Despite how Final Fantasy 7 Remake ended,Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthstill goes through a lot of the same main beats from the portion of the original game it recreates. That’s not to say there aren’t major differences, however.
Virtually everything is expanded upon, and many subtle differences add up to something big. Because this trilogy’s conclusion is still clouded (pun intended) in mystery, it is important to compare key moments in the original game and how Rebirth handles them to see just how much has changed and what it could mean for the future, whenever that comes.
7Burning Down Nibelheim
Cloud Struggles Through The Intense Flames
The first familiar beat in Rebirth is Cloud recounting the story of how Sephiroth turned on Shinra and the world. It remains faithful to the original game, only going into greater detail. When the town burns down, Cloud wades through burning buildings and crawls around flames instead of standing in the middle like in the original.
To the original game’s credit, it remains a violent scene even with the primitive graphics. In fact, the original game has more blood than the few drops here and there you get in Rebirth
Rebirth’s flashback also more heavily foreshadows a major plot point that will surely be expanded upon in the future. However, we don’t want to spoil it for those who only played 2020’s Remake and Rebirth.
6Marching As A Soldier In Junon
You March And Command Other Shinra Troops
Junon is the second big city you go to in Final Fantasy 7 after Midgar, though you don’t become as intimately familiar with it. The 1997 release sees you march in place with other soldiers and do a simple minigame where you twirl the rifle like a baton.
Rebirth turns this into a whole segment and deepends the minigame’s mechanic. You also have to explore Junon and look for your squad as Cloud is made captain on the fly. Then, as you are discovered and make your escape, you fight along side these new recruits who grow to respect you in the short time you spend with them.
5The Boat
Instead of a simple cargo boat for military use, the party boards a cruise ship, which it becomes a whole chapter. There is a Queen’s Blood tournament you enter, you meet familiar faces from Midgar like Madam M, and you can even partake in some Yoga. Sephiroth still attacks the ship, but it’s not his big reveal since we have seen him plenty at this point.
Lastly, Red XIII in disguise is handled differently. At first, he walks around like his normal self, but then he shows up in theShinra uniform to play Queen’s Bloodafter being denied entrance into the tournament.
4Dyne
The Game Shows Barret’s Innocence From The Start
Going to Corel and the Gold Saucer is the big Barret character-building chapter. The narrative plays out similarly, but it’s revealed to the player differently.The original game hides Dyne’s identityduring the initial murders at the Gold Saucer, leading players to believe that Barret might actually be the culprit people are looking for when they describe the murderer as a man with a gun-arm.
In Rebirth, players see Barret chasing a cloacked figure with a similar prosthetic early on, already hinting that Barret is innocent from the start. Dyne also is shot to death and falls onto of Barret instead of throwing himself off a cliff in a Christ pose.
3Gold Saucer Date
The System Is More Transparent In Rebirth
Final Fantasy 7, along with a lot of other PS1 games, hid mechanics under the hood and never revealed them in-game. Who Cloud dates at the Gold Saucer is determined by who you have the highest score with.
The score changes based on various dialogue options up until that point but you have no way of knowing the score through any in-game option. Rebirth blatanly tells you about the affection system and you’re able to see your progress by the face icon above each character’s head.
Unlike the original game, you can go back and do the date with every possible option after beating the story.
2Getting The Black Materia
The Black Materia Is Still In Cloud’s Hands
The party still goes to the Temple of the Ancients to get the Black Materia and the place still collapses in on itself. It is in the temple instead of being the temple itself, and it starts collapsing inwhile the characters are still inside.
Cait Sith comes to save the day instead of talking with Cloud and agreeing to let the robot body get crushed inside the temple before the temple starts shrinking. Once they have the Black Materia in the original, Sephiroth easily makes Cloud give it to him, whereas in Remake, there is a large scene where a controlled Cloud almost kills Aerith for it, and the two almost fall to their deaths.
1Aerith’s Death
The Ancient Forest marks the end of the original game’s first disc and serves as the grand finale in Rebirth. Because of that, the moment is big and bombastic, with an epic boss and a multi-staged boss fight. During the fight, Zak and Cloud finally meet and team up to defeat Sephiroth.
In the original game, Zak has been dead for years and there are no multiple timelines. Speaking of multiple timelines, Cloud indeed does stop Sephiroth but the whispers undo this and kill her anyway. However, Cloud still sees her as alive and well where the rest of the party is in mourning, leaving us with so many questions the third game needs to answer.
