While I don't have a lot of time to enjoy the fandom the way that I used to, I did finally manage to borrow a PS5 and a copy of Rebirth. Almost 94 hours later I have thoughts and no one to share them with because I'm the only idiot I know IRL who is this deeply invested in this franchise. I kept notes while I was playing and have a lot of thoughts.
I don't expect anyone to actually read any of this, but it'll be fun for me to come back to whenever the next part comes out. If you want to read the ramblings of a fan from the earliest days (For context, I borrowed my brother's copy right after he finished playing it when the game first came out in 97) feel free.
Since I managed to stay spoiler free until I played the game over the last two weeks, I'm still going to pop my thoughts under a break in case there are others out there waiting on a PC port. Beyond here nothing is safe, plot and character-wise.
Holy shit.
I feel like the last two weeks have been kind of a fever dream. It was simultaneously everything I wanted out of the game and also weirdly disappointing in a lot of places.
So, to kick it off, I wasn't mad about the way they were playing around with the whispers and the multiverse-esque concepts. A perfect shot for shot remake would be fine, but as someone who wrote a lot of fanfiction about the game, I can hardly fault the game's creators for wanting to get in on it. lol I would imagine that some of the new content falls into the - would have been in the OG if not for the limitations of the day - category anyway.
I also found it supremely funny that they included a vaguely malevolent entity that was obsessed with keeping the story "on track" and forcing the players to disagree with those entitles via the characters when a significant chunk of those players would be making that their chief complaint when they hit the end of the game. Call em on their bullshit FF7 devs!
As someone who has always been fascinated by Zack, even when he was practically nothing more than a few lines of dialogue and a missable cutscene in the Nibelheim basement, I can't tell you the joy I felt when I saw him live through the final fight. I was down for whatever they wanted to change at that point. I was even excited for it, I think. I find the idea of a time loop or multiverses crossing over kind of fascinating, so I was ready for whatever they wanted to do with it.
So now that you have context for where I stand on that particular side of the argument...
There was so much that rebirth did right. On the whole, I'm so, so impressed with what they did. The world feels so much bigger and some of the details are exquisite. Little things, like the way the news reports things in the background while they're happening and seeing the way Shinra would spin it. Hearing people talking about world events while you walk by - not to mention the sheer amount of people in the world. It really gives weight to some of the events in a way I had never been able to picture.
Though, whoever thought it was a good idea to put so much destroyable/movable clutter in the world was an idiot. JFC. I had to kick coral out of the way on the way to the altar in the Forgotten City and it genuinely annoyed the everloving hell out of me to be distracted by something so dumb in that moment.
I was worried about playing through the Nibelheim flashback for the Nth time but there were so many subtle things that made it interesting. Like, I didn't appreciate the way that Cloud's VA would be able to do that subtle impression of Zack in the way he delivered the lines. If you don't know what's happening there, you'd totally miss it but iykyk. I loved that. There were also subtle, heartbreaking things, like the kids playing Sephiroth when you walk through town. And I cackled when Tifa and Aeris outright call you an asshole for going through her drawers.
Honestly, the amount of casual swearing in this game gave me life. Which is hilarious, because I'm pretty sure Cid didn't curse once. I was really looking forward to hearing him tell us to sit down, shut up, and drink our $#%Y^ tea in full VA glory, so I'm a little sad that we didn't get that.
The choices between what was changed/how it was changed and what wasn't changed at all sometimes seemed a little weird to me. Like falling off the bridge into a river that being what swept the other trooper away, makes way more sense than falling into a ravine as far as why someone could survive it with scraped knees and someone else would end up in a coma. Removing the hidden bookshelf entrance into the Nibelheim labs? Lame. Chocobos at the ranch don't dance? Laaaaame.
I am glad that they finally called out how weird it was that Tifa never said anything about Cloud being there. It's like half the reason I always disliked her character so much. I even liked the conflict between them and the way that Sephiroth kind of turned it into an uno reverse situation. Cloud's eventual descent into madness near the end feels more earned because Sephiroth has been putting the pressure on the whole time.
Some thoughts about the world travels:
Fuck the Midgar Zolem. Nopenopenope.
