FFVII Summary by Sephiroth
Sephiroth has posted this summary and some thoughts for those who are interested. He apologizes for the length and that because of some formatting error it is a bit hard to read. He also wishes that only those read it who are really sure they want to know. Maybe also after the game if they want to play it first and then compare.
Part 1:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
(SPOILER)
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I apologize for typing errors. I have a broken keyboard and am too lazy to buy a new one. I also must apologize that for some reason some words stick together whenever I insert a post here. The post is so long though that I did not want to go through everything again. I also did not cover absolutely everything but most of it.
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Somestuff about non-story details in particular:
There are Classic, Easy, Normal and Hard. Hard is unlocked after you are finished together with Chapter Select and can be used for a trophy and to unlock a few things (recors and manuscripts) ingame.
Hard Mode is a bitch. Like, really. You cannot use items and enemies arestronger. That is "great" because it means you need to rely on your ATB bar and your Limited MP or the few extra Materia things you can use like Auto Cure or MP UP, Chakra. Even Normal can be a bit too much sometimes.
A first run with a bit of exploration on Normal is about 35 hours long. So about 30 on Easy.
There are NO 2 discs you have to play with. Disc 1 is an Installation Disc for about 90 GBs. That is gonna be an awakening for the world next week.
Midgar does not even come close to being as big as people normally thought then SE said "this is big and therefore needs 2 discs". It was obvious that a game with a fat-ass amount of areas would also be big memory-wise but here it definitely is more "big from memory"than "big as explorable and thus also memory-wise." There are still big areas but I assume I am not the only one who thought that there is gonna be a ridiculously big Midgar with so much to explore.
The camera is very bad at times, especially in aerial combat whilefighting inside buildings. I hope this gets a patch.
Thecharacters are Cloud, Aerith, Tifa and Barret. Nanaki is a guestcharacter.
TheLevel Cap is 50.
TheEnglish text sometimes even in less significant dialogues goes farmore of than it should. Since I know Japanese I wondered sometimeswhy the hell they did that not that there is a remake. It is not evena case of "it just does not translate that well" in manysituations.
Story:
FinalFantasy VII has 18 chapters.
Thefinal boss is Sephiroth and the battle is full-on Advent Children.And no, I am not joking. He even spreads his wing and his twoultimates are Shadow Flare and Heartless Angel. He even says linesfrom AC. The battle takes inspiration from AC,CC and Dissidia.
TheCompilation has a bunch of references. Hojo mentions SOLDIER of the Sand the G type. Not "class". So he is talking about JENOVAProject Sephiroth-cells and JENOVA Project: Genesis/Gillian-cells.
Zack'sCrisis Core ending is in the remake (not completely) and with slightchanges.
Biggssurvives as the credits show. Wedge also survives because Tifa andBarret go back to Sector 7. Wedge did not just fall off the pillar,he uses a grappling gun which breaks mid-fall. Also lots of Sector 7citizens survive because Wedge triggered an evacuation scene. Wedge'sultimate fate remains unknown because a black screen and his linesindicate he was thrown out of a window in the Shinra building by theArbiters of Fate for challenging fate.
