Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake expects players to play the original PlayStation game, as its ending won't be understood by those who never have. Because of a big story twist, Final Fantasy 7 Remake's ending carries almost no emotional weight for new players, and other story issues make the remake's conclusion completely unsatisfying for non-FF7 fans.
Although its title suggests it's a full reimagining of Final Fantasy 7 for modern audiences, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is more of a reboot than a remake. It covers only the original game's opening section in Midgar, expanding it to the length of a full game, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake's ending opens up this new "Remake" series to potentially follow a different post-Midgar path.
The problem for new players is that FF7 Remake's new ending comes with a major lack of explanation, likely leaving newcomers confused and frustrated. The following analysis will go into full plot spoilers, but a spoiler-free look at what the game is like for first-time players can be found in Screen Rant's "Is FF7 Remake Good If You Never Played The Original?" feature.
Why Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Ending Is Bad For New Players
Throughout Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Cloud and crew encounter ghost-like creatures called Whispers, which are eventually revealed as beings tasked with keeping the game's events aligned with fate. Here, "fate" is implied to be the events of the original Final Fantasy 7, so Final Fantasy 7 Remake's plot gets extremely meta, with the main characters essentially fighting against fans' expectations. At the game's conclusion, the party members battle and kill the gigantic leader of the Whispers, freeing them from the will of fate and allowing Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 to forge its own path, if Square Enix so chooses.
This meta-infused narrative is extremely cool in concept, but the events of the original are referenced in such vague terms that the ending only really works for established fans. Brief flashbacks to the original Final Fantasy 7 flash before the characters' eyes without any real context, and it's implied these events might no longer play out. A few extended scenes of FF7's Zack Fair show his fate apparently changing, but he was never been mentioned before in Remake, so new players have no idea who he is. From a newcomer's perspective, it's as if the game is saying, "You know those questions you have about where the story could go from here? Well, now, the answers to those questions (which you didn't know) could be different." What's worse is the characters - other than Aerith and Sephiroth, who seem to have some vague idea of what the future once held - also don't really know what they're changing by fighting fate, so it feels as though the story is meant only for, and talking directly to, FF7 fans, not the characters themselves.
New player confusion extends beyond Remake's twist ending, too. Almost every question its story sets up goes unanswered. Some of FF7 Remake's unanswered questions were introduced and later explained in the original, but here, they're brought up much earlier. That means it's too early to show the payoff, and so just enough detail is given to cause confusion rather than intrigue. For example, Cloud at one point has a flashback to Jenova, the otherworldly being Shinra is keeping under its headquarters. Just after Shinra scientist Hojo tells Cloud he's not actually a SOLDIER, Cloud calls Jenova "mother," passes out, and later attacks Sephiroth in front of the party and Jenova's tank. Red 13 explains in a few off-hand, throwaway lines of dialogue that Jenova is an alien being Shinra harvests for energy, and then everyone just moves on like nothing happened. They continue to talk casually about Jenova and Sephiroth, as if anyone has any idea what in the world is going on.
Sephiroth himself is subject to this same lack of explanation, particularly when it comes to his relationship with Cloud and the other characters. An early flashback is supposed to tease that Sephiroth killed Cloud's mom and burned his hometown, but Sephiroth's dialogue is so vague (mostly due to his use of present tense, in combination with him asking Cloud if he can "bear to see [the planet] suffer") that it's unlikely players will get this without already knowing it happened in the original. Another flashback shows Tifa - inexplicably in a goofy cowboy outfit - crying over someone's body, saying she's "sick of this," and picking up Sephiroth's sword. New players hoping to learn what this means are simply shown it again later, with no additional context.
Eventually, Aerith flat-out tells Cloud (and players), "There's no greater threat to the planet than [Sephiroth]," but it's not clear what his plan is, where he came from, or why he's so dangerous. Sephiroth was an enigma in the original game, but he didn't show up until much later, giving the story more time to build up to his appearance. In Remake, he appears early and often, and new players are just supposed to recognize him as the game's villain for no other reason than that he's one of gaming's most iconic bad guys.
The twist ending and other new elements of Final Fantasy 7 Remake's plot might add intrigue for longtime fans, but because Remake doesn't adequately explain elements of the original story, the new bits only add more confusion for new players. Final Fantasy 7 Remake feels like the first episode of an anime - with its vague statements, proper nouns, and mystery set-ups - but it's 30 hours long, and the next episode isn't coming until years from now. It simply isn't meant to be played without first playing the original, despite Square Enix marketing it as if it could be enjoyed by anyone. It's not a remake for the sake of making the original game's dated graphics and gameplay digestible for modern audiences: It's a remake about being a remake of Final Fantasy 7, which means the original game is essential to enjoying it.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake released for PS4 on April 10, 2020.