The FFVII Rebirth Teaser Trailer Dissected | Game Analysis #28
In this trailer analysis, we dive into the visuals, symbolism, terrain, mysteries, and even UI found within, compelling theories included.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Is Zack really alive and well now? Where are Cloud in his present-day attire and a rather unkempt Sephiroth hiking to? What is this smooth foliage animation? Why is there always a flock of birds flying from left to right over the screen?! Did one of them lose a feather?
Greetings fellow Scholars of the Lifestream!
I’m Vyzzuvazzadth from the Cosmo Canyon Observatory and in today’s analysis, we will dive deep into the severely belated analysis of the first look at the next installment in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, called: Rebirth!
After finishing up the analysis of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s mysteries and quite an extensive hiatus, I finally managed to get back into it again to bring you the Rebirth analysis goodness which has been simmering for almost a year1 now.
Yes. It really has been this long!
But enough dilly-dallying2. Let’s jump right in.
And as always, spoilers ahead for Final Fantasy VII, its compilation, and Remake.
Zack & Cloud
The Reveal teaser begins with a downwards camera pan through mist towards Zack and Cloud hobbling through the wasteland towards Midgar. It’s important to note that this pre-rendered scene has been split into 2 segments, one playing at the start and one at the end of this teaser.
I’ll get to the significance of this decision later. For now, let’s dissect the uncut scene in its entirety.
Context
First: what could its context be in Rebirth?
It very likely represents a part of the game’s opening cinematic as it sets up one of the new mysteries that will play a major role in Rebirth’s plot. Remake did the same with the dark gray bird flying towards and into Midgar as well as the unknown and unseen threat scaring off Aerith, both accompanied by the infamous One-Winged Angel chant and thus referencing Sephiroth, the one responsible for orchestrating Remake.
This scene with Zack and Cloud begins with the camera moving through the shadows of large underplate pipes, as if another scene came before it and moving through shadows between pipes acts as a seamless transition. Remake does the same with Mako reactor 5’s eruption leading to zooming into the alleyway where Aerith is sitting in front of a leaky Mako pipe.
But what could have come before? The party arriving in Kalm? Cloud starting to tell his tale of the past?
Remake began with showing Midgar and its citizens, so Rebirth could begin with showing Kalm and its residents. On the other hand, Kalm is not quite an important location to Rebirth’s story arc, if at all. Could it start with a bird flying over the Northern Crater and the ocean towards Kalm instead?
It’s highly possible that Rebirth’s story arc goes all the way up to the Northern Crater, starting with the Nibelheim incident and ending with the summoning of Meteor, Sephiroth’s rebirth.
Remake already set a precedent with starting the game at or around the location where it also ends. A dark gray bird flying over a cliff through the wasteland towards Midgar, a cliff similar to the one Cloud and the others end up on in the ending.
Imagery
Moving on to the scene itself. It contains a considerable amount of imagery and symbolism for such a short scene.
Camera Movement
The camera movement and shots showing Zack and Cloud’s arrival at Midgar’s outer wall feel very similar to Remake's ending, just top-down instead of bottom-up. Zack’s attire, armor pieces and skin show the same wear, tear and rus… *ahem* damage, unlike the scene where he returns to Aerith’s church. The sector in front of them is number 6, the same one seen beyond the cliff in the original game during Zack’s death scene, and the end of Remake. It seems like this trailer scene happens chronologically right after Zack crosses our Remake party on the cliff.
I think it’s a bit strange for Zack to drag Cloud towards the edge of the cliff, just to be forced to turn around and find a less steep decline to descend towards ground level. The very similar yet opposite camera movement does create a repeating reveal shot of the same characters in the same context, just at another location. Furthermore, why drag Cloud towards a cliff where you can't move directly beyond in this condition anyway? Just to take in the sights and show Cloud that they’ve made it?
It’s therefore possible that we actually saw Zack and Cloud approaching Midgar during Remake’s ending, which could explain the very similar camera movements and shots, and nigh identical animations of Zack and Cloud. Meaning, Aerith didn’t feel Zack and Cloud hobbling towards the cliff but towards Midgar down below and the cliff is only shown to connect the 2 parties through time and space.
