Cloud’s unreliable narration only makes Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s ending more confusing

(Ed. remark: This post contains spoilers for the original Final fantasy 7 And Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.)

The original Final fantasy 7 pulls off a brilliant, almost annoying, narrative trick. Just as the game sells players on the idea that the protagonist, Cloud Strife, is the hero and cool guy of the game, we learn that in reality, the entire idea of ​​him that the game has shown us is based on a lie. . Instead, Cloud mingled with his comrade Zack Fair, cultivating a completely false version of himself based on someone else’s memories. This makes Cloud Strife perhaps one of the least reliable narrators in literally all of video games. And now the end of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth just adds a whole new layer to it.

The end of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth confused me. Of course I think I understand what happened in the broadest sense of the word, but nothing seems to be that decisive. It’s so bad that I honestly can’t even say for certain whether Aerith died in a permanent way or not, simply because there’s some funky multi-world logic at play towards the end.

I’ll try to tell you what’s happening anyway.

It looks like there are two worlds Rebirth. Firstly, we have the main world where we mainly play as Cloud over time Final Fantasy 7 Remake And Rebirth. This world follows the story of the original Final fantasy 7, more or less, meaning it follows a storyline where Zack Fair dies prior to the events of the game. Except Remake And Rebirth also shows us an alternate world where Zack survives the events of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, while Aerith and Cloud live on alone in a comatose state. At the end of RebirthAerith seemingly dies in the ‘main world’, although we don’t see it – but the game does show her friends, such as Tifa and Yuffie, mourning her loss.

That’s all confusing enough, but then we establish the basic events of what happened Rebirth becomes even more topsy-turvy when we add another possible layer of complication: Cloud has never been a reliable narrator.

Image: Square Enix via Polygon

In the original Final fantasy 7 and now inside Rebirth, we see Cloud’s memory failing. In both games, Cloud tells an incorrect version of the Nibelheim story in which he confuses Zack Fair with himself. That whole opening chapter of Rebirth? It is a lie. Yes, Cloud was in Nibelheim at the time, but he supported the mission as a low-level shock trooper, not as a member of SOLDIER like Zack. Rebirth hints at this discrepancy when Tifa privately confronts Cloud about his retelling of the Nibelheim incident, but we have yet to see Cloud unearth his fully original memory.

When we assess the game’s already confusing ending – which seemingly intertwines multiverses and dreams – and take into account the additional knowledge that Cloud has messed up memories, it becomes almost impossible to tell what is actually happening in reality (or realities) of the game. Some or all of it could literally be in Cloud’s twisted head. During Aerith’s apparent death scene, we see the screen cut out as it alternates between scenes of Cloud successfully saving Aerith, and scenes of Aerith dying. It could be some kind of multiverse event, or it could just be Cloud imagining that he saved Aerith. We just don’t know.

If there’s one illuminating factor, it’s Zack Fair.

Unlike Cloud, Zack appears to be confused by being taken to a new world, but appears to be in good health. His memories seem more or less intact, and he immediately registers Cloud’s aberrant behavior when the two worlds briefly collide during the final boss battle against Sephiroth. At the end of the game, Zack finds himself in the church where he met Aerith, where he says that everything he experienced felt “real” and that he didn’t think he dreamed it. So if Zack says he actually experienced some sort of jump into the multiverse, then – maybe it’s not just in Cloud’s head.