Yeah, now that I've had some sleep I'm trying to think back on all the stuff they dropped on us in the last couple chapters. BIG HONKIN' SPOILERS, BROS:
Wedge lived! But then maybe didn't? What a weird last scene for him with the whispers not just keeping him from helping the crew but also blacking out to the sound of a window shattering and him making some foreboding last line about hoping he made a difference. Some Final Destination shit going on.
Was that thing with meteor and Sephiroth killing Tifa and Barret in the theater a Cloud mako vision, or legitimately the movie showing that? I know Barret says the movie isn't for children but it just seems like a weird thing for the game to try to sell as a "bug" in the system.
The scene between Hojo and Aerith was great. I really like how they've made Aerith much spunkier and more determined than in the original game. Overall the updates to all of the characters are perfect.
Red XIII was feral...until Aerith very deliberately lifestream'd him back to his senses. Is that what happened, kind of like with Marlene? And by doing so, she imparted her knowledge of the lifestream and the whispers to him? I think this is one of the more intriguing alterations to the plot.
The update to Hojo's lab with him having the mako experiments directly in the Shinra Building (as well as in the secret lab below Sector 7) is a neat idea. The dungeon itself was a little contrived but it was cool having the game switch up the party mechanics like that. The PHS reference was cute, too.
Sephiroth didn't actually rampage through the building this time. His only kill is President Shinra. IMO the whole thing with Barret going off on the president was really well done...until the scene where he pulls out the gun on Barret. Seemed a bit contrived (also why was he hanging from the building in the first place?). BUT THEN BARRET GETS STABBED, TOO. I freaked so hard. And then time ghosts go in and save him from the mortal wounds. So not only can they physically prevent people from messing with destiny, they can straight up cure death.
A Jenova battle! Was actually a cool fight too, although I don't know how I feel about Sephiroth being able to teleport the party to some crazy alternate dimension (more on that below lol). Interesting the game actually shows the Seph clones revert back to the sick guys. And it was Marco, though no one actually acknowledges this ever.
Aside from how strangely quiet the lobby of the very clearly packed Shinra Building was despite all the explosions and shit going down, I absolutely loved how they adapted the party's escape. It was also a little weird that they group has no problem ditching Wedge without even a "But where's Wedge?" throwaway line at least, but I can chalk it up to them being in the moment and also trusting the mayor had things handled internally.
I am surprised Roche did not make another appearance at the motorcycle sequence. The entire minigame is obviously much improved from the original game, but I still kind of really hate how the game can just decide when enemies will be in range for your attacks or not, no matter how you accelerate.
And then now you get to the BIG change in the plot. Whispers completely engulfing Shinra Building. And it looks like they're 100% visible to everyone now. Or at least the plot characters like Rufus and Tseng. I guess it never showed random NPC soldiers or civilians reacting to the whispers. Do we know what they were actually trying to do, though? Cuz up until that point, they interfered to keep the events of the original game mostly intact. But even though the party was doing exactly what they did last time (escape from the building on a crazy motorcycle chase and head out of Midgar), the whispers swarmed the building and then also blocked the end of the highway (or was the Sephiroth that called them--I don't remember).
Sephiroth just going full Kingdom Hearts on us now with the dark portal to the singularity. And the Aerith has the power and knowledge to...I guess purify the portal? Which leads to...the same Midgar? Alternate universe Midgar? Not really sure at all what was going on but the whispers were there, too. Including the boss that was just straight up a slightly reskined heartless. And suddenly both Cloud and Tifa are flying around and cutting huge blocks of concrete in half Advent Children style.
I don't remember the timing of the first full Zack scene, but holy shit?!?!
Trying to remember all the flash-forward "destiny" visions the party got from the heartless boss. Red XIII and his kids at the end of the original game. Aerith's death and Cloud laying her to rest (though I think we only see Cloud react to this one). Meteorfall, except instead of Holy, I think it was the whispers swarming Meteor before Sephiroth seemed to absorb them (and the entire world of Meteor hitting Midgar) into Masamune. Aerith and/or Red may have had a couple more lines about destiny and changing the future. Did I forget anything?
