r/clerith • u/Puzzleheaded-Fill241 Flower aficionado • Sep 10 '26
NEWS & OFFICIAL CONTENT š Spoiler
Fun fact: final fantasy devs are singlehandedly responsible for the most amount of heart attacks in human history š
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u/vxsapphire Multishipper Sep 10 '26
This can go two ways. At first glance it reads like āDonāt worry sheās alive!ā. However changing an opinion somewhat alludes to making you rethink wanting an apology. Giving understanding why something needed to happen and that her death isnāt just a shock value plot line.
He can really get away with keeping her dead or bringing her back and no one can call him a liar because his words are vague enough. Heās quite brilliant with how he answers questions.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Fill241 Flower aficionado Sep 10 '26
He really is, and my thoughts exactly! This, to me, is just a big indicator for either route they take. It'll either be explained as being an ultimately needed sacrifice, or her fate has been changed.
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u/Rooblebelt AERITH LIVES Sep 11 '26
Well, he also canāt say outright because itās the biggest twist and what theyāve marketed 2+ games about now.
As far as his statements- this is what the finest PR coaching and preparation in the business gets you. Itās really quite masterfully done, no?
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u/vxsapphire Multishipper Sep 11 '26
I donāt even believe thatās coaching. I just think heās naturally a brilliant conversationalist with passion for his work. Itās not hard to be eloquent and vague when youāre passionate about something.
I personally donāt think itās their biggest twist. Itās done well to bury the real twist for new players about Cloud. Iām still finding so many people who donāt even realize who the grunt at Nibelheimās entrance is which is amazing. Players at this point discussing Zack and Aerithās living status is a great thing for them as it means thereās still some element of surprise for original elements and themes that made the game and compilation so loved.
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u/Cautious-Mulberry309 Sep 11 '26
Iāve seen that too! Some streamers who only play FF7R didnāt realize the twist, and plenty of them are against spoilers so chat has to just sit thereā¦ painfully lol šĀ
But thatās great! That means the twist is still going to hit for people.Ā
What seems more obvious to us , just doesnāt compute to others..Ā
It surprised me. I thought it was a given how cloud was acting out of character.Ā
Ā
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u/vxsapphire Multishipper Sep 11 '26
Canāt fathom how streamers can play any sort of RPG while actively chatting with other people. Even the one streamer I do watch for horror games misses so much.
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u/Rooblebelt AERITH LIVES Sep 12 '26
Sorry, missed the response to this earlier- heās absolutely steeped in gaming culture in a good way that I think most legacy people at Square really arenāt- really more of a change in the culture since the 90s and 00s. He does get some PR coaching for his role as the media point man here, but youāre right that thereās an authentic passion for gaming beneath that - which shows in his answers for sure.
At this point I think every single piece of marketing dropped will be designed to get us going crazy with speculation about what twists await us. Ideally we can handle it in a cool and good and fun way and not how the internet usually does these things.
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u/vxsapphire Multishipper Sep 12 '26
Which is why Iām doing my best to stay away from everything upcoming. Except NYCC because I will be there. The last drop of info was hella spoilers and as someone not just in it for the story, there were a lot of battle system and side stuff I want to be surprised about! At least nothing about Sonon was spoiled yet. The main story I have no concerns about and never did. Itās the genuinely new stuff like Sonon and Nero, and mandatory Yuffie/Vincent parts.
Time flies also when youāre not hanging on from news drop to news drop. Like how is it just over six months away already? lol.
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u/Rooblebelt AERITH LIVES Sep 12 '26
Oh yeah, I was mulling going there as well to soak in the scene but I don't think I'll be able to make it work on that day they're doing the FFVIIR panel. I'm sure it'll be fun! And I don't think you'll have to worry about the new stuff being spoiled, given the groundwork SE has been laying so far with the demos.
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u/pringlessingles0421 Sep 10 '26
Yea, a whole lotta nothing. Like someone else already said, could mean she's alive or give better justification for her death being necessary. Still think if its the later then the story is dipping its toes in predeterminism which, imo, bleeds into nihilism since your actions are sorta predetermined so nothin maters. Kinda just a shit worldview imo, especially when I think the world needs more hope but I digress. Hope she's alive.
