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Last Order FINAL FANTASY VII
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Animation - 8.6 |
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Sound - 7.0 |
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Story - 6.5 |
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Character - 6.8 |
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Value - 6.3 |
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Enjoyment - 7.4 |
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Average - 7.1 |
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| Average |
6.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| Final Fantasy VII: Last Order is an anime style retelling of one of the better moments of Final Fantasy VII game. Though I sincerely doubt you would understand a thing what's going on if you haven't had played the game beforehand. A tribute to true Final Fantasy fans, and unlike Advent Children, this one is actually pretty good. It's actually ironic how this, being an extra in Advent Children DVD is actually better than the flop movie itself.
It is really easy to recommend this show... Simply, if you have liked Final Fantasy VII game, watch this OVA and you wont be disappointed. After all, it's a really faithful retelling of one of the game's best moments. Of course, if you haven't played the game - don't even bother with this show. Seriously, if you haven't played the game yet, then play it now, without wasting your time on reading reviews, damn it.
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Lavos |
(2007-09-13 14:20:48) 2007-08-28 18:55:12 |
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| Average |
6.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| First of all, let me apologize for the ranting bit of this review, but I don't want to reiterate too much on anything said before, and this has not been said. In short: there is nothing of value here plotwise, apart from learning a bit more about the character "Zack". You might also benefit from this if you didn't witness the hidden cutscenes in the game(the one in the Nibel library).
This OVA depicts the events that made the "Nibelheim Incident", how Sephiroth went Postal on the town, and the fate of the characters involved. Nothing that had not been explained in the game for the player that was paying attention. But it was nice to see some characters(Cloud, Tifa) and locations(Nibelheim) drawn in anime style, more accurate imo than the movie counterparts. I appreciatted too seeing Hojo, he's a cool guy, I kind of missed him in FF7:AC(I know, he was dead, but they could have made a flashback or smthng, they magically revived Rufus for FF7AC so...).
Well, I did learn some things, especially about Zack. I learnt for example that he is well instructed in the use of "Bullet-Time"(he is an ex 1st class SOLDIER after all...), and he for sure can single-handedly manage a troop of Shinra soldiers. I also learnt that Tifa's martial art instructor was the typical wise-geezer character(oh wait.. I already knew that...).
The animation is of good quality(this is an OVA after all) and regarding the music, imo it would have been better to use the original game BGM's, or rather the rearranged versions present in FF7:AC (it wouldn't have hurt, they already had them) .
There is one thing worth mentioning that annoyed me a great deal. We have to cope with seeing Cloud reduced to a vegetable most of the OVA(yet again), and when we finally see him awake, why did they change that Cloud is not the one who throws Seph down the reactor when impaled with the masamune? Instead he just slams him to the side. Is my memory messing with me? Am I the only one annoyed by this? It reminded me of the lame and uneeded changes George Lucas has introduced in the original Star Wars Movies.
I couldn't avoid feeling nostalgic while watching this but sadly that doesn't make this OVA any more worthwhile.
Side note: For those of you that haven't played the game, DON'T even think you can watch this as a substitute to playing and completing the game. There is a very good PC version of the game out there that even has the original music, not in midi format like the first version, so you have no excuse to not play the game. If then you are able to love the game like I do, for what it really is ( In short, an awesome, compelling plot-driven piece of entertainment media, or one of the best VG's in history) I HIGHLY doubt you'll regard it the same level as the movie or this OVA. However, if you are the kind of FF7 fan who disregards plots, and likes matrixed action-packed scenes coupled with hard rock music, you might like it. If you are not a FF7 fan, I advice you refrain from watching this, it will hardly make any sense for you.
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| Average |
5.3 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| Yeesh, talk about adding insult to injury.Thank god I didn't buy the limited edition of Advent Children so I could watch this regurgitated piece of matter. Let me share my humble little rant, you might be enlightened afterwards.
