Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Spoilercast - Let's Talk About THAT Ending

[Music] emotional gut punches hard as Nails boss fights and deep diving fan theories welcome to the special Final Fantasy 7 rebirth edition of the PlayStation access [Music] podcast hello and welcome to the PlayStation access podcast the official podcast of PlayStation UK I am Rob Pearson your host joining us today we have Rosie cadic oh first name and Sur name this is a very formal introduction hello though you're in trouble yeah oh dear it's because it's a a special day today because we have a special guest Amy Mallet is also with us the reason Amy joins us today is because Amy is a big Final Fantasy fan much like myself much like Rosie and it's a special edition of the podcast today because we are diving into Final Fantasy 7 rebirth this is a special one-off spoilercast talking all about Final Fantasy 7 rebirth so here is your warning if you have not yet finished Final Fantasy 7 rebirth stop watching and or listening to this right now go and finish Final Fantasy 7 rebirth and then come back because we are going weapons free everything in the game is up for discussion today and probably we'll also be talking about Final Fantasy 7 remake I don't know why you would have finished rebirth and not remake but you know if you've not finished REM if you've not played and finished the original Final Fantasy 7 if you've not played Crisis Core if you've not watched Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children all of those things may come up in this podcast so with that out the way I am really I've been holding on to this for so long not being able to talk about this openly in the office in case someone who hasn't finished it yet here is we're now in a safe space where all three of us have finished the game I wanted to just kick off the discussion we'll get to the ending later I wanted to kick things off just by asking everyone what was your favorite bit what was your favorite chapter so many bits this was really hard because when uh I saw Rob gave us a couple of questions just to prepare for in advance and when it was like what's your favorite chapter I went through all of them and literally I was there thinking such a Rosy thing to do one two two three yeah but I was like what happened in each don't you it's such a massive game cuz they all just flow together and I was like I love this part from this chapter and this one from this and this one that's right Ros you don't have to say just what a collection of your favorite bits okay well probably well when I well I I did I did decide on a favorite chapter for the whole thing and I think my favorite chapter is chapter 12 um because that's the chapter where you go back to the golden sorcer and you have the the date sequence and the moment when in the theater absolutely blew me away I have a real soft spot for uh theatrical Productions and when I was watching the sequence that you have it reminded me of the honey be in in Final Fantasy 7 remake where you're just embracing this massive show and I loved it I loved Barrett and red is like the the villains of the story absolutely that bit really did blow me away when you had to choose between like who is your love and just hovering over people and they're like yeah even the villains like Barrett is like oh and because Barrett is high camp and I love it when they really panto up Barett kind of like performances cuz his voice actor as well is just incredible like so good so that was definitely like so you had that part in chapter 12 and there was also a moment with Zach and marleene where Marlene's telling Zack a bit more about arth's uh death and is that the scary man is going to kill her yeah it's like scary man's coming and she's like you have to believe me goes it you know after everything that's happened yes I do believe you and that's when he decides that he has to go uh visit Hojo to get a cure for cloud and aith as well there's just so many things I remember witnessing that chapter and there was so many things I was like like the whole time I think that one really stood out to me and then you've got the epic fight sequence at the end in the like Arena uh so that just is one that really I was like oh this is a good chapter I mean that that that Boss Rush at the end of chapter 12 yeah flipping EG I enjoyed chapter 12 but it took a lot out of me when it when you're like okay I've beaten Don Coro and his pet now that's over and then the Turks come along all right game I've beaten three fights and Don Corno and the Turks and then Rufus comes out literally the hardest boss in the entire game in my opinion oh the solo fights in general just unforgiving as soon as you're one party member by yourself everything is just like so much more challenging to think about how you're going to conserve your health how you're going to kind of like exploit the strategies and the weaknesses cuz Rufus took me a while to get as well because it's the counter thing isn't it like if you just go straight for him he counters you straight away stagger him when he's going to reload um but yeah it's so much harder when Cloud's suddenly on his Todd and all of you mates are just standing back gone well cloud cloud getting up off the floor takes longer than ruthless reloading so you've got you got to you got to be good at dodging you got to be a to do his attacks and then quickly get in that that fight took me a good five or six tries I will I'm I'm not ashamed to admit really tough fight but really great m i mean the music throughout the whole game is incredible that I love rufus's Battle Theme very cool I won't lie when Rufus first like when he appears from the ground in the arena immediately gave me flashbacks to doing hard mode and Final Fantasy 7 remake because I remember in remake I thought Rufus was the toughest boss there massively and so as soon as I saw him I thought oh yeah it's not even just is going to use that coin again and there he goes FL flaming coin toss yeah it's not even just Rufus is it though you got Dark Star as well I actually like that there's a bit of respite when Dark Star came out cuz I I here finally here's something I can hit for a bit is just going to constantly Dodge me it's like my ATB was just as soon as dark star came out like this is this is easy now Rufus on his own that's that's the problem yeah yeah yeah definitely what about you Amy what was your favorite chapter or just like you I I really struggle with this question because were lots of elements for me about cadell soul that I thought were brilliant I thought cadell Soul really brought the levity it's really giving like your mates on holiday the fact that they all go and get changed and kind of like go and take part in mini gamess and there's a real sort of like break from the kind of Epic Quest that is the chase for sephar RO during that moment in cadale so so I loved that but I think my favorite overall was probably gong Gaga I was actually thinking Gaga as well gong Gaga for me so I love Zach um and if you haven't play Crisis Core I mean it's feasible that you might have got to uh you might have got three remake and three rebirth without playing Crisis Core Crisis Core is brilliant so good so so good I played it on PSP back in the day and it's fantastic I keep telling Robert Pearson to play it cuz it's so good I I didn't have a PSP when it came out so I didn't play it but I was so interested in it that I I looked up what happened so I'm sort of aware of the story beats having having never actually played the game myself so you know it's something I always mean to go back and try especially now that it's PS4 and PS5 so I've got no excuse really but yeah this was been a bit of a a bit of a black hole for me anyway please go on no no I was just going to say so for that reason Zach's kind of Zach's origin story is very close to my heart so visiting gong Gaga in the detail that you get in rebirth as opposed to sort of OG was something that was really fascinating to me that scene where era speaks to Zach's parents is just a so much more intense I love that because obviously yeah like she doesn't know if he's dead or alive and she goes back to effectively speak to what would have been her in-laws um and that brilliant scene when she comes out and Cloud's kind of like yeah you know forget about him he's probably you know he's probably dead he's probably got loads of women and it's sort of very bitter from cloud because obviously he quite likes ith and that love triangle almost becomes like a a love quadrilateral I guess at that point because you've got Zach and Tifa and arith kind and Cloud Al together um and obviously CIS as well who's in Crisis Core my girl sis she's fantastic and she's a really cool character she used to be a Turk now she's kind of just like the you know running gong Gaggers kind of military isn't she like private Army that was really cool and then you have on top of like discovering Zach's Hometown and all of those little parallels of cloud and Zach you then have the gongaga reactor which is insanely cool that's when goes down in God a major story um deviation from the original because Cloud obviously attempts to kill Tifa attempts to just slash her up when