Final Fantasy VII E3 trailer transcript
by Flintlock June 16, 2015 0 commentsIn this article, we look at the monologue of the Final Fantasy VII remake trailer, revealed today at E3. It’s full of allusions to the game’s plot and even its fandom. We break it down one line at a time. Screenshots with Japanese subtitles are provided for comparison.
Update: thanks to Lifestream forum member Strangelove, we’ve added translations of the Japanese subtitles so you can compare them to the English voiceover. The translations are in green.
Long ago, we looked upon a foreboding sky.
Before/previously people looked up at the/that sky.This refers to Meteor, from the original game.
The memory of the star that threatened all burns eternal in our hearts.
The bright star that [would/does] engulf everything will always be remembered.
The star that threatened all is, again, Meteor, but the burning in our hearts alludes to the continued passion for Final Fantasy VII some 18 years after its first release.
In its wake came an age of silence.
And [following that] we lived [in/through] an age of silence.
The age of silence refers to Square Enix’s regular denials that they were considering a remake, despite the obvious demand for it.
Yet with each fond remembrance, we knew: those encountered were not forgotten.
Each time we look back on [our/those] memories we realise that we have not forgotten them [those people].
(See next line)
That someday, we would see them again.
[We wonder if we] might meet/see them again someday.
These two lines hint at the possibility that Square Enix were considering a new Final Fantasy VII game for some time before today’s announcement. It could also refer to many fans’ belief that a remake was inevitable, no matter how many times the company said otherwise.
Perhaps it was no more than wishful thinking.
That [such a] feeling/premonition, too, perhaps was merely a wish/desire.
There have been dozens of rumours since the Final Fantasy VII Technical Demo for the PlayStation 3, but all of them – until this one – had amounted to nothing, leading many fans to be disappointed.
But after the long calm, there are now beginnings of a stir.
[We] live/passed time [through] a long quiet/silence, and eventually [we] start to sense a stirring.
Teasing what is about to be revealed.
The reunion at hand may bring joy, it may bring fear.
Even if that reunion is mixed with joy and fear, (continues to next line)
No matter what kind of a game Square Enix end up producing, some fans are bound to be disappointed, and there is going to be a lot of apprehension over the changes that will have to be made in updating the game for modern consoles. The Reunion is a double entendre: as well as being a key concept in the story of Final Fantasy VII, it refers to the reunion of the cast of characters.
But let us embrace whatever it brings.
[for] now let us [say/take these] irrepressible emotions [are/as] joy.
This could be interpreted as the developers asking fans to give the game a fair chance, even if it ends up being significantly different from the original.
For they are coming back.
They are coming back.
Up until this point, viewers might have thought that Final Fantasy VII was getting a sequel or another spin-off, but this line, immediately followed by the famous first three notes of Opening ~ Bombing Mission, gives the clearest indication yet that it will, in fact, be a remake.
At last, the promise has been made.
That time [their return] has finally been promised.
As well as referring to the promise Cloud made to Tifa when they were growing up together in Nibelheim, this refers to Square Enix’s “promise” to remake the game. At last.
No comments yet
Log in or Register
Phenomenal.
It would’ve been better if it was new sequel set after the secret ending of Dirge of Cerberus-FFVII, or even a remake of Before Crisis-FFVII. While I’m looking forward to this, I’m soo angry that the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII will never continue now.
What makes you sure it’ll never be continued? If the remake sells well, which is quite likely, it may give Square Enix the appetite to put out more games in the franchise.
Seven reasons.
1): The Compilation only has two years left until it stops completely, as stated after FFVII: Advent Children Complete was finished six years ago.
2): They prefer the Fabla Nova Crystallis series as they’re still busy with FFXV.
3): They like to leave cliff-hangers on the most cool games like this one, and I hate cliff-hangers so much. The only reason why I got into the series was both Kingdom Hearts and FFVII: Advent Children.
4): Dirge of Cerberus, while a good game with a good story and an exciting and mysterious secret ending, didn’t get a good reputation.
5): Most FFVII fans wanted a remake for years since the ending of Crisis Core seven years ago.
6): Unlike Kingdom Hearts Coded which was remade twice, Before Crisis, which was another awesome game with a cool storyline, will never get a remake itself either.
And finally, 7): The only thing Nomura is good at is character designs and likes to take his sweet and painfully slow time. Not to mention with Type-Next on the way, which, really, Type-0 didn’t need a sequel at all as far as I can tell, because the secret ending in the HD version doesn’t make any sense.
