This is a hidden cutscene in the game. After you restore Cloud's Memory, go back to the basement of Nibelheim Manor and then you can view it. This is to people who are wondering why they didn't see this scene after they beat the game.
***** Are you sure? I don't see why they can't keep this scene original. I already know Square Enix won't do it. Square Enix made it clear that Final Fantasy VII remake won't be Final Fantasy VII with just updated graphics.
+MrDarkSun01 the Crisis Core version of this scene is the biggest piece of shit i've ever seen, this one is far more poignant, theres a finality to it, no stupid speach about living legacy crap, theres the way how the shinra soldiers decide cloud is a nonissue because of his problems, how they stand over Zack and unload a load of bullets on him, how cloud slowly reaches to zack and comes to the realization that hes dead, and he gets broken even further accompanied with his scream(the only thing CC did good), etc i seriously hope they dont use that crap, unlike the CC scene, a properly redone original FF7 scene would be far more powerful than that overdramatized piece of crap
***** Zack is literally a Gary stu in this game, everyone loves him, besides the villains for plot convenience, is behind major decisions of other FF7 characters and the le epic Last Stand and shitty death scene with muh legacy speach, but thats just some of the problems in CC, like the raping of the other characters personalities baring a few, and literally nothing characters like angeal, but genesis was the worst, when SE shoved him into important events of the original FF7 just to make him more important than he is, problem is that hes boring and not really that interesting as a character maiden that travels the planet is semi-canon, while the work is never specifically referenced and most isnt canon, certain parts of it are referenced or adapted into FF7 lore one of the things i hope they do in the remake is show us what Aerith does in the lifestream, maybe woven into the games, or some post game unlock
Yetaxa Well, to be fair, this was back in the day when games rewarded gamers for, well, playing the game and not having it spoon-fed to them. ;-; FF7 encouraged exploration and demanded gamers put in the effort if they wanted the goods. Hell, you couldn't get two characters in your roster if you didn't put in the work to obtain them (Vincent and Yuffie). This, to me, made the world more open and unpredictable. I also think it was nice FF7 gave the power of control and experience to the gamers. It made obtaining those extra scenes and items more fulfilling.
While that's true it's also true that if you were playing this when it came out there's a good chance you didn't even know these scenes and characters were in the game so you didn't try to find them, so people would have missed out on a lot
Yeah... except getting this scene required you to revisit a map you'd already visited for two totally different quests at two totally different times. Not exactly the most likely or forseeable outcome. Conceivably a game designer could pick a single pixel in the middle of a giant world map and reward the grinder who found it with an instant victory. Oh gee, what a brilliant accomplishment that would be. What a glorious paen to "openness" and "unpredictability". It'd be super "fulfilling" to see the one guy who finally figured out how to win after 500+ hours of grinding. That guy would be the coolest. You kinda sound like you might be him.
Zack in his original death: doesn’t have a chance to fight and gets killed by only few soldiers . Zack in crisis core: fights an army until he’s drained and dies Zack in remake: fights until he’s killed every last person. I feel like Zack is getting stronger by every time he dies lol
and sephiroth would have gone around just killing everyone and no one would be able to stop him.. wow what a game changer because they just left one unconscious guy alone who thought he was harmless..
The symbol is that kindness and mercy saves the world, and later when cloud kills sephiroth there is another symbol that standing up to evil and killing evil saves the world. Good literature.
To ppl who keeps calling Zack weak. No, he wasn’t weak he was just tired and primarily thinking about his friend Cloud’s well-being. No chance to rest and being on the run for a year was Zack’s downfall.
In Crisis Core, they showed that he battled an entire army before going down. And you can bet that’s they are going in that direction in the remake. This is the ps1 you’re talking about. The hardware is just way too limited to show off such grandiose stuff.
@LesEnfants1972 No. The characters just weren't as ridiculous as they are in the Compilation. Hence Cloud and Co. having problems getting rubble off Cid, Cloud needing a dolphin's help to reach a high spot instead of just leaping himself, how the party was defenseless against guard robots, Sephiroth getting stabbed in the back by a rookie.
I love how idealistic and positive Zack is during this scene. Even though the odds are devastatingly stacked against them, he’s keeping morale up by trying to get Cloud to talk, but also talking about hopes and dreams and stuff. After this although he seriously wants to be with Aerith, he sacrificed himself to protect Cloud
It sounded like he wanted to hang at Aeris' for a booty call, but remembered "Oh crap, her mom would be there though." This was before they made Zack into an righteous Christ-like figure, and it was so much better before they did.
The thing that pains me the most about Zack’s death, is when the shines soldiers shot him, they dumped a whole clip in his body. When I watched that I was as angry as Aerith’s death.
I always loved how this scene was hidden. You play the main game through thinking “huh, I wonder what happened to that Zack guy, he seemed like a big deal.” Then think maybe going back to Nibelheim might have some answers, which it does adding this whole extra scene. It’s a pretty tragic part too since there’s a good chance you may never see it, despite it being one of the best. You get a good sense of who Zack was with how he jokes around and how he helps Cloud out and gives his live to protect him.
They left Cloud cuz they figured he was weak and was gonna die anyway. Constantly underestimated, they figured as an infantry man he wasn't gonna make it past the Mako poisoning.
@JRPGFan20000 Nah. They did Zack dirty. They're cold blooded as hell. Zack was well known and still got a bullet to the head. They underestimated cloud and just left him there.
@@reivunrantington9425 Remember that's an order from Hojo and who knows what will happen to them if they helped him. The real cold blood one was Shinra
"I got a place I can crash for a while"......."No wait, the mother lives there, too...." I only now get what that meant.... and she's still writing letters.
@@galten7361 aerith knows that zack died since she has a connection with the lifestream ; she doesn't accept the fact that zack died so she convince herself that zack run away with another woman
@zack fair Except Elmyra didn't want Zack around her daughter, Zack noticeably says he won't go to Aerith's home since he knows that Elmyra's there, and most importantly Cloud's Soldier persona was modeled on Zack (and Soldier Cloud didn't act like Zack does in CC).
Pixel Shira came after Zack since the beginning, cause he’s a ‘successful experiment’ that escaped from the lab, so they can’t let him go. He did save Cloud, but I won’t call that sacrifice through, after all Hojo not even cared about Cloud until he show his unexpected potential in FFVII.
Zack wasn't presented as Aerith's one and only in FF7. Aerith admits she figured he ran off with another woman, her step-mother tells Cloud to not hurt her step-daughter like Zack did, and Aerith shows she sees beyond how Cloud reminds her of Zack for how close she is with her blonde SOLDIER. The bits you see in the Compilation pushing Zack and Aerith together with no other alternatives is just an example of how the original's shades of grey or doubt were bulldozed away. Especially in Advent Children where Aerith and Zack are somehow together in Lifestream Land despite what FF7's metaphysics established (namely that humans do not have separate souls/essences that remain separate after death).
@@VeryNormalGuy9Spoilers ahead: I don't recall either of them being labeled as "successful experiments" Zack had already been enhanced with Mako which affected the Jenova cell implants and while Cloud hadn't been subjected to any previous procedures, he was susceptible to Mako Poisoning and didn't express the results Hojo wanted until WAAAYYYY later in the game _after_ his layers of subconscious protection from trauma were shattered. Hojo labeled them both a failure, there were documents in Crisis Core stating so.
@@denimchicken104 more than anything it's sad especially if you have had dreams where you die. I dreamt that some crazy shooter was in the streets shooting people and I saw him shoot a fat woman. Blood and everything. Then he found me hiding. As he shot me the bullets sprayed closer to my face. I felt intense sadness and impotence as I accepted my death. As a bullets reached my face I died. Rather than blacking out I whited out and immediately woke up after. Seriously felt like another life. It's really crazy but that's what makes me imagine Zack's death as really sad.
After many years, I can honestly say that Zack's death here is way more sad than Crisis Core. He just kind of gets killed with his back turned, no final words to his friend.
Well, you can tell that Final Fantasy 7 was, if not written by, then at least directed by someone that was suffering the personal loss that comes from an unexpected death- almost all the deaths that occur in the game are very sudden, very... visceral, let's say. And they leave the characters reeling in the wake of that sudden death. The characters didn't have time to exchange last words with Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Aeris, or Zack in the original game. This speaks of someone who was thinking about death and the rift it makes between people, and wanted to really explore that. Meanwhile, the remake and the... post-7 stuff basically tries using a lot of purple prose and heavy (and some might say unnecessary) symbolism to try and give everything more weight. Like... Zack is dying from being shot up by a million bullets and missiles, courtesy of fighting off an entire army of Shinra Grunts, but he somehow has more than enough strength to give off a fairly well-said farewell speech to Cloud, as well as give him a hug and even lift up his massive sword with one hand and and give it to the guy. It kind of undersells the "dying" aspect in favor of the "please feel emotions, now" side of it. And I'm not berating anyone who's reading this for feeling something from that, but I think that style of writing speaks more of someone who is preoccupied _with_ writing, rather than someone who is trying to convey something more personal and intimate, which is what I feel the original game was trying to do.
I literally couldn't finish the game after I stumbled upon this scene, it just made me feel sick. I've seen it before, but watching that little guy get fucking ventilated like that, it hits so much harder when you don't see it coming. Losing Aeris isn't so bad, because she lives on, and besides, she dies in the company of friends. Zack died alone, protecting his buddy who's tripping out too much to even know what's going on. And on top of that, everyone just thinks he was a selfish asshole who just screwed off and bailed out of their lives. Even Aeris thinks he abandoned her. He's got like 5 minutes of screen time, he died before we ever got to meet him, yet his raw goodness, innocence and virtue as a man was enough to save his memory. Zack really is one of the greatest characters ever written. He deserves so much more than this.
Is it me? or can anyone else hear Zack's voice in there head perfectly clear when reading the dialogue? - Edit: thanks for all the likes I Hope you’re all enjoying the remake (four years after this comment)
this scene is so heartbreaking. they were experimented on for 4 years until cloud was catatonic, went on the run for another, and just when they were on the cusp of finally being free, zack died trying to protect cloud while cloud finally started to regain some of his senses. they really deserved better
The moment that hits me the most is the truck ride. I was spoiled with the game so i knew Zack gonna die, but his attitude and positivity when talking about on what to do next while taking care of Cloud really hits me. (Especially with the background music) such a nice guy who is about to start a new life got killed right outside of their destination
He also decides on a whim to become a mercenary and do “anything for money”, and only talks about Aerith as a person whose house he can use. The game subtly hints that he might not have been the most morally upstanding guy, despite his loyalty to Cloud. That kind of ambiguity and nuance is totally gone from all the spinoffs, remakes, etc.
@@ErenDenizMert Well needless to say I haven’t played Rebirth but Crisis Core sure as hell retcons his character from “dumb and kind of a jerk” to “dreams and honor puppydog”
I think what gets me the most about this vs. crisis core is how unprepared Zack was. He ran off-screen to mop up some Shinra troops like he must've done hundreds of times throughout the past year, then came back as usual to keep moving with Cloud. He was just caught off-guard by those three that he didn't notice. So his death wasn't a heroic last stand that he saw coming, where he sacrifices himself to at least keep Cloud safe. It's kind of like how the team originally misinterprets Aerith's death as a sacrifice, even though she had actually anticipated returning once Holy was activated. Aerith thought she was going to go back to the team, but she didn't. Zack thought it would just be a quick speedbump before he could get moving again, but it wasn't. So I don't think it's necessarily the fact that this has no hollywood death speech while crisis core does (though that definitely part of it), it's the fact that the death comes so unexpectedly to the person who thought that coming back would just be a simple task. It wasn't meant to be a sacrifice.
I really believe they’ve lost the original message of death being sudden and brutal. The additions to Aerith’s death scene in Rebirth and Zack’s last stand in Crisis Core have been so overdramatised (almost Hollywood-esque, something the original team wanted to avoid) that it distracts from this initial message and theme.
Easily- Seph wasn't an outright bioshock-esce scientific sociopath, he was troubled by misinformation and identity crisis, and fuelled with hate by feeling like his people and his mother was taken from him. It's a descent into insanity, that's what makes him an interesting villain.
@@katiieeardley Hojo and Lucretia almost ruined the game for me. Hojo destroys Vincent, then adds insult to injury by impregnating his first love, Lucretia---then treats her like trash. Worse, Lucretia keeps Vincent alive to witness all this and suffer for eternity---literally. Even today, it annoys me. Dirge didn't change anything. Although I consider FF7 a masterpiece, I never came back for another playthrough. FF Tactics remains my favorite.
