Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.(Interview)

fter the painful failure of 2001's big-screen effort Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the franchise's chances of crossing over into the realm of motion pictures seemed doomed. Surprisingly, Square Enix decided to take another stab at the format, although this time going with a safer bet--a full-length animated sequel to Final Fantasy VII. Advent Children picks up two years after Cloud and company defeated Sephiroth. All of your favorite characters return, along with a trio of new villains, a new crisis (a deadly disease known as geostigma), and plenty of jaw-droppingly pretty fight scenes. We recently sat down with reclusive director Tetsuya Nomura (the man behind Kingdom Hearts and just about every Square Enix character design for the past eight years) to discuss the details of his highly anticipated film.

EGM: How did the Advent Children project evolve over time?

Tetsuya Nomura: Initially, the project began as only a 20-minute short film. We quickly realized, however, that from a scenario standpoint it would be impossible to pull off a sequel to FFVII in such a short work. We wanted to include every crucial element from FFVII, so the scope …