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

(Image credit: Square Enix)

The Return to Nibelheim and Revelations of the Past

Of all the many locations in Final Fantasy VII, one of the most memorable is Nibelheim, Cloud and Tifa’s hometown. Remake gives Cloud numerous flashbacks to the tragic events that occurred there: we see his childhood house engulfed in flame, Tifa screaming over the body of her dead father, and Sephiroth walking through a town ablaze.

This is the genesis of Cloud and Sephiroth’s rivalry. When the party finally returns to the mountainside village in the original game, it’s one of the first real moments where Cloud’s memory of events is called into question. The village, which had been burned to the ground, is completely rebuilt and populated by townsfolk who claim to have lived there all their lives. It’s also filled with hooded figures bearing numbered tattoos, all of whom mutter incoherently about Sephiroth and the Reunion.

Something that pleasantly surprised me about Final Fantasy VII Remake was how much foreshadowing the developers decided to put in for these numbered lunatics and Sephiroth’s Reunion. By all accounts, it seems like Remake will be filling out the notoriously confusing story of Sephiroth’s “clones” in much greater detail.

In addition to all that, there’s a mansion in Nibelheim with a laboratory in its basement. It’s there that Zack and Cloud’s journey together truly began. In the original game, there’s not much to be gleaned there aside from reading some notes — which, of course, the party doesn’t know enough to make sense of — and having yet another ominous encounter where Sephiroth slips through your fingers.

With all the history surrounding this location, and how much more Remake has explored the characters, Cloud and Tifa’s return to Nibelheim could be a prime moment to alter and expand things.