WMG / Final Fantasy VII Remake

Pre-Release & 'Act I'-Related Theories

The game will have a way to bring back Aerith

The obvious guess that a lot of people have. Some possible routes to take with this:

• It'll be a subquest that one can take.
• It'll be a plot-based quest, newly added to the game.
• It'll be available as an option, though only under New Game Plus, so as to not undermine anything that her death caused, both in universe and out.
• It'll be paid DLC.
• Somebody else will die instead, to recapture the feeling of shock and sudden tragedy the original death of Aerith has arguably long since lost. Alternatively, like an above idea states, it will only occur on the second playthrough onwards, in order to not mess up the timeline from the later parts of the Compilation. (Except Cloud, since he's The Hero and Cait Sith, since he's a robot with manufactured duplicates.) The death scene will also be changed to make it more variable in who dies.
  • Perhaps the one who will die will be one of the sidequest characters, Yuffie and Vincent.
  • Given his survival of his last stand, Zack will die in her place
  • Maybe Square-Enix will choose to implement their original vision for the cutscene- the character with the highest affection points to Cloud gained at the Gold Saucer will die. Allegedly this was their original plan for FFVII but was dropped for time - why Aeris' Infinity +1 Sword is only accessible long after she's dead and some of the cutscenes after her death have unique dialog for her if she should be hacked back into the game.
• Alternatively, Aerith will still be playable after Sephiroth kills her, but as a ghost.
• Also alternatively, Episode 1 will end with her death, meaning that she'll stay in the party for the entirety of the game, rendering the question moot for that point. As for the other episodes, she could be revived or used again thanks to DLC, New Game Plus or a non-canon Old Save Bonus.
  • Episode 1 is stated to end at the Midgar arc's conclusion, thus more likely that Aerith will live on... at least in this episode.
• Or there will be no way to prevent her death/ Revive her period. Doing either of those would be a massive insult to the scene and it is far more meaningful that she CAN'T be saved.
• Given that Part 1 pretty definitively shows that the Remake continuity is separate from the 1997 continuity and Cloud was able to use a Cosmic Retcon to revive Zack from death, this WMG is looking increasingly likely.
• Zack will save Aerith and avoid her death altogether.

How Aerith dies will depend on the player

In the original, Cloud was almost brainwashed by Sephiroth into stabbing Aerith to death; he resisted but Sephiroth just did it himself. Here, you will get a button prompt to mash X to not stab her, and if you fail then Cloud will be the one to kill Aerith. This will play out depending on the context:

• You fail at the button mashing: Cloud stabs Aerith, completely breaks down as Sepiroth laughs from above, and the rest of the party are allowed through the barrier too late. Combat against Jenova begins without Cloud.
• You succeed at the button mashing: Sephiroth jumps down, smirks, then slowly and sadistically stabs Aerith while Cloud is still too brainwashed to fight back, passing out from the stress. Sephiroth mocks Cloud's helplessness, then decides he wants an appetizer of carnage before he devours what is left of Cloud, lowering the barrier. Combat ensues between Sephiroth and the rest of the party.
• You intentionally fail the button mashing when Sephiroth shows up: Cloud chooses to kill Aerith to prevent Sephiroth from torturing her to death. While Sephiroth is gloating about Cloud willingly choosing Aerith's fate, Cloud goes into a berserker rage, fighting off both Sephiroth and Jenova single-handedly, but also consuming Aerith's mako energy to sustain himself during the fight, constantly stabbing her corpse to make the mako flow faster. When he recovers, he realizes the monster he let himself become; he doesn't blame himself for killing Aerith, but cannot forgive himself for mutilating her corpse beyond recognition for personal revenge.
• You complete a special sidequest to try and Screw Destiny: using the visions to guide him, Cloud goes against his instincts and disgust and acquires Hojo's technology, used to preserve a copy of one's mind in a data chip, and applies it to himself. When Sephiroth brainwashes him, Cloud plays his card and uses the chip to revert his memory to before he was triggered, giving him enough time to stop Sephiroth from killing Aerith. In retaliation for defying what was supposed to be the most crucial point of the game, the Arbiters of Fate simply devour Aerith's mind entirely, leaving her comatose and soulless. Cloud goes berserk and begins killing everything he can see. When the dust settles, he has killed Jenova, and Sephiroth... and Aerith's empty shell... and the rest of his party. The Avatars of Fate resurrect the required characters as Cloud's sanity completely liquefies.

If they make it to Episode 2, it'll be an even LONGER wait for episode 3 than Half-Life 2!

There will be several references to the compilation. Especially Crisis Core.

The aspects of Crisis Core most likely to affect the remake:

• Aerith, Tifa and Yuffie all met Zack so they all know that there's something off about Cloud's personality.
• Cissney is nowhere to be seen during the base game even though she was one of the Turks looking for Zack.
• Genesis was present during the Nibelheim incident and was the catalyst of Sephiroth's descent into madness. He is also still alive.
  • Genesis will be a bonus boss fought at Banora
• Bahamut Sin and Bahamut Fury will be able to be summoned.
  • During the Nibelheim incident Sephiroth will have the Bahamut Sin Materia and when the Northern Cave is accessible you will be able to find the Bahamut Sin Materia at the Nibelheim Reactor.
• Jossed all of it above as the Word of God confirms in his recent interview that the Remake will not share direct continuity or connection with the Compilation at the moment.
• Un-jossed through Lying Creator. The game does have a few stray Compilation references, directly name-drops Kunsel, and has a shot-for-shot remake of the opening scene to Zack's Last Stand.

Episode 1 will end with the first flashback to the Nibelheim incident and will have Cloud battle Sephiroth

• For drama, the fight itself will be a fractured mess, as time skips randomly; Sephiroth's health bar and the damage of the environment fluctuate between skips, before ultimately ending with Sephiroth's health beyond the maximum, strangling Cloud with one hand. And then somehow Cloud teleports behind Sephiroth and stabs him in the back, despite still being strangled to death.^note All of this was explained later in the original, as Cloud's PTSD has caused him to forget his partner, who helped him defeat an overly-arrogant Sephiroth.
• Jossed. At the end of Episode 1, a battle occurs with Sephiroth as Cloud and his friends are fleeing Midgar, taking the place of the highway chase segment in the original game.

Gilgamesh will show up somewhere

• Perhaps during Part 2 is when he makes his first appearance and Cloud will have to fight him over earning that episode's Infinity +1 Sword.

Bonus Content for the remake

• Bonus boss battles featuring enemies cut from the original game.
• Boss rush mode in the Gold Saucer's Battle Square, letting you fight bosses like Guard Scorpion and Demon Wall back to back.
• More areas to access on Chocobos, and unique enemies that give better rewards than normal in these areas.
• Hard Mode (New Game+) - all characters retain their items from the first playthrough, and enemies are significantly stronger and present more of a challenge at the start of the game. Towards the middle they are incredibly powerful, and the final dungeon is incredibly difficult. Beating Sephiroth on Hard Mode nets you a Gold trophy.
• More limit breaks for each character.
• Bosses from other Final Fantasy games; not just the Compilation.
  • Jossed for the Compilation as the Word of God confirms in his recent interview that the Remake will not share direct continuity with the Compilation at the moment.
  • I think this troper means recurring bosses in the series such as Ultros and The Phantom Train. Something that the Remakes of 1 and 4 had done previously. This would also lead to a chance of Gilgamesh appearing in FF7.
• More mini-games and features in the Gold Saucer.
  • A card game based on Gwent; players will be able to purchase cards based on the enemies they have fought, at the cost of spare Materia.
• Materia that include spells and abilities not in the original; Ruin^note Physical-based magic attack in FFXIII, Quick, Temper, Bluff, Cry, and Hide are but a few examples.
• Alternative costumes for the cast, such as Advent Children outfits, costumes from various moments in the game, and a nostalgia set that makes them resemble their original selves. In Cait Sith's case, his moogle will have different colors and may even be replaced by other recurring Final Fantasy creatures, such as Behemoths, Malboros, Chocobos, and even Goblins.
• Play as Rufus after his office came crashing down, trying to escape from Midgar before it explodes.

Changes in the remake

• Cobalt XIV and Indigo XV will be Red XIII's Biran and Yenke
  • or at least related to Red XIII's subplot.
• Zangan will appear and teach Tifa her final limit break himself.
• Cissnei will be the girl who used to visit Zack's parents.
• Fenrir will be a summon and be obtained when Tifa saves Cloud from himself
  • or when Cloud goes back to Shinra Mansion Basement after getting his memories back.
• Knights of the Round Table will altered to be like a summoned version of omnislash.
  • The Knights will more resemble their designs in Final Fantasy XIV.
• During the quest to save Tifa from Don Corneo (in which Cloud is Disguised in Drag), there will be references to Lightning.
• More bosses will be included, some possibly hailing from other entries in the Compilation.
• The story will be lengthened, and include characters from and references to the other entries in the Compilation.
  • Jossed for the Compilation as the Word of God confirms in his recent interview that the Remake will not share direct continuity with the Compilation at the moment.
• Vincent will be retconned to be Sephiroth's father.
• There will be references to Final Fantasy X and X-2
• the two years between the end of the original game and Advent Children, as well as Advent Children will be playable.
• Some kind of mini after-years-esque plotline.
• Yuffie and Vincent will be mandatory and thus have a bigger role in the plot overall, instead of just sidequests.
• Because of voice acting, Hello, [Insert Name Here] will be averted, similar to Final Fantasy IV when it was released for DS.
• Similar to Final Fantasy VIII, your party members will follow you outside of battle, although the person in front can change.
• Sapphire Weapon will be promoted to a boss fight but will still be offed by The Junon Cannon firing in its face
• Fort Condor is renovated as an XCOM-like or a proper tower-defense.
• Dyne will reveal that he had Cetra ancestors, hence the voices in his head. His hometown was massacred solely out of fear that an unregistered Cetra in the town could interact with the mako reactor badly. He wants to help Sephiroth end the world by framing the party for mass-murder, ending their quest then and there.

Hojo will have more of a presence in the remake

Despite being second only to Sephiroth as a Big Bad, Hojo only has a handful of appearances in the original game, and a few are entirely optional. Since the Compilation's games made a special effort to give him a role in their stories, it seems likely that Square will want to give him more focus this time around:

• Despite talking about each other often and being father and son, Sephiroth and Hojo never share a scene together in the original. We'll likely get a flashback involving them, possibly to Sephiroth's childhood.
• Vincent is almost certainly going to be a mandatory character, so he and Hojo will actually acknowledge each other during the Promised Land sequence.
• If Square acknowledges the Compilation in a significant way, instead of just giving it some nods, they'll likely flesh out his entire Omega scheme so it seems like less of a messy retcon.
  • Jossed as the Word of God confirms in his recent interview that the Remake will not share direct continuity with the Compilation at the moment.
• The Nibelheim flashback sequence will show a whole lot more of the Hojo/Vincent/Lucrecia/Gast relationship. Hojo will actually be a young man this time around instead of inexplicably looking like his older self like in Dirge of Cerberus.
• Vincent will be mandatory for the Hojo fight. Possibly Red XIII too, but less likely.
• Helletic Hojo will be fucking horrifying, but since Lifeform Hojo N was always a little underwhelming in comparison, Square will likely revamp the design and/or add another phase to the battle. Having the fight conclude with a Hojo vs. Vincent duel would be amazing.
• Somewhat Confirmed so far in Episode 1 in that Hojo appears to be aware of the Whispers of Fate and the changes to the timeline Sephiroth and Cloud are causing.

