Final Fantasy VII Remake has just been released and, finally, now that all players have or will be completing their adventure in Midgar, it’s time to talk about the much-controversial ending of the game. Let’s start by saying that not all the players have metabolized how much advent on the screen, for this reason we decided to take stock trying to analyze, as far as possible, even what the future will be for us, given that as we well know the second episode is already under processing.

If you want to know ours on the latest Square Enix title , we refer you to the dedicated review, while if you need some help we have an entire guide section that is right for you. It seems obvious to us, but for this reason we want to specify it: this article presents total spoilers on Final Fantasy VII Remake, continue at your own risk.

If you ended up on this article but still haven’t finished Final Fantasy VII Remake, run away! The article will contain numerous spoilers, especially talking about the ending and revelations that we recommend that you discover in the course of the game. So, as already mentioned, SPOILER WARNING !!!!

A contextualized world

All the changes, be they good or bad, in Final Fantasy VII Remake arise from contextualization: after more than 20 years from the release of the original, unfortunately it is necessary to adapt the story of the game to modern players. Square Enix decides to do it in a risky way, aiming as much as possible to leave players stunned. This, although it is interesting, however, is appreciated mainly by old players (and not many), while the new ones will not notice the various differences and, above all, they will not understand who these Guardians of Destiny are present in the last chapter.

The Numen, the Guardians of Destiny

Numen was the very first introduction shown in this Remake . These beings are a sort of Watchers who aim to enforce the original story (i.e. that of the PlayStation 1 game).

These creatures are tasked with making the story go the right way. Their actual support for the smooth running of the plot is seen a lot in the scenes in which they appear, such as in the meeting between Cloud and Aerith at the beginning of the game. In that case, Cloud is pushed to meet her precisely because she is attacked by these beings: once done, however, Aerith does not show any signs of leaving, on the contrary, she seems interested in staying. For this the Numen make her escape on purpose, putting her story back on her tracks. Continuing we see how these creatures are even ready to bring people back to life as in the case of Barret, or in case remove it as happened with Wadge.

The Final Battle and the vision of a possible future

However, the climax comes in the final phase, when the protagonists find themselves fighting a sort of “Upper Numen” called, coincidentally, Guardian of Destiny. This gigantic creature will send visions into the minds of the protagonists, visions that we will analyze later, of a future already fulfilled. More advanced players know perfectly well that some of those images are truly iconic scenes of the narrative, such as the death of Aerith or that of Red XIII running with his like in Advent Children .. At that moment it is clear to the protagonists how fate can still change that there is nothing actually written. The same Guardian of Destiny, having smelled the danger of what is about to happen, sends three distinct knights into the field. These in all probability represent the protagonists: Cloud, Tifa and Barret. And Aerith you ask? Her absence is more justified knowing her end in the original game. These three Numen fight to ensure that fate does not change, but this will not be enough to avoid their defeat.

In fact, Sephiroth himself seems to encourage this clash, interested in changing the future as if he knew of his defeat. In the end, even the heroes of the game are forced to permanently change their destiny in order to save themselves, opening the way to endless possibilities. What has just been said is further strengthened by the ShinRa mascot, or Stamp. Above a bag of chips you can see the image of him, but this time the dog is of a different breed than it was in the beginning.

This suggests that Aerith’s phrase “we’ll change ourselves too” might actually make sense. It seems that the story has moved into a different timeline, especially by reading the final sentence which invites us to follow the unknown journey of our heroes.

“There are seven seconds left”

Here we get to the heart of the theories, since this sentence could have different meanings. Sephiroth, at the end of the fight against Cloud, will make this statement, but what does he mean? We know for sure that the number 7, in general, is a number that often returns in the schemes of Final fantasy VII Remake, a clear example is that, after defeating the first two enemies, Cloud will immediately reach level 7. In this case Sephiroth uses this number for something bigger. Fans quickly theorized that this timeframe would be the time it took for Sephiroth to kill Aerith. Although this theory can be freely interpreted, we believe that these seconds will still be discovered, since in all probability they could be decisive in saving the planet.

Another hypothesis is that more than seconds are moments, or seven key episodes that could change quite drastically.

Is Zack alive?

The real bomb of the end of the game, however, remains Zack : although it is not certain, it is likely that the character of Final Fantasy VII is alive and well, changing the continuation of the plot. On the one hand it is likely that in reality his death remains a “fixed point” in the story (otherwise we would not have a Cloud Soldier, other than his arrival in Midgar), but we would not be surprised if in the next games the character existed, more than as a character perhaps as an anomaly. The alternative, however, is that Nomura has presented one of the most classic What If, simply a small parenthesis already closed that will not have major repercussions on the plot.

