I probably don’t really need to reiterate my overall criticisms of this line from my Cloud write-up. I will add that, I was inspired to start this line when I saw Wave 2 had Yuffie, who is my favorite character from the game. But this Tifa looked super great and was part of what pushed me to go ahead and get the rest of them.
That and Cid and Cait Sith both look great, and kind of round out my top 3 of this game.
Tifa was harder to find though. Since I was starting with the announcement of the second set, the first group was basically sold out everywhere. I was able to piece together Cloud, Barret, Aeris, and even Sephiroth between BBTS and Amazon. But Tifa was nowhere. I think at this point she is actually more available for a second run, but I ended up getting her from USA Gundam Store, a place I had not ordered from but reports were it was alright.
Overall, she does actually feel nicer than Cloud. Her joints are hidden better overall for one. She has a second face plate for another, though she has less alternate hands and no weapon. The weapon part is understandable, she fights with kicks and punches.
The figure’s balance is a bit weaker than Cloud but probably partly because being a brawler, I have been trying to put her into more exaggerated poses. She does come with a stand at least, to help hold her up.
My only real complaint is the hair. It has a sort of, permenant side swoosh going on. It feels like they could have put some sort of hidden rotation joint in there to let it pose swooshing the other way, or just straight down. Feels like something Bandai or Max Factory would have done, and kind of touches on the complaints I had about in my Cloud write up about the poor bang for your buck value on this line.
Final Fantasy, and Final Fantasy VII were once a pretty big part of my interest many years ago. I probably would not be Ramen Junkie online if not for alt.games.final-fantasy on Usenet. FFVII is probably the most popular game in the series, and while I prefer FFX, a lot of people consider it to be the best.
With the recent remakes, and all the spin off games and movies, the original character designs felt like they were kind of pushed to the side. I don’t really pay much attention to any of Square’s various “Arts” lines either I did not even realize these were being made until I got an email about the second “wave” with Yuffie, Cid, Vincent and Cait Sith. Fortunately, I was able to put in orders for the first group that I had missed.
I am going to put this out though up front. I missed the existence of these because I don’t follow BringArts because they are way overpriced. I have made an exception on these figures because I really like this game and these designs, but they are all overpriced. And I buy plenty of pricey “premium” figures. For the amount of accessories and the size, you get less than a Figma or S.H. Figuarts for 50% more in price.
Also, since this is the first of these, I wanted to mention Square’s lines a bit. They have several lines, all called “Arts”, two of which are figures. Originally it was PlayArts, these were around 7-8″ tall, larger than a standard 1/12th figure. Then it was PlayArts Kai (PAK) which were even larger figures with a bit of dramatic style to them. More recently they started doing BringArts, which are closer to Figma/Figuarts and 1/12th scale. I don’t have a ton of interest in the huge PAK figures, but these Bring Arts figures were neat and a better size.
So, enough history what about the figure itself?
Overall, Cloud looks really nice. These are modeled more on the original art than the goofy PS1 era 3D models. The sculpt is nice and crisp and the colors are really good.
The main issue on Cloud are some of the joints, specifically in the legs. In a static pose everything is fine, but the knees are extremely ugly when bent. It’s a huge single joint with no attempt to hide it in the sculpt. There are plenty of figures of characters with baggy pants that are able to mask the joints from other companies.
Otherwise pose-ability is alright. He is fairly easy to balance and his joints are stuff enough to hold a pose, which is especially important with his arms, since his sword is quite large.
The bigger issue for the articulation is the hips have a tendency to pop off. It’s not as loose and annoying as I have had with some MAFEX figures, but it’s there. It affects both hips, but on mine it’s worse on (Cloud’s) right hip.
He also only has one facial expression, which, granted, is pretty consistent for Cloud “…..” Strife. He has 4 extra hands (2 alternate sets) and his Buster Sword, to round out his accessories.
Another sword option would have been a nice extra to a have, though the Buster Sword is quite iconic and would likely be the only thing anyone used anyway. Maybe some sort of slashing effect piece or something would have been a good accessory to pad things out a bit.
A lot of this is not really bad, except it feels bad when paired with the premium premium pricing Square charges for these figures. I could forgive all of this a lot more easily on. Figure that was half or even just three quarters the price. For a $100+ figure, it’s kind of unacceptable how lazy it feels.
I also probably should mention, I think originally these had some sort of NFT nonsense attached to them, but I believe I saw somewhere those were removed for some reissues. There may have been something in the box but I have no care or interest in that.