@@charleskulvet4911 It's dark as fuck, don't get me wrong, but dark or inherently unfair subplots like that only make me more interested in the game, if done well. I felt more sympathetic to Vincent, more attached through the darkness of his past- also helps to further characterise Hojo to more accurately explain the rationality behind his motives. In the cave where Lucretia's encased, and Vincent says his piece and turns away/she drops a single tear, I was like 'aw god damn, world got it out for my boy Vincent'. Side note: can't believe he and Yuffie are optional when they have so much in-game content/worth within the story. Haven't played Dirge but I've heard it's shit, and I'm not a fan of how hard they've made a cash cow out of FF7 (CC was alright though). Yet to play tactics, almost finished with FF6 for the first time though.
It made more sense in CC, as he was pretty strong in that game to be taken out by 3 measly grunts. It took him wasting all of his energy and a shot from behind to take him down. In the original game, there just wasnt enough backstory on Zach to showcase him taking on a whole army.
@RedGheauxst There is no grounds to believe that members of SOLDIER who aren't Sephiroth can hold their own with entire armies of men with guns and helicopter. That's ridiculous and at odds with what we see the characters who aren't Sephiroth do.
@CrazyRiverOtter Zack gets gunned down like a dog. Cloud (who was subject to the same testing as actual SOLDIER members) with the backing of Avalanche still gets captured by robots, has trouble lifting rubble, and needs a dolphin to reach a really high ledge. We have enough evidence from the game to know that the characters weren't capable of the stunts we see them do in the Compilation.
@C M the death of Zack in the context of Crisis Core made sense. They had setup that particular ending in Last Order. You are not going to showcase a characters abilities against powerful foes just to have him die off a minor misstep. It would be a slap in the face to anyone playing the game.
I like the small detail of him dying because he was checking to make sure cloud was okay. Had he just been concerned about himself, he probably could’ve survived.
No dialouge whatsoever. Yet the way Cloud's model trembles as he faces the sky, raindrops beginning to pour, as the camera pans out... Edit: Sigh, I'm REALLY gonna miss those cute, chibi-looking field models in the remake...
How are you going to miss it? Just play the original. They still sell it. Its not lime they are removing it with the release of the remake. Seriously, people exagerate shit.
I think we can all agree. Zack Fair is the *best* bro anyone could ask for. Even though Cloud was a massive burden to take with him and one could even have wrote him off due to his broken mental state.....he never abandoned him.
yup. he was the best person to be around. i even find it hard to imagine doing what he did for someone i barely knew, even if they were a friend. not sure if i could live with the mental and physical burden of taking care and dragging your friend across the country with no food, water, or shelter for 9 months. just adds to the list of why his death was so sad lol
@@pr0jectzero281 the scene in CC was more about Zack than it was about Cloud. And his death was one of the most tragic events in FF I ever saw. Play it tho, it is a great game.
@Aaron9 no need to bring out your insecurities this is my favorite game of all time but it has flaws at least I can admit that but hey keep on drinking some of that ff7 cool aid.
To be honest they kinda have a point, Cloud’s flashback about Zack was a last-minute addition to FF7 international version, It never happened in the initial Japanese version.
I never saw this scene in the original FFVII when I played it years ago for whatever reason, though I do remember Zack shows up very briefly in some of the other flashbacks. If I only had that experience with the character, I'd have probably never expected them to make a game about him.
@@ValAllenSamonte Im not convinced, I thinl hes btw Life and Death because of the Jenova Cells, planet/lifestream is rejecting him and hes trapped in a Limbo with Jenova's Ilusions, or.........it is an Ilusion created by Jenova to us the spectators, remember, in AC he was in the Church, same as the new ending of Integrade, I still dont feel him being alive, we ll see, I got a feeling that this mystery will be very simple
I feel like Zack is the kind of character that really doesn't need all this supplementary material made about him. The whole point of the character's existence is to service the plot twist with Cloud. I'm not knocking people who like him, I like him. But I feel the truck scene alone gets across who he is, an optimistic guy full of zest, remaining loyal to his friend in a helpless catatonic state. Which makes his death hit so much harder where he's brutally and suddenly taken away when he was so close to his destination.
Except that it doesn't clearly establish how any of this happened overall. Like how do you know that Zack knew Cloud enough to go out of his way to call him a friend and put on a whole ordeal to protect him?
@@ThanhNgo-jn7bm @user-xc4os6gg3u It could've just been a random act of kindness. They didn't have to be best or even good friends for Zack to do this. Zack could've felt sick of Shinra because they basically caused Sephiroth + Nibelheim (not to mention the experiments he himself endured). He might've realized that fighting for Shinra his whole life was a fucking waste, so out of spite for Shinra and himself he decided to do one little good thing and help Cloud survive. Before all this they could've just been acquaintances, but that wouldn't mean that Zack would just leave him behind. That's how I read the OG, at least.
@Thanh Ngo because here Zack calls Cloud a friend. So notwithstanding their previous relationship, at least after everything they've been through Zack does consider him to be a friend.
@@ThanhNgo-jn7bmWe know this through little things called understatement and subtext, which the original game had and all the Compilation media stamps out to remove any possible ambiguity or nuance and spell out every theme and story detail in big red letters.
"Embrace your dreams... And, whatever happens, protect your honor... as SOLDIER! Come and get it!" "My honor, my dreams, they're yours now." "I'm your... living legacy...."
Zack wasn't designed to have a close relationship with Cloud. In FF7, Cloud only speaks of Zack once when he's recovered from his overdose of make aboard the Highwind, and then never mentions him again.
This is Crisis Core Bullshit. The real story of Zack and Cloud is this one from FF VII 1997. Crisis Core had a bad compatibility with FF VII 1997 in many ways. They took too much freedom with new things, it was bad or meh... for the most of them.
@@aleisshiki3649 no, don’t do that, the dialogue takes away the impact of the sudden death and the complete silence that absolutely makes this scene so impactful. If you guys want to experience this scene in the original game, go to the basement of the Shinra mansion in Nibelheim anytime after Cloud and Tifa recover his memories in the lifestream.
Graphics are meaningless, people, and this is a proof of it. 23 (¡!) years later and this is still a narrative masterpiece because It has something quite simple but, at the same time, quite difficult to possess: HEART.
@@johnlawful2272 cloud has tons of character development and this scene is a turning point in his story if you don't feel a thing well then that's your own fault for not properly understanding it
@@kanemccarthy1979 I meant zack homie I got into 7 because of crisis core and dirge Cerberus which fleshed out Vincent and zack 7th and 10 are my favorite
@@johnlawful2272 maybe he doesn't develop in this scene but he has personality and like the original commenter said, heart. That's what it really needs. Development helps but as long as the character is lovable it has impact
“We’re friends aren’t we?” You can tell Zack loved Cloud like a little brother. Seeing him so protective and tender over Cloud adds up to the heartbreak when he gets shot by some grunts in the game. The creators of this game were emotional and psychological masochists.
>Zack's death >Barret's backstory with Dyne and the events that transpired in Coral >Vincent's arc and his long-lost love, still alive though entombed, dropping a single tear as he has his back turned >Aerith's death >Red 13 learning the truth behind his father/losing his 'grandfather' and not realising it >The death of Cid's only dream (though that arc turns out fine) >Tifa's inability to tell Cloud how she truly feels >Losing Jessie, Biggs and Wedge/Jessie feeling like this is what she deserved due to her sins >Zack's parents not knowing if he's alive or dead >Footage of Aerith's mother and father being attacked THANKS FFVII I was 21 year old adult woman when I first played this and you won't stop breaking my heart.
There's a lack of evidence in FF7 that Cloud was close to Zack post-Nibelheim. Indeed, Cloud only speaks of Zack once after he's restored from his mako overdose. Showing that whatever happened between the two, Cloud didn't hold special concern for him compared with his comrades.
>Indeed, Cloud only speaks of Zack once after he's restored from his mako overdose That's what I said. Cloud, within FF7 (so ignoring the Compilation), does not show any signs Zack was close to him once he's restored to what he really is. This is notable since nothing in FF7 points to Zack having the importance he was retroactively granted in Advent Children with Crisis Core (Aerith not knowing he was killed in battle with Shinra troopers when she knew about the death of Elmyra's husband, getting steamrolled by Sephiroth instead of holding his own against him, getting quickly slain by a nameless trooper).
I've always wondererd why this scene -and the Gongaga scene with Zack's parents- are missable/optional. They add such character to Zack and make the revelation of Cloud's memories way more impactful. When I first played the game I was shocked at Cloud's restoration, but I wanted to know who was this Zack guy then. What was his connection with Cloud and what really happened to him.
I played the Original after clearing CC 3 times and visiting Zack's home in Gongaga in the original was really a heartbreaking experience for my 14yo mind.
I know this is 2 years late but the reason all the Zack stuff is optional is because Zack was added in the final draft of FF7's script when everything else in the game was already mapped out.
well, crisis core was the start of it all and a good place to start since they reanimated the death scene here .. here it was harsh on how they just killed em and went their mary way out
Mygingerguy totally, i dont understand all who complain about CC and hating on it since cloud actually lost his memories in ff7 but in ff7 was told in clouds point of view while discarding zack as a flash back ... hence CC was called the missing chapter ...
Nathan Burger Not entirely true, Ive always been intrigued by Zack and have wanted to learn of his story. Was so happy when Crisis Core came out and provided me the opportunity
No Zack's death is far brutal here than in Crisis Core; they killed him at 4:36. Whereas in CC Cloud reached Zack as he was taking his last breaths, here, Zack was already dead before Cloud reached him.
I definitely prefer this death story to that of Crisis Core. It's far more human. They swooped in and took Zack out when he was barely ready. It could have happened to anyone and it only highlights the gutless cowardice of who you're up against. It's cool to go down in a blaze of glory against like a thousand guys, a literal fucking army, but there's something raw about the original that can't be topped.
But it makes sense that he can take almost the whole army as he was experimented on with Jenova cells for four years and his body didn't reject them like Cloud's did.
I love how crude and cold zach death was, shot at after he dies to make sure, to contrast the hopeful view of zach with the cruel reality, no music, no heroic last words just shot like a dog and with a lethargic cloud by his side Thats how you do a cold death, take notes TLOU2
Because you find Joel's death heroic? Are we talking about the same game here ? Because I can think of Japanese (hi Crisis Core FF7) or Western games where heroes die with long speech phases and heroic scenes but certainly not TLoU Part II
@@keevanalrasyidumar5450 How is it laughable? We just see a guy being tortured and then his skull being chopped into pieces. I don't see what's silly or laughable about it. Where we can discuss Zack's death in Crisis Core where Zack is facing an army of soldiers and helicopters equipped with firearms while he only has his magic and his sword to defend himself.
@@DarkLilty501 Zack is a first-class. He is just as qualified as Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth who can level a small city to the ground. He fought Angeal, and he won. He fought Genesis, and he won. Shinra sent a hundred of SOLDIER and only three remains. That army is absolutely necessary. Meanwhile Joel in TLOU2 is an old man who just trying to help, and he got stabbed in the back. They even beat him up and forced Ellie to watch for the fun of it. Is it very necessary? Zack's scene expressed how his contrasting ideal as a hero, how his effort to protect his friends, doesn't always align with the rest of the world, and he will face the consequence. Yet he will not falter and keep doing what he think is right. And that theme mostly consistent throughout the game with the First Classes broken after they are "betrayed" by Shinra Joel's scene expressed how his sins from the past will eventually come back to him and he will be punished even if he's a much better person now. Yet the game force you that you must forgive your father killers who forced you to watch him gets unnecessarily beaten to death slowly and painfully. At least keep this away from the innocents, don't you think?
...Honestly, I think watching both this scene (for maybe the first time since I didn't trigger it) and Zack's death in Crisis Core have both have an emotional impact on me. I played Crisis Core before I even got close to playing VII itself. Crisis Core made me appreciate more things than I realized, and because of that game, Zack is one of my most favorite protagonists of all time. His death is one that will forever make me cry no matter how many times I see it. The death in Crisis Core emphasized Zack's heroic nature, and he was able to properly pass his legacy on to Cloud. Seeing this death now, it feels a bit more realistic, seeing Zack just die instantly from the shots compared to being able to speak with Cloud one more time... and then seeing Cloud just take the Buster Sword away. It actually made me a bit angry seeing such a thing. So, yeah... No matter which death is "better," they still hold a plethora of impact over those who grow with Zack.
Hmm playing CC before the main game... I don't know about that, it's like watching Star wars 1-3 before 4-6, kinda sucks to get explanations for plotholes without even knowing the plot itself, spoilers alot of things for you.
o.o That's true. But in my case, it was honestly by coincidence. I hardly knew anything about VII, never played it, only knew of it in name, and of Cloud and Aerith. Heck, I didn't even know Zack EXISTED until I picked up Crisis Core.
