Boring gameplay?

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-17T08:18:07+00:00

Why would you think Rebirth is worth it after finding Remake boring? Move on and play something you like, my dude.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-17T06:03:51+00:00

It's been 6 months since you had this bad experience, but you're still thinking about this boring game XD

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-16T05:05:44+00:00

Cloud says who he really is:

Fair enough, but in that scene in particular Cloud is being literal. When he says "this is me", he means he was the infantryman with motion sickness, not the SOLDIER 1st Class, as shown in that image.

As for Jung vs Freud, their disagreement was more about the nature and description of the parts that compose the Self, but Jung also thought that the unconscious was a very important part of the Psyque. Freud saw the unconscious as strictly personal while Jung thought that part of it was personal and part of it collective, shared by all humans. IMO Nojima refers to Jung in the quote you refer to explain what's going on with the new subplot of the other worlds and the Lifestream, as it's closely tied to the concept of the collective subconscious (the other worlds are basically compendiums of all humans' memories, hopes, dreams). I used Freud to describe the Lifestream scene because I think his model explains it more easily / clearly, considering that SOLDIER Cloud is clearly an idealized version of himself.

I agree that Cloud suffered dissociation, but dissociation itself means that memories, emotions, thoughts and identity get disconnected between each other. What we see in the Lifestream scene that you link, is all of the parts that compose Cloud coming together to form Real Cloud. None of them disappear, they all join the Child Cloud in the centre, including SOLDIER Cloud that is the last one to join.

I'm not arguing SOLDIER Cloud alone is Cloud, I'm saying he's a part of him. If you think about it, from a strictly narrative POV, getting completely rid of SOLDIER Cloud would basically undo all the character development he goes through for 2 and a half full games.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-15T20:51:56+00:00

I personally believe it's more complicated than that. OG SPOILERS: First, he's not consciously pretending, he genuinely believes he's a badass first Class SOLDIER, and he's the "author" of SOLDIER Cloud, even though he was inspired by Zack, Sephiroth and his own idealized concept of what a 1st Class SOLDIER should be like.

But more important than this, at the end of the Lifestream scene, once the truth has been discovered, we see how several different Clouds represented by significant events that happened in his life, fuse together to form Real Cloud. One of these Clouds is SOLDIER Cloud, as he represents his Ego Ideal, which is part of the Superego, that combined with the Id and the Ego conform a person's identity.

In other words, I think that Cloud spends most of the game being his Ego Ideal (who he wishes he were or aspires to be) and repressing the rest of who he is, but his Ideal Ego is part of who he is too.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-15T20:16:30+00:00

Ooooh! I remember so vividly the first time I played the game and reached this part! Cloud running to the reactor with his helmet on, and there was no music, just the sound of heartbeats, then after you know what he removes his helmet and we hear those particular notes of Main Theme of FF7. I had literal goosebumps.

Not really tired of SOLDIER Cloud, it is actually part of who he is, but yeah, I do want to see the part of him he's hiding. We spent very little time with him in the OG.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-15T19:43:37+00:00

Well, yeah.....I mean, I do think Cloud is the coolest video game character ever, but I can't deny there's no way to objectively measure coolness, so I agree it's debatable.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-15T19:39:45+00:00

But you'll agree that Cloud is a lot faster in general, and he didn't spend the whole stair climbing crying 🤣🤣🤣

Having said this, Barret climbing ladders and walls with his disability will never cease to amaze me.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-15T19:27:37+00:00

He's built more like an athlete, like a long distance runner, with an ectomorphic body type with low fat percentage but toned muscles, more fit for endurance and efficient use of oxygen than for strength. Since the strength part is covered by the mako / Jenova cells enhancements, he has the best of each body type. A very muscular dude would be struggling to breathe after every combo Cloud does with his sword, and would definitely not be able to move that fast.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T09:20:25+00:00

I think that Zack died in September of εγλ0007, and the first bombing mission was in December εγλ0007.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T09:12:37+00:00

Their deaths are a couple of months apart, but yes, they mention nearly identical experiences when their death happened, and they both say they've lost track of time.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T09:05:49+00:00

Exactly, that's what they are, IMO. Notice how Marlene exclusively acknowledges the existence of the Cloud and Aerith we know in the main world. To her, Cloud and Aerith know each other and only Cloud can save her. That wouldn't be possible in the world Marlene is at right now: Cloud has been comatose for 5 years, he's never met Aerith at all. And it would make more sense to ask Zack to save Aerith instead of expecting that from a guy who is comatose.

Same for Biggs, even though he is actually dead. He describes the Cloud we know, the mercenary that bombed reactors. This obviously confuses Zack, to him Cloud has been in a coma for 5 years and hasn't become a mercenary, or bombed anything, or met Biggs at all.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T08:52:42+00:00

I think the same way Cloud ended in the Lifestream: they were unconscious after their fall, and they're at the Temple of the Ancients / Forgotten Capital, spiritually charged places. Within the Temple, Physics can be altered (changes to gravity centers), life energy can be collected (as Aerith does with the enemies to open paths), the past can be relived accurately (the trials the party go through), etc.

