The first time I saw Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, I was but a teenager fresh from the emotional damage of Kingdom Hearts II’s amazing ending.
The year was 2008, and as I rummaged through my recommendations in the early 2000s on YouTube, AMV/FMVs were a huge thing. These fan-edits of our favorite gaming and anime characters are mostly paired with rock songs to match the vibes. As embarrassing as this may sound, I used to watch those types of videos.
Imagine my surprise when I saw random FMVs of Cloud and Tifa with Secondhand Serenade’s “Your Call” playing in the background. That’s when I thought to myself, “There’s a Final Fantasy VII movie?”
So, as a chronically online teenager back then, I saw Advent Children, and it was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. I was obsessed with how stylish its action scenes are. Pair it with its stellar animation work (which still holds up today), Advent Children was a thing I obsessed with for months. Being a huge fan of the series, it was great to see Cloud and friends again.
Fast forward to 2025, and I’ve become nostalgic for Square Enix’s habit of making a random 3D movie tie-in out of nowhere. I miss Final Fantasy movies, and it’s a shame we never got more of them.
A Final Fantasy XVI Movie?
If Square Enix were to make a Final Fantasy movie in the future, it should continue with Final Fantasy XVI. It’s one I consider a ‘missed opportunity’ from Square Enix, where they never got to maximize its massive lore. We’ve had kingdoms and ancient civilizations locked behind one game and a handful of DLCs. It deserved more than that. Which is why a movie would greatly expand on its mythos.
It doesn’t necessarily have to take place after the events of XVI. Maybe Square Enix could have a little leeway by going the prologue route, where we witness the rise and fall of Valisthea’s ancient civilization. Or maybe we could get more history from the game’s previous Dominants. Of course, this is all just me rambling about the things I want.
There are just so many stories to unpack with Final Fantasy XVI. What happened to the Iron Kingdoms or Waloed before its demise? We could always use more insights on how Valisthea came to be, and it was weird to play XVI without having all our questions answered.
Granted, XVI’s sales numbers aren’t really up to par compared to the rest of the series, so it could be a major factor why Square never bothered expanding its story apart from the DLCs. Final Fantasy XV’s tie-in movie, Kingsglaive, was meant to offset its long-development time, so fans could feel the hype for XV’s much-awaited release. Unfortunately, XVI does not have that luxury. With sales 80% lower than 15, there was probably no need for Square to put more resources into it aside from a Tekken 8 crossover.
Not even Final Fantasy XVI’s epic boss fights were enough to warrant a movie tie-in, and unfortunately, it looks like this might just be the end of XVI’s story as a whole. Who knows? Maybe Final Fantasy XVII might get a movie tie-in in the future, or a Netflix series.
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