Advent Children Complete is the Bluray release of Advent Children, the 2005 movie sequel to Final Fantasy VII. At its release, Advent Children was heralded as a masterpiece of animated cinematography – the action sequences where unlike any other with people, even to this day, referring to gravity defying battles with intense action as “very Advent Children-like”. So how does the director’s cut of the film fare? Does it add anything substantial to the disc everyone bought four years ago? Read on to find out not only my impressions of Advent Children Complete, but of the FFXIII demo as well.

“To those who loved this world and knew friendly company therein: This reunion is for you.”

For any long time fan of Final Fantasy, those words are not easily forgotten. We were first greeted by them four years ago when we put our DVDs into our PS2s and watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Now, in 2009, we are greeted by them again. This time, however, on a Bluray disc sitting inside our PS3s. There is a lot different between the Advent Children we saw four years ago and the one we watch now, the most noticeable of all being an additional twenty five minutes of footage. As such, you could consider this a director’s cut of the film rather than Square Enix’s way of selling the same film twice. Within no time at all we’re treated to the new scenes present throughout the film, none of those precious twenty minutes wasted. It’s almost as if the director sat down and watched Advent Children over and over until he knew exactly what would make the film completely self contained. In that way, Advent Children Complete answers every question it asks. There are no loose ends, no plot holes and every single minute is filled with purpose.

One of the biggest praises I have for the film is that it went back and answered some rather perturbing questions, such as what exactly Geostigma does to the infected and who the hell this Denzel kid is. What personally made me a very happy consumer, however, was the use of Crisis Core footage and the greater importance overall of Zack’s character within the film. Aside from that, the final fight of the film is also about eight minutes long now, which is significantly longer than the original cut.

Remember when Aerith said her Church was the only place flowers grew in Midgar?

In terms of graphical improvements, they are as evident as the additional scenes… When watched on an SDTV, you won’t notice many differences at all even though the picture will be sharper and you’ll notice the additional dirt and whatnot. It’s when you watch the film on a HDTV, however, in full 1080p resolution, that you see just how much extra work has been put into the film. Everything is touched up, to the point where even Resident Evil Degeneration isn’t comparable to it. The added grit and blood add a level of realism to the proceedings, with bloody noses and bruises showing up surprisingly frequently yet not to the point where it looks overplayed. Scratches soon adorn Fenrir’s side as Cloud puts it through its paces and even the First Tsurugi has markings that tell us that Advent Children was not the first time he got to use the admittedly impressive weapon. The detail in terms of monster design, you know the monster designs I’m talking about, is also significantly deeper… Bahamut’s exoskeletal “mask” breaks and shatters under the attacks of Cloud and his allies, the quadrupedal also having a much bonier appearance than before… All in all, the graphics are smashing.

The audio components of the film are equally improved. Remastered in Dolby True HD, everything from the atmospheric background music to the wave of steel (which produces a really satisfying noise, I have to admit) and even the motorbike engines has been given new life. The film itself has two audio options, Japanese or English. The latter option obviously explains why Advent Children Complete will be out in America next month, since they had already recorded all the voice work in time for the Japanese release. In general, the vocal work in English versions of the new scenes is basically identical to how it is in the rest of the film and doesn’t feel even remotely out of place. Sometimes, however, there can be some inconsistencies, such as Loz sounding detached from the scene at hand or Kadaj even sounding like a totally different person during his first lines in the film. Maybe I’m just being nitpicky, but those inconsistencies were really noticeable during both of my viewing periods. Ironically enough, I didn’t notice similar discrepancies in the Japanese audio.

Maybe now it won’t get so poorly looked after…

The special features given in Advent Children Complete are very extensive to say the least. In addition to the special featurettes found within the original DVD release (those being the Reminisience of FFVII and the Making Of FFVII Advent Children featurette), we are also given a Reminiscience of the entire Compilations of FFVII series – with the occasional hint at there being more to tell – and even a short anime OVA that further explains the children of Midgar, more specifically Denzel. That special feature in itself sits comfortably next to Advent Children Complete, giving us further insight not only into who Denzel is but also how the children of Midgar themselves are handling the events that occur around them. So there’s a lot on offer in terms of things to watch after the film, which is really a great thing for fans because we get to feel that familiar wave of nostalgia – which, as many will agree, is one of the better emotions one can feel.

