As we’ve discussed before on the site, there are a few ways to handle a remake of a beloved gaming title. The key question that many developers have had to ask themselves is, “How far do we take this?” In the case of Square Enix with its “remake saga,” it decided to take the beloved 7th entry of its equally beloved RPG franchise and not only split it into three parts but to “update” things story-wise so that things would be even grander than before. In the leadup to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s launch last February, the big “tease” was about the “fate” of Aerith once a certain location was reached.
The Square Enix team didn’t even try to hide the fact that the game’s ending would be about Aerith and what happened to her. However, what exactly happened to her…is still up for debate. In fact, in a chat with 4Gamer, producer Yoshinori Kitase noted that the reaction to the ending and what happened with Aerith was about what the team “expected” overall:
“As expected, the reaction to how Aerith’s fate was depicted was huge. While basically following the original work, we tried new things in terms of expression and direction, so I think it was received in a variety of ways. More people than we expected have been discussing and considering it.”
That’s a gentle way of putting it. It’s also equally fair to say that the reaction has been “divisive” due to the very unclear nature of what truly happened to Aerith at the end of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and whether things will be undone once the final game rolls around.
We won’t spoil what happens, due to the PC version having just launched and we know that some people haven’t played the game yet, but we will say that things aren’t as clear cut as they were on the original PS1 version of the title. Much like with the first entry in the “remake saga,” there’s a lot of rather convoluted storytelling that makes things unclear.
The question now is, “How will things play out in the third game?” We honestly don’t know, and that’ll make things even more curious as we start to get teases for that game. We know that the third game’s story has been finalized and that production is in full swing. The team even noted they’re trying to “balance” the old and new storylines to deliver a satisfying ending.
We’ll see if they make it a meaningful one.