...What can I say, Madhouse produced this, so it's top-dog. Not so much as Square, but still one of the prettier shows. They weren't pulling the stops with the flashy effects such as swords clashing with each other and intense bike races. Presentation at times, could be better. I feel that I have to amp up the brightness so I could see what's actually going on (same as how I felt with the movie 300 and I loved that!). Character designs are of course, beautiful. I never realized that FF characters can look so real compared to their game counterparts, but this is no competition, honestly so maybe I shouldn't have raised that statement. Oh well. :P
Ah, the ride goes rock bottom from now on. There was absolutely NO memorable BGM as far as I remembered. The only reason that this category has a 5 is of the effects. Smooth, crisp no problems. Too bad, a 5 isn't something to be proud of...Voice acting is so-so. No lasting impression there.
Ooh, another blow. I'll tell you this, if you haven't played Final Fantasy VII, there is absolutely NO way you'd fully understand the plot. Events go back and forth and plot holes that can only be answered mainly if you played the game. It's all about the events before Final Fantasy VII, but even then, you'd be left with a huge question mark at the end.
Character correlates to my previous comment to story. Again, play the game or suffer the consequences.
If you're a fan, or must see more of what happened before FFVII, add this to your collection. The average anime fan should proceed with caution especially for someone who is not familiar with the franchise.
Felt really better sharing my thoughts about this sub-par OVA. Watch it at your own risk.
P.S. The ending sucks.
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| Average |
7.5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Even though this is simply a short retelling of the infamous incident in Nibelheim from the Final Fantasy VII game, I enjoyed this more than Advent Children itself, even if it was 25 minutes long. If you can put aside 25 minutes of your time and you're a FFVII fan, you should definately watch this.
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censored |
(2006-08-16 15:55:17) 2006-08-16 15:52:15 |
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| It's kind of hard to review this without letting a bit of my fangirl tendencies to sneak in. Last Order is another FFVII spinoff that's a bit lesser known than FFVII:AC that I managed to come across by accident one day. Personally, I enjoyed it a lot more that FFVII:AC.
Last Order's a really short OVA that offers a small window to events that happened in Nibelheim in FFVII's game. If anything, I wish Last Order was the movie that was created and not Advent Children since there's already a good storyline behind it that just needs to be told right, which this OVA did not do. This is mostly because it's hard to tell the story of what happened in Nibelheim in a half hour frame, but it still did a decent job.
The animation style for Last Order is cell shaded, but there's nothing wrong with it. It looks great, and the fight scenes were animated perfectly with it. It's obvious that not as much effort was put into Last Order in terms of voice acting and music like Advent Children did, but it's still decent. There's not much character development since it only deals with Sephiroth, Cloud, Zack and Tifa, but for a game spinoff, there really isn't much of a need to spend crazy amounts of time hashing out a character's personality, especially if there aren't any new faces introduced.
This is something really light and fun to watch when I'm not feeling up to watching something overly serious. Plus it's nice that a story from the game got animated. It's a nice little something for fans of the series to watch.
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| A short ova detailing part of the story concerning Cloud and Zak's entwining background from the ff7 game.
If you haven't played the game, there's no point watching this - this is basically some background events told in a linear fashion (as opposed to discovering pieces of puzzles in the wrong order like in the game) coupled with superior animation than the original 3D lego-men provided by the ff7 graphics engine.
Considering it's a 30 minute anime, there's not much to say about it. Great animation and explosive action sequencies, and the story and character true to the game. The sound was one disappointing factor here. I would have loved it if they used some of the fantastic music from the game instead of the heavy music they used in order to make it more "cool".
For the average ff7 fan, this will no doubt stir some fond memories and a satisfying visualisation of some key events. Otherwise, give this a miss.
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| Average |
5.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| There is absolutely nothing in this short that was spectacular. From beginning to ending, I was left clueless - random scenes kept popping up which make absolutely NO sense. You have some fights between some characters that are not even introduced properly. And a girl (Tifa?) who is wandering around saying - pinch something something. WTF? And worst of all, the ending is 'Berserkish'. It was supposed to make some sense if watched with Advent Children, but even then I was at a complete loss at the relation between the two.
