Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the middle chapter in the ambitious project to remake one of the greatest video games of all time, hit PC in February of this year. It brought with it its many, often aggravating, mini-games, and by virtue of now being on a more open platform, the potential for modders to expand what we can do with a modern take on such a classic setting and cast of characters. One modder has taken to Reddit to show off a fun little project that replaces Cloud and Aerith with Squall and Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII. It’s clearly a work in progress, but it sure is cool-looking!
Reddit user ReforgedStudio recently shared two posts showing off Rinoa and her BF Squall in various scenes from the 2024 remake of FF7. As many commenters have pointed out, some of the facial expressions look a little funny, but hey, it’s a work in progress and I’m sure not an easy one at that.
ReforgedStudio has shared a few other neat mod projects on Reddit, such as Squall, Rinoa, and even Yuna from FFX showing up in 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Even with some doll-faced expressions, it’s a nice look at how our meddlesome, witch-slaying teenagers might fare in a fancy, big-budget remake of their own. And you know what, I think FF8 might’ve been an even better candidate for a remake project that fools around with possible multiple timelines and recurring events.
I’ll defend the FF7 remake project’s silly little narrative that sorta implies there are multiple versions of the same events of the original game’s timeline happening all at once, but really, FF8’s narrative was made for such a retelling. Why? Well, I’ll have to spoil a 26-year old game to explain that.
Like any classic FF game, FF8 had multiple layers of plot twists. After finding out that Squall and crew all grew up together in an orphanage before their bonds with the summoned Guardian Forces drained their memories, we also learn that the very existence of Squall’s mercenary group, SeeD, was created after a sorceress traveled back in time to bestow Squall with the task of eliminating sorceress Ultimecia, who sought to do some funny business with time, collapsing it in on itself or something (sounds an awful lot like Sephiroth’s goals in Rebirth, come to think of it).
What this boils down to is this: FF8 is a story of meddling with the past, literally, to change the future.
So not only is time travel native to the lore of FF8’s setting, but the theme of recurring events would make for a much more natural remake built on that premise. FF7 does have themes of spirits and the flow of energy across time and space, but what the remake project does with it is a bit of a stretch.
And hey, maybe then we can finally all admit that Rinoa is Ultimecia, regardless of what some guy said.
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