Ff7 Remake - Blog Posts
While everyone's crafting their own theories about FF7R, it's comforting to know Zacks probably about as confused as we are
okay this is just me being mad about something irrelevant so feel free to skip this one but! i was scrolling away on youtube, as a bored final fantasy fan who was away from home does. then, i find this video:
i see this and go 'oh my gosh, my favorite. an uninformed idiot made a whole video. can't wait to hate watch!" little did i know i would barely make it two minutes in. i save the video, and when i get home, i start dinner and turn this on.
according to this guy, the first thing the game "doesn't tell you"... is what punisher mode is. you know, the like, major function of cloud's kit. that they explain. and i was so mad i closed the video, went downstairs to my faithful ps5, and slotted the data disc into it to redownload the whole game to prove this guy wrong.
a half hour later (i went and finished my dinner while it was downloading dw) i start a new game, and lo and behold, literally like, four battles in, is the explanation for punisher mode:
JESUS CHRIST. WHAT THE FUCK??? anyway. i was so mad and i'm literally right and i don't care i just needed this out of my noggin.
i love leslie kyle. he's:
1) helping literal terrorists go do more terrorism bc at least they're not his sex trafficking mob boss
2) just looking for his fiancee/girlfriend (he says girlfriend in TKAA:ATSS but says fiancee in remake continuity so...)
3) going to eventually becomes friends/coworkers with kyrie canaan. the future angel of the slums kyrie canaan.
4) voiced by mark whitten. i just like him, really.
5) still wearing that UGLY LEOPARD PRINT JACKET. STILL.
are other people making "hopes and dreams in part 3" bingo boards?? i was thinking about it and made a list of like 30+ things to put on the board (a LOT of them are definitely only dreams and won't happen but i thought of them and want them to happen so...)
if other people are, or have ideas, pleeease let me know i'm so curious what other people expect or hope for from part 3
i just found out viceroy sarruf is implied to be rufus 😭 wdym they pulled a gerad again??? i wanted it to be someone completely unrelated but nooOOOo.
Downloading FFVII rebirth on my shitty home wifi (24 hours in and we are at… 60%) and it’s hogging the bandwidth so much I’m waiting for pictures of zakkura to load line by line like its 1997
little peek of this!! guys i'm gonna clean this up i swear guys- until then don't look at it !!
Im loosing it over the Nintendo Switch 2 direct.
New awesome features, an FF7 Remake port, a DK platformer, and A NEW MARIO KART GAME!?
SIGN ME UP!
The only thing I didn't like was that some games aren't compatible with the switch 2 and how the games cost like 80 bucks.
I CAN'T STOP WINNING!
I FINALLY GOT FF7 REMAKE. TIME TO PLAY IT.
FF7R Mini Theory: Hollow and the Sefirot
So I've been noticing something regarding Hollow and the Kabbalah (it's way too complicated to explain here, but it's basically just Jewish mystism). Anyways, in the Kabbalah, there are these divine attributes called the sefirot from which God would reveal himself. It's also very important because this is where Sephiroth got his name from.
There's also the polar opposite of the sefirot, the qliphoth. The qlipoth that protects the sefirot much like how a peel protects a fruit. The qlipoth are also known to be called "empty shells/husks"
It's like there... hollow inside. Just like Cloud Strife himself
So without these sefirot (divine attributes) that manifest in the physical and spiritual realms, the universe will basically descend into chaos, which is the last thing we want. Cloud and Sephiroth during the edge of creation scene represent the universes of creation (Cloud) and death (Sephiroth), yin and yang,
The Qliphoth and the holy Sefirot
Well...without the sefirot, what will the qlipoth's purpose be? They are now empty, hollow shells, kinda like how Cloud's mind is shattered and how he wants to be whole again, yet he needs to regain his true self in order to do so. The sefirot makes the qlipoth complete, just like how Cloud becomes complete with Sephiroth.
Everyone says hi to pre-transition Cloud Strife
are sins ever forgiven?
Unrequited love || Cloud Strife
Character: Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy series
Warnings: angst, Hanahaki disease, mentions of blood/death
Summary: Your unrequited feelings for Cloud were weighing heavily on you. You were suffering not only emotionally, but also physically, to the point of death.
WC: 976 words
You've been extremely frustrated during the last few days. Your hands were entangled in the silky strands of your hair, to the point you were tearing hairs from your scalp.