Thearbiters of fate are integral to the story and the pen-ultimate boss.They are not completely random because they are tied to "the Cryof the Planet" stuff but are mainly used for typical weirdmeta-physical and pseudo-philosophical JRPG stuff. They are notwritten too clearly because the crew alwas is about fighting fate andthe rest of the narration is not clear enough which fate it is theyare fighting: A fate that would be without Sephiroth fighting fate,the fate that the planet has because of Sephiroth OR and that is alsoan option because the story uses cutscenes of AC flashbacks of the OGFFVII, if they are fighting the fate of even having to go through allof the journey of FFVII. Why do I say that? Because we see Nanaki 500years later, we see Meteor from CD2 and we see Aerith dying. AndNanaki says it is a glimpse of what happens if they fail now. Maybeit is really meant that way and they won the battle but still fail atsome other time but it is so weirdly displayed and told that - whilethis is not gonna happen - I told some people even today that I havenot idea if they are gonna keep Aerith alive. It is just a verycryptic thing whenever destiny is included because you can be sophilosophical about it and say "if you challenged it and thendid something else after that then maybe that was your destiny"and it is funny because Nanaki even tackles the subject of it beingfate to fight fate. Overall it is just made very weirdly because thevisions seem to be what the are apparently not wanting to happen(FFXIII focus style visions you could say) and yet what they see isexactly what IS gonna happen. So either itis not explained well or itdid not matter that they won at the end because destiny later returnsto challenge them again or they really flat out fight that whathappens in FFVII and it is not gonna happen which would beunbelievable. It was confusing in particular because they made itseem like "okay, win this and it is not gonna happen" butmaybe as said, destiny returns or it did not matter because theywon against the arbiters but could not stop Sephiroth. As said, thewhole destiny thing is weirdly made because of the nature of itsconcept, the fact that we already have the basic story of FFVII andthat they did not bother narrating it a bit more down to earth. Ultimately we have to wait and see what exactly is meant by it andhow inconsistent it really is. But bringing in destiny is almostalways an automatic given for sloppy storytelling. Not that there is"nothing that could ever make sense" but these things aretoo ambigious most of the time whenever they are used. Apparentlyespecially because you do not see Zack die they (fans) think this hassomething to do with alternate timelines and changing times. I amtelling you - there is nothing we know how what is meant. Just waitfor the resolution. Sloppy and inconsistent writing with awishy-washy concept and a confusion scene composition makes nothingclear at all. STAY PATIENT HERE AND HAVE AN OPEN MIND:
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Chapter1 is normal as you know it from the demo but a Nibelheim flashback isincluded with Teen Tifa running towards Cloud.
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Chapter2 is Sector 8. You meet Aerith who is chased by the Arbiters and hertouching Cloud leads to him seeing them as well. He also meetsSephiroth already though that is obviously Sephiroth talking througheither a hallucination or through shapeshifting because, hold yourasses just so they do not fly away: Sephiroth makes uses of theSephiroth copies. The lie blurs in the story when he uses ahallucination and when he straight shapeshifts. Sometimes heobviously uses both in the same scene.
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Anyway,Sector 8. Sephiroth appears next to Aerith (vision wise were timeseemingly freezes) and he talks to Cloud about he cannot saveanybody. Cloud spends the rest of the chapter fleeing, going to thetrain, then Barret trout talks ShinRa people like in the OG - but nowthey are three and not just one and Jessie who still worries aboutthe explosion which definitely was not meant to be that just becauseof one line in the OG but it is somewhat nice as an expansion eventhough I do not agree with all the changes (since it is also notimpossible it is still fine but trust me, they did not care aboutwhat is possible anyway) and then she looks at the monitor with Cloud
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Chapter3: Cloud meets up with Tifa, gives her the flower and gets his ownapartment room. You never see the AVALANCHE basement. Instead you getto do a few side stuff and live next to a Sephiroth copy calledMarco. Oh yes, and he has the number 49. There are more than in theOG now. But you only see two of them except for a vision. And for thefact that Cloud is also a Sephiroth copy since he is also a "bearerof S-cells" - not that they say it here but obviously everybodyknows that already and it is already teased somewhat. Jessie at theend want you to drives her to her home up the plate. There is also awhole Johnny part (actually two) in this chapter and Tifa has toremind Cloud a few times iseveral ways by either calling him out byhis name, that he should smile, that he might be nicer, etc. that hecannot/should not be an asshole to the people in the slums. So muchthat she even tells him a few times he should smile so that healready looks bit desperate/tired. You also fight burglars or punksor whatever a few timesin the story. I will not mention burglars fromnow on. All of them are obodies.
