The Final Fantasy 7 Remake makes some changes to the original, mainly by filling in subtle character details and story gaps. One of the bigger changes is to the villainous Sephiroth, who appears much earlier than he did in the original. In an interview on the Square Enix blog, producer Yoshinori Kitase explained the rationale behind the change.

　　"The way we handled Sephiroth in the original Final Fantasy VII was to hide him--hold him back," Kitase said. "You may not know this, but I was inspired by the movie Jaws which took a similar approach of teasing this powerful presence, but never fully showing you the shark until later in the story. We wanted to build him up as this really big, powerful character in people's minds. By only referring to him indirectly, it created this feeling of fear and oppression--so when he makes his first appearance, it's a big deal."

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　　But, Kitase explained, Sephiroth has become too well-known nowadays. His iconic status means using that same approach of holding him back isn't as effective as a storytelling mechanic.

　　The other reason, he said, was a function of the multi-part saga. Since this is just the first entry of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, he wanted to make sure to lay some narrative groundwork.

　　"Sephiroth is this massively overarching presence that looms over the whole Final Fantasy VII saga," he said. "We wanted to make sure that aspect of him was present in this first game in the project--that's why we have introduced him much earlier in the story now."

　　The earlier introduction of Sephiroth may also play into the ending and setting the stage for the second part. For a thorough look at the ending and what it might mean for the future, read up on our (very spoiler-filled) FF7 ending explained.

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