The callback (callforward?) to the final battle between Cloud and Sephiroth was pretty cool. I absolutely was not expecting the game to escalate the way it did, let alone with all the nods towards the end of the original game. Sephiroth even busts out his wing.
It looks like the order that Tifa and Aerith join Cloud in the fight against Sephiroth can be different. I got Tifa. What determines that? Also, I'm watching this last part of the game on YouTube to refresh my memory and I think I killed Sephiroth before he was able to use the whispers to call Meteor during the fight lol. I don't recall seeing that when I fought him, and I remember hitting him with Tifa's limit break when he was staggered to kill him. Certainly didn't see him doing his countdown.
Is Sephiroth in control of the whispers? Or he's able to bend them to his will? And apparently create and/or access a dimension where the whispers reign supreme. He explodes into whispers when Cloud Bravers his ass, too.
And now even Sephiroth is making comments. He stops Cloud's mako headache and says, "That which lies ahead does not yet exist." So a third person alluding to changes from the original game. And Sephiroth commenting that he's already tied to Cloud ("will not let you end") and asks him to help him defy destiny. What's that about?
WTF is "Seven seconds till the end" about?
Did Zack somehow survive? Why were the whispers surrounding past-Midgar? And what was the explosion that he directly felt and reacted to (as opposed to the whispers just sort of saving him and him being none the wiser that anything unusual was going on). Why are we visiting past-Midgar at all? Is it an alternate universe? Because...for Cloud and the party to be doing exactly what they're doing, Zack needs to have died. And then you see the light particle things fall around in Zack's world, and immediately then cut to the current-time residents of Midgar seeing the same thing. Weird.
Interesting to see the residents of Sector 7's efforts to rebuild the sector. And Biggs made it! So the whispers aren't perfect (but maybe they still mess with him so he doesn't interfere with the plot/still ends up dying, Final Destination style). And was that Jessie's headband and gloves next to him? Or was that Biggs' equipment? There were also flowers, so whoever saved Biggs (and maybe Jessie), Elmyra and Marlene must be involved.
What a way to end the game. You've got all this stuff about changing destiny and moving forward, interposed with a flashback to not just the past, but an alternate version of the past--that also may have been a change in destiny? And Aerith seems to be keen on something. Perfect last line to finish the game on, too. "I miss it. The steel sky."
Random additional thoughts:
Overall, I think I would go ahead and say I feel blessed not only that this remake exists at all, but that Square managed to pull it off with such gusto and flair. "Blessed" is probably too dramatic of a word but with the impact FF7 had on me as a kid and how FF7 Remake was basically a joke that no one actually ever expected to happen (especially after all of the Spirits Within/FFXII/FFXIII/FFXIV, FFXV stumbling), I think it's appropriate. And this is on OLD HARDWARE at this point. Sure, there are some technical issues (textures, wonky sound design, PS2 NPCs with not-great voice acting) and aerial combat sucks donkeyassdickballs. It's got hallway syndrome, but Midgar was kind of always like that and honestly it's not so bad when done well (FFX says "hi"). On the whole? Square took the tutorial portion of the original game and made it a satisfying experience in its own right while sticking true to the original in all the important ways but updating it and throwing in small curveballs here and there to keep you on your toes. Really interested to see where they go with this and hope they can keep it up since everything I've read about this project seems to be a "we're figuring it out as we go" kind of deal. I am going to go replay this part of the original game again, but right now I prefer Remake to the original, hands down.
Red XIII's line of "is it our destiny to change destiny?" is really stupid but also fuck you Nomura goddammit you've got me hooked.
I don't know how I feel about Aerith possibly living this time around. Though apparently the creators said the remake won't diverge too wildly from the original. Still, very excited to see what they do. Glad they didn't do a 1:1 remake of the plot. Interested to see what they do with weaving in the conflict with Wutai and the involvement with Avalanche HQ into the plot. And do we know what Scarlet (mommy) was doing with the materia experiments?
