Like with many elements of the FFVIIR in general, I'm hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst, lol.
Excellent points with both posts!
I really loved Zack in the original game, but between the retcons that have a huge knock-on effect on both Cloud and Aerith's characters, and the more cliched take on what could have been a nuanced version of Zack in CC, I'm not the biggest fan of his Compilation incarnation. I found him irritating in
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, too.
Between Zack and Genesis in CC, the dialogue was an endless loop of
hero-hero-hero-hero-oh god somebody make them stop-
hero-hero-hero
This!!
Crisis Core even made me dislike Aerith, who I adore. The interactions between her and Zack were pretty grating. I'm not entirely sure there was a full brain cell between them at some points, lawd.
(Credit)
(Credit)
My biggest complaints regarding Genesis are:
a) that they retconned one of the most iconic scenes in FFVII to put Genesis in it. Even worse, it is ultimately Genesis' encouragement/gaslighting that is the final straw that triggers Sephiroth's descent into darkness.
b) both Genesis and Angeal's character arcs ultimately undermine Sephiroth's, because by the time Nibelheim happens, both Zack and the player have already experienced Angeal and Genesis' mental deterioration, have fought both of them, and now they are now seemingly dead. (Didn't stick for Genesis, though.) When Sephiroth finally goes mad, and we have to fight him, it's just... eh. You too? Whatevs. Been there, done that.
Twice.
The inclusion of Genesis and Angeal in general are also detrimental to setting up Sephiroth's descent into darkness/his pre-FFVII arc. In the original, Sephiroth was alone, he was the best of the best, he was special/one of a kind, etc-etc. It's a pretty isolating and vulnerable place to be in, not to mention that it would give him one hell of an ego. Add in Jenova, and it's a recipe for disaster - and it is, which is the outcome in the original game. With CC's retcon of Sephiroth's friendships with Genesis and Angeal and their own issues with humanity, not to mention Sephiroth's budding friendship with Zack, the set-up for Sephiroth's arc starts to fall apart to the point that Sephiroth's madness (and all the horror that follows) loses a lot of its impact, and now the cause and effect of his choices don't make as much sense as they originally did.
It's a similar issue with Cloud and Zack. There were quite a few iconic moments in the original game with Cloud that now feel hollow after
Crisis Core, because Zack kinda did everything first. It was tragic in the original that Cloud had adopted elements of Zack, but CC overdoes this connection/homage, to the point it becomes borderline fourth-wall breaking. Remember that cool moment with Cloud? ...yeah, Zack did it first.