The comments you hear about this one are the same as Advent Children - "A masterpiece if you have played the game, A splendid piece of work." And here's my retort - "My foot up your a**" Stay away from this one - it's a complete waste of your time - unless you are FF VII fanboy.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
5.2 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
5 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| A brief OVA about the events before the FFVII game, it’s not something that can truly be rated. For what it is, it’s a welcome addition to any FFVII fans, or even if you are a new FF fan that haven’t played the seventh instalment.
I would say that all aspects of this OVA are either average or below that, nothing really stood out, to really get the full picture, more than one viewing is needed, unless you already know everything else there’s to know about FFVII.
I enjoyed watching this, but if you have near to no experience or knowledge of FFVII, you should never view this until you do, because it will just be a massive ball of nonsense.
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Kib4 |
(2005-12-14 09:05:02) 2005-12-14 08:45:22 |
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| ff 7 last order is hard to review, it was pretty good but I really don't have much to say about it but I'll figure out something. Before watching I didn't expect anything because it felt kind of weird that they made a short OVA of ff 7 that is actually anime. Anyway it was a happy surprise to me because in such a short time, it inqluded humor, acton and even some dramatic points too.
Sepiroth goes to the maco reactor in the mountains to meet mother (jenovas neck) and also makes some destruction in Neibelheim while going there . A young girl called Tifa hears that her father is also in the mountains and runs fast in the mountain where Sepiroth is. Zack and Cloud are rushing in the mountains as fast as they can but will they reach Sepiroth before any bad happens and can they save Tifa?
I liked advent children and as I said before, this OVA first sounded weard but it was ok. I also liked the short story where Zack and Cloud had their little adventure. I think that those who have played the game, can link this somehow to te game but to me who hasn't played the game, this is just a short story. Although I almost know everything about the game but still haven't played it.
I think last order is average. There wasn't so many superb things in this anime but there weren't also many things that I would hate. The animation is good and well drawn... Although there isn't much music in this OVA, the little music there is, they are good. Characters are good, but they aren't original so I cant give it a 10. Also the plot is good, but because that is also from the game, it doesn't make it very original. This is short and guick yo watch so I think I will re-watch it many times.
I recommend ff7 last order to all ff fans who liked advent children. It is better than I thought and that is something :).
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| Average |
9.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Like a Final Fantasy Fan it was great to watch Cloud, Zack, and Sephiroth again. This anime is a remake of a sequence already presented on Final Fantasy VII, but gives some more details about it, while changing others.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
5.5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| Ok so why was this episode made? I don't know. But all I know is that they really didn't have to make this episode at all. I played FF7 several times and I love it. I like advent children even though the story is fragmented and vague, in fact, it barely holds together. Last Order really was a waste of time. there was couple of good action scenes and I guess its nice to see animatedn version of the famous scene. I mean if you haven't played the game there would be no point in watching it. Even if you played the game there wouldn't be any point in watching it. animation was pretty nice I thought... music was insignificant.
OH yea. what's up with that ending??
...I rest my case.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
9.6 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
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Based upon the story of Final Fantasy 7. This anime depicts events surrounding the mysterious character of Zach, Cloud's friend and idol. It depicts the events surrounding the destruction of Neibelheim, and Zach and Cloud's escape from Neibelheim.
First the Bad: The animation is only pa. The plot and character is based upon an already extremely successful story, so it has limited originality. The whole thing is a small plot blip, part of the FF7 storyline, so it is not very complicated, plotwise, for those of us familiar with the FF7 story.
The good: It's a stroy based on Final Fantasy 7!!! The original story elements of "Fianl Order" depict events around Sephiroth's destruction of Neibelheim, and the exact details of Zach and Cloud's escape from the secret lab there. It fills in many blanks in Cloud's memory from the game. Plus it gives us more story from the time when Cloud was just a regular kid with a dream of being just like Sephiroth. Also Zach, the enigma, is given a story where he is the central character and has nearly all the dialog. Very nice. The animation, while only par, is enhanced by some of the most cutting edge shading and layering effects by computer.
