Aerith’s New Theme for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: The Meaning Behind “No Promises To Keep”

UPDATE: The following article was written before Rebirth was released. Part 2 of the No Promises to Keep analysis is now live! Click here to read more about the song within the context of Rebirth, including new interviews and the song’s full lyrics!

Something special debuted at The Game Awards 2023: the theme song of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Titled  “No Promises To Keep,” the piece was performed by orchestra with singer Loren Allred at the helm.

While Remake‘s theme song “Hollow” assumed the perspective of the protagonist Cloud Strife, “No Promises to Keep” invokes the story’s heroine Aerith Gainsborough. This wasn’t ambiguous: the trailer that played behind the orchestra featured Aerith herself performing the song on stage in-game.

The trailer offered never-before-seen Rebirth footage that featured a special focus on Aerith and Cloud, including a few romantic moments where Aerith falls into Cloud’s arms, they appear to nearly kiss, and they sit together on the gondola. These scenes, and the performance itself, all take place at the game’s amusement park, the Gold Saucer – the location of Cloud’s date with one of four party members (with Aerith being the default and easiest-to-obtain option.) Cloud himself is shown in the trailer watching Aerith sing with starry eyes.

Of the trailer itself, Nomura commented that it was meant to focus on the story and the characters – making the highlight of Cloud and Aerith’s romantic chemistry particularly interesting to Clerith fans.

“This video is the long version of the theme song announcement trailer that was just presented at The Game Awards. The song adds even more emotional resonance to the game, with music composed by Nobuo Uematsu, lyrics by Kazushige Nojima, and performance by Loren Allred. This time, the trailer has been edited to reflect more of the story and its characters, but there is still so much more to show, so that will be for another time.”

Tetsuya Nomura

Note that it was FF7 writer Nojima himself who composed the lyrics (just as he wrote the lyrics to Hollow.) Not only is Aerith singing the song in-game in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – the lyrics are literally from her perspective.

Legendary Final Fantasy compose Nobuo Uematsu discussed how the song represents her strength and transcends the poignant-yet-sad impression that her famous character theme song relays.

 “As depicted in the song ‘Aerith’s Theme,’ Aerith has had a bit of an ill-fated and ephemeral impression within me. I understood from the beginning that this song is also related to Aerith, but the poignant melody from ‘Aerith’s Theme’ does not appear in this song. I wanted to depict the opposite of this, the strength at her core, hidden within Aerith’s heart. As I listened to the recording over and over again once it was finished, Aerith, who until then was a resident of a fantasy world, now began to feel like a real human being in the flesh. Loren Allred’s vocals, sometimes ephemeral and other times passionate and powerful, surely give life to the existence of Aerith. It has been a while since I’ve written a ballad that feels uniquely my own, and I’m happy to have done so. Thank you, Aerith.”

Nobuo Uematsu

Let’s dive into the lyrics and what they mean.

The Lyrics

“No Promises to Keep”
I won’t say that it was fate
I won’t say that it was destiny
But if not what could it be
That drew you towards me?
Could it be chance?
Till the day
That we meet again
Where or when I wish I could say
But believe
Know that you’ll find me
Promises to keep
We won’t ever need

Till the day
That we meet again
At our place
Just let me believe
In the chance
Know that you’ll take my hand
And never let me go
Take my hand
And believe
We can be together evermore

An immediate reading tells us that Aerith is singing about an encounter with someone she cherishes. While she cannot say with certainty that the meeting was “fate,” it certainly feels that way. However, it seems the two have parted, and she imagines a day when they may reunite.

While some may think this means Aerith is referring to her first love, Zack – whom she has not seen nor heard from in five years – we have on good intel that Rebirth’s theme song has a connection to its protagonist from Loren Allred herself:

Outside of the recording booth, Allred’s process also involved finding her “connection” to the song, which meant spending a lot of time “learning about Aerith’s character, [protagonist] Cloud, and the story of Final Fantasy 7“.

“It made me feel like I got to know a sense of her personality, so I tried to channel that whenever I’m singing the song,” said Allred.

Despite not playing Final Fantasy 7, the significance of singing as Aerith – one of gaming’s most famous love interests – wasn’t lost on Allred. “It’s such an honour,” she said. “These characters have been so beloved over so many years – to even be able to attach my voice to a character that people love so much is a privilege.”

Loren Allred reveals what it’s like to sing as Aerith in the ‘Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’ theme song

Allred, who never played Final Fantasy VII prior to being tapped to sing Rebirth’s theme song, would have been instructed to do some homework to get into Aerith’s headspace. The fact that she says she learned a lot about Aerith and Cloud specifically is pretty close to conclusive.

