Zack Fair
From Final Fantasy Wiki
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| Zack Fair | |
| A.K.A | Zack |
| Kana | ザックス・フェア |
| Romaji | Zakkusu Fea |
| Job Class | Fighter |
| Weapon | Buster Sword |
| Birthplace | Gongaga |
| Date of Birth | 16 years before the beginning of Crisis Core, exact date unknown |
| Age | 16 at the beginning of Crisis Core, 22 by time of death |
| Height | 6'1" |
| Blood Type | O |
| Japanese Voice Actor | Kenichi Suzumura |
| English Voice Actor | Rick Gomez |
- "Boy oh boy... the price of freedom is steep."
- —Zack Fair
Zack Fair is an NPC (non-player character) from Final Fantasy VII and the protagonist of its prequel, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. He is also a central character in Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-. In Final Fantasy VII, Zack only appears in flashback sequences, which portray him as almost identical to Cloud Strife, the game's main protagonist, in physical appearance except having black hair and his pauldron being on both shoulders. When strung together, the sequences explain a great deal about Cloud's past and his connection to Sephiroth, the game's arch-villain. He also wielded the Buster Sword before Cloud. His default Limit Break (DMW) is Chain Slash, but he gains others during Crisis Core.
Like many other 1st Class members of SOLDIER, Zack has a fan club, of which is known to have had at least 109,384 members by the end of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.
Contents |
[edit] Story
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
- "SOLDIER 2nd Class Zack, on the job!"
- —Zack Fair
Zack was born in the town of Gongaga, where he spent his early years until he joined the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company's military forces around the age of 14. There, he was placed under the tutelage of SOLDIER 1st Class Angeal Hewley for the next few years to become a member of SOLDIER. Angeal's words of wisdom and strong honorable manner had a profound affect on Zack, who wants to be just like his mentor. During his time in SOLDIER, he become friends with 2nd Class SOLDIER Kunsel, who guided him in the ways of Shin-Ra. Zack works under Director Lazard Deusericus in the 49th Floor of Shin-Ra Headquarters, along with many other SOLDIER members. He greatly admires the organization of SOLDIER, hoping to become a SOLDIER First Class.
[edit] War With Genesis
In Crisis Core, Zack first appears in a digital training session with Angeal Hewley, who seems disapproving of his reckless attitude towards his enemies and himself. Despite this, he approves of Zack as a member of SOLDIER, and requests to Director Lazard that he be sent on his own mission in Wutai. Shin-Ra had been at war with the Wutai for a good time by now, and SOLDIER 1st class Sephiroth had already become a hero of Shin-Ra for his actions there.
Though Zack was ecstatic over Angeal's suggestion, he received some interesting news during the briefing: 1st Class SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos had deserted Shin-Ra, taking an untold number of 2nd and 3rd Class warriors with him. He had to be found and stopped.
After Zack took out the forces of Fort Tamblin singlehandedly, Zack met with warriors in strange armor. Sephiroth identifies them as copies of Genesis. Realizing that these were the soldiers that Angeal had last been seen fighting, and that he was no where to be seen as well, Sephiroth comes to the conclusion that Angeal left with his long-time friend: Genesis. Zack however, refuses to believe that his mentor would ever desert Shin-Ra.
Zack now fights against the forces of Genesis while meeting up with several other characters of Final Fantasy VII and uncovering the truth behind Project G. He fights armies of Genesis Copies in Genesis and Angeal's hometown of Banora Village with the Turk Tseng. Zack's hopes are shattered, however, when he finds Angeal standing over the body of his mother, Gillian Hewley. Zack is horrified that Angeal could do something so horrible to his own family, and is badly shaken. After he defeats Bahamut, whom Genesis had summoned, Zack questions Genesis about what happened to his dreams and honor. Unfortunately, Genesis only declares that they are monsters and flies away with a wing hidden beneath his coat, leaving Zack as Tseng arrives to pick him up as the village is bombed.
