He fell into the stream in the game as well. There was no “dangerous reactor core” in the game either, it was the mako running through the entire thing that you weren’t supposed to fall into. Which he did. 'cept he’s like HAXXOR and stuff so he survived even though he had like a zillion Jenova cells on him.
Sephiroth’s death scene was ridiculous in the game, because he could just release the sword like you mentioned.
According to Hojo’s reports of his experiments on Cloud and Zack in Shinra Manor, Cloud had always responded unsatisfactorily to all treatments before that point, that’s why he could never attain the superhuman power of the 1st Class SOLDIER. Whether the treatment suddenly kicked in during the reactor battle because of his anger or not is unknown, but likely. The cause is up for debate but the result is the same: He won, and from that point forwards was as strong if not stringer than any 1st Class.
But he had enough clarity of mind to swat aside Zack, an actual Elite SOLDIER?
More likely, he understimated Cloud and was taken by surprise by his sudden burst of strenght. And the reason the confrontation took place in the catwalk was to justify his victory over the much stronger Sephiroth, as the game made us know for sure during the monster-fighting sequence outside Nibleheim. Even so, that “I’ll lift him by the sword that he’s impaling me with” thing is one of the most absurd fight sequences I’ve ever seen. Couldn’t he just have blindsided him?
So, if LO changed it so that Sephiroth decided to jump on his own, I’d prefer it, but not if they showed Cloud to already be his match. Plus, it support my theory that Jenova was already influencing his mind: first “she” made him liberate the only really important part of her body (her head) then made him jump into the Lifestream, were they could evolve together.
True; in addition, he was wearing a mask, that could’ve muffled it… still, it’s likely the LO scene was added just to add more meat to the story.
And I don’t swallow that “they didn’t know each other that well” line, Cid. Tifa got hurt because they went into a cave together, which made Cloud want to be strong, “like Sephiroth” so he could protect her, which led to his joining SHINRA, which led to pretty much everything else. PLUS, there was the scene where Tifa makes him promise to be her hero. Expect more, not less, background material between those two in future retellings.
Cloud was the lonely kid one who wanted to get closer to Tifa, she had several friends of her own and didn’t really pay much attention to him. Basically, their relationship as children was the complete opposite of their relationship as adults.
Yeah, a big part of Cloud’s flashback was the realization that they weren’t as close as he thought he remembered them being.
I still think that the reason Seph didn’t let go of the sword was simply shock that this puny guy who was 1/50th his level (literally) was actually trying to fight back and starting to succeed; and by the time he realized it was really happening, it was too late.
Seraphim - what’s your take on the Aeris / Cloud relationship? Was Aeris with Zack before? I forget and I’m too lazy to look it up elsewhere, and you do an excellent job summarizing.
Ok I used to think it’d be cool to have them remake FF VII, but I don’t think they should anymore. They already have about 5 other games based on FFVII, and I think that’s enough! I vote no if it’s broke, don’t fix it!
Aeris explicitly says that she was going out with Zack… well, “a 1st Class SOLDIER” that we latter learn was Zack. If I have to put any tags in her relationships, I’d say they are the same as Rinoa’s with Seifer and Squall: She likes the guy. Period. There wasn’t any thorough information about her time with Zack except for the comment that they weren’t too serious, and there isn’t anything deep about her getting a crush on Cloud who had just saved her life. Maybe something more meaningful was supposed to develop as Aeris learnt about her backgrounds, but as her transformation from “Flower Girl” into “Ancient Cetra Sage” happens apparently overnight (I’m one to believe that this was one of the most rushed parts of the story), we can scrap any analysis on that.
Mind you that I dislike Aeris, so I acknowledge any kind of bias that may show up.
I didn’t see any sort of “transformation”, really. Aeris always knew about her background (Tseng was chasing her from when she was a kid). She just didn’t start talking about it until she had to.
Speaking of Aeris, can someone explain to me WHY IN HEAVEN’S NAME SHE LEFT FOR THE ANCIENT CITY ON HER OWN, therefore making herself an easy target for Sephiroth? Why not take her friends along? I can understand not taking Cloud along, since he proved himself to be unable to resist Seph, but what about the rest? This is one of the plot points that annoy me the most about FF7. Did she believe she couldn’t Summon Holy if they were present? Was she afraid Sephiroth would kill the others? Or did she mean to die all along? I just don’t get it. 0_o
And just to throw some controversial stuff into the discussion:
For years, one of the biggest myths about FF7 was that there was some way to save Aeris. Would a remake include such a secret option??
