A few days ago, a leak telling of the existence of a Final Fantasy 7 Remake demo on the PS store found its way online, sending fans and followers of the game alike into a state of hype. However, the leak came without any official confirmation from Square Enix, so whether or not the demo was real was questionable.
Today, however, another leak has surfaced, and it apparently not only confirms the demo's legitimacy but reveals that the demo showcases Final Fantasy 7 Remake's intro.
The intro starts with Aerith listening to the lifestream emitting from one of Midgar's pipes when something startles her. Succumbing to paranoia, she rushes out of the alley into a populated sidewalk, bumping a pedestrian and spilling some of her flowers. As she kneels and picks up the flowers, another pedestrian steps on her last. She holds the trampled flower to her chest in something like mourning before looking up to the night sky. The camera follows her look to reveal the whole of Midgar.
Elsewhere, Cloud rides the outside of a train to a Shinra Corp Mako reactor. Upon arrival, Cloud's Avalanche team members Barret, Briggs, Jessie, and Wedge take out some Shinra guards patrolling the area. Barret calls Cloud down from the train, and the mercenary makes his grand entrance like in the game awards trailer.
As expected, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake intro mirrors that of the original one from Final Fantasy 7 -- barring some distinctive differences, of course. Like the initial intro, Aerith listens to the lifestream of the planet through a pipe in the alleyway. Unlike the original, however, she's startled into leaving the alley, bumps into citizens, and losses one of her flowers. The camera pans out to show the whole of Midgar just the same.
On Cloud's end, he and his team still ride the train to the Mako reactor like in the original intro, but the new one shows Cloud looking cool and brooding as he does it. It also reimagines how his team takes out the Shinra guards: In the original, we see Briggs take out the first guard, but Remake implies that Jessie does it. Briggs instead locks down the second guard while Jessie incapacitates him. Barret's dialog for telling Cloud to get down is different too.
As a final note, the demo will let players decide how their camera will operate, and allow them to choose the difficulty of their playthrough. It also implies that it will enable players to experience the whole of the first part of the story titled "Chapter 1: The Destruction of Mako Reactor 1." Square Enix has yet to comment on the demo, but if leaks like this continue to surface, its only a matter of time.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake currently releases on March 3rd, 2020, for PS4.