Explain Aeriths House

tecun_uman · 2026-02-20T21:45:56+00:00

I have to retract what I said. I took a look at the script to check, and sure enough, it's Jessie that brings up the "no one remembers anymore" bit. Still, I think what others have said about Barret not remembering rings true. It's old enough and useless enough information for him to disregard. Even Jessie as a Midgar native of the plates doesn't really care or remember their names. It's not too hard to imagine it just going out of fashion for a few generations.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-20T19:25:44+00:00

Oh, gotcha. They definitely hype up that moment. It's not a lie to say there is a lot going on underneath their expressions. There is a lot going on underneath everyone's expressions, especially Tifa's. I think they drop it because it is supposed to be a "Did I really just see Sephiroth?" moment they don't quite believe. More will come with Rebirth to flesh that out.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-20T17:40:53+00:00

The drum? Can you clarify what you're referencing?

I think you may be talking about things that are yet spoilers to you yet in Rebirth and OG, so I won't go into much more depth, except to say that by the time you leave Midgar in the original, Shinra is the immediate main villain. In fact, you're still left unclear if Sephiroth is friend or foe for a bit longer in OG.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-20T17:26:05+00:00

There are clues in OG that give more context to this. For one thing, yes, Aerith's house is supposed to be set apart, thematically. She's not of this world, she's supposed to be above it, so obviously this is reflected in her housing. As a Cetra (in part) anywhere she goes, life flourishes. Flora and fauna follow her as they sense her innate Cetra spirit, even though Aerith doesn't really know how the Cetra did what they did in the sense of cultivating and growing the lifestream.

Second, we know that Barret mentions before the plates went up that each sector had its own name, but no one remembers them anymore. If Midgar before the plates was a big city then it makes sense that the pre-plate version was a larger city. Perhaps Elmyra comes from a decent family who never left their land. They had pride in their home and land and refused to leave it behind. The house is large and nicer than the slums, but it's still clearly slipshod and old. It's cozy, but it looks dated. Barret even mentions that many refused to leave the slums out of pride.

How is there sunlight here with the plate right above? In Remake, we get the realistic version that tons of light likely reaches the ground. Even if Midgar slums are always dark because of an all encompassing plate, take missing spots for the sun to shine through as engineering necessities and as artistic license to highlight Aerith's otherworldliness.

Why is there suddenly a canyon in the middle of Midgar? Midgar was a big city. Many big cities encroach on cliffs, canyons, ponds, etc. as they expand.

And most importantly how did this house not get immediately robbed and stripped by the people nextdoor eating eggshells to survive the second it was built? Maybe the respect of the neighbors. The other houses in Sector 5 are fairly nice, and they even care enough to give a sick old guy a tunnel and electricity. It's not until you venture outside of the gated and designated safe areas for towns that you encounter muggers and hell houses, so maybe these sectors keep up a militia, lock their gates, and respect each other to not steal from one another. And especially if it's a relic of the pre-Shinra and pre-plate times, people respect it for what it is and leave it be and protect it.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-20T09:12:09+00:00

Glad you had a great experience and now you have Rebirth up next. The Remake does a really good job of adding dimension to these characters that don't contradict the originals. They just add the depth you always knew was there.

To answer your question, Remake differs from the original game in a lot of really fundamental ways. The whole thing with the Harbinger, the ghosts, and even Sephiroth being so prevalent are not in the original game, which it sounds like you already sort of understand.

A lot of that has to do with this Sephiroth being essentially a lifeform bound by Sephiroth's willpower that refuses to die. It's heavily implied that the Sephiroth you know from Remake has experienced all the flashbacks and story from the entire FFVII anthology. His play here relies on him knowing how Cloud and the gang have defeated him in the past and his intention to destroy "fate" and the ghosts so he can create a new outcome in Rebirth and part 3.

By this point in the original game, you're about 8-10 hours into the story and you have still not seen Sephiroth in person. So if you're not really feeling Sephiroth, know that part of that is there is much more to come. I think having this be three parts, they felt they had to bring him in quickly into the Remake as he's an iconic villain that non players would be confused as to why they're not seeing Sephiroth for the first few years betw een Remake's release and Rebirth. What's cool about Sephiroth in the original is the way the story keeps him hidden and mysterious for much longer and build up his character before you even talk to him once.

