Advent Children

Films watched:
Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children
I think that I first should comment about Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within. This to me, was a Final Fantasy film in name only. Okay yes, it was CGI and yes it was created by Square, but it had no elements whatsoever which identified it to the Final Fantasy series. Almost all the Final Fantasy games are set in different worlds, but they each share similar themes, creatures (chocobos, moogles etc), spells and numerous other elements which identify them to the Final Fantasy series. Spirits Within had none of this.

Advent Children is a true Final Fantasy film and follows on 2 years following the end of Final Fantasy VII, and boy is it good. However, saying that, for anyone who hasn’t actually played Final Fantasy VII, the film is totally wasted on them. They likely wouldn’t have a clue what was going on and to be fair, even I found it hard to follow at times. It was great to see familiar characters back on the screen, even if some of the minor characters like Yuffie and Barrat, had less screen time.

My only complaint would be that the film barely stops for a breath. It’s far more action packed than I had anticipated, so much so that beautiful CGI characters and backgrounds flash by at an alarming rate. Also, I said above, even for a Final Fantasy veteran, it was difficult to follow the story, which to be fair, is quite common with Japanese animation, be it anime or CGI.

7/10

Watching Final Fantasy brought home again how long it’s been since I played a decent RPG on any system. The last great Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy IX for the PS1. The Final Fantasy games for the PS2, while okay, just don’t cut the mustard when compared to the older games in the series.

I’m hoping that Final Fantasy XII and Dragon Quest VIII are as good as they appear upon their release (in 2006 hopefully). It feels like an age since I’ve played

Continuing on a gaming note, it is only 3 days now until the release of Mario Kart DS. I’m not getting this on the release date, instead it is at the very top of my Christmas list. Although it pains me not to play such a great game on its release, it just means that I have something really special to look forward to for Christmas Day.

Eurogamer have a great review of Mario Kart on their site (look here). I’m really quite fund on Eurogamer as a gaming site, if only because they tend to add a little humour into their reviews.

Also since getting hooked on the comic strips on Penny Arcade and also CTRL +ALT+DEL as linked on my friends blog, stevestreeting.com, I have also found another highly amusing online gaming comic strip. This is at vgcats.com. The latest Mario Kart comic amused me…

here

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=173