Final Fantasy 7 Remake Analysis: Boundless, Terrifying Freedom 

That Kiwami joke was something I never thought about, but is actually a pretty apt comparison. I don't think I ever connected the dots between Majima and Sephiroth's popularity versus how understated their original appearances were.

The underground trek to Wall Market where its just Cloud, Aerith, and that amazing music is easily, EASILY my favorite section of the game. It's not that fleshed out, it's entirely unnecessary filler, but my God was it fun.

Hey ya'll, thanks for watching, hope ya enjoyed! One of the most emotionally taxing games/videos I've dealt with in a while, but had a lot of fun with both. This video is also pretty long, so I'll be leaving timestamps below to make life a little easier for everyone. If you did happen to enjoy this, it'd mean a lot if you considered helping me out over on Patreon! Just a dollar or two can go a long way to help keep things rolling. And again, thank you for watching ❤️✌️ www.patreon.com/codexentry Intro - 0:00 Part 1 - 0:41 Part 2 - 3:28 Part 3 - 12:12 Part 4 - 26:43

I have a feeling that Sephiroth won`t be the main villain at the end of their journey.

This is not Sephiroth from the future, but a Sephiroth that *knows* what's going to happen in the future. The game was made for people that played the original/compilation first, and secondly for people that are going to play the remake first and then go to the original on ps4/steam.

Inb4 people collectively lose their minds upon discovering Ehrgeiz

"THEY EVEN KEPT THE SPIKES" i, as someone who miss Cloud in KH3, couldn't agree anymore

"The reunion at hand may bring joy... It may bring fear...But let us embrace whatever it brings."

This might seem minuscule, but mad props on the thumbnail. The trick with the text brightening the background is simple yet effective and I feel Cloud and Aerith looking into the distance represents both the theme of the game and the video pretty well.

I actually saw it differently than everyone else. I remember a dick ton of black screen conversations between Cloud and ________ in the original. It was set to me in the original to be Sephiroth/Jenova the entire time. This was done at the moment Aerith dies. A black screen cuts into Sephiroth's onscreen dialogue stating "Because you are.....a puppet" So all of the balckscreens in the original portion of Midgar, I automatically took as Sephiroth. So when it is done in the Remake.....seemed natural to me. He lost nothing to me for being there. See he was always there. Well not he, but Jenova. It worked for me. The game as a whole worked for me. And I am a very large Final Fantasy fan. I mean I have a large website for the titles, in which Final Fantasy VII handily holds the most pages, as well as the most pictures for any title. I know the game back and forth, up and down. I played it well over 100 times within the very first year of its release. And I cannot count how many times afterwards. I am a rare breed it seems though. I can enjoy the living hell out of something, even if it is different from the original. I actually, if I am honest, call the original a VERY FLAWED MASTERPIECE. The masterpiece of course coming more from the legacy of what VII did to gaming, and pop culture. After the dozen or more times I have gone through VII Remake.....I have so much more love and admiration for the title of VII, because of how much more I understand was potentially there.

Great review, thoroughly enjoyed it. Considering this is the first time I'm watching it though, I'm not going to come back to tell you the Ultimania confirmed the Advent Children link, I'll just say it now, the Ultimania confirmed the Advent Children link. The Sephiroth issue is an interesting one, as you stated in the early parts of your video, he is one of the most iconic villains in pop culture history, so the Remake was always going to have a difficult time having him be as impactful as he was in the OG game. Ultimately though, personally when I realised he was the final boss, I was thinking to myself, there's no way I can beat this dude with just Cloud. Even when I ended up with the whole party it wasn't a walk in the park. I feel like the intimidation factor is still there, and will only grow in later instalments.

I agree. Aerith's not only the best character in the game, but one of my all time favorite video game characters now. She's perfect, and (spoiler for the original FF7 and probably future Remake parts) now I'm going to be legit very sad when she dies.

I'm not sure how some don't like the Train Graveyard. I personally thought it was one of the best parts of the entire game. They managed to turn a part of the game that was basically a 5 minute at best meaningless section into something creepier and more atmospheric than almost any horror game released these days. Not to mention the boss fights are sick imo too. Cept Eligor on Hard Mode. Fuck that dude on hard mode and his annoying reflect shenanigans. Overall I still loved that section myself and was nice to see Max loved it too.

