Warning: this text comprises full spoilers for each Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the unique Final Fantasy 7.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth continues the work of its predecessor, which implies it not solely recreates the unique 1997 basic with fashionable graphics and gameplay, but it surely additionally makes substantial adjustments to the story. Interestingly, Rebirth isn’t fairly as radical as Final Fantasy 7 Remake was, and for a lot of its runtime is a largely trustworthy adaptation of what you keep in mind. But the nearer you get to the tip, the larger the rewrites grow to be. Ahead lies the seven greatest adjustments, which naturally means big spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the unique recreation. Read on at your individual danger!
The Gi Created the Black Materia
In the unique Final Fantasy 7, the Black Materia is a mysterious, historical magical orb that’s able to summoning meteor, a space-faring rock that may destroy planets. Very little is understood of its origin, however its damaging powers are revealed in a mural when the occasion visits the Temple of the Ancients.
Rebirth partly reimagines the Black Materia, giving it a full origin story. It was created by the Gi, the undead tribe that haunts the tunnels beneath Cosmo Canyon. In a model new sequence for Rebirth, the chief of the tribe, Gi Nattak, takes you to his village, the place it’s revealed that the Gi have been residing in a stressed purgatory for hundreds of years.
In the world of Final Fantasy 7, your spirit is created by the Lifestream and returns to it while you die. Unfortunately for them, the Gi aren’t born of the Lifestream. It’s by no means defined the place they initially got here from, however their outsider standing means they can’t return to the Lifestream and thus are trapped as ghosts for eternity. In an effort to launch them from their curse, the Gi developed a materia that turned black “with ache and spite”. They deliberate to make use of it to summon a meteor that may obliterate each themselves and the planet that held them ‘hostage’. In quick: absolute nothingness is best than a tortured eternity of undeath.
Before the Gi may use the Black Materia, Aerith’s ancestors – the Cetra – stole it and locked it away within the Temple of the Ancients. Gi Nattak asks Cloud and his mates to retrieve the Black Materia for him, and whereas they comply with his request, they solely accomplish that within the goal of maintaining it away from each the Gi and Sephiroth.
Character Introductions Have Completely Changed
Rebirth introduces 4 new characters to the occasion: Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid Highwind, and Vincent Valentine. If you’ve performed the unique, solely Cait Sith shall be launched in the identical method you keep in mind.
This time round, Yuffie shouldn’t be randomly discovered wandering the world’s forest. Instead, she washes up on the seaside at Junon Harbour, along with her early moments changing the CPR scenes with Pricilla from the unique recreation. Yuffie made her approach to Junon with the goal of assassinating Rufus Shinra, and her try to take action occurs as a part of Rufus’ army parade.
Cid can be met in a completely totally different a part of the world. In the unique recreation he’s recruited from his house in Rocket Town, the place a disagreement with Shinra turns into an explosive escape. But in Rebirth the occasion by no means goes to Rocket Town. Instead, Cid is depicted as a pilot-for-hire. Summoned by sending up a smoke sign at Gongaga airfield, Cid’s preliminary position is as a fast-travel system, flying you from location to location within the Tiny Bronco. Later, he pledges himself to the occasion after revealing that he as soon as met Aerith’s organic mom, Ifalna. Upset to study that she died, Cid agrees to assist Aerith in any method she wants.
Finally we now have Vincent, who does nonetheless stay locked within the Shinra Mansion basement, however is that this time met when the occasion seeks out a pc terminal that can reveal the placement of the Temple of the Ancients. Vincent agrees to assist, however when the group stumbles throughout Professor Hojo’s outdated Reunion lab tools, he forcibly steps in to cease them. And by forcibly, I imply he transforms into Galian Beast, the werewolf-like monster that was his Limit Break within the unique recreation. After being defeated, Vincent is satisfied to tag together with the occasion due to his previous affiliation with Sephiroth and Shinra.
Cloud Tries To Kill Tifa at Gongaga Reactor
Throughout the sport, visions of Sephiroth attempt to persuade Cloud that Tifa is an imposter. This all involves a head at Gongaga Reactor the place a tormented Cloud lashes out at Tifa, believing that she is a manifestation of Jenova. He tries to kill her, however Tifa manages to dodge backwards and escape the attain of his sword.
While Tifa survives Cloud’s try on her life, she as a substitute falls into the reactor’s lake of liquid mako. She’s then swallowed complete by a Weapon, one of many whale-like protectors of the planet. Trapped contained in the Weapon’s big materia-like stomach, she watches because it swims by way of the Lifestream. On the journey she experiences visions from the previous, together with recollections of her childhood dialog with Cloud when she made him promise to avoid wasting her. This is all similar to a sequence from the unique recreation, but it surely occurred a lot later when Cloud was recovering in Mideel. The sequence ends with Tifa watching a imaginative and prescient of Sephiroth guiding Cloud away from her, foreshadowing the villain’s grip over her buddy.
The Weapon ultimately resurfaces at Gongaga Reactor and, surrounded by Whispers, releases Tifa. The suggestion is that, very similar to when Barret was ‘killed’ and resurrected by Whispers in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it’s not Tifa’s time to go but.
Aerith (and Red XIII) Knew Her Fate
In the unique Final Fantasy 7, Aerith had no concept of the dying that awaited her on the Forgotten Capital. But in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it was recommended that Aerith was in a position to see the long run. Rebirth reinforces this, and divulges that Red XIII additionally had the flexibility to see the long run, too (offered you are taking him on a date on the Gold Saucer.) However, since leaving Midgar, each Red XIII and Aerith have misplaced their capability to see what’s forward.
