Final Fantasy 7 Remake changed several important story beats from the original Final Fantasy 7. From altering character arcs to outright rewriting important moments from the original game, Final Fantasy 7 Remake has shown a near reckless willingness to fundamentally alter the story it’s remaking. This has caused many fans wonder what lies in store for the next chapter, the recently revealed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
When Final Fantasy 7 Remake was first announced, fans mostly expected it to be exactly what the title claimed it to be: the same game as the PS1 original, but with updated, modern graphics, voice acting, and perhaps extras like exclusive super bosses or new areas. However, FF7 Remake ended up doing quite a bit more. From characters who die early in the original, like Biggs and Wedge likely still alive in Rebirth, to even laying the groundwork for subverting the original’s most iconic moment, the death of Aerith, FF7 Remake clearly plans to tell its own story with the foundation that the original laid.
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However, that’s far from the only things that Final Fantasy 7 Remake changed from the original. Several other plot and character beats, both large and small, have been altered in the translation from PS1 to PS4. The larger story beat changes will have unpredictable ripple effects across the rest of the story.
The Members Of Avalanche Are More Fleshed Out In FF7 Remake
In the original, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge – the other three members of Avalanche – were one note characters at best who were swiftly killed off by Shinra halfway through the first disc. Unlike other characters such as Cid, who probably won’t be changed too much due to how well established they are, these three had basically nothing to their characters, making their deaths fall flat. So when the Remake came out, fans were shocked at the amount of character injected into them.
Jessie in particular found herself with an entire new fanbase due to her appealing redesign and expanded history. Which, of course, made her death near the end of the game all the more heartbreaking, since players will have actually gotten to know her by then. Biggs and Wedge, on the other hand, are heavily implied by Remake’s ending to still be alive. It’s unclear what part these two will play in the story to come, most likely they will join back up with the team in one of the confirmed Final Fantasy 7 storylines that’ll happen in Remake.
Sephiroth Appears Much Sooner Than In The Original FF7
In the original Final Fantasy 7, Sephiroth was a complete enigma, not even mentioned until after Cloud and company had been captured by Shinra. Even then, the player doesn’t actually see him until a later flashback. His introduction is instead a trail of blood that leads to the impaled body of President Shinra. A morbid, striking image that immediately tells the player that whoever Sephiroth is, he’s no one to mess with.
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Since Final Fantasy 7 Remake only covers the Shinra arc, or the first disc of the original game, Sephiroth – one of the game’s most famous characters – needed to be shown off more than he originally was. Not only does he now show up near the beginning of the game in a PTSD fueled dream sequence had by Cloud, but he’s now the final boss of the game. With it looking like Rebirth will feature two Clouds, there may even be more than one Sephiroth running around this new timeline.
The Whispers Try To Protect FF7’s Original Story
Having Final Fantasy 7 Remake immediately and harshly diverge from the iconic narrative of the original came as something of a shock to longtime fans, and such a departure is risky when remaking a beloved game. In a sense, the arbiters of fate, called Whispers – strange ghost-like creatures that exist to essentially try and stop the story from veering too far away from the original – are metatextually representative of the original story and its fanbase. They don’t want the story to stray too far away from where it originally came from, folks to survive who otherwise would have died, or new playable characters to appear in FF7 Rebirth and the upcoming third chapter.
The Whispers fascinatingly play a role in which they are trying to stop many characters from avoiding their predestined fates. Protecting the original FF7 timeline puts the Whispers at odds with many characters, Sephiroth most of all, and they are soundly defeated by the end. This “shatters fate,” as the game calls it, leaving the story open to be freely changed as much as the writers want. Essentially, this change from the original is indicative of every other major change in the game, and every one to come in Rebirth and beyond.
Zack Fair Is Still Alive After Final Fantasy 7 Remake
The biggest twist to the original story is revealing just how late the whispers were to trying to stop the timeline deviation, as it’s revealed in Remake’s true ending that Zack Fair is still alive. While other changes, like FF7 Remake INTERmission creating a more tragic Yuffie, are comparatively minor reinterpretations of established characters, the most important trait of Zack in the original story is that he is dead. He effectively needs to be dead in the original, or half of Cloud’s story does not work.
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Final Fantasy 7 Remake establishes that Cloud somehow acquired both Zack’s memories and personality without Zack being dead in the process. This will all likely be further explained in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, as the story continues to divert from the original and explain why and how these deviations are happening. With the Whispers no longer a problem, Rebirth can now change FF7‘s story in any way it wants in order to tell a more unique narrative.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake proved divisive when it came out because of these changes. Fans were mainly expecting a modern revamp of the original, and instead were treated to a bold experimental retelling of the entire story from the ground up, rather than just being a simple celebration of what came before. How this will all ultimately shake out is something that will have to be seen when it’s all over, but one thing is sure: Final Fantasy 7 Remake definitely has fans’ attention now.
