A not-so-popular topic (that I wanted to talk about, anyway): the CG work of 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (with a focus on the main character Aki Ross)—the first full-length photorealistic 3D CGI film. My focus is not on it being a commercial shortfall or the story, but on how groundbreaking this 3D CG work was for its time. Arguably, it pioneered films of this style in the video game world (for example, the movie Resident Evil: Damnation).
Directed by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, the film mainly failed due to being unrelated to the Final Fantasy universe, uncertain audiences, budget overspending, and Square Pictures being an unproven studio in the film world. Due to this shortfall, Square merged with Enix to form Square Enix in 2003. Torn by this outcome, Sakaguchi officially left the company that same year after three decades.
Despite this blunder, Square Enix would—years later—create 3D CGI films for their games relevant to the Final Fantasy lore and universe, including 2005’s Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and 2016’s Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.
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