Part 2 of the Before Crisis chapter summaries.

Anti-Shinra militant group, AVALANCHE, have been thwarted in their attempts to destroy Mako Reactor8 in Midgar by the newest recruit to the Turks.  Regathering their forces at Junon, AVALANCHE gain control of the Mako Cannon in a plot to aim it at Midgar.  The Turks move to stop them, unaware that an assassination attempt has already been made on President Shinra’s life.

Read on to find summaries for Episodes 3, 4 and 5…

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Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis is a mobile phone game released originally in Japan in 2004 as a prequel to Final Fantasy VII.  The story begins six years prior to the original title and centres around the Investigation Division of Shinra Inc.’s General Affairs Department…otherwise known as the Turks.  Unfortunately for non-Japanese-speaking fans of the Compilation, Before Crisis has to date not been released outside of Japan.  However, thanks to a handful of loyal individuals, the epic story of Before Crisis can be brought to those of us wishing to delve deeper into the world of Final Fantasy VII.  This is a brief but comprehensive summary of all episodes within the game, offering readers a general understanding of the story.  The translated episode scripts themselves can be found at Dark Angel’s Gunshot Romance site, the individual links to which are at the end of each chapter below, as well as the link to the respective videos on Nico Nico Douga.  (Anyone wishing to view the videos can find instructions on how to do so in this thread).  Alternatively you can watch Kain424′s subtitled videos here, but to date he has only completed as far as episode 8.

I wish at this time to offer a special thank you to Dark Angel and X-Comp, the Dark Ocean, NeoSphere and Nico Nico Douga websites and the members of Adventchildren.net and Thelifestream.net, without whom this summary could not be possible.

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Just in time for the holidays, XComp/LH Yeung has finished translating the final, and, perhaps, most anticipated “On The Way To A Smile” title: Case of ShinRa. This story begins during the events of FFVII, detailing Tseng and Rufus’ survival, as well as the Turk’s actions during the final night of the Meteor crisis in Midgar.

After that, it focuses on various ordeals that Rufus experiences, the construction of Edge, and what initiated the Turks to search for JENOVA at the beginning of Advent Children.

You can read the full story either by clicking the “Read the rest of this entry” link below, or at XComp’s site. Also, remember you can find links to all the other OtWtaS entries at the Advent Children Complete link under “Coverage” on the left hand side of our site (or by clicking the link in this very sentence). Thanks again to XComp for putting all his hard work into this.

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With the December 17th release of Final Fantasy VIII on the Playstation Network, TLS felt now was the best times to look back on one of the most iconic Final Fantasies of the PSX era. It is with great pleasure that we begin hosting our translations of the Final Fantasy VIII Ultimania, done by Squall_of_SeeD. The “Sorceresses” and “Magic” entries however, were translated several years ago by ACF member DarkAngel, which were then only available until now in the Time/Ultimecia Plot FAQ SoS helped write a while ago.

The following translations below are from the first two pages of the five-page keyword section of the Ultimania, found on pages 41 to 45. Be sure to check back to see the rest in our series of FFVIII Ultimania Translations. A big thanks to SoS for all his hard work on getting us this information. With that, enjoy!

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Hey guys, Notorious M.O.G. here. I don’t usually write for the front page, but hey, people seem to like what I have to say about the towns and cities of FFVII, so I thought I’d take all of the suggestions to make it a front page article and turn it into reality. Thanks for your support, guys!

As for the nature of this article, it’s an editorial, as in, just my subjective opinions. After the awesome and delightfully controversial Tier List, some people were all like, “WAH THIS IS SOMEONE’S OPINIONS THIS SHOULDN’T BE FRONTPAGE STUFF”. Hey guess what boners; professional newspapers have editorials too. There ain’t news to report all the time. It keeps things fresh and interesting, so keep your eyes open, this won’t be the last one on here. Viva La Lifestream!

By the way, this whole thing started as a forum post, so if you want to take part of that and see where the magic began, check it out here. With that said, let’s get started.

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Hitoshura continues his translations of the pages of the Crisis Core Complete Guide’s Keyword Collection, and you can find all of the translated info right here. This time there’s an emphasis on locations, and the character Zack Fair himself. So read on and enjoy!

If you’re interested at getting a sneak peek at what FFXIV is starting to look like, you can apply to be a beta tester and get your hands on a copy of the game to help iron out the tweaks. Square Enix’s looking for players to test out the Windows version of Final Fantasy XIV. You can apply to play the online version here.

Just make sure not to be a pest and apply more than once, otherwise they’ll chuck all your applications. Guess they don’t like people who are too persistent. Thanks to our member Earl for bringing it to our attention!

So the final vote for the most memorable moment of the Compilation of FFVII begins now. Which moment has had the most impact amongst the fans of the Compilation? Well…it’s now a final match between these four events. Below you’ll find the ranking results of the previous vote. Now we’ll see which moment is most memorable of all.

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Because we here at TheLifestream forums are geeks, we’ve had a thread running for a little while now on who the most powerful villains and heroes of the Final Fantasy franchise are. As well, I’ve had an interest lately in doing “top 10″ lists. See this thread for my “Top 10 Games of the Decade” list. [/shameless self-promotion]

Anyway, that being the case, it was inevitable that I decide to make an article like this for the front page. Seeing as how we’re now on the cusp of Final Fantasy XIII’s release in Japan, this seems like the right time for such a list, ere we have to include another hero and villain in our calculations.

So join me, won’t you, in celebration of the most powerful heroes and villains of the first 22 years (omg Sephiroth/Kabbalah reference!) of the Final Fantasy series.

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Hitoshura has done translated several more pages of the Crisis Core Complete Guide’s Keyword Collection, and you can find all of the translated info right here. It’s quite an update, so be sure to give him your thanks for all the info. Enjoy!

Do my eyes deceive me…?

With the lack of Final Fantasy characters appearing in KH 358/2, I kinda wasn’t expecting any FF characters to appear in Birth By Sleep.

Was I wrong.

A new scan from Weekly Jump showcases our loveable SOLDIER, Zack Fair, making an appearance in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. And as an even more amusing nod to Crisis Core, Zack’s D-Link ability with Terra in the game, is an attack called “Heroes Pride.”

I think it’s safe to say this game’s cool factor got a +5.

Thanks Dark & Divine for bringing this to my attention!