This Changes EVERYTHING: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Ending Explained (SPOILERS)

Bullshit!! Lessen your ad

So we get 1 game broken up in 3 segments?!
That is BS!
I waited for YEARS to play FF7 and this is too much.
I want to fight in the OG timeline! WTF Square Enix!?

I personally think that we're playing FF7 from mostly clouds perspective, and his perspective isn't a reliable one.

What happened is Aerith is Dead, There are no Timelines Only Delusions of Grandeur By Cloud. Cloud is lying to himself Aerith is Dead. Zack is Dead There is only one Reality everything else is Cloud Lying to himself and the Audience. This is why No one can piece it all together and nothing is 'Concrete" because Cloud's World or Reality is a Fabrication. he is not a Soldier First Class, He did not Save Aerith, Zack is not alive somewhere else, It is all in his head Sephiroth Says something along these lines in Remake and Rebirth Those who look with Clouded eyes See nothing but shadows/Will Never know the Truth. The game is Gaslighting you from Cloud's Perspective to believe all this superhero multiverse stuff. I know what happens at Whirlwind Maze and When Tifa Helps Cloud learn the Truth This is all THAT by times 1000, They made it so much better it is going to blow all of you away when they finally reveal who Cloud Really is by going all the way back to Game One and showing what actually happened. The Rainbows Are Cloud Lying to himself or Imagining what things should be like to FIT his Soldier First Class Persona.

bro all shit shit is so stupid and convoluted... multiple timelines diminish stakes.

I finally finished Rebirth a few weeks ago. The one part that has befuddled me is the scene when Aerith pushed Cloud into the alternate timeline; What happened?

FF7 Multiverse? That's not in the Original Game,The Game is really reimagine, There's some changes now,Where the story goes?Find out next

I think… too much is going on

IIRC there was a clink when cloud put the clear material in his pocket, making him notice the black one. leads me to believe;dive it didn’t change. otherwise, i like the thoughts of this video.

Cloud: "NO! He killed Areith!"

Arieth: "Jk. I'm fine."

Sepi: "What the fuck?"

Man my head hurts, i alredy saw 100000 videos about this, and still do not like the multiverse crap, the relationship romance is crap too. I KNOW I GET IT, IS A RPG, the player need made they choice, whatever. But for final fantasy 7 I think is better the creators decide what is canonic and what is not, I'm hella confuse if the canonic date was with aerith or tifa.

Just... for them to go there again... we cant safe Aerith again... at least not how we wanted to. Im so very sad here... they better bloody turn this into something amazing.

The Final Fantasy 7 & advent children have link together the storyline, Sephiroth was control Cloud mind weakness and kill Aerith. Aerith & Zack is Cloud protector guardians, those 2 soul always in the Cloud back. Ready Aerith ability is healing power, she healing people bad energy. If Zack give a sword to Cloud, his energy will be around with Cloud. Cloud fighting skill is not stronger enough with Zack, his sword give Cloud strong energy to beat Sephiroth. Zack death was affected him, he still have a regret his death. Cloud kind of depressed himself cannot save their love one, that why Sephiroth can control Cloud mind so easy.

"I'm going to stop the meteor"
The Night Sky Prince: "Spoilers!"

Generic Hero: "I'm going to defeat the bad guy"
The Night Sky Prince: "SPOILERS!"

I don't think this ending necessarily indicates that Part 3 is going to go off the rails - let me explain

(Spoilers for the OG, if that matters to you)

One of the core themes of the OG FF7 is the loss of someone important to you. It's interesting to me that in the original game that Aerith, before she dies, basically figures out how the game is going to end before anyone else does. When she breaks from the party and runs to the City of the Ancients, she does so to pray and activate Holy, in order to protect the planet from Meteor. Of course, she doesn't tell anyone about that, so Cloud, Bugenhagen and Co. have to figure out that she was trying to summon Holy and how to summon it for themselves on Disc 2. A common thing people do when they lose a loved one is think about what that loved one would have them say or do if they were still alive. If Aerith were still alive on Disc 2 (and felt like she could trust Cloud) she would insist that the party try to summon Holy as soon as possible. In having the party pick up from where Aerith left off, FF7 has the player respect Aerith's wishes and think about what she would do if she were still here - which ties into that common experience of dealing with grief that many people have. To steal a saying from the franchise, you essentially become Aerith's "living legacy" toward the end of FF7. (Cloud even reminds everyone that they're doing what they're doing for Aerith's memory before they fight Bizzarro Sephiroth at the end of the OG - so it's clearly a prominent idea in the PS1 game)

