::paq-land.com:: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (DVD Review) Page 1

Where were you at? Do you even remember what you were doing? Chances are, you or somebody you know was playing Squaresoft's (now Square Enix) new $45 million masterpiece Final Fantasy VII on the original Playstation. Me? I had just started my 6th grade year and began a seemingly monthly habit of purchasing video gaming magazines in stores that summer (don't ask why I just didn't subscribe...). I dipped into a few issues of Tips and Tricks every now and then and also had a subscription to Nintendo Power at the time, but my main choice for news and reviews was always GamePro. For you young idiots out there, this was before the internet got big lol. If you wanted the news, you had to buy magazines to stay in the loop.

It seemed like every issue I picked up was talking about the release of Final Fantasy VII and I was totally lost as to why this was getting more face time than the continuing development of Yoshi's Story on the Nintendo 64 (I was a big Nintendo fanboy back then). I was also a bit in the dark about what exactly an R.P.G was.. I had no earthly idea what it stood for. I remember back in 1996 when I was hearing about Super Mario R.P.G being released I racked my brain trying to decipher what the three letters tacked on to it meant. I was like "Super Mario Really Somethin' Game?" because I could never come to a logical guess as to what the "p" stood for..

Hell, I remember getting so desperate, I ended up calling the Nintendo Power hotline hoping to get an answer to this burning question (which I didn't, but when I called I got a recording about the N64 being released in a few weeks, which was the absolute first I had heard about the stupid thing.. ah, life without the internet.. lol). Anyways, I finally got the heads up that it means "role playing game" about 5-6 months later, but I was still lost. I had no clue what it was and thought it was some geeky type of game that was really boring. Ads on television and print started going around for FF7 hyping it like mad, but I still wasn't sold.

When I went to school, a few of my friends in P.E. were talking about the game like it was the greastest crap ever, but none of us actually owned it yet. It was like the group of virgins in American Pie talking about sex, really.. Especially with us saying "Man, I hear you can do this and this" or "Did you hear that this and this happens?". Then one day, that all changed.

Brandon Moody, one of the guys in my "P.E. clique" that largely consisted of dorks, outcasts, nobodies, and geeks ended up scoring a copy of the game and he gave us the straight skinny on it. "Guess what guys, I got Final Fantasy VII yesterday," he revealed.. which is akin to "Guess what guys, I got laid" in 6th grader speak. We all gathered around him with our mouths ajar while he dished out the juicy tidbits of the game he's played so far as we listened in complete awe. He never said anything spoiler worthy, it was almost like he was an 11 year old Squaresoft rep. since he just hyped the game for everyone.

Brandon quickly gained "legend status" with all the gamers in P.E.for snagging the game in the same month of it's release. You see, this was before we had jobs lol. If you didn't save your allowance, have a good report card in the pipeline, have a birthday coming up, or if it wasn't Christmas, your ass was not getting a new video game. Another funny thing is that Brandon missed like almost a week of school "being sick" a week after he got the game. Suuuuuuuuuure...

Later that year I got around to borrowing my friend's PSX (ever think about how funny that abbreviation is? The "X" was always there, even back in '95, like it's a place holder for something. Think Sony had more versions in mind?). After a few rounds of Crash Bandicoot, I got the urge to try Final Fantasy VII to see what the hoopla was all about. I went to Blockbuster and rented the game (which was stupid.. who the hell rents a R.P.G?). I actually enjoyed the game, but I only got so far in my 4 days of having it. PLUS the STUPID game had a scratch on it so I seriously couldn't advance past the point it froze. At first I didn't know it was a scratch, so I started over from the beginning.. thinking it was just an error. Nope. Same thing happened again. I looked at the bottom of the black disc and saw some nasty scratches. I was so pissed I took a pen and severely scratched up that disc so nobody could even play it AND I fucked up the other two just for good measure lol. I didn't get charged for it either haha. PWNED.

Final Fantasy VII (and a smidge of Tekken) sold me on buying a Playstation.. which was my first non-Nintendo console ever (I avoided the Genesis like death). In 1998, I finally had my own PSX and decided it was time to dive back into FF7. For the next 2 and half months that game controlled my life. I'm so glad I played it during the summer because I would have seriously slacked off during the school year otherwise. Although I had some of it's bigger moments spoiled, like Aeris dying for example (which is supposed to be the SADDEST thing ever), I still managed to cry when Cait Sith "died". He was a much bigger part of my party than Aeris ever was (yay for the Game Over limit break! It was the only way I could beat Emeral Weapon.. with that underwater time limit and all..) so I naturally lost it (in the privacy of my own room haha). Then he came back and I was like "man, wtf am I crying for". Bottom line, FF7 is one of my favorite games and I'm not alone.

Gamers everywhere hold this game close to their hearts. It's still the most memorable and most talked about Final Fantasy of all time, even 9 years after it's initial release. The fanbase is absolutely monsterous and Square noticed that. In 2003 they announced that a CG movie would be made for it that continued the storyline. Fast forward to 2006 and after years of hype and message board topics, it's finally here.. so is it true to FF7 or more like the crappy "Spirits Within"?