Remember: Time and space have no real meaning in the Lifestream, the realm of memories.
The different camera movement directions may therefore serve as a clue for this concept. Zack rising from the dead—bottom-up—and diving into the planet’s memories, the Lifestream—top-down. Why the Lifestream?
Lifestream Particles
Take note of the myriad of green Lifestream particles floating among the mist above our heroes. Why would there be any Lifestream particles out there in the desert around Midgar?
The pipes from the very beginning of this scene also don’t make any sense spatially as Zack and Cloud are approaching sector 6 which has no outer plate whatsoever due to its condition. The distance between the pipes and Zack also doesn’t seem like 300 meters. More like 50, the original Midgar’s plate altitude. But back to the green particles.
Remember Remake’s intro cinematic? After it transitions from the Mako reactor exhaustion to Aerith, the camera also descends through a plethora of green floating Lifestream particles before it comes to a halt in front of Aerith’s face. Those particles filling the whole alleyway airspace are also completely gone in the side shot right after, just like in the Rebirth trailer once we get closer to Zack and Cloud.
Coincidence? I think not!
Remember our theory3 about Remake happening in the Lifestream and future Aerith diving into the planet’s memories to grant her past self her memories of the future? It seems like that introduction shot of Aerith is depicting exactly that. Also take note of her eyes which are closed at first and only open at the end of the shot. Just like in the original game’s ending where she’s already residing in the afterlife which contrasts the original intro where it transitions from space to her open-eyed face directly, only showing the particles from the Mako leak in front of her.
Quite the parallels and visual storytelling, isn’t it?
White Feather
Another element of visual storytelling is the white feather, which follows right after.
Those who played Crisis Core know what it is all about: Angeal Hewley. Zack’s mentor and the 3rd of the SOLDIER First Class trio who sprouts a white wing at the end of chapter 3, the source of that single feather.
Crisis Core’s Complete Guide Keyword Collection has the following to say about the white feather and Zack’s mental image in which it is the most poignant and prominent:
“Even though he succeeded Angeal’s will, Zack finds himself not only unable to help anyone but also confined in Nibelheim and is racked by a sense of despair and powerlessness. Angeal gets him back on track, and Zack decides to rise up from it again. This decision is represented by the mental image at the start of chapter 9.
The blue sky symbolises Zack, the white feather Angeal, and the water Aerith.”4
There are many instances in Crisis Core where we see one or even multiple white feathers floating around, every time in the context of Angeal.
Multiple feathers appear in the following situations:
When Angeal unfurls his white wing for the first time (end of chapter 3),
while Zack is unconscious after falling into Aerith’s church right after his confrontation with one-winged Angeal (start of chapter 4),
when Angeal appears to Zack to berate him through the experimentation tank’s glass (start of chapter 9),
and when Zack gets taken to the skies by his former mentor after his last stand (ending).
A single feather is seen on the following occasions:
In Zack’s mindscape during his captivity in Nibelheim (start of chapter 9),
during a conversation with Lazard as an Angeal copy at Gongaga’s Mako reactor ruin (end of chapter 9),
and in the last scene of the ending cinematic, which could even represent Zack himself who finally received his long sought-after wings upon becoming a hero, now watching over Cloud, just like Angeal was watching over Zack beforehand.
That white feather in the trailer thus clearly represents Angeal, who could be checking on Zack and then moseys off upon seeing Zack is doing ok. A white feather without a source, mind you. Just like in Zack’s mindscape while he’s alive, and in Midgar’s skies after he dies. The only time a single white feather falls to the ground in the world of the living is at the end of Zack’s conversation with Lazard in his Angeal copy state, which also marks the end of chapter 9.
However, the feather has an actual physical source: Lazard’s wings. A sign of the Angeal in him. And in this instance, I believe it represents Angeal’s spirit still watching over Zack through Lazard.
