Fair warning here, I’m about to potentially spoil the heck out of OG FFVII, and it’s spinoffs.

Full disclosure, I completed my first full playthrough of Final Fantasy VII just a few weeks ago. This was not my first introduction to the FFVII franchise (or ‘FFVII Compilation’, as it’s called) however. My first encounter with this world and these characters was the movie Final Fantasy: Advent Children, which I still have on DVD somewhere. My knowledge of the story and characters was pretty surface-level at the time, and to me it was mostly just a cool movie with great sword fights, even if plot that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

However, after finishing OG FFVII, my thoughts and opinions on Advent Children have changed, uh, substantially.

Advent Children was the first big push to turn FFVII into a story and universe that was beyond the scope of that original game. And with that comes all the baggage associated with adding sequels to what is already a complete, self-contained story. If you’re going to make a sequel to a beloved story, there’d better be a good justification for that creative decision. But it goes deeper than that.

For me, it comes down to this: Advent Children effectively robs FFVII of the narrative weight of its conclusion. There’s a reason the ending of FFVII has so much impact, and has stuck in the minds of fans for so long.

Advent Children somehow manages to take the things that were intentionally climactic about that ending, and make them anticlimactic. And vice versa.

The result is a product that might be entertaining on it’s own, but is absolutely detrimental in terms of the whole.

I think this can be said for more-or-less every single part of the ‘FFVII Compilation’, but for now I’m just dealing with Advent Children.

Look, I’m not going to go through and explain the whole plot of FFVII. But it bears mentioning that this is a story about meaning and perspective in the midst of loss and grief. It’s also about the death of the self, and giving yourself up to something greater, recognizing that you’re just one part of a bigger whole.

Both the main character, Cloud, and the villain, Sephiroth, struggle with this issue of identity and purpose, albeit in very dissimilar ways! In the end, their conflict comes to a head in a fight to save the planet and all of humanity.

Yes, in the end, Cloud and his friends defeat Sephiroth, thwarting the villain’s plans and theoretically saving the day. But the victory goes much deeper than that. By enlisting the help of the Lifestream, they’ve activated a planetary defense system that could very well turn against them, destroying all of humanity for their sins against the planet.

In this respect, FFVII’s ending is somewhat open to interpretation. We see the Lifestream stop Sephiroth’s meteor from destroying the planet, but we don’t see what happens afterward; at least as far as humanity goes. And that’s the whole point! People die, but the planet goes on. The self is just a part of the greater whole, and Cloud has accepted this, achieving a state of transcendent spiritual enlightenment. In the context of the themes and ideas of the story, this is the ultimate victory. That’s a wrap, folks!

What happened to Cloud and the others? Did humanity survive? These questions went unanswered, and that was all by genius, creative design.

That is, until Advent Children came out, almost a decade later, effectively undermining the scope, impact, and thematic significance of that original finale.

But hey, I guess seven years is a long time to get to appreciate such an epic finale. Long enough, surely, to make the desired cultural impact with the fanbase. Now to move forward and make some more money!

You can see why expanding on the original FFVII feels like a decision rooted in greed(or at the very least, nostalgia) rather than artistry. It does to me, at least. The result is a product that, while not terrible in its own right, does carry that fundamental. It’s a betrayal of what made the IP so memorable and interesting in the first place.

And it gets worse.

Like I said, Advent Children doesn’t just undo the intentionally anticlimactic aspects of the original’s ending. It manages to undermine the climactic elements as well, in an incredibly damaging way, because it messes with the most iconic and ‘brand-able’ part of the game: the characters.

I mean, come on. Even if you’ve never played FFVII, there’s a good chance you know about Cloud and Sephiroth. There’s a reason you know and have heard of these people, even if you haven’t played the game. People care about these characters. Specifically, people care about Cloud, and his journey.

Cloud really got put through the wringer. Throughout the game, he’s insecure in his identity, experiencing thoughts and memories he can’t be sure are his own. He also has a strange and unsettling connection with the apparition of Sephiroth; an old war hero who’s supposed to be dead. There are points in the game where Sephiroth seems to be able to manipulate Cloud, control him. It gets to the point where Sephiroth makes Cloud(the hero of this story, mind you) attack and beat female party member Aerith, in a situation where other members of the party can only look on, unable to intervene.

