History Fridge / CrisisCore

* Zack's Last Stand has him up against an entire ''army'' of Shinra grunts, using countless amounts of ammunition, explosives, and even ''choppers'' to take him down. Then it comes down to the last three who finish him off. Canonically, it's all but stated that Zack slaughtered the whole army until these three were left, which explains why they give him such an UndignifiedDeath: as far as they were concerned, he just went traitor-psycho mass murderer and was ''cracking a one-liner about it'' before the fight really went under way, resulting in a rather spiteful MakeSureHesDead.

!!FridgeLogic
* In ''Reunion'', the mastery of the Buster Sword caps at 95%. [[AbsurdlyHighLevelCap While it takes hard grinding to even come close to that,]] it also means that no matter how much sidetrack to go through, Zack never really got to master the Buster Sword, even if he was good with it. There is not enough time between him acquiring it and having to pass it on to the next hero...

* Zack's Last Stand has him up against an entire ''army'' of Shinra grunts, using countless amounts of ammunition, explosives, and even ''choppers'' to take him down. Then it comes down to the last three who finish him off. Canonically, it's all but stated that Zack slaughtered the whole army until these three were left, which explains why they give him such an UndignifiedDeath: as far as they were concerned, he just went traitor-psycho mass murderer and was ''cracking a one-liner about it'' before the fight really went under way, resulting in a rather spiteful MakeSureHesDead.

* Look at Sephiroth's face during the entire game, his skin is clear, his eyes are bright blue/green, then look at the infamous fire scene, his skin is pale, his eyes have shadows under them, his eyes seem dull and sinister. Remember, this is practically the only game where we see Sephiroth before his madness for longer than the flashback, showing how disturbing a change Sephiroth had in personality and apparently, physical appearance.

* Zack's last stand here ends up contrasting a lot with that of Cloud's own internal final fight against Sephiroth in ''FFVII'':
** Whereas Cloud's final battle against Sephiroth was a one-on-one duel taking place as a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind, Zack's last stand is a prolonged group battle against waves of Shirna soldiers happening in real life.
** While Cloud earns his strongest LimitBreak to use against Sephiroth even if Omnislash wasn't naturally learned prior, Zack actively suffers from CombatBreakdown which sees his once diverse arsenal of moves go away the longer he's pushed to the brink.
** Even though Sephiroth is a godlike being who had pushed Cloud and his friends to the limit as Bizarro and Safer Sephiroth, he's ultimately defeated in an incredibly easy fight that the player cannot lose even if they tried. Conversely, the endless amount of Shinra troops does get to overwhelming Zack in time, aptly trapping him in a scenario where the player cannot win regardless of how well they play.

* Zack's final battle here ends up contrasting a lot with that of Cloud's in the original ''FFVII'': Whereas Zack's final battle is against a near-endless amount of SHINRA soldiers that can take up to several minutes and is one he cannot win in spite of his best efforts, Cloud's own is against a singular opponent in Sephiroth which ends in a fraction of that time and cannot be lost regardless of player input.

** In a similar vein, going back where Cloud and Zack were being held shows only some mof the most important moments. In Crisis Core, Zack was fighting an army and only three soldiers left. Cloud never really saw Zack fighting the army, all he saw is his friend in a pool of blood, killed by three Shinra soldiers. And the Mako did the rest to his memories.

!!FridgeLogic
* Zack's Last Stand sees the Digital Mind Wave breakdown the further you progress and defeat enemies. This is representative of combat fatigue, which as stated by the original Wikipedia, whose symptoms include fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's surroundings, the inability to prioritize, and most significantly, an extreme feeling of losing control of a situation. Along with Zack probably being nothing but put on edge for the last several months looking behind his back for assailants, pinning him against the entire Shinra Army was likely the piledriver to the last nail to his coffin.

* Zack's Last Stand sees the Digital Mind Wave breakdown the further you progress and defeat enemies. As RealityEnsues, this is representative of combat fatigue, which as stated by the original Wikipedia, whose symptoms include fatigue, slower reaction times, indecision, disconnection from one's surroundings, the inability to prioritize, and most significantly, an extreme feeling of losing control of a situation. Along with Zack probably being nothing but put on edge for the last several months looking behind his back for assailants, pinning him against the entire Shinra Army was likely the piledriver to the last nail to his coffin.

* In both the original ''Final Fantasy VII'' & ''Advent Children'', the scene with Sephiroth in Nibelheim's flames had him emitting a Psycho Smirk. However, in this game, the Psycho Smirk is absent, and instead he looks slightly angered or remorseful. ''Crisis Core'' shows us the scene from Zack's perspective, whereas the two previous times were from Cloud's, and the retcon suddenly makes sense - Cloud is ''from'' Nibelheim, so he would see the man who burnt the town to the ground & killed everyone there (Including Cloud's ''mother'') as an unrepentant psychopath.

* In both the original ''Final Fantasy VII'' & ''Advent Children'', the scene with Sephiroth in Nibelheim's flames had him emitting a Psycho Smirk. However, in this game, the Psycho Smirk is absent, and instead he looks slightly angered or remorseful. ''Crisis Core'' shows us the scene from Zack's perspective, whereas the two previous times were from Cloud's, and the retcon suddenly makes sense - Cloud is ''from'' Nibelheim, so he would see the man who burnt the town to the ground & killed everyone there (Including Cloud's ''mother'') as an unrepentant psycopath.

!!!FridgeBrilliance

!!!FridgeHorror
* look at Sephiroths' face during the entire game, his skin is clear, his eyes are bright blue/green, then look at the infamouse fire scene, his skin is pale, his eyes have shadows under them, his eyes seem dull and sinister, remember this is practically the only game where we see Sephiroth before his madness for longer than the flashback, showing how disturbing a change Sephiroth had in personality and apparently physical looks.

* look at Sephiroths' face during the entire game, his skin is clear, his eyes are bright blue/green, then look at the infamouse fire scene, his skin is pale, his eyes have shadows under them, his eyes seem dull and sinister, remember this is practically the only game where we see Sephiroth before his madness for longer than the flashback, showing how disturbing a change Sephiroth had in personality and apparently physical looks.

!!!FridgeLogic
* Even if you can HandWave the fact that Zack is crushing his enemies with the blunt size of the sword (which is way worse than just cutting them), it's a stupid gimmick. Even for some of the long term fans, in fact, some are relieved that this apparently didn't translate to the VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake, and Cloud uses his sword normally. In fact, even if you put the same logic of the [[Manga/{{Berserk}} Dragonslayer]], it still had some sharpness.

* look at Sephiroths' face during the entire game, his skin is clear, his eyes are bright blue/green, then look at the infamouse fire scene, his skin is pale, his eyes have shadows under them, his eyes seem dull and sinister, remember this is practically the only game where we see Sephiroth before his madness for longer than the flashback, showing how disturbing a change Sephiroth had in personality and apparently physical looks.

* When Cloud tells the story of Sephiroth's fall from grace in ''Final Fantasy VII'', he omits the presence of Genesis & his pushing Sephiroth into discovering the truth of his origins. Whilst it could simply be that Zack left that out when he told the story to Cloud, it wouldn't make sense for Zack to throw Sephiroth (Someone he considered a friend) under the bus by absolving Genesis of his role in the events; it ''would'' make sense, however, for Cloud's anger at Sephiroth over the subsequent destruction of Nibelheim to blur his recollection of the story & pin everything on Sephiroth.