FF7 Advent Children

[Magi]

http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_finalfantasy7_ac_2.mov


It's translated at the bottom


unfortunately, it does nothing to help with the upcoming storyline other than that they "found Jenova's head"

Amazing CG work.


around 17mb or so download

[Magi]

Well, it's no surprise that even though it isn't out in North America yet, FF7: Advent Children is available for download.

Has anyone else seen it? I've been waiting since the day they announced they were making it, and it didn't dissapoint.

EDIT: I thought I started a thread on this ages ago so I did a quick search.

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=16447.0

And no one was interested then

Seriously guys, if you don't give this a shot you're missing out.

[nataz]

what is this?

I noticed Penny Arcade talking about it earlier, and I'm a little lost. They seem to like it though.

[jpmeyer]

If your first Final Fantasy game was prior to 7, you will hate it.  If your first Final Fantasy game was 7, you will love it.

[Godot]

yeah, i saw it like 4 or 5 days ago.  I was totally stoked for this movie and overall i was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I found the story a bit hard to follow at some points, but I think a lot of that is just not remembering very much about the game.  Visually it was amazing.  I was blown away at how many times I forgot I was watching somethings that was all cgi.  I've been meaning to watch it again, but I just havent gotten around to it.

JP:  Why do you say that?  I started playing with the original and I had no issues with this movie.

[Magi]

I found the story a bit hard to follow at some points, but I think a lot of that is just not remembering very much about the game.

Even the original game had a confusing storyline. Heck I'll admit, I'm STILL not 100% clear on just what exactly happened after Aeris died.

JP:  Why do you say that?  I started playing with the original and I had no issues with this movie.

ditto.

[Machinus]

I thought the plot in this was really bad. I enjoyed FF7, but the story in that game is very dark and epic. There wasn't really a story in this movie, just lots of cameos and fight scenes. This "sequel" isn't even as good as FF:TSW, which as everyone knows was terrible, even though the CG in both was really great.

[Kowal]

There are few things I disliked as much as this movie.

[jpmeyer]

JP: Why do you say that? I started playing with the original and I had no issues with this movie.

It was something that I noticed among the various reviews that I had read of the movie over the past few days.

[Magi]

JP, I think you may have noticed a pattern but have drawn up a wrong conclusion.

See, I think that whether you like this movie or not really hinges upon whether you like the original game or not.

A lot of old school people (who really enjoyed the early FF's) dislike FF7 for numerous reasons (the whole "futuristic" theme, the fact that as far as RPG's go FF7 is quite linear, really weird storyline, the fact that FF7 raised RPG's from a "cult-ish" type status to a much more mainstream one, etc.). That's why it may seem that people who have played the earlier ones before FF7 auto-hate this film, which is not true. It also happens that those who hate on FF7 happen to be really vocal about it (cuz they're all whiny bitches WELL GUESS WHAT WHO DID SQUARE MAKE AS MAIN CHARACTERS FROM THE FF UNIVERSE IN KINGDOM HEARTS THAT'S RIGHT CLOUD AND SEPH NOT THAT FAG SQUALL).

However, if you're a die hard FF fan *cough see avatar* that stuff doesn't matter.

In the end though, love it or hate it, you have to respect the amazing CG work done in this film. And the work here is LIGHT YEARS ahead of what was displayed on FF TSW.

[jpmeyer]

Actually, I was more or less quoting what the posters themselves were saying.  Most (if not almost all) of the bad reviewers were prefaced with something along the lines of "I didn't think it was that great or anything but then again my favorite game was FF6" or "I never got into it, but then again FF7 wasn't my first Japanese-style RPG so I didn't have any emotional connection going into the movie".