There is also the possibility that the Director has inserted different timelines destined to intersect but not to meet, slowly showing facts different from the canonical ones.

What does the future have to offer?

Since there are no longer the guardians of Destiny , in all probability the game will now change: some parts of the story could in fact vary, leading us to have a game that is as new as it is faithful at least in terms of themes. The many paths that seemed only theories, can now have a life of their own and even go beyond the boundaries that a game of 20 years ago gave to a brand that has always been tight in those three CD-Roms.

The protagonists, therefore, have abandoned the main road, now the focus seems to have permanently shifted to Sephiroth and, the only one of the group who seems to know what is happening, seems to be Aerith.

Sephiroth and Aerith know everything 

For the duration of the adventure Sephiroth seems to be very determined on what to do and how to do it, so much so that he asks Cloud for collaboration several times to change this much talked about destiny. Cloud obviously refuses, but that doesn’t seem to change the villain’s plans that much, as he invites him to find him again, but when in all likelihood he’s stronger.

Aerith instead, just like a flower, blooms in the finale: the girl seems to not only know everything, but also seems to be quite aware of what her end will be, but she is brave enough to face her as the future may have changed. She is the one who most of all has knowledge of the Numen and, if these beings reappear in the future, she could be the key to understanding them better.

Fate and Flashpoint theory

Here comes the fulcrum: we don’t know how they will manage the brand, but certainly now we could find ourselves in front of a sort of Flashpoint: with the changes coming, we could live completely unrelated games, faithful to the main plot but with small changes, or even some What If versions that could show us other plots, other plots and other characters.

Of course this expands the brand a lot, but we assume that they won’t make many changes in the future of Final Fantasy VII , otherwise we would find ourselves having an unmanageable colossus. On the contrary, this precariousness of the story will now allow developers to have (almost) carte blanche on future games.

Finally, we could relive a sort of Lightning story, where the characters could jump from one timeline to another, perhaps exploiting these fractures to save not only the world, but the plots of reality itself.

Why does what happens?

When we play the Final Fantasy VII Remake ending, we basically have to focus on one thing: the word remake. The remakes hardly carry that word next to it: the Resident Evil titles do not put it next to it, as well as those of Activision (Crash and Spyro), so Square Enix’s desire was to highlight this choice. The interesting thing is the word Remake inserted in the context of the ending: it seems that Nomura and his companions have opted to re-make something not to the creators but to the player.

During the whole final phase, in fact, we find ourselves experiencing choices programmed by destiny, which however at a certain point we begin to change: although those are desired by the character (ie the player, even if he cannot choose), many others occur first. for no reason. Having to help Cloud fall into the church, or rescue Aerith as she falls from one of the church’s floors, seems to happen differently and only then do the Numen come into play .

For this reason, therefore, it is necessary to reflect on the fact that who is (involuntarily) changing history is the player himself, who after 20 years has different paradigms. The change therefore arises from the context, and the team could not help but witness how far this change leads, consequently trying to limit it until, by fighting against their own creators, the characters of the game are able to free themselves from their past. , i.e. from the original game.

Remake means to redo, and what Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret and Red XIII now have to redo is a story, different in many respects, identical in many others (in the end the changes in the final video are not striking, Midgar is always the same , his name as well and the ShinRa is still there). All this, therefore, arises from the characters, as animated by their own life who want to destroy their already written destiny and make a new one (not a better one).

What will we play in the next chapters?

Unfortunately, we cannot predict this: by now everything has to be rewritten, and perhaps most of the things will go as in the original, but this is a choice of the development team. Certainly something has changed, so we can say that there will be differences with that for the PlayStation 1 . We can predict that Sephiroth’s moves, now ahead of the original times, will be different, and that Cloud and his companions will certainly have new challenges to overcome as the dangers are now no longer defined.

In short, the meta-narrative element is as scary as it is fantastic, and the various characters are a bit like the player’s feelings: if on the one hand we have Barret and Cloud, ready to charge towards infinity with the sole aim of saving the world, Aerith is a bit frightened to see such an original saga change to something new.

However, we expect some interesting developments, also because once we have overcome the stumbling block of the comfort zone, in which we expect something already seen from a game that is a remake, we can see how not knowing what will come next is fantastic: Final Fantasy VII can have a second life, and we are the lucky ones who can live it now.