You may recall our review of the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete Reunion Tracks many months ago. It featured a number of new pieces along with extended versions of some of the tracks from the original Advent Children soundtrack to fit the new and extended scenes of Advent Children Complete. I couldn’t help but compare to two albums, and in the end, I determined that the original Advent Children was probably the superior album.
Having said that, I thought it’d be a good time to revisit the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children soundtrack in its entirety, as there is truly a lot of great music to be heard across the two disc score. Advent Children was all about fan service, and the soundtrack was no different.
Join us as we take a look back at the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Original Soundtrack after the jump.
Nobuo Uematsu was mainly responsible for the music behind Advent Children, although he was joined by arrangers Shiro Hamaguchi, Tsuyoshi Sekito, Kenichiro Fukui, and others to bring his compositions to their full potential. For the most part, Advent Children is an action film, and therefore most of the music centers around intense action cues, although there are a few noteworthy excursions from time to time.
On the topic of fan service, the album opens with the familiar “Opening” from Final Fantasy VII featuring a more modernized orchestral sound. It’s pretty straightforward, but it puts fans right back into the world of FFVII. The next track, “The Promised Land” is a lovely choir-only piece that would sound right at home in a church with its contemplative melody. Later, two tracks from the Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII album make an appearance, including “Tifa’s Theme” and “Aerith’s Theme.” Some fans may claim that using pre-existing material for the film was ‘lazy,’ but I think the two tracks work great with the dark and minimalistic atmosphere of the film.
“Beyond the Wasteland” gets us into the action cues that dominate the score. It opens with the uneasy beating of a bassdrum and an uncertain string and piano progression before a flurry of electric guitars and string stabs explode on to the scene, giving the piece some raw energy. “Those Who Fight” is another track from the Piano Collections CD (a ‘rockier’ version appears later), but I absolutely love how it’s implemented into the film. The chorus section has a nice swing to it with repetitive bass notes that really caught my attention. “Black Water” is another track that will likely catch people’s attention with its heavy metal approach using chugging electric guitars and distorted percussion.
One of my favorite tracks on the album is the simplistic “For the Reunion” with its ascending synth pad melody and scattered piano backing. It’s a powerful piece of music that really builds tension with its metallic percussion and wailing electric guitar chords from Tsuyoshi Sekito, and I like the fact that it’s so simple yet effective. Heading in the opposite direction, “Water” is an excursion into new age music with acoustic guitar, belltones, and choral pads that immediately reminded me of Uematsu’s Phantasmagoria album.
There’s even more battle music on the second disc, most of which references classic FFVII tracks. “Those Who Fight [FFVII AC Version]” works in some awesome synth lines and drum ‘n’ bass percussion which contrasts nicely with the previous piano-only version. “Those Who Fight Further (FFVII AC Version)” paces itself and is not quite as intense as the original, but more fleshed out to create a sort of “badass” vibe. This one and “The Chase of Highway” almost sound like something out the Tekken franchise. Then of course there’s “J-E-N-O-V-A (FFVII AC Version)” and “One-Winged Angel (FFVII AC Version)” both of which are great, but I think you all know that I’m burnt out on “One-Winged Angel” by this point. “J-E-N-O-V-A” on the other hand is still fresh and this version in particular features an awesome pairing of electric guitar with the descending synth lines to give the track new life. I just wish it was a bit longer.
Closing out the score, “Cloud Smiles” is probably one of my favorite Uematsu compositions of all time. It references “Aerith’s Theme” some, but has a character all of its own. It’s soft, sweeping, and beautiful. In fact, they used to play this at the Dear Friends concerts before Advent Children was released, and I remember looking forward to hearing how it would be used in the film. “End Credits” is equally upbeat, working in segments from the Final Fantasy VII “Main Theme” and the series-standard “Final Fantasy.” The last track, “Calling,” is an odd J-rock track that accompanies the completely unnecessary scene that plays after the movie’s credits featuring Cloud riding around on a motorcycle.
Say what you will about Advent Children as a film, but you can’t deny that the soundtrack holds some awesome gems. I would love to see “Cloud Smiles” return in the upcoming version of Distant Worlds, and it was great to see Square Enix tackle nearly every battle theme from the game for this project. It still stands as one of the best soundtracks for a movie based on a videogame, hands down. It’s still readily available from Play-Asia, and I recommend looking into it if you missed out in the past.
Any thoughts regarding Uematsu’s score for Advent Children looking back? Was there a track that particularly stood out for you?
