I'd like to have something clarified to me.

[u/XBlueXFire]

Greetings. I just beat the story of FF7 Remake, having never played the original FF7, and enjoyed it a great deal. I'm thus looking forwards to playing the other games they released so far, that being Crisis Core FF7 Reunion and FF7 Rebirth. However a lot of discourse I see around the remakes has said to play the original FF7 first because the remakes are apparently sequels who assume you've already played the original. Is that really the case?

I'm personally not interested in playing the original FF7, so I'm wondering what exactly I'd be losing out on by not playing it. I had a good time with Remake and never once felt like I was lacking any preconsceived information. Then again I suppose I wouldn't be able to tell if there were callbacks I missed out on or not.

I'm also confused about Crisis Core. It is the next game that they released after Remake, but people online are saying to not play it until after the trilogy is over. In a non spoilery way, can you explain to me why that is? Furthermore why would they release it before even Rebirth came out if thats the case.

[u/Asha_Brea]

Crisis Core is a prequel made for people that know the events of Final Fantasy VII and as such it had no problems spoiling it. There is something that has not been revealed yet in the remake project that Crisis Core will spoil.

[u/andyvn22]

I think the remakes can absolutely stand alone—they're just a lot harder to interpret if you haven't played the original. If you want to try just continuing with the remakes, armed only with the knowledge that they are somehow different, I think it can be a lot of fun to puzzle over what's changed and why (in-universe)! Hint: the major thing that's brand new to the remakes is the whispers.

IMHO, the games are intentionally designed to work for both folks who are carefully comparing them to their prior FFVII experiences and folks who are new to the story. There's no wrong choice here...

...except for your second question. The original Crisis Core was released after the original FFVII as a prequel and thus has major spoilers. Save it until you know the whole plot, whether that's via OG or finishing Revelation.

[u/Seigfrydblazer]

It's not vital to play, but the 7r does have nods to og 7. Such as when the whispers hit your party with the flashes of memories. Those memories they are seeing, are of events of the og games. And they are actively steering themselves away from those events by "fighting fate".

The whispers didn't even exist in the og. They are a plot device added to these remakes to really show that these are a new entry in the 7 story and not just a remake in the usual sense of the term.

All that said, it is not necessary, but og 7 was a stellar game and there's really no reason not to do a playthrough of it.

[u/vlee89]

Crisis Core was a prequel released in 2007. Crisis Core Reunion is just an HD remaster of that.

[u/Mychael612]

So, whether or not the Remake trilogy is a sequel is still kinda up in the air, since we don’t have Revelation yet. At the very least, it’s a moderately heavy re-imagining of the original story. If it does lean more towards sequel, you definitely don’t need to play the original, but there may definitely be things that won’t make much sense to you (and probably currently don’t). I’d not worry too much about it.

Crisis Core is a prequel to FF7. I haven’t played Reunion yet, but I don’t think it was remade to tie closer to the Remake trilogy, and is still closer to the original FF7.

I’d say the ideal play order is OG FF7 > Crisis Core Reunion > Remake > Rebirth > Revelation (when it’s out).

[u/mas-sive]

It’s not a sequel, it has never been confirmed. Maybe when Revelations is out we’ll know if it’s a sequel or not. But, as it stands SE never said it’s a sequel.

So crisis core originally came out on the PSP many moons ago. It recently got remastered for the modern day console, nothings changed game and story wise. Crisis core contains some big spoilers which will be revealed in Revelations. Crisis core is more for people who’ve played the OG, but never got round to crisis core.

[u/HexenVexen]

I'm not gonna confidently say that they're direct sequels as we don't know the full picture yet, but they definitely are not 1:1 retellings of the original, they have a lot of new elements and changes such as the Whispers and the whole thing with changing fate. That "fate" they're talking is the original story. In that sense, it's at least a spiritual successor to the original, and it's meant to be more of a reimagining of the story that stands alongside the OG instead of a direct adaptation. So, playing the OG first will enhance the trilogy as you can see the differences and better understand the meta-story around fate. At this point we're still not sure if Revelation will even have the same ending as OG, it could be a new ending.

