Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, like Kitase and Nomura will reinvent Cloud

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

That Yoshinori Kitase, Kazushige Nojima and Tetsuya Nomura intended to give life to their Final Fantasy VII, their idea of ​​the AVALANCHE epic and battle at Sephiroth, was evident right away, ever since the Director of the original chapter, the first of the aforementioned trio (who is now the Producer), arrived in Italy in February 2020, in Milan, a few days after the outbreak of the world pandemic, to tell about his intentions. We, insiders and enthusiasts, were interested, in that moment that we feared could become ephemeral, only to be able to replay Final Fantasy VII with the technical and graphic quality of today, on our PlayStation 4, sure of the fact that we would soon enjoy it to the full. hands also on PlayStation 5. We had not posed too many problems, because we were children of enthusiasm and a very naive question: how could they ever change the cards on the table?

The rebirth of a remake

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth loses the Remake nomenclature: we knew it would happen because Final Fantasy VII Remake (find here a special from two years ago of speculations about the future) it didn't have any "Part I" in its title, which hinted at an important change of course at the end of those 18 chapters. Beyond transitory analyzes on the title itself, we are projected into the reality of Rebirth by Aerith's voice, ready to act as a demiurge of what is happening and, with a solemn sentence, remind us how much the current Square-Enix team has respect. for the original work, but how strong is the interest in doing something new. “What has been done is immutable. The past is forever. But the future, even if written, can be changed. Think about the future, not the past "is a warning to all longtime fans who, aware of their experience in Midgar twenty-five years ago, should be ready, today, to experience something different: the most innovative medium ever asks an important effort to its community, often proven to be the most conservative of any other media.

In Cloud's mind

It's not necessarily going to be possible, because Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is telling us that we could be in a parallel line from a temporal point of view to the original work. A very strong assumption, because everything could be, at this point: Cloud could be in the throes of Mako reactions so strong that he is not able to realize that he is at the center of a huge illusion and therefore a victim of visions that do not correspond to the original story; the development team may simply be interested in taking a different fork from the crossroads created in Midgar after having told us about the taking of the Reactor anyway; Aerith and Sephiroth, as the only ones not totally human by nature (the first last descendant of the Ancients, born from the mixture of alien cells with their own fetus the second) are aware of what happened in the timeline of Hironobu Sakaguchi, but they are eager to change it. the course now.

The new spring of Zack Fair

Another character that could be recovered, in a quite sensational way, in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth could be Zack Fair . To the most unknown, Cloud's companion in arms managed to break through the hearts of all fans of the saga thanks to the prequel chapter Crisis Core, of which a remake will arrive during this winter, in order to relive the experience. that had Zack in his career to become a SOLDIER. Next to him there will be a young Sephiroth as well as Genesis, a character who now risks becoming canon and probably integrated into Rebirth. On the other hand, the need to make a Crisis Core remake inevitably stems from the fact that it will be essential to reconnect everything in Final Fantasy VII. Yes, I know you're thinking that already so I'll tell you: like in Kingdom Hearts.




How far Final Fantasy VII Rebirth could go in terms of the narrative arc, when compared to the original, is not easy to say. . The interruption at the moment of leaving Midgar from the Remake made sense and predictable, but now the work of fragmentation becomes more difficult. What is certain is that the possibility of moving around the world map piques our interest, because it will be necessary to see how, today, that gameplay session can be replicated also from a technical point of view.

Midgar was cramped and in some places even labyrinthine, while the world map of Final Fantasy VII, as they were all up to the ninth chapter, was iconic and vast. It will be the time of Vincent Valentine, that of Cid Highwind, it will be the time of the journey to the Temple of the Ancients and the Forgotten Capital. What will happen in this last location is yet to be discovered, but the hope is that Kitase, Nojima and Nomura will not deprive us of what we have wanted since we have the opportunity: to experience those settings with modern photorealism. Whatever story they want to tell us, let them do it too. After all, Final Fantasy VII, Sakaguchi's original, is "immutable and forever". They, who have worked on it, know it better than us.