Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has been making the rounds lately. It’s easy to see why as the PS4 remake is one of the biggest releases of 2020 so far. Fans aren’t just rewatching and discussing it because it is adjacent to that game though.
No. It’s because there are actually a lot of tie-ins to it even though it takes place after the original. Why? Well, that involves some spoilers and wild theories for the remake. Rather than going down that rabbit hole again, let’s instead look at some trivia pieces on this movie instead.
10 From Short To Film
Based on various interviews, like this one The Lifestream compiled from a Japanese interview with the Square Enix team in 2005, it was revealed that this movie started off as a 20 minute short.
Based on fan reaction, more and more work kept being putting into, increasing the time and overall scope. With the Blu-ray edition, it is now over two hours long.
9 Unused Content
Speaking of the original development, one of the first trailers was revealed at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show. Most of the footage seen does not appear in the movie.
Certain scenes are close, like Cloud chasing after Kidaj on a motorcycle, but the way this fight plays out is different. This then may be evidence that this was part of the original 20-minute version, which altogether was scrapped and unused.
8 Advent Children Was Not The Advent
Because the team kept changing the movie’s scope, it suffered many delays. Even though this was the first project revealed in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, it was not the first to release for public consumption as planned.
Instead, the prequel mobile game starring the Turks, Before Crisis, launched before it. That was in 2004 with the movie debuting in 2005 in Japan with a 2006 launch in the West. The West never got Before Crisis, by the way.
7 My Chemical Fantasy
Gerard Way, of My Chemical Romance, helped write the song “Safe and Sound” with Kyosuke Himuro for the Blu-ray re-release of the movie. It was played during the end credits, but in Japan, despite the song being sung completely in English.
The Western release kept the original credits song, “Calling” which was also by Kyosuke Himuro. There is no reason given for this change.
6 Sonata Of Plagiarism
Another musical snafu involved the Korean pop sensation, Ivy. Her song “Sonata of Temptation” got into some hot water as it was almost a shot for shot remake of the church fight involving Tifa and Loz.
Eventually, Square Enix picked up on this video and had South Korea shut down all viewings of it. Kotaku later uncovered an interview with the video director who stated he wanted to talk to Square Enix about homage but couldn’t find contact info... sounds pretty fishy.
5 The Sierra
It is widely known now that Aeris’ name was supposed to be Aerith in the PS1 version of Final Fantasy VII. There was another, lesser-known mistake involving a name i.e., Cid’s assistant, Shera. Her name should be seen as either Shiera or Sierra.
Even though Cid’s new ship in the film is still called Shera, in reference to her, fans could have possibly found out about the translation error through a model. The Japanese model of said ship is called Sierra.
4 Real World References
Speaking of real-world items, fans could have potentially owned the same phone as Cloud’s in the movie. It was a Panasonic FOMA P900iV, which was a fairly popular type of phone at the time.
This would not be Square Enix’s first and certainly not last way to tie in real-world products with the series. Final Fantasy XV had Coleman camping gear and instant noodles and Final Fantasy XIII even had a fake fashion shoot with Louis Vuitton.
3 The Books
There are two major books tied to this movie. On the Way to a Smile follows multiple characters on what they were doing in-between the end of Final Fantasy VII and the movie.
Final Fantasy VII: The Kids Are All Right: A Turks Side Story, follows Evan Townshend, a detective in Edge, who is investigating the Turks. This character might be a reference to the original concept for the game, which would have involved a detective caught up in a mystery in a fantastical version of New York City.
2 The Fur Was Hard
In that same interview, The Lifestream translated, the developers went into how hard it was to model some characters like Red XIII and Cait Sith due to their fur.
It could then be deduced that this is why Cait Sith’s Mog body was replaced with Red XIII to save on modeling time. It eventually made it into the re-release, albeit in a brief second cameo.
1 The Bad Future Theory
The movie opens up with the same flash-forward the original game ended on. It is set 498 years in the future with Red XIII and two cubs overlooking a ruined Midgar.
At first, this was seen as a good future as the once life-sucking city had been destroyed and reclaimed by the planet. Thanks to the re-release of the game via the PS4 remake, some fans now think that the timeline is actually part of a bad universe where Sephiroth has won.