SPOILERS Predictions for Part 2? (*Open Spoilers for Part 1*)

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I don't have anything spoilery to say, I just wanted to say that I am SO FUCKING EXCITED for Junon.

Obviously Midgar is the city of my heart (and I have to add that living in the Sector 5 slums doesn't even look so bad) but Junon has always been my favourite non-Midgar location.

Rufus's inauguration parade. Heidegger's stupid horse laugh. The Turks at the bar. Rude at the gambling club. Cloud being lusted after yet again, this time by an underage girl and a middle-aged army sergeant.

The vision of this brass city, riveted to a cliff-side, burnished by the setting sun.

 

[Tetsujin]

Warning: Includes traces of predictions for part 3

My theory (means random guess that I pulled out of my butt) is that part 2 will mostly follow the original at first, ramping up the changes more and more until the end when the lid is blown off completely after part 1 nudged it open, giving us an even more bonkers and controversial plot twist, leading to a completely different story path and ending in part 3 (possibly 4?) that is trying to recapture the ambiguity and somewhat open endedness of the original FFVII instead of being "lifestream destroys Meteor, humanity lives, Advent Children happens"

 

[Theozilla]

Eh, I don’t think they are going to make it so that Advent Children can’t happen, especially when they’ve stated multiple times that Advent Children is kinda one of the cores of the Remake (in addition to the OG).

 

[Tetsujin]

Which I take to be a statement in regards to how AC influenced the visual design and action of this game. Anyway, I feel like that's kind of beside the point.

 

[Odysseus]

Since the other Avalanche Cell is getting a larger role in the Remake, I wonder if they'll be the group fighting Shinra at fort condor. If Biggs is going to be reintroduced to the party relatively early on, that could also be the place to do it.

 

[Tetsujin]

Since the other Avalanche Cell is getting a larger role in the Remake, I wonder if they'll be the group fighting Shinra at fort condor. If Biggs is going to be reintroduced to the party relatively early on, that could also be the place to do it.

 

[Castiel Strife]

Okay, so here’s the thing. Bear with me. They changed a lot in this game. The same general plot still stood, though. You’re still a mercenary joining a terrorist group to bomb reactors and take out the big bad Shinra. Aerith still gets kidnapped and you have to find and rescue her before escaping the building and Midgar itself. President Shinra is still assassinated and Rufus shows up. This all remained intact.

The biggest changes were Wedge and Biggs living and having a lot more screen time with Sephiroth than the time you spent in Midgar on the original. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Biggs and Wedge living aren’t out of the realm of possibility even for the original. We never saw a body, it was just assumed by the characters and therefore assumed by us.

They really made it seem like Biggs and Jessie were dying when you came up on them in this game, but still. I don’t think those are story breaking moments to change simply because, again, there was no proof from the original that they were all dead. I do think they should leave just Biggs alive as much as I love the other two, because it keeps the impact of the plate collapse intact.

A lot of the other things that happened could be explained as just not being as expanded upon in the original game. Even Barrett “dying” could have happened in the original for all we know. President Shinra could have been hanging off the side of the building before Cloud and company were captured, who knows. Obviously none of this happened, but the point I’m trying to make, as far fetched and “out there” as it may be lol, is that it’s possible the story didn’t change that much.

So now on to what will happen in part 2. In my heart of hearts, I honestly believe the plot will remain mostly the same in plot 2 as the original game. I believe Aerith will die and your goal will be to stop Sephiroth at all costs. I’m not entirely convinced it will be the second part where she dies, but I believe it’ll happen. Like the first game in the remake, I think that most key plot points will remain the same and there will be changes sprinkled in. Perhaps even some to give us a fear of everything falling apart, like this game, without it actually happening.

Call me optimistic or whatever, but deep down it’s what I believe. I think that Square cares enough about this game that they won’t go too crazy with changing the key plot. Other than the main plot points, everything else is open season. There will probably be expanded areas and perhaps new areas. I could see a new party member or a new villain. They won’t do a straight 1:1 remake of Aerith dying. There’ll be a twist involved.