If there would be a sequel, which is now unlikely, I wanted Cloud and his friends to return, with Rufus and the Turks also invovled but not as villians, Weiss double-crossing Genesis who is probably under influence of either Nero or has returned to his degrading state, and a happy ending which would eventually lead to the ending of the original game 500 years into the future.
(Repeat from the comment down below).
1) They said back then they could see the FFVII series last for twenty years, I don’t know why this is being taken as “after 2017, we cannot make anything FFVII-related anymore ever”. If they feel like making more after the remake and think it would be viable, then that’s what’s gonna happen.
4) Dirge of Cerberus was not a good game by any objective game design standards. It was mediocre at best.
6) Coded was remade once, and Before Crisis in all honesty looks like a snoozefest in every way. The story is something I hope will never be referenced again. =/
1): I seriously thought that the remake would never ever happen and that they would at least make one more sequel, but obviously it’s the complete opposite. Plus, 2017 is the 20th Anniversary of Final Fantasy VII.
4): A lot of people have been wondering about the secret ending for ages, and while we know who Genesis is, no one has any ideas what his plan is to protect the Planet and what Weiss’s next role is, considering that he’s still alive.
6): I thought Before Crisis was a good game, and there were a few times that they were willing to remake it, but it didn’t go so well, and I thought that they would do something about this by now. I mean, Coded was remade for DS and then it was remade into a movie kind of thing in KH 2.5 HD ReMix like 358/2 Days was in 1.5 HD ReMix.
Seven reasons.
1): The Compilation only has two years left until it stops completely, as stated after FFVII: Advent Children Complete was finished six years ago.
2): They prefer the Fabla Nova Crystallis series as they’re still busy with FFXV.
3): They like to leave cliff-hangers on the most cool games like this one, and I hate cliff-hangers so much. The only reason why I got into the series was both Kingdom Hearts and FFVII: Advent Children.
4): Dirge of Cerberus, while a good game with a good story and an exciting and mysterious secret ending, didn’t get a good reputation.
5): Most FFVII fans wanted a remake for years since the ending of Crisis Core seven years ago.
6): Unlike Kingdom Hearts Coded which was remade twice, Before Crisis, which was another awesome game with a cool storyline, will never get a remake itself either.
And finally, 7): The only thing Nomura is good at is character designs and likes to take his sweet and painfully slow time. Not to mention with Type-Next on the way, which, really, Type-0 didn’t need a sequel at all as far as I can tell, because the secret ending in the HD version doesn’t make any sense.
If there would be a sequel, which is now unlikely, I wanted Cloud and his friends to return, with Rufus and the Turks also invovled but not as villians, Weiss double-crossing Genesis who is probably under influence of either Nero or has returned to his degrading state, and a happy ending which would eventually lead to the ending of the original game 500 years into the future.
I am speechless. Absolutely speechless.
I never thought it would happen. Personally, I think they should have done a sequel and answered some of those unanswered questions.
Either way I am blown away and incredibly exited. I just hope Square Enix don’t balls it up like they do everything else. They are remaking a religion here and need to take this very seriously.
A sequel would’ve been much better, but instead, they opted to do a remake. While the remake is pretty cool, I want a sequel for all of those unanswered questions to be answered.
They have a duty to answer all these unanswered questions in the FF7 original.
Didn’t they already did most of that with the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII? Like, how Advent Children was the answer on what happened to Cloud, his friends, Rufus, the Turks, and the rest of Humanity? How Dirge of Cerberus showed us the back-story of Vincent’s past as well as revealing Genesis who’s own back story along with Zack’s was revealled in the Prequel Crisis Core? How the still un-English-released Before Crisis was the back story of the Turks and even showed that the exiled-Turks survived?
The only unanswered question they left behind was the reason of Genesis’s return in the secret ending of Dirge of Cerberus and what would happen next. I can’t see how Square Enix is fufilling the duty with the remake, unless they plan on adding new scenes into the remake which are some of the scenes from the other Compilation titles.
As well as referring to the promise Cloud made to Tifa when they were growing up together in Nibelheim, this refers to Square Enix’s “promise” to remake the game. At last.
I think that this is a monologue from Sephiroth. Keyword: Reunion. As for the analysis any further, I don’t think it has a lot to do with the fans waiting for this remake as much as it has to do with the 2000 years from Jenova’s arrival on Gaia to the present day when Sephiroth plans the Reunion in order to reach the Promised Land.
Hmph! The promise for the remake, but they broke their promise on future sequels in the Compilation. Those ideas they had…and Nomura saying that the Complete version of FFVII as more ideas for the series thing…THAT was a big, fat, and cruel LIE!
