“This Time, I Will Never Let You Go”: Analyzing the lyrics of Final Fantasy Seven’s Theme Song Hollow

I don’t think I have ever come out and said this out loud to anyone before, but my guilty pleasure songs have always been video game themes. And I’m not just talking about the instrumental scores, although I would be lying if I said I do not listen to Gusty Gardens  from Mario Galaxy with a straight face on the subway. I’m talking about the main themes that you often hear in the trailers in the credits with lyrics. 

I have always found these songs fascinating for many reasons. The first being how the oftentimes vague lyrics tie into the main story, and how they often give clues into either the mindset of an ominous character, or give you hints for the upcoming fate of the characters and the world. I find video game theme songs to be an incredible listening experience when they can fit the tone and theme of the game they were written for, but I find the song more interesting when they tie into a specific character or event taking place. My favorite songs are not ones that just sum up the plots of the games, or the ones they just try and match the energy of the video game, but the ones that look for a unique perspective on the story, and a find a new creative outlet to tell it that actually adds a tone of depth to it. 

I could gush about some of my favorite video game theme songs for hours, but thankfully that is what this section of the blog is for. For me to analyze the lyrics of some of my favorite video game theme songs, because oftentimes I find the lyrics of those songs to be more confusing than your avenger Taylor Swift song (this was a compliment by the way, don’t come after me swifties I love T.S)

There isn’t a better way to dive into this than talking about Hollow from Final Fantasy 7 Remake, as it’s one of my favorites when it comes to deep diving into lyrical analysis. Just by listening, there is so much to unpack, but once you explore the deeper meaning of it, the once rockish anthem becomes a story of love, loss, heartbreak and tragedy. 

Within the online community, there has been much debate surrounding the meaning of this song, both in terms of which character is singing it and who it is about. And because I promised in my essay about Cloud and Aerith that I was going to explore the song deeper in order to prove the romantic connection between the two, I see no reason not to go ahead and do it now. 

The Meaning of Hollow

Final Fantasy Seven tells the story of ex-soldier and mercenary Cloud Strife and his journey to save the planet from fallen war-hero and one winged angel Sephrioth along with his friends and comrades. Standouts of Cloud’s squad include his childhood crush and boxing baddie, Tifa. Planet Activist and doting Father with a gun for an arm, Barret. The materia hunting wildcard, Yuffie. And gaming's favorite flower girl and lovable healer, Aerith. The game first came out in 1997 on the PS1, and was remade for the PS4 in 2020, with the sequel, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth recently coming out in 2024 and the third and final one already in progress. 

The song Hollow was composed by the composer for the original game, Nobuo Uematsu, and the lyrics were written in Japanese by the games writer, Kazushige Nojima before being translated into English by Ben Sabin. The only direction Nojima was given about the song from the games developer, Tetsyua Nomura was, “Cloud’s perspective” and “standing in the rain” and he explains this perspective further in an interview by saying, “Normura just gave me the key words: “told from Cloud’s point of view” and “standing in the rain.” I interpreted that as “a ballad for a man for a man who lost something important to him.” 

If Final Fantasy Seven was praised for anything when it came out, it was the complex writing of its main protagonist, Cloud Strife. Throughout the story, he goes through a severe identity crisis as he struggles to remember certain aspects of his life while at the same time attempting to prevent the destruction of the world. His at first vacant and edgy persona begins to slip away the more he remembers about his previous life, and the layers of his true self begin to slip through. So by hearing this, it’s pretty hard not to come to the conclusion that the song is from the mindspace of Cloud. A fact that becomes ever more obvious when looking at the lyrics. 

Now in terms of who the song is about, that has not been confirmed, and has been the subject of much debate, but it mostly falls into one of three characters. Tifa, Zack, and Aerith. 

One of the most memorable aspects of the original game was the tragic demise of the character Aerith, who met her end at the hands of Sephrioth’s blade after attempting to use her planet speaking abilities to send a prayer to stop his destruction. Her death not only has a major impact on the team, but on Cloud himself. We see this in both the original game, and the ending of the recent sequel to the remake. Once one understands this, you can easily come to the conclusion that this song tells the story of Cloud mourning over the loss of Aerith. 

