Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII logo

Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is a series of games and animated features developed by Square Enix based in the world and continuity of Final Fantasy VII. Spearheaded by Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase,^[1][2][3] the series consists of several titles across various platforms, all of which are extensions of the Final Fantasy VII story.

Creation and scope

Square Enix labeled the project "the company's first steps toward ... 'polymorphic content'", a marketing strategy designed to "[provide] well-known properties on several platforms, allowing exposure of the products to as wide an audience as possible".^[1] Compilation producer Yoshinori Kitase said that when given the opportunity to expand any previous Final Fantasy title for the company's experiment in polymorphic content, he "immediately chose Final Fantasy VII", because of its status as a milestone in the series' history, its status as a reference in the series, and its popularity among fans.^[4] He further explained that "the ending of FFVII seemed to... open up so many possibilities with its characters, more so than other games".^[5] One of the main conditions for the project's launch was to be able to reunite the original staff members of Final Fantasy VII; art director Yusuke Naora, composer Nobuo Uematsu, and scenario writer Kazushige Nojima joined Kitase and Nomura to work on the project.^[4]

Nomura has revealed that when he was brought onto the project, he only expected for Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII to be developed, whereas Kitase envisioned a production of greater scope, leading to the introduction of several other titles.^[6][7] Kitase explained that when development for Advent Children began, the team agreed that one title was not enough to cover the entire world of Final Fantasy VII, and thus Before Crisis and Dirge of Cerberus were conceived to embrace more aspects.^[4] The team expected to be able to share resources and models across the different projects; however, they faced difficulties in doing so and Nomura eventually decided to create different designs for each title. When asked about the presence of non traditional role-playing game within the Compilation, Kitase explained that the team's plan was to make several games of the same quality, rather than a "hardcore" role-playing game which would stand out from the other titles and involve too much physical and emotional attachment from the team's part. He added that the existence of Final Fantasy X-2—the first game sequel in the series and a lighthearted title—also helped them consider more various genres than the regular role-playing game type.^[4] Square Enix president Yoichi Wada announced that the Compilation could remain an active franchise until the twentieth anniversary of Final Fantasy VII's release.^[8] After finishing Advent Children Complete, the team decided to take a break from the series,^[9] stating that they still have various ideas about what to work in for future titles.^[10]

Titles

Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

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• Games
  • Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII
  • Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
  • Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII
  • Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

• Films
  • Final Fantasy VII Advent Children
  • Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete
  • Last Order: Final Fantasy VII
  • On The Way To A Smile – Episode: Denzel

The first title in the Compilation is the mobile game Before Crisis, a prequel starring the Turks that focuses on the six years preceding the original game.^[11][12] Released by subscription in twenty-four chapters,^[13] full service began in Japan on September 24, 2004^[14] for the NTT DoCoMo FOMA 900i series of mobile phones.^[12] Advent Children was the first title announced in the Compilation, having been unveiled in September 2003 at the Tokyo Game Show,^[15][16] but was the second to be released. It screened in its completion for the first time on September 2, 2005 at the 62nd Venice Film Festival.^[15][17] It is a CGI film sequel to the original Final Fantasy VII, set two years after the conclusion of the game. Produced for DVD and Universal Media Disc (UMD) for Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP), it was released in Japan on September 14, 2005,^[18] and in European and North American markets on April 25, 2006.^[19][20][21] Special editions of the film included Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, an original video animation produced by Madhouse that recounts the destruction of Nibelheim.^[22]

Another sequel is Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and its mobile phone counterpart, Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII, both of them first-person/third-person shooter hybrids.^[23][24] Developed for the PlayStation 2 and set three years after the events of the original Final Fantasy VII,^[25][26] Dirge was released in Japan on January 26, 2006,^[23] and in North America on August 15, 2006.^[23] Lost Episode was released for Amp'd Mobile phones three days later on August 18, 2006.^[27] Finally, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is an action role-playing game for the PSP that revolves around Zack's past, chronicling the seven years prior to the events of the original game.^[28][29] After having been pushed back several times, the game was released on September 13, 2007 in Japan, March 25, 2008 in North America,^[30] and on June 20, 2008 in Europe. The latest title of the series is a director's cut version of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete. It was released in Japan on April 16, 2009 in Blu-ray Disc format with the English version also released in the same year. The film also includes an original video animation which adapts Denzel's chapter from the novel On a Way to Smile.^[31]

