Square Enix’s decision to compress the sprawling 26-episode Before Crisis saga into three chapters for Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis has already stripped the adaptation of its core identity. Where the original mobile title let players inhabit a rotating roster of eleven distinct Turks—each with personal arcs, rivalries, and moments of reluctant heroism—the Ever Crisis retelling centers the narrative almost exclusively on Aphromia while sidelining everyone else.

By Chapter 2, only Aphromia (Elena’s elder sister) and Rodd have received proper names and screen time; the remaining nine Turks exist as background silhouettes or are simply absent. Worse, players never control any of them. Unlike the First Soldier storyline, which gave us hands-on time with Glenn, Lucia, and younger Sephiroth, the Turks here function as NPCs in a story that was originally built around playing as them.

The broader context makes the cuts sting more. Ever Crisis itself is scheduled to shut down on October 6, 2026, so this three-part abridgment is effectively the only official English-language version of Before Crisis most Western players will ever experience. A story once praised for humanizing the Turks and expanding Avalanche’s early sins has been reduced to a series of cameos and plot checkpoints, with the very characters who made it memorable left on the cutting-room floor.