Gaming Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4, PS5) | Put discussion of chapters etc in labelled spoilers as people will be at different points

I would say I am surprised that they have completely changed the course of the originial but I'm not. Since FF13 they haven't cared much about providing the fans with a game that they want but providing a game that they themselves can get off on. Visually all of the games have been pretty stunning and the Final Fantasy worlds remain but I think we have to come to terms with the fact that we were blessed with masterpieces in gaming history in 7, 8 and 9 (Hell, you can include 10, 12, and the games prior to 7 too but the sequence from 7-9 was close to perfect). I've started to play the new ones and treating them as games in the same world but they're not Final Fantasy.

If anything, what I am surprised about is that they chose 7 as the game to make these changes. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the story in that game. It was very clear what happened and they narrated it exquisitely. What the fans wanted was for that story to be expanded a little with side quests and voices to the characters they fell in love with and they'd have been happy with that. The majority of fans would have been delighted with a like for like remake with little additions and would have happily paid full price for that. No way would they have been half arsed with it.

8 would have been a much better game to go off course with. There was a ton of ambiguity with that game. From Squall dream theories, his 'death' or non-death at the end of Disc 1 etc. If you were going to make changes to a story then this game would have been it. Just not a game where the story was completely fine. Yes, the way they did FF8 was also fine but as i said, ambiguity.

I'm really pissed too from the way they chose to do this. As soon as they added Sephiroth to the Aeris scene where you meet her with the flowers you could tell it was going to be fecked up. Why add that? If you've already played the game before then you know that this didn't happen in the original so things are already a bit weird and if you haven't played the game before you're already introduced to a major character at an odd time. What is also weird about it is that the dialogue in some of the scenes sometimes feels like it is speaking to players that have already played the original and not to players who have never played it before. The whole point of it being a remake also for me is that new players can pick it up and fall in love with the game but now they will have to go back and play the original to understand what the feck is going on in terms of the changes.
 
Damn :lol: That'll be fun. Did you have the materia you needed for that battle maxed out as well?

Yeah most of the Materia will naturally max out as you play through first time. Hard is difficult though as you can't use items at all and benches don't replenish your MP, but it makes it a nice challenge which I like.
 
I would say I am surprised that they have completely changed the course of the originial but I'm not. Since FF13 they haven't cared much about providing the fans with a game that they want but providing a game that they themselves can get off on. Visually all of the games have been pretty stunning and the Final Fantasy worlds remain but I think we have to come to terms with the fact that we were blessed with masterpieces in gaming history in 7, 8 and 9 (Hell, you can include 10, 12, and the games prior to 7 too but the sequence from 7-9 was close to perfect). I've started to play the new ones and treating them as games in the same world but they're not Final Fantasy.

If anything, what I am surprised about is that they chose 7 as the game to make these changes. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the story in that game. It was very clear what happened and they narrated it exquisitely. What the fans wanted was for that story to be expanded a little with side quests and voices to the characters they fell in love with and they'd have been happy with that. The majority of fans would have been delighted with a like for like remake with little additions and would have happily paid full price for that. No way would they have been half arsed with it.

8 would have been a much better game to go off course with. There was a ton of ambiguity with that game. From Squall dream theories, his 'death' or non-death at the end of Disc 1 etc. If you were going to make changes to a story then this game would have been it. Just not a game where the story was completely fine. Yes, the way they did FF8 was also fine but as i said, ambiguity.

I'm really pissed too from the way they chose to do this. As soon as they added Sephiroth to the Aeris scene where you meet her with the flowers you could tell it was going to be fecked up. Why add that? If you've already played the game before then you know that this didn't happen in the original so things are already a bit weird and if you haven't played the game before you're already introduced to a major character at an odd time. What is also weird about it is that the dialogue in some of the scenes sometimes feels like it is speaking to players that have already played the original and not to players who have never played it before. The whole point of it being a remake also for me is that new players can pick it up and fall in love with the game but now they will have to go back and play the original to understand what the feck is going on in terms of the changes.
Well said. I don't know what happened when Squaresoft merged with Enix but since then they've really lost what made the FF games so great. Not to blame it entirely on that merger of course. Since then, FF12 seems to be the only single player FF game that's been well received, and it still isn't anywhere near as good as the 7-9 era. FF13 was a mess and I haven't played FF15 but from what I hear it's pretty disappointing.

