Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is the third and final instalment of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy that reimagines the 1997 PS1 JRPG classic while incorporating the wider universe known as The Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 (which includes spin-offs like PSP's Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, and even movies like Advent Children).
While there's still time to catch up on the first two parts ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's impending April 8, 2027 release, which will conclude the saga, you've come to the right place if you're after a condensed catch up on the story so far of Cloud Strife and co's fight to save the planet, and how this retelling also deviates from the original game. It goes without saying that there will be spoilers ahead. If you're in need of a refresher without making time for hundreds of hours re-adventuring, or just want to catch the climax of Cloud and Sephiroth's ultimate clash, then we've got you covered.
If you're ready to make like a chocobo, then let's go!
Final Fantasy 7 Remake: When in Midgar
With the remake trilogy drawing to a close early 2027, we get ready for the epic conclusion with our Final Fantasy 7 Revelation Big Preview across hands-on impressions, dev access, and deep dives into the whole adventure so far.
We kick off with Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which covers just the original game's opening section in Midgar, a multi-tiered dystopian metropolis controlled by fascist megacorporation Shinra. Just like the original Final Fantasy 7, it opens with protagonist Cloud, a former member of SOLDIER, Shinra's elite military, who's now working as a mercenary for eco-terrorist group Avalanche. Their mission is to blow up Mako Reactor 1 in order to disrupt Shinra's activities of harvesting Mako energy, which they believe is sucking the planet's life force dry.
With the bombing mission a success – though the remake deviates from the original by making Avalanche's bomb a dud while President Shinra actually sets off the real explosion that's far deadlier than intended – the group's leader Barret Wallace feels emboldened to target Mako Reactor 5, with Cloud also joining the mission, alongside his childhood friend Tifa Lockhart from the Sector 7 undercity's slums.
Between these missions, we also see how else Final Fantasy 7 Remake expands and deviates from the original game, as we learn of Avalanche member Jessie' backstory as a theater actress who leaves behind her stage career after her father falls into a coma due to Mako poisoning, while Cloud has visions of the game's true threat, Sephiroth, and a chance encounter with flower girl Aerith Gainsborough is interrupted by the presence of mysterious hooded specters.
However, the Mako Reactor 5 mission goes awry, leading to Cloud being separated from Avalanche and crashing into a church in the Sector 5 slums where he once again encounters Aerith, who is being pursued by Shinra's covert ops Turks unit. Aerith joins Cloud on his way back to Sector 7 when they notice a carriage passing by, which Tifa is inside, heading to the manor of Don Corneo, a slumlord in Sector 5, home to the seedy entertainment district of Wall Market.
After an elaborate makeover for both Cloud and Aerith to infiltrate Don Corneo's manor to rescue Tifa, they learn from the Don that Shinra plans to drop the Sector 7 plate onto the slums below to destroy Avalanche, regardless of all the innocent people who would also be killed. Despite their best efforts, the plate drops, causing huge destruction and casualties, including the death of Avalanche members Biggs and Jessie, while Aerith allows herself to be captured by Shinra in exchange for the safety of Marlene, Barret's daughter.
Resolved to rescue Aerith, Cloud, Barrett, and Tifa infiltrate Shinra's headquarters before its head scientist Hojo can experiment on her. Aerith is revealed to be the last descendant of the Cetra (also known as the Ancients), a mystical precursor race connected to the Lifestream, which Shinra wants to exploit in order to gain access to the Mako-rich 'Promised Land'.
During Aerith's rescue and the group's escape, they are joined by Red XIII, a dog-like creature who has also been a captive of Hojo's experiments, while President Shinra is killed by Sephiroth, only to be quickly succeeded by his son Rufus.
As Cloud leads the team with a motorcycle to escape the rest of Shinra's forces and reach Midgar's outskirts, it culminates in a confrontation with Sephiroth and the hooded specters that Red XIII calls Whispers. Their presence throughout the story have been to essentially act as arbiters of fate, which in a meta twist, ensures that events play out just like they did in the original story of Final Fantasy 7. This explains their intervention in moments where fate almost diverges, such as ensuring that Cloud spares Turk member Reno during their fight, that he doesn't leave Avalanche high and dry on the fifth Mako reactor mission, or that Barret survives what should have been a fatal stabbing from Sephiroth.
In a battle against the whispers and Sephiroth, the team successfully defy fate, and as they leave Midgar, we see implications of how the universe has split into into alternate timelines, with one where Biggs and Jessie survived the falling of the Sector 7 plate, and another where another SOLDIER named Zack – someone Aerith had been previously in love with – survives an attack by Shinra forces and is seen carrying a wounded Cloud to Midgar (he famously dies in both the original's flashback scenes, and PSP sequel Crisis Core).
While much of FF7 Remake kept us guessing as to how close events would hew to the original game, and what role the Whispers functioned, this striking ending blows the doors wide open – leaving many to wonder if the sequel would have much in common with the original events at all.
Intermission: Enter the Ninja
Alongside the events of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Intermission follows Yuffie, a young ninja who has come to Midgar on a mission from the interim Wutai government – Shinra's arch rival – to steal Shinra's 'Ultimate Materia' with the help of her partner Sonon and a local Avalanche cell, where it also emerges that Barret's Avalanche is considered a more radical fringe breakaway faction from a broader Avalanche organization.