[Demonic Attorney]

I have played, beaten, and replayed ad infinitum (in chronological order):

1.  Final Fantasy IV (II in America)
2.  Final Fantasy I
3.  Final Fantasy VI (III in America)
4.  Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
5.  The Secret of Mana
6.  Chrono Trigger
7.  Super Mario RPG
8.  Final Fantasy VII
9.  Final Fantasy VIII
10.  Final Fantasy IX
11.  Final Fantasy X
12.  Seiken Densetsu 3 (Unreleased prequel to Secret of Mana, available online in translated ROM form)
13.  Chrono Cross


That's 13 total SquareSoft titles, 14 if you count Rad Racer.  I played many of these long before Final Fantasy VII was even conceived of.  Notwithstanding all of that, FFVII is still my favorite game of all time, without question.  I'm not going to supply an essay-length justification for this preference, because I don't want to derail this thread into a geek war over the best FF game in the series, but I just wanted for the record to show that even some people who were Final Fantasy devotees years before 1997 still regard FF7 as their favorite game.

As for Advent Children, I'm anti-piracy/IP theft, so I will wait for its North American release, now anticipated this coming November.  I saw one of the first trailers for the movie, and the graphics looked stunning.  I just hope the trend of refining graphics in lieu of storyline has not emerged in this installment of the FF series, as it has in the last few titles.


Oh, and P.S.  The mere fact this film was made absolutely ruins the masterfully ambiguous ending to Final Fantasy VII.  Think back to the last scene after the credits and Bugenhagen's line in the Ancient City, "When Holy is summoned, all that is bad for the Planet will disappear.  I wonder which we humans are?" 

[Katzby]

My take on the movie was that it was very enjoyable.  I loved FF7, and I had played and loved all of the other USA-Released Squaresoft games before it came out.  Not just FF2 (US) and FF3 (US) as noted above, but also The Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and (yeah...) The Secret of Evermore.  Whatever bad things people want to say about FF7, it's a flat-out better game than any FF that has been released afterward.  Even the FF7 haters usually don't try to argue against that point.

Probably as a result of my love for FF7, I quite enjoyed Advent Children.  Yes, it was completely unnecessary sequel, but what the hell were people expecting?  There weren't too many lose ends in the game.  The laws of physics didn't seem to apply to most of the characters, but I couldn't help thinking that they were just each on level 99, had a set of Master Materia each, Ultimate Weapons, maxed stats, Ziedrichs, etc.  This did take place after the *end* of FF7, after all, and I have spent a lot of time maxing out all of my characters more than one time, so I just assumed they had really hardcore stats.

The previews for this movie made it seem like that it wouldn't be about FF7 characters much at all.  Instead, they focused on the character that eventually became Denzel, and the white-haired dudes.  I had serious doubts my favorite characters would get any time at all, however, this was not the case.  Just seeing various characters do recognizable things from FF7 (Cloud took down Bahamut with Omnislash, etc) was well worth it for me.

Oh, and P.S.  The mere fact this film was made absolutely ruins the masterfully ambiguous ending to Final Fantasy VII.  Think back to the last scene after the credits and Bugenhagen's line in the Ancient City, "When Holy is summoned, all that is bad for the Planet will disappear.  I wonder which we humans are?" 

This has been argued to death over the last 8 years, but I am one of those that believe the ending was *not* ambiguous.  The viewer was intended to wonder about what exactly happened after the events of the game concluded, and showing a demonlished and overgrown Midgar was indeed supposed to plant a seed of above the idea in his or her head.  However, as the credits roll, children's laughter can be heard in the background.  This was clearly intended to, symbbolically or otherwise, show that children are still around 500 years later, so the human race didn't die off after all.

Besides, even if you want to say that this movie ruined the so-called ambiguity of the ending, it was set to be ruined anyway with the release of Dirge of Cerbrus, which takes place after the events of FF7.


Katzby

[raye]

I found myself bored and confused watching this. And since it seems to be relevant, started with 1 way back in the day. Recently, and I mean January, started translated 3 at work, got halfway in and am working toward motivation to finish it.

I have no idea what is going on with the story. I only played through like 1/4 of the game this is a sequel for. I'll blame me for not getting whats going on but its not on me that the storytelling is disjointed.

