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Review: Victor Vran (PC)

Score: 8 out of 10

Victor Vran is an isometric, dungeon crawling, action RPG. Victor Vren was developed by Haemimont Games AD who are mostly known for the later Tropico games. It’s very similar to Diablo III and Dungeon Siege, with a hack-and-slash action combat and pretty good story. Victor Vran is just recently out of Early Access on Steam.

2015-07-24_00002Following the Van Helsing motif, Victor Vran is a monster hunter and part of the Hunter Order. Victor is a unique Hunter; he made a pact with a Demon and has Demon Powers. At the start of the game Victor arrives in a Victorian-era city looking for his friend and fellow Hunter Adrian. Right away Victor knew something was wrong because most of the city was on fire and there were monsters and demons flooding the streets. Everyone in the city was either dead or had run away; except for a small few at the castle. Adrian was not among them. Meaning he’s somewhere in the city fighting his way through the endless hordes of monsters. It becomes clear to Victor that this city is a trap for all Hunters. It’s up to Victor Vran and his new best friend, the “Voice” in his head to find Adrian and find out who is bringing all the worlds Hunters here and killing them.

Voice is the best character in the game. Voice is like a slice of banana (if you like bananas) on top of a milk shake. It’s something you don’t except from a game like this but it is welcomed. Voice’s sense of humor is great from calling Victor “Vicky” and going on and on about Victor’s hat and at one point calls him “Hat-Man” to singing “Bravely Bold Sir Victor” a slight take on a song in Monty Python and the Holy Grail [side note; I immediately had to pull out my copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail of that], as well his best Stanly Parable impression. There are tons of pop culture references made by this lovely character. This is why the ending made me a little sad. If you want to know why that is, you’ll just have to play the game.

The combat in Victor Vran is pretty easy to understand but can be frustrating at the same time. There is controller support and is how I played the game2015-07-24_00005 99.9% of the time. The other .1% was trying the mouse and keyboard, while mouse and keyboard are the best way to manage your inventory; it feels like the game was meant to be played with the controller. Each category of weapon has three different attacks. You start out with only one weapon slot, one demon power slot, and one potion slot. As you gain levels you go up to two of said slots. There’s another kind of equipable that increases beyond two slots, Destiny Cards. Destiny Cards are modifiers that you can equip as long as you have enough slots and Destiny Points (DP). The amount of DP a card uses is on the card. The higher the DP points the higher the stats on the cards are. There are also Wicked and Divine Destiny Cards that add an additional stat.

There are seven different types of weapons; Hammer, Shotgun, Sword, Scythe, Rapier, Hand Motor, and Lightening Gun. Each weapon has a prefix and a suffix that determines what the extra stats on the weapons are.  There are 19 prefixes and 13 suffixes. Although they seem random I found a Spider Slayer hammer in an area with a lot of spiders, a Gargoyle Slayer scythe in an area with a bunch of gargoyles, and a Vampire Slayer rapier in an area with a lot of vampires. I’m not sure whether it was a coincidence or I was just lucky. At this time there are 40 legendary weapons. 2015-07-21_00002Each type has 5 Legendries except for swords which have 10. The stats on these weapons are not random and they level up with you as you play. Some of the legendries are quite serious and deadly like the Dervish scythe that I came across which increase the base and max damage by 22% and has a 25% chance of making the enemies vulnerable and when using the scythe’s Whirlwind attack it releases a second and third spinning scythe that circles you and does more damage. The stat says only a second but there was a third one in that death tornado. Some of the legendary weapons can have some silly stats as well. Like the Finger of Chaos rapier which unleashes balls of rainbows at the enemies. If one of those rainbow balls kills the enemies they turn into exploding chickens. There are couple different ways to obtain these legendary weapons. One is to buy them off the traveling trader that shows up every so often. I only encountered him twice in my playthrough and he sold one different legendary each time. He also had a legendary demon power and a legendary destiny card.

