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It’s going to be an extended few years. Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth picks up the place Remake left off, however the story curiously doesn’t truly progress all that a lot. We see a key chapter of the unique recreation – however so far as the sport’s all-new parts as launched in Remake go, you’ll most likely depart FF7 Rebirth with extra questions than solutions. 

We’ve been excited about the FF7 Rebirth ending just about continuous since ending the sport. We’ve poured over captured footage of all the important thing scenes, replayed the sport, and gone again to cross-reference with Remake. Now the time has come for an ultra-nerdy try to supply up a useful FF7 Rebirth ending defined article. However buckle up – as a result of it’s difficult.

This text, naturally, is a bunch of theorycrafting and ending evaluation – none of what’s introduced right here is 100% assured to play out in recreation three, as a result of Sq. Enix has intentionally left the ending fairly obscure and open-ended. We expect it is a fairly sturdy swing at what occurs, although. It’s an extended piece, so go seize a espresso and settle in…

This text accommodates full spoilers for each facet of FF7 Rebirth. You may have been warned.

Does Aerith die in FF7 Rebirth? Nicely… what’s your perspective?

For those who have been anticipating a simple recreation of probably the most well-known dying scenes not simply in gaming however in all of leisure, I’ve bought information for you: nothing so large and iconic on this remake collection is so easy. 

We don’t get the enduring dying because it was introduced within the authentic, for example. In a last-minute act of heroism, Cloud truly parries Sephiroth’s Masamune and sends the blade flying. Reasonably than impaling Aerith, it finally ends up caught within the flooring of the Forgotten Capital’s altar. However then, Aerith seems bloodied and dies anyway. 

Aerith reveals up in what seems to be a religious airplane to help Cloud within the final-not-final battle with Sephiroth. Then she fades – and when Cloud is again within the Forgotten Capital, she lays useless. The others cry over her physique. However then Cloud cradles her, asks her to open her eyes, and he or she does.

Later, after the physique is buried, Aerith seems once more – however solely to Cloud. He can see her, and speak to her – however no person else can. Pink XIII appears to sense her presence, however continues to be mourning her dying. The ultimate scenes of the sport options an Aerith that no person however Cloud can see hanging out with the mourning social gathering. 

Is that this merely one other case of Cloud’s sanity slowly shattering – is he in denial about what occurred? Or is there one thing extra to it? What does this all imply? 

That is all intentionally left fairly ambiguous, however there are tasty clues hidden away in FF7 Rebirth and in Remake that give a good suggestion of what’s most likely happening. To take action, we have now to speak in regards to the narrative at giant – so let’s get to it. 

It is a Multiverse story – and it’s all in regards to the canine

“Behold… the true nature of actuality. When the boundaries of destiny are breached, new worlds are born.” – Sephiroth

On the finish of FF7 Remake, when Zack is revealed to have survived the onslaught that ought to have killed him, we see one small trace that it’s a parallel world: a picture of Stamp, the kid-friendly Shinra Mascot canine. Besides, in ‘Zack’s world’, Stamp is a special breed. 

We will take the Stamp not solely because the kid-friendly mascot of Shinra’s navy, however because the Mascot for the universes FF7 Rebirth and Remake happen in. It is a element that’s largely hidden – however for those who look intently, you’ll have the ability to see that this recreation takes place throughout a couple of completely different universes, and a simple figuring out issue is the Stamp that seems within the scenes. Right here’s a breakdown:

1. Beagle Universe:

The ‘primary universe’ Cloud & Social gathering are in includes a Beagle Stamp. This character featured prominently all through FF7 Remake – the builders needed you to take discover. This Stamp seems within the background of their FF7 Rebirth journey, too.

That is what we will name the Beagle Universe, although in Star Trek phrases you may also consider it because the ‘Prime’ universe for the Remake titles. Prime which means Major; the universe the place the story begins and the place the vast majority of its characters are from.

2. Terrier Universe:

Zack’s universe initially has a Terrier Stamp. That is seen in Remake, the place a chip packet that includes the character flutters previous throughout Zack’s non-death scene. That is the primary main clue in Remake – apart from Zack’s survival – {that a} multiverse has been created.