she's at the top of the reactor and she falls into the live stream it's very reminiscent of what happens I think you said to me actually in medal I kind of forgotten about that from the OG game but that memory Journey that you go on there's a bit where she's she's inside the weapon and she's sort of like piecing together memories from neheim that is very reminiscent of the scene in the original game where T is helping Cloud do just that after he I believe he falls in the live stream in in medal and and is it has like major Marco poisoning for a while but yeah definitely ech of that scene in massively yeah and you see the white Whispers The Black Whispers it kind of alludes to what's going to happen at the ending which we'll get to in a moment but yeah I thought gongaga was brilliant I thought it had the fight with Scarlet is tough as nails that is a really really tough fight and I just think yeah that section was kind of really where it escalated for me you saw the weapons in action you saw what was really at stake and you kind of got really awesome flashbacks to you know Zach's life there's even a side quest that I loved where you find Zach's little personal training gym where he used to come and Cloud teaches the guy to do the little Zach squats and it's super cute I remember seeing that that was great did either of you do the side quest with the chicken yes yes yes can we talk about how that last chicken can get in a KFC bargain Bucket please yeah but it does that's the great thing the ending to that Quest it's all like oh I've save the chicken and the owner of the chickens is like how about some roast chicken gets so dark cuz all of a sudden it goes from this adorable little wholesome granny to like them all outside looking like Red's face literally like question I've seen stuff I mean I thought it was great because like the final chicken is like miles away from the village I'm like I'm not luring that thing all the way back you on a string before you realized that you I wasn't going to do it I was messaging secret boss like I'm not doing that I can't even remember the way back he was like just give it a go dot dot dot and so I did it and then immediately that fight happen like okay that's better but the the ending of that side quest Quest made me laugh a lot the game made me laugh a lot throughout the whole thing characterful and vibrant were you did you have more to say a chapter n I've always got more to say I think junan was also really good as well I think Jan's parade scene was just brilliant that was going to be mine yeah that oh well then we'll transition across to you so you can talk about it I was chapter four I think it's a tossup for me between chapter 4 and chapter 13 chapter 4 the Jun and parade bit specifically the bit where you're walking around as Cloud uh Dressed in your Shinra military disguise I love the scene just before that where cloud and ath and tia are all getting changed just very playful really funny um and then you go out and you have to find all of the seventh infantry scattered throughout junan and that's the kind of task that in most games I'd be like oh God here we go got to just find everyone and I approached it with that sort of mindset at first I going to be a for a flipping ages doing this after the first one I was just completely in love with that whole bit so they didn't it's unnecessarily good that so full of character so funny you can find I think a maximum of 10 groups of infantry men and they're all they're all doing something Funny's little bit of story attached to each one every single one there's a group taking a a photo with a cardboard cut out of Rufus and they ask you to take a photo for them and if you take a nice photo you get to keep the cardboard cut out of rofus why Cloud would want that I don't know why wouldn't anyone want the cardboard cut out of Rufus I I text Rob probably about four hours into the game like I fancy Rufus Shinra is this a problem and Rob was like maybe about you you know he's part of a big evil Corporation right they're all doing something funny there's a group hanging out in a jazz bar and the Jazz musicians are playing like a a full-on jazz cover final F I can't remember exactly which piece of music it is but it's a piece of music from the original game yes yeah and I just stood there listening to it for about five minutes cuz it's genuinely so good thinking wow someone actually went to the effort of creating this bespoke piece of jazz music that a lot of people are probably just going to skip on by and not listen to even think about amazing and Elena is sitting at the bar in the she like leave me alone I'm busy being sad I've clipped that out for social I love that she's having that day at work that we've all H cuz she's got her hands on the table and she's like song probably hates me boss is going to fire me I'm busy being sad that's great and then and then you go into the special exclusive bold bar yes all rud's little is there you see him going in you're like oh what's happening here ready for something dramatic or maybe even a fight I'm going to have to fight rude down here but no he's in his little Bal only exclusive bar and they all have a little special thing they do where they no Scout no service they squeak their heads and got a song as well hav they it's like um something like gleit oh rub scrub it fine make it shine something like that isn't it and they're all like even the bartenders singing really enjoyed it especially I'm sure you can appreciate why I in particular enjoy that scene yeah why uh do you like the the helmet the yeah hel it's the only place rude can get any peace from Reno I just felt I felt very seen in that scene and it was just the whole vibe of it was just so joyful and it was a re that whole bit even when you've got all of the Infantry people following you around technically it was so impressive just like 50 soldiers just all marching down the street after you saying like a different thing each time they were like complimenting me on my folios and all 50 of them were like first class folos sir all doing a salute I just had a massive grin on my face that whole section I thought it was an amazing bit of World building I thought the whole game was is is so effective at making you fall in love with this world yeah brilliantly and the people who live in it but that bit in particular was was great uh and chapter 13 I thought was just an absolute Banger from start to finish Temple of the Ancients basically so good like the music in the temple of the ancients was like a a really evocative mix of some of it was the original theme from Temple of the Ancients in the original game but there was also a little bit of the Forgotten Capital theme being woven in like that bit Lac a little bit in the background and then the battle theme which was a little twist on the Temple of the Ancients theme but battled up a bit and the game does that constantly the the iconic uh just world map theme which has been transformed into the battle theme for the grasslands incredible composition uh but that The Temper of the age was just amazing the boss fights in it the boss fight against the red dragon was so cool the way it finishes with a really C clouds like sliding under its tail in slow motion doesn't ti do like TI does like a drop kick on its head to Tifa drop kicks a dragon in their face yes to finish that fight I love TAF what a fight and then you team up with the Turks so so you got Cloud Barrett and tia teaming up with rude and Reno to fight some monsters and then you get like a little Advent style Advent Children style cut scene where they're fighting each other and then it goes into a boss fight against them that whole bit was just great that whole boss fight against the Turks and the Temple of the agent it's just a big bit of fan service I mean the whole game feels like a huge bit of fan service but that fight in particular was like I know the Turks are cool we know the Turks are cool we know you love the Turks have this really cool fight with rud and Reno it's not in the original game you don't fight the Turks in the temple of the Ancients in the original game but it's like who cares just have a really great fight against them it's great for Reno as well blessing because he's been out of get little gets a little comeback oh it was so good and then that you know that your part's split into two that section in the game so then about half an hour later you get to fight Zen and Elena which is the first time you actually get to fight Zen you don't get to fight him at all in the original game um that fight has a a really cool little Jazzy style tur them ble yeah I love how they weave the Turks theme into everything they've got so many different versions of that like there's a real sort of in the first game in remake there's a real guitar heavy one for Reno and then there's kind of the Jazzy one for S and Elena and then yeah they just I think you're so right about how they use motifs how they bring back cuz I was constantly throughout the whole game just being like that's Genova's theme or that's a little bit of the old Battle Theme or oh my God that's that and it just I think they're so clever at mixing them together so seamlessly especially in