YMMV / Final Fantasy VII Remake

View the original game's YMMV page here

Pages for other entries in the Compilation:

• Before Crisis
• Advent Children
• Dirge of Cerberus
• Crisis Core
• Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

---

Tropes A-M

• Adorkable:
  • Cloud has traits of this, mainly interacting with girls, pop up from time to time. Like at one point where Aerith raises her hands in the air happily, and Cloud misinterprets it as offering for a high-five before trying to pull back after realizing his mistake.
    Aerith: Wait a minute! Did you just—
    Cloud: Nope.
  • Barret has a softer, dorkier streak he generally tries to hide behind his angry, tough-guy persona. When Cloud rejoins them in the train to Sector 7, he blurts out that he was worried about him, before catching himself. He goes on a long speech about hearing the cries of the planet, and he's positively giddy at the idea of hijacking Shinra's broadcast of their "execution" to humiliate them. He also cheerfully quotes books he's read to his daughter Marlene during missions, and notes that he does the voices when reading them to her. Occasionally at the end of combat, he'll begin shouting the Final Fantasy Victory Fanfare.
  • Just like in the original game, Tifa is terrible at hiding her crush on Cloud, and this makes her come across as a little dorky during her interactions with him. Her awkward attempts at lightening the mood can also be pretty endearing.
  • Wedge is sweet as a lollipop, but also socially awkward, particularly when interacting with the more aloof and cool-headed Cloud.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Here.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Despite being the last boss fought during the final Boss Rush against the VR summons, Pride and Joy Prototype is rather subpar compared to the bosses fought before it, especially against Bahamut as it's rather slow and predictable as well as being weak to Thunder like other machines, not to mention that unlike Leviathan or Bahamut, it lacks any Total Party Kill nukes with its most dangerous attack being to grab a party member and instantly knocking them out, something that's easily mitigated using the Raise magic. It's even possible to stunlock it by constantly destroying its legs over and over and watch it squirm as the robot is unable to spend more than a few seconds before its leg respawns.
• Awesome Music: Has its own page.
• Base-Breaking Character: Jessie started off as very popular with her detailed background, her flirty personality and a possible love option for Cloud. The fact that she was added to Dissidia Opera Omnia is an illustration of it. However, there are fans who find her sassy attitude annoying, cast doubt on her feelings for Cloud, and argue that she overstayed her welcome, seeing as Cloud already has two potential love interests, Tifa and Aerith. With Biggs confirmed to have survived his fated death at the end of Remake and the implication that Jessie could've too, fans became even more divided, with some interested in seeing more of her and others wishing she'd either stay dead or be relegated to a lesser supporting role.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • While exploring the Train Graveyard, Tifa sees the ghost of a young girl, and suddenly envisions her as Marlene. This leads into a flashback of Tifa cleaning the bar while Marlene talks to her about the rumors of the Train Graveyard, and then asks when Barret is coming home and Tifa has to tell her he may not be able to. The scene comes out of nowhere, has no bearing on the plot and no significance to the characters, and isn't mentioned again. The best that can be said is that it happens to allow Tifa to name-drop Marlene before asking Aerith to rescue her in Sector 7, but that's it.
  • To any newcomers unfamiliar with the original game, Cait Sith's cameo is almost certainly this. In what is clearly an extremely intense and emotional sequence, the sudden appearance of a cartoonish bipedal cat-like thing showing up out of nowhere and grieving over the events that have transpired is incredibly jarring. It would have probably made more sense to show Reeve at his office window, watching in horror before hanging his head in shame, at least for the uninitiated.
• Breather Boss: Compared to the Demonic Spider enemies fought before as well as the rest of the bosses after it, Swordipede is significantly easier due to having less HP than an average boss and only two phases. This is rather fortunate considering that the next three bosses are significantly harder, allowing the players to conserve their MP for the other bosses.
• Broken Base:
  • Chapter 18 as a whole along with its meta commentary on the concept of remakes with the Whispers, the major deviation from the original game's plot as compared to previous chapters and the ending itself heavily implying that the series is actually a Stealth Sequel. Supporters are glad that Remake is becoming its own thing and resolving issues which they might have had with the original game, find the meta commentary to be a clever and interesting concept, including the Double-Meaning Title, and consider the battle against the Whisper Harbinger and Sephiroth an epic way to end Part 1. They also argue that the the original game is still there for those who want a faithful retelling of the story. Detractors believe that Square Enix promoting the first installment as a "remake" and then delivering an entirely different meaning of the word is effectively tricking them into buying something other than the straight remake they wanted, that the escalation of the threat was far too abrupt and early (going from Shinra's military to a godlike physical manifestation of destiny), that the meta commentary feels shoehorned and immersion-breaking, turning the characters into mere conduits for it, that the heroes lack a sufficient motivation to defy destiny, the Whispers' addition feeling unnecessary, inconsistent and reminiscent of the Heartless, and having the heroes defeat the Whisper Harbinger and going toe-to-toe with Sephiroth this soon nullifies any future threats they might face. Another group of fans who liked the changes, or at least are fine with them, feel the game may have shown its hand too early and are left wondering how future installments can possibly top the finale of the first part wherein the characters destroy a physical manifestation of fate and even get an epic showdown with Sephiroth (complete with the iconic "One-Winged Angel" theme), during which a mirror-universe version of Midgar is blown up by the scale of the fight.
  • Whether or not Chapter 18 actually pushes Remake into full-blown Stealth Sequel territory, the discussions around such having only intensified in the years following Remake's release. One side of the fanbase argues that Remake, and by extension the rest of the trilogy, can be still considered a genuine remake or "definitive" re-imagining of FFVII which fits better with the rest of the Compilation, citing developer statements claiming that the story won't change all that much and that all the locations, characters and story beats from the original game are still present in the 7R trilogy. With regard to the big revelations in Chapter 18, they argue that many of these plot changes can be well-explained by Lifestream shenanigans and/or obscure lore already present in the original game or Compilation side materials (e.g., that the planet has always been omniscient; that Aerith and Sephiroth could have plausibly had some foresight into the future in the OG due to their connection to the Lifestream; that the Whispers could have plausibly existed in (the background of) earlier entries; that Zack and Biggs (and perhaps Jessie and Wedge as well), are not alive but in a sort-of limbo between life and death). The other side argues that Chapter 18's revelations have already added so many new mysteries and plot devices that it is no longer possible for future games to follow the flow of the original narrative, and that the developers could just be lying yet again, since they also said that Remake would be faithful to the original game, only for Chapter 18 to prove otherwise in the minds of those who believe the ending changes are already too drastic. They also argue that the prospect of the Remake being a genuine remake/reimagining with new elements such as the Whispers retroactively depreciates the original game's legacy by making the lore and narrative more needlessly convoluted.
  • Whether Remake in general loses a lot of the interesting subtlety, pacing and tone-building in the original, like the characters getting several glimpses of future events from the original (i.e., Aerith's death, Meteor falling, the battle with Sephiroth at the Northen Crater), Hojo nearly revealing to Cloud that he wasn't in SOLDIER or Sephiroth appearing much earlier than in the original game and openly stating a lot of his intentions. Supporters say that most of the original game's twists and plot points are well-known, and that these changes allow for deeper characterization, and if Remake and its sequels are meant to be a Stealth Sequel to the original game and the Compilation, they would be justified by the events having already happened in the past in an earlier timeline. Detractors believe that this bombastic and unsubtle approach lessens the overall impact of the story not unlike the Compilation.
  • The themes of fate and Screw Destiny and the addition of tropes such as Alternate Timeline, Cosmic Retcon, and Time Travel. Supporters have found the inclusion of these tropes to be a positive change that allows Remake 's narrative many possibilities going forward. Detractors argue that these tropes make the story needlessly convoluted at best and/or are sabotaging its tension and drama at worst by eliminating any assurance that whatever happens in the story moving forward will be permanent.
  • The fact that many characters now appear to have been Spared By Adaptation (including Zack, AVALANCHE, and a larger number of Sector 7 citizens) has further deepened the divide, between supporters who are happy for their survival, are interested in their roles in future games and hope they get the happy outcome they didn’t had in the original game, or alternatively believe that the devs are planning to make Aerith's death a even bigger Player Punch by offering the player the illusion that they can save her via sparing multiple characters that died in the OG, only to still kill her off regardless and detractors who believe these characters surviving is contradictory to a Central Theme from the original game, that being living with tragedy and accepting loss as a fact of life.
  • This has also led to debates, mainly in the western fandom, surrounding Aerith's ultimate fate and whether her surviving would mean the potential for an interesting story or if it would cheapen the themes of the original game. Detractors argue that Aerith's death—even being as well-known as it is—is too integral to the plot and themes of FFVII and that preventing it would retroactively invalidate the original game's message about the permanence of death—as stated by Yoshinori Kitase. At most, they concede that players should only be given the opportunity to delay when her death happens, but not prevent it altogether (even those who are on board with the Stealth Sequel theory, a more optimistic narrative or other deaths being prevented). On the other hand, supporters of Aerith surviving argue that her death has become so well-known that it no longer has the same impact and that similar themes can be reinforced if someone else (usually theorized as alternate timeline Zack, Tifa or even Cloud) dies or vanishes in her place. Alternatively, they argue that, assuming the Remake trilogy is a Stealth Sequel, Aerith deserves a chance at a happy ending with either Cloud or an alternate timeline spared Zack after having to die in a previous timeline, and that the greater emphasis placed on "fate" and "destiny" in the Remake could potentially push the story into Too Bleak, Stopped Caring territory if she dies in the same manner no matter what. They also point out that the other narrative purpose behind her death was always to show how sudden, unexpected and unnecessary it was—just like how death often can be in real life—as described by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and that, assuming there's an Alternate Timeline or Alternate Universe in play, the permanence of death does not necessitate forcing characters to stick to the same predestined fate across all realities.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: In every quest involving the Angel of the Slums, you encounter a little old lady named Mireille who hypes her up and tries to protect her reputation. She also steals some gil from a reporter after he stiffs you on your first job with him. "Plot twist": she's the Angel.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • In chapter 9, after Don Corneo chooses Cloud as his bride, he leaves Tifa and Aerith to his goons to do with as they please. However, the two women soon prove they aren't to be underestimated, and so give the goons their comeuppance without breaking a sweat, and even without losing the lighthearted tone. Even though the player doesn't get to control either character, it doesn't make it any less cathartic to the player, especially since right at the end, Tifa and Aerith become friends on the spot. The next scene in Don Corneo's room, with Cloud, Aerith and Tifa threatening him to "cut 'em off", "rip 'em off" and "smash 'em", is even more cathartic than in the original game, given that Remake intensifies how creepy the man is.
  • Just like in the original, President Shinra is stabbed in the back by Sephiroth. The only difference is we get to actually see the latter do the former ugly while in the middle of his gloating.
  • In the final battle of Part 1 against Sephiroth, Aerith is a playable party member, making it possible for her to defeat him. Considering Sephiroth killing Aerith is one of the most iconic and memorable scenes in video games, having the opportunity for Aerith to fight and defeat Sephiroth is incredibly satisfying. Even better, the hidden mechanics that determine which two party members fight Sephiroth alongside Cloud actually support this outcome since Aerith is very, very disproportionately favored (she gets 2.2x the points Tifa does, 1.83x the points Barret does, and can get the kill on Whisper Bahamut/Harbinger unlike Barret).
• Character Rerailment: The game invokes Character Rerailment to reverse the Flanderization that many fans felt set in over the course of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, or just to bring characters more in-line with how they were always intended to be but failed due to poor translation of the original game.
