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Following the recent trailer for the Final Fantasy 7 remake my mind went back to the "secret" cutscene that can be seen in Shinra Mansion depicting Cloud and Zack escape.

As some may know, it is possible to interact with some books found in the underground study which in turn would provide some further little tidbits about the event. There are four books in total, with the following content.

"Escapee Report no. 1
X Month X Day
Two escapees were located
near Midgar."

"Escapee Report no. 2
Description at the time of capture.
A Former member of SOLDIER/Number( )
No effect could be detected from
either Mako Radiation Therapy
or Jenova on him.
B Regular/Number ( )
Reaction to Jenova detected."

"Escapee Report no. 3
Status.
A Shot for resisting.
B Escaped during A's resistance."

"Escapee Report no. 4
Other
B's whereabouts is currently unknown.
But pursuit is unnecessary due to
his diminishing consciousness.
Awaiting further instructions."

Oddly enough, anyone who actually saw the aforementioned cutscene will know that "B" never escaped during during A's resistance. He was lying on the ground the whole time. It is not even possible that the Shinra guards didn't notice that: the scene ends with the commander purposely leaving B behind.

Shinra Soldier: What do you want to do with him?
Commander: Forget it. Just leave him.

Now - it is very possible that the reports were made up by the same commander to cover up that he didn't make sure that B was actually dead. But since the English translation of Final Fantasy 7 is quite popular for not being very accurate... I was wondering if the translation we got matches the original.

So what I am asking is very simple. Can anyone confirm if the original content of the four reports was the same in the Japanese script?


UPDATE: it is worth noticing that description of the event given in the books does kinda match the retconed version of the event as shown in Crisis Core. In this version Cloud is hidden behind a rock all the time, so the fact that Shinra didn't notice him is at last possible (although very improbable since they were even using helicopters in this retelling of the story...).

1 Answer 1

2

The four reports are the same in the Japanese script.

『逃亡者に関する報告書 1

 X月X日
 当時施設から逃亡した2名を
 ミッドガル近辺で発見しました』


『逃亡者に関する報告書 2

 :発見時の状況

 A 元ソルジャー/ナンバー[無]
 魔晄照射および、ジェノバの影響は
 見受けられませんでした。

 B 一般/ナンバー[無]
 ジェノバへの反応過多が見受けられました』


『逃亡者に関する報告書 3

 :処分に関して

 A 抵抗したため射殺。
 B Aが抵抗する間に逃亡』


『逃亡者に関する報告書 4

 :その他

 現在、Bの行方は不明です。
 しかし、Bは意識の乱れが
 かなり進行している様子でしたので
 このまま放置しておいても
 問題はないというのが我々の見解です。
 今後に関する指示をお願いします』

(not translated because the meaning is more-or-less the same)

However... the scene of Zack and Cloud escaping was first added in the international version.

The North American and PAL releases of Final Fantasy VII made substantial changes to the original Japanese version. [...] and a flashback of Cloud and Zack escaping Nibelheim, were also added in.

Final Fantasy Fandom - Final Fantasy VII - Releases - Original

Now, whether the scene was deliberately written like that, or whether there was a reason why the reports were written differently... is open to the reader's interpretation...

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  • weird - so basically they added a scene to the game in the western versions that didn't even match the existing info.... only to have to retcon it when Crisis Core was released. Commented Feb 17, 2020 at 8:38

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