I hope they stay far the feck away from FF9 now. Don't want to see my favourite FF game get fecked with :lol:
 
Yeah most of the Materia will naturally max out as you play through first time. Hard is difficult though as you can't use items at all and benches don't replenish your MP, but it makes it a nice challenge which I like.
Yeah, guessing stuff like the Prayer materia is massively useful in battle, though guess it means you have longer to wait to use magic attacks. To hear you finished the game around level 43 is mental to me. I'm level 23 near the end of Chapter 11 so don't know if that means I've got a long way to go or whether I'm underleveled for my stage :lol:
 
Yeah, guessing stuff like the Prayer materia is massively useful in battle, though guess it means you have longer to wait to use magic attacks. To hear you finished the game around level 43 is mental to me. I'm level 23 near the end of Chapter 11 so don't know if that means I've got a long way to go or whether I'm underleveled for my stage :lol:

Yeah stuff like Prayer and Chakra becomes a lot more important. I lied I just checked my save file on Chapter 18 and I'm level 36 so you seem to be about right. I'm just sort of hopping between chapters at the moment and cleaning up some trophies and then I plan on doing another full run through on hard mode.
 
As far as I am aware the only game they 'cancelled' was removing him from FFXV towards the end. There was no bad blood or anything as they started development of FFVIIR almost immediately afterwards with him as director, and him also working on KH3 at the same time.

Nomuras only duties on FFXIII was as character designer. The fact they made three games out of FFXIII was nothing to do with him.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Eligor_(Final_Fantasy_VII)

Nomura was involved in some aspects of the originals story, including Aerith's death. If he wants to change some aspects of the story that he helped write then good for him.
Yeah great for him. Sucks to be anyone expecting an FF7 remake in the FF7 remake they bought. He's been doing this shit since Advent Children, doing whatever he wants with it. If you don't like it you have the choice to stop buying it which I did. He's free to do whatever he wants with it. The only thing him having a hand in Aerith's death proves is that back when he had better writers above him reigning him in is that he could make good stuff. What he's proven since then is that without that he has absolutely no self control or restraint in his "story" telling. He's free to do that and do whatever he wants with his games.

This however is not him changing aspects of the story. This is them marketing it as a remake of FF7 only to deliver Nomura going full Nomura with people flying cutting through buildings with a sword and then revealing they are no longer telling the story of FF7 they are in a different timeline and going on about destiny and fate. That's not FF7, that's something else entirely it's a spinoff at best, you could argue it's even a sequel. Changing aspects of the story is not the same thing as changing the very nature of it because you need to get your fix of flying men destroying buildings and fighting destiny.
 
Important reminder of what Yoshinori Kitase said about FF7R:
v7s07h7m3ws41.jpg
I get what you're saying, but even that quote does not cover the vastness of the changes. When you change it so drastically that you have to basically say the original happened in a different timeline, that's no longer a remake. It's a spinoff or sequel. They knew what they were doing from the start and it's a cynical cash grab to use people's nostalgia against them. They had no intention of doing a remake and they knew fine rightly that this isn't a remake, but people were asking for one so they may as well milk it.

Capcom managed to remake not one, not two, but three Resident Evil games while making changes to each one but mostly staying faithful. What did they get? Mostly critical acclaim and people asking for more. That's all people asked Square for, people begged them for 15 years for a remake of FF7. Instead they teased them with one before slapping the brakes on and saying "This is now about fate and destiny also fate monsters." They've changed it in such a way that the original game cannot play out in this story and the original game was all about it's story. You aren't even playing as the same characters any more, it's different versions of them. Therefore this cannot be the FF7 remake they marketed and sold it as no matter how vaguely they talked about changing some elements.

No one expected an exact 1:1 recreation and we've not been given a recreation at all. Instead it's a look at what could have been followed by a slap in the face with what it's going to be. Some people will like that, but it's not at all what they sold it as.
 
I get what you're saying, but even that quote does not cover the vastness of the changes. When you change it so drastically that you have to basically say the original happened in a different timeline, that's no longer a remake. It's a spinoff or sequel. They knew what they were doing from the start and it's a cynical cash grab to use people's nostalgia against them. They had no intention of doing a remake and they knew fine rightly that this isn't a remake, but people were asking for one so they may as well milk it.