But in case someone wants proof: Here it is. 

Hollow Lyrics and a Breakdown 

I would be lost, drifting along

Floating up high time after time

And there you'd be shining brightly

Your smiling face to guide my way

In these first batch of lines, Cloud expresses how he lost he felt before coming across the person this song is about. How he was simply following the same old meaningless routine without any real goal in life to pursue. He was traveling alone in the darkness, with his mind vacant from thought as there was nothing in his life he was reaching for. 

Cloud then laments that everytime he found himself wandering aimlessly, this person would be there, a shining light standing out against the darkness he was trapped in. This person would guide him into the light with them. No longer would Cloud be lost, as someone would be there to pull him back to safety whenever he was. 

You can easily draw a parallel between these lines and Aerith. We see at the beginning of the FF7 Remake that Cloud is emotionally distant from the people around him, including the people of avalanche. All he cares about is getting paid and he really doesn’t care for the people around him who want to help or get to know him. He’s harsh to pretty much everyone, and doesn’t give the people he’s working with the time of day. 

This dynamic quickly changes upon meeting Aerith, where suddenly all his morals are flipped on their head. Where he once pestered people about getting paid whenever doing jobs for them, he does everything Aerith asks for free. His tone of speaking becomes more softer, and unlike with everyone else, he allows Aerith to open up to him without shutting her down, and seeing her vulnerable actually helps him not only to understand her, but to break down his own walls. 

This dynamic continues through both Remake and Rebirth, where Aerith’s light acts as a force to the darkness Cloud often finds himself falling into. She is always the first to pull him from the mindspace Sephrioth attempts to trap him in, and when his mind bugs out, her grabbing onto him is what helps him snap out of it. Her guidance is even the thing that helps him come to his senses in Rebirth during the moment Cloud gives Sephiroth the black materia, and she was the only one able to do this in the game. 

Bloody and bruised, brought to my knees

When beaten down, when broken up

You would appear, reach out to me

Heal every wound and make me whole

I already explained these lyrics in part one of my Clerith essay, but I will go ahead and re-explain them here. These lyrics share similarity to the first batch, with Cloud singing out how whenever he was in a broken or beaten down position, the person he’s singing about would come to him and help him back on his feet. This person would heal him and stay by his side in order for him to return to himself. 

The wounds Cloud is referring to are both physical and mental. He is singing about the physical scars he receives at the hands of the battles he fights, and the mental ones that come to him after he loses himself in his mind, and his crisis with finding out who he is. If we’re going back to the belief that this song is about Aerith, these lyrics are easy to understand. 

Aerith has always been the one by Cloud’s side in terms of uplifting and healing him in both a physical, and emotional sense. She’s the literal healer of the team, tending and restoring everyone’s health, but she’s also the one to guide Cloud back into the light whenever he becomes trapped in his broken mindstate. We see it early on in Remake when Aerith takes his hand and gently tells him to get it together, all the way into the climax of Rebirth when Aerith is the only one able to snap Cloud out of being Sephritoh’s puppet. He quite literal becomes whole again in her presence. 

Was it all a dream, will I ever know?

Foolish and blind to everything

Had I realized, had I thought it through?

Would you be here in my embrace?

These lines are when Cloud’s grief begins to shine through. Now that the person he is singing about is gone, he wonders if everything that happened with them is real. He laments about how he was blind to everything that was going on and questions whether or not the person he lost would still be alive in his arms if he had opened his eyes much sooner. 

It’s easy to see how someone could mistake these lines for being about Zack, as was also someone who died in Cloud’s life alongside Aerith. But looking into what happened when both Aerith and Zack lost their lives, the lyrics being about Aerith make more sense. 

During the time before Aerith’s demise, in both the original game and the remake, Cloud was pretty much under the control of Sephiroth. The one winged angel had control of his mind, and used Cloud to his advantage in order to get things such as the black materia and at one point Sephrioth even tried to force Cloud to kill Aerith before he had to step in when Cloud couldn’t do it. Because of the position Cloud was trapped in, he was blind to the amount of pain Aerith was in leading up to her last moments. The burdens of being the last ancient were beginning to fall on her shoulders and up until she died they were the things weighing down on her. The fate of the world was in her hands, yet she hid the burdens and pains of that through her smile. Cloud, in his current mental state at that time, was unable to see past it, and now that she’s gone, he wonders if he would have been able to help her had he seen through it. 

