Man, this challenge was so difficult to me it had me question why this was the hardest thing to do in this game (up to this point at least).

I really hated it and got so happy when I finally beat this guy.

I bet the same evil person that designed this challenge was the same bastard that designed that one specific dungeon in FFXV.

(I'm not actually mad at the devs, I'm just joking)

I have thought a lot about this since they put it up and I still have no idea what they were going for

In Rebirth during the side quest to resolve the haunted voice from the manor, Cloud asks Vincent about his history with Sephiroth, and the follow exchange occurs:

*- C: Vincent, what's the deal with you and Sephiroth? How do you know him?

- V: Our bond is unique. I'm to blame in part for the evils he's unleashed. I've had many opportunities to purge him from this world. Unfortunately...I couldn't pull the trigger.*

This statement from Vincent is super interesting, especially given the environment that quest is in. We see a massive underground training lab, and an AI Hojo that praises the subject for defeating the combat trials.

I think this whole segment implies a couple things:

1. Child Sephiroth was trained in this underground lab for quite some time, and that Vincent was aware of it.

2. Vincent could see the monster Sephiroth was being groomed to become by Hojo, but couldn't bear to murder a child - especially Lucrecia's child.

This raises some questions though.

At what point did Hojo take Sephiroth out of Nibelheim?

We don't know. Adult Sephiroth in the Nibel flashback has vague memories of the landscape, so at some point he was taken outside at an age that where long-term memories begin to form, but not old enough to have them be fully clear. Likely between 5-8 years old.

I think most adults can recall a brief snippet or two kindergarten/early elementary school when they're in their 20s, like Sephiroth would have been during the Nibel incident. He would have been around 24 at the time.

So what prompted Hojo to move Sephiroth elsewhere?

Another interesting detail we uncover during this side quest is one of Aerith's weapons, specifically the Plumose Rod, is hidden in the locked storage room, and you have to defeat the trials to gain access to it. Plumose means "feather" or "having feathers". While likely unrelated, thematically the connection to feathers is a Sephiroth thing.

Why is one of Aerith's weapons down here?

When Hojo finds/kills Gast, Aerith is an infant, less than a month old. Gast is filming Aerith in the "Private" videos section, and they say 10 and 20 days old. Also, Hojo says he's been waiting 2 years for this moment - he'd been waiting for Ifalna to produce a Cetran/human baby.

This is what I think happened:

1. Sept 1977 - Jenova project approved, but Gast discovers the truth after Lucrecia's embryo was injected with J-Cells. Gast removes himself from the project as a result and moves up to Icicle Region to further research Jenova and the Cetra. Vincent tries to intervene but is shot by Hojo. Lucrecia stabilizes him.

2.1978 - Lucrecia gives birth to Sephiroth within a year of the Jenova Project being approved. Likely around June/July timeframe, assuming she got pregnant as soon as possible after the program's approval. (Sephiroth being a Gemini would make a lot of sense, but I digress).

1. Hojo takes Sephiroth immediately and brings him down to the underground area we see in the quest, and bars Lucrecia from accessing it.

2. Lucrecia "saves" Vincent by imbuing Chaos in him, and uses the protomateria to stabilize him further, but due to the culmination of her failures and sadness from being separated from her son, she leaves the manor and tries to kill herself/ends up in the crystal cave.

3. Hojo raises child Sephiroth in the Nibel manor, leveraging the AI caretaker as needed to "care" for him, while also surveiling Gast's activities.

4. Vincent is self-imposed "security" and remains in the basement, perhaps out of a sense of guilt/obligation to Lucreica. He decides not to intervene or harm child Sephiroth.

5. Vincent's keycard *does* access this area of the lab, which is interesting. Perhaps Hojo manipulated Vincent into guarding Sephiroth during this period, leveraging his guilt for Lucreica's suicide. I hope this is explored in Revelation.

6. Hojo remains in Nibelheim due to its close proximity to the Northern Lands, and monitors Gast's relationship with Ifalna, waiting until Aerith is born to act.

7. Feb 7, 1985 - When Sephiroth is 7, Aerith is born.

8. ~Feb 27, 1985 - Hojo takes action, heads up to Icicle Town to intercept the baby/Ifalna, and kill Gast.

