Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth theories from the Summer Game Fest 2023 trailer

theories about Final Fantasy 7 Remake and its continuation FF7 rebirthhave been buzzing around since players witnessed the earth-shattering final moments of FF7 remake. As words appeared on screen that read, “The untold journey will continue,” the brains of FF7 fans everywhere filled with wild speculation about what that journey might entail. And thanks to FF7 rebirth With the first trailer and the longer trailer shown at Summer Game Fest 2023, FF7 fans have come up with some very solid theories. Let’s get into that.

[Ed. note: This article contains full spoilers for the original Final Fantasy 7 as well as Final Fantasy 7 Remake.]

ShinraCorp used fake footage in the newscast

Let’s start with the first and most obvious “theory” – a revelation so obvious that we’re confident it will be an early plot point FF7 rebirth. At the very beginning of FF7 rebirth In the SGF 2023 trailer, there’s an in-fiction newscast in which many of the game’s main characters – members of the eco-terrorist group Avalanche – are loaded unconscious onto stretchers. Barret, Tifa, Aerith, and Red XIII not only look unconscious on this show; They look like they could be dead. But we all know FF7 rebirth won’t kill its entire cast (except for Cloud, who is mysteriously absent). What’s going on here?

The answer lies in the newscast itself. Note the logos on the screen: “Shinra Broadcasting Service” in the upper left and “SNNet News” in the lower right. That’s right, Shinra News Network is one thing, and it’s the propaganda arm of ShinraCorp. It’s pretty logical to assume that these footage of dead-looking Avalanche members were faked to mislead the public. It’s entirely possible that this footage shows an alternate timeline where somehow all the main characters were injured or even died, but more likely – considering who is broadcasting it – it’s more likely that this footage is fake news.

Sephiroth killed Tifa, and the Tifa we know is not Tifa

The end of the SGF ’23 trailer is a bit confusing – but a little less confusing in the Japanese version, translated here by Audrey Lamsam, Twitch streamer and CEO of Aitai Japan. Watch the final seconds of the trailer and hear Sephiroth’s words as he seemingly mortally wounds Tifa Lockhart.

For those who haven’t played the original yet FF7or I just can’t remember exactly what’s happening, that last scene in the trailer is a recreation of a scene that occurred in that first game. Five years before the main plot of FF7, Sephiroth slaughters the residents of Tifa and Cloud’s hometown of Nibelheim and then burns the village down. Tifa discovers this and confronts Sephiroth. She screams that he killed her father and tried to attack him in retaliation. Sephiroth easily overcomes and wounds Tifa, albeit in the original FF7Tifa recovers from this wound and is rescued by a man named Zangan, who takes her in and teaches her martial arts (so that she can become the wombo combo queen we know her as today).

The version of the events depicted in the FF7 rebirth The trailer could be the same as in the original game – Sephiroth attacks Tifa as shown here, but she survives (not shown yet). But it’s Sephiroth’s dialogues that have fans coming up with wild theories. In the translation of the Japanese trailer by Audrey Lamsam, Sephiroth says offscreen, “I was the one who killed Tifa. If yes, who is she?’

Fans have taken “who is she” to mean the Tifa we saw during the main story quest FF7 remake

is not the Tifa that grew up with Cloud in Nibelheim. Instead, Tifa was actually murdered by Sephiroth five years ago. This other woman who looks like Tifa is instead a product of something related to Sephiroth’s alien “mother” character, Jenova, who has the ability to mimic human forms. This is further underscored by Sephiroth’s monologue leading up to the final scene with Tifa, in which he says (according to Lamsam’s translation), “There once lived a monster that could look into your soul and change its shape.” You fear the ones you love, change and take shape and control them.”

Alternatively, Tifa could have been injected with Jenova cells as part of the Jenova project, which happened to Cloud and Zack (by mad scientist Professor Hojo). According to the original FF7 In the timeline, Zack was strong enough to repel the influence of these cells while the weaker Cloud was more vulnerable to them. What if, in a new timeline from FF7 remake, Tifa wasn’t rescued by Zangan but instead put into the Jenova project along with Cloud and Zack? Is that why Sephiroth is implying that she isn’t the same girl anymore – because she was changed by Hojo’s experiments?

Sephiroth is just playing mind games

There’s no one quite like Sephiroth when it comes to living the Gaslight, Gatekeeper, Girlboss motto. He just loves to fuck with people, especially Cloud. Sowing mistrust between Cloud and his friends seems entirely plausible to Sephiroth. The suggestion that a mysterious “monster” was controlling Tifa all along would definitely shake Cloud’s grasp of reality – especially since that’s already a shaky thing to do – and it doesn’t even have to be true.

There have always been multiple timelines

FF7 remake already hinted that Zack Fair somehow survived, which would mark a big change in the way things have gone compared to the original FF7. Fans have been assuming ever since reissue And rebirth take place in a different timeline where Zack survived. But what if there are more than two timelines? How, Away more?

As a theory, that made sense beforehand FF7 remake came out. For example, the depiction of the Nibelheim incident in the original FF7 slightly different from the illustration elsewhere. In core of crisisFor example, the incident is told from Zack Fair’s perspective, so one would expect it to be emotionally different – but there’s no reason some of the actual events should be altered slightly. The rest of the Compilation of FF7which includes several others FF7 Spinoffs, has even smaller differences and contradictions to the story of the original game.

Image: Square Enix

So what actually happened five years ago in Nibelheim? Is it the characters’ memories that are fallible here, or is it the story itself, which is constantly changing – perhaps because it was never set in stone? Personally, I don’t have to explain these inconsistencies by claiming that there is a multiverse, although that certainly works as a theory. Instead, I’m happy to assume that the FF7 series is about how salacious the truth is, especially when it comes to human memories and trauma, and even more so when it comes to ancient myths about the nature of life itself. This is a series of events for which there is no simple explanation, but which can definitely make a cool story.

The same goes for all our theories about it Final Fantasy 7 rebirth. Who knows what will happen or if one of our attempts at an explanation will actually work? We can all only hope that this experience turns into a good story, and so far that seems likely.