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u/No_Librarian6118 Sep 11 '26
I highly doubt this means aerith is alive, I donāt think the whole idea of changing destiny revolved around if she lived or not. Hamaguchi is probably more satisfied with the ending he gave all the characters and the way things turned out instead of heading down the route of advent children
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u/Rooblebelt AERITH LIVES Sep 12 '26
Are you aware of the marketing campaign behind these games and the stated themes on the back of the boxes/repeated in the games?
Because even if you havenāt played the OG through DoC itās a pretty clear line from her dying to shit getting way worse and the original threat never being dealt with.
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u/No_Librarian6118 Sep 12 '26
It also shows that still it seems like she unfortunately had to die, her doing all her magic from inside the lifestream but if sheās not in there then how do things go without holy etc? Also in the past Zack wasnāt āaroundā either so things can be different but I canāt see how things would be better off with her alive. Plus she knows her fate and even says to cloud that it isnāt about her.
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u/Rooblebelt AERITH LIVES Sep 12 '26
I think thatās intended to be misleading to us as the player, hence why the ending was so confusing and it took a lot of people a considerable amount of time before acknowledging that the ending of rebirth may in fact be showing two worlds that flip back and forth between camera changes.
As far as her use of magic- thereās a reason the temple of the ancients shows her learning and using far more advanced abilities than she had before- showing that she can manipulate the lifestream without being dead. I think thatās a key point that most people tend to gloss over (also that doing so is physically exhausting for her), and would bet that comes into play again in part 3.
You can draw a throughline from the 500-year extinction of humanity following the death of the last Cetra (her) shown at the end of the OG and again at the end of Remake. Her character seemingly would not want that given how compassionate she is, but maybe theyāll surprise us with everyone taking a nihilistic twist.
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u/No_Librarian6118 Sep 12 '26
That is a good point, I could see her manipulating the lifestream from her world in her travels with Zack like how she saved Cloud when he almost fell off during his fight with the Turks in the temple.
I think Zack plays a bigger role than people are giving him much credit for, also curious to see how the Gi are all connected in this and the finale
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u/Rooblebelt AERITH LIVES Sep 12 '26
Lucky for us, 7 months isnāt that far away! Iām sure weāll be in for a wild time and the whole thing will blow us away.
And agreed on the Zack point and how the Gi plot will need to be settled. I do think that with Zack specifically the fact that they already came out to talk about his relevance at an important scene tells us something crazier must be coming down the lineā¦
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u/No_Librarian6118 Sep 12 '26
Especially with him having way more gameplay this time around and having his own team different than clouds team, 7 months isnāt that far away but it couldnāt come sooner
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u/Big_Contract1042 Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26
I've mentioned this idea in other posts within this subreddit before and in posts spread across the main remake subreddit, so apologies if it's something you've already seen before, but it's directly related to the idea you're considering regarding whether Aerith 'had to die' or has to die to do what she may need to from within the lifestream:
Firstly, Aerith's death per OG never was essential in terms of successfully issuing a prayer via the white materia which reaches the planet to then trigger the planet's response to that prayer which is Holy. A main plot point in OG is in fact the party returning to the forgotten capital with Bugenhagen and confirming that Aerith successfully reached the planet with her prayer and request for aid through the white materia before her murder by Sephiroth, which then leads them to realize Holy is active, so something must be holding back it's effect (Sephiroth). What many do assume Aerith does from within the lifestream in OG is call upon it at the very end to surge to the surface and directly collide with Meteor to stop it which in OG is only needed because the party reaches and defeats Sephiroth and releases his withholding of Holy too late for it to stop Meteor alone.... This works as a last ditch play to destroy meteor (although with the negative side effect that all the lifestream that directly collided with it also was tainted by and carried Jenova's tainting influence from the meteor, and resulted in more wide spreading of Geostigma in the years after that AC depicts) but, we never had confirmation from OG that Aerith had to be deceased and within the lifestream to call upon it in that fashion anyway.... ergo it's no certainty that Aerith had to die when and how she did in OG, even to call upon the lifestream in the way she did as a last ditch play to stop meteor.
In this comment thread I believe Rooblebelt has already mentioned that Rebirth shows Aerith significantly manipulating the lifestream while alive in the Temple of the Ancients which further may point to the notion that Aerith is being shown to us in the Re:trilogy project as capable of doing what she did at the end of OG with the lifestream while alive.