Co-op Mulitplayer is included in Victor Vran. You and three other Victor Vrans can fend off the evil horde. The enemy difficultly did seem to increase a2015-07-24_00004 bit when I played it with another reviewer. Loot is separate from each other, as it should be. We couldn’t find a way to trade items to each other. Difficultly did seem to increase but not enough so where it was just as hard as when you were solo. I ended up beating the last four bosses while in a party. When someone in the party dies, instead of spawning back at the checkpoint a 15 second countdown appears on screen until you can revive and spawn at the spot you died but only if at least one person in the party is still alive. If you all die then you all just spawn back at the checkpoint just in like in solo mode.

There is a PVP area of the game. You have to find in a certain area to unlock it on the map. I did not test this out but I have a pretty good idea what it is. You can only do it while in a group. I’m thinking that you and your friends walk into this area and just start swinging away at each other. I don’t find that very appealing in these types of games.

After you beat the last boss in the game a new location opens up on the map, Endless Dungeon. You then can fight waves of enemies on a small platform until you die. You can either do this solo or with friends. There are other places in the city to visit and kill monsters in besides the ones from the story. I personally still have at least a dozen or so place that I haven’t even been to yet. And with free DLC coming in the future you could easily spend more hours playing after you finish the story than you did actually playing the story.

Victor Vran is aviable on Steam for $19.99

 

*Code Supplied by Publisher*

Review: GameLoading: Rise of the Indies

Score: 8 of 10

GameLoading: Rise Of The Indies is an independent video game developer documentary from StudioBento. There have been a couple of these types of documentaries come out in the past couple years, Indie Game: The Movie comes to mind. But unlike Indies Game: The Movie, this isn’t about how Phil Fish is an asshole. This was more about how a lot of these indie developers are artist.

The filmmakers talks to developers who look at games in some completely different ways. They talked to the couple from Tale of Tales who think video games should be visual art, and not the shooting and killing that most games are today. They also talked to Robin Arnott, who’s game, SoundSelf, is all about sound and very little visual beyond a fancy audio visualizer.

While watching this documentary, I started to see comparisons between indie games and the first video games. Then once someone in the documentary also made the same comparison, it was even more clear. Back in the day, when you could find them in plastic bags tacked onto a cork board in a computer store (before my time obviously) and there wasn’t some big marketing campaign that costs millions by some multi-million dollar publisher. Back then, there were no game publishers the developers had to copy the disks themselves and take them to the stores. Once game consoles came onto the scene and names like Nintendo and Sega were introduced big money started going into making, publishing, and marketing these games. That kind of left the guy coding on his Commodore with no way to make a any headroom for himself with getting a job at one of these big game companies.

Once Steam and Xbox Arcade and Playstation introduced digital distribution and the need for smaller games came in demand. Small development teams could make games again they way that they wanted to and still reach the same large audience that the big boys were. Thus the “Rise of the Indies”.

That’s only a small portion of what this documentary covers. If someone one doesn’t think games as an artform, don’t show them Call of Duty or GTA. Instead show them an indie game like Papers Please or The Dragon Cancer. Cause while big companies do have have some great art and story the true artists of the video game world are the indie developers. And that’s what this documentary shows.

I scored this an 8 out of 10. the reason I knocked off two points was because it seemed to bash a little too hard on the triple A games. And it almost felt like it was bashing on it’s fans as well.  I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys something other than the next Call of Duty from time to time.

*Code Supplied by Publisher*

Review: Shiftlings (Xbox One)

Score: 7.5 out of 10

Shiftlings is the second game to come out of Sierra Entertainment since Activision reopened it in fall of 2014, the first being Geometry Wars 3. Developed by Rock Pocket Games, Shiftlings is a goofy side scrolling puzzle-platformer.