  • Cloud became infamous as a moody and stoic loner, which reached its zenith with Advent Children. While this was already being rectified in some other spin-offs, it is fixed fully here by resetting him back to his cocky and goofy side at the beginning of the classic game, allowing for lots of Snark-to-Snark Combat with his allies and many Adorkable moments when characters, particularly Tifa and Aerith, try to get him to loosen up or act friendly with him.
  • Barret gets an Adaptational Intelligence upgrade, giving him more chances to show off why he would be leading Avalanche. His infamous Sir Swears-a-Lot attitude is somewhat toned down to help make him seem less like a stereotype, and his friendship with Avalanche is emphasized more to make him A Father to His Men, making it clear he is more than what the original game's localized script implied.
  • While Tifa is still concerned for Cloud's wellbeing, she is not solely fixated on him and is shown to often be concerned about others in general, but still determined to keep going and support them when they need her.
  • After years of Aerith's sweet and spiritual side being emphasized to the point of Incorruptible Pure Pureness, this game makes her more snarky, blunt, and playful, much like she was in the original game, while still keeping her kindness and spirituality.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Continuity Lockout:
  • Elements of the Compilation are liberally referenced throughout Remake and many parts of the original game's plot now appear earlier, but with less context. While the story is easy enough to follow, things like the Wutai War, the Nibelheim Incident, the men in the black cloaks, and a cameo from Cait Sith aren't given much context behind them and so will only be fully understood by players who know the original game. Then there's references to the original incarnation of Avalanche, the S and G branches of the SOLDIER program, and a few Call Forwards to Dirge of Cerberus and Advent Children, which will only be understood by fans who have followed the Compilation. Two characters even originate from a tie-in novella to Advent Children, and towards the end of the game, Cloud's huge twist of never being in SOLDIER is nearly revealed by Hojo.^note Well, in the English localization. The Japanese line is cut short in a way that it's left rather ambiguous; the English shows him say it, but he gets cut off before he's able to make it clear he isn't just screwing with Cloud. The game also features a major reference to the final showdown of Crisis Core with no context as to who Zack is. The result is that, for a game advertised as being an entry point for newcomers, a lot of the details are dependent on the player already being a long-time fan.
  • The controversial ending is wrapped in some continuity lockout given that it revolves around changing destiny to avoid a "bad future" that despite being mentioned several times in the final chapters, is never explicitly revealed either to the characters or the player. For the dialogue given by certain characters to have any emotional resonance (or even make sense) one would have to know that in the original, Sephiroth kills Aerith and tries to summon a giant meteor to destroy the planet.
  • Anything related to Jenova or Sephiroth in general is vulnerable to this, as who they are, their connections to the main characters, or why they matter to the plot and world is never explained in-game.
• Critical Dissonance: Remake has gotten rave reviews from publications and critics across the web, with GameSpot giving it a rare 10/10 and many citing it as a return to form for Square Enix. Fan opinion, however, is much more divided, with some fans decrying the Action RPG combat system, the new voice actors, and especially the plot differences, both minor and major that ultimately contribute to the game being, effectively, a Stealth Sequel or Alternate Continuity, with the original game's events being considered a Bad Ending. It's not totally clear if they're being manipulated or if that's the point of the Remake, making it somewhat a piece of Meta Fiction that comments on the nature of the remake and the game's unpleasable sectors of the fanbase as well. As a result, fans — especially those who grew up with and loved the original — tend to be much more divided on the game's quality, though important to note is that the general audience score is roughly on par with the critics, with many of its fans still liking the game, just not the changes.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The dodge and block mechanics provide a frequent instance for those accustomed to Action RPGs, as dodging lacks the temporary invincibility common to those games: attacks can only be dodged by actually getting out of the area that they're in, with most attacks intended to instead be blocked for reduced damage.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Sahagins. They use Jump attacks that pack a punch, can be tricky to dodge, have a fair amount of HP, and can turn you into toads. Later, you get to deal with Sahagin Princes, which are even worse.
  • Helitroopers, along with their Elite counterpart, are resilient enemies that fly themselves out of reach of melee party members, pelting them with bullets that stagger them before hitting them really hard with a Prop Swipe which is very quick and difficult to anticipate. The only way to fill their staggger gauge is to hit them with magic attacks (which is wasteful considering your limited MP supply).
• Ending Fatigue: Chapter 18 is criticized for dragging on too long, similarly to Chapter 17. First is the highway escape from Midgar, which is a long gauntlet of fighting off Shinra motorcycle troops and robots. Then, immediately after the group escapes from Midgar, you have to fight the Whisper Harbinger, who appears to be the final boss. And then after that, you have to fight Sephiroth. All of these fights are extremely long, multi-stage affairs with little to no reprieve in between that can leave a player completely drained after finishing them.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Out of all the new characters, both Madam M and Andrea Rhodea immediately shot up in popularity. Madam M is notable for her Kimono Fanservice design, being the most helpful towards the party, and hilarious bursts of anger while Andrea stands out for his entertaining flamboyance and memorable dance scene with Cloud.
  • Of the already existing characters, Jessie. She quickly endeared herself to players with her adorable personality and looks as well as copious amounts of Ship Tease with Cloud. Perhaps the expanded characterization was enough cause for her to be Spared by the Adaptation.
  • The Shinra trooper who remembers Cloud from their time in the infantry together and is happy to see his friend again. Some have expressed interest in seeing him return in later parts and maybe get a bigger story role, and there's speculation on if he was one of the Shinra troopers in Crisis Core that could be seen on missions with Cloud.
  • The bizarre Shinra Middle Manager who has the courage to berate Barett to his face. While a jerk who buys into Shinra's propaganda, he proves to have solid morals and promises the heroes he'll defend the other train passengers that might be in danger.
  • Nayo from Intergrade is a relatively minor character who tags along with Yuffie for a little bit before leaving without much fanfare, but due to looking extremely similar to Tifa except with a more nerdy aesthetic, along with a matching cute nerd voice and a kind, compassionate personality (also similar to Tifa), she's picked up some fans despite her limited role. It also works in her favor that she has a surprisingly strong resemblance to the scrapped Samsung virtual assistant, Samantha Samsung (Nayo and Samantha share a similar hairstyle and hair color, a similar shirt style and color, and even their faces have similarities), who was coincidentally discovered and became a viral meme at around the same time that Intergrade was released. Naturally, this gave her even more positive attention beyond only the Tifa comparisons.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • The existence of Crisis Core has made players who are fans of Zack Fair wonder if they get to play as him whenever you reach the true flashback scenes and his Last Stand. The Crisis Core Reunion remaster released in the aftermath of Remake keeps the original ending intact, however.
  • The final battle of the game triggered a rather healthy debate by featuring three more powerful Whispers identified as "shades of a future yet to come", one wielding a sword, another guns, and the third fighting bare-handed. Speculation ran rampant over the identity of the Whispers, with the most popular interpretations being 1) the future/original timeline versions of Cloud, Barret, and Tifa making one last-ditch attempt to stop their younger selves from making a huge mistake, or 2) Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo from Advent Children serving as Sephiroth's final puppets. Lending credence to the latter theory is the fact that the Whispers eventually merge into a Bahamut-like being, reflecting Kadaj summoning Bahamut-SIN in AC, and the Ultimania guide for the game specifically calls out the similarities to Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo.[1]
  • In chapter 14, Aerith's Resolutions Witnessed scene has stirred quite the debate about its nature, particularly once the ending of the game re-contextualizes the whole story. Is it really just Cloud dreaming about her or is it something else? A pretty expanded theory is that Cloud is not seeing the Aerith from his own timeline, but rather the Aerith from the original game's timeline, communicating with him through the Lifestream.
  • A common fan theory is that the "Sephiroth" whom our heroes end up fighting at the very end of the game is also the same Sephiroth from after the events of Advent Children, having somehow gained the ability to time-travel or at the very least communicate with his past self either via the lifestream or some form of power allotted to him by Jenova.
  • The game's ending theme Hollow, while agreed by most players to be sung by a guilt-ridden Cloud, has been subject to multiple interpretations as to what it is about. Those that ship him with Aerith and/or view Remake as a Stealth Sequel exclusively see it as about Advent Children-era Cloud's guilt of not saving Aerith in the original timeline, while those that view Remake as ultimately still following the flow of the original game despite it's changes and/or ship Cloud with someone else, tend to interpret it as being Cloud's guilt about Zack, guilt about both Zack and Aerith, or a longing for his suppressed true self.
  • Another popular theory with Cleriths is that certain concept art depicting Cloud approaching Aerith's home in his AC outfit, despite "official" explanations that the AC outfit was a placeholder from back when they wanted to re-imagine the FFVII characters as having worn the AC outfits throughout the entire compilation, is allegedly a subtle hint that Aerith would survive the events of the Remake trilogy and get her happy ending with Cloud. In conjunction with this theory, some even go far to claim that images of a blue child seen at a certain point in the game is somehow meant to foreshadow that Cloud would have a child with Aerith at the end of the trilogy if Aerith indeed ends up surviving.
  • Zack's potential survival in his last stand has led to multiple theories explaining just what his survival entails. The most popular theories were that he was spared in an alternate timeline, dubbed the "Terrier timeline" that could potentially interact with the timeline Cloud and co. are on, which is dubbed the "Beagle" timeline. Another popular theory is that the defeat of the Whispers caused Cloud and his party to cross over to the Terrier timeline, and all future Remake trilogy games will be set in said timeline. A less popular theory, primarily tied to elements of the western fandom that believes the Remake trilogy to not be a Stealth Sequel, states that Zack is actually Dead All Along, and that his spirit is in a limbo trapped between the world of the living and the Lifestream, and that the framing of his supposed survival and "multiple timelines" is used to goad the player into thinking that they could save Zack and Aerith, only to rip out that hope at the last second when it comes time for Aerith to die, making it clear that Remake and its' sequels will ultimately continue to follow the flow of the original game and the Compilation.
  • A popular theory among Japanese fans regarding the ending is that the events of FFVII has happened multiple times in the past in an infinite time loop, with the party's efforts in the loop which Remake takes place in either setting in motion a new time loop or breaking the cycle completely.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Some have interpreted the Arbiters of Fate to be a metaphor for the Final Fantasy VII fanbase, or at least how the developers might see them: they demand Remake follow the same story beats as the original, and whenever it starts to deviate they forcefully intervene to keep things on-track. Only by defying the Arbiters and destroying them is Remake thereby freed to tell its own story without the burden of fan expectations directing it.
• Fandom Rivalry: Formed one with Persona 5 Royal around their release dates. Fans of Royal took aim at how Remake was being split into multiple episodes rather than being released as a whole game, and was "only" forty hours long in total. Fans of Remake responded with slagging Royal off for being a Updated Re-release of a newer game, and for its DLC practices. It didn't help that when Metacritic scores for both came out, Royal had a higher score at 96 compared to Remake's 87.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Not that Advent Children hadn't done it already, but the reveal that Cloud and Tifa now live next door to one another in an apartment building in Midgar, long before their night alone "under the highwind", is ripe for this.
  • The presence of the Whispers of Fate could help in justifying a story railroading to the Stations of the Canon.
  • Biggs and Zack surviving, plus the lack of confirmed death for Jessie and Wedge, means lots of potential fanfics about them.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Don Corneo received the nickname "Don Joker" due to his voice actor sounding like Mark Hamill's version of the character.
  • "Rebuild of Final Fantasy VII" has become a moniker due to how the game practically swerves from the original plotline, much like how Rebuild of Evangelion did to its original show.
  • As soon as they realized what they were, the users of 4chan quickly started calling the Whispers of Fate things like Time Ghosts, Time Jannies, Changebad Ghosts, Nazgûl, Dementors, and many other◊ similar names.
  • Chadley has been dubbed "Discount Hope Estheim", due to his very similar appearance to the latter.
