Why Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Controversial Ending Is GENIUS
The secret meaning behind THAT cryptic message.
"We have to meet people's expectations, give them what they want to see, but we have to go beyond that and give them new surprises as well [...] We had to go further and provide a new experience." - Yoshinori Kitase, FF7 Remake Producer.
- Full game spoilers within -
Well, after more than 20 years of discussing remakes, re-imaginings and recreations of the legendary Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix dropped the first part of their "FF7 remake project" in April 2020, and the response has been phenomenally positive.
Positive that is, until you get to the ending.
While I'm personally a huge fan of what's been changed and overhauled, the fandom is notably fractured, and it centres around what goes down in the closing 40-ish minutes of the story.
Here, we discover that the "Whispers" (ghostly apparitions that appear across the campaign) are essentially a manifestation of destiny itself.
Stray out of line, get killed when you're not supposed to and the Whispers will appear to set things straight. Jessie going on the second reactor mission instead of Cloud, Barret being killed by Sephiroth, Aerith almost falling to Reno's grasp - the Whispers prevent it all.
It's a way for the new FF7 Remake to address events from the original game - not to mention factor these "rules" into the new story.
However, after this information comes out and the gang are leaving Midgar, both Aerith and Sephiroth open portals directly "into" destiny itself (targeting masses of the Whispers that Sephiroth has managed to control), and all hell breaks loose.
After defeating destiny, we now have a story where the characters KNOW what's expected of them, have visions of the "future" (scenes from the original game's post-Midgar story), and are literally conquering their own fates to create a new path.
Obviously this works in regards to not knowing what the next FF7R game will be like, but even crazier, Sephiroth and Aerith KNEW it was all going to happen.
Final Fantasy VII "Remake" is actually more of a sequel, and I can explain.