All in all, Cloud isn’t a bad figure, he just, costs too much.
I don’t review too many movies. Generally, I don’t find I have too much to say about most movies I watch so I steer clear of trying to do detailed reviews. However, Advent Children is one movie I found I had a lot to say on, and it’s the sequel to a game I’ve reviewed twice in one of my favorite game series that I’ve done many reviews for, so I’m sort of obligated. I’ll also add, before I get started, that this review contains spoilers for the film, so if you care about having the plot ruined, which the movie does a good job of doing itself, don’t read too much into this. Most of the spoilers are probably fairly minor and vague though if they don’t fall intot he obvious category.
Where to start. I like to go with good points before I get to bad points so we’ll go there. This movie is the most visually impressive and incredibly choreographed movie I have seen to date. It uses a very generous helping of “Game Physics” to accomplish most of it’s stunts, but the reactions and fights betweent he various characters are quick and generally believable. Of particular note are Tifa’s duel with Loz in the church and Vincent’s first appearance. The climactic battle with Bahamut was a bit lame an over the top but not for it’s effects, there are other reasons I’ll cover later why that whole section of the movie pretty much destroys the entire experience.
On the negative, what was up with the whole subplot of the brothers kidnapping the children? What were they using them for? What was the point other than to incite Cloud into attacking them? Maybe that was the point. But if so, why bring them to the town’s circle? It was very unclear. The Geostigma subplot all around was pointless and only served to add needless confusion. Still it’s something that could have been remedied with a bit more cohesion added to the plot.
On the subject of completely pointless. Why did the cast of the game show up at all? Cloud, Tifa, hell I’ll give you Vincent, they are all useful to the plot. They make sense to be there. Cait Sith residing around on Red XIII’s back? Cid and Yuffie? Why are these characters even present? They appear completely out of nowhere, charge around battling Bahamut while mutteringrandom cliché lines (almost all of Yuffie’s lines have the term “Materia” in them somewhere, she’s more obsessed than in the game). Barret makes a vague appearance through Cloud’s cell phone early on and the predominance of Marline could have almost let his presence be allowable to the plot except that it’s overshadowed by the pointlessness of the other characters.
It’s total blatant fan service. The whole movie feels this way. They actually have a fairly decent plot that goes well with the plot of Final Fantasy VII except that it’s bogged down with pointless showy fan service of “This is what a remake of FF7 would be except instead of a game you get a movie!” Cut short that overly long battle against Bahamut and give us a bit more explanation behind our villains.
Speaking of villains, the Turks make a very large reappearance. Reno and Rude are fantastic throughout the entire movie and help to pick up the rest of the slack a lot. They aren’t quite the bad guys this time around, much like in the game. In face, one might even say they are heroes. The other Turks show up for a short bit too. Unfortunately, Tseng and Elena’s appearance only serves as one of the movies largest flaws and plot holes.
In the opening scene, we overhear a radio conversation between Elena, Tseng, and Reno. Elena and Tseng are attacked, we hear the battle but we see nothing since it takes place far below us and in fog. It’s a pretty nice tension effect. Later Kadaj tells off the Turk’s leader, who serves as lame plot hole number 2 but I’ll not go into detail on that. Anyway, Kadaj tells off the Turk’s leader and tosses down the bloody badges of Tseng and Elena. It is strongly implied both have been killed. This is a great plot device and helps show that despite his overly whineyness Kadaj is indeed quite sinister and capable of killing. The fact that the blood on the badges is one of only a couple of points where the movie has any blood makes it all the more apparent, Tseng and Elena are dead.
So what do they do? They show up, much like the rest of the Hero cast, completely out of nowhere to rescue their falling leader, then to stand in a group shot of the Turk’s later on near the end. They don’t say anything in the later half of the game and their return not only makes no sense but it completely kills the relevance of two previous strong scenes.
The writers at Square need to learn that bringing people back from the dead is not a good idea. Hell the writers of Japan need to learn this. Many games and anime unceremoniously bring dead characters back negating the impact of their deaths. Thankfully Aeris does not return. The plot has absolutely nothing to do with reviving Aeris and in fact had a lot to do with Cloud letting go of her and moving on with life (Dilly-dally shilly-shally?). Aeris does make several appearances though through visions. The voice of Yuna is used and it fits extremely well for the character.