  • "Chairith" for when Aerith cheerfully smashes a folding chair wrestling-style over Don Corneo's goons, due to it being hilarious and clashing with Aerith's reputation for sweetness.
• Fanon: The ending spawned numerous fan theories postulating that Remake (along with the forthcoming entries) is set in a separate universe from the original game, and that Zack's survival, as seen at the end, is set in a third universe which would in turn be distinct from Remake's universe. This led many to believe that the series will be doing a "multiple timelines" plot wherein multiple versions of Sephiroth and/or Cloud and co. will potentially cross paths with each other. Such theories were further amplified by a mistranslated quote from the Material Ultimania Plus in which co-director Toriyama states (in regards to whether Jessie is alive or not) that a future wherein the protagonists all survive would be a different world. In the original Japanese however, the word which Toriyama uses for "different" (「違う」) more commonly means "wrong" or 'different from desired/intended.' In other words: a version of FFVII wherein every character survives would be at odds with what the developers intend (since a major theme of the story—according to Toriyama—is "loss"). Beyond that, the existence of "multiple worlds" has not been suggested by the developers ^note Writer Kazushige Nojima does allude to the Stamp seen on the bag in Zack's final stand being a terrier instead of a beagle, though he's likely implying it to be a Ripple Effect Indicator, leaving it more probable that the series is going for a single, altered timeline instead.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Rufus's redesigned outfit gets a little ridiculous when examined up close, as the redesign adds in two hoops of belts dangling from his waist and unbuttoned hakama-like pant legs that match the style of his suit jacket over his actual pants. Several fans have joked that he's wearing a wedding dress because of it.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • The homosexual undertones in the rivalry between Cloud and Sephiroth have been legendary since the time of the original game, and the remake is no slouch. When Cloud first sees Sephiroth and claims he killed him, Sephiroth says he considers it "the crowning moment of our time together". Later in the same scene he reminisces about torching Nibelheim and killing Cloud's mother, and says if the Planet dies, "that which binds us together would be no more, and I would be loathe to live in such a world." At one point, Sephiroth tells Cloud "I am... your everything." When Cloud sees Sephiroth before Jenova, he starts convulsing and slowly (presumably against his will and Sephiroth is controlling him) walking towards him. Sephiroth coaxes, "Don't deny me. Embrace me." When Cloud shakes it off and attacks him, Sephiroth refers to it as "a touching reunion." At the end of the game, Sephiroth even offers his hand to Cloud while essentially telling him We Can Rule Together, and Cloud almost takes it.
  • Roche's Blood Knight mannerisms can easily be construed as romantic interest, with how he refers to Cloud as a "dancing partner" and uses metaphors of a motorcycle being turned on and revved up to compare to their rising tension as they prepare to fight.
  • Some fans have picked up on the borderline suggestive way Rufus Shinra speaks to Cloud during their showdown, telling Cloud that as a SOLDIER he "owns [him]", how their fight was "making him sweat. Good thing [he] came prepared", and that they should "make it a night to remember". The smooth yet domineering tone of voice he speaks with in English doesn't help.
  • While there are some between Nero and Yuffie in Intergrade, there are definitely more between Nero and Sonon Kusakabe. While grabbing Sonon Kusakabe, Nero would focus on Sonon's lips with the "how your lips tremble" line. There is also his way of getting touchy-feely toward Sonon when he fatally stabs him. He also does not give him a painful death like he did for the other soldiers he'd slaughtered. Furthermore, after he supposedly killed Sonon, Nero comes and retrieves his corpse by taking his face before embracing him in a quite intimate way..
• Friendly Fandoms: One with Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Definitive Edition, as both are remakes of two very beloved JRPGs, and both feature combat systems that are mainly Action RPG based. It also helps that Monolith Soft, the developer of Xenoblade Chronicles, is comprised of former Square Enix employees who had worked on older Final Fantasy titles, as well as Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenogears.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Gotterdammerung. You enter battle with a full Limit gauge and said gauge regenerates meaning you can use it multiple times on the harder bosses. The only catch is that in order to get it, you have to beat some of the toughest bosses in the game in a series of battles on Hard Mode, and if you're able to beat them, then there's not much you really need for anyway, though it can be helpful with the final battles on Hard Mode. It's so overpowered that when a secret Superboss was added for Intergrade, the item's effect is reduced by 50% (though the tooltip mentions it's disabled entirely).
  • What's even more broken than one Gotterdammerung? How about three? All you have to do is beat the aforementioned Superboss added in Intergrade and another two are yours for the taking. Have fun!
  • The Bad Breath enemy skill, which causes Poison, Silence and Sleep in one go. It can bend bosses like the Hell House into submission- which is why it's only available after finishing the game the first time normally.
  • With the right setup, Barret becomes the most efficient spellcaster in the game, especially as a support+white mage with Big Bertha and the accessory that boosts healing by 25%. Have him cast Haste on himself and his shots keep his ATB gauge for Pray and Magnified Barrier spells full in seconds.
  • The Magnify materia; similar to the All materia in the original game, when it is connected to any spellcasting materia, the associated spell can target all enemies / all allies on the screen simultaneously. It's so overpowered that the entire game only has one. It's slightly a Magikarp Power at first though as spells cast with it only have about 20% of their normal potency at rank one. By rank 3 it's 60% though which is really close enough, and even at 20% potency, spells meant to stagger enemies will still be effective.
  • Cloud's Counterstance skill. It allows Cloud to counter an attack made towards him by striking and ignoring being stunned from hit, and momentarily stuns the enemy. Not only does it only cost one ATB bar, but it also will work on almost every single enemy in the game, meaning Cloud can easily overpower most enemies using it. Combine it with an elemental materia, and Cloud can stun an enemy momentarily, deal strong damage, and help build the stagger gauge quickly. It makes fights on Hard mode much easier as a result.
  • The Elemental materia at level 2 or 3 allows you to respectively nullify or absorb a linked element when inserted into a character's armor. When going up against a boss or strong enemy that uses them, this turns what can be a difficult encounter into an easy victory.
  • Warding materia when mastered grants immunity to a linked status effect, such as poison, sleep, or instant death. This is more situational but in certain circumstances completely eliminates enemy mechanics.
  • The Deadly Dodge materia. When leveled up, it allows the user to deal slight AOE damage after dodging an attack. On paper it sounds weak, but it can easily combined with the Elemental materia to allow the player to cheese certain fights. In particular, Barret wielding both an Elemental materia and Deadly Dodge materia can clear waves of enemies with the Big Berta, and this can work on bosses too. Its like casting a spell with Magnify, except you are just dodging and not using MP!
  • Aerith's Ray of Judgement skill. It costs two bars and has a brief wind-up, but once it goes off, it's a blast of raw magical power that hits the enemy quickly and hard. What makes it so powerful is its power when used on a staggered enemy; it's one of two Abilities that raise the enemies' stagger percent meter. Combined with Tifa, and you can quickly get the stagger percent incredibly high, all while Aerith is doing enough damage to make it worthwhile.
  • Tifa is notorious for being the queen of increasing stagger damage. Her Unbridled Fury can increase her Unique Attack from Whirling Uppercut (which uniquely adds 5% to Stagger Damage) to Omnistrike and Rise and Fall which add substantially more Stagger Damage. She can also learn True Strike which adds a large amount to the Stagger Damage.
  • If the Stop spell is cast on a staggered opponent, it will actually freeze the stagger meter too, allowing you a lengthened stagger period to wail on the enemy. Better yet, the stagger percentage can still be increased even during Stop stasis, allowing Tifa and/or Aerith to use their stagger boosting skills to reach significantly higher damage multipliers than under normal circumstances.
• Goddamn Bats:
  • Flying enemies in general, due to how the new combat system works. Players are intended to use ranged characters like Barret or Aerith to attack flyers, while melee characters like Cloud and Tifa have more difficulty reaching them, especially if said flying enemies are hovering over inaccessible terrain or pits. It also doesn't help that due to plot reasons, there are some battles where you are locked to having only melee characters in your party when fighting flying enemies, so you better hope you have agreeable terrain or lots of spells available. Worse, some of these enemies are weak to Blizzard or Aero spells which means that even if the spell hits, these enemies can still get away from those spells (Aero was fixed for Intergrade in this regard). See the Scrappy Mechanic below for details.
  • Scissorclaws shrugs off any physical damage like it was nothing and they can also guard themselves to not only greatly reduce damage received even further but also retaliate. While they're weak to magic which Aerith can easily exploit, in the second visit to the sewers, you have no such luck, forcing you to either deal chip damage or waste your limited MP gauge against these guys rather than bosses like Behemoth and Abzu.
  • One Sector 5 sidequest has you and Aerith fighting three Venomantis enemies. They have skills that put you to sleep for 15 seconds, making the battle absurdly difficult: because they can stun-lock you at will, you're essentially a One-Hit-Point Wonder; these skills penetrate blocking, so your only option is to dodge; and there's three of them and they're as fast as you are, so Hit-and-Run Tactics are very inefficient (in addition to being the only option that actually works). If you haven't specifically farmed the First Strike materia from Chadley, you may be in for a very long, very frustrating fight.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Jessie's expanded characterization in just the demo made a lot of players vocalize their wish for her to be Spared by the Adaptation. In the final version, we see Biggs survive, with no confirmation on Wedge and Jessie's statuses, but the broader twist in the story that led to their survival has proven to be incredibly controversial among fans.
• He's Just Hiding: In Intergrade, is Sonon truly dead? While the scene shows him getting stabbed over and over combined with a Dying Dream of his sister, the fact that Nero retrieved his body at the end of the battle may imply that it is not the last time we see of him.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Takahiro Sakurai, Cloud's Japanese voice actor, also voiced Haseo from .hack. The company behind that franchise, CyberConnect2, was even a part of the development for the remake before Square Enix ditched the partnership due to Creative Differences. It's even being released as several games like .hack was!
  • One of the Wall Market sidequests that Cloud can do is a modified Chain of Deals sidequest where he can get medicine to help treat a man suffering from indigestion. After the man recovers, he asks Cloud if he's "some kinda doctor," to which Cloud responds with "I'm just a mercenary." One of Takahiro's other roles was the Medicine Seller in Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales and Mononoke, whose catchphrase is "I'm just a medicine seller."
  • Since Advent Children, Sephiroth was voiced by George Newbern, who also voiced Superman in various adaptations. With the complete cast overhaul for Remake, Sephiroth is now voiced by Tyler Hoechlin, who has also played Superman, in his appearances in the Arrowverse.
  • When it was announced that Remake would be delayed until April 2020, fans were worried that being released days apart from Cyberpunk 2077 would affect its sales. Two days later, it was announced that Cyberpunk would be delayed until September 2020. It's doubly hilarious in hindsight given the state that Cyberpunk eventually got released in; had it released on time, it no doubt would've been in even worse shape.
  • People nicknamed the game as "Rebuild of Final Fantasy VII". Then comes an interview with one of the developers precisely saying that the game has an ending hook similar to what happened with a "familiar anime series".
  • It's long been a Fandom-Specific Plot in the fanfiction community to build a story off of a What If? scenario where Zack survived his last stand against the Shinra army. The ending makes this canon.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged, another retelling of Final Fantasy VII, ends its first part after Shinra is assassinated and the group going on the hunt for Sephiroth, exactly like how the first part of Remake ends. Also from Machinabridged, we had Reeve criticize the plan to drop the Sector 7 plate from both a ethical and financial perspective. In this game, AVALANCHE actually points out how nonsensical the move is due to the sheer cost from rebuilding the city.
  • Though the games were planned years apart, Remake and Persona 5 Royal bear a few similarities for games that came out within two weeks of one another. The two both have a group that is unfairly labeled as criminals by those in power, both contain a Phantom Thief who sends calling cards and helps the downtrodden, both include a darts minigame, and both are Updated Rereleases of older games.