The Buster Sword will get a huge stat boost at a certain point of the story

Either by a sidequest or after Cloud regains a grasp on who he is. Giving further reason to use Angeal's/Zack's/Cloud's iconic blade.

• It may become Cloud's (second) most powerful sword, after the Ultima Weapon.
• Or maybe, the Buster Sword will transform into Ultima Weapon... somehow.

There will be a flashback or in game exposition on what Sephiroth's childhood was like

Since we all know what Hojo is like, it probably wouldn't have been a good one and had many abusive qualities to it.

The relationship values system will have increased impact and more complexity, or be scrapped, with one choice for the date scene.

It's one of the most present features throughout the game, but it only affects cutscenes, and Red XIII and Cid can't participate. (Cait Sith and Vincent are more understandable, but even then, Yuffie participates.) In the remake, all characters will be able to connect to Cloud and bond with him, and it will make the following scenarios different:

• Obviously, the date scene, with 2nd place or Aerith going in Cait Sith's stead should he be first, and Cloud is more saddened than annoyed when he betrays the team.
• Who Cloud trusts with the Black Materia, instead of just Barret or Red XIII.
• Who leads the party after Tifa stays to comfort Cloud when he is vegetized, instead of just Cid.
• Who is the person that stays with Cloud after defeating Hojo. If Cait Sith wins, 2nd place or Tifa goes instead, since Reeve won't be operating him before finding a reason to fight for the planet.
• They will ask if they can play a Golden Saucer game with Cloud, starting with when he returns after his memories truly return.
• During battle, they will comment on his safety, and both of them will say they have the other's back.
• If the 1st place party member is defeated, then Cloud's limit meter will instantly fill, and vice versa.

Alternatively, it will simply be removed, and a choice in who to take to the date scene will be provided before the scene.

• The system is indeed present in the game. Almost every single dialogue option is important and impacts the values, and it leads up to a crucial cutscene in Chapter 14 which changes depending on whether Cloud is closest to Aerith, Tifa, or Barret. Other things are not dependent on the relationship values, specifically the dresses each character wears in Chapter 9: Aerith & Cloud's dresses are dependent on how many sidequests you complete in Sector 5 and Wall Market, respectively, while Tifa's is dependent on what you choose for a single dialogue option much earlier in the game. It also determines who participates in the final battle.

After Cloud remembers Zack, there will be a bonus side-quest where he can pay his respects

Similar to the scene in Batman: Arkham City where Batman can go to the site of where his parents died to pay his respects, Cloud will go to where Zack died and mark his grave with the Buster Sword.

• Semi-confirmed. Cloud uses a Cosmic Retcon to resurrect Zack.

Possible DLC Scenarios

• A What-If Scenario where Cloud died instead of Zack, and Zack joined AVALANCHE.
• The Shin-Ra Tower Massacre, where you play as Sephiroth.
  • Alternatively a backstory scenario showing Sephiroth's growth as a SOLDIER.
• A remake of Before Crisis. How else will that game come to the states?
  • Jossed as Word of God confirms that there won't be a remastered version of Before Crisis, along with Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus, in his recent interview, along with confirmation that the Remake did not share direct continuity with the Compilation at the moment.

Possible DLC Skins For Your Party

• Their Kingdom Hearts costumes.
• An obvious one, but their Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children outfits.
• Costumes based on the original artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.
• The Pallet Swapped Colors from Ehrgeiz.
• The characters from Final Fantasy.
  • Cloud as the Fighter.
  • Tifa as the Black Belt.
  • Aerith as the White Mage.
  • Cait Sith as the Black Mage.
  • Vincent as the Red Mage.
  • Yuffie as the Thief.
  • Sephiroth as Garland.
  • Zack as the Warrior of Light.
• The characters from Final Fantasy IV.
  • Cloud as Cecil.
  • Tifa as Rydia (or possibly Ursula).
  • Aerith as Rosa.
  • Cid as Kain.
  • Yuffie as Edge.
  • Vincent as Edward.
  • Barrett as Cid.
  • Sephiroth as Golbez.
  • Zack as Ceodore.
• Their old blocky, pixelated avatars from the original 1997 game, ala Old Snake's Metal Gear Solid face camo from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
• The characters from Final Fantasy XV.
  • Cloud as Noctis.
  • Barrett as Gladiolus.
  • Cid as Ignis.
  • Vincent as Prompto.
  • Aerith as Lunafreya.
  • Tifa as Aranea.
  • Yuffie as Cindy.
  • Cait Sith as Carbuncle, with his Moogle as Titan.
  • Red XIII as Ifrit.
  • Sephiroth as Ardyn.
  • Zack as either King Regis or Nyx Ulrich.
• All of the characters getting drag outfits.
• The characters from Final Fantasy VIII.
  • Cloud as Squall.
  • Barrett as Kiros.
  • Tifa as Quistis.
  • Aerith as Rinoa.
  • Red XIII as Moomba.
  • Yuffie as Selphie.
  • Cait Sith's Moogle as Ward.
  • Vincent as Irvine.
  • Cid as Zell.
  • Sepiroth as Siefer.
  • Zack as Laguna.
• The characters from Final Fantasy IX.
  • Cloud as Zidane.
  • Barrett as Steiner.
  • Tifa as Freya.
  • Aerith as Garnet.
  • Yuffie as Eiko.
  • Cait Sith's Moogle as Quina.
  • Vincent as Vivi.
  • Cid as Amarant.
  • Sephiroth as Kuja.
• The characters from Final Fantasy X.
  • Cloud as Tidus.
  • Barrett as Jecht.
  • Tifa as Lulu.
  • Aerith as Yuna.
  • Red XIII as Khimari.
  • Yuffie as Rikku.
  • Cait Sith as Wakka, with his Moogle having a Blitzball pattern as his color scheme.
  • Vincent as Auron.
  • Cid as Summoner Braska.
  • Sephiroth as Seymour.
  • Zack as Shuyin.
• The characters from Final Fantasy XIV.
  • Cloud as the Warrior of Light or Sidurgu.
  • Barret as Thancred.
  • Tifa as Yda/Lyse.
  • Aerith as Y'shtola.
  • Yuffie as Ryne.
  • Vincent as Stephanivien.
  • Cid as Estinien.
  • Sephiroth as Zenos.
• Final Fantasy XIV alternative: Job armor
  • Cloud as a Dark Knight.
  • Barret as a Warrior(since his build is like a Roegadyn, who are frequently Warriors in promotional material).
  • Tifa as a Monk.
  • Aerith as a White Mage.
  • Yuffie as a Ninja.
  • Vincent as a Machinist.
  • Cid as a Dragoon.
  • Sephiroth as a Samurai.
• The characters from Kingdom Hearts.
  • Cloud as Sora.
  • Barrett as Terra.
  • Tifa as Aqua.
  • Aerith as Namine.
  • Yuffie as Kairi.
  • Vincent as Riku.
  • Sephiroth as any of Xehanort's forms.
  • Zack as Roxas.
• Various other Square Enix games.
  • Cloud as Crono.
  • Barrett as Kannuki.
  • Tifa as Aya Brea.
  • Aerith as Lara Croft.
  • Yuffie as Neku Sakuraba (they dress similarly enough).
  • Vincent as Sion Barzhad.
  • Cid as Kain.
• Their looks in the original game with modern graphics. It could be an unlockable or free DLC since the differences are minor, but Cloud could have his more anime-ish spikes, and Tifa could have her tight leather skirt and won't be wearing that sports bra.

The game will be divided into three episodes

Since they mentioned the concept of the game being split up, I'm guessing three episodes for this game. Just like the original game had three discs. However, I'm not expecting them to get divided up the same way, especially since the original game's third disc was just the final dungeon and endgame quests. Here's a possible way the game could be divided:

• Episode 1: Covers the whole Midgar sequence of the plot, ending with the Nibelhelm flashback introducing Sephiroth.
• Episode 2: Covers the second half of Disc 1 and the start of Disc 2, ending with the Whirlwind Maze.
• Episode 3: Covers the second half of Disc 2 and Disc 3.

Voice Cast

• Please feel free to add to the cast.
  • Steve Burton as Cloud Strife.
  • Beau Billingslea as Barrett Wallace.
  • Rachael Leigh Cook as Tifa Lockhart.
  • Andrea Bowen as Aerith Gainsborough.
  • Liam O'Brien as Red XIII.
  • Steve Blum as Vincent Valentine.
    • Since they're going for TV actors for the voice cast, maybe somebody like Charlie Heaton.
  • Mae Whitman as Yuffie Kisaragi.
    • Brenda Song.
  • Chris Edgely as Cid Highwind.
    • Michael Rooker
  • Greg Ellis as Cait Sith.
    • Alan Tudyk
  • Grace Rolek as Marlene Wallace.
  • Rick Gomez as Zack Fair.
  • Quinton Flynn as Reno.
  • Crispin Freeman as Rude.
  • Ryan Yu as Tseng.
  • Bettina Bush as Elena.
  • Wally Wingert as Rufus Shinra.
  • Jamieson Price as Reeve Tuesti.
  • Paul Eiding as Hojo.
  • George Newbern as Sephiroth.
  • Edward Asner as President Shinra.
  • Daran Norris as Heideger.
  • Laura Bailey as Scarlet.
  • Jeff Bennett as Palmer.
  • Dee Bradley Baker as Don Corneo.
  • Kyle Hebert as Zangan.
  • Diedrich Bader as Dio.
    • Unfortunately Jossed. As of E3 2019, it appears that the entire original English voice cast has been replaced with new voice actors. Word of God is that the Remake is entirely separate from the Compilation in order for it to be a unique experience all it's own. The Compilation VA's are slated to retain their roles outside the Remake.

The references to coal will be replaced with a renewable energy source like solar or wind.

To help avoid the original game breaking its Green Aesop by suggesting coal is the best source of energy.

• Barret's flashback in Corel would be the perfect time for him to talk about coal having its own problems, even as part of his motivation to get the town to switch to mako in the first place, much like how real life proponents of nuclear power argue that it's safer than coal when handled properly.

The remake will reveal that there are other surviving Cetra.

The party will take note of Ifalna's statement that, "there aren't many of us left," and its implications, which will set them off either on a sidequest or a main quest for the surviving Cetra that Ifalna protected from Shinra, who may or may not be aware of their heritage and abilities.

Tifa will wear Modesty Shorts

Because you know perverts will fix the camera to look up her skirt. As an added bonus, there can be a Trophy for attempting it like NieR: Automata.

