When it comes to the Final Fantasy franchise, there can be no doubt the success and impact that Final Fantasy VII has had. Credited with popularising role-playing video games on consoles in the Western market, the game has also proven to be the bestselling in the series with an estimated 12.8 million copies sold as of 2020. While I’m not quite as fanatical about Final Fantasy VII as some people, I still acknowledge how important it was and have ranked it as my fourth favourite main Final Fantasy game. Despite the Final Fantasy franchise being an anthology series with each entry featuring a new world, characters and story bound together by similar themes and gameplay, Square Enix couldn’t let the success of Final Fantasy VII go and decided to create a subseries called “Compilation of Final Fantasy VII” which has included a variety of unusual and weird spin-offs.
Despite the original Final Fantasy VII being released in 1997, it took 7 years for the first entry in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII to be produced with the release of Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII in 2004. Produced for mobile devices, specifically FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access), Before Crisis takes place before the events of Final Fantasy VII and follows the Turks, a group that works as intel and investigative operatives for Shinra, and follows their conflicts with Avalanche. The game proved to be highly successful in Japan but was never released in the West, making it the only major entry in Compilation of Final Fantasy VII to not be released outside of Japan.
Excluding a mobile release of the snowboarding minigame from the original Final Fantasy VII, 2005 proved to be an unusual year as it saw no games released for Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and, instead, the release of, not one, but two animated films. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a fully CGI film that takes place two years after the ending of Final Fantasy VII and sees the spreading of a mysterious disease. The film was praised for its animation and action sequences although many reviewers complained that the film was incomprehensible to those who had not played the original game. Also released with a special edition of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, a 2D animated OVA by Madhouse that deals with some flashbacks seen in Final Fantasy VII. This film was negatively received by fans who accused the film of retconning events seen in the original game.
In 2006, a new game developed for the PS2 called “Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII” was released. The game is set three years after the first game, attentive readers will note that that’s one year after Advent Children, and follows Vincent Valentine, an optional party member in the original game, as he faces off against a mysterious organisation called Deepground. The game was noted for being quite unusual for a Final Fantasy game as it was a third-person shooter, the first shooter within the franchise, with role-playing elements. The game received a mixed reception with critics unsure of whether the story was good or not and quite critical of the gameplay. Interestingly, a mobile game tie-in was released the same year called Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII: Lost Episode which takes place in between two events in Dirge of Cerberus.
In 2007, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was released for the PSP and follows the character of Zack Fair prior to Final Fantasy VII as he searches for a missing comrade. The game was received very positively for its story, gameplay and the surprisingly good graphics on a handheld, sold well and has since been recognised as one of the best games available for the PSP. Afterwards, releases in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII became less consistent. Nothing was released in 2008 and in 2009, an updated version of Advent Children called Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete was released which added 26 minutes of new scenes as well as redoing many scenes from the original film. Additionally, a short story prose collection was released called Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile which saw one of its stories adapted into an anime extra for the Advent Children Complete release called On the Way to a Smile – Episode: Denzel. Between 2010 and 2020, only one game was released in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, that being Final Fantasy VII G-Bike, a mobile game that ended up getting shut down a year later although it is worth mentioning that a novel called Final Fantasy VII The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story was released in 2011.
However, a remake of Final Fantasy VII for the PS4 was announced at E3 2015 that would span multiple games. The first part, simply titled Final Fantasy VII Remake, was released in 2020 and was an instant success, earning widespread praise from critics and selling 5 million copies. An upgraded version of the game called Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade was released for the PS5 this year with improved graphics, faster load times, new features and a new DLC called Episode Intermission featuring Yuffie Kisaragi, marking her first appearance in the remake. The success of Final Fantasy VII Remake seems to have lit a fire under Square Enix when it comes to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and have since announced Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, a battle royale spin-off, for mobile as well as Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis, a mobile game that intends to tell the story of the original Final Fantasy VII as well as other spin-offs such as Before Crisis, Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core.
I still find the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII to be a strange franchise but it’s nonetheless important and is only going to become more so with the success of the remake. Let me know your thoughts on Compilation of Final Fantasy VII: an unusual and weird subseries, which games, books, movies you’ve experienced, how you think this subseries compares to the rest of the Final Fantasy franchise, whether you think Square Enix are risking oversaturating the market with Final Fantasy VII media and any additional thoughts you might have on the topic.
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