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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?)."

39 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Holding out hope. by slusich · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm just hoping they did a better job on this one then on the last FF movie. The last one looked gorgeous, but the plot was almost non-existent. It was as if they had spent every ounce of effort producing the visuals, and someone had forgotten to bother with a script. I loved FF:VII as a game, and I'm holding out hope that the movie will live up to the name this time. Of course, I'm also hoping for a direct to DVD release since I refuse to go to a theatre any more.

    1. Re:Holding out hope. by AndyChrist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Was FFVII the first one you played?

      Almost invariably I find this to be the case with those who call it their favorite.

    2. Re:Holding out hope. by jaredcat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:Holding out hope. by satoshi1 · · Score: 2

      FF7 was the first I played. Then I played FFX, and then FF4. So far, FF4 is my favorite. I've beaten FF7, I'm probably very close in FFX (the cloister of trials in zanarkand), and in FF4... I forget at the moment -_- But I like it much better than FF7 and FFX.

    4. Re:Holding out hope. by Speare · · Score: 2, Funny
      Actually as sucky as the last FF movie was, it's plot had every element of a FF game story...

      You forgot the glue that binds every Final Fantasy premise: an ally character named Cid.

      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
    5. Re:Holding out hope. by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Informative

      Cid didn't appear in the series until FFIV, and in VI he was originally working for the bad guys. I'd say a more appropiate subject would be the airships/spaceships(FFVIII) since those appeared from THE beginning of the series (FFI)

    6. Re:Holding out hope. by jandrese · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm not sure I'd really tout FF Tactics for it's storyline either. It's got a great battle system and a fiendish (if somewhat predictable) AI, but the storyline was a convoluted mess that at best didn't detract too much from the gameplay.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    7. Re:Holding out hope. by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, Cid appeared in Japan's FF2.

      --
      Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
    8. Re:Holding out hope. by LtOcelot · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Another take on this is that FF game plots have always been weak, but the interactivity distracts players from that. They've been considered "good" relative to other games, but the average quality of game plots in general is pretty poor.

    9. Re:Holding out hope. by Bendebecker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You forgot the effeminate men and strong powerful but still good looking women.

      --
      There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
      most of us won't be able to afford it.
      -- Lemmy
    10. Re:Holding out hope. by hajihill · · Score: 2, Informative

      You had to 'camp' the thing that guards the lode stone (basically walk back and forth across that square to keep fighting the monster), then in no time everyone in your party is level 50...

      Now that doesn't mean a ton if you go out with a mixed party, but if you manage to struggle through with 4 black-belts then you can take warmech and chaos in one attack per. No problems there...

      Besides Warmech was in the castle of air just before tiamat, right? Chaos was really just a transmogrified Garland and was in a different dungeon altogether.

      The first FF was definitely my favorite. I even managed to beat the game with four white wizards, and again with four black wizards though those times it was really difficult.

      Hail FFI! One of my favorite console games of all time, but then again I still think the Gold Box Adventure series from SSI are great, and still play Zork to pass time... but that's just me.

      --
      Of blankness, I know nothing.
    11. Re:Holding out hope. by Obiwan+Kenobi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    12. Re:Holding out hope. by hc00jw · · Score: 2, Informative
      FF7 was the first I played. Then I played FFX, and then FF4. So far, FF4 is my favorite. I've beaten FF7, I'm probably very close in FFX (the cloister of trials in zanarkand), and in FF4... I forget at the moment -_- But I like it much better than FF7 and FFX.

      Sadly, Final Fantasy VII was the first real FF game us Europeans *could* play! Yeah, we had the original, the game boy titles, and Mystic Quest. One of those wasn't actually a FF game, (Adventure), one was the worst game ever (Mystic Quest), one was relegated to frustrating history lesson (akin to the original Metroid) (the original), and the other three game boy games don't even really bother mentioning.