The single source-less feather in the trailer thus supports the notion that the Zack we see dragging a catatonic Cloud does not reside in the same realm as our Remake party.
Unless one of the birds flying across just before dropped it? Unlikely.
There are many occasions of a single bird or a flock of birds flying across the scenery in the context of this FFVII Remake project:
The first reveal teaser,
at the end of chapter 4 in Remake,
here at the start of Rebirth’s First Look trailer,
and even when Cloud and Sephiroth reach the overlook later in the trailer.
I’m not savvy enough in white bird symbology to provide an informed analysis, but I’m pretty sure they’re little more than an accessory to the scene they appear in. Maybe they are spreading hope or are a harbinger of change? Let us know in the comments!
Reaching sector 6
The last shot of the trailer shows sector 6 from below. Besides being the closest sector to the fated cliff, there’s a bit more to this sector than meets the eye.
In the year 1976, around 31 years before the first bombing mission, sector 6 collapsed during Midgar’s construction. An excess in load-bearing capacity is thought to be the cause. Luckily, this happened pre mass immigration, so casualties were minimal5.
This is confirmed by Aerith in chapter 9 on their way to sector 7.
“Back when they were still building Midgar, there was an accident, and the plate fell.
People had only just started moving in, so there weren’t a lot living there at the time, but…”
After this tragedy, Shinra decided to abandon sector 6’s construction, which has been left untouched ever since. Just like sector 7, which they also do not plan to rebuild. I see a pattern emerge…
Continuing the previous point, the sector 5 church “was built to pay tribute to the countless lives lost and to provide a sanctuary for the tired souls who worked under such hellish conditions to obtain said materials.”6
Sectors and their reactors were built in succession, so the church would have already existed by the time the sector 6 plate collapsed. It is therefore possible that lots of slum residents gathered in the church to mourn all the lives lost in the sector 6 plate collapse besides those lost during sector 5’s construction .
Back to the trailer. Are we really sure that Zack and Cloud arrive in Midgar in September 0007?7 This may sound crazy but hear me out. What if Zack’s resurrected soul ended up 318 years in the past for some yet unknown reason?
Since I believe that Zack’s consciousness resides in a different reality—namely the Lifestream which holds the planet’s memory, possibly the stagnant or negative one—time has no bearing and he could travel to any point in time, or fragment of memory, so to speak. Quite similar to Cloud and Tifa traveling to different parts of the former’s memories to piece his mind back together after they fall into the Lifestream.
Zack would need to realize this first, though, before he can start traveling the planet’s memories consciously. This would mean that we could witness scenes in time periods and locations previously untouched.
If this really comes to pass, what would your most anticipated time period and location be? Let us know in the comments!
Flashback
Alright. Let’s switch gears and move on to Cloud’s Nibelheim incident flashback, of which the trailer shows 2 brief segments of their hike to the Nibelheim Mako reactor.
Characters
Contrary to certain theories, it is just that. Cloud and Sephiroth walking from Nibelheim towards Mt. Nibel. This was confirmed in a developer interview conducted and published by the popular Japanese news outlet Famitsu.
Interviewer: “And about "FFVII Rebirth," is the scene where Cloud and Sephiroth are walking a reminiscence of the past by Cloud?”
Nomura: “Yes. Due to information restrictions, some of the display has been erased, but I say this because I don't want people to think it is a new scene”.
Kitase: “I think the mountains in the distance were a distinctive feature of the scene, so it might help you remember the original work.”9
The camera position feels a bit off at times, but it's certainly Cloud who's being controlled there. Looks like the camera is much more dynamic in Rebirth to elevate the environment and scenery.
Or it’s trailer magic. Take your pick.
And I wonder if those 2 ledge hopping animations by Cloud are triggered because the player crossed hidden obstacle interaction indicators also found near ladders for example.
In any case, it does follow Cloud more than it does Sephiroth. The latter needs to remain "unreachable" and controlling him would take away from his enigmatic presence.