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Chapter4: Bicycle Mini Game. You fight Locche/Roche,the SOLDIER who is atotal waste of time as a character. I guess he will appear in laterinstallments. You have to steal the member ID from Jessie's fahterwhose consciousness is stuck inbetween because of Mako Poisoning.Almost like we have heard that before. Cloud also warms up to people.To Tifa of course as well but when he hears the story he begins tounderstand their motives. The Nibelheim water tower flashback whichkinda started before by Tifa and Cloud teasing it a bit and that getscontinued in a chat later as well. You get to fight a few assholeswhile Wedge gets bitten in his own ass by a guard dog. where Jessiehas to do her business and for that she needed the members ID andthen Roche fights you for real. He also "saves you" from afew guards. The guys flee from the flate with parachute. Jessieflirts a bit with Cloud and says he should come to eat her homemadepizza though. Jessie is said to play around a bit but you can seeduring all the scenes she really has a thing for Cloud. They end upfighting the arbiters and Jessie gets injured. Wedge stays with her.
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Chapter5: The others go to the train and flee once they are found. Theyhave to go through the Winding Tunnel which is infested by those HeadHunt bug scorpion things which where normal enemies in the OG. Suchspecial stuff with OG random enemies happens a lot here. They fight aGuard Crab mecha and leave the tunnel.
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Chapter6: Right on the downside of the plate which is only a few sceens inthe OG they have to go through some sort of maze-like platforms. Itis not really a maze but the platforms look so similiar. They have toactivate and elevator for which they manipulate big-ass lights on theplate. They can also manipulate giant fans which leads to themfinding Choco/Mog.
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Chapter7: Mako Reactor 5. Shinra knows AVALANCHE is here and airs how theyinvaded the reactor. You can see that once you place the bomb here inthis one. There is a funny line with Heidegger because they prepareAir Bastard and he already bragged with how the techno soldier isgonna be used when in reality it was still not prepared. And it wasall live. The crew tries to get Air Bastard have less weapons andstuff before that stuff reaches him. The simultaneous button pressthing returns. They talk with Heidegger and also with PresidentShinra. Air Buster happens and he inroduces Cloud to Aerith.
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Chapter8: Cloud talks to the repressed part of his very self which now isnot black screen but displayed by another Cloud model Cloud meetsAerith and they have their chat. Then Reno appears and fights Cloudonly this time he is not a total loser like in his battle againstYazoo and Loz. They then flee. The barrel thing is not happening butCloud lets chandeliers fall down. When they flee to get to Sector 5this is absolute Cloud x Aerith. Aerith is shown to be a badass asusual and sassy af (and no, AC and CC did not portray her wrong, itportrayed her in the way it was necessary because she is a person andalso has other sides). The highlight for Cloud x Aerith fans might behow she is like "go on, you are not gonna wait anyway it seems"as previously she already wanted him to wait (which is an extensionof the OG's scene where she said he should wait and she scolded himwith them ending up laughing - the laughing part is not in the remakesadly) and then he helps her a few times, including catching her fullbody fairytale style (people will love how much Cloud helps Aerith,Tifa and Jessie - he also carried Jessie when she was injured andTifa later also needs some help) when she is about to fall down whilehe is already on a lower level. The slum town part has Aerith'shouse, an orphanage and the "this guy are sick" Sephirothcopy as highlight. Just that he are not sick this time but is sickand does not live in the earth pipe. We never get to see where helives. He is also important for Sephiroth in the last chapters. Youget to know Elmyra, she is telling you to go fly a kite at nightwhich he does and then Aerith aready waits. Rude also appears beforethat and fights you. That is pretty brutal. He also has his Ac gagwhere he always has a pair of extra sun glasses.