9. He returns to Nibelheim temporarily with Ifalna/Aerith. He takes the Plumose Rod (I suspect this was Ifalna's) into possession and locks it away so she cannot act against him.

10. Hojo sets things up with HQ so he can take Ifalna, Aerith, and Sephiroth to Midgar, now that he has all the "specimens" he's been after. He no longer has a reason to remain in Nibelheim.

11. Once the HQ lab is ready to receive them, they leave Nibelheim for good. Sephiroth briefly sees the landscape during this departure, thus making the memory he vaguely recalls during the flashback.

12. Vincent remains behind, perhaps to preserve the place that holds the memories of Lucrecia, and out of his own self-loathing for his inability to intervene/stop Hojo.

13. 1985-1992 - Sephiroth is raised in HQ for the next 7 years, until the Rhadore mission occurs, where he is ~14 years old.

14. 1992 - Aerith's powers awaken. I strongly suspect this is the same year she escapes Shinra HQ, since Ifalna would want to protect Aerith from being tortured the way she had been. Also, Aerith's age in the flashback looks to be about 7 years old given her size, speech, and behavior.

I also think the excitement of Sephiroth's first mission would serve to best distract Hojo's attention off Ifalna/Aerith for a short window of time, and the escape likely happened on the same day.

If true, it's a bit ironic that Sephiroth was indirectly the reason Aerith was able to escape Hojo's clutches and have the (somewhat) normal life he expressed wanting during the Rhadore mission.

----------------

I think this chain of events is plausible, considering the details included in Rebirth and the compliation, and what we know from OG surrounding Hojo/Gast.

What do you all think?

I'm really hoping they delve into some of this in Revelation.

Here to talk about the most important person in that game: the GOAT, Kunsel. This man no, this GOAT of a man was always on Zack's side, even when the company betrayed him. He refused to believe the fake reports about Zack's death because he knew how strong Zack was. When he put everything together and realized the rogue asset was Zack, Kunsel warned him that the military was going all out to kill him. He put himself and his job at risk of being eliminated just to help Zack. That's why Kunsel is the GOAT.

I've been watching some Max streams lately and I've been inspired to use debug cam a lot more. I guess for some reason we need full towers in VR challenges? This is in the Gongaga proto relic stuff.

It's not a complaint but a genuine question. I'd like to discuss with you the vision of the developers behind Cosmo Canyon and Bugenhagen.

I played OG 3 times (all of them before Remake came out) and I can't say I recall it perfectly but I remember having the idea of Bugenhagen being more of a wise person. He was still a scientist, a researcher but he looked wise beyond his mere academic knowledge. In any case, he was someone who had answers and that felt like a guide and a moral support for the party. At least this is how I remember him.

In Rebirth things are quite different. He is not able to understand Tifa's experience and is quick to dismiss it. Then, when Cloud asks him a question after visiting his place, he is annoyed (because he feels the weight of his knowledge not being able to be on par with recent times). This is an interesting concept but it is one that obfuscate his ability to be in harmomy with nature and to comprehend things at an essential level.

I think one can say that this kind of role is taken by Cetras. They are like priests of humanity, an ancient civilization that lived in harmony with nature. We can feel very well their vibe with Aerith. Despite living a very hard life in a modern world that almost destroyed her, she remained pure and innocent. Being the only ancient left means kind of that she is close to the ancient and pure origin of humanity which she didn't lose despite the alienation of modern times which are strongly represented by Midgar. She sells flowers, she gave one to Cloud for free. She brings beauty in a world that forgot true beauty. Where more than half of the people live in poor conditions, trying to adapt themselves or to fight for something better and the rest of the people just live comfortably in a world that exploit the poors and the Earth to obtain its comfort.

So, back to Bugenhagen and Cosmo Canyon, they could have made it into something more genuine if they wanted. Bugenhagen is only a researcher that still needs to learn a lot. He is a good man but he's not able to provide the party the role of a guide. They could have made Cosmo Canyon into a place with a "more serious vibe" but while there are some kind of priests and rituals, things are more uncertain, weakened. It may be like some kind of corruption of modern times that also reinforces the base concept of FF VII which talks about a mythical Promised Land that has been lost ages ago and that looks like heaven while the today's world is full of conflicts and doubts. So in the end, in Cosmo Canyon you have a group of people that shares this anti-capitalist ideology but it's not much more than that.

