Simply what was the point of having Aerith (and therefore seemingly Marlene and Red) be able to see the future, only to have this knowledge removed before any real changes could be made. And then having us beat the Whispers to free ourselves from fate, only for nothing to change and for the Whispers to return in the very next game. What was the point?

In addition, we have no explanation yet of what all of the extra worlds even are. I know Sephiroth gives us some explanation at the end of Rebirth, but he does a shit job, and nothing he says can be trusted anyway.

Why the time discrepancy of Zack's arrival in Midgar? Why can everyone remember Cloud from Remake when Zack has clearly been with a comatose Cloud the entire time? Exactly what is the rift in the sky, and why do all of the people in those extra worlds seem to know that it signifies their end? How is it that people can seemingly move from one world to another?

None of it has yet been explained. There are so many questions.

Speaking of questions, in addition to all those I asked at the end of my last playthrough of Rebirth, I've also tried to compile all the other questions I still have. It will be an interesting exercise to come back and see how many get answered during part 3.

• Why did Zack at the end of Intermission go looking for Aerith in the church?
• Are Tifa, Barret and Red in Zack's world(s) dead, or just unconscious like Aerith is?
• Who opened the door to Jenova for Sephiroth in the reactor?
• Why was the news from Zack's world being broadcast on the radio in the inn at Kalm?
• Five years ago, how did Tifa and her dad get to the reactor if the bridge was out?
• Why did Shinra send a chopper to help Tifa when Sephiroth injured her?
• Exactly what did Aerith and Red know about the future? And what does Marlene know?
• Exactly what was covered in all of those little conversations Tifa and Aerith shared in secret? And what did Aerith mouth to Tifa after the Gongaga reactor incident?
• Did Sephiroth actually help Cloud beat the Zolem, or did Cloud do it himself while under Sephy/Jenova influence?
• What is Jenova's link to the Shadowblood Queen?
• What was the point of defeating the Whispers in Remake if they're still around in Rebirth?
• Why did Sephiroth seem so keen for Cloud to go after Gi Nattak?
• What was the point in saving Biggs along with Zack?
• How do people from the other worlds have memories of Remake Cloud if the Cloud in those worlds is comatose and has only just arrived in Midgar?
• After the Roche fight in Nibelheim, Sephiroth (as Glenn) makes a broadcast which Elmyra watches. Was this the Elmyra from the "main" timeline, or the Elmyra that we see with Zack, and the broadcast is happening across multiple worlds?
• Banora is somewhere near Mideel, but was destroyed. Are we going to see the ruins in part 3?
• Where is Rhadore and will we see it on the final world map?
• Why did they link the northern continent to the central and eastern continents? If this was just to restrict exploration in Rebirth, will it change back in part 3?
• Do the Stamps actually mean anything specific, or are they just there to offer a hint to the player that there are multiple worlds going on?
• Were Zack's choices changing the timeline/worlds somehow, or was it that he was technically making all of the decisions at once, and all outcomes were happening at once?
• Why did Sephiroth send the Zack outside the church through the portal? Surely he must have known Aerith might lead him somewhere else.
• Is lifestream really in the star, as Bugenhagen states, or just in the planet and he's spouting nonsense?
• Will the Gi somehow be laid to rest?
• Who discovered us at the end of our conversation with Gi Nattak? It couldn't have been Sephy. He wanted us to go there in the first place.
• What is the significance of whether or not the robed dudes have numbers?
• What is the extent of Wutai's bombing of Midgar?
• If we can rid the world of Jenova once and for all, will the robed people be healed?
• Do the Stamps even matter? Do the crosses in the church even matter? Do any of the different worlds even matter?
• Why doesn't Zack act more shocked, and ask more questions about Biggs knowing Cloud, and Cloud being a merc?
• At the end of Remake, Zack and Cloud are making their way towards Midgar with the tower still standing. Was this a different world to the one we see at the beginning of Rebirth? In addition, when Zack goes to see Hojo at the end of Rebirth, he's in the tower, which is seemingly not destroyed. Though granted, he's only on the ground floor which may still be ok.
• When Zack touches Cloud and then appears by his side, it looks like a black whisper brings him there. And then Sephiroth smiles at them. Perhaps it was Sephy who wanted him there for some reason. Or was he just amused at Aerith's meddling?