      So you can imagine what European gamers experienced when they finally got their hands on FF7? All the evolution of the other titles, all experienced in one glorious game.

      Having said that, Future Play, an old (fantastic) U.K. SNES magazine, still managed to rate FFVI as the 6th best SNES game of all time, and IV in the top 20 (iirc that one), despite the fact that most readers didn't stand a chance of getting hold of a copy! Hell, they even ran an article every issue on the secrets of the Final Fantasy games! I didn't know what they were talking about until I picked up my playstation with VII bundled, of course...

    13. Re:Holding out hope. by Zangief · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The first FF I played was FFVII. However, after liking a lot said game, I went back, and played the older ones. I have played FFI (never finished that one...is way too primitive), FFIV (hyped by nostalgic fans; good if you like basic rpgs), FFV (good game, a shame that west skipped this one) and FFVI (f*cking great game).

      FFVI is my fav. The history is great, the fact that you could select (at some point of the history) which group of characters follow, and a lot of other small details that help making the story a little less linear, make it a winner.

      Yeah, FFVII was good, but:
      -Had a lot of long cutscenes.
      -Summons were way too powerful (and boring. Here is a hint: play the game without ever using summons, and the game quality will go up a little)
      -Way too easy (even without summons).
      -Very linear game.
      -Worst. Ending. Ever.
      -Horrible load times for battles.
      -The battles were tiring. (When I was reaching the end of the second disc, I started playing without volume, because the battle theme was driving me mad).

      The bottom line: great story, and 3D characters against good (at the time) 2D backgrounds don't

      FF8 fixed the summoning problem (replacing it with the renzokuken problem, which was worst. :), and a great ending. However, you couldn't care less about the villain (Ultimecia? who the heck was her...pseudo-spoiler: some people say she was Rinoa), and the magic system was broken. I liked FF7 best.

    14. Re:Holding out hope. by EmperorKagato · · Score: 2, Informative
      Otherwise, it's always the same damn game. The combat engine hasn't changed since part 1.

      The engine has changed from system to system. Actually from every Square/Square Enix game to Square/Enix game.

      Final Fantasy 1: Command Turn based combat(Select commands for your team members first then execute) This system had me praying that I wouldn't waste attacks on a target was destroyed.

      Final Fantasy 4: Introduces an Active Battle System. Dual Spell Casting, Blue Magic is introduced. Status effects are now visible by looking at your party.

      Final Fantasy 6: Active Battle System with User and Dual User input IN BATTLE! (Yes FF6 is 2 player capable) Also an impressive amount of different characters with all kinds of job classes. Learning spells through summoned creatures.

      Final Fantasy 7: Introduces Active Time Battle System(there is a difference). Limit Break System. Spell combination system using Materia. Shell and Protect bars. Multiple spell casting allowed. Multiple summoning allowed. *-- Multiple meaning casting twice by the same character without losing extra mana.

      Final Fantasy 10: Attack system based on speed of character. Also you get to see who's turn is next. Swapping in the middle of battle is allowed. Tactics system. Aeons: Summons that stay in battle and fight for you.
      --
      ----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
    15. Re:Holding out hope. by josephpate · · Score: 2, Informative

      No muggles.

      That's Harry Potter, you want "Moogles"

    16. Re:Holding out hope. by TheLoneDanger · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

      Well, how about that it was the success of FF7 in the first place that set Square on this path? Let's face it, one of the big reasons why FF7 did so well beyond the existing market for RPGs at the time is that it had very pretty graphics (for the time). In some ways, this is a very big problem because since then, Square has focussed on ensuring that the graphics are good before anything else (see games such as The Bouncer or Driving Emotion Type S). It was FF7 in the first place that added super long damned flashy attacks (Limit breaks and summons. My god, Knights of the Round took FOREVER to cast and was necessary to defeat the "Omega Weapon" boss)

      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.

