Compilation of Final Fantasy VII [work in (occasional) progress]

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This is going to be turned into a properly updated and informative Entry when I find time to work on it, and as information becomes available. Currently there isn't much here; the Entry largely exists so that other Entries can link to it. (Check the testpage for anchor tags with names that can be used to link to specific sections.) Consequently it is likely to be in some respects out of date as well as vacant.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was supposed to be Square's cinematic magnum opus: a computer-generated film of unprecedented technical sophistication, it was to use the cinematic elements of the Final Fantasy games to create a story as enthralling as it would be stunning to behold. The result, however, performed poorly at the box office; having cost vast sums to produce, it left Square with huge financial problems, leading to a merger with Enix, another famous Japanese producer of console role-playing games (RPGs), to form Square Enix. So it might seem strange that one of the projects on which Square Enix shortly thereafter embarked was another computer-generated film based on Final Fantasy — but this film, and other projects developed alongside it, were to be based on Final Fantasy VII, perhaps the greatest and most adored RPG of all time.

Would it be a cynical cash-in, playing on the fond memories of fans? Would it be an unmissable expansion of a world that once before gripped the imagination of millions? Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is nothing if not controversial: four projects, spanning multiple platforms and media, all set in the world of a game released in 1997. This is a test for Square Enix's ideas about 'polymorphic content', defined as 'providing well-known properties on several platforms, allowing exposure of the products to as wide an audience as possible'. It is also a test of their ability to rekindle the magic of Final Fantasy VII.


Advent Children

Medium: Film Format: DVD and UMD

A computer-generated film set two years after the events of Final Fantasy VII, when the population of the Planet, far from living happily ever after, has been stricken with an affliction known as 'Geostigma'1. Beyond that, all is unclear: who are the 'silver-haired men'? Who is the white-robed man in the wheelchair? What's happening to the children — and what is that creature?

Advent Children is to be released on DVD and Sony's UMD format. A limited cinematic release is possible.

Before Crisis

Genre: role-playing Format: FOMA 900i Mobile 'Phone2

Turks vs. AVALANCHE: The Night Before the Final Battle!

Created for mobile 'phones by a division of Square Enix called Square Enix Mobile, Before Crisis is set six years before the events of Final Fantasy VII, and its focuses on members of Shinra Manufacturing in Adminisrative Research, better known as 'the Turks' — the group of which other members dogged the heroes of Final Fantasy VII. The player takes on the role of a rookie Turk fighting for Shin-Ra, Inc. in an underground struggle against the rebel group AVALANCHE. Shin-Ra has won its war against the distant nation of Wutai, but its grip on power in the game's world has yet to be cemented, even with the legendary warrior Sephiroth in its ranks.

Released episodically on a monthly basis, the game has a mission-based structure punctuated by opportunities to wander around freely, gathering information and moving the story forward. When combat is initiated the game enters a battle mode in which characters trade physical and magical attacks with limited freedom of movement. As in Final Fantasy VII, magic requires the orbs called Materia, and Before Crisis enables you to synthesise your own. Here it makes clever use of the 900i 'phone's built-in camera: take a picture, and its dominant colour will determine the colour, and therefore the type, of the Materia synthesised. There has been talk of using 'phones to trade Materia, too.

Mobile 'phone games exist in the West, but Before Crisis is unlikely to be one of them for some time. The mobile 'phone market in the enlightened West surges forward in an exciting modern Zeitgeist of consumer-driven, pluralistic free markets, while Japan languishes under the yoke of DoCoMo's monopoly service provision, and the basic upshot is that the Japanese have fancier mobiles than anyone else. (Japan's iMode technology is now available in Australia, too, but a translation of Before Crisis for the Australian market alone is improbable.) Square Enix intends to start releasing its mobile products in Europe and North America 'as soon as the infrastructure is right'.

Crisis Core

Genre: Action RPG3 Format: PSP

The last project in Compilation of Final Fantasy VII to be announced, Crisis Core is an action RPG for the PSP about which virtually nothing is currently known.

Dirge of Cerberus

Genre: 'Gun action RPG' Format: PlayStation 2

Vincent Valentine was an entirely optional character in Final Fantasy VII, but nonetheless his tragic past and striking looks gained him a place in many fangirls' hearts. In Dirge of Cerberus for the PlayStation 2 he finally takes centre stage.

Comments from Square Enix follow:

'Dirge of Cerberus begins with the sudden appearance of a mysterious group raiding local towns. They are known as the Deep Ground Soldiers (DG Soldiers), a band of warriors driven to hide underground because of the disastrous Meteor. Our hero, Vincent Valentine, is somehow connected with these events, yet in what way remains unclear. And when the world is veiled in darkness, it is his revolver that will ring out the dirge... But Vincent won't be alone — he'll be joined by other characters from Final Fantasy VII.'

'Dirge of Cerberus is the story about soldiers trapped underground by Meteor, but there will also be a lot of hidden Shin-Ra projects showing up... Since Vincent used to be in the Turks, there will be parts he's connected to as well.'

1This is the name finally settled on, but early sources refer to the ailmant as 'Star-Scar Syndrome'.2That is, an NTT DoCoMo iMode unit of the 900 series. Before Crisis will run only on Japanese mobiles.3There's no precise definition of 'action RPG' — come to that there's no universally accepted specific notion of an 'RPG' — but broadly the term refers to games that involve RPG-like exploration of a game world along with reaction-based but still quite heavily statistical combat.

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