This topic is probably a bit pointless, but I just found it interesting.

Well, I was talking to my friend from Japan about AC, and we were browsing the website, then he pointed to Zack and told me something interesting.

Apparently, Zack was not included in the original Japanese Version of FF7. They had no idea who Zack was, there was nothing about him, except for the photo taken in Nibelheim with Sephy, CLoud and Tifa.
My japanese friend had absolutely no idea who Zack was because he had played the very first Japanese version of FF7. He told me, apparently, Zack was added in after that release, into another version, to be re-released and sold outside of Japan (which is the version we all play).

I just thought it was so interesting that SE just decided to throw Zack in an afterthought. :)

Maybe you guys already knew this, but bah! :aeris:

*Raises eyebrows* Wow! That IS cool!

My, my, that IS interesting! If Zack was just an afterthought, the whole backstory with him being Aerith's boyfriend was just an afterthought as well...?
A lot of people like to foist Aerith off Zack not because they like them together but just so she can get out of the way for Tifa to be with Cloud. This makes me think of something that Clotis often say, that Zack is Aerith's first love and therefore, her true love. But if he wasn't even in the first Japanese version, well... ^_^
Just to clear things up: do you mean that Zack wasn't in the first Japanese version of FF7 or he isn't in any Japanese version of FF7?

Now that's a good point!! I never thought of it that way before!! So now the argument that Zack was originally meant to be Aeris's true love interest can be lowered, just so slightly!

Urm...I think he wasn't in the FIRST Japanese Version of FF7.....but I'm not sure. I'll ask my Jap friend again.

He's not so much an afterthought, more that he wasn't really expanded upon in FFVII-j. Mentions and brief appearence to him in the Lifestream and Gongaga and Aerith's vague 'first boyfriend' references are still there (unless I'm grossly misinformed about this), he's mentioned in other things produced about the game (called a character who 'holds the key to the story' before IIRC), but he shows up very little and apparently a lot of people didn't really know who he was. That's probably why they added the escape flashback, and maybe why they're expanding on his story with things like Crisis Core and Last Order.

Wow, I never knew that. Exactly how much was known about him in the first one? It's interesting to think about at least on why he wasn't as important before...

If you forget all about Cloud's flashback in the Shinra mansion basement, then the rest of what's left should be all you see of Zack in the original game.