Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one of those video games that from the beginning has caused discussion far and wide, generating reflections both on the real intentions of Square Enix against this series of video games, both on what would have happened in relation to original chapter. The general indecision was primarily inspired by the fact that it was a remake, a term too much consumed nowadays, especially in this specific sector. The choice to restore a legendary title such as Final Fantasy 7 it could easily have turned out to be bankruptcy, given the softness of this game, its fame and above all theimpact which had not only on the life of fans, but on history of the medium itself. We are talking about a work that was not limited to only coming out on the first Playstatation, but of a real one symbol which from the beginning lent itself to a whole series of extensions (sometimes mere commercial operations) that deepened certain aspects, complicating it others, but always managing to bewitch those who believed in it, leading to the genesis of new "idols" and a real independent saga, with a worldwide resonance.
It is precisely starting from the immense possibilities that Final Fantasy 7 has developed that, presumably, this started new project, a project that obviously wants to leverage some emotional peculiarities specifications, always taking into account the weight and the incredible history that you are manipulating. From all this, we said, the very first discussions on the subject, both among the ranks of fans and among those of the layman. Final Fantasy 7 Remake has had to face quite a few obstacles social, leaving after a wait that has been able to dose the details to the last, details that later inevitably have powered another focus, another discussion, both lexicological and thematic, leading to a hope that, with latest news in this regard, it has flared up again.
Terminolgie reboot, remake, remaster, are now an integral part of ours daily living, having, through the current market, burned into the imagination that we all know. However, terms remain which sometimes present peculiar possibilities interpretative and an open reading that could easily lead to unexpected shores. This one of the gripes higher against the aforementioned title, especially following its completion. (I think it is obvious to specify that the article from here on will be dirtied by the most varied spoiler, therefore, in the event that you have not completed the game, you are advised not to continue reading).
The Finale Fantasy 7 Remake project was clarified from its inception. We all knew, more or less, what they would look like moved, as they would divided and distributed the events of an undoubtedly vast title, reworking them through a photorealistic filter also impregnated with a particular reinterpretation which would be linked to today's fruition possibilities. We knew it. We knew it would be split into chapters. We knew, more and less, what theirs would be pricing (many discussions still revolve around this particular choice today). We knew what aesthetic steps had been taken to restore the game. They knew that all of this would undoubtedly affect some of its aspects, even of plot, given above all its temporal provenance and the fact that many of its aspects presented themselves as extremely typifying, anchored to a historical period totally different for the medium. In short, we knew that something would happen. So it was.
However, the general comments were almost all positive, even if the first changes, both in terms of plot and structure, had managed to strike without too much annoyance, with the last chapter of the game the anger of one part of the community has skyrocketed. The chapter 18 Final Fantasy 7 Remake explodes in a series of developments that go from surreal, vago and cliche, upsetting everything we have seen so far. Indeed, perhaps it would be more correct to say that what happens in the eighteenth chapter we have been telephoned throughout the game, and that in the end, when the wolf under the carpet comes out inexorably, it leaves you breathless.
The finale of Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Throughout the whole Final Fantasy Remake, starting from the first developments, you can easily notice that something does not fit, that we are faced with a story that is not limited to follow the events of the past, but that passes us through in a different way. This is because of some reinterpretations narratives (which can also please) and above all because of the presence of some strange beings: the so-called Numan. These are there Keystone and main reading of the title, an indefinite, esoteric, disturbing and intangibly smoky element, at least until we arrive at the final developments. These Numen are described to us, at least for now, as "the guardians of destiny". Obviously this is a vague and quite trivial definition, but their presence is somewhat delineated at the end. These hooded "beings" torment us throughout the adventure, forcing every attempt to go out off the rails of the original story. It is a sort of "controllers" capable of balancing events, ready to ensure, always and in any case, that everything goes as it should, and in order to succeed they will hinder us with any means at their disposal.
