Officially announced in 2003 with the reveal of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the series' core products are three video games and one film release.

Advent Children and the mobile title Before Crisis are a sequel and prequel to VII respectively, focusing on Cloud Strife, the original game's main protagonist, and covert operatives known as the Turks.

To promote Advent Children Complete, a series of short stories were written by Kazushige Nojima under the umbrella title Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile.

[29] Nojima also wrote Final Fantasy VII The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story, a novel set a short time before Advent Children.

[51] Eventually, all come under threat from Sephiroth, a member of SOLDIER created through Shinra experimentation and driven mad when he learns the truth about his origins, and Jenova, an alien lifeform which seeks to destroy all life on the Planet.

Advent Children begins two years after VII, when people across the world are succumbing to a disease called Geostigma and Cloud, suffering from guilt, is forced to confront Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo, avatars of Sephiroth's will.

[57] Crisis Core takes place in a similar time period, but follows events from the point of view of Zack Fair, a SOLDIER who befriended Cloud and was killed by Shinra troops after turning against the company.

[58] Dirge of Cerberus is set a year after Advent Children, and focuses on Vincent's conflict against Deepground, a sect of SOLDIER that was trapped beneath the city of Midgar during Meteor's descent.

It was at one point defined by Square Enix as their first step towards "polymorphic content", a marketing and sales strategy to "[provide] well-known properties on several platforms, allowing exposure of the products to as wide an audience as possible".

[59] Speaking on why VII had been chosen for such a project, Kitase explained that the ending left far more development opportunities open for characters and setting than other games in the series.

[61] The first title to be conceived was Advent Children, originally envisioned as a short film presentation created by Visual Works, the animation studio behind CGI cutscenes for the company's games.

[62][63] One of the main conditions for the project's launch was to reunite the original staff members of Final Fantasy VII: Nojima, art director Yusuke Naora and composer Nobuo Uematsu.

[64] Each title had a different impetus fueling its creation and development: Before Crisis was thought up by Hajime Tabata, a new employee at Square Enix's mobile division, when asked by Nomura to create a video game featuring the Turks.

[66][67] Prior to the series solidification and the release of Advent Children and Before Crisis, the team had considered other gun-wielding Final Fantasy protagonists for such a game.

Conversely, making Final Fantasy X-2 reminded the team that they did not need to stick to completely serious traditional RPGs, enabling the original creation of the Compilation.

Due to its success and staff feelings that important scenes from VII represented in Advent Children had been needlessly disjointed, the studio was chosen to produce an animated film: this eventually became Last Order.

[78] In later interviews relating to Final Fantasy VII, multiple staff members including Nomura revealed that the Compilation was only ever intended to extend to three games and a film, ending with the release of Crisis Core.

[85] RPGFan's Stephen Meyerink said that the Compilation titles prior to Crisis Core had "expanded, extended, and retconned [the story] into what some would call an unrecognizable mess".

[70][91][92] Before Crisis, due to remaining in Japan, has received limited attention in the west, but previews have been highly positive, with many praising the gameplay and graphics as being impressive for a mobile game.

[98] Crisis Core was generally praised, with many enjoying the story's intimate presentation of the characters and action-oriented gameplay, despite some criticism for it being aimed at fans of VII.

He opined that "Final Fantasy VII Remake's dull filler and convoluted additions can cause it to stumble, but it still breathes exciting new life into a classic while standing as a great RPG all its own".

[103] Nahila Bonfiglio of The Daily Dot states that the "game's neo-noir, Blade Runner-esque setting perfectly marries with its gritty but heartfelt tone".

[120] Former staff members have blamed the Compilation, in conjunction with other extensions of titles like Final Fantasy X, for undermining the series' market presence and fan trust in the West.