Capcom managed to remake not one, not two, but three Resident Evil games while making changes to each one but mostly staying faithful. What did they get? Mostly critical acclaim and people asking for more. That's all people asked Square for, people begged them for 15 years for a remake of FF7. Instead they teased them with one before slapping the brakes on and saying "This is now about fate and destiny also fate monsters." They've changed it in such a way that the original game cannot play out in this story and the original game was all about it's story. You aren't even playing as the same characters any more, it's different versions of them. Therefore this cannot be the FF7 remake they marketed and sold it as no matter how vaguely they talked about changing some elements.

No one expected an exact 1:1 recreation and we've not been given a recreation at all. Instead it's a look at what could have been followed by a slap in the face with what it's going to be. Some people will like that, but it's not at all what they sold it as.

If SE had been more open in saying this would be a reimagining and not a straight up remake would that have made you feel better? You seem more angry/frustrated that you've been misled into believing this would be a straight up remake than anything else!

Should we go to the Winchester and wait for it all to blow over?

This guy sums up how I feel really. It's a decent video at explaining the ending and chucking a couple of theories of what might happen in there.

]
 
I think im around 35 hours in so far. It definitely a good game and sometimes technically stunning, but I feel the cut scenes and fetch quests kind of ruin the pace.
 
If SE had been more open in saying this would be a reimagining and not a straight up remake would that have made you feel better? You seem more angry/frustrated that you've been misled into believing this would be a straight up remake than anything else!

Should we go to the Winchester and wait for it all to blow over?

This guy sums up how I feel really. It's a decent video at explaining the ending and chucking a couple of theories of what might happen in there.

]

That's exactly it, mate. I wouldn't have bought it and would have mostly just ignored it, but because they promised a remake that's something I actually wanted and well here we are. I thought they can't go too far wrong if they stick mostly to the original, marketing pointed to that being the case.

It's also that I saw what we could have in a remake and now it's been taken away in favour of alternate dimensions and time travel and big fecking fate monsters. As a game it wasn't perfect, but as a recreation it was damn close and a building block for the rest of the remake(s). I could tolerate the stuff they were adding that seemed wildly out of place because I was getting the remake I paid for up until it was no longer a remake. It's gone now though and instead we get meta commentaries from the fecktards that thought this was better than remaking one of the best games of all time. With it dies the dream of an actual FF7 remake and I have to go back to pumpkin head Cloud in PS1 form on my 4k TV.

I get some people will like what they've done, maybe most people will and that's fair enough that's up to them. I just wasn't sold this. I was sold FF7 and had I known it wasn't FF7 but a sequel from modern day Square then I would in no way shape nor form have given them money for such a thing. It's as much a remake as Terminator Genysis is of T1 and T2. It's like ITV saying they will show the 99 Champions League Final tonight then midway through deciding to switch it to show highlights of the Ugandan women's second division play off match from 2016 while keeping the commentary from the 99 final. Kind of... Stop judging my analogies.

It's my own fault for buying and buying it day one at that because I wanted the deluxe edition as it was supposed to be FF7. My own nostalgia and love for the original bit me in the arse which is what the marketing campaign was designed to do. God damn Scarlett Johansson!!
 
Finished it! Overall very pleased with the game, excellent graphics, excellent combat, excellent character building and excellent protagonists which had some great story arcs. I regret that I didn’t get all of the summons as the battle intel tasks were a right pain but I completed all of the side quests and I think I got all of the weapons so I pretty much finished most of it.

Sephiroth is one of the coolest villains I have seen, though I’m not sure whether the lack of story around him is supposed to be a sense of mystery or just square Enix not doing a good job here. The final battle was brilliant, very tense but wasn’t too difficult which is good. I am a bit miffed with the end scene, I didn’t finish crisis core but I know that Zak dies at the end so I am confused to see that he is alive. Maybe they are doing some kind of parallel universe thing but that over complicates things and I think Zak should have stayed dead.
Not sure I’m keen on the other characters coming back to life either. Correct me if I’m wrong but thought they were meant to stay dead and I would have preferred it that way as their sacrifice added to the story.
 
Finished it! Overall very pleased with the game, excellent graphics, excellent combat, excellent character building and excellent protagonists which had some great story arcs. I regret that I didn’t get all of the summons as the battle intel tasks were a right pain but I completed all of the side quests and I think I got all of the weapons so I pretty much finished most of it.