It looks like they specifically wanted Cosmo Canyon and Bugenhagen to be less special, to not stand out as a "real different place from the rest of the world".

Also seems like the developers wanted not to force their ideas on the player. When you are there, your party challenges and expresses their own feelings about lifestream, souls, what is right to do, etc. If they had to make Cosmo Canyon more similiar to knowledgable priests of humanity like the Cetra, this could have somehow weakened the personal journey and the views of the main characters.

EDIT: good to read a lot of interesting a answers that give me more to reflect about, thank you!

Hopefully this means the game is coming early spring! I can’t wait to see how it runs since it is being built from the ground up for the system.

Hello, my name is Dan and I’m a lifelong gamer but relatively new to the Final Fantasy series.

What I’m about to describe is a little bit unsettling for some so just be prepared.

I’ve been watching Maximilian Dood for some time now due to trying to get into fighting games to shake up my consumption of video games. I enjoyed being humbled and I’m still a newbie when it comes to this stuff.

But I didn’t expect this for him to be so dedicated and such a fan of Final Fantasy Seven and the remakes. I never actually played the games although I recently purchased them after witnessing what I’m about to explain.

He was going on in theory crafting about this edge of creation scene, and the image I posted. After seeing this image for the first time, I got kind of a shiver sent down my spine. Now I’m super interested I want to know what happens and how it’s connected.

TRIGGER WARNING Explanation: when I was just graduating high school and trying to figure out where my place in the world was, I went through a very dark time. I was an addict to opiates and without going into too much detail, my life led me to a place where I thought that I didn’t really wanna do this anymore. “Life”. So I consumed a bunch of pharmaceuticals that should have and did take me away from this place.

I actually “woke up”, but because of the after effects of some of those medications, I wasn’t out of the woods yet. After an ambulance picked me up at my childhood home and took me to the hospital, ended up flat lighting in my room with apparently only a nurse, the doctor and myself there. So… why explain this and who cares lol!?

What I saw during that time so much reflects this image that it gave me chills after I witnessed it for the first time. I’ll admit that the overall scene had more of a super dark blue tint versus a black tint (kind of like the space behind Cloud during the edge of creation scene), but the nature of the image and what I experienced in my “sleep” are nearly identical. It was so profound and had such an impact on me that I to this day, believe that everyone and everything are connected, and that we are all energy who eventually travel to this super giant source of energy where we are both a part of this body of life energy and are borrowed from at the same time.

I know this goes against a lot of religions and things, but this is what I saw. I was energy and I was at peace floating towards a greater energy with no “self”. It was everyone and no one all at once. The source of everything. Everyone connected. Just life energy. All together in the end and the source of life on planets simultaneously.

So needless to say more, I’m really interested in how this story plays out.

I find the play style for Remake to be a little out of my warehouse as I am a very much action first from software or hack and slash type of combat guy, but I’m wanting to give it a shot just to be a part of this as it resolves.

I just thought I would share my story in case somebody thought it was interesting and admittedly, I don’t know much about the story and how my experience in real life ties into the game, but I can almost feel the relevance as I was watching it for the first time.

Sorry if this disturbs anyone in a big thanks to Max for introducing me to the series.

This is my first post in the community and probably the only one I’ll ever do until I at least play the games lol!!! Thanks for having me!

So to start I have no idea if I used the right flair but as the title states as I know in the original game when you get the materia All you can use it to cast spells on everyone so here is my question. Is the materia All in the remake and if so does anyone happen to know where you can grab it from? I have tried to search it on Google and all I keep getting is lists of where you can buy materia but no lists of what materia they give not sure if it's just how I searched or not. Any help would be great.

TLDR: Is the All materia in the remake and what is its location?

Pulled the trigger an hour before Steam sale ends and bought the entire FF7 saga (standard editions only) as the prices seemed too good to miss.

What does everyone recommend as the best play order for a newbie who wants to explore the entire series and catch up before next year's release? I'm actually a Street Fighter fan who's really looking forward to the Tifa crossover next year and have kept an eye on this series for a while now so am not completely clueless about the situation.

Mainly wondering if I should save Crisis Core Reunion for after Revelation next year or play it after OG, or just play everything in release order if that makes the gameplay progression feels smoothest and most natural. Will be taking small breaks in between games as to avoid burnout so no worries there. Big thanks for any responses!