The line “Would you be here in my embrace?” also serves as a major hint as to the identity of the person being sung about. It’s a very romantic line for being about Zack, and it couldn’t be referring to Tifa because she is still alive. Eliminating both of those things, we know that he is referring to Aerith, and the sadness Cloud feels about not being able to hold her now that fate has taken her away from him. 

Shine bright once more

Guide me to you

Smile bright once more

This time I will never let you go

Cloud now appears to be singing up to the heavens, directly to the individual he is singing about. He asks them to once more shine bright for them, hoping that their presence will once more be able to guide him back into the light. Cloud wants to see them smile again and makes a promise that if they do, he will not allow them to slip from their grasp once more. 

The reference to Aerith is perfectly clear with this one. As stated before, Cloud has always seen Aerith as a guiding light, and now that she’s gone, there is no one to help him escape from the darkness her death has trapped her in. 

The aftermath and effect Aerith’s death holds over Cloud is on display in the sequel movie Final Fantasy Seven: Advent Children. The movie focuses on the grief Cloud feels after losing Aerith to the point where he isolates himself from all his friends and moves into Aerith’s church to feel closer to her. Without Aerith’s presence helping Cloud, he becomes lost in the demented, broken mindscape Aerith was able to prevent him falling into. Aerith was a constant in his life, and throughout the games Cloud is able to find vulnerability in her presence. Without her, he’s stuck. 

Being stuck causes him to call out for her now that she is gone. Him telling her that he won’t let her go this time can take on two meanings. The first being that if Aerith returns to him, he will ensure that this time nothing happens to her. He failed to protect her once but if she were to find a way to come back. Cloud won’t let her slip away again. The second meaning revolves around the multiple timeline theory we know already has made a presence in the games two remakes. Fate is altered at the end of Remake with the return of Zack, and such a revelation was enough to get the hopes of players up that Aerith would be safe in the remake’s sequel. To an extent, it was. Cloud was only able to save her in one timeline and not the mainline one. Cloud, to an extent, kept his promise not to let her go this time, but now that Cloud can speak and see Aerith even after her demise, there is potential for him not to lose her again. 

With your every smile hiding something more

Dark mysteries lurking beneath

But I was consumed with this emptiness

This selfishness, this void to fill

These lyrics bear a similarity to what was presented to us before. Cloud sings about the sorrow this person was while hiding it behind a smile, and Cloud lacked an understanding as to why because once more, his own selfishness and shattered mindset prevented him from looking into what was going on with them. He was consumed by it, and thus, he failed to see what was going on with this person. 

The most obvious parallel from song to game is the moment in the ancient temple in Rebirth. Everyone in the party except for Cloud is forced to undergo a trial in which they are forced to relive the event in which they lost someone important to them. For Aerith, she was forced to relive the day she lost her mom, and after she and the party pass, they are all stricken with grief. Aerith, being the optimistic one of the group, attempts to lift their spirits with a hopeful speech about fighting for the future in order to not let the past be in vain. While Aerith is speaking, she is most obviously in pain, but she hides it in order to help the party move past their own grief. After she speaks, Cloud immediately shuts her down in order for her to use her ancient abilities to move forward in the temple to get the black materia for Sephiroth. Later on, being Sephrioth’s puppet is almost the thing that sends Aerith to her death early when he chases after her in order to get said black materia. 

Even when not controlled by Sephrioth, the pain Aerith is hiding is never addressed by Cloud. He attempts to get her to open up to him, but she fails and just speaks vaguely to him about the future and begs him not to blame himself. All Cloud does is hold her, but she never unravels the truth of what’s going on with her. 

During this moment of the song, Cloud once more wonders if he could have read between the lines sooner and come to her aid. He is now able to recognize that Aerith was hiding a deep amount of pain, but now that he wants to be there for her, he can no longer because she’s gone. 