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Chapter9: The metal arm from that one smurfing screen returns by now havingto use more than one of them to get through a fairly long tunnel.This is very cute because Aerith wants a high five and Cloud does notdo. It at one point he expects to do it and Aerith has given up on itso she comments and it and then later on the high five (did thatsound dirty? good) After that they have their chat at the playgroundand she teases Zack to which Cloud responds with his junkie headachevisions. They see Tifa and Aerith insists on Cloud going to help her.She joins him. Then they have a talk with the gate dude from Corneo'shouse after talking to a bunch of NPCs and that guy is called Leslie.Who happens to look like he came straight out of a Sephiroth cellbearer facility because he is a slender guy with white hair.Whatever. They have to talk to the big guys from Wall Market so Cloudand Aerith are accepted in. One guy cheats with an FFVI Edgar-styleidentical coin, the other is a middle-aged woman who you can pay foran orgasmic finger massage so that you even can control Aerith for abit because Cloud is so N/A with her not understanding that evenhappened. If you missed the brothel - this definitely is some sort ofcompensation. The Honey Bee INN also IS teased to potentiallyfunction as a brothel but they never outright say it. The Bee girlsare teased to be there for you a bit more classy. So. The 3rd guyis Andrea from the INN. No Mukki in sight. But you cannot get anaudition from him. You happen to be able to fight in the Collosseumwhere you ultimately get his attention and he invites you for FFVII'sown Moulin Rouge show you could say. The Wall Market section also canbe ended with different dresses but you can only optionally do a slightly different version of some of the Wall Market quests. Aerith also does not wear her reddress automatically. For me she wore a cure pink dress she seeminglywas not pleased with even though I thought it was great. Tifa canalso wear something based on a choice. For me she looked likeChun-Li the first time. Anyway, you find Tifa, etc. Don Corneo and his choice etc.When Aerith and Tifa have to get away from the goons that scene isreally cool because the ass-kicking is somewhat funny and you see howfast they become friends. Corneo talk, etc. Sewer time.
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Chapter10: You fight Aps after either talking to Tifa or Aerith. ChoosingTifa makes you wonder why you are doing all this for Aerith. Aerithdoes not react like that about Tifa who almost seems to have aveeeery slight jealousy if you choose her because Aerith is perfect.You fight Aps but that piece of garage flees. Then you get throughthe sewers because you really need to know if the Don lied which Tifathinks and hopes but they are not so sure about it.
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Chapter11: Arrived at the Train Graveyard they notice they are not alone butthat those Ghost enemies are here. Tifa is a bit freaked out, evenCloud is a bit hesitant. Aerith is very curious though because one ofthe ghosts seems to be a child that is somehow bothered by the othersand she wants to know what is going on. That ghost even is harmlessand tries to help them a bit. They fight through the Train Graveyard,mocked by the ghosts only to find one giant version of a Ghost andultimately Aerith sees that one Ghost again. It appears the ghostsare tied in a bit better to the story than normal enemies since theyare both themed with the afterlife and also trigger a memory ofAerith when she was a child and nobody played with her for which sheended up crying. They help Aerith then by fighting the asshole thatis lingering: Eligor. The spectre who has that horse and a scythe.And yes, he still holds a staff for Aerith that you can steal. Lateron the ghosts return to the planet. As a matter of fact one of theghosts earlier also appeared as Marlene which triggers Tifa's urge togo even faster back to Sector 7 as she understood it was not Marlenebut of course there is no reason to let that fear become realitysince Marlene could potentially also be killed from the plate crash.