• Nope, she actually has a miniskirt, on the other hand, she also has a sports bra.
• As of the E3 2019 trailer, this has actually been confirmed. She wears a pair of shorts under the skirt now, as well as a short black tank top under the white shirt.

There will be a language option that makes the characters sound like they do in Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged.

Not only that, it'll make them act like them, such as Cloud's Lack of Empathy, Tifa Chewing the Scenery, Marlene carrying a gun and cutting drug deals, Dio being used as a Take That! towards EA, and Tseng being an Alan Rickman expy.

• I wouldn't hold my breath for something of that magnitude. Maybe a minor reference to it like Barret telling Cloud "Don't fuck up" or Tifa telling somebody to "do [her] a solid."
• Perhaps as a middle ground, there will be a sort of Easter Egg mode that adds quotes and references to the party members' battle banter, similar to the IWHBYD Skull from Halo: Reach.

Battles will no longer have a traditional theme.

Given how the battles are shown to play in the last build. (Assuming this is retained by the newer version done in house.) It seems likely that there would not be any battle music for regular encounters. Which would sadly mean Fighting/Those Who Fight will not get a reprise.

• Possibly Jossed. The music appears quite prominently in one of the E3 trailers, though time will tell if it appears during battles as originally intended.
• The traditional music is all back, it depends on which area you're fighting in and each boss has a unique theme.

You can explore all of Midgar in Part 1

The only way they can justify having the Midgar Arc, which was roughly 5 hours on average, be the entirety of the first installment is if the map allowed you to explore all of Midgar. With both the upper-city and the slums to explore, that's plenty.

• Semi-Jossed: You get to visit three major low-class districts of Midgar, open-world style, but for the most part the upper-class districts are barred.

There will be more Mako Reactor missions

• Relating to the above theory about exploring all of Midgar, the player will do more Mako Reactor missions before Sector 5 (with the exception for Sector 8).
  • Jossed. Only Sectors 1 and 5 get a Mako Reactor mission.

Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie will be party members

• At the very least they will be like Blank Marcus and Cinna in the sense they cannot level up.
• Semi-Confirmed. There are certain battles where they are present as NPCs and will assist Cloud, but are not directly controllable.

Red XIII will join sooner

This is assuming that Part 1 ends with the group leaving Midgar. Unless they add a whole lot between when he joins and the escape Red will not get very much screen time unless he joins sooner. Alternatively he will not be playable at all until part 2.

• Former idea Jossed. Red XIII joins at the same place he did in the original, and does indeed not become playable in Part 1.

There will be a side quest involving reconstruction of Sector 7 after it's dropped.

Square is absolutely doubling down on expanding on the Midgar portion of the entire story from the original FF7, ranging from Tifa's conflicting thoughts on AVALANCHE's bombings to revamped boss battles to more places in the city to explore. One way to add to it could be to add a portion to the game that can have Cloud and Co. gather materials to rebuild Sector 7 after Shinra drops it, in a similar vein to Colony 6 or Tarrey Town.

The episodes will be split up practically rather than at just the iconic moments

For example Episode 2 could end before you get the Tiny Bronco boat, and the structure of episode 3 would require the development to design boat travel, islands like the Wutai forests and snow terrain for the northern continent.

New Boss battles with Rufus or Jenova/Sephiroth could be included to close off an episode if needed. Episode 4 could be when you switch to Tifa and the airship and submarine are introduced which change the game.

• That last bit is true, with Chapter 17's finale having a boss battle against Jenova Dreamweaver, a fully original Jenova entity for this game. And the Rufus battle was significantly overhauled to be far cooler and more challenging.

Wutai will now be obligatory

Because of the resources required to make it feel like a whole continent, there will be a new reason you have to visit it in the second act.

• Appears to be confirmed as of the latest few trailers, which include President Shinra referring to Wutai as "our greatest enemy", the implications that the Shinra-Wutai war is either still going or has been reignited, and, most tellingly, the appearance of Leviathan, Wutai's guardian deity and whose Summon Materia the OG game established as belonging to the leader of the Pagoda, as an apparent boss fight.
  • However, it should be noted that all this may well be indicative of significant changes having been made to Wutai's and its relevant characters' roles in the game's plot. It is still too early to tell for sure, but the evidence thus far seems to be pointing to this.

The Gold Saucer's battle Square will be redesigned into a Thor Ragnarok gladiator arena

Red will eventually be addressed to as Nanaki by the party.

Red XIII as a whole is a little bit weird to say when used as a name. This troper always found Aeriths line of "Farewell Red XIII" and Tifas line of "Stop it Red XIII" to feel a bit off. Mostly because of the addition of the number. ((Not by the story dialogues fault))

Perhaps for a while he would simply be "Red" until the cave of Gi where he would at that point not hold contempt to Seto. therefore would he content with being called Nanaki again.

The crossdressing Cloud part will be changed by a stealth invasion mission

I just think that that particular quest will both make Square Enix afraid of offending anyone. Also, the quest had quite a few funny moments, it might fly in the face of the darker tone the game seems to be going for.

• Nah, I don't think so, I mean, Don Corneo is already here and Aerith dressed up to impress Corneo, so I'd say that there's quite the possibility to be a crossdress event, and if people get offended by a oppresive dystopia, there's something very wrong with them.
• I think it would most likely give player a choice: crossdress or stealth mission. After all, shinra HQ part gave you a choice between direct confrontation or walking very long stairs..
• Jossed as of the latest few trailers. The crossdressing mission is completely intact, with the most significant changes apparently being made to "modernize" the HoneyBee Inn portion for the present day.

The new SOLDIER character will be essentially a Seifer for Cloud

In the TGS trailer one of the new elements shown was a man Cloud identified to be as a part of SOLDIER.

In the small bit of footage shown he comes off as very cocky and wild with how he rides in on a motorcyclePerhaps this character actually being SOLDIER and able to know other members would instantly know Cloud is a phoney and go out of his way to look down at him and belittle him at any oppertunity. Much like Seifer would to Squall.

• I agree with you, I think it's quite possible... his undercut mullet is terrible tho.
• The latest trailer appears to indicate that he will indeed be taking on the role of a rival for Cloud, and apparently a recurring one. It is currently unknown if that will extend to the other entries in the Remake, or just for this portion of it. Or if his role will ever exceed that of a relatively minor boss character.

Scarlet will be censored

Her Impossibly-Low Neckline of the original concept art by Nomura will be scrapped, the same for her really low cleavage from her model, and she will wear something more "appropiate". She will also have her bust reduced.

• Apparently Jossed as of the latest trailer. She and all of her... assets, including her hellish personality, appear to be intact. Currently the only character trait of hers from the original not yet showcased is her iconic annoying "Kyahaha!" laugh, amusingly enough.

The pacing of the trailers

Episode 1 is covering the Midgar portion of Final Fantasy VII, right? Well, take a look back at the trailers starting from May. The 1st trailer showed footage up ‘til the aftermath of the Bombing Mission where Cloud first meets Aerith. The second trailer at E3 saw footage after that leading up to the point after Don Corneo’s Mansion while also revealing Tifa. The third trailer at the Tokyo Games Show, showing the Turks and Don Corneo, has footage leading up to the aftermath of the Sector 7 Drop. With this in mind, we can only assume that the next trailer will be showcased at the Game Awards, and will reveal characters like the other board reps (Scarlet, Reeve and Palmer), Hojo and 4th party member Red XIII, as well as footage leading up to the trail of blood, in addition to an extended look at Cloud, Barret, and Tifa breaking into Shinra HQ.

• Confirmed as of the latest trailer. The only major character who has yet to show up in a trailer is Rufus Shinra, for as-yet unknown reasons. Other important scenes shown in the said trailer included the "Chase of Highway" and Cloud, Barret, and Tifa escaping via rope as the Sector 7 plate drops.

AVALANCHE might have a mechanic where you recruit new members for them

In the more recent trailers, during a AVALANCHE and Shinra fire fight, for mere seconds, you see 2 or 3 People fighting along side the Avalanche crew who aren't any of the characters from the original, completely new and probably Red Shirts, but the point is AVALANCHE is clearly a bigger organization than in the original, and maybe the player gets to have a hand in building it up (we DO Spend the entire first game in Midgard after all.).

• Alternatively, those other people could just be other Sector 7 residents who are trying to stop the Shinra from dropping the plate on them. They were seen fighting on the support pillar after all.
• No such element is in the game.

The ghost creatures

The creatures that look like ghosts are the spirits of the planet fighting back against the Humans for hurting the planet. Almost like a precursor to the WEAPONS.

• Jossed... somewhat. They are indeed another planetary defense mechanism, the Whispers of Fate, but they are attemping to undo the changes to the timeline Sephiroth is causing so events play out like in the original 1997 game.

Cloud will catch Sephiroth in the act of murdering President Shinra

This will allow him to be the final boss of Part 1.

• The party witnesses Sephiroth murder President Shinra while he's holding Barret at gunpoint, then proceeds to murder Barret, which triggers the boss fight against Jenova Dreamweaver as "Sephiroth" is actually Marco (clone 49) and using hallucinogenic abilities.

Starting Weapons will get stat buffs between episodes.

a case of developers foresight for the scenario of players who do not have save data for a previous episode, I.E the Buster sword having the stat boosts of the highest usable weapon Cloud can access on the previous part.

If Cloud fails to get picked by Don Corneo and has to fight the guys he's given to, at least one of them will be implied to be an incel.

• How? They work for a pimp/human trafficker, they must have sex... The girls may not be willing participants tho... It was pretty much aluded in the original.
• The whole thing is moot anyway as Cloud will always be picked by Corneo... no alternate scenarios for this scene in this remake.

The new SOLDIER character is/is related to Demyx from Kingdom Hearts

Mostly a Just For Fun theory.

With the Secret Ending of Kingdom Hearts III seeming to link together multiple Square-Enix worlds like Final Fantasy Versus XIII and The World Ends with You, it might be possible for there to be some sort of tie-in to the series in this remake.

On top of that, beating the Secret Boss of the of ReMind DLC reveals that Luxord (one of the members of Organization XIII) may actually be from a world based on Versus XIII. The other Nobody character with an implied but as of yet unknown origin is Demyx, who this new character shares a few similarities to (same hair color, similar undercut mullet, same eye color, reference to "dancing"). While they don't look exactly alike and have different voices, there are cases of Nobodies in the KH series looking and sounding different than their original personalities.

• Unlikely at best and might already be Jossed. It's been officially stated that the Remake is not connected to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, which is the "version" of things Kingdom Hearts uses, to the point of the entire voice cast being replaced for the Remake but the old ones apparently keeping their roles for non-Remake media.

There will be an Old Save Bonus for the PlayStation 4 port of the original game

Possibilities include:

• The Gil or healing items you had from that file transferring.
• The PlayStation models as alternate skins.
• The original version of the soundtrack.

