FF7R (Final Fantasy 7 Remake) Thoughts

This is NOT a news post.

Having completed the FF7OG, FF7R and Intermission several times each, read several theories from multiple sources, and watched the entirety of Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus on YT, I have some thoughts I'd like to share on where both the story and gameplay are going.

First, the story.

I'll start with the elphant, or phantoms... Elephantoms! In the room! The Whispers. Though they are vaguely referenced in the OG, and DoC, they are never directly named or shown, so for purposes of this discussion, the Whispers first appear in FF7R, having NEVER been in the OG. So why are they here in FF7R? That question is answered directly in a cinematic in FF7R chapter 17.

The Whispers are "arbiters of fate". Fate is pre-determined and when anyone tries to alter the course of fate, the Whispers appear to ensure events stay on Fate's pre-determined course.

The Whispers first appear when Aerith meets Cloud as she exits the alley where she was communing with the Life Stream via the broken mako pipe in the opening of the game. But why did they appear here? This is what happened in the OG. No event is being altered. 

The reason for this is simple. They're targeting Aerith for something else entirely. 

In the opening cinematic to the game, we see a close up of Aerith's face as she's knelt down by the broken mako pipe. This is the same as the opening of the OG. Kinda of! There is one exceedingly subtle but very significant difference. 

In the OG opening, as the camera focuses on Aerith, we can see her eyes are open the entire time. After we beat the game we get the same shot of Aerith again, only this time as the camera zooms in on her, her eyes are closed and she opens them once the camera is close up.

Now in the opening of FF7R, as the camera zooms in on Aerith in the alley, her eyes are closed and she opens them once the camera is close up. This leads me to believe Aerith at the opening of FF7R is the Aerith we see at the END of the OG. That being the case, I firmly believe that in FF7R the events of the OG never actually happened. While kneeling by the broken mako pipe in the alley, Aerith in FF7R was communing with the Life Stream and saw ALL the events of the OG.

Possessing knowledge of what is supposed to be the future. A future Aerith would definitely want to alter; This is why the Whispers attack Aerith.

In the cinematic in Chapter 17, where we learn what the Whispers are, Aerith states

"Every time the Whispers touch me, I lose a piece of myself."

Clearly she is still in one physical piece. What she means is she's losing memories. Specifically her memories of the events of the OG she saw while communing with the Life Stream. That is why the Whispers attack her when she meets Cloud right after she leaves the alley, even though that's what happened in the OG.

The Whispers appear several times throughout the game. 

In the OG, after the bombing of Reactor 1, Cloud was on board for Reactor 5. In FF7R, during the bombing of Reactor 1, Cloud states a few times, "This is a one time gig.". Later in Sector 7, Cloud makes it clear he's done with Avalanche and plans on moving on after he's paid for Reactor 1.

The Whispers attack 7th Heaven and injure Jessie, ensuring Cloud will be involved with the Reactor 5 bombing. So he can fall to the Sector 5 slums and meet up with Aerith, per the orders of Fate.

The Whispers also save Reno from Cloud, save Hojo from Cloud & co., and stop Cloud, Tifa, and  Aerith from reaching the Sector 7 pillar in time to stop the Turks from dropping the S7 plate.

Later when we fight the Whisper Harbinger, as we defeat it, memories the Whispers stripped from Aerith return to her and the group. Most notably is Red XIII running through the Midgar wastes with his cubs. When Barret asks what they saw, Red states

"A glimpse of tomorrow if we fail here today!"

This statement has a heavy implication. That vision of Red running with his cubs was also a scene in the end of the OG. If what Red said about it is true, that implies even though we defeat Sephiroth and Jenova in the OG, we actually fail regardless. I presume because we fail to stop meteor completely. 

Though Holy does manifest to protect the planet, it manifests too late. 

Also supplementing the fact that the Whispers target Aerith because she possesses knowledge of the intended future, is a bit of dialogue between Aerith and Tifa right before Tifa runs to the Sector 7 pillar to help Barret and Cloud.

In the OG, Tifa tells Aerith about Seventh Heaven and that Marlene is there. Then asks Aerith to get her somewhere safe, away from S7. In the remake the dialogue goes word for word like this

Tifa: "Aerith... There's a bar in the center of town. Seventh Heaven. I need you to..."

Aerith: "Get Marlene to safety!"

Aerith cuts Tifa off knowing what Tifa was going to say, having absolutely no way of knowing that was what Tifa was gonna ask.

There are several other lines and scenes showing Aerith knows the future. But that was the most significant.

Next up, Zack!

In the OG and Crisis Core, we see Zack die. We know he dies.

However at the end of FF7R we see Zack approaching Midgar and Midgar is surrounded by a dome of Whispers. But upon Cloud & co. drfeating the Whisper Harbinger, the Whispers disintegrate into glittering dust. We also see Biggs wake up in the Leaf House, when he was supposed to die from injuries suffered at the S7 pillar. Then at the end of Intermission, we see Zack enter the Sector 5 church, looking for Aerith.

This really makes me think Zack is alive. If we go with the understanding that Fate is an omnipresent entity, we can infer that slaying the Whisper Harbinger allowed Zack to survive those last 3 soldiers that caught up with him after he cut down that entire platoon.

There is another theory I read that whay we're seeing is Zack in the afterlife, entering the church, possibly not realizing he's dead.

This is also possible in my opinion. As he enters the church there are a bunch of people in despair and some even crying.

Intitially, I thought they were survivors of the Sector 7 plate drop. But someone suggested, they're actually the spirits of people who didn't make it out of Sector 7 in time and died.

I ran through Sectors 5, 6, and 7 after the plate drop, looking at all the NPCs and sure enough, I did not see any of the people from the Church scene with Zack among the survivors. However, the devs could have simply designed new NPCs. 

I give both theories equal weight. That said, I lean toward Zack is now alive in the FF7R universe.

Given the theme of defying Fate, both talked about by Aerith and the party, and illustrated by Zack being alive, I think we can expect some major changes to the story beats in upcoming parts. Especially since one of the memories retrieved from the Whisper Harbinger was of Aerith's death at the Forgotten City. Or maybe not...

Now, the gameplay / mechanics.

Through FF7R we get a series of dialogue choices. These choices impact game events.

They impact the dresses in Wall Market. They impact whose resolution you get in Chapter 14. But most intricately, they impacts whethet you get M or Sam's quest line after defeating Hell House.

You can NOT do both M and Sam's quest on the same run. To do both you essentially have to restart Wall Market after completing one or the other. This is the devs experimenting with plot branches.

Based on that evidence, I think we can expect more, and more signigicant plot branches in the upcoming parts. Up to and including saving Aerith from Sephiroth/Jenova. Helping her summon Holy while alive, AND IN TIME TO STOP METEOR COMPLETELY! Sorry. I got a bit excited at the thought of sticking it to Fate that hard.

But I also think the traditionalists who want things to stick to the OG line will not be disappointed.

As I pointed out, they already experimented with choices impacting the events of the game.

I think what we can expect is the devs to implement the OG story as a baseline. So essentially, we will be able to play through FF7R as the OG. Reuniting with Zack will be optional. But there will be several points where we can take steps, or make choices to diverge from the OG. Essentially we will be able to play through it several times, each time with a slightly different experience.

Another prediction I have is that reuniting with Zack is how we save Aerith. If we trigger the right sequence of event, I believe Zack will save Aerith in the Forgotten City. But as a result, Zack will die there, in front of Aerith.

These are my thoughts and hopes as of completing Intermission.