This was both a critical analysis and a love letter to what I have found to be a unique and terrifying experience. Well done man, and I can't wait to see more from Square, Nomura and You! All in the same madness!!

I thought for sure the game was going to end with a Jenova fight. I kinda feel like Square isn't using it's lovecraftian nightmare creature to it's full effect. I pretty much share your feelings of being equally confused and aroused, by the ending.

like for "I CANsEEtHe FUtuRE!"

Sephiroth's role is obscure if you know the original, even if you played the entire Compilation. To a newb I'd guess it's inscrutable. We do know that he terrifies Cloud and uses weird sick dudes as puppets and kills President Shinra and absconds with Jenova. He does plenty. As for whether he does enough clearly enough for first-timers, we'd do better to ask them than to pontificate about their experiences for them. Also I think Jessie and Wedge are dead as Biggs is the only one we see recover. (Wedge got defenestrated by ghosts, gg). And for the not-enough-death part. You might be right. Or possibly, in railing against Fate they've had some early luck (and a real close call with Barret), but now they've killed the Arbiter. Their safety net / training wheels are gone and the future Aerith's been apprised of is no more. And they're in rebellion against the Planet itself. If that doesn't haunt then I'll be very surprised.

I am personally down with the remake's theme of 'FUCK FATE! If I want to live, I will godamn live!'.

they really needed to move the Cloud explaining Sephiroth scene to when the team was hanging out in Aeriths room in Shinra HQ, theres no excuse to not explain a little of who he is and why they are fighting him at the end. Honestly thats my only complaint with the remake......well besides maybe having Cloud tell Aerith about Zacks death that way that ending scene makes sense to new fans

I think you hit it on the head for me with the final part of the video when you talk about how amazing THIS entry is and how you want to see more of it. For me, my attachment to these characters at this point is going to be enough to get me excited for the rest of what this “FF7 Remake Project” has going for it. I’ve seen many people link this back to the feeling many felt when the Compilation of FF7 started coming out, and how they were so excited and hyped going into it, but coming out, they were severally disappointed. And many feel like getting excited for the future of this Remake is just setting yourself up for disappointment yet again. Now, I was a really small child when the Compilation was coming out without even a clue as to what a Final Fantasy was, so many it’s not my place to say. But to me, the reason why I’m not feeling that here is because we already know who these characters are. What made the disappointment really big for a lot of people is that the version of the characters depicted in Dirge of Cerberus and Advent Children just did not feel like the old characters. They were radically different versions with the entries themselves having a different feel to that of the original 7. But in the Remake’s case, it’s a safe bet to say that the versions of the characters we see in FF7 Remake are the versions that we will be getting in future titles in this series. Precisely because those future entries are direct sequels to this game. And this is a cast of characters that no matter how different things get, I just want to follow to the ends to the earth. This game captured something special, and I want to see it continue with Part 2 and beyond. Fantastic job as always Ryan.

Great job, dude! I REALLY want Jessie in my party, too!

Sephiroth’s greatest weapon in this game is...being very creepy (as in not allowed within 3 miles of a school creepy) & whispering in Cloud’s ears. Lol

Duuuuuuuuuudddeeeeee omg. That transition when introducing sephiroth....... absolutely perfect

That joke about cutting Fox off followed by his muffled "Hey!" in the background had me laughing way harder and longer than it probably should have.

In the reveal trailer the narrator talks about “the reunion at hand” might bring joy or fear, but whatever happens we need to embrace it, I think he’s talking about this, the future is uncertain but I did my best to embrace every moment I’ve spent with the characters.

That’s what I felt having him so much in the new game..it really did bring down his threat level. “Less is sometimes more.” Factually. I’m so glad you brought up that damn snake! That was my biggest “Oh sh** this dude is a bada$$” moment. I really wish they didn’t have him there essentially beginning to end.

That FF7R discussion video on KingK's channel felt like a convention full of all star video game analysis lol Do another one!