Why talk about it? Because it is precisely these Numen ad open questions more fascinating both towards what we have witnessed and towards what we will potentially be able to see. We see them, throughout history, promptly intervene several times and then we come to final of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, where an infinity of things happen that still remain without one unofficial explanation o direct. On the highway leading out of Midgar, Sephiroth (or what it would seem to be) opens a portal that becomes immediately metaphor of rebellion against destiny, against all the limitations that the Numen, in fact, have drawn up to that point. Once through the situation he falls intointerpretative purer, in the vague magmatic, with a clash that made many turn up their noses, and fascinated all the theories that still feed the internet today.
The Numen want to prevent us from advancing and for this they use all the weapons at their disposal. The clash, with clear self-quoting references a Kingdom Hearts, specifically speaking to a boss of that saga, it is full of particular elements, of visions that strike our characters, showing them some events of the future, events that, if you have played the original title, are immediately familiar for their importance and narrative centrality. Those hints, those "lightnings" are here interpreted as visions of a future that could DON'T come true. This narrative fold between future, possible future, present and past becomes extremely labile under the blows of our weapons and skills. All alternated with images in which we witness the last moments of Zack Fair.
These, currently speaking, are the details that have generated more discussion, fueling one hope which still remains vague, but almost tangible. Perhaps.
The narrative centrality of Zack Fair, an important character from the beginning
All fans of the Final Fantasy series have heard of Zack Fair at least once in a lifetime. It is a character Central of the seventh chapter but over time he managed to build his own staff legendary centrality, especially thanks to the spin off in which we see it appear, first of all: Crisis Core (title in which the player literally enters his shoes, guiding him to the tragic epilogue that made him famous).
With Zack, however, we are not simply facing a famous character, but a real one central narrative element in the development of the history of Cloud. During the first part of Final Fantasy 7 the latter presents himself as a "first class soldier" and we see him extricate himself in combat showing a certain self-confidence alternating with strange moments of mental estrangement. This is because Cloud is suffering from a severe dissociative personality disorder due to some strong trauma and experiments that he underwent in conjunction with Zack. It will be these events that bind them together and lead them to the gates of Midgar, with the consequent sacrifice of the latter and the survival of Cloud who, in a completely inexplicable way, will absorb Zack's personality to the point of self-conviction of being him. This is the most important development of Final Fantasy 7, the most intimate moment and deep absolutely of his narrative, with a whole series of connotations that transcend the genre in which it develops to reach some particularly delicate chords.
With what we see in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, however, all of this seems to be potentially possible to fade. In fact, there are some interesting ones around Zack and what we've seen of him theory which, at least for now, remain so. Let's start by analyzing what we have seen. First of all, we see Zack fighting the soldiers who obstruct his escape (with Cloud) to Midgar. In that particular scene the direction and the visual display are precisely reminiscent of Crisis Core. Doubts come out with the last thing we see. We know that following the clash Zack is killed, which however not everyone remembers and that there are the two representations of his death: the one in Crisis Core (the most famous) and the one in the original title.
The weight of Zack's death and the various theories about it
In Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 we see Zack perish at the hands of various attacks suffered. The sky is leaden, full of rain and lightning crashing into the surrounding area. On earth the body of our hero lying, stained with blood. Then the farewell, then the passing of the baton. If we were to rely exclusively on this ending, we could suggest that, at least from the point of view of the environmental composition, what we saw in the 7 remake is different, it deviates from it, in a certain way.
In Final Fantasy 7 originalinstead, we see Zack fight and then drag himself to Midgar with Cloud underarm (image identical to the one we see for a second in the Remake), only to be identified by some soldiers and finished once and for all.
Actually in the current project they could easily have shown us both these endings, indeed a very interesting theory, would identify what we have seen as a sort of fusion between these two, suitable for sidetrack.
The point is that in the footage where Zack would appear to have survived some anomalous elements they detach action from everything we have seen in the past. In the Remake we see the soldier still standing after the battle. Then a bag of chips lifts off the ground and flies to the foreground in slow motion. This, according to many fans, is a key detail in reading and rereading what we have before us. Assuming that throughout this whole new adventure we have been told that Shinra has adopted one mascot precise, mascot that we see represented on several occasions, even on various foods (I'm talking about Stamp, the smiling dog in the military helmet), the fact that there is one on the packet of chips different mascot, another little dog with a hat, with what appears to be it same exact name, it could actually mean that we are in another timeline, another dimension, a dimension in which the Shinra is different from the one we know well and perhaps precisely for this reason defined by a mascot we do not know.
