Final Fantasy VII remake Chapter 5 – Story

Hello there readers. Welcome to the most controversial part of our ongoing discussion of the Final Fantasy VII. Most fans get an epileptic seizure at the mention of story changes, but there will inevitably be some as the current spoilers are all common knowledge. I put story changes into one of three categories. Necessary, Useful and Neat.

Let's look at the first group. You may be under the impression that no story change is necessary, but that is not entirely true. When Final Fantasy VII came out it was a standalone game like all the others and had no prequels or sequels. But then everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Okay, nobody attacked but several games, short stories and anime came that placed VII inside a wider canon. This of course left its mark on the story of VII as we now know that several events did not quite occur as we saw them in game.

For example several characters survived that we believed dead. Don Corneo, Rufus Shinra, Tseng. As certain as their deaths was they all live to fight another day. Professor Hojo uploads his consciousness to a machine and both Aerith and Sephiroth become parts of the Lifestream. Hell, the final cutscene didn't show anyone beside Nanaki and his children surviving.

And of course there are the dirty little details like the original AVALANCHE – lead by Bugenhagen's apprentice - intending to wipe out all life on the planet, the Turks being responsible for Yuffie's materia obsession, Genesis being responsible for Sephiroth's downfall, Zack wiping out the entire Shinra army before being killed by the last three, Zack being an energetic and kind hearted kid instead of the jerkass we believed him based on Cloud's alternative persona, Vincent not being the first person Hojo puts dangerous materia in, the existence of Deepground, and the fact that when the Lifestream appears at the end of the game it carries Sephiroth's cells and infects everyone with geostigma.

Speaking of Zack. Where is Cissney? You know she is the young and pretty Turk agent who had a crush on Zack but lost to Aerith. We last saw her searching for Zack as he and Cloud were fleeing the Shinra army. Next time we see the Turks only Tseng, Reno, Rude and Elena are around. What happened to her? And what about Aerith? She spent a lot of time with Zack and probably know that he has a friend called Cloud Strife who is a Shinra grunt. So whn Cloud comes with Zack's sword she should figure out that something is fishy. Yuffie also had several encounters with Zack and may or may not have seen him wield the Buster Sword. So what's going on? Do the girls have an unspoken agreement not to mention the holes in Cloud's story? Or are we looking at a new running gag of Tifa covering their – Yuffie's and Aerith's - mouths and dragging them away every time they try to correct Cloud? Oh and with Crisis Core out we now know what the LOVELESS posters in Midgar meant. Well we sort of know.

And this is just the compilation. We also know that VII is a distant sequel of X. To think that such a ruthless megacorporation would be the result of a single Al Bhed kid's curiosity. There is also the small matter of Cloud falling into the Lifestream for quite some time before surfacing in Mideel as a vegetable. It is quite easy to pinpoint that it was during this time that he was summoned into Ivalice to play a part in the events of Final Fantasy Tactics. We may see that or we may not but we know that he had quite the adventure while the rest of the group escaped Shinra captivity. Kingdom Hearts II is most likely not canon but if you think about it he is in a world filled with talking animals and kids who fight with keys and the Tifa and Sephiroth we encounter there are the representations of Cloud's good and bad side respectively. I would probably hallucinate something similar if I were him. And it was also directed by Nomura. No idea for Dissidia.

So what would be useful? Well this is where we go from a little controversial to downright blasphemous. As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter: the plot twists in Final Fantasy VII are common knowledge. People still misunderstand some things but we all know that Sephiroth was actually dead for most of the game, Cloud's memories are fake, and Aerith dies. If we want to be as shocked by the remake as much as we were by the original when we first played it, the story must change. Not completely, but small details. In the original version Vincent was a private detective focusing on supernatural cases, Sephiroth was Aerith's brother – later changed to former lover. Eek - , Yuffie was a 25 years old ex-SOLDIER bounty hunter, Barret was Marlene's biological father, SOLDERs were made with real Cetra cells, and the post Nibelheim Cloud really was a fake created by Sephiroth. Also Edea was originally created for VII not VIII. It was also set in New York city at one point.