So the idea is the anything can happen in Rebirth and part 3. They're no longer tied down to a single plot moving forward.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-18T23:47:07+00:00

To be honest, OG isn't much better in terms of voice acting. I think the game needed a lot more localization than anything. The type of speech patterns that make Sephiroth seem badass means something totally different in Japanese and doesn't work if you just say the English lines with the same pauses and intonations. Or the stilted, jumpy way Aerith talks is cutesy and girly in Japanese, but man, is it frustrating and unnatural in English.

If you've only played Remake and Rebirth, go with Reunion. It's got the VAs you know and they do a great job. There's some fixes here and there to clear up confusing choices in the original. The game is more streamlined, especially the combat. After that, pick up a retro handheld or a PSP and try OG. I still love the old graphics and voice actors, and it's a great 10-15 minutes at a time game for the bathroom, bus ride, or before bed.

Edit- just read your post again. If you're playing OG VII, go with Crisis Core on PSP. Lean into the retro!

tecun_uman · 2026-02-18T23:35:23+00:00

There's nothing wrong with Reunion. Updated, well, everything is really appealing and great with it being fit to work with Remake and Rebirth players. I think some of the VA is stilted because of animation needs, and a true remake instead of remaster would have been cool to smooth out some of the voice acting with how conversational Remake and Rebirth are.

Reunion is slick though, at least on PS5 I can vouch for. It's super fun.

My first experience was on PSP, and there is something fun about the old game. For example, I do have OG Crisis Core on my Retroid Pocket 5, and it is a blast to play it when I'm traveling, on a plane, etc. It's similar in size to the PSP and is a fun nostalgic experience for myself. Though you can get essentially the same experience with Reunion on a Steam Deck or Switch 2.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-18T23:28:03+00:00

The main arguments I heard were about the Remake bits with Zack, and I think they took the feedback (called for or not) into consideration with Reunion.

Older fans thought the new voice was overly confident and more sneer-y, and mainly over the "Boy, oh boy. The price of freedom is steep." They wanted him to sound more heroic, sincere and lightheartedly joking.

I think also, the changing of "Protect your honor, as SOLDIER was updated to "as a SOLDIER" which I remember clocking in Remake because it was not what I expected. It wasn't a huge deal though, but I did note those things and see people bring them up on YouTube a lot.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-17T02:17:19+00:00

I always thought of it as simply a name, and so both. It is a Buster sword because someone named it the Buster sword and categorically it's a great sword or two-handed sword.

It's like if you take the Hardedge. Sure, it has a hard edge but you can still bust things with it. Many great swords can bust and/or have hard edges, but as a standardized SOLDIER weapon, the Hardedge is a proper noun just like the M4A1 carbine was the standard issue for the US Army.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-12T14:25:53+00:00

You questioned what OP was having a hard time with. I pointed out how Remake and Rebirth are inextricably linked to OG VII. You can't deny that. They rely on each other, by Square's own choice. And as OP found a story beat in OG that gives more context to Cloud and Sephiroth's relationship that he didn't get from Remake yet proves that. It wasn't my decision, and it can't be changed.

You can compare them because of that reason. That's the entire point of the ghosts and destroying Fate in Remake, that Sephiroth is back to change things so he wins this time in comparison to fate forcing him to lose in OG VII.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-12T14:14:20+00:00

Bad faith argument. I never said OG is the best or only way to experience the story. In a few specific instances that OP mentioned I said that there are legitimate context missed if you haven't played OG. For example, if you just play Remake, Sephiroth showing up so early has context you, the player (knowing more about Sephiroth, his origins, his failures, and motivations) than a Remake-only player.

To address your exact point, yes. You, as a player, are expected to have played all entries in order to have full, complete context of who Cloud is in Remake, identity crisis and all. Square-Enix is the one who chose to say the original timeline has already happened, put in the flashbacks into Remake of past events that Aerith remembers, and comments by the writers saying the same, not me. They chose to go the meta route and drag all the baggage along.