Sephiroth is one of the coolest villains I have seen, though I’m not sure whether the lack of story around him is supposed to be a sense of mystery or just square Enix not doing a good job here. The final battle was brilliant, very tense but wasn’t too difficult which is good. I am a bit miffed with the end scene, I didn’t finish crisis core but I know that Zak dies at the end so I am confused to see that he is alive. Maybe they are doing some kind of parallel universe thing but that over complicates things and I think Zak should have stayed dead.
Not sure I’m keen on the other characters coming back to life either. Correct me if I’m wrong but thought they were meant to stay dead and I would have preferred it that way as their sacrifice added to the story.
It's a parallel universe/messing with time. The three fate things you fight with the sword, gun arm and fists are supposed to represent Cloud, Barrett and Tifa from the original game. The fate monster is supposed to represent fans not wanting anything to change and that you're literally fighting the original story. You're also not playing as the original characters it's some alternate timeline seemingly.

Zack is dead in the original and the story doesn't work if he lives as Cloud essentially convinces himself Zack never existed and more or less steals his persona. Avalanche are supposed to stay dead too. Since you fought fate itself and won now Square can change anything they want including having everyone live. Which is shite really.

It's all preposterous nonsense and it's just a way of saying they aren't actually remaking FF7 they are going to do whatever they want as you've now defeated the original story and the expectation that they will tell that story. Now they can bring things like future Sephiroth through time to fight you whenever they want and Aerith knows all about time magic. They waited 35 hours into the story to bring this up.

Sephiroth was poor storytelling as they just assumed everyone knew who he was and threw him in there. The same with Zack. It's really just a collection of random things, the theme of which seems to be "Go feck yourself you're not getting a remake you're getting a story about fighting destiny instead."
 
The Final Shinra VR mission is tough. 5 stages and the first four are Shiva, Fat Chocobo, Leviathan (which are fine), but then you get Bahamut who is tough anyway and then the bastard summons Ifrit half way through.

But in the immortal words of LvG, we go for it!
 
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It's a parallel universe/messing with time. The three fate things you fight with the sword, gun arm and fists are supposed to represent Cloud, Barrett and Tifa from the original game. The fate monster is supposed to represent fans not wanting anything to change and that you're literally fighting the original story. You're also not playing as the original characters it's some alternate timeline seemingly.

Zack is dead in the original and the story doesn't work if he lives as Cloud essentially convinces himself Zack never existed and more or less steals his persona. Avalanche are supposed to stay dead too. Since you fought fate itself and won now Square can change anything they want including having everyone live. Which is shite really.

It's all preposterous nonsense and it's just a way of saying they aren't actually remaking FF7 they are going to do whatever they want as you've now defeated the original story and the expectation that they will tell that story. Now they can bring things like future Sephiroth through time to fight you whenever they want and Aerith knows all about time magic. They waited 35 hours into the story to bring this up.

Sephiroth was poor storytelling as they just assumed everyone knew who he was and threw him in there. The same with Zack. It's really just a collection of random things, the theme of which seems to be "Go feck yourself you're not getting a remake you're getting a story about fighting destiny instead."

Interesting about that battle, I personally hated that thing. It was quite difficult in its Bahamut form.

I never played the original so I am not going to be put off by slight story changes but parallel universes are messy and more often than not don’t work. Zak should have stayed dead too, I think his story and death are part of the lore of ff7 and in many ways is part of Clouds character. By bringing him back, it takes away some of the personality of the ff7 story.

Glad I’m not the only one confused by what they did with Sephiroth. I like how unnerving the scenes with him are, it added to his allure I think but hated that they didn’t do anything with it. I just think they almost got it right here but it was left undercooked.

Overall I liked the story, it’s better than anything I’ve played since 10. I just feel let down at the end.
 
That's exactly it, mate. I wouldn't have bought it and would have mostly just ignored it, but because they promised a remake that's something I actually wanted and well here we are. I thought they can't go too far wrong if they stick mostly to the original, marketing pointed to that being the case.

It's also that I saw what we could have in a remake and now it's been taken away in favour of alternate dimensions and time travel and big fecking fate monsters. As a game it wasn't perfect, but as a recreation it was damn close and a building block for the rest of the remake(s). I could tolerate the stuff they were adding that seemed wildly out of place because I was getting the remake I paid for up until it was no longer a remake. It's gone now though and instead we get meta commentaries from the fecktards that thought this was better than remaking one of the best games of all time. With it dies the dream of an actual FF7 remake and I have to go back to pumpkin head Cloud in PS1 form on my 4k TV.

