Final Fantasy VII Official Establishment File

The Final Fantasy VII Official Establishment File was a book establishing the characters and the world of Final Fantasy VII. It was released on January 25, 1997, prior to the game's release six days later. The work was written by JK VOICE, edited by Famitsu and published by ASCII Corporation (later becoming Enterbrain).

The guide is notable for containing names in latin-text uninfluenced by the official English localization, therefore many character names differ.


 * Pages: 96
 * ISBN 978-4-8936-6661-1

Contents
Prior to the main contents are double-page spreads of some of the game's character promotional art, featuring the character's Latin-text first and last name, a two-kanji concept, and text associated with the character.



Chapter of Character


This chapter opens with a two-page spread including its title with Amano's artwork of Cloud and Aerith sitting.

For each playable character, the guide gives four pages: On the first is their name with their concept art in front of the Meteor from the game's logo. On the second are renders of the character's battle model and their biographical data including their age, height, blood type, hometown, and weapon. The third page gives a basic introduction to their story with screenshots. The fourth pages lists the character's Limit Breaks (aside from their fourth), and many of their weapons but not all, omitting the joke and ultimate weapons among others. Vincent's Limit Breaks are not listed, and Cait Sith goes into more detail about his Slots.


 * Cloud Strife, p.16

There are references in the data of the localization to both "Aeris" and "Aerith", however the game defaults to "Aeris" on the character naming screen. This name is also used in all supplementary material. Since the release of the localization of the first Kingdom Hearts in late 2002 she has been referred to as "Aerith" in all new localizations. See also: Aerith's name.
 * Aerith Gainsborough, p.20

Barret's name was written "Barett" in Japanese publications, but the localization team opted for "Barret". Unlike with Aerith, Square did not insist on using their original localization, and as of the bilingual Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Reunion Files in May 2006 "Barret" is used. The European manual spelling of "Barrett" is an error exclusive to that manual.
 * Barett Wallace, p.24

Tifa's surname does not appear in the game, however in the European and North American manuals and in the BradyGames strategy guide, her name is given as "Lockheart". As with "Aerith", Tifa's surname became "Lockhart" in all future releases, beginning with the bilingual Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Reunion Files in May 2006, and in the credits.
 * Tifa Lockhart, p.28


 * Red XIII, p.32


 * Yuffie Kisaragi, p.36


 * Cait Sith, p.40


 * Vincent Valentine, p.44


 * Cid Highwind, p.48

This isn't listed in the contents, but there's a two page spread of the hardy Datona here, featuring renders of the bikes from three angles, and then a large image of the [[:File:Cloud motorcycle.jpg
 * hardy Daytona, p.52
 * render of Cloud wielding the Hardedge]].

Sephiroth has his concept art on the first page, and a page for his story on the second.
 * Sephiroth, p.54

This section is just referred to as in the Contents. This section uses the katakana for Rufus in its title, but every other instance in the guide uses, while the game uses. Both of these are used in the game for Rufus, while only the latter is used consistently in material following Final Fantasy VII.
 * Rufus & Turks, p.56

The names for the character are given in Latin-text as "Yrena" for Elena, "Zeng" for Tseng, "Rufus" for Rufus, "Rude" for Rude, and "Leno" for Reno. All these names were later changed to the English localization names in Japanese publications. "Zeng" was used in the credits for Last Order -Final Fantasy VII- in 2005, but he also signs a document "Zheng" in the content of the OVA, but in 2007 Tseng's name is written in-game as "Tseng".

The first page of this section shows the Concept art of the five characters in front of the Meteor logo, with the Shinra logo above. The second page briefly goes into the story of the five characters, while the third explains other terms related to Shinra (the Shinra Company (where it mentions the main Shinra employees), Mako, Materia, and SOLDIER).

There is a sub-section titled that features a chart of the structure of Shinra. Heidegger, Reeve, Scarlet, Palmer, Hojo, President Shinra, and Sephiroth appear on this chart in addition to Rufus and the Turks. Some of the playable characters appear below a bordered-section, connected to with links of "destiny". Barret ties to Scarlet, Red XIII ties to Hojo, and Cid (who lies on the border of Shinra and not-Shinra) is linked to Heidegger. Cloud and Aerith are also featured on this chart but do not connect to anyone. Cloud, Aerith, and Barret are shown with their portraits from the game, however Cloud uses his young Cloud portrait (which was also used in early development of the game, including in the demo).

There is also a sub-section on "Shin-Ra motor mobiles" which features renders of the trains and cars.


 * Chocobo, p.62

This section is not featured in the contents. The section includes renders of Bahamut, Leviathan, Ramuh, Titan, and Ifrit. All of these summons are assigned the same name as in the localization, except Leviathan who is written "Liviathan".
 * Summons Magic, p.66

The section features renders of the summon models and screenshots of their summon attacks.

Chapter of World

 * , p.68

The first page is a two-page spread featuring the section title and Amano's Cloud on the Hardy Daytona artwork.

The first two pages feature a depth map of the entire World Map. The World Map is discussed and the camera is explained with pre-release screenshots.

The section goes on to feature the backgrounds of the game and briefly discusses the locations. The backgrounds featured are from many areas of Midgar (extensively), the Chocobo Farm, Mt. Nibel, Junon, Mt. Corel, North Corel, Gongaga, Cosmo Canyon, Da-chao Statue, underground area of the Forgotten Capital, and the Mythril Mine. Also included is the unused watery cave background.

Materia List

 * , p.92

This section is not featured in the contents. It gives a list of all the Materia in the game with their effects.

Credits

 * Publisher:
 * Editor:
 * Sub-editor: Minoru Noda
 * Editor-in-chief: Seiji Tahara (田原誠司)
 * Deputy editors-in-chief: Takeo Sakamoto (坂本武郎), Takashi Miyagawa (宮川隆)
 * Manufacturing and sales department: Keiko Nakao (中尾敬子)
 * Publishing office:
 * Sales agency: Aspect Corporation
 * Printing company:


 * Planning: Masashi Iida (飯田真佐史) (JK VOICE)
 * Composition: Takashi Yoneda (米田崇) (JK VOICE)
 * Writing: Kenichi Shinjo (新城健一)
 * Editing: Daisuke Mitsui (三井大輔) (Famitsu Editorial Department)
 * Design: Katsuya Saito (斎藤克哉) (SNOW PILES UP), Akiko Ishikawa (石川明子) (Famitsu Editorial Department)
 * Editing contributions: Fumiyo Iida (飯田史代)（JK VOICE）Eisuke Kobayashi (小林栄介)（Famitsu Editorial Department）
 * Design contributions: Naoko Iida (飯田直子)（Famitsu Editorial Department） Kazue Inaba (稲葉和恵) （Famitsu Editorial Department
 * Image illustration: Yoshitaka Amano
 * Character illustration: Tetsuya Nomura
 * Materials provided by: Nomura 匡 (Square, Co. Ltd.), Kiyotaka Sousui (Square, Co. Ltd.)
 * Supervision: Square, Co. Ltd.