Warning: This article speculates what will be in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth based on the original game. Potential spoilers for FF7 Rebirth may follow.Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion takes players through the world of Gaia during the days when Cloud Strife was just an infantryman. While the first half of the game has players running through Midgar as Zack Fair, things change once he gets sent on a mission to Nibelheim with Sephiroth and Cloud.
Some fans may not be familiar with it, but Nibelheim is a reoccurring location in FF7. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion gives it new visuals to match what fans can expect out of the FF7 Remake version of Nibelheim, as well as updated voice acting. In the remaster, watching the events that change the lives of Sephiroth, Zack, and Cloud has never been more shocking and devastating, and despite burning down, Nibelheim isn't done.
How Nibelheim Connects to Everything in Final Fantasy 7
The simplest way to explain what Nibelheim means to Final Fantasy 7, as well as the entire Compilation, is that it's the catalyst for everything. Nibelheim is Cloud and Tifa's hometown, and the manor there was also the place where the Jenova Project began. When the Mako Reactor nearby atop Mt. Nibel breaks, Zack, Cloud, and Sephiroth are sent to investigate it. There, they run into Genesis Rhapsodos, an ex-SOLDIER deserter, who reveals that Sephiroth was the perfect specimen created from Jenova Project S. This would be the very incident that starts FF7's true story.
Sephiroth looks into Jenova Project S himself, eventually coming to the conclusion he's the chosen child of Jenova and burns Nibelheim to the ground. Zack and Cloud were found in the reactor afterward, and they were turned into test subjects. The two of them were infused with some of Sephiroth's cells and bathed in Mako. After escaping, Zack was gunned down, and the S Cells would use Cloud's trauma from it all to change his identity.
Nibelheim's Role in the Future of Final Fantasy 7
In the original Final Fantasy 7, the location was completely rebuilt, but it was never made clear as to why. Still, it left Cloud rather unnerved, and it's one of the first times the mercenary shows huge signs of his past trauma, foreshadowing him as an unreliable narrator. Final Fantasy 7 Remake has already shown Nibelheim through Cloud having a PTSD flashback very early on.
However, in the original game, Cloud remembers the incident in a long, playable flashback where he took Zack's place. Due to how Sephiroth and Zack were on the mission together, this means Cloud and Sephiroth were in a party together for some time. This flashback may be why Cloud and Sephiroth are walking side by side in the FF7 Rebirth trailer.
Nibelheim is an extremely important place in FF7's overarching story and timeline. It serves as the climax to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, it's an important note in Cloud's hero journey afterward, and now it seems FF7 Rebirth will allow fans to visit it for the third time. However, considering the change to the status quo FF7 Remake brought at the end of the game, things could be noticeably different. CC Reunion already seems to be making that known too, as the mountains of Mt. Nibel don't match those in Rebirth's trailer.
Some players may be annoyed that Nibelheim is such a recurring location when it comes to FF7, especially since the village has appeared in The World of Final Fantasy and other titles. However, it's understandable as it serves as the beginning of Cloud's story, both as his hometown and where he was experimented on and made to carry S Cells. Without what happened to him, a big piece of his role in Final Fantasy 7 would be missing. That said, FF7 Remake has made it rather clear that things are going to be different, so fans should be wary that the third Nibelheim visit won't be like the others.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
