Site translator hitoshura has been kind enough to provide us with a chapter-by-chapter summary of the newest official FFVII novel. Released on December 15th, the book was written by Kazushige Nojima, writer of the original FFVII, as well as Crisis Core, Advent Children and the On the Way to a Smile novellas. As such, The Kids Are Alright is an authentic entry in the world of Final Fantasy VII.

Sadly, however, it had no official release outside of Japan. So, while you could still import it if you lived elsewhere, you novel, FINAL FANTASY VII Lateral Biography TURKS -The Kids Are Alright-. Released on December 15th, the book was written by wouldn’t be able to read it without some knowledge of the Japanese language.

Were the contents of this newest tale in Cloud Strife’s world, then, to be kept from us indefinitely? Blessedly, no. TheLifestream.net’s hitoshura has already stepped forward to provide his fellow fans with a rundown of the book’s main events.

This is to tide us over until he is able to provide a complete translation of the 354-page novel — an endeavour that is already under way, so be sure to check back in the future for updates about that.

What you’ll also find in this article: scans I’ve made of all the book’s artwork (illustrations by Shou Tajima), and my translation of a page from the beginning of the book that introduces several of the characters featured in the story. Additional thanks go to hito, by the way, for correcting me on a word I had mistranslated on that page.

So, if you’re ready to get caught up on the latest events in this world we all love, click upon “Read the rest of this entry” below.

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Over the years, it’s become hard work for FFVII fans to keep up with what’s supposed to be canon and what isn’t. Amidst all the games, movies, novellas, guide books, and alternate universe titles, what’s a FFVII fan to do?

Read this article, that’s what!

I’m going to take all the work out of it on your end and lay everything out for you, the fans, to digest in a simple, easy-to-follow manner. So, the next time you’re in a debate about FFVII with HeartlessAngel527 or FlowerGoddess777 and they begin to reference Cloud’s wing, Aerith waiting around for a certain spikey-haired emo kid, or other stuff you know doesn’t belong, you can go all Phoenix Wright on them.

So, click “Read the rest of this entry” and let’s get started.

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Hokuto no Den

Not to take away Forcestealer’s Thunder with his final dungeon retrospective, but he, Tennyo, and I (Ryushikaze) have recorded another fan commentary track for Case of Denzel, which you can download after the break.

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Long-time community member and visual designer Pixel released a trailer for his On the Way to a Smile Audiobook project, a fan project based on the On the Way to a Smile book translations by XComp. The books have largely been translated, but now, with this project underway and currently being edited, they have also been spoken out loud.
Of course, we’ll keep you updated on the progress of this project. You can also follow it yourself by keeping up with the project on the forums.

Credits where credits are due:

On the Way to a Smile Audiobooks

Written by Kazushige Nojima
Original Translations, LH Yeung “Xcomp”
Narrated by Ryushikaze

Aerith - rinrin0rikuriku
Cloud - strykinglight
Tifa – Christina McBride / AnimazingGamerGirl
Barret - psylentknight
Sephiroth - RemovableAspirations
Cid – Twistedpuppet
Yuffie - Mizura
Vincent - danyetman
Red XIII/Nanaki – Joseph Vitaliano
Reeve – ConVito

(Temporary Note: This is NOT an April Fool’s Day joke).

Another big thanks to Xcomp who has translated another entry from the On the Way to a Smile collection. Case of Yuffie. You can read the story below and find the rest of his translation work here and also his accompanying thoughts on Yuffie’s novella here. Enjoy!

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A big thanks to Xcomp who has translated the next entry from the On the Way to a Smile collection. You can see the rest of his work and thoughts on his blog here and also his accompanying thoughts on the story here.

Once again, thanks for your hard work Xcomp! Below you’ll find his translation of the story.

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A big thanks to Hitoshura who has now finished translating the new installment from the On the Way to a Smile book; the Lifestream White and Lifestream Black chapters. Each of these chapters were at the end of each On the Way to a Smile story of the book, for a total of 6 chapters. Three for Lifestream White, and three for Lifestream Black. Enjoy reading these new entries, they’re quite interesting.

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Thanks to our forum member, Danna, below is a translation of “On the Way to a Smile: Case of Tifa” that has been revised in the new On the Way to a Smile novella released concurrently with Advent Children Complete. The new changes have been put in bold so that readers will be able to easily see what has been amended to the novella. A big thanks to Danna for her hard work in doing this for fans! Also, since she used Xcomp’s translation as a base, a big thanks to him and his website for the hard work he’s done translating the original edition of this novella as well. Enjoy!

EDIT: As of 5/18, Danna has gone through the text and edited a few spots to clarify the translation and smooth out the readability. Just to clarify, so enjoy!

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A new image from a Chinese magazine has surfaced showing Cloud in the OVA: On The Way to a Smile – Case of Denzel, as well as Sephiroth in Advent Children Complete with his single black wing spawning forth from his back.

Thanks to our member Dark & Divide for an update with higher quality images.

Edit: Also, Silent Tweak has translated some of the Chinese text for the scan! The textbox at the top left of the page next to the FFVII screenshot reads:

“In this work,[FFVII AC] Cloud and Sephiroth join the new scenario, the two’s show-down will be shown in a more intense way. The picture on the right is a new scene, Cloud’s body is surrounded by a blue aura, and that is the familiar Limit Break from [FF VII]. On the other side, Sephiroth expands his dark black-wing and prepares to fend off Cloud’s attacks. The two’s fated battle will be taken into a new height!”

Source: Cloud180
Update: FF Shores

According to the official Square Enix site, the On the Way to a Smile book which will be released April 16th will have a total of 264 pages all together.

Also, some more info from the Dengeki PS3 interview has surfaced, and with it, some details pertaining to the particular story, “Case of Shinra” and Rufus and the Turks in ACC. Major thanks to hitoshura for providing this info.

- Nozue talks about how since it’s CG, they might as well do over-the-top things you can’t do in live action. There’s a lot of this in the new scenes, like the bike scene with Reno and Rude.

- (Nojima) Rufus is cool, and being a kind of ‘insider’ gets lots of dialogue.

- (Nojima) Case of Shinra involves the Turks, but Rufus gets a lot of attention as well. It covers what happened after Tseng was attacked by Sephiroth and nearly died, and what Rufus did after being saved from the WEAPON attack. Case of Shinra is the only chapter which begins during FFVII. This chapter is tied to BC and DC, so it was hard for Nojima to fully grasp the character’s actions and time lines. But it was interesting because it shows what’s going on inside Rufus’s mind.

Source: Square-Enix Japan, Cetra Connection, and Shienabent blog

More bits and pieces of the creator interview in Dengeki PS3 has surfaced on 2chan and hitoshura has translated the relevant new pieces of information regarding FFVII Advent Children Complete and On the Way to a Smile. Thanks to our member DillyDally for bringing this to our attention!

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Famitsu has released today some brand new screenshots from both Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete and On the Way to a Smile – EPISODE: DENZEL – Final Fantasy VII. Take a look at the images below

In addition to this, we’ve also updated our site with 54 Screens from the most recent ACC Trailer showcasing a lot of the new footage that was shown. Feel free to check them out at the following link.
54 Advent Children Complete Screenshots

Source: Famitsu