longer battles as well because it must be just from a technical standpoint so clever that you can do that and not know when that piece of music like realistically they the different phases to the bosses and they all seem to have like different bits of Music attached to those phases where escalates the boss fights are all quite big drawn out epic climactic events much like in remake where I felt like every boss encounter was like a real moment and those Boss themes they just they work so well because the game knows you have to go from phase one to phase two to phase three of the boss fight and the way the music transitions between those phases my favorite example of it actually is at the end of chapter 2 when you fight the midgard zor and you've got the starts the traditional Battle Theme starts getting a little bit more epic and it reminded me of the crab Warden theme I think it's a rehash of the Crab theme from remake then you get to phase three of the fight and it's like a Drummond bass remix the original B I was like oh my God and it did it did beta the classic enemy skill beater and and you get that bit in the fight where the drums are pounding it does that area of of effect move where I can't one of your party I think is bar is like get off the floor and you get like a proper florous lava moment you have to get to dry land out of the bog otherwise it completely wipes you out uh but the amount of times where a crescendo in the music would coincide with me doing a really cool Synergy ability or a limit break those moments you just can't you can't predict and when they happen organically you just feel like such a badass I remember I finished that snake off with a limit break from cloud right when the music really kicks into gear and I just felt absolutely amazing in that moment uh and the game just gives so many of those moments to you yeah just amazing absolutely stunning yeah I love the way you can sort of sometimes during a battle as well I would find myself mesmerized by pausing to issue a command and you'd pause in a position where clouds like upside down his beautiful anime hair is Flowing his swords above his head I just knocked microphone cuz I got so excited and he's sort of like just the slow-mo of it and you hear the echo of like Barrett being like ah I get this and stuff like that I love get the echo mid conversation the sound design of a fight is different every time it feels intrinsically like it's your playthrough which is so hard for a game to do and yeah I just think I can't say enough good things about the sound and the music the valkyrie as well is our one of our favorite battle themes um I know we always really sort of say that is like a piece of music that in remake I remembered that piece of music almost more than I did the fight the fight's great yeah but actually that like is just like a motif that when they use it it feels so heroic yes and they use it again don't they I think I'm pretty sure they brought the valkyrie back just so we can hear that bit it's like you know what should we fight the valkyrie there yeah let's put the valkyrie in just CU I know we know everyone loves this bit of music they used it in the first in the Summer Games first reveal trailer for rebirth they used the valky theme just a brilliant bit of music it was a bit of music I didn't realize I liked as much as I did until I was just listening to the soundtrack for remake and it came on I was like this is great this bit of music and yeah oh so good if you're on the way to work just put that on and you will feel so epic by the time you ready to do the people yeah it's great um I think we've already talked a little bit about this but I just wanted to ask favorite boss fight hardest boss fight we we talked about bosses here or hardest a lot both there's I mean I've already said that I thought the hardest boss fight was Rufus in chapter 12 really that's the one where I died to I died against him five or six times okay no other bosses really took me longer than one or two goes to to to take out um but I'm I'm Keen to hear what your thoughts about the other bosses are I'll let you go first because I think mine transitions into the ending chat a bit well a bit well a bit well a bit well I've been sitting next to you too long picking up my phrases picking up my random phrases I think I thought that the yin and boss was the hardest it's the one in chapter 11 when you're uh Kate Sith Kate Sith and you are Solo Kate Sith and yinyan has the sing depending on it's got like two faces and depending on which one it is it's either physical attacks or magic attacks so you've got to manage that with Kate Sith who is a bit of both but mainly I built my my character bills all on luck so even then it's not as if I had loads of magic spells or anything like that because as soon as you as he joins your party it's like oh here's a coincidental thing to raise your luck I thought okay his benefit is going to be he's going to have some really strong Powers if he has luck um so I was fighting that fight I know exactly what I had to do but still yin and yang does give you a good old few punches I remember tough the hardest fight with Kate Sith was when you had to fight two of those scale those as well I died on that a stupid amount of times for for a normal enemy you know for not a boss and I had to use the Mughal as damage control my poor Mughal was a little fluffy punching bag I just kept summoning him that he'd get beaten up have that Panic where you fall off the Mughal and then you're like where's my M I need it back or it's like you have to build up your ATB again to summon up the fat Mughal um I love where's my M where did I park my mug uh but yeah I remember that boss being pretty tough because already we're just learning how to use the the character with their build and things like that uh so and now it's you're up against a tough boss fight against it with these two switching gameplay Styles um so I remember that one being particular ularly tough I thought and also the electricity moves I remember I kept on like blocking them and trying to dodge them at the right time but uh he's not the fastest mover so when it came to like uh Thunder like dropping down on me a lot of time I just got slapped or Zapped and I just remember I remember dying on that one a good few amount of times so I think that was probably the boss I died to the most but we got there in the end what would you say always get there in the end always get there always get we persevere say what you like about us Final Fantasy fans we persevere we get there in the end um so do you want my hardest yeah okay so my hardest was actually SEO the very last fight in the game I've heard some people having problems with this I'll tell you for why I got to the point where the game in chapter 14 is like right this is your last resting spot after this you and your characters you're going to rush to erth's side so equip the material that you want you know sort out your gear and Equipment be ready because this is your last stand your last chance to alter anything so I put every bit of M obviously that I needed on cloud and his party I didn't put anything on iith because I thought well she's possibly going to kick the bucket oh dear oh dear and also it kind of implied that you know we were going to get to her but she might not have been in the final fight you can see where this is going yep so when we got to SEO right she comes out that portal and she's like hi I'm so radiant and I'm like you've got breach equipped to you and that's it nothing else I think she had cleansing so she could cast poisona and she could cast breach and that was it I secret boss with a similar he was like he was messaging me saying I can't do this bit like aith I've not been using aith she's still got starter level gear on I like what are you talking about secret boss that is appalling it was that's for shame it wasn't a gear it was just I hadn't equipped any decent material I hadn't planned for her to be in that final fight will you get the um you know the funny thing is when you lose a fight in Final Fantasy 7 rebirth you're you're presented with like a list to four restart options and it's not always clear which is the one that takes you back just to that b you were just doing or which one takes you back like to the start of the whole sequence yeah restart from checkpoint restart from last battle restart from last battle before that restart from this from the beginning the beginning of the battle and the thing is there's one death animation that sephar Ro does where I think it's like the Octo slash cuz it's his limit break isn't it he does he does OCTA slash and he absolutely annihilates you like it's just so many different um sword slashes and uppercuts and if you get caught in that you can't sort of Dodge or roll away you're just kind of like hacked to pieces and you got to hope that you have HP left when he's done he kept killing me and erith so much with that and then there's one bit where he sort of zooms past the camera and cinematically it goes into his face and it went into his face as I got the game over so my game over screen is sephra going and I was just like this is cuz it looked like he was staring into my soul like you