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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Impressions
Tim Butler writes "1UP.com has posted impressions of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children from the premiere screening at the Venice Film Festival. The article also reveals that the film won't be ready until next spring -- but may clock in at more than an hour and a half in running time (is a big screen release a possibility now?)."
Was FFVII the first one you played?
Almost invariably I find this to be the case with those who call it their favorite.
Actually as sucky as the last FF movie was, it's plot had every element of a FF game story...
. A small team of unlikely characters fighting impossible odds.
. A government with factions out to kill that team.
. The earth nearly destroyed or in its final days.
. People with magical/spiritual powers.
. Some kind of religeous overtones.
. Scary monsters everywhere!
. A top bad guy evil character, out to get our team!
I think what made it suck was that those good game elements that play out over 40 hours of interactive gameplay as you are descovering the world don't neccesarily make a good 2-hour non-interactive movie where there is a lot of exposition and all of these elements are crammed together.
The difference in the plots between FF: TSW and FF VII: Advent Children is that the FFVII Universe is already established (as the most popular FF of all time), and pretty much anyone wanting to see FFVII has already a good idea of the backstory. That allows for better storytelling.
I think the reason for this assumption is that FF7 truly showed what RPGs could do with next-gen hardware. Before FF7 there were no 3D worlds, no 3D monsters, no true spatial and particle effects.
The storyline was so intriguing thanks to the amazing visuals that it simply took the gameplay to a new level.
They also killed a major character, a love-interest no less, right in the middle of the story. This, to my recollection, had never happened in such as quick, brutal and shocking manner before.
It may sound silly, this is a video game yadda yadda, but the immersiveness of this game is unparalleled in any other Final Fantasy to date. They seem to be so hot on Amazing CGI Scenes and SUPER HUGE MONDO MONSTER SPELLS that take (I kid you not) 2 minutes a pop to pull off, that they leave the gameplay and the richness behind.
That's not to say they haven't come close, but that's also to say that the magic in FF7 has yet to be repeated.
The next final fantasy will be a continuation of the FF7 story. That has never happened before (the revisit of an older universe to tell a continuating tale). This alone tells the power it had not only on gamers, but on SquareEnix as well.