Throughout the years Final Fantasy has had an odd relationship between its games. Each seems to exist in its own world, save for the odd spin-off or semi-sequel to certain titles. So while IV, VIII, X and XIII all have sequels or trilogies, the rest tend to be stand alone games. Well, apparently that ends today.
Leaked documents from SquareEnix have revealed that the long awaited Final Fantasy VII remake will feature a major retcon to the timeline. No longer will the games be stand-alone releases, but a series of eras set on the same planet, with each one following into the next. This has, admittedly, been hinted at for some time with II featuring a number of likely links to IV and the fact that X-2 was long hinted to be a distant prequel to VII.
However, the way in which SquareEnix is planning to execute this retcon has raised a number of eyebrows. Rather than featuring a single direct Zelda-esque shattered timeline, they are instead planning to use Marvel's Exiles as an inspiration. Leading all the way back to the original Final Fantasy, the Light Warriors of that game never truly returned to their home timeline.
With Garland having shattered time, the Light Warriors' link to their home was lost. This forced them to jump from one semi-connected reality to the next, and inhabiting the bodies of characters from that era. Each game is, as a result, less the story of those characters than the wider efforts of the Light Warriors to deal with the major threat of that era and move on. And so the Light Warriors find themselves leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that their next leap will be the leap home.
Other major additions to the series now include the revelation that Lightning is quite literally the goddess of the Final Fantasy universe, while Moogles will serve as a gestalt Satan entity. This contradicts the previously established role of Chaos and Cosmos, but it has been reported that this will be dealt with in a Kingdom Hearts III DLC. The fate of both characters will be resolved in an event which features Sora teaming up with both Boba Fett and Doctor Doom to seal them away inside the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Other retcons include swapping the roles of Cait Sith and Barret, along with switching both the genders of Tifa and Cid along with their character models. It has even been hinted that Sephiroth himself might be removed from the game, and will be replaced by Dane from The Quiet Man.
Expect more on this story if it develops.
You got me with this one, but only for the first paragraph, and only because I'm a long-time reader. As soon as you hit the second paragraph it stopped being the reactionary-style reporting you usually do, and became more of a by-the-facts style news report that was a giveaway. If this was up on anywhere else though I could see myself or somebody else getting tricked until possibly the second last (or maybe the last if they don't know who Moogles are) paragraph.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was somewhat intentional on my part. I was writing more in the manner I used back when I was writing for Starburst Magazine over on here. That and, to be honest, I wanted to hold back on the weapon's grade crazy for a little longer than usual with this one.
DeleteImpossibly, I didn't even flinch at Lightning as a universal omnigoddess(Good God, no), but then moogles kicked in and i was
ReplyDeletefinally embarassed with myself, just like the last april :3
Great job, it felt genuine.