Hopes for Remake & Rebirth (story/content)

[ForceStealer]

Oh boy. *rubs hands together*

From Reeve's character profile

By utilizing his special ability, “Inspire”, he is able to cause inorganic things to emit life; his “child”, the “cat”-shaped robot, Cait Sith can be controlled from a great distance.

Just...some random shit Reeve can do for some reason. And this is from the FF7 Ultimania, so you can't blame the Compilation for this crap, lol.
I apologize that you can't unknow this now In my head it's still just a robot with an AI that he can take control of.

 

[Cannon_Fodder]

After replaying FFVII earlier this year, I was taken aback by just how badly timed Cait Sith's return is. I mean, Sephiroth shows up, Cloud gives the Black Materia away and starts attacking Aerith, and then Cait Sith comes in like a goddamn Looney Tune. "Oops! Looks like I came at a bad time *hee-yuk.*"

 

[ForceStealer]

 

[Jairus]

Yeah, that was kind of odd timing on his part. I'm sure the remake will address that, though. Should be interesting to see his playstyle. Hopefully his limits won't be so dependent on random chance this time. And I like the idea of him having some amount of sentience apart from Reeve. Might be worth exploring to get a better idea of his and Reeve's character and why they do what they do. I always felt that although Reeve knew Cait was just a hi-tech robot toy, he liked to think of him as a real being instead. And it might be a cool idea to have #2's personality be a bit different than #1's, to better differentiate them, show that they're not all the same, and help us feel a bit of loss when #1 gets crushed. He did say that there was only one him, after all. The remake should show that individuality, I think.

 

[FFShinra]

I feel like all characters after the first four (and maybe Cid) were generally not given as much focus and time as they could have been (for obvious reasons with regards to Yuffie and Vincent, but also Cait Sith and Nanaki for I guess their non-humanoid nature) and as such are more flexible for reimagining by square, at least in terms of details that simply didn't exist before.

 

[Jairus]

Nanaki got an entire sidequest and some good character development in Cosmo Canyon during his return, his trek through the Gi cave, and his discovery of the truth about his father. Plus his relationship with Bugenhagen and his past with Hojo. He and Vincent are always in my party when I fight Hojo. I'm sure the remake will expand all of that, plus Cait's character and background as well.

 

[jazzflower92]

Maybe just explain his "Inspire" ability as giving life to inorganic life. Just like Big Mom's Soul Soul Fruit from one piece.

https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Soru_Soru_no_Mi

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I think it might be a good idea to quietly let inspire die. There are too many times when not using would be unjustifiable yet using it would spoil the plot.

 

[Rydeen]

Maybe we can justify "inspire" as technical genius and thusly an ability to engineer technological singularity - either through mako/materia, plain tech, or some combination of both. Or, we can quietly let it die.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Yes, I like the idea of limiting it in that way.

 

[Erotic Materia]

A few things:

1- Wow, "inspire" is some deus ex machina crap. To me, it screams lazy writing.

2 - While doing some light reading on Inspire, I came across this nugget, which made me laugh:

Spoiler: Who else gonna take the black materia out of the Temple of the Ancients?

3 - For some reason doesn't show up when I'm on my work computer. It turns out it's directly linked from deviantart, and the work network is classifying it as a virus. I dunno, I'm not a computer doctor. Maybe we could have a copy that's local to TLS? SUUUUPER minor, I know.

 

[FFShinra]

Nanaki got an entire sidequest and some good character development in Cosmo Canyon during his return, his trek through the Gi cave, and his discovery of the truth about his father. Plus his relationship with Bugenhagen and his past with Hojo. He and Vincent are always in my party when I fight Hojo. I'm sure the remake will expand all of that, plus Cait's character and background as well.

Nanaki's entire plot is done once the first visit to Cosmo Canyon is over. I want his plot peppered throughout, particularly given the Bugenhagen connection, but also anything else that would make sense for his character. Cait Sith needs further expansion upon other than being the spy. And also a less contrived way of meeting him.

Basically, I want the other characters to be given the same level of development as the core four (insofar as that is possible, I recognize that three of those four are more integral to the story than the rest, but Barret got a fair amount of respect compared to the rest).

 

[jazzflower92]

I actually would make "Inspire" have more of an explanation in-universe. Maybe it's an ability that the Ancients used to have. Maybe Reeve's has heavy Cetra ancestry and "Inspire" was a special ability even rare among them.

 

[Knights of the Round]

After replaying FFVII earlier this year, I was taken aback by just how badly timed Cait Sith's return is. I mean, Sephiroth shows up, Cloud gives the Black Materia away and starts attacking Aerith, and then Cait Sith comes in like a goddamn Looney Tune. "Oops! Looks like I came at a bad time *hee-yuk.*"

I actually smirk/laugh at that part every time. It's such a contrast to Cloud smacking the crap out of Aeris at the bottom of the pit. Very awkward moment, which I'm guessing was how they intended it to be.

