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On Cloud VII: Compilation of FFVII
The Compilation of FF VII is a series of prequels and follow-ups of the classic PS1 game,
Final Fantasy VII. So far there have been four different parts to this Compilation
announced, all of which cover all kinds of different multimedia's, a mobile game, a movie,
PS2 and PSP games. The current line-up of titles in this Compilation are as follows:
- Before Crisis
- Crisis Core
- Advent Children
- Dirge of Cerberus.
Each of these titles are expected to provide a more in depth look into the world of FF VII,
what happened before and after the events in FF VII, and what new challenges the characters will face.
Advent Children
Nearly 2 years ago at the Tokyo Game Show, 26th September 2003, Advent Children was first
announced. As a direct sequel to Final Fantasy VII, though not as a game but as a CG movie.
At the time the movie's length was planned to be around 60 mins long. During the press
conference which was held shortly after the announcement, the first AC trailer was shown,
showing the first footage of Cloud and Sephiroth.
| The story of AC is be taking place around 2 years after the events of FF VII. The people of
Midgar are now slowly rebuilding their lives, however a mysterious illness is spreading,
called Geostigma. There's no known cure for this illness and eventually brings death to the
infected. This illness is mainly affecting the children. Cloud who has been living in
solitude, now has new foes to face, in the form of three sliver haired men, who all have a
resemblance to Sephiroth, who was defeated 2 years earlier. |
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Advent Children trailers have been shown at several Game Shows, E3Expo, Tokyo Game Show
and the Jump Festival. The latest trailers was at the E3 Show 2005, last May. There was two
trailers that were shown, one at the Square Enix pre-E3 press conference. And the other,
with some extra footage not seen in the pre-E3 trailer, shown at the actual E3 show. These
new screens included new footage of Sephiroth, a motorbike chase between Kadaj and Cloud
and extra screens in the Bahamut battle.
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The Japanese Advent Children is now available for pre-order, in three different editions.
The Regular edtion, First Print Limited edition and the Ultimate edition, other wise know as
Advent Pieces. The length of the movie will now be a total of 97 minutes and is to
have a simutalous release in Japan, 13th September, and the US, 14th September. Both of the
DVD and UMD formats of Advent Children are to be released together on the same dates. |
Here are the official Japanese and English (US) sites, both are where quite a number of FF
VII AC trailers can be found:
Before Crisis
At the 2004 E3 show this was the second part of the Compilation was announced. Before Crisis
is a prequel to FF VII, in the form of a mobile phone game. It is currently being released
in Japan, chapter by chapter. Being playable on rather high tech advanced phones, when
compared to other countries, such as the NTT DoCoMo 900i and the FOMA 900iV
 | Before Crisis takes place 6 years before the events FF VII have even began. The Shinra
Electric Power Company, is a powerful force in the world, complete with military might and
Mako generators. Though now a rebel group has been formed known as Avalance to put a stop
to the Shinra Inc. ways. To deal with this new threat, Shinra gets together their own elite
team of intelligence officers, named, the Turks. |
Before Crisis not only has members of the Turks as characters in the game, but also has
members of the Shinra Inc. company, people from Soldier, members of Avalance and also
other characters who appeared in Final Fantasy VII.
| Before Crisis is played in a chapter by chapter way. When Square Enix releases the
latest chapter, players can then download that chapter to their mobile and begin play. The game begins by giving the player a choice of different characters to choose from.
These choices consist of, two males and three | | females, each one specialises in a
different type of weapon and has different stats. The male characters use melee weapons,
while the female characters use gun weapons. Like in FF VII the player is able to gain
Materia, which gives the characters new magic abilities and skills. The way you can obtain
Materia differs completely from VII. By using the mobile phone's on board camera, you can
take pictures, and the game makes out the main colours in the photo and turns it into
Materia. |  |
Before Crisis is currently being released in Japan being able to run on the P900i, P900iV,
N900i, N900iS, SH900i series of FOMA phones. The game has been confirmed for a release in
the US.
Here is the Square Enix's official site for Before Crisis:
Dirge of Cerberus
Dirge of Cerberus was first announced in September of last year, in the Japanese magazine,
Jump. It is the first FF VII game to have another lead character, other than Cloud. The
person to take up this role in DoC is, Vincent Valentine. The game, to be released on the
PS2, won't be a RPG so to speak, it's what is being called, by Square Enix as a "Gun
Action RPG".
| The story of DoC, takes place 2 years after the events of Advent Children. Everything starts
off with a sudden appearance of a mysterious group of Soldiers, known as Deep Ground Soldiers,
who are raiding local towns. They are a group of warriors driven to hide underground
because of the disastrous meteor. The Deep Ground Soldiers were a Secret underground project
that the company, Shinra, have been developing, even during the time of FF VII, though it
has all been a secret up until now. Shinra, also wish to revive the sixth |  | |
and final Weapon, Omega. Vincent Valentine, is said to be somehow connected with these events, yet how he is,
is unknown. Throughout parts of DoC, Vincent will be joined by other characters who are
from FF VII. |
Trailers so far have given some insight into what the term "Gun Action RPG" actually means.
The game has been shown to have Third Person Shooter elements in it, as well as RPG
elements, for example, HP (hit points) and usable items. It appears during gameplay the
player can choose to switch between a First Person view mode, using a targeting system to
shoot down enemies and the Third Person View. Vincent not only will have a HP Bar, but also
a bar for his MP. The player will be able to level up Vincent by the usual way of defeating
enemies. It has been said that Vincent will have a large amount of weapons to choose from,
these of which are primarily guns.
 | A brand new trailer was shown at the E3 show, showing characters from FF VII, Reeve,
Yuffie, Cid, Barret and Tifa. DoC wasn't available as a playable demo at the E3 show, apparently due to the development
team still working on the "controllability" of the game. Though Yoshinori Kitase (DoC's
Producer) has said that the team would try to show the game at this year's Tokyo Game Show.
So far Dirge of Cerberus has yet to be given a release date for Japan, or anywhere else
outside the country. |
Here is the Square Enix's official site for Dirge of Cerberus:
Crisis Core
Last year in October, Square Enix announced Crisis Core as the forth addition to the
Compilation. The title is to be an action RPG, and to be playable on Sonys PSP handheld
console.
During E3 2005, the first trailer for CC was shown. The trailer was in a kind of
anime style. It featured scenes of Zack, Cloud and Sephiroth, as well as several action
scenes. Due to Zack mainly being shown in the trailer, this has led many to believe that
the main character will be him, and that the game will be a prequel to FF VII. Though this
has yet to be confirmed by Square Enix.
In a recent interview in the Japanese Dengeki magazine, Yoshinori Kitase talked about the
trailer that was shown at E3. He says that the animation video trailer shown at E3 was meant to give us a sense of the
game's world view, with a certain incident from within Final Fantasy VII serving as the
basis for the clip. At the moment, Square isn't ready to show the game just yet, but Kitase
states that there is action gameplay to look forward to, that will have players hooked.
He finished by saying that players can expect this title to make use of the PSP's special
abilities, to deliver something that's never been done before.
Unfortunately no other information has been revealed on CC, apart from a possible early
2006 release in Japan.
Official Crisis Core site
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