      Uhhh.... What? The next Final Fantasy (game) would be FF 12, which is NOT based on FF 7. FF7: Advent Children is an animated MOVIE. You could be referring to the Before Crisis game, but that is for cell phones in Japan (no word on North American or Euro release yet), and it is a PREQUEL (using the Turks as the main characters). Also, FFX-2 was a continuation of FFX. So this would be considered the first "sequel" as in a return to one of the universes of the core Final Fantasy games.

      --

      "But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
    17. Re:Holding out hope. by Speare · · Score: 2, Interesting

      FFX and FFX-2's crystal are in Luca (the center of the round plaza), and in the tops of Macalania Woods.

      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
  2. Big Screen release... by TJ_Phazerhacki · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have no doubt that there will be showings on big screens across the country when this thing comes out. However, I sincerely doubt that a Great company would put themselves through anything even resembling the fiasco of Spirits Within on their second release. Lets hold out hope for the next one, and enjoy this one as it comes!

    --
    Physics is nothing like religion. If it was, we'd have an easier time trying to raise money!
  3. Creepy Faces by Feneric · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm in agreement with this article that computer-generated human faces still look creepy. I can't quite place what it is, but computer generated skin (even when done well as it was with Gollum from the LOTR movies) doesn't look right.

    Maybe it's that the faces look somehow too regular; maybe it's that they look somehow luminescent.

    It's even evident in the little thumnail image at the top of the article.

    1. Re:Creepy Faces by News+for+nerds · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You better check out Square USA's CGI work in an episode in Animatrix anthology, as it has photorealistic rendering of human faces much more advanced than FF:Spirits Within. The characters are very very close to real human faces.

      As for FF7:Advent Children, those character designs are intentionally more anime-style oriented, reminiscent of the original FF7 designs, so realism is not wanted by viewers. it should be rendered in surrealistically beautiful, fantasic tastes as it is Final Fantasy anyway.

    2. Re:Creepy Faces by Feneric · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nope, sorry. The images still don't look real to me. Even the thresholds between different objects look wrong somehow.

  4. Wow those renders of Venice are photorealistic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    But they are right about synthetic humans looking creepier and creepier as they get more accurate. Look at the 4th picture down. Quite nightmarish. Even creepier than that last final fantasy movie.

  5. Aeris! by JohnPerkins · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you buy 3 large popcorns, 1 small no-ice Dr Pepper, 1 box of Jr Mints, then enter the hidden theater 5 spaces down and 2 spaces to the left of the ticket booth, you can see the version with Aeris resurrected!

  6. Re:Look at the screenshots! by mn3m05yn3 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.1up.com/do/slideshow?cId=3133458

    aren't THOSE the screenshots? looks like you were referencing pictures of the festival itself...

  7. Direct-to-Market release by Power+Everywhere · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm calling it here. They'll include it for a discount when you buy the game.

    1. Re:Direct-to-Market release by rfunches · · Score: 2, Informative

      Releasing it with a game is unlikely. There aren't any FF games at a point in their production cycle that Square Enix could release FFVII:AC with (FFXI will see its second expansion in a little more than a week, FFXII has already been pushed back, Before Crisis: FFVII is already in a Japanese beta, but that's a cellphone game).

      It was already announced as a direct-to-market video (in DVD and PSP UMD format). The question now is whether it sees a theatrical release, which it probably could in the US if it does well in Japan first.

  8. how can you have a screening by WormholeFiend · · Score: 2, Interesting

    if the film "isn't ready"?

    [/dumb]

    1. Re:how can you have a screening by JabberWokky · · Score: 4, Informative
      I've seen screenings of many many movies in unfinished states. In some cases (like the Italian Job screeners), they were heavily edited afterwards and had a totally different soundtrack (they had to get the rights to the songs that eventually went into the movie - in the version I saw, the director put whatever he wanted in). In the case of Beauty and the Beast, several scenes cut to black and white sketches, "motion storyboard" to give the idea of the scenes. All the voices and foley were there, but the animation wasn't done.