The gentleman who pretties Cloud up in the trailer is Mukki

A fairly minor character in the original game you could quite easily miss, he seemed to otherwise be associated with the Honeybee Inn otherwise with a similar fruity persona, perhaps rather then make him a bodybuilder this time round, Square Enix has opted to make him a more fashionable gentleman type.

• He might also have been retooled into the man doing the apparent musical stage number.
  • Jossed. He's a new character named Andrea Rhodea.

Remake is actually a subtitle.

Rather akin to the EVA movies, the first episode will be "Final Fantasy VII Remake" with the followups being thematically appropriate terms to the episode, such as Rebirth, Reimagine, etc.

• Given how important the word is to the story, It wouldn't be a surprise if one of the games are subtilted "Reunion."
• Well the end of the story does imply that Sephiroth is trying to change history - so the game could be named "Remake" because the story is literally being remade in-universe.
• Confirmed: The next part of FF 7 R is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Guesses on who The Mole for Shinra is

In the demo, Jessie mentions an employee at Shinra who gave them the passcodes for Sector 1. Possible candidates:

• Reeve: He was already Shinra's Token Good Teammate in the original.
• Rufus: Before Crisis revealed that Rufus conspired with Avalanche behind his father's back so that he could take over the company, and if Heidegger's mention of a previous attempt on Shinra's life by Avalanche is to be believed, the events of Before Crisis are canon to the remake.
• Roche
  • All jossed. The real mole is Jessie's father, who is comatose from mako poisoning.
    • Also jossed because Jessie does not mention a mole - she mentions being in contact with someone who can get them passcodes, following that up by bemoaning that no one else at Command (referring to the main Avalanche organisation that Barret's cell has been split from) will talk to them. She got the codes from another Avalanche cell, not a mole.
• Turns out there is a mole, and it's Mayor Domino.

Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie will survive

Aerith's death was an iconic moment that they are unlikely to change. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, on the other hand, are minor enough characters that sparing them won't change the story too much and since Square Enix is stretching out Midgar into a whole game keeping them around could help fill out the game a little.

• Semi-Confirmed: They're spared from the big crush on Sector 7, but that just leaves them as very high-priority targets; Jessie is quickly assassinated by the Arbiters of Fate hacking her grenade. Whether or not the other two survive in future episodes is unknown.
  • Biggs is Spared by the Adaptation thanks to Cloud changing his fate, but Wedge suffers an Uncertain Doom in the second to last chapter.

Episode 1 will end after President Shinra is killed

• Close. Episode 1 ends roughly after the highway chase when the party flees Midgard.

The person wielding the Buster Sword seen at the end of the Final Trailer is Zack Fair

Cloud wears the Buster Sword with the blade facing up, while in Crisis Core Zack wears it with the blade facing down — like the person in the trailer does.

• It seems likely, but it could very easily be a Bait-and-Switch to make people THINK it's Zack or some apparition of him, it could also possibly be Angeal.
• Confirmed.

Post-'Act I' Release Theories

Sephiroth is operating with knowledge of the whole timeline of the Final Fantasy VII sub series and he's a major factor in the Arbiters of Fate acting up.

The timeline of the sub series requires a few certain things, these things involve Sephiroth and Aerith and since Sephiroth's moving about they're mobilizing trying to keep things on track, one of which seems to entail Aerith's eventual death.

Having the knowledge he does, he knows that if things got as fated he will always fail thus he seeks to remove them as to prevent their interference. This comes to his manipulation of the party as with his knowledge of the timeline and their relative inexperience, he's able to know which buttons to press for them. He does this because the arbiters are too aware of him but they wouldn't expect anything from the party

This might actually result in a meta twist to gameplay as what comes after they're dealt with may require the player to know of the original sub series to either make things right or make an even better ending.

At least one event in the timeline the party created will leave the party wondering why they bothered.

By the looks of it, a major theme is going to be how absolutely terrifying true free will is, and that the consequences of altering history are not going to lead to an unvarnished Earn Your Happy Ending, something Sephiroth will rub in.

Guesses:

• Aerith not only still dies, but Sephiroth manages to force Cloud to do so, breaking the White Materia in the process.
• Zack was recaptured by Hojo and turned into a full Sephiroth Clone, forcing Aerith to Mercy Kill him.
• Wutai will be destroyed, and Yuffie discovers that defeating the Whisper Harbinger allowed this, causing her to have a temporary or permanent Face–Heel Turn as she tries to kill them in revenge and to stop them from ruining the world worse.
• The Shinra will survive completely and continue to function, albeit possibly with new policies and standards that are planet friendly in the long run.
• Cloud dies sacrificing himself to prevent Sephrioth from killing Aerith. As without Aerith being part of the Lifestream, she can't prod the Lifestream to help push Meteor back enough for Holy to finish its job, causing Meteor to cause massive destruction.
• Alternatively, Sephiroth kills Tifa instead (he kills Tifa and Barret in the vision at Shinra HQ, and did try to kill Barret only to have the Whispers revive him - and the Whispers are now gone), so no one could put Cloud's broken mind back together later. Meteor falls, everybody dies.
• All the above scenarios may be part of a Flashpoint plot. The villain tricks the hero into altering the timeline to save a loved one - only for it to doom the world, and the hero has to fight to change it back.

Aerith is operating on foreknowledge of the original Compilation

There are a few moments in the game where Aerith demonstrates knowledge she reasonably should not - when trying to convince Cloud to be her bodyguard she tells him it isn't too different from mercenary work, before having a Verbal Backspace and saying she guessed that he was a merc based on his sword, because he hadn't actually told her he was a merc yet. Later, before the sector 7 plate is dropped, Wedge picks up that she doesn't think the plate dropping can be prevented (and she makes a loaded comment about wanting to not live with regrets and know that she did the best she could have done in this situation), and she also seems to know who Marlene and Barret are despite not having met either of them and only hearing Marlene's name once, without context, not too long before. Her meeting with Marlene also has Marlene experience one of the visual camera distortions that Cloud had earlier had around Aerith (the first being the flashforward to her death), and Aerith putting a finger to her lips, apparently aware of what Marlene saw and wanting to keep it quiet.

• Aerith swears when her ladder breaks while going through the dilapidated section with Cloud. Many old players found this odd or hilarious given her pure nature in the first game, but it only points out that this is a more experienced and worldly Aerith. Even if they dont clearly remember everything from the first time around, her "past" experience has influenced her.
• This leads to the possibility that Aerith is aware, at least partially, of the way events originally played out in the Compilation (and as Sephiroth is actively trying to Screw Destiny, which he could only know about if the original Sephiroth is somehow involved - either working with or having merged with his younger self - it would make sense for prime!Aerith to follow him to the past as she would be the only one capable of doing so, even if her influence to her past self is not as direct as Sephiroth).
• After the Whispers/Arbiters of Fate cut Cloud's fight with Reno short and force her and Cloud to escape into the attic, Aerith appears to have developed an idea of what they are and what they're doing, but brushes it off. Then, right before the final battle with Sephiroth that removes the Whispers from the equation and radically alters continuity, she very obliquely tells the party that going through with this will change who they are - the paths they are walking on from then forward will not be the paths they originally took, something that she should only really know if she already knew that their story went differently.
• The reason why she can see the other timeline could be that this Aerith is actually the spirit of the dead Aerith from that timeline possessing the body of the Aerith of this timeline, that explains why Marlene senses her differently from other people, that will also provide a way to "kill" Aerith in this series without actually killing her, by Aerith's spirit leaving this world once her mission was fulfilled.

Remake will eventually end in the heroes being forced to re-enact the events of the original game.

Considering that Sephiroth wanted Cloud and his friends to destroy the Arbiters of Fate, he's going to use his newfound power to change the timeline to his advantage. As the heroes try to avert negative events that occurred in the original, they only result in making things even worse, paving the way for Sephiroth's victory. Aerith will then find a way to rewind time, and the the heroes will be forced to repeat the events of the original to ensure they can beat Sephiroth again.

The game is secretly a stealth crossover with Chrono Trigger

That the game involves not only time travel and a character named Marle is no coincidence. Not only will she pop up around Clound and the gang's adventures in the Remake, but so will the rest of Crono's party, even if they're older. Part 3 would involve a Sidequest that involves making Old Marle, Lucca and Crono become the Lavos slaying prime of their youth as a Superboss worthy of Ruby and Emerald Weapon.

Sephiroth is not the one causing the divergence.

I really don't think Sephiroth is the one who is causing divergence to the timeline, I think he merely took advantage of it, there is no reason for him to get Cloud to join him after fate has already been defeated and if he at all cared about wining he would have killed Cloud and his friends right then and there instead of wanting him to get stronger, nor will he save Zack. Something bigger is at play here, for where there is fate so too will there be those who preordained it, I think the Goddess is back in play. How cool it will be if this whole thing was orchestrated by a Cetra survivor who messes with the timeline to get rid of all the planet's enemies at once forever, with an alliance made up of Genesis and the Deep Ground collaborating with Wutai and Avalanche HQ vs Rufus Shinra vs Sephiroth vs Cloud and friends vs the Gods of the Planet. Hell it might come a time when Cloud and Sephiroth would stand on the same side of the battlefield against a common enemy once again, at least before their one final "fated" duel for the true End.

The reason that Cloud still has the Buster Sword even though Zack lived is because he killed him while under Sephiroth's control.

It would be incredibly tragic that even though Zack survived the Shinra ambush AND managed to get both Cloud and himself to Midgar, that the very person he spend so much effort to save ends up killing him under Sephiroth's control. It would also be what finally broke Cloud out of his comatose state and created his SOLDIER persona, so his mind could deal with the guilt of what he'd done.

Whispers Croceo, Rubrum, and Vindi are actually Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo

All three of the Whispers use the same types of weaponry that Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, and they all have similar moves and fighting styles. In addition, their in-game data explains that all three Whispers came from the future in order to protect it, and Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo only appear in Advent Children, which takes place 2 years after the end of the original game. In addition, the Whispers combine to form Whisper Bahamut, just like how Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo summoned Bahamut themselves.

All 3 of the Chapter 14 resolution scenes canonically happened.

The first scene is Barret's. It can be inferred that this happens shortly before the party goes to bed since there is still enough light outside to make out large buildings like the mako reactors and the general outline of the plate. The second scene is Tifa's; this scene takes place very late at night after Cloud wakes up hearing her leave since the sky is almost pitch-black and the only lights available are whatever small lanterns are turned on in people's houses. Finally, Aerith's scene: this takes place in a dreamlike reality with lights reminiscent of the aurora borealis in the sky, but the real proof this is the last scene is because Aerith specifically says "It's almost morning" before she vanishes.

• Strong evidence of this is found in the Chapter 14 description of the Chapter Selection menu (which becomes available after beating the game): "After rescuing Wedge, the group returns to Sector 5, but there is still no sign of Aerith. Enough friends have already been lost, and each of them resolves to fight for Aerith's safe return." The key words there being "each of them," implying that all 3 scenes occurred.

The Scarlet cutscene in the laboratory in Chapter 16 was an attempt to artificially create Huge Materia.

Just foreshadowing for a future part for the Huge Materia plotline.