Bottom line: It explains major mysteries from FF7 and revolves around the character Zach, Cloud's personal hero/icon.
Note: I do give ones in my reviews.
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maya |
(2005-11-21 08:27:46) 2005-11-21 08:23:52 |
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| Average |
5.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| Well... let's see... from someone who never played Final Fantasy VII in her life and doesn't know anything about the story: good animation. Nice ending music! Cloud, Zack and Sephiroth are hotties.
For someone like me, that about sums up the positive points of this OVA. Obviously those who played the game and know it's story will have more to say.
About the story (?) all I can say it's that it was short, fast-paced and confusing. No background story, either in general and very little on the characters. From what I could gather, the action "moves" back and forward in time, starting with the escape and a seemingly "dead-to-the-world" Cloud (great hero he is - I know at least that much... I think). Then suddenly he is all "up and running" again saving this girl (I suppose it's his love interest or something) and kicking the baddie's ass. And the next moment we have "dead-to-the-world" Cloud again... confusing huh? Though I guess it's just for people who didn't play FFVII.
So, basically I think you'll love it if you're a FFVII fan, played the game, blah blah, like it if you're a rabid fan girl of good looking anime boys(did I mention the heroes and the baddie are hotties?) or tolerate it for it's great animation.
Recommended to fans of the game only I guess.
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dark_ninja |
(2006-05-25 06:13:01) 2005-10-27 03:47:05 |
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| Average |
8.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| I liked it, simply a remake of a few scenes and a clarification of what really happened. The animation is ok but done nicely in a way that captures the spirit of the entire thing.
Sound is likewse nice and the voices fit.
The story is good, it's part original game part tying up loose ends (what happened to Zack). Short but it is enough, however play the game first as it will be a spoiler if you don't.
Character are the same as in the game and you really can't get a feel for them in the short period of time, but Zack get's a bit more defined and this is nice since he was always kinda a porsonalityless wraith or something.
I'd buy it if i can get it a bit cheaper than average. And I will probably wathc it again.
And for enjoyment: I enjuoyed it, not more to be said ^_^
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nauXolo |
(2005-10-24 17:03:40) 2005-10-24 17:03:13 |
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| Average |
6.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| A reanimation of some of the cutscenes of FF7 that they only mentioned in words. This really clarified a few things from the game that I totally forgot, or never understood in the first place. For instance, what happens to Zack? How did Cloud gain Zack's memories? How did Cloud end up in midgard?
You shouldn't even touch this if you haven't played the game, because you would not understand anything. There is nothing in its artistic portrayal that warrants a special look at this OVA.
Note, it doesn't explain everything, it just shows Zack in action. Cloud doesn't really do anything much. I played the game again to "understand" what happened. So, this is just a little splurge for the FF7 fan.
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| Average |
5.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
4 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Last Order is a definate mixed bag, but I found myself liking it overall due to my fondness of FF7.
The visuals are decent. The style of the anime is nice, with decent artwork and good animation at the action points. However, since most of the anime takes place at night and in enclosed or guarded areas, there isn't all too much to show in terms of colour and scenery or variation, which brings down my liking for it to a small degree. Another small dislike is the action choreography, which I believe could have been way better, especially with this being a release with Advent Children. But even though the majority of key parts from Last Order feature as a hidden part in the game itself, to see it in anime form is well worth it.
I found the sound to be mediocre at best, but mostly below average. The voice acting was a bit shabby in my opinion, and the musical score with opening/closing themes were pretty bad metal that I did not care for. The sound effects were quite average, with all the guns making the required noises, but never anything memorable, or with any particularly decent ambiance.