PulleyYou play as two idiotic alien janitors who are “fixing” machines, while unwitting starring in a reality show. I say fixing but it’s really just turn a value and pull a lever.  One of the aliens that you play drinks the “fizziest soda in the universe” and ends up with a bit of a gas problem; inflating his space suit. Since the both the aliens suits share air through an umbilical cord the “gas” passes through and inflates one or the others suit. Yep the game is just one big fart joke and that’s fine. Farts are funny. That’s also where the main mechanic in the game is, you have to navigate the levels with one alien inflated and having to switch who is inflated to get through obstacles. You also only control one alien at a time. Whichever alien is inflated is also the heaviest for some reason. This can but used to haul the smaller one up on platforms and then he can jump on top of the fat one and use him as a bouncy castle to get to a higher platform. When moving only the fat one can pull the other which can be an issue when you are trying to go up a onto a lift and only one makes it on and the umbilical cord is cut and killing them.

Host/announcer of this wacky reality show would fit right in on a Nickelodeon kids game show. He jokes can be funny at times but can get repetitive quickly, especially if you repeatedly die in the x360-ZJhsame area and have to restart from the checkpoint. In between worlds he has some snarky comment about how dangerous the next world is and how it’ll be very entertaining to watch.

It’s not until about mid-way through when you start to actually come across enemies. They enemy robot that’s wander the levels have saw blades and giant hammers. Who gives a robot a saw blade? That just asking to get killed. You can jump on theirs head to destroy them but only if it’s the big alien. Here’s a little tip: use the small alien to jump above the robot to get the height; then inflate him as he’s coming down to destroy the robot.

Shiftlings does have two player co-op. As you can expect one player controls one alien and the other controls to the second. You can no longer use the B button to switch characters (makes sense, right?). Both players have the ability to inflate and/or deflate the other. That can make for a  back and forth of inflating and deflating both of yshiftlingsou fighting for control. The skill that become the hardest, that I found while testing the co-op, is the one where one has to jump on the other and use the fat one as a trampoline but you also have to walk across the screen at the same time. In single player, you can hold down the Left Bumper and both character move at the same time. Not the case in co-op, obviously. Be sure to watch the video above to see William and I play some of the co-op.

Over all Shiftlings is a pretty ok game. If you really enjoyed games like ‘Splosion Man series then you’ll like this game.

*Code Supplied by Publisher*

Anime Review: The World Only God Knows

Score: 7.0

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Fantasy
Version: Subbed
Episodes: 36
Where I watched it: Crunchyroll

Katsuragi's head is always buried in his PFP at school

Katsuragi’s head is always buried in his PFP at school

Synopsis: The World God Only Knows is about a high school student name
Keima Katsuragi who is also known by another name, “The God of Conquest”. The God of Conquest is known for being able to seduce any girl… as long as she’s 2D. The 2D part of that is lost on the air-headed, demon, Elsie. She sends him an email asking him to “conquer” a girl and thinking that it means in a game, Katsuragi accepts. This locks him in contract to capture loose souls from hell who inhabit the hearts of people. And of course the only way to get the loose souls out is to make that person fall in love. Katsuragi instantly hates this because he is in no way interested in real girls in the slightest. Well when he entered the contract a device was placed around his neck that will cut off his head and the head of his new buddy Elsie if they fail to capture the loose souls. So now The God of Conquest has to use his dating sim knowledge to get real girls to fall in love with him.

Media: Like most animes, The World God Only Knows started out as a manga in 2008 and is still running with 23 volumes so far. There was a short 3 chapter spin-off called Magical Star Kanon 100%. Yep that’s a Japanese title if I’ve ever heard one. It follows the pop idol Kanon Nekegawa as a magical girl. There were also two light novels, God and the Devil and an Angel and Prayer and Curse and Miracle. The anime has three seasons and two OVAs. The OVAs are unfortunately not on Crunchyroll but all the rest of the anime is.

Six games at once. Notice the Saga Saturn in the top right.

Six games at once. Notice the Saga Saturn in the top right.