Hey, thanks for the video. Actually probably some of your strongest stuff. Which is funny because I actually disagree with a lot of the stuff said, but I’m not really interested in the “predict whether or not the next game will be any good or not because pretending any certainty can be reached soothes my ego” game (though it is fascinating to see the sheer variance of well argued opinions this game brings out). I for one am really glad this game came out because it truly made me confront something about myself that I hadn’t noticed before. Our modern pop-culture has this unhealthy obsession with perceived perfectionism. If a work has flaws, we’d rather see the holes patched and immediately forget about it than address any new possibilities. And if thing old, it must get overhauled. If FFVIIR came out and was unambiguously faithful and modern, we’d be faced with a pretty strong possibility that all future renditions and rereleases would defer to this version over the original, and a lot of us wouldnt really bat an eye. whether that would be good or bad can be debatable, but I can’t help but feel concerned that it would be easy for us to look at a thing we have loves so earnestly as that original game and want to see it wholesale replaced with an “upgrade”. whether or not this bleak image plays out is admittedly still up in the air, this is the games industry, and we technically already do that to most older games. At least if it happened here people would be more liable to call bullshit. And I can continue to appreciate a now-quaint little 97 title that the devs would probably agree still deserves to be loved

The Freiza Planet 419 joke was spot on.

the original FF7 Sephiroth"s slow buildup was based on Steven Spielberg's JAWS.

Damn, I'm so impressed with how this video is put together. Well done. I'm here to stay; subbed

I feel exactly the same... They can really "screw this up six ways from Sunday", or they will produce a true, albeit different, masterpiece. The more I think about it and dig into all of the clues, the more I seem to admire the idea that a different plot overlay has been put on the classic FF7 story. You're one of the very few reviewers who feel this strange sense of hope and articulate it so well and unshamedly. Well done!

I'd like to talk about my hopes for future installments but I can't do that without spoiling it. But then again if you haven't played the game or you don't care about spoilers what are you doing watching this video? Regardless. Spoilers. Spoilers. Spoilers. Spoilers. Spoilers. I hope everything plays out exactly the same as it did in the original. Aerith dies at the hands of Sephiroth, Sephiroth is defeated by Cloud and the gang and Aerith's spirit saves them all. And then you hit New Game Plus and everything is completely different Nier Automata Style. Either that or just have Aerith's death optional. My main wish is to keep Aerith alive because God damn that woman.

Just finished the remake and your video was the first one I watched. This vid is such a perfect companion piece for the game and I loved it so much

This video is extremely great. Great content, editing, timing, and tone. Well done sir.

for real though, the thing sephiroth has done in ff7r to justify being the final boss is that he's been the object of cloud's hallucinations for the entire game. Without using outside material, you might consider this fight as cloud confronting his fears. also why does everyone assume the boss fight at the end is really sephiroth, and not just another puppet controlled by the sephiroth chilling in the crater?

Great video. You had me sold during the Sephiroth section. You gained a new sub! 👍🏻

Best review of this I’ve seen! High props. Subscribed!

He doesn’t attack Cloud until the end bc he can’t. As soon as you destroy the Arbiters of Fate he attacks. Also, he most likely wants Cloud alive so that no matter what he can live on through his memories.

I really enjoy the way you present information and opinions. Liked & subbed.

Thank you for this absolutely amazing video, I can't believe I only just now found it. Your points were extremely well-articulated, the jokes had me suppressing my laughter to not wake up any roommates and the editing was great. I agree with most of the points made here, though I do lean a bit more on the optimistic side considering the future of the project. Having played the OG a year ago, Remake is my favourite game of all time and I can't wait to see where the story goes in the future.

Spectacularly very well written and presented essay! Congrats amazing 🙌🏽

this is why in depth understanding is important. most people be like meh wtf is going like literally their brain don't function to understand what is the meaning of the story.

I think you just made the best discussion surrounding this game. Not because of depth or other mysterious qualifiers, but because you managed to name the inchoately felt anxiety this game left most of us (which is not a discussion on how good or bad the finished product is). You analyzed a very interesting psychological feature which, even if accidental, it's by far the most powerful emotion that accompanies this game.

Dude i love how you edited that intro. It's good enough to be like an official trailer. It just needs the square enix logo and credits.

Wow, this is quite possibly the best video essay/reaction video to FF7R that I’ve watched yet. Great job. Subscribed.

Well, can’t take a leap of faith without the “faith!” ...well you get me, have faith my friend.