For years, you've had feelings for Cloud, but you knew without asking him, that those feelings weren't mutual.
Every single person you told about your troubles, all advised you to confront Cloud about it. But, you weren't going to do that. What point was there in doing so? He had made it very clear to everyone around him, that he wasn't interested in relationships and all that.
You tried to push yourself past these feelings with every last ounce of energy you had, but it was harder than you had expected. Every time you tried to look the boy in the eyes, you felt like throwing up. And because of that, you had decided to try to avoid him at all costs.
And just like any other day, you found yourself sitting at the bar of Seventh Heaven with tears pooled at the brim of your eyes. Just the thought of Cloud made your heart break into a million pieces, but luckily, Tifa was there for you to take your mind off of things.
''Hey, cheer up! Don't stress it too much, okay?'' You heard Tifa's voice yell from the other side of the room. Tifa's ability to sense how you were feeling from such a distance shocked you. You nodded, biting on your bottom lip as you muttered out a soft 'yeah'.
Tifa walked up to you, lifting your head up a bit as she wiped the tears from your cheeks. ''You know, maybe Cloud does share your feelings. He'd prefer it if you told him instead of keeping it to yourself.'' She remarked as she softly patted your back.
''I don't know, you know how he is. He probably doesn't want to hear me whining to him about my feelings.'' You replied, heaving heavily as you picked up the glass of whiskey in front of you. You gulped the final bit in one go, coughing as a result of the scorching sensation in your throat.
''Well, I need to go out for a bit. Don't do anything stupid, okay?'' Tifa chuckled, waving you goodbye as she hurried slowly towards the door.
As soon as you heard the door fall shut behind you, you ran to the toilets. Your head was dangling over the toilet, spewing blood-tinged petals out of your mouth. You felt sick to your stomach. Not just when you saw him, but even if you thought about him for just a second.
The petals covered in blood were floating in the toilet, the sight making you throw up even more. This feeling was crushing you on the in- and outside. Just a few weeks ago, you started throwing up the petals out of the blue. When you searched up what this meant, you found yourself reading all about the 'Hanahaki disease'.
Unrequited love.
Once you read this, you knew for sure, that Cloud didn't feel the same. Everyone tried to reassure you that it was just all in your head, but it didn't change the way you felt.
Your train of thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking on the door.
''It's me. You okay in there?''
You could recognize this voice anywhere. It was Cloud. Of course it had to be him.
''I'm okay, just feeling a little sick today.''
Lies.
''Can I come in?'' He asked, his voice genuinely sounding worried this time. You heard him turning the knob to open the door that you had locked, your eyes widened as tears started streaming down your face. What were you going to say now? Just ask him to go away?
You stayed quiet, not knowing how to reply.
''Are you sure you're okay?''
Again, you stayed quiet.
You quickly wiped the blood and tears away from your face, rubbing your eyes profusely, before unlocking the door for Cloud. His eyes pierced right through you, even though you weren't looking him in the eyes. You held your breath, trying not to throw up again. It was a nightmare, thinking about Cloud seeing you throw up those petals and having to explain what's going on.
''Have you... been crying?'' He furrowed his brows, stepping closer to you, pushing some strands out of your face as you looked down at the floor. ''And what's that in the toilet? Flower petals?''
Your eyes shot up at him, your heart skipping a beat when you realized you had forgotten to hide the evidence.
''It's nothing, don't worry about it.'' You mumbled, slapping his hand away as you quickly flushed down the blood with petals. You didn't turn around as you wanted to avoid any eye contact.
''Hanahaki disease, right?''
Your chest started to hurt even more, making you pant heavily as you thought about all the possible outcomes of this.
Before you could even think of another reply, you felt his warm hands grab you and turn you around. You felt like dying.
You squeezed your eyes shut, holding tightly onto the fabric of your shirt. And to your surprise, you felt his soft and gentle lips against your own. You opened your eyes slightly to look at Cloud with his eyes shut, kissing you passionately. You were frozen in your place.
He pulled his lips away, cupping your cheeks with both of his hands as she sighed. ''I've seen you throw up those petals before.''
''How?''
That was all you could get out right now.
''Were you that sure that my feelings weren't mutual?''
''Yes, you said last time that you weren't interested in any kind of relationship.''
