Alright, time for a bunch of details including some things that have already been introduced via
Ever Crisis:
Insofar as "the rift in the sky" – that's visible at the start of the trailer as Zack carrying Cloud is turning away from Elmyra who's commenting that apparently the world is going to end. What's notable about the gigantic rift here is that it's the region where the Whispers were obliterated in the dome over Midgar, as well as the fact that the rift itself has a golden hue to it. That's a color choice that's VERY seldom used, but is what we see Cloud looking towards at the Edge of Creation in the end of Remake.
Compare the pan up
10 seconds in to the new trailer (especially as the lighting fades), to
the celestial structure that Cloud is looking at at the Edge of Creation. What's especially noteworthy here is that the celestial structure BEHIND Cloud is the nebula that looks like Meteor. These have always been two separate directions for things and representing the different choices and a world that Sephiroth wants to bring together. The new trailer mentions "Reunion" in the context of merging the worlds and even the cover art of Rebirth shows Sephiroth underneath Jenova's meteoric red sky in between Cloud standing underneath the Nibelheim Promise sky and Zack standing underneath the clear blue sky he wanted to show Aerith (Also, the very clear indications there should make some LTD people have some opinions about things).
Beyond this is something else that's a bit more surprising which is the
Ever Crisis summer event with the Watermelon Tonberry. In that scenario the Watermelon Tonberry appears and Cissnei & Zack who are on vacation during
Crisis Core are ordered to capture it and bring it in for the Shinra science department (foreshadowing context for what Cissnei has to do with Zack later on). The Watermelon Tonberry escapes through a portal and Cissnei mentions that the Portal is,
"A teleportation spell. A prototype materia developed by Professor Hojo. It was determined to have no value and subsequently shelved." The Watermelon Tonberry uses it to transport himself between the beach at Costa Del Sol when Zack & Cissnei are there and emerge when Cloud & Co are there during
Final Fantasy VII.
His reason for travelling is that he wants to
bring everyone together to have a Watermelon Bash celebration, and Aerith is the only one who can sense is intentions with the same sort of mind-reading that she does in Remake of hearing his thoughts in the Lifestream. She hand writes a letter for him to carry to explain what he's doing. He disappears to visit other beaches assumedly aside from just the ones that we see, but when it cuts back to the
Crisis Core time period, Zack's sitting on the beach and he comments,
"The ocean is huge... I wish Aerith could see this." to which Cissnei replies,
"If you wish hard enough, you might get through to her. I'm not joking. She's an Anc–" before cutting herself off. This starts to establish even more of a sense of Aerith's ability to sense things in the world around her through the flow of the Lifestream.
That's when the Watermelon Tonberry arrives with the letter handwritten by Aerith that Zack reads and he recognizes the writing, which makes him trust his intentions, and he and Cissnei let him go – at which point the Watermelon Bash and the little dude become a Costa Del Sol mascot of sorts. So they've established a soft precedent for interconnection
literally just DAYS before this trailer launched.
Additionally, the PlayStation Blog clarifies that
we're getting a slightly new order in the locations being visited, which includes Wutai not being present until the final game. That makes things rather interesting to think about in the context of the trailer, as Dr. Sheiran is shown talking to them about the former SOLDIER in black cloaks suffering from cellular degradation is likely the same doctor in Mideel who tends to the catatonic, wheelchair-bound Cloud – establishing a precedent for his understanding Lifestream and Mako-related effects on humans. Of note is that in Ever Crisis, the Rhadoran's were the island nation formerly allied with Shinra who keep a close eye on the flow of the Lifestream and its influence in triggering natural disasters. Rosen, the Eye of Rhadore who keeps watch describes this as,
"A mana torrent is like a tsunami or a flood. Can you picture it? People and homes, swept away in an instant. When the mana becomes restless, the first signs of a coming torrent can be seen in the eastern waters. That's the ocean outside. It's said that the ground rumbles and the water's surface begins to shimmer." and you can even see the Lifestream itself in the ocean waters from some of the coastline there. While it's not confirmed where the Rhadore Archepelago is located, the small chain of islands just north of Mideel seems like a likely candidate.