I loved so many things in Junon. People in lower Junon protesting at the idea of the parade, awesome bit of world building. The weird ass bald bar with Rude? Chef's kiss. Cloud becoming the parade captain and having to go gather the squad. Loved it. He got so into it and you could see the hints of trooper Cloud under the fake Soldier persona he built. Lovely. The parade mini game was perfect. Even little things like the 1/35 soldier collectibles being used to plan the parade formations in the building where you usually grabbed them in the OG. It's the little details like that. I was super bummed that we weren't getting Red XIII in the trooper uniform until we did.
The Gold Saucer. THE GOLD SAUCER. I spent actual hours there. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a section in the Wonder Square where you could have played the OG versions of the mini games. Cait Sith's voice was giving Crowley high on laudanum and I wasn't mad about it.
I had a really funny moment when I got to Gongaga where I went, "Huh, she looks an awful lot like Cissnei..." and then she said she was Cissnei and I wasn't sure how to feel about it. Most of the Turks went into hiding, so yeah, okay sure. I just feel like there was a missed opportunity for her to call herself something else and it to be a subtle nod to the fact that Cissnei's probably not her name either. I just can't believe she didn't say anything to Cloud or Aeris (you'll pry that spelling out of my cold dead hands) about Zack.
Cid's early entrance into the game was also a little confusing. Like, he was still working for Shinra at that point in the OG. The only reason I was mad about it was that it meant we probably weren't getting Rocket Town. To be fair, I had to start speed running the plot by that point because I only had the the PS5 for two weeks, so I pretty much skipped exploring the Nibel region entirely. Could Rocket Town be there, sure. I won't know until the PC port comes out. lol I'm intrigued by the idea that Cid knew Ifalna. Was he the one who let them out? Again, not an idea I ever considered, but I wouldn't be mad about it.
Going to Cosmo Canyon was the moment I realized this game was not made for anyone remotely neurospicy. I started calling Rebirth "ooh, a squirrel!" the game at that point. I was so excited to go to Cosmo Canyon. Like it was one of the parts I was most excited to see in modern graphics. I immediately got sidetracked by the chocobos, the reagent collection stuff, the screaming owls, the towers, the Chadley bullshit in general.
That was probably one of my biggest complaints, honestly. Trust me to want to go over every inch of the map on my own. I don't need this weird AI kid to give me quests to make me do that. If anything, I actively started avoiding areas because I could see a cluster of his nonsense which meant traveling through that patch of map would be a pain in my ass. I didn't mind him or the concept as a whole, I just needed like 60% less of it, at least.
That being said, I loved the look of Cosmo Canyon, but I was confused by the vibe there. I feel like if that many people believed in Planetology, Shinra could never have gotten away with the bullshit it did. Even in all the towns, there's a dude in robes preaching Planetology. People are talking about the Lifestream and the Planet as a sentient being CONSTANTLY. There needed to be more, "don't believe that hippie, religious nonsense" people to balance that out. Or people saying, mako's absolutely a renewable resource, even if you believe that Planetology stuff. People on the whole would be destructive for the sake of comfort, but there was this weird disconnect there.
Since they were going with this, Planetology is more popular route, I do appreciate the fact that the people who believe in it at the Canyon are kind of pretentious about it. Tifa literally got eaten by a weapon, the group - including Nanaki who is one of them - have seen a number of wild, inexplicable things in the last couple weeks. Probably mako poisioning and group hallucinations. You should get checked out and how dare you question me! Oh you're a Cetra? Here, light the pretty lights at the festival then.
Since we're talking about Cosmo Canyon, the bit about Red's voice cracked me up. I was not prepared for the tiny babby puppy voice he started using in the back half of the game. I definitely missed his grownup voice the rest of the game though.
The GI cave part was well done. I'm sort of intrigued by the idea of the GI creating the black materia. I just wish they would have explained where the GI came from then, since they weren't born of the Planet. Materia is supposed to be the condensed knowledge of the Planet, so how did they make their own? I love the idea that the black materia was supposed to just be a way for them to take themselves out of the world and it ended up being so powerful it could destroy the entire world instead.