Omg if anyine reads all of this theyre a legend!!! I enjoyed, you got a new subscriber, nowwwww....... my observation putting myself in the shoes of a noob to ff7. After the first hour of the game cloud has some kind of mental break and is confronted by a tall silver haired man he is obviously surprised to see, after following him into an ally the mysterious man tells a tale of the past he and cloud share in which he suggests that he killed clouds mother while she pleaded for her sons life, this guy is already the protagonists primary antagonist just based on this scene alone. Later we see a flashback to the Nibelheim reactor and tifa lamenting the death of father at the hands of sephiroth, he is now also an established antagonist for tifa. Near the end of the game this sephiroth shows up and kills the president of the corperation we think is the games main antagonist as if it means nothing and kills berret(temporarily) in the same breath before anyone can even notice and react to his presence he is quite unstoppable. This man is supposed to be dead and has seemingly gone to great lengths to steal jenova from shinra and based on what aerith has explained is greater threat to the planet than anyone realises he is now an antagonist for berret and avalanche... does he need to be the boss of the game? Maybe not.... but in the final fight not once does this silver haired man even appear to be trying he is standing around casually lobbing magic at us and taunting us and in the final scene he shrugs of an epic combination from our hero as if he is bored with the endeavor, and however vague and confusing his words may be he obviously wants cloud to follow he is egging him on...... now its over we beat the game but what do we know about sephiroth???? Killed cloud and tifas parents, wants jenova for aome reason, feels wrong to aerith, and is by far the strongest entity any of the party has ever stood next to, also if we paid attention we know that it wasnt really sephiroth we encountered at any of those moments it was robed men or hallucinations, but we dont know who he is why he is or where he really is hes still mysterious only people with prior knowledge wouldnt find this version of him mysterious. They clearly established him as the main villain and shinra as the secondary overarching enemy.... (time for a horrible comparison) shinra is team rocket and sephiroth is mewtwo..... >_< (mad at myself) i do think we seem to powerful however even with sephiroth beating us without batting an eye we have to much power at this point i really hope the theories about yuffie showing up right before or after kalm to steal or stuff happens, i dont wanna be level one with nothing let me keep my moves and xp but make hp up and mp ups rare or something. Anyways if you read all this then im srry for making your eyes bleed. >_

The section about what made Sephiroth such a great villain made me laugh cause we practically made and posted the same video, one day apart, point for point lol cheers to future videos

This is one of the best videos I've ever seen on RU-vid. A perfect compliment sandwich seemingly narrated by Michael Swaim.

Great video. I can't really agree with you on the whole Sephiroth changes but you got your point across in an adequate fashion. What an amazing game

May I know who edited this video? Because goddamn it is so well and crisply edited I would give that editor a RAISE. The video just contrasts the well written script and clear voice of the speaker with its interesting visuals, something with actual direction rather than a bunch of elgato footage mashed together while someone talks about their points at the background. Great video!

My buddy and I had the exact same talk about Sephiroth. Ok, I know that we had to introduce him earlier than normal. We didn't see Sephy until the flashback in Kalm and that's not in the game. So, why not just have him appear near the end of the game. He's not the final boss, those are the fates. Sephiroth wants you to fight them. Not because he knows he loses in the original final fantasy. But because he hates the idea of fate or anyone, dictating his destiny. It makes sense. Sephiroth is powerful and wants to shape the world to his image and the fates stand in that way because they have their own idea of the direction the world should take. So why not have Cloud and Co take them out. Instead of Barrett being the one killed and revived, make it Rufus and the Turks. Sephy killed them but the whisps revived them. Can't stop Shinra with those fates in the way. Gotta take them out. So, where do we get the obligatory Sephiroth fight? Same place we got them in other games. Optional Boss Battle. We don't even need to invent a special area to fight him in, Shinra already did. Their combat simulation is perfect. It already has the secret bosses so why not add one more. They no doubt have Sephiroth's combat data from the time he was in first class. So we fight THAT one. 1st Class Soldier Sephiroth. You get the challenging combat that everyone knows you have to do. But it also gives you a bit of a hollow victory. Yeah, you beat him, but only in a computer simulation. Can you do it in the real world? How much different is the current Sephiroth from the one in the Shinra database, the Sephy from over half a decade ago? We don't know. And that keeps those tense moments we'll have in the future, well, tense.

Great video. Id say im slightly more optimistic about where the series is going than you but overall this is a very fair and reasonable take. I do hope they keep the core team for the next parts because this seems like a pretty solid combo. Certainly it feels leagues better than Final Fantasy has been for the last decade.