Seeing the cloaked figure that appears to be Glenn during the trailer, as well as Glenn seeming to develop a rather sympathetic perspective towards Rosen in
The First SOLDIER sequences so far, as well as being antagonistic towards Sephiroth in the opening cinematic makes me think that this is going to be connected to the SRC (Shinra Resistance Committee) that's being supported by the Wutai Interim Government. Mideel's location being geographically near Wutai, and establishing the presence of a former Shinra-war-ally-turned-enemy makes sense, but especially as it was confirmed that Wutai is being delayed to the next game.
Rebirth comes out in five months, and I expect that the stories in
Ever Crisis will continue to be a way to provide some background context to some of the other forces at play during the final act, which will also help to set up for what a post-Shinra world would look like, and how they'd transition into organizations like the WRO, but also how the presence of the ex-P0 SOLDIERs & Wutai forces linked into Yuffie's story from
INTERmission will give an avenue to also address the situation in Deepground within the game itself rather than as something that happens afterwards.
What makes these things stand out is that we know that the sequence of some events are being shifted around, as the end of the game is apparently the events of the Forgotten Capital, but we also see Tifa in the Lifestream and talking to Red XIII about Weapon – which doesn't typically occur until the Whirlwind Maze.
Remake was pretty specific about foreshadowing Cloud being lead to the Whirlwind Maze along with the other Black Cloaked Sephiroth copies and the trailer mentions that they're potentially their best shot at finding Sephiroth. Given that Cloud gives Sephiroth the Black Materia at the Temple of the Ancients, and Aerith departs – but then they get it back and he gives it up again at North Crater makes me think that there's a possibility that we might be seeing some shifting into the sequence of those events, such that Aerith's departure and prayer is more specifically linked to stopping Meteor, and thus the events that transpire there leave things at the ultimate low of essentially everyone failing and the Apocalypse seemingly being triggered (since narratively, the middle chapter of a trilogy is about testing characters and leaving off with things broken, so that the triumph of the final chapter feels that it has to rise back from nothing).
The other part of this that makes me bring all of this up is the way that the suspicion of identity is taking place, and the idea of Zack's survival being merged into this world would present a rather unique problem which is that there's then going to be a duplicate Cloud. This just further exacerbates the identity crisis that Cloud has, but we also know that
Crisis Core catatonic Cloud's consciousness is essentially stuck in the Lifestream. It seems like they're setting up for the possibility of the "other Cloud" voice in Cloud's head LITERALLY BEING THE OTHER CLOUD, which would make Aerith's ability to sense things and likely still saying that she wants to meet "the REAL Cloud" during the Gold Saucer date take on a slightly different, but still thematically identical meaning. Again – those are all elements that there are bits of storytelling foreshadowing that have been dropped in
Ever Crisis JUST prior to this trailer, and
The First SOLDIER story being developed in tandem with Rebirth seems to add some additional weight to this. Add to that that we already KNOW that there're multiple iterations of Sephiroth present in
Remake, and Cloud & Sephiroth's connection inside Cloud's head just adds more weight to that.
IMO – this seems like a fairly satisfying way to create the mystery that still follows the echo of the original structure but adds in layers of something different as well for people (like most of us) who are already fans of the original game.
Lastly, comes to something that Nomura said in the PlayStation Blog interview which is,
"Every trailer has a specific purpose. Since this is the second installment in the Final Fantasy VII remake project, there are people who have played the previous game or enthusiastic fans who follow the built-in mysteries, but for newcomers or those who are or simply interested in the Final Fantasy VII series, we wanted to include a full overview of what kind of experience they will have with this remake project. So, there is less of a mysterious pretense to the story this time, but you can look forward to the next trailer." – Especially with only 5 months until it's released, this is why I think it's worth notice that even amongst all of the CRAZY amazing things in this trailer that are being realized from the original game, I think that these all give a sense of things to keep an eye out for in the next trailer, which is going to be more geared towards tossing a wrench into everyone's theories about what the hell's going on.
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