What's Next?

Just what lies ahead, in those snowy, northern mountains?

So with all of the questions about the past out of the way, what can I see happening in the future? What will happen in part 3?

Well, like with Rebirth, they seemingly have two options:

1. Actually follow through on the promise of Remake, free us from fate, do something wildly different, and give us a different ending.
2. Do what they did in Rebirth. Have the story end in pretty much exactly the same way as the original, only we get there slightly differently, and have all extra plot spaghetti thrown in for good measure.

Personally, at this point, I am strongly thinking it will be the latter. If they'd had the balls to actually change things then they would have done it in Rebirth, especially at the end.

So the next set of questions has to do with what I think they will change, concerning the timeline of events and geography of the world. For example, in Rebirth we did not go to Rocket Town or Wutai, and certain places had their locations changed on the map. This will no doubt happen again, and I think some places from the original might not even be in the game at all.

In the original, we went to a little village on the shores of the northern continent called Bone Village. I seriously doubt this place will be in the game, as there's no reason for it any more. If it is there, it will probably be where we land the Tiny Bronco before making our way to Icicle Inn on foot through the snowy conditions.

Icicle Inn will absolutely be there, and I think it will be the first main chapter of the game. It's possible we will fly there, and the Bronco will subsequently freeze up and be unavailable to us again. We will 100% learn about Gast, the Cetra and Aerith from recordings in an old lab somewhere. It's very possible this will be a big zone with side content.

We will surely snowboard down to the Great Glacier and climb Gaea's Cliff, but I think this will all be very different mechanically than the original. It would surprise me if the area is a big zone with side quests, but they did it with Gongaga I suppose. And there aren't really all that many new zones to add into the next game.
Snowboarding will of course then be an option in the Saucer later.
Hopefully, whatever they do with these northern zones doesn't continue to change the world map geography too much from the original game's map.

I imagine there will have to be quite a linear section of the game where we descend into the crater, hand over the Black Materia, get Meteor summoned, have the Weapons awaken, lose Cloud, and then get imprisoned. I really don't think they can change the order of events much from the original, unless they really start to surprise us.

I imagine Junon, the planned execution, and the escape will happen much the same. Not sure whether Cid and Vincent will also be captured this time. I think we will probably have to steal the Highwind ourselves, rather than have Cid do it off screen. Cid, Vincent, Yuffie and Red will get the airship, while Tifa, Barret and Cait Sith will escape the gas chamber. I don't think the Weapon will accidentally help free Tifa this time, as I think we will have to fight our way out during the confusion.
It's very possible Scarlet will slap Tifa, but I don't think there will be a full slap fight. This version of Tifa just seems way to badass for that. I think there may be a fight between Scarlet in her mech, and Tifa, Barret and Cait, though Yuffie may also pop up for this.
My initial thought playing Rebirth was that the Midgar 7th will probably be our crew in the Highwind, but as Cloud is not present this probably will not happen. Instead, I think they will rock up again during the submarine section.

I highly doubt we will directly control the Highwind, unless they make the world absolutely huge, or use some silly shenanigans to block areas off, like they did with the ocean-going Bronco in Rebirth.
My guess is that we will speak to the crew, and they will take us places, like when the Tiny Bronco was airborne.
There might be 2-3 "anchoring" places in each zone, scattered around like the chocobo stops, where we can "park" and climb down the ladder.

The next section of the game is where it could be very different. There's the whole search for Cloud, Tifa leaving the party to look after him in Mideel, the rest of the crew searching for the huge materia, and then the huge moment of Tifa and Cloud going into the lifestream.