Love your inclusion of TFS FF7 Machinabridged clips :D

21:33 Context: FF7R was my first FF7 experience. IT WAS COOL. Seeing what made cloud panic every time he saw him was very strong. It also brought in everyone who else who wasn’t understanding what cloud was dealing with. I thought that was neat

I think once you forget about what it was and get excited about what it COULD be, that anxiety will go away. And it's not like HD mods for the original dont exist.

lol the foxcade sandbag

i like your title suggestion and I was mad at first when finishing the game because I just wanted a 1-1 remake. But after letting my thoughts fester after some time, I'm happy with how the game is setting up the sequel. To me, this is more a final fantasy sequel than a remake or remaster. I really like the remake name, because we're remaking a new story in the universe of final fantasy 7. But really enjoyed your video

Good show! Enjoyed all of your ff7 content so far. I love listening to folks talk about how this game played sucha big part in their lives, just like it did for me.

im sitting here at 1 am adding a chapter to my masters thesis specifically about sephiroth, inspired by your video. i don't mean it in the "stealing your ideas" sense, I'm specifically writing about the many many iterations of sephiroth across different media, but damn if this video didn't inspire me to sit down and resume writing

I loved the train graveyard... what's your problem?

That intro is hype! You should release that as a separate video

18:00 you forgot accidentally hitting the chocobo at soon as you enter the battle because you got so used to the last 8 where the thing never appeared

I'm sorry this has nothing to do with this video in particular but you are one of the coolest essayist around RU-vid. The fact that you don't have 100 000 subs is baffling to me.

i can't believe the video ended. I'm sad

Great and good choice for the music of the intro !!

YES, once again I am in total agreement with you, specifically on the subject of the arbiters of fate. "Desire and need to defy audience expectations." Very well said. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't observe you've been critical of FF13, yet its theme is mirrored by the revised theme of FF7R. Again, great observations all around concerning these thematic issues (I'm compelled to watch again simply because your analytical skills are quite keen).

Well...now I definitely need Majima v. Sephiroth

Great video mate

Unrelated note-Do we know sephiroth doesn’t like cloud? The biggest issue with this analysis is it assumes ff7 remake wants to be anything like the “original” in terms of narrative execution. I’m getting the feeling that the word “remake” in the title is really more of a subtitle like the “matrix:reloaded”. I’d bet there will be no part 2 or part 3 in the title of follow up games. “Remake” (and obviously I’m guessing) is meant to indicate the redoing or attempted correction of the negative events in the original game. So more like re-make as in do-over to address the triviality of trying to change the past (you know for the years of fans wondering what if things went differently in ff7)because in life you make tradeoffs. You marry one women and you don’t marry who may be perfect for you. One person dies the other lives. You take one job you lose the other. You can’t have it all. You can project this forward with the possibility of aeris?aerith? Living and that love triangle that kinda solved itself in the original. consequentially the theme of life still exist in a speculative situation like this.

I thought the expanded train graveyard was a good thing. Sure, it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but why the rush? It feels more like a journey, and is a nice little break from all the intense moments before the whole plate go kaboom. Though, I'm realy taking my time with this game. I started playing in April of last year and I still haven't even finished it. I'm prepared do bail out of this video if it gets too spoilery :3

"I have traveled so far to find so little meaning in tragedy" As I Lay Dying, Meaning In Tragedy Thank god somebody feels the same way I feel about Aerith's death, it wouldn't make any sense if it happened again. The themes of the remake are hope and destiny, do everything in your power to prevent the worst from happening and forge your place in this time, it's you who decides your fate, it's all in your hands.

Awesome video!!! Got yourself a new sub.

Great job! I think that SE is setting the table for the next game. In game 1, you're left feeling hopeful after seeing Biggs and wedge "survive" and feeling like you could possibly alter the last and save Aerith, but I feel that is very intentional. If you think about "hurt and pain" is literally the feelings that made ff7 so iconic and they are going to amplify that in the next game. They are gonna make us hurt more than we ever did before and make us hate sephiroth more than we ever have before and giving us this feeling of "hope" at the end of the game is all part of their plan

Awesome Video!

Btw one of the best FFVIIR videos I’ve seen. Well done!

That intro is the kind of editing I want to eventually achieve. ...gotta get a laptop or PC first lol.

Alright... I wasn't expecting a tfs reference. 7:30 had me laughing.

best video I'll probably come across. Well done.