Let’s examine some of the lines:

I won’t say that it was fate
I won’t say that it was destiny
But if not what could it be
That drew you towards me?

This first stanza seems to reference Cloud and Aerith’s “fateful” meeting. This phrase has been used throughout the years to describe their first meeting on Loveless Street, and then their “fateful reunion” in the Sector 5 slums church. This language has been used in the Remake trilogy as well. Chapter 2, where Cloud bumps into Aerith, is titled “Fateful Encounters.“

Till the day
That we meet again
Where or when I wish I could say
But believe
Know that you’ll find me

In the original game, Cloud and Aerith’s time together is cut short when Sephiroth murders Aerith in the Forgotten Capital. While the original Aeris had no knowledge of the future, in Remake, Aerith knows people, places, and future events that she shouldn’t – and even alludes to her own fated demise to Cloud in her Chapter 14 “Resolution” scene. With Aerith’s impending murder at the crux of both Remake and, apparently, Rebirth, there’s already precedent for Aerith speaking wistfully about her death.

But where things get really interesting are the lines “Till the day that we meet again” and “Know that you’ll find me.”

In Final Fantasy VII, a parallel is created with one of Aeris’s most memorable lines. In her Gold Saucer date (remember, this is literally where Rebirth Aerith is singing), Aeris tells Cloud that she wants to “meet” him. Then, at the end of the game, Cloud says he thinks he can meet Aeris in the Promised Land.

In Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII, a short video recap of the game available with the Advent Children movie, Cloud’s ending line is translated as “I think I can find her there.”

And in case there was any question, to be clear, the singing Aerith is using the exact same noun she used in her date scene with Cloud here: “I want to meet”, that is, in Japanese, 会いたい.

This ending line may also explain a following lyric:

That we meet again
At our place

“At our place”? Could this be the Promised Land, a place that has held special significance to both Cloud and Aerith throughout the Final Fantasy VII series and its spin-offs?

Just let me believe
In the chance
Know that you’ll take my hand
And never let me go
Take my hand
And believe
We can be together evermore

Aerith singing about this person “taking her hand” cinches this as a Clerith ballad: the imagery of Cloud reaching for Aerith’s outstretched hand was used both in the ending of Final Fantasy VII, and then used again as homage in Advent Children.

But what’s extra incredible is that the line “And never let me go” invokes something else: the lyrics of “Hollow” from the theme song of Remake! Cloud’s song, which was also written by Nojima, has him vowing “This time I will never let you go.” The comparison can’t be a coincidence.

Aerith’s ballad talks a lot about having no promises to keep with someone, while still expressing an intent to meet again. What’s this all about?

‘No Promises to Keep’ and Loveless

In fact, the line references Final Fantasy VII‘s in-universe theatrical play, Loveless. Loveless was first introduced in the original game as a famous production that plays in theaters in the rich upper-plate, where Aeris sells flowers. It’s so famous, the street Cloud bumps into her – that is, the location of their above-mentioned “fateful meeting” – is colloquially known by Midgar’s residents as Loveless Street.

Loveless is otherwise just treated as background flavor in the original game, except for one single conversation. After Aeris dies, just before the game’s final battle, Cloud can have a conversation with Cid Highwind:

Cid
You ever see the play ‘LOVELESS’?
Yeah? Really? Well, that’s fine.
They’ve been doin’ that play every summer since I was a kid.
An’ I remember seein’ it just once…
That was when I was in Midgar interviewing to be a pilot.
I had some free time and thought I’d catch the play.
Now, I’m no big fan of the theater or anything.
But this thing put me to sleep, just like I thought it would.
Finally during the last scene, the guy next to me woke me up tellin’ me my snorin’ was too loud.
So about all I really remember of that play is the end…
The sister* of the lead asks her lover,
Do you really have to leave?
And the guy says,
I promised. The people I love, are waiting.
……I don’t understand. Not at all. But…… please take care of yourself.
Of course… I’ll come back to you. Even if you don’t promise to wait. I’ll return knowing that you’ll be here.
I remember thinking when I heard those lines,
*&%! What the hell’s he talkin’ about? But, you know… now I’m not so sure…
I think I understand…..

[*Note: “sister” here may be a mistranslation, Cid’s usage of “oneesan” is probably just “lady,” implying the lover of the hero]

Final Fantasy VII

There’s a pensive quality to Cid’s speech here, and while Cid is thinking about his own loved ones, the player is invited to think about who is in Cloud’s heart. At this point, Aeris has been dead for a third of the game, and we’re stepping into the story’s climactic finale. But shortly before this conversation can occur, Cloud discusses his memories of Aeris, demonstrating that she is on his mind.