He placed another kiss on your forehead, his face stoic as ever. You chuckled at the sight, Cloud hadn't changed one bit.
''Maybe.. I changed my mind.''
I turned the black materia scene into Sefikura content bc I got inspired 😈 eat up y'all
Got inspired to draw this scene for some reason today 🥲
reunion
(zack & aerith, ff7)
“cloud… words aren’t the only thing that tell people what you’re thinking…”
Here is text with it as well-
I want to make art my career, but to do that I need to get significantly better, so I've been practicing doing more backgrounds. I've also been watching the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailers, and saw Priscilla! I think she's a fun character, so I decided to try painting her.
Day three of shop updates! (I know, I've been busy!)
Final Fantasy 7 girlies: Tifa Lockhart and Aerith Gainsborough! Both are $40 + shipping 💜
Warmth In A Red Cloak
A/N: A very quick and simple story, I just made for Vincent, been a while since I written anything so, it's kind of like practice writing this story is to get me back into writing again
Vincent Valentine x Reader
You have the heating on in your home but you were still very cold, you wrapped yourself in many blankets that you have and you still feel a bit of a shiver down your spine.
You heard a faint knock on your window, you got up from your bed and have seen it was Vincent tapping at your window to get in, "you know there is the door" you mumbled before shivering again and clench the blanket tighter around you,
"You cold?" You nodded as you began to shiver from the cold, Vincent followed you near your bed
You quickly got to bed and wrapped yourself tightly, trying to warm yourself up. Vincent walked and sat beside you on the bed, you immediately latched yourself around Vincent and instantly was warm you wrap Vincent red Cloak around you and felt extra cosy,
Vincent looked at you and couldn't help but smile, he found her quite adorable all wrapped up in his Cloak with him, as she finally drifted into a cosy sleep.
Flower Crown
I absolutely didn't liked Sephiroth when I first played FF7, (Shocker I know) but this man had grown on to me, I absolutely love him, especially in Crisis Core and to me his hair in CCR looks so much fluffier, anyway I wanted to do a little Fluffy story, cause I love Sephi when he's being so fluffy🥰
Sephiroth x Reader
You pluck some of the beautiful flowers that were growing among your garden, as you picked some of the flowers you heard a rustling as someone walk up to you,
"what are you doing my darling" you instantly smiled when you knew who it was,
"Sephi come sit next to me and relax for a moment" he went and sat right beside you as you focus on some of the flowers that were on your hands, You asked him how was his day as you carefully began making a blue flower Crown,
You always think that blue would suit him very much and so you wove the sweet flowers together as Sephiroth began to notice what you were making and became so fascinated by your work, as he beautiful green cats eyes widen in awe and wonder,
"You are really good at that?" You laughed gently and smiled when you were finished with the beautiful crown, you smiled up towards him before then placing the crown above his head,
He froze there as you place the crown upon his head, you couldn't help to find it cute of him and placed a sweet kiss on his check as his face began to become red,
"How about I make you one? For my darling" you agreed as you teach him how to make a crown, and through trail and error he finally managed to make a pink flower Crown for you, You clapped your hands in glee and Sephiroth smiled with pride that he make a crown for his darling, he carefully places the crown on your head careful not to break the crown,
"There, a beautiful crown, for a beautiful princess" you couldn't help but embrace him and connecting your lips into a sweet passionate kiss, Sephiroth held you close as you continue to kiss before pulling away, leaning your head against his shoulder, careful not to damage the flowers,
"Come on let's get some tea, I have the kettle on" you got up as Sephiroth followed, having a arm wrapped around your waist, and still wearing the flower crown that you made for him.
Was at work did a quick drawing of Cloud in a dress flat colors
Aerith's ribbon: is it still a gift from Zack?
It has been rumored by some fans that the Crisis Core scene where Zack gave Aerith the pink ribbon is no more canon, because kid Aerith has a pink ribbon too.
I don't mean to sound pretentious but...they're evidently different. Kid Aerith's ribbon has four ends, adult Aerith's ribbon has just two.
Since the original FFVII kid Aerith's had two outfits. She wore the blue outfit in the first part of Elmyra's flashback and the orange one when Tseng tried to convince her to return to Shinra.