I get some people will like what they've done, maybe most people will and that's fair enough that's up to them. I just wasn't sold this. I was sold FF7 and had I known it wasn't FF7 but a sequel from modern day Square then I would in no way shape nor form have given them money for such a thing. It's as much a remake as Terminator Genysis is of T1 and T2. It's like ITV saying they will show the 99 Champions League Final tonight then midway through deciding to switch it to show highlights of the Ugandan women's second division play off match from 2016 while keeping the commentary from the 99 final. Kind of... Stop judging my analogies.

It's my own fault for buying and buying it day one at that because I wanted the deluxe edition as it was supposed to be FF7. My own nostalgia and love for the original bit me in the arse which is what the marketing campaign was designed to do. God damn Scarlett Johansson!!

That's fair enough man! Hopefully when your anger subsides you can perhaps play/enjoy the game for what it is. Whilst this is very linear (much as the original Midgar was), I still think it's an excellent game in many ways, admittedly with some flaws but then what game hasn't.
 
Interesting about that battle, I personally hated that thing. It was quite difficult in its Bahamut form.

I never played the original so I am not going to be put off by slight story changes but parallel universes are messy and more often than not don’t work. Zak should have stayed dead too, I think his story and death are part of the lore of ff7 and in many ways is part of Clouds character. By bringing him back, it takes away some of the personality of the ff7 story.

Glad I’m not the only one confused by what they did with Sephiroth. I like how unnerving the scenes with him are, it added to his allure I think but hated that they didn’t do anything with it. I just think they almost got it right here but it was left undercooked.

Overall I liked the story, it’s better than anything I’ve played since 10. I just feel let down at the end.

We don't know if Zack is still alive. From the cut scene we saw and when it cuts back to Cloud and the team it seems Aeris is the only one who saw it. I agree Zack can't stay alive, and I don't think he will. But we are most likely headed into alternative timeline territory which as you say can and does get messy.

Also after that Battle which sees Midgar destroyed we are back with the team and Midgar is still there. Rufus is the President. So what actually happened and when did it happen? Was that the real Sephiroth we fight, or is the real Sephiroth still in the Northern Crater? What did Sephiroth mean when he said 7 seconds to Cloud at the Edge of Creation? Why did Aeris say she misses the Steel sky?

I'd be surprised if they ripped up the entire story from here on in. I still think we will meet the rest of the characters as we normally would and the locations will largely be the same I'd have thought.

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until we see how the next game turns out. As I've said to @Art Vandelay I think that's only fair. I am quite excited in a way that they've changed it and I now don't know what to expect.

Only time will tell.
 
We don't know if Zack is still alive. From the cut scene we saw and when it cuts back to Cloud and the team it seems Aeris is the only one who saw it. I agree Zack can't stay alive, and I don't think he will. But we are most likely headed into alternative timeline territory which as you say can and does get messy.

Also after that Battle which sees Midgar destroyed we are back with the team and Midgar is still there. Rufus is the President. So what actually happened and when did it happen? Was that the real Sephiroth we fight, or is the real Sephiroth still in the Northern Crater? What did Sephiroth mean when he said 7 seconds to Cloud at the Edge of Creation? Why did Aeris say she misses the Steel sky?

I'd be surprised if they ripped up the entire story from here on in. I still think we will meet the rest of the characters as we normally would and the locations will largely be the same I'd have thought.

I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until we see how the next game turns out. As I've said to @Art Vandelay I think that's only fair. I am quite excited in a way that they've changed it and I now don't know what to expect.

Only time will tell.
yeah I’m quite happy to see what they do with the story. They got it right for the most part.

Sephiroth is a little weird in it. I was asking myself regularly if he is real or just a manifestation of the whispers or Clouds imagination.

Guess it’s going to be roughly 2022 when the next one comes out
 
The minute I learned the fates were protecting destiny I had a feeling I knew where this is heading and I'm convinced now. It's essentially going to be about breaking destiny and changing the original game for sure. We're playing for the Disney ending here.