Also, the Cetra were just out there fighting everyone, the GI, the humans, Jenova. I really liked the way that GI Nattak called out that she's only Cetra by bloodline because the actual Cetra were kind of assholes. It's an angle I never considered and I'm kind of here for it.
I don't know how to feel about them turning Nibelheim into a mako poisoning treatment center. I think I preferred the Shinra coverup. It makes them much more sinister. It also made more sense when the replacement townspeople were rude to Cloud and Tifa. They have to stay in character because that's their job. Hell no you two didn't live here. Get lost. Now, everyone's just uncomfortable because two people who used to live there are in their midst. It was weird.
Also Cloud remembered Zack way the fuck early for no good reason. He doesn't talk to Aeris about it. Tifa tries to get him to cover it up. Why though? It makes way more sense for him to get flashes but nothing concrete if you want to foreshadow but you're not going to do anything interesting with it.
I have mixed emotions about what they did to Vincent. It's weird that he stayed at the mansion of his own volition as "security" considering what Hojo and Lucrecia did to him. Why tf was he sleeping in a coffin then? It made way more sense for him to be locked away and willing to join up with the party so he could take a piece out of Hojo. Now, he's claiming to have unfinished business with Sephiroth instead but also refuses to go anywhere near him? Also, I can't not hear Matt Mercer's voice when he talks so that was super distracting. lol Galian Beast was incredible. I'm just pissed I didn't get to use him as a limit break.
This was the point that I realized I had to start skipping exploration/side quests if I wanted to get to the ending before I lost access to the game and system. If I don't mention something and it's not required to beat the game, assume I didn't get to see it and will have to wait until the PC port comes out and I can take the whole game completely apart.
I got the Aeris Gold Saucer date. 10/10. I just wish they had got a vocalist that sounded more like Aeris's regular VA, but the play was a fun little minigame. I was confused by why they were all wearing VR headsets while sitting in a theater and if everyone saw themselves as the hero and people in their party as Rosa, the enemies, etc, but I mostly just turned my brain off and enjoyed the ride. The ferris wheel date was the perfect update to the dialogue while still keeping the vibe. Loved it.
The Temple of the Ancients was both better than I could have hoped for and possibly the worst section to play through at the same time. I was really looking forward to a quirky puzzle solving section with a weird, reality warping backdrop. The temple itself was perfect. The way it built itself up when the keystone got inserted. The look of the labyrinth. All of it. Then, it turned into an action RPG enemy grind. It needed to be half the size it was if they were just going to cut all the cool parts out anyway.
The flashbacks to everyone's sad moments were cool, but I feel like they didn't actually do what they were supposed to for anyone but Aeris. Red ends his tied to the table by Hojo, Barret - Myrna's dead and his arm is gone. (Though it was cool to see what Myrna looks like!) Tifa's dad's dead. Yuffie's confronted by Nero and mocked for leaving Sonon behind. If the Temple was trying to tell them that anger and grief can only take you so far as a warrior, they should probably all ended with some sliver of hope, like Elmyra helping to take care of her. Barret finding Marlene for example, would have been great.
I like the way they handled Cait Sith here much better than the OG. Him physically holding up the temple so it wouldn't collapse was a nice touch. He seemed genuinely remorseful about what he did and the surprise, here's Cait #2 moment seemed far less out of the blue and wrong toned because everyone was still conflicted about how to feel about him.
Cloud creeped me the hell out by the end and that was perfect. The way he chased Aeris for the black materia while saying creepy half-mind controlled stuff. I'm also not mad that they skipped him beating her up and replaced it with them both falling into the pit. It still gives a viable reason for why he's unconscious and gives her the space to run off to the sleeping forest.
I am a little sad that we lost out on his indecision about whether he's safe to go onward. The group dynamic when it comes to Cloud being weird is confusing. It seems like they all understand that degradation is a thing and there's a good chance it's happening to Cloud, but they also let him get away with shit that he really shouldn't be doing/saying if that is the case. He yeeted Tifa into a mako pit and she got eaten by a WEAPON. Did we address that, not really..? He's desperate to get to the black materia in a way that's making Yuffie looked restrained? That's fine. We don't need to tell him to go back and sit with Cid and Vincent. Just let him come along!
