Final Fantasy 7 Remake series devs knew JRPG fans wanted to know "what's gonna happen to Aerith," so they tried to make sure players "won't be able to tell… until the very end"

Aerith is surrounded by fire lanterns in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth — (Image credit: Square Enix)

Naoki Hamaguchi, director behind Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and its long-awaited sequel – the officially unnamed so-called "Part 3" – says Aerith's fate was intentionally left a mystery for players to uncover when playing the second entry to the revamped JRPG trilogy.

Speaking in a recent interview with Game Developer, Hamaguchi is aware of how many fans "were interested to find out what's gonna happen to Aerith and her fate," especially after her death in the classic 1997 Final Fantasy 7 – a death that might just stand as one of gaming's most well-remembered. "So because of that, we tried to create a game and depict the story in a way where players won't be able to tell what's going to happen to Aerith until the very end."

Quick spoiler alert for anyone who still hasn't played the Final Fantasy 7 Remake follow-up (what've you been doing if you haven't, though – it released over a year ago now), the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth ending does indeed see Aerith perish. It's not as obvious, however – the controversial finale doesn't communicate as clearly that Sephiroth has killed her, instead implying momentarily that Cloud has managed to intervene.

So, it's a bit different – but she's still dead, much like in the original Final Fantasy 7's ending. According to Hamaguchi, players are likely to be just as curious about Part 3's climax and plot points like Meteor as they were with Rebirth and Aerith. He has admitted, though, that the upcoming threequel's own ending is "in safe hands" and will "really reward everyone for sticking with us to the end." What that means is a mystery, of course.

Whatever differences there are in the end to the OG Final Fantasy 7, however, come in part due to Hamaguchi and fellow devs' hopes of ensuring the Remake series' success. "The key for this project to succeed is to determine what kind of changes we would want to bring in order to sustain the player interest throughout the remake trilogy," he describes, stating that Square Enix has been "sort of trying to push boundaries" and "trying to figure out what kind of bold changes we can bring to the story."

Hamaguchi does conclude that devs are "also trying to make careful decisions around that" – so here's hoping the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy's grand finale impresses the community (perhaps at least a bit more than Rebirth's alone did).

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.

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