Spoilers ahead for the original Final Fantasy 7 and potentially Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth!
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth creative director Tetsuya Nomura has opened up about that one scene everyone can’t wait to see play out, saying that he was “able to do what I truly wanted to show in this title.”
We are obviously talking about one of the most iconic scenes in the history of gaming – the death of Aerith by Sephiroth – and while Nomura wasn’t going to reveal how this scene will play out in Rebirth, he did share with Game Informer some thoughts behind the decision in the original game and this new remake.
“Beginning with the original Final Fantasy VII, when we had started working on it, it was already decided from the get-go that ‘life’ would be the central theme,” creative director Tetsuya Nomura says. “I knew that we had to depict life and death within this title.
“Prior to Final Fantasy VII, there have been other titles where characters have experienced tragedy, but many of them have come back or been revived in some ways. But I believe that loss is something that happens unexpectedly, and it’s not something so dramatic or drawn out, but is something in which a person that you have just conversed with is suddenly gone and never to come back. I believe that the person who dies should not return in this title, and that is what we did with the original.”
For Rebirth, Nomura is very proud of what the team came up and believes “the way we have depicted it brings about a new emoition and a new feeling for both players who have played the original Final Fantasy VII and newcomers.” As previously mentioned, Nomura also added that he was “able to do what I truly wanted to show in this title.
While we don’t yet know if Aerith will make it to the credits of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, it has been confirmed that this game will end with that fateful encounter at The Forgotten Capital. Along the way, as director Naoki Hamaguichi reveals, “players will see the characters interact and deepen their bonds with each other. That is the focal point.”
We don’t have too much longer to wait for the answer to this question, as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released on PS5 on February 29, 2024. To help with the wait, have a look at our hands-on impressions of part two of the FF7 remake trilogy.
For more, be sure to check out seven reasons why Final Fantasy VII Rebirth might let you save Aerith, how the original Final Fantasy VII Remake already started veering into its own extremely meta path, and our documentary – Resurrecting Aerith – about the urban myths surrounding her death and the fans who have spent 25 years trying to rewrite her fate.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
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