While the plot doesn’t revolve around the revival of Aeris, it does revolve around the revival of another key character. The whole movie is essentially an excuse for Square to give us a modern CG battle between Cloud and Sephiroth. While Sephiroth is extremely bad ass in the films final conflict, his presence is poorly explained for anyone who hasn’t played the game.
One last high note. Materia is present in the film, though somewhat lightly. Its use is pretty well done. Instead of joining with weaponry the orbs are merged into the person themselves. There is even a vague explanation as to what they are.
And to keep things balanced, the events revolving around Cloud during the final moments of the film after the final battle are completely needless and stupid. It just comes as a really dumb ending for an overall lame movie. If you watch this film, watch it for the fight scenes. The plot is almost good but it’s filled with so many holes that don’t necessarily need filled but just flat out don’t need to be there.
(Once again) You must control a group of rebels to save the planet from an evil Empire (or in this case an evil corperation) and the “true villain” that lies beyond. Quite a few loss characters than the previous Final Fantasy (FF6 duh), and the first time a Final Fantasy game has had true FMV cutscenes. This game is quite a change for the series. Also it’s the first time a Final Fantasy game has been made for a non Nintendo system (the PSX) and the first time there’s been one playable on the PC (emulation excluded).
Graphics (8/10) The series makes the transition from 2D overhead with sprites to 3D very well. Instead of always looking straight down you’ll sometimes walk towards or away from the screen down halways, or have to wind around spiraling paths that cross over above one another, or climb up walls and fallen wreckage to get where you’re going. This is all done by adding 3D polygon ‘sprites’ over pre rendered backgrounds. The backgrounds look great, but some people may be turned off by the “popeye” look of the map sprites, that is, they are short with huge forearms and legs and heads. The battles however use more realisticly shapped characters and move about in three dimensions as you cast spells or attack very nicely. Your characters still lin up together facing the enemy, but now the camera changes through out the battle and they jump right up to the enmies when nessesary to attack them. The magic effects are pretty flashy most of the time, but sometimes got old really fast when cast in large numbers. The “Knights of Round” summon takes a good couple of minutes each time you cast it, whcih looks cool the first few times but later tends to make the game drag on. The FMV CG is occasionally blended intot the actual game play, but often times it is shown with a scene jump. The FMV CG looks nice however.
Sound (5/10) Eh, what’s that? what did you say? I didn’t hear you, oh, you didn’t say anything did you? So why are we still using text boxes when it’s so easy to add voice? Even if it were just for crutial scenes ala Lunar (which is a game that also prooves it’s not hard to find GOOD voice actors for games). That’s about the biggest kiler of the sound category. The midic is pretty nice I suppose, but unless you can manage to get it configured properly you’ll just get really ugly midi sound. In fact, you’ll get midi anyway, but if you have a good soundcard you get some sythesis action (or whatever it’s called) where the midi actually sounds like something other than computer blips. The sound effects are pretty mediocre, just standard sword jabs and what not. the FMV sound is ok, just not realy enough. The game also lacks any sort of ambiant noise really. Which is something that can really give some nice mood setting.
Game Play (9/10) Whee, fun fun fun, I don’t think I stopped playing this game when I finally got it for PC, and I’d already beeten it once already on my frinds PSX version. Also as for non stop playing, I played this game like 2 days straight ( I mean straight, no sleep, nothing) till I beat it when I borrowed my friends PSX and FF7. Though I guess that may make you thing it’s short, but I was hurring so I could give my friend back his PSX. Anyway, the plot is pretty good, though can be sort of confusing if you miss a few points. I’ve seen some really wierd questions about th eplot that made me thing “how’d they get to THAT conclusion?” Anyway, the story is good, so that’s a plus. Also it’s fun to play. The battles are pretty fast paced as long as you lay off the heavy summon spells. There are several mini games you play to advanced th eplot then can replay in the game’s casino area. Though I don’t care for mini games much, they are still varied enough to be fun if you like that sort of thing. Also there are things like Chocobo raising to give some added play.
Overall (7.4/10) Pretty fun. I’d say the PSX version is definitely a bit more stable, though extended play can cause errors in overheating the PSX and causeing ht egam to lock up. But the PC version has trouble lining up the FMV visuals and sounds for some reason. also whe I switched to a higher standard resolution I got some ugly lines on the map. Plus the PC version is highly prone to freezing up and sometimes has inverted FMV for some reason. Basically it’s full of bugs. I’d still recomend this game. It is fun o play with a wide cast of charcters.
