A new pile of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth details dropped today, and I regret to inform you all that one seemingly innocuous promo image seems to have kicked off a fresh round of speculation about who will live and who will die in the next part of the remake.
I guess I should drop a spoiler warning here, but if you've somehow missed hearing about the most famous plot twist in the history of video games over the past 26 years and you're reading about Rebirth now, you're already a statistical anomaly.
In the original FF7, Sephiroth rather famously runs Aerith through, but the FF7 Remake's apparent interest in making tweaks to the plot and some vague teases in the early Rebirth trailers have longtime fans speculating that Square Enix intends to do something different this time around.
Square seems intent on fueling the fires of speculation over Aerith's fate, too. The company just released a new promo image featuring "Aerith Gainsborough and the Highwind," the iconic airship that Cloud and the party take command of late in the original game. Very late in the original, in fact - well after Aerith is dead. The implications are setting off some new fires in the fandom.
Aerith Gainsborough and the Highwind. #FF7R pic.twitter.com/SEEuKyjKa8November 17, 2023
"They're teasing that she might get to ride it this time," Reddit user BoffademSwingin (deep sigh) says. "Maybe her fate awaits in game three."
"I don't mind her surviving at all. In fact, I welcome it," Robiiiinchwaaaan says. "But Square, please, don't kill off Tifa instead. I wouldn't be able to take it!"
"Now Cloud finally has the chance to take her for a ride on the Highwind," as StrifeNana on Twitter says.
There's a moment in the original game where Aerith catches sight of the Highwind, and later asks Cloud if he thinks she might be able to board it someday. You can choose Cloud's response in that sequence, and Aerith gets very happy if you promise to take her aboard the ship. That makes it all the sadder when she's killed before you get the chance.
Images of Aerith gazing up longingly at the Highwind have been around since the original game. In fact, this new picture is a reimagining of the render that served as the cover art for the manual included in the original PS1 game. So this new image is by no means a guarantee that Aerith's fate will be different in Rebirth, but I can't help but think that the devs know exactly what they're doing by releasing promo art with implications this loaded.