In the Remake she wears the orange outfit only in the train graveyard vision and the blue one in all of Elmyra's flashback, from the moment she found her at the station up to when Tseng showed up. It's definitely not very evident because of the sepia tone filter, but we can compare her dress to the concept art and to the orange dress: she has no ribbon on the chest but wears a pinafore dress and a light shirt with bell sleeves.
This means that in the sepia toned scene she was wearing the green ribbon, as we can see from the concept art.
The scene at the train graveyard bears many similarities with the situation described in Picturing the Past, so she was wearing the orange outfit before escaping Shinra HQ.
When Elmyra found her and brought her in Sector 5 she had the green ribbon, not the pink one.
Someone tried to say Aerith stated the ribbon was a gift from her mother when she met Cloud at the church...
Nice try, but she was talking about White Materia. (Leaving a couple of links in case anybody wanted to check: OG, Remake)
So, not only there's no evidence that the pink ribbon is no more Zack's gift but that scene influenced also an important moment of the Remake: Aerith and Cloud's first encounter.
And in both cases the gift was made in order to thank the other for their help
CC: To show you my gratitude for that "hello" that woke me up.
Remake: You know, for scaring those things away.
Ehhh...can I say what a coincidence again?
Talk about a coincidence!
(Previous post here)
Midgar Blues
It has been said and repeated to death: there's a song dedicated to the "promise" in the Remake, and this should be enough to claim the "coincidence" post and end it here with a good link to enjoy the song.
But this song received some criticisms, so I'd like to talk a bit more about it.
1. "There is no evidence that this song is about Cloud and Tifa" and "It's just a random song in Wall Market without specifical meaning".
I saw some people trying to debate about this matter so, here we are.
The text perfectly describes the scene of the promise and Cloud leaving Nibelheim to join SOLDIER. It talks about a man/boy who left his hometown for Midgar, leaving behind a girl. There's a reference to the Lifestream and to the starry night with falling stars. The lyrics - both English and Japanese - are posted below.
This song has old-time/banjo&harmonica sounds that fit the "old west" atmosphere of Nibelheim.
The "author" of the song says he had started his career 7 years ago, when Cloud and Tifa shared the promise, and he's wondering if "Midgar Blues" will be his greatest success. Get the metaphor.
From a storytelling perspective this is NOT a coincidence: no reasonable company invests money and resources to create this sort of content without a reason (and no reasonable company invests money and resources in a song submissively sang in a hidden location of the game, probably this piece will have more focus and importance in the next parts of Remake when the promise will be brought up again - who knows, maybe at Gold Saucer?).
2. The original Japanese lyrics are different from the English translation (hence: it's not about love)
(Source)
The English version is undoubtly romantic and includes the words "True love", while the Japanese version doesn't. I'd like to point out a couple of considerations:
Whether you take the English version or the Japanese one, they're both romantic. It really doesn't seem to me that the original version sounds like a man singing for his sister or his mother. The romantic subtext is in both songs, and it's no wonder: the fact that Cloud was in love with Tifa at the time of the promise is history, more likely the addition of the "True love" part could be made in order to convince the most relunctant part of the western fandom about this subject.
This is a "Enka" song, a popular Japanese music genre that bears some resemblance with blues (for this reason, "Midgar Blues"). This genre is a form of sentimental ballad: enka songs usually express strong emotions, especially love.
This is more a personal opinion about localization from the perspective of someone who's not a native english speaker. I've read many harsh comments about the English localization of the Remake. Especially when it comes to LTD I've seen people from both sides of the fence complaining the translators to be biased CA or CT fans. Fact is that if the complain comes from both sides probably they're not the first nor the second, they're just...translators. I'm not a translator but I speak many languages and it happenes to me to watch and rewatch movies both in English and in my native language. You'll never find a literal word-by-word translation, ESPECIALLY when it comes to songs. Because it wouldn't work. A good localization has to follow the pace of the lip-sync, has to create rhythm, rhymes and lyricism when it comes to poems and songs, it has to convey the right feeling before the right word, it has to take into account the cultural differences from the country of origin of the movie/song and the receiving audience (in this case Japanese people tend to be more descreet and less explicit than western people when talking about love), and much more. With this I'm not saying everyting in the localization is perfect, I don't speak a word of Japanese so I can't make a comparison myself, but just remember that the devs DO speak English. They speak it well enough to notice the difference between the two texts of the song and if they authorized it (I doubt nobody bothered to double check the international scripts of one of the most important products of this company)...it just means that they agree.
