Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth ending explained & what could happen next

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has finally arrived and are you curious or perhaps confused about what happens at the end of the game? We’ve got everything you need to know about the ending right here. Full spoiler warning ahead.

Like the FF7 Remake before it, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth covers another large chunk of the events from the original game but in much greater detail. This time, the story roughly covers Cloud and the gang’s escape from Midgar, after raiding Shinra HQ, to their fateful battle with Sephiroth at the Temple of the Ancients.

While events play out similarly to the original, there are some key changes, and it’s safe to say that things are more complicated than ever as we hurtle towards the third and final chapter of the FF7 Remake trilogy. Here’s what goes down at the end of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and where it looks like things are heading next.

All about Aerith

As expected, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth ends with the death of Aerith at the hands of Sephiroth and the gang’s next epic battle with the evil One-Winged Angel. Aerith goes to the Temple to pray to the planet because, as she’s a member of the Cetra race, Aerith can commune directly with the Lifestream and encourage the planet to heal itself and resist any negative influence.

However, like in the original, Sephiroth interrupts her prayer with the pointy end of his sword. This time, Cloud nearly manages to save Aerith, but he’s delayed by the Whispers, and Aerith is killed in the remake timeline. The team fights off Sephiroth and defeats him – for now – but mourns the loss of their friend.

Elsewhere, a still-alive Zack Fair joins forces with an also still-alive Biggs in the latter’s quest to keep battling Shinra. As he is unaware of the threat involving Sephiroth, as the character was supposed to have died during the Sector 7 Plate disaster, Biggs now believes he’s the sole member of Avalance and recruits Zack to his cause. Zack is, of course, more than happy to fight Shinra, but his priorities are stopping Sephiroth and reuniting with Cloud and Aerith.

Multiversal Madness

Once again, in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Cloud (and, to some extent, Zack) is an unreliable narrator. Both Aerith’s death and the survival of Zack appear to be happening in multiple timelines, which are bleeding into one another. A timeline showing Aerith possibly avoiding Sephiroth’s attack is shown, suggesting that there is a way her death could be avoided or undone.

Cloud is still able to communicate with an aspect of Aerith even after she’s been killed, as well as a rather trippy conversation with Zack, who suggests their timelines could be merged. Of course, this could all be in Cloud’s head; he is suffering from hallucinations after all, but we’re confident there’s much more to it than this.

For starters, Zack is indeed alive in one new timeline and has interacted with Cloud; the only question is, is this the timeline we’re following? Or are we following multiple timelines that are potentially converging? At this stage, we don’t know, but as the message at the end of the game assures us, nothing is certain until the credits roll on the next and final chapter of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series.

As of right now, though, Aerith is dead, but we’d wager not gone from the story. It appears as though both Aerith, Zack, and characters like Biggs will have more of a role to play in the next game, so the story is far from over. It’s also worth mentioning that two rather large entities, likely weapons, one in Ruby and another in Emerald, come lumbering out of the sea, teasing future battles to come.

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