The choices made so far in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake have been controversial at times, surprising at others, and a breath of fresh air for many fans of the original. Characters and organizations like the members of Barret's terrorist group AVALANCHE are expanded on in more detail than was previously available in the amount of time that the opening Midgar section had available.
One of these changes, however, involves a connection between Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 10 that originally appeared in the latter title, but has since been basically confirmed to be canon by Square Enix. With the developer returning to the world of Final Fantasy 7, the opportunity has been taken to cement the link into both games, making the connection undeniable at this point.
The Connected Final Fantasies Easter Eggs
Originally appearing in Final Fantasy 10, the Easter Egg involves a character from Final Fantasy 10-2 named Shinra, who was created by scenario writer Kazushige Nojima with the original intent of connecting the two worlds. Later releases of Final Fantasy 10 also included a cameo of the child where he mentions wanting to start a power company somewhere, pulling energy from the game's ethereal Farplane. Nojima has also mentioned in the Final Fantasy 7 Ultimania Omega, a compendium of series trivia, that the character is related to the Shinra Electric Company, but the company's creation doesn't happen for 1000 years.
In the recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a new Easter Egg connects to Final Fantasy 10, now taking the reference and cementing it into the canon of the series, or at least in the new remake. A picture found in the Shinra Electric Company Headquarters shows President Shinra wearing the mask that the child Shinra wears in Final Fantasy 10. Again confirmed by the Final Fantasy Ultimania, this is a direct reference to the relationship between the two similarly named characters, although it still stands to question if that 1000 year time gap is still in place.
Sin Destroys the Cetra and Jenova
This connection has opened the doors for dozens of fan theories, extending all the way from the connected nature of spheres and the Farplane to materia and the Lifestream, drawing a one-to-one relationship between the concepts. One of the stranger of these theories is how the connected world relates to the fate of the ancient society of Cetra and Final Fantasy 7's secondary antagonist Jenova. In particular, this looks at how the Cetra actually managed to destroy Jenova in the first place, and how they were able to both defeat her, but still were destroyed in the process.
A key to this could come from Final Fantasy 10's background characters, where according to the lore, a creature is summoned into the world to destroy a powerful enemy, but as a result it wipes out the people who summoned it. This is the primary antagonist Sin, who it is revealed over the course of the game is a twisted, corrupted Aeon that was summoned with the intent of fighting back Bevelle's machina powered armies and resulted in the destruction of Zanarkand. The similarities between the Cetra and Zanarkand's summoners are shaky at best, but there is a connection due to the way that the ancient people could relate to the other ancient people.
Farplane is the Lifestream
What has essentially been confirmed is that the what is referred to as the Farplane in Final Fantasy 10 does have a connection to the Lifestream that becomes the center of the conflict in Final Fantasy 7. Again referring to Nojima's own statements, Shinra eventually learns how to extract Mako energy from the Farplane, not the Lifestream, which has interesting implications for Final Fantasy 7 Remake's afterlife. Specifically, there are a number of moments in Final Fantasy 7 where characters fall into and escape from the Lifestream, generally having an existential crisis or two every time this happens.
This could open up Square Enix to include tons of new content in the Lifestream, from passing references to Final Fantasy 10 characters like Yuna, to fully integrating previous themes of the Farplane into certain moments. The key aspect of the Farplane allowing people to see people who have died by thinking about them, or the way fiends are created when the dead aren't sent, could bleed into everything from the Nibelheim revelations to Sephiroth learning forbidden knowledge in the Lifestream. However, with these two afterlife's being linked, that could technically mean that everything that passed through in Final Fantasy 10 exists within Final Fantasy 7, like the summonable Aeons.
Aeons in Final Fantasy 7 Remake
The one place where the connections between the two worlds an make the heaviest impact without straying two far from the original game's story is Final Fantasy 7 Remake's summons. Looking at the Farplane connection to the Lifestream, it can even be assumed that what Final Fantasy 7 refers to as materia are more refined version of the spheres that players can find in Final Fantasy 10. This in turn means that when a player uses a red materia to summon anything from Shiva to Ifrit, then it is possible for this to be a form of summoning the same Faith that create the Aeons that join the players when Yuna calls for help.
If this opens up to some of the more unique Aeons that have only appeared in Final Fantasy 10 to suddenly appear in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, this could make for a powerful nod between the two games. Similarly, this could open up for much more dynamic summons, like the Magus Sisters or Anima, who could completely change up battles based on both the number of new companions jumping into the fight as well as the unique way they move. That's not even mentioning what this could mean for bringing in some Final Fantasy 15 inspired summon designs, as a number of fans have previously continued to compare the most recent title to this interconnected collection of Final Fantasy games.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is available now for PS4.
Final Fantasy 10 is available now for PC, PS2, PS3, and PS4.