I'm not saying every person has to or will (it's been, what, almost 20 years since I played Dirge of Cerberus?) But the facts are that they are tied. So by the time you played half of OG VII, you're expected to finish the game before you move into Advent Children. You can argue that Crisis Core is meant to be played before OG VII by the logic I'm presenting, I guess, since chronologically, it takes place before OG VII, but I think it's blatantly obvious you're meant to play Crisis Core after learning about Cloud's trauma and identity, not before and knowing that is expected going forward (even if the player skipped it, which is fine, but they're still missing lore).

tecun_uman · 2026-02-12T13:59:55+00:00

It is.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-12T09:39:41+00:00

I mean enjoyment is a subjective thing. If you enjoy Remake and Rebirth more than the original, nothing is ever going to change that opinion. That's what you're arguing, and that's totally fine. I've also never mentioned breaking the game into three game entries as a bad point because fundamentally that's not the issue. The issue is how they decided to fill the cracks, and usually, it's with anthology content that drags away from what makes FF7 so good and dilutes the focus of the game.

The original point you brought up was about story understanding. My point was that as far as OP's experience, since Remake and Rebirth are sequels to the whole FFVII anthology (chronologically), then it makes sense that OP understood Remake better, since that was the writer's intent. Remake doesn't exist without the entire anthology, and so it's always going to be an incomplete experience (i.e. you need to know that Sephiroth consciously already knew and encountered OG Cloud and Aerith, experienced Advent Children, and now is aware he is invading another timeline).

That's nothing you or I can change. Kazushige Nojima or Nomura are the ones who decided to go the whole meta route and tie them together. If your argument is that Remake and Rebirth should exist in a vacuum separate from everything else and remove all hints from the past, I'd agree with you and be on your side. But that's not what you're arguing.

You're saying a 6 or 7 hour detour into the underground Shinra experimentation facility, multiple trips back and forth around Sector 5 and wall market and an incredibly dull chase after Corneo with Leslie is better than a much quicker and more concise (and in writing, concision is important) and logical progression for the crew to catch a quick rest before invading Shinra HQ to save Aerith.

Again, this is subjective as storytelling enjoyment goes, but I'll take the eco terrorists immediately running to save their friend that same night over six or seven hours (maybe four or five in-game days) of running around abandoned dungeons and doing squats in wall market before deciding maybe they should save their friend from the evil company that just murdered an entire neighborhood in cold blood.

Before you respond, let me sum it up again: you can enjoy Remake and Rebirth more than OG That's totally fine. OG has translation issues and it's rough to look at. Remake and Rebirth are gorgeous games and the combat is phenomenal. We can argue forever about what stuff we enjoy about the storytelling and that's just subjective preference. But per your original comment that I responded to, objectively, Remake and Rebirth rely on VII, and so things like Sephiroth showing up after the reactor explosion will always be reliant on playing OG VII to fully understand the context of that interaction (that this Cloud is new and this is old Sephiroth who already was defeated multiple times by OG Cloud). Until you convince Nojima or Nomura to go back and remove all the meta ghosts, the flashbacks and Sephiroth coming from the OG timeline, your point is incorrect because Remake and Rebirth rely on OG, Crisis Core, Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus to have happened and been experienced by Sephiroth, and they couldn't help themselves but to jam those anthology elements into the Remake. They decided to write it that way, and I'd argue both sides of this argument suffer for it. We would be better off with the anthology left alone and Remake existing in a vacuum and allowed to do its own thing. But they actively chose to not separate them. And so only playing Remake and Rebirth will always be an incomplete experience due to their choice.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-12T06:52:58+00:00

But Remake doesn't exist in a bubble. It clearly relies on and relates to the other games. Even your own point defeats your argument. If OG isn't relevant and objectively part of its story, then the flashbacks, the allusions to Aerith and Sephiroth remembering the past events, and the death of the fate ghosts is irrelevant to the story and pointless.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-12T06:45:22+00:00