Calm down, dude. We have no idea whether this will have an epilogue or lead to more stuff or anything. I’d like to see the ending tied up as well. But if I had to choose, I’d take a proper remake every time.
It’ll just be the same, only in full 3D CG renders, voice acting, which I doubt everyone from the Compilation would return to the roles of the characters, and all that. I was seriously hoping for one more sequel to the series which would let us know what would happen with a happy ending which would eventually lead into the “500 years later” Epilogue, then I’d be happy.
I’m one of those many people who lothe cliff-hangers.
They never ‘promised’ more sequels to the Compilation though.
They did mention that they had ideas for more, since Tetsuya Nomura said himself that Advent Children Complete did not represent the end of the Compilation as they still had more ideas to the series, and they also mentioned that the Compilation could continue until the 20th Anniversary.
Probably lies at this rate.
Great article, a lot of stuff I didn’t even notice while I was watching it agape.
I could imagine how somebody would be a debbie-downer about this because of their feelings that the Remake wouldn’t be good, but I was not expecting somebody to be a bummer about it because it’s NOT part of the “Compilation”. Y’know, those semi-developed scraps that were thrown to us in order to stem the tide until we finally got that remake we were waiting for?? “Advent Children” WAS the FF7 sequel. What would the game be, you controlling Cloud in domestic bliss with Tifa?
But anyway, it’s hard to describe how excited I am for this, whatever may come. Nobody’s changing my original game, it will remain the same data on a disc whether this comes out or not. Only good things can come from this, even if those good things amount to getting to see people and locations in updated graphics. Whoooo
Well, I know that Advent Children was a sequel, but it was the first sequel to the game. However, Dirge of Cerberus was the second sequel which had a secret ending that introduced Genesis who picked up a not-so-dead Weiss, before flying off, meaning that something is gonna happen, before they made Crisis Core which told the back story of both Zack and Genesis, and it was the second Prequel, with Before Crisis which was never released outside Japan, being the first prequel.
Am i the only one who understood that they were talking about the first time jenova appeared-star from the sky- they would never forget, like of fear they harnessed power from mako, and experimented on soldiers, and they never forgot about the ancients and the promised land,
Nope, I think that you are spot on. This has to be Sephiroth speaking, because no other character uses the word Reunion in the same sense. Also, if we are talking about silence after the star that shone bright, then it has to be referring to the 2000 years after the Cetra died out. Sephiroth was enraged when he found out that the Cetra died out because people stopped caring about the planet and the way of the Ancients. That is why he created a stir, bringing Jenova back and destroying the Planet so that he could use it as a vessel to the Promised Land. It all makes sense in that light, it takes a bit of twisting and shoving to see it the way described above.
I wouldn’t read much into it. This is literally just a narrator speaking from our point of view, not a character.
The above is reading into it though. I think it’s safe to assume that this is a character in the game and not an omnipresent, outside-of-the-narrative narrator. That voice is too similar to Sephiroth’s, and the narration is not only in-line with things that he has said throughout the Compilation, but also worded in a manner quite similar to his. It is almost poetic.
It is very obviously not Sephiroth’s voice, come on.
Everything perfectly makes sense here with the narration in a real life context, I don’t know how this is ‘reading into it’. O.o
i thing they made it to seem like both, like it was square talking to us, but that it was someone from the game too talking about it, the phrases matche the images on the trailer, for example:
The memory of the star that threatened all burns eternal in our hearts—- may mean jenova first appearance, led to an fear on our hearts, a fear tha made us built shinra and harness power from the planet.
In its wake came an age of silence.-the years that passed since the cetra was gone
Yet with each fond remembrance, we knew: those encountered were not forgotten.—-the cetra was not forgotten,
That someday, we would see them again.—the ancients, (aerith, maybe even jenovah as they tought it was an cetra)
Perhaps it was no more than wishful thinking.—-(jenova was not an ancient as they dscovered, ifalna diedm and aerith was kinda lost)
But after the long calm, there are now beginnings of a stir—Avalanche, sephirot etc
The reunion at hand may bring joy, it may bring fear.But let us embrace whatever it brings.—- the finding of the ancients, and aerith, by cloud, led the story to start rolling, shinra persecuted them, and tried to find them, and thhrough her not only the ancient civilization, but the promised land they were looking for since cetra were gone.
For they are coming back, That time [their return] has finally been promised.–Promised land reference, that the ancients were to come back, to lead the people to the promised land
thas at least how i read it, but im open to other interpretations
There are no words to describe how boocdiaus this is.