  • In the Nintendo DS port of Chrono Trigger, Lavos gets a new form called the Dream Devourer. Not only is there a character named Marle in Remake, albeit in the form of an old lady, but Jenova, who can be seen a gender-swapped Lavos, now has a new form called Jenova Dreamweaver.
  • This game was released a few weeks after Persona 5 Royal, a fellow expanded version of a critically acclaimed JRPG, and both games have a tech genius with an obvious crush on the protagonist voiced by Erica Lindbeck.
  • The "Aerith with a folding chair" meme becomes a million times funnier when you find out that there is such a thing as a "gainsborough chair".
• Hollywood Homely: Aerith has had her looks commented on negatively on several occasions, with characters suggesting she's less attractive than she actually appears to be. In reality, or at least from the players perspective, she's no less attractive than any other major female character in the game. This is mostly in the Wall Market section, however, and is implied to be due to Aerith not wearing much makeup or a showy outfit as you have to be decked out to the nines to stand out in that area of the game. Get Aerith's best dress for the audition with Don Corneo and she gets more positive attention from passersby (and Cloud).
• Ho Yay:
  • Several of Aerith and Tifa's interactions have been interpreted by some fans as being very homoerotic — such as them jokingly agreeing to go on a shopping spree date with each other. And the scene where Tifa asks Aerith to get Marlene to safety has them share a practically smoldering look.
  • In Intergrade, while they are brothers, Nero's relationship with Weiss is definitely... something. Nero doesn't care for any "team" in Deepground though he shows complete worship toward his brother. Their shared scene involve Weiss asking Nero whether he is ready for his next hunt in a flirty way while Nero acts very needy toward Weiss. Some of his comments during his battle involves taking sadomasochistic pleasure in pain while moaning Weiss's name in a...not-so-brotherly way. (like "Oh Weiss, this is it. This is it" or "Oh Weiss, I feel so alive".) Even Sean Chiplock said that Nero "was obsessively involved with his brother". It follows Dirge of Cerberus where Nero had a massive brother complex toward Weiss.
    Nero: When will Shinra learn? There is no replicating you. They ought to know better.
• It Was His Sled: Zack Fair survives his last stand, in a deviation from his original fate. It's become a Late-Arrival Spoiler due to him being present on the boxart of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and in its marketing.
• Jerkass Woobie: In Intergrade, Weiss is a Blood Knight who loves hunting his victims. However, he did not deserve to have his mind hijacked by Hojo and be used as a vessel for an experiment.
• LGBT Fanbase: The game was very well received across the LGBT spectrum due to, in no small part, its immensely attractive cast of characters. Bara fans quickly took up to this much more handsome incarnation of Barret, Tifa/Aerith became an extremely popular ship among queer women, and Cloud crossdressing was well received by trans fans. The Honey Bee Inn sequence in particular has been praised for shattering the concept of heteronormativity, with Cloud and Andrea having a lot of chemistry as they dance together and the crowd cheering Cloud's makeover into a woman. The scene, and Andrea's words to Cloud, have been taken as words of empowerment.
  Andrea: True beauty is an expression of the heart. A thing without shame to which notions of gender don't apply. Don't ever be afraid, Cloud.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Barret being killed by Sephiroth right after President Shinra is. Although many have speculated that someone else may die in this new continuity, even if it is Barret, it would be too soon considering his role in the later parts of the original story. Sure enough, Barret only suffers a Disney Death and is revived by the Whispers.
• Magnificent Bastard: Tseng is the calm and collected leader of the Turks, a master of infiltration, interrogation, and assassinations, training his Turks to work together yet be prepared to sever those ties of duty calls for it. Tasked with keep watch of the Cetra Aerith and take her back into Shinra custody without the use of force, he takes advantage of the Sector 7 plate fall to force Aerith to make deal to save Marlene in return to coming back to Shinra. Later serving as President Rufus Shinra’s right hand man, he tracks Cloud and CO’s progress via having Cait Sith serve as a mole and having him steal the Keystone to the Temple of the ancients. After suffering a near fatal injury via a Sephorith clone he finds the strength to kill the clone to protect Aerith and after confirming his mission ensuring his safety. calmly walks away to file a report. A true professional that follows any order regardless of feelings and a stalwart exemplar to his underlings, Tseng will always fulfill his duty as a Turk.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The game's infamous Development Hell became the source of many jokes regarding the increasingly popular notion that it would end up as vaporware. Oftentimes, this was accompanied by variations of or references to the Crab Rave meme.
  • Sephiroth is voiced by Superman again.^note Tyler Hoechlin, who voices Sephiroth, played Superman in Supergirl, thus following George Newbern's footsteps. Some fans also joked about getting Henry Cavill, Superman in the DC Extended Universe, to play live-action Sephiroth; after all, he also already had experience playing a live-action silver-haired swordsman from a video game. Incidentally, Johnny in the Remake is also voiced by yet another Superman.
  • The outcry over Tifa's perceived breast reduction has spawned parodies on Twitter jokingly voicing outrage over Cloud's hands and thighs being shrunk.
  • "Cyberpunk 2077 is scared of Final Fantasy VII." ^note On January 14, 2020, it was announced that Remake would be delayed until April 10, 2020, only a few days before the release of Cyberpunk 2077. Two days later, it was announced that Cyberpunk would be delayed until September 2020, prompting this reaction.
  • The Whispers of Fate (or "Time Jannies" as they've come to be known) barging into other works to "correct" the course of the plot when the player starts deviating too much quickly became a subject for meme-laden fan art. Likewise for Barret's active opposition of them with him being portrayed as a time-traveler on a mission to Set Right What Once Went Wrong across various works of media.
  • Final Fantasy VII: ReBUILD ^{Explanation (spoilers!)}Comparisons between Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebuild of Evangelion were made after both entries used a Cosmic Retcon to significantly deviate from their source material.
  • Easy mode is too easy.^ExplanationMike Fahey published an article on Kotaku which argued that the difficulty difference between Easy mode and Normal mode is too drastic. Fahey cited an encounter he had against particularly strong monsters; this encounter was too hard for him to beat on Normal, but he cleared it effortlessly on Easy. The article's original headline was "Final Fantasy VII Remake's Easy Mode is Too Easy," leading to mockery after fans thought the article was complaining that a video game's easy mode was easy to beat. Fans also called Kotaku hypocrites because they've previously published articles arguing for games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice to have easy modes due to their high difficulty, even if Fahey didn't write those articles. Even after the headline was changed to more accurately reflect the article's content, Kotaku and Fahey were still lambasted for it.
  • Thirsty Jessie.^ExplanationJessie is very forward with her attraction to Cloud, even inviting him to come drop by her place after the Sector 5 mission with the note her roommates will be out. This has led to many jokes about how "thirsty" Jessie is for Cloud, or just in general.
  • "Shit!"^ExplanationAs Aerith is climbing a ladder in Sector 5, the ladder snaps before she reaches the top, and Aerith exclaims "shit!" before jumping to grab the final rung. While there's disagreement over if Aerith would curse or not, especially since her line in Japanese is closer to "Oh no!", the scene is the first time in any appearance that Aerith has ever uttered a swear word, making it a very surprising and memorable moment, and very funny to those that didn't mind it.
  • Chairith Painsborough.^Explanation Aerith's blunt idea of knocking out some of Corneo's goons with a chair out of a wrestling match hasn't gone unnoticed, which has led to a lot of pro wrestling references being made. It's also a really awesome moment for her. As an extension of this and Sephiroth's "Shall I give you despair?" line from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, there is also the memetic phrase "Shall I give you dis chair?" Her English voice actress, Briana White, also got in on the fun during a cosplay photoshoot where she poses with a folding chair.
  • "Worked up a good sweat! Would kill for a shower." ^Explanation For some reason, these two specific Tifa post-combat quotes tend to repeat far more often, or stand out significantly more compared to the others, to the point many fans joke that Tifa thinks she sweats a lot and/or smells bad after particularly intense battles or otherwise stressful situations, or that she is a clean freak who doesn't like getting dirty despite being a physical fighter, or that she simply enjoys taking showers and baths. Britt Baron, Tifa's voice actress, happened to tweet this after the remake's release.
  • YOOOOUUUU.^Explanation Barret occasionally refers to Cloud as "Soldier Boy", which has prompted fans to make references to Soulja Boy due to his pronunciation, with this being the most common.
  • So this is where Kyrie went.^Explanation Thanks to the same name, many fans joked that the reason why Kyrie never appeared in Devil May Cry 5 was because she was in Midgar City.
  • "The mayor."^ExplanationWhile searching for the Mayor of Midgar in the Shinra Headquarters, Cloud's only way of asking for him is to simply say "The mayor" in a deadpan voice, which has led to people attributing an obsession with the Mayor of Midgar to him.
  • "Wait a minute, you talking about Tifa?"^Explanation When Cloud and Aerith try to ask Chocobo Sam about Tifa, there are three options that the player can pick to describe her. All three will result in Sam immediately realizing that Cloud's talking about her, which prompted jokes that no matter how vague or outlandish the description is, Sam will always say that they refer to Tifa, even if the description fits other characters more (i.e. "Has a long silver hair and wields an absurdly long katana" -> "Wait a minute, you talking about Tifa?").
  • Prominent Italian political figures: Tifa Lockhart^{Explanation (VERY NSFW)}A Zoom meeting between members of the Italian Senate was seemingly hijacked, and the screen would show about 20 seconds of... an explicit hentai video featuring Tifa. The internet exploded with total amusement as soon as they caught wind of this, with the joke that Tifa is now a major part of Italian politics. There is an immediate surge of fan art and edits of Tifa involving the Italian flag, memes and comics of her shocked reaction at the "leak", and references to Tifa's mortified "Were you watching?" reaction from the original game after it is heavily implied she got it on with Cloud. Or Tifa crossing over with another video game franchise with Italian characters, namely Super Mario Bros. and being claimed to be the newest Italian icon so the Mario brothers no longer being the sole characters for that.
  • "Uh, guys? The door's locked."^ExplanationMuch like the original game with the Overly Long Gag of the stairs running, many have made jokes that at the very end of the sequence, Cloud just goes to open the door only for it to be locked.
• Memetic Psychopath: Aerith is making the rounds as this courtesy of some of her aforementioned memetic moments being taken to the extreme: With her kind persona being just a front for a girl who swears like a sailor, gives herself "permission to kill" (preferably with a chair) at the drop of a hat, keeps Cloud prisoner in her house to dress up as a girl, and uses the bodies of her slain enemies as fertilizer for her flowers.
• Memetic Troll: As explained above in the "Thirsty Jessie" meme entry, fans have taken to exaggerating Jessie's attraction to Cloud to comedic levels.
• Mis-blamed: As expected, Tetsuya Nomura gets the brunt of various criticisms from some fans and critics concerning things that are out of his control, such as the lack of news concerning the development process. While Nomura is a noted perfectionist, he has also been on record as stating that he's wanted to share news on the project for some time, but the higher-ups at Square Enix kept insisting on having the project under wraps, usually using the excuse of "saving it for a big event." It's also to note that Nomura can easily be seen as the scapegoat, as he didn't even know he was in charge of the remake until Square announced it at E3. In addition, while Nomura is the director, he is not the writer for the games as some have implied; Kazushige Nojima and Motomu Toriyama are (though Nomura does still share some of the blame here, as his role as director still means that he did have the authority to veto their decisions and apparently chose not to). It also wouldn't be close to the first time that Nomura has come under fire over the writing of various divisive projects they were creatively involved in.
