On December 10, right as The Game Awards were getting started, gamers were introduced to the newest member ofSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate’s gargantuan roster. Although talk of Crash Bandicoot andFortnitecharacters circulated on social media earlier that day, no one could’ve ever anticipated that the seventy-eighth fighter would instead beone of the most well-known villains in video games.Descending from the skies and cleavingUltimate’s godlike villain Galeem with a single stroke of his sword, Sephiroth,Final Fantasy VII’s silver-streaked genocidal supersoldier,surprised and delighted players across the medium.
As the outstanding trailer played out, depicting Sephiroth’s arrival andonslaught on theSmash Bros.lineup- including a fated reunion withfellowFinal Fantasy VIIcombatant Cloud Strife- eagle-eyed S.O.L.D.I.E.R. stans noticed a recurring reference point: The trailer’s music, camera angles, and lines of dialogue were unmistakably lifted fromFinal Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the original game’s animated movie sequel.
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The inspiration was so apparent that, when Sephiroth launched a week later,three pieces of music from the filmwere bundled with his release - the only inclusion of non-video game music inUltimate’s thousand-song tracklist. Thanks toSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate,Advent Childrenis making a comeback in the gaming consciousness fifteen years after hitting retail stores in Japan. Despite mixed reception, the film remains among the more significant video game adaptations ever made, thanks to a surprisingly everlasting legacy, both within its own franchise and outside of it.
Released in 2005 and directed byFinal Fantasy VIIcharacter designer Tetsuya Nomura,Advent Childrentakes place two years after the original game, introducing a trio of black-cloaked adversaries for returning protagonist Cloud and his friends. As an incurable disease infects the industrial city of Edge,the brooding buster-swordsmanembarks on a race against the clock to prevent the supposed siblings of Sephiroth from destroying the city and resurrecting his arch-nemesis.
Although its story is as abstractly written and told as most Tetsuya Nomura productions (arguably to its detriment),Advent Children’s true selling point was its action-packed animation. By 2005, computer and motion-capture technology had advanced enough to fully realize frenetic and high-flying fights in three dimensions, a practice previously exclusive to a 10-year-old’s action figure collection.The delicate, kinetic, and superhuman combatstrung throughout the movie was unlike anything ever before put to screen.
DuringAdvent Children’s production, Nomura insisted the film’s action abandon any sense of realism, resulting in jaw-dropping setpieces that are tonally-consistent enough to not dive into full-blown absurdity. Characters defy gravity and strike with incredible power and propulsion in a violent ballet, captured through dynamic cinematography and loaded with moments of intense slow-motion. The brawl betweenfan-favorite character Tifa Lockhartand gauntlet-gunning villain Loz remains an amazing demonstration of pacing and choreography.
For many fans, however, the innovative action couldn’t overshadow the film’s fundamental shortcomings.Advent Childrenhas received criticism over the years, its deeply cryptic storytelling receiving the loudest.As the co-creator of theKingdom Heartsseries, Nomura has earned a divisive reputation for his paradoxically vague and heavy expository dialogue, andAdvent Childrenis no exception. The film’s first hour is almost exclusively comprised of characters explaining the setting and the villains’ motivations in redundant detail.
Ironically, the movie doesn’t even attempt to introduce the world ofFinal Fantasy VIIin a straightforward capacity, leaving behind audience members who haven’t invested 30-40 hours into a 1997 PlayStation game. These story issues were (mostly) addressed in 2009’sFinal Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, an extended edition featuring revised animation and 25 minutes of additional set-dressing and characterization.
Despite its setbacks,Advent Childrenleft an indelible impact on theFinal Fantasy VIIfranchise and isnow recognized as a companion pieceto the original game. Cloud’s substantial redesign is the most prominent piece ofAdventiconography, as it’s featured in high-profile crossover media that features him. For example, when Cloud was revealed as a downloadable character forSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DSin 2015, he brought with him an alternate costume based on hisAdvent Childrenredesign.
Upon Sephiroth’s arrival inUltimatefive years later, Cloud received an updated “Final Smash” attack for hisAdvent Childrencostume, referencing the film’s final battle.Nomura himself hasn’t forgotten the filmin his recent work - its central melody, “The Promised Land,” received an auditory spotlight in the opening act ofFinal Fantasy VII Remake.
The film also left a mark on the greaterFinal Fantasyfranchise. Two years afterAdvent Children’s release, Square Enix announcedDissidia: Final Fantasy, a crossover fighting game featuring characters from across the series. From its first trailer, its focus on low-gravity combat and slow-motion excess displayed a clear inspiration toAdvent Children. Critics at the time likened the brawler to a playable version of the animated movie.Dissidiawas released on the PlayStation Portable in 2008 to critical acclaim and financial success, spawning a small series of its own.
But the most significant impactAdvent Childrenleft in its wake doesn’t come from an official product, but instead an entire genre of fan-made action animation. In 2007, animator Monty Oum uploaded “Haloid,” a short film depicting a fight between Samus Aran of Nintendo’sMetroidseries andHalo’s Master Chief. The 10-minute toss-up took many cues fromAdvent Children’s cinematography and choreography (though not without also drawing influence from theMatrixtrilogy).
Oum would go on to become one of the most celebrated animators online through his work onRooster Teeth’s machinimaRed vs. Blueandhis own animated web seriesRWBY, both of which carried his signature style, likely inspired in part byAdvent Children’s action setpieces. His influence, in turn, inspired countless animators all over the Internet to create their own fanservice fisticuffs, a legally-muddy crowd-pleasing craft that still exists today. In a sense,Advent Children’s DNA is more widespread than ever before.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Childrencarries a unique legacy in the history of animated cinema. It may never be celebrated on its own terms or regarded among the art form’s greatest works, but what it showed thousands of fans in 2005 was a kind of spectacle combat never before thought possible. Using the backdrop of a beloved video game, it showed a future wherein animation could be a better outfit for precise and powerful action than the real thing, and it’s still one of the best examples of its kind. As long as its influence on animated action remains,Advent Childrenwill never be a memory.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Childrenis available on Blu-Ray and Digital.