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Chapter12: They arrived at the train station andfight the arbiters again.Then at the pillar they see how Wedge falls off but can stillsomewhat make the fall "not so bad" with a grappling gunthat breaks during the fall. Cloud runs up the plate while the twowomen stay. Tifa later on leaves Aerith alone. Wedge who can stillwalk and was nursed up by the women a bit tries to convince the twoShinRa guards that Sector 7 has to be evacuated. Since one of them isa rookie like in the OG he is actually affected by Wedge tearing thema new one and opens the gate so a bunch of people run through.Meanwhile he asks Aerith to find Marlene. Aerith runs through theslums while Tseng in his helicopter finds her. He waits until shearrives at the Seventh Heaven. She finds Marlene who is scared todeath. She is able to convince the girl that she can trust her. WhenMarlene approaches her she notices something to which Aerith onlysmiles and covers her own lipswith her index finger. It was anobvious reference to how Marlene can feel hat Aerith was a Cetra.Some people might remember that Marlene is one of the people wwho canalso feel Aerith's presence. As she did at the end of FFVII and alsoin AC after she has become her "onee-chan." Tseng thencomes and Aerith makes a deal with him to go with him if he agreesthat they bring Marlene to Elmyra to which he agrees. Anyway, Tifa follows Cloud up the pillar while he still has to fight alone.. Hefinds both Biggs and Jessie. Biggs SEEMS to die in this chapter andJessie has an epic last stand but then dies in a sweet lastconversation with Cloud. Unless they reveal that she also stayedalive. Who knows. Reno and Rude find Cloud and attack him from ahelicopter. Tifa then finds Cloud and they flee up the plate to joinBarret. Reno appears and sets the timer. Then they fight him. In theend Rude joins and once they got their daily dose of ownage as wellas a "sunglasses replaced by Rude once again inbetween thefight" gag later they flee and the others use a ropeway ziplineor whatever you call it to flee. Before that Tseng tells them that hehas Aerith. They also other than the OG did not make him slap her andthey only see them on a monitor. The slap is a bit unfortunate. Notthat I like Aerith getting slapped but it was somewhat of a statementof the moment of how Tseng can be when he is not just nice to Aerith.Here they relied a lot more on the nicer side. For all the Turks andhow they are very reluctant and think about what they did at times.So they still show that "the Turks are not THAT bad but do theirjob and sometimes are assholes about it.
Part 2:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
(SPOILER)
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Again, sorry for that idiotic words sticking together thing.
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Chapter 13: Barret is totally devestated because of what happened. Then hegets to know Marlene is still alive. They go to Elmyra but beforethat Cloud remembers how Tseng mentioned the Ancients. At Aerith'sthey get to know the back story of Elmyra finding Ifalna and Aerithand how Tseng who looks older than in Crisis Core but maybe it isjust the hair also visited Aerith in the past. She tells them Aerithdeliberately went with Tseng this time and refuses Barret wanting tosee Marlene who is asleep.She also does not want to hear Cloudtalking about how they are planning to rescure Aerith from Hojo. Thenthey leave a while to visit Sector 7 to find Wedge in a secret ShinRaResearc Facility that has been teased by an NPC before whereexperiments start fighting you. You end up rescuing Wedge who then isbrought to Ifalna.
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Chapter14: Since they want to rescure Aerith the go to Wall Market. Tifawants to interrogate Don Corneo and Lesie offers his help if you helphim because his fiancee seems to have been one of Corneo'smaitresses. The crew goes to the sewer where Corneo hides, he tricksLesie you fight Aps and kill it finally. Corneo runs away (hello,Wutai section where the Turks kill him) but Leslie does not give uohope that his fiancee is still out there. He gives you grapping gunsand you start going to the wall between Sector 6 and 7 and swingover.
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Chapter15: The crew climbs the plate ruins and that remains up there. SomeShinRa folks try to intervene ad you have to fight Heli Gunner, oneof the elevator bosses in the OG. Here he is called "TheValkyrie" in English for reasons unnecessary. The ruins stufthey are standing on crashes and holding onto one grappling hook theyfind safe "ground" again before the continue to head to theShinRa HQ.
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Chapter16; They decide to sneak in but still have to fight a bit. Throguhthe parking area and the entrance Tifa then has to show her athleticskills because this game constantly acts like the characters can doless than they actually can. Who belives that Cloud cannot jump thatdistance or that he cannot fight Sentry Rays in the first level whenhe has done much more awesome stuff - even in the Remake. Tifa thengets the Key Card and they use it to ... get to the stairwell tohell! YES, IT RETURNS. And you are feeling it this time. Theyscratched Tifa's panty concern from the OG though. No wonder. She iswearing shorts and we have hard times.
Theythen get to the upper floors and a bunch of the keycard sections areno longer like they were in the original. You see a museum, anexplanation of the Cetra and Neo Midgar and then Sephiroth sabotagesthat with a vision of the copies and Meteor. What an asshole. Theconference and the toilet scene returns. Palmer saw Sephiroth butnobody except for Hojo beieves him. Then Hojo who does not want toget Nanaki to bang Aerith wants some S-cell or G-cells SOLDIERs orSephiroth himself to bang Aerith. Oh, he is going to penetrate herfrom behind alright. Talk about lil death. Anyway, they find theSample OPT boss who looks like he is straight ripped out from RE'sremakes and then they rescue Aerith. Nanaki is also free. Cloud feelsJENOVA and loses consciousness.
