Opinions on Zack Fair (probable SPOILERS)

[Midgar Mist]

He couldve been weakened by all that experimentation done on him and Cloud for the last 5 years. But....if he is a member of SOLDIER doesn't he have Jenova within him anyway? That is after all how one becomes part of SOLDIER. So....why is it that Sephiroth and Lucrecia cling to life due to their Jenova cells but Zack can die without resistance? Plus there's other NPCs who say they were in SOLDIER and I don't really get how they aren't being manipulated like the clones.

Especially because of his SOLDIER operations he is already immune to such things. Furthermore the "SOLDIERs in general have JENOVA cells" was a bit ignored in the Compilation, especially for Dirge of Cerberus, making it possible for Weiss' body, the body of a former SOLDIER to function as a pure and not corrupt body of Omega, until Nero corrupted the body.

And the ex SOLDIER that we see in FFVII are already manipulated. We can see the seller in Junon talking about his recent feeling that he has to wear a black cape, et cetera. The Reunion call that Sephiroth starts echoes through.

The one I dont get is Johnny who is somehow meant to be Cloud and Tifa's childhood friend, and he's weird and doesnt even work as a comedy sideline. He doesn't seem to be affected by any of the JENOVA stuff. He could have a thread on his own but....he's not important enough. Zack is a little more integral to the plot.

[Del Murder]

If Crisis Core did anything, it made Zack a very likable and sympathetic character and I was truly sad to see him eventually meet his fate at the end of it. I liked him better than Cloud. Did Zack save the world like Cloud did? No, but he was tons more charming and that counts for something.

[Sephiroth]

The one I dont get is Johnny who is somehow meant to be Cloud and Tifa's childhood friend, and he's weird and doesnt even work as a comedy sideline. He doesn't seem to be affected by any of the JENOVA stuff. He could have a thread on his own but....he's not important enough. Zack is a little more integral to the plot.

There is a simple reason for that. Johnny is no SOLDIER. The Western version mistranslated him recognizing Cloud as former SOLDIER as him hinting he knows Cloud from SOLDIER. It would have ultimately ended up in a plothole anyway. Johnny is also no childhood friend, by the way. He is just a guy who is hot for Tifa and later gets his own girlfriend.

[Midgar Mist]

Wow they really messed up the translation there.

[Fynn]

Who the hell is Johnny

[Midgar Mist]

Wow....I really am an uber-geek with the story of this game.

He's a character you can talk to the first time you visit Sector 7, he's also one of the dodgy types hanging outside the Honeybee Inn. You also see him standing outside a bathroom in Costa Del Sol where his friend is drunk in a toilet.

[maybee]

Who the hell is Johnny

Tifa's friend !

[Laddy]

By fleshing out Zack so much I think makes Cloud a weaker character. We're supposed to have a pretty vague idea of who Zack was and why Cloud idolized him so much and to have the Compilation be like "Oh no Zack was really THIS amazing and also was involved with all this stuff and had more to do with the plot" kind of drifts the focus of the story of Cloud saving the world whilst forming his own identity into something more jumbled and convoluted.

Zack is supposed to be a concept first and a character second. To flesh him out as he did makes Cloud actually less interesting and engaging as a character as a result since almost all of his actions are compared to Zack's which is just bulltrout from a storytelling perspective.

[Laddy]

He's dead.

That's my opinion of him.

People who say he was a better hero/character than Cloud probably don't remember FFVII that well.

FFVII is a game that started characters as stereotypical RPG tropes, and then broke them as their characters evolved. Cloud started as the silent, strong, couldn't-care-less badass and ended as the dweeby guy who comes to term with his flaws and wants to mosey on down to the last boss. Zack is the stereotype that Cloud began as, basically... boring.

By focusing on Zack beyond his role as "Cloud's buddy whom he idolizes" all of Cloud's traits and actions are compared to a guy whose role was supposed to a concept or idea first and character second.

[Midgar Mist]

By fleshing out Zack so much I think makes Cloud a weaker character. We're supposed to have a pretty vague idea of who Zack was and why Cloud idolized him so much and to have the Compilation be like "Oh no Zack was really THIS amazing and also was involved with all this stuff and had more to do with the plot" kind of drifts the focus of the story of Cloud saving the world whilst forming his own identity into something more jumbled and convoluted.

Zack is supposed to be a concept first and a character second. To flesh him out as he did makes Cloud actually less interesting and engaging as a character as a result since almost all of his actions are compared to Zack's which is just bulltrout from a storytelling perspective.

That is a good point actually.

Ive never actually played Crisis Core so I'm unaware of what they try and do within it. I have however, read a synopsis of CC's plot. It sounds to me like they just took the backstory and turned it into a prequel when they couldve been doing another sequel.

[Sephiroth]

I hate Zack as nobody who was in SOLDIER instead so it obviously did not have the same effect to everyone. He is a character to important as a plot aspect to not have given any life other than "he was a good friend to Cloud and then sadly was killed by Shinra". Zack being fleshed out is one of the best things for me. I just cannot stand getting videogames and then standing before a character and being all "why are you less alive than you could and should be?" I feel very similiar to Malon in Ocarina of Time who by far plays less of a role than Zack, yet somewhat is involved, just that Zack is way more relevant.

[Crop]

The only issue I have with Zack, that has also been mentioned in this thread, is the ott death we got instead of the original pointless tragic death. I've never enjoyed the crazy defying gravity style fighting in any media as I think it's utterly ridiculous, but to take an already appropriate and touching death and turn it into one is just incredibly vexing.

[Sephiroth]

The only issue I have with Zack, that has also been mentioned in this thread, is the ott death we got instead of the original pointless tragic death. I've never enjoyed the crazy defying gravity style fighting in any media as I think it's utterly ridiculous, but to take an already appropriate and touching death and turn it into one is just incredibly vexing.

To be fair, we did not know what happened before he arrived where he died, so it was possible to flesh this out more and modify some smaller details.

[Fynn]

Well, there is such a thing prequels do which is answering questions no one ever asked.

[maybee]

The only issue I have with Zack, that has also been mentioned in this thread, is the ott death we got instead of the original pointless tragic death. I've never enjoyed the crazy defying gravity style fighting in any media as I think it's utterly ridiculous, but to take an already appropriate and touching death and turn it into one is just incredibly vexing.

Zack's OG's death : Quick, ruthless, incredibly unfair, realistic, tragic.

Zack's Crisis Core death : Zack is able to say his final words before he dies, unrealistic to the extreme, Zack floats up to heaven, cheesy J- Pop music plays in the background. Angeal grabs him into heaven. Is cheesier than a bag of cheesy nachos.