News on Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts 2

GamesIndustry.biz has commentary from Square producer Shinji Hashimoto about the upcoming FFVII movie Advent Children, and the second Kingdom Hearts game. From the interview: "To be honest, all of the staff was burnt out after we made the original Final Fantasy VII! But as you know, Final Fantasy has both a game part and a movie part - and as we made the movie part, we decided to make it longer, because it's so connected to the game part. We don't really think of it as a feature film. It's more like a collection of clips; it's become quite long, but we don't take that too seriously in terms of having a massive concept behind it or anything like that. It's just naturally come about."

Concept? In a movie?

[jfisherwa]

".. we don't take that too seriously in terms of having a massive concept behind it or anything like that."

Well, they should fit right in then.

Uh, good PR

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. That comment just sucked all the excitement I had about the movie right away. So we can expect a disjoint, unplanned, random movie? Erk.

Are there any plans to re-release the Final Fantasy VII game on a modern platform to tie in with the release of the movie?

Nothing so far. We have to make Advent Children first!

Rats.

Square

[superpulpsicle]

SquareEnix is putting way too many eggs into the Final Fantasy series.

They need to bring back the Chronotrigger series. The new FrontMission game for PS2 that came out was so half assed compared to the old PS1 version. Can this company actually allocate budget to anything non-Final Fantasy related.

Re:Square

[nifboy]

Last time they "brought back" the Chrono Trigger series we got Chrono Cross.

Re:Square

[Allison Geode]

in japan, i have read, they registered the trademark "chrono brake." thats about it though.

"Just a collection of clips?"

[Anonymous Coward]

Translation: We couldn't come up with a story, so here's a bunch of cool CGI clips. Sorry if it sucks.

Re:"Just a collection of clips?"

[winterdrake]

Nonsense. "We made a bunch of cool CGI clips, and then that made us think of more things we wanted to do, and it eventually ended up turning into a full length movie."

Release date?

[Winterblink]

Is there actually a north american release date for Advent Children yet? It's been "upcoming" for a long long time now.

Great visuals != Good Cinema

[MemeSpitter]

The interviewer's focus was just as off as Square's was when they made the last FF movie.

How would you compare the quality of the visuals in this film to something like Final Fantasy: Spirits Within? Has the technology moved on a lot since then?

Great. I was really worried about whether a top-notch game company like SquareEnix can generate good-looking visuals. A better question would have been: "So, did you hire a screenwriter this time? If so, can he/she create a decent plot, or a dramatic structure smoother than something a five-year-old might build out of Duplos?"

Re:Great visuals != Good Cinema

[NEOtaku17]

"Great. I was really worried about whether a top-notch game company like SquareEnix can generate good-looking visuals. A better question would have been: "So, did you hire a screenwriter this time? If so, can he/she create a decent plot, or a dramatic structure smoother than something a five-year-old might build out of Duplos?"

Actually it was the fantastic story and gameplay that made FF7 the most loved RPG of all time, not the visuals.

Re:Great visuals != Good Cinema

[gl4ss]

and last final fantasy _movie_ had imho pretty great visuals. didn't help the movie as a whole that much though.

my point here being that the graphics were good enough - what they were lacking was a good story(so fuck the visual improvements mr interviewer and ask them if they've made the story any better, which doesn't seem like that though from reading between the lines..).

Re:Great visuals != Good Cinema

[Harlockjds]

>Actually it was the fantastic story and gameplay that made FF7 the most loved RPG of all time, not the visuals.

No it wasn't. It was the visuals and the fact that it was one of the first CRPGs to get big.

Your first time iss always the best.

Re:Great visuals != Good Cinema

[Elranzer]

Actually, if you look on every RPG or Squaresoft fansite (such as RPGamer), you'll notice FF6 is more beloved than FF7.

Square needs to get back to its roots

[Prien715]

Square hasn't released an original single-player Final Fantasy game since 2001. That's 4 years, the longest state-side gap since FF1 and FF2 (FF4 japan). I'd love to buy an original RPG from Square, but sadly, they don't seem to care about making those anymore. Square's biggest commercial successes (Chronotrigger, FF4,FF6, FF7) featured fairly distinctive storylines and ability systems. After Spirits Within, anything that was not a repeat of some previous ability system or storyline simply got axed.

The real formula square needs to copy is good single player games with original characters and ability systems.

Re:Square needs to get back to its roots

[Elranzer]

I blame Enix. Nothing good from Square since they merged.

I actually blame the PlayStation2. Nothing good ever came from Square since that system came out. "The Bouncer" was the first turd from the pile of PS2/GC shit we've been getting. Seems these days, the only classic RPG series we can count on is Zelda.

Re:Square needs to get back to its roots

[Neruocomp]

This is so true. So what if they can come out with better looking graphics and such. With no story line to hold it up, its nothing. But I wouldn't call the games that came out afterwards bad. I liked FF9(execept for that ending omg!) and FF Online. Its my first online game and I really like it. Sure its a bit time consuming to get money and find out more of the story, but I'm sticking with it.

Re:Square needs to get back to its roots

[oGMo]

After Spirits Within, anything that was not a repeat of some previous ability system or storyline simply got axed.

Er you played FFX right? Remember the Sphere Grid? Weapon customization for bonuses? And FF8? GFs and the Draw system? (And Triple Triad?) Those were very original ability systems, and the games featured rather different storylines. Quite different from the usual Final Fantasy fare for the most part.

In fact, one of the most active seasons for Square was around the release of FF8;

Re:Square needs to get back to its roots

[Prien715]

I like your sig.

(smiles)

FF8 was before Spirits within and was an original game. My issue with the FF8 ability system was simply that it stunk. I really really wanted to like it, but it just felt very tilted toward long animinations and physical fighting (the only point of magic was junctioning). I don't even think the storyline was bad; the horrible ability system merely tainted it in my mind for a long time. FFX was sort of original. The entire game seemed too linear and I completely and totally and

You mean there was a *game* in FFVII?

[Alzheimers]

There was actually a game, somewhere in between the FMV and scripted cinematic sequences? Damn, I know I saw it from start to finish, but I didn't realize there was anything in between.

Re:You mean there was a *game* in FFVII?

[Mitijea]

Yeah, it was called "Random Encounter".

Re:You mean there was a *game* in FFVII?

[Lord_Dweomer]

I actually kind of liked that style of gameplay. It really drew you into the story which is what the FF games are all above. I personally don't mind getting a 90+ hour beautiful-looking interactive movie for $50.

So Basically...

[Ghost429]

...It's being pushed back farther.

Cinematic RPG?

[PoPRawkZ]

My problem with current RPGS are two fold. First and foremost is that I hate long cinematic sequences. I haven't seen one that is interesting enough to hold my attention yet (not a.d.d.). Perhaps if they had some sort of interaction I'd be more satisfied. Secondly long periods of time between save points makes me put a game on the backburner. Real life interrupts more often now that I am an adult. I really do love RPG's, but make them playable without having to sit down for 3+ hours at a time!

Case in