I didn't have much issue with the train graveyard, sector 7 trek, etc. Cool idea with it being because of Aerith. It wasn't as good as the rest but I was still all about it

This is why I love ya, Ryan.

Yo... CLOUD-CHAN!!!

14:10 agree -part of the horror in the og was that sephiroth was this mysterous guy you only heard Storys of 17:10 haha "you know nothing" 🤣 18:05 true

I get that people didn’t like the train section but that Ghoulish Symphony Boss Fight music really slaps!

Also: I have watched your video twice now. It deserve a subscription. Keep up the good work. In all honestly I would like someone to dare bash the game openly and with discussion. I like the game but I would like people to be more open and not blinded when discussing and I think there needs to be a devils advocate in this matter.

changed? or is it actually a cour 2.. a “NG+” for the characters?

I heard warrior as lawyer and now I'm just really interested in a Sephiroth legal drama

To say you were promised the remake to be the original you wanted to be is just projecting hope. They never state it was going to be a one-for-one reamke.

I honestly think that the reasoning behind why they handled Sephiroth differently is mainly due to things in the overarching plot that are being set up in the first part of FF7 Remake. They introduce the idea of Sephiroth having clones in this game very early. In fact, one of said clones is Cloud’s next door neighbor at the apartment where he stays at. Then Cloud encounters another Sephiroth clone while traveling though the slums with Aerith (after saving some children), and once more inside the Shinra building after Barret gets stabbed and the party is forced to fight a “JENOVA” monster (right after beating it). During each of these moments, where Cloud is face to face with one of Sephiroth’s clones, he is plagued with hallucinations of Sephiroth, seeing him and experiencing PTSD even (based off his demeanor shift and the look of fear on his face). All of these times where Sephiroth has been apparently showing up were just clones, puppets of his showing up to do what he wanted. Sephiroth can manipulate his Clones and was even able to manipulate cloud in the original. However, it’s possible that Sephiroth can’t currently manipulate Cloud because his mind and will are too strong. Cloud’s headaches could be Sephiroth attempting to invade his mind to puppeteer his body but only resulting in headings and hallucinations (because Cloud’s Psyche is too strong at the moment). Now a lot of the stuff regarding Sephiroth trying to control Cloud so early are pure speculation but the fact that Sephiroth is able to hijack Cloud’s body and has done it in the original game isn’t. None of these details are ever explained in any way in Remake part 1 that I’m aware of. However, it’s possible that those details and that information is all being saved for part 2 whenever that releases. The devs might just be setting all of this up in advance so that when it finally does come time to introduce this stuff, it won’t be out of left field. The final boss fight where you face Sephiroth might just be another one of his clones who got strong thanks to absorbing the whispers (after Cloud and company “defeated” them). Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t remember seeing any details that imply that we fought the real Sephiroth at the end but I digress. The devs could be building up Sephiroth as someone who Cloud has personal reasons to seek and fight. Cloud obviously is intimidated by Sephiroth or displays an obvious change in demeanor when he thinks he is around (seriously go back and check out Cloud’s reactions to being in close proximity to Sephiroth, the dude looks like he’s seeing a ghost). I get the why people aren’t happy with everything regarding Sephiroth but I think they did what they did in order to better service the narrative as a whole (establish plot critical information that will be expanded upon later in the games and such).

Cool vid'. I kinda liked the ending even though I think future installments might be full Nomura crazyness, unfortunately. I agree that having all named characters live would be cheap, though.

Before final cut scene/boss fight....sephiroth 7 min talking or in screen time in total out of 35 45hour game. Why have the fight? He is framed throughout the entire game slowly through 1min 15 second snips. Built slowly as a villan. Killing clouds mom barret twice president shina and tifa and tifas father. Arieth saying hes terrible as well. So if he has wronged all the main characters and been shown as evil throughout. So ya he has a well bit fight built throughout the game. Second thing. He is intoduced very closely to how hes introduced in the orginal game on a conceptial scale if you actually think about it. Maybe not at face value howeverrrr the concept you discussed how he strings the players along and acta like there puppets as to what he does. Is...exactly what he does throughout this remake. Everything peoppe find flaws with this game miss the fact they have captered the overarcing orginal concepts in the orginal in the remake first part. Its nit about pre destination. They bluntly say several times its about taking risks and not having regrets. Which was a major point of the original game on a subtext. I can think of 3 times they have different characters say live without regrets and take chances. From begining to end its saying this to you and showing it to you as well as indirectly showing and telling you. Idk how so many people miss the actual purpose of this games message. The node at the end is even a double antondra. The creatives are saying there feelings about why they were hesitant to remake the game.