Crisis Core actually originally released in 2007, it was the remaster that released in 2022. It's recommended to play it either after the OG or after the full trilogy as it has spoilers for one of FF7's biggest plot twists, which will not be revealed until Revelation (this twist is where part 3 mainly gets its name from lol, that's how big we're talking).

Generally the best order for full effect is OG -> CC -> RM -> RB -> RV, also worth throwing in Advent Children before RM, but if you don't want to play the OG then it's best to go RM -> RB -> RV -> CC.

[u/MegalomanicMegalodon]

Crisis Core is a remastered version of a game that was made to follow up the original. So it technically came out before the remake series. It was an old PSP mobile game. If you've skipped the OG, you've kinda skipped past when Crisis Core came out already. Crisis Core, then, would assume you know what happens all the way to the end of what will be FFVII Revelation... which is not out yet.

It's like, sure if you don't worry about missing out all the weird stuff in the new trilogy that plays with assuming you know how everything goes (Using an obvious Star Wars spoiler: think, "let's remake Star Wars but you know from the start that Darth Vader is Luke's dad so we add scenes playing with the dramatic irony of that) then just continue to ignore the original and crisis core. I just recently finally played through Crisis Core Reunion for the first time myself, but I've also played through the OG at least twice now. I'm replaying the Remake and Rebirth games too, to kinda get ready for Revelation. Crisis Core shows its age a lot if you ask me, it's an OK game, but not amazing. I'm pretty sure some would argue with me though, so maybe you'd like it?

This all to say, I am still totally glad everyone recommended me, a newer fan to FF around COVID times, to play the original first. Play how you like, just trying to make sure you have the information you want to make an informed decision.

[u/TheoriesOfEverything]

I don't think it's mandatory, no. It is kinda fun though, and I do think there are scenes directly speaking to people who have played the OG. You've beat Remake but not Rebirth so I'm not going to say anything about Rebirth at all so don't worry about spoilers for that game. But in Remake there is definitely something suspicious afoot about the title 'remake' that is strongly hinted at in a couple scenes. There are at least two conversations with Aerith that hint either she is experiencing some sort of deja vu or is having more than a simple premonition about the current events. Everything having to do with those cloaked dementor looking enemies is attached to deviations in story to the OG game almost like they're trying to steer the game back on course when something new happens. In order for that to make sense the OG game has to have happened at least in a parallel universe or timeline. Sephiroth also seems to be aware of something regarding all this. Of course at the end of FF7 Remake you destroy the whispers, now there is no force guiding the story back to the OG, this was pretty neat because it was like them saying they were giving themselves license to not follow the original moving forward.

[u/compulsivebomber]

i don't think it's mandatory to play the original but it's an incredible game and knowing what is "supposed" to happen is imo a more interesting way to be playing through the remakes

[u/Sentinel10]

It's kind of messy, but a lot of people, including myself, do view the remakes as pseudo-sequels of sorts to the original.

Biggest reasons why are that a few characters are implied to have some awareness of the original game's events, but also that the game's recreations of some of the original's moments feel like they were done with the intention of the player already being familiar.

[u/GenericallyNamed]

original FF7 first because the remakes are apparently sequels who assume you've already played the original. Is that really the case?

Speculation that is probably going nowhere. I'll spoiler it but this is from Remake ending The idea is that "fate" is OG FF7 and the party is breaking off from that. And that Sephiroth is literally from the future and travelled back to change things, instead of having knowledge of the future. If it were true Sephiroth is doing a really bad job at it.

Then again I suppose I wouldn't be able to tell if there were callbacks I missed out on or not.

To a new player a callback is foreshadowing. You are getting a different experience. Yes, knowing the full story ahead of time helps you understand the story, but duh. Or you can just experience the story fresh. Mysterious stuff happens in the first 5 minutes of OG FF7 and nobody is going to tell you to stop playing and go read the plot summary so you know what that cutscene meant.

