Opinions about Final Fantasy VII have floated from “Best RPG ever made” to “Worst RPG ever made” and everywhere in between. Despite my personal opinions about the game itself, I can’t deny that Yoshinori Kitase wrote a compelling story full of genuine emotion and set the stage for something much larger than just a game.
Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core, a game I played through before we relaunched Gamer’s University, is without question the best game I have played in recent memory. Dragonkitty and I needed to borrow a second PSP because we would consistently want to play at the same time. It wasn’t that the gameplay itself was without flaws–though it was most excellent, much better than the original Final Fantasy VII in my opinion, it was the storytelling. It was compelling and beautiful and invoked true sorrow for the tragic fate of the heroes and would-be villains alike.
These two games, the feature film (also fantastic), and the latter game Dirge of Cerberus (not quite as fantastic, but still worth playing for a fan of the story) are all part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, which includes more than just games and movies. In addition to ’something big’ coming on the 20th anniversary of the original game’s release, there are more pieces of the story than not everyone has heard.
A while ago, I came across this website; FFVII WEB NOVEL, which contains further explanations of all parts of the Final Fantasy VII compilation, as well as an English translation for the short story compilation On the Way to a Smile.
“On a Way to a Smile began as a collection of two short stories, Case of Denzel and Case of Tifa, both set in the two year gap between the end of the original FFVII story and the beginning of the movie Advent Children. The very first story Case of Denzel was initially split into four chapters with the first being published onto the official Japanese FFVII: Advent Children website on September 5th 2005, a week before the release of the long anticipated CG movie. Over the two weeks that followed up until the movie’s release, the remaining chapters were also uploaded. This story, Case of Denzel, focuses on the life of a “mysterious” young boy named Denzel who makes an appearance during the movie.
Later, a second story Case of Tifa followed but was not uploaded onto the web. Instead, it was published in print in a book entitled “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children – Prologue” on the same release date as the movie. This story mainly focuses on the relationship between Cloud and Tifa.
Eventually, over two years later, a third story “Case of Barret” was released with the North American Limited Edition package of the movie on February 20th 2007. Picking up from the start of the the “Case of Tifa” story, we see how Barret is off to settle with his past and go in search of a new energy source for Planet, leading neatly into his entry in the movie itself.”
Other assorted goodies here include an episode guide for the Japan-only mobile phone release Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis, and more information and synopses on Crisis Core, and Final Fantasy VII. There is a lot of great story content that most people just don’t know about. It is worth checking out if you enjoyed the games at all.
