The SE Product Blog has updated with the new creatures that will be featured in the upcoming new set of the FF Master Creatures Collection. Included are Bahamut SHIN from FFVII AC, Zalera from FFXII, Valefor from FFX, Tiamat from FF1, and The Brothers from FFVIII.

However…In a magazine scan promoting the set…another figure is shown blackened out, representing that its a secret chase figure in the set.

Its silhouette, looks familiar… Could it be Terra, riding Magitek armor, from FFVI?

Source: FF7AC Reunion

A big thanks to Xcomp who has translated the next entry from the On the Way to a Smile collection. You can see the rest of his work and thoughts on his blog here and also his accompanying thoughts on the story here.

Once again, thanks for your hard work Xcomp! Below you’ll find his translation of the story.

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Take a look at the first North American trailer for Advent Children Complete (and this time a legit one, without a crappy song and narrator).

Source: G4 TV

SQUARE-ENIX has released today the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete official US site. The Blu-ray extended version of Advent Children will be released on US at June 2, with the sugested price of $38.96. There will be no Final Fantasy XIII Trial Version or Cloud Black PS3 Bundle for the US version.

You can still pre-order Advent Children Complete at Amazon through the TLS Store, where it’s still listed at a price of $22,99 – a lot cheaper than the $40,- advice price. Click on this link to pre-order Advent Children Complete, and you’ll help TLS out as well with the commission we’ll get from your purchase.

Advent Children Complete US Cover / Boxart

Official site: ACC NA Site

Sources: Square Enix USA and Kotaku

One of the new additions to the re-release of the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania, is an eye opening interview with Takahiro Sakurai, the voice actor of Cloud Strife. A big thanks to our forum member Defade for translating this interview. Enjoy reading about the man behind the fictional hero!

To me, FFVII was something that left a great impression.

-Did you play FF7 when it first came out?
Sakurai: Absolutely. I was a gamer ever since the Famicon era, and I’ve played every FF game starting from I. VII was my favorite among those. Even if those polygons seem outdated now, the prospect of playing a game with such quality back then was like a dream. I was impressed by the impact it had. I rushed to buy it on the release day, and ever since then my life has been about playing FFVII.(laughs) I even bought a playstation just so I could play VII. I had to get a part time job in a game store to save up money.

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A big thanks to Hitoshura who has now finished translating the new installment from the On the Way to a Smile book; the Lifestream White and Lifestream Black chapters. Each of these chapters were at the end of each On the Way to a Smile story of the book, for a total of 6 chapters. Three for Lifestream White, and three for Lifestream Black. Enjoy reading these new entries, they’re quite interesting.

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Thanks to our forum member, Danna, below is a translation of “On the Way to a Smile: Case of Tifa” that has been revised in the new On the Way to a Smile novella released concurrently with Advent Children Complete. The new changes have been put in bold so that readers will be able to easily see what has been amended to the novella. A big thanks to Danna for her hard work in doing this for fans! Also, since she used Xcomp’s translation as a base, a big thanks to him and his website for the hard work he’s done translating the original edition of this novella as well. Enjoy!

EDIT: As of 5/18, Danna has gone through the text and edited a few spots to clarify the translation and smooth out the readability. Just to clarify, so enjoy!

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On its first week of sales in Japan, FFVII Advent Children Complete sold 272,000 units, 40,000 of those being the Cloudy Wolf PS3 bundle. Not only is this impressive for a Blu-Ray re-release/director’s cut, but it affected the sales of the PS3 console significantly.

The Advent Children Complete PS3 bundle with the FF XIII demo gave overall PS3 purchases a noticeable boost in sales last week in the process. The week before last, 16,701 PS3 consoles were sold. On the release week of ACC however, the PS3 sold 62,527 units, beating out the PSP, Nintendo DSi, and Wii.

Compared to AC’s original sales figures of 420,000 in one week, this is rather good for a Blu-Ray exclusive release.

Source: FF7AC Reunion

and

Source: IGN

The Japanese Square Enix Members site has released a new feature that allows you to send your friends Advent Children Complete greeting cards, complete with CG illustrations and sounds from the movie.

So if you’re feeling particularly dorky and are a member, send your friend a matching ACC greeting card! Because nothing says “I love you and hope you’re well” more, than Cloud impaled on the Masamune, writhing in pain and misery on the tip. There’s no word on if this will ever come to the US Square Enix Members site, yet.

Source: FF7AC Reunion

With the changes and additions that have been made to Advent Children Complete, there are still some more things to see. Comparing the re-rendered and upscaled scenes from the Blu-Ray side by side to those of the original DVD have given a look at some more subtle alterations that make a big difference to the film. Clearer images, slightly altered expressions, as well as other changes can be seen below. The Advent Children Complete screenshot on the left, is paired with the original Advent Children image to the right. The last page holds a full gallery of 32 side by side images.

Advent Children Complete --> Advent Children

BluRay --> DVD

Check out the full list of images by following the link at the end of the article to see the list of changes, and check out the screenshots in full size. A huge thanks to our member CloudStrife1992 for getting the screenshots and compiling the images together.

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With copies of Advent Children Complete surfacing on torrent websites, Square Enix has made an official announcement regarding the matter on their Japanese website. The following is a rough translation of the announcement.

Square Enix Co., Ltd. Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
President: Yoichi Wada

April 21, 2009

The Blu-ray video quality version of “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete” was released on April 16th, 2009. Since it’s release Square Enix has taken measures to prevent and remove the illegal copies, such as monitoring, sending out letters, and other measures required to remove the media. As of today, multiple Internet video sites, have confirmed the deletion of all the files that were requested to be removed. Square Enix will continue to monitor the illegal uploading of “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete” and take action against those engaged in piracy in the film, including legal action, to ensure that those involved are held responsible.

Intellectual property rights are one of Square Enix’s most important resources. Our business is built on the support of everyone of its products and services to our fans. To ensure that we will be able to continue to meet the expectations of everyone of our fans, and to continue to provide high quality and exciting entertainment experiences, we must take decisive action against the malicious acts that infringe on our intellectual property rights.

※ Company name that is mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: Square Enix

According to some sales reports, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete sold extremely well it’s first day, selling about 100,000 copies. The movie outsold the first 3 Blu-ray anime releases of 2008 (Macross F Frontier 1, 2 and 3) being an extreme success to both SQEX and Sony.
One fact that probably pushed up ACC’s sales was the Final Fantasy XIII demo, that was released exclusivesly with the movie (the Trial Version set and the Cloud Black PS3 bundle). A hint of what’s to come for it’s release on PlayStation 3 at the end of the year.

Source: Kotaku