My Thoughts (minor spoilers): I liked The World God Only Knows. It was a nice little comedy-lite anime. I call it comedy-lite because it was laugh out loud, going for a joke style of comedy. For example Katsuragi is constantly playing dating sims on his PFP (PSP) even during class. When one of his teachers gets on to him about he says fine I’ll get 100 on all the next tests, and of course he does. Or when Elsie incorporates herself as Katsuragi’s sister she tells his mom that’s she’s Katsuragi’s father’s illegitimate daughter (he’s over seas the entire anime). This makes Katsuragi’s ex-biker mom a little upset let’s say. But she does completely accept Elsie as a daughter. I did need a nice calm anime to bring me down after watching Future Dairies (Note to self: write Future Dairies review 😉 ). I was disappointed that the OVAs were not on Crunchyroll because they take place between seasons 2 and 3 and it assumes you’ve seen them and new characters were added and the series narrative did a brief, enough to let you know that you’ve missed something. But I blame that on Crunchyroll not the series itself.

Like most anime it left me wanting another episode just to see how the characters deal with the aftermath. I would be very surprised if there was another season because how Katsuragi felt at the end unless he plays it off as a moment of madness and denies his feelings. Overall I really thought this was a pretty decent anime.

Review: Saint’s Row IV

Platform: Xbox 360

Score: 8 out of 10

Super Powered Prez

Super Powered Prez

Saint’s Row IV takes the craziness of Saint’s Row the Third and just adds more. In Saint’s Row IV you are the now the President of the United States and still leader of the 3rd Street Saint’s. Your homies from the last game are your cabinet members with some new and old faces thrown in; for example Benjamin King, whom we haven’t seen since the first Saint’s Row. You are about to get a speech when aliens attack and kidnap everyone. Then from that point on you are mostly in a computer generated simulation of Steelport, and a couple missions where you visit small sections of Stillwater. Whilst in this simulated Steelport the computer genius Kinzie is able to hack the simulation and give you super powers. No more need for cars then; in fact you can run so fast that you just blow them off the road. And since it’s an open world game with open world jank they go sailing off into the sunset.

The two Shaundis

The two Shaundis

The entire game is just reference after reference to either previous Saint’s Row games or other media. Because of the whole simulated world thing there are a lot of Matrix references. Even the Matrix training simulation is in Saint’s Row IV. The references to the Saint’s Row games of the past were really nice and I liked that. In fact it addresses a problem I had with a change in a character from Saint’s Row 2 to Saint’s Row the Third. I’m talking about Shaundi. The change from 2 to 3 was so big that she was a completely different person in 3. And nothing was said about it. In 4 SR2 Shaundi is a different character from SR3 and the interaction between them is pretty funny. While they couldn’t get Eliza Dushku to reprise her role they did get someone who sounds a lot like her. Another problem I had with 3 was Gat’s death. I didn’t know he “died” until the funeral scene happened. That was fixed in 4 too. Volition also brought back Keith David to do a voice but he’s not just (minor spoiler) Julius he’s also Vice-President Keith David. There are many time though the game comparing Keith David to Julius. Speaking of voices the special seventh voice in this game is Nolan North. Didn’t play with that voice though but I will on my second playthrough some day. Another thing that I really liked was that on some missions the gameplay changed completely to things like a text based adventure or a side scrolling beat-em-up and things like that.