***** I think this scene sets up Cloud's forming of false memories and a new persona-based partly on Zack-much better. In CC, Cloud gets closure and it's all wrapped up in a nice neat bow. Here, it shows how helpless and guilty Cloud feels just watching his friend die and not even making it to him to say goodbye or have the sword passed on. He just took it, and part of Zack's personality, right from his corpse.
Honestly, for the remake, I hope they do a mix of the original scene and Crisis Core’s scene. I wanna see Zack wear down after taking down a bunch of infantry-men, and then when he thinks it’s finally over, I want him to get gunned down by a sniper or something that’s heavy enough to knock him down. Zack getting knocked down when he least expects it and Cloud watching from afar as Zack mutters Cloud’s name would be devastating, and I personally do agree that Zack shouldn’t have a final speech as it takes away from how emotional and sudden death can really be. So to reiterate what would be ideal for myself... Zack demonstrates his power, but shows that he also has limits to a seemingly endless horde of infantry-men. Suddenly, when Zack lowers his guard to check on Cloud, he gets gunned down by a sniper and lays on the ground, trying to catch his breath. The final 3 infantry-men go check on him and are surprised to see the freak of nature who’s still alive, and they shoot him down as Cloud watches him utter his name one last time. They underestimate Cloud and leave him to die, then Cloud crawls over to Zack’s corpse to retrieve the sword.
delta_tz I believe that isn’t the sector 7 plate, it’s the sector 6 plate. I think they explain the events of what happened to sector 6 in the mobile game “Before Crisis.” If I remember correctly, while playing through the game, sector 6 was already messed up and was in the process of being reconstructed.
@@markjin08 I never even considered that. Thanks. Sector 6 is the "destroyed highway" part after Aerith's house on the way to Wall Market, if i recall correctly
@@markjin08 just to follow up, from the Sector 6 article on the FF Fandom wiki page: "A massive gouge is apparent on the scale model of the plate in Shinra Headquarters."....you definitely answered my question, thanks! This has bothered me for decades.
I've had time to contemplate on my feelings on which scene I prefer. I've decided that I would like both the CC scene and the original combined. So you have the epic battle where Zack takes down all the infantry soldiers, but then I'd also like the ending where the 3 soldiers ambush and shoot him and he dies without getting a chance to talk to Cloud. It would explain why Cloud would be feeling so overwhelmed at the end, by screaming and crying. He never got a chance to say goodbye and he was sick and alone, no plans. It would also explain why Cloud in AC felt so unworthy of the buster sword. Because he took it off Zacks corpse without permission, whom was a first class soldier, where he was just a lowly infantryman
yeah i mean both version make sense:following the original cloud is sorry to zack because he basically steals his identity and his sword; in the crisis core he is acknowledged by zack as his successor, but cloud feels sorry because he forgets about him(and in AC the fact that zack isn't mad with cloud makes more sense with the CC Ed)
Actually it was :) here u see 3 shinra soldiers kill zack. In Crisis core when zack tires out from all the fighting there are 3 soldiers. I like the call back from Zack point of view. But CC and ff7 I feel are in different universes the buster sword looks different, and little odd things I think the remake will confirm that.
Actually, this doesn't contradict the one in Crisis Core that much. After Zack leaves Cloud and goes offscreen, you can hear sounds fighting. We don't actually know how many soldiers he fought there. The difference here is that Zack actually wins that battle, but gets ambushed by those 3 soldiers (instead of nearly winning, but losing to the 3 remaining ones). And also obviously all the stuff about talking to Cloud when finally wakes up. Personally I prefer the one in Crisis Core, but both are very dramatic.
@@NarutoninjaXV Could be an interpretation. One from Cloud's perspective that he doesn't fully remember, while Zack's is kinda the ideal revision, the missing piece to Cloud's memory. In a tragic way, both versions and points of views are correct and wrong at the same time.
I also prefer the one in Crisis Core. Was far more tragic and emotional, but also I love how much of a badass it showed that Zack was. He took down scores of soldiers before his end. What a way to go out!
@@iam4026Sidekick? He’s this intimidating unseen figure who haunts the entire story, with everyone talking about how cool he was and Cloud so desperate to follow in his footsteps he literally convinces himself he’s him. And then after hearing all about this legendary soldier, when you finally get this flashback you found out he died like a dog. Crisis Core turns him into a generic peppy shonen hero with a cliche noble death scene. It’s a totally different writing style, and less mature than the original game.
The crisis core whole army version is amusing in a over the top sort of way. But this is much more effective Zacks not a Shonen hero who saved world and took on armies. He's just a good dude who died protecting his friend
I always assumed that he fights the army when he runs off screen. Each to their own but this always bugged me in OG. Why kill just Zack and not Cloud too? I mean his just laying there. I get Cloud isn't a big threat to them but his still a target. They just wanted to save a few bullets I guess. I personally like CC's ending because Zack hides Cloud so his not in the open.
@BoozeMan But would have come to that conclusion without crisis core? The original has a less over the top feel to it. Crisis cores satisfying in a way but feels more like a glorious send off than the quick brutality of the original With cloud it may have been a bit of pity. A it's one thing to kill a soldire it's another to off a guys that's mentally deranged laying face down.. not that leaving him is much better or maybe the guy figured he was dying already given how he acted
@@leonevelake I always thought he fought some soldiers off screen before I played CC. I get what you're saying about the glorious send off though. But I don't know if at the end of CC Zack gets sniped and Cloud takes his sword without a word, would be a great ending to a game. Say what you want about CC but that ending is the best part of the game.
@@boozeman4749 "But I don't know if at the end of CC Zack gets sniped and Cloud takes his sword without a word, would be a great ending to a game." But that a big problem with crisis core they wanted to go into sort of final fantasy story beats (with a lot of modern shonen tropes ) instead of doing a straight prequel. So we end up with a pretty goofy zack that talks a lot about wanting to be a hero, we get all kinds of retcons and new characters
@@leonevelake I'm not sure what you mean by Shonen tropes but to me Zack has always been a goofy character. This is a guy who asked a complete stranger what he thinks he'd be good at. While doing squats in a moving truck.😂 Yeah there's some new characters but let's not forget that CC was the "last" of the compilation. So the only new character that I can think of is Angeal. Maybe? Yeah they retconned Genius into Nibelheim. Which I'm not a fan of. The other retcons I don't really mind. Like the colour of SOLDIERS uniforms and the way that Zack dies. But that's just me.
I hope they mix the two scenes together. Like show more of Zack and how Cloud looked up to him but also keep it short. Put more emphasis on how unfair Zack's death was but without blowing it out of proportion.
All of the violent deaths in FF7 are "blown out of proportion" as you call it since death from bloodshed is not pretty, "valiant", or (ugh) "epic." This is something Crisis Core missed.
They should do it like the second half of Zack's final battle in crisis core. Have him weak and vulnerable, but still able to fight off the soldiers for a good while. But I think his death should be just like the original, with him being taken off-guard and killed immediately, as Cloud holds the sword of his now-deceased best friend
thats really sad he was such a good friend to cloud and saved his life, he almost made it to Midgar as well, i like how hes such a big part of the game even though we see him only a few times
This is so much more tragic than in CC! (Though the CC got me all choked up each time I saw it too). The fact that Zack dies, the rain comes, and then Cloud comes to only to find his friend who has been dragging him around for about a year(?) has just been killed. Just when he can move on his own and speak a little (presumably) it's already too late. I think the main themes of FF7 were dealing with loss and finding a sense of identity. And I think a point was made about it being sudden and feeling helpless about the situation, but having that guilt. Zack's death here is very similar to Aerith's if you compare Cloud's position and I think that's the point. It was sudden and Cloud couldn't do anything about it, even though he was there. Imagine it with the visuals of CC. Put's Cloud down, goes and fights an army, then comes back all worn out and nearly done for and checks on Cloud(that would be a touching moment, maybe Zack even thought it was all over). Then gets hit by a super powerful bullet that throws him back and then gets riddled with bullets. Cloud might even be able to see it all happening. Later when he goes to see Zack, he's already dead. It's too late. Cloud takes the sword and as the viewer you know what that means. Cloud becomes his living legacy. It doesn't need to be spelt out. I would miss the part where Zack grabs Clouds head and gives him a bloody hug, and the way Cloud speaks zombie-like pretty much repeating what Zack says, but overall I think it would be more impacting if things were left closer to the original. Out of everything FF7 related, this is the last thing I've actually watched and it kinda changes everything! I really did think that Cloud thought he was Zack because in his dazed state he misinterpreted Zacks words. But that's not the case. But, I understand they would have wanted to give more closure for Zack's ending after making a full game about him. (But I thought they made this scene first, then made the story?) And they've added it into Advent Children, so I can't imagine the remake of FF7 to be any closer to the original. But I would like them to try. I'm not a fan of the Jpop music coming in so suddenly after Cloud's scream. Funny thing I noticed about this is that Zack didn't catch Cloud when he opened the tube. He just let him fall on the floor. And in the wastelands he just put him on the ground face down, not nicely sitting up against a rock. Oh yea, and I did always wonder if they got fed.
+TheGinga exactly, thats why i'm scared that they're gonna use the overdramatized rendition, with the living legacy bullshit that was in CC, instead of remaking this scene
Nephilim King sorry but the CC scene is bullshit, yeah CC developed Zack more, but thats it, it shitted on Aeriths personality and introduced a bunch of retarded characters like genesis and angeal yhid dcene is far better compared to CC death scene, only problem is that it doesnt have good graphics or voice acting
Nephilim King I'm sorry but, Square made Zack into this retarded Gary Stu, thats apparently behind every major decision that FF7 characters have, and made Aerith seen like she didnt decide shit without Zack telling her what to do, it also changed her into this holy virgin damsel, when shes anything but, in FF7 shes this confident, sassy lady, who could for the most part, take care of herself, and she was always like that, not this crap we see in CC talking about zacks death, maybe because you dont get this scene or how Square treated death in FF7 in FF7 death isnt treated as some kind of overdramatic event like in CC, death in FF7 has this meaning of being a tragic, often sudden, with no time for final goodbyes event, Zacks death was treated much the same way, he still fought shinra soldiers there, the difference is that he dies in a moment of weakness and concern for clouds well being, getting shot by surprise looking over cloud(who was supposed to be there i might had), then we have right after, him being brutally shot by a shinra grunt, and them not bothering killing cloud because of his mental state, thinking he wouldnt survive anyway, we then see cloud going slowly up to zacks body and coming to the realisation that his friend is dead, no goodbyes, nothing, just the cold reallisation that your best friend is dead and you werent able to do anything about it, that for me is a far more powerful scene than the bullshit they put in CC. i have no problem with him fighting enemies in the end, the issues i have with it is the amount of enemies which is what i find completely retarded, coupled with a overromanticized final "my legacy" bullshit speach
I'm glad Zack got his own game. Only because what did we know about him in the original 1. He is a first class Soldier 2. He is Cloud's friend 3. He was the Soldier that got his shit kicked in at Nibelheim instead of Cloud. 4. Cloud copied his memories. 5. He has the buster sword. 6. He dies After Crisis Core 1. He died after killing tons of soldier grunts. 2. He was betrayed by Angeal, Genesis, Shinra, and Sephiroth. 3. He has a personality. 4. His Buster Sword was originally Angeal's. 5. He had a set relationship with Aerith 6. The Turks (in the mid-end) wanted him dead. 7. He has a (in game) fan club. 8. He is Cloud's friend 8 1/2. He is my favourite character. 9. He dies.
5." He had a set relationship with Aerith" The original game already told us that if you have Aerith in your party when you visit gongaga, After talking to Zack's parents, Aerith tells Cloud Zack was her first boyfriend.
@Phil Pacific If you honestly think that Aerith wasn't written as having romantic leanings towards Cloud in FF7 then you don't know how to read her behavior within it. And in both the Compilation and cameos like Kingdom Hearts, Aerith is written as sincerely drawn to Cloud as a woman regardless of her past with Zack (Cloud was even called her friend AND lover in a novella). Also, Aerith herself admitted that Zack was a womanizer and she thought he ran-off with another woman. Zack was pointed to being a shadier character than how he was depicted in FF7 (what with how Cloud secretly modeled himself on him). Zack's personality in CC really comes off as a rip-off of Cloud's personality once he's restored .
to trigger this scene you need to finish Cloud's Subconscious in Mideel after they fall in the Lifestream, then go to nibelheim mansion's underground lab the room next to where you found vincent.
This flashback is perfect, way better than Crisis core. There's no "Hey, remember when I chased Hollander for 4 chapters and fight 564845 copies of a low cost Sephiroth ?"