      I, Robot, for instance, wasn't finished until a scant couple weeks before it appeared in wide release. All the effects were still being finished up until then, and the animators were pulling late nights. That's pretty typical.

      --
      Evan

      --
      "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  9. Oh no! by red+floyd · · Score: 4, Funny

    Another FF movie? Won't somebody please think of the (advent) Children????

    --
    The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
  10. Re:me want pictures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ff:VII small movie

    It's a small movie, and jap in background, but still cool.

  11. Re:me want pictures by semifamous · · Score: 5, Informative

    How about a preview instead?

    Head over to http://anime-kraze.org/ and go to their releases page...

    http://anime-kraze.org/index.php?page=releases

    Then scroll down to find this link this link here which points to a .torrent file of a fansubbed version of a preview of the movie...

  12. Re:Uh.... no? by cgenman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I should point out, that Nintendo pulled the plug at the last minute on releasing the original Final Fantasy 2 on the NES here in the states, after hyping it up in Nintendo Power the month before (and a juicy contest that nobody won). What was released here as Final Fantasy 2 was actually Final Fantasy 4, in no small way because Nintendo didn't believe the series would amount to anything in the US.

    And then, of course, the Final Fantasy for the SNES made the platform in Japan, at a time when the Mega Drive (Genesis) was swimming in great RPG's... but Nintendo's fiasco with the Sony-made Nintendo Playstation (SNES CD) upon which Square developed a fully realized "greatest game ever..." the Secret of Mana, then had to chop it to little bits to make it fit on a cartridge when the SNES CD was not released, soured the relationship on Square's side. Then Square deciding to make the next Final Fantasy game on, you guessed it, the Sony Playstation was taken as a personal slap in the face by Nintendo's president Hiroshi Yamauchi, which not only burned the bridge between them but salted the ground for many years.

    Of course, the SNES CD couldn't be released as it was originally invisioned... In a momentary and tremendous lapse of judgement, the Nintendo lawyers signed to Sony the profits for any CD games sold, while they kept the profits on any Cartridge games sold. Nintendo asked for a redrawing of the iron-clad contract, Sony refused, and while Nintendo was contractually obligated to approve of Sony's release, they found a sneaky loophole and drew up a contract with (I believe) Philips to make a CDI compatible SNES CD, which they would throw their marketing muscle behind. Philips, of course, was an earlier partner which Nintendo had scorned in favor of Sony. Anyway, it was a big ugly mess.

    I won't even get into how Square and Nintendo finally made up.

    In other words, while Nintendo was not responsible for creating the Final Fantasy series, they do have a sorded past with the series.

  13. Indeed by lavar78 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, I'm going to have to agree. One of the (many) reasons FF6 is the best of the series is the strength of its characters. Celes, Locke, Terra, Sabin, Shadow, and Kefka -- just to name a few...

    --
    "Dave, I stand still--the conclusions jump to me!" - Bill McNeal, NewsRadio
    1. Re:Indeed by sabernet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      First off, I apoligize for the lack of line breakers, I forgot /. uses html formatting

      secondly, while FF6 had more characters, the characters were more dry and not quite as "cool(with all that entails).

      What FF6 had going for it was the delivery of the characters and the setting in which they were introduced. Narshe, Vector, etc... were all memorable towns and the Airships looked man-made. The world itself was just plain well-detailed and the characters were well thought out, for sure. It makes FF6 my fav FF to play.

      Kefka was a strong character, and an excellent villain, but had absolutely no background. Sephy had a shiteload of background story. Hell, you sympathized with him.

      FF7's world wasn't as deep, but the characters themselves stuck with you.

