By [ad_1]
Warning: this text comprises full spoilers for each Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the unique Closing Fantasy 7.
Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth continues the work of its predecessor, which implies it not solely recreates the unique 1997 basic with trendy graphics and gameplay, but it surely additionally makes substantial modifications to the story. Curiously, Rebirth isn’t fairly as radical as Closing Fantasy 7 Remake was, and for a lot of its runtime is a largely trustworthy adaptation of what you bear in mind. However the nearer you get to the tip, the larger the rewrites turn into. Forward lies the seven largest modifications, which naturally means large spoilers for Closing Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the unique sport. Learn on at your personal threat!
The Gi Created the Black Materia
Within the authentic Closing 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. Little or no is understood of its origin, however its damaging powers are revealed in a mural when the social gathering 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.
On the earth of Closing Fantasy 7, your spirit is created by the Lifestream and returns to it whenever you die. Sadly for them, the Gi are usually not born of the Lifestream. It is by no means defined the place they initially got here from, however their outsider standing means they can not 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 will obliterate each themselves and the planet that held them ‘hostage’. In brief: absolute nothingness is best than a tortured eternity of undeath.
Earlier than 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 pals to retrieve the Black Materia for him, and whereas they comply with his request, they solely achieve this within the purpose of maintaining it away from each the Gi and Sephiroth.
Character Introductions Have Utterly Modified
Rebirth introduces 4 new characters to the social gathering: Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cid Highwind, and Vincent Valentine. When you’ve performed the unique, solely Cait Sith shall be launched in the identical means you bear in mind.
This time round, Yuffie is just not randomly discovered wandering the world’s forest. As a substitute, she washes up on the seashore at Junon Harbour, together with her early moments changing the CPR scenes with Pricilla from the unique sport. Yuffie made her solution to Junon with the purpose of assassinating Rufus Shinra, and her try to take action occurs as a part of Rufus’ army parade.
Cid can also be met in a wholly completely different a part of the world. Within the authentic sport he’s recruited from his dwelling in Rocket City, the place a disagreement with Shinra turns into an explosive escape. However in Rebirth the social gathering by no means goes to Rocket City. As a substitute, 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 social gathering after revealing that he as soon as met Aerith’s organic mom, Ifalna. Upset to be taught that she died, Cid agrees to assist Aerith in any means she wants.
Lastly we’ve Vincent, who does nonetheless stay locked within the Shinra Mansion basement, however is that this time met when the social gathering 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 Restrict Break within the authentic sport. After being defeated, Vincent is satisfied to tag together with the social gathering due to his previous affiliation with Sephiroth and Shinra.
Cloud Tries To Kill Tifa at Gongaga Reactor
All through 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.
Whereas Tifa survives Cloud’s try on her life, she as an alternative falls into the reactor’s lake of liquid mako. She’s then swallowed entire by a Weapon, one of many whale-like protectors of the planet. Trapped contained in the Weapon’s large materia-like stomach, she watches because it swims by the Lifestream. On the journey she experiences visions from the previous, together with reminiscences of her childhood dialog with Cloud when she made him promise to avoid wasting her. That is all similar to a sequence from the unique sport, but it surely befell 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 good friend.
The Weapon finally resurfaces at Gongaga Reactor and, surrounded by Whispers, releases Tifa. The suggestion is that, very like when Barret was ‘killed’ and resurrected by Whispers in Closing Fantasy 7 Remake, it’s not Tifa’s time to go but.
Aerith (and Crimson XIII) Knew Her Destiny
Within the authentic Closing Fantasy 7, Aerith had no thought of the demise that awaited her on the Forgotten Capital. However in Closing Fantasy 7 Remake, it was prompt that Aerith was capable of see the long run. Rebirth reinforces this, and divulges that Crimson XIII additionally had the flexibility to see the long run, too (offered you’re taking him on a date on the Gold Saucer.) Nonetheless, since leaving Midgar, each Crimson XIII and Aerith have misplaced their means to see what’s forward.