Zack: "Once we get to Midgar I got a place where I can crash for a while... Oh, wait, the mother's there too. Forget it". He's talking about Aeris' home and Elmyra. Zack was Aeris' first boyfriend like she says in Gongaga.
It's been 10 years ago since the last time i finished the game and suddenly this come to my recommendation.. AND I JUST REALIZE I NEVER SAW THIS SCENE BEFORE!
Whenever I play the game, after getting everything, going to every place and beating the optional bosses, saving this scene for last to go to just before heading to the final dungeon. This is undoubtedly the last thing Cloud would ever do; remembering Zack and his sacrifice, but after all he had gone through and hated being weak, enduring so much pain to the point of remaking himself as Zack and later recovering his true self, to truly understand himself he must relive the day he was at his weakest; being protected by the person who he himself had strongly desired to be like and later witness him die in his very eyes, as if he was given the chance to start over.
It even though this was retconned with the new ending we got for him in Crisis Core, you can still see how tough he was. He took a shot to the back/side when checking cloud, then was filled with a dozen or more bullets. After the first burst, he was still wincing in pain, but the second burst made him bite the dust. I assumed he was getting pumped in the chest. All those bullets would've made a hole.
@@No-onesgayformoleman then, there should be new games. New interpretations of the story are ok, but when you are pretending to follow the same history but changing all excusing with timelines, its not really a remake, but a sequel
@@ldking5132 It's not a remake. It's a sequel. It happens sequentially after the original Final Fantasy 7. Cause Tetsuya Nomura is obsessed with time travel and is gonna ruin FF7 just like he ruined KH.
Imagine this little flashback on disc 3 became the prequel of FF7 and made Zack a household name being the guy that rescued and sacrificed his life for Cloud got shot in the face and multiple times. He fought more than 100 Shinra grunts and he's dead tired while caring for Cloud. Truly a bro.
i love this scene in CC but the original leave more impact..to me..because cloud doesn't even have the opportunity to talk to zack for one last time in this game (unlike CC).. he just died.. and that makes more sense why cloud become crazy sob.. zack just talk to him like a minute ago and now he is dead..just lying dead like that.. no talking, nothing.. with many bullet wound..and cloud was left alone.sick...helpless.. don't know what to do..shit,even tho it just a polygon without voice.. u can feel the craziness, the tragic of the situation..
So sad to see Zack so full of zest and life and vigor and passion and cheer and all that's waiting for him is a hungry grave at the end. At least he made such an impression on Cloud as to keep him going in his legacy.
The moment Zack is shot when lying on the ground is just sick. After finish Crisis Core, I look for this scene, kinda pity he dies only from 3 soldiers where Cloud kills them easily throughout the story.
Ots because Zack wasn't supposed to be some awesome Shonen superhero type character.. that was a retcon. He was just supposed to be a good dude. Sure he was in Soldier ans that was glamorous and elite but it wasn't as crazy as its become
Sakaguchi's mom had just died when he made FF7, he wanted human deaths. no anime heroes or super saiyan final showdowns. Zack was a man who was helping a friend he barely knew, and because he had the nerve to be a good person and protect him, a few good for nothing grunts gunned him down as he looked out for Cloud because he's flesh and bone, then they just walked on like nothing happened. way more meaningful imo than a "HIS POWURLEVEL IZ 2 HAIGH! NAO HE FLIES!" anime fight against 1mil men.
his mother died during the production of FF3. it is pretty irresponsible of you to spread misinformation (and insert your meaningless opinion about dragon ball that is completely irrelevant). He was coping. If you actually did your research you would know that he wanted to show that life carried on through all things. Through Cloud, Zack lives on
I feel bad for both Zack & Cloud. Zack died before he could get to Midgar, to see Aerith. And Cloud was just thrown into the mix after his howntown was destroyed, exposed to Mako poisoning, and watched his best friend die... 😔
You could be very right (I hope you are) but there are still some clues to suggest otherwise. 1. the rain here only starts after his death. 2. They made sure we see the alternate stamp pretty clearly. 3. The fact that they'd go through the effort to show whispers and certain shots of Zack that we have never seen before. Hopefully our answers will be in the next game and hopefully they dont change as much as they are suggesting they will.
Just throwing this out there: There are Whispers just as two Clouds are talking to each other before he drops into Aerith's Church. The same scene In the original, the voice is ambiguous but in the Remake it's clearly & visibly Cloud. It's probably implied that's the 2nd Cloud the Ultimania is talking about is him/ Cloud 2/ His consciousness /Real self...
@@monsterkill164 while playing this game before, i always make sure to wander around , and always read to what im seeing, and also always saving progress into different slot, to make sure you can back to the previous save, incase that you made mistake,.
@@monsterkill164 and if you're playing rpg make sure you have a mind set that you need to wander around, and additional there's ultima weapon under the lake or sea, and i don't know how to defeat that bullshit hhaha
rewatching this before playing the remake. It still baffles me how they put such an important canon scene part of the entire final fantasy IMPORTANT story as "secret" scene to find.
I’VE PLAYED THE ORIGINAL JUST A MONTH AGO AND I’VE NEVER ENCOUNTERED THIS SCENE LIKE EVER. IVE EVEN FINISHED ALL THE SIDEQUEST LIKE GETTING YUFFIE AND VINCENT. I’VE ALSO DONE THE CHOCOBO SIDEQUEST(I’VE ACQUIRED GOLD, BLACK, BLUE, AND GREEN CHOCOBO). AND ALSO DEFEATED EMERALD AND RUBY WEAPON AND ALSO ACQUIRED FINAL LIMIT BREAKS AND ALL THE ULTIMATE WEAPONS FOR ALL CHARACTERS INCLUDING AERITH. HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THIS SCENE??
This is a hidden cutscene in the game. After you restore Cloud's Memory, go back to the basement of Nibelheim Manor and then you can view it.
This is to people who are wondering why they didn't see this scene after they beat the game.
Raheem Plummer I wouldn't be surprised if the Final Fantasy VII remake redid this scene.
***** Are you sure? I don't see why they can't keep this scene original.
I already know Square Enix won't do it.
Square Enix made it clear that Final Fantasy VII remake won't be Final Fantasy VII with just updated graphics.
***** That's kind of obvious.
Did you like the Crisis Core version of this scene better than the original?
+MrDarkSun01 the Crisis Core version of this scene is the biggest piece of shit i've ever seen, this one is far more poignant, theres a finality to it, no stupid speach about living legacy crap, theres the way how the shinra soldiers decide cloud is a nonissue because of his problems, how they stand over Zack and unload a load of bullets on him, how cloud slowly reaches to zack and comes to the realization that hes dead, and he gets broken even further accompanied with his scream(the only thing CC did good), etc
i seriously hope they dont use that crap, unlike the CC scene, a properly redone original FF7 scene would be far more powerful than that overdramatized piece of crap
***** Zack is literally a Gary stu in this game, everyone loves him, besides the villains for plot convenience, is behind major decisions of other FF7 characters and the le epic Last Stand and shitty death scene with muh legacy speach, but thats just some of the problems in CC, like the raping of the other characters personalities baring a few, and literally nothing characters like angeal, but genesis was the worst, when SE shoved him into important events of the original FF7 just to make him more important than he is, problem is that hes boring and not really that interesting as a character
maiden that travels the planet is semi-canon, while the work is never specifically referenced and most isnt canon, certain parts of it are referenced or adapted into FF7 lore
one of the things i hope they do in the remake is show us what Aerith does in the lifestream, maybe woven into the games, or some post game unlock
The most forgotten character=the truck driver
Pops had no idea :'( he thought Zack had his whole life ahead of him
Carla Still young he said... try everything he said.... ohh boy if he only knew zack didn’t have that much time left
@@dadjyker58 Zack was dead within 30 minutes, it hits me hard every time
Do you guys think the Shinra scumbags also killed the truck driver?
@@Lvlaple4Ever The driver could have been the one to tip off Shinra!
Whose goddamn idea was this to make this an OPTIONAL scene?
Agreed, it's such a major event.
Yetaxa i know right
Yetaxa Well, to be fair, this was back in the day when games rewarded gamers for, well, playing the game and not having it spoon-fed to them. ;-; FF7 encouraged exploration and demanded gamers put in the effort if they wanted the goods. Hell, you couldn't get two characters in your roster if you didn't put in the work to obtain them (Vincent and Yuffie). This, to me, made the world more open and unpredictable. I also think it was nice FF7 gave the power of control and experience to the gamers. It made obtaining those extra scenes and items more fulfilling.
While that's true it's also true that if you were playing this when it came out there's a good chance you didn't even know these scenes and characters were in the game so you didn't try to find them, so people would have missed out on a lot
Yeah... except getting this scene required you to revisit a map you'd already visited for two totally different quests at two totally different times. Not exactly the most likely or forseeable outcome.
Conceivably a game designer could pick a single pixel in the middle of a giant world map and reward the grinder who found it with an instant victory. Oh gee, what a brilliant accomplishment that would be. What a glorious paen to "openness" and "unpredictability". It'd be super "fulfilling" to see the one guy who finally figured out how to win after 500+ hours of grinding.
That guy would be the coolest. You kinda sound like you might be him.
Zack in his original death: doesn’t have a chance to fight and gets killed by only few soldiers . Zack in crisis core: fights an army until he’s drained and dies
Zack in remake: fights until he’s killed every last person. I feel like Zack is getting stronger by every time he dies lol
It makes so much sense that he managed to kill all soldiers, since he is a succesful experiment of jenova
@@darshio8307 are Soldiers made with Jenova cells?
@@boozeman4749 yeah the members of SOLDIER undergo experiments to turn them into super soldiers.
@@boozeman4749 i don't think the soldiers not made by hojo do? I could be wrong.
I think his fight with the army happens when he goes offscreen at 4:24, but it's sped up
Those soldiers could've easily ended Final Fantasy 7 before it even begun. lol
Yeah really. All it took was one word from the captain and everything would have been drastically different.
Really makes you think.
and sephiroth would have gone around just killing everyone and no one would be able to stop him.. wow what a game changer because they just left one unconscious guy alone who thought he was harmless..
The symbol is that kindness and mercy saves the world, and later when cloud kills sephiroth there is another symbol that standing up to evil and killing evil saves the world. Good literature.
no it would've just been about barret and tifa
Probably thought he was already dead or dying, so they did bother to waste bullets.
4:16 ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE!
Romie MODULATING PHASE
*Conflict Resolved*
J25 GAME OVER
Romie Bruh, c'mon man that is so fucked up for me.
@@CrackHardy CONFLICT UNRESOLVED
To ppl who keeps calling Zack weak. No, he wasn’t weak he was just tired and primarily thinking about his friend Cloud’s well-being. No chance to rest and being on the run for a year was Zack’s downfall.
Seriously. He only got shot because he went back to check on Cloud and was caught off guard
In Crisis Core, they showed that he battled an entire army before going down. And you can bet that’s they are going in that direction in the remake. This is the ps1 you’re talking about. The hardware is just way too limited to show off such grandiose stuff.
@LesEnfants1972 No. The characters just weren't as ridiculous as they are in the Compilation. Hence Cloud and Co. having problems getting rubble off Cid, Cloud needing a dolphin's help to reach a high spot instead of just leaping himself, how the party was defenseless against guard robots, Sephiroth getting stabbed in the back by a rookie.
Also the fact that Zack was just finished fighting Genesis as well
Aaron9 crisis core is considered canon now
I love how idealistic and positive Zack is during this scene. Even though the odds are devastatingly stacked against them, he’s keeping morale up by trying to get Cloud to talk, but also talking about hopes and dreams and stuff. After this although he seriously wants to be with Aerith, he sacrificed himself to protect Cloud
Hero
Well, I mean he is called Zack Fair. He's the positive to Cloud Strife being the negative.
And that was his price of freedom.
It sounded like he wanted to hang at Aeris' for a booty call, but remembered "Oh crap, her mom would be there though." This was before they made Zack into an righteous Christ-like figure, and it was so much better before they did.
@@andysan3764 "christ like figure" boy what kind of bible have you been reading did Jesus give him the buster sword 😆 🤣
*When the Shinra Commander sees Cloud causing Terrorist attacks on the news when he hooks up with avalanche*
I’m so fired
The thing that pains me the most about Zack’s death, is when the shines soldiers shot him, they dumped a whole clip in his body. When I watched that I was as angry as Aerith’s death.
Magazine not clip
@@559F13Pupp3tCharlie?
I always loved how this scene was hidden. You play the main game through thinking “huh, I wonder what happened to that Zack guy, he seemed like a big deal.” Then think maybe going back to Nibelheim might have some answers, which it does adding this whole extra scene. It’s a pretty tragic part too since there’s a good chance you may never see it, despite it being one of the best. You get a good sense of who Zack was with how he jokes around and how he helps Cloud out and gives his live to protect him.