Yuffie and Sonon infiltrate a lab underneath Shinra HQ where they battle against Scarlet, Shinra's head of weapon research, as well as top-secret military organization Deepground, including one of their leaders Nero the Sable. While the mission ends in failure as there turns out to be no 'Ultimate Materia', and Sonon sacrifices himself to ensure Yuffie's escape, this ordeal gives the young Wutai ninja the resolve to find likeminded allies to help her bring down Shinra.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: Worlds collide
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth begins by exploring more of the first entry's alternate timeline split through Zack, where the Avalanche members are seen wounded and taken captive while Aerith is comatose. Zack manages to take both her and Cloud to hide out at her mother Elmyra's house. It's gradually revealed that in this timeline, the planet's Mako has already been fully depleted as people brace for the imminent end of the world.
Back in Remake's original timeline, Cloud and the party have left behind Midgar and arrive in the town of Kalm where he relays his past with Sephiroth when both were assigned to investigate a Mako reactor in Cloud's hometown of Nibelheim five years ago. During this mission, Sephiroth suffered a mental breakdown after learning that he was artificially created from the cells of an extra-terrestrial life-form called Jenova, his identity crisis resulting in the massacre and destruction of Nibelheim before returning to the reactor to recover the body of his 'mother'.
The party decides to pursue Sephiroth by following the trail of 'black robes', former Shinra test subjects, who Cloud believes will lead them to Sephiroth. They journey across the wider world, including the Shinra-controlled port city of Junon during an inauguration parade for Shinra's new president Rufus; the sun-kissed Costa Del Sol where Aerith and Tifa want to let their hair down but Hojo is also using the black robes as part of his heinous experiments; Barret's hometown of Mt. Corel where the group learns he is blamed for the explosion of its Mako reactor; the Gold Saucer filled with minigames and home to the popular play Loveless; Zack's hometown of Gongaga; Red XIII's hometown of Cosmo Canyon, where it's revealed his real name is Nanaki and despite his deep voice, his age is developmentally equivalent to a 15 or 16 year-old human; there's even a return to Nibelheim, which Shinra has eerily rebuilt in its entirety.
Along the way, new members also join the party, including Wutai ninja Yuffie, remote-controlled robot cat Cait Sith, pilot Cid Highwind who owns the dual-propeller airplane the Tiny Bronco, and the vampiric beast-transforming ex-Turk Vincent Valentine (the latter two are non-playable in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth). They also encounter several appearances of Weapons, gigantic guardians that act as part of the Planet's self-defense. Despite defeating the Arbiter of Fate, the whispers also return but in new variants, with white whispers allying themselves with the Planet, while the black ones are aiding Sephiroth's plans. The party soon learns that his ultimate plan is to use the Black Materia to summon Meteor to destroy the Planet.
This culminates in a race between Cloud's party and Shinra through the Temple of the Ancients in search of the Black Materia, all while Wutai openly declares war on Shinra. Despite the party's successful efforts in securing the Black Materia, Sephiroth takes control of Cloud's mind, forcing him to hand it over, and explains his plans of 'Reunion', which would forcibly fuse the alternate universes together into a paradise he can rule over.
In the ensuing chaos, Aerith goes it alone to try and stop Sephiroth, and the party traces her to the Forgotten Capital, an ancient Cetran City. They are blocked by a horde of whispers from entering the temple where Aerith is, but a tear opens enough for Cloud to go through, where he finds Aerith attempting to pray for help from the Planet to stop Sephiroth.
Whereas in the original story, Sephiroth tries to force Cloud to kill her, this time the whispers try to manipulate Cloud to use his Buster Sword, though he resists. Sephiroth descends from the sky to get the job done himself, and while Cloud blocks and disarms him, a distortion in the timeline makes it so that Sephiroth does kill Aerith, sending her White Materia into the water. While this causes the whispers to disperse, allowing the rest of the party to catch and fight Jenova like in the original game, Cloud is separated and finds his timeline converging with Zack's.
Zack's timeline, meanwhile, has been fracturing into multiple threads, each based on a different decision he makes, including trying to save a version of Biggs who survived Remake's destruction of Sector 7. Ultimately, Zack also comes face to face with Sephiroth, temporarily having Cloud assist as they fight their common foe across universes, while Aerith from an alternate timeline comes to Cloud's aid in the final battle. Although the fight forces Sephiroth to retreat, in the current timeline, the party members mourn Aerith's death, even though Cloud still seems to be able to see her.
As the party lick their wounds and continue pursuing Sephiroth on Cid's Tiny Bronco, Cloud discovers he still has the Black Materia, which he fuses into the Buster Sword, while he is also able to see a black rift in the sky that the others cannot. As he says goodbye to Aerith's ghost, who stays behind, Cloud vows to stop Sephiroth. This time, it's not just about stopping him from destroying the Planet and controlling the Lifestream like it was in the PS1 game, but from controlling all realities and timelines in the many universes of Final Fantasy 7.
What will happen next in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation remains to be seen, especially when it comes to how closely it'll stay to the final arc of the PS1 game. If you're curious to know more, join me later in the week as I unravel 8 story threads I hope Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will resolve, and continue exploring this epic saga's narrative.
Fancy more fantasy? Check out our best RPGs and best JRPGs rankings for more adventures worth unsheathing your Buster Sword to tackle.
