Last night(5/19) I was invited by our good friends at New York-Tokyo to check out a screening of Final Fantasy Advent Children: Complete at the Sony Wonder Labs over on 59th street.

For those who don’t know Final Fantasy VII(7) has to be arguably one of the most popular role playing games (rpg) of all time. There were previous installments of the Final Fantasy series however 7 was one of the ones that brought this genre into the limelight. The game featured multiple side quests,mini games and boasted over 90+ hours of game play. The game had many spin offs video game wise and there have been a couple stories written/produced about the events after the game and movie (Advent children).

If you are wondering if you need to play the actual game to understand this movie, my answer would be yes and no. Yes if you want to full understand and know who people are.No because you could watch this movie by itself and still understand a good chunk of it. They explain a fair portion of the games events via flashbacks so people who haven’t played are totally clueless.

The run down of the plot is really simple. Two years after Sephiroth’s attempts at mass genocide, a strange disease threatens mankind. With many falling ill and the ruins of Midgar standing as a reminder of the sacrifices of the past, old enemies rise from the ashes to seek revenge. Riddled with guilt and haunted by his past, ex-soldier Cloud Strife must emerge from seclusion to again defeat evil and save the planet from certain destruction. Easy right?

This is an upgrade from the previous versions we’ve seen and it’s on blu-ray. I was pretty excited to see this on a theater screen with surround sound to see how it looks and sounds.They’ve also managed to cram in some extra scenes and shots,this extends the movie time a bit. If you’ve seen this already(this movie has been out for quite some time) you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much better it looks now.(My eyesight is bad but even then this movie land the subs were practically crystal clear). We watched the opening few minutes in English before switching to Nihongo(Japanese). The English dub wasn’t that bad. It’s not the worst dub job I’ve heard but it wasn’t the best. The only issue I had was with Barret. The should have gotten the guy who did Sagats voice in English or at least Balrog (these are all Street Fighter references,sorry I have it on the brain).

The fight scenes benefited from the extra content. Some of the more popular scenes were longer and the music reflected this. So during the ‘Chase on the Highway’ scene you were treated to an extra few minutes of the Rude and Reno conversation along with that bad-ass rendition of the Turk’s theme.

The DVD included a trailer of Final Fantasy XIII(13) that we didn’t’ get to see. I was really pumped to check out that chocobo living in that black guy’s afro first hand. For now I’ll just have to use my imagination. The dvd also had: Legacy of Final Fantasy VII a new documentary featurette on the successful history of Final Fantasy VII. The original anime short film On The Way To A Smile – Episode: Denzel a 25-minute original anime short film, telling the story of the character Denzel before the events before the movie (Advent Children),Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII compilation, a storyline digest which incorporates related footage from the video games. Also it contained the trailers for the movie.

My question is when are they going to make the remake. They’ve started already on the Nintendo DS and they kept the games true to the originals for the most part. Here’s hoping they get it done.

2 Responses to “Final Fantasy Advent Children:Complete.”

1. Anthony says:

   May 20, 2009 at 11:19 pm

   Wow I wonder If i could have gotten in to see the premiere of this, I called off work and everything what a waste lol Looks great gotta get it! tky didn’t know about it till today
2. Megumiaraki says:

   May 21, 2009 at 1:21 pm

   It would be nice if they made a remake…I have been patiently freakin waiting. My favorite game of all time. I know it would be sweet too…Crisis core was amazing.