They left Cloud cuz they figured he was weak and was gonna die anyway. Constantly underestimated, they figured as an infantry man he wasn't gonna make it past the Mako poisoning.
Boy were they wrong
@JRPGFan20000 Nah. They did Zack dirty. They're cold blooded as hell. Zack was well known and still got a bullet to the head. They underestimated cloud and just left him there.
@@reivunrantington9425 Remember that's an order from Hojo and who knows what will happen to them if they helped him. The real cold blood one was Shinra
I prefer the Crisis Core and Last Order explanation in this situation
No it was plot armor
"I got a place I can crash for a while"......."No wait, the mother lives there, too...." I only now get what that meant.... and she's still writing letters.
+The Batch Code Timeline wise, he got that letter several months, almost a year after her writing it. Unfortunately, enough time to move on.
She (Aerith) figured Zack ran off with another woman. Keep that in consideration.
@@galten7361 aerith knows that zack died since she has a connection with the lifestream ; she doesn't accept the fact that zack died so she convince herself that zack run away with another woman
@zack fair Except Elmyra didn't want Zack around her daughter, Zack noticeably says he won't go to Aerith's home since he knows that Elmyra's there, and most importantly Cloud's Soldier persona was modeled on Zack (and Soldier Cloud didn't act like Zack does in CC).
@@galten7361 i know
When you realize Zack was probably changing out Cloud's underwear and pants at least once a day for a year.
Zack Fair the dad, he was ready for a relationship with Aerith, but got Cloud instead.
And wipe his ass
that's real love , bro
A true bro
Wish i had a friend like him
I cried in Crisis Core. The sacrifice for someone's safety and never see his love again.
Pixel Shira came after Zack since the beginning, cause he’s a ‘successful experiment’ that escaped from the lab, so they can’t let him go. He did save Cloud, but I won’t call that sacrifice through, after all Hojo not even cared about Cloud until he show his unexpected potential in FFVII.
Zack wasn't presented as Aerith's one and only in FF7. Aerith admits she figured he ran off with another woman, her step-mother tells Cloud to not hurt her step-daughter like Zack did, and Aerith shows she sees beyond how Cloud reminds her of Zack for how close she is with her blonde SOLDIER.
The bits you see in the Compilation pushing Zack and Aerith together with no other alternatives is just an example of how the original's shades of grey or doubt were bulldozed away. Especially in Advent Children where Aerith and Zack are somehow together in Lifestream Land despite what FF7's metaphysics established (namely that humans do not have separate souls/essences that remain separate after death).
Yeah me too
@@galten7361 Ok, what's your point
@@VeryNormalGuy9Spoilers ahead:
I don't recall either of them being labeled as "successful experiments"
Zack had already been enhanced with Mako which affected the Jenova cell implants and while Cloud hadn't been subjected to any previous procedures, he was susceptible to Mako Poisoning and didn't express the results Hojo wanted until WAAAYYYY later in the game _after_ his layers of subconscious protection from trauma were shattered.
Hojo labeled them both a failure, there were documents in Crisis Core stating so.
Damn, does anyone else find this incredibly disturbing?! The fact that we watch the troops shoot Zach after he's down... :(
Violent death is always disturbing. It's not pretty or "epic" despite what Crisis Core tries to say.
Galten crisis core’s death was epic, but it was still disturbing.
@@denimchicken104 more than anything it's sad especially if you have had dreams where you die.
I dreamt that some crazy shooter was in the streets shooting people and I saw him shoot a fat woman. Blood and everything. Then he found me hiding. As he shot me the bullets sprayed closer to my face.
I felt intense sadness and impotence as I accepted my death. As a bullets reached my face I died. Rather than blacking out I whited out and immediately woke up after. Seriously felt like another life.
It's really crazy but that's what makes me imagine Zack's death as really sad.
After many years, I can honestly say that Zack's death here is way more sad than Crisis Core. He just kind of gets killed with his back turned, no final words to his friend.
Crisis Core romanticized the hell out of it. Especially with that awful dialogue.
Well, you can tell that Final Fantasy 7 was, if not written by, then at least directed by someone that was suffering the personal loss that comes from an unexpected death- almost all the deaths that occur in the game are very sudden, very... visceral, let's say. And they leave the characters reeling in the wake of that sudden death. The characters didn't have time to exchange last words with Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, Aeris, or Zack in the original game. This speaks of someone who was thinking about death and the rift it makes between people, and wanted to really explore that.
Meanwhile, the remake and the... post-7 stuff basically tries using a lot of purple prose and heavy (and some might say unnecessary) symbolism to try and give everything more weight. Like... Zack is dying from being shot up by a million bullets and missiles, courtesy of fighting off an entire army of Shinra Grunts, but he somehow has more than enough strength to give off a fairly well-said farewell speech to Cloud, as well as give him a hug and even lift up his massive sword with one hand and and give it to the guy. It kind of undersells the "dying" aspect in favor of the "please feel emotions, now" side of it.
And I'm not berating anyone who's reading this for feeling something from that, but I think that style of writing speaks more of someone who is preoccupied _with_ writing, rather than someone who is trying to convey something more personal and intimate, which is what I feel the original game was trying to do.
@@Adorni nah it was just limitation
I just beat Crisis Core a few mins ago and saw this.
This one is way more sad cause they just unleash on him at close range and he simply dies.
@@1Onsokumaru1 they did the same in crisis core
I literally couldn't finish the game after I stumbled upon this scene, it just made me feel sick. I've seen it before, but watching that little guy get fucking ventilated like that, it hits so much harder when you don't see it coming. Losing Aeris isn't so bad, because she lives on, and besides, she dies in the company of friends. Zack died alone, protecting his buddy who's tripping out too much to even know what's going on. And on top of that, everyone just thinks he was a selfish asshole who just screwed off and bailed out of their lives. Even Aeris thinks he abandoned her. He's got like 5 minutes of screen time, he died before we ever got to meet him, yet his raw goodness, innocence and virtue as a man was enough to save his memory. Zack really is one of the greatest characters ever written. He deserves so much more than this.
Have U ever played Crisis Core?
@@boozeman4749 hell yeah
@@SavageFreddy33 Nice. Did U like it?
Is it me? or can anyone else hear Zack's voice in there head perfectly clear when reading the dialogue? - Edit: thanks for all the likes I Hope you’re all enjoying the remake (four years after this comment)
It's not just you man
me
Same
Agree!
Same
this scene is so heartbreaking. they were experimented on for 4 years until cloud was catatonic, went on the run for another, and just when they were on the cusp of finally being free, zack died trying to protect cloud while cloud finally started to regain some of his senses. they really deserved better
The moment that hits me the most is the truck ride.
I was spoiled with the game so i knew Zack gonna die, but his attitude and positivity when talking about on what to do next while taking care of Cloud really hits me.
(Especially with the background music)
such a nice guy who is about to start a new life got killed right outside of their destination
He also decides on a whim to become a mercenary and do “anything for money”, and only talks about Aerith as a person whose house he can use. The game subtly hints that he might not have been the most morally upstanding guy, despite his loyalty to Cloud. That kind of ambiguity and nuance is totally gone from all the spinoffs, remakes, etc.
@@gatotsu2501No it isnt. In Rebirth the very first scene we see him complain about Shinra having a ceasefire with Wutai lol😂
@@ErenDenizMert Well needless to say I haven’t played Rebirth but Crisis Core sure as hell retcons his character from “dumb and kind of a jerk” to “dreams and honor puppydog”
I think what gets me the most about this vs. crisis core is how unprepared Zack was. He ran off-screen to mop up some Shinra troops like he must've done hundreds of times throughout the past year, then came back as usual to keep moving with Cloud. He was just caught off-guard by those three that he didn't notice. So his death wasn't a heroic last stand that he saw coming, where he sacrifices himself to at least keep Cloud safe. It's kind of like how the team originally misinterprets Aerith's death as a sacrifice, even though she had actually anticipated returning once Holy was activated. Aerith thought she was going to go back to the team, but she didn't. Zack thought it would just be a quick speedbump before he could get moving again, but it wasn't. So I don't think it's necessarily the fact that this has no hollywood death speech while crisis core does (though that definitely part of it), it's the fact that the death comes so unexpectedly to the person who thought that coming back would just be a simple task. It wasn't meant to be a sacrifice.
So uh, Zack traveled around with Cloud in that state for a whole year. Did he um have to "wipe" him too? 😨
YES EXACTLY. I believe his death is so much more compelling in the OG
In CC it was unexpected to me too tho
I really believe they’ve lost the original message of death being sudden and brutal. The additions to Aerith’s death scene in Rebirth and Zack’s last stand in Crisis Core have been so overdramatised (almost Hollywood-esque, something the original team wanted to avoid) that it distracts from this initial message and theme.
I think hojo is more evil then sephiroth lol
tbh Seph had enough reason to be fed up with the bullshit Shinra put him through. Hojo was just a dick
Hojo is responsible for 80% of the shit happening in ff7 if you pay attention.
Easily- Seph wasn't an outright bioshock-esce scientific sociopath, he was troubled by misinformation and identity crisis, and fuelled with hate by feeling like his people and his mother was taken from him. It's a descent into insanity, that's what makes him an interesting villain.
@@katiieeardley
Hojo and Lucretia almost ruined the game for me.
Hojo destroys Vincent, then adds insult to injury by impregnating his first love, Lucretia---then treats her like trash. Worse, Lucretia keeps Vincent alive to witness all this and suffer for eternity---literally.
Even today, it annoys me. Dirge didn't change anything.
Although I consider FF7 a masterpiece, I never came back for another playthrough.
FF Tactics remains my favorite.
@@charleskulvet4911 It's dark as fuck, don't get me wrong, but dark or inherently unfair subplots like that only make me more interested in the game, if done well. I felt more sympathetic to Vincent, more attached through the darkness of his past- also helps to further characterise Hojo to more accurately explain the rationality behind his motives. In the cave where Lucretia's encased, and Vincent says his piece and turns away/she drops a single tear, I was like 'aw god damn, world got it out for my boy Vincent'. Side note: can't believe he and Yuffie are optional when they have so much in-game content/worth within the story.
Haven't played Dirge but I've heard it's shit, and I'm not a fan of how hard they've made a cash cow out of FF7 (CC was alright though).
Yet to play tactics, almost finished with FF6 for the first time though.
I love how Crisis Core casually changed the number of soldiers from 3 to like 400
It made more sense in CC, as he was pretty strong in that game to be taken out by 3 measly grunts. It took him wasting all of his energy and a shot from behind to take him down. In the original game, there just wasnt enough backstory on Zach to showcase him taking on a whole army.
@RedGheauxst There is no grounds to believe that members of SOLDIER who aren't Sephiroth can hold their own with entire armies of men with guns and helicopter. That's ridiculous and at odds with what we see the characters who aren't Sephiroth do.
@@galten7361 The only 1st class SOLDIER members we see ARE Zack and Sephiroth, though.
@CrazyRiverOtter Zack gets gunned down like a dog. Cloud (who was subject to the same testing as actual SOLDIER members) with the backing of Avalanche still gets captured by robots, has trouble lifting rubble, and needs a dolphin to reach a really high ledge. We have enough evidence from the game to know that the characters weren't capable of the stunts we see them do in the Compilation.
@C M the death of Zack in the context of Crisis Core made sense. They had setup that particular ending in Last Order. You are not going to showcase a characters abilities against powerful foes just to have him die off a minor misstep. It would be a slap in the face to anyone playing the game.
I like the small detail of him dying because he was checking to make sure cloud was okay. Had he just been concerned about himself, he probably could’ve survived.
No dialouge whatsoever. Yet the way Cloud's model trembles as he faces the sky, raindrops beginning to pour, as the camera pans out...
Edit: Sigh, I'm REALLY gonna miss those cute, chibi-looking field models in the remake...
Dialogue*
You're going to miss this scene, too
@@alexroberts6950 yeah but you could always go play crisis core if you wanna see him die...
How are you going to miss it? Just play the original. They still sell it. Its not lime they are removing it with the release of the remake. Seriously, people exagerate shit.
HaviboX lol exactly
I think we can all agree. Zack Fair is the *best* bro anyone could ask for. Even though Cloud was a massive burden to take with him and one could even have wrote him off due to his broken mental state.....he never abandoned him.
yup. he was the best person to be around. i even find it hard to imagine doing what he did for someone i barely knew, even if they were a friend. not sure if i could live with the mental and physical burden of taking care and dragging your friend across the country with no food, water, or shelter for 9 months. just adds to the list of why his death was so sad lol
I prefer this version. It's far more tragic for Cloud to stumble across an already dead body. Helps contribute to his mental breakdown.