What also feels a bit off is Sephiroth's haircut which looks wider at the bottom and horizontally cut off and thus feels less groomed. It doesn't lead into this neat "tip" we see in Remake and Crisis Core Reunion, the most up-to-date entries in the Final Fantasy VII compilation design-wise. Is this change a hint towards Cloud’s story not being quite accurate or just a weird design choice?
Cloud's outfit
Speaking of, Cloud is wearing his current-day mercenary uniform here, which is wrong in 2 ways. He was not a SOLDIER back then and the SOLDIER outfit Zack gave him later on donned 2 normal shoulder guards. While the original game also didn’t change Cloud’s attire for that segment, probably for convenience’s sake, it’s still a bit strange to show him in his single, spiked pauldron outfit. However, there is a reason for this.
He's the narrator after all and thus projects his present mercenary outfit into his visualized retelling. But why didn’t he also do the same during the memory of visiting his mom before leaving Aerith’s house at the end of chapter 8 of Remake?
My interpretation: that memory happened unconsciously, so his mind exchanged the security officer uniform for the standard SOLDIER First Class outfit Zack was wearing at the time to uphold his false persona. He’s also not wearing the adorned gloves and the spiked bangle we’re so used to. Instead, his hands don the normal brown leather gloves, just like Zack.
But why, then, is he wearing the adorned gloves and the spiked bangle in the short flashback of him trying to reach out to his burning home during the confrontation with Sephiroth in chapter 2 of Remake? Most likely because past and present are blurring together at that point, projecting his current self onto the memory of his dying mother and burning home.
Long story short, the outfit Cloud is wearing in visualizations of his past seems to heavily depend on his current state of mind. And when consciously telling a story, we the players just see his current-day avatar projected onto the visuals of his tales.
User Interface
Before moving on to the surroundings, let’s have a quick look at the UI.
The Command menu looks modernized. It has additional swag, lost the background, and is presented in white instead of light blue. Strangely, the command button is missing. Is it not implemented yet or did they just hide it due to the cross and circle discrepancy between the western world and Japan?
For context, the “confirm” action is historically mapped to “circle” in Japan instead of “cross” like in other regions. Which honestly makes more sense in terms of iconography. However, we’re used to pressing the bottom-most face button for confirmation actions. That’s probably why this difference exists in the first place.
Ok, moving on.
The compass line remains the same, but is presented in white as well to complement the Command menu. Will the rest of the UI and the main menu also contain more white elements? Like Sephiroth's hair? Rebirth kind of is about Sephiroth after all. And a certain 4-letter character10 who is connected to white feathers… food for thought.
It’s also possible that this color change will only happen for the duration of the flashback to visually separate the gameplay, as I’m sure we won’t be able to carry over any progress into the main story, just like in the original. One indication for that is the quest distance marker on the compass, which is still presented in the same turquoise color, just like in Remake.
I suppose we’ll know more when the next trailer drops.
Surroundings
Let’s return our focus to this First Look trailer and the surroundings seen in the flashback shots.
In the first one, we can make out some lamp posts, which indicates we’re still close to civilization. Nibelheim specifically as it contains several lamp posts, too, including its north exit. Even though the original game and Crisis Core have much different designs.
This next detail may be clear to most, but the bridge seen in this first shot is not the rope bridge located in the mountains. It’s too close to Nibelheim and too far away from the depths of the mountains. Could it be the bridge crossing over the Gunnthra River spoken about in the light novel Traces of Two Pasts? It’s where Tifa encounters Zangan for the very first time, so it is an important location.
Here’s a brief excerpt mentioning the river:
“As she ascended [the mountain], she kept her gaze fixed upward, watching the clouds rolling high in the sky. Before she knew it, she’d reached the banks of the Gunnthra River.”11
Fun fact: In Norse mythology, the Gunnthra river is one of 11 rivers which originate from the wellspring Hvergelmir, one of 3 springs at the primary roots of Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree of life. Incidentally, Hvergelmir is located in the center of Niflheim, the land of mist and the namesake for Nibelheim in Final Fantasy VII.
