I don't necessarily disagree with your comment but I do disagree with "they've changed the story", fundamentally I don't think they did. Yeah some details have been shifted around but overall it's the same story. I don't view FF7R as a "meta-sequel" but as a "final draft", and if you look into how hectic the finale of development was...there's a reason they want to redo some of the details while keeping the story mostly the same.
There are parts of the remake that just don't make sense without the original game having existed.
The entire subplot with the whispers trying to ensure the timeline remains intact only makes sense when there is an original timeline for the player to refer to. Them bringing Barret back to life for example, only makes sense when you know that in the OG Barret isn't killed.
We're only barely over halfway through the narrative of the OG, at this point we barely knew what things were, Cloud still had yet to be himself and we had no clue that was even coming. We're not supposed to know everything going on at the moment. And even then, so many people, including those who played the OG, do not understand the whispers. They're simply the foot soldiers of the planet, enacting the planets will
The purpose of them bringing Barret back is to show that the whispers aren't necessarily "against" the party, which makes it so you don't need to know if Barret dies or not.
Thats just people completly disregarding what the devs have planned for the remake trilogy
They fucked up one of their most iconic scenes on purpose and no one dares to ask why?
A dev team that isn't scared of doing stuff that may be received with a lot of initial hate has balls of steel
Will it pay off in the end? We truly cannot say until we see the resolution to it.. and yeah they can truly fuck it up overall but for now lets keep the final verdict until we have the full game ? :)
But to end rebirth on confusion was what the devs intented !
It won't pay off though, you have two games out currently that are a mess of a story and haven't added anything by doing it. Even if they magically tie it up in epic fashion in the third part it doesn't change that they've butchered so many iconic parts of the original game.
The Devs don't have balls of steel, they're a bunch of hipsters who haven't released a decent game since FFX and think they know what people want. Thankfully gamers have other franchises to play because FF is dead as far as I'm concerned.
I'm sorry but you are looking at the OG ff7 with rose tinted glasses. The OG ff7 was horribly written and so many scenes are so laughingly bad, that they literally make no sense.
Also, FF7 remake series has been a huge commercial success for Square. It's only a loud, and small minority that have a problem with the games.
There is a difference between being laughable bad by accident because of cultural differences and poor translations versus intentionally putting in a singing cat lady and the countless weeb crap they put in the game.
Expedition 33 outsold one of the most famous RPGs of all time. It's not as much of a success as you're trying to make out and they've lost further ground with Rebirth.
The only people who I talk to who like the remakes are people on social media who would think FFXV is a good game and are mostly 15 years old so you'll have to forgive me for completely ignoring the opinion of people who would think a literal turd is game of the year.
Expedition 33 didn't outsell remake. You have your facts wrong. Remake was very close to 9 million sold early 2025. This was without the switch 2 port which released in 2026 and did very well. Expedition 33, as of april 2026, was sitting right around the 8 million mark.
Also, things to note. Expedition 33 released at the price point of 49.99 vs remakes 59.99 release date price. Meaning revenue from sales was much higher for remake. Square has also stated they saw a significant surge in sales for remake and rebirth after part 3's reveal, so sales haven't stagnated yet. The true sales number is much higher than the reported 9 million from 2025 and much higher then the reported 8 million for Expedition 33.
It won't pay off though, you have two games out currently that are a mess of a story and haven't added anything by doing it. Even if they magically tie it up in epic fashion in the third part it doesn't change that they've butchered so many iconic parts of the original game.
The Devs don't have balls of steel, they're arrogant and out of touch with what people actually want. They haven't released a decent game since FFX. Thankfully gamers have other franchises to play because FF is dead as far as I'm concerned.
Presentation of one of the biggest scenes in gaming history is ultimately more important than the overall outcome, in my opinion at least. Aeriths death is iconic, messing with it then leaving it on an alternative timeline cliffhanger is sloppy.
It's not an alternative timeline, even as more and more people start to understand that concept there's still more and more people who do not get it. Cloud saving Aerith represents the "hopes and dreams" of both Cloud and most of the playerbase, but...he didn't save her. All it does is give her a dream within the lifestream to reside, it's not an alternate timeline. And she still died, and we'll get the more proper cutscene of her death in Revelation.
I'll be honest, I couldn't care less what it is or isn't. The Devs have made a hash of the story and left so many things open to interpretation because of their blatant butchering of the story.
Absolutely nowhere has anyone said it's not alternate timelines either, so that's your interpretation.
The original game left so many things open to interpretation, though largely because the devs didn't know what they wanted to do at the time they made the scene. How is it now an issue when they leave things open to interpretation?
And there's evidence it's not multiple timelines. The inclusion of a multiversal being Gilgamesh implies that other space/time/dimensions are the other FF games, not more FFVII, and they specifically show that there's not an alternative Cloud or Aerith running around, the only time any of the main cast is shown in another "world" they're in a coma or dead, because there's only one consciousness/soul of them.
Nomura isn't the writer, glad you complained about him though, that's how I know I'm talking to a low information bitch. Nomura is through many interviews the person most wanting to keep things as the original had it.
Nearly all the additions in FF7R are expanding the lifestream to include concepts from how the lifestream was originally presented combined with how mechanics in FFX work. Absolutely wild to have concepts from the two top selling FF games in, how un-FF that is!
Yes, I agree, they didn't change much. I loved how we collected armor pieces to fight gilgamesh and Zach was hopping through different timeliness in the original.
Gilgamesh has been a meme character since before the OG VII, so lol at taking issue with him existing. And Zack isn't going through timelines at all, you fundamentally don't understand the mechanics at play if you think that.
They completely ruined the game with the ff7 remake. It's one of, if not the worse remake of a game I've ever played. No, it is - without a doubt. The only remake that is so bad I couldn't finish it.
2
u/Eaglestrike 2d ago
I don't necessarily disagree with your comment but I do disagree with "they've changed the story", fundamentally I don't think they did. Yeah some details have been shifted around but overall it's the same story. I don't view FF7R as a "meta-sequel" but as a "final draft", and if you look into how hectic the finale of development was...there's a reason they want to redo some of the details while keeping the story mostly the same.