Square has done what I think most of us considered impossible: They have recaptured the "unreliable narrator" aspect of the original FF7. WE as the audience have no idea what's real or what isn't, and that's quite the accomplishment for a remake of a 25-year-old game. I believe the beginning of FF7R-3 will establish that THAT did, in fact, happen, and that Cloud really is losing his goddamned mind so it sets up the tension right off the bat for what's to come in the finale.

Further proof of Cloud's mind unraveling:  When you start the final battle with Sephiroth, everyone else's Limit breaks are already fully activated in their grief and rage.  Only Cloud's is not activated because he thinks Aerith is still alive.  If you didn't notice that detail, go back and play that part again.

That moment in Remake when you hear Cloud say "That's my line" right at the beginning of the game. Thats when you knew this wasn't the average anime voice over.

Cody Christian was the Cloud we have dreaming of for the past 27 years, and he has fucking nailed it from Remake to Rebirth and I can't wait to see this guy do it again for part 3.

I'm surprised this was a mystery to many, I already figured that Cloud was saying his OG lines.

People gotta remember not only will he relive Aeriths death he’ll have to confront what actually happened to Zack too. They’re both rooting for him so he’ll have to fight for both of them when he comes to terms with his memories. Using Aerith and Zack as his inspirations to fight is gonna hit hard next game

Just wanna say that Maximillian Dood on twitch said this when he finished the game so some of us kinda had an inkling to it. Also what this means is that the lines were recorded. Cloud will have to recognized it happened on part 3 and we will hear and see the scene. We weren’t robbed. We will just go over it next part.

I could imagine the scene playout during the moment when Tifa puts Cloud's mind back together.

Cloud shows that he saved her.. then Tifa says "No, Cloud that's not what happened." with the whole death scene proceeding to be on display including her burial.

I’m glad to hear this because I really liked that scene in the OG and that was something I was looking forward to seeing.

“Shut up. The cycle of nature and your stupid plan don't mean a thing. Aerith is gone. Aerith will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry...... or get angry......” I would cry so much.

The fact that there is mass speculation about if and how Aerith is still alive, is a testament to the success of the storywriter putting us in Clouds mind.

hopefully this means we will get to see cloud lay Aerith's body into the water. thanks for the video explaination. i kinda thought that he was going through extreme denial. it makes perfect sense. it doesnt help that sephiroth is messing with him mind as well.

This scene in particular ruined my childhood and now it takes another blow in my adulthood, well played Square, stop crushing people's souls with incredible traumatic scenes. PS. Dont stop, we all want more

'Cloud saying the OG line as a FLASHBACK'
Its happening fellas

They made this game as close to the original as they could, to give us this very scene at the end is also to make the build ups across the board all the more relevant as well the stakes. Time will tell how they choose to end this phenomenal trilogy

Man I hope part 3 comes soooooner.

Honestly, what I got from the ending was that it only SEEMS like Cloud is losing his mind by seeing Aerith. Nanaki notices her when she touches him, which may be a ghost-thing, but it validates that Cloud isn't simply halucinating. Aerith IS there, whether it's because he's seeing her spirit, or what I think: Aerith said goodbye because she saw her own death at the end of part one, and knew what was coming. The reason Nanaki can sense her isn't because she's a ghost, though. Cloud DID save her, and this is a symptom of the timelines converging that Sephiroth was talking about.

I think Cloud's disjointed because of what he experienced at the end of the game. There's two timelines: one where he successfully parried Sephiroth and saved Aerith, and one where things played out as in the original. That's why he sees the tear in the sky from the altered timeline while everyone else doesn't. That's also why they made the point of showing the Holy material bouncing the way it did in the original. They went out of their way to show that the Holy materia she drops is the white one of the original game's, not the empty one from this game. His consciousness is torn between worlds, so he's not grief-stricken because he DID save her, while everyone else is because the world where he did is a fractured timeline. An Aerith died, but one also lived, so I'm confident she'll return just like Zach did.

I think the scene with aeriths funeral in the water already happened, because the next thing we saw, after aerith was opening her eyes for cloud, is a cut to them all sitting devastated by the water. So probably they had the funeral in the water, but since we see it fom clouds perspective, we now see aerith still alive....so the actual scene, what really happened and how the others saw/experienced everything, will probably come after or during the process of him getting his memories back?!
But they did a fantastic job of making aeriths death so mysterious and unfinished and it makes a lot of sense. We know already how much zacks death effected cloud, so it's not that surprising, that he isn't taking her death very well, too

If this is going to play out this way then I feel there was absolutely no need for the multiverse lol

I am soo happy Cody is voicing Cloud! He just is cloud for me! Such a match!

I almost wish they wouldnt have had her stay behind in the end. I wish she would have "tagged" along and been playable and then it just hits us that we all thought she was with us the whole time and wasnt.

when my dad ended his life in 2009 that night i had a dream where i was outside the house and he walked up to me and everyone was sad inside and he asked why was everyone said. i explained he ended his life that is why.. he said he would never do that and walked away. its sad but its true it was his depression that did it not him. what you were saying in this video brought up that memory of mine