Final Fantasy VII Remake has a Scene that will Assuredly Confuse New Players

Since launch, I’ve been playing a ton of Final Fantasy VII Remake, taking only short breaks to do a few tasks or compete in a fishing tournament in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. As of now, I have finished the main game and now I’m pouring over smaller details, searching for lore, and marking off the checklist of post-game tasks. Even though I haven’t played the original Final Fantasy VII release in about ten years or more, I am super familiar with that world so coming into the remake is like visiting an old friend. I know some of the biggest reveals and what the gist of a character’s story is but there’s one scene in this remake that had me laughing aloud at the absurdity of its placement and I can only imagine how weird it could be for someone who knows nothing of Final Fantasy VII. 

Fair warning, I’m going to be talking about a major event in the second half of the game so if you’re someone who wants to play the game with a clean slate come back to this later for a chuckle. After finishing the game myself, I strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in this world or who has played the original game pick up Final Fantasy VII Remake and reach the end as soon as possible. 

The major tragedy in this title, aside from the really big one that most people know, is when Shinra drops the section of the Midgar plate over Sector 7. This devastates the area as giant steel structures rain from the sky, killing a large section of the population and destroying just about everything in that sector. It completely alters the lives of everyone living at the ground level of the city and establishes the lengths that Shinra will go to in the name of complete control of the populace. There are ulterior motives but Shinra pins the eco-activist cell of the militant group Avalanche as the villains in the narrative. 

This event is one with a lot of conflict around it. The heroes know that Shinra is trying to do this by knocking out a support pillar and they do everything in their power to stop it. Many lives are lost, including those of major Avalanche members that we’ve grown to know and love. The defensive personality of Cloud finally opens up to this group, only to have many of them ripped away. After the heroes fail to stop the scheme, a huge explosion ripples through the sector and the group ride a zipline, barely escaping the blast. 

During this explosion, we see various characters react to the event which all fits the storytelling beats already established. However, there is a brief shot of an odd cat with a crown and a cape wrought with grief. 

Fans of the original game will immediately know the deal behind this cat and how that connects to another character but for newcomers to the Final Fantasy VII world, this scene is hilariously out of place and breaks the gravitas of the tragic event. By this point, we’ve seen just how silly and outlandish Final Fantasy VII Remake can be but this scene’s placement just felt weird to me. 

Echoing the plot lines of the original release, Final Fantasy VII Remake ends as Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barett, and Red XIII exit the city of Midgar. A vast, beautiful world stretches out before them as new adventures lie in wait beyond the cramped, deeply flawed city that is left smoking in their rebellion against the use of mako energy and the danger that poses for the entire planet. We do see a few interactions between Reeve who is in charge of Urban Development for Shinra and the other leaders but we never once get anything that connects Reeve to Cait Sith. Yet, there in the middle one of the most bombastic, heavy scenes of the game is the doofy cat. 

I fully admit that there may be some other details that hint at Cait Sith’s story found in some random corner of the game but I certainly didn’t see anything on the critical path. When chatting about this with friends, they didn’t seem to think that it was strange, blowing it off as just a fun nod to fans who know these characters. I’m more of the mind that this scene's inclusion detracts from the nature of the tragedy of Sector 7 and it’s something that I wish wasn’t there at all to further strengthen that scene.

While I feel this Cait Sith moment weakens the tone of the disaster, I am still having an absolute blast being in the Final Fantasy VII world once again. I have a ton of thoughts about this game and there are several think pieces I’m drafting out, including things that go deeper into the game's final moments and my overall review as well as a special discussion with a dear friend that I hope will make it onto our podcast feed. Even though I still think Final Fantasy IX to be my favorite rendition of the Final Fantasy series, I had forgotten how much FFVII meant to me. As a lifelong Final Fantasy fan, this is the most excited I’ve been for the series since playing the PlayStation entries for the first time all those years ago. 

Final Fantasy VII Remake is available exclusively for the PS4 (though a PC version should release sometime next year) and more information can be found on the official website. A digital PS4 copy was purchased by the writer.