Nibelheim

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For Cloud Strife and Sephiroth, this is where it all began. This town has a lot of (recent) historical significance as far as events and people in the world of FFVII. This is where life began for the two greatest warriors on the Planet. Okay, the people who insist on Sephiroth’s place of birth as UNKNOWN/UNKNOWN/UNKNOWN would probably debate he was born in Nibelhiem, but that’s neither here nor there nor the point. My point is that Nibelhiem is pretty fucking important!

It’s just amazing how much happened here. The Jenova Project. Sephiroth’s insanity. Vincent’s ‘death’ and ‘rebirth’. Tifa’s involvement in the whole fiasco. Cloud’s experimentation, and the beginning of the end for Zack. We all know that, so let’s save the time from rehashing it. As for what I think?

Wow. Nibelhiem has a lot to answer for. Honestly, sometimes I think it would be better off it was burned down (and stayed burned down) to serve as a final tombstone for everything that happened there and everyone who died. But alas, that’s not what happened, and it just serves as an unnerving pit stop on Cloud’s journey, and another testament to the bizarre shit that Shinra is willing to do to maintain their global hegemony. I’m not really upset about that, either way is fine.

(Thoughts c/o Forcestealer: I really like Cloud’s reaction to the NPCs and theirs to him. You also have a lot of dialogue choices between being polite or calling them out on their bullshit. My first instinct was to call them out as, as the player, you’re inclined to believe Cloud. But the fact remains that the town is there so you kinda want to hear what they have to say and not antagonize them. Unless you find that letter on Tifa’s desk which spills everything)

I remember being really freaked out about how all the Sephiroth ‘Clones’ congregated here on your first visit, and them moaning about ‘Sephi…roth’ and ‘Went over mountain…gone’ and all that shit. I remember being REALLY freaked out when I saw those two kids turn out to be Sephiroth Clones. It just made me think how REALLY fucked up Hojo is and how REALLY fucked up Sephiroth is by extension.

I guess one thing I wish they did was elaborate a bit further on the Shinra Mansion. Is it just property that the family owned? Is that where the Shinra family originated? The history of the building itself? I dunno, I just wish we found out more about the past. Well, what do YOU guys think?

Next up is home to my favorite FFVII protagonist, Rocket Town

After latest news pretty much suggested that a remake would only happen once hell freezes over, they recently asked fans about their opinion for a remake of FF7 on their official Square-Enix Members Twitter account. It was immediately flooded with positive replies, so many in fact, that the author asked everyone to stop replying.

This is pretty much the first time Square-Enix themselves asked people about a remake.

Two days later, they even asked about fans’ opinions for a remake of FFVIII.

Here are the links to the respective twitter entries:
http://twitter.com/SQEX_MEMBERS_JP/status/9915740773
http://twitter.com/SQEX_MEMBERS_JP/status/10021366399

Source:
Japanese S-E Members Twitter
Cetraconnection.de

Hey dudes, remember me? I’m that dude who was doing that commentary on towns but he forgot and didn’t do it since forever! Real talk though, I was sort of under the impression that nobody cared about this, so I slacked on it as well. In a way to try to make up for it though, I’ll ramp this up to an update every day or two days at the most, to keep your eyes glued and to those with short attention spans, keep you interested. After this, I’d love to extend my commentary to other things like characters or even something else, but please, show your love! I need appreciation, ya know? Also, I want to emphasize that I encourage DISCUSSION on this. Please by all means, discuss, discuss, discuss! I always bring forth interesting questions for you guys to ponder and discuss among yourselves! Anywho, let’s get started.

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From Team Teamwork, the same folks who made the Zelda soundtrack remix The Ocarina Of Rhyme, comes the newest music mashup of Vinyl Fantasy VII.

Although this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, if the idea of hip-hop music remixes of Final Fantasy VII tracks, featuring the vocals of Murs, Ghostface, and MF Doom get you excited, feel free to check it out at the link below.

• Vinyl Fantasy VII

So after a brief hiatus to allow Hitoshura to complete FFXIII, we finally have some new translations from the CC Complete Guide, in our effort to complete the entire keyword collection section! You can read the following new translations here. Enjoy everyone!

Here at the Lifestream.net, we’re usually looking for new and interesting angles to examine Final Fantasy Seven from, and it is with this in mind we are announcing our new front page feature- essays and articles written and submitted by you- the fans. Towards this end, we are proud to present the first of what hopefully will be many user editorials, an essay by a girl named June- also known as Messenger of the Ancients- reposted in its entirety with her permission. For some context, this essay is in part a response to my and Squall of Seed‘s recent articles, as well as the Love Triangle Debate that has plagued much of Final Fantasy Seven Fandom, so you may wish to familiarize yourself with these before reading. In any case, please, sit back, relax, and enjoy the essay.