The ending leaves me feeling conflicted and brings me to my complaint about the remake itself. I feel like we were speedrunning the plot to ultimately get nowhere fast. Everyone knows the plot, so who cares if we bring Cid in early to cut some of the journey out. We're going to skip over Wutai for now by hinting at the side story we'll get to later. Vincent's backstory, who needs it? Any world exploration in relation to the keystone, nah, Cait just knows that. Let's put Rufus and Hojo at the temple with the Turks and steal some of the northern crater stuff and do that instead of the Temple of the Ancients puzzles. Bone City, Sleeping Forest, Forgotten City? Yeet.
For real though, the Forgotten City feels smaller than the OG version and that's a fucking crime.
I assumed that the climax would explain more about the alternate universes, why Zack survived, how the whispers work, etc. and that was the REAL story here, so sure, let's get to that.
Any time now.
I'll wait.
Wait, not like that! I didn't mean- and the game's over. Well fuck.
Seriously, that's how I felt about the ending. I was kind of holding off on the Zack side story so I could come at it all at once. I loved that Zack got into Midgar just to see that, without Cloud, the Avalanche stuff falls apart. There's a teeny plot hole in how Aeris would have ended up involved without Cloud buuuuut fate's gonna do its thing and I can suspension of disbelief that.
What I can't ignore is that we never find out who the missing Soldier with the Buster Sword was that was involved. The reports talk about a missing Soldier who Shinra's still searching for. Maybe they're just tacking that on because Zack survived his execution and they're trying to kill two birds with one stone, but then why aren't they looking for two Soldiers? Zack still clearly has Cloud. I have questions.
On that note, literally no one bats an eye at Zack and Cloud looking like they could 100% have been running from that fight. Kyrie would have absolutely have handed Cloud over to a Soldier/Trooper the second Zack was gone.
So great. Now we have Zack and Cloud at Elmyra's with Marlene and Aeris in a coma. Her materia's all clear. The world is ending. Spooky af. I'm fascinated. Biggs is the only one who survived the capture of Avalanche. he's super guilty. Love it. Wait, why's he talking about Cloud like he knows him and he was there at the bombings? Marlene too? Of course Aeris has a crush on Cloud, you're dead silly! It's probably best she never wakes up because then Sephiroth murders her.
Elmyra implying that it's okay if no one saves Barret and Tifa because the world is ended and they're all going to end up in the same place soon was fucking DARK. I was not prepared for that.
Then, Zack has a decision. Shinra HQ for a cure to Cloud's coma or rescuing Biggs from his own stupidity. He chooses a friendly chat with Hojo, rocks up to the building on a motorcycle and guns it into the building despite the troopers. Love it. Wait. Why's he talking to Biggs in the reactor? And Biggs is dead and Zack's facing down the army again. Did we just branch into a second alternate timeline where Zack both went to HQ and tried to save Biggs? Awesome. We're really leaning into the weirdness. Let's fucking go.
Aeris and Cloud wake up in their coma bodies. Okay, awesome. We're finally going to get an explanation. Is this some weird sort of afterlife where all the souls from the multiverse end up and drop their knowledge off before rebirth? Is Aeris going to take Rebirth!Cloud and bring him somewhere else because she's a Cetra and can do crazy shit like that?
Nope, we're going on another weird ass date.
This is when I realized that we've definitely got at least two "Zack lives" timelines. The Cloud and Aeris one seems like a spinoff of one of those too, since Cloud woke up in the wheelchair in Aeris's house. Then there's one where Zack is sitting on the church steps right before Sephiroth shows up. I can't tell if the dog Johnny's holding is the same one as the bag from the remake ending or not. You can keep track of which timeline you're in because of the Stamp used in that universe. What the fuck even is my life?
So assuming that "Johnny dog" Zack is the one who fights with Cloud, is he gone when he says goodbye at the end? Is he the one that wakes up in the church? But the flowers in the church are okay when all the other Zack timelines aren't. Is this a fifth timeline?