Audio

Cover of the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children soundtrack

Main article: Music of the Final Fantasy VII series

The new Final Fantasy VII titles were also accompanied by their own soundtracks. Though Nobuo Uematsu had been the primary composer for the original game, he had very little involvement with the music of the new titles. Some soundtracks have been released in both a regular edition and a limited edition. Some of the soundtracks include new arrangements of songs from Final Fantasy VII such as battle themes, Aerith's iconic theme, the Shinra and Turks' themes, and Sephiroth's theme song "One Winged Angel".

Reception

Though Final Fantasy VII received an overall positive reception, the titles in the series have received mixed but mostly positive reviews. In July 2007, Edge magazine stated that the titles "could be of a high quality, but there is also a perversion of the original."^[32] Dirge of Cerberus shipped 392,000 units in its first week,^[32][33] it also received a score of 30 out of 40 from Famitsu.^[34] The CGI film Advent Children met with positive sales figures. The Japanese DVD release sold over 420,000 copies in its first week, which was 93% of all published copies at the time.^[35]

Advent Children sold 4.1 million copies worldwide.^[36] Crisis Core sold 2.8 million copies worldwide.^[37]

See also

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Kohler, Chris (2004). "More Compilation of Final Fantasy VII details". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/dirgeofcerberusfinalfantasyvii/news.html?sid=6108651. Retrieved August 10, 2006. 
2. ^ GameSpot site staff (2003). "Kingdom Hearts II's Tetsuya Nomura Q & As". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/kingdomhearts2/news.html?sid=6076646. Retrieved August 10, 2006. 
3. ^ V-Jump, ed (2005) (in Japanese). Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Prologue. Shueisha. p. 50. ISBN 4-08-779339-7. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Stone, Cortney (2005-09-01). "Kitase Discusses Compilation of Final Fantasy VII". RPGamer. http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q3-2005/090105b.html. Retrieved September 2, 2007. 
5. ^ Editors of Electronic Gaming Monthly, ed (2005). Electronic Gaming Monthly October 2005; issue 196. Ziff Davis Media Inc.. p. 104. 
6. ^ Young, Billy (2004). "Details Arise From Tetsuya Nomura Interview". RPGamer. http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2004/120104g.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
7. ^ Choudhury, Rahul (2004). "Nomura: "Don't look at me, Kitase did it!"". SquareHaven.com. http://square-haven.com/news/?id=0889. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
8. ^ RPGFan site staff (2006). "Square Enix Conference Report". RPGFan. http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2006/1287.html. Retrieved August 26, 2006. 
9. ^ Famitsu Staff (March 2009). "Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete" (in Japanese). Famitsu (Enterbrain and Tokuma Shoten): 29–30. 
10. ^ Yoon, Andew (March 25, 2009). "Advent Children may be done, but Final Fantasy VII isn't". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/25/advent-children-may-be-done-but-final-fantasy-vii-isnt/. Retrieved August 22, 2010. 
11. ^ Watanabe, Yukari, ed (2006) (in Japanese). Final Fantasy VII Advent Children – Reunion Files –. SoftBank. pp. 96–97. ISBN 4-7973-3498-3. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Gantayat, Anoop (2004). "Before Crisis FF7 Details". IGN. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/519/519385p1.html. Retrieved September 2, 2007. 
13. ^ Buchanan, Levi (2006). "Interview with Square Enix Mobile: Kosei Ito". IGN. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/711/711470p1.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
14. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2004). "Final Fantasy Destroys Square Enix". IGN. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/544/544743p1.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