However the Terrier crops up once more in Rebirth. When Zack is making a choice between saving Biggs or Cloud, he is within the Terrier Universe, as graffiti of the character seems on the partitions of Midgar behind him.

When Zack decides to go to the Shinra Bldg to attempt to discover a treatment to save lots of Cloud, he stays within the Terrier universe, as proven by an indication behind him when he goes to Shinra HQ.  This Zack faces off in opposition to a complete Platoon of Shinra Troopers in a scene harking back to Cloud on the bike in FF7. His destiny is unclear.

As a word, within the evaluate model of the sport, a single Terrier Stamp could be discovered within the Junon Space. I’m undecided if this has been patched, however given it’s just one occasion, contradicts the remainder of the sport, and options within the open world fairly than a cutscene, I really feel it’s a developer unintentionally utilizing the unsuitable Stamp asset and never a selected trace. 

3. Pug Universe:

We then see a Zack that decides to save lots of Biggs as a substitute. Biggs is consuming the identical Stamp-themed potato chips that present up in Jessie’s home (Beagle) and Zack’s survival (Terrier) in FF7 Remake, however right here we have now a Pug Stamp. This Pug Universe doesn’t final lengthy – Biggs is shot useless and Zack chooses to not face the troopers as he did in his supposed dying, however runs away. His destiny is unclear.

The department was presumably created when Zack made his alternative of who to save lots of. Again in Terrier, within the tunnels, Zack heads proper at a department to save lots of Cloud. When he does this, a magical rainbow gentle washes by the left-hand path he didn’t take, which could point out the universes branching. It might additionally point out Aerith’s affect, too – when Aerith opens portals, we see an identical sparkly rainbow magic on a number of events.

4. Shiba Universe:

There’s a 3rd Zack on this sequence: one which fails to decide. He appears to return to the Sector 5 Church, the place he’s nonetheless agonizing. “Cloud… Biggs… or Aerith. How the hell am I supposed to decide on?” At this second, Johnny walks previous. He slows to take a look at Zack, and he’s middle body – meant to be observed. Johnny is carrying a Stamp plush – a Shiba Inu Stamp; so let’s name this the Shiba Universe.

This universe was seemingly created by Zack not doing something on the department that created Pug and continued Terrier.

Earlier than this model of Zack can do something, the universe-hopping Sephiroth arrives and sends him flying right into a void between universes. That is presumably the Zack that will get ‘rescued’ from that void – almost definitely by Aerith – and finally ends up combating in FF7 Rebirth’s ultimate battles.

5. Spitz Universe:

After the occasions on the Temple of the Ancients, the Beagle Universe Cloud and Aerith seem to have their consciousness transferred into the comatose Cloud & Aerith we’ve seen with Zack all-game. Nonetheless, this doesn’t seem to really be Terrier Universe – as a result of when within the slums, Cloud and Aerith purchase sweet – and this universe includes a Spitz Stamp.

On the finish of this part within the Spitz Universe, this universe’s Aerith offers her Holy Materia to Cloud to take, and sends him again to the Beagle universe proper as Sephiroth finds her, presumably to kill her – although her destiny stays unclear. 

The boundaries between universes are actually being routinely damaged

What’s clear is that the boundaries between universes are actually paper-thin, the place beforehand they have been impenetrable. It’s not clear what precipitated this – it might be Sephiroth’s affect, or it might be the social gathering’s act of defeating the Whisper Harbinger on the finish of FF7 Remake. 

