Used by the Final Fantasy franchise to corral some customers back. Was originally supposed to be released in the fall 2003, but as of now, downloading it illegally is the only way it can be viewed.
Final Fantasy 7 was the first game in the series to be featured on PlayStation. In a bid to appeal to more gamers, the series deviated from more medieval settings and characters to settings and characters reminiscent of
anime, which was gaining popularity around the late 90s. Cloud's spiky hair and superhuman strength reeks of DragonBallZ, Tifa's enormous breasts reek of
hentai, and Red XIII's talking animalhood reeks of Pokemon. Consequently, Final Fantasy went from having a fanbase of
1,000 to
1,000,000 overnight.
Compounding the effect was the fact that the
internet and online message boards and chats were a new thing, so not only are there new fans, but they can easily converse about Final Fantasy 7, God's gift to gamers and
anime aficionados. Eight years pass and the popularity of
anime is now at epidemic levels, and Final Fantasy 7 is regarded by many as the best RPG ever.
People are crying for a sequel.
Squaresoft is now in a tenuous position. Despite them throwing FF7 references and crossovers in every game, and despite the later titles being more in-synch with earlier titles,
people didn't like Final Fantasy 8, 9, X or Tactics for the simple reason that they were not Final Fantasy 7. Everybody wants Final Fantasy 7-2.
Square decides to give the fanboys and girls what they want, and Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus and Advent Children go into production. Rumors of a FF7 remake for PS3 are all over the
internet.
Square is officially in business again.
Advent Children, much as the game that inspired it, is an
anime movie. Essentially, it is
one long fight scene with a bit of plot mixed in. The only characters with a role are Cloud, Tifa and Vincent. Sephiroth, the main villain, makes a 90 second cameo to fight Cloud, and Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid, Barret and Yuffie make 90 second cameos to fight Bahamut.
How exactly Sephiroth managed to come back is never explained; where Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo came from is never explained; how Kadaj became Sephiroth is never explained; the full story of Geostigma is never explained; the plot holes from the game were never covered up nor explained, and how Aeris and
Zack continue to exist is not explained.
In short, it's a lot like the game.