When Cid shared his thoughts on Loveless, did Cloud think of Aeris, whom he met on Loveless Street, whose final words to him were that asking him to “take care of yourself” and that she would “come back” to him when it was all over?

Loveless plays a bigger (and some may say bloated) role in Crisis Core. It has been expanded from a simple play into an ancient epic poem recited ad nauseam by a new character named Genesis, who seems to take its words as holy scriptures. Cid’s hazy, bare-bones description of a single moment he remembers in the play about lovers parting without promises seems to find its Shakespearean equivalent here:

Act V
Even if the morrow is barren of promises
Nothing shall forestall my return
To become the dew that quenches the land
To spare the sands, the seas, the skies I offer thee this silent sacrifice

Crisis Core: Loveless, poem version

Crisis Core also offers an adapted version to its canon that more clearly tells a story about a man (the “prisoner”) and a woman. The theatrical cut, if you will.

Loveless – Prologue

When the war of the beasts brings about the world’s end
The goddess descends from the sky
Wings of light and dark spread afar
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting

Loveless – Act I

The Infinite mystery
The gift of the goddess is what the three men seek
But their fates are scattered by war
One becomes a hero, one wanders the land
And the last is taken prisoner
But the three are still bound by a solemn oath
To seek the answer together, once again

Loveless – Act II

Though the prisoner escapes, he is gravely wounded
His life is saved, however
By a woman of the opposing nation
He begins a life of seclusion with her
Which seems to hold the promise of eternal bliss
But as happiness grows, so does guilt
Of not fulfilling the oath to his friends

Loveless – Act III

As the war sends the world hurling towards destruction
The prisoner departs with his newfound love
And embarks on a new journey
He is guided by hope that the gift will bring bliss
And the oath that he swore to his friends
Though no oath is shared between the lovers
In their hearts they know they will meet again.

Crisis Core: Loveless, interpreted version

It’s not a perfect facsimile of Cloud and Aerith’s story, but it’s hard not to see some noteworthy resemblance. Cloud is the “prisoner” (just prior to the game, he escaped from Hojo’s laboratory, and continues to be imprisoned by Sephiroth’s mind control.) He meets a newfound love, but is bound by an oath to his friend (Zack, the “hero” in this story, made him promise to be his living legacy.) When the world is threatened, the pair set off on a journey. One can’t help but focus on how the lovers know, without promising anything to one another, that they will “meet again” – which is what Cloud expresses a desire to do with Aeris in the game’s ending.

So wait, why is Aerith even referencing Loveless at all in her song?

While in the original game, the play performed at the Gold Saucer is just a simple, unrelated tale about the hero Alfred rescuing a kidnapped Princess Rosa, in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the play being performed at the Gold Saucer actually has been retconned to be a production of Loveless.

So Aerith, the default date partner for Cloud who is already usually cast in the leading role of Princess Rosa, now is playing the love interest in Loveless itself. Her song invokes the message of Loveless while also speaking to feelings she carries in her own heart.

Further Aerith and Cloud Song Promotion

Need further proof that Aerith is singing about Cloud (and not Zack?) Check out the official Square Enix webpage for the piece:

Can you see what image is being used in the background? It’s a screenshot from the trailer, with Aerith taking Cloud’s arm and snuggling up against him. See the unfiltered image below:

That should about settle it. Though we have yet to see where Rebirth takes us, the song carries heavy Clerith connotations.

Conclusion

In 2020, Final Fantasy VII Remake was released with the theme song Hollow, which was sung from Cloud’s perspective and almost certainly portrays his feelings and heartache for Aerith. Four years later, we have Aerith’s answer in a ballad of her own about her feelings for Cloud. This incredible connection can only make us wonder how the events of Rebirth – and the yet unnamed final game in the trilogy – will play out, but one thing is for certain: Cloud and Aerith’s feelings toward one another are foundational to the story.

Update (February 7, 2024)

As of the recent State of Play for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, we’ve heard additional lyrics to No Promises to Keep in the game’s final trailer!

Walking city streets with worn cobblestone
So many people rushing past to rhythms all their own
Life’s passing me by now thinking how how the years have flown
Until I met you

That’s pretty much a diary narrative from Aerith on how she meets Cloud on Loveless Street. She is selling flowers on a cobblestone street as others pass around her, and there is where she meets Cloud Strife.

If the song’s theme wasn’t conclusive before (and really, it was) – we have an even more powerful resonance to Aerith’s relationship with Cloud now.