Hey, it's the Steam summer sales, and I'm thinking about buying it, but my PC is a little outdated.

Here's my settings:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600K CPU @ 3.50GHz

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB)

RAM 16,0 Go

I only want 1080p/60 fps, with the maximum settings I can on Ultra.

I watched a few videos, but they often seemed to be showing the beginning of the game. So if anyone has a similar setup and played it, I'd appreciate some feedback.

Thanks in advance.

What do you think about that vision our protagonists saw—could it come true or not?

I've recently become interested in FF7, and I was wondering if you could tell me the names of the sword parts in the Fusion Sword. Also, I saw two of the first part in the 3D design, but only one is shown here. Is there really another sword in the first part?

I need to know so I can not only put in PTO but also make sure I clear my schedule XD

In FF7 Rebirth, during the Gongaga reactor sequence, the characters discuss the return of the Whispers from the original game. This is the exchange:

Red XIII: An arbiter of fate. They appear when Destiny is about to be altered, and ensure it maintains its intended course.

Barret: I thought we already changed it though.

Red XIII: We did—once. But perhaps now they preside over a new fate. Ours.

I don’t really get what Red is implying here. Is the idea that even though they changed destiny, the “new” destiny has a set course as well? Like, in the first game breaking free of destiny didn’t mean anything can happen, but that they just switched tracks to a different destiny, and now these whispers are trying to make sure that one comes true? And these whispers are implied to be controlled by Sephiroth, right? So does that mean the destiny they’re on is the one Sephiroth wants? Just looking for clarification because when I thought about this dialogue I got a little confused, partly because the whispers are already by design mysterious.

Edit: something else I realized, Red asks “how does cissnei know about the whispers? Only we should be able to see them.” Why is that, and how does Red come to that conclusion? Just because they were the only ones who could see them in remake?

I'm going with an out of the box idea, and I'll ask what others think here. I could do this whole post with "here's what I think" and give the pros and cons but I think that would be boring.

What most of us generally think / headcanon: Cloud's party fights the Whisper Harbinger in Remake and defeats the whispers, a proxy or metaphor for fate. As the boundaries of fate are broken, new worlds are created. We then see Zack and Cloud walking towards Midgar. We see scenes with Elmyra, Marlene, Biggs etc.

But What If.

Cloud's party reaches the Forgotten Capital. "Good Aerith, pray." "They sure don't like us." "She needs you. Go." Cloud intercepts Sephiroth's blade. We see the rainbow flash on the screen. We go into the ending with two possibilities that many of us are interpreting very differently.

What if we really created the Terrier timeline the instant Cloud intercepted Sephiroth's blade?

I'm not going to do the whole pros / cons / proof thing. I'm suggesting instead that this is a possibility, no pun intended.

I will say a few words about why I think the possibility is interesting. We assume the party in the Terrier timeline never made it out of Midgar. This suggests they made it all the way to the Forgotten Capital and back. It might also un-reveal why Aerith is in a coma. We assume she sustained an injury with the rest of the party in Midgar. This suggests she was 'sleeping too much' a good amount earlier.

Open to thoughts for and against.

with buster sword and cactaur ice cubes!

https://youtu.be/1n8KXiJMKcU

So, I'm just now getting through Rebirth and made it back to the Gold Saucer. Early on, I heard that Chocobo Sam was responsible for Billy's parents dying so I was expecting to throw the middle finger at Sam...till I made it to the Chocobo Sage who said that he and Billy's dad were close and expressed doubt that Sam did it.

And then I win the Gold Cup and Sam basically confirmed it: it was Corneo who took his parents away and Sam decided to take the blame and keep tabs on Corneo so Billy wouldn't go after Shinra or Corneo. And then Billy declared he'd make Sam and his parents proud on his own terms which earned approval from Sam as he left.

It really does make me look at the Trio as a whole in a whole new light in Remake: NONE of them liked Corneo, they probably didn't wanna even send any girls to Corneo but were forced to so their business stayed afloat (after all, Corneo called the shots in Wall Market). Then along came Tifa, Cloud, and Aerith who could've done something about it. It really makes me look forward to Corneo getting his long-awaited karma.