New Famitsu Interview with Tetsuya Nomura on FFVII Advent Children Complete

The Tetsuya Nomura interview from the March 21 weekend release of Famitsu has surfaced online and hitoshura has translated the important portions of the dialogue in reference Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete, its release and the Compilation of FFVII. Below are the key points from the interview.

EDIT: Hitoshura has now translated the interview completely. Not just key points anymore. Below is the actual dialogue that could be made out from the scan. Enjoy reading Tetsuya Nomura’s thoughts on Advent Children Complete! Big thanks to Hitoshura for squinting his eyes out for this!

— You get a very different impression compared with FFVII AC.

Nomura: Thank you. I’m glad to hear you say that.

— I thought the graphics have gotten more detailed, such as dust floating in the air or the texture of the character’s skin being more realistic.

Nomura: Well, those are the kind of effects we wanted to have originally. Now that we’ve switched media from DVD to BluRay Disk, we’re able to show these with HD video quality. So the video is clearer now.

— With the added scenes, are they scenes you couldn’t add in AC and ones you decided to add after AC was completed?

Nomura: Yeah. What we decided early on wasn’t so much addition, but mainly small changes. For the added scenes, those were thought up later along with the overall composition.

— Rufus’ dialogue has increased as well.

Nomura: That was needed to explain the world’s situation so it’s easy to understand. As a result, there was a lot of voice over added overall. On the other hand, there are scenes when the same voices are used but the video has been remade.

— Were there any troubles when recording the new scenes?

Nomura: Well, Cloud and Sephiroth are used to it now, so that went smoothly. However, for the child roles such as Marlene and Denzel, because their voices have changed they have all been recast and everything recorded again.

— Some of the background music is different as well.

Nomura: For the tracks in the main film, I had some of my own wishes, but those were the parts Nozue (co-director Takeshi Nozue) was especially insistent about. The parts he said he want to change have been changed. They’re not so much new tracks, as much as arrangements.

— The sound effects also sound great.

Nomura: All the sound effects have been replaced from the original. In addition, more depth has been added to the sound of Cloud attack Bahamut, and sounds added to the crowd scenes. I think the number of sounds in a scene is more than what was in the original. We’ve retouched even rather fine details.

***

— I’ve seen a lot of the added scenes, but which scenes did you particularly want to include?

Nomura: I personally requested that the portrayals of the children be increased. In the film, we’ve included scenes of Cloud is talking with children such as Marlene and Denzel. Because I wanted to show depth, like the mental changes in Cloud. [???] tried our best not to include heavy explanations, but this time we’ve made it easier to understand. In addition we’ve added dialogue which [???] FFVII, and there are parts where we’ve made it so you can more deeply [???] the story.

— Reno and Rude in particular have more appearances, and I think their changes stand out.

Nomura: Nojima (scenario writer Kazushige Nojima) seems to have found those two easy to write (laughs). There are sides of the story which only members of Shinra can tell, such as what’s going on in the world. Also, another reason was that we were concerned about the gaps and modified them. The scene in the first half where Kadaj beats up Reno and Rude and goes to Rufus is an example. This time, we’ve added a scene of Kadaj making his way into the building, and I think improved on those gaps. For the other scenes as well, we rewatched AC and while thinking about the gaps between scenes, made additions and modifications to work on the gaps.

— I see. It was already revealed in the trailer, but at the start a scene of Elena and Tseng being attacked at the Northern Crater as been added too, hasn’t it.

Nomura: I think a lot of people wanted to see the details of that scene. That’s an image of Kadaj’s gang recorded on a camera Elena is wearing. The scene of them getting clothed, I thought there’s probably people wondering why remnants would be wearing clothes, so it was added to show that.

— As well as the addition of new scenes, there are a lot of scenes which have been replaced.

Nomura: Time has passed since the original, and after envisioning seeing it in HD quality, we changed all the parts that seemed a bit lacking. Originally after AC was completed, Nozue and the others corrected all the bits that bothered them themselves. But it was too detailed, and I think maybe you couldn’t notice all of it (laughs).

— So it’s the fruits of the creator’s dedication. There were some unexpected additions as well.

Nomura: We’ve included some surprise scenes, and scenes to stimulate the audience’s imagination. After the release of AC, a lot of “Compilation of FFVII” titles have appeared, so there are parts made with encompassing all of those in mind.

— Definitely, there were scenes which hit home more if you’ve played Crisis Core. Were there any requests from Nojima, who is one of the key people behind the Compilation?

Nomura: ‘Request’ might be a bit strong, but there’s a scene added at the end. This was original the climactic scene from the ‘illusive 20 minute version’ Nojima wrote at the early stages.

***

— The battle scenes also felt different compared with when I saw AC.

Nomura: The composition of the battle scenes, with the exception of the final battle and highway scene, haven’t been changed. However, with the changes to the sound effects, and direction changes such as the characters getting injured or clothes getting dirty, they might come across differently. In particular the Bahamut battle, where as the battle goes on it gradually loses its armor. I hope people will look out for these.

— In the battle scenes that have already been revealed, Cloud was surrounded by a blue light, and was injured and bleeding.

Nomura: The blue light is a Limit Break (laughs). The reason for showing blood was because I thought that if there’s no blood, the “pain” doesn’t feel realistic.

[Illegible]

[???] you can’t feel that this is a cruel disease. The cruelness of this disease is also portrayed in the bonus OVA.

— What was the reason for having an animated short based on the Denzel chapter of the novel as a bonus this time?

Nomura: If you watch “Reminiscence of FFVII”, you’re able to get a good enough grasp on the story from FFVII to AC, but for Denzel or Geostigma it’s lacking. I thought it was needed to get a deeper understanding of that aspect.

***

— Is there anything left to do as far as AC goes?

Nomura: I really feel we’ve done everything we can.

— The Compilation of FFVII has come to a stop with this. Will there be a next Compilation title?

Nomura: We’ve got ideas. But, it’s come to a stop here. I don’t think anything will be happening for awhile.

— Do you want to make another film?

Nomura: I would like to. I and Nozue have a project we’re thinking of. But with the current situation around here that might be difficult.

[skipped non-AC questions]

[text partly obscured, little guesswork done]

— Finally, do you have a message to the people looking forward to AC Complete?

Nomura: At first, we were planning to just replace some of the visuals and release it. But while waiting for the BluRay Disk market to develop, we decided to add more scenes, so I think people have waited quite a while for it. It’s become something that even people who have already seen the original can enjoy, so please watch it. The BluRay market is going to continue to grow. I think it’s a shame if people haven’t had the chance to see HD quality video yet, so I hope they will take this opportunity to experience it.

Source: FFVII AC Reunion