I don't necessarily mind that they didn't tie it all up in a bow because this isn't the end, but I have so many frustrating questions.
Lastly, let's get to Schrodinger's flower girl. If she's really dead, I feel robbed. If they were actually going to kill her off, I wanted to be fucked up emotionally in 4k. I wanted everyone saying goodbye on the altar. I wanted the water burial. All of it in high def so I could sob my heart out like a teenage girl.
I'm intrigued by the overlay of Aeris bleeding and not. Her holding Cloud's face and it looking like he's holding her hand up because she's already dead. Cloud giving the OG speech with no words and just crying and ignoring Sephiroth entirely. Are we seeing multiple worlds converging and only Cloud can tell because he was dragged into that alternate world with her? Is Cloud's mind cracked beyond all telling and this is just Jenova/Sephiroth coming to him wearing the face of someone he loves and trusts?
I'm still annoyed that they seemed to scoot on by the most pivotal part of the OG, but I will forgive them if it turns out that Cloud's crazy and we get to see it all properly in Part Three. Or if they come up with an equally suitable twist involving multiversal travel where she really is both alive and dead in any given universe.
I'll be excited when the PC port comes out so I can really take the game apart and find out what makes it tick. I'm sure I only barely scratched the surface, considering how much side content I had to skip. I think a lot of this could benefit from a second playthrough, even if I had 100% it.
If you're still here, I'm confused but hope you enjoyed my ramblings. Night all.
Someone translated Legacy to Chinese! They were awesome and asked permission first, credited me as the author of the original and everything. This might be the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me!
I know that there are censorship issues with fanfics in China that I don’t fully understand, so I’m waiting to confirm with the other person that I can share the link here without causing trouble for them. If I can, you bet your ass that I’ll be shouting them out.
This just seems like one of those things that you see happen to other fanfic writers and you wish your fics were that influential to another person that they would take the time to do it. I’m- I can’t- ahhhhh!
Oh damn! Life hit me like a truck after this and I never saw that this got finished. I’m shouting it out now many years too late.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/32408344
qichuangrichangla translated Legacy into Chinese back in 2021! This might have been one of the coolest things that ever happened to me as a fanfiction writer.
So decided to try my hand at writing an actual novel.
It’s still very much early days and I have no idea how it’s going to go, but the imposter syndrome is very real today. As I so often used to do when I got down on my own writing, I looked back through comments and bookmarks left on some of my fics.
Someone bookmarked The Enemy with the note “OUCH WHAT THE FUCK” and if that didn’t make me laugh out loud for a solid thirty seconds...
Goddamn I love this community. I had to say that somewhere and this seemed like the most appropriate place.
SQUARE ENIX SAID FUCK CANON AND BROKE THEIR OWN GAME TO GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY REALLY WANT AND I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE WHAT THE NEW STORY WILL BE even though it means Dirge won’t happen and Reeve won’t be clearly married to Vincent even though Vincent isn’t Aware of that and my poor heart will be sad forever.
SQUARE ENIX SAID FUCK CANON AND BROKE THEIR OWN GAME TO GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY REALLY WANT AND I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE WHAT THE NEW STORY WILL BE even though it means Dirge won’t happen and Reeve won’t be clearly married to Vincent even though Vincent isn’t Aware of that and my poor heart will be sad forever.
AL (@alinthepensieve) has created a short video on TikTok with music original sound. | There are 95 fics on ao3 with this tag (and they’re often also tagged as having “goose-typical violence) #fanfic #ao3 #fyp #foryou | In fanction | Was nobody going to tell me that there’s a thing called | The Soulmate Goose of Enforcement | ...
Someone translated Legacy to Chinese! They were awesome and asked permission first, credited me as the author of the original and everything. This might be the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me!
I know that there are censorship issues with fanfics in China that I don’t fully understand, so I’m waiting to confirm with the other person that I can share the link here without causing trouble for them. If I can, you bet your ass that I’ll be shouting them out.
This just seems like one of those things that you see happen to other fanfic writers and you wish your fics were that influential to another person that they would take the time to do it. I’m- I can’t- ahhhhh!
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
blakekathryn
dededos
prguitarman
