Final Fantasy Introduction

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (ファイナルファンタジーVII アドベントチルドレン, Fainaru Fantajī Sebun Adobento Chirudoren) is a 2005 Japanese computer-animated science fiction film directed by Tetsuya Nomura, co-directed by Takeshi Nozue, and produced by Yoshinori Kitase and Shinji Hashimoto. It was written by Kazushige Nojima and the music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Developed by Visual Works and Square Enix, Advent Children was the first announced title in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series, which is composed of titles related to the highly successful 1997 role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII.
It takes place two years after the events of the game and is set in the city of Edge. Cloud Strife, now living as a delivery boy alongside Tifa Lockhart and taking care of two kids, is summoned to find the cause of "Geostigma", a mysterious disease that is threatening the city's population. The film was released on DVD in Japan on September 14, 2005, and a year later in North America and Europe. Special editions of the film contain official tie-ins that depict events that happen before and after the period covered by the film. On April 16, 2009, Square Enix released a director's cut version titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete for the Blu-ray Disc format which was also released overseas.
The idea of the film was conceived when Kitase wrote a script that focused on Cloud's and Tifa's story. Visual Works picked Final Fantasy VII as the theme for their next film, and Square Enix helped them develop it. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children received mixed reviews by online writers, who praised its battles and animation, but criticized how non-Final Fantasy VII gamers would not understand the plot. The film received the "Maria Award" at the Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya in 2005, and it was awarded "best anime feature" at the 2007 American Anime Awards. As of May 2009, the DVD and Universal Media Disc releases of Advent Children sold over 4.1 million copies worldwide. Advent Children Complete earned better reviews due to some changes and new features, and it also enjoyed good sales.

Plot

See also: Characters of the Final Fantasy VII series

Two years have passed since Cloud Strife defeated Sephiroth, who attempted to damage the planet by summoning a meteor. Cloud has been living with Tifa Lockhart in a city called Edge, and both have been taking care of Marlene, their friend Barret Wallace's daughter, and the orphan Denzel. Cloud and many other citizens are infected by a strange new disease known as "Geostigma". Cloud is on his way to meet the Turks, a group that performs operations with the megacorporation Shinra. He is attacked by three men—Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo—who believe that he has hidden their "mother". Kadaj ends the battle when he discovers that Cloud does not have her. When he arrives at the meeting place, Cloud discovers that Shinra's president, Rufus Shinra, survived the events of the original title. Rufus attempts to enlist Cloud's help to stop the trio, but Cloud refuses. Kadaj arrives and demands that Rufus tell him where to find his mother. It is revealed that his mother is the remains of Jenova, an extraterrestrial lifeform whose cells were injected in Sephiroth's body and helped him in Final Fantasy VII, and is connected to the cause of the Geostigma. The trio are planning a reunion with Sephiroth that will culminate in an assault on the Planet.
Loz arrives at the church of the late Aerith Gainsborough in Midgar to look for Jenova's remains, where he is confronted by Tifa. After defeating Tifa, he captures Marlene under Kadaj's orders. Yazoo begins collecting children infected with Geostigma, including Denzel, telling them they will be healed; he takes them to the Forgotten City. Cloud goes there to rescue them after getting the information from the Turks. In the Forgotten City, Cloud battles the gang but is overpowered; he is rescued by his former comrade Vincent Valentine. Vincent tells Cloud what the trio is seeking and that it could result in the return of Sephiroth. Cloud finds Marlene and returns to Edge to face Kadaj's gang. The trio call forth several monsters, including the enormous creature Bahamut SIN, to attack the populace who are trying to rescue the kidnapped children. Turks Reno and Rude try to deal with Yazoo and Loz who are searching for Jenova's remains in the city's monument as informed by Rufus. After rescuing Denzel, Cloud, Tifa and their old companions dispatch the monsters and Bahamut SIN.
In a nearby building, Rufus tells Kadaj that he has been in possession of Jenova's remains all along. He throws the box containing the remains from the edge of the building. Kadaj recovers the remains shortly after Rufus shoots and damages them. Cloud pursues the trio to the ruins of the city of Midgar. Yazoo and Loz are caught in an explosion, and Cloud catches Kadaj. In Aerith's church, an outflow of water infused with Lifestream, the planet's life force, cures Cloud's Geostigma. Vincent explains to the group that Kadaj's gang are remnants of Sephiroth, which makes them decide to leave them to Cloud due to his previous fights against Sephiroth. Outmatched by Cloud in battle, Kadaj absorbs Jenova's remains into his body, which allows Sephiroth to reappear. Sephiroth tells Cloud that once those who die from the Geostigma join the Lifestream, he will be able to control the planet and use it as a vessel to travel in search of a new planet to rule, in the same way Jenova did. Cloud defeats Sephiroth, who dissipates, leaving a weakened Kadaj at Cloud's mercy. After Kadaj's death, a healing rain starts falling across Edge, curing the people of their Geostigma. Cloud is confronted by Yazoo and Loz who are also succumbing to the healing rain. Both prepare one last attack at Cloud as he charges at them, resulting in a large explosion that engulfs all three.
Afterward, Cloud appears surrounded by a white light, and Aerith and his late friend Zack Fair are heard, telling Cloud that his place is not with them yet. Cloud awakens in a pool of Lifestream-infused water in Aerith's church, surrounded by his friends, and the citizens of Edge. After curing Denzel and the other infected children with the water, he turns and sees Aerith and Zack leaning against the doorway. As they step into white light, Aerith says "You see, everything's all right," and Cloud replies, "I know. I'm not alone... not anymore."

