UPDATE: I’ve set up a Patreon in order to ask for a little help to see this project to completion. You can check it out here:

Arguably one of the greatest stories ever told, Final Fantasy VII was a huge hit and its impressive and sometimes confusing lore warranted the creation of The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. A project spanning almost ten years, it worked hard to give fans more of the world they’d fallen in love with, albeit with mixed results.

Whatever you feel about the entries outside of the core game, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the series has a fascinating backdrop and appealing and endearing characters. Some of the more compelling mysteries within the game were revealed only in side quests, which, only the die-hard fans would seek out (Vincents and Zack’s stories spring to mind). Or exacerbated by straight-out plot omissions (possibly due to development cuts) or poor translation.

Wheels Within Wheels

It takes a lot of effort to fully wrap your head around the world of Final Fantasy VII. The Legend of Final Fantasy VII by Nicolas Courcier and published by Third Editions was a valiant effort to bring home the wider universe into one condensed tome. The format of the book starts from the very beginning of the story and features bite-sized paragraphing. This make it easy to digest without becoming overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters and events that populate the series.

The core game itself has been re-released on a multitude of consoles (most recently the Nintendo Switch). All this has opened the game and its story to whole new audiences. However, there is still one group of people who have not been targetted. Non-gamers.

It’s quite likely that non-gamers just don’t care. But I do. It pains me to think that someone like my wife, who loves a good read and on my suggestion, has expanded beyond boy meets girl, boy dies and then everybody dies, to titles such as The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, will never understand my love for Final Fantasy VII and my addiction to wanting to know more about Cloud and fate of the planet.

Which is why I took it upon myself to start writing Final Fantasy VII – The Novel.

A Question of Motivation

I began this project about 5 years ago and even naively thought it would fair well on Kickstarter (it was actually marked as a Kickstarter “product we love” but it never gained any traction). Since then the novel has sat abandoned on my harddrive. Nagging me as a task to finish, much like the 10 wordpress drafts I have saved, my guitar practice, that game I’m making and the tiles in the bathroom. It’s been shoved onto the “I’ll definitely finish that one-day pile”.

Well today is that day, well, one day last month was that day. Whatever. The point is I’ve picked it up again and I’m making good progress. A friend of mine who is a professional writer. (If you hadn’t guessed already, I am definitely not a professional writer). Endowed me with a heap of tips to tackling large writing projects. I’m leveraging Scrivener for project management (well worth a look if you’re drowning in text docs and manuscripts) and I’m setting aside all concerns of grammar and spelling until I’m finished. Far too much time has been spent perfecting a chapter before moving onto the next.

Anyway, the novel is coming. Judging by Kickstarter nobody wants it, but I do, and my wife thinks she doesn’t but she does really.

As a way of keeping up my motivation levels. I’ve decided to share the first two chapters in a very very rough form with my blog readers. The logic being; If anyone wants to read more I’ll have to finish it, for the internet demands it!

Download a Preview

The book will be available as an on-demand paperback for those who want it. Everyone else can get it as a free download/e-book. You can download the first two chapters right here:

Download

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