Final Fantasy VII Remake: Traces of Two Pasts (Novel)

I’ve played Final Fantasy VII OG, Remake and Rebirth and I’ve always wanted to know more about Tifa and Aerith (as well as other characters!) but this novel really delivered. I’ll write this review as spoiler-free as possible.The book is split into 3 parts. Part 1 is about the events before and surrounding the Nibelheim Incident from Tifa’s point of view and how she survived in the years after it. Part 2 is about Aerith’s childhood with her mom and insight into how she came to live in such a cool house in the Sector 5 slums. Part 3 is much shorter, and it’s a cool story about someone who knew Aerith as a child.The events in the story exist in the world as created in Remake and Rebirth. If you haven’t played Rebirth, the book doesn’t have any big spoilers, just some light mentioning of early game broad strokes. The book will make sense to anyone who’s played FF7 original, but it will be much more colorful in your mind if you’ve recently played Remake because it vividly references the images of Midgar as depicted in that game.All in all, Kazushige Nojima hits it out of the park for big fans of FF7’s leading ladies with this beautiful book. The translation is true and very well written. Every sentence is in congruence with the game and our beloved characters are done much justice here. Highly recommend this book for any fans thirsting for more FF7 story!

I bought this book as well as the other FF7 books because I knew they were canon parts of the storyline, and I'm doing a marathon of the whole story. However what surprised me was just how well written the book is, to the point where I can honestly recommend this book even to people who aren't interested in Final Fantasy. That's because, despite the occasional theatrics and fantastical elements, this book is ultimately just a slow-paced slice of life novel getting deep into the emotions and experiences of two women who both had separate troubled upbringings.Tifa's life is the story of a woman's struggle with loneliness. Between her isolated and quiet childhood in a tiny village with few (eventually zero) people her age, to the whiplash of suddenly being forced to learn how to get by all by herself while trapped under an impossible debt and within an impossibly large and equally uncaring city—all the while learning difficult life lessons along the way. It's roughly 200 pages, fittingly divided in half between those parts of her life.Aerith's life meanwhile is somehow even more upsetting. From Aerith's childhood of being treated as less-than-human by Shinra scientists, to the tense escape away, and to the death of her mother all told from the perspective of a seven-year-old girl—and that's not even half of it. She then has to adapt to her sudden adoption by her new mother as well as all the drama her adoptee's family would bring, all while feeling anxious about living in a town that's (quite literally) under Shinra's rule.Everything in the narrative is handled with great care. As someone who's read many a half-hearted licensed tie-in book, this book stands out as one where you can tell the author not only deeply cares about the original work and it's characters, but also deeply cares about it's own story it's trying to tell. This book gives us a never before seen look into the minds of these two characters and the reality of living their lives, and for that I can highly recommend it for fans of FF7 as well as ordinary readers.The book is an emotional roller coaster, yet not a particularly fun one I'll admit. Unlike the video games, which often have comedic moments sprinkled throughout, this book is very serious and at times pretty damn sad. Seeing the emotions of characters in FF7 taken with full weight and given incredible detail really forces you to empathize with what it's actually like to live in their world and feel what they felt. This is especially true when you combine this book with this authors others: On the Way to a Smile and The Kids are Alright. I highly recommend reading those after this one.As for "What do I need to know going in?", the answer is "not much". This book is a prequel to FF7, and any element from the game gets explained in full detail when it becomes relevant. Now, you might be confused at some points if this is your first exposure to FF7 as well as a bit disappointed that certain plot elements are introduced yet never pay off (because they're intended to pay off in FF7), but overall I find this plot extremely understandable from a blind perspective. A large reason for that is simply because the focus of the book is squarely on character emotions, not the grander scope of how their world works.(That said, if after reading this book you'd like to move on to On the Way to a Smile, I'd recommend playing the original game first. While it's possible the gleam the plot of the game from occasional descriptions in that book, it'll not be a satisfying experience as that book is made to be an epilogue to the emotions our cast of characters felt after the game. Definitely play the game before reading that one.)

So here's the thing. I'm not much of a reader. Due to some severe, chronic health problems I have, it's extremely challenging for me to sit down and actually read through a piece of text methodically. I want you to know that, despite these health problems, I have made a conscious effort to read this book just so. I'm only on page 59 so far, but it doesn't matter where I'm at in the book. I can write a five-star review on this book, solely based upon the fact that Kazushige Nojima is one of the writers of the original 1997 game, Final Fantasy VII. Whatever background knowledge this book contains is foundational for the Final Fantasy VII story, whether the original or the Remake / Rebirth series. If you want to know more about Tifa and Aerith (Aeris) then you will 100% purchase and read this book. That's all you need to know.Final Fantasy VII is easily the most emotionally impactful story that I have ever seen / played. The original game is a 10/10 masterpiece. I consider myself blessed for having the opportunity to enjoy playing the full 3D remakes of this masterpiece. I am eternally grateful to the writers of this incredible story for teaching me some important lessons about life, experiences, kindness, compassion, companionship, and dealing with loss. I'm eternally grateful to the team of people who spent countless hours developing such intricate characters, locations, and music (!!!!), that made this world very real to me. Blocky 1997 characters, or high quality modern 3D characters, Final Fantasy VII goes down in history as the best game that has ever been developed, now and forevermore.Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I appreciated how the book goes into specific details of Tifa’s and Aerith’s past lives before the Final Fantasy VII game. The book tells us the back stories about these two prominent women in the game, plus a bonus story about Lonny, and also tells us more about how the Final Fantasy VII story came to be. I love the in-depth stories about the characters that you only get fragmented pieces of when playing the game. It does contain some insight into life after the original and remake FFVII games, therefore might contain spoilers for some, but nothing too dramatic. The book itself was a great read, for young and adult readers alike. It was very well written and stays true to the game!