Production

Advent Children came about when script writer Kazushige Nojima decided to write "a story about Cloud and Tifa and the kids". Visual Works, a company that has developed Computer-generated imagery films for Square Co., picked Final Fantasy VII as the theme for a presentation that they were going to create. Square's research and development department worked with them on the launch, and director Tetsuya Nomura joined the crew after producer Yoshinori Kitase called him. Advent Children was originally going to be a game sequel, but Nomura stated that it was not possible due to a number of factors, including the fact that Visual Works could not make a game. The development team decided to stick with the original plan and make the story into a movie. The creators of the film had no prior knowledge of how to make a movie and used their knowledge of in-game movies. They used motion capture for the film's battle scenes, but sequences which were not humanly possible to perform had to be done by hand. By October 2003, Nomura said that the film was 10% complete, stating that while the scenario was written, not all the characters were designed. Nomura felt that Advent Children was different from Hollywood films as in the latter the meaning of most scenes are explained. With Advent Children, the staff wanted viewers to interpret scenes themselves and come to various conclusions, as Nomura thinks comparing their answers with other people's interpretations is another way to enjoy a film.
The film was to focus on the characters of Cloud and Tifa in a similar way as how other titles from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII centered on characters. Nomura says the movie was originally only going to be 20 minutes long. The original story featured someone requesting a message to be sent to Cloud; the message is then relayed to Cloud through several children, and, when the message finally reaches Cloud, it is revealed who the messenger is. Nomura very much liked the original script, and it became the foundation for the theme of the final result of the movie. He decided to make the project more grand in scope because early word of the movie generated so much interest that Nomura complied with demands for the film to be feature length. They decided the film should be 60 minutes long, but after development, it was 100 minutes long. Nojima described the theme of the film as "survival", and Nomura commented that it would not be soft. Other themes of the film are Cloud's feelings of guilt and regret for not being able to save his friends Zack and Aerith. These feelings are symbolized by a grey wolf that appears in scenes where Cloud thinks about them. The wolf disappears at the end of the film as Cloud comes to terms with his feelings. The word "children" was used in the title to refer to the film's children, as they represent the "next generation".
Takeshi Nozue and Nomura—having first worked together on the video game Kingdom Hearts—split the role of directing. Nomura felt this would add more depth to the movie's scenes. Nozue stated that when he started working, he was already used to working with 3D graphics and felt that drawing in 2D was relatively plain. Therefore, there was a small amount of conceptual arts but also brought difficulties using the positioning and directions. In making the fight scenes, Nozue and Nomura first discussed the setting and layout and then came to the staff with ideas. Then, they decided which were the most predominant and superior ideas to keep working on. The battle between Cloud's group and Bahamut was the most difficult to make due to the size of the area and the number of objects the staff had to add to the scene to keep it realistic. The changing positions of the characters, including Bahamut, took the staff a long time to complete in order to give the scene a fine flow. Nomura stated that the team decided not to worry about making fighting sequences realistic as they did not want to have restrictions, and they wanted to give them a "cool look". Therefore, they worked by creating their "own rules".
The staff had trouble designing the characters as it was impossible for them to directly translate their Final Fantasy VII designs into a realistic look; some identifying characteristics had to be discarded. Cloud's redesign was a combination of eight different designs, from deformed to realistic. The difficulties in making Sephiroth caused the staff to reduce his appearances in the film as it took them two years to develop.Nozue had difficulty developing a framework for Tifa's body that was "balanced, yet showed off her feminine qualities".In April 2003, it was decided that Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo would be manifestations of Sephiroth's spirit—his cruelty, strength, and allure respectively. In contrast to Sephiroth, the trio was meant to be younger than Cloud to focus on the "next generation" theme. The staff realized that Aerith was not mentioned by the characters in their original script. As a result, they decided that they would have the characters wear ribbons to express that they had not forgotten her.