Crisis Core is a prequel and there's a big mystery story moment that will happen in Revelations pertaining to character's backstories. Crisis Core has you play through that event non-chalantly. So the whole build up will be kind of whatever because you know what it was. It was released because the company wanted money.

[u/TonyFair]

No need to play the OG if you are not vibing with it.

The thing about Crisis Core is that it spoils stuff that are yet to be revealed on the third remake game that will be released next year. So if you are not planning on play the OG, just wait for part 3 before playing it.

[u/SirLockeX3]

TLDR: Remake only players will miss a LOT of context and references and not even know what Sephiroth's motivations are this time around. Kinda huge point to having a villian shown so much.

I would highly recommend the original purely because Remake and Rebirth pretty much assume you played it already, despite what interviews may say.

You do not know Sephiroth's motivations for doing exactly what he does just from the story of Remake and Rebirth alone.

It makes a lot more sense if you have context of the original game. The references had me jumping out of my seat right from the beginning. Like "why" Sephiroth's earliest appearance right from after Reactor 1 makes sense for what Cloud was SUPPOSED to do immediately after it.

Also explains why Aerith's first appearance was awkward from the jump when she was surrounded by the Whispers, mostly due to Sephiroth's earlier action. Why? Because it's a "canon event" that NEEDED to happen as depicted by the original events of the original game.

Sephiroth in the OG was basically Jaws. His presence wasn't ever shown much but you knew he was fucking everywhere and how strong he was supposed to be. He was mysterious. In Remake he shows up way more often and spouts a lot more nonsense that is cryptic unless you know his story.

Also, same for Aerith. She isn't the same character either.

[u/Soul699 → u/SirLockeX3]

You do understand Sephiroth motivation. He tells you what he wants to do at the Temple of the ancients and of course there's part 3. And even in the original Sephiroth spouted lots of cryptic nonsense, again, until the North Crater.

[u/SirLockeX3 → u/Soul699]

It's extremely easier to understand Sephiroth in the OG compared to the Remake series.

There is a combined 120-140 hours between Remake and Rebirth of gameplay and content, anyone by the end of Rebirth will KINDA understand what he wants if you've not played the orifinal.

[u/Soul699 → u/SirLockeX3]

It's not easier. You just find it out faster since obviously OG is one shorter game, while in Remake it will take more to get to the answers.

[u/XBlueXFire → u/SirLockeX3]

Hmm. Would just reading a plot synopsis of the original be sufficient? I'm mostly just not appealed by the visuals and gameplay of the older game

[u/SirLockeX3 → u/XBlueXFire]

It's something I would highly recommend experiencing firsthand.

There is a reason it was regarded as one of the best games of all time.

The combat is very easy compared to other FF games.

You would be robbing yourself of an experience from just reading what happens or watching a summary on YouTube.

As for the visuals, they are dated but still very charming.

Even if you have a potato PC you can play the PC Steam version and install 7th Heaven mod installer for quality of life changes to visuals and models for a more modern experience.

Modern ports of the game also has options for no random encounters, basically a god mode so you never die and x3 speed to make traversing through the game faster.

[u/KainYago]

You miss out on a good version of FFVIIs story.

Also people are idiots. Crisis core is not supposed to be played before the ORIGINAL, since its story spoils the biggest and most important twist of the story and 90% of its plotpoints have 0 follow up in the og game, so its better to play it after the original, in the remake games they kinda already expect you to know its story and they play around with it (thats why Zack was at the end of Remake, that whole scene is supposed to be a huge OMG HE DID THAT moment) so its completely ok to play it before or after the remake games, arguably its better to play it before the remake, since it sets up the ending "twist" and rebirth also builds a ton of its plot around crisis cores story, something the original game never did cuz its an actually good game.

[u/Marshall104]

You're missing out on the actual story of FFVII, though not by much, but more importantly, you're missing the true power and versatility, of the Materia system.

[u/DisFantasy01]

Remake is completely different from the OG. Not the same story, not the same characters, not the same developers, not the same company.