Final Fantasy 7 is one of the greatest JRPG games of all time. Arguably the most famous out of the entire series, Final Fantasy itself is one of the premiere JRPG franchises around along with Dragon Quest and the Persona series. But Final Fantasy 7 is incredibly revolutionary thanks to being one of the first 3D JRPGs as well as having one of the most emotional moments ever in video games.
This is partly due to the character of Aerith who is incredibly recognizable for her role in the game. However, with the remake, there were some deviations that were made from the classic. Here are the 5 differences that make this Aerith different from the original and 5 things that have thankfully remained the same. Viewers are warned for spoilers.
10 DIFFERENT: She Has A Deeper Personality Now
The changes in Aerith's personality isn't exactly anything major. This is still the Aerith that fans all over the world know and love. These changes aren't issues either as it makes Aerith into an incredibly capable and absolutely fun-loving character.
If anything it is more that they added more to her depth. In the original, Aerith was always incredibly kind and a little flirty, but she was never someone that truly stand out aside from her iconic moment. But here she is absolutely amazing and is definitely worthy of being
9 SAME: She's Still A Healer
Aerith's primary role, on top of her incredibly impressive magical capabilities, is being the best healer in both the original game and its remake. Compared to virtually everyone else that is capable of using the healing materia, Aerith is easily the best.
What's more, her limit breaks are capable of even further healing which has been shown in its HD three-dimensional glory thanks to the remake. It is absolutely worthy to have her at the party.
8 DIFFERENT: Her Role In The Story
This is the thing that's really interesting to the remake in particular. All of the hallmarks that make Aerith an important character is still there such as being a descendant of the ancients and the fact that she is constantly hunted by Shinra are all from the original.
However, it seems that in the remake, Aerith knows far more than she lets on. Some fans even theorize that she might know about what happens in the future of the original Final Fantasy 7, though they're not yet sure if she's trying to avert those events or make sure they occur as planned.
7 SAME: Her Connection With The Planet
As mentioned before, Aerith is a descendant of the ancients. As such she has an incredibly deep connection with the planet, whether hearing their voices or even connecting with aspects of life energy like ghosts.
What is great however is that this gets further expanded on in the remake, where she can even connect with the characters within their dreams like the scene with Cloud Strife. Another example is her speaking to the planet through talking to the flowers which directly ties to her heritage.
6 DIFFERENT: Interacting With The Whispers
That being said, one of these connections to the planet has a very interesting consequence in the remake. For fans that may not be aware, the Whispers are essentially arbiters of fate who ensure that everyone's fate goes down the path that they are destined and fated to live out.
Whenever something deviates from the storyline of the original game like, for example, a certain scene with Barret and Sephiroth in the remake, the Whispers come in to try to save them. But with Aerith, it looks like she has a deeper understanding of what they represent and she even loses her memories every time she meets them.
5 SAME: She's Still A Flower Girl
The most obvious thing about Aerith is her primary job and role throughout the entire game. Before Aerith joined the rest of Avalanche, she was a girl who sold flowers in the slums.
This is how she was introduced when Cloud and the other members of Avalanche were leaving the Mako reactor. But here in the remake, the flowers play more of a role as she gives it to Cloud no matter what in order to give it to Tifa. The flowers themselves are also symbolic to the lifestream.
4 DIFFERENT: Swearing
A change that was both surprising but also hilarious is that, believe it or not, Aerith can swear now. Surprisingly, this is actually par for the course thanks to everyone inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake just being a lot more potty mouthed than before. But for Aerith in particular, it is just absolutely hilarious.
Seeing Aerith, this sweet character, swearing is absolutely jarring but it also adds a lot of depth to her as a character. It just makes her that much more lovable overall on top of hilarious scenes like her with a chair.
3 SAME: Her General Character Design
Thankfully, along with the rest of the characters in the remake, every single one of them has been given the best design possible. Additionally, mixing some of the compilation designs with the original designs makes the remake's designs somewhat of a composite.
But in the case of Aerith, she is pretty much almost 100% the exact same character design as her original counterpart. The only major differences are probably some new textures that enhance everything.
2 DIFFERENT: She Now Has Deeper Connections With The Party
This point shouldn't imply that Aerith never really had a full connection with the cast before, as that isn't true at all. In fact, she is essentially the glue that binds everyone together for a while. What's new, though, is how much closer she is to everyone now, as this is partly due to her new position in the story.
For example, when she meets Cloud Strife during the dream sequence depending on if gamers raised up her affinity, she is basically telling him about cherishing all the memories. Even though game-wise, they only met for at most a few days, which is incredibly suspect.
1 SAME: Her Interest In Cloud
Finally, one of the things that have strongly remained the same is her interest in Cloud Strife. Whether it is romantic or not, the interest with Cloud Strife is still present. This is partly due to his similarities with her former boyfriend Zack Fair.
What's more, she often flirts with Cloud Strife all the time, but not in a way that is obnoxious. Nonetheless, her interest in Cloud this time around seems to be more than just flirtation as if the theories are true, she has deeper reasoning at play.