All that being said, they’ve opened the door. I could be absolutely wrong and part 2 could be unrecognizable from the original game. Square has left that possibility on the table after this installment. However, I don’t feel they’ve hit that “point of no return” yet, because again everything that happened could be explained in some way. Even the whispers. Then again, it can easily be interpreted that the whispers are the reason things didn’t change as drastically as they could have, and now it’s all downhill from here. Only time will tell.

I’m excited either way and will be happy to play it no matter what, but there is definitely a hesitance I didn’t have when anticipating this first release. I think it’s equally possible that either A) Square is changing everything and let us know with the last sentence of the game or B) They’re elaborately doing all this to get us talking and have us in a frenzy with clear intentions to continue remaking (mostly) the same story of the original. Right now, I’m taking the latter.

 

[Roger]

Okay, so here’s the thing. Bear with me. They changed a lot in this game. The same general plot still stood, though. You’re still a mercenary joining a terrorist group to bomb reactors and take out the big bad Shinra. Aerith still gets kidnapped and you have to find and rescue her before escaping the building and Midgar itself. President Shinra is still assassinated and Rufus shows up. This all remained intact.

The biggest changes were Wedge and Biggs living and having a lot more screen time with Sephiroth than the time you spent in Midgar on the original. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Biggs and Wedge living aren’t out of the realm of possibility even for the original. We never saw a body, it was just assumed by the characters and therefore assumed by us.

They really made it seem like Biggs and Jessie were dying when you came up on them in this game, but still. I don’t think those are story breaking moments to change simply because, again, there was no proof from the original that they were all dead. I do think they should leave just Biggs alive as much as I love the other two, because it keeps the impact of the plate collapse intact.

A lot of the other things that happened could be explained as just not being as expanded upon in the original game. Even Barrett “dying” could have happened in the original for all we know. President Shinra could have been hanging off the side of the building before Cloud and company were captured, who knows. Obviously none of this happened, but the point I’m trying to make, as far fetched and “out there” as it may be lol, is that it’s possible the story didn’t change that much.

So now on to what will happen in part 2. In my heart of hearts, I honestly believe the plot will remain mostly the same in plot 2 as the original game. I believe Aerith will die and your goal will be to stop Sephiroth at all costs. I’m not entirely convinced it will be the second part where she dies, but I believe it’ll happen. Like the first game in the remake, I think that most key plot points will remain the same and there will be changes sprinkled in. Perhaps even some to give us a fear of everything falling apart, like this game, without it actually happening.

Call me optimistic or whatever, but deep down it’s what I believe. I think that Square cares enough about this game that they won’t go too crazy with changing the key plot. Other than the main plot points, everything else is open season. There will probably be expanded areas and perhaps new areas. I could see a new party member or a new villain. They won’t do a straight 1:1 remake of Aerith dying. There’ll be a twist involved.

All that being said, they’ve opened the door. I could be absolutely wrong and part 2 could be unrecognizable from the original game. Square has left that possibility on the table after this installment. However, I don’t feel they’ve hit that “point of no return” yet, because again everything that happened could be explained in some way. Even the whispers. Then again, it can easily be interpreted that the whispers are the reason things didn’t change as drastically as they could have, and now it’s all downhill from here. Only time will tell.

I’m excited either way and will be happy to play it no matter what, but there is definitely a hesitance I didn’t have when anticipating this first release. I think it’s equally possible that either A) Square is changing everything and let us know with the last sentence of the game or B) They’re elaborately doing all this to get us talking and have us in a frenzy with clear intentions to continue remaking (mostly) the same story of the original. Right now, I’m taking the latter.

Hojo has already told the crew that Cloud is not SOLDIER at all and now the whispers aren't around anymore to prevent from elaborating on things he doesn't seem to have any intention of keeping secret. I don't see how they are going to walk that stuff back.

 

[Castiel Strife]

Hojo has already told the crew that Cloud is not SOLDIER at all and now the whispers aren't around anymore to prevent from elaborating on things he doesn't seem to have any intention of keeping secret. I don't see how they are going to walk that stuff back.

It’s a good point, but when will we even see Hojo again? There’s a chance we won’t run into him on Costa Del Sol this time around. I think key elements could still remain unchanged. Aerith seems to know at least something about her fate, but I always gathered even from the original that she was more in tune with those sorts of things than people realized. Cloud is stubborn, who knows what he will do with the information provided. He may explain it away to the crew during the Kalm flashback (assuming that happens).