(No, I don’t believe so- but wouldn’t it be cool if we could see her spirit showing up during the final battle? Considering that there IS a novella featuring her spirit’s adventures after her death (during the later events of the game) and her appearance in Advent Children, I wouldn’t consider it impossible… )
I’ll field this one.
Aeris knew what she was doing when she left for the Ancient City. Please note that she did not sacrifice herself, and her death was not necessary to summon Holy. She did not know her death was imminent. In Cloud’s dream in the Sleeping Forest, she tells Cloud that she wants to handle Sephiroth. As the last Ancient, only she has the power to do what she needs to do to stop the Crisis from the Sky (aka Jenova). She says she feels like she’s being led by something, and would find the answer when she got here. This leading force is likely Lifestream, the Planet (who she talks to, and may in fact, just be the same as lifestream), or the ancient Cetra. Why she did not take her friends along is a mystery, maybe she thought they wouldnt believe her, maybe she didnt want them to be involved in something so dangerous (she indicates she doesnt want Cloud to have a breakdown, and hed already proven susceptible to Sephiroth’s/Jenova’s will), but most likely, it was because they couldn’t help her. Only she could do it.
As for the provocative question. It’s a myth because, for some reason, Aerith was a very likeable character in FF7, she was smart, cute, funny, nice hair, nice eyes. And her sudden cinematic death was a shocker, as such a thing was fairly unprecedented in games, and certainly the well-fleshed out story added to all the character development, making FF7 one of the first with identifiable characters. I highly doubt Square will ever bring Aeris back from being dead. The producer of FF7 has said before that he would hate to do so, and refrained from doing it in the game and afterwards, because if he did, it would have less of an impact, be meaningless. And if they havent’ done it in AC, DoC, or any of the other compilations, they’re not gonna do it.
Wall: I understand that only Aeris could summon Holy; but I can’t accept she would think that it would be too dangerous for her friends to come along, not after fighting menaces along them for half the game (including “Sephiroth”.) My best guess is that the Planet told her to come alone, since she was a Cetra and the others were not (so much for the Planet being “wiser” than people). And was she naive enough to think that Sephiroth wouldn’t try to stop her? Sorry, but this is another part that needs rewriting. Perhaps having them accompany her but stop outside the main Cetra building because their presence would interrupt the Summoning, or something.
As for Aeris reappearing at the end, I already said I don’t believe they will make it so she can be saved (since that wouldn’t fit in with the continuity) BUT an appearance by her spirit, maybe leading the Lifestream into destroying METEOR, would be fitting. (I suspect that was what happened in the novella.)
Of course Galuf also died (you spoony bard!) and Cid did (sorry uncle, wrong fish). Um, no offense meant, Cid. It wasn’t the first time a PC died.
Then again Leo, a minimally developed character died and the general consensus was “Poor Leo, I was devastated”.
Aeris was of higher importance in the game, the graphics could depict better the beauty getting slaughtered and FFVII was the entry RPG for a lot of players. Or that’s the way I see it. To me the FFVI characters were more interesting.
(Off topic:So in FFVI you have to kill Cid, your “father”, to begin your new life)
And that was as unexplained as the rest of the ending was. What I believe will happen, is that next time we’ll know for sure if she was really there and what she did. She might even say goodbye to Cloud.
Oh, and we’ll probably have a true epilogue, showing what the characters did right afterwards, not “500 years later…”.
So you’re meaning about remaking FF7 on like the PS3?Because I remembered when they remaked FF1 and FF2 for the GBA that was really cool of them…Any Way They Should Remake It FF10 graphics or better Same Story Same Characters,New Items,New Weapons…
That was actually the favorite part of the ending for me. That it was so ambiguous about those things, it left so much up to me to decide. I thought it was far more meaningful to have her just appear like that then it would be to have her do something like what you suggest. And that would also kind of ruin continuity with AC. I mean, saying goodbye only to show up three years lately kinda defeats the purpose (or two years, or whatever).
Ditto the no epilogue. I think that that epilogue was fine.
Cid: You missed the part where I said, “Right Afterwards”. Not “Two years later”. (I believe there’s already a novella that covers those events, titled “A Way to a Smile”, starring Tifa.) And AC did not say that Aeris had no contact with Cloud since her death. If anything, I’d say she tried to, but that he blocked her away (out of guilt?)
For the Aeris deal, there’s no evidence either way. And honestly, what difference does it make what they do the next day (or week)? If you’re curious about their futures, the game certainly tells us, and we can infer from AC what they did in the intervening time. I personally would rather it ends on a high note.