going to have to go all the way back all the way back through all these buses I got you Amy Mallet yeah and that was the moment when my dog came in put her butt in my face and was just like do you want to play and I was like not now piggy um yeah it was it was really hard I struggled a lot and it took me probably about seven or eight attempts to do it just because I kept thinking to myself if I just go back and I do all of the sort of the Genova life Clinger boss and all the other bosses again it'll be fine put different material on ER I've got it made but I was stubborn I didn't want to go all the way back all those bosses so I just did like God knows how many attempts until I finally won this is this is interesting cuz this I think we'll be talking about this particular bit of the final boss fight later in the podcast um because I think I've I've gone down a bit of a rabbit hole since finishing this game you and me both uh and there's something about that final bit where it's cloud and aith versus SEO um arth's really good in that fight I like I I quite often switch between characters when I play it anyway I know some people like to play it differently they will control maybe just cloud and input commands and other characters when their ATB is ready I'm like constantly flipping between characters I like to control whoever if I'm doing commands on someone I like to control them for a bit um and so switching to aith like you can you can stop Sethro doing those attacks by destroying his Massa mune or destroying his wing to just clip him a little bit make him a little bit isn't it as well and ath absolutely annihilates either the sword or the wings much more effectively than Cloud can uh and there's you know there little there's maybe stuff going on in that battle um that could be relevant to the story or it could be people who I've been watching on the internet taking things a little bit too far but I I really enjoy all that kind of stuff yeah I love that you've got a tin hat that's shaped like Cloud strife's hair I've Got My Cloud Strife tin foil hat firmly on for the rest of this podcast I've got my I've got my board with all my red strings on it are we delving in now is it delving in time I think it's time to delve in okay I just want to start this bit by just asking you sort of you know we're not going to we're going to talk about our personal interpretations of the ending uh because I I think the the ending is deliberately constructed so as to not be obvious like if you don't understand what happened at the end that is absolutely intentional you're not supposed to supposed to be discussing it you're supposed to be having your own interpretations of it but before we get into that I just want to ask you sort of just just your initial emotional response to what happens at the end how did it make you feel man I mean that's like weirdly that's such a big question because uh if you played the original we've all had the same emotion with particularly the scene where aith gets stabbed by seph but here in this scene uh well sorry but here in rebirth not only do you have that but you don't because so many things the game is literally chucking all of your emotions and your thoughts left right in center you can't help but just process everything and literally just go like what is happening uh so I was if anything I was more intrigued I was so invested into what the game is doing um with these multiple timelines and how everything's going and especially between cloud and aith with that initial ending scene with how those two act to each other and there was a moment where Cloud you can see him holding ath and TI just has flashes of some moment seeing blood on Cloud's hands and then like sometimes it's not the whole time I was just so like what is happening cately disorientating yeah I I my initial thoughts even on the the final scene which was really sad I got I got a bit teed when you see like TI and red you know when she's like lenting crying you just see red just sitting with her but again even when but my like you know my little lump in my throat immediately went when aith then touched red and even he goes aith and then again I was just like what's happening so it was a real roller coaster of emotions going but mainly my initial response was Intrigue and oh my gosh this was fantastic I want to talk about my theories and what's happening so much so i' say I'd say probably that yeah yeah about you am I needed a lie down I needed a lie down first I think one thing that I would say I felt instantly was actually appreciation because I think what is so brilliant about how rebirth ends is that it exploits what is such a pivotal moment not just in Final Fantasy 7 but in video games in gaming generally right there's never been an instance like this in video game history where we as the audience know that a character could potentially be killed like Eric's death was so incredibly crucial to you know the original game and it was such a massive moment that had everyone just like what like the fact that we know that it's a real anomaly you know for a video game to kind of have that dramatic irony where we as the player are kind of going in like oh my God like this could will it be different this time will it not and the moment where cloud is walking up and you're having to hold R2 and L2 to like P Hold yeah oh sorry you're talking for the push I thinking about the sorry I I jumped too soon you know the because he he holds it above the head because we know in the original he goes to killer doesn't he which is kind of the Genova sort of sephar off messing with his head but that whole section just I screamed I screamed at the TV when he knocks him back because you're just like oh my God you have no way of knowing how it's going to go and I think that's so clever that the developers of the game exploited that wonderful sense of this has happened before we know it's happened before this way but there's no way of knowing which way it's going to go this time round and that sense of not knowing I loved I'm a huge fan of obscure endings as well like I'm a big Lynch fan I love it when things are so completely muddled and confusing that you have to with it for days afterwards to really get a sense of what you think happened and I must admit that yeah all night I was just laying there like I I drew a diagram I should have brought it in I drew a diagram as well I was like Zach like little sort of stick figure with funny hair I was like Zack arth no that's not right scrub that out okay SEO here parrot parrot oh my favorite character say what timeline have you been watching I think I tried to say party and Bar the Barrett version um the Barrett and his party and obviously everything that happens where you're switching between worlds it was brilliant but yeah I needed I needed a moment process and like you say Intrigue was definitely something but I think appreciation for how clever it was that they given us this experience which is such an anomaly in video games to know that going in is just fantastic I I completely agree with you uh there was a moment where I sort of like I wasn't feeling a particular emotion but I felt an overwhelming surge of just many emotions when I realized and it's it's that moment right that you're you're absolutely bang on I think Amy when it's you're you're walking towards ath you know the whole game has been building towards this we've had these unanswered questions now for four years since remake came out and the ending of that game posed the question could things be different this time I.E can you save AR uh which even back in 1997 I remember reading official PlayStation magazine there were loads of like cheat articles and codes where like can you save a you do this you might change and you know this was before the days of Internet guides being able to tell you absolutely everything about a game playground discussions that you know kids used to make stuff up you know used obviously make stuff about games and there there there's a kid in every school who's like I know how you can save areas you can go here into the slums that guy who's in the pipe if you bring him a certain item at a certain time of day uh you can go then go to the church and see ais's ghost uh that is true though you of like a Flicker and you don't know whether it's like a glitch or a mistake uh but this is a question it made me realize in that moment and it was the moment where you get to aith and the camera pans up and you know seph's coming down that moment it just really hanged MH and it was such a loaded moment I felt all of a sudden not like it was four years of wondering what's going to happened I felt I felt like it was 27 years of this moment has been playing over and over in my mind and knowing he was about to come down and like you say when Cloud was like no and he blocks the thing I was like oh my God they've actually done it and then seconds later going from like to what and she starts falling and she's dead and then Cloud starts getting confused and you know we've been seeing this from cloud throughout the game he's he's you know if you've played the original you will know that cloud has the unreliable narrator thing going on where he he he has misremembered