Here’s a short excerpt from the Prose Edda12 which mentions the river:
“It was many ages before the earth was created that Niflheim was made, and in its midst lies a spring called Hvergelmir, and from it flows the rivers called Svol, Gunnthra, Fiorm, Fimbulthul, Slidr and Hrid, Sylg and Ylg, Vid, Leiptr; Gioll is next to Hell-gates.”13
Another interesting detail of note is the vegetation. We see lots of plant life and trees besides the path and beyond the bridge. However, once we reach the cliff, the beautiful overview shot reveals that vegetation beyond this point has essentially died out as we can only make out dead trees. A harrowing reminder for the effect Mako reactors have on their surroundings. We can even see a few less healthily looking trees along the canopy of the forest ahead in the first shot. A harbinger to what’s beyond.
At least the foliage is reacting in a physically accurate manner to passersby. Pretty neat detail!
We can barely make it out, but the Nibelheim Mako reactor is located in the valley below to the left, looking like it’s built into the mountain. One big indicator is the large pipe coming out of it. It can also vaguely be spotted between the trees in the first shot. Why? Because we can sort of make out the circular metal bars construction around its lower part in the Japanese trailer.
The English and German versions unfortunately exhibit more compression artifacts in that region. But we can at least see the circular tube-like structure above thanks to the curved lights around it, which basically confirms this to be the Nibelheim Mako reactor.
Unfortunately, we don’t have access to the source version of this trailer and need to make do with the crappy YouTube version.
Besides the lonely Mako reactor, the developers decided to flesh out this area in Rebirth to make it feel more like a real place. There are outposts, warehouses, refineries and maybe even some housing around the reactor and its vicinity. In addition to that, electricity masts—small, short-range ones as well as large, long-range ones—are also present.
While the mountain segment closest to the reactor looks like a normal rock face, the rest of the Nibelheim mountain range is presented in its signature jagged formation, especially in the upper-right two thirds of the screen. A very haunting yet intriguing sight.
Besides man-made structures and the mountains, we can also see parts of their path towards the reactor. While the linear distance from the cliff to the reactor isn’t far, a direct path seems to be way too treacherous, so the party must take the long way around. Which incidentally looks quite similar to the route they take in the original game. Walking towards the right and moving along the snake path which eventually leads towards the reactor to the left. The famous rope bridge along this path looks to be out of sight in the trailer.
Notice how the goal tracker on the compass line leads towards a point somewhere within the jagged landscape and not the reactor. My money is on that goal being the rope bridge. After falling from it, they need to move along another snake path around the mountain’s foot to reach the reactor from below. Which leads me to believe that this higher and horizontal road above the buildings below may have been the desired road before the rope bridge snapped under their combined weight.
While this unfortunately wasn’t the case in the original game, we can now see our destination long before actually reaching it. Which I think is a great choice from a game design perspective. We’re not even halfway there but are already presented with the visuals of our destination. Instead of a blind trek through the mountains, we get to have our sight onto our goal along the way, which allows for environmental storytelling and additional travel banter sprinkled in throughout our long journey to make it more bearable and interesting, and to avoid a huge lore dump upon arriving at the reactor.
Quick aside: this part of the game seems quite large as implied by the distance indicator. The rope bridge is over 1 kilometer away from Nibelheim’s north exit and there’s still over 900 meters to go from the overlook. This is even brought up in the same Famitsu interview and Nomura confirms the large nature of this part of the game and Rebirth in general.
Famitsu: “The distance to the destination at the top of the screen showed that the field seemed quite large.”
Nomura: “I can't say much about it yet, but it is large.”
[…]
Famitsu: “There's a sense of openness with the vastness of the world, a sense of excitement that the journey is finally about to begin. […]”
Nomura: “Yes, I think you can feel the openness of starting a journey in "FFVII Rebirth" as well. […]”
Location
As mentioned earlier, both shots with Cloud and Sephiroth are a part of Cloud’s flashback to the Nibelheim incident, specifically when they first leave Nibelheim to travel to the Mako reactor located in Mt. Nibel. But wait, wouldn’t we also need to see Tifa and those 2 security officers walking alongside them? Plus, Tifa is their guide. Shouldn’t she be leading the group? Well, not necessarily.