Audio

Voice casting

Advent Children features famous Japanese and English voice actors. Takahiro Sakurai voiced Cloud, having first voiced him in the video game Kingdom Hearts. Nomura wanted Cloud's and Vincent's voices to contrast with each other because the characters were similar in other ways. He felt Vincent was older and more mature than Cloud, and as a result he cast Shogo Suzuki, who has a very low voice. Toshiyuki Morikawa, Sephiroth's Japanese voice actor, was aided by the staff to pronounce Sephiroth's lines in such as way that his words would convey how superior he feels. The voice director and Morikawa agreed to make Sephiroth's voice sound calm, as it would not be felt that Cloud defeats him in the film. With Aerith's voice actor, Maaya Sakamoto, already chosen, Nomura requested Ayumi Ito for the role of Tifa, feeling her "husky voice" would offer a good contrast with Aerith. Shotaro Morikubo had trouble voicing Kadaj because of the character's unstable personality and needed time to adjust to the role. Kenji Nomura was told by the staff to voice Loz as an "idiot" character, while Yūji Kishi voiced Yazoo, whose long hair, like Sephiroth's, was very difficult to animate.For Advent Children Complete, Nomura stated there were no problems with the re-recording, noting that Sakurai and Morikawa were already used to their characters. However, due to the growth of various young voice actors, some child characters, most notably Denzel and Marlene, had new voice actors.
The official English casting was announced in February 2006. The announcement was delayed several times due to last minute signings such as Mena Suvari, who voiced Aerith after debuting in Kingdom Hearts II. Steve Burton voiced Cloud, his feature film debut. Rachael Leigh Cook debuted as Tifa's English voice actress, expressing pressure due to the fans' reactions towards her work. Other voice actors include George Newbern as Sephiroth, Steve Staley as Kadaj, Dave Wittenberg as Yazoo, Fred Tatasciore as Loz, Wally Wingert as Rufus Shinra, Quinton Flynn as Reno, and Crispin Freeman as Rude. The English release of Advent Children Complete retained most of the original voice cast.