 

[mandelbrot86]

Also if you have him in the party when Aerith dies he does this awful nearly comical pout and shuffle that reminds me of something out of Peanuts comics. I mean, I know his character is goofy, but that part of the story they go so far as to keep Aerith's theme playing during the boss battle in order to keep the tone, but Cait Sith ruins it. (Not that I have ever had him in my party at that point in a real play through.) The point being, I don't mind goofiness. It's part of what makes FF7 endearing, but they need to make sure it doesn't wreck a serious plot point...

 

[Alex Strife]

I actually would make "Inspire" have more of an explanation in-universe. Maybe it's an ability that the Ancients used to have. Maybe Reeve's has heavy Cetra ancestry and "Inspire" was a special ability even rare among them.

I think part of the appeal of Reeve is that he's a normal guy. Giving him "heavy Cestra ancestry" would destroy that. And if he has enough ancestry to have a "rare ability" from the Cetra, that makes Aerith A LOT less special in the eyes of Hojo.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I don't really understand why so many fans want to give other characters Cetra ancestry. Aerith is the last remaining Cetra, and even she is only part-Cetra. Giving Cetra ancestry to others would only diminish her. In Reeve's case, it would make his actions (spying and kidnapping for Shinra) even more reprehensible.

 

[jazzflower92]

I don't really understand why so many fans want to give other characters Cetra ancestry. Aerith is the last remaining Cetra, and even she is only part-Cetra. Giving Cetra ancestry to others would only diminish her. In Reeve's case, it would make his actions (spying and kidnapping for Shinra) even more reprehensible.

Because having the race go extinct with her death is really too much of a downer.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

We must agree to disagree about that.

 

[FFShinra]

I'd rather Reeve was just a brilliant engineer who made a robot cat with a robot moogle to ride on and that his level of control is only in general orders and monitoring, the specific actions of Cait Sith are autonomous.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

After replaying FFVII earlier this year, I was taken aback by just how badly timed Cait Sith's return is. I mean, Sephiroth shows up, Cloud gives the Black Materia away and starts attacking Aerith, and then Cait Sith comes in like a goddamn Looney Tune. "Oops! Looks like I came at a bad time *hee-yuk.*"

Yeah, that was kind of odd timing on his part. I'm sure the remake will address that, though.

"Episode: Shin-Ra" of "On the Way to A Smile" already did that. Reeve was operating both simultaneously, saving Tseng's life with No. 2 while No. 1 was in the temple.

And it might be a cool idea to have #2's personality be a bit different than #1's, to better differentiate them, show that they're not all the same, and help us feel a bit of loss when #1 gets crushed. He did say that there was only one him, after all. The remake should show that individuality, I think.

Like ForceStealer mentioned, Cait Sith's unnecessarily melodramatic death is deliberately constructed that way because we haven't lost anything. It's meant to contrast with the unexpected very real loss we experience shortly afterwards.

That masterful strike to the player's heart via the loss of Aerith should not be tampered with.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I don't really understand why so many fans want to give other characters Cetra ancestry. Aerith is the last remaining Cetra, and even she is only part-Cetra. Giving Cetra ancestry to others would only diminish her. In Reeve's case, it would make his actions (spying and kidnapping for Shinra) even more reprehensible.

Because Aerith being the "Last Cetra" makes no sense compared to how real life genetics works. You only get a "last of the x" situation usually if someone is going out and deliberately killing all those kinds of things on purpose. At least with the kind of timeframe we are talking about with the Cetra's disappearance. What is a lot more common is for small people groups to "die out" by intermarrying with other larger people groups to the point that what made the small people group different is diluted throughout the larger people group. Which is almost exactly what Ilfana describes as happening several thousand years before the game starts.

So I think it "feels" more real to a lot of players if at least some people in the game to have Cetra heritage. Because that is what we should see in real life.

Granted... applying real life science anything to FFVII isn't what we're supposed to do, but it's really hard not to in this case when Jenova's influence being passed down to descendants via genetics is already a thing. The less I have to forget how the real life versions of the terms they use work, the easier is it to swallow the plot.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I'm not sure I believe it's because they're all scientifically minded and want FFVII to be more biologically realistic. I suspect a lot of them just think it would be cool.

 

[jazzflower92]

I'm not sure I believe it's because they're all scientifically minded and want FFVII to be more biologically realistic. I suspect a lot of them just think it would be cool.

On the other hand, you can't always use rule of cool when it comes to writing, especially it seems the game glosses over the fact that the Cetra became extinct with Aerith dying.

 

[Ite]

I’m not sure the game glosses it over, just doesn’t dwell on it. A major plot point involves what Aeris left unfinished and how the rest of the party couldn’t know what she was trying to do. Without the Ancients, hope seems lost. It’s only when returning to the city with Bugenhagen do they even begin to understand.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that Bugenhagen has Cetra heritage, as he can make out what the voices in the Forgotten City are trying to communicate. Of course, it could just be that he’s old and wizened and spends his days listening to the Planet in his orrery. Either way, it may be interesting to see his connection to the Planet expanded.