Some questions about the game lore, the synergies and the weapon cores.

[MaxSixTux]

Good day, I'm here to ask you about various question that came in my mind playing the game. Consider that I'm still at Kalm, and just finished the Sector 6 thieves quest.
So here's the questions:

1 - Lore) At the end of Intermission you can see an extended cutescene presenting Zack in front of Aerith's church, trying some phrases to explain why he remained away for so long. Then he decide to go inside the church just to see that there was a lot of people mourning for whatever reason and the cutescene ends on black screen, with Zack saying "Aerith?". The problem is that, at the beginning of Rebirth, you see Zack coming to the Sector 5 slums with a comatose Cloud, seeing the TV etc. until he saves Aerith from the helicopter. ... ... ... But how is that? Have they retconned what they showed at the end of Intermission or there's something that I'm missing here?

2 - Synergy) I don't have understood how this work. During the flashback scene, with Sephiroth, you press the block button during the fights, and the synergies menu pop up, letting you decide what to use, and that's Ok. But after that? It seems that the synergy bar raise very slowly, often the synergy options are not available or the menu option is missing. I have invested various points (?) on some sort of talent tree that should unlock them, but they doesn't appear.

3 - Weapon cores) In Remake, Biggs teach you have to expand the weapon cores of the weapon, a very interesting and useful thing, with nice graphics etc. But in Rebirth? Where are the weapon cores? It just present you some weapon prerogatives or whatever and I continue to gather what seems to be weapon points. I have bought two books that I recognized from the Remake game, about such points, at the Mog tree, using moguri medals, but I don't know how to access the weapon cores to assign them.

Thanks in advice for the answers.

[Zerowa]

About 1 I actually wondered myself. I just assumed that Zack after surviving decided to go to church without Cloud and finds that Aerith is not there. Then at beginning of Rebirth goes back to get Cloud.

Synergy skills need to be opened in folio and have correct party members in battle. Synergy skills are charged by using normal skills and both members need to have same amount used. Then from action menu choose synergy skills and activate the one you want. Additionally there are R1 synergy skills that you use by holding the button (R1) and choosing the skill to be used. These are pretty useful on certain situation like counters or mitigating damage.

Weapon cores I myself also searched for a while but it seems that folios have completely replaced those. Weapons now have levels that can be increased by gaining enough sp and through each level weapons get their own passive skill like getting a new materia slot. These skills can be seen in weapon info.

[MaxSixTux]

Originally posted by Zerowa:

About 1 I actually wondered myself. I just assumed that Zack after surviving decided to go to church without Cloud and finds that Aerith is not there. Then at beginning of Rebirth goes back to get Cloud.

And why when he goes to the church he has the face cleaned up, but in Rebirth it is still dirty?

[MaxSixTux]

Originally posted by Zerowa:

Weapon cores I myself also searched for a while but it seems that folios have completely replaced those. Weapons now have levels that can be increased by gaining enough sp and through each level weapons get their own passive skill like getting a new materia slot. These skills can be seen in weapon info.

If they get passive skills, why you can manually choose them? I don't understand, that's pretty obscure. Why not leaving how it was on Remake? It was simple and useful.

[Zerowa]

Originally posted by MaxSixTux:

Originally posted by Zerowa:

Weapon cores I myself also searched for a while but it seems that folios have completely replaced those. Weapons now have levels that can be increased by gaining enough sp and through each level weapons get their own passive skill like getting a new materia slot. These skills can be seen in weapon info.

If they get passive skills, why you can manually choose them? I don't understand, that's pretty obscure. Why not leaving how it was on Remake? It was simple and useful.

It is not that weird to have passives that you set active according to your play style. Many games use this. But yeah it is very different approach compared to Remake. Took some time getting used to it for me because I started Rebirth right after Remake.

[Fitzy]

Well considering Zack is supposed to be dead, finding out why he's even there at all comes near the end of Rebirth along with a possible explanation to your question.

[MaxSixTux]

Originally posted by Zerowa:

It is not that weird to have passives that you set active according to your play style. Many games use this. But yeah it is very different approach compared to Remake. Took some time getting used to it for me because I started Rebirth right after Remake.

Like me, even if I still have various graphical issues.. like some kind of graphical glitch that popup out in a form of a distant pixelation. I have tried to change the graphical configuration, without resolving it.

Originally posted by Fitzy:

Well considering Zack is supposed to be dead, finding out why he's even there at all comes near the end of Rebirth along with a possible explanation to your question.

Uhm, ok. Is that considering that I saw a thing, and then it changed, I was confused and felt the urge to ask what was that.

[Fitzy]

Lots of things have changed and change, I don't want to spoil anything for you though, if you're not aware Zacks story takes place in Crisis Core, a lot of spoilers for the original FF7 and this in crisis core though. The church scene is potentially just an easter egg for long term fans of the series, Zack in the original game isn't a huge part, he's not a character in the original apart from in flashbacks but he ended up with his own game, backstory, history etc So him even being there is huge, one of the first things he would have done was go looking for Aerith, though there is a potential explanation in rebirth, it is also possibly just an easter egg and teaser for the new game at the end of Intermission because Zack shouldn't be alive and after 30 years (between the old game and now), he somehow is.

The weapon cores are now Folio's the bit where you learn synergy skills etc, there are book shops and a little box thing next to some rest benches you can use to upgrade, its a stripped down version of the sphere grid from FFX, you get new abilities to select at the same place you equip materia for weapons as they level. unneeded change but they often change the systems between games.

[Evilphd]

I think the people in the church was a nod to Geostigma in Advent Children. In the remake during the fires after the reactor blew and Cloud went full PTSD - they had a HUUUUUUUGE Advent Children / Promised Land nod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJQQqhXF5tc

[MaxSixTux]

Originally posted by Fitzy:

Lots of things have changed and change, I don't want to spoil anything for you though, if you're not aware Zacks story takes place in Crisis Core, a lot of spoilers for the original FF7 and this in crisis core though. The church scene is potentially just an easter egg for long term fans of the series, Zack in the original game isn't a huge part, he's not a character in the original apart from in flashbacks but he ended up with his own game, backstory, history etc So him even being there is huge, one of the first things he would have done was go looking for Aerith, though there is a potential explanation in rebirth, it is also possibly just an easter egg and teaser for the new game at the end of Intermission because Zack shouldn't be alive and after 30 years (between the old game and now), he somehow is.

The weapon cores are now Folio's the bit where you learn synergy skills etc, there are book shops and a little box thing next to some rest benches you can use to upgrade, its a stripped down version of the sphere grid from FFX, you get new abilities to select at the same place you equip materia for weapons as they level. unneeded change but they often change the systems between games.

Yes, I understand, but why presenting a fake teaser. It seems like they have changed part of the initial story, from when they produced that teaser and Rebirth.

[MaxSixTux]

Originally posted by Evilphd:

I think the people in the church was a nod to Geostigma in Advent Children. In the remake during the fires after the reactor blew and Cloud went full PTSD - they had a HUUUUUUUGE Advent Children / Promised Land nod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJQQqhXF5tc

I personally think that the Midgar version present in the Zack universe, is some kind of Midgar that you can someway see in Advent Children. Technically it could be possible that Advent Children happend with Zack alive, in this case, maybe fighting the underground lab guys.