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Chapter17: Cloud wakes up where Aerith and Ifalna lived while Hojo kidnappedthem from Dr. Gast. This is the remake version of the prison cellsscene. She talks about that she is a Cetra and the Yakusoku no Ji,the Promised Land. Afterwards you go to JENOVA and find Sephiroth. Hebitches away Cloud with a parry so he falls down. Meanwhile Hojoteases how the Reunion is proven correct and he btw. also teases thatCloud was one of his copies. No, not literally of course and he justteases it a bit since he knows Cloud is not a SOLDIER: Anyway, thecrew has to follow Hojo's experiment and fight themselves via partyswitch, room change and floor change through that remade big-assJENOVA room. When they arrive on top again Sephiroth already used herfor another shapeshift of his body and therefore she was alreadygone. The Reunion call really begins for real now. They follow theblood up the floor and find Presiden Shinra hanging outside beggingfor help. Barret helps him and wants to tear him a new one but Shinratricks him and wants to shoot him only to get killed by Sephiroth. Hethen stabs Barret and traps them in a illusionary room whilereshaping into JENOVA. You fight JENOVA Dreamweaver during an awesomerendition of her theme that gets more familiar the further the battlehas progressed. By the Way, Those Chosen By The Planet, holy freakinghell. Anyway, you find out that for this incarnation he actually usedone of the copies. Barret was healed by and arbiter of fate. ThenRufus is in sight with his helicopter. Sephiroth takes the clone nextto him and levitates to the upper part outside. Cloud follows him butsees that this time Sephiroth uses the copy with the "2" onhis arm. Yeah, the this guy are sick.guy. He then forces them tocommit suicide like he does at the Knowlespole. Cloud also has avision of that. So, Rufus appears and Cloud wants the others to go.Tifa eventually stays behind. Cloud fights Rufus who thinks he hasbecome Vash the Stampede and then the others have to fight theHundred Gunner, I am sorry, "The Arsenal." Lol. They allgather together while some guards try to capture them with Heideggerbut of course Tifa and Cloud have a plan: The Hardy and that weirdlooking truck. They flee.
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Chapter18: Motorcycle section that ends with Motor Ball. Then then theyarrive at the end of the highway and Sephiroth appears. Aerith showshow she is the counter balance to him. Almost like this started 2000years ago already when her ancestors fought his ancestor. This wholeweird arbiter thing happens and Aerith explains how Sephiroth is thetrademark villain of the franchise and that he is so powerful that heeven ignores fate - even though that is not possiblte if such a thingas fate exists but whatever. SE loves its paradoxes and the conceptof fighting fate is not new. Then they fight fate and the stuff Isaid earlier happens and they leave Midgar.
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Conclusion: A great, great, great experience. Unnecessarily stretched yet too short because it could have been an experience with a more worthwhile payoff (oh my god, did he really say that? that cannot be!) The whole weird arbiters thing and the possible meanings for which the internet is already ranting with their theories they think of as true is a risky thing and I hope they do not go too far. Some changes were really a heavy improvement, so were the character dynamics. Especially Cloud and Sephiroth are now more adjusted as Sephiroth always had that grudge but then never really seemed to care for Cloud all that much until the Ultimania and the Compilation said "oh yes, he is holding a grudge." Before Sephiroth was all like "who are you?" and used him as a puppet, then told him a few half-truths about how he was literally created as a Sephiroth copy instead of telling him that he was modified. Now is way more obvious that it is personal. Tifa also always seemed so invisible in the original to me when she was not on CD2 or you did not just meet her. All of that is a great improvement. There is so much to love. And a lot to criticise but I think it is a worthy remake and I cannot wait for the next installment in 5 years.
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