Agree.
I disagree
When Zack said "you'll be my living legacy" it was soo tragic because it was one of the heaviest burdens for Cloud to wear.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t played crisis core but I prefer this. Also he doesn’t yell here
@@pr0jectzero281 the scene in CC was more about Zack than it was about Cloud. And his death was one of the most tragic events in FF I ever saw. Play it tho, it is a great game.
This game is a masterpiece
True
You said, mate
I love the game but it is not a masterpiece
@Aaron9 no need to bring out your insecurities this is my favorite game of all time but it has flaws at least I can admit that but hey keep on drinking some of that ff7 cool aid.
It was a huge shock for me when I see some people actually believes that Zack doesn't exist in the original game and was added in the spin-offs.
To be honest they kinda have a point, Cloud’s flashback about Zack was a last-minute addition to FF7 international version, It never happened in the initial Japanese version.
I never saw this scene in the original FFVII when I played it years ago for whatever reason, though I do remember Zack shows up very briefly in some of the other flashbacks. If I only had that experience with the character, I'd have probably never expected them to make a game about him.
@@Thamauturge If my memory isn't wrong, this scene is actually optional. Which means you are able to miss it.
@@Thamauturge Also, just like what the one replied to me earlier said, he wasn't really introduced in the Initial Japanese Version.
4:12 "Almost there Cloud.Were almost there."
no, it is not yet raining. notice in remake it is already raining, in here it begins to rain after zack lie down. check crisis core as well.
@@ValAllenSamonte Im not convinced, I thinl hes btw Life and Death because of the Jenova Cells, planet/lifestream is rejecting him and hes trapped in a Limbo with Jenova's Ilusions, or.........it is an Ilusion created by Jenova to us the spectators, remember, in AC he was in the Church, same as the new ending of Integrade, I still dont feel him being alive, we ll see, I got a feeling that this mystery will be very simple
I feel like Zack is the kind of character that really doesn't need all this supplementary material made about him. The whole point of the character's existence is to service the plot twist with Cloud. I'm not knocking people who like him, I like him. But I feel the truck scene alone gets across who he is, an optimistic guy full of zest, remaining loyal to his friend in a helpless catatonic state. Which makes his death hit so much harder where he's brutally and suddenly taken away when he was so close to his destination.
Except that it doesn't clearly establish how any of this happened overall. Like how do you know that Zack knew Cloud enough to go out of his way to call him a friend and put on a whole ordeal to protect him?
@@ThanhNgo-jn7bm @user-xc4os6gg3u It could've just been a random act of kindness. They didn't have to be best or even good friends for Zack to do this. Zack could've felt sick of Shinra because they basically caused Sephiroth + Nibelheim (not to mention the experiments he himself endured). He might've realized that fighting for Shinra his whole life was a fucking waste, so out of spite for Shinra and himself he decided to do one little good thing and help Cloud survive. Before all this they could've just been acquaintances, but that wouldn't mean that Zack would just leave him behind. That's how I read the OG, at least.
@Thanh Ngo because here Zack calls Cloud a friend. So notwithstanding their previous relationship, at least after everything they've been through Zack does consider him to be a friend.
Bingo. FF7 original was always Cloud's story. And even then, with what little we saw of Zack, it was enough to punch us in the gut.
@@ThanhNgo-jn7bmWe know this through little things called understatement and subtext, which the original game had and all the Compilation media stamps out to remove any possible ambiguity or nuance and spell out every theme and story detail in big red letters.
I'm sooo sad that they didn't do the full truck scene in crisis core!!!!
And some missing parts were seen in Advent Children Complete
It was one of the things I most wanted to see in Crisis Core
Maybe in Remake Part 2
@@BillyBob_McSanchez they better not cut out the hug this time, too
Zack Original death is more brutal in the OG.
Another point for the OG 1997.
"Embrace your dreams... And, whatever happens, protect your honor... as SOLDIER! Come and get it!"
"My honor, my dreams, they're yours now."
"I'm your... living legacy...."
Zack wasn't designed to have a close relationship with Cloud. In FF7, Cloud only speaks of Zack once when he's recovered from his overdose of make aboard the Highwind, and then never mentions him again.
Cloud: "Zack who?"
@@ZSleepingDragonZ exactly. The sad thing about Cloud's past is he never remember Zack clearly.
This is Crisis Core Bullshit. The real story of Zack and Cloud is this one from FF VII 1997. Crisis Core had a bad compatibility with FF VII 1997 in many ways. They took too much freedom with new things, it was bad or meh... for the most of them.
major plot point hiddent away. and the fact that he dies so unceremoniously. makes this scene hit so much a harder than crisis core
this is so true. no hero's ending. no fighting 100 soldiers. just an act of kindness (saving cloud) punished in a cruel way.
Well death can be pretty brutal even when you know it's coming. Even more so when you don't see it coming.
I lived 20 years without knowing of this scene.
21!!!!!! 21 god damn years and i am just now fully coming to understand what exactly happened.
Phil Pacific play crisis core
29 years for me!!
I just found this yesterday, and beat the game 5 years ago, lol. Glad to find it though, I thought this was only in Crisis Core.
@@aleisshiki3649 no, don’t do that, the dialogue takes away the impact of the sudden death and the complete silence that absolutely makes this scene so impactful.
If you guys want to experience this scene in the original game, go to the basement of the Shinra mansion in Nibelheim anytime after Cloud and Tifa recover his memories in the lifestream.
Its bitter irony that Zack was killed by the same enemy of Cloud"s first battle!!!!!!!!!!
Cloud's first battle was only a few
Zack's battle was againts hundreds of them
If you were ther would you even bare to fight?
@PJs Me Name you think i don't know that? Sure you can because you just said it XD
2020
In crisis core Zack also mention that he's not feeling the same after the experiment on him. ( Feeling weaker).
@@RIELTURO Yeah, on the fight you got a bad status, you will hit a little and take a lot of damage. =( Even with 9999 hp
Graphics are meaningless, people, and this is a proof of it. 23 (¡!) years later and this is still a narrative masterpiece because It has something quite simple but, at the same time, quite difficult to possess:
HEART.
No without character development I didn't feel a thing this scene was useless
@Aaron9 nope
@@johnlawful2272 cloud has tons of character development and this scene is a turning point in his story if you don't feel a thing well then that's your own fault for not properly understanding it
@@kanemccarthy1979 I meant zack homie I got into 7 because of crisis core and dirge Cerberus which fleshed out Vincent and zack 7th and 10 are my favorite
@@johnlawful2272 maybe he doesn't develop in this scene but he has personality and like the original commenter said, heart. That's what it really needs. Development helps but as long as the character is lovable it has impact
“We’re friends aren’t we?” You can tell Zack loved Cloud like a little brother. Seeing him so protective and tender over Cloud adds up to the heartbreak when he gets shot by some grunts in the game.
The creators of this game were emotional and psychological masochists.
>Zack's death
>Barret's backstory with Dyne and the events that transpired in Coral
>Vincent's arc and his long-lost love, still alive though entombed, dropping a single tear as he has his back turned
>Aerith's death
>Red 13 learning the truth behind his father/losing his 'grandfather' and not realising it
>The death of Cid's only dream (though that arc turns out fine)
>Tifa's inability to tell Cloud how she truly feels
>Losing Jessie, Biggs and Wedge/Jessie feeling like this is what she deserved due to her sins
>Zack's parents not knowing if he's alive or dead
>Footage of Aerith's mother and father being attacked
THANKS FFVII I was 21 year old adult woman when I first played this and you won't stop breaking my heart.
Katie E shit I was 12. Even I felt all that.
There's a lack of evidence in FF7 that Cloud was close to Zack post-Nibelheim. Indeed, Cloud only speaks of Zack once after he's restored from his mako overdose. Showing that whatever happened between the two, Cloud didn't hold special concern for him compared with his comrades.
Galten he didn’t hold special concern over Zack because Cloud thought he WAS Zack. That’s more than a little concern.
>Indeed, Cloud only speaks of Zack once after he's restored from his mako overdose
That's what I said. Cloud, within FF7 (so ignoring the Compilation), does not show any signs Zack was close to him once he's restored to what he really is. This is notable since nothing in FF7 points to Zack having the importance he was retroactively granted in Advent Children with Crisis Core (Aerith not knowing he was killed in battle with Shinra troopers when she knew about the death of Elmyra's husband, getting steamrolled by Sephiroth instead of holding his own against him, getting quickly slain by a nameless trooper).
I've always wondererd why this scene -and the Gongaga scene with Zack's parents- are missable/optional. They add such character to Zack and make the revelation of Cloud's memories way more impactful.
When I first played the game I was shocked at Cloud's restoration, but I wanted to know who was this Zack guy then. What was his connection with Cloud and what really happened to him.
I played the Original after clearing CC 3 times and visiting Zack's home in Gongaga in the original was really a heartbreaking experience for my 14yo mind.
I know this is 2 years late but the reason all the Zack stuff is optional is because Zack was added in the final draft of FF7's script when everything else in the game was already mapped out.
nobody cared until crisis core came out. Crisis Core was my first game and Zack has always and always will be my favorite final fantasy character
A good place to start in the story.
well, crisis core was the start of it all and a good place to start since they reanimated the death scene here .. here it was harsh on how they just killed em and went their mary way out
Extremely true.
Mygingerguy totally, i dont understand all who complain about CC and hating on it since cloud actually lost his memories in ff7 but in ff7 was told in clouds point of view while discarding zack as a flash back ... hence CC was called the missing chapter ...
Nathan Burger Not entirely true, Ive always been intrigued by Zack and have wanted to learn of his story. Was so happy when Crisis Core came out and provided me the opportunity
Its so sad how cloud can just barely see and understand that his friend is dying in front of him.
No Zack's death is far brutal here than in Crisis Core; they killed him at 4:36. Whereas in CC Cloud reached Zack as he was taking his last breaths, here, Zack was already dead before Cloud reached him.
I definitely prefer this death story to that of Crisis Core. It's far more human. They swooped in and took Zack out when he was barely ready. It could have happened to anyone and it only highlights the gutless cowardice of who you're up against. It's cool to go down in a blaze of glory against like a thousand guys, a literal fucking army, but there's something raw about the original that can't be topped.
Couldn't have said it better
But it makes sense that he can take almost the whole army as he was experimented on with Jenova cells for four years and his body didn't reject them like Cloud's did.
@@mr.awesome6011 That's incredibly narratively unsatisfying and lame.
@@MarkTheMagnificent despite how lame it is to you it still makes sense at the end of the day he's still a 1st class soldier
@@thedarkderp2520 it's bad storytelling is what it is.
I love how crude and cold zach death was, shot at after he dies to make sure, to contrast the hopeful view of zach with the cruel reality, no music, no heroic last words just shot like a dog and with a lethargic cloud by his side
Thats how you do a cold death, take notes TLOU2
Because you find Joel's death heroic?
Are we talking about the same game here ? Because I can think of Japanese (hi Crisis Core FF7) or Western games where heroes die with long speech phases and heroic scenes but certainly not TLoU Part II
@@DarkLilty501 Not heroic either. But they are trying too hard to make Joel's death "cold". In return, it just make it stupid and laughable
@@keevanalrasyidumar5450 How is it laughable? We just see a guy being tortured and then his skull being chopped into pieces.
I don't see what's silly or laughable about it.
Where we can discuss Zack's death in Crisis Core where Zack is facing an army of soldiers and helicopters equipped with firearms while he only has his magic and his sword to defend himself.
@@DarkLilty501 people just equate hating tlou2 as a personality
@@DarkLilty501 Zack is a first-class. He is just as qualified as Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth who can level a small city to the ground. He fought Angeal, and he won. He fought Genesis, and he won. Shinra sent a hundred of SOLDIER and only three remains. That army is absolutely necessary.
Meanwhile Joel in TLOU2 is an old man who just trying to help, and he got stabbed in the back. They even beat him up and forced Ellie to watch for the fun of it. Is it very necessary?
Zack's scene expressed how his contrasting ideal as a hero, how his effort to protect his friends, doesn't always align with the rest of the world, and he will face the consequence. Yet he will not falter and keep doing what he think is right. And that theme mostly consistent throughout the game with the First Classes broken after they are "betrayed" by Shinra
Joel's scene expressed how his sins from the past will eventually come back to him and he will be punished even if he's a much better person now. Yet the game force you that you must forgive your father killers who forced you to watch him gets unnecessarily beaten to death slowly and painfully.
At least keep this away from the innocents, don't you think?
