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Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth<\/em><\/span> <\/em>is out now, and we right here at Kotaku<\/em> have been chewing on its ending for a bit<\/span>. Now that folk have had time to play the sport and kind out their emotions on it, we needed to take a while to speak in regards to the finale\u2019s deserves, points, and the way it left us feeling after spending dozens of hours with Cloud and firm. Spoilers forward!<\/p>\n\n
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Clear Your Calendar For Ultimate Fantasy 7 Rebirth<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/figure>\nKenneth Shepard, Employees Author: <\/strong>Alright, people. We\u2019re right here to debate Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth<\/em>\u2019s ending. However earlier than we begin sharing our ideas and even telling the room what we really feel about it, I need somebody to offer me a definitive rationalization of what occurred, supported by the textual content itself. I\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\nClaire Jackson, Employees Author: <\/strong>I\u2019m nonetheless engaged on that one…However the ending\u2019s resistance to easy explanations, I believe, is what makes it lovely.<\/p>\nJen Glennon, Editor-in-Chief: <\/strong>Let me try<\/em> this. Cloud follows Aerith into the Forgotten Metropolis, despite the fact that everybody he\u2019s with is aware of he most likely shouldn\u2019t be left alone with Aerith or anybody else. Timeline-overlapping, multi-round boss fights ensue. Cloud groups up with each Aerith and Zack to battle Sephiroth, and wins. However Aerith nonetheless dies. Solely now, she seems as a type of Power ghost to Cloud, who acts weirdly chilly when everybody else is justifiably heartbroken about their pal\u2019s tragic demise. Additionally, Cloud nonetheless has the Black Materia and stays extraordinarily attractive for it, which is new. And there you go, that\u2019s Ultimate Fantasy VII Rebirth<\/em>. See you in 5 years!<\/p>\nCJ:<\/strong> Sounds about proper.<\/p>\nKS: <\/strong>I believe one of many ending\u2019s largest issues is about how as a substitute of significant ambiguity it simply falls into deliberate deceptive. Which isn\u2019t even my largest difficulty with the ending, however we\u2019ll put a pin in that. However already right here, you and I, Claire, are most likely probably the most break up on the ending at Kotaku<\/em> based mostly on conversations we\u2019ve had. We have now the spectrum of \u201cthinks it\u2019s lovely\u201d and \u201cis totally ingesting the haterade.\u201d Jen, the place do you fall?<\/p>\nJG: <\/strong>I don\u2019t hate the alternatives they\u2019ve made right here. However I may have carried out with out the 4 or 5 fakeouts that led me to imagine Aerith was going to make it. The entire recreation, however particularly when you get to the Temple of the Ancients \u2014 hints {that a} a lot larger twist is afoot than simply \u201cwelp it performs out the identical as earlier than. You possibly can\u2019t battle metropolis corridor.\u201d However I used to be actually hoping for some really wild shit like Cloud killing Aerith, or her coming again due to Zack\u2019s assist. It felt like a little bit of a pulled punch to me.<\/p>\nKS: <\/strong>I genuinely thought up till the second it was clear it wasn\u2019t occurring that they had been going to kill Cloud and make Aerith or Zack the protagonist.<\/p>\nCJ: <\/strong>Whereas I really like this recreation\u2019s conclusion, I’ll foreground just a few issues: I believe it may\u2019ve used one other edit or two to make it a bit leaner, and the whispers are an aesthetic nightmare\u2014they\u2019re a cool narrative idea, however their visible type distracts from many key moments.<\/p>\nI discovered Aerith\u2019s \u201cdemise\u201d to be so splendidly carried out. That Cloud witnesses, for a second, different realities wherein he prevents this factor that’s clearly haunting him since Remake<\/em> solely makes that failure extra impactful for me.<\/p>\nNevertheless it\u2019s not simply her demise that Rebirth<\/em> focuses on, however the trauma and tragedy of different characters. We don\u2019t see recreations of sure scenes, like Cloud laying her to relaxation within the lake. As an alternative, we see extra of the opposite characters grieving over her loss.<\/p>\nI believe that\u2019s a reasonably highly effective change. Particularly while you add within the flashbacks that different characters expertise with regard to their previous and the opposite individuals who have died within the story to get to the place we’re. And main as much as Aerith\u2019s demise, we\u2019ve all been questioning since 2020 if she was going to die or not.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n<\/span><\/p>\n