• Moe:
  • Aerith was already pretty moe in the original game due to her sweet and compassionate nature that blends well with her upbeat and bright personality, not to mention cuteness. The remake further enriches these traits while also putting emphasis on how vulnerable she actually is deep inside. A beloved figure in Sector 5 because of how much she helps out the local populace while expecting no compensation in return, her kindness even rubs off into the cold and uncaring Cloud, opening the way for him to start embracing his own inner humanity. She also gets new scenes with Cloud that show her bringing him out of his withdrawn, antisocial shell in both cute and endearings ways, such as teaching him (patiently) how to do a proper high five while playfully teasing him as he tries to act cool. But what makes Aerith especially Moe to fans is the reveal that underneath her bright and peppy demeanor is a lonely young woman who is haunted by her isolated, friendless childhood and all the terrible experiences she had already endured at such a young age, including the loss of her birth mother. It gets pronounced when the monster Eligor taunts her by showing her visions of her child self being left behind by her playmates, with no one returning for her, causing her to break down in tears. Even worse, she's also continuously being hounded by the evil Shinra Corporation and its resident Mad Scientist Hojo, who desires to subject her to the same inhumane tortures he did to her mother. All this is topped off by the heavy implication that Aerith is well aware that she's set to die a cruel, tragic death as decreed by fate, causing her both anguish and sorrowful resignation while forcing herself to hide her pain from view so as not to worry others. It's no surprise then that fans consider Aerith a strong contender for the game's biggest Woobie and a character most deserving of love and protection.
  • Tifa qualified in the original version of the game for being so shy and awkward about her crush on Cloud, plus incredibly cute and kind to others in general, and her personality here isn't much different. Even more than that, she is more openly concerned with Avalanche's actions falling under Well-Intentioned Extremist territory, compared to the original game where she seemed to accept the collateral damage as a necessity just as much as Barret and the rest of Avalanche, which makes her come across as even more caring and thoughtful than she already did. She also gets a few new scenes where she comes across as especially cute, such as when she’s afraid of the ghosts around her and Aerith, and hides behind Aerith for protection from them. So, just like the original version of the game, fans tend to love Tifa's warm and compassionate personality (helped even more by the beautiful voice with a sincerely encouraging tone that Britt Baron gives her) plus cute design (even sporting Zettai Ryouiki this time around!) enough to consider her Moe despite her being more than tough enough to take on the game's challenges. It gets especially pronounced during the scene where she breaks down crying about the group's failure to prevent the casualties from the Sector 7 plate, where she's at her most Woobie.
• Moral Event Horizon: President Shinra crosses it when he orders the Sector 7 plate dropped to crush the slums and root out Avalanche. Remake adds a scene where Reeve begs him to reconsider, as there are 50,000 people living in the slums (not to mention everyone living on top of the plate itself), and then asks if the President will at least let him warn the people — the President coldly rebuffs him with the words "progress requires sacrifice. Learn to live with it."

Tropes N-Z

• Narm:
  • Some of Barret's English line delivery can be this, due to the intentional hokeyness of his character sometimes conflicting with the tone of specific cutscenes, and his voice has a habit of cracking in the middle of some sentences. His reaction when Rude presses the button which disengages the pillar, dropping the plate above down on Sector 7 below is perhaps the most notable example. What is clearly a serious and emotionally devastating turn of events is slightly undermined by the way that his tone shifts and cracks rather noticeably as he screams: "What have you doooOOOOne???!!!" The dramatic zoom of the camera, combined with the fact that his facial expression does not so much convey horror as generic anger, doesn't help matters.
  • The final boss fight, which is a one-on-one duel between Cloud and Sephiroth, gets off to a ridiculous start because of the camera melodramatically zooming in on the participants, complete with several cuts to their faces. It's fine at first, but there are so many cuts that it stops being dramatic and starts looking silly (as despite being a deliberate Call-Back to their final duel in the original game, which had the same cuts, some fans feel it hasn't aged well with the new animation). Fortunately, the rest of the duel looks just fine.
  • The scene in which Leslie's backstory and motivation for revenge against Don Corneo is revealed has a good deal of unearned emotion. As he clutches his one memento of his fiancé who was (probably) killed by Corneo, concluding his quickly-sketched and to many outright unearned character arc, the game plays the scene as if such clutching and teen angst weren't done to death already. The hope Tifa gives him seems trite, considering there's zero reason to think it's true.
  • In their attempts to find an informant in the Shinra headquarters that can lead them to the city's mayor, the main trio use the phrase "The mayor." Cloud, clearly not wanting to play slyly with this whatsoever, proceeds to only say exactly that to each notable person you can talk with, even if it comes off as a complete Non Sequitur in the conversation much to their confusion. With the exact same monotone voice line for every single use of it.
  • When the group goes to the top of the Shinra building, you find out President Shinra is alive, hanging onto the edge and about to fall off. Before you approach him, he can be heard shouting and begging for help. It becomes unintentionally hilarious because you can go to the nearby bench and vending machine while he is begging for help. The hilarity of Cloud walking over to check out someone in need of help, and then taking a moment to sit down, relax, maybe buy a potion, makes the serious nature of that point quickly vanish.
  • Cait Sith making his grand entrance into the plot right when the Sector 7 plate collapses. Watching a toy cat show up out of nowhere to react to the darkest moment of the game can really change a moment from heartbreaking to hilarious.
  • Heidegger's evil cackling was fine when he was a 1997 chibi sprite. However, as a photorealistic character with full voice acting, his randomly breaking into a cartoonish "BWAAAA-HA-HA-HAAA!" in almost every scene is impossible to take seriously, even by JRPG standards.
• Narm Charm:
  • Matt Jones' voice as Wedge sounds silly and a bit forced at times, but it somehow works well with the character, resulting in a lot of scenes with him that on paper are eye-rolling being funny and charming.
  • The dance mini-game with Andrea Rhodea and Cloud. It's pure camp, but it manages to be entertaining because of how enthusiastically Aerith cheers and how oddly into it Cloud becomes.
  • Cloud's "You owe me a pizza" line when Jessie dies (presumably) is sometimes criticized by fans for feeling out-of-place tonally, but within the broader context of the scene, it's presented more like he's trying to ease the pain of the situation. Given how disaffected Cloud had been toward Jessie in the early chapters, coupled with his having recently learned a few street-smarts from Aerith, the scene can be read as him trying to be less cold and more lighthearted; believing that it would cheer Jessie up to hear him accept her offer.
• Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page.
• Nintendo Hard: The early game is lenient on potions and the boss patterns aren't too overly difficult, but by the time you reach the Wall Market, bosses start getting much more demanding and actively requiring you to figure out and counter their patterns, and character mastery becomes crucial since trying to brute force battles will get you killed in no time. This is especially prevalent on Hard Mode, where all enemies are max level, the damage output between both the player and the enemies is notably different on top of higher HP values for foes, and the player can't use items to heal or restore MP regularly anymore.
• Older Than They Think: A lot of the game's themes such as the dystopian mega-corporation destroying the environment and oppressing the poor, and the heroes engaging in some morally gray direct action to counteract them, have been described by audiences as strikingly topical, sometimes even pejoratively. However, these themes were already core elements of the original plot. Hell, it's a classic Cyberpunk scenario!
• One-Scene Wonder: Kunsel doesn't even appear in person, he just gets namedropped in a single line of dialogue. But given his pre-existing Ensemble Dark Horse status, and that it was never clarified if he was even still alive, the mention of his name is a very memorable moment for fans of Crisis Core.
• One True Threesome: For some fans, the Clerith/Cloti ship wars have been discarded in favor of Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith all happily dating each other. It helps that both women are very into him while having Les Yay moments with each other as well.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Fans who didn't like the changes in Remake largely blame Tetsuya Nomura, the credited director, and wished that the original director, Yoshinori Kitase, would have retained his role. This interview confirming that Kitase had minimal involvement in the game with Nomura largely being responsible for all creative decisions has only strengthened this sentiment. Even then, these fans tend to forget or outright ignore that Kitase was still largely involved in many of Remake's controversial decisions, primarily the decision to split the game into parts, replace the Advent Children English cast and was the individual who insisted that Nomura had to be the director of the project even when the latter thought the former was planning to be director.^note Even though Nomura had wanted to do Remake since Advent Children Complete, he had been working on Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III at the time talks of finally doing Remake had started up and had assumed Kitase would take up the role of director. He was entirely unaware he was director for the longest time until an in house presentation revealed it to him.
• Padding: As Remake takes the first six hours of the original game and turns them into a full game, there is a lot of new content and expansion of old content. While some of the additions are welcomed and integrated well, others are not, and hurt the pacing of the gameplay and/or story.
  • Several areas that were only one or two screens big in Final Fantasy VII have been expanded into dungeons in Remake, and will take substantially longer to get through. Perhaps the most egregious instance is the Sector 5 mission - in the original game the entire sequence took about half an hour, but in Remake the train tunnels, the underplate infrastructure, and the reactor itself, are all full dungeons that will each take an hour or more to complete.
  • The Wall Market sequence adds an obligatory coliseum sequence, including a very long and difficult boss battle, in order to get into Don Corneo's mansion. And while both VII and Remake required the player to talk to numerous NPCs to advance the subplot, this takes longer in Remake since Wall Market is a much larger area with a confusing layout.
  • The sewer and Train Graveyard areas after Wall Market are now full chapter-length dungeons, which considerably slows down the sense of urgency of getting to the Sector 7 pillar in time.
  • Instead of deciding to go rescue Aerith from Shinra immediately after the collapse of the Sector 7 plate, the party goes to Sector 7 to search for survivors and fall into an underground Shinra research lab. After they escape, there's a sideplot involving one of Don Corneo's henchmen Leslie, that requires a trek through a dungeon to get his help to get up to the top of the plate (and the trip itself is also a dungeon). This part is particularly egregious about padding out the game, as the sideplot involving Leslie is irrelevant to the main story and the means he gives the party to get to the top of the plate is just an upgraded version of the grappling guns they already had.
  • In the original game, after breaking out of Shinra's prison, the party could immediately head to the President's office and advance the story. Remake adds a whole new dungeon where the party has to explore Hojo's lab and fight his experiments for an hour or two before they can leave. One reason for this specific instance of padding is to have the chance to extensively use Aerith in battle again, since she was absent for the past 4 chapters, as well as to give the team more time with Red XIII, who would have very limited time before the non-stop action of the game's finale and gives him enough time to form a friendship with everyone.
• Polished Port: Intergrade cuts down on load times (though those were already pretty short), touches up the visuals, adds a 60FPS mode, a photo mode, and adds a new short DLC introducing Yuffie to the new games.
• Porting Disaster: While the PC release allows for up to 4K 120FPS gameplay (along with the improved visuals and extra content of the PS5 version), that's all it has over the console versions. No way to tweak things like motion blur or anti-aliasing, no way to push the visual quality above the console versions, and no way to disable the game's dynamic resolution system (so you can't get a "true" 4K experience). But the real problem is stability. While the game will run on most mid-range machines, the port exhibits an absurd amount of stuttering and frame-drops regardless of your settings and PC build, which means dropping it down from 120FPS down to 60FPS won't actually help much. This stuttering even occurs in cutscenes, which really hurts the immersion. Some of this can be improved with some external tweaks^note Running the game in DirectX 11 mode or using a mod to disable the dynamic resolution system can both improve stability, but the out-of-the-box experience is almost a straight downgrade from the PS5 port. Oh yeah, and it cost $70 at launch (or 80€ if you live in Europe) and used to be an Epic exclusive on top of it all until it was released on Steam in June 17th of 2022.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: While not outright being viewed as The Scrappy in Dirge of Cerberus and his treatment by fans being more of a result of the game's overall reception, Weiss the Immaculate was not very well-received by the fanbase. However, some think that his role in Intergrade redeemed him, Weiss being more threatening and less Narm as a character, making him endearing. The fact that he had been voiced by Daman Mills helped matters for some.
