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[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I always wanted to see it in the cinema, but I was a child and many people were not interested in seeing it in the cinema.

However, I saw it a long time ago... and I feel that it is a great movie, which would have been a great experience in the cinema.

There are many opinions divided by the name of the franchise and the futuristic realistic style.

But it's still a great movie.

The graphic aspect has aged, and even PS5 games already reach that graphic quality, but at its time it was very advanced.

When I watch this movie, I defend it... although there are times in the parts of the story that it is tedious.



I Agreed with Max

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

The beginning of SquareEnix downfall

 

[kunonabi]

I wouldn't say great necessarily but I do think it's a good movie even it it wasn't what anybody expected. I'd still take it over anything resembling FFVII, VIII, XIII, or XV though.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

I haven't seen it since 2001, but I remember being bored by it. It wasn't Final Fantasy as I recognized it, and I was just a dumb teenager so I didn't really know quality.

However, it's been a long time and my tastes have changed. My gut feeling from what I remember of it is that it was probably a pretty intelligent and thoughtful movie, at least for the time.

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

It killed Xenogears 2.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

It killed Xenogears 2.

what??

Can you explain to me what happened?

Was there a Xenogear 2???

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

what??

Can you explain to me what happened?

Was there a Xenogear 2???

How Xenogears 2 Didn't Happen Because of Spirits Within

Monolith Soft president Sugiura Hirohide talks about how plans for Xenogears 2 failed to come to fruition due to Square's investments in the film industry.

www.frontlinejp.net

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

How Xenogears 2 Didn't Happen Because of Spirits Within

Monolith Soft president Sugiura Hirohide talks about how plans for Xenogears 2 failed to come to fruition due to Square's investments in the film industry.

www.frontlinejp.net

I heard my heart crack

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Shit tier. That movie literally changed SquareSoft forever. No joke. For the worst, some would even say. I was a fucking insane SquareSoft fan, but not so much when it became Square Enix..

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

I heard my heart crack

At least they eventually ended up in a good position with Nintendo after their time with Square and Namco.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Was a, for the time, amazing looking film. At no point in time, however, did it ever feel like a Final Fantasy anything. I know, it's an anthology series, but even staples like Cid that were included were off somehow. Like spelling his name with an S.

It wasn't all that compelling to watch, either, despite having what I think was a pretty interesting setting (in terms of it's cousins in the franchise) and I maintain that the themes and story were waaaay too esoteric and Eastern for a Western mainstream audience, so putting like all your money and good will into it without like...analyzing Western analytics was probably...not super neato.

Also James Woods. That's either a positive or negative point depending on whom is answering, but it's definitely a thing that thung.

Overall, I'd take the fanservice blow job of Advent Children or whatever the fuck happened all at once for three hours in Kingsglaive over this, despite being the best written of this unholy trilogy.

 

[8bitpill]

I went and watched it in the theater when it came out. I didn’t mind it but I remember one thing that it wasn’t what I expected even watching the trailer back then (remember kids trailers didn’t give out a lot about a movie or film before Youtube came out).

I’ve watched it a few times since then and do own it on DVD.

Now what I’ve always wanted was a follow up to this,


I still remember renting this on VHS and really enjoying it all those years ago (1998/1999).

Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystal still to this day never got a DVD or Blu Ray release. I download this 2009 from a torrent site and the quality is low, VCD quality.

I really wish Square Enix would make a Anime based off of one of their more interesting FF series. Make it dark, violent, adult.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I saw it in the theater back when it came out too. I don’t remember much besides the ShenMue or Metroid Prime trailer before the movie began. I do own the DVD. I’ve been meaning to go back. All I remember is a character named Cid, which is one of the few names that always appear in Final Fantasy.

I actually have a Spirits Within promotional watch. I’ve thought about selling it. It’s such an ugly watch.

I have this one:

This one is better:

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I went and watched it in the theater when it came out. I didn’t mind it but I remember one thing that it wasn’t what I expected even watching the trailer back then (remember kids trailers didn’t give out a lot about a movie or film before Youtube came out).