Screenshot: Sq. Enix \/ Claire Jackson \/ Kotaku<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nJG: <\/strong>I agree that each one the moments of the opposite characters grieving are very transferring. Particularly when Tifa and Crimson are sitting on the bottom crying. Aerith\u2019s simply form of standing behind them, nearly keen them to note her however understanding they’ll\u2019t.<\/p>\nCJ: <\/strong>So even we as gamers witness an alternate actuality the place she survives for a break up second\u2014and it\u2019s taken away from us by Sephiroth but once more. And I\u2019m fairly positive the implication of the ending is that, ought to the get together cease Sephiroth, that may guarantee totally different realities keep separate and Aerith will nonetheless have died. However that\u2019s speculating about half 3 slightly an excessive amount of maybe.<\/p>\nJG: <\/strong>This leads me to a query I had after I rolled credit. Are the stakes for half 3 nonetheless excessive \u201csufficient\u201d if Aerith lived? Is that this simply one other \u2018save the world\u2019 story with out that loss at its middle?<\/p>\nKS: <\/strong>I really feel like they\u2019re attempting to determine new drama with issues like Cloud clearly nonetheless being an unreliable narrator who might have Sephiroth nonetheless controlling him, although with some sand within the microchip like him having the Black Materia nonetheless. At this level, that is likely one of the extra vital diverging factors, as underwhelming as that’s in comparison with the theories folks have been crafting for years.<\/p>\nCJ: <\/strong>I believe that will protect the anxiousness over Cloud\u2019s way of thinking, nevertheless. We haven\u2019t but reached the purpose within the story the place he\u2019s extra coherent about who he’s. He\u2019s nonetheless underneath the spell of Sephiroth, and right here he’s strolling round with one of the harmful objects possible.<\/p>\nJG: <\/strong>I do surprise if there\u2019s something extra to that second within the temple when Aerith tries to say the Black Materia was a faux. There are an entire lot of threads within the final couple hours of Rebirth<\/em> that they might unspool within the third half. However moreso than Remake<\/em>, this one left me anxious that they don\u2019t really know learn how to finish this factor. (Or they’re intentionally maintaining it nebulous and planning to resolve later.)<\/p>\nKS: <\/strong>I\u2019m glad y\u2019all suppose there\u2019s something concrete to drag from in these hours that they gained\u2019t probably patch out simply earlier than the third recreation launches. As a result of I’ve no religion in that now.<\/p>\nCJ: <\/strong>Yeah, when it comes to the place it could finish, it does really feel slightly awkward\u2014however it has on this planet of FF7<\/em> for some time. Creation Kids<\/em> is adopted up by Vincent\u2019s recreation, which is form of the final canonical second, however it doesn\u2019t have a conclusion.<\/p>\nKS: <\/strong>So, to go off Jen\u2019s level. When Remake<\/em> got here out, I wasn\u2019t thrilled with the ending. Not as a result of I used to be a purist who was offended that Sq. \u201clied\u201d and stated this was a remake when it wasn\u2019t, however as a result of I had little or no religion on this crew to meaningfully study its personal work in the way in which it gave the impression to be positing. I really like metatexual work that examines the impression of one thing earlier than it. The Evangelion Rebuild<\/em> movies<\/span> singlehandedly redeemed that total sequence for me. I cherished the Scott Pilgrim<\/em> anime<\/span> that Netflix simply put out. Each of those had been initially framed as remakes, however ended up being about<\/em> the unique textual content as a substitute of uncritical recreations of them.<\/p>\n