Next he is sent to back to his home base of Midgar, where Lazard gives him the title of SOLDIER First Class (most likely to replace all the Firsts who are gone). Zack is not happy that he attained his dreams so early, and after so many losses. But then, Genesis's army attacks Midgar, and Zack has to fight them throughout the city. Along the way, he saves Cissnei, another member of the Turks. Sephiroth and Zack both head to the Sector 5 Reactor to find the rogue Dr. Hollander who is suspected of working with Genesis. Zack chases Hollander through the Reactor, until he runs into Angeal, now with a white angel's wing and believing himself to be a monster. Refusing to fight his old friend and mentor, Angeal is forced to drop Zack down into the slums.
In the Slums of Sector 5, Zack meets Aerith Gainsborough. Grateful for saving his life, Zack offers to pay Aerith a fee of one date. Zack suggests that Aerith should sell the flowers that only grow in the Sector 5 Reactor. Later on, Zack gets his wallet stolen by a child, and would eventually find him, only to find that the child's wallet was eaten by a monster. In generosity, he lets the child keep his wallet in order to buy some medicine, or you can choose to take the wallet back from the monsters. That being done, it happens that the kid had a lot more money in his wallet than in Zack's. Zack then buys Aerith the ribbon that she is seen wearing throughout the series. It was also revealed in a DMW reel that Zack wanted Aerith to wear all pink when he was around. However, their date is cut short when Zack has to return to the Midgar Plate to defeat Genesis. He protects Professor Hojo during this time. Angeal rejoins Zack, and together they drive Genesis out of Midgar. Zack would have to face Bahamut Fury while Angeal deals with Genesis.
[edit] Tragedies of Modeoheim
Zack's next mission sends him to the mountain town of Modeoheim, with Tseng accompanying him once more, as well as several Shin-Ra infantrymen, one of which is Cloud Strife. Their helicopter is shot down by Genesis' troops on the way there, and the team must hike their way across the snow. Zack and Cloud make headway fast. When Zack makes the comment that his companion can at least keep up after seeing how far behind Tseng and the other troops are, they learn that they are both "country boys" and become immediate friends. From this point on, Cloud would begin to accompany Zack on many missions and start to look up to him as a hero and role model.
They eventually come up on a Mako Excavation Facility, that Zack must infiltrate while Tseng and the troops continue on to Modeoheim. Inside, Zack finds Genesis and Dr. Hollander arguing, and Zack confronts Genesis while Hollander squirms away. Eventually defeating the degrading Genesis, Zack watches while the former SOLDIER lets himself fall into the depths of the site. Assuming him dead, Zack hurries after Hollander.
Inside a ruined bath house, Zack finds Hollander and Angeal. He learns here that Angeal's biological father is really Hollander, who used Gillian Hewley as a test subject for Project G. It is also revealed that Angeal did not kill his mother, but she killed herself. Although Hollander refers to him as the perfect soldier, Angeal refuses this title and, accepting the monstrosities of Project G, renames himself as the "perfect monster." He then fuses with several Angeal copy monsters and becomes Angeal Penance.
Zack is forced to fight and kill this creature, obtaining the scar shown in Advent Children. Angeal is left barely alive, and apparently degrading from the wounds. Using his last strength, he hands the Buster Sword to Zack, telling him one final time to remember his dreams and honor to be a true member of SOLDIER. As one of the last 1st Class SOLDIERs, and with the war with Genesis considered over, Zack takes over Angeal's job of being the emotional heart of the organization. He meets another SOLDIER member named Luxiere, who also looks up to him as a role model, and constantly sends Zack mail, he is inspired by Zack's speech to the Shin-Ra troops he commands. Distraught over the death of his mentor and friend, Zack finds comfort in the arms of Aerith, strengthening their relationship to its strongest.
[edit] Before the Crisis
At some point between becoming a SOLDIER 1st Class and his final mission, Zack Fair is sent to deal with the insurgency known as AVALANCHE. He is sent to Icicle Inn to defeat an AVALANCHE base along with a player Turk and his SOLDIER freinds, Essai and Sebastian. If the Turk brough is female, Zack will hit on her. Along the way, Essai and Sebastian are kidnapped by AVALANCHE and turned into Ravens, monstrous genetically enhanced humans created by Fuhito to be his personal guard. Zack fights and kills a Raven named Kainyuu, and tries to save the SOLDIERs. However, when he arrives they have been compeletely transformed and must be defeated in battle. After their death, Zack makes a grave for them with each of their swords crossing that appears in his DMW.
