The game was absolutely unbelievable... right up until the final chapter, chapter 14. I legitimately thought it was a 9.5/10 up until that point.
But then that final chapter hit, man. I'm so thoroughly, utterly disappointed in how they handled the Aerith moment. It's a bit of the same as the end of Remake, but x3. What an absolutely disgraceful, convoluted, unnecessary clusterfuck of an ending. It really made my overall score of the game drop a full point. These Japanese just can't stop being Japanese with those completely unnecessary cosmic space jazz multiverse obnoxious ass narratives. It was really, really bad.
Of course we kind of knew stuff like this was going to happen but they really doubled down on the multiverse shit. It's such utterly lazy writing, a get out of jail free card whenever a writer has written himself into a corner.
The ONLY redemption I see possible is if Cloud, screwed up in the head as he is, is hallucinating Aerith due to him being a Sephiroth clone.
How the fuck are you gonna kill off a character and then have her STILL have a shitload of dialogue as some kind of funky Star Wars style Force Ghost? She was alive, then she's dead, oh here's a hour long boss fight with EIGHT FUCKING PHASES right after one of the main characters was killed off. Oh now she's "alive" again and joining your party for the final phase of the boss.
Allright, we beat the boss. What happens now? Ah never mind turns out she's just a ghost and after a cute little moment with Cloud she evaporates again. Back into the "real world" we go. Seems like the party is grieving. But what did they do with the body? Did they just leave it lying there on the altar? OG FF7 had a very intense emotional moment where they put her body to rest in the water. Why is that not in? Oh there she is and she's smiling and talking to Cloud! Ah never mind the rest of the party can't see her.
They leave and now they're in a grassy field, mostly grieving. Aerith's there! But again only Cloud can see her. Oh wait never mind she pets Red XIII and he's like "Aerith?"
Like for real, my face the entire chapter 14 was like this
Absolute Game of Thrones levels of story "ending" fuck-uppery. What a farce. Fuck this. It was almost too good to be true, I guess.