With the recent release of the second portion of the Final Fantasy VII remake, many fans of the series who are either not mobile gamers or not particularly fond of gacha mechanics skipped Ever Crisis. But now they have been asking about the stories found only within the mobile RPG and if they serve any plot relevance to the overarching narrative of the remake trilogy. I am here today to guide you through the confusing multimedia storytelling that FF7 has become known for, and to connect the dots between some new faces found in Rebirth that may have players who skipped Ever Crisis slightly confused.
What is Ever Crisis?
Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis was released a few months ago, and acts as a sort of collection of the entire extended universe of Final Fantasy VII’s world. This includes summarized stories of even the most obscure parts of this project, such as Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, which was a flip phone-only semi-story relevant experience released way back in the mid-2000s.
Currently, the game only has story chapters for the original FF7, Crisis Core (a prequel to FF7), and an entirely new story called The First Soldier. This is the one we will be focusing on, as it introduces plot elements relevant to the remake.
What is The First Soldier?
The First Soldier is a storyline found in Ever Crisis that primarily focuses on a young Sephiroth, FF7’s primary antagonist, as well as some of his companions from back in the day when he was operating as a normal military trooper under Shinra. To save time, we’ll assume you already have a base familiarity with the general workings of the universe and are aware that Sephiroth was indeed once a relatively normal fellow who simply followed orders and went where he was needed.
While this storyline technically involves characters originally introduced in the now-shutdown mobile battle royale of the same name, that connection is mostly irrelevant for the bigger events, so let’s dig in.
A brief look at The First Soldier’s story events
This chapter revolves around three new characters, one of whom is of interest in terms of connection to the main plot. Essentially, Sephiroth and a collection of other Soldiers go on an operation to destroy some resistance elements on a distant island unrelated to the main game, and you get to see Sephiroth opening up to his squad, including a man by the name of Glenn Lodbrok.
Glenn is the most important character found in this storyline and is also the one who actually shows up in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth about midway through the main storyline. Despite his story in The First Soldier ending on a relatively positive note in terms of his relationship with Sephiroth, he is later seen attacking Sephiroth, implying that he is some sort of hero who has rather suddenly become an enemy of Shinra, who he was originally working for.
The reasons for this switch up are not yet clear, and it all becomes hazy when, at the very end of The First Soldier’s story, President Rufus of Shinra nobility shoots and kills Glenn after he became a sort of resistance fighter, defecting from Shinra and leading a coup d’etat against Wutai, Shinra’s mortal enemy, becoming the new governmental body for the nation and inciting war against Shinra despite the two being in a relatively peaceful era at the time.
Yes, this is all just as confusing to those of us who have played Ever Crisis as it is to those who have not. While The First Soldier opens up about the origins of Glenn and his relationship with Sephiroth, he is still an extremely mysterious character who was seemingly resurrected from the dead and is now playing a pretty pivotal role in the remake trilogy’s story.
To sum it all up
Glenn is the most direct connection from the mobile RPG to the true remake trilogy, but even still, having played it myself, the connections are vague at best due to just how mysterious and unsolved he is as a character. So, if you’re looking for the most simple answer, Ever Crisis is hardly what I would call required reading to understand the plot of Rebirth, and you could pretty easily get away without playing a single minute of it if you so chose. Still, the game itself is pretty solid as far as mobile gachas go and offers a ton of fanservice for FF7 fans, so if you’ve already ploughed through Rebirth and need something to fill the hole in your heart, it’s worth a spin based on those merits.