The rationale doesn’t matter as a lot as the truth that it’s undoubtedly the case; a number of universes are actually actively in play. Right here’s the possible circumstances of universe-hopping and boundary breaking we see in Rebirth:

• After the occasions on the Temple of the Ancients, in some way our Cloud and Aerith seem to finish up in what we above named Spitz Universe, a world on the point of ending. Cloud, no less than, seems to have taken over the our bodies of that universe’s pure variations of themselves – perhaps Aerith too. It’s a world on the point of dying – individuals are having fun with their final days earlier than the top. 
• On the finish of the above Spitz universe sequence, Aerith bodily opens a portal beneath Cloud and sends him again to the ‘prime’ Beagle universe, serving to to flee earlier than Sephiroth arrives.
• In Shiba universe, Zack encounters Sephiroth outdoors the Sector 5 Church. Sephiroth seems to be on his method into the church to assault this world’s Aerith, as we see in Spitz. With a slash of his sword and a flurry of Whispers, Sephiroth opens a portal right into a void that Zack falls into. Zack seems to be rescued from this void, and results in a kind of ‘Remaining Vacation spot’ battlefield alongside Beagle universe Cloud. Whereas this may very well be a dream state, on the finish of the sport Zack states it “felt too actual” to have been a dream. What we don’t know is what universe that is in, or if it is one thing like a pocket universe. 

• After being defeated by Cloud and Zack on Remaining Vacation spot, Sephiroth splits their universes once more, saying “Simply as worlds unite, so too do they half”. Cloud stays the place he’s, whereas Zack is shipped again into the void.
• Zack emerges from the void onto a tiny outcropping of the Sector 5 Church with nothing else round it. The sky is ablaze with an enormous fireball/portal/probably Meteor above. It seems that is the top of this world – nothing else is left. Zack battles a type of Sephiroth right here.
• Sephiroth seems to be straddling all of the worlds. In Beagle, the principle social gathering fights him. Cloud fights him within the space-like ‘Remaining Vacation spot’ house. Zack battles on the finish of a world. Harm executed to Sephiroth in a single world is mirrored within the different. In Beagle, the social gathering notices this – when Cloud and Zack slice off considered one of Sephiroth Reborn’s horns, that very same horn spontaneously flies off him in Beagle universe’s battle on the Forgotten Capital, and the social gathering notes it looks like “somebody helps” them to struggle. 

• Zack and Cloud seem to have the ability to sense one another’s presence regardless of being somewhere else and having been ‘separated’ by Sephiroth – and might even carry out a Synergy Assault collectively.
• After Sephiroth is defeated, Zack seems to be on the true finish of his world, about to be engulfed. He’s able to say goodbye. White Whispers seem round him, and a portal opens beneath him and saves him, spiriting him away from that world as it’s destroyed. 
• Later, Zack awakens again within the Sector 5 Church – presumably in yet one more world. What world that is should look ahead to the third recreation – might this be Beagle? Might he lastly be in the identical universe as everybody else?  “Who’s to say that [worlds] can’t unite once more?” Zack muses – his ultimate line of the sport. 

The Scar within the Sky Heralds the top 

“The planet encompasses a large number of worlds, ever unfolding. Some shortly perish… whereas others endure. But even essentially the most resilient worlds are doomed to fade.” – Sephiroth

All through Zack’s ‘A World Aside’ interludes in Terrier Universe, we see that the sky is scarred; an amazing crack on this planet that looms above Midgar. What’s made clear by the actions of these round Zack on this time is that that is the top of the world. Individuals within the slums are bemoaning issues they’ll by no means see or do, or combating to do issues earlier than the very finish.

In Pug Universe, which spinters instantly from Terrier, Biggs notes that every one the Mako Reactors have run dry – there isn’t any Lifestream left. The planet is within the ultimate throes of its dying. 

When Aerith and Cloud are hiding within the sky-scarred Spitz Universe, Sephiroth taunts Aeirth: “So that is the place you’ve been hiding – in a world that has accepted its destiny.” That world, too, is on the point of collapse.

When Cloud is rescued from Spitz and travels again to Beagle, there’s a between-worlds lore drop of mysteriously-worded data from Sephiroth. From this I take that when worlds die, the worlds themselves additionally return to a kind of multiversal lifestream, in the identical method that on particular person worlds the souls of its inhabitants return to the lifestream. 

One factor is obvious: all of the doomed worlds have one factor in widespread – the scar within the sky. Which brings us to…

Cloud, the Wall of Whispers, the Sky, and Aerith’s ‘Ghost’

On the very finish of FF7 Rebirth, Cloud encourages the others to not look as much as the sky – echoing Aerith’s feedback to him within the dying Spitz Universe. When the others search for, they see a traditional sky – however when Cloud seems up, he now sees the world-threatening rift that was current in different worlds.