 

[Theozilla]

Hojo has already told the crew that Cloud is not SOLDIER at all and now the whispers aren't around anymore to prevent from elaborating on things he doesn't seem to have any intention of keeping secret. I don't see how they are going to walk that stuff back.

The implication during that scene is that Hojo was cut off before the party could hear the majority of his statement/not have a enough context to understand what was said. Neither Cloud or the party are supposed to think/suspect Cloud wasn’t in SOLDIER.
Especially with the way sentence structure works in Japanese, I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes off as less “spoilery” in the Japanese version than the English version.

 

[Eerie]

True, the negation comes at the end of the sentence, so I don't think the team knows what's going on. We could check it with the JP script I guess.

 

[Castiel Strife]

The implication during that scene is that Hojo was cut off before the party could hear the majority of his statement/not have a enough context to understand what was said. Neither Cloud or the party are supposed to think/suspect Cloud wasn’t in SOLDIER.
Especially with the way sentence structure works in Japanese, I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes off as less “spoilery” in the Japanese version than the English version.

You know, you bring up a really great point about translation. Just remember how bad the original translation was haha. I didn’t even take that into equation when thinking about this game. There’s a lot that could have (potentially) been loosely translated.

It’s okay guys! The whispers aren’t actually whispers at all and the end was just a dream that was poorly translated to us. ? They accidentally got the translation mixed up with Kingdom Hearts 3.2 script coming in ten years.

 

[Theozilla]

You know, you bring up a really great point about translation. Just remember how bad the original translation was haha. I didn’t even take that into equation when thinking about this game. There’s a lot that could have (potentially) been loosely translated.

It’s okay guys! The whispers aren’t actually whispers at all and the end was just a dream that was poorly translated to us. ? They accidentally got the translation mixed up with Kingdom Hearts 3.2 coming next year.

Well my point isn’t even about translation quality, it’s literally about how Japanese and English structures their language differently. So stuff like nouns, verbs, and pronouns, and negation/modifier words are arranged completely different, and thus how information in a sentence can be inferred changes, particularly cut off sentences.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It's not any less spoilery in Japanese, but there's really no reason for them to trust Hojo.

Not that this is The One Thing irreconcilable with the original story anyway. Of course, that doesn't much matter since it's not meant to be a "slide these new pieces in between the beats of the old" kind of thing.

 

[LNK]

Since the other Avalanche Cell is getting a larger role in the Remake, I wonder if they'll be the group fighting Shinra at fort condor. If Biggs is going to be reintroduced to the party relatively early on, that could also be the place to do it.

That's a really good idea!

 

[LNK]

My predictions pretty much the same as Theozillas. We'll get more expansions on Junon, Cosmo Canyon, Wutai and the Forgotten City (not nearly as much as Midgar) and it'll end with Aerith's death. The world will be open enough that we can travel where the Tiny Bronco can take us.

 

[Cannon_Fodder]

My prediction/hope is that they'll handle the plot relevance of the main party better. The OG is guilty of a common FF sin, namely that characters get their arc and then just kinda fade into the background. I'm hoping it'll be more balanced this time around.

Also, I still think part 2 will go until the Temple of the Ancients

 

[Odysseus]

^Yeah my single biggest criticism of the original game is that the characters just kind of cease to develop after their 15 minutes in the spotlight is over. It was a consequence of being able to have basically any character present for any scene, so none of them were allowed to act in a more distinct way because that would disrupt the flow of the story. As such, all of the characters besides Cloud become more or less interchangeable in any given scene unless its a scene that revolves around them.

The best solution I can think of for this is to just allow all of the party members to be present for all of the story beats, even if they'e not in the active party. Writing the scenes with that in mind would let everyone stand out more. I think its inevitable that some characters kind of get the shaft at various points though, its just a consequence of having nine primary character and a massive amount of secondary characters. VII has a really big cast!

 

[Cannon_Fodder]

Also, this is less of a prediction since part one already has it, but I'm looking forward to the relationships that develop among the cast. Stuff like Aerith and Tifa's friendship being expanded on, or Barret talking with Red XIII a lot.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Talking Dog Best Friend!

