Yo Denzel, what’s up?
The re-release of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, now with the word “Complete” tacked on at the end and released on Blu-Ray, added roughly 30 minutes of footage, much of which centered around the memories of Denzel. However, there were also elongations of certain scenes: particularly, battles and dialogue. That’s really all there is to this movie, though: big battles, punctuated by a few dialogue sequences.
Much of the film’s music was re-tooled for this “Complete” release, and that music is found on this “Reunion Tracks” album (the name being an homage to the best-of CD released over a decade ago for Final Fantasy VII).
For the most part, this album features songs from the Advent Children soundtrack that are now longer. Hence the “ACC Version” tags at the end of many track names. But there were some new arrangements, and some entirely new compositions, added as well. Of note, an arrangement of “Anxious Heart” (less than a minute long, unfortunately) was thrown in. And of course, “On the Way to a Smile -EPISODE DENZEL-” is an entirely new piece, as are almost all the tracks at the end of the disc for the “Episode Denzel” segment.
While the quality and production value of the music is high, which is to be expected from Square Enix, I’ve had more than my fill of FFVII music and its derivatives. The songs I most enjoyed on this album were the original tracks, and only because they were original. Nothing short of a full PS3 remake of FFVII is worth re-doing any of the classic FFVII pieces at this point. That’s right: even I have had enough at this point, and I’m not the kind of guy who quickly tires of franchises milked dry. After all, I am a Falcom fan!
I hope that the many composers and arrangers who have gotten exposure through the Advent Children project continue to write game music for Square Enix. They do a pretty good job with “rock band” setups (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums), and there are also some good piano solo tracks on this album that show some potential. Just, please, not in the context of FFVII. Not anymore.
