The newest entry in theFinal Fantasy VIIremake project is dubbedRebirth. The newsrevealed yesterdayconfirms that the next entry arrives next winter, and the story of Cloud and pals will continue on. ButRebirthalso locks in a few interesting tidbits aboutFinal Fantasy VII Remakeitself, which seem to cement the direction being taken with remaking this classic adventure: truly re-making it.
[This article contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Remake.]
There was a curiosity, I think, about what the naming convention of this new series would be after the first was simply calledFinal Fantasy VII Remake. Is the next one “Remake Part 2?”Final Fantasy VII Remake Continued? Or some other equally bizarre naming convention, the kind only Square could concoct?
Well, the answer is much more simple:Final Fantasy VII Remake,Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and one more game in the future to complete the story.
I’ve seen some confusion about this.Remakehas certain connotations and expectations, especially in video games. Games like Bluepoint’sShadow of the Colossus,PokemonHeartGoldandSoulSilver, or Capcom’s ongoingResident Evilremakes all hew closer to the source material. Some might add new content or ideas, in ways that change up the game pretty significantly; seeResident Evil 2and its new camera angle and controls, for example. But it’s still a new angle on largely familiar subject material.
Remake doesn’t just mean recreation, though. You could, feasibly, re-make something; that is, make it from scratch, from square-zero. And how does that affect the story?
What’s in aRemake?
Final Fantasy VII Remakewas pretty clear up-front about how it wasn’t going to be a direct retelling. Story events happen at unintended moments. Different conversations take place. There are literal ghosts flying around, trying to reinforce the narrative of the originalFinal Fantasy VII, and theRemakeends with the party defeating them.
Alex Donaldson atRPG Sitewrote about this as well, highlighting how fans had written their own theories about why any of this happened but still could be a remake. I think the writing’s on the wall at this point:Remakeis not about simply doingFinal Fantasy VIIagain. It’s about building a new one from the ground-up, while still acknowledging the original.
We see scenes in theRebirthtrailer of Cloud and Sephiroth walking together. We get flashes of questions, like what’s going to happen to the planet, and what does Sephiroth actually want? Zack Fair is alive! That’s already a huge change from the original game, and with aCrisis Coreremaster on the way, Square seems like it will be making heavy use of Zack.
Tackling history
It honestly reminds me a lot of theRebuild of Evangelion. These films were touted as such: a “rebuild” ofNeon Genesis Evangelion. The first movie had some teases that something was different, that something was amiss. But it was still, largely, a recreation of the first quarter-to-third of the television series. Then, in2.22, things radically changed. The final film’s title,Thrice Upon a Time, feels like itself a recognition that it’s the third time series creator Hideaki Anno has “ended”Evangelion, and the fourth movie is acutely aware of every bit ofEvathat came before it.
I don’t just bring this up for remake comparisons, but becauseEvangeliontackled a similar question to what it feelsFinal Fantasy VII‘s developers have as well: how do you remake something so significant, so well-remembered?
InFinal Fantasy VII Remake‘s case, the decision has been made. There is a new future ahead, one where the tracks have been torn up and new possibilities await. Different characters seem cognizant of this fact, like Aerith and Sephiroth, and there are already some great theories out there about the nature of their existence in this timeline.
For some, this might be a disappointment. I’ve seen the sentiment before that a direct remake ofFinal Fantasy VIIis what some people were hoping we’d get. In a strange way, Square Enix is delivering that, albeit in the form ofEver Crisis, a retreading of allFinal Fantasy VII.
Building a trilogy
I’m pretty excited for this new direction, though. WithFinal Fantasy VII Rebirth, it seems like the remake series is not just heading in new directions and unforeseen story avenues, but doing so in recognition of what came before it. Does this mean things will get extremely meta and twist over themselves? Yeah, probably.Kingdom Hearts‘ Tetsuya Nomura is at the creative director helm for this, after all.
Yet it’s that world of bizarre impossibilities that feels more exciting to me than playing through the classic again. Could we see a world in which Aerith doesn’t have to die? In which Cloud and Zack could co-exist, or maybe where their shared presence brings them to cross Buster Swords? What of the extended cast of Vincent, Cait Sith, and Cid?
In comments from the creative leaders behind theFinal Fantasy VIIremake project yesterday, producer Yoshinori Kitasehighlighted the special placea middle entry has in a trilogy. Making a second entry in a three-part series can be difficult. Yet there’s a tradition of classic second installments, ones that tell incredible stories and take compelling risks. Kitase specifically notes stunning story twists and deeper explorations of characters as two factors that can make them stand out. Rebirth seems to be following in the same vein.
While there might be some level of disappointment present in not getting those same moments fromFinal Fantasy VIIfaithfully recreated, this also means we can go anywhere from here. It could still be good or bad, but at the very least, it won’t be something we already know. And to me, that’s pretty exciting. SeeingFinal Fantasy VIInot just recreated, but remade into its own self-aware story means nothing is off the table at this point.