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Final part of the Before Crisis chapter summaries

As well as the 24 episodes of the main story, players of Before Crisis were given the opportunity to learn a bit more about the history of some of their favourite Turks through a trio of side stories involving Tseng, Reno and the Legendary Turk respectively.  While Tseng’s mission was a compulsory episode to be completed between Episode 22 parts 1 and 2, the other two became available following completion of the main game, with Reno’s episode released in time to coincide with the release of Crisis Core.  Each offers a unique insight into the actions and mentality of the three.  Now, with the summaries of these Special Episodes exclusive to TheLifestream.net, I hope you can enjoy delving a bit deeper into the world of Final Fantasy VII.

Read on to find summaries for the Special Episodes of Tseng, Reno and the Legendary Turk…

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Again, working from specifically the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 2: Scenario guide. This post is a follow-up to the “Sources of Power in FF” article I just posted, which also included translations from the FF 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 2: Scenario book.

Actually, this post might better be characterized as a follow-up to the “Love Triangle Debate- over” article that Ryushikaze posted a couple of days ago. That article included selected translations from the section which I am now posting a translation of in its entirety.

I think you’ll find that the ramifications for the Love Triangle Debate are even more obvious when you can read the entire page. Do enjoy.
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To be specific, these translations are from the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 2: Scenario guide. Yes, that is its full and proper title, and, yes, it is quite long.

Anyway, what I’m presenting here for your merry consumption is a translation of the “Source of Power” section of the Ultimania (pg. 8). It offers some rather illuminating insight into interrelated sources of magic
in the FF series.

For me, this page is largely vindication of theories I’ve long held to be true. Please check out the “Spirit Energy and Memories” article in my Final Fantasy VII Plot Analysis FAQ for more on that.

I do hope you enjoy this translation. Stay tuned, as another set of translations is ready to go up, and will be joining this one shortly.
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Final Fantasy Seven’s love triangle debate has been raging for the better part of twelve years now, and caused no end of interfandom tensions. For those of you unfamiliar with the whole debacle, I first congratulate you on your luck in remaining free, and I next explain that it is the debate over which of Tifa or Aerith Cloud Strife loves. Many a year, and countless hypotheses have been spent trying to argue that Cloud and Tifa are not a couple despite all the best evidence, and that Cloud and Aerith have a relationship despite the latter’s unfortunate condition. For some time, the love triangle debate has been in what could aptly be described as its death throes. Today, hopefully, we can perform a mercy killing.

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So, given how long Voices of the Lifestream has been in existence, we’re not sure how many of you haven’t heard of it before, but since we here at Thelifestream.net are into all things Final Fantasy Seven and want to encourage fan projects of all sorts, we figured we’d tell everyone who wasn’t already aware know about this awesome fan orchestrated remix album to the great songs of Final Fantasy Seven, and let you listen to these awesome arrangements at the same time.

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Sorry for the delay in new translations related to Final Fantasy VIII. I’ve had quite a lot going on, and what translating I have been doing has mostly been about other stuff.

Anyway, I’m happy to report that I have some more translations to post. Not all of it’s from the FFVIII Ultimania, though.

Among what I have here are Ellone, Edea, Ultimecia and Adel’s profiles from the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 1: Character guide. They’re not exactly the most interesting profiles ever, but they do confirm a couple of things that fans have long suspected, and it’s a cool novelty to at last have some kind of profile for Ultimecia — even if it only contains stuff we already knew.

A big thanks, by the way, to forum member Celes Chere for providing me with the scans from this book that I translated.

This post also includes the “A Day of Instruction at Garden” epilogue to FFVIII from the back of FFVIII’s Ultimania. Written by Kazushige Nojima, FFVIII’s writer, this is a short story depicting a classroom discussion at Garden about Hyne and witches. It’s pretty interesting, but not exactly riveting. Tells us a few things we didn’t know at any rate, including the name of the scholar who first coined the term “witches.”

By the way — if it reads kind of strangely, it’s in part because I didn’t go to any great, painful lengths to smooth out the language, and probably also because we’re only privy to the teacher’s words. The students’ input isn’t in the text, and can only be guessed based on what the teacher says in response.

Hope you enjoy!
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