Actually, what I would like to see is something that isn't developed at all in the OG, and that is Barret's relationship with Aerith. He is such a fiery, fatherly, protective sort, and without Marlene around for him to dote on and cherish, I can see him instinctively adopting a "Dad role" for a girl who has never had a father. Fireworks will result, since Aerith is not the sort to take kindly to anyone trying to parent her.

 

[youffie]

I just had the following conversation with my sister:

Me: “Man I can’t wait to have Yuffie, she’s going to be so fun <3”

Sister: “AU!Yuffie?”

Me: blocked&reported for abuse

Sigh… But yeah, there is so much they can do with character interactions with such a diverse cast. Definitely looking forward to it and feeling pretty confident they can deliver on that!

 

[SpacemanZero]

I just had a very wild thought about Caith Sith.

Remember all that cat stuff with Wedge... was it foreshadowing? What if... this time Cait Sith is actually with Wedge, sitting on his shoulders? Wedge replaces the moogle robot. I really, really, really don't see them keeping the moogle this time.

Here's how it might go:
Wedge survives at Shinra HQ and ends up captured. We hear the window breaking, but we don't see him dying. There's a reason for that.

So, Reeve makes him work as a double agent. Through Wedge they find out about Marlene and use that to blackmail him. Wasn't Reeves/CS threatening about something happening to Marlene in the original game as well, when CS was exposed?

Now here comes the best part. Remember Wedge's line about him hoping that he can make a difference? Well, he's certainly going to make a difference, when he sacrifices himself in the Temple of the Ancients to get the Black Materia. Cait probably tries to get the materia alone first, but fucks up, and Wedge finishes the mission. Not only do we get a new take on Cait Sith, but we also get to spend more time with Wedge, and in the end he still dies in a way that is tragic and meaningful to the story and his character arc.

If the second Cait comes around later, maybe he just rides Red, but I don't think they need to bring him back. We could just see him later with Reeves himself.

I absolutely would love that. That's the kind of new takes on the original story that I'm really looking forward to, not any alternative timeline shit. They could do some great things with Wedge's inner struggle working as a double agent and they could use Wedge to really flesh out Reeves too.

 

[Claymore]

OMG I love it!

 

[Via Purifico]

I think more of the team will die this time. I mean, that's a lot of characters to deal with and they're all on screen all the time, so how would party switching or whatever work? Or will there be stuff like needing to take separate routes to places or people just assigning themselves to a group for a mission and that's it, no swapping back and forth? The SP and levelling still goes up, after all.
Maybe that almost death with Barret and vision death of Tifa are foreshadowing we won't keep the whole party this time?

 

[Wol]

I just had a very wild thought about Caith Sith.

Remember all that cat stuff with Wedge... was it foreshadowing? What if... this time Cait Sith is actually with Wedge, sitting on his shoulders? Wedge replaces the moogle robot. I really, really, really don't see them keeping the moogle this time.

Here's how it might go:
Wedge survives at Shinra HQ and end ups captured. We hear the window breaking, but we don't see him dying. There's a reason for that.

So, Reeve makes him work as a double agent. Through Wedge they find out about Marlene and use that to blackmail him. Wasn't Reeves/CS threatening about something happening to Marlene in the original game as well, when CS was exposed?

Now here comes the best part. Remember Wedge's line about him hoping that he can make a difference? Well, he's certainly going to make a difference, when he sacrifices himself in the Temple of the Ancients to get the Black Materia. Cait probably tries to get the materia alone first, but fucks up, and Wedge finishes the mission. Not only do we get a new take on Cait Sith, but we also get to spend more time with Wedge, and in the end he still dies in a way that is tragic and meaningful to the story and his character arc.

If the second Cait comes around later, maybe he just rides Red, but I don't think they need to bring him back. We could just see him later with Reeves himself.

I absolutely would love that. That's the kind of new takes on the original story that I'm really looking forward to, not any alternative timeline shit. They could do some great things with Wedge's inner struggle working as a double agent and they could use Wedge to really flesh out Reeves too.

That's actually a great and creative idea.

So that's probably not going to happen lol but I would be totally down for it.