• INTERMission strongly indicates this was the "ultimate Materia" Yuffie and Sonon were trying to steal, which was not complete and still being researched.

Sephiroth is trying to prevent the lifestream from abandoning the planet.

Due to the events of Dirge as well as Jenova/Sephiroth constantly poisoning/corrupting the life stream, the planet was set to free itself from Jenova and cause Sephiroth/Jenova to always lose and eventually abandon them to survive on another world. As a result of this, Sephiroth has gone back in time to get Cloud and the others to prevent this from happening by defying fate via destroying the specters. - Spiderfreak 1011

Aerith will still die.

Aerith made the choice to allow the party to defy fate and has foresight of the future, as we can tell from Act 1. However, the foreshadowing of the dream sequence in remake heavily has her imply she will die and that she doesn't want Cloud to get attached to thinking she might survive. - Spiderfreak 1011

• Bonus points if the scene transitions to Sephiroth's point of view and they put us in control of him above a praying locked-on Aerith.

Minerva will return as one of the main villains of remake.

Minerva from Crisis Core (the blonde haired goddess that is the super boss) is going to be a major threat in later acts because Cloud changed fate, there are many hints that she's a cetra, she created the "Weapons" in FFVII original (like Ruby/Emerald Weapon) as hinted since in that game, when you attack the weapons you strike at their red materia core, and you do the same for her in Crisis Core. - Spiderfreak 1011

Rufus had a cetra mother.

Rufus can see the whispers despite the fact that Aerith never touched him. He and Shinra also follow the exact same actions they did in original VII, as if they're following the will of the lifestream to the letter. - Spiderfreak 1011

The Knights of the Round summon materia will be in Part 3, if not 4

In the PlayStation version, Knights of the Round was the strongest summon materia you could get, but you had to go through a long line of breeding breeding specific colors of chocobo until you got the Golden Chocobo all just to get that one materia. Not only would you have to fight them, the battle would play out a bit more like it does in Final Fantasy XIV, especially if "Heroes" is the main theme worthy of an Olympus Mons boss.

The Knights of the Round are the Caelum Family, or based on them

Not much was ever given about the Knights of the Round beyond their willingness to beat down on an opponent in levitating succession. Giving them a backstory based on FFXV might be a popular Shout-Out.

This Remake will be at least 4 parts because of the amount of characters that need to be fleshed out

The characters are much more fleshed out than they were in the original, and there’s no way you can fit Vincent, Yuffie, Cid, and Cait Sith in two other games and give them the same development as the part 1 characters. The Zack twist creates even more problems, as vast amount of drama with his character is to be expected. Too much stuff is gonna happen for it to be just three games.

Rufus Shinra will play a more direct role in the altered timeline

After Cloud and company have escaped Shinra Tower, massive amounts of Whispers surround the building, and a cutscene makes a point of showing that Rufus is able to see them while others like Tseng and Heidegger can't. Perhaps this is an indication that he will become a Wild Card who causes events to become less predictable now that the heroes have broken free of their predestined fate.

Red XIII will be Promoted to Playable in Part 2

It feels like the logical course of action. He isn't playable in Part 1 because of how late in the game he appears, but by Part 2 he will be around from the start.

Yuffie will be a mandatory party member

Thus far, the game is implying that Wutai will have a bigger role in the story, hence our Wutai character will have a bigger role. Since everyone got pissed off by it in the original, her stealing all the materia the part has will be cut out. Instead she will steal some really good materia the player recently aquired. Annoying, but nowhere nearly as bad as her making off with all of it.

There will be a War Arc with Wutai

Part 1 has been shaping up for this. The implication is that Shinra considers AVALANCHE a minor nuisance at best, while Wutai is their greatest enemy, with their plans in Part 1 revolving around trying to create an excuse for them to go to war with Wutai.

Shinra will lose it's good publicity.

Due to their corruption exposed to the entire public. By either Reeve, or a member who had a change of heart.

You can't change the past.

Zack lives because his future was altered but that future is still Cloud's past. Basically we're dealing with Avengers: Endgame alterations to the timeline, it only affects a second(third?) timeline. As for why Biggs (and Jessie being hinted at) being alive in the end, is because they would have died of their injuries had the arbiters not been defeated.

Jessie will become Cloud's date at the Golden Saucer when the remake timeline catches up.

As long as you chose to accept her date, the save files will keep it as an old save bonus and make Jessie into Cloud's date. And they'll eat pizza.

The Cetra were not the idealistic Perfect Peace People they've been portrayed as.

Up until the remake, we weren't given a clear glimpse of Cetra culture; how they lived, how they used Mako, their technology level. Now we've been given details, and they were generally a magic-centered culture who shaped Materia with enchanting from Mako fonts all across the planet. No sign of any post-medieval technology. Which is curious...

... because if they weren't genetically augmented clones meant to survive the Post-Jenova apocalypse, and didn't live with the Cetra side-by-side, then where did the non-Cetra humans originate from? In fact, why would a race of magic-wielding forest elves tolerate the existence of humans, who constantly harvest and exploit whatever they can find? It's possible the Cetra bred them from the muggles among them to create an untouchable caste, or possibly birthed from Materia experimentation and then exploited, to become servants, farmers, and expendable soldiers for their wars. Once Jenova hit and began devouring Mako, de-powering most of the Cetra and driving them to extinction, the humans adapted, improvised, and built underground shelters to survive, while most of the Cetra died fighting a losing battle against an Eldritch Abomination goddess.

This would also explain some of Sephiroth's racism towards humans; not only were they 'cowards', they were from a lower caste that rose to overpopulate and conquer the world.

Cloud will be possessed by Sephiroth

Sephiroth is operating with knowledge of the original timeline, and more actively controlling the people who've been altered into his clones. He knows that Cloud will eventually defeat him, but also that at this point, his psyche is more vulnerable to manipulation. He wants Cloud to get stronger so that when he takes Cloud as his vessel, the rest of the party won't be able to stop him. It will be up to everyone to find a way to free him from Sephiroth's control.

During the period that Cloud is possessed, Zack will take Cloud's place in the party using the same moves and weapons.

The Safer Sephiroth battle will have everyone fighting against him

The original battle was just Cloud and whatever party members you picked back then. Since the Remake has everyone taking swings at him even just in his human form, it'll require everything just to temporarily put him down in his most One-Winged Angel form. The final duel still plays out with Cloud killing him once and for all, though with the Whispers tacked on, they make sure he stays dead!

Cloud and Sephiroth's one-on-one fight after Safer Sephiroth will be upgraded from a Zero-Effort Boss to a full Duel Boss

This will lead into a Remake for Final Fantasy 8

While it’s a no brainer this game will print money, the engine made for this game and the rest of the FF7 remake series will lead to FF8 getting a remake of its own.

• FF8is a beloved game but a game with more nostalgia like FF9 or FF10 could be a better choice, alternatively one of the NES or SNES games could get the treatment, like FF6 for instance

When the party gets to the Gold Saucer, there will be some serious JoJo references

The owner of Gold Saucer is named Dio for Hamon's sake! Even moreso if they get both his Japanese and English voice actor for the same character.

Zack is still dead in this timeline

When the party steps through the portal at the end of the Midgar highway before the final boss fights, they end up in an identical looking version of Midgar. This turns out to be just a different timeline and the result of the boss fight is that Zack survives in that timeline, but not the actual timeline of the Remake.

• That would explain why Zack saw the time crash from Midgar just after defeating the ambush, while the time crash occurred weeks after he was supposed to be dead; the blast from the time crash was so severe that it affected other timelines, including time before the event would have happened.

Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie will become party members

Since the ending flat-out reveals Biggs is still alive and implies Wedge and Jessie are too, it'd be interesting to see them join the fight. Part one even went out of its way to show them wielding different weapons to make for different playstyles - Biggs uses a deagle, Jessie an SMG, and Wedge a big-ass shotgun of some sort. However, they'll only be playable on certain conditions. Either:

• They only join if you fail to recruit Vincent and Yuffie.
• They take Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith's places during Cid's period as party leader, and two of them will be Killed Off for Real during Ultimate Weapon's rampage.
• They are guest party members during the raid on Sector 8.
• If Wedge is dead, then Biggs and Jessie will replace Aerith and Cait Sith (who in this version, won't have a spare body).

The Junon Parade finale is trolled

Episode 1 turned the Honeybee Inn from a lecherous brothel to a musical even sexier than actual sex. If the developers can do that to one Inn, think about what they'll do to an entire parade.

• The parade includes floats showcasing the board of directors in all their decadent glory, dancers dressed as monsters, guards shooting people with cake-throwers, an animated statue of Sephiroth stabbing Jenova (which mysteriously slices in half and explodes), Chocobos trained to sing the Shin-Ra theme song, and even brony-expies as mascots.
• The simple sequence of showing off some salutes to Rufus will be replaced with a Family-Guy-esque super musical praising Rufus' home life, his shady dealings, and his supposedly secret liaisons, all in a series of prancing and lyrics so ridiculous that Rufus is dumbfounded into believing he's hallucinating (again). And it even ends with a midget and a bipedal Red XIII talking like Stewie and Brian. (Red XIII being used as part of the prank explains why he's allowed onboard the ship despite being a walking lion in a soldier's outfit - he's considered Rufus' animal jester).

Remake is the golden ending to the original's bad and the compilation's neutral.

Here this out. In an interview, albeit said with laughter, humanity was stated to have died at the end of the original Final Fantasy 7. If that's the case how did Advent Children and by extension Dirge of Cerberus happen? Simple! The original game also cut to Aerith's face in the end, just as it had began. Why is this important? Aerith in Remake has knowledge of future events. Who's to say that now that they've untethered themselves from the original ending that Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus are not the new future, where the immediate threat is gone but there are still other threats to deal with in the near future. Which of course means that the real endgame(haha) is to undo Geostigma and Deepground next as they already averted the bad end of the events of Crisis Core(potentially for one timeline not their own...depending on how the Zack situation plays out exactly.) and the events of those parts of the Compilation haven't happened yet. So...

• TLDR: The Original had humanity wiped out, the Compilation had them continue on but with new immediate threats and the Remake is the attempt at humanity continuing with no threats.

Wedge didn't survive Part 1

Of the Avalanche trio, only Biggs is explicitly shown to be alive at the end, and Jessie is hinted at as well, but we're in the dark about Wedge. The spectres seemingly kill him in the Shinra Building, but Cloud did not witness it and has no idea that Wedge died. In his brief window to change history, Cloud did not know to save Wedge and thus didn't, leaving Wedge the only dead member of the trio despite originally seeming to be the only one to be spared.

The following parts of the remake will have two timelines to play through, giving us two stories.