...Honestly, I think watching both this scene (for maybe the first time since I didn't trigger it) and Zack's death in Crisis Core have both have an emotional impact on me. I played Crisis Core before I even got close to playing VII itself. Crisis Core made me appreciate more things than I realized, and because of that game, Zack is one of my most favorite protagonists of all time. His death is one that will forever make me cry no matter how many times I see it. The death in Crisis Core emphasized Zack's heroic nature, and he was able to properly pass his legacy on to Cloud. Seeing this death now, it feels a bit more realistic, seeing Zack just die instantly from the shots compared to being able to speak with Cloud one more time... and then seeing Cloud just take the Buster Sword away. It actually made me a bit angry seeing such a thing.
So, yeah... No matter which death is "better," they still hold a plethora of impact over those who grow with Zack.
Hmm playing CC before the main game... I don't know about that, it's like watching Star wars 1-3 before 4-6, kinda sucks to get explanations for plotholes without even knowing the plot itself, spoilers alot of things for you.
o.o That's true. But in my case, it was honestly by coincidence. I hardly knew anything about VII, never played it, only knew of it in name, and of Cloud and Aerith. Heck, I didn't even know Zack EXISTED until I picked up Crisis Core.
I've already played everything in the VII saga...
*****
I think this scene sets up Cloud's forming of false memories and a new persona-based partly on Zack-much better. In CC, Cloud gets closure and it's all wrapped up in a nice neat bow. Here, it shows how helpless and guilty Cloud feels just watching his friend die and not even making it to him to say goodbye or have the sword passed on. He just took it, and part of Zack's personality, right from his corpse.
Yeah, that's true. It does fit the VII persona far more than Crisis Core.
Why is it that we get more character development from a character we never see in a hidden 5 minute scene than a modern day game
Triple A games are now more worrief about to have more impact instead of feeling real.
@@darshio8307 Yeah definitely
Honestly, for the remake, I hope they do a mix of the original scene and Crisis Core’s scene. I wanna see Zack wear down after taking down a bunch of infantry-men, and then when he thinks it’s finally over, I want him to get gunned down by a sniper or something that’s heavy enough to knock him down. Zack getting knocked down when he least expects it and Cloud watching from afar as Zack mutters Cloud’s name would be devastating, and I personally do agree that Zack shouldn’t have a final speech as it takes away from how emotional and sudden death can really be.
So to reiterate what would be ideal for myself... Zack demonstrates his power, but shows that he also has limits to a seemingly endless horde of infantry-men. Suddenly, when Zack lowers his guard to check on Cloud, he gets gunned down by a sniper and lays on the ground, trying to catch his breath. The final 3 infantry-men go check on him and are surprised to see the freak of nature who’s still alive, and they shoot him down as Cloud watches him utter his name one last time. They underestimate Cloud and leave him to die, then Cloud crawls over to Zack’s corpse to retrieve the sword.
Now that's a way to bridge the gap of crisis core and FF7
Nobody has been able to answer me, so perhaps you can: does anyone know why Sector 7 was already destroyed when Cloud and Zack arrive at Midgar? 5:26
delta_tz I believe that isn’t the sector 7 plate, it’s the sector 6 plate. I think they explain the events of what happened to sector 6 in the mobile game “Before Crisis.” If I remember correctly, while playing through the game, sector 6 was already messed up and was in the process of being reconstructed.
@@markjin08 I never even considered that. Thanks. Sector 6 is the "destroyed highway" part after Aerith's house on the way to Wall Market, if i recall correctly
@@markjin08 just to follow up, from the Sector 6 article on the FF Fandom wiki page: "A massive gouge is apparent on the scale model of the plate in Shinra Headquarters."....you definitely answered my question, thanks! This has bothered me for decades.
I've had time to contemplate on my feelings on which scene I prefer. I've decided that I would like both the CC scene and the original combined. So you have the epic battle where Zack takes down all the infantry soldiers, but then I'd also like the ending where the 3 soldiers ambush and shoot him and he dies without getting a chance to talk to Cloud. It would explain why Cloud would be feeling so overwhelmed at the end, by screaming and crying. He never got a chance to say goodbye and he was sick and alone, no plans. It would also explain why Cloud in AC felt so unworthy of the buster sword. Because he took it off Zacks corpse without permission, whom was a first class soldier, where he was just a lowly infantryman
yeah i mean both version make sense:following the original cloud is sorry to zack because he basically steals his identity and his sword; in the crisis core he is acknowledged by zack as his successor, but cloud feels sorry because he forgets about him(and in AC the fact that zack isn't mad with cloud makes more sense with the CC Ed)
I feel EXACTLY the same.
Actually it was :) here u see 3 shinra soldiers kill zack. In Crisis core when zack tires out from all the fighting there are 3 soldiers. I like the call back from Zack point of view. But CC and ff7 I feel are in different universes the buster sword looks different, and little odd things I think the remake will confirm that.
Actually, this doesn't contradict the one in Crisis Core that much. After Zack leaves Cloud and goes offscreen, you can hear sounds fighting. We don't actually know how many soldiers he fought there. The difference here is that Zack actually wins that battle, but gets ambushed by those 3 soldiers (instead of nearly winning, but losing to the 3 remaining ones). And also obviously all the stuff about talking to Cloud when finally wakes up.
Personally I prefer the one in Crisis Core, but both are very dramatic.
@@NarutoninjaXV
Could be an interpretation. One from Cloud's perspective that he doesn't fully remember, while Zack's is kinda the ideal revision, the missing piece to Cloud's memory.
In a tragic way, both versions and points of views are correct and wrong at the same time.
I also prefer the one in Crisis Core. Was far more tragic and emotional, but also I love how much of a badass it showed that Zack was. He took down scores of soldiers before his end. What a way to go out!
No cc is gay and this is the original
@@oelahcef4569 any ff after the first one is gay, the first one is the original game. Gtfo lame
@@oelahcef4569 Fck off stupid shit.
There is something so real about this scene. No great last stand. Zack's death is chilling.
That’s because originally in FF7, Zack was more of sidekick to Cloud, more like just another dude. Whereas in CC, he is literally cloud’s predecessor
@@iam4026Sidekick? He’s this intimidating unseen figure who haunts the entire story, with everyone talking about how cool he was and Cloud so desperate to follow in his footsteps he literally convinces himself he’s him. And then after hearing all about this legendary soldier, when you finally get this flashback you found out he died like a dog. Crisis Core turns him into a generic peppy shonen hero with a cliche noble death scene. It’s a totally different writing style, and less mature than the original game.
The crisis core whole army version is amusing in a over the top sort of way.
But this is much more effective Zacks not a Shonen hero who saved world and took on armies. He's just a good dude who died protecting his friend
I always assumed that he fights the army when he runs off screen. Each to their own but this always bugged me in OG. Why kill just Zack and not Cloud too? I mean his just laying there.
I get Cloud isn't a big threat to them but his still a target. They just wanted to save a few bullets I guess. I personally like CC's ending because Zack hides Cloud so his not in the open.
@BoozeMan
But would have come to that conclusion without crisis core?
The original has a less over the top feel to it. Crisis cores satisfying in a way but feels more like a glorious send off than the quick brutality of the original
With cloud it may have been a bit of pity. A it's one thing to kill a soldire it's another to off a guys that's mentally deranged laying face down.. not that leaving him is much better or maybe the guy figured he was dying already given how he acted
@@leonevelake I always thought he fought some soldiers off screen before I played CC. I get what you're saying about the glorious send off though. But I don't know if at the end of CC Zack gets sniped and Cloud takes his sword without a word, would be a great ending to a game.
Say what you want about CC but that ending is the best part of the game.
@@boozeman4749 "But I don't know if at the end of CC Zack gets sniped and Cloud takes his sword without a word, would be a great ending to a game."
But that a big problem with crisis core they wanted to go into sort of final fantasy story beats (with a lot of modern shonen tropes ) instead of doing a straight prequel.
So we end up with a pretty goofy zack that talks a lot about wanting to be a hero, we get all kinds of retcons and new characters
@@leonevelake I'm not sure what you mean by Shonen tropes but to me Zack has always been a goofy character. This is a guy who asked a complete stranger what he thinks he'd be good at. While doing squats in a moving truck.😂
Yeah there's some new characters but let's not forget that CC was the "last" of the compilation. So the only new character that I can think of is Angeal. Maybe?
Yeah they retconned Genius into Nibelheim. Which I'm not a fan of. The other retcons I don't really mind. Like the colour of SOLDIERS uniforms and the way that Zack dies. But that's just me.
I hope they mix the two scenes together. Like show more of Zack and how Cloud looked up to him but also keep it short. Put more emphasis on how unfair Zack's death was but without blowing it out of proportion.
All of the violent deaths in FF7 are "blown out of proportion" as you call it since death from bloodshed is not pretty, "valiant", or (ugh) "epic." This is something Crisis Core missed.
They should do it like the second half of Zack's final battle in crisis core. Have him weak and vulnerable, but still able to fight off the soldiers for a good while. But I think his death should be just like the original, with him being taken off-guard and killed immediately, as Cloud holds the sword of his now-deceased best friend
All I can say is the remake is lookin confusing as hell😂
SE: "PSYCHE!"
thats really sad he was such a good friend to cloud and saved his life, he almost made it to Midgar as well, i like how hes such a big part of the game even though we see him only a few times
This is so much more tragic than in CC! (Though the CC got me all choked up each time I saw it too). The fact that Zack dies, the rain comes, and then Cloud comes to only to find his friend who has been dragging him around for about a year(?) has just been killed. Just when he can move on his own and speak a little (presumably) it's already too late.
I think the main themes of FF7 were dealing with loss and finding a sense of identity. And I think a point was made about it being sudden and feeling helpless about the situation, but having that guilt. Zack's death here is very similar to Aerith's if you compare Cloud's position and I think that's the point. It was sudden and Cloud couldn't do anything about it, even though he was there.
Imagine it with the visuals of CC. Put's Cloud down, goes and fights an army, then comes back all worn out and nearly done for and checks on Cloud(that would be a touching moment, maybe Zack even thought it was all over). Then gets hit by a super powerful bullet that throws him back and then gets riddled with bullets. Cloud might even be able to see it all happening.
Later when he goes to see Zack, he's already dead. It's too late.
Cloud takes the sword and as the viewer you know what that means. Cloud becomes his living legacy. It doesn't need to be spelt out.
I would miss the part where Zack grabs Clouds head and gives him a bloody hug, and the way Cloud speaks zombie-like pretty much repeating what Zack says, but overall I think it would be more impacting if things were left closer to the original.
Out of everything FF7 related, this is the last thing I've actually watched and it kinda changes everything! I really did think that Cloud thought he was Zack because in his dazed state he misinterpreted Zacks words. But that's not the case.
But, I understand they would have wanted to give more closure for Zack's ending after making a full game about him. (But I thought they made this scene first, then made the story?) And they've added it into Advent Children, so I can't imagine the remake of FF7 to be any closer to the original. But I would like them to try.
I'm not a fan of the Jpop music coming in so suddenly after Cloud's scream.
Funny thing I noticed about this is that Zack didn't catch Cloud when he opened the tube. He just let him fall on the floor. And in the wastelands he just put him on the ground face down, not nicely sitting up against a rock.
Oh yea, and I did always wonder if they got fed.
+TheGinga exactly, thats why i'm scared that they're gonna use the overdramatized rendition, with the living legacy bullshit that was in CC, instead of remaking this scene
Did you come up with loss and identity yourself or from the completionist?
+plushworld10 I got that myself. I don't know what the completionist is o.O
Nephilim King
sorry but the CC scene is bullshit, yeah CC developed Zack more, but thats it, it shitted on Aeriths personality and introduced a bunch of retarded characters like genesis and angeal
yhid dcene is far better compared to CC death scene, only problem is that it doesnt have good graphics or voice acting
Nephilim King
I'm sorry but, Square made Zack into this retarded Gary Stu, thats apparently behind every major decision that FF7 characters have, and made Aerith seen like she didnt decide shit without Zack telling her what to do, it also changed her into this holy virgin damsel, when shes anything but, in FF7 shes this confident, sassy lady, who could for the most part, take care of herself, and she was always like that, not this crap we see in CC
talking about zacks death, maybe because you dont get this scene or how Square treated death in FF7
in FF7 death isnt treated as some kind of overdramatic event like in CC, death in FF7 has this meaning of being a tragic, often sudden, with no time for final goodbyes event, Zacks death was treated much the same way, he still fought shinra soldiers there, the difference is that he dies in a moment of weakness and concern for clouds well being, getting shot by surprise looking over cloud(who was supposed to be there i might had), then we have right after, him being brutally shot by a shinra grunt, and them not bothering killing cloud because of his mental state, thinking he wouldnt survive anyway, we then see cloud going slowly up to zacks body and coming to the realisation that his friend is dead, no goodbyes, nothing, just the cold reallisation that your best friend is dead and you werent able to do anything about it, that for me is a far more powerful scene than the bullshit they put in CC.
i have no problem with him fighting enemies in the end, the issues i have with it is the amount of enemies which is what i find completely retarded, coupled with a overromanticized final "my legacy" bullshit speach
I'm glad Zack got his own game. Only because what did we know about him in the original
1. He is a first class Soldier
2. He is Cloud's friend
3. He was the Soldier that got his shit kicked in at Nibelheim instead of Cloud.
4. Cloud copied his memories.
5. He has the buster sword.
6. He dies
After Crisis Core
1. He died after killing tons of soldier grunts.
2. He was betrayed by Angeal, Genesis, Shinra, and Sephiroth.
3. He has a personality.
4. His Buster Sword was originally Angeal's.
5. He had a set relationship with Aerith
6. The Turks (in the mid-end) wanted him dead.
7. He has a (in game) fan club.
8. He is Cloud's friend
8 1/2. He is my favourite character.
