Following its expansive Gamescom 2026 demo, I just got to experience a much more linear segment from set right at the start of the new game — it sets Cloud and the gang up to finally face the biggest twist from the original, albeit a lot earlier than they did in 1997.

The demo itself was pretty short — I blasted through in around 30 to 45 minutes — but I got to play around with the new party members Vincent and Cid (the latter formally joined as an active combatant at the start of the demo), and most of my team were utilizing the new FITS system (’s version of the Job / Class system used in other Square Enix games).

Though I want to focus on the story content.

The party finds themselves in the North Crater, the impact site of the asteroid which brought Jenova to the game’s planet. Here they find even more of the black-robed figures they’ve been following for the past three games — including Broden, the former SOLDIER and inn manager you meet in Kalm during — and yet again Cloud is racked with headaches and visions of Sephiroth, tormenting him about his past.

Players of the original will know where this is going, but before I go into any more details, here’s an obligatory . We’ll be talking about ’s biggest twist after Aerith’s death below, and if you somehow don’t know it yet and don’t want to get spoiled, you’ve been warned.

While my demo cuts things a little short, it shows Sephiroth forcing Cloud to remember he isn’t really a SOLDIER, just as he does in the og .

He’s pointing out inconsistencies like Cloud’s lack of a SOLDIER ID number on his arm (something all the others have), comments that he must have the “wrong man” when attempting to reminisce with Cloud, and finally making him, Barret, and Tifa relive the Nibelheim incident one last time — and we see differences from the version from as Zack features, and one of the Shinra guards that was with the group before is suddenly missing…

Barrett even comments on how happy Cloud looks when posing for a photo, saying he looks like a “whole other person.”

As a reminder for anyone who hasn’t relived the narrative recently, or who is unfamiliar with the plot and doesn’t care for spoilers, Cloud was actually just your regular Shinra grunt — those (lowercase) soldiers we’ve been dicing up since the opening of .

He was there at the Nibelheim incident, but as backup for the actual SOLDIERs Sephiroth and Zack Fair. Embarrassed that he didn't achieve his SOLDIER dreams, Cloud hides his face from Tifa and others in the village, which is why she told Aerith that she doesn’t remember seeing him on that mission during the events of .

We already know from that things don’t go according to Shinra’s plans on this mission, and in the original continuity we know that Cloud is able to defeat a weakened Sephiroth using Zack’s Buster Sword (it seems likely this is what happens in the continuity too, though we haven’t had explicit confirmation, and we’ve already seen more than a few plot details shift between the two timelines).

Following the victory, Cloud and Zack are picked up by the mad Shinra scientist Hojo, who proceeds to experiment on the pair using Mako and Jenova cells in the hope they’ll become clones of the slain Sephiroth — or at least gain strength comparable to him.

Cloud’s mind is broken by these experiments, but Zack is able to hold himself together and rescue himself and Cloud — making it all the way to Midgar with his unconscious friend before Shinra catches up with them. In the original, this is where Zack is gunned down, though in at least one timeline (which we see in and ) Zack is somehow able to survive the onslaught.

Back to the original version, however, left for dead by the grunts, Cloud eventually recovers enough to pick up Zack’s weapon, mourn his friend, and carry himself the rest of the way to Midgar — where he bumps into Tifa, and he is convinced into helping Avalanche on the mission starts with.

The trauma caused by years of experimentation and the loss of his friend causes Cloud’s mind to build itself back incorrectly. His memories aren’t just his own, but an amalgamation of his and Zack’s — making Cloud believe he is indeed a First-Class SOLDIER.

The truth is out

Thanks to Hojo’s test, Cloud becomes as physically strong and agile as a First-Class SOLDIER, and earns their ‘Mako eyes’ — a glow associated with Mako-enhanced folks — which is why he’s able to pass as one so effectively.

But already poked holes in his story. In the Nibelheim flashback, we see multiple instances of Cloud behaving unlike himself — with the party noting he sounds a lot more upbeat and happy-go-lucky than he is with them, and Tifa admitting to Aerith that Cloud wasn’t one of the SOLDIERs she remembers being on the expedition with her.

looks set to finally burst Cloud’s bubble in the continuity, but interestingly this looks set to happen at the game’s intro rather than at its climax as it does in the original.

What impact this will have on the party’s dynamics — trust in Cloud already seems to be at an all-time low thanks to the visions and strange behaviour caused by his connection to Jenova — and for Cloud himself is yet to be seen.

But it’s another sign that is just as unafraid to mix up the game’s timeline as previous entries, and I, for one, am excited to see what giving the party more time to digest this twist will mean for the adventure when it finally lands on April 8, 2027.