saints-row-4-text-adventure-fragments-locations-guideNow let me talk about the negatives of the game. One major problem is that the game is running the exact same engine that Saint’s Row the Third did and that had some technical problems running at normal speeds now add super powers to that in super speed and super jumping and the game drops all frames. There were so many times where the game either got 1-2 frames per second or no frames per second and would just sit there, frozen. I heard that the PC version runs much better than the consoles for this issue. Then I encountered a bug multiple times where the game would stop responding to the controller. I have never seen this bug on any other game. I could pull up the dashboard and move through those menus but when I went back into the game it was like the controller wasn’t plugged in. This last one is just a personal issue I had with the game and I had this issue with the last game too. Not enough different clothing stores. In Saint’s Row the Third there was just Planet Saints and one or two other stores but you could buy all the clothes in the game pretty much at that one store. Now in 4 it’s called Planet Zin but it’s the same thing. What I really liked about 1 and 2 was you had to go to a jewelry shop for rings and necklaces and there was a high end one and low end one and the same with clothing stores. There were music shops and liquor stores and fast food places all those were gone in 3 and they are still gone in 4. Well Freckle Bitches (SR version of Wendy’s) is mentioned a lot in Saint’s Row IV.

All in all I would say it was a pretty good end to the Saint’s Row story. Volition said that if they do make a Saint’s Row 5 then it won’t be focused the same characters. I do not recommend this is the Saint’s Row that you start the series with. If you don’t want to go all the way back to Saint’s Row then at least start with Saint’s Row the Third. You will on the other have no idea who Julius, Tonya, Maro, or the gangs that make an appearance in Saint’s Row IV are, but at least you know most of the main characters in 4 that were introduced in 3. You will also miss out on Saint’s Row 2, which in my opinion is the best in the series.

Anime Review: The Devil is a Part Timer

Score: 7.5

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Version: Subbed
Episodes: 13
Where I watched it: Funimation

 

Synopsis: The Devil (Satan/ Maou Sadao) and his army are defeated after trying to take over Ente Isla. He and one of his generals (Alciel/ Ashiya Shriō) escape through an interdimensional “Gate”. Instead of landing at their intended dimension they landed on Earth in modern times, and left with barely any magic energy left. Now in order to survive they tumblr_mm8fyc0mTe1s3k7jno1_500must make a living for themselves and that includes getting jobs. Where else would a person get a job with no work experience? Why at McDonald’s of course, well in this case MgRonald’s. Maou and Ashiya soon find out that one of the Heroes (Emilia Justina/ Yusa Emi) that defeated them followed them through the Gate as well. Yusa is all ready to kill Maō but she realizes that he’s not doing anything evil and is actual a nice guy who helps out his fellow coworkers. Soon they are joined by other people from Ente Isla, who are bent on destroying Satan no matter who gets in the way.


Media
: The Devil is a Part-Timer, or Hataraku Maou-sama! in Japan, started as a light novel series written by Satoshi Wagahara. The series started releasing in February 2011 and is still ongoing with 8 novels so far. A year later ASCII started publishing a manga version as well. The anime ran from April 4, 2013 to June 27, 2013. There was also a spin-off manga as well called Hataraku Maou-sama!Hai Sukūru! (High School). From what little information I could find online it seems like it’s the same story only their in high school. he’s not doing anything evil and is actual a nice guy who helps out his fellow coworkers. Soon they are joined by other people from Ente Isla, who  are bent on destroying Satan no matter who gets in the way.

My Thoughts (minor spoilers): The Devil is a Part Timer is a fun short comedy with two fights thrown in. I liked the minor romance story arc that was there and the fact that most people thought that Emi and Maou were a couple, when in fact if there was a couple in this anime it would have been Chiho and Maou. But he didn’t seem too interested in Chiho beyond that she was a co-worker at MgRonald’s. I did also like the fake company names that were a clear reference to a real company; MgRonald’s is McDonald’s, Sentuky Fried Chicken is Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Jungle.jp is Amazon.jp.

parttimer_05_3

Lucifer vs Satan. Yes they are two different people.

The only thing that I was confused about was that in Ente Isla, Satan was supposedly this bad guy, but when he came to Earth he was a nice guy. We don’t know if there was a difference in his behavior or not. Maou and Ashiya’s landlady was also a bit of mystery as well. She seemed to know who they were but it was never explained how she knew. In fact she goes on a trip to Hawaii early on in the series and never came back. I could have done without Ashiya being sick in most of the episodes. It made me feel like he was a useless character that took up room and food in their one room apartment. And he didn’t have a job save for one episode so he really was a useless character that did not need to be there.