  • His appearance in Opera Omnia also helped matters for some, as Weiss's personality is much more developed here than in Dirge of Cerberus. Fans much more appreciated his character after this.
• Salvaged Story:
  • The context of the Mako Reactor bombing is changed to not be entirely AVALANCHE's fault for fans who were rubbed the wrong way or felt like AVALANCHE was a terrorist Designated Hero because of the explosion's collateral damage. Specifically, AVALANCHE's explosion just destroys the reactor's mako pump, crippling the reactor with precision and zero loss of innocent life. A lot of the destruction is caused by the battle with the Scorpion Robot, which was a little beyond AVALANCHE's control, then President Shinra and Heidegger finished the job by making the reactor explode catastrophically with intention of creating a False Flag Operation and turning AVALANCHE into terrorists in the public eye.
  • In addition, the motivation behind destroying an entire sector just to frame a terrorist cell, as opposed to simply purging the lower area with infantry, is fleshed out: AVALANCHE was merely small fry, but they wanted the collateral so large that (A) they could blame Wutai for something beyond mere terrorism and declare another war, and (B) the increased tension could be used as a public excuse for Shin-Ra to pull out of the economically-failing Midgar, colonize a new base (ideally in the Promised Land), and leave the whole over-polluted, monster-infested city to rot.
  • After the original game — and the Compilation as a whole — glossed over Reno dropping the Sector 7 plate without remorse, both Reno and Rude are shown to disagree with the order. On top of that, Reno is no longer the sole person responsible for the destruction as it’s ultimately finalized by Rude, and a significant portion of Sector 7’s residents are evacuated before the plate comes down.
    • There is even a scene later where Tseng is trying to comfort Reno by explaining that if they had refused, Shinra would have had someone else do it, and Reno refuses the consolation.
  • One of the major complaints about the Compilation, as well as the franchise in itself over the years, is that the entries took themselves way too seriously and many were worried this remake would remove some of the sillier moments from the original like the cross-dressing scene. Not only is the cross-dressing scene still here, but they manage to make it even campier.
  • The Wall Market subquest was considered by some to have aged poorly, with the bodybuilders being blatant homosexual non-con stereotypes, the Honey Bee Inn being a brothel employing girls in sexy bee costumes, and Cloud's cross-dressing was treated like something shameful and embarrassing that others made fun of. Remake revamps the sequence in various ways to make it go over better. In place of the bodybuilders, we have Andrea, who is definitely Camp but is much more dignified than Stalker with a Crush Mukki; the Honeybee Inn has employees of both genders and is presented more as a fancy entertainment lounge than a seedy brothel; the only person who teases Cloud's cross-dressing is Aerith, but she does so because she's amused by him being embarrassed by it and she doesn't mock the act itself; and as a whole the Honeybee Inn sequence is so campy and over-the-top that it achieves Refuge in Audacity.
  • The original game never explained how Aerith took Marlene to her house all the way in Sector 5 during the Sector 7 plate collapse. The expanded depiction of this in Remake explains that Tseng intercepted her as she was retrieving Marlene, and he agreed to take Marlene to Aerith's house by helicopter in exchange for her coming with him peacefully. In addition, the original game has Tseng slap Aerith during the pillar collapse sequence — which was already at odds with Aerith's description of Tseng later in the game as almost like an old friend. The remake revises the whole conversation and removes the slap.
  • While the original game did show Barret breaking down in devastation following the destruction of Sector 7, it pretty much glossed over Cloud and Tifa's responses to the whole ordeal—a serious missed opportunity given that they have both suffered the loss of their homes and livelihoods twice. Here, we get to see Tifa's suppressed, yet anguished response to the destruction of her bar (and set to a hauntingly visceral rendition of her theme), sometime after which—if your affinity rating is high enough—she completely breaks down and cries into Cloud's chest. The latter, whom had remained completely stoic up to this point, finally drops his cold exterior and tries to comfort her with a hug. While obviously showing fewer outward expressions of grief—likely due to his amnesia interfering with his memories—his subtle facial expressions nonetheless convey genuine sorrow over their shared misfortunes and losses.
  • Even for how depraved Hojo was in the original, he should have known that it was impossible for Aerith and Red XIII to breed viable children. In Remake, he instead suggests breeding Aerith with a more compatiable mate ike SOLDIER members or those he infused with S and G-type Jenova Cells. It preserves his depravity but makes much more logical sense.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The ATB system has a few kinks in it that can really trip players up. Inputting a command and then getting stunned or interrupted stops the command from executing, but the ATB segment expended to issue the command is still lost, also if you try to use magic and it fails to execute you still lose MP. Alternatively, there will be occasions where the command executes successfully, but the enemy suddenly moves out of the way as the character is charging their attack; the tracking on enemies in such circumstances is non-existent, resulting in characters whiffing attacks. This can even happen with Limit Breaks, meaning you just wasted your entire gauge.
  • Just like in the original game, and more particularly the Kingdom Hearts series, you have to make sure all of your gear and materia are pre-allocated before you enter a battle, because trying to go to the menu just pauses the game mid-fight. Not a big deal with random battles usually, but it becomes a very big deal when story cutscenes can transition straight into a boss fight, and there's numerous cases throughout the game of the story chaining multiple battles together without a break time for menuing. In a game where the right materia strategies can completely shift the tide of a fight, this means a potential and inevitable death just to be able to try it again with a different loadout, and sometimes you simply can't predict when a cutscene-into-encounter might break out. This is alleviated somewhat by the game allowing you to hold Square during most cutscenes - this will ensure that after it finishes, the game will open up the menu and let you change your loadout.
  • Both Blizzard and Aero spells get a lot of flak compared to Fire and Thunder spells because the damage only applies to the spells exploding on the target, not when the spell hits the enemy, and the spells do not stick to the enemy like Bio. The spells are useless against any enemy moving at any speed or with an attack that moves them at any distance, and a cast that does no damage still consumes MP. On the plus side, this also applies to enemies casting these spells as the characters can just block it and roll out of the way. Intergrade also changes Aero so it sticks to enemies, but somewhat inexplicably left Blizzard in the original state.
  • The Enemy Skill Materia, game-breaker of the original Final Fantasy VII, is here restricted to four abilities with one being Self-Destruct. While a fully upgraded Enemy Skill is still one of the game's best Materia, it requires much more support to truly shine. There's also no way to check which skills have already been learned without going into the menu in battle.
  • Most bosses who have multiple phases or changes in behaviors get a brief cutscene of the changeover. This has the side of effect of ending their Stagger if you've triggered it, prematurely ending attacks that didn't get time to land all their hits, and generally breaks up the flow of combat. This means in practice that just as you get a rhythm going, Stagger the boss, and start to wail on it with your best attacks, a cutscene plays that pauses the fight and lets the boss get out of this tight situation. Similar to being interrupted as above, you can also lose ATB segments and MP from spells/commands — this even applies to abilities cast on your own party which have no logical reason to 'vanish' just because a boss is transitioning to a different phase.
  • Adding to the previous point, if a bosses' HP is lowered to a certain level, they're staggered and a cutscene doesn't play, their HP becomes locked and you cannot damage them any further until the stagger ends and the cutscene begins. The sequel, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth at least amends this problem by adding a visual indicator to tell you when HP damage is blocked and a phase change needs to occur.
  • Chadley is only present in certain chapters. While this is a mild hindrance when it comes to getting rewards for completing his intel reports, it also means you're only able to challenge his VR missions at specific points in the story, and since your party is strictly controlled by the narrative, you don't get a chance to take on his VR missions with a full party until Chapter 13, and can't have a full party that includes Aerith until Chapter 17, which is close to the end of the game. You'll either have to try his VR missions with your party down a character, or put off doing them until later in the game, denying you the Summon Materia they reward in the meantime.
  • There's no option to use items in bulk, and no way to use them from within the character menu, so if you want to conserve MP and heal up your party between battles with items, you have to use the field menu to select "Items," then select the item you wish to use, and then select the character on which you wish to use the item. Then, you have to repeat this process for every single item, on every single character in your active party. It can be a huge pain in the ass to heal up your party after a tough fight. While you can hold down a button to enable you to use the same item or spell repeatedly in succession to save some time, this is much slower than going into the menu in the original.
  • In the original release, the Auto-Cure and Synergy Materia only wasted Materia slots on having your AI teammates use their ATB to act under certain circumstances, a function also provided by the R2 button. Averted in Intergrade which massively increases the usefulness of Synergy materia as spells cast with it no longer have ATB or MP cost, allowing the teammate to spam a large amount of spells resource free.
  • Your AI teammates play very defensively, which means they rarely take unnecessary damage and don't waste MP, but also means they build ATB extremely slowly and contribute little compared to the player-controlled character. Certain Materia can help control their actions, but these require sacrificing valuable slots. There's not even a rudimentary system for directing your AI teammates like in previous games, meaning that you'll often be rapidly switching between characters just to force them into battle and build ATB bars. It's worth noting however that the supposed purpose of this is to prevent all party members from having fully charged ATB bars at all times, as such a scenario would eliminate the opportunity cost to using Cure magic and/or healing items thereby allowing players to heal indefinitely (which was a major criticism of the combat in Final Fantasy XV). Likewise, the lack of a system for directing party members' AI may be due to complaints from some fans that XII 's gambit system was too intuitive and could be exploited by players to make the game play itself.
• Self-Fanservice:
  • Since it was expected that a lot of the designs for the cast would be tweaked for Remake, a good number of fans, particularly those in the West, were hoping the developers would redesign Tifa to be more muscular as they felt it would better match her melee-focused combat style. This led to a lot of fan art of her being depicted as such. While Tifa's unveiling in the E3 2019 trailer more or less dashed that hope, it still hasn't stopped fan artists from drawing buff versions of Tifa. ^note Admittedly, this was already a fairly popular trend long before Remake was announced, dating back to the time period of the Compilation releases if not earlier. In addition, there's quite a few people drawing remake! Tifa with a bigger bust as well, to make it more in line with interpretations of her original model.
  • In August 2021, Strawderry ST on Twitter posted a few scenes of the game edited to have Tifa's hair short. Fans, and even the main Square Enix twitter account, really liked the look and it became very popular for Tifa fanart to have her sporting short hair, usually under the hashtag #TifaShortHair (sometimes #ShortHairTifa).
• She Really Can Act: Briana White was almost completely unknown prior to her casting as Aerith, with only a mildly successful gaming Twitch channel to her name, but no major acting or voice acting credits. When the game was released however, she was widely praised for balancing both Aerith's serious and upbeat sides.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Cloud, Tifa and Aerith back in 1997 formed what is one of, if not THE most iconic Love Triangle in video game history (so much so that this wiki's main and YMMV articles for the original game had to be locked for years as a result of frequent edit warring over the subject), so the situation was bound to be repeated here. However, the expanded characterization has created a few new developments unique to the remake both intensifying and mitigating the intensity of this shipping war.
  • On one hand, explained in Ho Yay above, Aerith and Tifa have more screentime dedicated to their budding friendship, with some scenes that can easily be read with homoerotic subtext. This has made them a way bigger ship than they were in the original. A positive side effect of this is causing many shippers to move away from the volatile Love Triangle Debate, preferring to ship Cloud, Aerith and Tifa together as a One True Threesome instead of taking sides.