This might imply a couple of issues. For one, it might imply that the ‘prime’ Beagle universe is now in peril – however this doesn’t actually monitor with what we see earlier in FF7 Rebirth’s story. In Terrier, Spitz, and Pug, it’s clear that everybody can see the rift within the sky and might see that it heralds the top of days. So it doesn’t make sense that Cloud can see it and the others can’t. 

This all ties into Aerith dying however not dying, too. To grasp, we have to return to the top of FF7 Remake.

Cloud & The Wall of Whispers

On the finish of the Midgar Expressway in Remake, Cloud and the social gathering encounter a Wall of Whispers. By pushing previous it, they enter a ‘singularity’ and have an opportunity to alter their destiny. By defeating the Whispers it’s very doable the social gathering units all of the multiversal shenanigans in Rebirth in movement. Crucially, on the finish of FF7 Remake, your entire social gathering crosses the whisper wall collectively as a bunch, after Aerith seemingly makes use of her energy to ‘calm’ the Whispers and make the wall satisfactory. 

In FF7 Rebirth, an identical wall seems on the entrance to the Forgotten Capital, stopping the social gathering from reaching the praying Aerith. In Rebirth, Aerith shouldn’t be with you – and so the whispers can’t be calmed. In the long run, it takes the entire social gathering to open the portal sufficient – sufficient that solely Cloud can cross by.

If the logic is identical as in FF7 Remake, then solely Cloud can create a brand new future at this level, as a result of solely he has handed the whispers, which try to keep up a sure collection of occasions. As soon as Aerith is ‘killed’, the whisper wall falls, and the remainder of the social gathering can be part of Cloud.

Or to place it one other method, if say Pink XIII had stayed on the expressway and never crossed into the Singularity in Remake, he would not be with the social gathering within the modified way forward for Rebirth. He did, so he’s. However on this occasion… Cloud breaks off from the others. Barret even repeats the logic of the whisper wall from the top of Remake when the social gathering encounters the one on the Forgotten Capital – just a little nudging reminder to gamers of how ‘the foundations’ work. 

So does Aerith Die, actually?

All through Aerith’s dying scene, the visuals flicker backwards and forwards between a bloodied Aerith and an unhurt one. We even get snippets of Cloud speaking, with out audio, that appear to be delivering his pained eulogy from the unique recreation, which doesn’t characteristic in Rebirth. When the social gathering walks in, it’s clear from their reactions that they’re seeing the worst model of occasions – that Aerith is useless. 

It appears fairly doable that what we’re seeing right here is the distinction between the social gathering’s perspective – having not handed the wall – and Cloud’s partial perspective, having executed so and parried Sephiroth’s blade. 

There’s a cute trace in direction of this within the battle with Jenova Lifeclinger, too. When the battle begins, each social gathering member enters the struggle with a full Restrict Break gauge – one thing that in any other case by no means occurs.

That is meant to signify their heightened emotional state, having simply witnessed the dying of their pal, and is one thing FF7 Rebirth inventive director Tetsuya Nomura has previously stated he supposed to do within the PS1 authentic however couldn’t. Cloud, nevertheless, enters with an empty Restrict Break meter. Which is suggestive he didn’t fairly see the identical as the remainder of them.

There seems to be a mismatch in what Cloud sees and what the others see generally. At first, as Cloud approaches Aerith’s physique, we see the scene from his perspective – your entire social gathering round her, Tifa and Yuffie kneeling over her physique sobbing. When the social gathering is alone, with out Cloud, there are not any whispers current. When the scene is seen from Cloud’s perspective, white whispers circle Aerith’s physique ominously. 

Shortly, with out anybody shifting away, it cuts to Cloud – immediately alone however for the whispers, standing over the physique. Cloud cradles Aerith and asks her to get up; she does. They share a smile. However the subsequent lower reveals the aftermath of her water burial, which isn’t instantly depicted in Rebirth – a transfer that feels designed to foster much more ambiguity. 

