SPOILER WARNING: This feature will reveal details about the plot of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake
Theremake of Final Fantasy VIIbrought a classic story to a new audience, though there’s no question it deviated from that original story quite a bit. One of the most controversial of these deviations was the fate of the character Zack Fair–specifically that he’s revealed to be alive in the Remake when he was presumed dead in the original. It ruffled some feathers, but looking back, this major move away from the original story might be what it needed all along.
The originalFinal Fantasy VIIrevolved around Cloud Strife, a kind and timid person (at first) who just wanted to become a hero, and in order to achieve this goal he joined the megacorporation Shinra. He then met Zack, who enlisted as a first-class SOLDIER–an elite mercenary of the company. Cloud never really stood out at the time, but looked up to Zack, maybe more than he should have.
After a traumatic experience that took Zack’s life at the hands of said company, the big twist finally came to light. Cloud in fact repressed his own memories and replaced his identity with one centered around Zack, using his image as an idealized personification of the hero he always wanted to be. This new Cloud is the one we meet at the start of the original Final Fantasy VII, with Zack’s apparent death already having happened by then.
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The remake changes that, however, and reveals that Zack is indeedalive. This was seen in some sectors of the community as betraying the very concept of a faithful remake, and leaning more toward a reboot. But really, the twist–while significant–puts into perspective that whether Zack is dead or alive isn’t really critical to the game’s story. In reality, Final Fantasy VII has always been about Cloud and his unreliable storytelling; if anything the Remake, and Zack’s return from seemingly beyond the grave, emphasizes that.
The beauty of Final Fantasy VII was not in how it happened, but in how it was told– through the lens of a character with questionable motifs, memories, even sense of self. Everything we knew about Zack in the original game was confined to Cloud’s flashbacks. As he was an unreliable narrator, we’ve good reason to doubt the accuracy of those memories, including the manner in which Zack ‘died.’ With Cloud idolizing Zack in the near-pathological way that he did, giving him a heroic death without questioning its circumstances would have fed this idealized image of Zack, and in turn Cloud’s own identity.
Cloud’s unreliable narration was clear in the original game. There were the flashbacks, for example, where Cloud remembered his mother seemingly congratulating him for becoming a SOLDIER. But these flashbacks were pieced together from conversations that took place on different days, and were assembled in his mind with obvious abrupt transitions. The truth was that Cloud’s mother was reassuring him after hisfailureto join SOLDIER, and ending up as a small grunt, but his mind selectively chose to block out this reality.
Another clever trick was seeing Cloud using a more formal form of the Japanese language when he was closer to uncovering the truth about himself, as elaborated in this video byGame Gengo’s Japanese lesson. It was an indicator that he was going back to his own timid personality, and recovering his original memories as a person of humble position. In contrast, Zack, who was in a superior position, used informal language with people of similar rank.
The thing is, if you do a 1:1 remake, there will be no allusions nor illusions, and no secrets whatsoever. Cloud’s character would just be an open book for all returning players. That’s why the remake has to reconstruct not only the story, but the continuous sense of wonder that accompanies the journey, the revelations causing players to question their interpretation of every element in the story, and the way the story itself is delivered to the player.
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The portrayal of Zack’s dying moments in the original story shows him bestowing his iconic weapon, the Buster Sword, to Cloud, but in the same scene in the remake, Zack survives, and seemingly keeps his sword. So how is it that Cloud has his own Buster Sword throughout the events of the remake? This implies that Cloud might be experiencing a false version of the events surrounding Zack’s fate. That would also suggest that the origin of Cloud’s trauma (and sword) are different to what we originally envisioned, opening up all kinds of interesting narrative possibilities.
This new take on Zack’s death (or not-death, as the case may be) adds to the thrill of the original twist, and strengthens the theme of Cloud’s unreliable narration. The subtle references and hints spread out throughout the story about Cloud’s true identity can now be interpreted differently. It also paves the way to expand on Zack’s character, and his relationships with his girlfriend Aerith and his friend-turned-enemy Sephiroth, without being limited by Cloud’s own perspective of him.
This aspect was very restricted in the original game, where Zack was already dead before he was introduced to the story. The remake still portrays Cloud as this black box carrying many riddles and secrets about the past, but uses Zack’s changed narrative to add more questions, layers, or interpretations to Cloud’s character and the role he is supposed to play.
The original twist would not have hit as hard if it was reintroduced in the same way, since players were already aware of it, but with how the Remake is going about it, it might elevate the story to even greater heights, and capture the feeling of experiencing Final Fantasy VII like it’s our very first time.
