Small Details You Missed In The Final Fantasy 7 Remake Trailer

Probably the biggest WTF moment of the whole trailer is right in the middle of the big motorcycle chase, when some well-coiffed dandy with a massive sword — the same style as Zack Fair's, it should be noted — shows up to smile at the camera. But the telling part was when Cloud says, "He's a soldier."

Now, the question there, since there's no subtitles, is whether he meant lower-case soldier or all-caps SOLDIER? The latter would actually make the most sense: though we primarily know Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth as the key members of SOLDIER, don't forget that SOLDIER is supposed to be Shinra's personal A-Team of keen-to-kill mercenaries. So, it'd make sense that President Shinra might have a few killers on retainer willing to go after the folks looking to blow up his precious Mako reactor. Still, we don't stick around long enough to find out, so it could be up in the air.

Another sequence that might make you do a doubletake is a moment where our entire crew of intrepid eco-terrorists is parachuting down into the slums. That by itself might just make for a cool little action beat, and it has echoes of when the original game had you parachuting down into what's left of Midgar from the Highwind. What wasn't there before, however, was Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie.

In fairness, that's been a running motif for most of the footage thus far, in that it's an absolute certainty that these three have definitely been upgraded into second-string players in this story instead of just disposable cannon fodder. They're there for the bombing mission, they're there with Barret helping to defend the slums, they're with Cloud on his motorcycle chase. Without a doubt, their roles have been beefed up considerably, which means man it's gonna suck when/if they get offed.

The other major sequence that seems to have been created whole cloth is a scene where the slums are besieged by — well, there's not really another way to put it — ghosts. Why Barret and Jessie are trying to kill ghost with non-ghost guns, who knows, but at least they're trying, right? But it gets more interesting if you actually take a good look at these ghosts. 

These guys bear more than a little resemblance to the hooded figures that wander around Nibelheim muttering nonsense at anyone who'll listen. Those hooded figures turned out to be failed, half-insane clones of Sephiroth. Why they'd be attacking the slums, or why they're all floating around like someone shut down the Ghostbusters' protection grid, no clue. But it does hint that things might be going screwy in Midgar long before Sephiroth himself actually decides to make a physical appearance. 

Of all the things that players fully expected to get a total overhaul going from 1997 to 2019, the entire Don Corneo sequence was the top answer for certain. Notorious for several reasons, most of which involve Cloud in a dress, this sequence represents a Temple of Doom-level derail into insanity that, in a weird way, games could probably use a little more of. But, until today, we were stuck with this, as it was, in all its tacky glory.

The good folks at Square Enix seem to know this, and the trailer spends quite a bit of time showing that this is going to go down very differently. Tifa doesn't wind up a damsel in distress; instead, she is part of the plan from the start, including getting in on the gym action and participating in the lifting contests. Aerith stepping out with her dress is a grand showcase of character modeling, but Cloud is still in his normal clothes, all while Tifa and Aerith tease him. This looks like way more of an organized plan than before, which is great, despite the fact that Don Corneo himself is still a world-class scumbucket.

Probably the biggest realization, putting all this footage we've seen together, is the fact that, to this day, six months from release, Square Enix has not confirmed how exactly this game is being split up for content. We know they're still sticking to episodic-style releases, but they've remained mum as to what each episode will actually contain. 

At the very least, we have a vague idea from the new trailer and its final shot of Cloud, Barret, and Tifa looking out onto complete wreckage. It could only be two things. There is a junkyard which leads to the part of the slums where Aerith and her mom live, and this could easily be our first look at that area. But more crucially, this could be a look at Sector 7 immediately after President Shinra demolishes the lower classes by dropping the plate above them on the city. It's the event that forces the group to leave Midgar and seek help. One option is just a cool visual; the other is, essentially, the first sign that, yes, the game we get in March at least covers that much of the original game. We'll only find out for sure once we get closer.