She’s not yet an adept fighter and her father Brian wants Shinra to keep her safe, so she’s better off walking behind Cloud/Zack and Sephiroth with the security officers watching their rear. Many monsters are still roaming the mountains after all. Traces of Two Pasts even mentions Cloud’s father having gone missing in those mountains with only his belongings left behind, never to return. It is believed that monsters got to him, as the following excerpt from the book explains:
“He was like the wind. Never could settle down. One day [...] Claudia’s man said he was gonna head off to the mountain, and that was that. Never saw him again. Some time later, a few of the villagers found his pack. Who knows what happened? Maybe he was gobbled up by a monster.”14
With this in mind, Tifa and the security officers may be trailing behind and are thus merely out of view. It is also possible that the developers made them invisible on purpose so the trailer can focus on Cloud and Sephiroth.
In the same answer in which Nomura-San tells the interviewer where this scene takes place, he notes that they specifically disabled some visual elements for the trailer.
Interviewer: “[…] is the scene where Cloud and Sephiroth are walking a reminiscence of the past by Cloud?”
Nomura: “Yes. Due to information restrictions, some of the display has been erased, […]”.
Maybe Cowgirl Tifa and the security officers received a visual change or update from their Remake versions and Square Enix wanted to hold off on their reveal until a later showcase.
Trailer Direction
At the beginning of this video, I mentioned that there’s a significance in splitting up the scene with Zack and Cloud, so let’s get to it now.
If you merge those 2 parts together, they form a continuous scene. Nothing was removed. But with moving the second half to the end of the trailer, the scene with Zack envelops the flashback scenes.
Why does this matter?
This structure basically describes the nature of this Remake project. The core remains the same but will be expanded upon, as represented by the flashback scenes. That core is then wrapped into a new mystery that differs greatly from the original, as represented by those 2 halves of the scene with Zack.
Quite poignant, isn’t it?
Changeable Future? His Endgame? An Impostor? Failed who? | Game Analysis #29
I promised to deliver more analysis of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth First Look teaser trailer and so I shall. In this article, we dig deep into the dialogue spoken within and its enigmatic scene transitions. I know it has been almost a year since its release
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth First Look Teaser Trailer was published on June 17th 2022.
“Dilly-dally shilly-shally!” —Tifa Lockhart
Video essay about Aerith’s Secret, episode 24 of our Game Analysis video series, which is part of the FFVII Remake Mysteries sub-series on our YouTube channel.
Quote translated and hosted by thelifestream.net.
Midgar timeline in the Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania book on page 258.
Church artwork comment in the Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania book on page 135.
Final Fantasy VII Timeline in the Final Fantasy VII Remake World Preview book on page 65.
Midgar’s plate number 6 collapses in 1976, 31 years prior to Final Fantasy VII’s events in 0007.
Famitsu interview with Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura from July 7th 2022. (translated by DeepL, cleaned-up by Vyzzuvazzadth)
Zack Fair, in case you’re wondering.
Description of the Gunnthra river in the Light Novel Traces of Two Pasts on page 22.
The Prose Edda was written by the Icelandic chieftain, poet, and historian Snorri Sturluson, probably in 1222–23.
Excerpt from the Wikipedia entry about Hvergelmir.
Description of the fate of Cloud’s father in the Light Novel Traces of Two Pasts on page 39.
WHITE FEATHER
Perhaps, also, "Rebirth" for Zack? And another meaning behind the title itself: FFVII Rebirth.
Nomura's comment on RbU, 2024: https://x.com/ShinraArch/status/1909739280706277790
(pun on "Angel" and/or "Angeal")
White Feather symbolism: https://www.wikihow.com/White-Feather-Meaning
(also represent new beginnings; purity, truth, justice, love, and divine protection; commonly associated with angels)