Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, says there's a "big surprise" planned for the original JRPG's most iconic twist, and it's far from the first time fans – myself included – have been given reason to sweat over what's to come.
Before we mosey on, take this as your spoiler warning for what's to come.
Still here? Lovely stuff. Hamaguchi has been doing the media rounds to promote the upcoming action-RPG, where he's been asked about Aerith's fate a few times.
As Audrey translates on Twitter, the Indonesian gaming website Gamebrott takes the direct approach to asking him directly about the last surviving Cetra's fate at the Forgotten Capital, where the game ends.
While he was never going to spoil what's to come, he does say that, regarding "that" scene, there's a "big surprise" lined up.
Now, tongues have been sent wagging over Aerith's fate since creative director Tetsuya Nomura revealed that FF7 Rebirth will end at the Forgotten Capital last September, "where the greatest fate of Final Fantasy 7 awaits you." Producer Yoshinori Kitase didn't help things either when he noted "that the team knows "fans are dying to see one scene in particular…"
The location is notable as that's where Sephiroth ensures Aerith meets her demise. The story does enough to ensure emotional impact, though the gameplay plays its part. By the time Aerith dies, you will have invested hours into leveling them up, lulled into a false sense of security that little could happen to them.
What makes Hamaguchi's tease tantalizing, though, is the diversionary nature of the Remake project itself. The first entry of the new trilogy features the presence of whispers who intend to ensure fate follows the right path, which would be bad news for Aerith had you not defeated them at the end of the first game. Speaking of, there are hints we did so at the behest of Sephiroth himself as he knows the events of the original game, which sees his plans being partially thwarted as Aerith casts Holy before dying. His choice to kill her also led the party to their world-saving quest in the first place.
All of that is to say that plenty of doubt has been sowed. There are also hints that Aerith knows how things play out, and with so many timeline-based creative works concluding that everything must play out as intended, she may meet her demise then and there, or further down the line – albeit more intentionally, somehow making everything more tragic.
It's undoubtedly the sort of fan fervor that Hamaguchi is leaning into, though it also throws up a positive to tweaking the original story. While some hoped for a faithful telling with plenty of visual oomph, the will-it-won't-it nature of everything ensures I'll keep mulling over everything until Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's release comes. Then, I might know peace. That is, until the third installment of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project.
