[2] VII follows Cloud Strife, a mercenary with a troubled past who joins eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE to stop Shinra from draining the life of the Planet and using it as an energy source.
[5] Although the game was Nomura's favorite Final Fantasy project, he felt that it was hindered by graphical limitations, and that as a result his designs were plain in comparison to his "true" style.
[citation needed] For Dirge of Cerberus, the Tsviets were designed with the idea of creating a sense of balance for the warriors with which players would already be familiar, primarily Vincent, Cloud and Sephiroth.
[24] As a sequel to the highly popular Final Fantasy VII, Sakurai felt greater pressure performing the role than he did when he voiced Cloud for Kingdom Hearts.
These recordings left him feeling "deflated", as the "exchanges he has with Tifa can be pretty painful", Sakurai commenting that Cloud—whom he empathized with as his voice actor—has a hard time dealing with straight talk.
[29] Rachael Leigh Cook stated in an interview for Kingdom Hearts II that she enjoys playing Tifa and described her as "very strong physical and emotionally, but also very sensitive" and as "very multi-dimensional".
Barret is voiced in English by Beau Billingslea in Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus and John Eric Bentley in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series.
However, upon returning to Cosmo Canyon, his adoptive grandfather, Bugenhagen, brings Red XIII to Seto's petrified body and reveals that he sacrificed himself to save the village and fought against the invading army.
[49] In Final Fantasy VII Lateral Biography Turks -The Kids Are Alright-, he saves a young girl from drowning and briefly encounters Tseng.
[14] Red XIII is voiced in English by Liam O'Brien in Advent Children and Max Mittelman in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series.
As a robot, he can be rebuilt and replaced and is controlled by Reeve Tuesti, whose original intent during Final Fantasy VII was to infiltrate Cloud's group and sabotage their resistance efforts on behalf of his Shinra employers.
[58] After having a change of heart, he decides to help the group, even risking his life by destroying a version of himself to extract the Black Materia Sephiroth needs to summon the Meteor spell.
Cait Sith is voiced in English by Greg Ellis in Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus and by Paul Tinto in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
[66] However, her concerns regarding the oxygen tanks are proven to be correct when an explosion temporarily traps Cid during a later successful attempt to launch the rocket against Meteor.
[70] They are also the playable characters and protagonists of the Final Fantasy VII prequel, Before Crisis, which focuses on their actions in the years leading up to the events of the original game.
[80] He, or rather JENOVA using his likeness since the actual Sephiroth died five years before the game, manipulates and tortures Cloud over the course of Final Fantasy VII, and kills Aerith at the Forgotten City.
Sephiroth is voiced in English by Lance Bass in the first Kingdom Hearts, George Newbern in most media, and Tyler Hoechlin in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series.
[81] Jenova (ジェノバ, Jenoba) is an extraterrestrial lifeform who crash-landed on the planet two thousand years prior to the events of VII, and is portrayed in multiple titles in the Compilation as a female humanoid.
[82][83][84] In both Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, Sephiroth and Jenova aim to take control of the planet and use it to roam through space until they find another world to build on.
[87][88][89] As shown in Before Crisis, Rufus was anonymously supplying information to AVALANCHE with the intent of having them kill his father, but this plan failed and he is placed under house arrest.
Rufus was thought to have died when his office in Shinra Headquarters was hit by an energy blast from Diamond WEAPON, but Advent Children reveals that he survived but was greatly injured.
[91] Rufus is voiced in English by Wally Wingert in Advent Children and Josh Bowman in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, and by Tōru Ōkawa in Japanese.
In Dirge of Cerberus he survived long enough to store a digital copy of himself in the worldwide network; he subsequently takes control of Weiss' body and attempts to summon Omega WEAPON to drain the Lifestream from the Planet and launch into space in search of a new world.
[2] Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo are respectively voiced by Shotaro Morikubo, Kenji Nomura and Yuji Kishi in Japanese and Steven Staley, Fred Tatasciore and Dave Wittenberg in English.
[100] During the events of Dirge of Cerberus, Hojo possesses their leader and manipulates them into attempting to awaken OMEGA, a means for the Lifestream to escape the planet during times of catastrophe.
[99] Allying with a rogue Shinra scientist named Hollander, Genesis fights against the company while seeking a way to stop his degradation using Sephiroth's stable cells.
[111] Among its notable members were: Reeve Tuesti (リーブ・トゥエスティ, Rību Tuesuti) is the former head of Shinra's "Department of Urban Development", and the controller of the robotic cat Cait Sith.
He is voiced in English by Jamieson Price in Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus and by Jon Root in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series[72] and in Japanese by Banjō Ginga.
[129] RPGFan generally praised the characters, especially Cloud, Tifa and Sephiroth, and said that "while on the surface they certainly do appear to fit certain stereotypes, a second look will reveal that they transcend these qualities and are compelling and complex personalities underneath".
Still, the site noticed that despite being a remake, the game explored different situations of the narrative similar to the films known as Rebuild of Evangelion that also retold an anime but with multiple changes.