The story I must admit, is not impressive in the least when thought of as a stand-alone piece. You can say that it has no beginning or end, and that whatever happens between the opening and closing of the anime is not really too interesting anyway. However, this is a FF7 fan piece, and luckily for me I can appreciate it as such since I am an avid FF7 fan. The implications of what the anime means in terms of the reasoning behind the FF7 lead character's mysterious past, is in my opinion very interesting, and helps put puzzle pieces of a much grander story into place. Indeed, FF7 had such an engrossing storyline for those who liked it, that any other piece of it is no doubt something to lap up hungrily. But how does one rate a single piece of a huge picture? This factor adds into my annoyance with Last Order - why make that piece of the whole when there were so many others to choose from, possibly better suited to being an anime? Last Order never begins, it never ends, it just exists.
There really isn't any stong character development going on in Last Order. It's too short for such a thing to happen. Once again I'm torn between what's present in the anime, and what's obscured just beyond it - I know the characters here are awesome in FF7 as a whole, but they simply aren't necessarily up to par here, in this particular segment of the story.
This anime has an average replay value, in that I'd watch it again definately, but only when I was playing the game through. Otherwise there isn't really much of it that I would necessarily want to come back to specifically.
I enjoyed Last Order more for what it represented - a part of a much larger awesome whole - than for what it actually was: a small anime that needed more time to get going in order to achieve something good. Of course I recommend it to FF7 fans, but in this case, only FF7 fans.
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|
|
| Average |
8.5 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| The prequel to FF7 is not really that bad. Only that you have to pay special attention towards the past of the story which is available in the game. Only watch this when you have finished the game. Its not as great as FF7AV, but it does give the real story behind Zack.
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|
|
|
| Average |
7.5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| It was a tragic tale actually, I thought I was getting Advent Children, but what I really got was an OVA that was BUNDLED with Advent Children! I still got them both, but it was heart breaking to know it wasn't what I expected. What Last Order did for me though was hype me up for the real thing. And knowing that Madhouse was doing this prequel to the game (heh a prequel and a sequel to the original) well, I guess I was expecting good things. And good things was what hit me! A teaser to an even greater thing!
Remember in FFVII, where Cloud thought he was doing all the heroic things that some other character was actually doing? Well, this is the true tale, just animated. Only those who have played the game would fully understand anything that's going on. Nonetheless, it's still a great OVA. But what I hate most about OVA's, especially ones that are twenty to thirty minutes (excluding the awesome Voices of a Distant Star) it's really hard to review them. So the plot goes, everything that was suppose to happen, was told true. And that's it!
So what happened actually? Well, a series of awesome action scenes that the game couldn't do. Damn I feel like I'm repeating myself, so I'll end this quickly. The fight scene was pretty intense, and this short episode shows potential of an entire anime series. It's not really a recommendable watch, but those who have played FFVII would benefit the most out of it. If not, play the game first. You should have played it anyways because it's so damn awesome!
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|
|
| Average |
6.3 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| I really don’t get the point of Last Order since it won’t enhance your understanding of Advent Children, and if you’ve played the game then you would have already seen practically all the stuff that happens in Last Order. Having said that, if you’re a Final Fantasy fan, Last Order is kind of interesting to watch (even if it's pointless). It’s sort of like meeting up with old friends again, you’ve never quite forgotten them, but being together again brings up the memories more clearly. In the end, I didn’t leave this short OVA feeling totally let down, but I didn’t feel like it was anything to write home about either.
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|
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| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| I must confess, first off, that this anime strikes against my personal bias. Last Order does not interpret the Nibelheim plot arc, which is my second-favorite in Final Fantasy VII behind the Lucrecia subplot, in what I believe to be the ideal way, especially in a couple of spoilery events towards the end. Worse yet, the event itself is fairly brief in narration, and to pad the time this OVA adds in several pointless non-canon fights to the mix. The final flaw is the focus on the tragically dumbed-down Zack, while Cloud is relegated (once again) to a near-vegetable status. All this aside, however, Last Order is a worthy diversion and an aesthetic pleasure.
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