Music

Main article: Music of the Final Fantasy VII series#Advent Children

The music of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Keiji Kawamori, Kenichiro Fukui, and Tsuyoshi Sekito, and arranged by Fukui, Sekito, Kawamori, Shiro Hamaguchi, and Kazuhiko Toyama. Nomura was careful to refine songs and had the composers make several revisions. Uematsu chose to have Kawamori, Fukui, and Sekito arrange his songs, resulting in a sound closer to rock.Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Original Soundtrack was released on September 28, 2005, with new material created specifically for the movie as well as arrangements of tunes from the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack. Both the original tracks and the arrangements cover a variety of musical styles, including orchestral, choral, classical piano, and rock music; Variety noted that the styles vary between "sparse piano noodlings, pop metal thrashings and cloying power ballads". The ending theme, "Calling", was written and performed by former Boøwy vocalist Kyosuke Himuro. The album spans 26 tracks on two discs and covers a duration of 1:21:41. In addition to the regular release, a limited edition was produced; it contains alternative cover art displaying the Advent Children renditions of the characters Cloud Strife and Sephiroth and contains a booklet of credits and lyrics.
A mini-album titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete Mini Album was released on April 10, 2009, to coincide with the release of the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete version of the movie.This release of the movie included a new ending theme, "Safe and Sound", by Kyosuke Himuro and My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way. "Water" was replaced with a new song, "Anxious Heart". The mini-album was five tracks and 29:17 long. Tracks on the album included new versions of "The Chase of Highway", "Those Who Fight Further", "Sign", "Advent: One-Winged Angel", and "On the Way to a Smile", a piece from the Final Fantasy VII-based anime On the Way to a Smile.

Promotion and release

Advent Children was the first title announced in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series, and it was unveiled in September 2003 at the Tokyo Game Show. Its first trailer was featured in an updated version of the video game Final Fantasy X-2. However, the trailer used a motion capture that was later replaced for another one to be used in the film. It was originally scheduled for a September 14, 2005 release in Japan and a September 13, 2005 release in North America. Japan obtained a special release of the DVD with more bonus material and collectible offers than the US release. Days before the scheduled release, Square Enix changed the US release date to a tentative November 2005, a move many felt indicated an attempt by Square Enix to release the film during the lucrative holiday sales times.The release date was then changed in early November to January. The countdown timer was removed from the official North American site because of all the changes. When fans noted that the E3 2005 trailer had confirmed the simultaneous September release, Square Enix stated that the trailer was not the real E3 trailer and possibly a fake trailer.
The website The Digital Bits stated that the delays were due to the extra time required to complete the bonus supplements. An IGN article on February 13, 2006, revealed that April 25, 2006 was the new official North American release date. Later the same day, on an article on 1UP.com, the release date was confirmed along with the entire English voice cast. Square Enix confirmed the information on their US website, indicating that the film was on track for a certain US release.
A limited edition of the film titled Advent Pieces was released in Japan at the same time as Advent Children; only 77,777 sets were produced. The edition contains various types of merchandising, a copy of the script, the original Final Fantasy VII game, and a strategy guidebook for the game. Another disc was included in Advent Pieces containing the original video animation Last Order: Final Fantasy VII. Nomura stated that the reason for the name Advent Pieces was because "advent" means "the recognition and commemoration of something", while "pieces" was added in order to bring special meaning to the release.
A special one-time-only theatrical screening of the English version of the film took place on April 3, 2006, at the ArcLight movie theatre in Los Angeles. The event was promoted via e-mail to those who subscribed to the Square Enix mailing list. The screening included trailers of Kingdom Hearts II and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and featured appearances of the English language cast and the Japanese developers. The film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of intense action violence.
The European, Australian, and North American DVD is a 2-disc set that includes several bonus features. Certain retailers offered a bonus disc to go with the DVD set. The disc contains a featurette on the English voice-over process and interviews with voice actors Steve Burton (Cloud), Rachael Leigh Cook (Tifa) and Mena Suvari (Aerith). Sony later announced Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (Limited Edition Collector's Set) for release on February 20, 2007. The set included more bonus material than the previous DVD releases such as printed materials. The film spawned action figures based on its characters.Prior to the film's release in Japan, Panasonic produced a cell phone identical to the one Cloud uses in the film; the phone contained several features related to Advent Children such as wallpapers and ring tones. On the same date the film was released, Shueisha published a 118-page guidebook titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Prologue Book In 2006, SoftBank Creative published a guidebook titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Reunion Files which contains interviews with the film's staff and information regarding development of the film.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete

At the Tokyo Game Show 2006, Square Enix showed a trailer of a director's cut of the film, titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete, for release on the Blu-ray Disc format. The film benefits from high-definition video and audio that the Blu-ray Disc format offers. The cut had originally been expected to be released in mid 2007, but Square Enix announced at the Tokyo Game Show 2007 that they would postpone the product until 2008. At the 2008 Square Enix DKΣ3713 Party, it was announced that Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete would be released in March 2009 in Japan, but it was delayed and released on April 16, 2009. A separate bundle was sold that included a demo of Final Fantasy XIII. Both editions included the first HD trailers of Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII. The film features a 20-minute long extra movie, an animated version of the "Case of Denzel" chapter featured in the On the Way to a Smile short story, Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII, and Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII Compilation. On April 11 and 12, 2009, days before its release, Square Enix held four special screening of Advent Children Complete at the Ginza Sony Building in Tokyo. There were 800 open spots, and viewers had to have reserved the Blu-ray Disc or the PlayStation 3 bundle at the Square Enix e-store and be members of Square Enix's online website.
Advent Children Complete contains a considerable amount of new footage over the original version as well as roughly a thousand revised scenes. Themes expanded in Advent Children Complete include Cloud's development, Denzel's background, and a more in-depth view of the Turks and Rufus Shinra. As various titles from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII were released after the original film's release, the staff wanted to add links to other titles in the metaseries. There is more violence in this version in to make battles more realistic, most notably the battle between Cloud and Sephiroth, which was also expanded in length. The staff wanted to bring a "dirtier" look to the film, with characters' faces and clothes getting darker and dirtier throughout the battles.
Although Nomura stated that Advent Children Complete did not represent the end of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII as the staff still had more ideas, he said it marked "the end of the Advent Children saga" as there would be no more re-releases or another extended version. Advent Children Complete was released in North America on June 2, 2009, in Europe on July 27, 2009, and in Australia on October 7, 2009. The North American and European versions do not come with the playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII. Instead, it comes with a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII. The New York–Tokyo organization held a special screening of the film in New York City. Unlike the original version, which was rated PG-13, this version is unrated.
The Japanese release of this edition features a new ending track from Kyosuke Himuro called "Safe and Sound" with additional lyrics from My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way. The track replaces Himuro's previous track "Calling" from the original cut of the film. In the North American and European release, the song "Calling" remains, and "Safe and Sound" is absent.

Tie-ins

Last Order: Final Fantasy VII

Main article: Last Order: Final Fantasy VII

Last Order: Final Fantasy VII is an original video animation from 2005 directed by Morio Asaka, written by Kazuhiko Inukai, and animated by Madhouse.It was originally released with the "Ultimate Edition" of the Advent Children movie, Advent Pieces: Limited, in Japan by Square Enix on September 14, 2005. The collectors' set was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in the United States on February 20, 2007. There is currently no English dub, and the OVA is subtitled.
The OVA is an anime rendition of two flashbacks that took place in the game: Nibelheim's rise by Sephiroth and Zack and Cloud on the run from Shinra. The anime cuts back and forth between these two flashbacks, linked by the Turk commander Tseng's reflection. The details from the game that were changed in the OVA received negative fan response. The staff decided to avoid doing that in the video game prequel Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, which also revised some events. The OVA was not included in Final Fantasy Advent Children Complete.

Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII

Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII is a story digest of Final Fantasy VII, as recalled by Cloud shortly after the events of Advent Children. It consists of edited scenes from the original PlayStation game and live-action shots of locations seen in the bonus ending. Between flashbacks to the original game's sequences, it relates a short story about Cloud making deliveries while taking phone calls from other members of AVALANCHE. The only CGI in Reminisence is of Cloud's motorcycle parked on the side of the road as Barret gives him Yuffie's package. A similar version titled Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII Compilation was added to Final Fantasy Advent Children Complete covering all the titles from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

On the Way to a Smile

On the Way to a Smile is a series of short stories that take place between the time of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. Written by Kazushige Nojima, the first story ("Case of Denzel") was released in episodes on the official Japanese Advent Children website, while the series was released in its entirety in V-Jump's Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Prologue book. The first four chapters are told indirectly through the perspective of Denzel. He has requested an interview with Reeve Tuesti in the hopes that he may become part of Reeve's newly formed World Regenesis Organization, an army devoted to rebuilding the planet. Denzel tells his life story, including how he became an orphan, the events leading up to his becoming afflicted with Geostigma, and how he came under the care of Tifa and Cloud. "Case of Denzel" was adapted into On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel - Final Fantasy VII, a short film/OVA that was released with Advent Children Complete.
The second short story is Tifa's account of the events following Meteor's destruction, overlapping in part with Denzel's story and her life with Cloud. A third On the Way to a Smile story was released with the North American limited edition box set of Advent Children. It involves Barret and his struggle trying to find a new energy source for the people of the world. Advent Children Complete includes short stories in this series from the perspective of Yuffie Kisaragi, Red XIII, Shinra's members, Aerith, and Sephiroth.All the novels were also released together as a separate product from Advent Children Complete at the same time the film was released.