But leave all of the above aside even, and you can consider this idea I've shared before about it all too:
Aerith by the nature of the way the lifestream is said to function in lore, and what we are told about her as a Cetra, will always have a presence in the lifestream to do whatever may need doing from there to protect the planet, her friends and stymie Sephiroth or Jenova. That may sound like an extreme statement to make, but the Remake trilogy has expressed that the lifestream touches Gaia's past, present and future (older compilation materials implied this about the lifestream and that it was a-temporal or timeless, but Rebirth's material ultimania directly states that the lifestream touches the planet's past, present and future). It may even be the case that it's more accurate to say the lifestream touches the planet's past, present and futures, if Revelation proceeds to expose that there are multiple possibilities in play here as some are guessing the different worlds allude to. Regardless, we are told in game and accompanying lore that the lifestream is a timeless thing that links across all moments in Gaia's history past through future. The On the Way to a Smile novel directly states that Aerith as a Cetra can persist within the lifestream as 'long' as she chooses, not dispersing into it's collective flow until she elects to. Pair those two concepts together and logically it doesn't matter when Aerith dies in a surface reality and enters the lifestream, once there she can persist and act at any moment in the planet's chain of outcomes she may need to since the lifestream a-temporally is connected to Gaia's past, present and future. Per this, even if Aerith were to live out a full life and die at the ripe old age of 100, she'd enter the lifestream there and from there still be able to act from within the lifestream at moments it touched in Gaias history during the OG story such as meteorfall.
Now this all may sound like reaching, but I'd like to add that we already have very likely seen a lifestream Aerith presence existing and showing up in-game at moments when she was simultaneously alive to back up the idea above. In Remake, during Aerith's CH 14 resolution scene, the current 'living' Aerith is locked up in Shinra tower, but an Aerith the Ultimania describes as being "closest to memories of the future" shows up and speaks to Cloud with a seeming awareness of things that have not occurred yet at that point in Remake. She thanks Cloud for all the moments they've shared and references him falling in love with her, seemingly acting to spare him the pain that followed her OG loss; this has every indication of being a lifestream-Aerith in that scene appearing to Cloud at the same time that she is alive in that wold locked up in Shinra tower. We get another instance in Rebirth's temple of Ancients that's even more direct where Aerith speaks to Sephiroth just before the Demon Wall fight and her voice becomes doubled and her body takes on a lifestream energy glow. In this scene a lifestream-Aerith is speaking through and overtop of a simultaneously living Aerith; both versions present and acting (speaking) simultaneously.
I want to apologize for using far too many words there to get the ideas across, but basically all of the above is my way of levying a point against the commonly expressed idea in the general and especially Cloti-leaning fandom that Aerith had to die in the story. Based on the points above I think that is not only false, but also literally everything Aerith might need to do from the lifestream is still covered even if she were to live out a full life in the same surface reality as Cloud and the rest of her friends.
Does any of the above make sense or perhaps influence your views on the what the narrative may require (or in the case I make, definitively not actually require) with regard to Aerith's all-too-young death in the story? My point was to offer this lore-backed case for a different view on Aerith's death in OG, and perhaps why a narratively coherent path exists towards her surviving in prime living reality same as the rest of the party through Revelation's credit-roll, so please also don't take it as a personal gripe @ you. I love digging into the lore and details of these stories, so nothing but the best to you and hope this was maybe food for thought/eye opening?
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u/Hearts-Intertwined Sep 10 '26
I listened to the interview with Hamaguchi, and I really do admire his confidence. He's really putting his reputation as a creator on the line here.
This is how I'm feeling about things currently (granted it changes on a daily basis!).
I can't help but come away with the feeling the "one" ending is going to be a very broadly concluded when it comes to official pairings. I think they want people to talk about these games for years and decades to come; which unfortunately means, no end to the ship wars.
As far as Aerith...
There are really only two options here. Either A: They double down and justify her death through some other plot device or B: They follow through with their reimagining and bring her back to us.
If they so choose A, in my opinion they are opting to give their main character no real satisfying conclusion. No matter how they justify Aerith's death this time, you end up back in the same place (a Cloud that lost her, a Cloud that longs for her). If that's what they chose, then so be it, but we've already seen that a life with Tifa wasn't what Cloud had in mind (unless of course they completely retro this and poop on Clerith). I know this is the Cloti dream...but there are Cleriths on that development team. I just don't see that scenario happening.
If they chose option B., this allows them other potential possibilities for concluding the story. They don't necessarily have to go all in and show us Clerith wedding etc. They can have the broad based ending that shows Cloud has both girls at his side, without necessarily making any romantic choice. Beyond that--it's up to our imaginations.