Hear me once more

Show me your smile

This time for sure

I'll see the truth hidden inside your tears

Cloud once more begs the person he is singing to to return to him and smile for him once more. He makes a promise that this time, unlike before, he will be able to see the pain they are hiding and be there for them. He will no longer ignore their tears, but instead be the one to prevent them from happening. 

Taking the lines from the lines before, Aerith was hiding an immense amount of pain that Cloud was unable to see. By the time Cloud was able to recognize that something was going on, Aerith had succumbed to the sorrow, as seen in their last date in the doomed timeline. Cloud had attempted to get her to tell him what was wrong, but she had accepted her fate and refused to open up to him. In the original game, Cloud was negligent to all the tears Aerith did indeed shed, and was blind to her suffering. 

Here, Cloud makes a promise that this time he will be unable to crack what’s going on with her, and that he will be able to spot the tears before they fall. Since her smile was the only thing keeping him from losing his mind, he hopes now to be the same for her if only she returns to him. 

But I, I know

That you're long gone

But I, I will

Go on howling and hollow

The final lines of the song see Cloud come to an understanding that the person he’s singing to will never return to him. He knows he has to accept that this person is gone, and he says that he will spend the rest of his life hollow as a result of it. The loss of this person has fully broken something inside of him, and he will spend the rest of his life mourning their loss knowing he could have done something to change the outcome. 

Aerith’s death is something that had a profound impact on Cloud no matter which FF7 property you look at. We see in the original that Cloud’s final lines are all about trying to find Aerith again, and he breaks down in a heartbreaking speech to Sephrioth about how he doesn't understand why she had to die. In Remake and Rebirth, anytime Cloud cries, it relates to Aerith. He shed a tear when he sees a vision of her losing her life, and cries heartbreaking tears when she falls into his arms. Also in the Remake games, Cloud is unable to move past her death and either sees visions of her, or is able to connect with the Aerith he saved in another timeline. In Advent Children. The death of Aerith had such a profound impact on him, that he moved into what Rebirth describes as “one of her favorite places.” just so he can feel like he hasn’t lost her entirely. Cloud can not bring himself to speak to any of his friends, as he believes he is responsible for Aerith being gone, and doesn't want to pass that fate to the people still remaining in life, including Tifa. He wears a pink ribbon in honor of her, and Aerith’s presence quite literally lives inside of him, speaking to him to try and bring him back into the light. And in the book all about Aerith making her way through the lifestream, she describes the pain Cloud was feeling upon losing her:

“It was the sound of Cloud’s heart cracking. It was the cry of his heart that could never be healed of the grief he had towards Aerith’s death, the blame towards himself and the hatred he had for Sephiroth.”

Aerith from the beginning has always had a profound impact on Cloud. She was able to help him see the value in the planet, become more vulnerable, and she was the only one able to snap him out of Sephrioth’s mind control and his own PTSD flashbacks. Cloud was able to smile and show more signs of his awkward true persona around her, and she was one of the only ones who knew he was hurting and knew he was putting on a false identity. No one can deny that the relationship they share is a special one, and unlike the bonds they share with any other party members. 

After her death in Rebirth, it seems that Cloud is unable to accept it, as he sees and continues to speak her spirit in the games final moments. Her death breaks him in more than one way, sending him into both denial and depression. It seems in Rebirth, Cloud is unable to accept that she is gone, but later we know that Cloud becomes lost without her, unable to move past the blame he places upon himself. In these lines, Cloud blames himself, and moving forward such as in Advent Children, he will continue to do so. He knows that Aerith will never return to him, and thus, he is left hollow as a result. 

Hollow is a song with lyrics expressing the grief Cloud feels about losing someone important to him, and drawing comparisons from the lyrics, scenes in the game and the tie in sequel movie, one can come to the conclusion that the song Hollow is all about Cloud’s sorrow and grief after Aerith passes. The connection between Cloud and Aerith, the emotions Aerith felt moments before her passing, and the aftermath of her death and what we know happens to Cloud moving forward, it becomes pretty clear that this song is all about Aerith and Cloud.  

The lyrics take on a new devastating meaning upon realization, and one can only hope when the third part of the remake comes out, Cloud will find some sort of way to get her back.