I kind of did like the fact that almost each episode was self-contained. The problem with that is that it felt like the story could have just kept going. There was no big finale, the last episode felt no different than the rest. The anime just ends. If there was more of an ending, a sense of conclusion, then my score could have been higher, maybe a 8.0 or 8.5. As you can tell from my score that it isn’t the best anime but it’s not bad, it’s just entertainment

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Quick and short Review

Finished The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, hers my quick and short review:

Good game; as a Zelda fan you will love most of the story elements as well as classic and new Zelda lore, but if your not it goes without saying you will be frustrated

Halo Reach: Noble Map pack Review

Even though the Halo Reach popularity has had a slight drop off, the first map pack for Halo Reach has given the Halo community a shot in the arm well needed. Apologies for the late review I had planned on just giving impressions, but I found myself  loving them and sinking more time into these maps than I anticipated. I also wanted to play multiple sessions, with multiple game-types to really test the balance of game play for each map, so with out further adieu here’s the review.

“You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.” – Inception [spoiler alert!]

inceptionI finally had the chance to watch “Inception” last week at the theater…long after nearly everyone else I knew had seen it. Luckily now they can all talk about it around me finally. Thanks to a lack of television I’d managed to avoid any hints at what the movie was about so I went into it only knowing the actors involved. If you’ve yet to see it, I’d recommend skipping this particular post of mine. I’d hate to spoil the movie for you. I’m not sure if I’d have enjoyed it as much knowing any of the plot ahead of time.

And now…on to my thoughts on the film.

Let’s start with the actors themselves. I’m not the biggest Leonardo DiCaprio fan but I have to admit that I was rather impressed with him in this movie. His character, Cobb, was an excellent fit for his acting and I’m in the process of revising my opinion of him as an actor. Cillian Murphy was the big draw for me as I’ve been a fan of his for years. He was wonderful in this film as the unknowing victim of the inception attempt.

Two other actors that I’m growing to love more and more are Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They play a “forger” and “point-man” respectively and the interactions between the two make me understand exactly why there’s so much slash fanfiction involving the two of them. Their characters are wonderfully fleshed out even to the point where the levels that are their own dream match their personalities so well.

The actor that was a surprise to me was Ken Watanabe. I had no idea he was in the movie and as such I had no idea that he would not only be the instigator of the inception job but was a part of the team as well.

From the start of the movie I was hooked into the action, always wondering what would happen next and even agreeing with certain things, such as how time moves much differently in our dreams. One part that still makes me go “wow” is the moment of the first “kick” with the van going over the side of the bridge. From that moment the characters know what has happened and on each level they realize how long they have until the next kicks have to happen. All of the kicks need to happen at the same time in order for them to wake up from each level.

Another scene that is visually amazing is the part where the van is thrown into a roll down an embankment. In the next dream level, Arthur’s dream, the hotel corridor is suddenly thrown into a spin while he is fighting one of the projections in the dream. They literally fight as the corridor spins and it looks like something that Spiderman only wishes he could do. Reading about how that scene was done I have some serious respect for Joseph Gordon-Levitt for actually being in that physically spinning set.

The climax of the movie hits all at once and I found myself holding my breath, wondering if everyone would make it out in time, if Fischer would see the false dream-version of his father and accept the idea that was being planted, if Cobb and Ariadne would make it out of limbo or not and so on. I admit to being somewhat teary during the suspense when Fischer pulled the pinwheel out of the safe. Even though I knew it was false, the emotion on Fischer’s face was heartwrenching.

And the end of the movie…how can I let that pass by? The happiness of seeing Cobb make his way through customs. The amusement at seeing Fischer’s confused face when Cobb walks past him. And then the tense moment when he sets the top to spinning, wanting to know if he’s still dreaming or not. Cobb walks away from it before he knows, unable to resist his children’s calls for their father. We see the top spin, spin, spin, almost wobble and then it cuts to black. In the theater when I saw it nearly everyone in the audience made a loud noise of protest. Apparently that’s the usual reaction.

