the_man_with_a_long_name

I, too, saw this film at the Berlinale, and though the matter of rape was treated with maturity and frankness, the film itself was constructed poorly. More than anything, it was bland - camera placement and cuts were standard fare, non-diagetic sound was near non-existent, and the dialogue was highly unrealistic, comprising of long, drawn-out pauses interspersed with briefly-spoken lines.

The upshot of this was that I felt no attachment to the characters beyond a basic sympathy for their current predicaments - dialogue was stretched out to the point of losing its emotional resonance, and many lines were delivered with little feeling from the actors. I was particularly unconvinced by Sabine Timoteo's performance, whose talent restricted her to screaming rather than actual crying. Compared to Claire Dane's stunning depiction of anguish in Romeo and Juliet, I felt wholly unsatisfied by her performance.

It was these factors that made the characters feel less than human, failing to imbue them with life. This, coupled with the utterly bland direction and editing, meant that I felt no attachment to them, and I was left gagging for each coming line of dialogue purely to provide a break from the silent, expressionless moments in between. Drawing out the narrative to over two and a half hours simply rubbed salt in the wound.

The Free Will was not in itself awful, but there were so few points of interest that I found myself becoming restless within forty minutes, and when the credits rolled in what will doubtless be considered a brilliantly emotional finale, I still felt little attachment to the characters.

This game was, for me, a revelation. It shows that a video game can combine many hours of gameplay with an intelligent and involving plot, where one man's quest of self-discovery leads him to almost destroy the world.

The gameplay is magnificent - the characters and animations all have an anime feel to them, and continued play unearths spectacular attack sequences. There is a delicate balance between adventuring, battling and dialogue, meaning that repetition is unlikely to set in. The entire game is driven by the story, a style copied by MGS and the like, which in those instances has made for quite a short lived experience. Here, though, Squaresoft have spun a yarn that spans 60 hours plus, not including the numerous secrets that wait to be unearthed, of a band of rebels and adventurers pursuing a crazed super-soldier through a world ravaged by mankind's greed. It's deep, it's involving, and at times it's emotional. The deeper you dig, the more you discover, and hidden plot twists crowd for the attention of the more persistent gamer. The CGI, although dated by modern standards, is sufficiently advanced to make for some truly thrilling cut scenes, and the dialogue, while not always perfect, is usually just right for the situation.

The music, also, is a real highlight - even after you tire of the numerous battles, as soon as the boss music kicks in you'll feel refreshed and envigorated. The eerie theme of the City of the Ancients, and the terrifying tones that accompany every encounter with Jenova will stay with you forever.

All the elements - the superb soundtrack, the deep, emotional plot, the diverse gameplay - will draw you in to what is arguably, and is for a significant number of people, the most emersive Fantasy yet, indeed the most epic fantasy tale ever told. And I do mean that. Don't be fooled by the flashy graphics of Final Fantasy X - it can't compare to the classic that introduced so many fans to the series with such force.