      But one thing they both had in common:
      They both had character with EXCELLENT finishing moves that got killed before you could use them:P(Aeris's Lv4 and Leo's swordamajig)

  14. Re:I'm confused? by ALeavitt · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is called FF7 because it is a direct sequel to FF7. This is much the same as FFX-2, which recently came out, and was a sequel to Final Fantasy X. As every Final Fantasy has a different universe and storyline, marketing a release as FF7: Advent Children or FFX-2 denotes that these are direct sequels to games with most of the same characters, taking place in the same universe, and picking up where the storyline of the original games left off. Calling the movie simply "Final Fantasy: Advent Children" would be similar to calling it "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." People would expect certain Final Fantasy aspects, but they would not expect a sequel to an already existing Final Fantasy. The VII serves to clarify, not confuse.

    --
    This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
  15. Many movies by phorm · · Score: 2, Informative
    There aren't really any "magical" powers in this one, at least in the sense of your traditional fantasy spells etc. The "evil government" "unlikely heroes", "earth nearing destruction" "main bad guy" themes are all basic to many other movies as well.

    The problem with FFTSW was not that it wasn't established, it was that it was a sci-fi futuristic "alien menace" type movie rather than a Fantasy type one. Your typical FF tends to have elements such as:
    • A mix of high/low technology. For some reason swords tend to go alongside nuclear reactors.
    • Magic. Not special superhuman ability, but magic. Summons are a big thing too in latter FFs.
    • Main characters generally seem to have some form of identity crisis and go off at some point.
    Of course, there are many others. But really FFTSW was an animated sci-fi movie with some FF named characters, guards that looked Shinra-like, and a FF tag. If you changed the guards, the title, and perhaps renamed Cid nobody would likely associate with the FF game series.

    As a happy fan of FF games since the original (US) SNES release... I've a strong attachment to them and squaresoft (barring FFX2 which was a fanboy tribute).
  16. Re:Kill Square by RogueyWon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This might seem an obvious question, but...

    Since when was it a good idea to let the fans write the plot? What should it matter how the fans thought FFVII should have ended? Movies or games produced by focus group rarely have any redeeming features. One of the things I respect about Square is their willingness to make unpopular decisions with regards to the Final Fantasy franchise. Pretty much every game is iconoclastic and messes around with the establishe formula, using sending the fanboys who wanted a clone of the previous game into hysterical fits. The battle system changes pretty much every game, often in completely unexpected ways (witness the sphere-grid in FFX) while the game-world usually has at least one unique factor that makes you go "what the fuck". I'd say that the only time Square *didn't* do this with a recent game (FFIX), they delivered the most disappointing product.

    To sum up, I don't want the content of my Final Fantasy games/movies dictated by the turgid outpourings of the fanfic authors. Advent Children may turn out to be just a blatant cash-in, but past experience leads me to suspect it will be something a bit riskier.

  17. Good thing they changed the plot by Glowing+Fish · · Score: 5, Funny

    It would have been awesome to just reshoot the orginal Final Fantasy VII, but along with the fact it would be hard cutting the 40 hr long story down to 2 hours, most movie goers wouldn't believe Final Fantasy VII's wild, science fiction plot. Final Fantasy VII would have us believe that:

    • Someone can become president just because their father is. If someone becomes ruler because of their father, that makes them a king, not a president.
    • That a government could be nothing more than a front for corrupt energy company executives, and for a clique of people whose fanatical devotion to a "promised land" blinds them to all reason.
    • That a country with a large space program would suddenly abandon it, simply to produce more and more deadly weapons.
    • That a government, when confronted with terrorist attacks, would use it as a way to further clamp down on anyone who was trying to challenge their politcal and economic power.
    • That a nation's economy could be totally wiped out, leaving industrial areas blighted, while close by, people spent all their money playing in high tech floating gambling palaces.
    • That energy executives, when their productive capacity is destroyed, would merrily celebrate having to raise rates.

      • These are just some of the points that make the plot of Final Fantasy VII, no matter how intriguing, too unrealistic for people to take seriously.
    --
    Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.