Wilhelm was kind enough to start translating the FFVII: Ultimania Omega for us! The first bit has been translated. It is the pre-game timeline:

Pre-game Timeline:
This timeline covers the important events before the start of the game. Together with the individual character analyses and the Truth of Final Fantasy VII section, hopefully it will help you understand and appreciate the story.

Approx. 30 years ago: Gast, head of the Shin-ra science department, discovers the mummified Jenova in the Northern Crater. Mistaking it for an Ancient, he begins his research.

25~30 years ago: Start of the Jenova Project. Birth of Sephiroth. Gast leaves the Shin-ra company and disappears, Hojo takes over his research

Approx. 23 years ago: Disappearance of Lucrecia. Hojo performs live experiments on Vincent.

22 years ago: At the Icicle Inn, Aerith is born to Gast and Ifalna. Hojo orders his subordinates to kill Gast. Aerith and Ifalna are confined in the Shin-ra Building as test subjects

15 years ago: Ifalna and Aerith escape from the Shin-ra Building. Ifalna dies. Aerith, 7 years old, is taken in by Elmyra.

6-7 years ago: Cloud calls Tifa out to the village water tower, and declares that he is going to join SOLDIER. The following morning, he leaves Nibelheim and heads for Midgar. Zacks sends a letter to his parent's home in Gongaga, proclaiming he has "got a girlfriend". End of the war. Terrorist acts by the anti-Shin-ra group AVALANCHE intensify.

5 years ago: Sephiroth, Zacks, and Cloud are dispatched to the Nibel Mako reactor. Sephiroth comes in contact with Jenova and awakens. He burns down Nibelheim and obtains the head of Jenova, but Cloud's counterattack causes him to fall into the Lifestream. Hojo conducts Sephiroth Clone experiments on the survivors of Nibelheim, including Cloud and Zacks.

4 years ago: Immediately after the completion of the Corel Mako reactor Corel village is burned down by Shin-ra, and the Gold Saucer is built over the site. Barret, a miner in Corel, loses his wife Myna and one of his arms, and swears revenge on Shin-ra.

Directly prior to the game: Zacks and Cloud escape from the Shin-ra mansion. Zacks is caught and killed by Shin-ra troops. Only Cloud manages to make it to Midgar. Cloud meets Tifa again in the Sector 7 Slum train station

:hyper: Thank you, Wilhelm!!! :huggle: :gift:

Mmm... Non-LT storyline goodness... CG craves more, she does.

Oh!! Thanks, wilhelm!!

wilhelm, what's going on from page 518-529? Are they talking about the initial plot? Sephiroth was supposed to be Aerith's brother etc? And what's going on in the interviews at the back? I see Aerith's name mentioned on 567. :D Something about her meeting Cloud in the Church.

OOoooohhh yummylicious translations!!! :D Thank you so much Wilhelm!! :huggle:

Gah, how could I have missed this thread!

Thank you so much, Wilhelm! :huggle: Ah, Ultimania goodness... :drool: Although it cheeses me off that SE refuses to give Sephiroth's exact age. Of all the things they want to leave "open to interpretation", don't leave this!

I know it's not that important, but I wanna know. :P

Thank you very, very, very much, Wilhelm! Keep up the good work (and translate moooooore~)!

[EDIT] Oh, and this has been bugging me since seeing it being mentioned on a LJ-- is there any mention at all of Gast's surname anywhere? I heard it was "Faresis" or something like that?

I'm so sorry for the double post... but new information from the Ultimania has been translated by Vilaeth! *hopes that gets her off the hook :hide:*

So far it's the early character profiles for Cloud and Tifa (I'm guessing they're the early drafts of the ones that appear in the game booklet), as well as a list of FFVII cameos in other games. I've copied them here for the interested:

I love that last one. General Aerith gets to ride The Black Horse! Everyone else, WALK! :evil: :aeris:

*is totally worshipping Vilaeth right now*

Whoa. I didn't know about this one... :cleris:

Yeah! Subliminal message, much? :lol:

I've never heard of Hanjuku Heroes vs. 3D, but the screenshot of it looked so cute! Since it's for the PS2, maybe there's still a chance to get it... :shifty:

Oh, let me just past my scan here, then. Since vilaeth translated this page. ^_^


Go General Aerith!! :fangirl: :aeris:

:lol: Go Lynn :dance:
:bow: :bow: :bow:

Yes thankies Villy :)

And thank you Clorith :wub:

And FF_G for making the threadth :huggle:

So ... Cloud was originally meant to wound Tifa? :blink:
Instead of Sephiroth ... Cloud was to do it o_o

LOL at General Aerith. ^^

I took that more as a mistake in typing rather than a plot change.

