Advent Children & Final Fantasy XIII Review

I meant to have this video up a while ago and its relevance has surely faded a bit. Still, I feel pretty strongly that Advent Children Complete, as its name implies, is a much more complete product than the original.

I enjoyed Advent Children the first time around at least for aesthetic reasons.  In terms of story, however, it definitely felt that there were some elements missing which made wrapping one’s mind around the major themes difficult.  This made enjoying the film on a higher level just about impossible.

Each tiny, incoherent fragment of story was nicely linked together in Advent Children Complete by at least a half an hour of unseen footage.  I am not sure if these parts were deliberately cut by Square Enix or if they have since been added.  If they were cut, I am not sure if it was to shorten the film’s run-time for the original release or what.  Part of me thinks Square Enix did this with every intention of a re-release. In a sense, it feels like we were almost held ransom for a completed product.

Regardless of any conspiracy theories I may have, I really enjoyed the updated film.  I would list more connections that were newly made, but I think it would be best for you to watch it when it does get released over here.

In terms of bonuses included on the disc, I have yet to watch Episode Denzel: On the way to a Smile.  I know that Kazushige Nojima, the writer of Advent Children and scenario writer for Final Fantasy VII really enjoyed working on this part of the re-release.  I definitely intend to watch it before selling my copy.

I haven’t put it on eBay yet, but when I do I guess I will post about it on the off chance that anyone actually wants my copy.  As Nutgarden5 has demanded we will include a signed postcard, since I assume most people wouldn’t want any actual marks on the case.  I am sure some random guy in Louisiana is going to win it anyway so it probably doesn’t matter.

As you may already know, I have reviewed the Final Fantasy XIII demo, so I won’t really get into that again.

Anyway, to those who are waiting for the US release of Advent Children Complete, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.