In developer interviews, the creators stated that they cited Final Fantasy XIII's trilogy as a source of inspiration of how they could make the Remake of Final Fantasy VII. And Final Fantasy XIII's trilogy had multiple timelines you could progress through. So, taking that into consideration, as well as the fact that this game ends with the absolutely insane Cosmic Retcon of having Zack survive the events of the ambush that led up to the original timeline's story, therefore creating a seperate timeline in which Zack is alive and well. Not only this, but certain scenes from the ending can make sense if you take into consideration Zack being alive. For example, the scenes in which the citizens of the Sector 7 slums are rebuilding, as well as the ones with the main party of Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aerith, and Red XIII are from the timeline that is a standard remake of the original, whereas the scenes showing Biggs waking up, injured but not dead, with Jessie's gloves on the bedside table next to him as well as the scene of Zack carrying Cloud to Midgar take place in the new timeline, which has an ACTUAL first class SOLDIER, Zack, in play rather than Cloud. As a result of this, Zack may have stopped the Turks from dropping the plate, saving Biggs and Jessie from being crushed beneath the rubble of the pillar. And on top of all of this, in the original timeline, the design of Shinra's dog mascot is different from the one shown after the party defeats the arbiters of fate, sparing Zack in the new timeline.

The incident with Cloud beating up Aerith in the Temple of the Ancients will not make it into the game.

Two reasons, one major and one minor. The major reason is because Square-Enix is clearly shooting to keep the Final Fantasy brand as a T-rated series, and audiences and ratings boards are likely not going to be on board with such a vicious beatdown being shown in HD graphics (the blocky sprites and limited animation movements of the original game are almost certainly a big reason why it flew by in 1997; a lot of players don't even seem to realize what was going on in that scene). On top of that, Part 1 already removed a much smaller scene when Tseng harshly slaps Aerith across the face, so there's that too. The minor reason is because the event itself is never brought up again afterward, both in the game itself or in any of the Compilation's material.

• Alternatively, Sephiroth could be possessing him at the time or causing him to hallucinate Aerith as a monster.
• It might be played similar to what happened in Final Fantasy XV with Ardyn and Prompto.

They will try to implement some kind of choice based system that will lead to different paths.

Based your choices you can either tried to follow the original down to the T and get the closet story to the original or you can try to be unique and end up with a uniquer story compared to the original.

The party will meet Jessie's mother at the Gold Saucer.

Jessie's cover story with her family was that she was still working at the Gold Saucer's theater, just behind the scenes instead of as an actress. If her mom survived the Sector 7 plate drop, she would go there looking for her daughter, and Barret, Cloud and Tifa would have to struggle with the burden of telling her the truth.

Instead of Aerith being the one to die as in the original, either she or Tifa will be killed based on your relationship values.

Quite simply, the one whose value is lower will die, both to reward shippers and also make them feel like dicks for neglecting the other. Or, to be cruel and cause as much controversy as possible, the opposite will be true and the one whose value is higher will be the one to die.

Roche will be a recurring antagonist in the next game.

Shinra will task Roche with tracking down Cloud and his friends (something Roche will be all too eager to do) after they leave Midgar, leading to more showdowns with his new favorite foe.

Sephiroth is possessed by the mind of his post-Advent Children self.

Since Sephiroth in this version seems intent on altering fate, it's possible that, following his third defeat at Cloud's hands, he somehow managed to invoke Mental Time Travel in order to enact a "do-over". This could also be why the Arbiters of Fate appeared to Aerith before any major events were in danger of being altered: Sephiroth's very act of going back awakened them. They are to the timestream what the Weapons were to the planet; living protectors against anything which threatens it.

Aerith will still die - by choice.

It's heavily implied that Aerith is aware of her fate in the original game. If that's so, then she would also be aware that her death would ultimately result in the planet being saved. So she would still choose to give her life summoning Holy, in order to ensure the planet's survival.

Zack will be controlled by Sephiroth alongside (or instead of) Cloud.

Considering Zack, being a full-fledged SOLDIER, has Jenova cells in his body, he too would be susceptible to Septhiroth's control if he's still alive in the present. His strength would be something Sephiroth could use to his advantage. Alternatively, Zack's very existence proving Cloud's Fake Memories wrong would contribute further to Sephiroth's plan to make Cloud think he's nothing but a failed clone.

The Shinra Dog's Design change when Zack was shown alive...

Was just an alternate design from an older bag that just happened to be in that area. No Alternate timeline conspiracy, just different packaging.

Possible Optional Boss fights

• Genesis.
• Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz.
  • There are hints that the trio of arbiters you fight might have been them.
• Weiss.
• Zirconiade.
• Gilgamesh.
• The heroes of the original game.

The biggest reason the plot will rapidly go Off the Rails is because somebody will force Cloud to piece his memory back together much earlier.

• Zack: Assuming he actually survived due to a Cosmic Retcon this time, he may catch up with the party at some point and boy would that be an awkward conversation for Cloud and Aerith.
• Aerith & Tifa: In stark contrast to the original game, the Remake has emphasized on multiple occasions that both Aerith and Tifa are very aware something is quite wrong with Cloud's headaches (Barret has also noticed on a few occasions, but he's much more dismissive than either of them). In Chapter 8, after Cloud hallucinates that Clone #2 is Sephiroth, and asks a question about him, the camerawork and body language from Aerith just screams that she knows more than she's letting on. In Chapter 13, Tifa clearly saw Cloud in the middle of his hallucinatory episode, and again in Chapter 16, after the Shinra trooper recognizes Cloud but he doesn't, Tifa really looks like she wants to dig deeper into the subject but refrains due to their mission. In Chapter 17, both women take a moment to actually discuss Cloud's mental state and how weird he's behaving. Without the Whispers to interfere, it is quite possible that during the Kalm segment, Aerith will take a more aggressive approach to really question Cloud's story, and Tifa will be encouraged by her boldness to do the same and together, they will really dig out the truth.
• Kunsel. The Shinra trooper in Chapter 16 said he was going to tell Kunsel about Cloud's survival. With Shinra quite possibly being in hot pursuit of the Avalanche team that attacked HQ in Part 2, Kunsel could very well be one of the pursuers and find the party eventually... and he's going to have lots of questions for Cloud about what happened to Zack, which will force him to get his story straight fast.
• Hojo. The man already revealed to Cloud that he wasn't a SOLDIER in his lab! While Cloud himself didn't really hear it thanks to his memory-lapse headache, it logically follows that the other people in the room (namely Barret, Tifa, and Aerith) would all have heard Hojo saying quite clearly "My boy, you weren't a SOLDIER..." and it just may provide the impetus for the party to corner Cloud and demand clarification from him. And if that doesn't happen, Hojo himself may decide to spill the beans on Cloud the next time they meet solely to satisfy his own curiosity... which, going by the original game's reckoning, will be at Costa Del Sol while he's sunbathing with bikini babes.

They have canonized the comment about FFVII taking place after FFX

During the sequence talking about the Cetra, humans are not mentioned interacting with them all, nor mentioned until AFTER Meteor fell. Given how much time has passed, the humans without the Cetra's ability to manipulate the Lifestream, would likely not be able to have survived given they'd be roughly Roman Era in terms of Tech.So how could they have survived that?They weren't there to begin with, Humans and Al Bhed (Given the hair and eye colors are common on Gaia.) left Spira somehow and colonized Gaia (Curiously leaving the other races such as the Ronso, Guado (Well maybe, maybe a few went with given they can interbreed with Humans.), etc.This was once a comment made by a big head at Square Enix, later on saying it was a joke, but Nomura may have made it canon, and we might get confirmation in Part 2. And considering there's a guy wearing a Shinra Mask in the group photo of the President Shinra exhibit hall...

Sephiroth doesn't want to do Meteor anymore, he wants to do something else.

Given he clearly KNOWS that Meteor fails and his new knowledge of hindsight and the 2nd chance he is given, perhaps he has something else planned entirely. Maybe the same end goal but different method to get there, maybe a new goal entirely, who knows. But Perhaps he wants to do something else this time around.

The full Remake will be 4 games long.

Since we're taking inspiration from Rebuild of Evangelion here, we can sort of plot out the course:

• Part 1: This largely follows the original work with only minor deviations. Remake did exactly this, with the caveat that a big deviation occurs at the end.
• Part 2: For roughly the first half of the game, things will continue to cruise along the path of the original work, but in the second half, events from the original will still happen but they will have big changes to them, and things will end quite differently. So, much like how in Evangelion 2.0 when Shinji sends the plot way Off the Rails when he fights like hell to save Rei from Zeruel and ends up causing Third Impact, Cloud will do much the same at the end of Part 2 when he saves Aerith from death... and guarantees Meteorfall.
• Part 3: Everything has gone crazy. Unlike Parts 1 and 2, there is absolutely no resemblance to anything that happened in the original story. Things may very well have gotten much worse than anything the original story did. Much like how Third Impact happens in 3.0, in Part 3 of Remake, Meteorfall successfully happens and the party is merely trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic landscape as the Planet's WEAPONs ruthlessly hunt down any remnants of humanity while Sephiroth/Jenova are running around doing... bad guy stuff. Meanwhile, similarly to how Shinji's relationship with WILLE and Rei Q is heavily strained, Cloud will find himself having a severely damaged relationship with the party and especially with Aerith, who will be torn between being happy to be alive but feeling guilty that Cloud saving her has doomed the planet.
• Part 4: Assuming this does become the equivalent to 3.0 + 1.0, the Final Fantasy VII universe finally achieves the Golden Ending the party wants, with the decisions made during this timeskip era paying off after a rough series of events that leaves the party questioning if their decision to change fate was worth it. Cloud succeeds in saving the universe - which may or may not entail a Cosmic Retcon - while ensuring that all his friends are safe, and even finds some salvation for Sephiroth by getting some redemption for his arch-nemesis.
  • While there's no telling yet how the plot will go, Square-Enix confirmed in June 2022 that the entire Remake project will only be 3 games long, not 4.

Sephiroth seeks to be mercy killed

The way he takes advantage of Cloud's hatred for him to fufil his evident goals is clear from the start, he shows him his plan, he even makes a point by killing illusional versions of Tifa and Barret, doing everything he can to fuel Clouds complete hatred, it is possible he is trying to build Cloud up in a way that he won't hesitate to strike him down when the final bout finally occurs, with how little he mentions Jenova as his mother, perhaps he from the distant lifestream of fate has learned the truth and regained some humanity to him, hoping to be freed from the hold of Jenova by being slain for good and he knows Cloud is the only one who can do it.

This will turn out to be Final Fantasy XVI

• Jossed. Final Fantasy XVI was announced and has no immediately apparent connection to VII Remake.

Sephiroth wants to destroy everything on the planet (possibly in the universe) except for himself and Cloud.

Based on his comments at the "edge of creation". He calls himself eternal and asks Cloud to join him, and he seems invested in keeping Cloud around even though he knows Cloud is the one who defeats him (assuming he knows the original timeline). It's possible he wants to destroy everything so that he can remake it, a more extreme version of what the heroes are doing by going off the original timeline.

The subplot involving Vincent, Lucrecia, Hojo and their involvements in the creation of Sephiroth would be expanded upon in future chapters

Basically, taking plot elements from Dirge of Cerberus and expanded upon it in the Remake once Vincent joins the party. Instead of a sidequest, it'd be expanded into a plot-relevant development that could develop Vincent's character arc in addition to moving the main plot along as well.