Question for Wilhelm:

I saw a definition for Supermensch on your site awhile ago, but I don't see it there now. At any rate, was Cloud considered a Supermensch, too? :unsure:

*realizes that no one else prolly has a clue what she's talking about* :lmao:

I was on the verge of giving up on this book... but Vilaeth comes through once again! :yahoo:

This is a translation of Tifa's diary, which was originally supposed to be in the game and accessible during the Kalm flashback. I wonder why it was removed... Please don't say it was to make way for that orthopedic underwear. :lol:

We also finally have names for Tifa's male admirers. :wink: I presume they are but a few out of many, though. :giggle:

Many thanks to Vilaeth of ACF for the translation! :huggle:

Well, there goes the CloTi theory that Cloud calling Tifa out to the water tower was "romantic"! :lol: Looks like all the other boys did the same thing! :devil:

I'm just amazed at Tifa's popularity. I mean, we all knew she was the darling of the town, but seeing it confirmed is still pretty awesome. It makes me wonder if she ever had any girlfriends, what with her taking up martial arts at the same time. I imagine some of them might've been quite... jealous. :sweat:

And yeah, the water tower thing. xD *pokes Cloud* Be a bit more original, will you?!

I like the way Tifa sounds in her diary, though. I guess she might've been around her early teens when she wrote those entries, yet she still sounds quite mature-- almost too mature for her age. :(

...Umm. Wow, Tifa... Cold much? Did she not listen to him at all? She just heard the word SOLDIER and instantly she makes him promise to save her one day? Cloud pours his heart out about wanting to be someone and all she says is "he said something about joining Soldier?" This is getting worse the more I hear about this. <_<

Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was the only one raising an eyebrow at that particular line. >_< Smooth, Tifa, real smooth.

Agreed. <_< I always said I felt as if she was only interested in Cloud because she wanted to be rescued by a famous SOLDIER one day. It's nice to see this finally confirmed. Tifa was never interested in Cloud. He was just another boy in town.

awsome aerith a general :fangirl: we new she had it in her :devil:

Although her response to Cloud is a little disappointing, considering her age and position in Nibelheim, I find her response no surprise for a young, pretty, super-popular teenager.

Well, let's remember that this was one of the earlier ideas and that it never reached the final product anyway, so it's possible the writers thought twice about including it because of the image such a line would give.

I didn't realize that Tifa was so popular with the boys in Nibelheim. :ermm: And all of them asked her out to the well before leaving! Then I wonder what made her think of Cloud and not all the others who left?

I'm guessing it's the mention of SOLDIER and Sephiroth. It's like how everyone here wants to grow up to be a lawyer, doctor, engineer, accountant... and out pops this blond little pipsqueak claiming he'll be the next Darth Vader.

Or something like that. :sweat: *needs to work on her examples*

[EDIT] Whoo, Vilaeth's on a roll! :yahoo: Record of Cloud Strife has been updated, although it looks incomplete as of yet. Let's hope for more to come! *does a fan dance for Villy*

Wonderful translations! I'm looking forward to more. How are the CloTi's going to back themselves up now? And I also didnt know about the subway picture. Now I have an excuse to start over and play PE once again.

I don't see what the Clotis can use to back themselves up, except that Cloud liked Tifa as a child and everyone already knows that, but I'm not sure how that becomes an advantage for Cleris either. :lol:

I like that they kept Cloud's father simple, though. The idea that Cloud came from a normal, unremarkable family appeals to me more than the fanboyish ideas of his father being some famous ex-SOLDIER who died a mysterious death. :P

Your saying that Cloud and Zack were injected with cells from Jenova's body after Sephiroth took the head of his "mother?" Did the SOLDIER class begin using Jenova cells four years before the FF7 story took place? I read the game script and found nothing about Cloud and Zack being injected with Jenova's cells.

That's what told me that Cloud and Zack were injected with Jenova cells. Zack, because he's a member of SOLDIER and Cloud, likely during his imprisonment by Hojo.

