I’ve had greater than a month to contemplate Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth’s ending, and it’s not typically that my emotions about one thing worsen with every passing day. But, right here I’m, serious about how Sq. Enix has chosen to cap off the center part of its deliberate Remake trilogy, and I’m much more puzzled by how arduous Rebirth commits to being non-commital in its eleventh hour. I’m sympathetic to the concept this isn’t the ending to the story, however Rebirth feels much less like a correct springboard for a brand new conclusion and extra like purchaser’s regret on what might have been a bolder cliffhanger.
We’ve already mentioned Rebirth’s ending right here at Kotaku, and in order for you a extra charitable learn on its closing hours, you may try Claire Jackson’s explainer. You can too learn Digital Tendencies’ piece in protection of the ending, by which Giovanni Colantonio additionally has a fairly optimistic studying on it whereas acknowledging that it’s polarizing. However for me, Rebirth’s failings come much less from its incapability to weave that exposition naturally into its personal narrative however from what appears like a intentionally obscure, thematically derailed conclusion. It feels as Jesse Vitelli put in his overview on Shacknews, written in pencil so it doesn’t should decide to something it may’t erase.
Remaining Fantasy 7 Rebirth spoilers comply with.
What occurs in Remaining Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s ending? It’s sophisticated
To make sure everybody’s on the identical web page, let’s break down what truly occurs on the finish of Rebirth. Properly, as finest we will, contemplating its deliberately obscure presentation. Huge baddy Sephiroth explains to our brooding, hallucinating protagonist, Cloud Strife, that the multiverse exists and that he’s attempting to make these totally different worlds converge. Particular person continuities are held collectively by the ghost-like entities referred to as Whispers, which try and maintain everybody from going off-script. Remake’s ending entails the defeat of the Whisper Harbinger, which means that the group ought to now be capable to defy destiny. However in Rebirth, it’s instructed that the Whispers will not be simply the protectors of destiny, however beings which can be inclined to outdoors affect from individuals like Sephiroth. That is the start of basic shifts within the Remake trilogy’s themes—the query then turns into, is Rebirth actually reckoning with new reveals and increasing upon its personal concepts, or is it merely doing an entire thematic pivot, selecting the spectacle of the multiverse over an introspective examination of predeterminism?
That’s what I’m wrestling with. Rebirth’s ending doesn’t encourage confidence that the tracks aren’t being constructed whereas the practice is barreling towards its vacation spot. And that inconsistency in theme is what makes Rebirth’s ending suspect and finally a large letdown to me.
Remake instructed that Cloud and all his mates might not attain the identical bittersweet conclusion they did within the authentic Remaining Fantasy 7—they could take a unique path. But Rebirth brings them proper again to the place they might have been had the Whispers by no means been launched. After Sephiroth tries to pitch Cloud on being his multiversal associate in crime, issues begin to play out like they did in 1997. Within the Forgotten Capital, Aerith, the social gathering’s mage, flower woman, and the only survivor of the Cetra race, prays to make use of the Holy spell and cease Sephiroth’s Meteor spell from destroying the world and permitting him to ascend to godhood.
Cloud, managed by Sephiroth, raises his sword to strike Aerith down, whereas being held again by the Whispers as he resists his foe’s affect. Although he almost brings down his blade, he is ready to maintain himself again lengthy sufficient for Sephiroth to (as he did almost 30 years in the past) descend from above along with his personal sword in hand. Within the authentic Remaining Fantasy 7, his blade pierces by means of Aerith’s stomach, killing her in one of the vital devastating deaths in video video games. In Rebirth, Cloud manages to regain management of his physique and block the assault along with his personal sword.
At first, this looks like the second Remake was main us to towards. Destiny has been defied and Rebirth has adopted by means of on Sq. Enix’s daring promise of latest potentialities for Cloud and firm, rewriting a historic second in Remaining Fantasy historical past. After I heard that Remaining Fantasy 7’s story may be totally different, I instantly considered Aerith’s destiny, recalling what number of hoaxes and schoolyard rumors there have been about presumably saving her for those who did X, Y, or Z in your playthrough. None of these ever got here to fruition, however Rebirth gave us an opportunity to look at the hypothetical. And for a second, whenever you see Sephiroth’s sword hit the bottom and never Aerith, you suppose a model new world of potentialities has opened…till blood begins spilling from a wound we by no means see.
Rebirth’s first downside is in its intentionally deceptive storyboarding. Sq. Enix is aware of that each participant who is aware of what’s coming within the Forgotten Capital is anticipating one thing divergent right here. The fake-out solely serves the aim of dangling hope in entrance of a participant to take it away. However what it exhibits subsequent is the place it unveils its precise intentions: for instance that there’s a multiverse of potentialities by which Aerith might survive. Destiny might be defied, however these potentialities are taking place some other place—not within the recreation world by which we spent 30 to 100 hours touring in the direction of this conclusion.
Your complete emotional weight of Aerith’s demise is obscured and confused throughout Rebirth’s closing hours as the sport quickly oscillates between visions of various continuities by which she survives. Cloud exists in the course of the multiverse, so he sees a number of outcomes unfold directly, signified by Aerith’s blood on her garments, palms, and Sephiroth’s sword which disappear and reappear because the multiverse collapses in on itself.
The vignette is just sophisticated additional when Aerith exhibits up within the closing boss combat between Cloud and Sephiroth. The forwards and backwards between whether or not or not Aerith survives within the closing hours is an instance of Rebirth’s incapability to commit. However finally, after the combat is over, we see two variations of Aerith’s destiny play out. One, is the Remake continuity, the place Tifa, Barret, and the others stand over her physique. She has died on this planet we’ve inhabited for 2 video games now. Cloud, in the meantime, walks over to her in a unique continuity and is ready to wake her up earlier than returning residence.
Rebirth distorts Remake’s ending into one thing much less compelling
Rebirth’s huge reveal is that Cloud exists in some type of multiverse state and is ready to talk with and see Aerith the place the remainder of her mates can’t. He’s the one one that can see their pal as she walks across the social gathering who’re all grieving her demise. He is also the one one that can see the tear within the sky, which signifies that the multiverse is falling aside on the seams. However the recreation’s final moments are all so deliberately disorienting that it’s robbed of any emotional weight. As I’ve peeled again the layers with different gamers previously few weeks, what I’ve discovered beneath is altogether cowardly in comparison with what Remake proclaimed was potential.
Jackson Tyler at Paste Journal completely summed up the emotions I had after I completed Rebirth. As they write, Rebirth is so misguided in its makes an attempt to each be trustworthy to the supply materials and be one thing solely new that it finally ends up a multitude of contradictions. Not solely is the finale decided to by no means decide to an concept that may be concretely defined with proof, nevertheless it additionally raises new questions which can be far much less compelling than the succinct thematic thrust of Remake: Is our destiny written within the stars, or are there methods to beat the inevitable monitor of our lives? There aren’t many video video games higher outfitted to discover that than a Remaining Fantasy 7 retelling. As an alternative, we get a cop-out the place Rebirth kills Aerith however finds methods to maintain her round anyway.
Thematic consistency is a naked minimal pillar of storytelling and Rebirth makes a Star Wars sequel-level name to forgo that in favor of trickery and confusion. This doesn’t really feel like a plot twist, it appears like retreating to an imagined security by which it doesn’t should envision a Remaining Fantasy 7 story the place extra radical adjustments occur. What if Cloud had died as a substitute of Aerith? Might Disaster Core protagonist Zack Truthful soar by means of the multiverse to tackle the mantle of the social gathering’s chief? Aerith didn’t even must survive for me to be intrigued, however what if something was materially totally different from the way it was in 1997? Remaining Fantasy 7 Remake requested this query, and Rebirth appears so petrified of the reply that it twists itself in knots, attempting to provide you with a option to move the buck to a unique aspect of the multiverse.
I say all of this, and there’s a wonderfully cheap likelihood {that a} third recreation circles again to the concepts Remake proposed in 2020. However to that, I say, why would I ever give this trilogy that good thing about the doubt once more? Even after I wasn’t positive Sq. Enix might pull off a metatextual remake narrative just like the Evangelion Rebuilds or Scott Pilgrim Takes Off), I used to be nonetheless open to the thought. However now that it’s taken such an overt 180, why ought to I belief it to have any consistency shifting ahead?
That is essentially the most maddening results of the intentionally ambiguous manner Remaining Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s ending performs out. It invitations hypothesis, and that uncertainty is the proper defend for criticisms of its shortcomings. It pivots away from defying destiny, nevertheless it might be main into another climax or character arc we don’t learn about but, so we must always wait and see earlier than casting judgment, proper? The third recreation can and sure will develop upon the numerous hypotheticals being tossed across the web. However that doesn’t make up for Rebirth’s disregard for what Remake boldly proclaimed was potential.
These are fascinating questions, and there’s pleasure in theory-crafting, however all of us, whether or not we just like the ending or not, are working on assumptions the sport refuses to make clear or have interaction with. By the point the third and closing recreation on this trilogy is out, a lot of our hypothesis about what Rebirth truly meant in the long run will probably be debunked or supported. Proper now, I’m not keen to present the ending flowers for what it would possibly result in when Remake’s thematic thrust has been tossed out into the void of the multiverse. Probably the most radical factor Rebirth might have finished was comply with by means of, and in the hunt for a disorienting cliffhanger, it couldn’t even handle that.