The original timeline is the Bad/Neutral ending, this timeline is either the Good or Worst ending, and the alternate timeline where Zack lives is the Golden ending.

And in a Sadistic Choice, in the end players will have to destroy or merge the timeline they've been playing on the entire game to make the Zack lives/Golden ending timeline the canon one.

Zack lives, but player choice will decide if Cloud still gets with Aerith or Tifa

The ending heavily implies that many of the things that happened in the origial timeline has been changed or reset, including Zack dying. We clearly see him be able to beat all the Shina soldiers and not die like in the original timeline. Zack will still be alive and a playable character in one of the sequels, but Aerith getting with Zack and Cloud getting with Tifa is not set in stone, it will all depend on player choice who ends up with who or if Cloud ends up alone. Which once again plays of the "destiny is not set" theme of the new timeline.

Adding to the above if Zack does come into the current timeline instead of a separate timeline there will be the option to restart his and Aerith's relationship.

This is something you could do if the player has Cloud fall for someone other than Aerith. It would still be optional but if Cloud is locked into someone else you could put effort into rekindling the relationship of his friends.

Jessie's alive and the party will reunite with her at the Golden Saucer in Part II.

The destruction of the Arbiters of Fate undid a bunch of thing that occurred during the original timeline, as evidenced by Biggs and Zack's survival and now everything's off the rails. Jessie's death in the remake now never happened because she never returned to Midgard in the first place. Instead, she remained at the Golden Saucer and, depending on Cloud's actions in Part I, she'll tell him he "looks familiar" and be available as a date.

The Tifa/Scarlet Cat Fight will play a lot differently

The original scene has Tifa, who can shatter enemies bigger and taller than she is, get into what's essentially a Wimp Fight with Scarlet on top of the Junon Cannon when the Remake shows she can utterly flatten down trained Shinra soldiers. While Scarlet won't exactly be a Badass Normal like Tifa is, Beauty Is Never Tarnished will be definitely averted and one or both of them are gonna come away with a black eye, scratches and in Scarlet's case, some busted teeth!

There will be one new WEAPON

But rather then protecting the life stream, it will be protecting the rules of fate.

More Monsters that were random encounters in the original games that will get promoted to bosses

• Midgar Zolom: Self explanatory, perhaps at first the party need to avoid it, but at the end of the chapter they have to fight it for real. It could also be renamed to Midgardsormr.

• Zemzelett

• Grangulan: The egg like creature from Costa Del Sol has potential for this and its mook making tendencies

• Gigas Titan

• Behemoth

• Scissors

• Vlakorados

• XCannon

• Ying/Yang

• Heavy Tank

The Planet may in fact be an enemy in future installments, with Aerith having divided loyalties.

The Planet / Gaia / Minerva would have little-to-no tolerance for beings not born from its own Lifestream (including Jenova hybrids), hence why Aerith is convinced that everything about Sephiroth is wrong.

What's more, although utterly amoral in his methods, he fully intends on becoming the new defender of the Planet, whether as a mortal OR as a God; he has no intention whatsoever of engaging in self-sacrifice.

Aerith survives but someone else dies in her place as a result

One of the effects of the derailing from the original timeline. The iconic death scene needs to happen, but it just doesn't have to involve Aerith, and could potentially be worse for the world: If it was Aerith who dies, then the Planet is saved because she could cast Holy beyond her death. But if someone else who can't cast Holy, like for example, Tifa, who dies??

Take your pick...

Aerith will stab Sephiroth in the back with his own Masamune

Thus avenging her own death in the 1997 game.

The characters may end up interacting with their future selves from the original.

Most likely something similar to how Cloud interacted with Zack and Aerith's spirits in Advent Children. To Make a Long Story Short, whatever changes made to the timeline don't take full effect until after a while, especially with the future now unpredictable, so there's still a chance for some things to stay the same.

Remake!Character: Wait, if you're still here, does this mean what happened to you still happens to me?
Original!Character: Maybe, but we don't know yet. We'll have to see what happens this time.

• For bonus points, the original continuity characters will be voiced by the original Compilation voice actors (like Steve Burton and Beau Billingslea).

Possible voice actors for the rest of the cast

Since they're going for the Darrining route, with most of the VAs being Celebrity Voice Actors, here are some possible choices (they can be both celebrity and experienced VAs).

• Yuffie:
  • Brenda Song.
  • Cristina Valenzuela.
  • Kira Buckland.
  • Grace Rolek.
  • Kate Micucci.
  • Maisie Williams.
  • Cassandra Lee Morris.
  • Stephanie Sheh.
  • Paris Berelc.
  • Peyton Elizabeth Lee.
  • Ariel Winter.
  • Lana Condor.
• Cait Sith:
  • Alan Tudyk.
  • Richard Steven Horvitz.
  • Rob Paulsen.
  • David Tennant.
  • Steven Yeun.
  • Jack McBrayer.
  • Scottmc Neil.
  • Matthew Lillard.
  • Eric Bauza.
  • Aidan Gillen.
  • Johnny Yong Bosch.
• Vincent:
  • Charlie Heaton.
  • Cillian Murphy.
  • Kellen Goff.
  • Jackie Earle Haley.
  • Michael Ironside.
  • Travis Willingham.
  • David Hayter.
  • Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
  • Kevin Conroy.
  • Thomas Jane.
  • Jon Bernthal.
  • Brian Drummond.
  • Neal McDonough.
  • Michael Bell
• Cid:
  • Michael Rooker.
  • Steven Ogg.
  • Xander Mobus (if possible, using the same Southern accent he used as Rufus in Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged. Albeit with a more pronounced drawl to reflect his working class background).
  • Norman Reedus.
  • Aaron Paul.
  • Michael Mando.
  • Terrence Howard.
  • Michael Cudlitz.
  • Bill Goldberg.
• Elena:
  • Cherami Leigh.
  • Ana de Armas.
  • Karen Strassman.
• Dyne:
  • Matthew Mercer.
  • David Hayter.
  • Trevor Devall.
  • Neal McDonough.
  • Dan Southworth.
  • Nolan North.
• Dio:
  • Diedrich Bader.
  • Patrick Seitz (yes, I know).
  • Seth MacFarlane.
  • Bruce Campbell.
• Bugenhagen:
  • Jim Ward.
  • Mark Hamill.
  • Bryan Cranston.
  • Peter Capaldi.
  • Christopher Lloyd.
  • Edward Asner.
• Shera:
  • Grey DeLisle.
  • Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
  • Judy Greer.
  • Michelle Ruff.
• Zangan:
  • Richard Epcar.
  • Stephen Lang.
  • Esai Morales.
  • Michael Chiklis.
• Cissnei:
  • Tara Strong.
  • Katherine McNamara.
  • Sarah Hyland.
  • Kimberly Brooks.
  • Madison Davenport.
  • Kaitlyn Dever.
  • Willa Holland.
• Genesis:
  • Finn Jones
  • Keith Szarabajka

The final level takes place in the Lifestream - because the party is dead

Going off the Shrug of God that most of the party dies at the end of the game in one timeline, the Arbiters of Fate manage to stitch back the plot at the very end so it loosely fits what could have happened (and get some revenge for being repeatedly ass-whooped); the airship explodes while retreating from the erupting materia-powered volcano. But since the story's over, the Arbiters' only remaining prerogative is to ensure Red XIII escapes, so the party (including Aerith and Zack) can now write the epilogue without any other restrictions - which lets them discover the Greater-Scope Villain behind Jenova and whatever is going on throughout the cosmos.

We will be getting a The Last Temptation of Christ or Donnie Darko plot

Spoiler for non-FF7 media: Aerith will seemingly look like she survived Sephiroth's attack but will see that her survival would guarantee doom to the planet.

The Whispers of Fate are actually The Auditors of Reality

Cloaked figures in empty gray robes with no personality who get upset when Fate goes Off the Rails? It seems like this is just The Planet's branch of The Auditors. They even merge into a larger form to make their displeasure known.

Dirge of Cerberus will happen during the game instead of after.

The Events of Dirge of Cerberus will happen earlier due to the plot already going off the rails, and as a result we may get Shelke as a Party Member or simply a Plot Relevant Character.

We will find out that Jenova is actually Yuna having trasnformed into a being not unlike Sin, but several magnitudes worse and more deadly, after going insane after The Last Mission, in turn canonizing the X -> VII comment.

We never find out much about Jenova, they might be planning something utterly crazy with her to tie it all together.And allllllllll the Chaos that would ensue by doing so.

Jenova is a natural pollinator

of the galactic ecosystem.If we treat the inhabited Planets as gigantic superorganisms, then Jenova is one of multitudes of 'seeds' periodically sent during a 'cosmic spring' to effectively infest said superorganisms with new genetic material, causing the birth of countless new species and the rebirth of the Planets during the 'cosmic summer', some of which are then sent back to the source as new seeds during the 'cosmic fall'. It's just that this 'opportunity' happens to cause a mass-extinction.

At one point the heroes will encounter their original counterparts

Some kind of dimensional rift will allow this game’s versions to observe or even meet the ones from the original timeline, complete with the Advent Children set of voice actors.

If we ever revisit the original timeline, there will be an Art Shift

If Cloud ever ends up shoved into the original game's timeline, the events and context won't just be the same as the original game, but we'll even revisit environments in all their pre-rendered glory, inhabited by the blocky NPCs of 1997, complete with the voice acting temporarily dropped for silent text boxes. It will also result in a bit of a Mind Screw as Cloud subsequently causes things to go Off the Rails even there.

The Wutai Quest will be about letting go of grudges

Considering how they polished handling the Turks' responsibility for the Sector 7 Plate Drop, it's unlikely Barrett is going to let it slide when he sees Reno and Rude again and his first instinct might even be to kill them. Likewise, since Don Corneo is an Arc Villain, it's likely Leslie will be involved, seeking his revenge, and might go to questionable lengths to do so. Finally, there is Yuffie's anger at her father for giving up and the wedge its driven between them. All of this reads like a recipe for an Aesop on the folly of revenge.

The Nibelheim Incident will be played a lot differently

While it's still going to be a lot of death and destruction once Sephiroth goes off the deep end, it's the leading up to it that shows Sephiroth used to be a rather chill dude who goes from a calm but detached SOLDIER to going laughing mad, crying that his whole life was a lie before warping into the cold killer we know him as.

• To further emphasize the above, the flashback will emphasize some of the more positive qualities Sephiroth had before he turned evil, such as worrying about his subordinates and just rolling with "Cloud's" unprofessional shenanigans while trying to hide that he finds it endearing.

The choice to save Aerith won't be Cloud's, but Yours.

And do you know how long you'll have to decide? Seven seconds.

Ravens will appear in some form

Be it a single example or as a recurring enemy type.

The First SOLDIER will not be about Sephirtoh

Rather it will be about a person who was became a prototype to the process and training of SOLDIER.

• Since the First SOLDIER was revealed to be a battle Royale game confirmed I guess?