I’ve watched it a few times since then and do own it on DVD.

Now what I’ve always wanted was a follow up to this,


I still remember renting this on VHS and really enjoying it all those years ago (1998/1999).

Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystal still to this day never got a DVD or Blu Ray release. I download this 2009 from a torrent site and the quality is low, VCD quality.

I really wish Square Enix would make a Anime based off of one of their more interesting FF series. Make it dark, violent, adult.

This one is a distant sequel to FFV, isn't it?

 

[linko9]

Saw it for the first time a year or two ago. It was pretty good, much better than I expected. A few of the people's heads were too big though. If only they worked on those head sizes, square would be poppin out oscar-winners today.

 

[8bitpill]

This one is a distant sequel to FFV, isn't it?

Yes.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Been meaning to revisit it. I remember getting FF IX back in the day and Spirits Within was advertised on the back of the manual. Can't remember how I ended up watching it but I was disappointed by it when I was like 11/12 and didn't really get it. Sakaguchi was certainly ambitious but it never paid off for him and killed Squaresoft.



At least they were having fun with it.

 

[squallheart]

Really enjoyed the film when it came out and still do. I still remember all the hate it got mainly from the fans because it wasn't final fantasy enough ie summons etc but if you pay close attention it still follows the formula hell even the lifestream is pretty much present. . Sakaguchi finally got to do a film about what happens when we die because of his mother's passing and for me
i would watch this over and over than the trash that was advent children.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

I saw it in the theater with my dad and we both thought it sucked, and now I’m informed it killed Xenogears 2?!

Burn in hell

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I liked it. Saw it in theaters twice with different people, then one more time on DVD. Been a long time since I last watched it.

Unfortunately TSW is a testament to a few facts:
- tech alone doesn’t make a show good
- you can’t sell Eastern themes and narratives to Western people just through Western style and imagery
- people want to see what they expect to see and aren’t happy when they don‘t get it. TSW was FF’s Metroid Federation Force
- you shouldn’t appeal to gamers to sell a product that is more than a T-shirt or a body pillow

This movie would have been more of a curiosity and would probably have gained a cult following and accelerated the development of realistic full-CG movies if only it didn’t carry the FF name. I think that expectations hurt it more than its actual realization.

 

[Ulysses 31]

The humble pie Square needed.

 

[Kadve]

If you are also curios check out "Ark" below. A 2003 (ignore the 2005 watermark. That's just when it got an English dub) Korean spiritual successor made specifically to adress all of the issues people hade with Spirits Within. Though whether they succeeded is up to you.



Its also a sequel to the studios previous movie "Elysium" made a couple of years earlier. Though that one reminds me more of Mainframe animation such as reboot and Beast Wars than anything (again ignore the year watermark)

 

[TheInfamousKira]

That post above reminded me, wasn't The Final Flight of the Osiris from The Animatrix made with the same engine as TSW or whatever?

 

[newtypepilot]

Story was meh but it was a technical achievement. Basically a 90min tech demo.

 

[CrankyJay™]

I hated it. As an avid fan of the games, I thought, what the fuck is this?

Also, they broke a cardinal rule of animation and celebrity voices. You have to at least make the characters look a little like the actual person voicing them, or it seems off.

 

[wvnative]

It killed Xenogears 2.

This is the only correct takeaway.

 

[Revolutionary]

All I remember about the movie is that I was the only one in the theater when I watched it

 

[PaddyOCanager]

 

[CGNoire]

For me this movie has one my favorite nearly flawless tradtional scores. Its saddens me film scores like this seem very few and far between.

 

[ssringo]

Was stationed in Germany at the time and a buddy and I were heading to the theater to watch The Spirits Within when we got the call to come back to base ASAP. Turns out the 9/11 attacks had happened.

The two are forever linked in my mind. 9/11 saved me from wasting my time and money on the movie...

 

[West Texas CEO]

The movie single-handedly ruined a great developer in Squaresoft and almost ruined an entire genre that hasn't recovered until recently.