or forgotten or like blocked away the trauma of losing his best friend Zach and he's created an alternate reality in his head where he takes the place of Zach and he's the hero uh and so you know this isn't new for cloud cloud does this when when bad things happen to Cloud he he's not very good at processing it and he will create alternate realities where he heroic avoids the bad thing MH Y and so immediately you're thinking to yourself because just before this you've had Sethro show you literally the true nature of reality as Sethro calls it where he's shown you multiple timelines multiple universes all converging um and so you've got that in your head you know that choices can create branching narrative paths but you also know that cloud as previous when it comes to you're so right this is creating artificial and so when he blocks the thing I'm like wait a second has has he actually done that has he actually done that has he created an alternate timeline where he has saved aith MH and I thought that that was the case yeah probably for a couple of days after I'd finished it because what happens after this scene um you know it's quite confused he got you know a a contradiction of imagery you have the of the party rushing in they see something different to what cloud is seeing they're seeing a dead they're seeing blood Sethro you know after the Parry the sword the mamun gets stuck in the ground and then it glitches and shifts and the angle of it changes and it's there's blood on it and Sethro like flicks the blood off and he says to Cloud I think he says something like you you will never see the truth with such clouded eyes or something like that and you know and that's confusing as well because you know that Sethro is you know this is what he does he he lies to you he tries to manipulate you and he tries to so you can't rely on what Sethro is saying either you can't rely on what cloud is perceiving and we as the audience are at that moment in the game looking through Cloud's eyes we're looking through clouded eyes at that scene yeah uh and so and it's intentionally like that right you're supposed to be left like have I saved her is there a I have saved her and the way it puts you inside Cloud's head initially I was like oh man like you know we didn't get to see the scene where he lowered it into the water and I think there's a reason for that do think that's significant yeah absolutely there is because Cloud the implication right and I think we've we've gone onto interpretations of the ending sort of naturally here um the implication is when it goes to that scene and they're all sitting around the lake and they're all mourning arth's death uh we don't see cloud luring ath into the water because Cloud doesn't remember that happening cloud has blocked that out yeah the implication is he has just done that I think uh but we don't see it cuz Cloud hasn't seen it because at that stage of the game he's he's still he hasn't he is refusing to believe that aith is dead he's doing the same thing that he's done when Zach died he's creating an artificial reality to protect himself from that emotional troll for so do you think then that that is the nature of the fact that he can see sort of aith alive do you think it's fictitious and it's repress it's him repressing the truth or do you think that there is actually a timeline effectively it's can we trust Cloud being the unreliable narrator or knowing what we now know about the multiverses is it that there is cuz you do see when he pushes the sword back there is that um big cloud of kind of what looks like I love how the Multiverse is depicted actually in this game it's kind of like an oil spillage isn't it it's like rainbow effects and it's full of like shards and textures and fragments it's really colorful you get a flash of that as he does it which makes me think you see that whenever a portal opens and it's implying a kind of Multiverse thing so I do think there is quite possibly you know that it might be that they opened up a branch there by defying fate we know that by defining fate that's what happens it splinters off so quite possibly he could have done a different time line but what makes me really nervous is that when cloud is holding her the flashes that you get of her alive her not alive is very similar to what you get when goova is revealing the truth to him or clouding his memory or kind of like causing him to suddenly remember things that were oppressed in his psyche so I think it could I think it could be either or and I go back and forth on whether I think cloud himself has just witnessed her death and is blocking it um because that's classic cloud and also it would kind of make sense with where the story could go but also yeah I think there is also that possibility the timeline thing is something that won't leave my brain they're keeping your hope dangling aren't they yeah I mean I don't think there is any way I don't think there's any other way they could have ended this game yeah because so they can't wrap things up we we know there are plans for the third game in the remake project to come um and you go through all these emotions you feel oh I wanted to see that particular scene or I don't know fully still whether aith is alive or dead clearly she is is dead in at least one at least the main timel yeah definitely Barrett and tia in red 13 Kate Sith yui Vincent said they're all reacting to aith dying yeah but yeah and it's intentionally throwing up that question but did you save her in one is there a branch of reality where Cloud did save her or is cloud just losing his mind um I initially thought the former I'm now I now believe that he didn't save her at all I think I think she's dead in all timelines um and I think there there are certain things that happen so when you when you're going through the multiple timelines with Zach um and you realize okay there's not just two here there's like oh there's a different breed of dog Johnny's coming out with like a plushy of uh um like a different breed of dog four different stamps there's a bunch of different so uh if you um and I I read an article by Alex Donaldson from vg247 he's like one of my go-to guys for Final Fantasy stuff so if you've if you're not aware of Alex's work I'd really recommend checking him out and he wrote an article for RPG site really analyzing all of the different strands of reality that are in play at that moment I think it's like five or six or seven yeah um so there's one where Zach chooses to save bigs there's one where he chooses to go to the church where aith is as one where he chooses to save Cloud uh in each of them it seems to be there's a bunch of Shinra troops after Zach that's how he dies originally that's his original death scene which he seemingly escapes at the end of Final Fantasy 7 remake um but it the way I interpreted that was there are there are some events in this story that no matter what timeline you're in they're coming for you they're hunting you down they're inevitable they're going to happen and I think Zach being killed or being mowed down by a bunch of shimra soldiers is one of them it's quite Final Destination isn't it there are some things I think so and I think this is like a there are lots of Multiverse stories around in pop culture at the moment and a a theme that often ties them together I think is what you would call Cannon events there like there are there are events which have to happen in all of these timelines and all the timelines sort of Branch off these events uh and my interpretation of the aith death scene if you can call it that is that that is one such event like ath dying is a thing that has to happen yes uh uh and I think that there is there's definitely that that image of the Multiverse potentially being created that visual motif of like you said Amy the rainbow effect happening when he blocks the sword but I think it's important to realize that just before that Sethro has revealed to Cloud the nature of the Multiverse and so cloud has it in his head that he can potentially change Reality by making certain choices and I think it's still consist with Cloud creating an artificial reality he has created an artificial reality where in one reality he saved aith that's my interpretation of it but the beauty of it is I could be completely wrong and it could be that he has saved her um but I I sadly think that the aith are goner uh and that the aith that appears to cloud is it's either a product of his imagination or and this is another another strand to The Conspiracy Theory hole that I've fallen down um that that aith could be like a construct of goova or Sethro trying to manipulate Cloud I watched uh I watched I watched Max ailan dude another YouTube Creator who I really enjoy listening to about Final Fantasy 7 uh he did like a spoiler mode with easy allies recently and he was talking about okay you look at aith in that scene and she's acting a little bit weird and her eyes are different and I went back and watch watched it and I can sort of I can it's the kind of thing where if you're looking for it you can probably see it like I'm not 100% convinced but there is evidence there yeah that it could be that God that would be heartbreaking wouldn't it not only sh