How Much Of Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Story Is New?

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is one of the most ambitious remakes in video game history, and Square Enix has gone all-in on recreating the influential RPG. With much of the original development team back, Final Fantasy 7 Remake tries to honor the original game while also doing new things.

This leaves fans wondering just how much of the Remake is new content, and how faithfully it sticks to the original. While it’s hard to give an exact percentage, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake features a wealth of new content, making it worthwhile for even the oldest of fans.

The overall story beats have remained the same in the Remake, but Square Enix has embellished and fleshed out the world and characters at every opportunity. Here’s how much Final Fantasy 7 has been altered with the PS4 remake.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Hits the Same Story Beats, Mostly

The overall narrative structure of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake remains mostly the same from the original game. The story hits the same beats with the bombing of Reactor 1 and 5, Cloud accompanying Aerith in the Slums, Wall Market, the Shinra Building, etc. While these same beats happen, Square Enix has added a ton of new content into the mix, while also altering how things happen. For example, in the bombing of Reactor 1 it’s now Shinra that ultimately blows it up, and Sephiroth appears to Cloud in visions much earlier this time around.

In terms of new content, there’s an entirely new segment where Cloud accompanies Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie to a Shinra warehouse to helps steal bomb materials. This also introduces Avalanche as a massive organization, rather than just a small eco-terrorist cell. On top of that, the ending of the Remake is totally different than the original game. Without spoiling anything, the ending opens up a world of opportunities on how future games could diverge from the original story even more. Those are the two major story additions, but there are other smaller details as well.

New Characters in Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Final Fantasy 7 has some of the most well-established characters out there, and Square Enix doubles-down on providing character development for most of them. However, they’ve also added a couple of new characters into the mix, some of which have fairly important roles. The first new addition is a SOLDIER 3rd-Class named Roche, a motorcycle-obsessed enemy that Cloud and party have to fight.

Wall Market is where most of the new characters appear, with Cloud and Aerith having to gain the approval of the Trio (Madam M, Chocobo Sam, and Andrea Rhodea) in order to see Don Corneo. These characters aren’t integral to the overall story, but they do completely change the way Wall Market plays out. Outside of them, two characters have been worked into the Remake that appeared in a spin-off novel called The Kids Are Alright. The first is Leslie Kyle, a young man that works for Don Corneo, while the second is a Kyrie Canaan, a mischievous girl that lives in the Sector 5 Slums.

Story Changes in Final Fantasy 7 Remake

There are certain changes that Final Fantasy 7 Remake makes to the original story, on top of looping in new elements. The biggest of these is the fate of Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, as it’s suggested all three survived the events in Midgar. A couple of details during the infiltration of the Shinra building are changed as well. For one the mayor is a full-blown member of Avalanche that actively helps the party, along with Wedge. The party also gets trapped by Hojo in his lab and has to battle monsters as a form of experiment. Of course, the biggest change is the Whispers, mysterious cloaked figures that appear multiple times. Players learn late in the game that the Whispers are the physical manifestation of destiny, and their purpose is to ensure events stay on the right timeline, i.e. how they happened in the original.

The amount of changes and new content in Final Fantasy 7 Remake is honestly staggering, and Square Enix clearly views the game as the next step in the franchise, rather than just a remake. Things will likely be changed even more from here on, but the first part of the remake does manage to stay mostly faithful to the PS1 game.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is currently available on PS4.

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