Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade just released its final trailer before launch on June 10th for the PlayStation 5. The trailer showed off several new elements that had only been rumored or discussed in interviews like new summon Ramuh, the new iteration of the Fort Condor mini-game, and new story elements for Yuffie's DLC chapter. Yet another character from Dirge of Cerberus is making their way into FF7 Remake with Nero the Sable shown off near the end of the trailer.
Fans were excited to receive new information with Intergrade's most recent trailer and were likely not surprised to see more Compilation of FF7 content ending up in the new story chapter. After the shock of Weiss' debut in the first trailer for Intergrade, fans have now begun speculating about how the spin-off content will be worked into the new version of FF7's story. While the events of Dirge of Cerberus happen several years after the events of the original game, the forces that impacted that game's narrative were already in motion before Cloud even returned to Midgar.
What is Deepground in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade
It's worth noting that this is all speculation based on the events of the spin-off games in Compilation of FF7, given how much FF7 Remake has already changed about the plot of the original. While most of the major changes are likely to be reserved for after the finale of FF7 Remake, now that Cloud and the gang have defeated the Whispers and defied their fate, certain elements before that are still being modified. So it's likely that the machinations of Deepground and its most elite soldiers, the Tsviets, will remain largely intact. Now that it's been made clear that Yuffie and Sonnon will interact with Deepground during the new DLC chapter, who those characters are are likely on the mind of fans who may have missed the PS2 spin-off game.
Intergrade is likely to change even more about Final Fantasy 7 Remake but some things are likely to remain. Nero is one of the Tsviets, yet another super soldier program developed by Professor Hojo and funded by Shinra. This program has a different method than the ones that created SOLDIERs, Cloud, and Sephiroth. Deepground's research revolved around adapting naturally occurring forces to create its bioweapons. Instead of utilizing the cells from Jenova, an alien force that fell to the planet that was used to engineer Sephiroth, Deepground's experiements revolved around the Weapons that were created by the planet itself.
Throughout the original FF7 the Weapons appear in response to the threat presented by Sephiroth. Players encounter them in various stages both as story and optional boss fights and represent the planet's power to defend itself.
Who is Nero in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade
Nero, Weiss, and the other Tsviets were engineered by utilizing energy from the Lifestream (also called Mako) untainted by Jenova's cells or other influence. The Protomateria (which may end up being the materia that Yuffie was sent to recover) allowed Hojo and Deepground to tap into Omega's essence to empower its soldiers. Another force called Chaos is also part of its experimentation, first pioneered by Hojo during his experiments on Vincent Valentine. Ironically the research that turned Vincent into the "monster" that he is now was first begun by his own father. FF7 Remake needs to be careful with many elements it brings in from spin-off content, and this entire subset of events will need to be well-incorporated to avoid convoluting an already crowded plot.
It's becoming harder to predict anything about FF7 Remake Part 2, and how Weiss and Nero's backstories are no exception. Nero making his way to the game in the same chapter as Weiss canonically though because the two are brothers. Nero has an essentially pathological dependency for his brother and represents the other side of Weiss' personality. After years of brutal research, the Tsviets are all some degree of violent and misanthropic towards humanity at large. But while Weiss is generally shown to be calm and collected throughout Dirge of Cerberus Nero is prone to fits of rage and other uncontrolled emotions.
Nero's outfit is also important, the suit was designed to supply him with Mako energy to fuel his powers. After being deemed too powerful to control along with his brother, Nero was placed in a sort of straitjacket to restrain him and was imprisoned deep under Shinra headquarters. While the trailers only show Weiss battling in what appears to be the VR space players can battle other powerful monsters like Bahamut in FF7 Remake, Nero evidently breaks free from his restraints. The trailer shows a brief glimpse of a boss fight between Yuffie and Nero, and it's likely that this will result in Nero being imprisoned again until either the events of Dirge of Cerberus are retold or if the newly possible alternate narrative leads to he and Weiss escaping earlier than before.
Nero is yet another way older content is being brought to FF7 Remake. Previously there were only subtle hints at Compilation of FF7 content being brought into the new game, but now it seems that Intergrade will be the stage where these spin-off stories will begin new life. It's certainly going to be interesting to see Square Enix manage both recreating the events of the original game while blending the various spin-off elements into its main narrative. Zack's survival (whether that be in an alternate timeline or not) and the presence of Nero and Weiss also implies that Crisis Core's story will be integrated as well.
Only time will tell if Intergrade bringing in spin-off content will be good overall for the full remake project or not, but it's now evident that it's going to be happening in a big way. The possibility of a new version of FF7's events where players are simultaneously dealing with the threat of Sephiroth and that of Deepground definitely could be something engaging for fans of the series going forward.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade releases June 10th for the PlayStation 5.