In conclusion, yes, it's a love song about the promise and no, it's NOT a coincidence.
Talk about a coincidence!
A debated canonicity
(Previous post here)
Mad1en who Trave1s the P1anet (adding typos to prevent unpleasant comments) is one of the most controversial entries of FFVII lore.
It was included in FFVII Ultimania Omega, published in 2005. Fans have debated ever since if this short story is part of the canon entries of the compilation, as it was written by an external writer that never took part to the realisation of the game.
Part of the fandom thinks it's canon because Square Enix never said it isn't, another part thinks it's not canon because Square Enix never mentioned it again ever since it was published (neither ever provided an official translation nor decided to sell it outside Japan. Quite self-explanatory, considering that "Picturing the Past" has been immediately translated and it's sold everywhere in the world).
The particularity of this novel is that here Aerith states she loves Cloud more than Zack. Not a word is spent to describe how she feels when she understands that Zack didn't cheat on her but endured experimetations for years and died to save Cloud, and that Cloud had created an alter ego based on Zack's traits. These lines started to divide the fans after the release of Crisis Core, that describes a tender and sincere romantic relationship between Zack and Aerith.
Yes, SE never officially said if this novel is canon or not, but I'd like to point out a fact:
The Remake includes tons of references to all the entries of the compilation.
Some examples?
The Avalanche members that show up in Chapter 4 wear the original uniforms of Before Crisis:
Crisis Core references can be found everywhere in the game, for one thing, Zack's last stand:
Dirge of Cerberus was already hinted in the game when Cloud, Tifa and Barret fell in the misterious lab beneath Sector 7 and is going to be heavily referred in the Intergrade. From the trailer we can see Weiss:
There are many references to Advent Children too. For example, Sephiroth has the black wing that he only showed in the movie:
Last order is quite difficult to refrence, as it doesn't add anything new to the story but it's rather a reinterpretation of Nibelheim incident. Anyway, it is mentioned in FFVII Remake World Preview (Square Enix book that includes "Picturing the Past"):
And now talk about the novels:
New characters, like Kyrie, come from The Kids are alright, a Turks side Story:
And here's an example from On the Way to a Smile too: from a dialogue with Jessie it's revealed that Cloud doesn't know the names of vegetables:
...turned out he [Cloud] didn't know a carrot from a gysal green. At first, Tifa was amused that mighty Cloud's new life started with learning vegetables names... (Case of Tifa)
So:
Before Crisis
Crisis Core
Advent Children
Dirge of Cerberus
Last Order
The Kids are alright
On the way to a Smile...
Picturing the Past was written alongise the Remake to clarify the origins of the mural painting in Aerith's room...
They are all abundantly referenced multiple times during the game. Find a more exhaustive list here.
And now it's the turn of Ma1den who trave1s the P1anet.
The author of this novel based himself on the original dialogues and story of the OG and reinterpreted them adding some new elements to create a coherent narration (full of discrepancies that, ehm, have already been disproved years ago, like Aerith's age when she met Zack, Hojo being not really dead, Zack's personality being totally different from Crisis Core, Aerith already knowing about Zack's death, normal souls that should merge immediately in the Lifestream, Omnislash being not Zack's ability...not that this ever convinced anyone).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but...
There are no references at all in the whole game. Not a single word that inequivocally refers to this novel.
Not a word to hint the fact that bad people's souls will rot in the Lifestream and won't be part of it because their spirits are beyond redemption (like what happened in the novel to President Shinra and Hojo).
In the novel Biggs, Wedge and Jessie are tormented by the deaths caused by the explosion of Mako reactor n.1. Jessie feels guilty both in the OG and in the Remake but Biggs and Wedge don't show much regret and the Remake shows that Shinra caused the massive explosion of the reactor, not Jessie. But wasn't the Lifestream supposed to be the place where all knowledges are merged together? I may be wrong but this would suggest that Jessie would have known it after her death.
There are hints that suggest the Aerith of the resolution scene is the one who already died in the OG: she talks to Cloud as if they had passed a long time together, she talks about death and finally disappears in a sparkling greenish light.
It would have been a great scene to put any reference to Ma1den but...it didn't happen.
Well...wierd the devs forgot to mention just this entry...