dark right it's great that's what I like about the story line that iteration it could just be all you hope is that it's actually Genova all along yes which would be awful but that is that is sort of where I am at the moment I think I think cloud is really you know just the reaction of the other characters to Cloud as well at the end like you can see in Tia's face she's not just sad that aith has died she's sad that cloud is like in a really bad place you can see she's like what the Hecks happened the moment where um Barrett says come on we we sadly we've got to go and then TI is the last to stand up and she looks at cloud and he's just like smiling he's looking at ath you know he is but he's in her eye he's he's just smiling into nothing like come on even though we know that he's looking at aith in his mind and tifa's just got the look of oh my God like what is happening how why is he why is he not reacting yeah absolutely and then also the sky as well Cloud can see the sky as in the world ending Sky the others can't he says to them doesn't he you know don't look up Barrett's like at what so that's another thing as well um that I find really interesting I'm not sure whether let's hear your your thoughts Rosie your theory first I mean mine well so I'm you know as everyone I'm sure is that everyone's jumping around like even when I was listening to you Rob I was like oh my God yeah that could be oh my God you bring a theory and then it's easy to be convinced isn't it here comes the Rosy's rubbish thoughts over here I thought I interpreted it that there's a mixture I still think that there are aths in different universes um because one thing for example was that you had one version of aith who gave Cloud the holy material yes um and then in the cutscene with the moment where seph Ro does stab aith the holy material in her hair still falls out so I'm like how is that Holy material back in her hair when we saw an aith give one to Cloud um so that's she he then gives it to aith in his timeline though I think but he only gets it because aith gives it to him in chapter 14 when they're on the date so that's in a different timeline that's the so the way that I'm remembering it in my head is the different stamps so there's Terrier timeline yeah there's beagle timeline and then that one it stamp is like a kind of um Pomeranian kind of dog that timeline I think is um yeah that's where she he they go on the date and he gives it he uh she gives him the material he takes it then SEO you see comes in the church behind her and I think the implication there is that he will kill her her and I'm wondering if that was maybe because the thing is I thought oh that makes sense that's what Marlene said you know don't let her leave the house because when she goes seph's going to kill her yeah but then the initial timeline of marleene and um uh Zach was the terrier timeline I think like that was when stamp was a terrier so it's so there's like you said before Rob there's at least just from dog breeds there's four different multiverses so it's quite obvious that what they could be showing us at different times might belong to different when when you have bigy in the Pug chips and he gets shot that's obviously another timeline that gets ganged upon by the soldiers again so yeah I think I basically long-winded way of saying I'm with you in that I think there could possibly be other aits out there I think there is I think yeah um because again this is where I was saying I had my initial Theory which I thought oh yeah okay I think this is my theory with you know you have the choice with Zach when he's saying do I go see bigs or do I go see Hojo for cloud and aith and that's already establishing that there's three but then in my head I thought what if there is a timeline where Cloud does save aith uh but then in my head I was like hang on in Zach's timelines both of them are ill in bed at the moment so how is it that they would have got to that point so you know then the idea just just you know when you're thinking and things just start growing I was like what if there is like a fourth timeline um I think there at least four and also when Arif does come out uh ready for the fight against Sethro he says I underestimated you and that to me was the big line saying it to air not yeah it's like it's a I saw that as like a sign of also just respect from sephos like he's like aha okay so you have learned the ways I think you are definitely right Rosie and I think this sort of ties into another theory which came about after the ending of remake which posited that the seph and an aith that are in play in this game are actually characters from Beyond Advent Children so this is not this is not the original Sethro from Final Fantasy 7 this is a Sethro who is aware of the branching timelines aware of the fact that he was beaten originally and is now coming back to his past I guess to try and make things happen differently uh and in Advent Children aith is also there but in sort of like a life stream Spirit form like she has a power after death similar to I guess what you'd call like a Jedi force ghost where she's able to she's able to project her Consciousness from the Liv stream and I think that it is that form of aith that appears with Cloud during the final battle of rebirth I don't think that air is there absolutely not that is not a product of Cloud's imagination at all no I don't either they're battling in kind of spiritual realm at that point uh and yeah seph says to aith I underestimated you there's that when when aith gives Cloud the holy Materia at the beginning of chap more like halfway through chapter 14 I think that is the the life stream ath I'm going to call her okay yeah uh the that's interesting because she does say this is my dream the aith that has already died that is an ath that has already died in the original events of the game and is projecting her Consciousness from the Liv stream she gives a a full white materal holy Materia to Cloud because the athin our timeline that material has drained and gone clear The Whispers The Whispers have taken her Memories the AR that is praying at the altar has originally like a clear material until Cloud comes back into our timeline with the full holy material that the live stream aith has given him yeah and Sethro sees it in the sleeping forest and he says he says that should be that shouldn't be here and it's like seph like aith you're playing like a yeah good hand good play a like I'm not the only one with knowledge of the Multiverse the whole thing is Sethro versus aith it's it's future Sethro versus LIF stream aith that's sort of like the main battle that's going on and I think LIF stream aith is is the version of ath that appears to cloud in the sleeping Forest during that bit where she says to him I will handle Sethro you need to take care of yourself you need to you need to handle yourself because you know we've seen aith be saying things to cloud like I'm looking for the you so she's she's aware of the of the trauma that cloud is incapable of processing at the moment she's aware that he is falely remembering things from his past uh that was my take on that that there is there is a version of aith a spiritual projection of aith also in play uh who I think is going to be really important going forward yeah yeah but the aith from our game I think is dead I was just going to say because there's also the scene where um after you've had the the scene with the black material and then cloud and ath you know he goes to grab her and they fall off the root tentacle tree oh in the temple of the Ancients yeah by the Temple of the Ancients and um when you wake up you're in this other timeline um and aith is you know walking around with clouds if they're on a date and then sephos says like oh so this is where you've been hiding so as soon as he said that line I had the idea live stream yeah that like there live stream aith or like aith keeps on swapping places with herself but they're all kind of in they're all kind of like they know what's happening so let's say for example there were three ARS if they keep on swapping so that you've got the aith in the timeline who's Meant To Die For example this going into the timeline with Cloud on this date when the world's going to end and then that's why Cloud seph would be like us this is where you're hiding with the Holy material all this time that's probably going to be an absolutely like not correct at all that scene does make me think more about how many aths are there and what's really going on with aith even if there's because I definitely think there's one that's died the one that's in the original timeline 100% but then then my question is how many other aths are there because then you've also got the a like we say with uh when Sethro walks into the church and we we don't see anything happen but it's a big presumption that sephos going to go Shing um I think I think seph or other causes potentially um might have killed off a lot of the other aths in different timelines my take of it if you go from the moment where you have that awesome um black Materia standoff you know when cloud is how creepy is he in that scene as well let's talk I just want talk and you're like oh um yeah