  • On the other hand both the expansion of Cloud's interactions with both girls and the ending heated up shipping war discussions in the fandom with both factions of the shipping war, with debates on the ending being split in many circles based on shipping preferences. The vast majority of Clerith shippers believe that the Remake trilogy is a Stealth Sequel where Cloud and Aerith finally get their happy ending(with the ending theme Hollow seemingly foreshadowing that Cloud will save her this time around). Conversely, the vast majority of Cloti shippers either believe the Remake trilogy to be a genuine remake or Compilation-friendly reimagining of the original game or they believe that Aerith's fate to be immutable regardless of any major story changes. Heating things up further is the presence of Toriyama and Hamaguchi in the development of the Remake trilogy and the perception of both developers as excessively pro-CloudXAerith within shipper circles, with Cleriths believing that their presence on the development team will see the love triangle be resolved towards CloudXAerith, while Clotis believe that Normura and Nojima (both of whom are commonly perceived as favoring CloudXTifa, even through their actual stances are more complicated) will restrain them from tilting the love triangle in that direction.
  • Jessie also has a lot more screentime, which expands what was just some light flirting in the original (so light that some people missed it) into full-blown thirst for Cloud that makes even Aerith's teasing look like tame banter by comparison. Her front, decisive attitude towards pursuing Cloud romantically has made a lot of people warm up to and root for her instead, even while fully aware of her tragic end. Her possible survival has led to many "Clessie" shippers expressing hope she will play a role in future games. This pairing has not been without controversy through, as one of the more vocal Clessie shippers in the fandom harassed Nojima on social media to the point where Nojima stopped discussing the game altogether.
  • And of course, the ending suggests that Zack is now alive in a new timeline, leading many fans introduced to the franchise via Crisis Core who ship him and Aerith to join in on the frontlines of this particular shipping war, usually as Ship Mates with Cloti shippers. A fair chunk of them, in contrast to the Clotis, are open to the idea of Aerith staying in the Terrier timeline with alternate timeline Zack permenantly rather than the story following the same beats as the original and both dying no matter what.
• Shocking Moments: Largely due to how certain scenes deviate from the original.
  • President Shinra's death at the hands of Sephiroth? Not for those who played the 1997 original and probably even those who didn't. Sephiroth killing Barret immediately afterward? Absolutely, unless you saw it as a case of Like You Would Really Do It or even recognized it as a Development Gag.
  • Although some fans saw it coming and didn't see it ending any other way, many others didn't expect the first chapter of the remake to end with fighting Sephiroth much earlier in the story as the Final Boss. Several streamers had to pause the game because of how unprepared they were for it.
  • The ending. Despite all of the differences from the original game, hardly anyone expected to see Zack survive his infamous last stand. Adding to that, the confirmation that Biggs also survived his death from the original game, with a hint that Jessie did too which leaves the door open to Wedge's survival as well.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The game runs in Unreal Engine 4, and many of that engine's systemic texture loading issues can be seen in the game. Some textures become higher quality only after appearing in view, and some level of detail issues are sprinkled in (such as the door to Cloud's apartment in the slums). Others appear to be terrible on purpose, like the slums underneath the Sector 4 Plate being a very obvious flat image with perspective distortion that doesn't even remotely match the player's viewing angle. In particular, the character models for the main characters are consistently good, but the more generic characters can look very off and their mouth movements look almost like they are a bit over-tuned, causing them to move unnaturally.
  • Similarly, the game has multiple locations with junk on the floor which can be knocked around by Cloud's movements, but to avoid causing an annoyance by hindering said movements, the objects are weightless. When this is something like a wadded-up roll of paper or a bucket, it's fine. When it's a steel girder the size of the Buster Sword, it becomes comical.
  • When picking flowers at Aerith's house, the player still has free camera control as Cloud and Aerith kneel and fill their baskets, allowing players a clear view of the baskets as the flowers in them suddenly pop into existence.
  • During the final battle, it's obvious that some of the objects flying in the background are flat images instead of 3D objects. You won't notice them when you're fighting, but they stand out during the cutscenes. Same deal for the backgrounds of Sector 7's rubble during the plate climb. Some of the background clearly looks like matte paintings.
  • Chocobo Sam's rigged coin toss becomes extra infuriating because when he finally shows you the coin, the side looks the same whether you call heads or tails, making it look like he's not just cheating, but lying to your face about what's on the face of the coin in front of you.
  • Tifa's hair can look somewhat stiff at times, most noticeable in the scene where Jessie is dying, Tifa shakes her head vigorously in disbelief and her hair turns rigidly with no inertia.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • The switch to a more action-oriented gameplay led players who preferred the Active-Time Battle (ATB) system from the original to become rather wary. The E3 2019 reveal that ATB would not only still play a part in combat, but be a major part of it helped alleviate a lot of concerns from that segment of the fanbase. As if to quash these qualms completely, TGS 2019 revealed Classic Mode, which will automate basic attacks, as well as movement and defensive actions, allowing players to focus on ability and spell selection, so fans now have multiple ways to experience the remake.
  • Remake being split into multiple titles has made many fans wary, not helped by Square Enix being unwilling or unable to tell fans how many parts the series will have or how long it will take to develop each individual part aside from a vague statement that development of the second installment should be more "efficient" than the first, which only covered the parts involving Midgar and the leaving thereof (and that wasn't even the entirety of the first disc in the original). Furthermore, with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on the horizon, additional concerns have been raised over whether or not subsequent parts will even be compatible with the PS4 or if Square Enix will simply continue to push the hardware and develop them exclusively for the PS5. Square Enix has stated that they aren't planning to produce games exclusive to ninth generation consoles immediately and that they will still release games for eighth generation console (implying that future parts could still be released on both eighth and ninth generation platforms), but the fact that the DLC episode Intermission is now a PS5 and PC exclusive has since called such assurances into question.
  • Early translations of an interview conducted with Yoshinori Kitase wherein he states that future entries will adhere to the story of the original Final Fantasy VII have resulted in fans accusing him of being a Trolling Creator or even a Lying Creator based on the deviations that the first part makes from the plot of the original. Among those who took the translated statement at face-value, many fans who had wanted a faithful retelling of the original are baffled as to why changes were made in the first place, while many who are looking forward to seeing where the "unknown journey" will take the characters are disappointed since it would invalidate the ending of the first part wherein the characters fight to change their fates and succeed. Ultimately, Kitase's statement was found to have been mistranslated—the original Japanese reads:「リメイク版でも『FFVII』は『FFVII』のままだと思っていてください。」 ("Despite this being a Remake version ^note 「でも」is ambiguous—in this context, it can mean either: "Despite [the existence of] the Remake version" or "Even for the Remake version", please think/assume that FFVII will remain FFVII"), with no specific mention of the story nor any clarification as to whether or not he is stating that only the original game will remain as is—implying that the Remake series may still deviate significantly from the plot of the original.
• That One Achievement:
  • "Biker Boy" is a rather tedious one rather than truly difficult, requiring the player to receive a kiss from Jessie after completing the motorcycle segment of Chapter 4. The kicker here is that the cutscene will only trigger if the player manages to complete the entire sequence with at least 80% of Cloud's health intact. The true difficulty here is you're thrown in a boss fight with Roche in the middle of the chase and if you failed to meet the requirements you have to start over the entire chapter from the beginning.
  • "Peeress of Pull-Ups" requires you to beat all three rounds of Tifa's pull-up minigame in Chapter 14. The first two against Andrea and Jay aren't that bad, but the last one against Jules requires you to press buttons so fast that muscle memory and dumb luck can very well factor into whether or not you win. If you make even one mistake, you may as well give up since Jules will gain a lead that you'll never catch up to. To add to this, Jules lets out a laugh when he wins. This isn't so bad the first few times, but chances are you're going to hear it over and over and over before finally you beat him. ^note The true difficulty here comes from the fact that the button prompts are randomized and can change order between rounds. Not to mention, Jules will only ever suffer a single stamina penalty per round, and given that Tifa's own stamina drain can occur at the same time Jules fall from the bar, it could effectively erase the one "safety net" the player is given in the contest. Combining this unfortunately leads to this becoming something of a Luck-Based Mission.
  • "Dressed to the Nines" requires you to see all of the bridal candidate outfits that Tifa, Aerith, and Cloud can wear for Don Corneo. You can only see one outfit for each character per save file, and while using the chapter selection after you beat the game negates the need for multiple full playthroughs, the conditions to determine which outfit a character wears are time-consuming no matter what you do. Tifa's outfit is determined by a dialogue choice that only becomes available if you complete every sidequest in chapter 3. Aerith's outfit is determined by the amount of sidequests you complete in chapter 8. While both of these are fairly straightforward, with the game even hinting at the latter, the conditions that determine Cloud's outfit is far more obtuse, being based on which sidequests you complete in chapter 9. The problem is that there are 2 mutually exclusive sets of chapter 9, and which set becomes available is determined by certain choices you make earlier in the chapter. If you don't get the set you need, you'll have to redo the entire Wall Market segment, including the coliseum, and hopefully make the right choices. Even if you have a guide handy and manage your saves perfectly, you'll be looking at several hours of going over the same segments.
• That One Attack: Bahamut and Whisper Bahamut's Umbral Strike fires two purple orbs that home in on whoever the player is controlling. Not only does it hit very hard it is also very difficult to dodge and it is completely unblockable.
• That One Boss:
  • The Hell House can be a nasty surprise, especially if you don't Assess it at the beginning of the fight. This is especially true with its second phase, with powerful attacks that are very difficult to dodge and a near-omnipresent shield that reduces all damage dealt it takes. Even if you have Assess, the boss only leaves a small window of time for you to attack its arms, meaning you essentially have to save your resources and wait for a tiny moment to strike, all while the Hell House is raining death on Cloud and Aerith. Even if you know what you're doing, it can easily take upwards of 30 minutes to defeat this boss. The one arguable saving grace is that the house is vulnerable to poison. In Hard Mode it can spawn Tonberries and Sweepers. Worst of all—even after beating it—you still aren't allowed to progress with the story and must instead do another batch of menial sidequests. The fact that Cloud and Aerith both seem to take this in stride despite the unforgiving tedious nightmare the player had just gone through can be nothing short of infuriating. As a final kick to the teeth, you have to condemn this damned building twice on Hard in order to get all of the manuscripts.
  • For players who got used to button-mashing their way through the game as Cloud, Rufus will be a very nasty Wake-Up Call Boss. Landing attacks on Rufus is nearly impossible, as he'll always counterattack afterwards and possibly dodge the attack in the process, so you have to focus on his attack dog, Darkstar. Rufus and Darkstar will combo their attacks together for heavier damage and Rufus will quickly intervene if Darkstar is in trouble. When Darkstar is down to 50% HP, Rufus greatly expands his arsenal with a mix of magical and physical attacks that can stun Cloud, can't be blocked or can't be dodged, and have great range to them. Finally, when you eventually take Darkstar out of the fight, Rufus gets way faster and will jet around the arena rapidly before attacking even more aggressively than before, making it very hard to find an opening to get in hits on him. The fight is made easier with proper usage of Cloud's unique attacks^note Darkstar is very vulnerable to counterattacks from Punisher Mode or Counterstance, and Rufus can be staggered instantly with Braver, but if you're not used to using them, you're in for a world of pain.
• That One Sidequest:
  • "Battle Intel 12: The Stagger Effect pt. 3" can be a huge pain in the neck. You need to stagger an enemy and increase it's gauge to 200%, which only Tifa and Aerith can increase; the former with her triangle attacks or True Strike ability, Aerith can also help with Ray of Judgment but this is generally less effective due to the higher ATB cost and her slower speed. The big problem though is finding a regular enemy with enough HP that it can survive increasing its gauge to 200%, and sometimes the stagger gauge just doesn't last long enough. And more frustrating is that boss fights are usually out for completing the report, because bosses will break out of a stagger prematurely when they move from one phase to the next.
