TGS Aftermath

The hottest PSP application to hit the shelves last week in Japan was not a game at all. Rather, it was the ode to gaming known as Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. We got our grubby hands on a UMD copy of the film, and even though it was entirely in Japanese, with no option for English subtitles, we didn't need text to tell what this movie was about. It's clearly a tribute to Final Fantasy VII in every single way possible, but your enjoyment of it depends on whether that sounds like a thrilling prospect or a gross abuse of the franchise. Last week, community manager Bethany Massimilla was the first GameSpot editor to sound off on the film. This week we turn to features editor Carrie Gouskos for a slightly different perspective. Read both reviews back-to-back (below) for a recap of the good and bad of Final Fantasy: Advent Children, though without fear of major plot spoilers.

By Bethany Massimilla

TOKYO--Square Enix has finally released its carefully crafted gift to fandom, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, to stores across Japan. The film is available both on DVD and in the PSP's UMD format, and we were able to snag copies of the movie off the shelf fairly readily in Tokyo. Final Fantasy VII's long-awaited sequel brings the game's cast back to life vividly with some of the best-looking computer-generated art to date, and it finally gives fans a chance to catch up with old friends. We'll avoid discussing any major plot spoilers here, but even the plot seems almost a secondary point to seeing the original cast in action again. Nostalgia abounds in this film.

We've seen a good chunk of the cast appear in trailers already, and while the movie revolves most strongly around Cloud and Tifa, just about all the major characters from the game make some kind of appearance. The movie features the pale-haired trio of all-new antagonists, led by Kadaj, who are the sinister bunch fermenting discord in what seems to be the last human settlement that remains among the ruins of Midgard. Between their activities and a mysterious disease assailing the populace, it seems the world still hasn't managed to find peace.

The images of the world that you'll glimpse run the gamut from largely barren, open landscapes to the broken skeleton of Midgard itself, though you'll see plenty of specific areas that you'll remember from the game. The old chapel with Aerith's carefully tended patch of flowers is still here, though stewardship of her precious blossoms seems to have fallen to Cloud. Likewise, the haunting lake where Aerith's lifeless body was laid to rest remains a poignant site, surrounded by glistening white trees--and it seems that the area continues to channel potent energies, as well. Even the very opening sequence of the movie is pulled not too subtly from the game, showing Red XIII and his brethren loping across a dusty stretch of land to howl at the overgrown, crumbled remains of what once was one of the mightiest cities on the planet.

These images are often accompanied by some format of the appropriate original music. Much of the game's music, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, features snatches of themes from the original work or remixes. Fans will readily recognize character-specific themes, like Aerith's, as well as the opening music, and even a number of battle themes. The music often comes up in interesting places, short snatches that are slipped in somewhere as a further nod to fans. There are touches like this all throughout the film, like a little girl who dangles around a favorite stuffed moogle most everywhere she goes. If you pick up the UMD version of this game, you'll have access to the entire soundtrack independently from the film.

As beautiful as the movie looks, a lot of it is due not merely to the level of detail and artistry that went into molding the characters, but to the over-the-top action sequences the characters are so often thrown into. These scenes are well choreographed and feature the usual separation from the forces of gravity that make such acrobatics all the more fun to watch, with nearly blindingly fast movement, a lot of epic leaps, and a flurry of weaponry of all sorts. There's at least one limit-break attack thrown in there as well, along with a summoned monster, just in case you forgot for a second that this is a Final Fantasy movie.

Many of you might be wondering at this point how import-friendly this movie is, and the answer is...not very. You'd need a Japanese PSP or DVD player for that region to play the movie at all, and there aren't any English subtitle options to help you follow along with the story, so you'd be left with an awful lot of pretty CG, and that's about it. An English release isn't too far off, though, so Final Fantasy VII fans outside of Japan will soon be able to get that long-delayed sequel fix. Those fans shouldn't feel neglected anymore, either, because Advent Children is the forerunner of a number of Final Fantasy VII products to come, including Dirge of Cerberus for the PlayStation 2 and Crisis Core for mobile phones. From Yuffie to the Turks, from Vincent to Cait Sith, the classic crew is making its return in force. Final Fantasy: Advent Children serves to remind us how vibrant those characters yet remain, even years after the game that gave their world life.

By Carrie Gouskos

SAN FRANCISCO--If you're one of the people who mused about the vague ending of Final Fantasy VII, you might be pleased to have your questions resolved by Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which takes place after the end of the sequence of events in the game. Then again, you might be annoyed to have them resolved so neatly just so Square can release another property based on its most popular franchise. Either way, Advent Children revisits the Final Fantasy VII cast for a little update on what's been going on, and you can be sure that you'll get enough reference material to hypothesize about the series until the next time it rears its head.

Like the not-quite-as-popular Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, the most impressive thing about Advent Children is its visual quality, which can be counted among the best computer-generated material we've seen to date. The details from scene to scene are thrilling, and if you think there's nothing else about the film worth watching, there's at least that. For fans, though, appeasement is a much more difficult task, and it's one that Square seems to have taken seriously. Their greatest challenge was translating the appearance of the beloved (and previously pixelated) characters into the highly detailed renders seen in Advent Children, adding nuances to the faces and clothes where there previously were none. Square has done a good job of fine-tuning the characters without impacting their overall presentation with the exception i Cloud, who now looks to be slightly influenced by Final Fantasy VIII's protagonist Squall, for better or for worse.

The sound production is almost as high quality as the graphics. The Japanese voice actors chosen to give life to the cast do a fairly good job, especially considering that the expectations for these previously mute characters were so high. If anything, the voices are slightly over-the-top, but presumably all will be changed for the English translation. As a result, it's difficult to judge what any of it will sound like for the North American and European releases. The music, though, is universal, and you'll be able to recognize many of the game's songs in their remixed states. The movie also effectively capitalizes on nostalgia by revisiting appropriate themes in accordance with what's going on.

Of course, this is where the fine line between homage and obsession is crossed, which is ultimately the movie's greatest detriment. Subtle and infrequent references to the game would have been all Advent Children needed to recapture the hearts of the many Final Fantasy VII fans out there. Instead, viewers are treated to a fan-service buffet that will appeal to the greatest devotees of the game but will put off skeptics just as readily. At times it seems like no reference is left out, whether it be character guest appearances or even the postmodern nod to the fact that this movie's reference material was a game. It will be hard for the cynic to make it through the entire movie without an eye roll or two, which is a shame, because the quality is otherwise quite high.

Advent Children improves upon the fighting mechanics of the game with impressively choreographed fight sequences. The camera angle is sometimes prone to cheesy cinema-style quick cuts, but the fighting is so well constructed that it's hard to fault the angle from which you must view them. Advent Children is around 100 minutes long and jam-packed with different types of action sequences. If you can get beyond the too-frequent and too-forced references, there's a lot to appreciate about the movie. However, it's quite obviously meant for those most endeared to the game, as others will be potentially put off by all the over-the-top fan service. Fortunately, no matter what your relationship is to the Final Fantasy franchise, the quality imbued here achieves a new landmark in CG filmmaking. Advent Children is the Final Fantasy movie that The Spirits Within should have been, and with any luck we'll be treated to more movies like it. But there doesn't necessarily even need to be a license attached.

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TGS Aftermath

We recap the events of TGS and of a visit to some of Tokyo's more game-centric neighborhoods, with an editors' choice round-up, a photo gallery, and more!

TGS Aftermath

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