These changes are hardly salvagable without retconning away most of the compilation but indicate the types of small changes that may be possible. And no, Aerith will not survive. That is kinda her thing. At the very beginning the two basic ideas for the story were: 'You chase Sephiroth around the world' and 'Aerith dies'. She was created for that purpose. Tifa was created much later to give Cloud a love interest that doesn't die. This is probably why Aerith and Cloud have so much chemistry while his relationship with Tifa is more or less: „Hey, Tifa I recovered my memories and remembered that when we were kids I had a huge crush on you because you looked like Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII so maybe we could you know live together and adopt a random kid.” Fun fact: In the original Cloud was not wrongfully blamed for injuring Tifa. He totally gave her a huge scar.

So what about the misunderstood part? Well one of the most persistant arguments about VII is wether Sephiroth controls Jenova or the other way around. On the one hand J has been a corpse since before Sephiroth was even born. On the other hand we regularly fight very much living monsters that are created from her cells. Well as several interviews revealed Sephiroth is the one in control. He is just very good at controling Jenova cells. This is how he controls Cloud and the other clones. Yes, Sephiroth is waaay to fixated on his mother but he is not a puppet or under any sorts of mind control. The worst we can say about him is that he suffers from villain decay as he is less sane every time he comes back to life and he spends less time living. By the time we get to Cloud Returns: Final Fantasy VII he will be a regular mook.

When Kefka is compared to Sephiroth the winning argument by Kefka fans is usually: Sephiroth failed to destroy the world while Kefka did it. Although Kefka did cause a lot of destruction – without killing any of the main characters in the process – there is one tiny problem with this argument. Sephiroth totally didn't want to destroy the planet. He knew that it is not possible. He just wanted to threaten it enough for the Lifestream to appear and merge with it to become a god. In this universe ascendace to godhood is a much more involved process than moving three statues around. It didn't quite go as planned but he did become an unremovable part of the Lifestream and he infected thousands of people with geostigma. Not bad really.

Somehow making this misunderstood parts more obvious would definitely be a useful change. If not outright necessary. So what would be neat now that we have a shocking story that acknowledges the compilation? Time to watch the trailer.

See that part at roughly half a minute? In the Midgar playground is a blond girl and a two boys fighting with toy swords and the blond boy is holding one that looks a lot like the Buster Sword. Sure that might be just a random scene for the fans. But what if they are not. What if the blond girl and boy are Cloud's kids. Maybe He and Tifa finally did it. So what would that mean for the story? Well a narration of course. Imagine the game opening with the playground scene. And then adult Cloud comes to take them home. The kids don't want to leave so he tells them that if they come home he will tell them the story of how he and mom beat Sephiroth. Of course I know of an even better narrator candidate.

Genesis Rhapsodos. Even his name translate to something like the original performer of the epic poem. The last time we saw him was during the end of Dirge of Cerberus when he picked up the unconscious Weiss to go on an adventure. He could be silently observing the Strifes before resolving the go to them and ask for their forgiveness. When Weiss asked him what is ther to forgive, he begins to explain how everything is his fault. Well technically it is because he was behind Sephiroth's downfall. Any story deviations from the original could be explained by A: Him not being present and B: His overly dramatic way of talking. Much how like in A Realm Reborn the Wandering Minstrel gave a different account of the fight against Ultima Weapon. And hey, the Compilation cannot even agree on what happened in Nibelheim. After Cloud, Zack and the Turks, we would get to see a new perspective.

And on that note I think it is time to call it a day. This was probably the last mega chapter as I now only have a few more things to discuss as we steadily march towards the final chapter. Hope you will not miss the next chapter in which we will give a special spotlight to Sephiroth.