Later, Genesis's forces return. With the help of the traitor, Lazard, they break Dr. Hollander out of imprisonment in Junon. Zack is sent here, with a good number of Turks and Shin-Ra Troops to quell the threat of Genesis' copies and the stolen machines of the Shin-Ra company. Hollander escapes with the help of the Genesis copies, but Sephiroth, who appeared late on the scene, forgives him, and gives him leave to go back to Midgar and see Aerith.
Midgar had also been in danger at the same time. Hordes of monsters had appeared, escaped (or perhaps set free, according to Kunsel) from Hojo's lab. One monster in particular, though, had gone to Aerith's church. A single Angeal copy that was protecting Aerith from the monsters and Shin-Ra's confused machines until Zack arrived. Although never fully stated, it is believed that this single copy is all that is left of Angeal's will on the Planet, and is perhaps being controlled by Angeal from the Lifestream.
Before Zack leaves on his next mission, he and Aerith build a wagon so that she can sell flowers throughout Midgar. Zack has to stop selling early, though, as he is called away to investigate the Mako Reactor at Nibelheim. Trusting Tseng to look after her, he, Sephiroth, Cloud, and two other Shin-Ra troops head to Nibelheim, Cloud's hometown.
[edit] The Nibelheim Incident
Zack, Sephiroth, and Cloud Strife all enter Nibelheim, but Cloud hides his face out of fear of being spotted by his childhood friend, Tifa. Just before the group heads up Mt. Nibel to reach the Reactor, a picture is taken of Sephiroth, Tifa, and Zack together. They all then head up the mountain and reach the Reactor.
The problem is easily fixed. However, inside the Reactor are pods filled with horrible monsters that had been infused with massive amounts of Mako. They also find a creature named Jenova, who Sephiroth was told was his mother. This along with words from Genesis, sends Sephiroth over the edge. He hides himself in the basement of the Shin-Ra Mansion reading over files upon files of the Jenova Project. When Zack tries to look for Sephiroth, and finds him, Sephiroth said he wants to be left alone. However, during a DMW scene, Sephiroth talks to Zack about the Jenova Project's result, himself. It would be during that day or later on in the week when Sephiroth comes out of the Mansion. Now insane, Sephiroth burns the village to the ground, slaughtering most of the town.
Zack runs up the mountain behind an enraged Tifa, both out to defeat Sephiroth. Once again inside the Reactor, Tifa is easily cut-down. Sephiroth stands outside of his mother's tube, and does not even notice Zack enter. The two battle, but Zack is also beaten. Finally, Cloud, furious over the death of his mother and seeing Tifa gravely wounded, takes up the Buster Sword and defeats Sephiroth. Sephiroth falls into the Lifestream, where he will disappear for four years. Tifa is saved by Zangan, but Cloud and Zack are both taken by Shin-Ra forces to be used in Professor Hojo's newest experiment.
[edit] Defeating Genesis
Four years later, Zack has a hallucination of Angeal appearing before him in Shin-Ra Mansion's basement. As he flies off, Zack's strong will to be free allowed him to break the tube allowing he and Cloud to escape. Because of Hojo's experiments, both have become Sephiroth Clones, but Zack completely unaffected by the experiment thanks to having been in SOLDIER. Cloud is completely comatose from Mako Addiction, but Zack can still fight. He cuts their way out of Nibelheim, which had been rebuilt by Shin-Ra to hide the Incident of four years earlier. Cissnei in Crisis Core, or whoever the player's Turk is in Before Crisis is ordered to take Zack in, but betrays orders and allows him to pass.
As they travel across the world on a motorcycle, courtesy of Cissnei, to Midgar and Aerith, Genesis reappears. One of Genesis's Copies eats a part of Zack's hair. Since Zack has been infused with Jenova Cells, it turns the copy into a horrible monster. Zack defeats the creature, and heads home to Gongaga. Here he once again runs into Genesis, now with a degrading Genesis Copy that was once Hollander. Hollander and Genesis try to take Cloud for his pure Sephiroth Cells, because Zack is worthless thanks to being a former member of SOLDIER. Instead, Lazard—in the form of a degraded Angeal, thanks to unknowingly obtaining his cells— and Zack fight the two. Zack finally kills Hollander once and for all.