so uh after they fall I think they fall into effectively a portal cuz The Whispers also can do strange things with as well because we forget a lot about them being the Arbiters of Fate the idea that they are there to kind of keep things on track they fall through you know what we can assume is like some kind of portal Cloud ends up in this dream of erots I don't know if that's necessarily her just being quite Whimsical I thought maybe she was just saying that because this is kind of her last chance to be almost happy cuz the world was ending I was UN sure about that at first but um I do think that might either be live stream aith or it's just I am slightly also drawn to the idea of Multiverse of aits and my reasoning for that is so we just going through the kind of no motions of it we uh see her go on the date with Cloud she takes him to the church she gives him her white material you have that awesome line from seph which is like ah this is where you've been hiding in a world that's accepted its fate I think she has is almost being hunted across these different worlds by sephar ro and I think she's kind of hidden the Materia in this one he then finds it because obviously Cloud fell into it through a rift which I imagine both zro and iith had this very omnipresent energy I in the series you get the that because of their kind of connection to the Liv stream albeit one being you know not of this planet but you know very much I guess a blight on the planet's existence and he fell into the Liv stream at the end of the original game there's that as well um and then obviously aith being etcetra um I think yeah that really for me brought home the idea that maybe this aith is sort of hiding her her holy gives it to Cloud he then takes through to the timeline that we know that all we've been playing in the whole time that's when obviously yeah seph says that brilliant line that doesn't belong here that gave me shivers I was like oh of course yeah I know what you're talking about yeah yeah cuz Cloud's like back um and then yeah gives it to erith in our timeline at that point she regains her memories as well because I think a lot of the memories are kind of the knowledge is bound up bound up materal is crystallized knowledge crystallized knowledge of the ancient so I think when gets that back it's almost like she's getting what The Whispers took from her yes so she puts that back in her hair she then goes and does the whole Temple praying and everything um and then I think the whole thing with Cloud seeing two versions I still think maybe this is The Optimist in me but I think that there is a Multiverse that kind of is spawned there when he does that I just think he spawns it I think he's still technically stuck in the one that he's in another theory I read is that cloud because he's now been through the Multiverse has the ability to exist in more than one or perceive it perceive more than one so which is why he's able to see the rift in the sky the and no one else can because did you know as well I found this really fascinating they patched a bit of um remake on the day the rebirth came out that changes the very last line that aith says in remake really so when she comes out of midgar when they all come out of midgar and they've escaped the causeway and they've like broken Fates ties and they're off on their own she looks up at the sky and in the G she says something like I miss it the steel Sky I miss it the steel sky in the patch version she says the sky I don't like it yeah which is like is she seeing something that we can't see so that whole idea of perception I love how playful that is like is it you know a mental collapse is it you know the kind of uh the multiverses and having that effect on you I also think there's something in tactility as well in the first game when aith touches you physically that's when you can see The Whispers something similar happens when Zach sees cloud and they cross over in the multiverses he can't see him and he's waving at him and all of a sudden he punches his arm and they're in the same world so I think something that cloud and Zach might have experienced in journeying through those cuz they're almost playing pong with sephar off aren't they across the Multiverse that bit where you get to do a Synergy ability across Dimensions against zro amazing I just see Cloud together cuz I also love Zach I screed at that so when I did that I was like Amy's going to love if I love this am to lose it at this bit so good seeing them together again you know they've been through they've both been through so much the last time they were physically together I mean obviously multiverses aside Zach carrying Cloud into midgar and the amended timeline but the last time really in sort of the guess the Cannon as such of the OG is when Zach dies and Cloud holds him you know like actually takes his sword off him and you know will you be my living Legacy like he passes on his life to him and it's such an emotional moment and I think that's why gong Gaga got me as much as yeah did but yeah I I think the iith in the final fight against sephos is a Multiverse ith so I kind of I agree with both of you in different ways well I think I think there are Multiverse aths but I think they all die and that's why I I my interpretation is that that is aith dying is an event that has to happen in all the universes but after her death live stream aith is a is a it's a different presence she's the MVP then it's it's live stream you've got live stream arith on one side and you've got post Advent Children Sethro on the other side Bing over whatever they're over I just want to say quickly another moment that really got me unexpectedly just emotional all of a sudden was just after aith has given like the white material to cloud and she there're in their spot and she hugs him and she's like whatever happens don't feel bad about your fault my God it got strangely to the player isn't it because it's almost like breaking the fourth wall this this is the other thing I wanted to talk about like there's so much going on here that is is Sethro messing with Cloud but it's also Sethro messing with the audience and so much about remake and rebirth there's there's a meta commentary and and meta themes above what is happening on a surface level so you got the idea of the reunion which in the original game is every everyone who's been injected with reunion Theory isn't it injected with goova cells converges in one spot uh and that's taken a little bit further now in rebirth and there's the idea I think where sephos talking about a reunion of Worlds where all of the worlds are coming together and there's a universal life stream and when a world dies it it returns to that Universal Liv stream very much how when people die in the world their spirit and their Essence returns to the life stream uh and also on a meta level the whole remake project is a reunion of the compendium of Final Fantasy 7 so Crisis Core durge of cus Advent Children the original game is like everything is coming together into one thing you're getting a convergence of timelines quite literally aren't you I think that's what it's doing uh and I think that's what it's like oh my god when when the when the third game is revealed I like when when the Remake ended I said I I really felt like I I cannot wait for the for the next game which turned out to be rebirth and I don't think I've ever been as excited for a game as I have rebirth that has gone up another 10 levels out God I can't wait knowing what happens in the original game and the events we're likely to see just on a surface level that's exciting there's some epic stuff that happens but just knowing that this story is going to come to whatever conclusion it comes to very very exciting as well can we talk about one more thing in the ending as well so um first of all I just want to say the audacity of Cloud Strife to in that final scene with seph to be like you know when seph's like is this fact is this fic and Cloud's like that stuff won't work on me not anymore hard cut to him Sat on a grassy Bank o black material # reun my sword real quick I'm just going to save that for Daddy cro later oh my God I can't believe that that cuz he's so creepy the way he smiles at it is that white empty material the black material did it turn into that people are talking about that I'm not sure I'm not sure but then they keep talking about how you know the Confluence of Worlds and one of the goals seph seems to have is not only kind of dominion over all the timelines yeah he wants to converge them into one he wants one single timeline presumably in which he wins that's what he wants but he also talks about how because I guess in the original he wanted to absorb the life stream to be a God in this one I guess he can almost absorb all of the Tim to absorb all of time and space all of time and some omnipresent he's got Grand Ambitions being you can't very ambitious isn't it very got respect the hustle here another thing that I think uh is being overlooked slightly is goova I think goova is a lot more important than she's never really explained that fully in the original fin pops up for a fight and you're like oh it's over again this extraterrestrial being that came