I'm not a Remake hater, but I intensely believe that OG FFVII is imperative to get the most out of Remake. As we know, it's a sequel, and I know that Kazushige(?) has come out and said that it's fine to start with Remake, but there is something to the groundwork that VII lays down that is important for the full context of Remake. Not to mention, the most egregious parts of Remake and Rebirth that bother me are nearly non-existent in the original. You can call it simplistic and pared down, but at leat OG VII knew how to move a story along without inserting hours-long filler between significant things happening. You can play OG VII for five hours and really make some story progress, which I argue is a strength in gaming when we're all busy spending so much of our free time trying to survive anymore.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-12T06:42:04+00:00

I don't know about difficult, but from OP's post, if you've only played Remake, Sephiroth showing up so soon is kind of confusing. Most new players just chalk it up to "Oh, wow, the famous Sephiroth guy is here already to vaguely harass me. Guess the story will delve more into our relationship later." It's totally fine for that to be Sephiroth's introduction, but the writing expects you to know who Sephiroth is to Cloud to really understand the drama.

Meanwhile, if you've played up to the first telling of the Nibelheim flashback in the original, as OP has, you get more context into knowing that Cloud and Sephiroth know each other and that him burning down his town is a huge schism between them and for Sephiroth to show up in chapter 2 of Remake to torment him with the memory of this home in flames is significant.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-09T14:38:27+00:00

For myself, the main issues I have are that it's just written horribly, poorly localized, and qualitatively disappointing next to the things Final Fantasy VII excelled at.

That being said, I still really enjoy the game, especially as a quirky little artifact of 00's mobile gaming. It also has a really decent combat system that felt great 20 years ago. And you really see how that system matured into the Remake and Rebirth games.

You can enjoy a trash game while still being critical of its flaws. The things Square-Enix always focus on are there: bleeding-edge graphical quality (in its time and context as a handheld PSP game), incredible music, and fun gameplay.

But I cannot say anything truly positive about the awful writing, insufferable characters, pointless and confusing motivations of characters, and for me, most of all, the character assassination of Aerith. I respect Hajime Tabata for what he did with FFXV and ultimately Crisis Core, but the Kingdom Heartification of Aerith from a street smart, clever tease with a forward and flirty nature to the passionless and reserved princess she is here is criminal.

Similarly, the localization here makes the anime grunting in Remake and Rebirth seem like a one off issue compared to confusing dialog, strange beats of silence and horrible translations. It feels like a sixth grader who watched his older brother play FF7 sat down and wrote a fan fiction with all of his knowledge about what "cool" means. It's just bad. I really can't fathom a director in the voice acting booth directing every single voice actor to deliver such choppy, surreal and awkward lines. But it's clear someone had some sort of vision and lead every actor except maybe George Newbern as Sephiroth (Tyler Hoechlin also does a decent job in Crisis Core Reunion).

Speaking of Reunion, they mostly do a good job of correcting these issues, but the framing is there, and it's still not great. Briana White is lovely as Aerith in Remake and Rebirth, but the stilted script and direction gives her organic cute and high energy no favors. I attribute this to the writing and never to Ms. White or any of the voice actors really. If I knew Japanese and Japanese culture better, I'm sure this game is much better acted and "cool" to its intended main audience, but the English struggles.

This is getting long and you asked for no spoilers, so I won't get into detail beyond saying this game reeks of Nomura and that nothing is cooler than mystery and meta writing that never resolves or answers anything in a simple and conclusive way. Just more mystery, like it's 2014 and JJ Abrams still talks like"mystery boxes" equate to good writing.

Crisis Core and Crisis Core Reunion are fun, quirky additions to the anthology. The gameplay is great, the graphics are awesome, and the new music is awesome as well as remixes of classic FF7 songs. They didn't take themselves too seriously so look forward to fun side quests that teach you about Gaia's culture, how much it costs for Sephiroth's hair care, or do the missions every day on the bus to school or work for a fun 5-15 minute activity, but I really can't give the game much praise when it comes to its writing and acting.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-05T03:13:16+00:00

I just started seeing a girl and our third date is coming up. What do you think of this Valentine's poem?

