Five events that could change in Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2

Meeting Zack Fair’s Parents

With the story of Remake no longer tied to the story of the original game, perhaps no character’s fate is called more into question than Zack Fair’s. Throughout the climactic sequence that ends Final Fantasy VII Remake, we continuously see a black-haired SOLDIER — a member of the elite fighting force in service to  the Shinra Electric Power Company — fighting Shinra troops on a cliff overlooking a Midgar wreathed in Whispers.

To refresh you, Zack is the SOLDIER responsible for bringing Cloud safely to the dystopian city, and helping him escape the Shinra experimentation that caused his traumatically fractured memories. In the original game, Zack is killed on that cliffside, and a disoriented Cloud takes up his Buster Sword before crawling alone to Midgar. This is why the Whispers are surrounding Midgar in the scene above: Zack is never supposed to reach the city.

In Remake, we see Zack — likely from a different timeline — making it out of his fateful encounter with the Shinra soldiers alive. This is something that could have enormous ramifications not only for Cloud, but Aerith as well, since Zack was her first love. But considering how twisty the whole situation is, it’s really hard to predict how it all might go down.

One situation that the original game laid out for us, however, is that shortly after Cloud’s group escapes the desert prison beneath the Gold Saucer they come across a village named Gongaga, where the villagers have sworn off Mako energy after a reactor explosion killed some of the townsfolk. While there, Cloud meets an old couple, who — upon realizing he was in SOLDIER — ask if he ever met their son…Zack.

This encounter will almost definitely be different in Remake. It could go from a few pieces of cryptic dialogue to a much more important and meaningful scene. Who knows…maybe we’ll even get another glimpse of Zack himself there.