[EDIT] Another update! *adds 4335829th tier to Vilaeth's shrine*

This time it's the "Truth Of FFVII" section, focusing on JENOVA (pictures here).

So Sephiroth technically wasn't lying when he said "Cloud" was formed from Jenova's powers? The spurts of "Zackness" we see of Cloud throughout the game was not just a result of his own lack of self-confidence, but also Jenova's influence?

Vilaeth seems to of updated the Ultimania translation site a bit, so all credit (and thanks) to Vilaeth for spending time to translate these for everyone.

Tifa's Diary

Thanks for posting the info, DH. Just a few comments:

For some reason, I find myself grinning. So they ALL called Tifa out to the water tower. It wasn't JUST Cloud who called her out? I guess it pays to be popular, eh? :giggle:

She thought about them too, and not just Cloud? :o

How romantic... :P

I knew you'ld get a chuckle out of this. :D :whistle:

*snickers* hahaha so much for teh oh so special promise under the stars eh? :rolleyes:

thanks a lot DH :huggle:

I'll post what I said in another thread about it.

Oh kay... well so much for the water tower being romantic. And Tifa wasn't listening all of Cloud's angsts? What the...?

God, I'm starting to hate Last Order Tifa again... *makes cross gestures* BACK! BAAACK, I SAY!

Dayum, Tif. You sure get around. :lmao: I thought it was a little bit funny how she seemed so nonchalant about showing up at the well to meet with a boy she'd never had a true conversation with. The "sorry I'm late" line gave me the hint of the impression that somehow, she was used to it. I think that this is a good way of explaining that--when I first saw the promise scene, I believed fully that Cloud and Tifa were close as children, which is why Tifa acted like the night of the promise was a very normal thing. But now we have proofz: Tifa wasn't used to being around Cloud. She was used to being around just about any kid in town by the well. :D

Wasn't there a version of "Tifa's Diary" that was released back in the day? I think it had several entries that even went into the timeline of FFVII. :huh:

You might be thinking of Tifa's entries in FFVII Dismantled, a first-person narrative done from several characters' POVs. I know Tifa's POVs were translated on LOVELESS, and some of Cloud and Aerith's POVs have been translated here as well. These little diary entries were written by Benny Matsuyama, the same one who wrote MotP. ;)

I'd seen that line (once the whole not-so-close aspect was revealed during the Lifestream sequence) as something of a distant kinda-sorta-with-a-wave-of-the-hand apology. In the same vein as "flippant", but not quite as shallow. Something like a nonchalant apology. I'd imagined that young Tifa was both nervous and curious as to why the town's outcast would call her to the tower, and it was only after a long time thinking, that she decided to meet him.

Although that idea could still apply here, it tells me that it wasn't uncommon for her to be called to the tower. Maybe she really WAS just late. :lol:

:lmao: Well, this is prototype!Tifa. That's not so bad... is it?

Aha, yes, that was it! I was positively doing backflips over her entry about Zack. Rabid Fack fangirl mode: on. :D I had no idea there were others, though. Especially. Not. Cloud. And. Aerith. Z. O. M. G. :fangirl: *raises hand* Will give waffle sticks for that translation! :gift:

Also a very good explanation that makes a lot of sense. I sorta got that feeling, too, in that she was SO used to it, she was getting kind of sloppy with her salutations. It's tough to be popular. :D

Update from the Ultimania Omega! :D It's a small bit, but it deals with Aerith, so that's a good enough reason to post it here for me!

[source]

What are these "Check" sections? Little tidbits to look out for that help make sense of the plot?

I was just wondering if anyone knows where a complete translation of MotP is on the internet or anything, as I would love to read it, explaining hoe Aeris loves Cloud for him :D It sounds so sweet. Anyway, yeah ... cool translation for the UO though. Keep it coming! :cleris:

Sure, FF Fanatic! You can read it here : http://xthost.info/ffwebnovel/
Click on Maiden in the side bar. You can also read other stories there, like Case of Tifa and On The Way To a Smile. :)

This is kinda out of topic from what all of you guys were saying.
(I'm kinda slow) But I never knew Tifa had a large scar on her back from Cloud. Could anyone tell me how she got it? I might have known how, but I could have forgotten :ermm: