Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is a remake in the truest sense of the word, even to a fault in the eyes of some. Where many "remakes" turn out to be little more than visual and quality-of-life overhauls, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has thus far done all of that and more, as it has even toyed with the original game's most pivotal plot points. Now, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 is in a strange position, because Square Enix still has to reassure fans that the trilogy remembers what made the original Final Fantasy 7 matter while also finishing a story that has grown far beyond what is expected of a traditional remake. Plus, what was only teased in Final Fantasy 7 Remake was all but nailed to the wall in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, so for Part 3 to go back on that now would be silly, to say the least.
The following contains major spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth.
After Zack's survival, Aerith's deliberately ambiguous fate, Cloud's worsening disconnect from reality, and Sephiroth's manipulation of fate itself, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 essentially has to be a whole new game at this point. It can still honor the original, and that's still more than likely Square Enix's goal. However, acting like the finale can mostly function as the original's final act, with some modern additions, is a bit of an ignorant take on how foundational the trilogy's changes really are.
Five Years Ago, Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Biggest Gamble Paved the Way for Rebirth’s Freedom
Five years ago, Final Fantasy 7 Remake introduced characters who would go on to pave the way for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to make some changes.
FF7 Rebirth Changed Too Much for Part 3 to Act Like Nothing Happened
More than anything else, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy has treated the original game like a broad outline for it to follow, a structural frame meant to support everything new Square Enix has been building around it. Many of the original game's key story elements have remained intact across Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, but the biggest difference is that the remake trilogy introduced the Whispers, and that changes the entire relationship between the new games and the original.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
In a nutshell, the Whispers exist so they can intervene when events start moving away from the path fate supposedly demands. That means Final Fantasy 7 Remake is not merely retelling the original story. Instead, it's building a version of that story where the original game's events have become something the world is actively trying to preserve, rather than events that simply haven't happened yet. In a way, it's as though the original Final Fantasy 7 and the remade trilogy coexist, as opposed to the remake serving as a modern replacement for the original game.
That's what makes the Whispers such a massive, foundational change. The original Final Fantasy 7 is no longer just source material for the remake trilogy. Within the remake trilogy itself, it has become a path certain forces are trying to keep intact. As a result, every major deviation becomes more than a creative liberty taken by Square Enix. Rather, those deviations become points of conflict inside the story, with the Whispers appearing when the course of fate, or the original Final Fantasy 7's story, is threatened.
In a way, it's as though the original Final Fantasy 7 and the remade trilogy coexist, as opposed to the remake serving as a modern replacement for the original game.
In that sense, the Whispers could almost be described as a meta-commentary on video game remakes. In most remakes, the original game exists outside the new version as something fans measure it against. In the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, that pressure has been pulled into the story itself. The original game is still the thing being remade, but it also functions like a path the world is trying to protect. The Whispers essentially dramatize the pressure every remake faces, where changing too much risks alienating fans, while changing too little risks making the project feel unnecessary.
But the Whispers aren't the biggest change simply because they're a new addition. Their real significance is found in why they exist at all. If the Whispers' job is to ensure the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy's story honors the original game, then the trilogy is already implying that this version of the story is trying to move away from it. In other words, the Whispers only make sense because the remake trilogy is considering changes large enough for fate itself to intervene. And while those changes haven't erased the original story, they have already altered it in a few very significant ways.
Zack and Aerith Are No Longer Side Questions
If the Whispers are the main implication that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is trying to move away from the original game's story, then Zack and Aerith are the clearest evidence of just how far it already has. Both characters were central to the original Final Fantasy 7, but much of their importance actually came from their absence. Zack was dead before the main events of the game, and Aerith's death became one of the most memorable tragedies in video game history. In the remake trilogy, however, the fate of both characters is up for debate.
Zack is the easiest place to start because his role in the remake trilogy has been changed in a very obvious way. In the original Final Fantasy 7, Zack matters to the story because he is gone. His death is part of the hidden history that eventually forces Cloud to confront who he really is, making Zack more of a missing piece in Cloud's identity. The remake trilogy, on the other hand, changed all of that by making Zack's survival, or at least some version of it, one of its most important unresolved plot threads.
If the Whispers' job is to ensure the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy's story honors the original game, then the trilogy is already implying that this version of the story is trying to move away from it.
Naturally, that creates a problem that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 now has to solve. Zack can't simply be waved away as bonus material after Remake and Rebirth spent so much time using him to complicate the story's relationship with fate. Whether he exists in another world, another timeline, within the Lifestream, or in some other state entirely, his role in the story can't be treated as a footnote anymore. The final entry has to explain why the remake trilogy brought him back into view and what that means for Cloud's arc, because Zack's original purpose was tied so closely to Cloud realizing the truth about himself.
Aerith is a bit more complicated than that, though, because Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth doesn't simply undo her most famous moment. The original Final Fantasy 7 made Aerith's death painfully clear, giving the party and the player a loss they had to carry through the rest of the story. Rebirth still reaches that moment, but it presents it in a way that makes her death more ambiguous than absolute. It's not a straightforward reversal of the original, but it's no longer the same, nonetheless. Now, by making that moment more ambiguous, Part 3 has to deal with Aerith's actual state, Cloud's understanding of it, and the party's grief, all while preserving the impact of a moment the remake trilogy has deliberately made harder to read.
Together, Zack and Aerith show why Part 3 has to be more than a faithful march through the original game's remaining events. The remake trilogy has altered two characters whose importance was built around death, memory, and loss, and those changes now sit at the center of the finale’s unresolved questions. Part 3 can still honor the original Final Fantasy 7, but it has to answer for what Remake and Rebirth have done to two of its most important ghosts.
Part 3 Has to Follow Through on the Trilogy's Own Changes
At this point, whether Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will honor the original game isn't really the issue. Remake and Rebirth have both made it clear that the original Final Fantasy 7 still matters, sometimes so much that the story itself seems to push back when events begin moving away from it. The real question, though, is whether Part 3 will follow through on the changes the trilogy has already made, because the Whispers, Zack, and Aerith have all become far too pivotal to be treated like temporary detours.
So, the safest version of Part 3 may actually be the one that accepts how different this trilogy has become. If Square Enix pulls back too hard, it risks making the remake trilogy feel inconsistent with its own setup. The original story is still there, and it should be. But after two games built around such foundational changes, pretending Part 3 can simply return to the original's final act would make less sense than letting the trilogy become the new game it has already been turning into.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 92/100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- February 29, 2024
- ESRB
- Teen / Violence, Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