La theory of the other dimension, then, it culminates with what we see later. Zack is caught by a sudden explosion that catapults him to the ground, far away, with a thrust that impresses him only to be kidnapped by what is in front of him. We then see a Midgar pervaded by Numan that would seem run away Street. Many have read in this scene a kind of parallel reaction to what we have done in our dimension, as if the timelines were somehow connected between them and the actions that took place against fate had had one resonance general, perhaps also freeing Zack himself from the limits placed on his destiny. If this theory proves to be fitting, obviously we will find a story on our hands that will touch unexplored shores, taking many risks and not easy interpretations.
Being Zack fundamental in the narrative of Final Fantasy 7 many have excluding regardless of the possibility of its own survival in the storyline we have played so far. We know very well how central his farewell is, especially in Cloud's mental constitution and in the legacy also material of the legendary sword, wielded by the blond protagonist. Cloud's dissociative disorder and the journey towards the shadows of his past, towards that "progressive definition" that we all know well would perhaps be lost with Zack's survival. From all this another extremely curious theory: and if in this first chapter of the Remake they had actually explained to us that it is indeed more universes, timelines or dimensions, and that the various choices implemented by all of us had not only impacted with our trip but also with that of the others? And if we had, with our challenge to fate, changed the past of a Zack that DON'T but does it belong to our narrative line?
From all this the possibility, in the next episodes, to wear the clothes of the raven-haired soldier in a sort of prequel, to go back to looking at the world from his eyes, eyes that have nothing to do with the Cloud that we have pushed to fight as far as we know. This theory splits the narrative into two roads different, two different realities but still parallel in the sense that they influence each other, with a writing that moves its pawns trying to build a sort of subtle continuum with a specific weight in which the player will play both the role of Cloud and Zack, without however ever seeing them meet directly, but still, somehow united in their travels.
The "7 seconds" theory
In reality, the ending of this Final Fantasy 7 Remake has not seen speculations flourish only against Zack, but also towards a handful of other elements which still remain fundamentally open, indefinite, magmatic. Among these, however, one specific sentence has captured the attention of fans: “7 seconds' till the end” (seven seconds to the end).
This is pronounced by Sephiroth behind Cloud following their very personal confrontation alone. Here, starting from all this there are those on the web who have started to think about it, coming to calculate how many MAIN CORSE lasts the sequence in which Sephiroth falls from heaven on the young woman Aerith, coming to the conclusion that in the Remake the 7 seconds mentioned correspond to the 7 seconds that "gray hair" takes to kill the girl. Curiously, this theory has found many positive results, even if like everything else it is pure speculation, even emotional.
The new hypothetical developments and speculations that will come with Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Recently Square Enix has formalized the registration of two brands, related to Final Fantasy 7 Remake which from the beginning have given several pensieri to the most imaginative fans. Between these two a theory is specifically linked to the one named "First Soldier". The majority identified in these two words the name of Sephiroth. It is assumed, in fact, that it will be a deepening linked to this famous and timeless villain, an in-depth study that does not differ from the corporate and commercial modus operandi of recent years. The possibility of seeing Sephirot specifically could, in some way, enlighten us compared to what we have witnessed up to now with this project in progress, also because Sephirot still remains one of the most indecipherable and undeciphered of this remake.
In the course of events we see it to intervene, smokily speaking, several times, we see him addressing Cloud following the style of the original chapter, up to the finale which, as we all know, shuffles all the cards on the table.
Perhaps this brand will be none other than the preamble at a narrative juncture in which it will finally be possible to understand theobiettivo definitive of a Sephirot that has not yet shown itself in full. We do not know if we will be able to take on his role, but the hope of the community, or at least of a part of it, would like to see clarified the elements that up to now have drawn the actions of this character, perhaps referring to the theory of parallel timelines.