15. ^ ^{a b} Watanabe, Yukari, ed (2006) (in Japanese). Final Fantasy VII Advent Children – Reunion Files –. SoftBank. p. 74. ISBN 4-7973-3498-3. 
16. ^ IGNPS2 (2003). "TGS 2003: Final Fantasy VII: The Movie?". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/451/451541p1.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
17. ^ Hernandez, Eugene (2005). "With A Record Eleven U.S. Titles, Venice Fest Sets 2005 Lineup". indieWIRE. Archived from the original on March 13, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060313205705/http://www.indiewire.com/ots/onthescene_050729vff.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
18. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2005). "FFVII Tops Charts". IGN. http://psp.ign.com/articles/652/652310p1.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
19. ^ IGN DVD (2005). "Official Final Fantasy VII Release Date News". IGN. http://psp.ign.com/articles/688/688275p1.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
20. ^ "Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Comes to DVD and PSP April 25". GameSpot. 2005. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6144171.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
21. ^ Square Enix North America site staff (2005). "Square Enix Announces Settlement in Movie Piracy Case". Square Enix North America. http://www.square-enix.com/na/company/press/2006/0420/. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
22. ^ Watanabe, Yukari, ed (2006) (in Japanese). Final Fantasy VII Advent Children – Reunion Files –. SoftBank. p. 95. ISBN 4-7973-3498-3. 
23. ^ ^{a b c} Dunham, Jeremy (2006). "Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- Review". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/724/724990p2.html. Retrieved August 13, 2006. 
24. ^ Vasconcellos, Eduardo (2006). "Comic-Con 2006: Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-: Lost Episode". IGN. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/720/720691p1.html. Retrieved August 13, 2006. 
25. ^ Watanabe, Yukari, ed (2006) (in Japanese). Final Fantasy VII Advent Children – Reunion Files –. SoftBank. p. 98. ISBN 4-7973-3498-3. 
26. ^ IGN site staff (2006). "Dirge of Cerberus: FFVII". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/objects/693/693672.html. Retrieved August 13, 2006. 
27. ^ Square Enix North America site staff (2006). "DIRGE of CERBERUS – FINAL FANTASY VII – EXPLODES ONTO RETAIL SHELVES". Square Enix North America. http://www.square-enix.com/na/company/press/2006/0815/. Retrieved August 26, 2006. 
28. ^ Editors of Electronic Gaming Monthly, ed (2005). Electronic Gaming Monthly October 2005; issue 196. Ziff Davis Media Inc.. p. 101. 
29. ^ IGN site staff (2006). "Crisis Core FFVII Update". IGN. http://psp.ign.com/articles/709/709034p1.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
30. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2007-05-12). "Date Set For Crisis Core". IGN. http://psp.ign.com/articles/787/787957p1.html. Retrieved August 11, 2006. 
31. ^ "Square Enix details FFVII Advent Children bonus content". Andriasang. March 4, 2009. http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/03/04/ffvii_advent_children_complete_bonus_content/. Retrieved August 1, 2010. 
32. ^ ^{a b} "Final Frontiers". Edge (Future Publishing) (177): pp. 72–79. July 2007 
33. ^ "TOP 10 Weekly Software Sales (January 23–29, 2006)". Media Create. Archived from the original on 2006-02-05. http://web.archive.org/web/20060205034213/http://m-create.com/eng/e_ranking.html. 
34. ^ "Japanese Sales Charts, Week Ending February 5". Gamasutra. 2006-02-10. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=8119. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
35. ^ "Final Fantasy VII Advent Children – DVD Information". AdventChildren.net. http://www.adventchildren.net/ff7ac/movie/info.php. Retrieved 2007-06-06. 
36. ^ http://release.square-enix.com/na/2009/05/12.html
37. ^ http://www.square-enix.com/eng/pdf/news/20090525_01en.pdf#8