What's interesting to me about Rebirth is the fact that, after the bonkers ending of Remake, that the devs of Rebirth did not NEED to keep the game's structure so similar to the OG. They didn't need Aerith to come in and introduce Cloud to the idea of alternate universes in this game if they just wanted grounds to fuck with the OG's plot and pacing in their remake - the party literally killed the physical manifestation of fate and predestination and fan expectations at the end of the first part. The fact that the majority of Rebirth's main content - the adventure with Cloud and the party - sticks pretty close to the OG's script then, must be a deliberate choice. After playing Rebirth, I think it's clear that what the FF7R devs are trying to create is NOT "FF7 '03" (or Brotherhood, since it came after - if you know about the two anime adaptations of Fullmetal Alchemist you know what I mean - an alternate retelling of the same story that diverges heavily after a certain point), but an expansion of the original game that keeps many of the same beats, ideas, and and themes from the original story intact, only with extra commentary on top of that about the game's place as a remake, and about our current culture of remakes in general. Both FF7R games are really positive about the idea of taking a pre-ordained story and fucking with it - Remake ends with the aforementioned "destroy the arbiters of fate" boss fight, and in Rebirth it seems clear that Sephiroth, our villain, wants to unify all of the timelines in the planet or the lifestream and destroy them - one singular timeline dedicated to him and him alone. In the OG Sephiroth claims the Earth as his birthright based on what he discovers about his connection to Jenova, and in Rebirth that idea has been expanded (not altered, expanded) to encompass not just the whole Planet, but all of the timelines contained within it as well. In contrast to Sephiroth, Aerith seems to love the idea of the multiverse - specifically because it could allow her to create a "perfect" world where her and her friends can avoid all of the bad things that happen to them in the OG. That's not to say that creating a perfect world like that will be necessarily easy - Sephiroth actively hunted her through several timelines to put a stop to the idea, and the fact that she seems to have been "kicked out" of Cloud and co's timeline is going to make it a lot harder for them to help her achieve her goal of a perfect world - but she might be able to get it to happen, if and only if Cloud can shake off Jenova and Sephiroth's influence and come to fully understand what she tried to show him after the showdown at the Temple of the Ancients.

In this way, Rebirth is expanding what it means to be Aerith's "living legacy" - Cloud and Co. won't just have to charge up Holy and use it to protect the planet to honor her legacy - Cloud will (as the only party member who knows about the other timelines, and can see the crack in the sky (itself a symbol for the other timelines)) have to figure out how to use the multiverse in some way to either create Aerith's perfect world, with or without Aerith in it, or simply bring her back to life. I think either would be a good way to tie in this new multiversal theme back in with the original game's themes and structure (which they showed they are interested in in Rebirth). I'd put my money on them bringing Aerith back to life, since if nothing major changes with the introduction of the multiverse into the game's ideas, then the game will have a harder time arguing that "Remakes and re-imaginings that change and alter things about the original text are valid," which it seems like it's interested in arguing. I think that reviving Aerith will still need to be pulled off well - it needs to be hard and earned by Cloud and co - maybe even done in some esoteric way reminiscent of playground rumors that told us how to revive her on the PS1 - but I think it's possible.

At the end of the day, I'm not disappointed by the idea that the RE trilogy won't wildly alter the original game's structure or plot, but simply add to and expand upon them. Square has managed to find a formula that allows the player to both revel in old moments re-created from the OG in beautiful 2024-vision, and that simultaneously allows them to never know what is coming next. It's a lovely duality they've struck, genuinely keeping us guessing this way. I really hope Part 3 sticks the landing so that it all feels worthwhile in the end.

At the end of the day though, you do have to remember that both RE games are, actually, on a smaller level, incredibly different versions of the FF7 story, even if they follow mostly the same structure, because the RE games are the story of FF7 then told and developed by Square Enix now. FF7 is an action game now. It's ludicrously expensive and beautiful now. Every line of dialogue that you hear coming out of Yuffie and Vincent's mouths is now required, and - oh yeah - there are actors reading out the dialogue now! The game is a fundamentally different experience that can't replace or overwrite the OG in the same way that say, Persona 3 Reload can to the original P3. I think this project is one of the most exciting and successful AAA projects in the last decade of gaming or more, and I can't wait for Part 3 in a few years. (They come out relatively quickly, too! 4 years from Remake to Rebirth, WITH Yuffie's DLC in between!)