  • "Battle Intel 18: MP Consumption" asks that you master all twelve kinds of magic materia in the game. Most of them you'll easily max out just by grinding a bit during your first playthrough, but there's some that require buttloads of AP, with the Revival Materia in particular needing a whopping five thousand. Even with both the AP Up Materia (acquired from maxing out the Pedometer Materia) and AP bonus you get from finishing the story, that one will take a while.
  • Getting all of the Weapon Manuals in Chapter 9 as it is impossible to get them all in one go. Doing Sam's set of quests only yields one manual while Madam M's mutually exclusive questline yields two, requiring having to do the chapter from the beginning and defeating the Hell House again on Hard to open the opportunity to get the other(s).
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Some were disappointed that the English cast was recast for Remake, given how rare it is for Square Enix to recast characters and the English voice cast generally being consistent since Advent Children in 2005.^note with Kingdom Hearts II (2005), Dirge of Cerberus (2006), Crisis Core (2007) ironing out any other voice acting changes for certain characters. Not helping matters is that some members of the original cast, such as Steve Burton and Beau Billingslea, had initially reprised their roles prior to being replaced. The fact that the Japanese cast has remained intact drew more complaints, as it makes it look like the original English cast got shafted.
  • While the cast has been generally well recieved in terms of how they act, the one change that hasn't gone over well was Zack's voice actor. While he only appears in three sections, his voice doesn't really fit very well and seems very off from what people expected of the voice direction. The most jarring example is the recreation of the "Price of Freedom" moment from Crisis Core; in the original game, Zack sounded somber and almost resigned to possibly dying, while here, the new direction sounds overly energetic and boisterous.
  • While "suck" may be a bit too strong of a word, the new placement of Cloud and Tifa's childhood promise flashback certainty raised some eyebrows. While some people consider it nice that Cloud remembers it completely on his own rather than needing to be reminded, it's still considered to have a strange emotional impact, given that it comes literally out of nowhere, in a new scene that has literally nothing to do with the events of the flashback itself, and it has a really weird trigger: Cloud remembers it just because he sees an industrial ventilation fan that reminds him of the wind mill the flashback takes place in. Also, the story doesn't even acknowledge it after it happens, and it only becomes relevant a few hours later.
  • Another big one, albeit one that just affects the Western localized versions: Hojo reveals to Cloud that he never was in Soldier in the first place, something that wasn't revealed in the original game until halfway through the second disc. While the Japanese version completely cuts the sentence short before it becomes coherent by muting Hojo's voice (you can still read his lips, but it's vague enough so it's not given away to people not already familiar with the story)), the non-Japanese versions only slightly obscure it with sound effects, but it's still clearly heard. Not to mention the subtitles show the full sentence. Even weirder is the fact that, although the game clearly shows that Cloud doesn't get the message because his PTSD-like headaches prevent him from it, Tifa and Barret (and possibly even Aerith in her cell) should have heard it loud and clear, and yet, they don't react to it at all. This last part affects the Japanese version as well.
  • After the game was released a week early in Europe and Australia, players proceeded to post Let's Plays and cutscenes online despite Square Enix requesting them not to do so until the worldwide release date. Following Remake's secrets being revealed, many fans who had expected a more-or-less faithful adaptation of the original game's story were outraged to learn that Remake features a massive Twist Ending in which it is implied that the plot of all future installments will likely diverge significantly from that of the original Final Fantasy VII. To elaborate: The ending completely overrides the entire plot of the original, revealing Remake to be a Stealth Sequel set in an Alternate Timeline. Sephiroth (possibly the same Sephiroth from after the events of Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus) tricks the protagonists into destroying the Arbiters of Fate and, in doing so, alters the "original" timeline — that is, the plot of the original game — in order to avert his own fated defeat, thereby allowing the plot of future Remake installments to go Off the Rails. Needless to say, this twist has drawn some strongly polarized reactions from fans, not least due to the fact that most of Square Enix' previous attempts at telling stories which involve time-travel and multiverse theory post-Chrono Trigger have been less-than-admirably received.
  • Sephiroth's reveal in the original game was far more dramatic after a great deal of mystery and build-up and the infamous trail of blood sequence. In Remake, he shows up right after the first dungeon, seemingly out of nowhere. A much shorter and less dramatic version of the original game's reveal plays later... except the blood is purple.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Red XIII is not playable and only accompanies the party as a guest character, not even being able to be given commands. While it is understandable to not want to introduce a new playable character in the final hours of the game, it is still a disappointment he was Demoted to Extra. At least this will be fixed in the later parts (hopefully).
  • Roche only appears in Chapter 4 and never again, only getting a brief cameo as a Fort Condor player in the INTERmission DLC. Despite his motorcycle obsession being perfect set-up for a return in the iconic highway chase sequence at the end of the game, he isn't even mentioned. The developers later confirmed he was supposed to appear more, but the circumstances around the later half of the game didn't line up well with him, so they had to remove it. Presumably he'll reappear in later parts (the developers themselves commenting on this), but his omission from the later parts of the game is still a missed opportunity.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • Sephiroth's face just makes him look... off. It really gives the feel that he is a Humanoid Abomination. Then again, given Sephiroth's nature as a character, this was likely intentional Uncanny Valley.
  • The lip sync on NPCs is less than ideal, causing their mouths to look incredibly unnatural when speaking. Their models are also very realistic in style yet noticeably less detailed than the main characters, exacerbating this issue.
  • A decent number of fans feel this way about Carbuncle's redesign for the DLC. The character designers apparently decided to go from an occasionally fox-like Cartoon Creature design to a semi-realistic cat-like one. Except said semi-realisim heavily clashes with the large forehead holding its gem, making what is supposed to be a Ridiculously Cute Critter instead at best Ugly Cute, at worst rather unsettling.
  • Aside from a rounder face, Young Aerith looks like a child with an adult's head.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • The Steal Materia sees little use in the game despite it being acquired at a point where the game opens up a bit more and seems to treat it like you should be on the hunt for chances to use it. Only one boss in the entire game has a piece of equipment that doesn't appear anywhere else in the game and can only be obtained by stealing, most enemies have regular items that can be easily bought thanks to the plentiful amount of shops, and the chance to steal is low enough that you'll probably win the fight before it can land. It doesn't help that items are banned on Hard Mode which makes having the materia pointless.
  • The Enemy Skill Materia is an inherently fun concept, letting you learn some unique abilities from enemies while it's equipped. Too bad there are only four abilities available to learn as of Part 1, one of which is the utterly useless Self-Destruct skill. The most powerful and flexible Enemy Skill, Bad Breath, can only be obtained from a hard mode-exclusive Superboss.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Since this game was supposed to just follow the Midgar portion of the original game, an Early-Bird Cameo courtesy of Cait Sith during the destruction of Sector 7, long before they become playable, was a surprise.
  • Fans also weren't expecting Zack to appear in the finale, let alone for him to have survived his escape from Nibelheim.
  • While people were expecting Yuffie to show up in a later installment, they certainly didn't expect her to show up in Intergrade where she has her own sub-plot occurring concurrently with the events of the Midgar section. And even fewer were expecting Deepground and Weiss.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Leslie's backstory in which he seeks revenge on Don Corneo for killing his fiancée after she is chosen as one of his brides is portrayed as tragic, but rings somewhat hollow when one considers that his job as Corneo's enforcer involves actively assisting Corneo in repeating the exact same tragedy to countless other women. It would be one thing if he never knew the truth of what Corneo was doing period, as then his desire to get back at him would make more sense since he'd learn he was unwittingly submitting other woman to the same fate, but its clear he knows Corneo is a terrible person and seems to know what he does to them. As it is, assuming he's not being threatened in some manner to stay (how many mafia organizations willingly let people leave?), he's just as responsible for many innocent peoples' deaths as Corneo, though he does try to discourage Aerith from getting involved, and by implication, other women.
• Values Dissonance:
  • One quest has an old man with bad legs ask Cloud to go into a graveyard and kill a monster there so he can visit his wife's grave. Cloud does this, but then asks the man to return the key to its owner elsewhere in town. The man is offended by this, pointing out his bad legs, to which Cloud says he'd return the key "for 5000 gil" (significantly more money than Cloud made by partaking in an act of terrorism at the beginning of the game). In Japan, this is meant to be understood as Cloud subtly encouraging the man to pull himself together and stand up on his own two feet—the Quest progress description in the menu suggests Cloud's harsh words drove the old man to snap himself out of his depression. In the West however, it came across to many players as Cloud bullying a disabled person. If you speak to the person next to the old guy, he'll remark that Cloud's given the man his vigor back, but it's an optional line that many players might miss.
  • While Western fans universally embraced Aerith's new design revealed in the May 9, 2019 trailer, Japanese reception was more mixed due to different beauty standards. Most Japanese fans disliked Aerith's face, saying it looked too long and Western. This is because Eastern beauty standards prefer smaller and rounder faces.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Despite being T-rated like the original, the game really pushes the envelope with its content, both in terms of language and the entire Wall Market section has been made even more sexual then the original. Some were surprised these parts of the game didn't give it an M rating at all. Many believe that the total lack of blood & gore and the lack of any actual F-bombs (despite plenty of other profanities in the dialogue script) are the strongest reasons why the game gets away with a T-rating in spite of all the other parts that would imply otherwise; it's telling that some of the more violent sections of the original game (most notably the blood-soaked trail of Sephiroth's total massacre of nearly everyone in Shinra HQ) is heavily toned down or outright omitted (in the Remake, the trail is not red human blood but is rather Jenova's pulsating purple fluid. The Bloodless Carnage aspect was completely averted in the InterMISSION update, with the death of Sonon following the final boss battle spraying Yuffie's face with his blood.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • The May 9, 2019 trailer shown at State of Play seems to have done this for some fans after nearly three years of Development Hell without much in the way of positive news or updates, much less a single trailer. The character designs in particular, along with a new voice actor for Cloud have been very well-received thus far. While still subject to change, the gameplay and set pieces also look absolutely spectacular.
  • Any lingering doubts seem to have been almost completely dispelled by Square Enix's showcase at E3 the following month, featuring an in-depth look at the combat system ending with footage of the entire first boss battle against the Guard Scorpion—now rechristened the Scorpion Sentinel and with a few new tricks up its sleeves—set to a symphonic rearrangement of "Fight On!" If that wasn't enough, said sneak peek was immediately followed by an extended trailer that finally unveiled Tifa after numerous requests from the fanbase. Many viewers came out of the event far more hopeful about the state of the finished product than they were before.
• The Woobie: As per the original game, all of the main characters qualify, with a dose of Adaptation Expansion. We see Tifa's response to the destruction of her bar before later breaking down and crying into Cloud's chest over everything that they've lost (to say nothing of her apparent Guilt Complex), Aerith's lonely upbringing and deeply-rooted fear of abandonment (as seen in the Train Graveyard), Barret's emotional torment as he struggles with the weight and consequences of his actions (particularly his grief over the presumed loss of his daughter), to say nothing of Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, or even Cloud himself.
• Woolseyism: The overall translation of the remake is, obviously, vastly superior to the infamous Spice Up the Subtitles-laden translations of the original, not only in English, but in all languages. However, the English team took a few liberties that, while deviating from the original, they did so in a way that fans felt were appropriate and sometimes even improved upon the original.
  • The famous scene where Aerith curses with a surprised "Shit!". In Japanese, she just exclaims an innocent "うそ！" ("uso"), which in this kind of context is usually translated as "Oh, no!" or "No way!". However, fans truly enjoyed the small curse, given that it's the only instance in the entire game and it fits Aerith's spunky side.
  • Cloud's famous "Nailed it, I know. Thank you. Moving on." is a 100% invention of the English script, but it's hard to argue that it's not massively more hilarious than the original Japanese line: "Don't need to be so impressed. There was no other way".

---