What Is This Fascinating Phenomenon?

[rionaleonhart]

I have finished Final Fantasy VII Remake! Here are my notes on the last few chapters of the game.



I rarely buy items in RPGs - I usually save my money for weapons and armour - and then Final Fantasy VII Remake introduced in-game special offers and suddenly I'm buying loads of items I'll never use, like a sucker.

Oh, hey, you can see Red XIII sleeping in one of the cylinders in the room where you fight Hojo's experiment!

'Quick, we have to help Aerith!'
'Sorry, guys; I'm going to stand here for five minutes, watching Red XIII breathe and twitch his little tail in his sleep.'

'My boy, you weren't a SOLDIER.' Just coming right out and saying it!!!

I snorted aloud at Hojo asking 'What is this fascinating phenomenon?' while being carried away by ghosts.

Did they cut the bit where Hojo tries to crossbreed Aerith and Red XIII? Cowards.

When Cloud is having a bad spell and walking slowly along the corridor, he'll stay still if you don't touch the analogue stick, and he'll obviously move forward if you push it forward, but he'll also move forward if you push it backwards.

Somehow I'm surprised to see Reno so battered! I wasn't expecting our fight to have lasting, visible effects.

Interesting exchange: Rude says he's been wondering whether dropping the plate was really necessary. Tseng says, if they hadn't done it, someone else would have. 'We have spared that person the burden of a guilty conscience.'

When that's rejected, Tseng just offers a different justification. 'Do you actually believe that?' Rude asks. 'Does it matter?' Tseng replies.

The ghosts 'are drawn to those who attempt to alter destiny's course and ensure they do not'. TIME LOOPS TIME LOOPS. The ghosts weren't in the original game because that was the first time things played out; there was no destiny then! Now events need to follow the course of the original Final Fantasy VII, and the ghosts are here to ensure they do.

'So you're saying that flow [of time] is somehow fixed?' Tifa asks. Yes. It's fixed by the fact that you're characters from a two-decade-old videogame, and this is a remake of that videogame. I hope that genuinely is what's going on here, because I absolutely love how stupid it is.

Barret demands to know how Red XIII knows about this. I hope the answer is that he's played Final Fantasy VII already.

Tifa takes Aerith's hand and pulls her out of the destiny ghost whirlwind. I want to make a note of this because I can easily envision it being called back to at a particular point in a later game.

Rei insists on calling Red XIII 'Tony the Tiger'.

Riona: I just got healed and I don't know how.
Rei: Maybe your friend Tony the Tiger did it.
Riona: Oh, thank you, Tony the Tiger! You're grrrrrreat.

Barret telling Cloud 'hey, you know, Wedge really likes you' is very cute.

My controversial Final Fantasy VII opinion is that Hojo is a better villain than Sephiroth. He's more fun and I find his motives much easier to grasp. The man just really loves science.

Slightly weird to have this dramatic scene where Barret's being held at gunpoint, given all the hundreds of bullets he can shrug off in combat. We've fought automated gun turrets! They shot us to bits and we were fine!

What? What? What? What? What???

So... Barret got impaled by a sword, but has now been healed by one of the ghosts who are trying to make sure this remake follows the plot of the original game?

Always pictured Rufus looking and sounding younger, somehow. He feels very close to Ravus here.

'Let's make it a night to remember,' Rufus says. Again, everyone wants to bang Cloud.

Possibly the best moment in the entire game:

Heidegger: What is this ragtag group of misfits I see before me?
Barret: Avalanche!
Aerith: Local florist!
Red XIII: Lab rat dog.
Heidegger: So then where are the rest of you?
Barret: Up your ass.

'Everything about you is wrong,' Aerith tells Sephiroth, outraged that he's showing up at a point where he didn't appear in the original game.

I can't stop picturing the ghosts as screaming FFVII purists now.

I wasn't expecting to see Zack in this instalment!

Maybe you would've done better if you'd equipped some goddamn materia, Zack.

On the other side, Aerith says we'll find freedom. Two questions spring to mind immediately:

- does she mean freedom from the predetermined story of Final Fantasy VII?
- if so, is the answer to the question 'why isn't it called Final Fantasy VII Remake, Part 1?' that there'll never technically be a second instalment of the remake? The first instalment is remaking Final Fantasy VII, but future instalments are going to branch off and follow a completely different story? I feel Square is weird enough for this to be possible.

After Aerith's heartfelt speech, I'm increasingly suspecting this first act is going to end with us killing Sephiroth, and if that's right I cannot wait to look at the reactions online.

Barret: You're alive!
Cloud: Happy to see me?
Barret: Wouldn't go that far.

Cloud and Barret fondly giving each other shit is great.

Were we just fighting one of Red XIII's cubs? Back from the future to try to preserve the timeline that leads to its birth? Maybe not.

'Do you dream of me?' Sephiroth asks. This game is being very good to the Cloud/Sephiroth shippers, although frankly it's also being good to the Cloud/anyone shippers.

Cloud being magically restrained on his back with Sephiroth's sword at his throat is prime fanfiction material.

I JUST DEFEATED SEPHIROTH BY DROPPING A BIG FAT CHOCOBO ON HIM

I can't believe we're fighting in Final Destination.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?? ZACK???

I had to pause the game just so I could shriek at Ginger in high-pitched outrage.

BIGGS?

'The Unknown Journey Will Continue'. I guess I was right! It's called Final Fantasy VII Remake, no 'Part 1', because beyond this they're not remaking Final Fantasy VII! What??

This is so stupid. I love it.

I don't love Zack being alive, though, I'll admit. I like Zack, but his death is so crucial to Cloud's character that it really doesn't seem right for him to have survived.

And I do love the story of the original Final Fantasy VII, so I'm sorry we're not getting to see it truly remade.


Here is something I wrote two and a half weeks ago:

It's the eighth of April; Final Fantasy VII Remake is not out yet. I just opened batman's entry on the game, thinking 'it's a remake of a game I've already played; how spoilery can it be?', and I saw something like 'the twist is in the damn title of' and immediately backed out, thinking 'maybe there's a greater spoiler risk than I thought'.

But my mind won't stop coming up with stupid theories, and I thought I'd note them down so I can look back after playing the game and (hopefully) laugh at how wrong I am.

The twist is in the damn title of... the game? That's the only thing I can think of. But how can Final Fantasy VII Remake be a spoilery title? Here's what's coming to mind:

- The Stupid Theory: the events of FFVII are canonically being replicated. Cloud is caught in a time loop. This isn't a standard remake of the events of Final Fantasy VII. This is a sequel.

- The Extremely Stupid Theory: the events of FFVII are canonically being remade. The characters of Final Fantasy VII Remake are actually actors remaking Final Fantasy VII.

- The Stupidest Theory: FFVII is canonically being remade, but not by actors. The protagonist of Final Fantasy VII Remake was abducted by Final Fantasy VII fans and had his memories rewritten to believe he was Cloud Strife. The events of Final Fantasy VII Remake are entirely staged by these fans, manipulating these poor delusional people who genuinely believe themselves to be the game's characters. The Zack twist is just the tip of the false-memory iceberg.

Now that I've actually finished the game, I'm not sure we can actually rule any of these out.



In conclusion, I've had a great time, and also ???????