Sephiroth won't be the Final Boss / Big Bad of the Remakes.

Ironically because by meddling with time to save himself, he ends up creating something far worse. Bonus points if he gets what he wanted, but not in the way he envisioned.

Zack and Aerith survive the new timelime...but Cloud and Tifa die in their place

In a variation of Equivalent Exchange, Zack and Aerith remember the old timeline where their are both dead. They believe that Sephiroth also remember the old timeline and will try to kill Aerith off again...only to stab Cloud and Tifa at the same time. Sephiroth believes that Cloud is always destine to stop him, so why not kill him before the Northern Crater? But why leave Zack and Aerith alive? It's because they are needed to control the Lifestream as they were to first to form a symbotic relationship with it, which might be the reason for time travel in the first place.

Sonon isn't dead, He is suppose to be the Remake's take on the Player Tsviet from the Dirge online mode

For those who don't remember or didn't know, Dirge had a short lived Online campaign set during FF7 to explain what the Tsviets were up too. The Player character was a nameless deepground initiate that had just been recently abducted. Shelke used her dive ability to modify the PCs memories so they'd have a grudge against the Restrictors, The wardens and rulers of deepground, IE The Lead Restrictor abducted their younger sister. Now the original context was Shelke using her memory to make the PC have an innate trust of her. But Sonon's backstory lines up way too well with the Online characters fake backstory. It would also explain why it lingers so long on Sonon's death and Nero seemingly being more gentle with his body then his usual affair. Nero took Sonon back to Shelke, Shelke restructures his already valid memory to coincide with their goals... Hell She doesn't even need to modify much since Scarlett pretty much acts like Restrictor anyway. With Shinra more actively using the Tsviets, It wouldn't be much of a stretch to think we'll see Sonon again.

Everything that has changed, changed because Aerith returned to the Planet and used White Materia, becoming the new Arbiter of Fate.

Aerith is responsible for everything that's different in 'Remake'. When she returns to the planet, she becomes the Arbiter of Fate and changes fate for her friends — but ultimately not for herself (because she can't). She KNOWS this. Marlene seems to have some idea of it too.

Episode 2 will open with Avalanche defending Kalm from a monster attack

The game will open with the team hearing cries of help, and rushing into the fray. Red, Barret and Cloud will focus on keeping the monsters at bay, while Aerith and Tifa rescue the townspeople. As a big monster bears down on the two, a familiar shuriken hits it on the back of the head, revealing Yuffie standing on one of the towers. She jumps down and battles the monster away. Tifa chastises the teenager for getting involved in dangerous actions, only for Yuffie to counter that Avalanche is in no position to talk about danger. The scene transitions to the tutorial combat, giving us an Hour of Power as it teaches us all about their individual combat styles as the scene progresses. Towards the end of the tutorial, the six face off against a runaway mech (Custom Sweeper) which selfdestructs, shattering all their materia in the process and frying the majority of their weapons.

While the townspeople are grateful to the group and offer to try and fix their gear for them in thanks, the six take the time overnight to discuss what drove Sephiroth to do what he is doing, leading to the Kalm Flashback. This is our overworld tutorial, where the game teaches us about the new mechanics in the game.

Episode 2 will focus on the team travelling around the world, searching for Sephiroth

Where this will diverge from the original is in why they are looking for him. Aerith's foreknowledge means they know what he will be trying to do, and now that fate is broken he is more dangerous than ever. This makes them stay ahead of Shinra, who don't have the foreknowledge, and are following them in their tracks. Aerith will lead them to various places, including Junon, Corel, the Gold Saucer (where they meet Cait Sith) and Cosmo Canyon (where Red reveals his patronage). The meeting with Vincent will be mandatory, and can include him defending the team in a fight against Deepground (due to Dirge), and he joins the team to get revenge on Hojo. Cid's motivations will be because of Shinra trying to steal the Tiny Bronco in the past after the failed launch, and now Rufus is doing the same thing, which will lead to a duel between Cid and Rufus.

Since Rocket Town is the last location we meet a main character, I can see this being a major checkpoint in the game (such as the halfway mark like the S7 Pillar). Palmer's boss battle will more than likely be a gauntlet of Shinra troops, with Palmer piloting a mech not unlike Scarlet in Intermission.

Following the halfway mark, the map opens up massively, and allows the team to complete side missions such as Wutai and Fort Condor. They will head to Gold Saucer and complete the Betrayal Event, at which point Aerith will point out that she knows Cait is in contact with Reeve, and asks for his help.

The end of the episode will be the events of the Temple of the Ancients, and will feature a surprise boss rush consisting of Red Dragon, Demon Wall, Jenova and Sephiroth. Jenova will possess Cloud, causing him to attack Aerith, which leads to...

A surprise appearance from Reeve's ally - Zack. He has been sent to assist the team as extra muscle and discovers Cloud attacking Aerith, leading to a duel between Zack (playable) and Cloud (enemy). In an attempt to purify the defeated Cloud, Sephiroth uses the Black Materia to warp her away; while she succeeds in purging Jenova from his mind, she vanishes to the Northern Continent. Cloud and Company race against Sephiroth to rescue her, leading to the final boss of the Episode - Black Materia enhanced Arbiters. This Neo Bahamut amalgamation is the final battle of the episode, and culminates in the infamous scene of Sephiroth bearing down on Aerith to kill her, until Zack steps in and throws her off the altar, taking the hit himself.

Kunsel will be employed to hunt Cloud and friends down.

He was forshadowed back at the Shinra tower. So it stands to reason he will appear in person too. Potentially having been promoted to a First Class. Given how much of a troublesome force AVALANCHE have been, It wouldn't be out of the realms for Kunsel to be sent to kill them and retrieve Aerith. For an additional WMG. He would take Roche with him and the two would be a recurring Mini Boss squad of the Those Two Guys varity.

When Sephiroth asked Cloud for a small favor, he was really taunting him by repeating his mother's final words.

Why else would Sephiroth saying, "Run, Cloud. Run away. You have to leave. You have to live." piss Cloud off so much? If we get the true flashback to Nibelheim, we'll hear Claudia say this.

• Confirmed. She says this in the demo for Rebirth.

In the end, Cloud and Zack will realize the only way to break the cycle and kill Sephiroth for good is to purge the Jenova cells from their bodies to make sure Sephiroth can't possess them and come back.

Bonus points if Sephiroth mocks Cloud for giving up his powers, only for Cloud to pick up the Buster Sword anyway and point out he was already strong enough to pick it up when he took him down at Nibelheim.

Just like in Machinabridged, Tifa will utterly obliterate Scarlet in their Designated Girl Fight

Only this time, Tifa will just catch Scarlet's hand before she could even land a slap and throw her away like nothing.

A boss fight will be Evil Knockoffs of the party members

In part 1, Hojo collects data from the party fighting their way through the Drum. After that, he disappears from the plot and it's left in the air what the data is for. In part 2, it will be revealed he used the data to create artificial clones of the heroes, which will be the basis of a boss fight.

There will be seven games in the series.

Sephiroth's claim that Cloud has "seven seconds till the end" is Foreshadowing. And the Remake team has plenty of things that will need seven games to flesh out, such as:

• Proper Character Development for all playable main characters. While Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith more or less had equal screen time in Part One, Red XIII is Out of Focus due to being introduced so late into the game and, in Part Two, he'll be sharing screen time with those four and presumably Yuffie. Plus, judging from how INTERmission gave her more of a firm tie to the plot, it's likely that Vincent, once he's introduced, will also have his ties to the lore emphasized - especially considering how he's connected to Sephiroth's backstory. Even putting those seven aside, both Reeve/Cait Sith and Cid will need to be developed, as well. Also, Zack will likely be playable due to him seemingly getting Spared by the Adaptation and there's also the chance that there will also be new party members, who will also need development.
• There's also various side characters and antagonists who have plots to be followed up on. (ie: Leslie's search for his fiancee, an explanation for why Rufus can see the Whispers, confirmation on whether or not Wedge and Jessie are dead, Kunsel potentially getting involved, etc.)
• Exploring the consequences of the party destroying the Whispers and the resulting Cosmic Retcon. Is Zack really the only long-dead character to have been resurrected? There's also minor changes that could have happened, such as Stamp's design changing.
• The incorporation for parts of the lore that were established in later parts of the Compilation. Nero was the Final Boss of INTERmission, so it's not impossible.
• Room for the plot to go even more Off the Rails now that the Whispers aren't forcing all of the characters to stick to original's course.

• Jossed, it’s been confirmed there will only be three parts.

Yuffie's reasons for backstabbing the party will be different.

Yuffie's hatred of Shinra is more apparent than it was in the original story, as well as there being a noticeable undertone of anti-Wutaian bigotry in Midgar. She'll stab the party in the back, but as a way to 'punish' them for Cloud being a former SOLDIER and Barret holding anti-Wutaian sentiments.

Sephiroth is actually a good guy in this iteration.

The Sephiroth encountered throughout the game in places he wasn't in the original is either the post-advent children Sephiroth, or one from an alternate timeline that's gained knowledge of the future. This is either a Sephiroth from before his villainous breakdown, or one that's been purged of or overcome Jenova's influence. He's realized that Jenova isn't his true mother, but a parasite he was exposed to the cells of in-utero, and this undermines all his motivations and assumptions from the original game.He's actually trying to change the timeline and his own fate, but what he could do was limited by the Arbiters, and he knows full well there's absolutely no way he could reason with Cloud or Aerith after the things he's put them through - at least, not at this point in the story. So instead of trying to work with them, he's forced to manipulate them into dealing with the Arbiters for him. Possibly, as an intruder in this timeline, they have powers against him that they don't against Cloud's party: they can erase this Sephiroth from the timeline with impunity, but they cannot erase the party without dramatically changing the fate they're trying to preserve.Now they're out of the way, he is free to act in more overt ways, but must work around the party's mistrust of him and assumption he is a malevolent force, rather than a changed character that's seen the error of his ways.

There was never an "original timeline"

When comparing the openings of the original game and the remake, Aerith doesn't act entirely the same. In the original, she gets up and turns to her left, calmly walking out of the alley. In the remake, she looks to her right before leaving the alley, startled by whatever got her attention. The original game was a vision that Aerith experienced of the Lifestream's plans for humanity and the ending was her waking up, now aware of what's going on and refusing to go along. The planet doesn't want that and sent the Arbiters of Fate, which are what startled her in the remake. This caused a butterfly effect, tipping Sephiroth off, who's now running his own plans.

Cloud's mother name will be revealed to have been Claudia Strauss.

In the original character sheets Cloud's mother was named Claudia Strauss. The flashback to the Nibelheim Incident will have Cloud talk with his mother, then he will examine a picture that calls his mother Claudia Strauss. Cloud's mother will explain that Claudia Strauss was her maiden name before she married Cloud's father.

Like Sephiroth and Aerith, Cloud has also mentally traveled back in time to change fate.

Either that or he'll end up gaining the memories of his original timeline/Post-Advent Children self at some point.