However how may Aerith and Crimson XIII see the long run, and why can’t they now? The reply appears to be Aerith’s White Materia. Within the authentic sport this particular orb was used to summon Holy, a protecting magic that may defend the whole planet. In Rebirth, Crimson XIII explains that materia is shaped of data and reminiscences, and so it appears that evidently the White Materia is the vessel for Aerith’s visions of the long run. Crimson XIII was presumably capable of faucet into these visions, maybe because of his time spent on the non secular retreat of Cosmo Canyon. The issue is that by the occasions of Rebirth the White Materia is now not white – it’s colourless and ‘empty’. The reminiscences are gone, as thus so is its energy to name Holy.
These reminiscences have been taken by the Whispers. Final yr, Square Enix confirmed that every time the Whispers touched Aerith in Remake, they stole away one other reminiscence. By the point the Whisper Harbinger had been defeated, each one in all her future reminiscences 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 “No matter occurs, don’t blame your self,” clearly demonstrating that this Aerith additionally is aware of of her destiny because of her materia. She provides her orb to Cloud and sends him again to his actuality, permitting him to reunite his Aerith with a working White Materia, these future reminiscences, and the facility to name Holy.
Sephiroth Desires the Multiverse, Not Simply the Lifestream
Sephiroth’s plan within the authentic sport was to ascend to godhood through absorbing the Lifestream. Whereas he nonetheless appears fairly set on that ascension within the remake trilogy, Rebirth reveals that his grasp plan additionally entails conquering the multiverse through one thing referred to as Reunion.
Reunion is just not a brand new factor for Closing Fantasy 7 followers, however within the authentic sport 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 stay inside them is essential to Sephiroth’s general plan. And since he nonetheless needs 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 Nonetheless Alive, Sorta
Within the authentic Closing Fantasy 7, Aerith was killed by Sephiroth on the Forgotten Capital. Nonetheless, the ultimate cutscene implied that her spirit lived on within the Lifestream, and that she was capable of defend the planet from meteor from there. This concept has been stored for Rebirth, however it’s introduced in a really completely different means. Aerith nonetheless dies by Sephiroth’s sword, however her non secular type lives on and might instantly talk with Cloud – though sadly the remainder of the social gathering are unaware of her presence. Within the remaining cutscene, Aerith guarantees Cloud that she’s going to cease the meteor – a transparent nod to the unique sport’s finale.
Whereas Aerith’s destiny is barely considerably completely different to the unique sport’s model, what we see of Zack could be very completely different. He outright died within the authentic, after all, however the creation of a number of realities within the remake trilogy signifies that Zack lives on in numerous worlds of the multiverse. We really see a number of completely different variations of Zack throughout Rebirth in worlds separate from the ‘essential’ actuality our heroes stay in. On the very finish of the sport, although, the Zack that fights within the remaining battle ponders on one thing Sephiroth informed him: that worlds unite and half. He wonders if that signifies that worlds can reunite a second time. The implication – or at the very least the hope – is that Zack’s actuality will unite with a world the place he can stay fortunately with alternate variations of Aerith and Cloud, as those in his actuality look like terminally sick.
Glenn Lodbrok and the Shinra vs. Wutai Conflict
The unique Closing Fantasy 7 briefly established that Yuffie’s dwelling 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 at the moment a cease-fire settlement between Wutai and Shinra, however Glenn Lodbrok – a former SOLDIER who defected to Wutai – is trying to stoke the fires of conflict once more and destroy each Shinra and Midgar. In a public tackle 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.
Within 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 turn into a actuality”. Based mostly on this, it’s logical to imagine that he’s attempting to divert Rufus’ consideration away from his objective of discovering the Promised Land. Within the authentic Closing Fantasy 7, Sephiroth sought the Promised Land because it was a spot the place he may take up the mass quantities of Mako power required to make use of the Black Materia and forged Meteor. In the meantime, the late President Shinra hoped to search out it and use its power to construct Neo Midgar. We all know Rebirth’s model of Rufus nonetheless hopes to finish his father’s work, and it is sensible 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 Information and Options Editor.