The flashforwards and foreshadowing of the death scene are too strong. Combined with the Zach scene, Aerith feeling him and her speech about change it's driving home that destiny will be changed. Me thinks we're gonna save her and Zach and get the sadly happy. Cloud and Tifa, Zach and Aerith as it should be all wrapped up in a happy box. People are so gonna meltdown when it happens.

I have no issue with the story changes if that doesn't happen. I mean we're still going after Sephiroth who is going to use Meteor and Aeriths useless materia is still there to stop it. It's still the same game so far with a few tweaks but I'm really concerned.

Also I should add I loved every minute of it so far, even the changes.
 
Some of the cutscenes are great, but am I the only who feels they constantly destroy the pacing?
 
Am I the only one that hates the way they handled Zack's death in CC? I'm disappointed they used the same "death" in this remake too.

In the original, his death was just depressing. Getting to the end, weak and tired, only for a few soldiers to find and gun him down just when he's on Midgar's doorstep. Cloud tragically wakes up to find his buddy dead and riddled with bullets, left alone and having to carry Zack's will. In CC he's fighting against millions of soldiers and helicopters in some grand final battle that takes away the sad pathetic end they depict in the original, then Cloud finds him and he has some grand dying words.

Not gonna lie, back when I played CC I was a blubbering mess at that ending but as I grew older I began disliking it. The original always seemed grittier and grounded than the later iterations, and that's how I've always preferred it.
 
Am I the only one that hates the way they handled Zack's death in CC? I'm disappointed they used the same "death" in this remake too.

In the original, his death was just depressing. Getting to the end, weak and tired, only for a few soldiers to find and gun him down just when he's on Midgar's doorstep. Cloud tragically wakes up to find his buddy dead and riddled with bullets, left alone and having to carry Zack's will. In CC he's fighting against millions of soldiers and helicopters in some grand final battle that takes away the sad pathetic end they depict in the original, then Cloud finds him and he has some grand dying words.

Not gonna lie, back when I played CC I was a blubbering mess at that ending but as I grew older I began disliking it. The original always seemed grittier and grounded than the later iterations, and that's how I've always preferred it.
It's the same problem that pretty much everything they added after the original game and this ending have, lack of restraint. Everything had to be huge and bombastic. So sad poignant deaths aren't really the way to go. The same way Advent Children turned two men fighting each other with stupidly big swords into people flying and lobbing buildings at each other.

I think telling Zack's story was never a great idea. Leaving him a mystery that Aerith loved and Cloud struggled to live up to was better, for me.
 
Am I the only one that hates the way they handled Zack's death in CC? I'm disappointed they used the same "death" in this remake too.

In the original, his death was just depressing. Getting to the end, weak and tired, only for a few soldiers to find and gun him down just when he's on Midgar's doorstep. Cloud tragically wakes up to find his buddy dead and riddled with bullets, left alone and having to carry Zack's will. In CC he's fighting against millions of soldiers and helicopters in some grand final battle that takes away the sad pathetic end they depict in the original, then Cloud finds him and he has some grand dying words.

Not gonna lie, back when I played CC I was a blubbering mess at that ending but as I grew older I began disliking it. The original always seemed grittier and grounded than the later iterations, and that's how I've always preferred it.

For sure, the original game in general was much darker than crisis core and the other media forms. I think a little of that has been removed in remake too. It just doesn't feel as depressing or oppressive as the original.
 
And on to Chapter 14.

Looks like this is going to be a long one judging by the number of side quests on the trophy list as well as the various locations and the pull-ups. At least the second Whack-a-box trophy was easy to get.
 
Feck, I've just learnt that I should have talked to the kid in chapter 14 before going up to the Shinra tower and now i don't think I can get the leviathan battle. I was so sure I did everything before heading up. I'm up to the point now where I've just saved Red 13 from Hojo. This is probably the first chapter where I think they might have drifted a bit too far from the original. It's getting kind of messy. I'm still having fun but i'm concerned where it's heading
 
Feck, I've just learnt that I should have talked to the kid in chapter 14 before going up to the Shinra tower and now i don't think I can get the leviathan battle. I was so sure I did everything before heading up. I'm up to the point now where I've just saved Red 13 from Hojo. This is probably the first chapter where I think they might have drifted a bit too far from the original. It's getting kind of messy. I'm still having fun but i'm concerned where it's heading
You actually see him again in Chapter 16, just outside the combat simulator.

I wouldn't worry about it though, you will have the opportunity to get Leviathan after you complete the game.