I really love how this game takes the crazier enemies and turns them into boss battles. In the same vein, the updates to some of the odder parts of FF7 are mostly great. Wall Street and the Honeybee Inn, climbing up to the plate, infiltrating the Shinra Building. I think my least favorite part was the Train Graveyard, but even that was OK.
I mentioned it earlier but the updated interpretations of all these characters is astonishing in just how Square absolutely nailed it. Not just the main party, but Avalanche, the Turks, Shinra, Marlene and Elmyra, Corneo. It tickles me that they even made Johnny an actual character. They've injected so much character into every single one. I'm meh on some of the new characters, especially the ones who look like they were straight up taken from Final Fantasy 13. Chadley, Leslie, Kyrie. Of the bunch, Leslie is the most interesting and I hope we see more of him in some capacity.
SO MANY COOL SUBVERSIVE ARRANGEMENTS OF ALL OF THE CHARACTER THEMES IN THIS SOUNDTRACK. Lots of throwing Aerith's theme into a minor key or having Sephiroth's theme peek into other tracks but they keep it really fresh and interesting. I'm currently trying to find all of the music related to this game. What's this Original Soundtrack Plus and is it the full OST and more, or do I also need to get the Original Soundtrack? And then there's some Acoustic CD, plus a Shinra CD? Christ. But also give me all of the music, please. It's so good. I feel like I'm a little kid again.
I'm tempted to go through and do the post-game stuff. Hard Mode, whatever these manuscripts are, the new challenges. But I also want a reason to play the game in full again when it hits PC (I hope sometime in the next few months).
I love that I beat this game in 7 days, and closed out the story on the 24th anniversary of the original game's release. Totally by accident.
And then now you get to the BIG change in the plot. Whispers completely engulfing Shinra Building. And it looks like they're 100% visible to everyone now. Or at least the plot characters like Rufus and Tseng.
Just Rufus I think, Tseng couldn't see them. If you rewatch the cutscene the whispers are only visible when Rufus is the focal character in the shot and when it's Tseng, they're gone.
RikkuAlmighty posted...
Trying to remember all the flash-forward "destiny" visions the party got from the heartless boss. Red XIII and his kids at the end of the original game. Aerith's death and Cloud laying her to rest (though I think we only see Cloud react to this one).
Interesting thing about this one is that Cloud gets a brief "flash-forward" when he lands in the church too. Not sure how that was caused.
I just realized Cloud couldn't see the whispers until Aerith touched him at the beginning of the game. What triggered all the other characters suddenly being able to see them too? The first time you see them interact is when they attack Seventh Heaven, right? And at that point even Jessie, Biggs, Wedge can see them.
Since Aerith and Seph are both timeline aware, they both know that Seph killing her actually screwed him over in the original timeline. Holy fails to stop Meteor and it's only through Aerith being dead and within the lifestream to control it that Meteor is stopped.
So I want Seph to kidnap her in the next game leading to wacky scenarios where she's constantly trying to off herself (jumping off buildings, fork in electrical socket, holding her breath like a kid who doesn't want to listen) and he has to stop her.
Ok I don't ACTUALLY want this but the thought of it amuses me.
Oh and I also expected Roche to show up in the final motorcycle sequence. If he comes back though I want him as a rival for chocobo racing, on a red chocobo, making motorcycle noises with his mouth. Just make him the dumbest.
Since Aerith and Seph are both timeline aware, they both know that Seph killing her actually screwed him over in the original timeline. Holy fails to stop Meteor and it's only through Aerith being dead and within the lifestream to control it that Meteor is stopped.
So I want Seph to kidnap her in the next game leading to wacky scenarios where she's constantly trying to off herself (jumping off buildings, fork in electrical socket, holding her breath like a kid who doesn't want to listen) and he has to stop her.
Ok I don't ACTUALLY want this but the thought of it amuses me.
Oh and I also expected Roche to show up in the final motorcycle sequence. If he comes back though I want him as a rival for chocobo racing, on a red chocobo, making motorcycle noises with his mouth. Just make him the dumbest.
You seem like my people. Back when Advent Children came out, one really stupid thing I secretly hoped for was that Aeris would come back from death the same way Sephiroth somehow managed and went anime aerial DBZ on his ass with her staff.