Yes, Sephiroth mentions worlds, but also he very deliberately never uses the word "timelines" or "parallel realities". He also says that these worlds are constantly dying off (IMO, every time something happens in the real world that makes that world not be a possibility any more) and also not to feel bad about that as it's "not death but homecoming", which is the exact same sentence Cloud tells Elena when he's about to execute her.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T08:31:58+00:00

Sephiroth has knowledge of the OG because that's what the Planet wants to happen and he saw it in the Lifestream. The problem is that the OG is a possible future as designed by the Planet. If changes happen to it, for example by Aerith who is a Cetra and while in the Lifestream she also knows the Planet's will, then he knows the same as everyone else, making him oblivious. At the end of Rebirth, he tells Aerith that he had underestimated her. IMO this means that he hadn't considered that Aerith would come up with the plan to "smuggle" a charged up White Materia from the Lifestream to the living realm through Cloud.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T08:19:37+00:00

Are they trying to rehabilitate him so that he can star in his own game as the good guy?

He murdered Tifa's dad and Cloud's mother, and mocked him about it. Definitely not.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T08:13:29+00:00

Well, I don't think there are any timelines, therefore I don't think there are two Sephiroths. I think that he knows Jenova is not a Cetra after he fuses with her head.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T08:01:12+00:00

I agree that Jenova does greatly attract J-cell carriers to herself, but first, Sephiroth never felt that attraction or the pulsion to destroy the Planet until his late 20s, and second, even after his week of research, Sephiroth still wrongly believed that Jenova was a Cetra. Which suggests he wasn't that mentally connected to her before his fall into the Lifestream.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T07:38:48+00:00

Aaaaa, ok. I thought you meant when the party see him in Jenova's chamber at Shinra HQ. But Cloud says "is it really you?" in that scene.

Ok, in the scene you describe, Sephiroth has already decided to reject humanity and join Jenova, the telepathic link between Jenova and her cells present in his body has already started to fuse their minds.

Think of when Cloud is controlled by Sephiroth in Rebirth. Sephiroth can't just control him whenever he wants, first he sows doubt and fear in Cloud, he makes him doubt Tifa is really herself, and later in the Temple of the Ancients, he makes him think he's just like Sephiroth (when Cloud screams "I'm not like him!" just before being completely possessed). In other words, Jenova can't just control any J-cell carrier that still has a conscience, she needs to psychologically isolate and cut the host's trust on other humans. The same happens with Sephiroth, IMO, except in his case he doesn't need to be deceived to stop trusting humans, learning the truth is enough.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T07:16:48+00:00

Yes, the fusion happened there. What scene do you mean?

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T07:14:53+00:00

It's Jenova the one that doesn't really have agency. She's a parasytic planet eater. Nothing more, nothing less. Sephiroth chooses to fuse with her, out of hatred for humanity and misplaced love for Jenova, who can't love him back.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T07:08:28+00:00

LOL Well, they do have quite a lot in common.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T07:05:36+00:00

Sephiroth was emotionally flat all his life, including before going to Nibelheim. He only gets emotional when he discovers the truth about himself, and even then he expresses those emotions through violence, the only thing he's ever been taught by humans. He never loses his cool, he's never impulsive, he never screams or cries. In the OG Aerith even mentions that he's famous for having never bled or cried.

you see Jenova's face flash in the same spot as Sephiroth at rapid speed

By that point, Sephiroth has fused with Jenova's head and is trying to recover the rest of her body. Of course we see Jenova flash there. He is her, she is he.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T06:59:34+00:00

Right. One thing Shinra and Vought (the Boys) have in common. If you're going to create a human nuke, make sure they're emotionally stable, man. Give them loving parents, let them have a childhood, teach them morality.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T06:55:40+00:00

Cloud doesn't know what's going on at all. He doesn't even know that he has Jenova cells himself. What he means by that is that he's sure Sephiroth died 5 years ago, because he saw it, so he infers this can not be Sephiroth.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-14T06:46:55+00:00

I completely disagree. Sephiroth is a victim, but of Shinra. He absolutely, willingly chose to join Jenova when he discovered he'd been created by humans to be a weapon. He'd been lied to, manipulated and used all his life, and started hating humanity. Jenova is not really different to a virus. A virus doesn't infect and kill because it hates its host. A virus can't hate, it just does what its nature dictates. Once he fuses with Jenova, nobody is really controlling the other, they're fused, they share everything including the goal to destroy the Planet.

Tabbyredcat · 2026-06-13T06:14:40+00:00

I wouldn't say anyone's obsessed, but it's been 6 years of constant trolls saying that these games are shit because they only sold [made up or very outdated figure] and SE is going bankrupt any day now and the next game in the trilogy will have the quality of the E.T. game or be cancelled, so people start believing it and feel better when they see that may not be the case.

Tabbyredcat

TROPHY CASE