FF7 Advent Children's already on teh intarwebs

[Chovexani]

Someone leaked a raw DVD rip on Sunday, and it's already been fansubbed. Not that I'm downloading it or anything...because that would be wrong. O8)

But, seriously, is this really all that surprising? People are blaming Squeenix for the delayed North American release but it's really Sony that is holding it up, because they're the distributor in these parts at least. They're doing it purely out of greed, to make more cash around the holiday season (I've heard the English dub is already in the can, for masochists who like that sort of thing), but they are totally shooting themselves in the foot. Yes, I'll get my legal copy come Nov/Dec/whenever like a lot of other people (I'm a Squeenix fan and I want to support them whenever possible). But I pre-ordered cash in full to have this movie on 9/13 and that's exactly what's gonna happen. And a lot of other people feel the same way. We've waited how long, now? The funny thing is, when the delay was first reported, damn near everyone I know (self included) just shrugged and said they'd download a fansub when it becomes available. Not "if", "when". Because everyone knew there would be like 500 FF nerds competing to see who could make a decent encode and fansub it first. It just happened even quicker than I thought it would (I was placing bets for Thursday, myself).

When will these companies learn that fandom will always find a way?

[TroubleMan]

1. There's actually not a lot of bots being hosted that have it right now .

I expected a lot more. I figured there'd be as many bots hosting this one as on any major game or movie release, but right now there's only 12. It's probably all over P2P or torrent though, but I haven't checked.

Chovexani....just in case they don't ever make english subs for it on the real DVD. You can copy the DVD to your comp, take the fan made subs, mesh them together on your computer (it's real easy), and then burn it back to DVD. The download for the subs is only 40k. :) (Well the subs for the avi are 40K, the subs for the xvid are 416k, which is still small).

Also, IMHO it's not bad if you d/l it now and buy the movie, too. I did that with Kung Fu Hustle because I couldn't wait. Not only did I d/l it, but I went to the movies and saw it, and bought the DVD. I'll do that if it's good movie.

Of course some people are against d/l'ing anything...but if you want the subs, let me know (that part is not illegal). It's just a text file, and you can print them and read them, while you're watching the movie, if you're not good at Japanese. (I used to be, but I'm not anymore).

[Chovexani]

2. I was just bein' coy

It's sitting on my harddrive right now along with a soft sub file. :) I'm gonna watch it in BSPlayer tomorrow, after I've beaten the game for the umpteenth time (this is a weird new tradition I've started when FFX got a sequel...don't ask). I need English subs, because unfortunately I understand Japanese pretty much at kindergarten level. :dunce:

I have no qualms about downloading, especially when the distributor has shown such a blatant disregard for the fans. The thing that cheeses me off is that this is purely about money. Everything is in the can, AFAIK, or else they wouldn't have so blatantly publicized the 9/13 release date. Sony just does not care about Squeenix fans except to take our cash, which is pretty ungrateful if you ask me because IMHO we are largely responsible for the PS1's success. FF7 sold a metric crapton of PS1s. They knew with all the delays that this was highly anticipated by the fandom, but all they care about is the almighty $$$. :grr:

I am also mad at Squeenix though for another issue, and that is the completely dumbass decision they made to not include the Last Order OVA with the N/A Advent Children release (in case you don't know, that's the anime which goes in-depth into the Nibelheim incident). Talk about flipping off the English-speaking fandom. It's not as if THAT'S not going to get fansubbed and online...and I'm downloading that too as soon as it's up.

[TroubleMan]

3. I should have known...LOL

Also, I didn't know about the Last Order OVA either. I'll have to check it out.