Reception

The DVDs releases of Advent Children sold over 410,000 copies in Japan during the first week.Combined with the UMD release, over 700,000 units were sold in the first three weeks.The DVD ranked a "surprise" #2 during its first week in Nielsen VideoScan. Nielsen's survey "Top Selling Anime Releases of 2006" had Advent Children ranked at the top. In an Oricon poll from 2005, the regular edition of the DVD ranked twelfth on the best seller list in Japan, with a total of 209,759 copies sold. The limited edition ranked fifteenth with 202,793 copies sold.In a 2006 survey by the Japan External Trade Organization, the DVD ranked as the best selling Japanese anime DVD in the United States. In the 2007 poll, the DVD stayed at tenth spot. The English DVD sold 963,023 units, which translated to $14,860,534 in revenue, by the fifth week of release. In 2006, Square Enix and Sony announced that the English language DVD and UMD releases combined had sold over 2.4 million units worldwide, with 1 million units sold in Japan, 1.3 million in North America, and 100,000 in Europe.Without giving specific numbers about the UMD sales, Square Enix stated that it had enjoyed good sales, performing better in North America than in Japan.By May 2009, the sales increased to over 4.1 million copies. The English version of the film achieved various best-seller ranks on Amazon.com^. In ICv2's Top Ten Anime Properties from 2006, Advent Children was featured at the top, and was one of the top three properties during 2007.
On its first day of release, over 100,000 Blu-ray copies of Advent Children were sold in Japan, combining its three editions. During its initial week, the Blu-ray was #2 on the bestseller list, with 274,774 units sold. During 2009, the regular version of Advent Children Complete sold 49,000 units in Japan, ranking second in the category "Animation/Special Effects Blu-ray Discs" from Oricon's survey "2009's Top-Selling Blu-ray Discs in Japan (Overall)". It ranked eighth in the category "Overall Blu-ray Discs, by Yen" with 310 million yen (US$3.4 million) sold in 2009. Gaming sites Gamasutra and Kotaku cited Advent Children Complete as one of the main reasons why sales of the video game console PlayStation 3 radically increased during the film's first week of release.
Advent Children received the Honorary Maria Award at the Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya on October 15, 2005. The film was awarded "best anime feature" at the 2007 American Anime Awards.IGN put it second in the "Top 10 Straight-to-DVD Animated Movies." On the other hand, Kotaku writer AJ Glasser spoofed the director's cut version in an article called "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete in 15 Minutes" for lacking mysteries that were not explained in the original version. In 2007 the music video for the song "유혹의 소나타" ("Sonata of Temptation") by Korean singer Ivy recreated the fight between Tifa and Loz. Its director stated that the video was just a parody of the film but could not get in contact with Square Enix to get permission.The video was banned from airing on Korean television after a copyright lawsuit by Square Enix cited plagiarism. OverClocked ReMix's four disc tribute album, Voices of the Lifestream, has a disc entitled Advent. The name was chosen to coincide with Advent Children, and the music is themed after the movie. Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama stated Final Fantasy VII Advent Children showed "battles that have not been achievable in FF so far" and created battles for Final Fantasy XIII that were similar to the ones in the film.
Advent Children has received mixed and positive reviews by critics. 1UP.com's James Mielke, who scored it an "A-", said the quality and clarity of the CG visuals was "genuinely amazing". Mielke called it "the real Final Fantasy movie", finding it more appealing than the first CGI film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. He criticized the film's music and called it "a bit sappy". While Anime News Network writer Carlo Santos praised the animation, calling it "outstanding", he criticized the film's plot because people who had not played Final Fantasy VII would not understand the story. Santos found the feature Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII to be "just as confusing as the movie and is more of a refresher for those who have played Final Fantasy VII". Mania Entertainment's John Eriani agreed, commenting that anybody who has not played Final Fantasy VII should search for information about the game to understand the film's storyline. Fellow writer Dani Moure agreed with Eriani and added that he liked how the characters were further explored in the film. Chris Carle from IGN shared similar opinions, giving the section "The Movie" a seven, the lowest number he gave. He praised the sound and the English voice acting but criticized the lack of commentary in the DVDs extras. He gave the film an overall "Outstanding" score of nine out of ten.Todd Douglass Jr. from DVD Talk commented that Advent Children "is pretty much the film that fans all over the world have been waiting for". Besides the animation and the appearances from various characters being praised, Douglass felt Cloud's character development was a highlight. RPGamer's Michael Beckett gave it a 4 out of 5 with comments on the plot's tone, the characters' redesigns, and the setting. He praised the film's fighting scenes stating that in that regard "the film feels very much like a love letter to the fans of Final Fantasy VII". Variety had a negative opinion of the narrative, called some battle sequences "irritating", and noted that the last battles have more ferocious antagonists.About.com's Roger Altizer gave a more negative review, giving it 2 and a half stars out of 5, citing its plot and dialogue as "weak" and finding the visuals as one of its few pros.
Advent Children Complete has been reviewed by websites. It received an overall 4.5 out of 5 by Blu-ray's Dustin Somner who enjoyed its quality. He felt the "plot is emotionally dense, the action is explosively over-the-top, and the world in which the story enfolds is rich with creativity." Somner highly recommended the Blu-ray to people who have viewed Advent Children or fans of Final Fantasy VII, while non-viewers would like to rent it first. "I'd remind you to consider the near-perfect audio/video quality and perhaps take a leap of faith in adding the disc to your collection". In contrast to the original release, Joystiq's Andrew Yoon found Advent Children Complete as a better film as it is more accessible to people who have not played Final Fantasy VII, while the new scenes helped give more depth to Cloud's development to the point of "humanizing [him]". Nevertheless, he found that it contained some flaws from Advent Children, such as pacing of scenes that made the plot difficult to follow. Douglass reviewed Advent Children Complete and stated it was "the best version of the film" due to its audio quality, the new scenes, and the expansion of Cloud's battle against Sephiroth. He still called the bonus features disappointing, citing the fact it is titled "Complete". However, he found the new OVA and the trailer of Final Fantasy XIII were "welcome additions".