I found myself looking at how interesting some of the visuals were. Some of the early outdoor scenes were very interesting. Had a high contrast blown out highlights look with bleached out colors. Like someone did funky stuff to the film. And it appears like someone tried very hard to make the animation look lifelike, in the  first quarter at least. When the girl was climbing the stairs I could see her kinda strut a bit. It wasn't totally natural but its nice to see naturalistic cues in animation. Pretty close to being realistic. It quickly went to hell though. Soon all the hair animated in front of faces had too much weight and swung like it was 3x as heavy as hair is. There were no more of the interesting things being animated like twitches and assorted nervous movements (at least none that weren't just overblown). The wow thats pretty realistic went away and it started to look like the last animated Square movie.

I fell sleep in the middle of the big action sequence (the one that lasts 3/4 of the movie). Took days to get the motivation to finish it. Then a whole bunch of characters come to save the day. I don't know who a lot of them are but since the gunarm guy is there, I assume they are the other characters from the game. There is no reason for them to appear other than to satisfy the target audience of gamers watching. They have no relevance to the story here and didn't actually do anything.

So ya I hated it. Boring story. Bad storytelling. Randomly unnatural score. Highly uneven animation quality.

[Bastian]

Final Fantasy VII was my first Final Fantasy, so that could account for the impact it had. I nearly cryed when Aeris died. really, it was too much. And let's not count how obcessed I was into testing every rumour about how to possibly revive her until I finally conformed myself that she was gone for good.

It is a pretty linear game, but then again, so are all Final Fantasies. Nearly all have the same ammount of sidequests, etc...

I played Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9 then the PS2 came out but I only played Final Fantasy X far far later on. I also acquired X-2 but I think the story ends up being so lame I didn't even finish it...
It's a general consense that Final Fantasy 7 is the best in the series. Some critics consider it one of the contenders for the best game ever. The story is extremely well written and the three main characters are very charismatic. All in all I loved the game, yes.

The only game that comes close to 7 in the series is Final Fantasy 6, which has an awesome storyline, lots of characters and summonings (actually I don't think any of the others has these many), but since 7 was my first FF and playing with 16-bit 2d graphics after playing something like FF7 makes a big difference when picking the best.

I haven't seen the movie. Yet. I think I'll wait for the DVD as both times I tried to download it I ended up with porn...

I have no idea what is going on with the story. I only played through like 1/4 of the game this is a sequel for. I'll blame me for not getting whats going on but its not on me that the storytelling is disjointed.

Soo... you have only played about 1/4 of Final Fantasy and you expect to understand the storyline? Yes. You are THE ONLY ONE to blame for. The story might have its plot holes and it might not be up to the fans' expectations but you really shouldn't be so critic about it if you don't even know what's going on the other 3/4s of the game the movie serves as a sequel to.

[raye]

Soo... you have only played about 1/4 of Final Fantasy and you expect to understand the storyline? Yes. You are THE ONLY ONE to blame for. The story might have its plot holes and it might not be up to the fans' expectations but you really shouldn't be so critic about it if you don't even know what's going on the other 3/4s of the game the movie serves as a sequel to.

Yes. That is right. I do expect it to be coherent as a stand alone show. I'm sure it is an unreasonable expectation.

[Luiggi]

I also acquired X-2 but I think the story ends up being so lame I didn't even finish it...

If you really liked FFX (like I did, though FF6, FF7 and FF8 are still my favorites), you'll find that it's worth playing through FFX-2 just to see the best ending, that's pretty fulfilling. Yes, the game is pretty tedious and really different from other Final Fantasies, but I decided to suck it up and play through it to get 100% completion and see the best ending. Fortunately my girlfriend loves the FF series as much as me, so I always had company while I was playing through it.

Luiggi

[Vegeta2711]

What wondeful ending to FF7? Seriously was there some secret ending I missed out on? The ending of FF7 was bullshit.