You'd figure Square would recognize by now how big of a fan base it has here. Look at the turnout for the concert that they had for the FF music. All the old SNES roms they had as Japanese only (I guess that would make them Super Famicon then, but anyway), have been translated by fans. That's years after the SNES was no more, and they still took all that time to translate it. If people are going to take up hours of their time translating Star Ocean and Bahamut Lagoon, they should damn well know that Advent Children was gonna be translated out of the box (or even before then) by a fan. That's a no-brainer. They should know that whatever they sell a lot of in Japan, almost always sales big here. Anything that has to do with FF will sale, especially FF7. They could put out a FF7 Daikatana, which would be the original Daikatana with just a change in the name of the characters, and people would buy it.

Oh well. I hope it's worth all the hype. I'm probably gonna watch it this weekend or sometime next week, even though I hate Cloud. It might even motivate to me finish FF7, which is the only RPG I started but never finished. I'm not gonna argue that it wasn't a great game (I know it was groundbreaking), but I got disgusted with it because of Cloud and Cait Sith....I quit playing right after Aeris died.

[Chovexani]

4. A word of advice

I HIGHLY suggest finishing the game before you watch Advent Children. At the very least, you should try to play through the end of disc 2. There's a very brief, Lord of the Rings type voiceover at the beginning that gives you the super Cliffs Notes version of the game, but it's really not enough to equip you to understand the nuances of the plot, as relatively thin as it is...the movie is one giant love letter to the fans and assumes you already know the backstory with Jenova, etc. The people I know who didn't play the game (all two of them, lol) were totally lost when they saw the movie.

Man, I don't know what to tell you about Cloud...I love that beautiful, fucked up man and always have...and I was pretty floored that in AC he is pretty much how I've been writing him in my post-game fanfic. All I can say is, depending on why you hate Cloud, he does change by the end of the game. And in AC you just can't help but cheer for him.

Last Order was fansubbed and up on BT today, I downloaded it and it's just as good as Advent Children, though a lot shorter. Zack is the focus of it. It gives you a good gist of the Nibelheim incident, although there is a tiny retcon or two (Seph leaps into the Lifestream rather than being tossed in by Cloud), and it doesn't actually go into why Seph lost his shit (they completely gloss over that period he spent in the basement of the Shinra Mansion). Other than that it was pretty true to the game, even down to a lot of the dialogue. The animation is top notch...I believe Madhouse studios did it, and they're the ones that did Cowboy Bebop so that should tell you something about the quality. They also use all the same seiyuu as AC so there's some nice continuity in that sense.

[TroubleMan]

5. Finish FF7 before I watch it....oh man

I'm in the middle of Dungeon Siege II (about 5/6 done), a good 2/3 through Dungeon Lords, and redoing Morrowind. I was about 3/4 of the way through on Morrowind on the Xbox version when disc errors made it unplayable (take two steps....reload...take two steps...reload). I was thinking of firing up the old PSX emulator and playing Suikoden II.

I guess I could finish DSII, and put Morrowind and DL on hold. I could speed play through FF7. I got the all the limit breaks for everybody, except Cait Sith and Cid, already. I'd have to rush through and not do all the cool little stuff like Chocobo racing, getting the black Chocobo, fighting the weapons, ect. I know if I started it again, I'd probably take my time and do it anyway.

With two kids, one more on the way, working 50+ hours a week...it's hard to put that much time into gaming. But I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow, so I might be able to finish DSII and give FF7 another shot this weekend.

Oh, and the reason I hated Cloud is because of when Aeris got killed. First of all I had spend all that time building up Aeris, and made her pretty much my best character. Yeah....I know....who didn't see that coming? Anyway, I know he's being controlled, but, shit, Sephiroth stabs his woman and he just lets it happen (Aeris was the date in the game I was in). I was already disappointed they way the played the story when he gave Seph the black materia, and now this.

I guess I of all people should empathize with Cloud. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life had to climb the hard road to redeem myself and get back on the right path. I've got bad past just like him...but the way Cloud acted during those two incidents just made me not want to play anymore.

I think I'm in the climb the mountain part - I think that's about half way. I might give it another shot, because what's the point of watching AC, if I still hate Cloud, right?