"Remake" apparently refers to "remake" the timeline. When I finished the game and got access to the chapter select, it occurred to me that they could incorporate the chapter select and continual replays into the storyline for the series ending. We'll get different end fights and end resolutions based on choices we make in all 3 parts (or however many parts we end up getting.) Like the first play through, we end up saving the planet, but humanity dies, so we have to play through again, and Aerith guides us to make different choices to try to come out with a better ending--each time remaking the time line.

Incredible discussion of the game! Taught me a lot about the original too.

It's funny how the reveal trailer for FF7R basically summarizes everything you said here: "Long ago, we looked upon a foreboding sky. The memory of the star that threatened all burns eternal in our hearts. In its wake came an age of silence. Yet with each fond remembrance, we knew those encountered were not forgotten. That someday, we would see them again. Perhaps it was no more than wishful thinking. But after the long calm, there are now the beginnings of a stir... The reunion at hand may bring joy. It may bring fear. But let us embrace whatever it brings. For they are coming back. At last... The promise has been made." But, yeah, basically, I agree with you; right now, I'm torn between anxiety and excitement. "What if they fuck up?" Did they duck up this first part? "Well, uh, not really? I mean, I love it so clearly they did something very right, but some parts and some decisions... I dunno..." Well, you do know why those parts are different, right? "Yes, but I cannot help but question some of the parts and decisions none the less. I mean, was it _really_ necessary for Biggs to survive just to illustrate that destiny has been changed? If they just leave that plot-thread hanging then I'm not really a fan." But if they do follow up upon it. "Then I may still not know if I'm happy with it or not! Wedge made a difference; he saved a lot of lives, and that's great for him, but does he, himself, really have to survive? I love this new Wedge, but I don't want every character death in this Remake to have been a fake-out..." Honestly, I'd say Jessie is kind of a key piece to my puzzle. I want Jessie to have survived _only_ if if her story can be elaborated upon or if we can get some more world-building out of her survival, but I don't want her to have survived just for the sake of surviving. I'm not sure if I'm okay with Biggs' survival, because I don't see him leaving Midgar/appearing in future games. If his survival is meant to foreshadow Jessie's survival and future appearances, then I actually am kinda okay with that... but if Jessie doesn't come back, if none of the Avalanche members come back, then I'm not okay with it... You know that line from Wall-E? "I don't want to survive! I want to live!" Well, a character in a story only comes to life when they fulfill a part. Them merely living and surviving is not fulfilling a part. In such a scenario, they can be much more alive if they die... I am, however, _not_ worried about the power scaling in the future parts, quite frankly because everyone and everything around us have been keeping an even pace with Cloud and the gang in their own power scaling. The Scorpion Sentinel made the Guard Scorpion look like a toy! The Remake!Airbuster was a fucking weapon of mass-destruction compared to the mere tank that the original version was! Remake!Reno and Rude completely outclass their AC!counterparts and would probably, if not outright wipe the floor with Yazoo and Loz, then at least go toe-to-toe with them. Remake!Hell House was no longer a weird mook, it was a full-blown boss, and it was _way_ more powerful than it was in FFVII. I mean, hell, it could even fly! And Remake!Rufus fucking Shinra went from a pushover who challenged a supposed one-man army to a duel like a complete fool to a one-man army in his own right... Frankly speaking, even if the Midgardsormr is reduced to a mere mandatory boss of the Kalm area in the next part, an enemy that we're supposed to defeat in order to advance the plot rather than an unbeatable foe, (this could still be done quite right by making the snake a stage hazard for the swamp area that you first have to run away from and lure up on land in order to have a fighting chance against or something like that,) I am _still_ not worried about the power scaling. Also, I'm quite convinced that Sephiroth is _not_ Advent Children!Sephiroth... Square made a point out of not showing AC!Sephy ever blinking or breathing in order to illustrate that he's transcended beyond such petty, human necessities. But Remake!Sephy? He blinks, he breathes... he clearly has _some_ degree of pre-science, and it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that he gained it from his future self through the tainted lifestream or something like that, but he is most definitely _not_ his future self... Ultimately, I just hope the next part of FF7R won't have a central theme around destiny and stuff though. We covered that theme in this first part and we told destiny where to stick it. Now, let's move on and focus on other themes; let the shifting timeline and the changes we've wrought be a part of the plot, sure, (in fact, you _better_ make it a part of the plot, Square; you _cannot_ show Zack surviving and then not _do_ anything with that plot point,) but _do not_ make the destiny plot as obstructive as the Whispers were. We got rid of them for a reason and they've served their meta purpose. Now, let's not explore the meta around what it means to have changed destiny/remaking events in a remake... And _please_ don't make the moral of this story something along the lines of "Sometimes, changing destiny is wrong and does more harm than it does good, regardless of the intentions," because that would just come across as a "Welp, we tried, but Remaking FFVII was clearly a mistake."

