An interesting thing about a game that has perhaps the most spoiled moment in video games is that when you play through it for the first time, you can’t exactly get that thought off your mind. The second cloud meets Aerith it becomes tragedy, a slowly marching clock to when the big moment comes. And in between those moments you play a pretty good rpg. I suppose this sort of inevitability is what the remake trilogy thrives on, even for my own personal time spent in 7’s occasionally industrial mostly classic fantasy world I am, in some way creating my own final fantasy 7 remake. Every time you use an ability is a reminder of what’s going to come next, a cute date sequence becomes the closest thing both characters have to what could have been, and even if you’re able to recognize the point of which it happens you hope in the back of your mind that it won’t happen, that maybe there’s a one in a trillion chance she lives. But then Sephiroth plunges down and shifts the story.

A less spoken on benefit to one of gaming’s biggest spoilers is that it acts as a lightning rod for the rest of the game. While I may have the cutscene of Aerith’s deaths memorized through sheer cultural osmosis, I saw even more beautiful, quiet and poignant stories about people who live in a beautiful world and wish to fight for it. The world of Final Fantasy VII is full of people, people with dreams and aspirations who may impact your life even if they were in them for a brief moment. Memories are a beautiful thing, but they are designed to drift away, leaving mossy ruins where there once was a city.