9. He dies.
5." He had a set relationship with Aerith"
The original game already told us that if you have Aerith in your party when you visit gongaga, After talking to Zack's parents, Aerith tells Cloud Zack was her first boyfriend.
Much of that was not mentioned in FF7. In otherwords, answering questions no one asked.
only real trouble is..... how does anyone ship cloud and aeris after crisis core?
@Phil Pacific If you honestly think that Aerith wasn't written as having romantic leanings towards Cloud in FF7 then you don't know how to read her behavior within it. And in both the Compilation and cameos like Kingdom Hearts, Aerith is written as sincerely drawn to Cloud as a woman regardless of her past with Zack (Cloud was even called her friend AND lover in a novella).
Also, Aerith herself admitted that Zack was a womanizer and she thought he ran-off with another woman. Zack was pointed to being a shadier character than how he was depicted in FF7 (what with how Cloud secretly modeled himself on him). Zack's personality in CC really comes off as a rip-off of Cloud's personality once he's restored .
@@galten7361 oh..... you must be a claerith shipper.....
Who is here after finishing FF7 Remake?
Same! Love Zack but he's dead
Me, he's totally still gonna bite it. :(
@@tony_cgivfx This aged like milk! FEAR NOT THE NEW STORY MY FRIENDS, AND LET ZACK LIVE LONG!
to trigger this scene you need to finish Cloud's Subconscious in Mideel after they fall in the Lifestream, then go to nibelheim mansion's underground lab the room next to where you found vincent.
OH Thank YOU! I'am at the final boss and wondering how the hell did I miss this scene
I love that there is no music for the death scene.
Zack was a good bro
I’m glad they expanded in this scene in crisis core. Makes no sense that they didn’t kill or at least unload a full clip on Cloud.
This flashback is perfect, way better than Crisis core. There's no "Hey, remember when I chased Hollander for 4 chapters and fight 564845 copies of a low cost Sephiroth ?"
Zack: "Once we get to Midgar I got a place where I can crash for a while... Oh, wait, the mother's there too. Forget it".
He's talking about Aeris' home and Elmyra. Zack was Aeris' first boyfriend like she says in Gongaga.
This broke my heart more than aeris’s death
It's been 10 years ago since the last time i finished the game and suddenly this come to my recommendation.. AND I JUST REALIZE I NEVER SAW THIS SCENE BEFORE!
Sadly there was alot of things I missed in my first play through, it wasn't till I got the guild book that I knew i missed alot.
Lol. Dang I found out this in late 1997.
Whenever I play the game, after getting everything, going to every place and beating the optional bosses, saving this scene for last to go to just before heading to the final dungeon.
This is undoubtedly the last thing Cloud would ever do; remembering Zack and his sacrifice, but after all he had gone through and hated being weak, enduring so much pain to the point of remaking himself as Zack and later recovering his true self, to truly understand himself he must relive the day he was at his weakest; being protected by the person who he himself had strongly desired to be like and later witness him die in his very eyes, as if he was given the chance to start over.
It fits so well to do it at that point in the story too, when the party separates to see the people that matter most to them before the final fight.
It even though this was retconned with the new ending we got for him in Crisis Core, you can still see how tough he was. He took a shot to the back/side when checking cloud, then was filled with a dozen or more bullets. After the first burst, he was still wincing in pain, but the second burst made him bite the dust. I assumed he was getting pumped in the chest. All those bullets would've made a hole.
You know what made me cry during this scene? The peaceful pastoral music in the truck. And then the timing it ends on.
Zack's death feels like losing Maes Hughes in Fullmetal and Spike from Cowboy Bebop all over again.
+Jordan Chad Whittingham spoilers much?
Fuck you
I'm sad that this is not the direction they seem to be going in for FF7R.
I'm actually glad. I already played and loved ff7, they can leave it alone for all I care.
I want new stories.
@@No-onesgayformoleman then, there should be new games.
New interpretations of the story are ok, but when you are pretending to follow the same history but changing all excusing with timelines, its not really a remake, but a sequel
@@darshio8307 It is a remake. Not a traditional one but they're essentially remaking the game basically. Just in a very convoluted manner
@@ldking5132 It's not a remake. It's a sequel. It happens sequentially after the original Final Fantasy 7. Cause Tetsuya Nomura is obsessed with time travel and is gonna ruin FF7 just like he ruined KH.
@@TheIncognitusMe he can't ruin ff7 lol. You always have the original compilation dude
Imagine this little flashback on disc 3 became the prequel of FF7 and made Zack a household name being the guy that rescued and sacrificed his life for Cloud got shot in the face and multiple times. He fought more than 100 Shinra grunts and he's dead tired while caring for Cloud. Truly a bro.
i love this scene in CC but the original leave more impact..to me..because cloud doesn't even have the opportunity to talk to zack for one last time in this game (unlike CC).. he just died.. and that makes more sense why cloud become crazy sob.. zack just talk to him like a minute ago and now he is dead..just lying dead like that.. no talking, nothing.. with many bullet wound..and cloud was left alone.sick...helpless.. don't know what to do..shit,even tho it just a polygon without voice.. u
can feel the craziness, the tragic of the situation..
It was funny to me until crisis core
Yeah I did not care about zack at all i thought until cc
not even a line, he's just fuckin' *dead.*
So sad to see Zack so full of zest and life and vigor and passion and cheer and all that's waiting for him is a hungry grave at the end. At least he made such an impression on Cloud as to keep him going in his legacy.
I remember finding this by accident and finding it very interesting as it fills in a whole lot of questions.
These snippets told me all I needed to know to determine Zack was my favorite character all the way back in '97.
The moment Zack is shot when lying on the ground is just sick.
After finish Crisis Core, I look for this scene, kinda pity he dies only from 3 soldiers where Cloud kills them easily throughout the story.
He fought like 1000 soldiers at once until the fahking 3 soldiers came, but then again they all defeated by zack off screen
@@cydzerlight1383 Nah he killed a few off screen but bullets catch you.
Ots because Zack wasn't supposed to be some awesome Shonen superhero type character.. that was a retcon.
He was just supposed to be a good dude. Sure he was in Soldier ans that was glamorous and elite but it wasn't as crazy as its become
Sakaguchi's mom had just died when he made FF7, he wanted human deaths. no anime heroes or super saiyan final showdowns. Zack was a man who was helping a friend he barely knew, and because he had the nerve to be a good person and protect him, a few good for nothing grunts gunned him down as he looked out for Cloud because he's flesh and bone, then they just walked on like nothing happened. way more meaningful imo than a "HIS POWURLEVEL IZ 2 HAIGH! NAO HE FLIES!" anime fight against 1mil men.
Exactly this!
Oh that’s just because Zack wasn’t in a battle encounter, otherwise his health would’ve just went down a little
You can hear that he goes & fights in ff7, & then gets killed by 3, just like in crisis core.
his mother died during the production of FF3. it is pretty irresponsible of you to spread misinformation (and insert your meaningless opinion about dragon ball that is completely irrelevant). He was coping. If you actually did your research you would know that he wanted to show that life carried on through all things. Through Cloud, Zack lives on
@@Quantumpencil no, not exactly this
The part that made me sad was in CC when Cloud reaches for Zack as he walks to his death.
FF VII's motto : when you're in doubt. Squat till you're out.
I have never seen this before. This is a skippable scene? What the hell
Has anyone noticed that Zach's having a conversation with himself as clouds suffering from a coma induced by Mako poisoning
But later thanks to that Cloud ends up being a monster in advent children
bro dies for you then you steal SSN, his wife, and his whole identity. that's not cool, Cloud.
I like the fact that there is no music over Zack's death. It makes it feel interesting.
XD Right when Zack said "Yo old guy. We at Midgar yet?" it looked like CLoud was laughing.
I liked this depiction better. It's not over the top and it still leaves a huge impact.
Wow, how the hell did I get nearly 30k after I left this account? I'll keep this video for those who like to see this. Thanks for the support.
Thx m8
Hello my name is Zack Strife. Thank you so much for putting this video up. Took me 4ever to find it but I needed it bad. Thanks again.
I feel bad for both Zack & Cloud. Zack died before he could get to Midgar, to see Aerith. And Cloud was just thrown into the mix after his howntown was destroyed, exposed to Mako poisoning, and watched his best friend die... 😔
Shinra Soldier: What do you gonna do on him?
Commander: Just fxxking kill him
Final Fantasy 7 end
Just saw this, 22 years later and more than a dozen run throughs
Love this scene, glad I manger to stumble on this scene while playing it all those years ago.
5:25 "Why" just started playing in my head......
This scene in the end is so damn effective. I have zero nostalgia for FFVII, but this scene is so much more effective than the Crisis Core ending.
"Legend shall speak of sacrifice at world's end"
-Genesis
20 years later and I'm still finding new shit
So people coming here after the Remake, Spoiler: 4:14 this is what happened exactly after the last scene in the game.
I forgot there was scenes of Zack's death in the original game... probably because you can skip this moment entirely. R.I.P. cant wait for part 2
You could be very right (I hope you are) but there are still some clues to suggest otherwise. 1. the rain here only starts after his death. 2. They made sure we see the alternate stamp pretty clearly. 3. The fact that they'd go through the effort to show whispers and certain shots of Zack that we have never seen before.
Hopefully our answers will be in the next game and hopefully they dont change as much as they are suggesting they will.
I'm of the same opinion, nothing says Zack survived
@@flaviogomes Welp, Zack's survival in alternate timeline confirmed by FF7R Ultimania.
Just throwing this out there: There are Whispers just as two Clouds are talking to each other before he drops into Aerith's Church. The same scene In the original, the voice is ambiguous but in the Remake it's clearly & visibly Cloud. It's probably implied that's the 2nd Cloud the Ultimania is talking about is him/ Cloud 2/ His consciousness /Real self...
4:14 is the flashback ending in remake,, then everyone's assuming that zack sis alive
any how FINALLY someone got it
WHY DIDN’T I SEE THIS SCENE IN THE ORIGINAL?? IS THIS OPTIONAL?? CAUSR IVE PLAYED THIS JUST A MONTH AGO BUT I NEVER GOT TO SEE THIS SCENE EVER.
@@monsterkill164 while playing this game before, i always make sure to wander around , and always read to what im seeing, and also always saving progress into different slot, to make sure you can back to the previous save, incase that you made mistake,.
@@monsterkill164 and if you're playing rpg make sure you have a mind set that you need to wander around, and additional there's ultima weapon under the lake or sea, and i don't know how to defeat that bullshit hhaha
Zack is alive in the Reboot. Because it is not a Remake. Sephiroth is a time traveler from after Advent Children.
rewatching this before playing the remake. It still baffles me how they put such an important canon scene part of the entire final fantasy IMPORTANT story as "secret" scene to find.
Let me know what you think once you finish the game
I’VE PLAYED THE ORIGINAL JUST A MONTH AGO AND I’VE NEVER ENCOUNTERED THIS SCENE LIKE EVER. IVE EVEN FINISHED ALL THE SIDEQUEST LIKE GETTING YUFFIE AND VINCENT. I’VE ALSO DONE THE CHOCOBO SIDEQUEST(I’VE ACQUIRED GOLD, BLACK, BLUE, AND GREEN CHOCOBO). AND ALSO DEFEATED EMERALD AND RUBY WEAPON AND ALSO ACQUIRED FINAL LIMIT BREAKS AND ALL THE ULTIMATE WEAPONS FOR ALL CHARACTERS INCLUDING AERITH. HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THIS SCENE??
Wow. This was an optional cutscene? Unbelievable. 20 something years and i first saw it today