Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Fan Theory Hints At A Major Story Change

As Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s February 29 release date grows ever closer folks are getting antsy about seeing beloved characters like Cait Sith (pronounced “Kate Sihth,” apparently) Vincent Valentine, and Cid party up with Cloud. Although creative director Tetsuya Nomura has already confirmed that the aforementioned characters will join Cloud in combat similarly to how Red XIII did in Final Fantasy VII Remake, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be introduced in the same order as in the original game. We don’t even know where Rebirth will end given the remake trilogy’s altered timeline. But one fan believes their wild theory pinpoints where Rebirth will end, and it involves FFVII’s cigarette-smoking scientist, Cid.

In 1997’s Final Fantasy VII, Cid joins the crew long before they make their way to the City of Ancients, a place we’ve seen the Rebirth cast explore in the latest trailer. But for whatever reason the Rebirth trailers still haven’t shown off Cid, despite revealing other, arguably bigger, characters like the vampire-coded Vincent Valentine. And this Reddit user believes they know why.

Yesterday, nikokow59 shared a screenshot from the Final Fantasy VII Trivia Twitter account to the FFVIIRemake subreddit about a scrapped story beat of the classic game that would have prevented Cid from joining Cloud and crew until an even later point in the game. According to the FF7_Trivia tweet, Cid wouldn’t have joined the party until after Sephiroth summoned Meteor. Talk about cutting things close to the buzzer beater. Another tidbit of this scrapped concept involved Shinra sending Cid out on a suicide mission to offset the celestial body with a rocket of his own making, as if he was in some video game version of the 1998 Bruce Willis film, Armageddon.

“In the OG [Cid] didn’t really need to follow the party, so this time that could be a good reason,” Nikokow59 wrote.

Nikokow59’s theory would also suggest that Cid’s famous rocket experiment, which originally took place before the events of FFVII, would instead be a part of Rebirth’s story and serve as the game’s cliffhanger. That would make a lot of sense considering there’s still an entire third game to come to complete the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy. Do you think Nikokow59’s theory holds water, or will Square Enix end Rebirth on a different note?

Either way, we’ll have to wait a while to find out, as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth doesn’t launch until February 29 on PlayStation 5.