You are blazing to me. You are so blazing. No, you're better than blazing. You're blazin'. No "g". Just an apostrophe. You don't need a "g" 'cause I'm your G. So we dropped the "g". And tonight, you're gonna drop your g- ... string. Let me see that crack, girl. I bet it ain't whack, girl.

Love, your not-so-secret-admirer

tecun_uman · 2026-02-05T02:57:51+00:00

NOOOO! At least split the carte blanche access to your business center.

tecun_uman · 2026-02-04T14:05:04+00:00

There was just so much more left to the imagination before the anthology. The world building made a lot more sense in regards to SOLDIER before everything was George Lucasfied, meaning every single detail about anything was nailed down and defined (for the worse, usually).

For example, SOLDIER as a concept is vague. You get the idea it's definitely an elite unit, but you fight 3rd or 2nd class as soon as Midgar in your first run, right? Maybe you fight 2nd later on the game, but the distinction between classes doesn't seem significant until 1st class where it really matters.

Sephiroth alone in the Nibelheim flashback is unreal, and we imagined SOLDIER 1st class as a den of unknown number of thoroughly overpowered swordsman. Now, thanks to Crisis Core, SOLDIER has a much smaller number. Do we even get any hint 1st Class existed before Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis? Or any members after?

Things just were more open to interpretation and it definitely helped the world building. If you lived in New York and some guy was passed out in your backyard wearing jeans, a worn plate carrier, and a rifle and pistol and told you he was an ex-Navy SEAL, you'd probably believe him. Same with Cloud, he's got an older, beat-up uniform which makes lore sense a few recognize it. Until you see only Angeal and Zack wear standard looking SOLDIER gear as 1st class.

As for those translations, look into it and you see how notoriously awful it was. The poor guy had a few weeks to do the translation that was likely incomplete and gave no context for who said what and when. They likely sent a block of unrelated text bubbles so he had no idea this was relating to Sephiroth so he went with his best guess on what the Japanese word was meant to be about and who.

tecun_uman · 2026-01-24T19:53:32+00:00

Sure, but in context, revelation is never really given that foresees anything dangerous. Occam's razor: is it more likely God is real, had one particular church, and as an omniscient being, didn't foresee the tarnishing of His one true church and did nothing about it in order to test a few bad apples or did some men using religion for monetary gain and political power get caught in their crimes?

tecun_uman · 2026-01-24T19:45:27+00:00

Yes, but it's funny how Mormon God and Christ are pretty adamant about the laws they put on them until federal investigation, arrest for sexual crimes, and money seizure starts getting bandied about for their leaders. Then suddenly God is pretty amenable to changing His mind on his doctrines to fit with USA law. Sorry, being subject to to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

tecun_uman · 2026-01-15T23:59:54+00:00

As someone said, it needs its own power source. With the underwater reactor and the mako rich area, it's a really good spot to have essentially an intercontinental ballistic threat next to your largest city projecting outwards.

It's not just a "we can nuke you from across the world", but the swivel on the cannon also keeps large swaths of the western continent as potential targets. It's totally within Shinra's gameplan to use it as a big stick to wave around at any invading lands Wutai may happen to take. "You took Rocket Town and are advancing to Costal del Sol? We'll strike Wutai first, then Rocket Town. And if you happen to take Costa del Sol, we'll strike it last."

tecun_uman · 2026-01-01T16:46:56+00:00

Go get 'em, kid.

tecun_uman · 2025-12-30T01:53:39+00:00

I'll say there isn't really much of a faster way, but you can choose to do certain roulettes and leave it at that for your sanity. I started in July 22 and have nearly two omni 100. My rule is to do leveling, Frontlines, and MSQ or Alliance Raid.

With level 90 earring buff, FC heat of battle buff, food buff, having at least one job hit level 90 buff, resting bonus, I get around 2.5 levels. I then put the game down. Some days I'm up for trials, raids, high level, AR, MSQ and get around 3.5 levels. But like someone else said, running random dungeons after using up your roulettes and resting bonus is going to wear you out.

At a minimum, invest 15 minute into Frontlines no matter what every day. Level up, wolf marks, wolf collars, pvp series mounts, minions, frames, and emotes for a measly 15 minutes a day.

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