Square Enix has finally released Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and in doing so rekindled an age-old fan debate: is Red XIII a dog or a cat?
It didn't take long for Rebirth players to incite conversation around the species of Red XIII, the first but not the only animal party member who joins the likes of Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith in Final Fantasy 7 and the ongoing Remake trilogy.
He kinda looks like a lion to me, and gives me Lion King vibes," said Boned80 on Reddit. "But then he acts like a dog sometimes too. I'm torn. What do you all think?"
The answers came in droves. "Unknown species," said HydratedCarrot. "He's a good boy," said Temnookslostbrother. "Well he's not quite a dog and he's not quite a lion," said MountainImportant211. "The answer is yes," said Hapless-Frog. "Neither, he's a unique species," said morbid333.
The conversation continued on ResetEra. "An NPC just jokingly referred to Red XIII as a dog. But he's a big cat, right?," asked Magnus. "Am I crazy for thinking that over the past 25 years?" PlanetSmashed replied: "He looks like a lion to me, but he howls like a dog." I don't even think Square really knows."
Users on the Penny Arcade forums weighed in too. "His design is ambiguously canine and feline," said BahamutZero. "He's clearly a cat! Drives me nuts," assured Prohass. But popular X/Twitter account Can You Pet the Dog?, which tells gamers if they can, well, pet the dog in various video games, featured Red XIII on its page.
Barrett sarcastically refers to Red XIII as a "lab rat dog" in Final Fantasy 7 Remake but this comment is rebuked. No version of Final Fantasy 7 has answered the question definitively, but Rebirth director and original Final Fantasy 7 lead character designer Tetsuya Nomura did seem to give an official answer in a companion book for the film Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children.
"Back when we were working on a game called Parasite Eve, I thought it would be fun to create a game without any human characters in it, and came up with the idea of a cat riding on a dog to go on a quest," Nomura said.
"The concept of Cait Sith riding on Red XIII in this film actually spawned from that idea. Back then, the idea was that animals would wake up one day and find their master was gone, so the object of the game was for these animals to go on a journey in search of their master. But I guess since Red XIII is a feline of sorts, it would actually be a cat riding on a cat in this case."
Saying a "feline of sorts" certainly suggests Red XIII is more cat than dog, but it's likely something that will remain somewhat elusive forever more, with the release of the third and final Remake trilogy game sparking the debate once more.
In our 9/10 review of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, IGN said: "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenges and an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long."
Those playing can check out IGN's extensive guide on the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and see how long it takes to beat, our PlayStation 5 performance review, and how Square Enix caused havoc by mislabelling its discs in Japan.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
