For those who don’t know, “Traces of Two Pasts” is an official FFVII: Remake side-story novel written by Kazuhige Nojima. It’s about Tifa’s and Aerith’s backstories before Remake- more specifically, Tifa’s life before and after the Nibelheim incident, and Aerith’s life after escaping from Shinra and living with Elmyra in the Sector 5 slums.

What I like the most about it is how it fills in the gaps for both Tifa and Aerith. Like, we all know how they both made it to Midgar, but what they do in Midgar before the start of VII is never been fully explored or told (at least that I’m aware of). It certainly helps humanize the characters more, and I really hope more novels come out that do the same for the other characters.

But I really hope that SE makes some kind of official media that’s based on it (or at least have some fan-made comics or animations retelling it).