from the comments I'm getting, I notice a lot of fans know Zack mainly from Crisis Core, so I'm-a share a quick thing about OG!FF7's treatment of Zack Fair before Nomura started using one of the biggest titles in game history to profess his love to gackt

as powerful as how they retconned Zack's ending when doing Crisis Core (takes a beat to listen to 'Why,' weeping) I'm deeply haunted by his OG death: unceremonious, overkilled by a full machine gun cartridge from a couple of grunts who got a lucky shot

aside from Zack's reveal re: Nibelheim in Disc 2, you can play OG!FF7 and pretty much miss all (optional) text on Zack. There's an unforgiving ruthlessness in how OG!FF7 left Zack's memory on the outskirts of the plot, barely discoverable, a ghost of a ghost.

I remember the afternoon I (very accidently) stumbled into triggering Zack's final scene. It wasn't even my first playthrough. I was left stunned, mouth hanging open at 7yo, overwhelmed by the implications and recontextualization of Cloud's story.

Crisis Core's ending hits me pretty bad, and I don't mind they upped the stakes/drama of it and that's what sticks now, but the tragedy of how Zack was irreverently killed like a dog will always haunt me.

there's no real point to this, just that I've been crying about Zack for 23 years. Kind of amazing watching a blink-and-miss character ascend to the status he's at now. enough that squeenix did FF7R's ending. incredible.