Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a great game. One of 2020’s best games, even. But we need to talk about the elephant-sized chocobo in the room. Square Enix has marketed FF7 Remake as a superb entry point for folks who have never played the original game. And that’s… really not the case. There is perhaps no better example of this than the sudden ‘reintroduction’ of Zack Fair during Remake’s ending sequence.
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If you’re reading this, there are three distinct possibilities. You’re utterly confused by this dark-haired dude with what appears to be Cloud’s Buster Sword strapped to his back, you simply need a refresher on his identity, or you just really enjoy reading our articles. If it’s that last one… aw, thank you!
The most comprehensive way to learn just about everything you can about Zack Fair is to play Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion. It’s a 2022 remaster of the 2007 PSP FF7 prequel, and it just so happens to feature Zack as its protagonist. Square created it in a bid to provide a richer appreciation for him than his brief appearances in Final Fantasy 7 could provide. We can hardly fault the original game’s writers for giving Zack such a minimalist role; after all, he’s dead before the events of FF7 even begin.
FF7’s early-game flashback scenes paint a picture in which a young Cloud was Sephiroth’s primary partner on the mission to Nibelheim five years earlier. Much later on, we learn the truth. Cloud idolized Zack, and following Zack’s death from a barrage of bullets fired by Shinra troopers, he effectively assumed Zack’s identity. The particulars are more complex, but for the purposes of our article, that’s all you really need to know.
Zack and Cloud were kept as Professor Hojo’s test subjects for nearly five years at Nibelheim’s secret test facility. Hojo labeled them both failures; Zack’s SOLDIER-related enhancements resisted Hojo’s Jenova cells, while Cloud was unable to bear them, nearly succumbing to toxicosis as a result.
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Zack Fair, Boyfriend To Aerith
Prior to that fateful mission to Nibelheim, Zack met Aerith in Midgar. He was stationed at Shinra HQ alongside his fellow members of SOLDIER, and he met her after falling through the roof of the Sector 5 Church (quite like Cloud eventually would as well). The two eventually became romantically involved, hence Aerith’s curiosity over whether Cloud had ever met Zack during one of her earliest conversations with Cloud some seven years later.
The relationship was doomed, as anyone already aware of Zack’s end when playing Crisis Core for the first time would already know. Zack entrusted his ally Tseng to watch over Aerith – in hindsight, not his best move, but an understandable one in context – and ventured forth to Nibelheim alongside Sephiroth.
Zack Fair, Hero Of The Genesis War
Apologies for the continuing journey backwards into Zack’s origins, but this feels like the right time to mention Zack’s mentor, the SOLDIER First Class veteran Angeal Hewley. Angeal was the initial wielder of the iconic Buster Sword, and he entrusted it to Zack upon his death during the Genesis War – a conflict which began when SOLDIER First Class Genesis Rhapsodos betrayed the organization.
Per the original Final Fantasy 7, Zack entrusted Cloud with the Buster Sword following his escape with the heavily-poisoned younger man and near-successful return to Midgar. Crisis Core revealed a bit of a detour; Zack brought Cloud along first to Zack’s hometown of Gongaga, and then to an underground Shinra facility beneath the ruins of the town of Banora. Here, Zack managed to defeat Genesis, seemingly killing his foe and putting an end to the Genesis War.
Thereafter, Zack and Cloud reached the outskirts of Midgar at last; as was shown in both FF7 and Crisis Core, Zack then perished against Shinra’s assault, saving Cloud and entrusting him with the Buster Sword.
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Zack Fair, Remake Survivor
And now for Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
During Remake’s ending, after Cloud, Aerith, and the others defeat the Whispers (a planetary force which attempts to maintain Final Fantasy 7’s established continuity), players are shown an altered version of Zack’s last stand in which he somehow manages to survive. Some sort of pulse flies past and through the significantly injured Zack – we’re not quite sure what’s up with that just yet – and he successfully carries his friend into Midgar.
Is this an alternate reality? Possibly. Did the strange pulse pull him into ‘our’ reality instead? Maybe. In Episode InterMISSION, a post-launch DLC for Final Fantasy 7 Remake starring Yuffie Kisaragi, we see this revelation unfurl a bit further when Zack visits Aerith’s church with the hope of reuniting with her. Aerith is nowhere to be found.
If Zack is somehow in-sync with the main timeline, where his prior self died as ‘intended’, then Aerith’s out and about with the rest of the party, traveling beyond Midgar’s cold confines into the wider world.
Zack Fair, Rebirth Enigma
As of this writing, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has not yet launched. As a result, we can’t comment on Zack Fair’s role in that game, which will almost certainly expand his presence. Pre-release trailers have even featured him attempting to piece together what’s happening. If further clarification on Zack’s character is deemed necessary in light of whatever it is he does in the second game, we’ll come back to this article and revise it accordingly!
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