I hope vincent is a playable character in the last game

What multiverse again? I had enough of that shit. I did not finish watching the video once I heard multishit pakthatshit goodbye!

1) Great video as always!

2) What if the translucent materia is translucent because it becomes white or black materia dependant on Cloud's actions. Aerith straight up says the one in the temple is a fake. It makes sense that she's hiding in diff worlds because she's actually protecting what could become Meteor or Holy. Aerith is the Temple of Ancients! Her getting deleted by Sephiroth was the temple collapsing in on itself.

This is also told from a VERY sick Cloud, and he is in denial... it isnt that he saved her, because he didnt, this is all in his head, thats why the crew sees something different to cloud, because he is in denial and cant accept the loss of Aerith.

All I know is, they did my boy Zack dirty…..we don’t want it.

I've been so dissociated from this franchise now. Felt nothing during the ending. Feel nothing for this game. Enjoy whatever the heck this is.

Final Fantasy VII Remix

Schrodinger's Aerith

i cant be the only one who thought sephiroth put cloud in a domain expansion limitless gojo style right?

I cant even get passed the final boss died lije 6 times at least, if you tirn off the game gotta start the whole 2 hour fight over too!

What happened to Aerith's body in the main world? They are all moping around like she just disappeared.

I pressed like as soon as I heard a stein's gate reference

The poor sales of Rebirth are an example of why sometimes the Story matters

The most said word in my entire playthrough was "What?!?"

My opinion, is:

The entire first two games are all hallucinations. Cloud is reliving the entire adventuire, trying to find SOME way that Aerith could have survived. But the truth his mind actually knows is manifesting as the Vespers and as Sephiroth himself, effortlessly shooting down ANY difference CLoud tries to introduce. In the end, we'll be forced to choose between a bad ending (Defeating " Sephiroth"), or the good ending ("Defeating "CLoud", who is actually his delusions refusing to accept reality.) The game will end, either with Cloud remaining comatose in the true timeline, dooming the Planet to MEteor, or with Clkoud awakening (Both in the original janky animation of the PS1, natch), and heading out to the Crater.

So they kind of mixed FF7 and FF8 plot with this multiverse time junction.

Part 3 is about to be the Avengers Endgame/Kang dynasty of FF7 . You will have multiple worlds converging in a reunion. We could see Genesis and other people from the other time lines and worlds.

The floor where the sword was changes. So yeah definitely changed and multiverse

There are multiple timelines that's for sure, but the moment Aerith survives happened only in Cloud's mind. It was not an alternative timeline, he is in shock, refuses to accept the fact that he couldn't save her and breaks from reality.

ah yes, overconfusing things, a classic nomura's move

Sephiroth said he'll never be a memory, Aerith will survive

I feel like we were robbed of the death scene and water burial, just to have Aerith still gone.

The game was an awesome spectacle. Unfortunately.... it leans into my absolute least favorite story tropes. Characters who won't stay dead. Multiverses that rob the story of any stake, meaning of any decision, event or accomplishment - because after all, there's a different world for every decision. So it's beautiful to look at and makes one wonder, but seems ultimately doomed to be meaningless and unsatisfying. A shame... for me, that's the worst direction I could imagine. At least the true FF7 still exists.

Why'd they change the dialog in the patch? To be more conducive with Rebirth's story arc. Wish it was more. Back to the multiverse, multi world plotline. I wish I was wrong, but the world gets worse and worse and writing is no exception. Endings tend to ruin things. Hopefully part 3 has an explanation that doesn't cost 780 dollars to hear.

Explained or recap? This is a recap, not an explanation. As of 3/4 of the video

Can the world where multi world multi verse multi timeline don't exist be born and endure?

So I'm still mad 4 months later. Doggo chip bags? Where's my game? Story was great give or take until then. Why do they ruin everything? The fact nobody can agree on an ending is usually a good thing, but here it's just annoying. Stop making mortals all have God powers to write a narrative ugh

I have a theory that jenova is sin and the gi are from spira.

final fantasy 13-2 anyone ?

If the third one ends with Jet Li becoming "The One" I'm done with Final Fantasy.

Really don't like what thay're doing with ff7.

Arbiters of shite

I cna say teh same sentiment, my first encounter with a tornado, and peopel of it, the sky went a weird green colour.. and super stormy... it was kind of surreal, not sure why it was so... vividly green, well a tinge of green ambience everywhere, but yeah...