So You Just Beat Final Fantasy VII Remake – An Ending Breakdown

[cold_spirit]

https://thelifestream.net/lifestrea...final-fantasy-vii-remake-an-ending-breakdown/

In this article, I make extensive use of Microsoft Paint to explain timeline shenanigans. I also filled my google search history with queries on dog breeds and potato chip bags so that you don't have to!

This didn't start out as an article at all, but as a message I would send my friends once they completed FF7R. One friend had never completed a FF game before. The other completed the OG and every Compilation title, but last played them over a decade ago. I thought they might have some questions. I started by organizing my posts on this forum into a cohesive breakdown. When I finished the message, I thought it would make a neat article. This is the result after receiving valuable feedback from staff. It was a lot of fun and I hope it draws in a new fan or two!

 

[Theozilla]

Neat, presuming Zack surviving isn’t going to be a fake-out that has him getting shot immediately after the final flashback scene in the Remake, I personally think it the most likely scenario (presuming there isn’t Zack DLC plans) is the third one, where it’s all one timeline and the “rules” are the wobbly-wobbly soft-sci-fi kind and the paradox will eventually get resolved so stuff goes back to the original events.

 

[nitramXIII]

Thanks for that article,
there's so much theories everywhere that you end up not knowing which one people are talking about...
I feel like your article might help to clarify things for further discussions, (sorry for my bad english...!)

Not like i want to make things more confusing, but i was thinking of another theory that would be a mix between the diverging timelines theory and the timeline overwrite theory.
It's more or less based on that "portal" the party goes through in chapter 18, which is opened by sephiroth and enhanced (?) by Aerith. So when they go through that, this is when they change timeline, leaving the beagle timeline behind and entering the terrier timeline.

Well, i don't know if that's correct, but i found a clue on the vision of midgar Cloud has right after the whirlwind send him flying after crossing the portal and being transported in singularity. Maybe i'm seeing things, but if you look carefully at that version of midgar, you can see that the plate of the sector 6 is like brand new. But back in the beginning of chapter 9, after cloud is surprised to see the sky, Aerith tells him that there was an accident when midgar was still under construction and that the plate fell, and it hadn't been rebuilt. Corneo also talks about it when saying to Tifa that the sector 7 plate will soon fall.
Also, if you compare that Midgar to the one we see at the very beginning of the game with the ff7r title on it, it's almost clear that the sector 6 is not like brand new.

Well, this would imply lots of things if singularity really is the terrier timeline, but simply put, i guess it would mean that there was an alternate parallel timeline (diverging timeline theory) that disappeared with the whispers, resulting in one and only overwritten timeline.

And for the characters having two versions of themselves, i guess the lifestream could fix this when the two meet by "remaking" them into only one version with both memories (a bit like naruto and his clones)

... mmh ?

 

[Theozilla]

The sector 6 seen during the Whisper Harbinger boss fight is the same as the ones seen previously, the incomplete portions are just cutoff/offscreen from the edges of the frame.

 

[nitramXIII]

and here is the view of midgar as seen at the begining of the game,
to me it's not that obvious that these 2 sector 6 are the same, but again i might be seeing things...

oops sorry, i dont know how to insert my screenshot...

 

[SailorStarDust]

I tend to go with Timeline 3, myself, that things wound up as a reverse Back to the Future effect. Considering

Spoiler: Major End Game

our Party killing literal Fate altered the past, due to Zack (...so far, since that could be a fake out) and Biggs' respective survivals

but I'm sure Part 2 onwards will explain what the hell is going on. At least, it better

 

[Ite]

but I'm sure Part 2 onwards will explain what the hell is going on. At least, it better

I'm hoping for the exact opposite, I hope this garbage is never mentioned again.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I think that they're being presented more like the second as divergent possible timelines, but ultimately only one of them can come to pass when it's all said and done, and so I think that it has the most potential as the third version, where it's either an overwrite (or it never comes to pass at all).

I think that's because the whole thing is serving a two-fold purpose. First, it's introducing some elements with Zack, so that we can explore some of the context around him in the next game. Like Sephiroth, there's no way to keep those things obscured for as long as the original game, and there is a ton of important story-related content there. Introducing those elements early on will help the story out a lot in diving into those things and making it easier to follow and let them provide a lot more exploration of the struggles with characters like Aerith & Tifa before Cloud gets his shit togther.

I also think it's helping to provide some more literal context about the existential struggle of loss, so that they can explore some of those questions & struggles in more detail in Remake. When dealing with death, part of you is always working to move on with real life and remember the person, but the other part of you is constantly obsessing over what things would be like if those things never happened and they were still around. I think that Remake is just delivering both of those struggles in a literal way that lets the story focus in on that existential struggle. They want to have the players familiar with that experience, since so much of the story revolves around different and complicated versions of that issue with the characters, and it drives up the difficulty emotionally as other things in the story come to pass & the characters keep experiencing more loss and reflecting events of their own horrible pasts.



X