The Final Fantasy 7 Remake Scene We're Worried About
Final Fantasy 7 was originally released in 1997 and quickly found success, becoming the second-best-selling game on the Playstation with over 9,800,000 copies sold. But for over two decades now, fans have been waiting for a remake.
Some have cited translation errors that accompanied the game's initial release in North America, making an already complex narrative even harder to follow. Typos and translation errors aside, though, the biggest reason fans have been clamoring for a remake is because they want to see how their favorite game looks with all the benefits of new technology.
While the idea of seeing our favorite characters rendered in high definition with photo-realistic textures is an exciting one, there are some scenes that may not translate very well into this new realistic environment. Like this one; the Final Fantasy 7 remake scene we're worried about the most.
The original Final Fantasy 7 was full of emotional and heart-wrenching moments, along with many lighthearted and even silly scenarios. While the more serious scenes in the original game will translate beautifully into this new reboot, the sillier scenes may be a harder pill to swallow. For example: the crossdressing scene.
In this scene, Cloud and Aeris attempt to infiltrate a mansion in order to rescue Tifa. The problem? No men are allowed inside. This leads to a series of quests that result in Cloud crossdressing in order to gain entrance into the mansion, where Cloud, Aeris, and Tifa all try to win over the affections of a man named Don Corneo.
If Cloud is selected, he is taken back to Don's private room, where — shortly after — he reveals himself to be a man. Aeris and Tifa then break in and threaten Don with some very specific and ominous promises regarding the demise of his manhood. And as you've probably guessed, there are some problems with this.
With this new remake promising to be photorealistic and gritty, the idea of turning Cloud into a believable woman with whatever he can find at the Wall Market might not translate quite as well. Without older graphics to forgive any obvious tells of Cloud's masculine form, he could simply look like a man in a dress, and that brings with it even more issues of the entire scene being perceived as too jokey and insensitive toward marginalized groups.
Unless the scene is handled very carefully, the game could be called out as too offensive towards the trans community, turning into a P.R. nightmare that could possibly damage sales. It doesn't necessarily need to be removed; the creators of the remake just need to keep these various factors in mind while reworking that scene for a modern audience and modern technology.
We'll see how Square Enix handles the scene when Final Fantasy 7 remake drops in 2020.