It seemed ambigious, because by that point in time they were just making shit up. Hell the 'final' scripted Sephiroth vs. Cloud fight is just a retold version of Musashi vs. Kojiro, except with a very gaudy attack from Cloud instead of a simple blow from Musashi.

It should've ended at the end of Disk 2. Or at least not be as thrown togheter as Disk 3 ended up.

[SpencerForHire]

If your first Final Fantasy game was prior to 7, you will hate it.  If your first Final Fantasy game was 7, you will love it.

First final fantasy: 7.
View on the Movie: Disliked, Strongly.
Reason: It's a big cloud "fap" fest.

[MuzzonoAmi]

What wondeful ending to FF7? Seriously was there some secret ending I missed out on? The ending of FF7 was bullshit.

It seemed ambigious, because by that point in time they were just making shit up. Hell the 'final' scripted Sephiroth vs. Cloud fight is just a retold version of Musashi vs. Kojiro, except with a very gaudy attack from Cloud instead of a simple blow from Musashi.

It should've ended at the end of Disk 2. Or at least not be as thrown togheter as Disk 3 ended up.

This is the truest thing said here yet. My first VIDEO GAME was FFVII, and for a long while it was my favorite. But this summer, I replayed every RPG I own (Which, if anyone cares, is FF, FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, Lunar: Silver Star Story, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger, and Chrono Cross) and determined that while FFVII is good, it's stricly inferior to FFVII, and probably most comperable to FFIX. Blasphemy, I know.

[Magi]

Blasphemy, I know.

Not really, it's just your opinion.

[Luiggi]

I've also been replaying a bunch of these games lately, mostly because I got my girlfriend to play through FFX with me last year and she loved it, . Anyway, replaying FF7 made me realize just how good a game it is and how much I like it, despite its flaws. I just feel like it has great characters and an awesome story (with its ups and downs).

Earlier today I read through this great plot analysis of the game on GameFAQs (it's about 50-pages, but well-worth the read): http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/final_fantasy_vii_plot.txt. If you never quite understood everything the first time through, or you just can't remember what happened, check it out. It also includes transcripts of the "secret" cutscenes that you might've missed (i.e.- the ones where major plot points are developed, but that you don't really see over the course of the main story, like Zack and Cloud's escape from Nibelheim, Prof. Gast and Ifalna's videos [no, not that kind of videos, ], Vincent and Lucrecia's story, etc.).

Luiggi

[Klep]

I watched this immediately after finishing the game for the first time, and I have to say that issues of the game's ending being ambiguous or not aside, there was a story that was left to be told by the movie, and it told it.

Unfortunately it finished doing so halfway through.

There is one big issue that isn't really resolved in the game.  Cloud never forgives himself for letting Aeris die and for nearly dooming the world by handing the black materia to Sephiroth.  The story that is told in Advent Children is the story of him doing so.  However, about 45 minutes in Cloud actually accomplishes this, and does so in a rather anticlimatic manner. Thus, the rest is just him beating the crap out of people.  It was fun to watch, but it wasn't a very strong work of cinema beyond the admittedly spectacular graphics work.  I can't help but feel that SquareEnix had an opportunity to make a very strong film and just messed it up.  Tales of redemption have a lot of potential to be great, and this one just falls flat.

[Magi]

I watched this immediately after finishing the game for the first time, and I have to say that issues of the game's ending being ambiguous or not aside, there was a story that was left to be told by the movie, and it told it.

Unfortunately it finished doing so halfway through.

haha I've been telling everyone that the last half is all fight scenes (which it is) and little plot. Nothing wrong with that :p it satisfies the action junkies out there.


There is another movie floating out there, called "Last Order" (if you can find Advent Children you should be able to find this one). I just watched it today. It's entirely anime style.

It fills some back story, involving Tifa, Cloud, Sephiroth and Zack (this means before even the game itself takes place). It may help someone understand some of the events going on in Advent Children a little better.