It is at this point that Zack finally realizes that Genesis has been working from Banora the whole time. The Banora "Dumb Apples" that Genesis always carried being the clue. Zack travels there, and leaves Cloud under Lazard's protection. Down into Genesis's cave Zack travels, until he comes upon Genesis. Genesis uses the power of the Lifestream, but still is defeated. Zack takes his old enemy up to the surface. Together with a comatose Cloud, a beaten Genesis, and a dying Lazard, he eats a Dumb Apple. The final Angeal copy that had protected Aerith shows up here as well, and as he finally dies from degradation, Zack finds the 89th and final letter from Aerith that it had been carrying and realizes that he had been asleep for four years. Desperate to return before Aerith forgets him, Zack leaves a now pacified Genesis behind while he and Cloud go off to Midgar.
[edit] Death
- "Hey, would you say I became a hero?"
- —Zack Fair
While Zack and Cloud head back towards Midgar, a massive army of Shin-Ra Troops awaits them. Despite Cissnei and Tseng's attempts to save Zack first, the Shin-Ra army attacks. Zack fights hard against overwhelming odds. However, the enemy is just too many, and despite all of Zack's SOLDIER training, he is defeated. Riddled with bullets, and his Digital Mind Wave destroyed, Zack is barely alive when Cloud awakes and comes to him. Zack hands the Buster Sword to him, like Angeal handed the Buster Sword to Zack four years earlier. Cloud wanders off towards Midgar. Zack is pulled into the Lifestream by Angeal. Zack wonders if he has become a hero after all.
The combined weight of all this trauma finally makes Cloud snap, and, aided by the Jenova cells he now has in his body, he adopts Zack's persona, combining it with his own. He truly believes that he was successful in joining SOLDIER, and that he fulfilled Zack's role in the fateful mission to Nibelheim 5 years before. Upon his arrival in Midgar, Cloud seeks work as a mercenary, just as Zack said he intended to do. When Tifa finds Cloud at the Sector 7 Station, she convinces him to join her and Barret with AVALANCHE. This is where Final Fantasy VII begins.
[edit] Final Fantasy VII
Much of Final Fantasy VII's story revolves around Cloud's battle to reclaim his memory, to accept his true identity rather than relying on his constructed "Zack" personality—a combination of Zack's persona, the stories Zack had told him, and what he presumed a First Class SOLDIER would act like—and to validate himself in a world that has rejected him. When the party visit the depressed town of Gongaga Village, they learn that it was Zack's hometown. Aeris also reveals at one point that Zack was her first boyfriend, and that Cloud resembles him. His parents are also there, still waiting for Zack's return, concerned that they hadn't heard from him in a while.
In Maiden who Travels the Planet, Aeris encountered Zack after her death at the hands of Sephiroth, and he was among those who aided her in the destruction of Meteor.
[edit] Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Throughout the movie, a large gray wolf appears in many of the same places as Cloud does, but at different times, only meeting him once at the end. It is speculated by many that this is a representation of Zack's spirit, following Cloud. He appears next to the Buster Sword memorial in the wasteland, very briefly twice among the rapid succession of images of Sephiroth, Kadaj, Zack and the Jenova cells after Cloud's recollection of Zack, sleeping in the church when Cloud falls unconscious due to Geostigma symptoms, next to the lake in the Forgotten City after Aerith left a message on Cloud's phone, and next to Cloud before he awakens in Aerith's church. It is has been stated that this wolf is meant to symbolize Cloud's guilt, but there is still the possibilty it was Zack's spirit. But not so much since the wolf disappears in the end when Cloud finally managed to forgive himself for not being able to save both Aerith and Zack. Both spirits of Aerith and Zack will always be with him.
[edit] Weapons
Throughout Crisis Core, Zack Fair wields only three weapons. As a SOLDIER 2nd Class and briefly after his promotion to 1st, he is a master of the Broadsword, the traditional weapon of most SOLDIERs under 1st Class. Upon defeating his friend and mentor, Angeal, Zack inherits the legendary Buster Sword, receiving it as a final gift from Angeal before his death. Thereafter, Zack uses this large broadsword as his own in honor of his friend. This same sword would later be passed onto Cloud in a similar manner. In Costa del Sol, Zack fights briefly with an umbrella, swinging it around like a sword. Interestingly this odd weapon has the same attacking power as Zack's other weapons and works well to defeat Genesis's forces.
