death" of Aerith talking about the feelings of grief and loss being felt and him kind of feeding off of that negative energy. The writers are playing with this Descartes concept of "what is real"...well if everything is in the lifestream, it's a memory of the planet. The answer to this question in a meta sort of way is that the memories that make up a person are what make up their reality, and that would hold true for the lifestream as well. Sephiroth seems to have command over editing and manipulating these memories after the end of remake when the Arbiter of Fate is beaten. It's not just memories the characters have now or their future desires, it's to the point where it would be memories we as individual gamers have of the game. What I think the writers are doing is making Sephiroth kind of be able to play with the hearts of the gamers themselves, and they're probably going to offer us a choice of what ultimately happens in the next installment. I know some people will see that as a cop-out or whatever, but these character choices have all created these different timeline threads, and with the Sephiroth 4th wall breaking to allegedly absorb the negative emotions of the players and characters, it's almost only logical to offer some kind of major choice or choices to direct how this all plays out. The end of remake with the whole 7 seconds dialogue seems to imply this as well where cloud is going to be offered a choice or choices and who is Cloud but the gamer really? In some ways we've already had a choice in the sense of "Who cloud gets to date" at the Gold Saucer. The true nature of reality according Sephiroth would now be that Cloud went on all of the dates, and none of the dates too. Just some food for thought for where this might be going.

[@richizzle39]

I think the people that don’t like it, don’t like it because it’s not a one to one remake of the original and it is more of a spiritual sequel to the OG.

[@sosbrigaders]

Ending of both games I hate with a passion. Ofc it doesn’t ruin the whole game for me. Both games are still top tier. But it all depends on how they stick the landing of the last game. I’m an OG FF7 fanboy and I love 80% of the changes they made. I also didn’t like how a lot of the mature themes were toned down. I get it. They needed to keep the Teen rating

[@zappa2001]

The goofy people that hate the ending are weirdos. They didn't get what they want and the immediate dopamine hit. I see that there's potential to keep me intrigued and keep me guessing. I LOVED IT! We still got the sad ending as officially happening. Will we be able to do ANYTHING to change it though? We needed a sad ending to give us more purpose and give us HOPE we can make a difference. (which I believe we will be able to do)

[@RaccoonBrigade]

Your brain is mush

[@JustinW332]

As someone who came into this not having played the original game and only knew these characters through kingdom hearts and arguably the most hated parts of the compilation (Dirge and Advent Children) the way they showed Aerith's death didn't really detract from my sadness. I was in tears and audibly crying. It was effective for me. But everyone's feelings are valid. But yeah I have been on board with the remake project since I first played it because I wanted to know the more faithful versions of these characters without the turn based combat and wonky translation. I think why it didn't bother me is because of my personal beliefs. I'm a Christian and I believe in an afterlife but for me, believing in that doesn't make the death of a loved one any less sad. To me, our timeline's Aerith is dead, she can't exist physically in Cloud's world anymore, but she's still with him in spirit in the life stream. That's my interpretation. But I do also think something sinister is trying to work its way into Cloud's mind and pretend to be Aerith as well.

[@user-rz1xg2gn1p]

Man I love the direction this game is going and I can't wait for part 3 Reunite. I really don't get the contention 90% of both Remake and Rebirth were faithful so I don't see the big deal this game deserves GOTY. Where is the fun in playing a game that you know the outcome to, if Remake had actually been a 100% faithful remake to the OG with nothing new added it would be boring. This stuff is exciting to me, the theory crafting, the wondering what's going to happen next Ilike that a hell of a lot better than oh yeah I know what's gonna happen the only difference is Cloud's in 4k now.

[@lucbauer]

what really bothered me was the "Aerith, wake up" scene... it broke completely the moment. It should have been subtle, followed by Aerith's "burial" in the lake.