 

[Days like these...]

The beginning of SquareEnix downfall

Imo FF X was the beginning of the end for FF

 

[AJUMP23]

It wasn’t good. I remember walking out and the guy I was with said “well that was something”. We all laughed.

Animation is beautiful. I don’t know if I understand the story. It created and destroyed square pictures.

 

[Days like these...]

Imo FF X was the beginning of the end for FF

You disagree lunch thief West Texas CEO

 

[badblue]

Imo FF X was the beginning of the end for FF

 

[demigod]

I felt ripped off buying this on dvd, glad I never saw it in theaters. This shit was an abomination and never should’ve saw past concept/writing stages. This had NOTHING to do with Final Fantasy the games. What should’ve came out was Advent Children. Squaresoft >>>> Square-Enix.

 

[West Texas CEO]

You disagree lunch thief West Texas CEO

I guess I'm still pissed that TSW ruined any chance of getting a proper Final Fantasy X-3.

Oh, and no Xenogear 2 sucks too.

 

[Kilau]

Very disappointing and somehow looks worse than the first Toy Story when you go back to it.

 

[Sub_Level]

Saw it in theatres with my dad. The story is complete nonsense. It feels like the first rough draft of the script was approved without any edits. Makes FFXIII look like a Sci-Fi masterpiece.

 

[Krathoon]

Then, they made the Kingsglaive movie. Talk about WTF?

That movie confused my dad.

 

[Fbh]

Someday I need to take the time to rewatch it.
I remember hating it back in the day, the plot was hard to follow (at least when I was 10-11) and I was disappointed about the setting and tone not really feeling like what I expected from FF.

 

[Faust]

The movie single-handedly ruined a great developer in Squaresoft and almost ruined an entire genre that hasn't recovered until recently.

There have been continuously high quality JRPGs since then. They became less common as development costs rose to absurd amounts on home consoles, but thrived on handhelds like the DS, PSP, and 3DS.

 

[Thabass]

The beginning of SquareEnix downfall

You mean Squaresoft's. They sold to Enix BECAUSE of this movie's flop.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

You mean Squaresoft's. They sold to Enix BECAUSE of this movie's flop.

My misake

 

[trikster40]

Have you seen Spectral on Netflix? Basically same plot.

Looking back now, it was way ahead of its time.

 

[pel1300]

I remember when I first heard the synopsis of the film long before a trailer dropped, my reaction was: An Alien invasion of Earth?!? Are you fkn kidding me?!?! That's the best story Square can come up with?!

In retrospect it feels like Square was all downhill after the 1990s. My favorite RPGs of all time are FF4, FF6, FF7, and Xenogears. But after that, it's like they never made any wise decisions. Like who the hell asked for FFXI to be an mmorpg?!.

I didn't even like FFX and seems like I'm in the vast minority there.

They seemed on track to a return to form with FFXII (a game I still love despite its flaws), but we know what happened there.

FFXIII and beyond look like dogshit. Never played them.

Fuck Square.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

It was a horribly flawed but visually stunning film. Their biggest mistake was trying to make a big-budget Hollywood class picture with a really generic-ass generic anime plot.

Kind of like most Final Fantasy games of the modern era, now that I think about it.

 

[ShirAhava]

Saw this in theaters and loved it I was a huge anime fan so this was right up my alley

Honestly this movie and FFX are the last FF branded things that I truly enjoyed Squaresoft went out with a bang!

The alternate reality where this was a big hit and Square kept rolling strong would be something else

Rather than making western style games and pimping out the ghost of FF7 the company is dead to me now

 

[a multicultural team of v]

They would have been much better off never attaching the Final Fantasy name to it. I don't even think they needed to from a publicity perspective, the fact it was a fully CGI movie by itself made the movie very well known and talked about. All the Final Fantasy name did was bring uneccessary baggage and expectations to it.

I respect the ambition that led to the movie's creation, but man I really wonder what Square would be like right now if it never happened.