that came down from the skies 2,000 years before the events of the original game had a war with the cetra was like sealed way and until she was finally Unearthed by Shinra and Professor Gast did some experiments then Hojo took over and you know how that ended and it end it resulted in the creation of sephar off uh I think goova is a lot more important to the story than we perhaps realize at the moment uh all the mural room in the temple of the Ancients where we got those projections of the old battles between Genova and the cetra I think that was so much more than what was in the original game yeah absolutely like deliberately so and then you've got the expanded backstory of the black material itself this thing that's been created by the ghee tribe who for some reason I thought this was like a massive story reveal can't return to the live stream which suggests to me that they're not of the planet yes that they have to be extraterrestrial some kind like Genova I can't Return to the Planet I don't know whether it's me looking too much into this but when whenever the C when you fight janova the camera like crashes onto jenova's face and it looks like she's wearing some kind of skull mask and you see the eyes glaring behind this skull mask exactly like G tuck like there's like a there's a motif there so I don't know what this is and I don't know whether it's me just thinking too much into this I'm thinking there's some kind of connection between goova and the ghee tribe that is going to be important yeah I looking forward to learning more well hopefully learning more about the ghee because when you do that whole section in Cosmo Canyon I was fully like whoa okay what is going on here this is getting like you say a lot more in depth onto the actual black material itself which I really liked um and I did feel bad for them when they say okay uh red your dad failed us can you get us the black material please and then red just says yeah I'll get it I'll do it and then immediately after he's like I'm not going to do it think I'm going to do it there's another thing that happens there where they say to Red 13 okay the promise has been made yeah which is a line and again this is probably me looking way too deeply into this kind of stuff but that was the line that was used by the narrator in the original Final Fantasy 7 remake reveal trailer at E3 2015 he says the promise has been made uh no promises to keep the ghee say to Red 13 The Promise has been made ah interesting it probably doesn't mean anything at all I know but what if it does what if what if you're the first one who's like the ghee are actually incredibly important to what's going to happen in all the timeline you heard it fair important yeah I think so too yeah and you know yeah who knows but I what I what I think of what I love most about well there are lots of things I love about this game I think it's an astonishing video game incredibly Brave choices being made by the dev team knowing how much people love the original yes How brave is it to to you know dare to tweak the most iconic scene in all of video games knowing that fans are going to be like what what what what uh but I I I I think it's so exciting and I don't know of any incidence in video games before where we've had this story that's going to be told over potentially the best part of a decade like we don't know anything about the third game when it's likely to come out anything at all uh but there was four years between remake and and rebirth and it's just given us I love this I love just talking and you just don't I just don't think I can't think of another game series that's done that yeah typically with Final Fantasy games they're one and done you know they're one self-contained entry occasionally you'll get sequels and spin-offs it's normally neatly wrapped up is it you know the game finishes and then you know Final Fantasy 10 2 it's not a continuation of Final Fantasy 10 per se like Final Fantasy 10 doesn't end on a cliffhanger Final Fantasy 10 wraps up and then 102 is released and you know more is added to the story whereas this is this is one story being told over three games and you got these intervening years in between where everybody gets to talk about it and come up with fan theories and I I love being feeling like I'm part of the of part of that and not so ex I love not knowing I love not knowing like I live for fan theories I live for discussions recently you interviewed um Karan didn't you and he said he actually reads fan theories which I think so interesting because love the idea that they're kind of looking at this wider Community cuz we've been a fan of this world and these characters for like I mean since 1997 I can't do maths very well but I know that's a long time 20 odd years you know like that is an insane amount of time to have invested in this world and to still be so intrigued by it and I think what you said about you know they've played a Blinder they've made a Really Brave Choice with that scene with that kind of way to end re Earth but also what I think is so clever and yet no other remake really has done before is they've kind of given us our cake and eaten it too because we're able as fans to have something new to look forward to which is what I loved about remake because you know people will have differing opinions on whether or not they should have changed it in Parts whether they should have just kept it completely as it was in the OG but we've got the OG you know the OG exists it's already there you can play it what's great about remake and rebirth is that it really captures that idea that like you're going to see some of your favorite scenes in beautiful glorious Graphics you're going to visit CAD Del Soul walk around it go shopping in it eat ice cream in it but also you're able to have surprises you're able to have things that you don't understand that I love like they've nailed that balance of like here is something that you're going to love revisiting for Nostalgia sake and here is something that you are going to really rack your brain to understand because it's something new what a treat I'm so I'm so invested in this story and if they if they have kept it if they' have kept it beat for beat exactly the same of the original I'd be loving it but I wouldn't be here so invested cuz I know what's going to happen yeah exactly but now I don't know what's going to happen Mega exciting well this is the thing as well when you said that we had four years between remake and rebirth I still remember finishing remake and just the way that it wrapped up that part of the story and opened up the world you know the um the story and how it can go it still sticks with you so when I came to rebirth I didn't even feel as if personally I didn't feel as if I needed to look at a recap of remake or anything because in those four years it's stuck with me and like everyone we've all been waiting and anticipating reading theories uh it's funny when you're talking about all these theories and stuff cuz I guarantee you if I read what someone else is going to say I'm going to be like my theor is completely changed now yeah because we're all in this together my interpretation of it has changed yeah yeah just talking to YouTube today me fresh thoughts yeah I love it I absolutely love it I also love right at the very end Sid whistles the Final Fantasy ending theme yes he does and I was very nice touch ni touch very nice touch indeed well I think I think that's all we have time for I am going to go back home and just devour every video article I can find I haven't read or watched anything so now I'm going to be like what everyone else said I'm like I am completely wrong what the at the moment no one is wrong right and that's so cool we all going to work together I love it uh you know there are no right or wrong answers at the moment like the ending is is constructed to to make us like this right to make us not know and to discuss but yeah thank you so much for your time Rosie and Amy it's been great to have you on the podcast uh please in the comments hit us with your own fan theories on what you think is going on at the end of Final Fantasy 7 rebirth do you think aith has been saved do you think aith is just dead like what's going on we want to hear what you think thanks very much for watching and listening do check out the YouTube channel we've got a bunch of videos on Final Fantasy 7 rebirth and loads of stuff on other cool video games as well and join us again in another two weeks for another episode of the PlayStation access podcast thanks for listening catch you again soon bye [Music] bye [Music] PlayStation

Channel: PlayStation Access

Views: 29,520

Keywords: PlayStation, PS4, Gameplay, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Access, PS Access, PSAccess, PSA, PS5, PlayStation 5, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, FF7 Rebirth, FFVII Rebirth, Final Fantasy Rebirth, Ending, Spoilers, Rebirth ending, Rebirth spoilers, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth ending, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth ending, gaming podcast, gaming news, gaming pod

Id: H0rruaALw9c

Length: 72min 9sec (4329 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2024