FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: Traces of Two Pasts – Review

FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE had the great merit of bringing back to the center of attention one of the most beloved chapters of the glorious saga. Of course, not all the choices made, so far, with the project have always turned out to be winning, but it is clear that the quality and care poured into the production is of a certain level. But what made and still makes today FINAL FANTASY VII a chapter so loved and appreciated? The answers could be many, but surely among the various options there is certainly the cast of characters, which still today is memorable and iconic like few others in the history of Franco and video games. For this reason, we welcomed the arrival of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: Traces of Two Pastsbecause it offers all video game enthusiasts a way to further connect with the game world created by Yoshinori Kitase in collaboration with Hironobu Sakaguchi And Kazushige Noshimathrough the eyes and minds of two of the most beloved characters: Tifa Lockhart And Aerith Gainsborough.

The novel is told through the memories of the two young women, who tell of their childhood between one break and another, during the pauses between one battle and another in the heart of the troop’s journey after the events of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE. The experiment can be considered successful, although we must admit that not all of the story has managed to captivate us in the same way, for rhythms and not only. If you are curious to know why, you just have to continue reading.

FINAL FANTASY VII: Traces of the Past

Before continuing, we want to underline a very important aspect. The novel was written by the same author of the original script of the 1997 video game, therefore Kazushige Noshima. We felt it was our duty to remember it. Traces of Two Pasts It is split exactly in half: the first part of the novel focuses on Tifa and is set practically between the end of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE and the beginning of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTHThe second one, instead, is dedicated to Aerith and takes place during the troops’ journey by ship to reach Coast of the Sun. We would like to tell you right away that the novel travels a bit at different times: the first part, the one dedicated to Tifait seemed to us a bit more dynamic and fast, a bit like the character it is dedicated to. On the other hand, the part dedicated to Aerith seems to have taken on a slightly more dramatic and less jovial connotation, but once again it is also due to the character and, clearly, the tone of the story he tells.

Out and about with Tifa

In this work, the mind of Tifa (and subsequently of Aerith) is the key that opens the doors to everything that surrounds the reader. The young woman narrates through continuous flashbacks her childhood to Nibellheimthe always difficult relationship with the young Cloudthe difficulties of adolescence and that classic loss of that “innocence” typical of children that, slowly, begins to fade more and more, until it disappears completely. The part of the novel dedicated to Tifa, as we said earlier, works very well and travels at a decidedly interesting pace.

The young woman talks about her growth without mincing words, and makes some references to what happened between Sephiroth and Cloud, up to the most recent days, the ones in which we met her at the beginning of FFVII REMAKE. With her stories Tifa leaves no one behind: there is room for BarretFor MarleneFor Biggs and all other members of theAvalanche and, clearly, there is a lot of space for herself and for growth. Tifa’s journey from a young and shy girl from the slums to a strong woman, expert in martial arts, is told with an excellent attention to detail and with a decidedly interesting and never banal authorial style.

Aerith’s Journey

Aerith she is a very particular character. It has always been known, and this new journey in her company does nothing but make her origins and the origin of her way of being clearer. Aerith’s dramas, after all, we already know them and there are many, but it is definitely more painful and intimate to experience them from her perspective, with all that that entails. The young woman’s story has a great impact on her traveling companions, in particular Tifaand it seems a bit like the beginning of that splendid friendship that the two women have created during the hours of playing in the company of the prodigious title of SQUARE ENIX.

The way of telling the story remains the same: through flashbacks, fragments of the past are reconstructed not only of Aerith, but also of the people she cares about most: her mother, the children of the orphanage and so on. As previously anticipated, however, the second part of the book was harder to digest, even though the writing remains almost always interesting and never heavy or redundant.

Chronicles from Midgar

In this regard, it is important to underline that the novel is not directly connected to the games, so it is not important to read it for the purposes of the plot, but it still offers important notions for the purposes of understanding the world in which the whole story is set. The final lines are dedicated precisely to this, they stop being linked to the two protagonists and become a sort of “external” story in which the “game” world becomes the true epicenter of the novel, and we must admit that everything works quite well, thanks also to a good job in terms of translation by the Italian staff who took care of the publication of the novel.

Who do we recommend FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE: Traces of Two Pasts to?

It is really difficult not to recommend its purchase to all fans of the game, both the original and in particular of this new project. For everyone else, well, it could be an interesting read but, objectively, the risk of understanding little or nothing is legitimate and it might not be worth it.