Come the top of the sport, that is what we have now: a Cloud that may see two issues all people else can not: a surviving Aerith, and the scar within the sky. Moreover, the Aerith speaking to him is now brazenly speaking about future occasions – referencing stopping Meteor when it hasn’t even been summoned but. 

What this implies stays utterly unclear and doubtless will stay so till recreation three – however one risk is that Cloud is now kind of straddling worlds, with one foot in a world the place Aerith survived (which based mostly on previously-established logic could be sufficient of a divergence to trigger the scar within the sky and set off the top of the world) and one foot in a world along with his buddies the place she died, as supposed.

Every other Ending Enterprise

The ultimate moments of FF7 Rebirth tease a couple of different ongoing occasions that aren’t seemingly as tied into the thriller of Aerith, however are price noting:

Cloud has the Black Materia

Within the ultimate moments Cloud discovers that in some way he nonetheless has the Black Materia in his possession. It is a break from the unique recreation. Whereas the social gathering does get it again within the authentic, that doesn’t occur till the Northern Crater’s Whirlwind Maze. This implies a slight change within the ongoing story path, nevertheless it isn’t that large a change from the unique recreation. In the long run, it’s probably Cloud will give the Black Materia to Sephiroth once more in Half 3, permitting for the summoning of Meteor.

Two Holy Materia – or a change

Via the multiversal shenanigans, earlier than her ‘dying’ Aerith obtains a ‘working’ and full model of the Holy Materia from one other universe’s model of herself, which is used to hope after which bounces off the altar on the Forgotten Capital. Cloud is in the meantime given the ‘hole’, empty White Materia by Aerith. He nonetheless has this on the finish of the sport.

The scene path is ambiguous, however this empty Holy Materia both transforms into the Black Materia, or Cloud has each. If there’s no transformation, this implies there may very well be two copies of the world’s strongest Materia on the market: Aerith used one (full) Holy, and Cloud has the opposite (empty) Holy. Whereas Sephiroth has one Black Materia that was handed to him on the Temple – and Cloud now seemingly has one other.

Sephiroth and Wutai

Up till now, the Wutai facet plot has appeared like simply that – a facet plot. However within the ultimate scenes, we see Glenn – who has been taunting Rufus about Wutai all recreation – flip into Sephiroth. It’s clear that the Wutai Warfare is a key ingredient of the third recreation – a minor and non-obligatory facet space of the unique recreation was a significant story beat – however this appears to counsel the way it’ll slot in.

Throughout Rebirth, Sephiroth talks about harvesting damaging power and feelings to assist his plan – and what else creates extra damaging power and emotion than a battle? It’s clear now that in addition to all his different machinations, Sephiroth is making an attempt to engineer a reignited Warfare between Shinra and Wutai. 

Whispers in Black and White

In FF7 Remake, Whispers appeared solely in black – and seemed to be comparatively ‘impartial’ observers of occasions, merely making an attempt to maintain the identified timeline because it appeared in FF7 on monitor. In Rebirth, we now have two sorts of Whispers – Black, and White. 

The Black Whispers look like now instantly below the management of Sephiroth, and usually act extra maliciously on the few events they seem within the recreation. The White Whispers seem to additionally need to preserve destiny intact, however are much less malicious. It seems to us that the White Whispers are allied with and below the management of Aerith, whereas the Black Whispers are below Sephiroth’s management.

At a number of factors within the recreation, we see the White and Black whispers fairly actually doing battle. And on the very finish of the sport, we see Black Whispers accosting and seemingly doing battle with two new WEAPON creatures, which have been created by the planet in an act of self protection. It is clear the function of the whispers is way from over.

The Tiny Bronco Flies

The ultimate CG cutscene of the sport options the social gathering – Aerith ghost and all – repairing the Tiny Bronco. Within the authentic recreation, after being shot down, she by no means flies once more. It is a vital story divergence, because it means the social gathering could have air journey and basically entry to your entire planet partially 3 lengthy earlier than they usually achieve management of the Highwind.