[edit] Digital Mind Wave
- Main article: Digital Mind Wave
Digital Mind Wave a.k.a DMW is the limit break system in Crisis Core. Throughout the game, more characters who are related to Zack will be added to the DMW. It is also possible
to unlock summon DMW's or gain Chocobo Mode, along with other creatures' DMW. These
are all unlocked throughout the course of certain events throughout the game.
[edit] Non-Final Fantasy Appearances
[edit] Ehrgeiz
Zack is a secret character in the game Ehrgeiz: God Bless The Ring, functioning more or less as a head swap of Cloud, in the arcade, versus, and minigame events.
[edit] Trivia
- Zack's full name was first revealed in Crisis Core to be Zack Fair. According to Nomura, it is derived from "fair weather", and is intended to contrast with "Cloud Strife".
- Zack shares both English and Japanese voice actors with Gippal of Final Fantasy X-2: Rick Gomez and Kenichi Suzumura, respectively.
- Zack changes his hairstyle after the death of his mentor, Angeal, from a shorter spikier style with bangs, to his trademark style of long, slicked back spikes with a single bang on his forehead. This was perhaps done to look more like Angeal and carry on his legacy better.
- During a DMW scene, Zack tells Aerith that whenever they meet, they should always do something in particular. Zack's idea was for her to wear pink, but she thought the idea silly. After this event, she wears her signature pink outfit, probably to surprise Zack when he came back from Nibelheim. Zack is also responsible for buying her the pink ribbon she always wears.
- Zack takes his vacation trips to Costa del Sol, the famous beach in the world of Final Fantasy VII.
- During his spare time, Zack is usually found doing squats. He is the current champion of squats in SOLDIER.
- Although most 2nd Class members of SOLDIER wear a red uniform in Final Fantasy VII, Zack's is shown as being dark blue, much closer to the uniforms of 1st Class SOLDIERs. However, it is notable that most of the 2nd Class SOLDIERs Zack comes into contact with in Crisis Core have purple uniform.
- Unlike most other 2nd Class SOLDIERs, Zack never wears a helmet.
- During part of Last Order when Tseng was looking at his profile, Zack is 18 during the invasion of Nibelheim and after the invasion when he and Cloud were escaping.
- Terra, a protagonist in an upcoming game in the Kingdom Hearts series, is speculated to have some connection to Zack, similar to the speculated connection between Reno and Axel, largely due to Terra's appearance being very similar to Zack's including spiky black hair and bright blue eyes.
[edit] External Link
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| Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- & Last Order -Final Fantasy VII- OST |
| v · e · d | |
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| Characters | |
| Player Character | |
| Zack Fair | |
| SOLDIER | |
| Sephiroth - Genesis Rhapsodos - Angeal Hewley - Lazard Deusericus - Luxiere - Kunsel - Nero the Sable - Weiss the Immaculate | |
| Turks | |
| Tseng - Cissnei - Reno - Rude | |
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| Dr. Hollander - Professor Hojo - Gillian Hewley - Cloud Strife - Aerith Gainsborough - Tifa Lockhart - Yuffie Kisaragi - Minerva | |
| Locations | |
| Midgar - Shin-Ra Headquarters - Wutai - Fort Tamblin - Banora Village - Sector 8 - Sector 1 - Sector 5 Reactor - Sector 5 - Modeoheim - Costa del Sol - Junon - Nibelheim - Mt. Nibel - Gongaga - Chocobo Farm | |
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| Cellphone - Digital Mind Wave - Jenova Project - LOVELESS - Materia Fusion - Nibelheim Incident - Shin-Ra Electric Power Company - Sister Ray - SOLDIER - Soldier Points - Turks - Wutai War | |
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| Aerith Gainsborough - Barret Wallace - Cait Sith - Cid Highwind - Elena - Red XIII - Reno - Rude - Rufus Shinra - Ruvie Tuesti - Tseng - Vincent Valentine - Yuffie Kisaragi - Zack Fair | ||
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| On the Way to a Smile - Maiden Who Travels the Planet | ||
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