Something important (大切なもの)。”もの” refers broadly to people or things.
When written as ”者”(もの), it refers specifically to a person. Example: “若者” (a young person)
When written as ”物”(もの), it refers specifically to things other than people. Example: ”着物” (clothing).
Did Cloud lose Aerith, or himself?
Cait Sith's fortune-telling about Sephiroth's whereabouts yielded three results. Besides the first two, it is the third prophecy that prompted Cait Sith to travel with the party that draws attention — "You will gain what you seek, but you will also lose something important".
If the story is advanced to the Forgotten Capital, it can be taken that "losing something important" means losing Aerith. If the story is advanced to the Northern Crater, it can be taken as foretelling that Cloud's self is about to collapse.
The important person, Aerith
① Sephiroth, who took from him what was important
[Cloud]: I want to protect... even if I don't remember, I still want to protect
That guy took away what was important to me, and now he wants to take the world too
A monster that destroyed what was important
(Sephiroth did not take away Cloud's identity; he killed Aerith)
② Cloud regained his self but paid an all-too-heavy price
Although he saved the Planet and regained his self, the price he paid was too heavy, and so he now shuts others out and lives alone.
③ Having lost something important, it can only be found at the Promised Land
[Cloud the Stranger]: I lost... something important... something especially important...
I lost something very important, I must go to the promised land。
④The important person who resonates with Vincent
Can sin be forgiven? — Vincent asks Cloud. Because they both share the guilt of having "failed to protect the people important to them", these words stir a heavy resonance.
⑤A symbol of the sin of failing to protect someone important
Two years after returning to the Planet, Aerith still lives on in the hearts of the companions who saved the Planet. Especially in Cloud's heart, Aerith has become a symbol of "the sin of failing to protect someone important", and a factor that closes off his heart. He extends a helping hand to Cloud and to the Planet, which is once again facing danger. Like a mother, she watches over the entire Planet, letting everyone feel her presence in every corner of it.
⑥Guilt toward an important person
While helping out Tifa, who runs the bar "Seventh Heaven," he also runs a delivery business, and the four of them—her, Marlene, and Denzel—live together like a family, but he went missing after contracting Geostigma. Behind his behavior lies guilt over having failed to protect in the past an important person who was precious to him, but through his battles with Kadaj and the others, products of Jenova, he regains the courage to face reality.
⑦ The important person
The sin of failing to protect an important person—thinking this, Cloud closes his heart. What will his reunion with Aerith bring him?
⑧The important person, Aerith
[Nomura]: He once met his best friend Zack and the important person Aerith, yet lost them both.
⑨An important person
[Kitase]: The most shocking scene in the original was Aerith's tragedy in the City of the Ancients, and expressing it with modern techniques was an extremely difficult problem.
The original aimed to depict the loss and sorrow of suddenly having an important person no longer before one's eyes, but I've heard that the sense of loss was so intense that quite a lot of people stopped playing after Disc 1.
In Rebirth, the sense of loss is expressed in a different form; the protagonist Cloud's feeling of being unable to forget the important person about what happened before his eyes is importantly portrayed. It began with creative director Tetsuya Nomura's thoughts on life and death, and the game's production team and editing team actually recreated the idea wonderfully as a game scene.
In fact, in Rebirth's ending, viewers and those who saw the original will have all sorts of different thoughts and interpretations, and such scenes are very memorable.
[Hamaguchi]: I believe this remake trilogy will become the most beloved and most famous game in gaming history.
