Final Fantasy 7 Remake finally arrived to thunderous applause early last year, and fans are already looking to the future for more. This ambitious remake project intends to remake and reinterpret all of Final Fantasy 7, one chunk at a time. In addition, it appears to be intent to tie up loose plot strings from the old Compilation of Final Fantasy 7. Now that Square Enix has trademarked the familiar sounding term “Ever Crisis” around the world, fans are trying to piece together what, exactly, this all could mean.
The name Ever Crisis immediately brings to mind Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core. That game, released for the PlayStation Portable in 2007, tells the story of Zack Fair, Soldier First Class and Cloud’s friend while they were serving in Shinra’s military together. Thanks to revelations in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Zack’s tale is suddenly of great importance once again, and there may be vital links between Crisis Core and what Ever Crisis is. Finding them now could prepare fans for whatever Square Enix plans next for the Remake anthology, as with the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it has become abundantly clear that anything could happen. Because of that, this article contains SPOILERS FOR FINAL FANTASY 7 REMAKE.
Something fans immediately noticed when Ever Crisis was first trademarked was the similarity to the old Compilation naming scheme. While not every entry in Final Fantasy 7’s expanded universe shared this, the majority of the “important” entries did. Entries in the Compilation had subtitles that began with a word that had one one of the first letters of the English alphabet, and ended with a word starting with the letter “C” (likely in reference to the Compilation itself).
Products named this way include Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 7: Dirge of Cerberus, and Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core. That’s an entry for A, B, C, and D, and Ever Crisis fits in cleanly as the E. There is a decent chance that there will be one more product with the subtitle initials “F C”, in reference to “Final Fantasy” and the “final Compilation entry” by the time the last Remake game comes out.
So, knowing that, how does the Remake relate to Ever Crisis if it is a Compilation entry? Final Fantasy 7 Remake ties directly into Zack’s death scene as it was presented in Crisis Core, and there is a passing reference to Crisis Core’s villain Genesis in Remake’s back half. However, there are also many large hints surrounding Sephiroth and the Remake’s final battles that seem to hint at Final Fantasy 7 Remake being a direct sequel to Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children.
The biggest piece of evidence for this are the three Whispers fought before Sephiroth. Rubrum, Viridi, and Croceo use the same weapons and fighting styles as movie villains Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo from Advent Children. Sephiroth’s early appearances also suggest that he’s familiar with the plot of FF7 already, and he seems to be pushing for things to go differently much like the protagonists. While this is all circumstantial evidence at the moment, the fact that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a sequel to Final Fantasy 7 opens the door for all kinds of story tie-ins.
Even if Ever Crisis is not its own game, the presence of the word “Crisis” in its title and Crisis Core suggests some strong link between the two. As Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be ending its one-year period of exclusivity on the PlayStation 4 soon, a potential rerelease on PC, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S could have additional content relevant to the end of the Remake. Now that the Whispers have been defeated and the timeline can deviate from the original game and existing Compilation titles, Zack Fair, and potentially the entire Avalanche crew, can survive past their previous deaths and reappear later in the Remake titles. If Ever Crisis is the “definitive edition” of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, fans may not even need to wait that long to see them again.
There is a small chance that parts of the Remake could be remade with Zack present instead of Cloud. In the backstory of Final Fantasy 7, Zack was killed in the wasteland surrounding Midgar in an attempt to reach it with a barely-functioning Cloud. Now that he’s survived in the Remake timeline, not only would he have made it to the city alive and with Cloud in tow, if they were to have spent any amount of time together afterwards, there’s a good chance the Cloud Strife of before would stop existing due to his memories being unscrambled early. That would pave the way for Zack to join Avalanche, reconnect with his ex-girlfriend Aerith, and play out the entire Midgar portion of Final Fantasy 7 in Cloud’s place.
That is the most extreme example for what could happen, but that’s not to say it won’t be referenced in Ever Crisis. A bonus chapter could be unlocked in the ending that allows players to control Zack in the initial bombing run instead of Cloud, with new dialogue and even new posters in the subway to reflect the altered timeline. The player could follow Zack all the way up to the point in Chapter 2 where Cloud and Aerith are supposed to meet, see the beginnings of that reunion, and cut to a teaser for the next Remake entry. It’s not much, but it’s definitely a scenario that’s been playing out in fans’ minds for over two decades, so it would be nice to see it animated with the Remake’s cinematic quality.
Final Fantasy 7 is currently standing at a precipice. It feels like anything could happen now, and the promise of Ever Crisis seems to indicate that the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 is coming back in a big way. Even so, there is a chance the Compilation theming could start and end with Ever Crisis’ name, so all of this theorizing could be for naught. All that can be done right now is wait on potential news updates that could come as early as this year, judging by all the Ever Crisis trademarks coming out, or as late as years from now. Hopefully the reunion at the end of this is satisfying, and the Compilation can be put to rest.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is out now on PlayStation 4.
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