But, you see, I didn’t just get Advent Children Complete on its lonesome… Nestled within the impressive case of Advent Children Complete is my copy of the Final Fantasy XIII demo. On the demo disc is, aside from the demo of course, two trailers for the other two games in the Fabula Nova Crystallis collection. As with the special features on Advent Children Complete, they’re both well worth checking out – even if you’ve already seen them on YouTube. While completely in Japanese, they do give you a very good insight into plots in the two games. I especially love the last standish approach to the Agito trailer, watching the group of protagonists crowded around their nation’s flag, proudly defending it. The Versus trailer reminds me a lot of that 1996 Romeo and Juliet film, strangely enough.

Everyone’s together once again…

The demo itself is incredible. It’s almost a shame that this won’t get seen first hand in the West, except maybe a week before the US release, since the demo itself has more depth to it than many PSN games… There is, however, one thing I cannot shake from my mind – FFXIII feels too much like Final Fantasy VII… There’s a trio of characters who could easily be mistaken for Cloud, Tifa and Barret, and the general concept of a rebel group called NORA fighting against the evil group called Cocoon is quite, er, similar to the AVALANCHE vs. ShinRa. Not necessarily a bad thing, admittedly, but it’s unusual to get this nagging feeling that we’re playing almost the same game for a second time, just with names, dates and places changed around a little. The opening is very much reminscient of FFVII, in that there’s a train and a giant mechanised scorpion. The first fight, the tutorial if you will, is against that very giant mechanised scorpion (it even has a very powerful beam-like attack that’s enough to kill you if you’re not careful).

In terms of graphical punch, the demo packs a lot of it. The opening cinematic is beautifully rendered, the action sequences are easily on par with Advent Children and the atmosphere is definitely there. Dialogue is surprisingly enjoyable, with voice actors giving plenty of life to the characters. Enemy designs are consistent, rather than downgraded for battles or anything, and there’s a definite feeling of scale within the demo. For a year old build, this is a really beautiful game. So I’m definitely looking forward to seeing just how much extra polish has been added to the game come this Winter. The camera can be easily moved around, showing off the entire area laid out before you, but there are certain sections with a fixed camera angle. These are, most likely, for the game to load the next area. As with previous Final Fantasy games, there is no jumping. As with them, you jump up and along platforms as necessary just by pressing forward. Enemies dot the entire area in plain sight, rather than random encounters, and you can avoid them if you wish. Treasure chests dot the area, offering the usual treats for adventurers.

Battles are once again turn-based, but with an interesting little twist – the ATB we’re all familiar with has now been split into slots. In the demo, we get access to three slots… What’s the use of these slots? Well, every “turn”, you assign an action to each slot and press Triangle to get Lightning to use those attacks. Attacking, using Magic, using Items, everything requires at least one slot, removing the need of MP. In the demo, Lightning has two melee attacks and two Fire magics (Fire and Fira). The melee attacks both take up a single slot each, as does the basic Fire spell. Fira, however, takes up three. You can freely mix and match any attacks together, creating various three hit combos with the demo, and enemies are generally weak against specific combos rather than specific attacks this time around. Upon winning battles, you are presented with the time it took you to complete the battle, how many attacks were made and a star rating that is decided upon both factors (and a few hidden ones, like reserved use of the ATB where you don’t waste attacks, how many times you were hit and how much you had to heal during the battle).

I would write more about the FFXIII demo, but then I’d have nothing to talk about when the final game comes out later this year. Which would be terrible, since I have a feeling the review might be longer than my previous Dissidia one.

Haven’t seen that pose in a while…

In review, Advent Children Complete is worth ¥5’900 of anyone’s money – especially since the film has English audio and seems to work in any PS3 (I have played the film several times since getting it on Saturday morning and it has worked on both PS3s I watched it on). The film is greatly updated, the added scenes adding a lot of awesomeness and answering a lot of questions we had after seeing the original cut. CGI movies such as this and Resident Evil Degeneration are truly stunning in HD, so this is definitely something to pick up if you’re big on eyecandy or Final Fantasy VII. If you’re unfamiliar with the lore of the game that this film is a sequel to, or if you didn’t actually like FFVII, you will admittedly find this film somewhat confusing as it tends to jump around a lot and expect you to know all the faces shown (there are no actual introductions for anyone in the film, save Denzel and Kadaj’s gang, with little referring by names either). If you’re waiting until June 2nd to pick this up, I assure you wholeheartedly that it is well worth the wait.

Wintrale Games, Movie, Review, ps3