But how may Aerith and Red XIII see the long run, and why can’t they now? The reply appears to be Aerith’s White Materia. In the unique recreation this particular orb was used to summon Holy, a protecting magic that may defend the whole planet. In Rebirth, Red XIII explains that materia is fashioned of information and recollections, and so it appears that evidently the White Materia is the vessel for Aerith’s visions of the long run. Red XIII was presumably in a position to faucet into these visions, maybe on account of his time spent on the non secular retreat of Cosmo Canyon. The downside is that by the occasions of Rebirth the White Materia is now not white – it’s colourless and ‘empty’. The recollections are gone, as thus so is its energy to name Holy.
Those recollections had been taken by the Whispers. Last yr, Square Enix confirmed that every time the Whispers touched Aerith in Remake, they stole away one other reminiscence. By the time the Whisper Harbinger had been defeated, each one in every of her future recollections had been taken away, leaving her none the wiser of her destiny.
In Rebirth’s remaining chapter, Cloud is taken to a brand new actuality the place he meets an alternate model of Aerith who has her personal working White Materia. She tells him “Whatever occurs, don’t blame your self,” clearly demonstrating that this Aerith additionally is aware of of her destiny due to her materia. She offers her orb to Cloud and sends him again to his actuality, permitting him to reunite his Aerith with a working White Materia, these future recollections, and the facility to name Holy.
Sephiroth Wants the Multiverse, Not Just the Lifestream
Sephiroth’s plan within the unique recreation was to ascend to godhood by way of absorbing the Lifestream. While he nonetheless appears fairly set on that ascension within the remake trilogy, Rebirth reveals that his grasp plan additionally entails conquering the multiverse by way of one thing referred to as Reunion.
Reunion shouldn’t be a brand new factor for Final Fantasy 7 followers, however within the unique recreation it referred to the reunion of Jenova’s cells. In Rebirth, it refers to Sephiroth orchestrating the convergence of many various worlds or realities. He calls this a ‘homecoming’, and when it begins he says their becoming a member of is a “confluence of worlds and feelings.” It appears, then, that the mass assortment of each realities and the feelings of those that reside inside them is necessary to Sephiroth’s total plan. And since he nonetheless desires the Black Materia, it appears fairly apparent that mass destruction of not only one world however many is on his bucket listing…
Zack and Aerith Are Still Alive, Sorta
In the unique Final Fantasy 7, Aerith was killed by Sephiroth on the Forgotten Capital. However, the ultimate cutscene implied that her spirit lived on within the Lifestream, and that she was in a position to shield the planet from meteor from there. This concept has been stored for Rebirth, however it’s offered in a really totally different method. Aerith nonetheless dies by Sephiroth’s sword, however her non secular kind lives on and might immediately talk with Cloud – though sadly the remainder of the occasion are unaware of her presence. In the ultimate cutscene, Aerith guarantees Cloud that she’s going to cease the meteor – a transparent nod to the unique recreation’s finale.
While Aerith’s destiny is just considerably totally different to the unique recreation’s model, what we see of Zack may be very totally different. He outright died within the unique, in fact, however the creation of a number of realities within the remake trilogy implies that Zack lives on in numerous worlds of the multiverse. We truly see a number of totally different variations of Zack throughout Rebirth in worlds separate from the ‘important’ actuality our heroes reside in. At the very finish of the sport, although, the Zack that fights within the remaining battle ponders on one thing Sephiroth advised him: that worlds unite and half. He wonders if that implies that worlds can reunite a second time. The implication – or not less than the hope – is that Zack’s actuality will unite with a world the place he can reside fortunately with alternate variations of Aerith and Cloud, as those in his actuality look like terminally sick.
Glenn Lodbrok and the Shinra vs. Wutai War
The unique Final Fantasy 7 briefly established that Yuffie’s house of Wutai was as soon as at conflict with Shinra. The remake trilogy has expanded on that, and it turns into a notable secondary plotpoint in Rebirth. There’s presently a cease-fire settlement between Wutai and Shinra, however Glenn Lodbrok – a former SOLDIER who defected to Wutai – is making an attempt to stoke the fires of conflict once more and destroy each Shinra and Midgar. In a public handle he claims that Shinra has massacred Wutai troopers – a state of affairs he virtually definitely engineered to extend tensions – and likewise falsely blames the emergence of the Weapons on the corporate.
In the finale, it’s revealed that Glenn is definitely a puppet of Sephiroth, and that the makes an attempt to reignite the Shinra vs. Wutai conflict is a ploy to distract Rufus. Sephiroth doesn’t communicate plainly about why he’s doing this, however he does say “our promised land will grow to be a actuality”. Based on this, it’s logical to imagine that he’s making an attempt to divert Rufus’ consideration away from his objective of discovering the Promised Land. In the unique Final Fantasy 7, Sephiroth sought the Promised Land because it was a spot the place he may soak up the mass quantities of Mako power required to make use of the Black Materia and solid Meteor. Meanwhile, the late President Shinra hoped to search out it and use its power to construct Neo Midgar. We know Rebirth’s model of Rufus nonetheless hopes to finish his father’s work, and it is smart that this model of Sephiroth nonetheless requires the power. Thus, if Rufus is distracted by a conflict with Wutai, then Sephiroth can extra simply beat him within the race to the Promised Land.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