After taking some time thinking about it. It seems after beating the whispers, we kinda had no choice to fight him. He was part of the reason that portal opened, perhaps we had to fight him to get out. Also the effect on the world/timelines didn't resolve until we beat him. We always have plenty of reason to face him when we get the chance. But what was his reason for fighting us there? Only thing I can think of was his motive to try to convince Cloud to join him in further defying destiny. That's about it.

On my first playthrough of FF7 as a child, I was about level 19 when I got to the Midgar Zolom swamp. It's fairly possible to kill the snake even before that level, with the right hutzpah. What's truly infuriating about it though, is that you get across the swamp, doing something the game didn't intend for you to do, to come upon the impaled snake that you just killed. You're 7 years old, and you wonder why the heck the game didn't give you the credit, attributing it to Sephiroth. :( The thing is, is that as you stated Sephiroth has been in a lot of other media. So much so that his gravitas no longer exists anyway, so I don't think it was hard for the developers of FF7R to let that fall away. They basically banked on, "They know who this is." All of the MMO names, screennames, internet handles, gamertags, and so on and so forth that are something like, "Sephirothxxx9925 or ISephirothl over the past 20 years make it pretty obvious that he's permeated our culture. This makes him lose impact as a villain, and I already know dozens of people hoping he gets a redemption into active party member arc. What I think is funny though, is that even in the original FF7, Sephiroth was arguably not the main villain. It was the parasite; the Calamity From the Sky. We know it as Jenova. We know that it took over the Cetra known as Jenova, and it bent her towards world domination while also mutating her body. Sephiroth is closely linked to it, of course, having had it permeate his cells during his time in Lucrecia's womb. It's hard to say for sure though, whether it was his own will or the parasite's, that drove him to desire godhood at the expense of the planet. Considering it did something similar to Jenova though... that's always been the most interesting plot thread to me from FF7. It's a shame though, they didn't expound on it as much as they could have, because they wanted Sephiroth to be seen as the main antagonist. Funny how the times change, huh?

The train yard's issue isn't how long it goes on on for, or what it contains, but that it takes place as we're trying to get to the plate, and that they revealed the fight happening there too soon, they put us in a situation where we just don't want to be there and then populated the whole thing with the toughest mobs in the game, as well as two boss fights, again these aren't necessarily bad on their own, but because we were rushing towards that important scene it made it feel like we were running through pudding.

I want her to live. I want a new. I love Areith way to much. I want a redemption arch for sephiroth which is odd and way out but hey. :)

I agree that there is a balance to be struck with how far they should change things and you could argue endlessly about where that line is, except I think there is a very clear and obvious line, and that's the core narrative of what happens. I think it's clear that they will need to add things and even change things or reorder things to make it a more cohesive experience (especially everything after midgar), but major shifts in the core direction of the story is where I personally take issue. I think most people will agree that 90% of the game, up until the end, was solid, unless they are total purists. Obviously there are some issues and it's imperfect in various categories (level design being an example), but for the most part it's pretty phenomenal. They set expectations within the first hour of the game pretty cleanly and stuck to those expectations pretty consistently up until the end. I think there is a line between the additions and alterations and fleshing out prior to the ending vs the addition of the whispers. Now, personally, I wouldn't care so much about the shift in direction if I felt the story they were building up to was good and the execution of that was compelling. But for me, it completely missed the mark and I saw it coming around aerith's church. Okay, I did't see Sephiroth ripping a portal into _spacetime_ coming, but I got the basic gist of what the whispers were doing. To me, just not a fan of it, but not put off by it enough to not see where they are going with the next one.