Tags: Advent Children, Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Music Reviews, Sekito, Square Enix, Uematsu
I thought that the movie was alright…well, except during the whole last fight, when it became the best movie ever for 7 minutes flat.
One of the most listened soundtracks in my collection, besides mirrors edge and the Fable II soundtracks.
You are a horrible writer. Someone needs to take some high school English classes.
I find it interesting that you’ve done this sort-of in reverse, and reviewed a soundtrack to a movie that simply doesn’t stand up to its ‘Complete’ version. When I first got my hands on Advent Children Complete, I definitely noticed some distinct changes between the soundtracks. This is possibly a side-effect of watching both movies far too many times in the pursuit of creating a fansub. With that in mind, I could never go back to the original sound track.
The big shame is that a full release of the Advent Children Complete sound track would be ridiculous, so to get a proper OST of ACC, one needs to do a little mix-and-matching. But I think for the improvements, it’s certainly worth it. Any track from the Advent Children soundtrack to be labelled ‘ACC version’ on the ‘Reunion’ soundtrack is significantly different to its AC counterpart. This is likely due to the extension of scenes. So while I have absolutely no contentions with the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children soundtrack by itself, it’s difficult for me to ‘prefer’ it over the Reunion tracks and so consider the two albums the ‘Complete’ soundtrack to Advent Children Complete — which is less an improved version of Advent Children and more the movie they should have made in the first place. Very few ‘Director’s Cuts’ are as different from their original as ACC is to AC, thanks to the malleability of CG.
For example regarding improved tracks on Advent Children Complete, ‘Beyond the Wasteland’ features a new ‘Sephiroth’ cue as Cloud is clutching his geostigma-wracked arm during the initial bike chase. As OSV’s review of ACC: Reunion noted, ‘Sign’ is much richer, something I picked up on immediately. ‘Battle in the Forgotten City’ gains a choir interlude at around 2:01, which then leads into a full orchestral segment, where the original remains primarily synth. I find the toned-down ACC version of ‘Those Who Fight Further’ far more faithful to the original (itself one of the greatest boss themes of all time — ‘Omnishred’ by Powerglove being the apotheosis of, in my opinion). Perhaps the biggest change I caught was in ‘Chase of Highway’, which now takes a very familiar tune from the original game (‘Highway Chase’) and incorporates it around 1:40, again reflecting the heavily increased scene with the involvement of the Turks.
While I’m as burnt out on One-Winged Angel as much as anyone, the ACC version blows the AC version out of the water. It sounds similar until the fifth minute, when the beloved but, yes, too-familiar choir takes a rest and we get a wonderful return to the halcyon days of Shinra’s military-march style, with instruments driving the ‘Sephiroth!’, until it all stops at exactly 6:00, and then after a pause returns to the standard ending of Advent One-Winged Angel. As I’ve noted elsewhere, I find that choirless section reminiscent of a less divine Sephiroth, reminding us of his SOLDIER origins and that for all his power, he’s still not above toying with his enemy.
Another issue I have is the redundancy of one track in particular.’Water’ on the AC soundtrack no longer features in the Complete movie, replaced by an improved version of ‘Anxious Heart’, which definitely fits far better — I always found ‘Water’ a jarring transition in Advent Children and was pleased to see it gone.
I totally endorse Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children as a soundtrack, but believe that if you want the proper experience to match the aptly-named ‘Advent Childre Complete’, then it’s essential to get both this and the ‘Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete Reunion Tracks’ CD. Admittedly, it has a lot of ‘filler’ once the handful of necessary ‘ACC’ tunes are done. But that handful is different enough (or new enough, in the case of the orchestrated ‘Main Theme of FFVII’ and a few others) to warrant the acquisition of both albums by any fan of FFVII and its music — those for whom both AC and ACC were made in the first place.
I loved the AC movie, even though it is a bit campy.
I loved the OST even more. Been meaning to watch ACC but haven’t gotten around to it. And it looks like I may need to check into the tracks from it as well.
Jak: in case my gush didn’t iterate it enough, ACC isn’t so much an improvement on AC as a completion. Even as a die-hard FFVII fan (I remember playing it in Japanese back when my Japanese wasn’t so rusty, i.e. high school days), I had to concede after a few viewings that AC was just not the redemption we wanted after FF:TSW. Just about everything wrong with AC is fixed in ACC — particularly the lacking narrative background and significance of Denzel. As for campiness, well….FF was never exactly [insert highbrow name-dropped literary masterpiece here]. Oh, and the end-fight is ten times better. I hope that somehow tips the scales. 😉