With the completely ambiguous ending, the tense climax, the twisting dream sequences and so on the movie “Inception” can make you forget how long it really is…at least until you try to stand and walk after it’s over. I’ve only seen it once but I already want to see it again and I plan to pre-order the dvd as soon as I can. The more I sit and think about it, the more I realize I enjoy it.

I’m curious to know what you all thought about it. What was your take on the ending? Is he still in limbo? Is it real? Does it matter? Let me know!

“My reunion…that you’re dying to see…” – Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Sephiroth

In the realm of amazing CGI movies to watch, I have to beg that you check out Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Most folks have either played or at least watched someone play Final Fantasy VII but if you haven’t you may want to go borrow a copy and spend a day or two playing it through. Advent Children, while brilliant, has the major flaw of being very confusing to anyone who isn’t familiar with that well known game from the series. If you are familiar with the game then you’ll probably be quite happy with the storyline as presented in the film.

Advent Children is set 2 years after the events of the game. It opens with a recap of the events of the game, told from Marlene’s (Barrett’s daughter) point of view. She mentions a new disease that has started to spread with no rhyme or reason called Geostigma. It weakens its victims and causes them great pain as it spreads over their bodies. As far as they can tell it’s not contagious but they think it might be the planet’s way of expressing its own pain.

Tifa still runs a bar and looks after Marlene and another orphan named Denzel. She also handles the incoming jobs for Cloud’s messenger service. He doesn’t return to Midgar as often and we finally see him after Tifa accepts a job from the remaining Turks, Reno and Rude, and leaves Cloud a voicemail with a meeting place.

And that’s how the story begins.

Throughout the film we do get to see Cloud meet back up with and join forces with his old team, even having a bit of a thought provoking discussion with Vincent after a battle at the Temple of Ancients. Cloud is still consumed by guilt over the death of Aerith and even Zack and even when he finds himself confronted with Aerith’s spirit he cannot let go of the guilt and says that he wants to be forgiven. Aerith laughs and asks him “By who?” showing that she does not find him to blame for any of the events that occurred.

The antagonists of this movie are three “Remnants”, also called the Silver Haired Men. Led by Kadaj they are on the search for “Mother” (Jenova). Kadaj is aware that some physical piece of Jenova still exists in the world and while he doesn’t seem sure what they’ll do with it when they find “her”, the compulsion to find it is strong. He also mentions Sephiroth in both a respectful and jealous way. (Who and what these men are is explained in a later animated tie-in.)

Aside from the plot, which I was sucked into from the beginning, the animation in this movie is mind-blowing. The attention to detail is so wonderful that you almost forget you are watching a CG animated movie. The action sequences are breathtaking and I’m glad that I own the movie as every time I re-watch it I see something else that I’ve missed in the past. Even if I watched it dubbed (which I haven’t and I’m terrified to) I would have to re-watch it to catch everything.

And the music. Oh the music. Fully orchestrated tracks that echo the themes from the original game with new twists. I ended up buying the two disc soundtrack because I couldn’t get it out of my head.

The interaction between Reno and Rude is hilarious and while I liked them in the game, I absolutely LOVE them after watching them in this movie. I have to break down and even say that I no longer thought Tifa was a whiny brat after watching her in this.

And I haven’t even gotten to Sephiroth. I don’t want to spoil things but let me say that if you liked his character even a little bit in the game you will be thrilled him in the movie. I go into a happy fangirl swoon every time I see him in Advent Children.

Ahhh.

Now I am aware that there are folks who didn’t really like this movie and if you’re one of them I’d love to hear why. If you haven’t seen it and you are a fan of the game, go watch it now and let me know what you think. Or if you love it like I do, what’s your favorite part?