FF7 Remake
27th September 2025, 7:44 AM
(This post was last modified: 27th September 2025, 7:49 AM by Geno.)
To elaborate on my earlier claim of bad writing, admittedly, I did not have the context you provided on what the whispers are and why they are acting as they do as I've only played Remake, not Rebirth. During my experience of Remake (I'm going to go ahead and enter into spoiler territory myself now), the whispers were preventing characters from dying, whether it was Barret getting stabbed or the gang's car being protected from an explosion. It seemed like the whispers were making the characters temporarily immortal, unable to die until the original game's story calls for them to do so (looking at you, Aerith). Again, I haven't played Rebirth, so I don't have the full context, and maybe it isn't bad writing when one has all the context to understand why the whispers are acting as they do. To me at the time, playing Remake in 2020, it looked like the whispers were acting as plot armor for the characters.
Based on what you're telling me from Rebirth, though, it sounds like the whispers are somewhat of a meta-commentary on the fandom, wanting the maintain the "purity" of the original game's story and refusing to allow any kind of deviation; again, I'm personally fine with them making changes to the plot, and in modern gaming, alternative paths, choices, and outcomes are pretty standard fare (this is something I feel the Witcher games do very well, and even the original FF7 had a small variation of this trope in the form of the Gold Saucer dating sequence).
As far as the English translation is concerned, yes, the original 1997 western release of FF7 was god awful in terms of not only its grammar, but even its intended meaning. In the very first boss fight, it tells you "Attack it when it's[sic] tail is up!" That's the literal opposite of what you're supposed to do; they forgot the word "don't." There are many other typos, from Aerith's (or Aeris's) infamous line "This guy are sick" to the Battle Arena's response option of "Off course!" when it means to say "Of course!" I'm glad to hear there is a better English translation out there because what they did in 1997 was... sloppy.
I think Cait Sith (pronounced Ket-Shee) is derived from Scottish/Celtic folklore, but yeah, it is a bit jarring that he's the only character with a Scottish accent. And Barret, while not a badly written character, is a tad problematic in terms of the racial stereotypes, especially given that he's the only black character we see in this entire world. He perpetuates the "angry black man" archetype, and while having a black man be angry isn't in itself racist, and he has very valid reasons for being angry, in his early appearances before we learn his back story, he's portrayed almost comically angry, and again, he's the only representation of black people in the entire game, so... yeah. He mellows out eventually when Cid takes his place as the angry, foul-mouthed party member, but even then, Cid doesn't have a prosthetic gun-arm. He does give off Mr. T vibes, but I'll at least say they had the decency to cast a black man to do his voice. Even then, having a black man play Uncle Remus in Song of the South hardly made that character less problematic (less problematic than a white man in blackface, obviously, but still problematic in that he was being written by white writers and was based on a literary character also written by a white man, with stereotypes abound).
Honestly, I agree with you about turn-based combat still having a place in modern gaming, despite my earlier "relic of the past" comment. I guess when I'm introducing new people to classic Final Fantasy, I automatically take on an almost apologetic tone for its combat system because I know a lot of people find it... less approachable if they're accustomed to faster-paced gaming. Again, I love classic Final Fantasy (and there was a time when I, too, had to learn how it works coming from games like Zelda and Mario), I play chess from time to time, and again, I love tabletop gaming. I like the slow-paced, strategical element of these types of RPGs. I've known a lot of people who don't like that style of gameplay, though, so I guess I tend to paint them as "non-entry-level" gaming experiences. That sounds elitist, and God knows I'm not the most hardcore of gamers, especially these days (I'm grateful when I find the time to play games at all), but again, I've known quite a number of people who might have enjoyed the stories, characters, and worlds of games like pre-gambit-system Final Fantasy, but they have described the games as unapproachable because of the combat. There is a learning curve for those not accustomed to that gaming style, I suppose, but maybe I shouldn't call it a "relic of the past."
Based on what you're telling me from Rebirth, though, it sounds like the whispers are somewhat of a meta-commentary on the fandom, wanting the maintain the "purity" of the original game's story and refusing to allow any kind of deviation; again, I'm personally fine with them making changes to the plot, and in modern gaming, alternative paths, choices, and outcomes are pretty standard fare (this is something I feel the Witcher games do very well, and even the original FF7 had a small variation of this trope in the form of the Gold Saucer dating sequence).
As far as the English translation is concerned, yes, the original 1997 western release of FF7 was god awful in terms of not only its grammar, but even its intended meaning. In the very first boss fight, it tells you "Attack it when it's[sic] tail is up!" That's the literal opposite of what you're supposed to do; they forgot the word "don't." There are many other typos, from Aerith's (or Aeris's) infamous line "This guy are sick" to the Battle Arena's response option of "Off course!" when it means to say "Of course!" I'm glad to hear there is a better English translation out there because what they did in 1997 was... sloppy.
I think Cait Sith (pronounced Ket-Shee) is derived from Scottish/Celtic folklore, but yeah, it is a bit jarring that he's the only character with a Scottish accent. And Barret, while not a badly written character, is a tad problematic in terms of the racial stereotypes, especially given that he's the only black character we see in this entire world. He perpetuates the "angry black man" archetype, and while having a black man be angry isn't in itself racist, and he has very valid reasons for being angry, in his early appearances before we learn his back story, he's portrayed almost comically angry, and again, he's the only representation of black people in the entire game, so... yeah. He mellows out eventually when Cid takes his place as the angry, foul-mouthed party member, but even then, Cid doesn't have a prosthetic gun-arm. He does give off Mr. T vibes, but I'll at least say they had the decency to cast a black man to do his voice. Even then, having a black man play Uncle Remus in Song of the South hardly made that character less problematic (less problematic than a white man in blackface, obviously, but still problematic in that he was being written by white writers and was based on a literary character also written by a white man, with stereotypes abound).
Honestly, I agree with you about turn-based combat still having a place in modern gaming, despite my earlier "relic of the past" comment. I guess when I'm introducing new people to classic Final Fantasy, I automatically take on an almost apologetic tone for its combat system because I know a lot of people find it... less approachable if they're accustomed to faster-paced gaming. Again, I love classic Final Fantasy (and there was a time when I, too, had to learn how it works coming from games like Zelda and Mario), I play chess from time to time, and again, I love tabletop gaming. I like the slow-paced, strategical element of these types of RPGs. I've known a lot of people who don't like that style of gameplay, though, so I guess I tend to paint them as "non-entry-level" gaming experiences. That sounds elitist, and God knows I'm not the most hardcore of gamers, especially these days (I'm grateful when I find the time to play games at all), but again, I've known quite a number of people who might have enjoyed the stories, characters, and worlds of games like pre-gambit-system Final Fantasy, but they have described the games as unapproachable because of the combat. There is a learning curve for those not accustomed to that gaming style, I suppose, but maybe I shouldn't call it a "relic of the past."