I'm not even sure if the search for all the different huge materias will even be a part of this new story. It always just seemed a bit crowbarred into the original. My money is on the Weapon attacking much sooner and sending Cloud and Tifa into the lifestream earlier than before.
If it does happen, will Cid still be the new party leader during this section? I do not know, but I think it might be Barret, especially as we have to go back to North Corel. Also, trying to think back to the geography of North Corel during Rebirth, I don't even think the train goes straight into the town any more, right?

When Cloud comes back, and is his true self at last (after a part of the game that I'm hoping is going to be my favourite), I think we will then go straight to the submarine section. I think Shinra will be after one of the Weapons from the last game, as they are after the materia in its chest, and we will go down in a sub to stop them.
Maybe they will get one of the Weapons but we help save the other. They can then use that one materia in the rocket to try and blow up the meteor. This will enable us to finally visit Rocket Town and meet Shera, who will be absolutely adorable. It is also here we can have our last fight with Palmer, echoing the fight at this location in the original.

Outside of this, I really can't imagine what they will do, whether it be the same or different. We clearly must learn about Aerith and Holy. We will need to go back to Bugenhagen to see him off. Somehow we're going to have to fight the Weapons, and we've most certainly got to deal with Hojo back in Midgar. Would have been far easier if we just killed him on the beach at Costa Del Sol though, right?

The whole end section going into the crater to deal with Sephiroth is probably where shit will go crazy, and the majority of any new things happen. In both Remake and Rebirth, it was the end battles where things went off the rails, and I assume it will be much the same here. Ultimately, I will be shocked if Aerith and/or Zack end up back in reality at the end of it. They will both probably help the party through some lifestream shenanigans, but surely they are both gone at this point.

It will be interesting to see if anything new happens, to actually get rid of Sephiroth and/or Jenova for good.

So where will Wutai fit? Well, I'm really not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't show up at all, or that it was later DLC. I can't actually see a reason to go there, unless this new war that is kicking off between Wutai and Shinra leads us to going there for something. Though to be fair, I think they need to create all the new zones they can, so may have to add it in. I just really don't want to have to deal with the Don again, but it would be cool to finally kill him off.
Perhaps Leslie can be here, and we can get a conclusion to that story also.

My guess is that we will be able to breed chocobos to get a gold one, but it won't take anywhere near as long. It would be cool if we were able breed the other chocobos from around the world, to produce new birds that have both of their parents' abilities. Not sure if they should make racing part of the required process, but a successful gold chocobo would end up with all 4 of its parents' skills.
Then somewhere out in the world there can be an important cave on an island, containing an important materia, that we can only reach with a gold chocobo, using all four of its skills to get there.

When all's said and done, I'm convinced at this point that nothing much will change. They're just giving us the same story, just with extra bits added in. This way, all of the old compilation stuff does not become invalidated.

I'm pretty sure part 3 will have DLC, which will no doubt be Wutai unless it's in the base game. Outside of that, I could see something about Vincent, or an interesting curve ball would be for it to be about Aerith and/or Zack as they continue the struggle against Sephiroth in the lifestream.

I'm also fairly confident that a few years later we will get a remaster of Dirge Of Cerberus, hopefully with a bit of a story rewrite to make it better in multiple ways. Unfortunately, it sounds like they didn't do this with Crisis Core, and therefore it's still batshit crazy, which is why I'm still hesitant to play it. Whether or not we get a Vincent DLC or a new Dirge of Cerberus, I think Vincent's gameplay in part 3 will have 3rd person shooter elements, with targeting reticule. This will keep his gameplay more unified over the different games as well.

Well that's all I've got for the moment. I reckon they are aiming at a 2027 release for part 3 to hit the 30th anniversary, so lets hope they make it so we don't have to wait longer for all these answers.

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