It’s freaking dark, especially when you consider the fact that Cloud is a teensy bit amnesia-addled, and lacking a strong sense of self. He almost can’t understand whether it’s Sephiroth making him do this, or if he can only blame himself.

Later, it’s discovered that Sephiroth is an apparition more than anything else; his soul has become lodged in the Lifestream, suspended between life and death.

In the big boss battle, Sephiroth becomes a great, many-winged, biblically-accurate angel-being, with godlike power.

(What an insane boss fight by the way. My jaw was on the floor. I had One Winged Angel stuck in my head for weeks.)

After that big, crazy boss fight, where everyone bands together to defeat the ultimate evil, Cloud slips and falls into the pulsing Lifestream, coursing up from the ground.

He falls. And he falls. And he falls. And he lands somewhere strange, a dark place with solid ground under his feet and dim stars along the flat horizon.

And there he is. Sephiroth. Or, that is, the last vestige of Sephiroth, trapped here in the Lifestream.

This is the third phase of the boss fight. First you had to fight Jenova. Then Sephiroth. And now, Sephiroth again. Only, you don’t have a full party to match him this time.

It’s just Cloud. Cloud and Sephiroth. Mano a mano.

Sephiroth raises his sword. Cloud raises his own. As a player, watching the screen, you hope you can still make it. If you die, you’ll have to start over, back at the first phase.

It’s your turn to attack. Sephiroth stands there, poised, ready.

There’s only one attack option. So you select it.

‘Omnislash’. Cloud’s ultimate move.

He lunges forward. He slashes. Again. And again. And again. Fifteen times. Fifteen different attacks, all in one move.

You brace, waiting for Sephiroth to hit back.

Instead, his form flickers. Then, he disappears. Finally absorbed by the Lifestream. Forever.

Such catharsis, after everything Cloud has been through. At times, he had to wonder if he was ever real, or just an extension of Sephiroth’s will.

That question is answered, now. Cloud’s victory is definitive.

Whatever used to be left of Sephiroth, it’s gone now.

Cloud was always the one that was real. Sephiroth was only ever…a memory.

What a crazy, memorable conclusion to all that insanity. Sure to stick in the mind for days and weeks, if not years. It really makes you think—

PSYCHE!! FINAL FANTASY: ADVENT CHILDREN, BABYYYY!!

(AIR HORN SOUNDS)

GUESS WHAT. SEPHIROTH IS BACK, BABY! (SOMEHOW!!!)

CLOUD IS BACK, TOO. DID YOU REALLY THINK HIS JOURNEY WAS OVER!? HE’S GOT A LOT MORE MOPING AND SELF-REFLECTION TO DO YET!!!

TIFA’S BACK, TOO! “DILLY-DALLY SHILLY-SHALLY!!!”

AND BARRET!

AND CID!

AND YUFFIE!

AND EEEEEEEVERYOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!

ISN’T IT GRAND?! ISN’T THIS EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED???

AND THAT’S NOT ALL! JUST WAIT!!

In another decade or so, we’re gonna bring back Zack! Remember Zack???

And Cissnei, remember her?

And Genesis? Probably he’ll come back, too. Gotta love that guy.

And, and, and, that guy with the hat from that one spinoff book? You know? Can’t forget him.

And….and…just wait, don’t go yet, there’s more…and…and…and…………..and…………………………………………………and………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Oh. Hey. You still here? I suppose somebody must be.

It’s been five hundred years since the Final Fantasy VII Remake was released.

Wars have been fought and won(and lost). Peoples have come and gone. Nations have come and gone. Cultures have been destroyed, and created, and destroyed again.

The world is vast, and full, but somehow empty at the same time. We’ve lost something, somewhere along the way. Humanity, that is. Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever find our way back again. If we were ever there to begin with. Perhaps it was only ever a whisper in a dream.

Anyway, the good news is that Square is releasing ‘Final Fantasy VII: R3make [After] Again’ (FFVII: RAA, for short) on the Playstation 27, and if you pre-order now—